Chapter 17

Arizona raced across the hospital at full speed trying to find Alex. She couldn't wait to tell him the news about Izzie, but his phone was switched off and he wasn't responding to his pager. Reaching the surgical floor, she slowed down a little. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had moved so fast and she knew her healing body would pay for it later as she stopped, spotting Meredith walking towards her in the distance.

"You okay?" Meredith said a look of concern crossing her face as she took in Arizona's flushed cheeks and anxious expression.

"You seen Alex?" Arizona simply said a little breathlessly.

"Yeah, he's in with the chief. I don't know what they're talking about though..." Meredith replied.

Arizona didn't stop to explain, she just darted over to the chief's office. Fully prepared to burst in and interrupt them when the door swung open and Alex walked out. His eyes were still red from crying and he looked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, his brow creased with worry as he looked up a little startled clocking Arizona in front of him.

"Hey," he said a little despondently, as she just beamed back at him.

"Alex. You…." She said excitedly feeling as though she was about to explode with the good news, when he touched her arm, interrupting her and saying, "Look, I think you should be the first to know, but I've just resigned."

"What?...No, there's something you need to know." She stammered back.

"Listen, I know what you're going to say, and well nothing is going to make me change my mind, okay."

"Alex, listen." She replied as he ignored her and carried on talking. "As soon as Bella can leave the hospital, we're leaving Seattle."

"And what do you think Izzie will have to say about that?" Arizona said bluntly.

"What?" He replied in frustration, clearly irritated as he said, "Iz, didn't want to move back here in the first place and besides…"

"She woke up!" Arizona quickly blurted out before he had the chance to say another word.

His face immediately changed, to one of shock, amazement and slight disbelief as he said slowly, "You mean?...what?"

"Callie is with her at the moment, but when I left they were busy giving me a hard time for missing the baby shower." Arizona said her eyes shining as she watched Alex's face as it slowly sank in.

The baby shower, Alex had forgotten all about that. That all just seemed like a dream now.

Alex wasn't quite sure how he got to Izzie's room so quickly but the next thing he remembered was walking through the door to see her sat, propped up against a wad of pillows chatting to Callie, with Addison's intern busily checking her stats.

Izzie's face lit up as soon as she saw him and he felt his insides stir with emotion as she broke in to one of the wide smiles that he knew were only ever for him.

"We'll give you a moment. Addison is on her way, she's off duty but she's still in the hospital so she shouldn't be too long." Callie said her words hardly even registering with Alex as she stood up, closely followed by the intern and walked out of the room.

Alex rushed to the side of Izzie's bed and very gently he tentatively wrapped his arms around her. He was more than a little apprehensive about touching her, as the memory of her crashing in his arms years before after her brain surgery, would haunt him forever.

This time it was different though. Back then she had been so sick and painfully thin and frail, like a twig about to snap. Now, even though she was no longer carrying their baby and had clearly dropped a fair few pounds since he had last hugged her, she still had the rounded figure of a heavily pregnant woman and he felt himself relax as she pressed her full breasts against him.

"Iz, you're back." He whispered in to the side of her neck.

"I'm back." She whispered gently.

"Don't leave….Don't ever leave me again." He said desperately, sobbing slowly as he still held her close to him, not wanting to ever let her go.

"I'm not going anywhere." Izzie said weakly her voice full of emotion, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen her husband so afraid, emotional and vulnerable and her heart felt as thought is was breaking slightly as she realized how much upset and worry she must have caused him.

Callie walked out of Izzie's room to see her wife was stood waiting for her leaning up against the wall a small relieved smile crossing her lips. Callie reached for her hand and sighed a little as she said. "She seems okay, a little disorientated but considering, she's okay."

"That's great." Arizona replied.

"I knew it. I just knew Izzie would wake up." Callie said intensely.

"Well, we shouldn't get too carried away just yet. It's still early days." Arizona said, just as Addison came rushing towards them with Timmy in her arms and Arizona's colourful baby changing bag over her shoulder. She was dressed in her usual designer pencil skirt, blouse and heels and she looked a little flustered as she passed Timmy carefully over to Arizona and said. "Here you go, one delicious sleeping baby."

"Arizona felt her heart melt a little as she snuggled him in to her chest, smelling the top of his head." She hated being apart from him.

"I'll catch you later," Addison then added as she swiftly opened the door to Izzie's room. Ready to carry out the necessary checks on the patient she had feared would never wake up.

…..

"I still can't believe he's ours." Arizona said quietly, so as not to disturb her tiny son, as they stood exhausted in the hospital corridor still.

"I know." Callie whispered back as she stroked his tiny hand resting on Arizona's chest.

"Can we just go home now?" Arizona said wearily as she rested her head on Callie's shoulder. She'd had more than enough excitement for one day. Now she just wanted to go home with her wife so they could be start to be a family again and enjoy their new born son.

"Oh, my goodness," Izzie said as she clasped her hands together and brought them up to her mouth. "She's beautiful and so tiny."

"Yep," Alex replied as he rested his hands on the top of his wife's wheel chair. He'd reluctantly against his better judgement managed to let her persuade him to take a trip down to the NICU to meet their tiny premature baby. Despite the fact that Izzie was supposed to be on bed rest, he knew she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Alex had spent a great deal of time in the NICU throughout his career, but always as a doctor and never as an anxious parent. Stood here now with his wife back beside him, he finally embraced how small and dependent his tiny daughter was and he realized just what exactly it was that the parents of the new born babies he operated on actually went through.

"Can I hold her?" Izzie said excitedly smiling as she looked at her husband, her eyes wide and pleading slighty.

"Iz, you know she's still too weak." He replied, although he wasn't quite sure who he was referring to his daughter or his wife, as he glanced back at the look of disappointment crossing Izzie's pretty face.

