#alongside the same words being used - warpath nagging wife -

[barnbridges]

these two are my girlfriends.

[calzona-all-ways]

Mrs. Torres And The Red Headed Devil

Hint- Sofia’s not the only one who wants to go home.

By: Anonymous

Xxxxxx

“Sofia! Come down here!” Callie bellowed from the bottom of the steps a few minutes after arriving home at the end of her shift.

“What is this?” She demanded, waving an opened piece of official looking mail as her daughter made her way down from her bedroom sanctuary.

Sofia’s descent stopped suddenly, her mouth agape at the envelope that flapped to and fro in her mother’s hand. 

“Where did you get that?”

“Penny found it.”

Callie’s girlfriend had brought it to work to give to her as their shifts passed in the night. It seemed that time and circumstance were taking their toll and the relationship that Callie had uprooted her life for had begun to sputter and falter, both women covertly recognizing that it was preferable to spend less time together and so unbeknownst, they purposely started scheduling their work hours to be opposite from the other.

“Hmmff.”

“Well, I’m waiting, tell me about it.” Tanned hands balled into fists and rested on her waist, the letter in question hanging from one.

“It’s a notice from the school.”

“Very funny. Why was it found hidden under your mattress?”

“Um, I don’t know, the Red Headed Devil was snooping?”

Callie leveled a look of condemnation. “Sofia…” The warning in her tone was plainly read and the younger Torres huffed. She hated when her mother nagged her.

“Ugh. I won an award, okay?”

Callie nodded. “So I read. Why was it hidden? And why didn’t you tell us?”

“I told Mommy,” Sofia shrugged.

Callie’s eyed her daughter skeptically. “You told Mom?”

“I did.”

“She didn’t say anything. Why didn’t you tell me or Penny?” Her brows lowered quizzically.

“Because it’s in Seattle so I didn’t think you’d care. And The Red Headed Devil is NOT my mother, so why would I even tell her anything at all?”

The exasperated ortho surgeon poked the air before her with an extended finger. “You’d better change that tone young lady-”

“I don’t want some dumb award if it means SHE has to be there,” Sofia stated dramatically.

“She’s my girlfriend-”

“So? You’re not married, she just lives here-”

“Watch your mouth,” Callie warned with a stern look.

“No! I hate her! She’s not my mother!”

“Hey! I said watch it!”

“She’s the reason we had to move!”

“Go to your room!”

“I wish she would die!”

“NOW!”

Sofia turned and stomped loudly up the stairs. “I hate you both!”

Callie’s shoulders slumped and she huffed dejectedly, lowering herself to sit on the wearing carpet of the steps as the door to Sofia’s room shut solidly. It had been almost an entire year of this. Approximately twelve months of her daughter disapproving of their living arrangements and letting her know it, almost three hundred and sixty-five days into Sofia’s protest of refusing to call her by her hard-earned moniker of Mama or Mami, instead referring to her only as ‘Mrs. Torres’ and Penny as 'The Red Headed Devil’. For the duration of their lives in New York, her daughter had been on the warpath. Once she’d realized that Penny would be the one joining them on their journey to a new life and not the yellow-haired mother she adored, the young child had continually shown open hostility towards the woman who cohabitated with them. The resulting wedge had become insurmountable for the brunette whose self-flagellation only increased in frequency. Especially now that she had heard of the blondes impending nuptials from an excited mini version of herself upon return from her visit to Seattle. A tear slid unconsciously down the Latina’s cheek and she wiped it away with annoyance, aggravated that her ex-wife and the love she still carried for her continued to affect her so profoundly.

Breathing deeply through the weight in her chest Callie reflected on the unfairness of it all. After moving, she and Penny had settled into a comfortable happiness, each of them too caught up in the newness of their jobs to realize that as time wore on, their home life had become tediously lackluster. Weeks became months and the months turned into an entire year and by the time awareness dawned, they were living as comfortable strangers in a friends-with-benefits arrangement, each woman getting a companion and a regular sex partner but both living separate lives otherwise.

And now the woman that Callie still loved more than any other had moved on. The brunette sniffled and struggled to hold back additional tears at the silent admission.

She loved Arizona and wanted to be with her more than anything but obstinacy had prevailed and now she had waited too long. How could she have been so foolish? After all, her former wife was hot and Callie had known that women would be lined up to date her. She smiled sadly as those very words and their associated scenarios played through her mind, memories of a sexy blonde stranger slipping into the dirty bathroom of Joe’s bar and helping Callie to retrieve her stolen confidence by risking a kiss after declaring that people would be lined up for a chance at her company, followed by the recall of that same blonde determined and upset this time, warning the nonchalant playing ortho surgeon that other women would be lined up to spend time with her if Callie was no longer interested. A stray tear broke free to flow down her cheek when Callie shook the memory away. How had she let so much time pass between them that the woman she still adored had now moved on and was getting married?

