"Calliope"...
"Oh Arizona! You're awake! Are you ok are you? Are you in pain, do you need anything?" I ask frantically with tears rolling down my cheeks, she's alive!
"Water?" She asks me weakly and I run to sort out a drink for her, helping her take a few sips.
"Mama you're awake!" Sofia is excitedly trying to jump up on her bed.
"Calm down sweetie, we don't want you jumping on mama whilst she's sore" I explain.
"There's my baby girl! Come lay next to me carefully" responds Arizona with tears in her eyes "I didn't know if I'd see you again!" She explained.
"I missed you Mama, Mami said you were her superhero! You're my superhero too! I love you!" says Sofia softly whilst gently settling next to Arizona on her bed.
"Is that so? Superhero huh?" She asks me with questioning eyes, I take a seat on the edge of the bed and hold Arizona's hand, noticing she doesn't pull away, I interlock our fingers.
"Do you remember what happened?" I ask.
"Mmmm vaguely...its a bit of a blur, I remember diving at that man and knocking the knife from him, then looking back to check you were out of the room briefly...the rest is blank" Arizona tells me.
"Oh Arizona...you scared the crap out of me! If you weren't injured I'd seriously smack you hard in the arm right now! I can't believe you! We could have lost you!" I berate her, but not too harshly. I'm so angry at her but also so happy she'll be ok.
"Robbins! You're awake, you ok?!" Bailey asks coming in and checking the vitals when she walked past the room.
"All good Chief, just coming around and a little hazy!" Arizona replies.
"Good to hear, everything looks ok here, feel free to pump the morphine if needed, I'm taking you off it tomorrow, I trust you to use it wisely!" Bailey warns her.
"Bailey, would you mind taking Sof to daycare for a bit so we can talk?" I ask Miranda with knowing eyes.
"I'll do one better, I'll take her for some ice cream and jello!" She says which instantly prompts a hyper little girl jump off the bed!
"Mama I'll bring you some strawberry jello its your favourite!" Sofia says to Arizona, our kid is so thoughtful. Arizona flashes her dimples the best she can.
"Callie what happened exactly because my back is aching!" Arizona asks me once we're alone.
"All I saw was you coming out of that room but the man had lunged at you just as you were escaping and he had put the knife in your lower back. As you hit the ground you blacked out instantly and the sniper got him...he's finally with his daughter in another life and you are safe and here with us" I explain the events, Arizona was nodding her head in understanding.
"What's the damage?" She asks me
"A few weeks recovery but no transplant needed, you did have a blood transfusion though and a deep laceration to the kidney but Hunt, Mer and April fixed you up" I let her know.
"Good, good. What about you, are you ok?" She asks me concerned and I just let out an exasperated laugh.
"Arizona, you're the one in a hospital bed after a big surgery and you're asking how I am?!"
"Callie you were held at knife point by a grieving man, even if he didn't hurt you physically, it may have had an emotional and mental affect!" Arizona says.
"I'm fine, it was nothing. I've been through worse remember!" I reply.
"Unfortunately I do remember, I'm glad you're ok though. As soon as I found out he was looking for you, my mind flipped and I just had to make sure he didn't hurt you. Sofia couldn't go through losing another parent!" I look at her incredulously...
"Arizona...you put your life on the line for me...if anything happened to you she would have lost her mama! She would have been devastated...hell I would have been too!" I tell her truthfully "Why didn't you just stay out of the room, I could have talked him down instead of you almost dying!"
"Isn't it obvious?!" she asks me
"Clearly not!" I respond gripping her hand tighter.
"I'd risk my life everyday to save yours and Sofia's...that's what you do for the people you love" Arizona tells me.
"Arizona..." I start, noticing her push her morphine button.
"No Callie, can I just say here that I've never fallen out of love with you, even when you were happier than ever with your new girlfriend, I continued to love you and I've waited ever since you left me, hoping you'd return...we always came back together in the end" My eyes tear up at my ex-wife's confession "will there ever be another chance for me and you?" She's asks me almost nervously, looking down at our intertwined hands.
