A/N: And this is the end…hope you enjoyed it and sorry it took me so long to write this. Can't believe it took me 6 months to write 13 chapters and an epilogue. I'm usually faster than that. I promise my other story (No Matter of Chance) will have faster updates from now. It better, because I outlined it today and it's gonna clock in around 55 chapters (they're shorter though)! Yipes!

Anyway, thank you all for reading. I've really appreciated hearing your thoughts and look forward to writing more in the future. This has been a great experience for me.

Epilogue

Arizona tossed her purse and jacket on the couch and looked around the living room, finding it surprisingly quiet. "Anyone home?" The excitement she had felt all the way home as she thought about sharing her news with Callie was dampened a little when she did not find her wife waiting for her.

Instead, there was an answer from the window seat on the far end of the room. "Over here."

Arizona's lips curled up into an easy smile as she saw Sofia's dark curly mop of hair and deep brown eyes peer around the corner of the seat. "Hey, sweetie. Where are the trouble twins?"

"You know, if I wasn't such a good girl, I'd tell Mommy you called her and Em that. They're in the yard," she said before turning back to huddle over the book in her lap.

"Thanks for backing me up, there, kiddo." Arizona walked over to stand next to her daughter, looking down at the book in her lap, and idly playing with the dark curls. "Astronomy, huh?"

Sofia nodded as she looked up at Arizona. "Daddy got it for me. I'm going to be an astrophysicist."

Arizona couldn't help but laugh quietly. "An astrophysicist? I'm not even sure what that is. How do you know about astrophysicists?"

Sofia shook her head with the slightest of eye rolls. "I'm eight and I know what an astrophysicist is, Mama. How can you not know?" She didn't wait for an answer. "It's like a combination of astronomy and physics." The expression on her face basically said 'duh' when she explained that. "You know, like finding out how all the stuff in the universe works. I saw something on Nova about it. You need to watch more science shows."

Arizona bit her lip to keep from letting out a loud laugh. Instead she smiled and nodded slowly. "I'm a little busy keeping up with how all the stuff in the body works, but you're right, I should probably branch out a little. Maybe we can find something to watch together so I can learn more about your future career."

Sofia's eyes lit up at that suggestion. "I recorded the Nova special. We can watch it tonight after dinner." She got a little more serious. "Oh, wait, we need to practice the piano, too. Can we fit it all in?"

"Sure, honey. We don't need to practice too long." Arizona was so glad both of their daughters had picked up her new-found love of the piano. Who knew that one of her rehabilitation activities would turn into a wonderful family activity as well as a hobby she both loved and was surprisingly good at. "We should be able to get it all in if we get a move on soon."

"Sounds awesome," Sofia said, smiling broadly, before she suddenly got serious again as her eyes drifted back down to her book as if she had almost forgotten her mother was there.

Arizona gently nudged Sofia's legs over and sat opposite her on the window bench so they could face one another. She studied her daughter for a moment, as her head remained bowed over the book. While Sofia had become quite the reader of late, and her love for some pretty advanced topics was amazingly great, it wasn't like her oldest daughter to be inside when it was a beautiful summer day out. "Why are you in here while they're outside? It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday. You should probably go enjoy the good weather while it lasts."

Sofia's brow furrowed, but her eyes did not lift from the book. It was a reaction Arizona knew well, because she herself often did it when she was avoiding something. Finally Sofia sighed a little. "I wanted to read is all."

"Uh huh," Arizona said, not buying it at all. "Come on, kiddo. Spill it."

Just then there was a loud barking that came from the house next door. Arizona watched as Sofia's entire body tensed up and her eyes grew wide. Sofia's grip on the book tightened for a moment before her eyes shot nervously toward the window. There was a moment when it almost seemed like she was going to bolt from the seat before the little girl swallowed hard, obviously trying to will herself to remain in place. "It's nothing."

Arizona stayed casual, even though she so recognized and understood her daughter's reaction. She remembered all too well how terrified she'd been of their neighbor's dog when she was about Sofia's age. She leaned toward the window and craned her neck to see the dog running up and down the fence that separated their yard from the one next door. "The Morgans got a new dog?"

Sofia looked back down at her book, but it was obvious she wasn't really seeing it. "I guess so," she said, trying to sound like it didn't matter, but Arizona could hear the tremble in her voice.