Callie sighed heavily, dreadful of the mass of unsustainable pressure that had settled in her chest, a runaway train of emotion demolishing her insides while it rumbled through on its way to further mangle her beaten and bruised heart.

Arizona was getting remarried.

She had fallen in love and wanted to share her life, wanted to make babies with somebody who wasn’t Callie. The pain in the brunettes soul made it hard to breathe as she thought about the irony involved. A loving marriage and a houseful of children were two of the things she’d wanted most in life, and yet here she sat, divorced from her one true love and living a lonely, solitary existence devoid of the houseful of children, while the one child she had openly despised her for her decision-making skills. 

AND the woman she’d accused of not sharing those dreams had moved on, proven how terribly wrong Callie was in her assessment by becoming engaged and talking babies with her new bride to be. Callie’s shoulders quaked, her resolve cracking as sobs shook her body. 

“Arizona,” she uttered her heart’s desire through the tears, unaware that the lovingly devious eight-year-old who’d embellished about her other mother’s romantic life, bore witness, until her thin arms snaked around Callie, her dark tresses falling forward when she laid her head alongside her mother’s to shield them both from the outside world in a curtained cocoon of silky locks. It took every ounce of strength the young girl possessed not to confess her untruth and comfort the parent whose heart was obviously breaking, but Sofia knew if she did, then things would remain as they were, the two of them stranded in New York with The Red Headed Devil dragging their happiness down, and eventually her other mother WOULD find love again and her own dreams of having her family back together as well as the couple’s chance at true happiness would be shattered for good.

“It’s not too late Mami, we can fix it. YOU can fix this,” she soothed as she cradled her mother’s head. “Let’s go home. You can tell Mommy that you love her so she doesn’t get married-”

Callie sniffled. “No. No, I can’t. I can’t, it’s not that simple.”

“Why not?” Sofia pulled back to look at the older brunette as she explained her observations. 

“She still loves you too. It’s SO obvious. I mean not only does Eliza look like you, she’s even an ortho surgeon like you.” The idea that her mama was being replaced by a duplicate had been what had frightened the young girl so much and prompted her into this deception.

Using the backs of her fingers to wipe the tears away, Callie shook her head and smiled sadly. “Oh, sweetheart… that doesn’t mean that she’s still in love with me-”

“But I heard her. She said it and I heard her.”

Callie went still as hope sprang to life inside her. “You did?”

“Uh huh.”

On her last visit, Sofia had been eves-dropping on her mom as her uncle Alex was mocking the similarities between Arizona’s new girlfriend and her ex-wife, accusing the fetal surgeon of not only still being in love with Callie but also of subconsciously trying to fill the hole her absence left with that of an imitator. Arizona hadn’t denied the accusation instead, leveling a 'shut up’ at the gruff peds surgeon when she’d realized the accuracy of his statement. That wasn’t good enough for Karev though and he continued to press the issue until his friend confessed her lingering affection and acknowledged the similarities between her lovers and her unconscious attraction for them. After her mother’s admission, her uncle had laughed sardonically, his gaze finding Sofia’s at the top of the stairs as he shot her a conspiratorial wink.

“She really said that? That she loves me, you heard her say that?”

“Yep. I wasn’t supposed to be listening though. She told Uncle Alex.”

“What did she say exactly?”

“She said that she didn’t realize it at the time but that now that she thinks about it, she must have been trying to substitute you with Eliza ‘cause she IS so much like you. Then she said that she still loves you but since she can’t have the real you, she was gonna settle for a pretend you.”

“Oh my God.”

“See, we CAN go home.”

“I can’t believe…”

Neither said anything for the longest time until Callie swooped her daughter into her arms and suddenly stood. She held Sofia close to her body as she spun them around with happiness.

“Pack up your stuff kid,” she said as she put the mini version of herself back down. “We’re going home.”

“Really?!” Sofia squealed.

“You bet. We’ve been away for long enough.” Callie reached for the cell phone on the table, oblivious to the Hello Kitty sticker laden case, and shot off a quick text before putting it down again.

“We’re going home.”

"Yay!” The young brunette leaped into her mother’s arms and the two of them danced around the room before Sofia stilled. “Wait- I don’t have to go to school tomorrow?”

Callie smiled grandly. “Nope. You’re ditching-”

“Yay! Are you gonna ditch work too?”

“I don’t have to. My contract is up and I’ve been in renegotiations.”

“So you’re gonna ditch re-go-thee nations? Whatever that is?”

Callie grabbed her daughter and spun them around once more.

“You betcha! We have more important negotiations to do, baby! We have a Mommy to get back!”

End?