TRUE LOVE AVENUE

"So, which one of you wants to foster me?" Anthony asked almost nonchalantly, his black eyes examining the two women sitting in front of him.

Though Arizona and Amelia knew that the African American teenager was no older than fifteen years old, he seemed a lot older. Probably due to the fact that he was already six feet and-then-some-more-inches tall and that living in foster care generally toughened the kids up, forcing them to grow up and to be independent before they were really supposed to. Anthony was dressed very simply, a plain black tee-shirt and some jeans but both surgeons could easily guess that he was quite muscular underneath his clothes.

The neurosurgeon looked at the blonde sitting beside her and Arizona could feel the nervousness radiating off of her, Amelia's twitchy and barely-there smile only confirming her suspicions. She softly grabbed her hand and gave it a tender squeeze, hoping to help her calm her nerves down but also to stop her from toying with her fingers. Arizona looked back at Anthony with a warm smile.

"Both of us, actually," she gently said. "Amelia and I have been married for a little under a year."

"Oh, alright. Sorry," he said apologetically and nervously chuckled. "It's been a while since I last met with anyone willing to foster me so I kind of zoned out after my social worker said she had people to introduce to me. Thought you guys were sisters or something."

"It's alright, we're nervous too," Arizona confessed in hope that it would make him feel more at ease knowing they were feeling the same way. "You're the first teenager we're meeting with."

"You-you chose to meet with me? Out of all the choices you had?" Anthony asked doubtfully, frowning deeply at them.

"I-well, uh… yes. You seem a little shocked?" Amelia frowned too, not sure why Anthony was looking so surprised.

"Yeah. Kinda," he shrugged uncomfortably. "I mean, why would you guys want to foster a teenager when you could just adopt a cute little baby?"

Both women had been expecting Anthony to have some questions for them, it would have been a little foolish of them not to. They just hadn't expected for it to get this serious and this emotional that soon after meeting him for the first time. Arizona squeezed her wife's hand, bringing the both of them some much needed strength.

"In the interest of full disclosure, Amelia and I already have a kid. Her name's Sofia and she's about to turn twelve in a two months so, you know, she's full on teenager right now. We've always wanted to have more kids and we both had hum, pretty traumatic experiences with pregnancies and babies one could say I guess."

"When we registered to foster and maybe adopt, it really was a no brainer for us to ask for older kids," Amelia completed. "We're not looking to be your parents. I mean, come on, you're already fifteen. You don't need us to sing you to sleep or to help you with your multiplication tables. What you need is for someone to provide you a stable environment where you feel secure and cared for so you can reach your full potential and become a well-balanced man and an active member of society. And we wanted to meet up with you because Emily thought you and us could be a good match. Not going to lie though, I think she has a soft spot for you. She wouldn't stop praising you. "And he's tall, my god that young man is beautifully tall. Would make a fantastic basket-ball player", "so kind, you should see him with the younger children at the group home. He probably has the patience of the saint," "Anthony is the only teenager that I know of who cleans up after himself. Never even seen a tee-shirt littering the bedroom floor or any dust in no corner,""Amelia playfully imitated the social worker.

Typical Emily, Anthony thought with a bemused smile at the anecdote. She was a fairly old lady, probably in her mid-sixties, no doubt towards the end of her career. She had been handling Anthony's case for the last five years now and after countless hours passed together, her cheerful attitude, her bad jokes and her outspokenness had kind of grown on him. With her retirement around the corner, she had made it her personal mission to find a family willing to foster Anthony for the long run before kissing her career goodbye.

Anthony seemed to ponder their answer for a while, as if trying to grasp what the hell was wrong with the couple sitting in front of him. Both white ladies, around their forties. They didn't reek of alcohol, their eyes were clear, they weren't scratching all over the place which meant they probably weren't junkies. They were dressed rather casually, their piece of jewelry were scarce – only wearing their wedding bands and some earrings from what he could see. They weren't screaming rich as fuck but it was crystal clear that the couple was earning far more money than a lot of his previous foster families.

Their little hand-holding, their slight nervousness, their hint of sadness when the blonde had evoked babies, their anxious smiles… Everything about Amelia and Arizona seemed genuine. Which in itself was honestly a little scary. Foster families weren't inherently all bad, but they were very rarely this nice without any reasons.

He pursed his lips and eventually said, "You do know I'm diabetic, right?"

"We know. It's written in your file and Emily told us. Probably a dozen times," Arizona joked.

"I'm type one. I need insulin. Like, every day. It's costly."

"We get why it might potentially make other people hesitant to foster you, but Arizona and I both have stable jobs, it's not an issue for us."

"What is it that you do?"

"Arizona's a pediatric surgeon," Amelia announced with a proud smile. "And I'm a neurosurgeon."

Eventually, both parties started to loosen up and conversation flowed a lot more easily. It didn't take them long to figure out that Anthony was a real sweetheart who wore his heart on his sleeve. He liked to play video games, Zelda being his favorite. He had one hell of a contagious laugh. He liked to bake but he didn't feel like he was very good at it since he didn't have a lot of practice. Given the right tools and some down time in the kitchen, Arizona and Amelia were sure he could improve though. His go-to specialty was pumpkin pie and they couldn't yet to taste it. He didn't really know what he wanted to do yet once he was older, but he would like to work in the computer-science industry, a computer system analyst or something like that. He even asked them a few questions about Sofia. Both surgeons were quite impressed by his maturity and his over-all politeness once they had finally gotten past the weird tip-toeing-around-each-other stage.

"We're sorry but we have to go. We start work in less than an hour."

Anthony glanced at the clock adorning the wall and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw how much time had passed. They had been chatting for almost two hours straight.

"We would really like to see you again, Anthony. Maybe we could arrange another meeting if you're interested? To get to know each other a little better? Maybe at a park or somewhere else more neutral than here?" Amelia suggested with a tight and anxious smile.

Anthony felt a little dumbfounded. Sure, he had secretly hoped that this first meeting would go well but after so many disastrous ones over the years, he had learned the hard way to not get his hopes up. So it was definitely a nice surprise.

"You don't have to say yes or no right now, of course. We get that we only met each other a few hours ago. Take your time to think it over," Arizona added calmly with a re-assuring smile.

"Yeah, 'cause I've got a long line of people waiting to foster me," Anthony said sarcastically with a wave of his hand.

Anthony closed the door behind them and weirdly enough, he found himself actually looking forward to see those two sweet white ladies again.

"So, this is your room," Arizona said kindly as all three of them stepped into the bedroom.

The walls were painted a light taupe color, dark grey sheets draped over the queen-sized bed and a boringly classic desk was tucked into a far away corner. Anthony looked around, an unreadable look on his face as he slowly walked in further, taking every inch in.

"Sorry, we know it's a little bare and un-personal right now. We wanted the space to be yours as much as possible and this way, you get to choose how you want to decorate it. We'll go shop for new furniture when you'll know what kind of stuff you want and we can even repaint if you wish."

Anthony looked at them a little confused, his eyebrow furrowing ever so slightly. "I get to choose?"

"Well, yes. It's your room, you're probably going to spend a decent amount of time in there. It should feel homey and comfy," Amelia replied with a kind smile. "You can check out Sofia's room for inspiration if you want to. We re-did it last year, she had grown a little tired of the green everything she enjoyed so much when she was little. She said it was okay."

"I-uh, thanks."

Anthony wasn't even sure how long he was going to stay here. At least, the fact that Amelia and Arizona wanted him to feel comfortable in their house meant they were serious about fostering him. While it made the African-American teenager feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity of some stability, it felt strange. Strange to have two people suddenly so eager to know everything about him. Sure, they had met quite a few times before he had decided that he was okay with them fostering him, but meeting with people a few hours a week and living with them were two totally different things.

"You're welcome. We'll let you get settle in while we prepare lunch. Is there anything you don't like or that you're allergic to?" Amelia asked.

"I-it's okay, you don't have to. I can cook for myself," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Do- do you usually cook for yourself?" Arizona asked, her heart breaking a little inside her chest.

It was good that Anthony knew how to provide for himself, but she wished he didn't feel like he had to.

"Depends on the homes I'm in, but most of the time, yeah. I really don't mind."

"You don't have to do that here. Unless you really want to but we're more than okay cooking for all of us. You're barely fifteen, we don't expect you to cook for yourself. You're welcome to give a hand though if you want."

"I-Thanks. And no, I'm not allergic to anything."

"You don't have to thank us every time, Anthony," Arizona said with a soft smile.

They were in the middle of eating lunch when Amelia's phone loudly rang. She took her phone out of her pocket, Derek's name illuminating the screen and she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Derek," she said pointedly to Arizona and let out a heavy sigh.

The pediatric surgeon chuckled. "Of course he's already calling. It's been less than two hours."

"I'll be right back," she said to Anthony and Arizona before stepping a few feet away. "What's up, Der'?"

Arizona could see the confused look adorning the African-American's face. He looked like he wanted to ask a million questions but didn't dare to do so.

"Derek is Amelia's brother. They're very close. He was absolutely ecstatic when we told him we were going to foster you and he wanted to meet you immediately. He even tried to tag along with us this morning to bring you home. We had to kindly remind him that it might be a little bit too soon to suffocate you with family-members-yet-total-strangers-to-you, not matter how well-intentioned he is," the blonde chuckled.

"What? No Derek, you can't come! Why? Because it's not even been a couple of hours! Give him a little breathing room! Oh my God, yes I'll tell him if you promise to not call anymore," they heard Amelia let out a tired groan. Eventually, after a few more moments, Amelia sat back next to the blonde and her hand found its place onto Arizona's thigh. "My brother says hello and welcomes you to the family."

"I'd like to say that it's the last weird phone call we're going to receive today but I'm sure April, Owen and my parents are going to call too," Arizona apologized to Anthony.

"We're sorry. Our relatives were extremely happy at the prospect of us fostering and the bureaucracy took forever so when the judge called to say we were approved, everyone got a little crazy. Never mind when we told them about you moving in, they went completely nuts."

Anthony chuckled happily. "It's the first time a family's so excited to foster me, so I guess that's cool."

"Arizona and I are going to watch some TV in the living room, you're welcome to join us if you want. Not that we expect you to! You can stay in your room if you want to. We know a lot happened today, we really won't hold it against you if you want some alone time and just relax in here," Amelia said from Anthony's doorway.

"I-… Okay, thanks."

"What did we say about thanking us?" Amelia teased him playfully.

"I-yeah, sorry. It's going to take a while."

"It's okay, Anthony."