"Are you saying that as her doctor or as her father? Because, I'm pretty sure if I request another doctor…." Izzie replied playfully as she noticed he had picked up and was scanning their daughter's chart as he also checked the readings on the machines by her incubator.

Alex smiled slightly as he shook his head, his eyes still focused on the chart as he said, "I'm in charge of this department remember?" And just like that, despite being off duty and dressed in his casual jeans and hoodie, he was right back to doctor mode.

"Oh, come on. Pleeease, don't make me beg?" Izzie said her wide eyes meeting his as he looked up, and he knew he couldn't say no. He leaned down and carefully picked their perfect little baby daughter out of her glass incubator, placing her gently in to Izzie's arms. "There you go Bella, meet your Mommy," he cooed.

"You called her Bella?" Izzie said as she stared down adoringly at the baby daughter she had always so longed for.

"Yeah, I err…thought it would be what you would want. I mean, you always said you wanted to call the boys Ella if they'd been girls. But, it's not too late to change it…"

Izzie brushed the side of her cheek with her hand, feeling a trickle of warm tears dampening it as she thought about the name Alex had given their daughter. "You really thought I wasn't going to make it didn't you? You thought I'd left you again?" She said crying harder as the tears fell down faster, landing on top of their baby's head. She looked up at her handsome husband as she thought about what he must have been through the past week. She didn't think it could be possible to love him anymore than she already did, but the way he had taken care of everything. He was so strong, so caring and kind. He'd do anything for her and the kids, anything.

As Izzie continued to cry, Alex edged further towards her, wrapping his arm around both her and Bella and at that moment Izzie felt like the most loved woman in the world and she wanted the moment to last forever.

"She's so perfect." Izzie gushed in between her tears.

"I know." Alex replied and for the first time since his premature daughter had been born, he truly felt happy and blessed.

"Oh and Bella, it's perfect it suits her just fine." Izzie said as she turned and kissed her husband on the lips.

"This is where your Daddy works." Izzie said in a singsong voice as she looked back at their beautiful baby girl.

"Worked," Alex suddenly said.

"What?" Izzie said looking surprised.

"I quit today." He sighed. "You were right, Iz. Coming back here was a mistake. It felt like a good idea at the time, but really it is just going backwards. It feels wrong. I've spoken to Dr Moyer, he said he'd gladly take me back at Hopkins."

Izzie frowned a little as she stroked the side of her daughter's face, before turning back to Alex and saying. "We'll talk about it another time."

Callie gently rocked Timmy in her arms trying to get him back to sleep. Arizona was upstairs with Sofia. She had wanted to spend some quality mother/daughter time with her as she was getting worried that Sofia was starting to feel neglected with all her energy going to their new baby.

The door gently opened and Callie looked up to see Arizona walking quietly in to join her.

"Sofia, okay?" Callie said softly.

"I think so. She's in bed reading, she should go off to sleep soon." Arizona said as she sank down on the sofa. "She's been pretty quiet these past few days though. I really think we need to do something just for her. It must be weird for her, being used to having all our attention all the time and now having to make way for another little person."

Callie waved her hand as she said. "Ah, she's fine. She loves Timmy." Gently laying Timmy down in the small crib they had put in their front room for him. Before moving across to join her wife on the sofa.

"I know she does, I just don't want her to retract too much in to her shell now that he takes up most of our time. Maybe you should spend the day with her tomorrow. Take her shopping then to a movie or something." Arizona replied a worried look crossing her face. She was a wonder with kids, sick kids. But they didn't teach you how to be the perfect parent to two kids at med school.

"I've got a better idea, how about we rent some movies. Make some sweet popcorn just how Sofia likes it and have a proper family evening in, the three of us." Callie replied squeezing her wife's knee.

"Four of us," Arizona corrected just as Timmy stirred and gurgled a little in his sleep.

"Mommy." They then heard a little voice say and they both looked up to see their daughter Sofia wander in to the room in her stripy pink pyjamas.

"I forgot to kiss Timmy goodnight." She said as she wandered over to where he lay fast asleep.

"Okay, but be very gentle." Arizona said as Sofia leaned down and kissed her baby brother lightly on the cheek.

She then moved over and squeezed in between her two Mom's on the sofa. Twirling her around her finger as she slowly said. "I heard you talking earlier. Is Izzie okay now?"

Arizona and Callie shared a slightly shocked look over the top of their daughter's head. They had purposefully not mentioned to Sofia yet about Izzie being so ill, so as not to upset her, but it was evident she had heard more than she was supposed to.

"Izzie is going to be just fine." Arizona said stroking her daughter's hair affectionately.

"Is her baby going to be okay too?" Sofia added her eyes wide with curiosity.

"She will be, once she's grown a little bigger." Arizona replied.

"What's her name?" Sofia asked.

"Her name is Bella." Callie answered this time.

"Wow, that's so pretty. She has the same birthday as Timmy doesn't she? I heard Daddy talking to Aunt Addison about it the other day." Sofia said smiling.

"Yep, baby Bella sure does share the same birthday as our little man here." Arizona replied smiling back.

"They can have joint birthday parties. I think they'll be the best of friends and then when they grow up they can get married and have babies of their own too." Sofia said smiling some more as she jumped off the sofa and over to where Timmy lay sleeping again. Totally oblivious to the look of horror crossing both her mother's faces. As they thought of all the complications that could arise from Timmy and Bella growing up together and they realized if they still wanted the Karev's in their life, at some point in the future they would have to sit down with Alex and Izzie, to explain the exact truth about how their son was created to both Timmy and Bella…..

A/N – Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you felt the same way as I did about Izzie. I have a decision to make now. I really love this story, but do I end things? Or write some more about life with Timmy and Bella?