A/N: Some snapshots into life. Super long because I had to get this finished this week. Ending with a lot of fluff and cheesiness because that seems to be the only way I know how to end a story. More at the end. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy and its characters are owned by ABC and not me.

…

It was a dreary day in Seattle. In the heart of October, the sun was officially gone for the rest of the year and the clouds and drizzle had started to set in. Arizona was sitting at the breakfast bar sipping on a cup of decaf coffee. She had Emmett in one arm and the front page of the Seattle Times in the other. She could hear the garage door open and then she heard Alex's car roar to life. After seventeen days of having someone home with her she was now doing it on her own. Of course she wasn't all alone. She had the tiny baby that was currently enjoying his morning nap in her arms. She was the sole person in charge of taking care of him for the next twelve hours and that was a daunting thought.

Arizona absolutely loved being a mom and she loved her son fiercely. But that didn't take away the fact that her son was not a perfect baby. He was nowhere near a perfect baby. Arizona claimed it was payback for the easy pregnancy she had with him while Alex claimed that he simply had inherited the Karev family's naturally unsunny disposition. Even their pediatrician admitted that Emmett was one of the surliest babies he had seen in a long time but he also reassured the parents that Emmett wasn't in any pain, he just liked to cry. Alex and Arizona just hoped that he would grow out of it but for now they were learning to deal with his constant crying and fussing and learning what would make him happy. Very few things were able to make Emmett happy as they found out over the last two weeks. Car rides, a stuffed dinosaur and The Beatles albums were the only things that seemed to be able to stop his tears. And listening to The Beatles while driving around the neighborhood while one of his parents waved the stuffed animal in his face would keep him happy for hours. But once he forgot about his happy time he went right back to being a sourpuss. It was difficult for the practically always happy Arizona to understand how someone could be so upset all the time.

"We can do this. Can't we, Mett? We're going to have a great day – just you and me." Arizona reaffirmed with the sleeping baby as she heard the garage door close, signaling that Alex was on his way to work and they would be all alone for the next twelve hours.

Arizona looked around the house and noticed the disarray that it had fallen into since the baby had been born. Cleaning up the kitchen just wasn't a priority anymore. During down times sleep or staring at a sleeping Emmett was the new priority. But as she saw the dishes piled up in the sink she knew she had to do something about it. Arizona moved slowly off of her barstool as she tried not to disrupt the sleeping baby. Gently she placed him in his swing and set it to a low vibration, hoping that it would remind him of the car and keep him fast asleep. Arizona held her breath as Emmett stirred slightly in the swing. After a moment, he let out a yawn and seemed to go back to sleep. Arizona let out the breath she had been holding and turned her attention to the mess in the kitchen. Just as she placed the first dish in the dishwasher, Emmett started to cry. Arizona quickly put the dish in and closed the dishwasher. The dishes could wait a little while longer.

"You don't care if the house stays messy, do you?" Arizona asked as she lifted Emmett out of the swing and rested him against her chest. As soon as he felt his mother pick him up his cries only got louder. She instantly felt the heaviness in his diaper. "Oh you have a reason to be upset now don't you, Emmett? Let's get upstairs and get you changed and then maybe we'll try this again."

After getting Emmett changed, she attempted to put him in the swing again so that she could get something accomplished for the day but again Emmett wasn't having any of it. He wanted to be held as he slept and the swing was no substitute for his mother's arms. After spending the first few hours of the morning lying on the couch while Emmett napped, a light bulb went off in Arizona's head and she came up with a perfect solution to Emmett being demanding and her desire to get some housework done. She just hoped it would work.

One hour later, with Emmett strapped to her chest, Arizona was finally able to see the countertops in the kitchen. She had the entire kitchen clean and didn't hear anything but the occasional gurgle from Emmett as he slept. She felt victorious as she surveyed her work. It was the small victories in life that made her the happiest and being able to clean and keep her baby happy was one of those. Arizona felt that she had more than earned the nap that she was going to go try and take after Emmett's next feeding.

…

Alex loved his job as a surgeon. He loved the rush he got in the operating room as he was able to fix someone. The intensity and pressure that came with surgery gave him a natural high and when he went too long without a surgery he would get an itch that demanded that he get back into the operating room as soon as possible. He thought that after over two weeks without surgery that he would be dying to get back in the operating room but for the first time since he began his internship he didn't want to be in the OR. He wanted to be at home with his family, not scrubbing in for surgery.

"You're going to scrub the skin right off your hands if you keep doing that," Cristina broke Alex out of his daze.

Alex's eyes snapped to Cristina and he realized that he had been scrubbing the same hand for the last five minutes. "You're in on this too?" Alex asked when Cristina started scrubbing in too. "Isn't this below your normal standards?"

"A valve replacement is but a valve replacement on an eight year old can be pretty cool. Plus, I had nothing else going on this morning." Cristina pushed the door open to the operating room, "I'm surprised you are jumping back in with this and not some lame appendicitis or something."

"I've been gone two weeks. I think I can handle this," Alex glared, rejecting any notion that his skills had degenerated.

Once in the operating room, Alex and Cristina went about making sure everything was good to go for their surgery. Once all of the nurses and the rest of the staff had arrived they were ready to begin the four hour long surgery.

"So how's the brat?" Cristina asked once they had the chest cracked and they were into what she considered the boring part of the surgery. She had to admit that she liked the kid but didn't want to let anyone know that she had a genuine fondness for the baby so she had to keep up appearances of being a baby hater in front of others.

"He's great," Alex said under his mask. Cristina couldn't see his mouth but everyone in the room knew that Alex was smiling. They could hear it in his voice. Alex glanced up and noted the time, "He smiled in his sleep yesterday. I'm pretty sure I saw a dimple on his right cheek."

"He did not smile. He's barely two weeks old. It was just gas," Cristina looked up and rolled her eyes.

Alex raised his eyes at his friend across the table, "Who's the pediatric surgeon here? He did smile. And he's lifting his head a lot too. He's already advanced on the milestones."