Arizona and Amelia were cuddling on the couch under a blanket, half watching TV, half trash-talking whatever was happening on the screen. Just when they thought Anthony wasn't going to join them, they heard footsteps shuffling down the staircase. They both looked over the back of the couch, encouraging and hopefully-not-too-creepy smiles on their faces.

"Is it okay if I sit?" he asked, trying to sound confident but both women could hear the shyness in his voice.

They pretended to not hear it.

"Of course," Arizona said reassuringly. "Sit wherever you like."

The teenager looked around and finally took Sofia's usual spot onto the other end of the couch. Not too far away from them but still letting a respectable distance in between them. He saw crutches lay down onto the floor next to coffee table and frowned.

"What are those for?" he frowned, motioning to them with his chin.

Suddenly, it downed on them that Anthony didn't know about Arizona's disability. It had never come up in previous conversations and honestly, everybody in their family and their group of friends knew so it had become the new normal for them. Sure, Arizona still had a few bad days or some nightmares here and there, but she rarely thought twice about her left leg nowadays. She had made peace with her body a long time ago. The pediatric surgeon hoped Anthony wouldn't be too weirded out by it. She was pretty sure he was going to have a few questions though, so she prepared mentally and emotionally and took a deep breath in. Amelia looked at with nothing but tenderness filling her eyes and she squeezed her hand in support.

"Oh, right. I was involved in a plane crash a few years ago and my left leg was injured. They tried their hardest to save it but it was badly infected and eventually it came to the point where it was either amputating my leg or me dying. I have my prosthetic for everyday use but, when I'm at home and don't have big plans, I usually take it off. Is that alright with you? Does it make you uncomfortable? I can put it back on."

Anthony shrugged nonchalantly. "No, it's alright. I don't mind. So what are you guys watching?"

It took a few moments for Arizona to catch up with the fact that Anthony didn't seem to give a damn about her leg. She hadn't known what to expect, but she had expected a reaction, bad or good, so the lack of one threw her off. No weird remark, no question, no side-glance toward her limb…

Eventually, she decided not to overthink it and cleared her throat before replying, "British bake off. What do you like to watch?"

"I like british bake off."

They half watched, half talked during the TV show, mostly making small talk. After a while, Anthony noticed that Arizona really wasn't talking anymore. He looked over at the couple and it turned out that the blonde had fallen asleep, her head cradled into the crook of Amelia's neck.

"She was very tired. She barely slept last night because she was too excited for today."

Anthony's heart swooned inside his chest at this fact and he could feel his cheeks getting hot. He silently thanked his black skin for hiding his blush. What he wasn't able to hide from Amelia though, was the wide and toothy smile that overtook the lower half of his face and the glint of elation illuminating his big and beautiful black eyes. Amelia couldn't help but smile back at him with as much enthusiasm, if not more, as fulfillment and affection loomed from the bottom of her heart.

"Hey, I'm going for a jog but if you need anything, Arizona's doing some ironing in the living room," Amelia informed Anthony.

Anthony lifted his eyes up from his laptop to take a look at the brunette standing in the doorway of his bedroom. Sure enough, she was dressed looking ready to go for a run, her hair tucked away from her face in a ponytail.

"You jog?"

"I sure do."

"Do you, hum, do you mind if I tag along?"

Arizona and Amelia had showed him around the district, like his new school, the skate park, the movie theater… but also the places that held a special place in their hearts like Sofia's favorite ice cream shop or the bowling place they had had their very first date at or the park where Bailey, seven years old at the time and filled with nothing but pure mischief, had scared his aunt half to death. Startled, the brunette had jumped away from him and her left foot had unfortunately gotten caught in a root. She had stumbled forward and had tried her best to course-correct and to straighten herself up but she hadn't been successful and eventually had ended falling down, face-planting straight into an about-four-years-old kid's sandcastle. Thankfully, she hadn't broken anything but the neurosurgeon had found sand in her ears for four days straight after the accident. Anthony had had to bite down the inside of his cheeks to not belt out a laugh as Arizona had humorously reenacted her wife's fall the first time they had gone to this specific park.

Anthony had done some exploring around on his own as well, and he figured a run was a good way to discover more of the new neighborhood he was now living in. Plus, he could use a good sport session.

Amelia was a little surprised by the request but welcomed it anyway. As long as she was passing time with Anthony, she was having a good time. "Ye-yeah! Of course. I'll wait for you downstairs."

A little over an hour later, they were back home. The pediatric surgeon found her wife looking like she had just run a marathon. Sweat was coating her forehead, her cheeks were reddened from effort, her ponytail was slightly disheveled and her breath was loud and uneven. She rarely had the chance to witness Amelia coming back from her jog and god, what a sight it was. Arizona couldn't help but feel a little turned on. The small drop of sweat oh-ever-so-slowly running down Amelia's chest did nothing to help the feeling. Arizona averted her eyes before her mind could wander any further and they strolled onto the teenager standing next to Amelia instead. Anthony, on the other hand, looked like he had barely broken a sweat. Sure his breath was a little harsher than usual, but that was about it.

Amelia bee-lined straight to the kitchen and splashed some fresh water onto her face, a groan of relief escaping her throat as she did so.

"Are you alright?" Arizona asked and got up from the couch to follow the duo to the kitchen.

"That k-kid is-is," Amelia didn't even finish her sentence, too preoccupied on breathing correctly.

The neurosurgeon took a sit directly on top of the counter, finally giving her legs a rest.

"Anthony, I think you broke my wife," the blonde playfully teased him as she opened a cupboard and took two glasses out.

"She said, "just run at your usual speed, I'll adjust my pace to yours,"" he explained in an apologetic tone.

"Of course she did," Arizona rolled her eyes as she handed a glass of water to Anthony. "Water for you too, babe?"

"Please," Amelia replied. "I couldn't have possibly guessed we were fostering a racer now, could I?" she said before chugging the entire glass of water Arizona had just handed her.

Anthony and Arizona both chuckled at the brunette's flair for over-exaggeration.

"You're a great runner though," he smiled gently at the neurosurgeon. "You're faster than most of my friends."

"Where did you learn to run like that?" Amelia asked.

"I used to play softball."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Sofia started playing last year. She sometimes comes jogging with me too, but she finds it boring so she doesn't come very often."

"Why did you stop?"

"You know, foster care," Anthony shrugged nonchalantly. "Not enough money, not enough time, nobody to drive me to practice... Plus, the team I was in was taking itself too seriously, it lost its fun for me and I guess I grew tired of running after a ball…"

"Is there any sport you're interested in?"

"I think I'd like to play golf or something like that. Seems like a fairly laid back sport that makes you feel fancy when you play and stuff. And, that's like, the only sport where the attire makes you look nice."

"Golf?" Arizona said, a little surprised because golf was something she mainly associated with retired white people, like her parents for example.

"Does it sound lame?" Anthony asked, looking a tad the nervous and very self-conscious.

"No, it doesn't. We actually enjoy golfing every once in a while," the pediatric surgeon answered pointing to her wife and herself.

"Wanna hear a funny story?" Amelia asked cheerfully to the African-American teenager, excitement suddenly overtaking her features and her fatigue from the run temporarily gone.

Arizona grabbed the dish towel and gently hit her wife with it. "I thought we weren't going to talk about it anymore," she chastised with no real conviction if the small grin adorning her mouth was anything to go by.

"Oh, come on baby!" the brunette pouted, her bottom lip sticking out. "You told Anthony about my sandcastle stunt. I'm sure he would like to know the golf incident story too. Wouldn't you, Anthony?"

Anthony would be lying if he said his interest wasn't a least picked.

"You know what? I sure would, Amelia," he played along and sided with the brunette, hoping the blonde wouldn't get mad at him for wanting to hear the anecdote.

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, huh? You two are going to gang up on me now?" Arizona giggled lightheartedly and she felt irrationally happy to see Anthony and Amelia having their fun together, even though it was at her expense.

Every doubt Anthony had about making Arizona feel angry dissolved into thin air. He loved it whenever the women would share stories with him about their quirky family. It allowed him to get to know all of them better, Sofia included, without feeling like he was intruding and he, more often than not, would also get a good laugh out of it.

"See?!" Amelia said in her I-told-you-so-tone to Arizona with raised eyebrows.

The blonde just shook her head, a small smile on her lips and she leaned her butt against the counter next to the brunette, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Okay, so picture this," Amelia gave all of her attention to Anthony. "We're passing a few days at Arizona's parents, you know, having some mini-vacation away from home. It's pretty rare that when we go on vacation without Sofia but she was already on her own vacation with Callie at the time. Zona's parents live near a golf course and since her dad retired a few years ago, they golf pretty often. They even have a membership at the nearby golf center. So of course, we're like, let's take advantage of that and we decide to pass the day there all together. We hit the driving range first, we swing a few balls and once we're all good and warmed up, we decide to hit the real greens. Now, we're nowhere near great golfers, we're pretty meh I'd say."

Arizona agreed with her. "We're decent, let's say."

"We do a few holes, everything's great. It's sunny, there's not too much wind, Zona's dad's making golf joke left and right and her mom is eating it up like he's the best comic to ever walk the earth," she quickly turned to look at her wife. "Don't get me wrong, I love your dad and I think he is plenty funny. He was just pushing it a little that day, you know?"

Arizona chuckled and gently squeezed her wife's thigh to let her know that she wasn't in any trouble for saying her dad wasn't the funniest man alive.

"Anyway, it's the perfect day. Come, what? Thirteenth or fourteenth hole, I don't remember exactly. Zona's practicing her shot and swing and after a few tries, she moves onto the ball. She hits the ball and it flies away beautifully but Arizona's swing doesn't stop, her club's still high in the air turning right along with her. She yells and once she finally stops spinning, she stumbles around. Her prosthetic gets stuck into the golf cart and she falls down. And because of centrifugal force, Arizona ends up a few feet away from her prosthetic. You've seen Zona's prosthetic, right?"

Anthony nodded, having seen it a few times by now.

"So you know that from up close, you can tell that it's not a real limb, but from afar, it looks pretty real, right? Well, her parents and I are running towards Arizona to check on her but this old couple literally comes out of nowhere and arrives first, alerted by the yell. And the only thing they see is Arizona lying on the ground trying to get up, only one leg sticking out of her skirt and what looks like her other leg a few feet away. I swear, if heart attack was a scream, it was definitely the one that woman made that day. She screams and next thing we see, she faints right into her husband's arms who doesn't look too good either by the way. And that, Anthony, is the story of how my gorgeous wife swung so hard she made a woman faint," Amelia concluded with a bashful and proud smile. "Since then, her dad won't stop calling her his lil' bogeywoman."

