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Worth It - December 2018-February 2019
Lena is singing “Rudolph” very loudly but mostly correctly while she and Asa splash around in the bath, enjoying the extra space afforded by using their mothers’ big soaking tub. It’s a special treat because Mami is running late trying to get ready for her date with Momma and this way she can supervise bath time and blow her hair dry at the same time. Thank goodness at five and recently three they’ve yet to object to bathing together, as that would just make this more of a logistical nightmare.
“Mami,” Asa speaks up. “Podemos watch a movie con Lindsey?”
“Rudolph!” Lena exclaims.
Callie grins, finally feeling a little better. She’d been woozy and exhausted all day, which is why she’s running late in the first place. They say third time’s the charm, but Baby #3 has been the worst of her pregnancies, even six months into it.
“Yes, you can watch one movie when Miss Lindsey gets here. No, it can’t be Rudolph because if you watch it any more, Leni, you will actually turn into a reindeer.”
“Cool,” Lena grins as Asa pulls his soapy curls into limp antlers. “Oh, me too, Asa! Quiero ser un reindeer.”
Asa obliges with a wide smile, and Callie laughs at the pair, turning the blow dryer on them, which causes quite a bit of squealing as the hot air hits their wet skin.
The front door squeaks open.
“Who’s making all that racket?”
Callie turns the hair dryer off and makes an overdramatic surprise face at Lena, who obliges with one of her own. Asa actually rolls his eyes (the impertinence!) but is grinning wildly with excitement at his momma’s arrival.
“Uh oh! Momma’s home. Better get clean quick!” Callie encourages.
There’s a fair bit of splashing as the kids try their best to wash the soap off of them, popping up from under the water and throwing cups of water onto each other’s heads.
Callie snorts at their antics, rubbing a hand at the persistent ache that’s been troubling her lower back all day. She’s been trying her best to ignore it, because their favorite babysitter is finally available tonight and it’s their first date night in two months. Nothing is stopping her from going out with her wife tonight, not even (or maybe especially because of?) the fact that pregnancy has made the cleavage on this dress practically pornographic.
“What, is going on in here?” Arizona demands in the bathroom doorway, hands on her hips.
“We’re clean, Momma! We’re clean!” newly-three-year-old Lena announces.
“I see that. Asa, pull that plug. Bathtime’s over.” She turns to greet Callie and pauses, smiling appreciatively. “Nice dress. Really nice dress. Give me a few minutes to pj ‘em up and then I’ll change. Lindsey texted me a few minutes ago to say she’s on her way.”
“Yay!” the kids chorus their excitement over the “awesome” Miss Lindsey as Arizona grabs the towels to wrap them up, extracting each with raspberry to the neck.
“Run, naked babies! Run up to your jammies. Carefully, because your feet are wet.” Arizona turns to grin at Callie. “You finish getting sexier. We will be right back.”
Callie manages a smile as Arizona hurries after them, but it quickly falls as she moves to sit on the edge of the draining bathtub. The dizziness came back full force in the chaos of Arizona’s arrival, and the pain is just getting sharper. Determined to power through this so they can get one good date in before the insanity of rapidly approaching Christmas sets in, Callie takes a deep breath, and the world goes black.
***
“Dr. Robbins. Dr. Robbins. Arizona!”
Alex lets his voice get firmer than it usually would with his boss, but keeps it soft enough to not worry the children in the room.
When she turns her blue eyes to acknowledge him, their usual brightness is gone, replaced with a worry that wrinkles her brow and takes away her light.
“Let me take the kids for awhile,” he says more gently. “Get ‘em out of the hospital. Get ‘em dinner. You guys like McDonald’s, right, Lena?”
The three-year-old on Arizona’s hip, a pretty little blonde with pigtails and her mother’s dimples, smiles weakly and nods.
“I...” Arizona begins to protest.
“I got this,” Alex assures her, holding his arms out as an invitation for his boss’s mini-me. “You just focus on Torres, okay? Addison’ll be here soon, and she’s the best.”
Arizona nods, passing Lena into Alex’s arms. She knows she shouldn’t be surprised at how comfortable her children are with Karev; he is her protégé after all, they spend a lot of time together, and she trusts him enough to care for her patients, which allows her the freedom to actually be a parent. Still, it’s just a little weird. But she’s grateful for it.