"Your kid's the smartest, the best, blah, blah," Cristina interrupted Alex before he could continue to talk about how great his two week old baby was.

It was Alex's turn to roll his eyes. "Okay, fine. No more baby talk. I'll remember that when you want something from me."

The conversation switched from babies to the gossip that Alex had missed over the last two weeks while he was at home. The drama that the interns could get themselves into never ceased to amaze him. Before he knew it the surgery was over and he and Cristina left the OR while their residents closed up. Alex noticed the time while scrubbing out and realized that if he hurried he could squeeze in a quick video call home before Emmett would be going down for a nap. Never in his life did he ever think that he would be using his free time at work to be able to spend five minutes making funny faces at his baby over the telephone but a lot had changed in Alex's life in the past year.

"You coming to lunch?" Cristina asked as they headed out of the scrub room and into the busy hallway.

Alex was busy looking at his phone while they walked down the hallway toward the nurses' station where they needed to deposit their patient's chart. He knew the route by heart. "No, I'm going to FaceTime Arizona and check in. See how she's surviving her first day all alone with Emmett."

"I don't think you'll need to call her," Cristina stated as she could see a very familiar blonde haired woman standing at the nurses' station.

Alex who still had his head down in his phone couldn't see what Cristina was seeing. Instead he just thought that Cristina was continuing with her anti-baby ways like she was in the OR. "Uhhh, yeah I do. This is the first time I've been away from my kid for this long since he was born. I kind of want to see him for a few minutes."

"No, I mean you don't need to call her because she's here," Cristina nudged Alex in the arm causing him to look up as she pointed toward Arizona who was laughing with a nurse as the nurse was peering at the tiny baby in the car seat.

Alex's mouth dropped open when he saw Arizona standing there and he immediately quickened his pace to get to her. They had talked about her coming to visit him at work but decided against it because Arizona would be in with Emmett the next day for a pediatrician's appointment so she would just visit then.

Arizona flashed Alex a bright smile when she realized that Alex was coming toward her.

"What are you two doing here?" Alex asked as he leaned in to kiss her hello. After pulling out of the kiss, he immediately unlatched Emmett from the car seat and lifted him into his arms. "Hey Bear," he greeted his son.

"Well, we were at home and after a busy morning of napping and cleaning the kitchen someone started crying and wouldn't stop. After a half hour, I figured we'd go for a drive to help calm him down and since we were going to be in the car – why not come say hi and see if you were free for lunch," Arizona explained.

Alex bounced Emmett in his arms as he kissed the top of his head, "I thought we talked about this this morning, Bear. You were supposed to be good for Mommy today."

"I think he just missed you," Arizona smiled and rubbed the top of the baby's head and mussed up his hair. "We both did. Right, Mett?"

"Is that right?" Alex winked at his wife before leaning down to rub his nose against his son's. "Did you miss me, buddy? I missed you."

Cristina who had been finishing up her notes in the chart decided she had to stop this conversation before it got too mushy. She walked over to Alex and grabbed Emmett by his sides as she lifted him out of his father's arms and tucked him into the crook of her arm as she started walking down the hall toward the elevator.

"Hey!" Alex called after his friend. "What are you doing?"

"You just can't take him like that!" Arizona yelled down the hall.

"We're going to the cafeteria. Someone needs to show him how to be a badass!" Cristina turned around and informed the baby's parents before continuing down the hall.

Alex and Arizona stood stunned at the nurses' station. They really didn't know what just happened. Arizona brought Emmett to the hospital to have a quick lunch with Alex before his next surgery and somehow Emmett ended up in Cristina's arms. They weren't really worried as Cristina had been one of the more frequent visitors to their home after he was born.

"Cristina Yang just stole our baby," Arizona said flatly as they watched Cristina disappear into the elevator at the end of the hall.

Alex tugged on Arizona's arm and grabbed the empty car seat, "Let's go get him before she decides to sell him or trade him for a piece of cake or worse – a surgery."

…

Cristina almost instantly regretted her decision to rescue Emmett from his parents. After the baby realized that he was no longer in the familiar arms of his father, he started crying and nothing Cristina could do would get him to stop. She had spent more than a few hours with Emmett before but it was always with one of his parents hovering nearby so that she could give him back when he started to get cranky. But she walked him away from his parents so she was all alone with a baby whose cries were quickly turning into screams.

Once she finally made it to the cafeteria, Cristina was happy to find that there were at least a couple of people who knew what to do with babies there.

"Here. Take him. Make him stop crying," Cristina said as she practically shoved the baby in Meredith's arms. Cristina figured that as a mother Meredith would be able to get the baby to be quiet.

Callie's eyebrows rose as she sat across the table, "Is that Arizona's baby?" Callie was pretty sure that was Emmett but she hadn't seen him since the day after he had been born so she couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

Cristina nodded as she watched Meredith attempt to calm the baby down.

"And does she know that you have him?" Callie continued to question. It seemed odd to her that Yang just showed up in the cafeteria with the baby in her arms without one of his parents around.

"No, I kidnapped him," Cristina said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes and stole a plate of fries from Meredith's tray. "They were being all sappy upstairs so someone had to save the baby from witnessing that crap."

"You just took him from his parents?" Meredith asked shocked as she was finally able to calm Emmett's screams to more tepid whimpers.

Cristina bit down on a fry, "Don't get your panties in a twist. I'm sure they'll be here any second. They were right on my heels."

After having a longer than usual wait for the elevator, Alex and Arizona arrived in the cafeteria. Once they saw that Emmett was safely in Meredith's arms they decided to go ahead and get some food before they got distracted talking with their friends. While picking out their food they bumped into Teddy who was surprised to see Arizona at work but thrilled because that meant that she got some Emmett time. The three paid for their food and made their way toward the table. Instead of focusing on her food, Teddy immediately demanded the baby from Meredith.

"You're getting so big," Teddy cooed at the baby.

Arizona chuckled, "He's only gained like a five ounces if that since you saw him last week, Teds. Hardly getting big."

