I've been working on this story for a few weeks and I finally decided that I need to post it. For those of you that are reading my other story, "I Wanna Grow Old With You," I willbe updating both. That one will not end because this one is starting. :)

This story is set a few years into the future. There was never a plane crash, nor did anybody leave, so everyone we're used to is still around. Relationships have obviously made progress.

When Callie and Arizona started planning for a second child, they were nervous. After all, Sofia's first few months had been incredibly scary. However, now that a new baby is on the way, they are trying to set aside these illogical fears. Sofia's sibling will be just fine, right? What happened to Callie and Sofia simply won't happen to Arizona and this new baby. Still, they can't help but worry. Is there a whole new reason for the anxiety they've been feeling in regards to this little life?


"You've been quiet tonight, Sweet Girl," Arizona told four-year-old Sofia as they ate dinner one night.

"Everything okay?" Callie asked.

She had made the same observation. Usually, their daughter always had something she wanted to say or a series of questions to ask. In fact, the only not-so-good thing that her preschool teacher had to say about her was that she was often talking out of turn. They were trying to teach their girl that she had to listen as well, but secretly, they were thrilled to have a little chatterbox. It was even more proof that Sofia's prematurity still wasn't slowing her down in the least.

Dinners without a long speech about the toys she played with, the friends she was making, and how pretty her latest craft was were rare, but so far tonight, Sofia had just been taking it all in as her moms had a conversation about their second child, who Arizona was now thirteen weeks pregnant with.

"Yeah," she said.

"I'm sorry," Arizona replied, realizing what the problem may have been. "We're talking about Baby too much, aren't we?"

The original plan hadn't even been to tell Sofia about the new baby until Arizona's first trimester was over, since the risk of miscarriage was highest then and they didn't want to take the chance of putting their daughter through that loss. However, they were bursting with excitement and they had let the news slip a few weeks ago, when Arizona still had two weeks left of the first trimester. Now that it was over, they were glad that their girl had had a couple weeks already to adjust to the news. It was nice to get to talk about the baby with her, but they were still careful not to overdo it.

"No," she said, taking another bite of her pasta.

Sofia had become a big sister last year when Mark and Lexie, who were now husband and wife, had a son named Maxwell. She had displayed a few signs of jealousy then – even though she loved her brother – so Callie and Arizona were trying to remind her that she was still just as special to them.

The moms were relieved to hear that Sofia didn't mind all the baby talk, but they still didn't understand.

"Then what's wrong?" Callie asked.

"Mommy, I don't think you really have a baby in your belly," she told her. "When Max was in Lexie's tummy, it wasn't very skinny, but you're still skinny."

Arizona had begun to gain some weight, but she was only up a few pounds so far. To Sofia, babies meant big, round bellies.

"Well, it takes awhile for a baby to grow," Arizona explained. "Right now, our new baby's still pretty tiny. Remember that picture we showed you when we told you about it?"

"Yeah," she said, looking over at her Madre, as if to suggest that Mommy still didn't make any sense. "It didn't look like a baby."

"That picture was taken when Baby'd only been in my belly for a little while, but he or she is slowly, slowly, slowly starting to get bigger. It's about the size of a peach this week."

"It looks like a peach?" she asked. "It's 'posed to look like a baby."

"It will," Callie laughed. "But remember how long it took for Max to grow in Lexie's belly?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Too long."

"Well, this baby'll take that long, too," she said. "Sorry."

"Oh, man!" she exclaimed, with a mouthful of pasta. "I have to wait so much then!"

"Yep," Arizona said. "But my belly'll start getting big as Baby grows some more."

"Good."

"In three more weeks, we'll get another picture of Baby," Callie told Sofia. "You'll see that it's growing."

"Okay," she said, still talking with her mouth full.

"Sof, close your mouth when you chew, please," Arizona reminded her.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "This is good dinner."

"Mouth closed," Callie laughed at how quickly she had forgotten again.

"But I wanna stay some stuff."

"Chew and swallow first," Arizona said. "But yes, it is a good dinner. Baby's been making me want pasta all day."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"When you were in my belly, I wanted peanut butter sandwiches," Callie told her. "Is that why you like them so much?"

When they first started trying to conceive this baby, Callie was going to be the one to carry it. However, after four unsuccessful IUI attempts, they had decided that Arizona should try. At first, Callie was a little upset since she wanted to experience a second pregnancy, but now she was glad. Now that Arizona had first-hand experience of pregnancy, it had become one more thing that bonded them as moms. She also loved getting to pamper her wife this time around.

"They're the best," Sofia nodded. "I wanna eat one for lunch tomorrow, okay?"

"You'll have to ask Daddy and Lexie. Mommy and I have to work tomorrow."

"Okay," she said. "Mommy…?"

"What?" Arizona smiled.

"Is Baby a boy or a girl?"

"Oh, we won't know until it's born," Arizona told her. "It's a surprise."

"I need a baby sister," she said.

"But brothers are fun too, right?" Callie asked.

"Yeah."

