Surprise?

Arizona, humming lightly, with a snoring Kylie in her lap, sat snuggled into a hammock chair in Callie's parents' back flower garden. Callie, who had just quietly snuck out the back door and down the walkway, sat back against the wall behind her, letting herself simply observe for a few moments. She was close enough to hear the words Arizona was saying, but far enough away that she didn't feel like she was invading this special mother-daughter moment.

"She's a goofball, though, huh?"

Callie grinned and strained her ears to listen, only feeling bad for the few seconds it took to figure out Arizona was talking, to a sleeping Kylie, about her.

"I know it's weird and I know everyone's going to have their own annoying, but loving opinions about it. But she takes care of us. And loves us. And likes us," Arizona continued, causing Callie to silently slam a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't outwardly chuckle at the blonde.

Kylie turned her head further into Arizona's lap and Arizona threaded gentle hands through chestnut waves.

"You and your sister are what matter and I don't really care what anyone else thinks, I guess, except for maybe Aunt Cal. It definitely matters what she thinks." The blonde fell silent, pursed her lips, and then shook her head at herself. "You don't think I'm being a total basket case, right? Aunt Cal has dropped a lot of hints and retrospectively, I think I'm really stupid for not picking up on eighty percent of them. But she basically said she was in love with me in the kitchen that day and she says it a lot. I don't think she means loves me like she loves Aria or Addison or Tim. Maybe I should ask Ellie. No offense, Ky, but she's kind of the more observant one, which is strange because Mama was like that and you've got Mama's genes so you'd think…although El is a replica of your Mama, genes or not. Well, besides maybe her rambling…and temperament…and sass. Those are probably me."

"Probably?" Callie asked, finally cutting in as she walked over to where both Robbins-Kennedy's were lounging. "Probably?"

Arizona simply shrugged, almost blinding Callie with her smile, despite it being pitch black outside. "Kayt was sassy."

"Please redefine sass for yourself because I think you've lost your mind."

Her best friend giggled. "Hi."

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"I'm…I feel good. How are you?"

"I think I feel good, too."

Running nervous hands over her hips, Callie glanced down at Kylie. "Not to give you a serious case of déjà vu or anything, but can we talk?"

The nervous look that flitted across Arizona's face did nothing to calm either woman.

"Yes. Of course. Let me just," she trailed off, nodding to the sleeping child on her lap. "We were enjoying the sound of the ocean and the pretty flowers, but she ditched me for dreamland."

Without responding, Callie effortlessly slipped Kylie off her mother's lap and into her own arms. "Continue enjoying. I'll tuck her in and meet you back out here."

"No dock?"

Backing away slowly, with a smile, Callie shrugged. "If you'd like. But I have this intense pull to wrap you up and never let go, so I think I might prefer the hammock seat. If that's okay."

Arizona made a very obvious show of curling further into the seat and getting comfortable. "Check on Ellie for me on your way back down?"

"This is nice." The blonde's murmur was muffled by Callie's sweatshirt. Pulling her head up, she rubbed her nose against the brunette's cheek and sighed. "How much did you actually hear earlier?"

"Enough to know you're feeling a little insecure about how I feel about you."

"Oops?"

Callie laughed and pulled Arizona more comfortably over the left side of her body. "No oops. This is pretty sticky and we're both feeling overwhelmed. For the record, I am very much in love with every part of you, Arizona. Even the parts that are a little out of place. Even the annoying parts."

The little intake of breath and quiet hum she received in response made Callie's body flutter.

"It's my night to lay my heart all out, okay?"

A nod gave her permission to continue.