By now, Anthony was laughing so hard, his belly was starting to hurt and while both women had heard him laugh before, it had never been this lively and this hard.

"For the last time, I did not swing too hard! A wasp flew near my face mid-swing, hence why I yelled and then stumbled to get away from it."

"There was no wasp," Amelia mouthed to Anthony and the teenager held back another laugh.

"There was," Arizona rolled her eyes. "And I still beat your ass that day."

"We were playing together as a team against your parents."

Arizona shrugged and smiled devilishly, "Still. I had less points than you."

"What can I say? It takes a lot of balls to play like I do," Amelia said confidently with a smirk.

Arizona was torn between laughing and rolling her eyes at her wife's extremely ridiculous yet funny pun. "You're a dork," she kissed Amelia's cheek. "See what I have to endure every day, Anthony?"

Now that they were finally in their home, where they felt the most comfortable and secure, their adoration for each other was even more evident to Anthony's eyes. It was a nice change from the barely-talking or love-less couples that had fostered him in the past.

Not even three weeks later, Anthony was standing on the green, an 8-iron in his hands.

A soft knock was heard and Anthony turned his swivel chair around to face the door.

"Come in," he called out.

Thirteen years old Harper entered the room shyly and gave him a small and tentative smile. Harper was a relatively small teenager, clearly at the beginning of her puberty and not having experienced her growth spurt yet. Her skin was a few shades darker than Anthony's. She looked around, taking in the room: the posters adorning the walls, the computer hardware and comic books littering Anthony's desk, the partially-made bed…

Her eyes lingered onto the picture sitting on top of Anthony's nightstand. It seemed to have been taken onto his birthday, if the candles stuck into the cake were anything to go by. Anthony was surrounded with Amelia and Arizona and a Latina teenage girl that Harper guessed to be Sofia. They looked happy.

Her new room was painted in a boring light grey color, the walls were all empty as were her selves. It felt cold and impersonal. Anthony's room looked… homey. Like a real personal space dedicated for him to exist in and not just sleep. He smiled warmly at her and motioned to his bed with a welcoming wave, inviting her take a sit and to get comfortable.

"So…" he said finally, after a long moment of just sitting in silence. "Did you settle in alright?"

Harper nodded. She didn't dare to tell him that she hadn't, in fact, settled in at all. Why bother getting settled in since she wasn't going to stay? She had learned that lesson a long time ago, probably sometime in between her fifth and tenth foster home. This was her fourteenth.

"What's their deal?" Harper asked in a small voice, her fingers playing with a loose thread of her pullover.

It didn't take long for Anthony to figure out who the other teenager was refereeing to by they.

"Arizona and Amelia?"

She nodded. While he understood what she was asking, it also broke his heart because that meant Harper had probably had a similar experience as him in previous foster homes. The junky ones, the always-drunk ones, the fostering-for-money ones, the beat-you-up-for-no-reason-than-your-existence ones, the trying-too-hard ones… Anthony had lived with all of those types of foster families and more previously to living here. The thing was to identify which one it was so you could adapt as fast as possible and stay away from trouble. It had taken him a few weeks after moving in with Arizona and Amelia to shake off the feeling that the other shoe was going to drop, that one day he would wake up and both women would realize that they didn't want to foster him anymore, that if he didn't act nice all the time, they would sent him back or punish him… He couldn't blame Harper for feeling this way too.

He gave her a reassuring smile. "I… It took me a long time to figure it out. Who in their right mind wants to foster or adopt a fifteen years old black dude? So when my social worker said she had some thirty-something white ladies coming in to meet me, I thought she had made a mistake. Then boom, Amelia and Arizona walked in and you know what? They were nice and sweet, and they really wanted to get to know me. And when I say nice, I mean nice as in the-foster-family-you-see-at-foster-home-with-a-baby-nice. So I'm like, what's the catch, you know? But they just… they genuinely care. They genuinely want to provide a stable environment for you to grow up in and to become a reasonable adult. That's it. The only thing they expect of you in return is respect and honesty."

Harper looked at him with an eyebrow raised, looking skeptical.

"Look, I get it. It's weird. They're eager to get to know you so they ask about a bazillion questions a minute, they're giving you lots of stuff… You'll get use to all the caring and loving in a few weeks and you'll even grow to enjoy it."

"I…" Harper started to say only to realize she didn't know what she wanted to say. She wanted to believe him but it was hard to. So instead she changed the subject, "They talked about Sofia and you a lot."

Anthony didn't push back, knowing that only time would heal the emotional damages that years and years of living in the foster system had done.

"Nothing to embarrassing hopefully," he said lightheartedly.

"No. They just talked about your personalities, what sort of things you guys are into, showed me a few pictures… This kind of stuff."

"Arizona mentioned you were a computer savvy baby? Wanna help me on my new project?" he pointed to the computer hardware sitting next to his laptop.

The rest of the afternoon flew by as they did their thing. Anthony was happy to share his passion for computer science with someone. Sofia didn't really care about it and while he appreciated Arizona's and Amelia's efforts to learn a few stuff and to help him out from time to time, he could tell neither of them shared his enthusiasm for it. Still, it was very nice of them to try. Before they knew it, Amelia was knocking onto Anthony's door, telling them that dinner was ready.

Harper's and Sofia's relationship still remained somewhat of a mystery.

While Sofia liked to spend all her free time at the hospital, Harper wanted to pass hers at the skate park. Sofia was a girly-girl, Harper was a tomboy. Sofia liked comedies, Harper was a scary movie buff. Sofia was out-going, Harper was on the shy-side. Sofia loved pop music, Harper loved hard rock… They couldn't be any more different. Yet, two months into fostering Harper, the girls had grown inseparable. They were practically joined to the hip, found Sofia and you also found Harper.

Sofia and Anthony were surprisingly very protective of their new little foster sister. Her being black, Muslim, a foster kid and the smallest of her class was leaving Harper more vulnerable than either of her siblings liked and they felt as if it was their duty to protect her. Arizona and Amelia eventually had to remind them that it was their duty to protect and to take care of Harper, not Sofia's and Anthony's. It took a little while but eventually, the family found its new dynamic. Like the surgeons had speculated when they had first met Harper, she had fitted right in. And as they had predicted, they had fallen right in love with her.

"Took you long enough," Arizona said as Amelia finally came back to them.

"Yeah, sorry. The water station seems like a popular place for the ladies to hit on me so this is officially your last cup of water. I'm not sure I'll ever make it back alive if I have to go once again," Amelia complained with an exhausted sigh as she handed the cups of water to Harper and to the blonde before good-naturedly placing a protective hand onto the small of Arizona's back.

The blonde chuckled at Amelia's light disarray. "We're at a golf tournament baby and you're dressed like you're about to star on a show called "so you think you can lesbian?", what did you expect?" she explained with a playful tone, eyeing the other woman up and down.

"One would think the wedding ring would make it pretty clear that I'm not exactly looking," she said in a huff.

"I'm just saying, I can understand them. You're incredibly attractive," Arizona winked at her and kissed her cheek.

The tiny grin onto Amelia's lips and the gentle squeeze onto her lower back informed her that her diversion had worked.

"If you think I'm attractive then wait 'til you see my wife. She looks absolutely smashing," the neurosurgeon replied back smoothly and she let out a satisfied smile when she saw a faint blush coloring Arizona's cheeks.

"I don't know what makes me want to kill myself more: you guys' sickening mushiness and this boring-ass golf tournament," Harper said in a dull tone, not even bothering to lift her eyes up from her phone.

"Dramatic, much?"

"You're the one who insisted on coming," Arizona reminded her.

"Of course I wanted to come. Anthony's playing. He may be a pain in my ass most of the time but he's still my big brother. I'mma support whatever that big idiot decides to do. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Both Amelia's and Arizona's hearts melted at their daughter's words. They knew their kids all loved one another but to hear them say it out loud every once in a while never failed to lift theirs' spirits up.

Eventually, after another hour, the tournament came to its end. Anthony was surprised when he heard his name being called out for third place but he recovered quickly and walked towards the winner's podium, a proud and wide grin etched onto his lips. Anthony could hear his family loudly cheering for him from behind the railings and while he appreciated the gesture, he still felt a little embarrassed by it. Moreover, he could hear Harper hailing at him extra-loudly with a shit-eating smile. He knew that that little shithead was being embarrassing on purpose and he couldn't help but shake his head at Harper's playful behavior. One of the volunteer handed him his cup and barely was it in his hands that he spotted Arizona's phone coming up in the air. He didn't have to be next to her to know she was paparazzing him with all she had. Anthony had learned early on that the only thing Arizona took more pictures of than her wife was her children. Her phone was filled with so many pictures, it honestly was a miracle she still had any memory left. Anthony eventually gave in and turned his body towards his legal guardians, posing with his newly won cup in his hands so the blonde could have her perfect picture.

"You did so good Anthony! I'm so proud!" Amelia exclaimed as Anthony walked towards them and she hugged him tightly.

Arizona followed right behind her wife and wrapped her arms around the both of them. Anthony couldn't help but melt into their embraces and he hugged them back.

"That's the last time you guys take me to a tournament. You are officially the most embarrassing moms ever," he said teasingly, faking annoyance.

Even though the surgeons' behavior still sometimes made him feel a little bit ashamed, Anthony would take supportive and loving foster parents over absent and couldn't-care-less-about-you-or-sports foster parents any day. It felt incredibly nice to have adults caring about him. Nicer than he could have ever dreamed about in his wildest dream. After a few more moments though, Anthony threw his sister a look and they didn't have to use words to understand each other.

"Alright ladies, fan club hour is over," Harper said with a roll of eyes. "I think Anthony would like his ability to breathe back."

Both adults got the memo and stepped away, not without some reluctance. Anthony gave the other teenager a thankful smile.

"I guess you're not as bad as you used to be. You almost have a decent swing now," Harper lightheartedly teased.

"You little fucker. Thanks for coming," he replied softly and bumped his shoulder with Harper's.

"Yeah, whatever. It's not like I had plans anyway, might as well tag along," she shrugged nonchalantly.

Harper may not have had any plans with her friends, but Anthony knew she would much rather spend her free time at the skate park than at a golf tournament. He didn't bring it up though, instead letting himself be happy for his sister's presence.

"Plus, you obviously need me to help you with your groupies."

"Heaven forbid we ever show love to our kids," and "We're just so proud," came back as replies at the same time.

"Can we go talk to my friends for a bit before we have to go?"

"Sure, we'll wait here. Take your time, kids."

