The 502 Stories

By AmboDriver

Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own anything. I'm just playing around with them. They are owned by Shondaland, ABC, and probably a lot of other really rich folks.

A/N: And this is it. This story took way longer to write than I thought, but I'm glad I got a chance to play around with their recovery and do it the way I wanted. And to write something that was a little less dark than some of my other stories while still being true to the struggles they needed to have. I'm glad I got a chance to share it with all of you and that I had so many people reading. Thanks for taking this ride with me. It's been a blast.

This takes place just after they rename the hospital, so it's the spring, but a little early on. And it's an epilogue, so it gets to break some of the rules, like taking place outside instead of in the apartment.

Epilogue – The View From Up Here

Arizona looked up the green hill at the scattered tombstones leading up to the top, where a single large maple tree stood sentinel over the final resting places of those buried at the Cascades Cemetery. She found it sadly ironic that Mark and Lexie had been laid to rest in a cemetery named for the mountains where they had crashed and Lexie had died, but then again maybe it was appropriate. That was where they were last together in life, so the fact that they were together in this cemetery for eternity somehow made their final journey back to one another complete.

"It's beautiful here," she noted as she smiled out from the passenger seat of their car at the peaceful landscape.

"Yeah, when we were looking for a plot, Meredith and I both thought this was the perfect spot. It's just gorgeous up there. It's clear enough today we'll be able to see Mount Ranier and the city." Callie turned the ignition of the car off and let out a deep breath. "How do you want to work this?"

Arizona looked into the backseat and smiled at Sofia, who was kicking at the back of Callie's car seat. "You get her. I think I can make it with the help of my cane. Just stay close, okay?"

"Of course."

Arizona got out of the car and pulled her cane from the backseat. She had long gotten good enough to walk on relatively flat surfaces without it, unless she was really tired or it was an incredibly long walk, but hills were another matter. She'd gone with her prosthetist to the park near the hospital a few times to start practicing and finding the best techniques to manage the incline, and she'd gotten decent at it, but the idea of losing her balance and tumbling down the hill was not one she wanted to experience. So, she took the cane in her right hand and took a deep breath before slowly starting her way up the hill.

Callie walked on her left side, her hand coming to Arizona's back anytime she seemed a little unsteady but then letting go when Arizona had regained her balance. Sofia slowly climbed up along with them on Callie's left, her little legs probably grateful that her mommies were moving slowly up the hill. Really it wasn't that bad, as long as Arizona went slowly and concentrated on each and every step. It took them far longer than it would have taken her before the amputation, of course, but really it went far better than she had feared.

And the slow pace had its advantages, too. Arizona had grown to appreciate the fact that her life now had to go a little slower. She found she wasn't missing things she had before, and today that meant seeing the butterflies dancing between the headstones and the way the puffy white clouds formed different shapes in the sky. She smiled as each breeze blew the dandelions, letting the mixture of yellow flowers and big puffy bulbs of seeds flutter between the headstones. She could notice the bird that flew over them and then landed in the maple tree, singing a song just as they were nearing the top. And luckily she was able to hear Sofia point to it and say "birdie", which was a totally new word for her. Arizona had little doubt that she would have missed most of that before the crash. So she filed that away as just another silver lining to what she had once thought would be a monstrous dark cloud over the rest of her life. That cloud had really turned out to be nothing more than a slightly dark nimbus, sometimes casting shadows but also bringing the rain that allowed the beautiful flowers and plants to grow.

Finally, they made it up to the top and Arizona let out a huge breath of relief. "Wasn't so bad."

"Going down will be harder," Callie reminded her.

"Killjoy," Arizona said to her wife with a playful smile on her face. She took one last breath and then looked around. "Where are they?"

Callie tilted her head over toward the maple tree. "Over there."

Arizona nodded and followed Callie the twenty feet or so until they stood in front of the headstone that marked the final resting place of Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey. Arizona looked down at the smooth reddish marble stone, with each of their names and the dates of their births and deaths on it separated by a caduceus, feeling tears start to leak out of the corner of her eyes. But it was the quote at the bottom that brought a lump to her throat. She read it aloud, her voice barely audible even to herself, "Nothing shall part us in our love." She swallowed hard and blinked as her eyes filled with tears. "It's beautiful," she said as she looked over at Callie.

