Title: If it's love

Author: lilyme
Summary: Set sometime after 16x16. Callie and Arizona receive some upsetting news. But it is their place to be upset about it?
Characters: Callie/Arizona, Sofia
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Grey's Anatomy". They were created by Shonda Rhimes and belong to her and the ABC network. No copyright infringement intended! All mistakes are mine.

If it's love

About to enter the house, Callie was startled by her energetic daughter yanking open the front door and jumping out.

"Hi, Mama!" Sofia gifted her mother with a sideways hug, her head already on an entirely different matter, "I'm gonna feed the chicken and see, if they have any eggs for breakfast!"

"Okay," Callie smiled at the eagerness of her offspring and went inside. How anyone genetically related to her could be this perky in the morning, was a mystery to her. She herself most of the time was as cranky as a bear at this time of day.

But she knew whose notoriously good morning mood had rubbed off on the girl and soon found the perkiness personified in the kitchen of the house that kind of resembled this attitude as well. With its light colors, flowery decorations and overall pretty girly atmosphere.

It was the house Arizona had chosen to live in, and it fit her like a shoe. Including the coop full of chicken she had always dreamed of.

Callie had a mixed relationship with the fowl. The rooster of the bunch, King Louie, always tried to peck her, but only her. The chicks, Dolores, Selma and Agneta were nice enough, though. And the smallest of them, little Betty, seemed pretty fond of her and came fluttering over whenever she neared the coop. Which itself was a rare event, but if she did, she always found herself giggling at the little thing's antics.

The chicken owner smiled as she took notice of the woman's presence. "Hi! Did you get everything?" the blonde wondered, as she bustled about the kitchen.

"Uh, yeah, I did," Callie replied and held up two paper bags with freshly baked goods. "Even got some raspberry cream cheese danish". She knew they were Arizona's favorites, but not always available... because they were a lot of other people's favorite as well.

"Aww, you're so sweet," Arizona gushed, as she followed Callie into the dining room, where the brunette was arranging the assorted roll, croissants and danish on the table.

Since Arizona had relocated to New York as well, this Sunday breakfast was their weekly ritual. With their always busy schedules, caught between school, work and research, Sunday was often the only day that all three of them had off.

And they made sure to make the most of it. Callie bringing goods from the bakery, Sofia fetching eggs and Arizona preparing them a yummy breakfast they'd enjoy in all length together and talk about what was happening in their lives right now. Things Sofia was doing in school, talks about their projects at work and everything else they had on their minds.

And from the pensive look Callie wore on her face this morning, Arizona knew there was something massive on her mind right now.

"You look... kinda perturbed," Arizona tried carefully as she watched the brunette from the entrance to the room. She had known Callie long enough to notice that furrow in her brow. Even having been divorced for years she had never lost that ability to read her. Where other people maybe even saw a neutral expression, she could detect the slightest disturbance in her mood.

"Hm?" Callie looked up at the alarmed woman, smiling lightly at the blond emotion detector. Always on the lookout for the well-being of the people around her. A trait Callie had never failed to appreciate - even during their rockier phases. And now that they were on good terms again and she had Arizona as a constant presence in her life once more, she rarely hesitated to express her thoughts. "Oh, I just got a mail from Mer this morning. About things happening in Seattle and stuff".

"Huh," Arizona nodded at the explanation. They still kept in contact with their friends on the West Coast, as much as time and distance allowed.

Arizona still held pretty close bonds with April. April, who had settled in nicely with Matthew, Harriet, Ruby and their newborn son Philip and was living an uneventful and simple life.

And both of them still heard regularly from Teddy, Meredith and the others. But news from that front often more or less equaled a soap opera. A not necessarily well-written soap opera with too much what-the-heck drama and too many you've-got-to-be-kidding-me twists and turns for the worse. It would actually be funny to witness the ridiculousness of it all, if it wasn't happening in real life.

"Is something wrong?" Arizona subsequently wondered, and pushed herself off the door frame as Callie pulled out her phone, apparently willing to let her read the mail as well.

The brunette handed her phone after a few taps and Arizona began reading unusually long text, bordering on a rant she had received from Meredith.

And then she watched as Arizona read it, expecting to find the same emotions she had felt overcoming the blonde. Emotions of disbelief and a good part of anger.

After walking the length of the living room a few times while studying the text intensely, the blonde retreated to the couch, her face still surprisingly neutral. Eventually she let the phone sink into her lap and spoke softly, "Well... that's a major plot twist," her eyes still on the words written.

Callie was confused by Arizona's calmness. "Wh... That's all you're gonna say to that?" she asked as she sat next to the blonde.