“Hey, Acer,” Karev calls for the five-year-old curled up with a gameboy in the nearby chair, unconsciously using Sloan’s nickname for the boy. “We’re gonna go grab a burger while your moms wait for Dr. Montgomery.”
“Aunt Addy’s gonna wanna see me,” he says seriously, even as he pulls himself out of the chair.
“She’ll be around, Asa,” Arizona says, managing a reassuring smile for her oldest as she extends her hand for the gaming device. “Game, please.”
“Momma...”
“Nope. You’re going to McDonald’s with Karev. You need to play with your sister.”
Asa turns it over with no further protest.
“What if Mami needs us?” Asa asks, flicking his eyes (Callie’s endlessly dark eyes) over to his other mother, still asleep in a hospital bed. She’s been drifting in and out of sleep since Dr. Fletcher stabilized her and the baby twenty-four hours ago, but they won’t be out of the woods until Addison comes to work her magic.
“Karev will bring you right back if Mami needs you. Right, Dr. Karev?”
“Right,” Alex assures the floppy-haired boy.
“Karev,” Lena says importantly, tugging insistently on his ear to get his attention. “If they ask, I have to get a boy toy.”
Despite everything, Arizona gives a little laugh at that.
“Oh yeah, why?” Alex asks, ushering Asa out the door with a reassuring nod to his boss.
“Bye, Momma!” Asa calls over his shoulder, echoed by his little sister. “It’s ‘cause she has to have everything just like me.”
“Asa, no fighting!” Arizona reminds.
***
“No, Lena! Tienes que saltar the McNuggets and flip over las papas,” [You have to jump the McNuggets and flip over the fries,] Asa complains as the two Robbins-Torres kids play on the fiberglass table with their Happy Meal Hotwheels cars. Asa has set up a little obstacle course that is well beyond three-year-old Lena’s attention span.
“Whoa, hey. I didn’t get all of that, but you gotta cut her a little slack. She’s just a baby.”
“Not a baby!” Lena complains, indignant.
“Sorry, sorry. She’s just younger, and she can play with her car however she wants. In fact, how about you go play in the Habitrail stuff for a bit?”
“The what?” Asa questions.
Alex gestures to the slides and crawlspaces of the indoor playground.
“’Kay,” Lena shrugs happily, hopping off her chair.
“Hey, go keep an eye on her,” Alex suggests gruffly when Asa doesn’t move.
Asa rolls his eyes grandly but does as he’s told.
“Wait up, Leni!”
For all their bickering, Asa and Lena get along very well, deep in the bowels of the Habitrail.
They’re good kids, and Alex finds that somehow in the last ten years he’s become pretty close to the Robbins-Torres clan. As Arizona’s go-to attending, his professional respect for Roller Girl has morphed into personal admiration, and Torres is pretty hard not to like. And a damn fine cook, a fact that means he tries his best to finagle a dinner invite at least once every few months, on the rare occasion he and Robbins get the same night off.
So he didn’t mean to become friends with them, but now he is, at least sort of, so he’s babysitting their kids and worrying whether or not Torres and Baby #3 are going to make it, and he really never meant that. Addison is on it, probably already taking Callie into surgery, he reassures himself the same way he tried to calm his boss earlier.
“Hey, Karev.”
“Altman,” he greets the cardio attending with a nod.
“Came to relieve you if you need it. How’ve they been?” Teddy asks as she settles herself on the uncomfortable metal chair.
“Fine. What’s the word on Torres?”
“Montgomery came in just after you left and confirmed the diagnosis. They’re headed into surgery now.”
“That’s good. Addison’s the best.”
“I know.” Teddy’s brow is still drawn with worry. “Even if the surgery’s a success, Callie’s going to have to be on bed rest until she’s full term.”
“Torres not breaking bones? She’ll go stir crazy.”
“Aunt Teddy!” Lena exclaims happily as she pops out of the slide.
“Aunt Teddy?” Asa questions, voice muffled by the plastic.
Lena’s already given Teddy a flying hug by the time Asa’s tousled head emerges from the slide.
“Hi,” Lena beams, grabbing at Teddy’s face. She loves her godmother so.
“Hi, you,” Teddy greets, settling Lena into her lap. Asa gives her a less enthusiastic but no less affectionate hug that she returns with one arm.