The blonde waited until they were a few feet away before pulling onto one of the belt loops of Amelia's pants, pulling her closer to her until she could wrap her arms around the other woman's neck.

"He said moms."

Arizona's smile was eating half of her face and her crystal-clear blue eyes sparkled with glee and accomplishment. The sun was hitting her blonde hair just right, giving her a golden halo and the small breeze was conveying the pediatric surgeon's beguiling and familiar perfume straight to Amelia's nostrils. Amelia almost forgot how to breathe a second. That wonderful human-being was her wife. She couldn't imagine a world without her and their kids. She was pulled out of her thoughts when a toddler happily yelled not too far away from them.

She cleared her throat as to get a hold on herself. "I do believe he used the term embarrassing moms, babe," Amelia pointed out with a playful smile, putting a lost lock back behind Arizona's ear.

"I don't care what kind of moms we are, 'Melia. We're his moms," her eyes started to fill with happy tears and Arizona didn't even try to conceal them.

And the neurosurgeon knew exactly what she meant, because she could feel it in her bones too. This over-powering maternal instinct. She had been feeling it for Anthony before, there was nothing she wouldn't do for him or Harper, but the small "moms" slip-out only reinforced its strength. Arizona easily let herself fall into Amelia's eyes, her somber blue eyes telling her everything she needed to know.

Amelia wiped away the few tears that were rolling down Arizona's cheeks, her thumbs softly caressing back and forth to brush them away.

"We are," the brunette whispered against her lips and pulled her in a loving kiss.

Arizona and Amelia were meeting with a teenager and while it had started well, it took an unexpected and very unpleasant turn. They were making small talk and Arizona mentioned conversationally that Harper was Muslim. The teenager in question was not shy in voicing his point of view on Muslim people, making islamophobic statement after islamophobic statement. Needless to say, they decided to cut the meeting short.

His harsh comments hit both women hard. They were in a lesbian relationship, Arizona was disabled, Amelia was a recovering alcoholic as well as an ex-junkie, none of their kids were white, and one of them was muslim. Their family was very much a choose-your-own-discrimation for conservative people. To say they had gotten used to the judgmental stares and the hateful loudly-whispered-comments would unfortunately be an understatement.

It didn't stop Amelia from wanting to punch the kid though. Arizona laced her fingers with hers and squeezed her hand in order to calm her wife's nerves down. One look at her told Amelia everything she needed to know. The social worker walked them towards the front door, profusely apologizing for the teenager's behavior.

Before they could step outside though, a little body crashed into Arizona's legs. The tiny blonde looked up at the adult, long and wild blonde hair framing his face.

"Are ya a robot?" he asked her, a wishful glint shining into his bright blue eyes.

Arizona frowned, not understanding the question. The strong southern accent left little doubt about where the boy had been raised. His right hand skimmed over the metal of her prosthetic leg with great interest and the question suddenly made much more sense. She was wearing a skirt and while she normally used her skin-cover prosthetic leg when wearing a skirt, it was heavier than her bare mechanical prosthetic and she hadn't felt like dealing with heavy this morning. Not when it was Seattle's hottest week of the year.

"I-No, sorry, buddy. I'm not."

"Oh," he said, visibly disappointed but he quickly recovered and frowned at her instead. "Why do ya have a cool leg like that then?"

"So she can kick asses better," Amelia whispered to him like she was sharing a secret.

The little boy giggled hard and both women couldn't help but smile as the joyful sound filled the room. It felt nice to hear some joyful innocence after their difficult meeting.

"Ya said a grown-up word."

"I did," Amelia affirmed and she knelt down in front of him. "I'm Amelia and this," she pointed to the still-standing pediatric surgeon, "is Arizona."

"Arizona? That's a funny name," he stated.

"That's because she's a very funny person," Amelia said assuredly and looked up to give her wife a wink. "What's your name?"

"I'm Jamie. Can ya tell me joke?" he asked eagerly to the pediatric surgeon.

"James, come on, I'm sure Mrs Robbins and Mrs Sheperd have things to do," the social worker said with an apologetic smile.

"No, it's okay," Arizona said as she tried to think of a kid-friendly joke. "What's small, green and goes up and down?"

James lightly frowned as he thought of an answer. "I dunno."

"A pea in an elevator."

His whole face lighted up and he chuckled. "That's so silly. Why would a pea take the el'vator?"

Before the women knew it, they had been exchanging jokes and making small talk for over an hour.

"Mom, you just got a text from 'Melia."

"Can you read it to me sweetie, please?" Arizona asked since she was in the middle of mixing the batter for pancakes.

"Sure," Sofia replied. "On my way home with Anthony's insulin. Can't wait to kiss your pretty face. God, you guys are like one big soap opera," Sofia commented with a roll of eyes and faked to throw up before carrying on. "And to fuck yo- DIOS FUCKING MIO MY EYES," Sofia yelled, shuddering in horror, and quickly threw the phone on top of the kitchen counter as if it had just burned her skin. "I'm going to need at least two years of therapy to get over that text."

Arizona could only imagine what the end of Amelia's sentence was and she looked apologetically at her daughter, "Oh, baby, I'm so-"

The Latina quickly put her hand up to silence her mom. "Nope. No talking. I'm going to feed the chickens and when I come back inside, this will have never happened," Sofia said and slipped her shoes on before heading outside.

When the neurosurgeon arrived home barely twenty minutes later, the smell of food and freshly brewed coffee welcomed her. Arizona was in the middle of flipping pancakes and she could hear the sound of cartoons coming from the living room which meant James was up.

She quickly discarded her shoes and her coat before walking up to the couch. Sure enough, her youngest son was lying on the couch with his eyes glued on the TV's screen and he was sporting one of the worst case of bedhead Amelia had ever seen. God, she was already fearing detangling this mess.

"Good morning munchkin'," she greeted him and kissed his forehead.

"Mornin' 'Melia," he replied sleepily.

Amelia could tell he hadn't been up for long so she decided to let him be until he was more awake and instead headed to the kitchen.

"Hello baby," she came up behind her wife and wrapped her arms around her midsection, her chin finding its place onto Arizona's shoulder.

"Good morning beautiful," the pediatric surgeon replied and tilted her head to the side to kiss Amelia's cheek. "How was your shift?"

"None of my patients died so I guess one could say I did awesome."

"One means you, right?" Arizona teased playfully with an eyebrow raised.

"Hey!" Amelia said indignantly and she gently swatted the blonde's side. "Asshole," she chastised lovingly and let go of the blonde to place the insulin into the fridge.

Arizona giggled as she put the last now-finally-cooked pancake aside and turned off the heat. "Just kidding. You're allowed to think you did great and to be proud of yourself, 'Melia."

The brunette jumped up on top of the kitchen counter to sit next to Arizona. The blonde moved in between her knees and let her fingers stroll up Amelia's thighs, giving her a flirty smile as they did so. Amelia raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"Confidence is very sexy," she said seductively in a low voice as she slowly leaned in.

The brunette's face immediately relaxed and a familiar feeling awakened in between her thighs. Her lips met Arizona's halfway and let herself be pulled into a languid kiss. Out of breath, she pulled away and a satisfied sigh escaped her. Arizona chuckled at her slightly dazzled look and softly squeezed her thighs. Amelia shook her head to chase away the dirty thoughts that clouded her mind.

"What about you? How were the kids last night?" she asked, needing a distraction.

"Well, dinner was a mess as usual. Harpy and Sof went to bed fairly early so Jamie decided he and Tony should have a boys' night."

"What did Jamie make Anthony do?"

"BFF bracelets," Arizona said with a fond smile and Amelia chuckled as she pictured the five years old coaxing the seventeen years old into making bright-colored beads bracelets with him.

"Damn, he truly has all of us wrapped around his little finger, doesn't he? Is he the only one up yet?" she gently lay her arms onto the blonde's shoulders, not wanting the blonde to go away just yet.

"No, Sofia's outside feeding the chickens, but the others are still sleeping. I think you may have traumatized the kid."

"What? Why? What did I do? I wasn't even there," she frowned.

"You know your cute text? I was cooking so Sofia read it out loud to me."

Amelia gave her a puzzled look and her eyebrows furrowed in lack of understanding, "Okay? And wha- oh," she stopped mid-sentence when realization hit her, her mouth forming a perfect o-shape.

"Yes, oh. She's been feeding the chickens for almost twenty minutes now," the blonde giggled and gently caressed her wife's thighs to bring her some comfort.

"Zona?" James asked shyly as he looked up from his boat toy in the bath, abruptly stopping his splashing around.

"What, Jamie boy?" the pediatric surgeon asked back with a kind smile.

She was sitting next to the bathtub directly onto the bathroom floor, playing with him. James was the only one out of all their kids, fostered or adopted, that ethnically looked like he was biologically theirs. His fair skin, long wavy blonde hair and clear blue eyes... he was the spitting image of Arizona.

He looked down, obviously thinking over whatever he was going to ask and his face turned into a focused scowl. A look that held way too much seriousness to belong on the five years old's face. Eventually, he made up his mind and his eyes searched up to find Arizona's.

"Are ya and 'Melia my mommies now?" he asked hesitantly.

Arizona froze in place and a gasp escaped her before she could even try to stop it. She could feel the blood loudly pumping into her ears and her heart skipped a beat, maybe two. James had been living with them for a little over five months now and while Amelia and she were expecting the question at some point, both women thought it wouldn't come until much, much, later.

Her wife and she didn't expect any of their foster children to call them moms. They loved and cared for each of them, they were their legal guardians and there was no doubt in their mind that Anthony, Harper and now James were theirs. Harper and Anthony had already been teenagers when they had first come to live with them. They had been old enough to decide what they had wanted to call their foster parents. Both surgeons respected their choices to call them whatever they felt the most comfortable with. Anthony used the moms on occasion, though he usually just called them by their names. Harper had pretty much converted to the mom and ma by now. Sofia had been partial to the mom and 'Melia, Ma being for Calliope.

"I-uh…" she was at loss of words, rendered speechless by a five years old.

"I know I had Daddy and Mommy before but they're dead now," he said somehow sadly but he willed himself to be stronger, his little hands fidgeting with his plastic toy boat, a habit Arizona knew he had picked up from Amelia. "But now I live with ya and 'Melia and you do everythin' like my mommy and my daddy used to. So are you my new mommies now?"

"We're fostering you. Your daddy and your mommy will always be Jennifer and Daniel, sweetheart," Arizona said with a reassuring smile, her thumb lovingly caressing his cheek.

