At almost 3am after a grueling shift in the ER, Arizona was finally settling onto a bed in an on-call room. She had slept maybe 6 hours out of the last 40 and she was absolutely exhausted. This week had been a killer. Not that her whole residency at Hopkins hadn't been difficult thus far, but this week had felt particularly brutal. Between overnight shifts in the NICU, back-to-back surgeries on tiny humans, and trying to squeeze in time to study for her boards, she had been running practically non-stop. Like the energizer bunny. Except that the energizer bunny would probably feel more… energized right about now. But she desperately needed a nap. After giving her residents specific instructions not to disturb her unless one of her patients was dying or there was a really gory trauma involving a child, she laid her head down onto the pillow in hopes of catching a few hours of sleep before rounds. She was just about to doze off when—
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Groaning loudly, she forced her eyes open and grabbed her pager, which summoned her back to the ER. Jumping to her feet, she ran through the hall to check out whatever trauma had come in. "Better be good," she mumbled under her breath as she reached the ER, looking for Amelia, a third year resident who she considered a good friend when she wasn't interrupting her much needed sleep, to figure out why she'd been paged.
"What have we got?" Arizona barked at her, hands on her hips. Amelia turned to her with a smile, "Someone in the waiting room wants to talk to you." Confusion spread across Arizona's face, followed by anger, "Someone wants to talk to me? Like a parent? Spit it out, Shepherd. I need to know who's family I'm updating. Also, was this really not something another resident could handle? Seriously, what part of gory trauma or dying child did you not understand?"
"Woah, calm down, Lord Voldemort," Amelia shot back, and then shrugged defensively at Arizona's glare, "What? Have you heard yourself lately? You're a full on horror-show. And you wonder why the interns call you she-who-must-not-be-named."
"Amelia, just—"
"Dude. Seriously, just go to the waiting room. And trust me, you'll be happy I paged you," Amelia stated with a cocky smirk. Rolling her eyes, Arizona trudged toward the waiting room. But when she arrived, she froze, her breath hitching in her throat, unable to believe who she saw waiting there for her.
"Timothy?" she asked, half worried that her exhausted brain was playing tricks on her. A gigantic, dimpled grin broke across her brother's face. "Well, aren't you gonna give me a hug Zona?" he asked in his typical carefree manner. Breaking out of her stupor, Arizona rushed forward, throwing her arms around her brother's neck and holding on tight. She hadn't made it home for Christmas, so it had been over a year since she'd seen him last. "I missed you so much," she mumbled into his army fatigues, feeling tears welling up in her exhausted eyes.
"Me too," he told her sincerely. Arizona clung tight for a minute before pulling away, "How did you even get here? Aren't you supposed to be at basic training?" He shrugged, offering a nonchalant response, "Told my sergeant that I hadn't seen my big sis in over a year and I needed to see her before I shipped out. He gave me 48 hour leave." Arizona's jaw dropped; growing up in a military family, she knew this was hard to come by.
"I wish you'd called though," she said sadly. "I'm working all day."
"No, you're not, " Amelia called out from across the waiting room. Looking at her friend in bewilderment, Arizona was about to object, but Amelia continued, "I cleared it with McClane. We're trading shifts. So, starting now, you are off duty for the next 36 hours." Arizona's jaw dropped, "What? But I have patients—"
"Your brother is here. He's going to Iraq in two weeks. Who knows when you'll get to see him again?" Amelia said, gentleness mixing its way into her normally snarky tone. Arizona knew that her friend was right, and tried not to read too much into Amelia's statement, otherwise the fear would overwhelm her.
Turning to Timothy, a beam slowly worked its way across her face. Her excitement at his presence had awakened her, and she now actually felt energized, ready for a day of adventure with her brother, "Let's get the hell out of this hospital." And with that, she kicked off on her heelies, laughing as Timothy ran to catch up with her.
"Momma!" Sofia cried as Arizona walked through the door of their home, "I finally mastered the bowline!" The young girl held out a neatly tied knot for her mother to admire. Arizona smiled widely, taking the rope into her hands to admire the knot, "Oh, bug. This looks perfect! We'll have to take a picture and send it to your grandfather. He'll be so proud of you."
Callie looked on from where she was making dinner at the kitchen counter, smiling at her daughter's enthusiasm. Her smile faltered, however, when her eyes met Arizona's, sensing that something wasn't right. Her wife's smile wasn't quite reaching her blue eyes.