“Where’s Momma? How’s Mami? Is Aunt Addy here?”
“Whoa, one at a time, buddy,” Alex calms him.
“What ‘bout nuestra hermanita?” Lena adds.
“Aunt Addison is here. She’s with your moms. Your little sister is okay. Your aunt is going to fix them up.”
“Is she getting an operation?” Asa asks, brow knitting.
“She is. And do you know what Momma needs to cheer her up while she waits?”
“Her munchkins!” Lena supplies.
Alex shoots Teddy a questioning look. Teddy nods firmly.
“That’s right. I think Aunt Lexie and Baby Grey are with her right now, so they need help.”
“Let’s go!” Asa exclaims.
“Gotta clean up first,” Alex reminds them.
They agree with only the most minor complaining, dumping their trash in the trashcan. They gather their myriad hats and scarves to bundle up for the early December walk back to the hospital. Lena then pouts her way onto Teddy’s hip.
“Wanna ride, Asa?” Alex sighs. The boy nods eagerly, and Alex lets him clamber onto his back for the brief trip.
***
Callie Torres slowly fights her way back to consciousness.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
She groans a little, opening her eyes.
“Mark?”
Not exactly the first person she was really hoping to see. Not even in the top three. Remembering why she’s here, her hand falls immediately to her stomach, worry building.
“Baby’s fine. You’re fine. And you’ll keep being fine as long as you stay off your feet,” Mark says softly.
“Where’s...?”
Mark points to the over-sized recliner in the opposite corner, where Arizona sleeps with both of their kids cuddled up on top of her.
“She wouldn’t leave, and Acer and Baby Blondie wouldn’t go home without her. Grey even asked Lena real sweetly if she’d have a sleepover.”
Callie groans. “Your son needs to stop hitting on my daughter.”
“He likes older women, like someone I know,” Mark grins as he stands to wake Arizona and page Addison.
“Let her sleep,” Callie shakes her head.
“Really? Because Roller Girl will kill me, you know. She’s been looking for an excuse for years.”
“Well, take a picture first,” Callie grins sleepily, stupidly, at her adorable little family. She adds, deliberately nonchalant, “Oh, and tell me when Lexie’s due.”
“What? Hey! We haven’t told anyone yet. And how is this the first thing you think of?”
“Because I’m thinking about how nicely spaced our kids are.”
Mark laughs. “She’s three months along. We’re hoping for a girl.”
“That would be nice, though Asa and Grey’ll be outnumbered two to five counting the Shepherd girls.”
“They’ll be better for it.”
Mark leans over to extract Lena from Arizona’s grip.
“Hey, Blondie, your woman’s awake,” he says gently, settling Lena onto one shoulder.
Arizona is awake instantly: surgeon’s (and mother’s) instincts. She gives a relieved smile when she meets Callie’s eyes. She quickly gets up, trying her best to not wake Asa. The boy grunts his annoyance but quickly settles into the warm spot left by his mother. Mark sets Lena back down next to him and goes to get Addison from the on-call room.
“Calliope,” she grins breathlessly, immediately pressing a kiss to her lips.
“You look like hell,” Callie says hoarsely, beaming as she takes Arizona’s face in her hands. Her eyes dart to Arizona’s shoulder, and she points to a dark spot with a wry twist of her lips. “And you have Lena-drool.”
“You look radiant,” Arizona whispers reverently, pressing her forehead to Callie’s, eyes closed. “And you’re okay, and the baby’s okay. I’m just going to have to chain you to our bed for the next three months, and not in the fun way.”
“Arizona...”
“And if I kiss Addison, don’t be jealous, she just...”
“Arizona.”
Arizona’s eyes pop open, wide and wet.
“Oh, baby, please don’t cry. I’m sorry. I know this is just what you...”
“Don’t. It’s worth it. I was so scared. I am so scared. But, but it’s so worth it.”
As if knowing she and her brother are being spoken of, Lena snores, the sound muffled by the pacifier they haven’t broken her of yet.
Arizona laughs, and Callie wipes her tears.
“How are you feeling?” Arizona asks.
“Good. Good. Oh, hey!” She grabs Arizona’s hand and presses it into her belly. “She’s saying hi. She wants her Momma to know she’s okay, too. And that her big sis snores like a fifty-year-old man.”