"He'll be walking before you know it," Meredith added wistfully. Babies grew up fast and she wished that her own baby would slow it down.

Alex and Arizona silently agreed with Meredith. Emmett was only seventeen days old but it still felt like he had just been born. He was already growing up much faster than they wanted him to.

"I can't believe it's only been a little over two weeks because you look amazing, Arizona," Teddy complimented her friend.

Arizona almost choked on her salad. She felt like she looked anything but amazing. "Please," Arizona rolled her eyes. "I barely brushed my hair this morning. I probably have some spit up in it somewhere."

"You're always beautiful," Alex said as he kissed her cheek.

"Suck up," Cristina fake coughed into her hand.

Teddy laughed at Cristina. "I'm serious. You look really good."

"I'd never guess you just had a baby," Callie agreed with Teddy.

Arizona blushed at the attention, "Well, thank you. But I think that dropping the pounds is all Emmett's doing. He's literally sucking the weight right off of me. Knowing that feeding him helps with weight loss makes me less grumpy with not sleeping more than two hours at a time these days."

"He's not going any longer yet?" Teddy questioned as she took a bite of an apple while continuing to hold Emmett in the other arm.

"For a few days last week he went about three hours but now he's back to every two," Alex answered as he finished his lunch. He rushed through eating so that he could get his hands back on his son. Arizona did bring Emmett to the hospital to see him after all; he was going to get his baby time in before he had to go back to work.

"Sounds like way too much work," Cristina said honestly. She knew that she was too much of a selfish person to be a mother. She could do it but she didn't want to do it.

"But look at that little face," Teddy said in a baby voice as she cooed at Emmett.

Cristina shrugged, "Doesn't do anything for me."

"Well, it does for me," Alex said as he gestured for Teddy to pass the boy over.

Almost as soon as Alex got Emmett settled in his arms his pager went off.

"No, no, no," Alex protested as he ripped the pager off of his hip and brought it up so that he could read it. All he wanted was to spend the next fifteen minutes enjoying some time with his son but the demands of being a doctor were going to make that impossible. "I've gotta go," he sighed sadly as he leaned down to get one last whiff of his baby before kissing him softly.

Arizona pouted at her lunch with her husband being interrupted but she understood.

Alex gently laid a sleepy Emmett in Arizona's arms as he stood up to leave. "I should be home by seven," Alex said softly as he leaned down to kiss his wife goodbye. "Love you," he said before kissing her one more time. He then focused his attention on his son who was staring up at him from his mother's arms with wide blue eyes. Alex tickled Emmett's belly with one finger, "Be good for Mommy, Emmett. I'll see you for bath time. Love you too, little dude."

"Bye," Arizona smiled before Alex left to go see what his page was all about.

"Later everyone," Alex told the group and received a chorus of goodbyes as he walked out of the cafeteria.

"You really don't miss surgery?" Cristina asked Arizona after watching as Arizona didn't even question Alex what his page was about. Cristina knew if she had been away from work for over three weeks she would have been pouncing to take over someone else's page even if she was still on vacation.

"I'm too exhausted to even think about work right now," Arizona answered honestly. "But if you mean - am I going to quit my job and be a stay-at-home mom? No, but that doesn't mean that it isn't going to be heartbreaking to leave Emmett in daycare when the time comes in another month."

"That's why hospital daycare is so great," Meredith spoke from experience. "You'll be able to see him anytime you have some free time from work. It's perfect."

"Speaking of work. I need to get back," Teddy announced to the table.

A chorus of me too's came from the rest of her dining companions. Everyone stood up and got ready to go back to work. Arizona situated Emmett back in his car seat. It was time for them to get home as well. Even a short outing for a newborn was the equivalent of a full day of sightseeing for an adult.

Somehow Arizona and Callie managed to be the only ones on the elevator to the bottom level of the hospital. Arizona was heading to the parking lot and Callie was in charge of the pit that day. Arizona leaned her head against the back of the elevator wall and rested her eyes as she waited for the elevator to move. She really hoped that Emmett would let her get a nap in when they got home.

"He looks really good… I mean healthy… I mean cute," Callie's voice broke Arizona out of her quiet moment.

Arizona looked at her ex-girlfriend curiously and raised her eyebrows. She wasn't sure what Callie was trying to say and she was sure Callie didn't either.

Callie sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "I mean, I don't know. What is the appropriate thing to say to your ex-girlfriend that you're still friends with, who is now married to a man and just had a baby? But he's cute. Really cute. How could he not be – he looks like you."

"Thanks," Arizona said quickly hoping to stop Callie's rambling. "He is pretty great."

"You're a really great mom. I always knew you would be."

"Thank you. Most days it doesn't feel like it. It's pretty much kicking my butt."

The elevator dinged signaling their arrival on the ground floor. "I think Emmett and Alex would say otherwise and that's all that matters," Callie smiled and gestured her arm out for Arizona to exit the elevator first.

Arizona paused and waited for Callie to catch up since they were both headed toward the same direction.

"I'm glad I got you alone," Callie continued talking as they walked. "I wanted to tell you that I took your advice."

Arizona again raised her eyebrows at Callie. She had no idea what Callie was talking about. "What advice would that be?"

"That I'm worth more than friends with benefits. Mark and I are officially trying to be a real couple or something like that. I'm not sure how well it's going to work but there's only one way to find out, right?"

Arizona sent Callie a big smile, "That's great. I hope it works out for you two." Arizona put the car seat carrier down on the floor and reached out to pull Callie into a friendly hug. "Though if he doesn't treat you right, I'll kick him in the balls."

Callie laughed and pulled out of the hug. "I think he'll always be afraid of you so I'll let him know."

Emmett had started to whine when the walking movement stopped and he was put down on the floor.

"Good," Arizona laughed with her before picking the car seat carrier back up. "Okay, Emmett, we're going home now so you can stop the tears."

"See you later," Callie said goodbye and held the door open for Arizona.

"Bye," Arizona waved before digging through her purse turned diaper bag for the keys to the car.