After a lengthy discussion, Amelia and she had agreed that it was important to keep the memories of James' now deceased parents alive. They obviously didn't know a lot about Jennifer and Daniel, just what James had told them but they wanted to make sure that James knew it was okay to talk about them and to miss them. They even had the only picture of them James' had of his parents framed so it wouldn't get too damaged by time.

"Yeah, I know. But ya're raisin' me, ya're takin' me to school, ya're punishin' me when I'm bein' too silly, ya're tuckin' me at night, ya love me and I love ya… Sometimes, when ya and 'Melia pick me up from school, I pretend that ya're my mommies and that Anthony and Sofia and Harper are my big brother and my big sisters."

Arizona's heart skipped a few beats again and she was very thankful she was already sitting down because she was sure her knee would have given out had she been standing up. Her eyes prickled as she tried her hardest to hold her happy tears back.

"You do?"

"Yeah," he said eagerly and blushed right after, obviously surprised by his own small outburst.

A tear made its way out and once the waterworks were turned on, there was no more holding back. Tears rolled down Arizona's cheeks one after another at an alarming speed and a warm wave of love and affection washed over her whole body, leaving her feeling all mushy inside. The only thing missing in this moment was Amelia, who was at work. Arizona couldn't wait to share this moment with her lover. She was pretty sure the brunette would have a reaction similar to her own, no doubt they would both be crying messes as soon as Amelia was home.

"Please don't cry! I'm so sorry, I'll never bring it up again. Please, stop! I'm sorry," James started crying too, upset because firstly, he had just made the blonde cry and secondly, because she didn't want him to call her mommy.

"Oh, they're happy tears, sweetheart," Arizona immediately reassured him with a chuckle and grinned widely at him. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hands and sniffled. "Come here," she opened her arms and the little boy lost no time in throwing himself into them, water and all.

Arizona couldn't care less that her shirt was wet or that he had just poured water all over the bathroom floor in his enthusiasm. She took a deep breath in, the familiar smell of James' artificial fruity shampoo invaded her nose and his warm steady breath tickled her neck.

"I love you so much," she whispered to him and kissed the top of his head.

"I love ya too, mommy," he mumbled into the crook of her neck.

"Mom?"

The pediatric surgeon stopped what she was doing, leaned her rake against the wire fence of the chicken coop and re-adjusted her cap to get a better look at her daughter who was standing a few feet away from her, just outside of the henhouse. "Oh, hey Harp. What's up?"

"Can I borrow you for a few minutes?"

"Right now?" the blonde rubbed the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Please?" Harper nodded. "We have something to tell you and Ma. It'll be quick, I promise. It's not like the chickens are going anywhere anyway."

Arizona's eyebrows shot up almost comically high in surprise. "We?"

"Jamie, Tony, Sof and I."

Now, the blonde was intrigued. What latest non-sense had their kids come up with? It wasn't a rare occasion for the four of them to gang up behind their legal guardians'/moms' backs to discuss what they felt like were important family matters or house-related stuff. So far, it had led to the purchase of a new video-game console, a heated debate about the toilet seat (eventually, it had been decided that it was to stay down) and a new distribution of household chores.

"What's going on, sweetie? You're kind of scaring me," she asked as she followed the African-American teenager inside the house anyway.

She was even more confused when she found her wife already sitting on the sofa, their other three kids standing in front of them on the other side of the coffee table. It very much felt like they were going to do a presentation but on what subject, Arizona had no idea. Harper gestured at her to take a seat, which she did.

"What's going on?" she whisper-asked to the brunette as she sat down next to her, her hand strolling onto Amelia's thigh.

"Your guess is as good as mine sweetie, I have no earthy idea. I was in the middle of cutting up some vegetables for dinner when Anthony came and got me."

"Mushrooms?" James interjected excitedly.

"Oh, bud," Anthony said with a sad yet comprehensive tone. "We already ate mushrooms at lunch."

"So? I liked 'em a lot."

"Yeah, you did," Harper huffed out and mocked, "You had sauce allllllll over yourself."

"Fuck off, he's five," Anthony scolded Harper. "I'm with you on this one, bro. Those were some delicious mushrooms," he fist-bumped his little brother and James beamed at his big brother's support.

Sofia cleared her throat loudly to get everyone's attention. "Maybe we should get back on why we're here?" she suggested before things could escalate any further.

"And why are we here exactly?" Arizona asked.

"It's nothing bad, you guys relax," Sofia said with a reassuring smile that did very little to appease Amelia's and Arizona's worries.

"So, you already know how we all would like to have a pet," Anthony started softly, his tone uncertain.

"Other than the chickens!" James stepped in.

He was probably the only one in their family along Arizona to consider them as pets and not simply as fowls and egg-makers.

"Other than the chickens of course," Anthony re-assured.

The neurosurgeon started to open her mouth to argue but Sofia held her hand up to stop her.

"We know, we know. Harper's allergic to almost everything with hair, we don't know if the next child we'll foster as any animal phobias, and who is going to take care of it and where will it live and what if we go on vacation and yada yada yada," Sofia said in a fed-up tone, repeating the speech they had heard God-only-knew-how-many-times from their moms over the last few years.

"What animal could we adopt? Something hairless, not scary, doesn't mind the chickens, budget friendly…"

"Good to pet," James added.

"Took us a few hours to all agree but eventually, we found the perfect pet for our family. You want to do the honors, Jamie boy?" Harper asked her little brother.

"TURTLES!" James exclaimed proudly, throwing both of his arms up with excitement, his toothy grin eating half his face.

"Or more precisely, Hermann's tortoise," Harper corrected gently. "They're about yeah big, cute black and yellow shell. They mainly eat weeds, like dandelions, nettles, grass… all of this kind of stuff that grows right into our backwards, so we wouldn't really have to buy any food for them."

Arizona knew it must have taken them hours to agree on the right pet, so the fact that they had all come together and had taken time to brain-storm together, warmed her heart. Innocent moments like this… she never felt more accomplished than in those moments. Whether their children were adopted, fostered, or biological, in innocent moment like this, they proved to Arizona and Amelia that they were, above all, a family. The big, loud, diverse and loving family the surgeons had dreamed about when they had first wanted to foster had now become their reality.

"All we would really have to do is to build an enclosure for them. It would cost approximately a hundred dollar in raw material and the girls and I could build it. We thought, if that's alright with you Arizona of course, that we could use the Grim Reaper's space."

"The Grim Reaper's space?" Arizona asked with an eyebrow raised, not knowing what Anthony was referring to.

"You know, the space where you tried to plant absolutely every single plant available on the market for the past three years but nothing ever takes?"

"They're not wrong, babe," Amelia agreed sympathetically and supportively squeezed the hand on her thigh.

Realistically, Arizona knew that that damn patch of grass was doomed, but she still had hope that one day, one day or another, she would plant something there and it would survive for more than three months. Maybe it was time to take a step back and accept that this dream would probably never turn into a reality.

"But where would we find such creatures you might ask? Well, Sof and I find this old couple online. They're moving out of their home into an apartment to be closer to the city, and since they don't have any kids, they're giving their two tortoises away. They live near Cumberland, we know it's a little far away but look at the pictures they posted," Harper took her phone out and found the right pictures before handing her phone out to her moms.

Amelia let out a little happy sigh at the sight and a small smile grew onto Arizona's lips.

"Ain't they cute, mommies?" James asked them with big doe eyes.

"They certainly are," Amelia affirmed. That much couldn't be denied, they were cute.

"Hairless? Checked. Not scary? Checked. Doesn't mind the chickens? Couldn't care less. Budget friendly? Abso-fucking-lutely. Good to pet? Also checked. Plus, you know, cuteness overload."

Arizona looked over at Amelia, completely astonished that their children had come together and had actually done that. The tortoises did look awfully cute and the kids had obviously done their researches.

"What do you think?" Anthony asked.

"I don't know what to say."

"You could say yes."

"You guys really did think of everything, didn't you?" Amelia asked.

"Come on, mommies!" James put his head onto Arizona's knees, putting on his best pout on. "They need a family."

Arizona looked at her wife and squeezed her thigh. Amelia seemed as shaken up and as proud as her.

"Well, your case has been heard but your mama and I need to discuss it a little more in depth before we make any executive decision, okay?"

"Harpy, can you send me the link to that tortoise post so we can contact the owners if we need to, please?"

"Sure ma," Harper complied eagerly, because this was definitely a good sign.

Two weeks later, the six of them found themselves sitting in the grass, completely in awe as Donatello and Flash were safely discovering their newly built home.

They had been a little hesitant when they had first read Elliot's file. The boy was eight years old, beautiful Asian features, deep green eyes and the toothiest of smile. His favorite activity to do in the whole wide world was apparently to solve puzzles. He liked superheroes and was really passionate about animals. The thought of him meeting their pets and the neighbor's dog brought a smile onto Amelia's face. However, the words "prone to tantrums", "selective mutism", "severe dyslexia", "lone wolf", "extreme shyness" made them a little unsure about meeting him. After lengthily talking it out with his social worker, Karen, they eventually agreed to at least arrange an encounter with the boy.

A week later, Arizona and Amelia were standing inside Elliot's group home. They had seen their fair share of group homes by now and this one was clearly on the sad side. Not a lot of space, lots of children, plenty of sharp-edged furniture to bang against… Elliot was a very quiet soul, rarely talking unless prompted to do so. After a good twenty minutes together, the Asian-American started to loosen up and to open up. Sure, he wasn't the most talkative kid but they still considered it a win, especially acknowledging his selective mutism, his timidity and the many warnings from Karen that he might not talk to them. They primarily talked about things Elliot was interested in so that he would feel comfortable and safe.

Something kept running through Arizona's mind the whole meeting though. And the more time they passed with him, the more the thoughts were present. Little facts about him would register into her brain before she could stop them. And she kind of hated that she was a pediatrician right now. It was supposed to be a bonding moment, yet the doctor inside of her wouldn't stop butting in. She registered the way Elliot would flinch whenever one of the other kids would yell or that there was a loud sound, the way he would more often than not not get a joke, the way he always swiftly moved away to avoid any touching... Add to that, tantrums, lone wolf and selective mutism… One word kept on glaring at her from the back of her mind.

Autism. Elliot wasn't a difficult kid like his file made him out to be. He was just autistic. Now, of course, they had just met the kid so the blonde couldn't say for sure but she was around enough autistic children on a daily basis to notice a few obvious tell-tales signs. She let out a breath of relief. At least, knowing meant she could adapt her behavior and hopefully make Elliot feel more at ease around them.