Arizona smiles at the fluttering kicks against her palm.
“I called your mom,” she admits reluctantly. “And my mom.”
“You what?”
“Your mom is taking the jet here as we speak. She’s stopping to pick up my mom.”
“You what?” Callie repeats.
“Don’t be mad. You’re going to be on bed rest, and we have two very active kids. We need all hands on deck. I at least talked Grandpa and Abuelito into staying home. For now.”
“I’m not mad. Annoyed that I have to spend three months in a bed, yes. But like you said, worth it.”
“Worth it,” Arizona nods, punctuating her words with a brief, chaste kiss. “She’s just her mother’s daughter. Has to make an entrance.”
“Hey!”
“What? It’s not my fault. You can only blame me for that little angel over there.”
Their little Arizona clone snuffles a little more in her sleep, rolling onto her brother. Asa sleeps on, oblivious as he receives another blow to the ribs.
“Yep. Lena’s you. Sleep abuse and everything.”
“Hey,” Addison interrupts gently from the doorway. “You’re up. That’s a great sign.”
“And I hear I’m gonna be in this bed for the next few months.”
“I’m afraid so. Well, you can be at home after a day or two. I hear the grandmas are on the way for maximum spoiling.”
“This is sounding more and more like torture.”
“Yeah, but at the end...”
“It’s worth it,” Callie and Arizona finish for her.
“Well, I’m going to go sleep at your house, because on-call rooms are really only good for one thing. Since I’m sure I can’t convince you to come with me,” Addison directs to Arizona, “Can I at least take one of the kids?”
“Take Asa; he has soccer in the afternoon. Derek said he’ll take him with Ally and Katie,” Arizona instructs, moving to embrace Addison again. She whispers, “Thank you.”
“Hey, no kissing. She’s hot!” Callie teases
Arizona grins, dimples on full display as she slowly, dramatically places a kiss on Addison’s cheek.
Addison laughs and goes to check Callie’s chart as Arizona moves to get Asa.
“Asa,” she says gently, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Asa, Aunt Addy’s here. She wants to take you home to keep her company.”
The boy’s dark eyes flutter open, and he gives his momma a big, warm smile. Arizona can’t help but beam back, brushing his nose with her own.
“Told you she’d want to see me,” he says smugly.
“Yeah, well, I have another surprise for you.”
“Good morning, m’ijo.”
“Mami,” he grins sweetly, scrambling out from under his sister. Lena takes no notice of the jostling.
Arizona puts him on her hip (though he’s probably far too big for that) and brings him to Callie.
“¿Cómo te sientes, Mami? Did Aunt Addy fix you and nuestra hermanita?”
“She did. But that made her very sleepy, so you have to go home and be a good host while Momma and I stay here.”
“Y Lena?”
“She’s gonna stay here for now, so you can have alone time with your madrina. And Derek is going to pick you up and take you to fútbol with Ally and Katie.”
“Okay. But Momma, you’re in charge,” he intones seriously, turning his face back to Arizona.
“Hey, why is she in charge, nene? Why can’t I be in charge?”
“You’re sick. Lena’s a baby. Momma’s in charge.”
“I like the sound of that,” Arizona grins playfully.
“Not okay, m’ijo,” Callie pouts.
“Oh, don’t be sad, Mami. Te quiero.”
Asa leans out of Arizona’s arms to plant a big kiss on Callie’s lips.
“That’s my sweet boy. Such a good cuddle monkey,” Arizona praises, giving him a big squeeze after he’s done.
“Okay, Asa, be good for Aunt Addy,” Callie orders gently.
“Ready to go, buddy?” Addy says warmly to her godson, taking his hand as Arizona puts him down.
“Yep. Bye Momma! Bye Mami!” Asa says as she leads him out. “I missed you, Aunt Addy.”
“Oh, I missed you, too, Asa!”
***
“Aw, c’mon! That’s a crap call!”
“Yeah, c’mon, crap!”
“Great, Mark, just great. Teach my three-year-old to trash talk. Lena, m’ija, don’t say crap.”
“Yeah, uh. Uncle Mark’s sorry. Don’t repeat anything I say during football, Baby Blondie.”
It would normally be disconcerting, even given her comfort level with him by now, to hear Mark Sloan’s voice booming from their bedroom. Now, however, everyone practically lives in their bedroom, because Callie lives in their bedroom.
