A/N: Here's your Calzona for the day! Hopefully, I'll have time to get the next chapter out tonight after work!
"Hey good morning!" Arizona says when she spots Callie and Sofia at their favorite breakfast spot.
Standing up, Callie greets her with a hug and as they pull away a light kiss on her cheek. Then feeling a bit awkward about it, she sits back down quickly.
Arizona has to just smile, it's a reflex, she knows because she's always reminding herself not to do it.
"How's my baby girl today?" She says leaning over and kissing her daughter's head.
"Momma, I'm not a baby." Sofia protests.
"I know sweetheart," the blonde replies, "You're a big girl who goes to school now."
The server stops by and Callie orders coffee for Arizona, while she's talking to their daughter about school.
"Sofia did you decide which pancakes you want, we need to order when she comes back with Momma's coffee." Callie reminds the little girl.
"I want the banana chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate milk," Sofia announces.
"Sof, you know the rule, you can have plain milk or chocolate chips on your pancakes. So which is it going to be?" Arizona asks her, beating Callie to the bad cop role.
"Momma, I really want both." Sofia pouts and bats her pretty brown eyes.
Arizona smiles and looks over at Callie as if to say, you taught her this move and you know how I am about it.
"Sofia," Callie says getting the little one's attention, "What's it going to be plain milk or just banana pancakes? Do you want me to decide for you?"
"Plain milk." Sofia says sadly.
The server returns to the table and Arizona orders for herself and Sofia, then glancing over at Callie she asks, "Are you having your usual?"
Callie nods, this is one of her favorite things about her ex, she remembers things like what Callie likes at their favorite restaurants.
"Hey, I just want to say that I'm still amazed at how that went last night. I never thought Bailey would come around like that, I wonder what Dr James said to win her over like that?" Callie exclaims to the blonde.
"Well, I may have given Dr James some advice on how to handle Bailey." Arizona admits.
"Oh?" Callie says surprised that Arizona has been in contact with the candidate.
"Yes, she stopped my office yesterday morning and wanted to talk with me about her plan for the Trauma fellowship, since she knew that I had started the Peds fellowship when I took over the department here. Listening to her talk about it, I realized that she was going to bring new energy to this place and I found myself excited about that." Arizona explains.
"I will admit that when she mentioned it in the first interview, it was one of the reasons that I picked her over Carson. Then when she expanded on it yesterday, I was all but sold on picking her over Bailey." Callie admits.
"I could tell that she scored a lot of points when she described it in depth, so I told her at the break to talk to Bailey about it. Because I knew that everything Bailey was planning, she could do as head of General Surgery, so this way we get both programs up and running." Arizona replies excited about the prospect.
"Well, it will be interesting to see how Jackson negotiates the contract, he certainly wants to make sure his Mother's influence is limited on Dr James." Callie remarks.
"I don't think Tori is beholden to Catherine Avery," Arizona replies. "I get the impression that she only recently found out that Catherine was connected to our hospital and since she was wanting to relocate, she asked her about it and managed to get the recommendation."
"Ah, well I'm excited to see what happens next." Callie says ending the conversation as their food arrives.
Walking down the hall on her way to her office, Callie is still a little buzzed from having breakfast with Arizona and Sofia. It was so easy and fun to be around her, that the brunette caught herself more than once forgetting that they weren't together any longer. Just like it was a few weeks ago when they were in the blonde's condo, Callie admits to herself.
"Good morning Dr Torres," Dr James says as Callie approaches.
"Good morning Dr James, did we have something scheduled this morning?" Callie asks confused.
"Oh, ah no. I just wanted to thank you for your vote last night. I heard that you and Arizona spoke on my behalf, so I just wanted to stop by and thank you both." Dr James says casually leaning against the wall while Callie unlocks her door.
"Uh, you're welcome. But it's Arizona's day off today. But I can let her know that you stopped by." Callie says a little nervous to have those green eyes staring at her so intently.
"You and Arizona are together?" She asks, "Well, I should have known. Arizona always had great taste in women."
"Uh thank you, I think." Callie says laughing nervously and opening up her office door. "But we're not currently together," she adds, not sure why she shared that with her.
"Oh?" Dr James says smiling and follows her into the office.
Pausing as she sets up her laptop and turns it on, Callie bites her lip, thinking how to handle this, "You know, I'm not sure that it's really appropriate to discuss my personal life this with you. Would you mind if we don't?" Callie asks pushing back.
"Oh, I get that and Dr Torres, I'm just trying to get a sense of this place, before I make the decision to relocate across the country. Can I ask, what's it like here? Is it hard to meet people?" Tori asks, trying to shift her focus.
"You know, I find it hard to meet people, but then I'm pretty busy with my work and child. Before I had a child, I didn't mind being single in Seattle." Pausing to look at the blonde up and down, Callie adds, "Some how I don't think that you'll have any problems here Dr James, but just keep in mind that we have a few policies about dating in the hospital though."
"Yeah, Bailey already went over those with me." Tori says laughing a little.
"I can imagine that she did. My ex-husband was one of her residents when she and I were 5th years and she hated that." Callie says laughing, "But now she's married to a resident and she's a department head and board member!"
"But they were both attendings when they started dating right?" Tori asks, then adds, "Oh is there a rule about board members dating staff?"
"Not yet," Callie says, mentally kicking herself for walking right into that one. But wait is she talking about dating Arizona? She wonders.