"I think I've loved you for forever and I don't doubt that I'm going to love you for forever. You're worried about what people will say, what they will think. Katelyn died in the beginning of October and it's Christmas. The timeline makes me a little nervous, too." She interrupted Arizona's interjection before words even made their way out of the blonde's mouth. "I also get it. You are done wasting your time because you now know, firsthand, how unpredictable the time you have left on this earth really is. You are in love with me and I'm in love with you and neither of those two statements disregards your love for Katelyn or what the two of you shared. I think you love us in very different ways, but I don't think you loved her any less because of me. I wouldn't feel this strongly about us and our future if I thought you regretted any part of what the two of you shared. And hey, you're allowed to be in love with more than one person at the same time. Who says you can't be?"

"That's not really…Callie, I don't mean for this to sound mean or hurtful because I don't think I ever stopped loving you, but when I was with Katelyn, I didn't think about or feel my love for you, at least romantically. She consumed me."

Callie brushed her near apology off. "That could never hurt me. And in a weird way, I understand. I don't know if anyone else really will," she teased, pulling a laugh out of both of them, "but it's not their life to live. It's yours."

"And yours."

"And we should live it, Arizona. That's what Katelyn wanted."

Arizona kissed Callie's cheek. "I'm very confident in saying I never forced my love for her, but a large part of me wonders if she knew all along."

"Hm?" Callie mumbled, eyebrows knitting together.

"She wrote that letter years ago, with no inclination that anything would ever happen to her. The letter was very clearly a way to let me know that it was okay with her if I loved you, once she was gone."

"Oh," Callie mumbled again, beginning to understand where this was going. "You are asking if Katelyn felt second best all along."

The tears immediately streamed down Arizona's cheeks and Callie didn't try to wipe them away.

"I don't think Katelyn ever felt like a second string, Zo. How could she, with the way you looked at her?"

A shaky "really?" stuttered out of the woman next to her and Callie nodded, fiercely and continuously.

"Baby, she wrote that letter to make sure you knew she's okay with you moving on and us moving on together. She didn't write it to pour unspoken feelings out about how she didn't feel like your relationship was meaningful. If you'd like, I can go get the letter and reread it to you because I was joking earlier when I said I thought you had lost your mind, but now I'm not so sure. You must not have read the words on those pages if you think Katelyn thought you didn't love her."

The laugh that fell from Arizona's lips shocked Callie. Over the past few months, she had gotten used to consoling her teary best friend for hours. Whatever the hell had happened inside Arizona's head combined with Katelyn's letter had restored so many of the broken parts of the blonde that Callie had feared she'd never see again.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. You've never been more right."

"Please, I'm always right," Callie teased, enjoying the smile that stayed spread across Arizona's face.

A few minutes of silence passed between the two, both of them smiling at each other like idiots.

"I can't believe she wrote me a fucking letter. Like my god, could she have pegged me any better. Did you see what she wrote on the envelope?"

"I saw," Callie promised, snorting at how well Katelyn had known Arizona.

The loud and obnoxious groan that came next earned the blonde a playfully disgusted facial expression and a shoulder nudge.

"Um, I'm sorry, I don't speak Neanderthal."

Callie caught the swatting hand before any real damage could be done, much to Arizona's dismay.

"I'll translate. That meant 'What the hell do you think my mother is going to say the first time she sees me kiss you?'"

"Yeah…about that." A raised eyebrow encouraged her to continue. "I don't know if I'm exactly ready to uh, tell, well, everyone."

"Everyone being your parents?"

"Exactly."

"Wow you were trying not to give me déjà vu, but now I'm back on a beach in Hawaii, drunk off my ass, telling you about the pretty girl I met back home while you're trying to tell me you like me."

"You figured that out?" Callie shrieked, jaw dropping.

"Yeah I figured it out, you idiot. Like, a week after we slept together, but I figured it out. Sorry about that, by the way. I'm an ass."

"I guess I can find it in myself to forgive you."

"Oh, okay, thank you. Thanks so much," Arizona deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "But on a serious note…my lips are sealed, with like Gorilla glue, until you're ready."

With a burst of confidence and commitment and calm, Callie's arms seemed to move on their own command, finding residence on either side of Arizona's head, fingers linking around the holes in the hammock to steady them both. "I hope they aren't sealed enough to do this," she murmured, heart beating out of its chest, and collided her lips against the woman's beneath her.