“Hello, Arizona,” Rosario Torres greets from the kitchen as Arizona drops her stuff on the island.
“Hi, mamá. Good game going on in there?”
“All I hear so far is that the refs are making bad calls.”
Arizona laughs and leans in with a wide smile. “Lunch smells super!”
“Momma, I can hear you! Come watch the football game,” Asa calls from the master bedroom.
Arizona grins knowingly at her mother-in-law. “I’ve been summoned.”
Back in the bedroom, Asa, Lena, and two-year-old Grey Sloan are all decked out in their tiny Seahawks jerseys. Callie sits up amid fluffy pillows, Lena cuddled in beside her, one pigtail braided, the rest of her blonde curls wild and free. Baby Grey, Lena’s little shadow, is for now at least curled up next to her. Asa is more active, bouncing up and down between Grey and Uncle Mark, who’s playing guardrail on the far side of the queen bed, her side. She lets it slide, because he is preventing head injuries.
“Momma!” Asa cries, bouncing towards the edge of the bed. Mark grabs the five-year-old and deposits him on the floor before he can jump.
“Thank you, Uncle Mark. Asa, be careful.”
“Sorry, Momma,” Asa sighs, enveloping her legs in a giant bear hug.
“How’s the game going, little man?”
“We’re winning, but the refs’re real bad.”
“So I heard,” she says, raising an eyebrow at Mark.
“You hear that, Lena? Your Momma heard you say a bad word,” Callie nudges the entranced three-year-old.
Ever-dramatic Lena throws her hands to her forehead and with wide eyes says, “Oh no! Perdona, Momma. No more bad words, pwomise.”
“Promise, huh?”
“Yes’m,” Lena nods.
“Alright then, where’s my ‘hello’?”
Lena beams, dimples and all, and she really should be immune because they’re hers, but their little girl really is irresistible.
“Hi, Momma. ‘Hawks is winnin’.”
“That’s good. Have you been takin’ care of your mami for me, you two?”
“Uncle Mark and Baby Grey’re helping,” Asa tells her, still firmly attached to her legs.
“That’s very nice of them,” Arizona smiles down at him, running her hand over his newly buzzed hair. He’d gotten the haircut at his own insistence, wanting desperately to look like Grandpa Robbins. Callie had nearly cried at the idea of shaving away all that adorably tousled baby hair, but Arizona had supported his choice. For one, there was already way too much hair in this house. Getting Asa’s unruly waves to look anywhere presentable for school was just one less thing to worry about.
“Hey, I smell lunch,” Mark speaks up. “I bet if we ask Abuelita really nicely she’ll let us eat with the big TV on.”
“Only because it’s playoff football Sunday. And only if you eat all your veggies,” Callie says seriously. “You, too, Uncle Mark. Baby Grey, make sure your daddy eats his dinner, okay?”
“Okay!” Grey says brightly.
Asa runs to alert Abuelita and start buttering her up as Arizona moves to help Grey and Lena off the bed with a kiss for each.
“Comin’ to dinner, Momma?”
“Soon. I haven’t gotten my kiss from Mami yet!”
Lena giggles and drags Grey towards the kitchen with Mark close behind.
“What happened to her hair?” Arizona asks with a laugh, collapsing, exhausted, next to Callie.
“She wouldn’t turn her head so I could get the other side,” Callie shakes her head. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Arizona mumbles, face down in a pillow.
“Gonna come claim that kiss?”
Arizona groans. “Once I can move.”
“Rough day?”
“Just long. And I guess more of a morning.” The blonde pushes herself up onto one elbow, leaning over to capture her wife’s lips warmly. She pulls back with a happy sigh. “There. All better. How are you feeling?”
“Fine. The baby’s been moving around a lot. And the refs, I must say, really are ‘crap’.”
“Oh my god, she is dangerously cute. She even says crap cutely.”
“I know.”
“And you’re gonna be just like your mami, I can tell. We’ll have to lock you up to keep you out of trouble,” Arizona directs to Callie’s belly. She leans down to kiss Baby #3, not far from Callie’s belly button, and Callie’s fingers thread through her hair, massaging away the stress.
“She’s trouble already,” Callie sighs. The four weeks of bed rest have already worn thin on her nerves and patience. “I want to go sledding with Asa and chase Lena so she doesn’t look like a crazy person with one pigtail and see something besides the inside of this bedroom and the living room.