By the time Arizona arrived home, Emmett had fallen back to sleep thanks to the power of a car ride. Arizona immediately wanted to fall onto the couch and nap with him but she knew that he was going to wake up from hunger in about twenty minutes so there was no point to trying to sleep.

After their trip to the hospital, Arizona's day went just like every other day except for this time she didn't have Alex to tag into the match to allow her to have an hour or two of rest. By the time Alex got home, she was exhausted. Alex was more than willing to take over taking care of Emmett when he got home. He had missed the little boy all day while he was at work. He often found himself wondering throughout the day what Emmett and Arizona were up to. Over the last two weeks he had been used to spending his entire day with the baby so going from all day to just a few hours at night was a big shock for him. He was more than happy to send Arizona up to bed for some sleep after they had dinner together. He enjoyed several hours of father-son bonding before it was time to put Emmett down and crawl into bed with Arizona before they had to start the day all over again.

…

Weeks flew by with a newborn in the house and before his parents knew it, Emmett was one month old. Arizona still had another ten days before she had to go to work but because it was Emmett's one month birthday she again found herself at the hospital; Emmett had his one-month check up with their pediatrician whose office was attached to the hospital.

Alex had promised to be at the appointment but both he and Arizona knew that if there was an emergency at work he wouldn't be able to get away. He really wanted to be there because it was the first appointment that Emmett would be getting a shot at and Alex knew that Arizona would probably need the added moral support while she had to watch their baby be stung by the needle.

Emmett was called back to his appointment right on time and Alex still hadn't arrived at the doctor's office. Arizona had given up hope on him making it while she waited for their pediatrician, Dr. Greg Vaugh, to show up in the exam room. Arizona was seated in a chair with Emmett wrapped up in a blanket in her arms. The baby nestled into his mother's arms as he was chilly sitting in the exam room in nothing but a diaper.

Arizona straightened up when she heard footsteps stop outside of the door and it started to open. She assumed it was Dr. Vaughn arriving for the appointment but was pleasantly surprised when Alex walked into the room.

"I didn't think you were going to make it," Arizona grinned as Alex made his way toward them and lifted Emmett out of her arms.

"My residents did everything possible to try to keep me from getting here but I didn't want to miss it," Alex said as he took a seat next to Arizona. "How was your morning?"

"The usual," Arizona answered. "He ate, pooped, slept, and cried. Then repeated it all over again. He also did some tummy time which caused a lot of crying as usual."

"Gotta get your neck muscles strong, Bear," Alex told the boy in his arms who simply yawned at him in response.

While she watched Alex spend some quality time with Emmett she finally noticed his outfit. He wasn't dressed in his normal scrubs. He was in a pair of dress pants, a button up shirt with a loosely knotted tie and he was wearing his glasses. Arizona could count the times on one hand over the past three years that she had seen him in his glasses. "What exactly are you wearing, Alex? And the glasses?"

"I know you didn't forget about Halloween since we just talked about it last night."

"No, I remember which is why I have an eye patch in my purse to throw on for a pirate look for the ped's party. I just don't get what you're supposed to be."

Alex shifted Emmett into his left arm and used his right arm to unbutton the top of his shirt. When he got enough buttons undone he pulled the shirt apart so that Arizona could see what was underneath. It was a bright blue shirt with the superman logo on it. Arizona slowly put the pieces together. Dress shirt with superman costume underneath it. Glasses. "Clark Kent," she concluded.

"Yep. Superman is only the best superhero ever," Alex said more to Emmett than to Arizona. He wanted to pass on his love of Superman to his son.

"Very creative," Arizona nodded her approval. "I like it. But I doubt any of the kids really know who he is. Isn't Iron Man or Spiderman the big one these days?

Alex immediately put ear muffs over his son's tiny ears, "Blasphemous. Superman is the best. He can fly, has x-ray vision and can stop bullets." Alex didn't know what to do if Emmett turned into a Spiderman or even worse - a Batman fan. Superman was on a whole other level than those superheroes.

Arizona didn't try to argue. She didn't have a dog in that fight. She only knew what she learned from movies about the superheroes and even then she tended to fall asleep during those movies.

After another few minutes the pediatrician arrived and began his exam. After performing a routine physical exam, Emmett was declared to be in great physical health. The next part of the appointment was more for the parents than for Emmett as he had a lot of questions about Emmett's development that focused on hitting certain milestones. Emmett was already advanced in that he was holding his head up and turning it for short periods of time. Dr. Vaughn knew that with two pediatric surgeons for parents that they knew what to look for developmentally and would know if there was anything that he needed to be alerted to with Emmett's development. The only thing out of the ordinary was that he was a colicky baby. Dr. Vaughn reassured the parents that Emmett would probably grow out of it around three to four months so they just needed to hang in there a little while longer. Once the doctor was done, a nurse came in to weigh and measure Emmett's growth. He was deemed to be a banana baby because he was long and lean. He was in the ninetieth percentile for height and hovering around the fiftieth percentile for weight. The only thing left to do was give him his hepatitis B shot. Arizona had been dreading this for a week. Seeing someone purposefully hurting her baby, even if it was for his own good, was upsetting. Arizona forced Alex to be the one to hold Emmett while he got his shot. She couldn't be involved in it at all. She couldn't even watch. She was still facing the window when Alex tapped her shoulder.

"Babe," he said trying to get her attention.

Arizona slowly turned around and saw Alex trying to wrangle Emmett's restless legs into his own Halloween costume, a bear outfit.

"They did it already?" Arizona asked shocked but knew that if Alex was dressing Emmett that it had to be all over.

"Yeah," Alex smiled.

"Our baby who cries when he sneezes didn't cry at all?"

"Nope," Alex laughed as he zipped up the outfit. "You were more upset than he was."

"Well aren't you surprising, Emmett."

Alex hitched Emmett up so that he was leaning against his chest. "Strong boy we have here."

"And oh so cute in your costume," Arizona nuzzled the baby's nose with her own.