"Well...," Arizona muttered, confronted with upset Callie, "as his mentor, I hope he finds a hospital that can really appreciate the outstanding doctor he's become," she spoke with a little sentiment, as she thought back on the years she had trained the man Meredith's elaborate text was about in peds.

Alex Karev had without a warning decided to leave behind Seattle and everything he had there to start a new life in the middle of nowhere. Or – as it was officially called - Kansas.

A move that in itself would be difficult to understand, since he had a promising career set in Seattle. But apparently there were reasons not in anyone else's control.

"As his friend...," she continued with a shrug, "I hope he'll find all the happiness he deserves. Though I have to say that ditching Jo via letter is so...," she shook her head, and finally Callie could see some emotion bubbling up in her, "God, I feel so awful for her. Believe me, if I had a brick right now, I'd hit him in the head from here!"

"Yeah!" Callie sighed, relieved that she herself wasn't just overreacting about all this, but that his behavior towards Jo really was a low blow.

Callie had seen him grow, witnessed the transformation from a fairly douchy intern who didn't particularly care about the women he slept with to not only a well-respected surgeon but also a man who had truly learned to invest into his relationships and cherish them.

And she knew that Arizona had witnessed it all even closer, having spent years working with him side by side on a daily basis. It had to be a letdown. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the blonde's grip tighten around her phone as the woman's thoughts now clearly circled around this upsetting new development. Carefully she wrangled the device out of the tense fingers before it met its fate as a substitute brick.

Arizona looked at the brunette and saw the mildly warning look telling her to let her phone live and released it with a faint smile. "It's a load of crap," she summed up her thoughts about Alex and Jo. Jo, who had also become a much beloved friend to her over the years. Their wedding... or rather all the mishaps happening on the day of their wedding... were among the last active memories she had of Seattle, with her and Sofia having left later that night to come to New York. Now she thought that maybe all the hindrances that day had been a sign for them. That some Powers that Be didn't think they belonged together. And rather wanted him in someone else's arms. "But... I don't know... if Izzie makes him happy..."

Immediately Callie scoffed beside her, and Arizona pressed her lips together. She knew Izzie was a sore spot for Callie. Understandably, after all the humiliation she has had to face back at the hospital in Seattle because of her. And that didn't even only involve Izzie sleeping with George.

And then there was everything else... "The way she's treated Alex... I mean, she's left him in debt with her hospital bills and just disappeared. That's not what you do. I know how long it's taken him to get out of that and get over her. And now he's going back to the person who's hurt him more than anyone?" she shook her head before letting herself sink against the backrest of the couch. "I don't see why. Think he's just doing it for the kids?" she wondered about the twins that Izzie has apparently given birth to five years ago.

She looked expectantly at Arizona, who had turned towards her and sat with her leg bent, her head braced on her fist and her face... sporting two raised eyebrows and a pensive look.

Callie countered the expression with a soft "What...?", unsure of what it was supposed to tell her.

"You know... that a lot of that is exactly what can be said about us, right?" Arizona voiced her thoughts carefully.

"What...!?" Callie repeated, though fairly shriller now, startled at the statement her girlfriend suddenly confronted her with. "We're not... I...," she stammered as she sat up, afraid that Arizona still held a grudge against her. Even though she had reassured her that she didn't.

"Easy, sweetie...," Arizona tried to calm her with a hand to her thigh. She knew what Callie wanted to say. "I'm don't mean the fight over Sofia's custody. Though it was... really painful for all of us," she exhaled deeply, thinking back on it.

And Callie bowed her head, not able to look the blonde into the eye. Because she knew she was the main cause for all that pain, having had her lawyer throw the worst accusations at her then ex in court.

"I...," Arizona continued, "there are the things that let up to that... The way I treated you after my amputation. The way I yelled at you, threw things at you, verbally and literally... It was a low that I never thought I could reach. But then... I cheated on you. And I realized I could go even lower. And I will forever hate myself for that," her voice trembled.

Callie looked back up at the blonde, who was obviously struggling to keep her emotions in check as she remembered that time. That time she had broken her ever-so-supportive wife. And Callie remembered too. It was something that still hurt her deeply.

"That you were even willing to start new with me then... after the damage I've done... it was more than I could have hoped for," Arizona began to sob, as her tears finally overwhelmed her, and Callie cupped her hand in comfort, wanting to show her that everything was okay now.

Only to have Arizona's train of thought steer back to where it had taken off. "But I guess we weren't ready then and it consequently ended in divorce... with all its unfortunate consequences. And a lot of people would say that it all should have ended there. That we are just no good for each other".

"But who are they to judge?" Callie protested, her face a whirl of confusion and fear, still not sure where Arizona was going with this.

No one else had a saying in their being together. Yes, part of her was scarred from the betrayal. And she knew Arizona was still reeling from the custody battle too... among other things. But they had learned to cope over the years. And had even learned to heal.