I start to sob and can't help but lean down to hug her as gently as I can without hurting her more, we stay there for a couple of minutes just holding each other until I can regulate my breathing, she still uses that strawberry shampoo which is addictive to smell! I pull back from the hug and look at those gorgeous blue eyes which could keep me in a trance forever, time to break the walls again.
"Arizona, I fell in love with you because of the million things you didn't know you were doing. You gave me confidence, trust and belief in understanding and accepting my true self. You being you, made me a better me. You stood up to my father and apparently told him you love me before you told me...which in hindsight was a very noble thing to do, he warmed to you from that moment. You brought sunshine and butterflies into my life - both literal and metaphorical! Being in love with you was worth the fall, it was the most fun I'd ever had being in a relationship. Just a smile from you would make my day but knowing that I'd get to fall asleep and wake up with you every morning was my peace. I had won in life with you by my side" I paused here, not ready to look at my ex-wife just yet and took a deep breath before continuing.
"Arizona, I was such an idiot. I never should have bragged so much about Penny or flaunted her around so much...especially if I had known you weren't ready to hear or see it. I was ignorant towards your feelings and I'm truly sorry about that. Especially after these past 48 hours, I've come to a realisation that honestly, I've never being in love with Penny...it was the thought of being in love...she was a simple distraction from the truth, something easy, it was the feeling, not the person...I'm a romantic after all..."
"Callio.."
"No let me finish please...you know my track record of relationships! YOU were the only one that counted as a real relationship. I mean George was George, who couldn't love him but it was only the idea of being in love that I married him - deep down I knew he loved Izzy so that's one of my regrets in life. Then Erica came along and it was an experimental distraction to try something new - that didn't really count. Then one night, this stunning blonde haired, blue eyed, dimple-grinning, beautiful woman came into my life, in a dirty bar bathroom and shook my whole world up. After that kiss, my life would never be the same again. I knew you had came into my life for something big, call it fate or destiny but I knew something great was about to happen". I looked to Arizona who had tears in her eyes, I squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"I have never had or known a love as great as ours. We've had more challenges thrown at us in the past 7 years than anyone experiences in a lifetime. We've always fought to get through it and the love still remains. I am so sorry for everything I did wrong to throw us off course. I should have come to Africa with you, but I don't regret having our beautiful baby girl so for that part I won't apologise but I am sorry for the way it happened. I should have told you the truth about your leg from the start, not let you think it was me because I didn't love you anymore, it was because I loved you so much and thought it'd be best, I should have told you it was Alex that made the cut but it was still MY decision...I don't regret making the choice between your leg and your life. I knew I could build you a new leg...I couldn't build a life without you, there wouldn't be a life worth living without you. My final regrets...I will forever be sorry I wasn't there to support you with the miscarriage, I can't even imagine what it was like for you, I was so caught up with Travis and his legs because there was nobody else to do my job, but my job and focus should have been on supporting you and grieving our lost child and I'm sorry for suggesting so soon to try again, you had lost enough!" I can't control the tears now streaming down my face, a mirror image to Arizona.
"The divorce. You didn't see it coming. I was pissed with you for even suggesting a break at the beginning but should have known after all the trauma of recent years you needed a time out just to rediscover yourself. I didn't see that at the time. I thought you needed a break from me, not a break for you. This was me thinking you had lost your love for me so I buried myself in work, wine and tequila for 30 days but did so much work because I didn't have you to distract myself with. I thought it was a good thing, when really, we all need distractions in life. You were always my distraction and Sofia. If I had a good or bad day I could come home and there would be my girls and that was what made my day. Part of me thinks it was my way of getting you back for suggesting time apart, you know how I love and feel so hard and do things on instinct without a second thought. Well I should have had a second thought on this and not jumped the gun. You didn't want any of it, I made the call. At the end of the day, it was always me making the wrong calls, not you. I don't even blame you anymore for the cheating or anything because I've realised I made mistakes just as bad too so I'm sorry Arizona". I have never felt so much weight lift off my shoulders with all these confessions "you have a lot of family here that helped me realise things today!".