Arizona waited a moment before she put her hand on the small knee next to her and squeezed. She waited for Sofia to look up at her. "It's okay if the dog scares you, you know? When I was your age a major moved in next door and he had this dog. His name was Buddy. But I was afraid of him because he barked. A ton. And I never went out to play with my brother or our friends in the backyard, because that darned dog was back there. But finally I got sick of not going out back and playing. Tim would make fun of me and I didn't want him or my dad to think I was afraid. So, I went out back one day and I talked to that dog until he stopped barking. Finally, Buddy's tail started wagging and I knew he liked me. After that, every day after school, I'd run back there and reach over the fence to pet Buddy. I cried when we had to move to our next post because I wouldn't see Buddy again."

"Really?" Now Sofia's eyes were wide in wonder instead of fear.

"Yup. And if you want, maybe we can go out back together and see if we can talk to the new dog."

"Her name is Winnie. That's what Mommy said after she talked to Mrs. Morgan this afternoon." Sofia's eyes drifted off to the window in the direction of where the barking was coming from. Arizona could practically see the thoughts twirling through her daughter's head. Finally Sofia closed her book and looked back at her mother with a quick nod. "But only if you go with me."

"Always, baby girl," Arizona added as she stood up from the seat.

The two of them walked back through the kitchen to the back porch. When they got to the back steps, the dog started barking again and Sofia's body tensed all over once more. Arizona waited a second, squeezing her hand to reassure her, before she led her down the steps. Arizona squinted in the sunlight and shielded her eyes with her free hand, looking quickly around the backyard until she found her wife standing under the big oak on the far side of the yard, hands on her hips, her eyes fixed up into the branches.

"Emma wanted to climb," Sofia said quietly as she kept close to Arizona's side while they slowly made their way over to the fence.

Arizona laughed. "And Mommy let her?"

"She's a push over," Sofia said, mimicking something Arizona found herself telling Callie all too often when it came to their daughters.

"Yes, she is," Arizona agreed. When they were maybe five feet from the fence, they stopped and Arizona watched as the dog in the next yard ran up and down the fence line, barking occasionally. It was a large dog, gray and white with long hair that obscured its eyes. "It's a sheep dog," Arizona said quietly as she looked down to find Sofia standing rigid beside her. "Hey, pip squeak, do you want me to go over first?"

Sofia nodded her head quickly, but never took her eyes off the dog.

Arizona affectionately touched Sofia's soft hair before she went over to the fence. The dog barked loudly once before coming over to her and jumping up onto the fence. It was obvious to Arizona that the dog just wanted some attention, especially when her tail started wagging almost immediately. "Hey there Winnie," Arizona said as she put her hand over the fence to let the dog sniff at her. Winnie sniffed and then barked once before jumping up to bump into Arizona's hand. She laughed as she then scratched at the dog's head. Turning back to her daughter, she said, "See, she's nice."

"You sure?"

"Would I lie to you?" The question was out of her mouth before she realized it was probably a bad idea.

Sofia's eyebrow went up and she got that expression on her face that so mirrored Callie's when either of them wasn't taking any bull. "Do you want an honest answer?"

Smart ass. Arizona laughed quietly as she shook her head. "Now, come over here. Please."

Sofia came over and was cautious at first, but the dog just panted and rubbed up against her when the little girl finally put her hand over the low fence. Before long, Sofia was laughing and scratching at Winnie's floppy ears. Finally, Sofia looked up to her mother. "She's nice."

"She is." Arizona felt such a sense of pride at watching their oldest child overcome this fear. Sofia wasn't like Emma. She had a healthy sense of fear that often protected her from injury and pain. But it also kept her from doing fun things sometimes. Helping Sofia learn when it was good to have fear and when it was a hindrance was something Arizona felt she needed to take the lead on, because it was a journey she had taken as a child herself. Callie often admitted it was a lesson she hadn't learned until much later in life. Arizona sometimes wondered if she ever had.

After they spent a few minutes getting to know the dog, Arizona looked back to where Callie was still staring up at the branches of the old oak. From her body language, Arizona could tell her wife was getting a little frustrated and she could only imagine how many times Callie had asked their younger daughter to climb down. "Hey, Sofia, why don't we go see if we can help Mommy get your sister out of the tree."

Sofia giggled as she looked to the back of the yard. "Mommy doesn't look happy."

"No, she doesn't. I think we'll need your help to get Em down. Because, between you and me, I was going to ask Mommy if we could go to Vitello's for pizza tonight and if she's mad, you know she'll say no."

"Pizza?" Sofia's eyes lit up and she was suddenly sprinting off across the yard toward the old oak.

Arizona chuckled quietly before jogging off after her daughter.

"Emma Marie, you get your hiney down here right now," Callie said sternly as Arizona came into earshot.

