"Calliope… Calliope… wake up beautiful."

"Hmpf, -wer?"

A blonde eyebrow quirked, "Err, wer? What's wer?"

"HMPF, -wt you wan?"

"What do I want?"

"Mmm."

Arizona could just about contain her giggles; sleepy Callie was one of her favourites. "I want you to get up, it's 07:00am and I'd rather not let Sofia think I made you sleep on the couch last night." She resisted the urge to stroke the raven hair, she couldn't be too greedy after last night.

"Mmm, seepy, bac- sle, 'rizona", with such eloquent words, the brunette reached up blindly trying to grab a delicate hand. This was something the blonde was taking great delight in, but couldn't physically revel in it, not yet.

Erugh, really Calliope? Pulling me back down to lay next to you? You've had two years to do that.

"No no, no more sleep, wakey wakey Calliope, I've made you pancakes." Dimples.

A tired head, covered in wave after wave of ruffled, wild, gorgeous hair, rose. She flashed a content smile, "Mmm, breakfast in bed?" Her sleep voice almost made Arizona's knee buckle.

The. Death. Of. Me. Whether it's an angry Mr Torres, a sexy Dr Torres or the most beautiful Miss Torres, a Torres is going to end me.

"The couch isn't a bed Dr Torres, and you've been on it all night. Whatever pain meds they stuck you on must have kicked in, short of smacking you across the head, I couldn't wake you up. So, you need to get up now so I can tidy and examine your chest, check for swelling and soreness."

Callie's eyebrow couldn't have arched higher if she'd tried. "Isn't it way too early for that sort of behaviour Dr Robbins? And this isn't a very professional setting."

"Your RIBS Calliope", she blushed, "honestly." Cause of death: Torres.

"Help me up?" There's that butter-wouldn't-melt smile.

"You're not going to pull me back down to lay on you?"

"…Maybe."

"UP Dr Torres, NOW!"

After much coaxing, and having to be half dragged up, Callie found herself at the kitchen bar, with pancakes stacked in front of her. Arizona had gone to retrieve their child, pull her from her slumber, which was always a difficult task. She stretched up slightly, mindful too much movement would cause her to wince, but she wanted to examine the bruises herself. She took in the sight. Wow, her torso was purple, very, very purple.

She dropped her top when she heard an excited blonde squeal, Arizona ran into the kitchen with her arms up triumphant, like she had just won a race. Which, judging from Sofia's pout following behind, she had. Callie could only smile and roll her eyes. That's it, never let your own daughter win Robbins. Dork.

Their daughter's mood soon sored after noticing who was sat at the breakfast bar. "Mummy! You're here, are you okay?"

"I'm good mija, but even better for seeing you, how did you sleep?"

"I love my roo- are we having pancakes?" The girl's eyes darted from her mother to the food, eyes lighting up, that was pure Robbins.

"Err, yes… but first, can I get a good morning kiss-"

"Yay! Mumma can I have mine and watch TV please?"

"Sure thing sweetheart, but first why don't you give your mummy a morning hug and k-"

"Thanks mumma! Bye!"

If their daughter wasn't so damn cute, Callie would maaaybe feel a tinge of hurt, but the pure joy she heard from her voice made it impossible to be so. "Does she think you're going to stack her pancakes and take them into her?"

By the time she'd finished her question, Arizona had cut up a pancake, poured on a small amount of syrup and retrieved some strawberries. She grinned, "No, she knows I will," and exited the kitchen to find her daughter already watching morning cartoons. She returned soon after, "once she's fed, brushed and dressed I'll take her to school then come back and we can… talk? Maybe? Doesn't have to be stuff off our list, doesn't have to be planned out, although I like our tick-list, although I don't think it should be that regimented, I mean I know I'm the daughter of a marine and I like order but I think this thing needs to flow you know so-"

Callie reached out and placed a hand on Arizona's forearm, "and breathe Arizona", she chuckled, "take our cherub to school and when you get back we can go from there."

The blonde nodded and exhaled, relieved they were still going to talk, she didn't realise until last night just how cathartic it would be. After taking a second to compose herself, she noticed Callie was taking a bite of her pancake and having a scan of the news headlines on her iPad. The normalcy and just how right it felt in the moment was everything. They both knew it was going to be a long slog, but last night had healed some wounds, opened the door to new possibilities and it felt like they had started their road back to each other.

But after that talk, Arizona was ready for more there and then, "anyway, so you were asking for a good morning kiss? Is that invite extended to… everyone?"

A warm smile slowly crept onto Callie's face.

You're damn right it is Robbins.

Callie nodded as Arizona placed a delicate kiss onto Callie's lips, it was as equally life affirming as the one the night before. The grins both surgeons adorned on this one however, made it lighter, more fun, it very much reminded them of the kiss in the stairwell. They pulled away after some much needed oxygen was sought.

Callie was the first speak, or certainly make some sort of content noise anyway. "Mmm… I like that, that should definitely be a thing." Arizona could have thrown herself at her ex-wife but that wouldn't help end game. Plus, she was a lady, although she had very un-lady like thoughts at that moment. Callie continued, "thank you for our chat last night, I really needed to say a lot of that, and needed to hear a lot of it back. I guess I never really appreciated that I needed to help you adapt and find the new you, not try to fix you back to the old you."

That acceptance almost made Arizona breakdown, god she was full of emotions that morning, it's a wonder she managed to keep still at all. "We both behaved in ways not so becoming, but, I mean, we're good on that part now right? This is the start of the rest of our lives?"

Please say yes Callie, please.

"Absolutely Ariz-"

"MUMMA, BREAKFAST DONE, YOU NEED TO BRUSH MY HAIR!"