She felt someone squeeze her leg and she noticed she had zoned out. The brunette sitting next to her gave her a concerned look, her eyebrow slightly furrowed but Arizona gave her a reassuring smile.

"Later, babe. Nothing important," she whispered to Amelia and kissed her cheek before giving her attention back to Elliot.

"The real question is: are we ready to provide for an autistic kid?" Amelia asked as she joined Arizona under the sheets.

"Do you have doubts?" the pediatric surgeon asked and turned around to lie on her left side to look at Amelia.

Her hand slowly roamed up her wife's thigh until it reached her waist and she soothingly caressed her hipbone. Elliot had been occupying Amelia's brain as of late, which she could understand. She, too, had been thinking about him a lot, the picture of him biting his bottom lip to hide his smile and his hands curling up into small fists in enjoyment warming her heart every time it would come to her mind. While she knew Amelia was absolutely as smitten with him as her, the brunette had obviously been over-thinking his autism a lot more than her. She had caught Amelia reading an article on meltdowns a few days ago, she had been talking to Phoebe's mom, one of Harper's and Sofia's friend that happened to be autistic, most in the last week than in the past year they had known her… While Arizona found Amelia's newfound need to suddenly know everything about autism in order to understand Elliot better utterly adorable, she knew this new obsession was deeply rooted in self-doubt, insecurity and low confidence. So Arizona had let her mull it over, let her figure her feelings and thoughts out on her own… but after two weeks, Arizona thought it was finally time for them to address the big elephant in the room.

"I'm- I'm not sure that I'm the person he needs," the neurosurgeon admitted, her voice coming out feebler and more vulnerable than she would have liked.

"He may be autistic but he is still just a kid, 'Melia. What he needs is the same thing as Harper, or Anthony or Jamie. People caring for him and loving him, making him feel secure and looking out for him so that he can grow up into the best version of himself."

"I know that. It's just," her fingers came to nervously toy with the hem of Arizona's sleeping shirt as she gathered her thoughts. "You work with autistic kids with all the time. You know how they process, how they think, how to act accordingly-"

Arizona opened her mouth to argue but Amelia held a finger up before she could get a word out, indicating that she wasn't done.

"I know, I know, autism is a spectrum and every autistic person is different. But you still have knowledge that I don't. What do I do when he has a meltdown? What if I do or say the wrong thing and make it worse? The more I learn, the more I realize there are a million things that I don't know. How can I make him feel safe and sound and loved when I'm so unsure of myself all the time?"

Arizona's chuckle surprised her. She didn't know what reaction she had been expecting from Arizona, but it certainly wasn't giggles. The brunette frowned at her wife, her fingers stopping their movement.

"I'm not mocking you, baby, I swear," she pecked the brunette's lips in reassurance. "It baffles me how you're so invested in this yet, you're second guessing yourself so much. God, you're so fucking blind sometimes."

Amelia's frown deepened, not understanding what the pediatric surgeon was implying.

"You really don't see it, do you?" Arizona asked lovingly and let go of her hip to push a fallen brunette lock back behind Amelia's ear. She bored her bright blue eyes into Amelia's. "The very fact that you're even thinking about all of those things is the very reason why we should foster him. That, that thing you've been doing over those last two weeks, is typical foster parent's behavior. It's the same as when we first started to foster Harper and we learned all of those Muslim-related stuff so she would feel accepted and cared for and most important of all, loved. Sure, we didn't get it all right right away and we made a few mistakes at first, but after a while, with some efforts and a lot of talking with her, we learned. It's no different with Elliot. We're not going it be foster parents to an autistic kid, we're going to be foster parents."

"I just… I like him so much, 'Zona. He's so precious," the neurosurgeon said with a small and tentative smile.

The blonde smiled back at her, much more confidently, "I know, baby. I like him a lot too. That lip-biting thing he did when we put that challenging puzzle's last piece in during our last meeting? I swear my heart swooned at how hard he was trying to hide his smile."

"Right? He looked so damn proud of himself. Did you notice how cute his dimples are whenever he does that?"

Sparkles illuminated her wife's eyes and Arizona recognized that look immediately, having getting well acquainted with it over the years. Deep-rooted and utter visceral maternal love. She was happy to see Amelia finally letting go of her self-doubt and fear of failure to instead give way to her excitement and her hopefulness over the possibility of fostering Elliot. To see the brunette allowing her heart to feel it without her brain censoring it. Seeing Amelia so ecstatic never failed to make butterflies erupt in the blonde's stomach.

"Don't even get me started on those dimples. It was so freakiiiiing hard to not give in and kiss them," Arizona replied while pushing the brunette onto her back and moving on top of her in one swift move. "I love you so much," Arizona murmured against the other woman's lips before pulling her into a sweet kiss.

She felt Amelia's hands wander under her sleeping shirt, one hand strolled to her lower back while the other roamed to her butt and gave it a soft squeeze.

"I love you too," Amelia lovingly whispered back and pecked her, pulling away with a wide grin. "We're going to foster again."

"We are," Arizona said with a smile just as big, "I think this calls for a celebration," she smirked.

Before Amelia could even ask what she was implying, lips landed on her jaw to lavish it with lustful kisses. The brunette closed her eyes and she let out an appreciative sigh when Arizona sealed her mouth onto her pulse point.

"Mmmmh-mmmmh, it does," Amelia agreed, her mind already half-clouded with desire.

Arizona let go of her skin just before she could leave a mark. Fingers tangled into honey blonde hair, short fingernails gently scrapping her scalp, and she was pulled into a languid kiss. Amelia's lips powerfully crashed against hers and her tongue invaded her mouth quickly, exploring her with fervor. The sound of the toilet being flushed down the hallway suddenly slowed them down though.

"We should probably celebrate with a locked door, though," Arizona suggested.

"We definitely should."

When Elliot moved in with them a little over a month after meeting him for the first time, the surgeons had made sure that their other kids weren't around so he wouldn't feel too overwhelmed. Harper and Sofia were currently staying at Callie's place while Anthony and James were at Derek's.

Until then, they had always let their foster kids decide how they wanted to decorate their room. It was going to be their space after all, so it was natural to bedeck it as they wished to. After debating it for a long time though, they had eventually chosen to decorate Elliot's room beforehand. Hopefully, it would make him feel more at home and help to make the transition more seamless. So with the kids' help, they had filled the room with plenty of stuff they knew Elliot liked. They wanted the room to feel as cozy and as secure as possible for him.

The little gasp and the few tears that escaped Elliot when he entered his new room made every hammer hit Arizona had inadvertently hit onto her fingers rather than onto the nails instantly worth it.

You try telling an overexcited, awfully touchy feely and outrageously out-going five years old kid that his new foster brother wasn't big on physical contact. James had been unconditionally ecstatic since his moms had told him they were going to foster an eight years old and that it would potentially lead to his adoption. Their youngest loved his elder brother and sisters, but they were much older than him so he was thrilled to have a new brother only a few years older than him.

Barely had his eyes landed on Elliot, was he sprinting towards him. He hugged him with all his might, momentarily forgetting all about his moms' warnings in his excitement. At first, Elliot didn't react. He stood frozen in place, neither pushing James away, neither reciprocating the embrace. Amelia's breath caught in her throat and she felt Arizona's squeeze her upper arm in worry. Both surgeons were feeling really apprehensive and were fearing a meltdown from sensory overload but they didn't dare to interfere until it was crystal clear that Elliot was upset. A few seconds later, the Asian-American pushed the other boy away and a few tears ran down his cheeks.

"Shit," Arizona murmured.

"What- why ya cryin'?" James asked him with a puzzled look with furrowed eyebrows, not understanding Elliot's behavior.

"Hey baby, why don't we go inside and let Elliot have a little breathing room?" Amelia asked James as she took his hand in hers and gently pulled him into the house, letting Arizona and Elliot together.

"Did I do somethin' wrong, mama?" he asked, obviously confused about what had just happened.

On one hand, the neurosurgeon didn't want James to feel guilty or bad but on the other hand, she knew it was important to explain to him why his behavior might have been a little too much for Elliot to handle so that he could adjust it. "Oh, baby. Remember what we talked about with mommy? About Elliot being autistic?"

The little boy nodded. "Yeah. Means he's more sensitive so we have to be extra-careful 'round him."

"Exactly. And you remember what we said about touching?"

"To ask Elliot first?"

"Yes, and you running towards him and hugging him without asking, do you think it was being extra-careful?" she asked calmly, wanting James to figure out on his own what he had done wrong instead of him feeling like he was being punished for something he didn't understand.

"I was just so excited mama," he admitted with a saddened sigh.

Amelia kissed his forehead and sympathized, "I know, baby. I know."

"He's gonna be okay?"

"Of course he'll be okay, buddy. He just need a little time alone to calm down."

"Do ya think he's mad at me?" his fingers started to toy with his mama's.

"I don't think so. But I think apologizing wouldn't hurt."

Thankfully, with Arizona's help, Elliot recovered from his meltdown pretty quickly. Being older, the teenagers understood better how to adapt their behaviors to Elliot, greeting him quietly and kindly, never touching him unless Elliot initiated the contact first.

"I'm sorry 'bout earlier. I didn't mean to scare ya," James told him once his brother and his sisters had introduced themselves.

James was standing a few feet away and Arizona could tell it was on purpose, out of fear of upsetting Elliot again.

"It's okay," Elliot said, obviously feeling a little hesitant towards the other kid and trying to figure out where to stand.

"Nah. I'm really sorry I made ya cry. Can I hug ya better?"

"No," Elliot said firmly and took a step back, a little fearful.

"Why?"

"Because I don't like touching."

"Oh," he said, disappointed. "How do people show ya they love ya then?""

"I-I," Elliot frowned, trying to think. "I don't know."

Arizona could swear she felt her heart cave inside her chest. The fact that Elliot didn't know what it felt like to be loved was absolutely heartbreaking. She heard someone sniffle next to her and sure enough, her wife was doing her hardest to defy gravity by not letting the few unshed tears filling her eyes fall down. Arizona gently grabbed her forearm and pulled her closer until she could wrap her arm around her shoulders protectively. Amelia let out a deep breath as she pushed back down her emotions.

"I know, sweetie. But he's here now and that's all that counts," Arizona murmured to her before she dropped a kiss onto her temple and softly squeezed her shoulder.

Amelia simply nodded, knowing Arizona understood exactly how she was feeling.

"It's okay, we'll figure somethin' out!" James announced with a sincere smile like it was the simplest thing in the world. "I love ya."

"You don't, you don't know anything about me."

"But I wanna."

"Why?"

"Because ya're gonna live here and be a part of our family and all my sisters and my big brother and our mommies are my best friends and I love all of them."

