Sitting at the dining room table, Callie sipped at a hot cup of coffee. It was too hot to drink quickly, so she wet her lips and slurped more than actually drank the liquid. She had sent Arizona in to the bathroom to shower and Callie had quickly dressed to wait for Sofia to emerge from her room. When she did pad out, Sofia had pyjamas slightly askew and wild hair matted and tucked roughly behind her ears. She blinked at the sight of Callie in her kitchen and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Mama?" she half stated and half asked.

"Ah Sofia, you've risen. My little trouble maker and cause of my middle of the night flight across the country."

Sofia rolled on to the sides of her feet and shrugged. "Ummmm," she offered.

"Hmmmm," Callie replied. "Seems about right."

"Where's Mom?"

"Showering I think."

"Okay."

"You want some breakfast? Granola?"

"Ummm, I don't know," Sofia answered, sliding into the seat furthest away from Callie.

Callie sighed, timid or uncertain was seldom something her daughter was. "I just asked if you want some granola Sofia, not what your views are on humanitarian aid." Sofia just stared back at her, as if Callie was going to self-combust at any given moment. "Come on honey, you're going to have to work with us here. You've messed up, big time and have a heap of explaining to do, but being all sullen is not going to do you any favours."

"I can get my cereal, you don't need to," Sofia said. "And how come you're here, Mama?"

Because you're slowly taking away our will to live, didn't seem like the most appropriate response but it was the first thing that ran through Callie's mind. Along with a few expletives thrown in. "When my kid gets suspended, I kind of need to come and help, Sofia. Why do you think I'm here?"

"Are you going to stay?"

"For a few days, yeah. I'm not sure yet."

"Is Mom still furious?"

"She's disappointed, rather than angry. We both are."

Sofia scoffed rudely. "She was angry, I've never seen her so angry."

Callie nodded. "Your mom doesn't really get angry, not outwardly anyway."

"She did," Sofia said, pouring some milk in to her bowl. She walked back and sat down at the table, across from Callie this time. "Am I going back to live with you? Is that why you're here? Mom doesn't want me here anymore."

Callie was slightly taken aback, concerned really, that Sofia could even think that either of them would just send her away because they didn't want her. "What makes you think that?"

Again, Sofia shrugged. "Seriously Mama, she's really angry. There's no way she'll want to keep me here."

"Of course she will, that's not how parenting works. We don't get to pick and choose, Sofia. Remember, you chose to come back here – it wasn't my choice and if you want to come back to New York, that will be your choice too, not mine or Mom's. But you also can't just go back and forth all the time, you need to stay and settle in school and with your friends."

"I don't want to go back to New York," Sofia said, eyes focussed on her cereal.

"Well, your behaviour isn't really saying that so I have to admit, I'm pretty confused by it all. Mom certainly tells me that this whole suspension thing is just the next drama, that you've been trouble with a capital T."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You want to talk to me sprocket?"

"I just have some questions, that's all."

"Like what?"

"Well, my Dad died, right? After the plane crash that Mom was in too?"

Callie nodded, drawing in a quick breath. "Yup, that's right. Your dad's name was Mark, remember? I thought I used to talk about him all the time and your mom has a photo up over there too."

"Yeah, but I mean, he's my dad and you're my real mom…"

"Real mom? I don't understand what that means, Sof? You have two moms, that's just how our family is."

"But Brax, you know Brax? From school in New York?"

"Yeah, I think so, vaguely."

"Well he said that he had two moms, and he didn't really have a dad, only a donor dad. Like, he doesn't know him and his moms don't know him. He doesn't have a photo or anything, but I have heaps of photos of me and Dad when I was a baby."

"Well, all families are really different, some families have only one mom and no one else or two dads. You know this stuff but."

"Well, Mom was there when I was born, but you and Dad had me like, for real. So, I had a Dad and you and who was Mom, then?"

Callie took a gulp of her coffee, she needed more caffeine for this conversation and had absolutely no idea how to run this one. The liquid burned her throat slightly. "Well, that's a bit complicated actually but Mom is and has always been, your other mom."

"My step mom?"

"No, your mom."

"But isn't that how it works? If someone has a baby with someone and then they meet someone knew, then they are a step parent?"