Alex rested his hand on the back of Emmett's head for support as they walked out of the doctor's office and toward the main hospital. "And very fitting that our Bear is a bear for his first Halloween."

"And to think that this time last year you said that 'Karev's don't do cute and cuddly,'" Arizona teased her husband.

"He's a black bear. Very dangerous. Neither cute nor cuddly," Alex retorted.

"Whatever you say," Arizona placated him with a peck on his lips. She could have reminded him of the almost girlish squeal he let out when Arizona showed him the bear costume that she had found online. She could have also reminded him that one of his arguments for the costume was just how cute Emmett would look in it. But she didn't. She knew that Alex knew that Emmett was totally cute and cuddly; she didn't need to hear him say it.

Since Emmett's appointment ran late by the time they made it up to the annual Halloween party for the kids on the peds floor it was already in full swing. They knew that Emmett was way too young to actually enjoy the party but it was important for them to make an appearance as they were one of the leading pediatric attending surgeons and the head of the department. The parents of the kids always liked to see the doctors attending the functions for the floor.

After saying hello to some of the more long-term patients and their families, they were finally able to make it to their friends who had congregated around one of the candy bowls.

"Look at how cute he is," Teddy fawned over the baby in the cuddly brown costume.

Cristina let a small smile grace her lips before she rolled her eyes, "A bear? Really? Aren't you taking this nickname a bit too far?"

Alex just growled at Cristina and turned his attention back to Emmett who was starting to whimper at all of the attention he was getting. A trip to the doctor and then the hospital party was sending him into sensory overload.

"So I get that Arizona's a pirate but I don't get what you are," Meredith commented as she looked at her friends. She knew that they would likely be the only two other doctors dressed up. This was the first year that Meredith dressed up for the party. She didn't want to disappoint her daughter so she dug through her closet to find some clothes from the 80s. Meredith knew what Arizona was trying to be. Arizona was wearing tall boots, a thick belt and lots of gold jewelry helped to make it easy that she was a pirate even without the eye patch resting on her forehead. A very tasteful and well dressed pirate, but still a pirate. But she had no idea what Alex was dressed as.

Alex pulled his shirt open and revealed the Superman symbol.

"Oh! Clark Kent. I get it now but don't you think that's a little obscure for the kids?" Meredith asked.

"That's what I said," Arizona agreed which caused Alex to launch into a speech about the current state of the superhero world.

It didn't take long after their arrival for Arizona's appearance to be noticed by the pediatrics staff. Every time she visited the hospital while on maternity leave she had avoided going to her floor because she didn't want to get roped into having to deal with work issues. She was on leave; it wasn't her job to fix their problems. For the next ten days, Dr. Sears was still in charge of the pediatrics department but that didn't mean that they weren't going to try and get her to override his decisions while they had a chance. What the staff didn't realize was that Arizona had approved all of the decisions that Dr. Sears had made. They kept in touch via e-mail and anytime there was an issue, Arizona was called for her opinion. But Arizona was by nature a people pleaser so she let herself be pulled away from her friends to listen to what they had to say. She smiled and nodded and at the end she informed them of the same thing she had said to them before she left – to take any issues up with acting department head, Dr. Sears.

After finally moving on from the doctors and nurses, Arizona was able to do what she really wanted to do at the Halloween party which was to see and catch up with her patients. She quickly found herself sitting at a table working on creating a work of art out of a brown paper bag that was to be used by the kids later in the day for trick-or-treating throughout the hospital. After drawing a perfect jack-o-lantern she finally returned to the table where her friends had settled. Cristina was feeding Emmett a bottle so she could only assume that Emmett had declared his hunger sometime recently.

"You know Yang, if someone sees you like this they might think that you actually like him," Arizona teased as she took a seat next to Alex.

"Shut it or I'll make him cry," Yang hissed.

"So are you guys taking him trick-or treating?" Callie asked.

Arizona shook her head negatively, "We're just handing out candy at home. He's way too little and I don't need all that candy around the house. Alex on a sugar high is not good for anyone. We've got pictures of him in his costume and that's all that we really need for his first Halloween."

"Plus, Arizona's afraid of the teenagers that might try to scare her if we go trick-or-treating," Alex said. Everyone at the table thought that he was just teasing his wife but he knew that Arizona's lingering issues of being scared didn't make her want to participate in Halloween as more than just a spectator.

Arizona slapped his shoulder in retaliation and Emmett started crying.

"See even Emmett doesn't want you to tease me," Arizona said as she took Emmett from Cristina. He had finished his bottle and needed to be burped. "You're my protector, right munchkin?" Arizona asked softly as she gently patted his back, encouraging him to burp.

Alex wrapped his arm around Arizona and pulled her into his body. "I'm sorry," he whispered in her ear as she continued to burp the baby. "It's not your fault that you're a scaredy cat. It's your brother's."

"Damn right," Arizona agreed. With one last loud burp, Arizona felt Emmett slump down in her arms. He was always sleepy after eating. "I'm going to get him home so that he's rested up for tonight."

Alex grabbed Emmett's bag and stood up, "I'll walk you guys out."

"Wait!" Meredith shouted before they could get out of the room. She held up a camera. "Let me get a picture really quick."

Arizona shifted Emmett into a sitting position in her arms so that his face could be seen in the picture and Alex wrapped his arm around Arizona's lower back. All three smiled for the picture as Meredith took it. It wasn't lost on Meredith that exactly one year prior she first noticed just how much like a family Alex and Arizona looked together. A year ago she never would have thought that they'd actually be a family but they were and they even had a baby.

…

"I can't do this, Alex. I can't," Arizona looked up at Alex with tears in her eyes as she sat rocking Emmett in the nursery.

Alex sighed and kneeled down next to her so that his arms were resting on her legs. He knew that this was going to be a difficult day and that he needed to straddle a fine line of supporting his wife as well as pushing her to do what she needed to do. "He's going to be fine, Zo," Alex rubbed her thighs. "You've pumped enough milk for a week it seems like so he's not going to go hungry. He's going to be safe in a crib all day with everyone doting on his every need and desire. You saw them when we visited last week. Everyone loved him."