Arizona chuckled, "your daughter is so bossy", as she got off the stool Callie noticed a slight hiss. She would let it slide for now, but it was on her list. The blonde called out to Callie's daughter, "I'm coming little miss!"

The brunette feigned hurt. "My daughter? So when she's bossy and demanding she's my daughter?"

"Yes Calliope, and when she brought home her merit with distinction work the other day, she was very much my daughter," knowing Sofia had run upstairs, she was acted quickly and placed a chaste kiss on her ex-wife's lips, smiling as she left. Again, a slight limp was evident, especially to an orthopaedic surgeon.

Okay Torres, this is what you want, this is what you both want, that much you're sure. You've started the journey, it's going to be tough, you're going to say things, she's going to say things, it's called having a discussion, it's what grown-ups do. You're both kick ass surgeons, heads of departments, you're a Harper Avery winner, she's the strongest person you know and wonderful mothers. Yes her prosthetic is a big subject for you both, but remember it is her condition, not yours.

Between 30-40 minutes later, Arizona returned daughterless. Appears Sofia really wanted to stay at home with her mother's today but with the promise of a family night of movies and popcorn, she relented and went into school. The blonde will fill the brunette in on her compromise later. It's those damn brown eyes.

Callie had taken the time to freshen, thankful Meredith had dropped in on her way to work with some fresh clothes for her. The village be… villaging (100% not a word). Arizona noted the change of clothes and gave an inquisitive look. Knowing the question, Callie simply responded "Meredith."

With an understanding nod, Arizona poured them both a coffee and hopped up onto the breakfast bar, using only her right leg for leverage this time. That was intentional.

It was Callie's turn to broach the subject. "What do you want the next steps to be? I don't think we need a strict timetable; we've still got a lot to talk about, but I'd like to have some sort of plan in place. Also I don't want it to be all we do, I want dates, family nights, I don't want this to overtake everything, it will take too much out of us."

Arizona contemplated those words, "Agreed. How about we have different conversations depending on circumstances. We'll have dates where negative parts of our history are banned but we can make out. A lot", up went the eyebrows, "family time with Sofia, where our negative history is also banned… but so is any making out," pout, "then we have the hard stuff, where we discuss everything… and make out at the end. Making out is a huge part of this Calliope."

The brunette laughed, "I like that." Super, awesome, mega-watt, amazing, smile. "Also I feel like we'll need someone to lean on, I want to do this journey with you Arizona, but I think we need some outside support. That doesn't mean we're going to tell them something we should only say to each other, but just to I dunno, someone to share with? To take the pressure off each other?"

"I like that, so we'll both nominate someone we can discuss things with?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I pick… Alex. No, April, wait, Teddy, no, April. Teddy."

Teddy would have been Callie's bet, she was surprised April was mentioned twice, but then again they had seemingly gotten closer after their divorce. Interesting. "Are you going to be okay if I say Meredith? Because essentially that means Cristina too."

Arizona let off a knowing laugh, "yeah that's fine, let's face it Grey Sloan isn't known for it's discretion, in fact get tequila in any of them and the whole hospital will know!"

It's true.

"What about ground rules?" Callie was nervous, the last time they were going through something difficult, working on their relationship, an intern appeared. Her tone indicated her insecurities from that time were still present, "are we-, is this-, there's no one else right?" Oh no, tears were forming.

The blonde saw it immediately, the vulnerability stung, she jumped off the stool, barely registering the pain in her leg. She cupped Callie's cheek, "absolutely, you are it for me Calliope, no one else, no one else ever again, this is 100% exclusive, I'm never going to let you go."

Callie couldn't hold back another mega-watt smile, Arizona really had that much hold over her. This time it was accompanied by some more tears, ones of which the peds surgeon was slowly brushing away with the pads of her thumbs. After gathering herself, she looked into blue eyes now precariously close to hers, "same Arizona, you're it for me too." She leaned in and gave the very happy blonde a chaste kiss. The next question wasn't necessarily as deep as the rest, but it was always their go to. "Okay, so, what about sex?"

"Yes please."

"Arizona!"

The blonde grabbed the neck of Callie's t-shirt and pulled her in again, god she couldn't get enough of her, but long term Robbins, long term. "No, I think we should wait until we've had more dates and conversations. I don't want to put a timer on it though, like it should be the third date or we need to have discussed over 50% of our list. We just need to be careful and not rush it, it's what we did before Calliope, we can't jeopardise it by skipping steps."

She was relived, not because she didn't love or want sex, god she did(!) but Callie & Arizona 2.0 couldn't full back to old habits. "Good, agreed. Okay so we're being exclusive, not telling anyone other than one nominee, no sex, we have dates which are separate to discussions, have family time and continue being rock star surgeons?"

"Yup!" Arizona turned after celebrating their pact with a celebratory kiss but let out another hiss as she put pressure on her prosthetic.

The ortho surgeon tried to be nonchalant, but she didn't have the skill with this topic, "did you hurt your back from laying on the couch?" You're so transparent Torres, "You're kinda wincing. Or…" Yup, this is what you wanted to ask, "Is it is your leg? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have ask-"

"No no it's okay, that's something we have to discuss" the blonde went to the coffee pot and poured them another round, "do you want to do this now or recover from last night first? It was intense and as we agreed, we don't want to put all the hard stuff out there in one go."

Callie knew this could be the biggest point for Arizona "I think last night ended on a positive note but I'll let you decide, I know this is important to you."

As Arizona went to speak the affirmative, a phone rang, and Callie answered. "Hello, speaking, detective hi, I'm good thank you..."

The blonde mouthed "Loud. Speaker."

Like the conversation with Owen, Callie did as instructed and placed the phone on the kitchen counter.

Here we go.