"Well yes, sort of. Maybe, it depends." Callie stumbled over her words and her mind reeled, where the hell is Arizona?"

"Your mom and I fell in love before that though." Abort…Abort….

"So you were in love with Mom and Dad?"

"No. Only Mom."

"So, you didn't love Dad?"

"I did, yes. You were totally a product of love." And lust and devastation and confusion and loss and oh dear God, where is Arizona?

"Sounds like you're just making stuff up, Mama."

"Oh I'm not honey, it's just adult relationships are complex and confusing sometimes. But I do know that Mark loved you, Arizona loves you and I love you. You were and are, the luckiest kid in the world to have more love than anyone else I know."

"But you and Mom didn't make a decision to actually have me. I don't have a donor dad, I have like a real one."

"Sofia, we don't really use the words 'real' parents in this house. It's just some crap term that people use to try and pretend that kids only have one mom and one dad and that's not something that we believe in. It's against our values and everything that we know about the world. I have to be honest kid, I don't really understand what you're trying to ask, can you be really clear with me?"

"Nothing, I'm just trying to get what this screwed up family is. I mean, what do you expect me to tell people?"

"Sofia!"

"Sorry," Sofia mumbled under her breath.

"Sounds like a fun conversation happening out here," Arizona said, limping into the room, wet hair draped over her shoulders and to the middle of her shoulder blades. "Good morning Sofia; good morning Callie."

"Hi," Sofia whispered, eyes fixated back on her cereal.

"Oh, good morning Mom. How much did you hear?"

"Enough," Arizona said simply, heading in to the kitchen and pouring herself a coffee. "Can I help with anything?"

"Well," Callie began, having no idea of how to choose her words. "Sofia is trying to understand our family, how you and I and Mark all fit in."

"Yeah, I mean, I think I heard that. We're a hard family to explain."

Sofia looked up briefly, opened her mouth as if to say something and shut it again. Her eyes stared at Arizona for just a moment, unblinking; just as suddenly they were gone again, back on her breakfast.

"Is there something else?" Arizona asked before looking to Callie.

"It's better to ask Sof, there's no use just thinking these things," Callie said, though all she could focus on was the sadness in Arizona's expression.

"I don't know," Sofia said, as if it was the core of her vocabulary. Callie hated it, the I don't knows, it just reminded her of annoying people, with no convictions and no confidence. And now their daughter was an I don't know kind of kid. "I just think that you haven't told me the whole story. I mean, I'm Mama and Dad's kid, and then you're like a…I don't know, something."

Callie felt desperately torn, the love she felt for her daughter and the obvious torment in her little developing mind. And then there was Arizona, who she knew would become stone faced and understanding, hurt running deep inside of her. "That something that you are referring to, is your mom. She's the one who held my hair back when I dry retched in the toilet; she picked out onesies and chose the most amazing feeding chair for us. She saved your life, before you were even meant to have seen the outside world. My God Sof, I know that it doesn't make sense to you but…"

"But what?" Sofia interrupted, "really, but what?"

"You know what Sofia," Arizona said sadly, sitting down next to Callie. "When your mama wanted to move to New York, I could have just shrugged and let you go with her. I could have seen you occasionally, holidays and weekends once or twice a year, and that probably would have drifted out when you got older and didn't want to come here at all. Actually, your mama and I weren't even talking, so I really didn't want to see her at the time. But you, I couldn't even imagine my life without you. I wanted you so much that I went to court and a really important Judge said that I, that I should have you live permanently with me here in Seattle."

"What do you mean? I don't get it, I went to New York. You just let me go to New York with Mama, I wanted to stay here with you and Mama. I didn't want any of us to move."

"I didn't let you go, Sof," Arizona said softly. "I fought a really silly fight with your mama, so silly and so awful but it was all for you. And I was allowed to keep you here."

"Why didn't you?"

Callie reached under the table and squeezed Arizona's hand before dropping it. "Because," Calie said, "Mom is a much better person than me. She saw how much it hurt me to not have you with me; she saw how much I needed and wanted you in New York and she wanted me to be happy."

"If it was just about my happiness, then you would have stayed right here in Seattle," Arizona confirmed.

"Just me?" Sofia asked, softly.

"Well, mostly you. But Mama too."

"That would have been better," Sofia said, spoon clinking against the milk remnants in her bowl.

