A/N- I have taken a small break from writing the two stories that I have open. This is just a just a little one shot I wrote some time last year. It's set in the future, post 7x18. A/U. Callie died in the crash and Arizona/Mark raised Sofia. Set in Sofia's POV during the 14th anniversary of Callie's death and Sofia's 14th birthday, I hope you enjoy.
Sitting next to the grave, on the cold grass, I could almost feel that mom was here with me. It's the anniversary of her death, and my 14th birthday. I'm supposed to be at a party, my birthday party, but how could I be at a party celebrating life when nobody wished to acknowledge the death that happened? Maybe mommy or daddy will think about her today and find me here. They have to notice that I'm not at the party sometime. I feel like I belong here, with her, today.
I never got a chance to meet her, but from the stories mommy, daddy, and everyone else has told me, she was an amazing person. They always say that she was kind, down to earth, amazing, but most of all, she was so proud and happy to finally be called 'mom'. I've heard the good stories thousands of times throughout my life. The only one that wasn't told was the story about the day she died. I've only heard it a handful of times, once from mommy, once from daddy, once from Cristina, and once from Uncle Alex. They all had slightly different versions of the story, but while I was sitting here, I could finally visualize how it must have been for everyone involved in the accident.
It was a car accident that took her life. Mom and mommy were going out of town for the weekend, right after the baby shower, to get away for a couple days. Mom got unbuckled to get….something….from the backseat. They were arguing about….something….and in an attempt to end the arguing, mommy asked mom to marry her. Then, before they knew it, a truck came out of nowhere and the vehicles collided. Mom flew out of the windshield, not having put on her seatbelt back on. She sustained brain, and other terrible brain injuries that ended up being irreversible.
She didn't respond to her first surgery attempts, and when she went back in the day after, she went into cardiac arrest. Being pregnant, they were scared that they were going to lose both of us on the table. Mom's best friend, Addison, delivered me while Chief Webber tried getting mom's heart started again. Mommy got my heart beating seconds before mom's beat one last time. Mom was dead, and I was alive; but only barely.
I hear them talk sometimes, the doctors and nurses at the hospital, about how mom might have had a better chance at survival had she not been pregnant with me. Secretly, I blame myself for her death, even though I know that it was just a horrible accident. I found myself crying now. I want, so badly, to see her face, hear her voice, just once.
Mommy and daddy have always tried to make things easy for me. They are staying friends for my sake, but it's still hard. Mommy is trying super hard to make everything normal for me and dad is putting me before his relationship with Lexie. The only problem is that they never ask me how I feel or how I'm dealing with things. I bet, if she were here, mom would. She would make sure everybody was happy. The way people talk about her, she would have made the best mom in the world.
It was almost dark by now. Nobody knew that I came down here, so I slowly stood up and started walking to the exit gate. I was dreading going home to find that they noticed I was gone, because I really didn't want to get in trouble. It was then, when I was contemplating the journey home, that I heard a muffled sob coming from mom's grave. I headed back over to where I was just sitting.
"Mommy?"
"Sofia? What are you doing here?" I sat down next to her.
"I've been here for awhile."
"What about your party?"
"I didn't…I didn't go." Trying not to cry anymore than she was, she looked at me with saddened eyes. "I couldn't be at a party, celebrating the happy events of the day, knowing that in order to celebrate, bad things happened. Mom died, and…"
"Sofia, you can't blame yourself for this, you know that."
"Mommy, I hear people talk, more than necessary, at the hospital. I know that if she wasn't pregnant, she could have probably still been alive today. You and dad try to sugar coat things, and I…"
"Sof let me tell you something; it wasn't your fault that your mom died. Her body was…her body was too weak to fight for her, let alone the both of you. Addie delivered you prematurely so you could both have a better chance at survival. It was my fault, the accident; I took my eyes off the road. If it…if it wasn't for Mark constantly texting her, baby, it wasn't your fault. Don't ever let yourself believe that. And you being alive, and her….and her not, shouldn't be something you blame yourself for. It was ultimately mine and your father's decision to let Addison deliver you."
"But mommy, I thought Cristina said it was because mom went into cardiac arrest during her surgery."
"That's true, but we still had to make a decision beforehand. Whether we were going to give you a chance to fight on your own, we had to choose."
We were both crying, and we just sat there not saying anything. We were both leaning on each other, not caring about what we should be doing right now, or where we should be. Both of us were waiting for the other to gain the courage to advise us to go home. It was mom who finally decided we should go, because it wasn't getting any earlier.
"Come on sweetie, let's go home. I'll tell you all about mom." She wiped the tears from her face and stood up. "We don't have to celebrate anything today. We can live with the pain, acknowledge the bad."
"Okay mommy, let's go. And maybe there will still be some birthday cake left." I got off the ground and gave her a hug. This was definitely hard on her, this day. We walked towards the gate, waving goodbye to mom's grave.
"You definitely are Calliope's daughter. Cake sounds nice."
I hope this is satisfying to you guys! I planned on writing a follow up to this story, but I think this is a sweet ending to a short story.