They would never forget the first time Elliot broke a glass. He was walking towards the kitchen to put it into the sink so someone else would put it in the dishwasher since he was too small to do so when he accidently slipped. The glass shattered onto the floor loudly and sent glass shards flying absolutely everywhere and he inadvertently fell down straight in the middle of it. Anthony, who was playing video games with his sisters in the living room, dropped his joystick as soon as he heard the crash and ran towards the Asian-American. Harper and Sofia turned around to look at them over the back of the couch, the video game suddenly forgotten.

"Fuck! Elliot?"

"NO! PLEASE, I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO! I'LL CLEAN IT, PLEASE!" Elliot crawled away from him as fast as he could and curled his body up into the tiniest ball humanly possible, wrapping his arms around his knees and putting his hands over his ears.

Elliot's tone shocked everyone within earshot. The three teenagers couldn't believe that this big voice had just come out of the child's mouth. The eight years old didn't talk much and whenever he did, his voice was always really soft, rarely louder than the volume one would use to converse with someone a few feet away from them. So, to hear him shout sure got all of their attentions.

Amelia, who was putting new sheets on with James' help rushed out of the bedroom as soon as she heard the commotion, her son hot on her heels. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had just happened and what all of that ruckus was about.

One second, tears were prickling Elliot's eyes and the next they were rolling down his cheeks, a hiccup escaping him. Drips of blood were running down his hands. Before the adult could say anything, Anthony knelt next to him, mindful of the glass shards, and held out his hand in order to get him out of the cutting hazard surrounding them. Elliot's eyes almost popped out of their sockets in fear, and he crawled further away, tears falling down faster than before.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" he yelled with a sob.

Amelia's heart broke when she realized that Elliot thought Anthony was going to physically hurt him. He was scared. More than scared, he was absolutely fucking terrified. The touching, the loud noises, people rushing towards him, all of this in less than two minutes… No wonder Elliot was having a meltdown. While she still felt like Arizona was way better at handling them than she was, Amelia was getting more comfortable at it, learning and understanding something new with every meltdown and with every lengthy discussion about them with Elliot.

"Would you guys mind going to your rooms for a few minutes?" The neurosurgeon suggested to her children, knowing that the less people were around, the better.

"I-yeah. Sure," Anthony replied, feeling like a failure for scaring Elliot further by trying to touch him.

She could see that her children were a little astounded and clearly wanted to stay and help out but they complied anyway. Once everybody was gone, Amelia turned her attention back to a still-sobbing Elliot. Of course, all she wanted to do was to take Elliot in her arms and away from all the shards, to clean up his wounds and to hold him close until he was feeling okay again. Except, she could do none of that. It would be extremely counterproductive and wasn't what Elliot needed.

"Elliot, I'm going to sit down where I'm standing, okay?" she asked softly.

The little boy looked up at her warily through his tears and gave her the faintest of nods. She sat down exactly where she was standing, not moving an inch closer to him to not scare him.

"Is that better now that it's just you and me?"

He nodded again, this time more firmly.

"Elliot, I promise nobody is mad at you. I don't care about the glass, but I do care about you. Are you hurting anywhere?"

The Asian-American shook his head. At least, the little cuts onto his hands weren't painful.

"Can you use your voice baby?"

Elliot shook his head vehemently.

"Alright, you just hold up your hand if I do or say something wrong. It's okay to be scared. It was really scary and all of a sudden, there were a lot of people, uh? Do you want me to get you your stuffie?"

He shook his head, not wanting the adult to go away.

"Do you want me to stay here?" she asked, making sure he wanted her here.

He nodded.

"Okay, then I'm going to stay right here. I'm not going to come any closer. Do you want to just sit in silence until you're feeling alright?"

Elliot nodded, needing the quiet after the sensory overload. His head felt like it was about to explode, blood pumping loudly in his ears. Just sitting there and doing absolutely nothing while watching Elliot's tears subside and his breathing coming back to normal was one the hardest thing Amelia ever had to do. Her maternal instinct was screaming at her to envelop him with tenderness and love, to whisper sweet nothings to him.

After a good fifteen minutes of sitting together in silence, Elliot wasn't crying anymore and he looked around him, seemingly seeing the glass shards littering the kitchen floor for the first time. The neurosurgeon could see the wheels turning inside his head.

"It's okay, it was just a glass. Just furniture," Amelia reassured him. "Are you feeling ready to get up now?"

He nodded and got up. Amelia followed his lead, her joints crackling loudly as she got up.

"How about we clean up your hands? I know you don't want to be touched but we really need to get those glass bits out."

Elliot looked down at his hands for a long time, pondering Amelia's words. The neurosurgeon knew the physical contact was probably putting him off but she needed to get the shards out.

"I promise I'll be as gentle as I can and I'll tell you every time I'm going to touch you."

Eventually, the Asian-American agreed and followed the neurosurgeon to the bathroom. Amelia cleaned up the little wounds onto his palms, describing to him everything she was doing and Elliot was watching her every move. To his credit, he didn't flinch or moved away and Amelia wondered if it was because she was describing what she was doing or because Elliot was slowly coming back to normal.

"No serious boo-boo so you don't need any band-aids."

She could tell Elliot hesitating to say something, his lips were pursed and he was looking at her cautiously.

"Kiss it better?" Elliot asked shyly after a long moment of consideration.

Amelia's heart skipped a beat at the question. First, because he had just talked and two, because he was asking for physical contact. She tenderly kissed both of his palms with a caring smile before releasing them.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"No. Wanna rest," Elliot said with a shake of his head.

Amelia smiled reassuringly at him. She knew meltdowns usually took a lot of energy out of Elliot and he needed some alone time after.

"Okay, but we'll have to talk about it later, alright?"

"'Kay."

She opened the door and they found four children with their ears pressed against the door. When it opened, they all stumbled forward but recovered quickly by pretending to look around the bathroom with great interest, as if they hadn't been just caught spying.

"I uh- I cleaned up the shards," Harper informed them.

"Thanks," Elliot replied timidly.

"You're more than welcome, buddy."

"Ya feelin' better now?" James asked, his brows slightly furrowed.

It was still hard for James to understand his brother's autism. Their three teenagers had adjusted quickly and while James was trying his very best, it was a difficult concept to grasp for him. Moreover, his personality was very out-going, extraverted and touchy-feely and at five years old, he didn't quite have the self-control to stop his natural instincts yet. He was getting better at it though. Elliot had been living with them for only a little over a month now and Arizona and Amelia could already see the small changes.

"No," Amelia mumbled out grumpily as she hit snooze.

Arizona was heard chuckling sleepily next to her and the brunette buried herself further into her pillow, refusing to accept the fact that it was time to wake up. She felt her wife move around and soon enough, she was rolled softly onto her back, lips wandered up her neck only to finish their race onto her mouth, pulling her into a sweet kiss.

"Mmmh, yes," Amelia mumbled with her eyes still closed and pulled her into another kiss.

Amelia's fingertips unhurriedly brushed down Arizona's ribcage until she reached her lower back and slipped her hands under her sleeping shirt, the warm skin shivering at the welcome intrusion.

"Good morning babe," she whispered against the blonde's lips with a smile.

"Good morning indeed," Arizona replied, her voice tinted with sleepiness and burgeoning desire.

Arizona laced their legs together as her mouth found her wife's once more. Her tongue caressed Amelia's bottom lip and not even a beat later, her mouth opened and she deepened the kiss. Thumbs lovingly rubbed her back back and forth and she let out a satisfied sigh. She felt her body melt under the touch and her right hand was strolling up Amelia's waist when a loud rooster yell was heard.

"Fuck this rooster," Amelia whined sulkily and the blonde chuckled.

"I'd rather fuck you instead."

"I like where your pretty head's at," Amelia said in one breath and she tangled one of her hand into honey blonde hair.

"Wait until it's in between your legs, you'll like it even more," Arizona flirted back.

"God, you're the best wife ever."

Arizona giggled. "I do try," she gently pecked the brunette before pushing away the sheets carelessly.

One would think that with five kids under their roof, Amelia would have learned to wear pajamas by now. This wasn't the case. She had tried to, especially after James had moved in with them since knocking had been a foreign concept for him at first. But eventually, she realized that if she wanted to be able to sleep, restfully sleep without turning around every five minutes and wake up every hour, the pajamas would have to go.

The pediatric surgeon shimmied down so she could capture a nipple into her mouth. She heard Amelia's breath get caught in the back of her throat and her back arched forward, seeking more contact. Arizona glanced up at the clock on the nightstand and since it was a school day, she knew their kids would be up soon so they had to be quick. The nipple instantly turned hard and the blonde's tongue softly stroked it which earned her a satisfied sigh. She switched side, her mouth closing in around the other bud and gave it just the same treatment. Short nails scrapped her scalp and hips eagerly rolled under her as the brunette spread her thighs apart to accommodate Arizona better.

Not losing any more time getting distracted by her wife's breasts, no matter how much she loved them, Arizona headed further south. Hands took over where her mouth had just been and her fingertips teased the buds with well-practiced ease. She kissed her way down Amelia's body, skin shivered at the contact of warm plump lips and the grip onto her hair tightened. She could feel Amelia's heat growing against her belly and she couldn't wait to taste her.

"MOMMIES!" was yelled from the hallway, followed right after by the sound of little feet hitting the ground loudly.

Amelia whined harder than previously out of frustration and let her arms fall by her side in a dramatic motion, which made the pediatric surgeon laugh. She placed a light kiss onto her wife's sternum and let herself fall next to the brunette, pulling the sheets up alongside her to cover the both of them. Without much surprise, a knock came from their door only a few seconds later.

"Yes?"

A bright smiling James barged in and crawled up in between his mothers on the bed. His long blond hair was a wild tangled mess and his smile was starting to miss a few teeth here and there.

"Hey!" he greeted them cheerfully.

Between their usually three broody teenagers at home, James' and Elliot's optimistic and sunny attitudes were becoming more and more appreciated by the day.

"Morning Jamie," Arizona pushed a few locks of hair around, trying to tame it but not succeeding. "Did you sleep well?"

He eagerly nodded. "Yeah."

"Are the others up yet?"

He shrugged. "I dunno."

"Time to go and wake them up then," Amelia said. "How about you go wake Anthony? I'm sure he'll be happy to see your pretty face first thing in the morning."

"Ya think I'm pretty?" he pointed his index towards his chest.

"Of course you are sweetheart! You're very pretty," Arizona confirmed.

"Thank ya," he blushed slightly at the compliment but his face was beaming. "But ya the prettiest, mommy!"