Uh oh. This could be bad. When the middle names come out, things are serious.

"If I have to climb up there after you…"

"You can't climb," Emma's voice carried down from between the branches.

Just the thought of Callie trying to climb up the tree made Arizona want to break down into a fit of giggles. Not that she herself would be any better at it. Women in their early forties should probably not go climbing up trees after five year olds with no sense of fear and an amazing talent for scrambling up to the top branches.

Sofia reached Callie just ahead of Arizona. The little girl looked up at Callie and then looked up into the tree. "I'll climb up and get her if you want."

Callie looked over at Arizona as she approached and rolled her eyes before looking down to focus on their older daughter. "No honey, I don't want you getting up there, too." Her voice then got louder so that it would travel up to Emma. "Your sister will climb down on her own, and right now. Right Em?"

Arizona looked up into the branches of the tree and finally found the red sneakers that their younger daughter loved. She was standing on a big branch, about fifteen feet up. It never failed to worry Arizona when Emma climbed up the tree. They'd spent entirely too many times giving Callie's colleagues in the orthopedics department too much business when Emma fell while climbing or just from the general roughhousing that she seemed to prefer. "Hey, Emma, you want to come down, sweetie?"

It only took a second before their younger daughter scrambled down one set of branches so that she was no longer lost in the foliage of the tree. When her blonde hair poked out from behind the leaves, Arizona could see Emma was being overly mischievous by the twinkle in her blue eyes. It wasn't like Arizona didn't recognize that expression, even at this distance. Tim's eyes had shone like that whenever he would egg her on to do something they shouldn't. And Callie had told her probably a million times how Emma's eyes mirrored her own when she was excited or up to no good. "Mama, you're home!"

"Yes, honey, I'm home. Now why don't you come down from there? Please?"

"I guess," Emma said as she started climbing down, swinging precariously from one branch before dropping down onto another. It only took her a few seconds before she was swinging from the bottom branch and then dropping to the ground. "I'm down."

Callie shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Thank you. But next time, can you come down when I ask you? Please?"

"I suppose," Emma said with an exasperated sigh. She then looked at her bigger sister. "I bet I can swing higher than you, Sof." Emma didn't even wait before she sprinted off toward the swing set.

"Bet you can't," Sofia answered as she followed her sister.

"She's going to be the death of me," Callie said as she came over to wrap her arms around Arizona's waist and pull her into a warm hug. She then placed a gentle kiss on her lips before leaning back to smile at Arizona. "How was your surgery?"

"It went well. I think he'll make it." Arizona thought back on the touch and go surgery she had performed earlier that afternoon. It always made her so grateful that their daughters were healthy and happy whenever she dealt with a child whose life was hanging in the balance, especially when she remembered back to those first tough weeks and months of Sofia's life. How lucky they had been for her to not only survive, but to thrive the way she had. And then the ease they had had with Emma when she was a baby had been icing on the cake. It made the bumps and bruises and even the broken bones seem a small price to pay. "So, Emma's been a handful today, huh?"

Callie's eyes rolled before she pulled out of their hug. "What else is new? I think she takes extra pleasure in torturing me when I have a day off." She took Arizona's hand and led her over to the bench that sat on the far side of the big oak tree. She settled onto the seat before pulling Arizona down gently to sit right at her hip. "Do you think she'll grow out of it soon?"

"I don't know. How old were you when you grew out of it?"

Callie's eyes narrowed, but it was more for show than out of any anger. Arizona knew her too well and she smiled when Callie finally laughed. "I know, I know. She's just like me at that age, which means we are royally screwed. I went from daredevil to the nineties version of Ally Sheedy's Breakfast Club character in about 1.2 seconds. So, we've got until she's about fourteen, and then we'll have whatever the version of the hair-chewing Goth is then."

Arizona couldn't help but laugh louder. "We are so the poster children for nurture beating nature."

Callie joined in their laughter. "Yeah, although for my sanity, I kind of wish they'd both taken after you. I guess we're lucky at least Sofia is your personality mini me."

"Very true." Arizona shifted her weight and felt the envelope that was tucked into her back pocket. She couldn't help but smile as she shifted around to look at Callie. "So, what's going to happen when we have our next kid?"

Callie's expression almost deflated. "Honey, I think we might need to admit we're not going to have a third child. Between both of us trying it's been, what? Twenty months this time? We're getting to that age where having a child might be out of reach. Maybe we should start thinking about adopting. Or we could be foster parents. There are lots of needy kids out there."

Arizona barely was able to bite at her lip to keep the broad smile from breaking out. She turned away slightly from Callie and then looked over her shoulder. "Look in my back pocket."