Callie wrapped her arm around Arizona's waist and laid her head on her shoulder affectionately. "Yeah, it is."

"Mind if I have a minute alone?"

Callie shook her head. "Of course not. I've had my time here." She bent down and picked up Sofia. "Hey baby girl, let's go see if we can find some maple leaves, okay?" They went off around to the other side of the tree, Callie talking to their daughter about how if they found a good leaf they would take it home with them for some arts and crafts, her voice drifting off as they moved off around the trunk.

Arizona smiled after them before looking back down at the names and sighing heavily. "Sorry, I haven't been by before this. I wanted to be able to walk up here on my own and that takes time." She slowly lowered herself to sit down on the grass, tucking her right leg under her and extending her prosthetic to the side. "What shitty luck we all had, huh? Really no rhyme or reason about who died or lost a limb or only lost a shoe, but I guess that's the lesson out of this, or one of them at least. The stuff in life you can't control never makes sense, so you have to take control over what you can."

She picked a dandelion globe and looked at the fine white hairs of its seeds that pillowed out around it. "You can send a wish with one of these, you know? But I don't think the fact I wish this was all just a bad dream will come true. And now I don't know what to wish for, because everything else seems so trivial."

One tear slid down her cheek and she swiped it away. "I miss you, Mark. I'm sorry I never got to say goodbye to you, especially after I refused to do that out in the woods. I'm not so sure I should have made you fight so hard to live, but I hope you think it was worth it so you could see your friends one last time. I know Callie's grateful." She smiled then a little sadly. "I'm taking care of them the best I can, I promise. And we tell Sofia about her daddy all the time. She doesn't understand yet, but she will and she'll know how much you loved her. And I promise to tell her one day, when she's ready, about what we went through out there, about how hard you fought to live for her."

She leaned forward, using her right leg to get up high enough to place the dandelion on top of the gravestone. "You two can use the wish," she whispered before touching the cool stone affectionately. She then used it to help her back to her feet. Arizona took in a deep breath and looked around at the view. "You got a great spot here, you know. It's truly beautiful." Mount Ranier could be seen to the East while downtown Seattle was a little to the West. She squinted and smiled when she made out the hospital among the skyline. "So on clear days you two can see us. That's nice. It's good to know the hospital's new namesakes can watch over us." She then looked over at the tree and caught Callie's eye, giving her a nod and a smile.

Callie grabbed Sofia's hand and led the toddler back to Arizona. "We were blowing dandelions," Callie said.

Arizona smiled as she nodded toward the grave marker. "I thought about blowing it, but I figured I'd leave it for them to wish on."

Callie moved to stand behind Arizona, wrapping her arms around her waist and resting her chin on her shoulder. "You okay?"

"I'm good. They're together and at peace, so that really helps."

They stood there for a few moments while Sofia played in the grass at their feet. Arizona thought about how lucky they were that Callie and Sofia weren't visiting her gravesite. Something quick and painless was what she had wished for when she was in the deepest depths of despair, but instead that wasn't her fate, and now she was eternally grateful. She leaned back into Callie and whispered something she had never told her wife before. "There were times I wished I had died, when it was really hard out there or those first few days and weeks after losing my leg."

She heard Callie swallow hard and then take a deep breath. "I'm sorry things were that bad. But I'm glad you made it through. So glad. I can't imagine coming up here, having to bring Sofia up here, to visit you."

Arizona nodded as she wrapped her own arms over Callie's and held her tight. "I can't imagine being up here alone and without you for so long. Promise me, we'll both live to be really old so that neither of us will have to wait too long until we're together again."

"I promise," Callie whispered before kissing her shoulder.

Arizona smiled and let out a sigh of relief as she finally relaxed back into Callie's arms. They stood there for a long time, just both silently supporting one another and lost in their own thoughts. Then, just as Arizona was going to suggest they leave, Sofia got up from the grass and went over to pick another of the dandelions that littered the ground. They both watched their daughter look at it and then walk over to the grave marker. The stone was about a foot taller than her and the toddler looked up at it before looking back at her mothers. "Up."