Arizona nodded. "For me, absolutely. But maybe not for you and Mama. But Sof, I'm still confused. Is this an issue at school? Is this why you've been acting out?"

Shrugging, Sofia's eyes filled with tears. "Yes….but then no. I don't know what to say when people ask me about my family. I don't even know, so how can I explain it? I have a Dad but he died and then two moms but one lives in New York and one here – and it was just the opposite when I was in New York. It sucks. I hate it. I want a normal family, I just want to be normal."

"Are you being teased for having two moms?" Callie interrupted, eyes wide and palms flat on the table.

"No, they just ask and laugh when I can't even answer, Mama. I say that I have two moms and I had a dad too, but not anymore, but they just laugh and laugh at me. Like I'm some dumb kid who doesn't even know where babies come from."

"Sof…" Arizona said softly.

"No, I don't understand properly. Mama and Dad had me, like they had sex and had me. Where were you?"

"I was working in Africa."

"What? Why?"

"Because…I was silly. I made a silly choice and I left Mama here on her own in Seattle."

"And then you came home?"

"Yes."

"For me?"

"For Mama first and then for you. I know it doesn't count for too much, but I chose you, Sofia Torres. I chose to have you as my daughter. I loved you from the second I saw you on an ultrasound machine, the kind of love that people don't get much in life. The kind of love I've only felt twice in my entire life. Three times if I include your mama." Arizona looked sideways and Callie felt her heart rate increase. "I'm not ever going to pretend to not be your mom; I'm not going to tell you that you were just Dad and Mama's; I can't do that. You were always my daughter and you still are. I can't and I won't ever give that up, do you hear me? So you tell those little burgers at school that your family is awesome, that you have two moms that think you're the best thing that ever happened to them and that you had a dad that called you his princess, every single day."

"He did?"

He did," Callie affirmed.

"Who was the other time?"

"My other instant love?" Arizona clarified and Callie looked between them confused.

"Yeah, you said there was me and Mama and another time?"

"Yup," Arizona said calmly, "we tried to have another baby, after you; your mama and I. But it didn't work out, we couldn't but I saw the baby once, on an ultrasound machine. And I loved that baby with the same amazing feeling that I had for you. Only I loved you more, because I got to see you and hold you and raise you. Well, my love just grew for you but not for your brother or sister, because they didn't live long enough for us to do that."

"Who? I mean, who's belly was the baby in?"

Arizona swallowed. "Mine, Sof."

"Oh."

"Yup," Arizona glanced at Callie and there were tears in her eyes. The stoic Arizona she had once become so frustrated with was suddenly emotional and engaged.

"I would like a sister or a brother," Sofia said, effortlessly.

Arizona laughed and Callie quickly joined in. "I think we're almost getting too old, Sof."

"Nah, you're not too old."

Callie continued to laugh, it seemed to simple to Sofia. Her Moms should be together and they should just have another baby, because life worked like that. Arizona had risen from her chair and was in the kitchen, filling up her coffee which she had barely touched. "I'm laughing Sofia, but you still have some explaining to do about this whole suspension gig."

"I am sorry," Sofia responded after a few moments, shaking her head. "I know I did the wrong thing, but I just had a bad day. And I felt bad…I lied. To the other kids and to my teacher, I said that I was adopted." She looked down at her lap, face turning a shade of red. "And then they kept asking me questions and then it was the exam and I just wanted to go. I wanted to come home."

"Sofia," Arizona whispered from across the room.

"I'm sorry; I'm really really sorry. I messed up."

"Honey," Callie said, standing up to walk around the table. She knelt in front of Sofia and cupped her face. "You have, two people who love you more than anything in the world."

"I know that."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Is there anything else that we need to know?"

Sofia chewed on her cheek and Arizona slowly approached Sofia as well, trailing her fingers across Callie's back before dipping her head to press a kiss to Sofia's head. "I just wish you would move home, Mama."

"Yeah, well, you're going to need to be patient on that one, sprocket."

"Is it a maybe then?"

Arizona shared a glance with Callie, and nodded. "That's a maybe," Callie confirmed.

XXX

"Callie?" Arizona asked, walking into the guest room after spending half an hour reading with Sofia in bed before turning her light off.