She had meant to kiss Arizona like she never had before: slowly, emotionally, romantically, but every sensible and rational thought flew out of her head the moment Arizona let out a teary, but breathless whimper and a holiday themed set of fingernails clutched and scratched at her scalp. The matching hand flew to join after a few seconds and Callie caught every single whimper with her own lips and tongue.

"Arizona," she groaned, minutes later, when her lungs started to burn and she lost control of the movement of her hips. Pressing her lips, hard, into the blonde's once more, she pulled back, far enough so only their knees were touching, and ran her own hands through her now disheveled hair.

Hooded and intense blue eyes stared back at her. "Well," Arizona commented, slowly dragging her thumbs along her own body to reorient and ground herself. "Merry Christmas."

The next morning, both women woke up with still swollen lips. Neither had planned on moving this quickly, but neither were regretting how things turned out either. Hell, Callie's original plan last night had been to throw around the idea of splitting her time between Pittsburgh and Miami, to give Arizona a little more time to heal before they jumped into a relationship. She was sick of wasting time, though, and so was Arizona.

"Good morning," came the sleepy greeting before Callie felt Arizona's body roll on top of her own. "Mm. Merry Christmas, again," she mumbled, in between kisses.

Callie let herself be kissed, lazily moving her mouth back and forth between bottom and top lips, hands sliding languidly across the back of pajama covered thighs.

"Okay, clear head. We need to stop."

Instead of letting her get up, Callie fisted the red tank top her best friend wore, pulling her in closer. "We have time. Kiss me."

"I thought you said you hadn't even meant to kiss me last night. Now who is the-"

Grinning lips cut her off and it was Arizona's turn to give Callie the control.

"I am about to endure a day full of screeching, singing, and family drama. Your children and my niece are also going to try and make me put together every single new toy or gadget they get. My mom is definitely going to notice the giant fucking hickey on my neck. Aria can't keep her mouth shut to save her life. My dad will probably figure it all out before everyone's done with their stockings. Your parents, I mean, Jesus, who the hell knows what your parents are going to do, and Tim and Emily are probably going to take a note out of you and Katelyn's book and announce they're expecting. Ellie isn't going to remove herself from the plaster that holds her to your hip and Kylie will be screaming at me by quarter after eight. And do you know what is just wonderful about all of this?"

Arizona, having held it together until Callie mentioned her brother and Emily were pregnant, was now laughing, loudly at the thought of grumpy morning Kylie. "What?"

"I have to pretend you are nothing more than my best friend."

"Callie," Arizona reprimanded teasingly, leaning down for another kiss before popping back up, now straddling the taller woman's lap, as she lay exasperated. "You forget that we have grown up holding hands and snuggling. I don't think anyone will think anything of it."

Pushing her off of her, Callie shot up to face the fumbling and laughing blonde. She pulled the skin at her neck and waved her other hand at the spot dramatically. "We didn't grow up marking each other, Arizona!"

Pursing her lips together to try and stop laughing, Arizona's eyes twinkled. "That is entirely your fault."

"Fuck you."

"It is!" she insisted, rubbing a pointer finger over the rather obvious bruise. "If you hadn't stopped us, the placement of that could have been a lot lower. More discrete."

Callie swallowed. "I think you enjoy torturing me."

"Only on days that end in a Y."

Finally, Callie stood up, grabbing her makeup and Arizona's eye shadow pallet, in search of green, to begin attempting to cover up the giant hickey across her neck. Glancing at Arizona through the mirror, she softened. "I may have lost control of my lips last night, but I wasn't going to sleep with you. As sure as we are about this, we do need to wait for that."

"I know. I wouldn't have let us have sex, either."

"So the hickey?" Callie admonished, huffing as she wiped a brush against her neck.

"You, uh, tasted good?"