"Huh?" Callie was clearly confused.

Arizona patted at her left rear pocket. "Look."

Callie's brow furrowed as she reached a hand into the back pocket of Arizona's jeans. She pulled out the folded envelope. "What's this?"

"Read it."

Callie looked up at her with a little mixture of amusement and trepidation as she opened the envelope and pulled out the paper inside. Her dark brown eyes then fell to the paper in her hands. It only took a few seconds before her eyes went wide and that amazing smile Arizona loved so much spread across her face. "You're pregnant?"

Arizona finally let her own smile loose as she nodded. "I'm pregnant."

"Really?"

This made Arizona laugh as she nodded again. "Really."

Callie then grabbed her in an ecstatic hug. "You're pregnant. We're pregnant!"

"We are!" Arizona pulled out of the hug and kissed Callie. "We're going to have another baby," she said quietly when the kiss ended.

They spent a moment just looking at each other, not needing to say any more. Then Callie suddenly smacked Arizona's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me you might be pregnant?"

"Ow!" Arizona rubbed at her shoulder, more out of surprise than pain. "After all the trouble we've had, I figured I'd get it confirmed first. I couldn't stand to see you get your hopes up again only to find out there was no baby. I took a home pregnancy test this morning at work. When that was positive, I did a blood test."

Callie bit at her lip, but her smile broke through anyway. "Okay, I can forgive you, I guess." She reached down and placed a gentle hand on Arizona's stomach. "Another baby. I'm so happy, Arizona."

"Me too. So so happy. And relieved." She let her head fall on to Callie's shoulder. "So relieved."

Callie's head rested up against the crown of Arizona's. "So, do we tell the girls?"

"Let's wait. I'm not exactly thirty and you know how iffy the first trimester can be. Let's wait until after then." She smiled a little. "Although it'll be fun to see how they react when we do."

"Yeah it will be. But you're right. Besides, this way we'll have a few less months of them bugging us about when the baby will be here. Because, let's face it, if there's something they have in common, it's lack of patience."

Arizona couldn't help but laugh at the truth of that. "Seriously."

Arizona curled into Callie, who wrapped her arms around her wife's shoulder. They sat there in silence, watching their daughters swing all too high. It didn't take long before Emma jumped off when her swing was at its highest point. She sailed through the air, a loud giggle coming from her, and then landed, rolling over a few times until she ended up on her back, arms and legs sprawled out in the grass. She laughed loudly before springing to her feet and running over to where Callie and Arizona were sitting. "Mommy, Mama, did you see that? I flew really high!"

"Yes you did, honey," Callie said.

"Don't encourage her," Arizona whispered. She then sat up and pulled Emma over into her arms. "So, Em, what should we do for dinner?"

"Pizza!" It was always her answer when asked.

"So, Mommy, what do you say," Arizona asked as she turned to Callie. "Vitello's?"

Callie looked from Arizona to Emma and then back. "We could cook."

"Nah," Arizona said.

"Nah," Emma mimicked.

"How can I resist the Mama and Emma double team?" Callie laughed before looking at Emma. "Go tell Sofia you two need to wash up and then we'll go to Vitello's, okay?"

Emma sprang out of Arizona's arms and ran back toward the swings. "Sofia, come on, we need to clean up. We're getting pizza!"

Sofia quickly dragged her feet to slow the swing and then jumped off when it was almost at a stop. She ran after Emma, who was already almost to the back porch door. "Wait up!"

Callie stood up and held out her hand to Arizona, who took it and quickly jumped up from the bench. They wrapped their arms around each other's waists and started back toward the house. "A third kid, huh?" Callie mused quietly. "Think we can handle it?"

Just then Emma's voice came through the open window in the kitchen. "Sofia, give it to me."

"It's mine, Emma. Moms! Emma stole my book!"

There was some more shrill screaming from the house.

Callie stopped and looked at Arizona. "Maybe this one will be a boy. Boys are easier, right?"

Arizona laughed. "I don't think it matters. If the kid is ours, it'll be a handful."

"We are so screwed," Callie replied before trudging off toward the house. "Emma, if you don't give that back to your sister right this second, I'm feeding you liver for dinner," she called out as she stalked up the porch steps.

Arizona laughed quietly as she paused to watch Callie disappear into the house. "Yup, we're screwed." She shook her head in amusement before putting a hand on her stomach. "Welcome to the Robbins Torres household, little one. I just hope you'll be ready for all this. We can be a real handful. But somehow I don't doubt you'll fit right in."

~The End~