"But what about when he gets fussy and they can't calm him down? They don't know the tricks for calming him down," Arizona continued to protest as she held tight to the baby in her arms.

"They'll learn. We'll tell them the tricks and maybe they have their own tricks that might work on him too." Alex glanced at his watch. They needed to leave soon if they were going to make it to work on time and Arizona made sure to schedule a surgery first thing as a way to force her to not linger in the daycare. "And you can go see him every free chance you get."

"Why did six weeks have to go by so fast?" Arizona whined. "I'm not ready. It's too soon."

Alex stood up and reached down for Arizona's hand. It was time to force her to get up and to the car. She reluctantly let herself be pulled up out of the rocking chair. "Just think about what else can happen at six weeks post-partum," Alex said quietly into Arizona's ears as she stood up.

"I can finally start working out again? I've got ten more pounds to lose before I'm back at pre-baby weight," Arizona teased knowing full well that Alex wasn't referencing working out.

"What I'm thinking of is a workout," Alex mused. Going six weeks without sex wasn't as difficult as Alex had thought it was going to be. They were so exhausted at the end of the day that having sex wasn't even a consideration but now that sex was back on the table it was all Alex could think about.

"Alex, stop drooling and grab Emmett's bag," Arizona admonished when she saw that Alex was rooted in place.

Alex shook the sexy thoughts out of his head as he grabbed the bag that Arizona had painstakingly prepared the night before. Arizona made sure that he had everything he could possibly need which meant that she packed up half of the nursery. Alex slung the heavy bag onto his shoulder and followed his wife downstairs to the garage.

Thirty minutes later Arizona was standing by the daycare refusing to go inside.

Alex hated seeing Arizona so upset but he knew that she needed to rip off the band-aid. If she waited much longer he wasn't sure that she was going to go to work that day.

"Do you want me to drop him off?" Alex asked as he watched Arizona try to garner the courage to let him go.

Arizona shook her head violently and clung onto Emmett even more. "No!" she admonished like Alex was trying to steal her baby away.

"Okay," Alex said softly and rubbed her back, trying to calm her back down. "But can I hold him for a minute to say goodbye. I promise you I'll give him right back."

Arizona made eye contact with Alex and glared at him. "You promise?"

"I promise."

Arizona reluctantly let go of the baby.

Alex spent a minute doing his normal goodbye routine with the baby. Since Emmett was awake and alert he took some time to make goofy faces at the boy that were being rewarded more and more often with smiles now that Emmett was smiling regularly. With one last kiss he passed Emmett back to his mother.

"Arizona, it's time to go. You have surgery soon. Lea Palmer's gallbladder surgery," Alex emphasized that Arizona was needed at work. He knew that Arizona would never flake out on work. Not when her job involved saving children.

Arizona sighed, "Okay. I can do this." Arizona then put on her best fake smile and looked down at the baby. "Mommy has to go to work now, Mett. But you are going to be well taken care of today. And Daddy and I are going to come see you every chance we get."

"Every couple of hours, buddy," Alex added.

"So you be good and I'll see you after my surgery and then I can tell you all about how I fixed a little girl's gallbladder."

"You ready?" Alex asked when Arizona looked up at him.

Arizona nodded and Alex keyed in the code for door to the daycare. With a few last kisses and even some tears, Arizona was able to leave Emmett in the trusty care of the hospital daycare workers.

Arizona tried to rein in the tears as she made her way up toward her patient on the pediatric floor. Her only consolation that morning was the fact that as surgeons, her and Alex's work weeks were typically only on average of four days a week because of the longer shifts that they worked. Added to that fact was that typically, they only share two of their three days off a week meant that Emmett would on average only have to be in daycare three days a week. That thought made her feel somewhat better about leaving him in daycare. She would just have to make sure that Emmett understood that he wasn't allowed to do anything new without her there to witness it. She couldn't bear to think about missing his milestones.

The first day went better than Arizona thought. It was difficult to not be with Emmett all day, every day but it did help that Arizona knew that he was in the same building as her. She kept busy with a morning full of surgeries and the afternoon full of catching up on department happenings and paperwork. She was able to see Emmett three times throughout the day. She even had enough time to feed him lunch so that he didn't have to take a bottle. While Emmett was pretty good about taking a bottle of pumped milk, he always ate more from the source. When she visited in the afternoon the daycare director had told her that she had just missed Alex who was able to give him a bottle and rock him to sleep. At the end of the day Alex and Arizona returned together to pick him up and he was given an excellent report by the daycare workers. When they got home they had to start a whole new routine with Emmett. Getting home after six in the evening left very little time to play and bond with Emmett before his bedtime. They cheated by picking up pizza on the way home so that they didn't have to waste precious time in their evening with Emmett by being in the kitchen making dinner. Arizona wanted to get a lot accomplished during Evening Emmett Time. EET consisted of much hated tummy time, stimulation with toys, practice at grabbing things, bath time, feeding time and then finally story time before he was put down for bed. By the time Emmett was put to bed at eight o'clock, all three members of the Karev family were exhausted. It took everything Arizona had to make it to the shower before throwing herself into bed; luckily Alex was there to hold her up or she might have fallen asleep against the shower wall.

"I'm never going to sleep again," Arizona sighed as she finally crawled underneath the covers in bed.

Alex quickly followed her into bed and spooned her from behind. "Probably not."

"That's not what I wanted to hear," Arizona turned her head to glare at Alex.

Alex kissed her shoulder, "I know but I promised I'd never lie to you."

"Today was hard."

Alex squeezed her firmly, "I know."

"Please tell me it gets easier," Arizona said as she rolled over so that she was on her back, looking up at Alex.

Alex tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "I think it will. At least that's what they all say. Plus your parents will be here next week for two weeks so they will help."

"But that also means that they will keep the munchkin during the day so I won't be able to just drop in and see him in daycare," Arizona lamented the downside of having her parents in town.