And when the blonde turned her hands in Callie's to clasp them with a teary smile and replied "That's what I mean," Callie finally realized her intentions. "We've made mistakes. It's blatantly obvious, and we both know it. But... the moment Sof and I landed in New York, and I saw you standing there, smiling impossibly wide not at her, but at me... I just...I knew it had been the right decision," Arizona remembered the first time she had seen the brunette after over a year of having only communicated via texts and phone calls. "That I was coming home".

And while Callie had changed, most obviously her hair style, now cut short and shaved on the sides, she was still the same woman Arizona had fallen in love with way, way back in Seattle.

Callie smiled at this, remembering how elated she had been when Arizona had told her, Sofia would come back to New York. That she would finally be with her daughter again. And she remembered her nervousness at hearing that Arizona would accompany her. Unsure of how the blonde stood towards her. After all, Arizona was giving up her established life because Callie had fled to the East Coast to pursue a relationship that had failed after only seven months. It could be cause for resentment.

But seeing Arizona again in person and hearing how excited she was, it had calmed her. And listening to her tell her about everything she had planned for her new life and showing true interest in everything the brunette had experienced in New York so far... Callie had known it would be good.

As it turned out better than good.

While their main priority was Sofia and the girl's well-being in her old, new, old life in New York, this priority had inevitably drawn Callie and Arizona closer again. In the first two months in New York they had spent more time together than in the two years between their separation and Callie moving to New York.

First as parents, then as friends.

And at some point the friendly parents had remembered what they had once loved about the other. And still loved.

Of course there had been trepidation about starting anew. After all, they had already screwed up massively and made life impossibly hard on so many people. Especially Sofia.

But with exactly that past, they were wiser now and knew what it took to make it work. Talking to each other, listening to what the other woman was saying, and also get help from outside, if necessary.

And so far they were doing extremely well.

Arizona's heart smiled as she saw Callie relax visibly. Now that it was clear to the brunette that they weren't in any trouble. That this was the opposite of trouble.

She cupped Callie's cheek. "I still you so much. More than ever before," she reassured Callie. "You make me happier than anyone else ever could. Despite what other people might think. They aren't important. We are. We belong together. And there's really no one else I'd want to spend my life with".

"I love you too," Callie whimpered and leaned forward to engulf her love in a fierce hug, so grateful to have Arizona back in her life. Despite all the evils that had happened to them and that they had partly afflicted on each other. But Arizona was right. They belonged together, despite their past. "And I'm so happy to have you back," she continued, and received reassuring kisses to her cheek.

It was only two months ago that Callie and Arizona had moved into Arizona's dream house. And while the situation was still somewhat new, and she was still getting used to its girly charm and the pecking of King Louie, she never wanted to leave this place anymore,

Because it held her love. It held her life. Her dream.

"So... Alex and Izzie... think you can handle it?" Arizona questioned as she eventually released the brunette.

"Hm," Callie pondered, "if she makes him happy, I guess" she simply returned, Arizona's reasoning that an outsider's opinion to this couple was not that relevant still in her ear. "Plus, it's not like I have to interact with her. Kansas is far enough, luckily. Though I have to say, I'd love to meet the kids".

Arizona laughed at this. "I know! If his genes hit through, they're probably pretty..."

"... grumpy, smart-ass and foul-mouthed?" Callie offered tongue-in-cheek.

"I was gonna say, quite a handful. But... yeah, that works," Arizona giggled. "But definitely adorable".

"Mami, Mama! I got some eggs!" Sofia came rushing inside with a little basket containing four eggs. "And I fed the chicken too. But Selma and King Louie weren't hungry. I think they were playing piggyback. Or they are making a baby chicken. Which is... eww...," she exclaimed.

The women laughed wholeheartedly at their girl. Sofia knew all about the birds and the bees, the roosters and the hens or the mamas and the daddies by now. And while she was fascinated by the concept of creating life, the way to make it happen pretty much appalled her.

Which Callie and Arizona were very okay with. At her age of eight, turning nine soon, they much preferred that attitude over too much curiosity about the act itself.

Eventually that would come, and they knew that in a few years from now they would be having a more serious talk about how human babies were made. Arizona had already joked that they'd probably decide over a party of Rock, Paper, Scissors about whether her or Callie would have to have that talk with their daughter.

But they were so happy they could experience Sofia grow up and learn new things every day together.

They had been given this new chance. And they worked every day to cherish this chance, despite outside opinions.

They wanted to be their best together. And they wanted to be their best for their kid.

And that made them understand Alex' motivations. His need to be with his kids. And his need to be together with the woman he had learned to love again despite their past.

And despite ambivalent thoughts they had on it all, they wished him all the best.