"Why don't you go practice your sheet bend while I help Mami with dinner, alright?" Arizona cheerfully suggested to her daughter as she handed her back the rope. Sofia gleefully nodded before skipping off to her room. When she was out of earshot, Arizona looked up at Callie, her smile gone as she walked slowly toward the kitchen. Callie stopped chopping the potatoes she was about to boil, gently setting the knife down on the cool granite surface before walking around the counter to meet her wife. "What is it?" she asked cautiously. Arizona wordlessly gestured for Callie to sit down at the table, and then took the seat next to her wife. Inhaling deeply as Callie took her hand, she finally managed to look her wife in the eye, "I got the results of the fertility tests."
Callie's heart sunk. She patiently waited for Arizona's response, though she already knew what was happening. Her wife's demeanor said it all. Tears clouded Arizona's eyes as she continued her voice breaking, "I'm so sorry, Callie, but I don't have any eggs left. I can't have children."
In a second, Callie had wrapped Arizona tightly in her arms, shaking her head as her own tears clouded her vision, "Babe, don't apologize. It's not your fault." Arizona sniffled against her, "But Callie, I know how much you wanted a baby. How much we both wanted another child. And with the adhesions from the accident in your uterus—" Callie shook her head fiercely, "This isn't the only way. There's always surrogacy or—"
"Adoption," Arizona provided. Wiping the tears hastily from her eyes. "I know, I know it will be okay. I'm just disappointed." Callie nodded, running a hand through her wife's blonde hair, "Me too."
"But, Arizona. I just know that our baby is waiting out there for us. Somewhere in this universe, a woman is waiting to be our surrogate, or a condom is breaking and our child is being conceived." At that, Arizona burst into giggles, "Calliope!"
"What?" said Callie, "Babe, if you were meant to have our baby, you would have it. But you weren't. So, maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe God has another plan."
"I know you believe that," Arizona whispered gently. Callie looked away awkwardly, "I know you don't believe that."
Calmly, Arizona nodded, "Not like that." Taking Callie's hand tenderly in hers, she continued, "But I believe in you. I believe in Sofia. I believe in us. We've been through hell and back, and I believe we can get through anything."
Callie smiled, planting a kiss on Arizona's lips before standing up and returning to the counter to continue making dinner, playfully swatting her wife's hand away as she tried to swipe a carrot she had just sliced.
"This cupcake is inedible. I am so deeply disappointed with this cupcake," Florian scoffed from the television set as Callie rolled her eyes dramatically in frustration, "Well, is it really her fault? I mean, you can't put fried chicken into a cupcake."
"Not with that attitude you can't," Arizona quipped back, taking a sip of her wine as she leaned into her wife's side and flung her feet onto their coffee table. The two of them were squished cozily onto their love seat, with Meredith and Cristina sitting on the couch across from them. Amelia was sitting on the floor with Sofia and Zola, and Bailey and Ellis were playing upstairs.
"I agree with Momma," Sofia chimed, "I think that anything can be a cupcake. They're so delicious!"
"Well, that one doesn't look too delicious," Cristina stated flatly, cringing at the soggy fried chicken cupcake that the judges were critiquing. Meredith snorted next to her, "I still can't believe we're watching this."
"It's Arizona's fault," Amelia stated bluntly. "I mean, who else could have come up with this?"
"Hey!" cried Arizona defensively, "What's more fun than watching Cupcake Wars while making cupcakes?"
"I can think of lots of things," Amelia shot back, adding under her breath, "None of them PG though." Which earned her a snort from Callie and a smack on the back of the head from Arizona.
Just then, the oven timer went off. "They're ready!" Zola announced, jumping up from where she was sitting on the floor, shortly followed by Sofia. "Hey, slow down girls. Remember you need a grown up to get them out of the oven for you," Meredith reminded sternly.
"I'll get it," offered Cristina, pulling herself up from the couch and following the girls into the kitchen, "I don't think I can take much more of this." Meredith snickered as Amelia hopped up taking Cristina's place on the couch. "Pause it, Momma!" they heard Sofia cry out in panic from the kitchen. "What did you say, m'ija? I can't hear your over the television," Callie teased from the living room, but Arizona had already grabbed the remote and paused the show, "Don't be mean, Calliope. You know how she hates to miss anything."