"Mmmm?" Callie asked, sitting on the bed and resting back against the headboard, phone in her hand.

"You did amazing getting Sofia to talk. Really, thank you. She was just telling me how much she misses you and she told me calmly and coherently. And without swearing." Arizona laughed lightly.

"I think she was ready."

"I think you helped; a lot."

"Let's all hope that it equals a change in behaviour."

Arizona smiled. "Well, she's certainly done her quota of school work today, poor kid. I'm looking forward to this project presentation in two days."

"Great topic, by the way. A research project on different types of families; subtle as a sledgehammer."

"Just reinforcing our discussion!"

They laughed before silence settled between them. "Thanks for sharing that stuff with her today, I think it helped. About our other baby."

Arizona shrugged and sat herself down on the end of the bed. She rubbed at her knee. "She has a right to know about us and the family we had or tried to have before we separated. The poor thing is just trying to fill in gaps and to fit in with her peers."

"Did we do a crap job? Have we not prepared her for how cruel people can be?"

"I don't know, I think we've tried. She's such a little thinker and who knows what people have asked or said. And we've had a lot of change in her pretty short life."

"I don't think it even occurred to me that it would be an issue, I mean, isn't this the next generation? These kids were meant to have it much easier than us."

Callie shrugged, she didn't really have the experience of growing up and questioning her sexuality like Arizona did. She wasn't a teenager attracted to girls; in fact, she was the opposite when she was a young person. She was quite promiscuous with adolescent boys, in retrospect. "I think it's just the combination of everything, she really wants the concept of her family being together, now that she's a bit older.

"One big happy family."

"Doesn't sound so bad, does it?"

Arizona smiled. "Sounds amazing actually."

"You're the only person I've ever had that with," Callie responded quietly.

"Yeah, me too. And Callie, I would jump back in but what if we get it wrong? What if this isn't what we expect it to be or it just goes back to the mess we always had?"

"Ah," Callie said, laughing, "what if it doesn't?" She knew she was teasing, but she wanted Arizona to at least see some of the positives rather than what could go wrong; what did go wrong. It used to be the other way around with Arizona full of rainbows and pretty pink bubbles. Callie hated that she had lost that; that they had lost that for her.

"The universe has a habit of screwing things up for us, whenever we get super happy and hopeful."

Callie tipped her head and analysed Arizona's expression. "We could try again, for another baby. If you wanted to," she said softly, taking a gamble really on Arizona's fears. Arizona's eyes filled with tears and Callie immediately regretted her question. Leaning forward, she trailed the pads of her fingers across Arizona's jawline. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"I would like to, I know that."

"But?"

"I don't know. I just see that freakin' ultrasound machine with its ten-week old foetus instead of twelve weeks and waiting for the inevitable there's no heartbeat conversation."

"It was all bad."

"I never used to be scared of anything, you know? And slowly it's crept in and I despise it. I want to be fearless again, I want to book a trip to Spain and whisk you off your feet; I want to tell Sofia that I am madly in love with you and that we are going to be a family again. I want to tell her that we'll try and give her a sibling, a brother or sister to protect and look after. I want you to move back here, and straight into this house."

Callie tugged at Arizona's arms, awkwardly pulling her from her seated position to lie against her. Arizona visibly winced at the effort, but her body was heavy and arms tight around Callie's abdomen when she managed to manoeuvre herself into position. "I think we should do it," Callie said quietly and she felt Arizona's open palm press against her side. "Maybe not Spain, just yet," she added, laughing, "and the baby; but the moving here. I want that as soon as we can; I want us back and I don't think we have any idea if it'll work out but I do know, that we don't have a chance of figuring it out if I stay in New York for the next five years."

"You're ready to move back?"

"If you are ready for me to."

"What about work?"

Callie groaned. "I'll go and see if I can have my old job back."

"I'm ready," Arizona said and she smiled up at Callie with tiny laugh lines creased around her eyes.

"Well then, maybe that Spain trip isn't such a bad idea after all?"

"Hmmm, you may be forgetting that little train wreck daughter of ours sleeping in her room," Arizona prompted.

"Oh, that's right. Do you think it's bad form to fly our kid coach when we're up in first?"

Arizona laughed loudly, shaking her head. Using her elbow as leverage, she kissed Callie. A deep, lingering kiss.

TBC