"How's your lung transplant kid doing?" Callie asked.
"Good, good. Uh, no post-op complications, his body is accepting the organ. He is... good," Arizona replied before offering a nervous smile.
Ever since their interaction in the locker room two weeks ago, all the conversations Callie and Arizona had were uncomfortable and awkward, like a newborn deer trying to walk. They had forgotten how to talk to each other. Callie was afraid to talk about anything but work because she didn't want to unknowingly offend her partner, and Arizona, still navigating the roads back to recovery, didn't know how to apologize for lashing out.
"Alright then... I guess I'll see you... later?"
The question came out of Callie's mouth uncomfortably, lacking grace and direction. At first she meant to just say 'I'll see you later' but felt that was too much of a commanding statement. So she added the word 'guess' in there to lighten the tone, to make it seem like she wasn't expecting anything out of Arizona. But then last second, she decided that a question would be the best approach, it would give Arizona the option to answer yes or no, so she tacked on 'later' at the end of the sentence and raised her voice to an uncomfortable pitch level to make it sound like a question.
Arizona nodded, "Yeah sure."
This time Dr. Torres was the only who flashed a nervous smile before walking off.
"I liked it better when you and Torres were fighting."
Arizona whipped her head around to find Alex Karev standing there.
"Shut up Alex, did you update my charts yet?"
He handed her two charts, "Yep 10 minutes ago. And seriously whatever that was," he shook his head side to side, "just weird."
"Alex, mind your own-"
"Business, I know," he said as he walked away, "See ya later Robbins!"
"What the hell hit this guy?" Callie asked in disbelief.
Dr. Torres was wrist deep in a 27 year old male's stomach cavity.
"Apparently," Dr. Grey replied, "he thought it would be cool to have a bowling ball launched at him."
Callie shook her head in disapproval as she picked up a drill, "I bet he doesn't think it's so cool now that he's got three of his own ribs piercing his liver."
"Hey you're not busy tomorrow night are you?"
"Titanium screws please. Uh no, why?" Callie replied.
"Do you and Arizona want to come over for dinner? Double date kind of thing. Also Zola's been pleading me nonstop to have another tea party with Sofia and I keep telling her it'll happen soon. And I don't want to her to misconstrue 'soon' as 2 months and give her an unrealistic understanding about the word 'soon'. So..."
"Uh," Callie hesitated.
Meredith stopped working and looked up at Callie, "Oh, Callie. I'm-I'm sorry I thought you two were..."
Callie looked up and returned Meredith's wide-eyed stare of embarrassment, "No, no, no, we are! It's just we are but we aren't. What I mean is we are...working on it, but we definitely are"
The two surgeons went back to work.
"I can ask though," Callie offered.
Meredith didn't say anything, so Callie spoke again, "A-About dinner. I can ask about dinner."
"Oh, it's really not a big deal, just a thought I had. You don't have to if you don't want to, or if she doesn't want to. It's-it's not a big deal," Dr. Grey rambled on.
"No, no, I want to," Callie assured her, "I'd just- I'd have to ask Arizona first..."
A worried look came over Callie's face. How the hell was she going to ask Arizona?
The Robbins-Torres family sat in the Shepherd's driveway, their car still running.
"We don't have to go you know. I mean if you've changed your mind about going I can take you back to the hotel," Callie offered.
Dr. Torres had her eyes on her wife more than the road on the drive there. She was constantly looking to her right, looking at Arizona and trying to read her. And now sitting in the Shepherd's driveway, Callie found herself staring again, trying to figure out what Arizona wanted.
"Mama?" Zola chimed from her car seat.
Arizona turned around to answer her, "Yeah baby?"
"I still see Zola tonight?" the girl asked hopefully.
"Yes sweetie," Arizona answered softly with a smile, "we're going to see Zola right now."
Callie got her answer. She shut off the car, unbuckled her seat belt, and got out.
"Hey!" Derek greeted everyone at the door, "Callie, Arizona," he bent down and picked up the little girl, lifting her above his head and into the air, "and Sofia! Mwah!"
Callie held up a bottle of wine, "Sorry Mer, no tequila, but we did bring wine."
"That's fine. My tequila days are long behind me. Come in," Meredith laughed.
And as Callie took her first step, Arizona hooked her arm around Callie's and they walked in together.
The night was winding down. Sofia and Zola had stopped drinking imaginary tea from plastic pink cups an hour ago and were now slouched on the couch watching Dora the Explorer dvds, their eyelids growing heavier and heavier by the minute. The plates at the dining room table had already been cleared and the wine gone long ago.
"Tonight was a lot of fun," Arizona said as she flashed her super magic smile.
"Yeah, thanks for having us you guys," Callie agreed, slowly getting up from the table which prompted everyone else to do the same.
Derek took in a deep breath as he stretched, "Definitely, we'll do this again soon." He quickly hugged Callie and Arizona, and the leaned in to kiss his wife on the cheek, "Goodnight ladies, I'm going to put Zola to bed."
"Yeah Sofia needs to go to bed too," Arizona said, following Derek over to the couch to pick up her daughter.
Meredith walked Callie over to the door where Arizona met them, "Goodnight you guys."
"Goodnight. Thanks again Meredith."
The walk to the car and the ride home was in complete silence; but it was a familiar silence- a comfortable silence that Callie and Arizona had developed naturally through the course of their relationship and tonight was the first time in a long time where that silence was present.