“We could move the couch into the kitchen,” Arizona suggests, half-joking, tracing soft circles into her stomach.
Callie laughs a little. “Not really what I meant, but thanks.”
“I know it’s hard. I wish we could switch places and tag team like albatrosses.”
“Alba...? You and Asa were watching Animal Planet last night, weren’t you?”
“Yes, but that’s beside the point. Many albatross females realize how useless males are and form monogamous pairs, switching off on nest-sitting duties.”
“Lesbian albatrosses? Really? That’s where you went with that?”
“Is it taking your mind off of how sick of this bed you are?”
Callie chuckles. “Not really. But you’re cute, so I’ll let it slide. And you have to stop letting him stay up to watch Animal Planet.”
“It wasn’t late. We were bonding.”
“You two are attached at the hip; you don’t need any more bonding.”
“No such thing as too much bonding.”
They lapse into comfortable silence, the sound of the game and Asa and Lena’s Spanglish sibling bickering spreading through the room.
“So, did Mark come over for the game or Mamá’s cooking?”
Callie grins, enjoying the warmth of her wife pressed to her side, the way her silky blond hair slips through her fingers, the way she presses her cheek to her expanded stomach and lays a warm, solid arm across her thighs.
“Both. Mostly the cooking. Lexie’s working today.”
Their proximity only serves to remind them both of how close they can’t be. That frustration is right up there with not being able to chase the kids. Higher, even, at this moment. Callie has tried several times to push them a little further than heavy petting, but Arizona is downright paranoid.
“You weren’t really there, Calliope. You were unconscious and bleeding and...” she always says.
Callie never can argue with the way Arizona’s voice cracks when she talks about that night she almost lost the baby, but now she’s hormonal, bedridden, and horny.
Arizona’s stomach growls loudly, interrupting their quiet.
“Someone else wants Mamita’s cooking, too, huh?”
“I’m starving,” she admits. “And it smells so good.”
“Go. Eat. They’ve been asking for you all morning.”
“Do you want some?”
“Not yet. Soon. After you’re all done.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
Arizona kisses her, nowhere near as chastely as before. Callie moans against her tongue.
“Don’t be a tease,” she groans, pushing her away.
“Love you,” Arizona dimples.
***
Teddy rings the doorbell and is greeted by the sound of tiny feet on wood floors, then a slide and a thump. She can just make out the sound of Arizona’s laugh on the other side of the door. Small hands fumble with the doorknob and it finally swings open to reveal little Lena in brightly patterned (are those squirrels?) flannel pajamas and disheveled blond braids. Behind her, Arizona looks, well, pretty much exactly the same.
Asa comes running around the corner, sliding along the wood floors on stocking feet until coming to a messy stop with his mother and sister, revealing the likely cause of the earlier thump: Lena’s socks on the hardwood mixed with her exuberance to greet the visitor. Asa’s also in flannel racecar pjs.
“Aun’ Teddy! It’s pajama Saturday! You can’t come in wifout pjs,” Lena exclaims.
“But I left mine at home with Uncle Matt.”
“Oh,” Lena’s face falls, and Teddy just can’t stand for that. “I have scrub pants in the car. Can I get them and change and pretend they’re my pjs?”
“Yes, ma’am!’ Lena says brightly.
“Yeah, Aunt Teddy. Thinking on her feet,” Callie praises with just a bit of stuck-on-the-couch sarcasm, also dressed in ridiculous flannel.
“Okay. Bring this to Mami while I go get them. And then I want a hug!”
Teddy knows she wants kids, has always known. She just didn’t ache for it until she started spending “pajama Saturdays” with the Robbins-Torres clan.
Lena delivers the bag of Callie’s favorite take-out while she waits for her godmother to return, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Aunt Teddy’s the best, huh?” she grins at the enamored toddler.
“Yep!”
“Momma, what are we gonna play if Aunt Teddy’s here? We only have four controllers,” Asa questions.
“We can find something that we can switch off on. Or Aunt Teddy can be on your sister’s team. Right, Leni?”
Lena nods earnestly.
Asa looks relieved. He’s not a big fan of playing Wii against his younger sister. She’s too little and bad at it, and his moms get mad when he beats her too much.