Alex leaned down and placed a firm kiss on her lips. He was determined to take the frown off of her face. "Well, we'll make sure they bring him to the hospital for lunch every day so we at least get to see him once during the day. And it's going to be so good for Emmett to get to spend so much time with his grandparents."

"Because the two-month old will care about who is cuddling him."

"He recognizes people that he spends the most time with now. He's like a dog. He knows our scent and our voices. He'll learn theirs as well," Alex joked.

"Tell me you did not just compare our baby to a dog," Arizona chastised him. She was clearly not in the mood for Alex's jokes.

"It's the truth," Alex said as he dug his fingers into her sides and tickled. He was trying to elicit some type of happiness out of the grump that was his wife.

"Stop," she whined as Alex continued to tickle her.

Alex didn't stop, "You are acting like Emmett with all the sad faces and whining. And one baby is way more than I can handle right now so no, I will not stop until I see you smile."

"Not gonna happen, Karev," Arizona huffed and shook her head.

Alex wasn't deterred by her stubbornness. He was used to her making him work for it. He wasn't going to give up. "No?" he asked as he moved so that he was straddling her waist as he shifted his hands lower on her body. He knew that the area right behind her thighs was the most ticklish part of her body. "You sure?" he asked as he positioned his hands in place.

"Nope," she continued to be stubborn.

"Okay, you asked for it," Alex drawled before he unleashed his attack. He had given her a chance to smile on her own but she refused.

When Alex's fingers dug into her thighs Arizona lost it. She started cackling and squirming to get out of his grasp. "No, no, no," Arizona repeated as she tried to get away.

Alex grabbed her hand that was trying to push him off of her and pinned her down. When he looked up at her face she was smiling and shaking her head at him. He had succeeded. He decided to take a chance on his next move. He knew that she was exhausted and probably wouldn't be game but he needed to try. Alex shot her a sly smile before leaning down and latching on to her neck.

"Alex," Arizona moaned. All traces of laughter had left her. "I would love to," she said while moving her neck so that Alex had more room to work his magic. "But I'm so tired."

Alex looked up at her and grinned before stripping his shirt off and leaning down to take hers off as well. "You don't have to do anything, babe. I'll do all the work. I'll be quick," Alex said as he moved to strip off both of their pants. Never did Alex ever think that telling a girl he would be quick would be a turn-on but in this case it was. Alex kissed his way back up Arizona's leg and toward her breasts. He felt Arizona's breath hitch when he reached her abdomen. He knew she was probably being self-conscious about her post-baby body. When he felt her pull him back up toward her face and away from her body, he knew that he was right.

Alex continued to assault her neck with open-mouthed kisses before stopping right by her ear, "You are so freaking gorgeous, Arizona." Alex let his hand trail down her body. He lingered on her breasts, lightly palming them and squeezing softly before moving down toward her stomach. "Every part of you is gorgeous," he reaffirmed as he worked on her neck some more. "Just looking at you turns me on. Which isn't good when we work together because the sight of your perfect ass in scrubs is just too much for me to take. All I wanted to do today was push you up against your office wall and take you."

"God," Arizona moaned at Alex's words and actions. He was definitely turning her on as he continued to explore her body with his hands.

Alex loved being able to make Arizona feel good and he had no intention of stopping. Alex continued to tell her just how much he loved her body as he worshipped her. He wanted to wipe away any trace of self-doubt about her body and he did that the best way he knew possible – he showed her.

…

Alex held the door open as Arizona walked into the familiar, dingy bar. It had been a few months since she had been to Joe's but nothing had changed, not that she expected it to be any different.

Joe immediately noticed them as they strolled up to the bar. "Long time, no see, Dr. Robbins."

"Hey Joe," Arizona greeted him as she sat on a bar stool in front of him.

Alex pulled up a stool next to her, "I'll take a Red Hook."

"And for you?" Joe asked the blonde in front of him.

"Ginger ale," Arizona answered. She went alcohol free as she was breastfeeding. Even though she could have one drink if she pumped and dumped but that was more effort than it was worth for a beer.

"How's the baby?" Joe asked as he delivered their drinks and an answer sheet for the night's trivia game.

Arizona smiled, "Doing great. It's hard to believe he's two months old already. He's getting so big."

"I've got pictures," Alex immediately brought out his phone and pulled up pictures of Emmett to show off. As soon as he had a recent picture up he shoved the phone at Joe. The two men started flicking through the pictures as Alex explained the stories behind them.

"Don't mind my husband, Joe. He has like two hundred pictures of Emmett on there so if you don't say stop he's going to keep you here all night looking at them," Arizona tried to save the barkeeper from looking at twenty different pictures of Emmett blowing bubbles from his mouth.

Joe paid no attention to Arizona and kept oohing and ahhing at the pictures that Alex was showing him. When they got to a picture of Emmett's first real smile, Joe instinctively pulled out his own phone and showed Alex a picture of his daughters' first day of pre-school. The two proud papas' couldn't get enough of showing off their children.

They finally had to put the phones away when it was time to start trivia. It had been a few months since Alex and Arizona had been able to make it to trivia night but when Barbara and Daniel forced the couple out of the house for some alone time they immediately knew where they would spend their night.

With game time approaching, Alex and Arizona grabbed their drinks and made their way to a table in the back of the bar. They had learned after a year of playing not to camp out at the bar during trivia – there were too many prying ears up there looking to steal answers. They were surprised to see some familiar faces at the table next to them.

"What are you guys doing here?" Alex asked the friends that also had a trivia scorecard in front of them.

Callie shrugged her shoulders, "We've been coming here for a couple of months now."

"It seemed like a good date idea. After all it worked for you two," Mark added as he took a sip of his beer.

"I'm just here for the free beer," Cristina added as she poured the last of the pitcher of beer into Owen's glass.

"Huh," Arizona mused. She never thought that she and Alex would ever be used as a model for a relationship. They worked well together now but they had gone through a lot to get to that point.

"Where's Emmett tonight?" Owen asked, trying to make conversation before the game started.

"With his Papa and Nana," Arizona answered.