"God damnit Callie, it took me almost dying for you to use your words?" Arizona asks, crying and smiling "can I hug you again?" She asks me.
"Of course" I reply and lean in to embrace her, it still amazes me how perfect we fit together.
"Arizona, my biggest regret is holding back that I've never fallen out of love with you, I don't believe I ever could. You have the biggest part of my heart and that will never change, you left your mark the day you walked into my life and it'll stay there forever. I want you in my life forever, not just as Sofia's other mother, but as my wife until our dying days". I pull bag from the embrace, moving my hand up to Arizona's soft cheek, wiping the tears with my thumb. She moves her hand up over mine and looks between my eyes and my lips...once...twice...I lean forward and meet her soft lips in a loving moment...she has the softest and most delicious lips I've ever known I think to myself. It's a slow and sensual kiss portraying how sorry I am and holding a promise for the future. We pull apart and look at each other, I see a spark return to Arizona's eyes, I've missed that spark.
"Calliope I've missed you so much and thank you for opening up and being so honest. I love you, I'm so in love with you and I want us back. Forever. No more fights, just love and communication, we can do it right?" Arizona asks me with hope.
"Yeah, we can. We'll make it work not just for us but for Sof and the other 9 kids we'll have!" I laugh at the memory. "It's all going to start with all of us moving back to our house when you get discharged and me and Sof will help you recover!" I inform her.
"Wait, you didn't sell the house?" Arizona asks me in surprise.
"No, I couldn't bring myself to go through with it...I kept onto it as my own hope that one day we'd all live there again as a happy family" I admit to my ex...maybe not ex-wife.
"Oh Calliope come here!" She motions towards her, I lean and and she pulls me into her lips again, this time more desperate and passionate, our lips caressing the others, I slowly lick my tongue along her bottom lip which earns a small moan, this allows me to enter her sweet sweet mouth, our tongues dance for the first time in years and I know this is what I want for life. We both allow deep, satisfied moans to escape the feeling and break apart slowly.
"Wow...I missed you are your kisses!" I tell Arizona, she is a skilled kisser.
"I've missed you too...we have a lot of catching up to do!" She chuckles dreamily but then looks confused.
"What about perfect Penny?" Arizona asks me.
"Uh..."
"You probably don't need to worry about her" Bailey announces walking back in the room with Sofia, who runs up to Arizona with her strawberry jello.
"Thanks baby!" Arizona responds pulling Sof to her side.
"What do you mean?" I ask Bailey.
"She's just handed in her notice with immediate effect and said she knew what was going to happen here so thought she'd take away an obstacle for you...I must admit...I never thought much of Blake but she made the right choice here! Oh well, on with rounds!" Bailey leaves us.
"Well...that makes things easier! By the way...Perfect Penny never had anything on Amazingly Awesome Arizona!" I say which earns me a dimpled smile from Arizona.
"Hey Sof, how about when mama is feeling better we all move back to our old house?" I ask our daughter.
"Like the three musketeers?!" She squeals excitedly flashing her dimples which are just as cute as Arizona's.
"Yeh sweety, the three musketeers back together forever...how does that sound?" Arizona asks her.
"That sounds like what I always wanted to happen, mommies are you back in love again?" She asks us, very smart girl.
"We never really fell out of love, we just got lost along the way, now we've met in the middle again and we'll all live happily ever after!" Arizona explained.
"You are the poem I never knew how to write and this life is the story I always wanted to tell" I tell Arizona honestly. We meet in the middle for another kiss full of untold promises of an exciting future.
"I'm glad we found our way back to each other Calliope...with you, I am home" Arizona tells me.
"I love you" I tell her, holding her hand.
"You do?" She asks. I nod.
"I love you too" she tells me.
You will forever be my always...