"What do you think we should name the baby?" Arizona questioned.

She and Callie were already disagreeing over names. Arizona wanted a slightly less popular name for this baby, since Sofia had the same name as two other girls at her school, and because their little girl's name was often misspelled for the more popular S-O-P-H-I-A spelling. Callie didn't really think these factors were a big deal, as long as they were in love with the names they decided on.

"I like the name Paisley."

"You do, do you?" Arizona asked.

"That's my friend," she told them. "And my boy friend is Lachlan."

"You have a boyfriend?" Callie teased. "Sofia Robbin Sloan!"

"He's just my buddy!" she giggled at the use of her middle names, as if she were in trouble even though she knew she wasn't. "We don't hold hands and kiss or nothin'."

"Good."

"And I don't kiss no girls either."

"No kissin' until you're married, 'kay?" Arizona smiled.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Good girl."


"So, what are you, Daddy, Lexie, and Max gonna do today?" Callie asked early the next morning – a Saturday – as she did Sofia's hair.

The sun was shining through the window, proving that it was going to be a nice day outside. Unfortunately, they wouldn't get to spend most of it with her because they'd be in and out of the OR, but Callie hoped that Mark was intending to take advantage of the weather in order to get out some of Sofia's seemingly endless energy.

"Tell Daddy to get me and Max a puppy," Sofia said.

Callie and Arizona had always planned to get a dog, but they had only moved to a big enough house a few months before they had started trying to get pregnant. They had just finished all of their decorating and now they just didn't want to still be training a puppy while taking care of a newborn and his or her big sister. Waiting until their new baby had been home for awhile seemed like the best idea.

"I see," she smiled. "You're so funny."

"I try to teach Max to say 'puppy.'"

"Does he?"

"Not yet."

"Oh."

Callie heard Arizona stop in the doorway. "Good morning," she smiled, taking in the sight of her pregnant wife, even though her robe concealed her ever so slightly changing body. Arizona was still radiant.

"Good morning," she said.

"Mommy, you sleep in lots," Sofia commented. "You make better braids then Madre."

"What's wrong with my braids?" Callie asked.

"They're just not like Mommy braids," she said. "And Mommy sleeps in so now I get lots of Madre braids."

"The baby makes me really sleepy," Arizona explained as her little girl came over and hugged her. "But I'm awake now. Can I finish your braids?"

"Sure."

"Then I wanna talk to Madre, okay?"

"Then play with me?"

"I hope so," she said. "But we'll see if I have time before Daddy picks you up."

Callie hadn't thought much of it until Arizona said that. In fact, she had actually assumed that their "talk" would be more like a decidedly quiet – and unfortunately quick - special moment in the bedroom, since Arizona seemed to be in the mood more often nowadays. However, now she knew something else was going on. Neither of them would ever sacrifice playtime with Sofia in favour of sex, even if it was so great lately.

"Everything okay?" the Latina asked.

"I just had a not so good dream last night," she answered.

"Bad dreams, bad dreams, go away," Sofia said. "Right Mommy?"

"Yeah. Right."

"And sometimes Daddy scares away monsters," she added. "He can help when he picks me up."

"That's okay," Arizona said, forcing a smile. "My dream didn't have monsters."

"Why don't you go decide what you want for breakfast?" Callie asked. "I'll come make it for you in a minute."

"What about my braids?"

"I'll redo them after we eat," Arizona told her.

"Okay," Sofia said as she headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Callie got up and went and stood in the doorway with her wife. "What's wrong?" she asked as she kissed her.

"I dreamed that something was wrong with the baby," Arizona said, with tears now forming in her eyes. "I don't know what, but…"

"Well, what happened?" she asked.

"I woke up before I knew if it made it," she said. "Or even if it was a boy or a girl."

"I'm sure everything's fine," Callie said. "There hasn't been any logical reason to think otherwise and pregnancy can cause crazy dreams."

Both parents had been a little nervous going into this pregnancy, so this feeling wasn't very surprising at all. Even though there was absolutely no reason to worry about it this time around, they couldn't stop reflecting on Sofia's prematurity and the problems that she had faced at birth. The fact that they could actually have a perfectly healthy baby after having such a sick one seemed a little unreal. It almost felt too easy after the things that the first few months of parenting Sofia had put them through. However, everything appeared to be just fine with this baby, which encouraged them to try to block out the fearful thoughts.

"That must be it," she decided. "But it just felt so, so real."

"In a few weeks, we'll get to see our perfectly healthy baby again," she smiled. "You'll see."

"I know."

"But I'm glad you told me," she said.

"You're probably right," she told her. "Baby's okay."

"We could just get an ultrasound done now, you know."

"I'm not having a miscarriage and another ultrasound scan wouldn't show anything different just yet. Baby's still too small. Even having another one when we are is considered to be on the early side."

"Yeah."

"Maybe I will just check out the heartbeat with a Doppler today, though. To put my mind at ease."

"Hearing baby's heartbeat would be nice," Callie agreed. "We can never get enough of that."