"Being spoiled, I'm sure," Callie smiled. She'd met Arizona's parents a handful of times and knew that they were the type of people that were hard on their own children but would spoil their grandchildren rotten.

"I don't know how it is possible to spoil an eight week old but they manage to do it," Alex agreed. "So, have you guys won at trivia at all?" Alex wanted to know what his competition was going to be like.

Mark shook his head, "We've come close but no W yet."

"This is only our second week playing with these boneheads," Cristina pointed at Mark and Callie. "They got sick of losing and had to call in some back up."

The buzzer sounded through the bar signaling that trivia was about to begin and all conversation ceased between the friends. Trivia was not a friendly time. Mark, Callie, Cristina and Owen were now the enemy. Trivia typically lasted one hour and at the halfway intermission, Alex and Arizona were in the lead. They didn't get cocky about being in the lead. They were often leading at half and would lose in the end. As the last half hour went on, Alex and Arizona both started paying less attention to the game and more attention to their watches and phones.

"Final question," Joe announced to the bar. "You can wager any or all of your points – just like Jeopardy." Joe then pulled a slip of paper from a fish bowl, "And the category is – sports."

Mark grinned like a cheshire cat when the sports category was announced. "We're going to bet it all," he said loudly.

Alex and Arizona knew that he was making sure that they heard him. He wanted them to know that they were gunning for Alex and Arizona who were in second place while the others were in third.

Alex leaned in close to Arizona so that no one could hear him, "What do you say?"

"Let's go all in. What have we got to lose?" Arizona answered as she leaned her forehead against his.

Alex quickly entered in their wager before time ran out. He knew that they had a good chance winning against their friends. Mark and Callie probably knew sports trivia but Cristina didn't know anything about sports and Owen wasn't really into them either.

"And now for the question. Who has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated a record forty-nine times? You have one minute to lock your answer in," Joe's voice boomed throughout the bar and the countdown started.

Arizona and Alex huddled together so that no one could hear them debate the answers. They both came up with a few possibilities before finally coming to a resolution. They were pretty sure that they had the right answer but with trivia they knew that the answer was not always the most obvious one.

After time expired, it was time for Joe to tabulate the winner. It normally took at least five minutes to determine the winner. During the wait both Alex and Arizona continued to be distracted and looking at their watches.

"Are you thinking what I am?" Arizona asked as she caught Alex looking at his watch again. She was hoping that they were on the same wavelength but she wasn't sure.

"That if we leave now we can be home just in time to see Emmett before he falls back asleep after his nine o'clock feeding?" Alex asked to see if she was thinking the same thing.

"I miss him," Arizona admitted. She really wanted to enjoy their night out but after a couple of hours she was more than ready to get home to her baby.

Alex stood up from the table and grabbed their jackets, "Me too."

"It's just that we were at work all day and he was home with Mom and Dad and now we're here," Arizona explained why she wanted to go home even though it was supposed to be their one night without having to think about the baby.

"I get it," Alex silenced his wife with a kiss before helping her put her coat on. "In our defense we've only seen him for like two hours today."

Their friends noticed that they looked like they were getting ready to go.

"You guys are going?" Callie asked curiously.

"Yeah," Arizona answered as she grabbed Alex's hand, ready to get to the car so they could get home.

"But we don't even know who won yet!" Cristina interjected. She was so competitive that she couldn't understand how they could leave without knowing the winner.

"We never win so it won't be a surprise that we didn't win tonight," Arizona supplied. Not caring about leaving before the winner was announced.

Alex just shrugged, "We're those people now. The lame couple going home early to the kid."

"Have a good night," Arizona added before she pulled Alex toward the door. The more time they spent dawdling in the bar the less time they'd have with Emmett before he fell asleep.

Moments after they exited, Joe made his way to the back of the bar looking for them. His face fell when the couple was no longer at the table that they had been occupying throughout trivia.

"Where'd they go?" Joe asked the table of surgeons, hoping that the others had just gone to the bathroom or something else.

"Home," Owen answered for the group.

"But they won," Joe said dejectedly. "They've been playing trivia almost every week for three years and always lose and now that they finally win they aren't here!"

Callie contemplated Joe's statement about Arizona and Alex always losing. The way Callie saw it Alex and Arizona had been winning all along. They had each other first as friends and then as partners and now they even had a baby. While they might have never won trivia before, it was because of trivia nights that they had found each other as more than just a boss and a student.

"Sucks for them," Mark said while Callie was thinking in her own world. "But since they aren't here, can we get their prize?"

"Yeah, can we?" Cristina asked as well. She was counting on winning the bar tab to pay for her night of drinking.

Joe just shook his head and walked away.

Callie hit Mark in the shoulder, "No. They won it. They'll just get it the next time they come in."

…

Alex and Arizona made it home just as Barbara had finished giving Emmett his bottle and was going to put him back into his crib for bed. She wasn't too surprised to see the couple home early. They had actually stayed out longer than she thought they would for it being their first time going out without him. Emmett's tiredness immediately went away when he heard his parents voices. Alex and Arizona didn't mind having to rock him back to sleepiness as that just meant more time that they got to spend with him.

"You know I was thinking earlier that it's been almost three years exactly since our first trivia game together," Alex reminisced as they cuddled in bed together after getting Emmett put to bed.

Arizona wrapped Alex's arms around her tighter, "You mean when you forced me into playing with you."

"You cannot be forced into doing anything, Arizona. You're too stubborn for that. Plus, you're the one that kept coming back for more," Alex kissed her shoulder.

Arizona rolled over in Alex's arms so that she was looking at him, "Well, it's a good thing that I did otherwise we wouldn't be here right now."

Alex closed the distance between their lips and kissed her softly but passionately, "A very good thing."

…

A/N: I just want to thank everyone who has been reading over the last few months. I truly appreciate everyone who has taken the time out of their lives to read my story - especially those of you who have reviewed or sent me a note. I'm moving out of the country next week and won't be settled for awhile but hopefully you'll see me back with something new sooner rather than later. Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed it.