“Go ahead and pick out the game, m’ijo. Anything I can play from the couch.”
“Can you sing karaoke from the couch?” Asa grins impishly.
“Sounds like he’s issued a challenge, Torres,” Arizona grins.
“He’s still mad ‘cause I kicked his butt last time.”
“Butt,” Lena giggles, rushing to the front door as it opens.
“Good news, Aunt Teddy,” Arizona announces to her best friend, who now has her arms full of excited blonde toddler. “We’re singing karaoke!”
“The things I do for you kids,” she complains playfully, tickling her goddaughter. “Can’t remember the last time I did this sober.”
“There’s beer in the fridge,” Arizona grins cheekily.
“Aunt Teddy, put your pjs on. Let’s go!” Asa exclaims, kneeling in front of the Wii, setting everything up.
“You’re on my team, Aun’ Teddy,” Lena says possessively.
“Sounds good. Uncle Matt is gonna be so jealous that he missed this.”
“We could record it and show him later,” Callie teases.
“Yeah, no. I need to maintain some form of dignity.”
“What’s that?”
Callie and Arizona laugh.
“Great question, Lena,” Teddy shakes her head. “Great question.”
***
“Abuelito?”
“Sí, mi alma?” [Yes, my soul.]
“Dónde está Mami?”
“Having tu hermanita.”
“Abuelito?”
“Sí, mi alma?”
“How long’s that gonna take?”
Daniel Robbins laughs from the kitchen where he makes eggs for his grandchildren. Asa and his video games are well-occupied at the breakfast bar, his feet smacking against the rungs of his stool. Lena, however, is very anxious and has yet to stop talking since her grandmothers left to go grocery shopping. Daniel meets Carlos’s amused, exasperated gaze and shrugs.
“Awhile,” Carlos finally answers, setting aside the newspaper he hasn’t read at all and pulling Lena into his lap on the sofa. “How about a movie, querida?”
“After breakfast,” Daniel qualifies. “Eggs’re ready troops. Asa, put that game away.”
“But...” Asa starts to whine.
“Now, young man,” his grandfathers snap in unison.
Asa complies as Carlos lifts Lena onto a bar stool next to her brother.
Though Carlos is nervous about his daughter’s health, he’s been assured repeatedly that Addison Montgomery is the best and will successfully deliver his third grandchild just as she did the first two. He’s actually strangely grateful for the opportunity Calliope’s bed rest has afforded him to spend with his children. For the past ten weeks, at least one grandparent has been present to help out at all times. It’s going to be hard to go home without knowing he’ll be back in just a few days, but the end of his daughter’s pain and the birth of brand new baby granddaughter will more than make up for it.
***
“She’s so little!” Lena exclaims, pushing up on her knees on the chair to look into the bassinet.
“You were that little, too, baby,” Emeline Robbins tells her.
“Noooo... Grammy.”
“Sí, mi alma.”
“Yes, you were,” Asa says importantly.
“Oh, you remember that, do you, Asa?” Daniel smiles at his too-smart-for-his-own-good grandson.
Eyes trained on his newborn sister, the five-year-old nods.
“She looks just like Calliope,” Rosario notes.
“Mami looked así?” Lena asks, even more incredulous. “No, Abuelita, por favor.”
“Sí, mi alma,” Carlos says patiently.
“Oh, man...”
“Why doesn’t she have a name?” Asa questions, a tentative hand brushing one of the newborn’s hands.
“That one you’ll have to ask your mothers about,” Emeline smiles.
“I like the name Pink.”
“Lena,” Asa groans. “That’s not a name.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
“You’re not the boss, Asa!”
“Lena,” Asa complains.
“Hey! No fighting in front of the baby,” Arizona imposes order from the doorway, rolling Callie in her wheelchair into the room.
“He started it, Momma.”
“Well, be the better man and finish it.”
“But, I’m a girl,” Lena says, confused.
Callie laughs. “We know, m’ija.”
“Mami, why doesn’t nuestra hermanita have a name?” Asa asks immediately. “Everybody needs a name.”
“Oh, really? ‘Cause we were thinking of just calling her ‘hey you’ for the rest of her life,” Callie grins.
“Mami,” Asa crosses his arms over his chest. “Que estés más seria, por favor.” [Be more serious, please.]