Amelia pretended to be appalled, a fake-betrayed look overtook her features and she put a hand on her heart. "What about me?"

"I guess you're okay," Arizona playfully replied back with a nonchalant shrug and stuck her tongue out to the neurosurgeon.

Amelia's mouth fell wide open at the teasing remark.

"No! Mama and mommy are both as pretty!" Jamie exclaimed and he hugged them both.

Amelia dropped a kiss on top of his head. "Thank you, munchkin. At least someone in this family loves me," she gave her wife a pointed look. "Go wake big Anthony, okay buddy?"

"Kay mama!" he nodded and he placed a wet kiss onto their cheeks before running out of their room.

Amelia snuggled into the blonde, taking great delight into her softness. "God, I just want a peaceful morning and have a quickie with my wife before we have to go to work, is it too much to ask?"

"We can finish this later," Arizona chuckled and sweetly kissed the other woman's forehead.

As much as she wanted to finish their quickie too, once one of their kids was up on a school day, she knew there was simply no way of being intimate. Not without them being late for school or scaring one of their children for life.

"Come on, these kids aren't going to wake themselves up. I'll get the girls, you'll get the boys?"

Amelia nodded before getting up and putting some pajamas on, not without some leftover dissatisfaction. She went to Elliot's room, letting the door slightly ajar so the light could enter the room. Elliot was lying onto his belly, starfished in the middle of the bed and occupying all the space he had at his disposal. As much as Elliot didn't like physical contact, he disliked the loud and scary sound of an alarm clock even more, so every morning one of the surgeons would gently rub his arm up and down and whisper sweet nothings to him until he was awake enough to get up

"Elliot, wake up buddy," she whispered in a kind tone.

His face scrunched up and he moved around, coming to consciousness slowly. He rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes with his fists.

"'Melia?" he mumbled, all sleepy like.

"It's me. Time to get out of bed and to get ready for school, sweetheart," she murmured as she pushed a few brunette locks away from his beautiful eyes.

The Asian-American yawned and he sat up, pushing the sheets away and extending his arms up, prompting Amelia to carry him. The simple fact that Elliot initiated the contact made the brunette's heart swell with fulfillment and love. She settled him onto her left hip, thanking God he was so lightweight. They passed by Anthony's room, which was empty meaning James had accomplished his mission.

She could hear the sound of TV and the coffee machine in the background. James was already sitting on the couch, hypnotized by the bright and colorful cartoons, and Amelia slowly lowered Elliot down next to him before heading towards the kitchen.

"Good morning Anthony."

The teenager lifted his gaze up from the coffee machine. "G'morning Amelia," he bent down to kiss her cheek.

"You already dressed?" she asked as they both set the breakfast items out on the table for everyone.

"Yeah, I'm catching an early bus. Taylor has a big history test today and he's ridiculously nervous about it. I'm helping him go over some last-minute flash cards and hopefully, he'll stop being so anxious over no reason."

"Harpy!" James ran towards her as she entered the open living room and wrapped his tiny arms around his sister's knees. He looked up at her and gave her his most radiant smile, "Can ya braid my hair this mornin'? Pretty please?"

"Sure dude. Let me eat breakfast first and then I'm all yours okay?" she ruffled his blonde hair affectionately.

"'Kay, but hurry! I'm almost done."

Harper went over to the couch and knelt next to Elliot, she waved at him with a smile. "Hello buddy."

He waved back confidently, a timid smile gracing his lips.

"Did you sleep nice?"

He nodded and Harper smiled reassuringly at him, blowing him a kiss.

"Good," she got up and sat down at her usual spot around the table. "Hi shithead, hi mom."

The neurosurgeon frowned when she didn't see Sofia with her other daughter.

"Hello shortie," Anthony replied.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Where's Sof'?"

"You know we're not always together right?" Harper replied and rolled her eyes. "She's finishing her make up."

"Yeah, right," Anthony sneered and took a sip out of is coffee mug. "You can't even go a day without face-timing when she's staying at Callie's. You guys are the most co-dependent sisters I've ever encountered."

"And you are most asshole-y brother I've ever encountered," she replied drily as she spread some blueberry jam onto her toast.

"Please no insults before nine AM?" Amelia chastised her and put some items onto a small tray for Elliot, James and herself since the trio would usually eat breakfast in front of the TV on school days.

"I HEARD THAT!" James said loudly from the couch, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"What did you hear, sweetheart?" Arizona asked as she entered the living room.

The blonde was dressed ready for the day and with the help of some light make up, it almost looked like she had had her recommended eight hours of sleep. She went over the couch and waved good morning to Elliot who waved back a small smile.

"Harper said a bad word," James said.

The African-American girl rolled her eyes. "Snitch."

"I ain't a snitch!" James frowned, obviously upset.

"Yes, you are."

"Well maybe if you were more careful with that potty mouth of yours, your brother wouldn't have anything to snitch about," Arizona said pointedly to her daughter with a tight smile and took a sit next to her, in front of Anthony. Her wife had already spread jam onto her toasts and her favorite coffee mug was already filled up, waiting to be savored. "Hey Harper, hello Anthony."

"Mornin' Mom," Harper replied with her mouth full.

"Good morning Arizona."

Amelia passed by the table with a tray in between her hands. "That's a very good point. And he's only five, be nice to him and apologize," Amelia chastised.

Before Amelia could move away any further, Arizona gently grabbed her forearm and pulled her closer. "Thanks for the breakfast, 'Melia," the pediatric surgeon said with a loving smile and bent her head backwards, her lips pursed up for a peck.

"You're more than welcome, babe," the brunette said as she carefully leaned forwards and indulged the offered lips.

She then joined her sons onto the couch, sitting in between them, the tray resting on her laps

"Sorry Jamie boy."

"S'okay. I still love ya, Harper."

"Love you too."

"Where's Sof?" Arizona asked to Harper with furrowed eyebrows when she noticed that the Latina wasn't with them.

"Dios mio," she said exasperatedly. "We're not a package deal. She's doing her make up."

Thirty minutes later, Sofia, Harper and Anthony had gone to catch their respective buses. Now, both surgeons were waiting for Elliot to finish tying up his shoes and for James to finish up brushing his teeth so they could get going too. Arizona kept glancing at the brunette every few often, a goofy smile making its way onto her face every time she did so.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Amelia eventually asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No reason," she shrugged. "I'm just… happy and I love you is all," the blonde kissed her cheek.

However, no matter how sweet her wife's reply was, it did little to appease Amelia's suspicions that something was going on. She racked her brain and tried to figure it out but it was cut short when Arizona said rather loudly, "James, come on! We're going to be late!"

"We're kind of already late anyway, Zona," Amelia chuckled beside her.

She held up Elliot's coat up to help him out and the boy easily glided his arms into the sleeves.

"Thanks," the Asian-American said sweetly and when he looked up at her, he cocked his head to the side and lightly frowned.

Amelia frowned back, something was definitely up.

"COMIN!" James yelled back from the bathroom and sure enough, a few seconds later, he came running in, his long braids flying all over the place. He giggled as he saw the brunette. "Mama, ya hav-"

Arizona placed her hand over her son's mouth to stop him. "No time for giggling around young man. Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yep," James replied, annoyed and rolled his eyes for good measure.

"Background check. Open your mouth," the neurosurgeon bent forward to inspect his now opened mouth and she sighed. "Go brush your teeth now. Quickly."

"But I just did!" he complained.

"You smeared toothpaste on your teeth. Doesn't count as brushing in my book."

"Uhhhh-fine," James whined unhappily but still turned around to go back to the bathroom.

"Bye mommies, I love ya!" James exclaimed cheerfully and leaned in between the two front seats of the car to place a drooly kiss on each woman's cheek.

"We love you too, sweetie, have a fun day at school."

The five years old excitedly jumped out of the car and wrestled a tad to get his giraffe backpack straps right onto his shoulders but eventually got it right.

"Bye Arizona, bye Amelia," Elliot said much more quietly with a shy smile and a small wave.

Both mothers turned around and gave him warm and loving smiles. They still didn't really know where they were standing on morning goodbyes, still tiptoeing this area. Elliot had actually surprised the both of them a few days ago by kissing them goodbye, but hadn't done it since. Elliot rarely showed his affection in the traditional way of physical contact, instead being way more discreet and focusing all his happiness in clenched fists, bottom lip biting to hold back a smile and moving back and forth on the ball of his feet in excitement.

Both women took whatever the boy was ready to give them. All they wanted was for Elliot to feel like he belonged in their family just as much as any of their family members did. So they let him took the lead on whatever he was feeling comfortable with.

"Goodbye honey. You go and have a good have a great day at school."

"We love you."

The Asian-American didn't reply but ducked his head timidly, both women could see him faintly blushing at the admission and his little fingers curled up into a small fist.

"Elliot, hurry, we're gonna be late!" James prompted his brother.

He hopped out of the car, much more carefully than his little brother. Just like every morning, they stopped in front of the front gate and turned around. Once James spotted his mommies' car, he kissed the palms of his hands and blew them a kiss while Elliot waved at them. And like every morning, both surgeons rolled down their windows, waiting patiently to catch their kiss before waving back.

"God, that parking job is about as straight as you are," Arizona teased lovingly as she got out of the car.

"Oh, fuck off, we're late," Amelia chuckled.

They were speed-walking towards the hospital, determined to at least make it for the end of rounds when a tall redhead suddenly appeared next to the blonde and fell in line with them.

"Hello Owen, running late too?" Arizona asked him conversationally.

"Yep. What's your excuse?"

"We have five kids to wake up and to get ready for school. I feel like that's an excuse enough," Amelia replied pointedly.

"Touché," Owen chuckled. "Is it the reason you didn't have the time to wipe the toothpaste off your face too?"

"I-what?" Amelia stopped walking and quickly wiped her mouth clean with her sleeve, feeling very self-conscious.

So that was what had been up this morning. Arizona walked pass by her and the brunette could hear her giggling.

"I can't believe you were going to let me go on about my day like this, you asshole," the brunette said to her wife as she ran up to the duo who was waiting for the elevator to come down. She lightly bumped her shoulder with Arizona. "You're lucky I love you."

Arizona tilted her head to the side as she softly pulled the brunette closer to her and pecked her sweetly. "Luckiest woman on the whole damn planet indeed," Arizona confessed lovingly.

Arizona and Amelia may not have been there for their kids' first toothless grin, their first word or even their first steps but they would never forget, for the life of them, the first time they had hugged, the first time mom or ma had slipped out or the first time they had ever shared I love yous.