"Zola too," Meredith laughed, "You should see her face when anyone talks during Chopped. She does not like to miss any of the details."
"God, they're probably both gonna grow up to be competitive chefs," Arizona pondered, thinking of their daughters' many sleepovers involving cooking game shows. Amelia shook her head, "Oh, please. Raised by this crowd? You know they're gonna be surgeons."
"Oh, Amelia! I want our daughter to be whatever she wants to be," Callie insisted earnestly. "As long as that's a surgeon," Arizona added, but when met by an exasperated look from Callie, she amended, "I'm kidding! Geez, kid can be whatever she wants to be."
Taking another sip of wine, Arizona turned to Meredith, staring at her with unusual intensity as she pondered thoughtfully. "What? Quit staring. You're weirding me out, Robbins," Meredith said. Arizona quickly shook herself from her reverie, "Sorry, I was just wondering. How did know you wanted to adopt Zola?"
"Woah, that's a loaded question," interjected Amelia, but Meredith was unfazed, "I didn't." Callie raised her eyebrows and Amelia scoffed, "And people say I need a filter."
"Oh, I'm certainly happy I did, of course," Meredith continued calmly, "But I didn't know. Derek did. And we wanted to have kids, so I trusted him." Callie still looked skeptical, "You make it seem so matter of fact."
Meredith shrugged ambivalently, "I guess. I mean, it didn't feel that way. It felt like this big emotional decision. But it was a couple of weeks after I took her home before I knew that she was mine."
"How did you know?" Arizona asked eagerly, leaning forward to listen closer as she pulled her legs off the table and crossed them beneath her. Meredith thought for a moment, "It happened when I wasn't looking, really. I was going through the motions at first. I was exhausted, and Derek and I were living apart. I was entering my fifth year of residency, for god's sake. But somewhere, in the midst of all that, she became my daughter."
Meredith finished, looking curiously from Arizona to Callie and back again, "What brought this on? You two thinking of adopting?"
The pair exchanged a glance. Arizona had only gotten the results from the fertility test a few days ago. They had only just begun to discuss adoption as an option amongst themselves and were unsure of whether they wanted to bring it up now. As they tried to decide how to respond, they were rescued by Sofia and Zola, who ran back into the room, each carrying a plate filled with chocolate frosted cupcakes, eager to dig in and continue watching Cupcake Wars.
"Preadolescent girl, car accident, trauma to the head and chest with a possible spinal chord injury," the EMT informed Alex Karev as he ran alongside the gurney that carried a pale young girl, covered with lacerations and streaks of blood clumping in her dark blonde hair. Alex began to assess quickly as he directed them into the open trauma room.
"Okay, get a head CT, and an MRI. Page Shepherd. Robbins, too," Alex instructed the residents while examining the young girl's chest for signs of internal bleeding. As he pressed down on her abdomen to examine it, he heard her moan in pain. "She's regaining consciousness. Push 10 mg of morphine," he barked at the residents, before redirecting his attention to the girl laying on his table. "I know, it hurts, okay? But we're gonna take really good care of you." he comforted gently in a voice reserved for the kids he worked with.
The young girl opened her eyes and looked up at him, fear overtaking her features. "Where's my dad? Is he alright?" she asked, her voice hoarse and panicked. Alex took her hand, "I don't know, but we're gonna find out. What's your name?"
Swallowing a sob, she answered, "Riley." She grimaced in pain as Alex continued to examine her abdomen. He nodded, keeping his voice calm and reassuring, "Okay, Riley. Just try to relax. We're gonna take you upstairs for some tests." Just then, Amelia Shepherd entered the room, "Update me, Karev." She barked, grabbing the chart from a resident as he they began to wheel Riley from the room.
Turning to the resident nearest him, Alex whispered, "Do you know where her Dad is?" The resident hesitated, waiting for Riley to be out of earshot, before responding, "He's in the next trauma room… and he doesn't look good." Alex let out a huff of frustration. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath as he walked out of the room. "And where the hell is Robbins? We could really use an extra set of hands—"
"Right here, Karev," Arizona stated as she walked toward the gurney, grasping onto Riley's hand tightly as she introduced herself, "Riley, I'm Dr. Robbins, and we're going to take really good care of you." The young girl's blue eyes met Arizona's briefly before the morphine took over and she slipped out of consciousness once more.