His abuelos laugh, and Callie beams wider at his adorably obnoxious seriousness.
“Oh, is that what you think, mi hombrecito?” [my little man.]
Asa nods firmly.
“Oh ho. Momma, can you believe that?”
“I can’t.”
“In that case, we really like the name Asa. She can have that name, and you can be Fred.”
Lena giggles at her brother’s misfortune, and Asa looks quite put out.
“Fred is a silly name,” Lena laughs. “Fred.”
“’Snot my name! Nuestra hermanita can’t have my name. That’s not fair. She can have Lena’s.”
“What? No. Yo me llamo Lena.”
“I’ve had mine longer.”
“Can’t argue with that logic,” Arizona shrugs, fighting back her grin. “Lena it is.”
“Ay, no. No! She needs a different name. I’m confused.”
Arizona picks up her distraught daughter and gives her an Eskimo kiss, which chases away her pout.
“You’re right, Leni. It would be confusing. So despite your brother being far too big for his britches, your hermanita is gonna get her own name.”
“Yeah?” Asa asks. “What is it, Momma?”
“Well, do you have any suggestions?”
“Pink!” Lena exclaims.
Her mothers laugh.
“No, m’ija. Lo siento. Pink is not a name.”
“Aw, man. That’s what Asa said.”
“It’s a singer,” Arizona adds helpfully. Lena is still dejected.
“Any other suggestions?” Callie asks the crowd.
“Danielle,” Grandpa Robbins grins.
“Shush, you already have one named after you,” Grammy admonishes.
“Hey, that’s me,” Asa Daniel grins.
“Rosa means pink in Spanish,” Rosario helps her granddaughter out.
“Yeah!”
“You already have one named after you, too,” Carlos complains.
Lena Rose giggles. “That’s me.”
Rosario takes the toddler from her daughter-in-law’s arms and plants a big kiss on her cheek. “Sí, tú.”
“Mami, Momma, she still needs a name,” Asa whines, standing on the chair to get his point across.
“Well, good thing we’ve already got one picked out, huh?” Arizona grins. “Sit your cute little butt down and adjust your attitude.”
“She has a name?” Asa asks, lowering himself into the chair.
“Yes, one that should stop all the grandparental whining, too,” Callie smirks at Emeline and Carlos, who at least look chastised as well as excited.
“What is it, what is it, what is it,” Lena demands.
“What she said,” Emeline teases.
Arizona scoops the newborn out of her plastic bassinet and lays her in Callie’s arms.
“Okay, grandparents, brother and sister, are you ready?”
“Yes!” is the resounding answer.
Callie laughs. “We would like to introduce Caroline Grace Robbins-Torres.”
Carlos and Emeline descend upon them first, and hugs and kisses are passed all around.
“Are you happy now, Asa?” Callie asks.
The boy shrugs, earning a headlock from his grandpa that sends him into gales of laughter.
“I should make you do push-ups until you learn some respect,” the Colonel teases.
“Oh, don’t tempt him,” Arizona laughs. “He loves to do push-ups.”
Daniel grins at his grandson and releases him. “That’s my boy.”
“I can’t do push-ups yet, Grandpa,” Lena says sadly, always eager to do everything her brother does.
Daniel walks over to where Lena stands on the hospital bed. He looks her over appraisingly, squeezing her tiny bicep.
“Very nice. I’ll teach you in the morning. You and your brother and I can do some PT after breakfast.”
“Cool,” Lena grins, having no idea what the heck PT is.
“Oh my god, she is so you,” Callie smiles up at her wife, taking her hand now that baby Caroline has been stolen away to be passed among her grandparents.
“Well, that little stubborn attitude of Asa’s? Totally you.”
“Oh yeah, you’re not stubborn at all.”
“Is that sarcasm, Calliope?”
“No...” Callie says slyly.
She glances over to where Lena is making up a song for her little sister that’s only words so far are: “Baby Caroline is our hermanita...” Grammy and Asa are offering words that rhyme with “’line” and “’nita”.
“Mine!”
“Pita!”
“Rita!”
“Pine!”
Callie shakes her head and meets Arizona’s super magic smile with one of her own.
“Still worth it?”
“Totally. What about you? Ten weeks of bed rest?”
“Oh, so totally worth it.”
“Baby Caroline is our hermanita. Oh, she is mine, and she is not a pita...”