Callie started to move forward but Arizona stopped her. "Let me."

"You sure?"

"Very," Arizona answered with a smile and a nod. She went over to Sofia and bent over at her waist. "You want to put that up there with mine?"

Her big brown eyes blinked up at Arizona. "Up, pease."

Arizona smiled brightly at the good manners she showed. "Okay, since you asked so politely. Let's give this a shot, huh?" She had been practicing lifting heavier and heavier weights in therapy but hadn't really gotten to the point where she was ready to risk lifting Sofia even though she knew she could handle her weight. But she figured at least out here if they fell down, the soft grass would help break the fall, so maybe this was the perfect time. And she only needed to get her up about a foot off the ground, which wouldn't be too hard. She reached down and put her hands firmly around her daughter's waist. "Okay, then here we go. Up." She used her thighs to take some of the strain off her back as she straightened up enough to get Sofia to a point where the little girl could gently place her dandelion down next to the one Arizona had laid there earlier. She didn't wait any longer before leaning back down to place her on the ground.

"Pretty," Sofia said then as she smiled up at her work.

"Yes, it is," Callie said as she came up behind Arizona and rubbed up and down her back. "You've been holding out on me."

"I've been practicing with the medicine ball at therapy. Good thing she doesn't weigh that much." Arizona smiled as she felt some pride rise in her. "I can do almost anything with enough practice, right?"

"Definitely. Now, what do you say we go get some lunch and then go to you know where so Sofia can you know what."

Arizona laughed at Callie's attempts to keep things from their all-too-smart daughter. She'd long since learned words such as park and playground and even somehow often caught on to their attempts to spell them out. She had the sneaking suspicion that Sofia would turn out to be way too smart for her own good. "I think that sounds like a great idea. We could get something and take it to the you know where."

"We could."

Arizona ruffled Sofia's hair and then gave the grave marker for her two friends one last look before turning to look back down the hill toward their car. She hadn't realized how steep it was as she'd walked up it. "Make sure she stays off to the side. I'm likely to go down hard."

"You'll be fine. You can do anything, remember?"

Arizona took a deep breath and stood up a little straighter. "I can. But I'm also human and sometimes I fall down. That's okay as long as I don't take her with me. Come on, let's go."

They slowly made it down the hill, taking even longer to descend than it had taken to get to the top. Arizona had to really concentrate and use her cane to brace herself with every step, but she made it without any falls and never even needed Callie's help. When she finally got onto level ground, she couldn't help but shine a huge smile at her wife. "I did it."

"Told you so," Callie said with a wink.

Arizona went over and took Sofia's hand. "I'll drive," she told Callie as she led Sofia around to the driver's side. She felt emboldened about having lifted her on the hill and so knew she could get her up into her car seat. She was able to do it in two motions, first lifting the toddler to the running board and then with a second effort up into the seat. She strapped her in and then leaned in to give her a quick kiss before standing up and looking over the car to Callie. "Keys?"

Callie smiled at her for a moment before tossing them to her over the car. Arizona went to catch them but missed. "Well, you can't blame the fact you could never catch on your leg," Callie said with a chuckle.

Arizona laughed loudly. "No, that's just my complete lack of coordination when it comes to sports." She leaned over and got the keys off the asphalt before climbing into the driver's seat. She'd driven a few times since the accident, but always when she was alone. This was the first time she'd taken over driving duties from Callie since beginning her recovery. When Callie was in and belted, she looked over and lifted her eyebrow, "So, ready?"

Her wife leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss before smiling against her lips and whispering, "Always."

Arizona leaned in and smiled against Callie's lips as she gave her wife another kiss. She pulled away and took a moment to just stare into the deep brown eyes she so adored, finding a peace and strength in the loving certainty they seemed to always show her. We made it. Somehow, we did, and now it's just time to get on with life. A life with Callie and Sofia. That's all I've ever wanted and now I get to have it. She turned the key in the ignition and smiled broadly. "Let's get out of here then."

~THE END~

Thanks again guys…now back to your regularly scheduled dark and serious with eventual happiness AmboDriver.