"You, uh, are going to get your ass kicked?"

Ignoring her, Arizona flopped back on the bed. "Is Emily really pregnant?"

"How'd you miss that?"

"How'd you get that?"

"Well for one," Callie began, satisfied with her cover up job. She put the makeup away before joining Arizona back in bed. "Have you ever seen Tim devote that much attention and care to a female that didn't have the last name Robbins or Torres, in his entire life?"

"He is always sweet with Emily."

"Right, but does he typically wait on her hand and foot to the point she is so annoyed with him she forces him to run errands with my dad?"

"Maybe not."

"Oh and she was drinking grape juice out of her wine glass two nights ago and kind of told me she was pregnant, so that's how I really know."

"You ass," Arizona laughed out, punching Callie in the shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"I was planning to, but then you kind of told me you were in love with me and I somehow forgot amidst that very trivial news."

The blonde simply huffed and cuddled closer. "Well today just got a bit more interesting. How long do you think until rug rat one and two come bounding in here, all knobby knees and clumsy elbows?"

In reality, only Ellie came shooting through the room and onto the bed, approximately twenty minutes later, excited about Santa and all things Christmas, but still a little too anxious about going downstairs and communicating with anyone without her mom or aunt by her side. Kylie, grumpy as ever, snoozed until Arizona forced her out of bed with promises of presents and pancakes.

Callie was right, about almost everything. Lucia cornered the both of them within minutes of them being downstairs, dragging them into the pantry with excuses of "I think we are almost out of syrup" and "oh let's see if we have more chocolate chips", eyes and smile shining when both women conceded with a promise that they would explain everything later.

Aria, blabbermouth that she was, had apparently already told Tim and Emily, collecting fifty dollars from them and explaining that they had made a bet about the outcome of this trip long before Arizona or Callie had any clue how life changing it would be.

By eleven, Carlos has gently pulled Arizona aside and made her promise she was fully committed to this, to Callie.

Barbara and Daniel hadn't caught on yet and both women were hoping things would stay that way, for the immediate time being.

Tim and Emily were, in fact, expecting, but didn't use a Robbins-Kennedy tactic in letting everyone know. Instead, they quietly and privately told Daniel and Barbara, who in turn, screamed it loud enough for Santa himself to hear back at the North Pole.

Ellie, true to Callie's prediction, stayed plastered against Arizona's side, for half the day. When two o'clock rolled around though, the little blonde climbed into Callie's lap, arms looping tightly around her neck, whispered an "I love you", and slid to the floor, screaming for her cousin and giggling madly when Jul came running out of nowhere, pelting the younger child with marshmallows.

The identical shock on her and Arizona's face remained for a whole hour, only slipping away when Ellie began loudly singing Christmas carols for Addison when she walked through the door, baring gifts and side dishes.

Kylie, no longer grumpy, had remained perched on Callie's lap while presents had been passed around that morning. Eventually, her tiny body and brain came to life, though, and she toddled after her big sister the best she could.

"Damn it," Arizona muttered, trying her hardest to fit a too big screwdriver into a too little screw on the back of one of the talking fairy dolls Aria had gotten all three girls.

"Let me see," Callie instructed, taking the doll and screwdriver off her hands. Slipping the screw out easily, after only a few turns of the screwdriver, she popped two double a batteries into the doll, clicked the back on, and handed it over to the blonde. She was already rolling her eyes with a matching remark when Arizona hit the button for the doll to begin singing. Before she could get the words out, a blonde bundle of energy came tearing through the room with screams of "thank you so much, Mumma!" before taking back off to join her sister, cousin, and other children filtered throughout the home.

"Guess you got Christmas pretty spot on, oh wise one," Arizona teased, removing the wrapping paper, boxes, and tools from in front of her and laying her head down on Callie's lap.

"It's about time you acknowledge my greatness."

Callie silenced the oncoming retort with her lips.

AN: the end. but don't hate me. the sequel is posted!