After the Storm

Chapter 3: Babies

Though her daughter was often an outlet for her, Sofia did little to distract Callie from thoughts of Arizona. She had been in the daycare center for an indefinite amount of time now and the few other children who had been there upon her arrival were long gone now. Not even the daycare assistant remained after Callie had refused her help with Sofia.

Callie yawned as she thought of everything that had occurred in just the past twenty-four hours. The mass power outage, the bus crash that had almost claimed Jackson's life, the birth of Meredith and Derek's son, and Arizona, cheating on her. Callie shuddered just thinking about it.

It was nearing seven in the morning, and gray light now poured in through the large windows. Sofia rubbed her eyes tiredly, and a thought occurred to Callie that her daughter had likely been up all night.

"You're tired, aren't you, baby?" Callie inquired. In response, Sofia simply nodded slowly. Callie ran her fingers through her daughter's raven hair. "Mama, is, too. It's okay. We'll be just fine, you and me," Callie smiled as Sofia proceeded to play with her dolls despite her obvious exhaustion. As the child giggled at her toys, dimples formed on her cheeks, and Callie's eyes filled with unshed tears. Her dimples reminded her so much of Arizona's, and before she knew it, she was sobbing once again. This was all so unfair; Sofia had already lost a father, and now a mother as well.

"Callie?"

As soon as the voice had sounded from behind her, Callie hastily attempted to conceal her tears. Briefly, she turned to see who the intruder was, and she recognized Derek standing in the doorway. Callie sniffed, pawing at the fallen tears on her cheeks. Once she'd composed herself as much as she could in the little time she had before Derek came over, she plastered an unconvincing smile on her face.

"Callie, what's the matter? What happened?"

Callie shook her head vigorously, trying hard to fight against the oncoming torrent of tears. "Nothing, Derek. I-I'm fine."

Allowing Callie a moment to sober, Derek turned to Sofia. He wanted to distract the child from her sobbing mother. "Hey, little one. How are you doing?"

Sofia smiled up at Derek. "I'm okay. Mama isn't, though."

Callie scoffed in attempt to brush off Sofia's comment. "I don't know what she's talking about. Mama's fine. I'm fine."

"No, you're not. You're crying, Callie. What happened? You can always talk to me," Derek said gently, offering Callie a reassuring smile.

Callie sniffed, and averted her gaze so that she was staring at the ground. It was silent for a long time as Derek waited for Callie to confess her troubles.

"All right," Derek finally said, breaking the silence. "I take it you don't want to talk right now and you probably want a distraction from whatever it is. So, come and meet Bailey."

"Bailey?" Callie questioned, raising her eyebrows in confusion. Why would Derek be asking her to meet their fellow general surgeon?

"Derek Bailey Shepherd," Derek said, a proud grin spreading across his face. "Our son. Miranda saved Meredith's life, so she decided to name him after her. Admittedly, I never would've come up with it, but I like it. It suits him."

For the first time in a while, a genuine smile spread across Callie's face. She was glad that despite all the chaos that took place in the past night, something good had come out of it.

"So," Derek probed. "Do you want to come meet him?"

"I'd love to," Callie said, wiping the residue of tears from her face. She marveled at the idea of getting her mind off of Arizona, and even more so at the idea of finally getting to meet the baby she'd been waiting nine months for. Even if it was just for a little while, a distraction was good.

"You can put Sofia down in the room next to Mer's," Derek offered. "Zola's asleep in there with Alex. Sofia has to be tired. I'm sure all the kids were too enthralled in all the action last night to go to sleep."

Callie nodded, watching as Derek bent down in front of Sofia.

"Aren't you, little one?" Derek asked, his tone raising to a sing-song tune. Sofia giggled, causing both Callie and Derek to smile in delight.

"Come on," Derek said, standing and motioning towards the door.

"Okay, Sof. Mama's going to go meet the new baby, okay?"

Eventually, I'd gotten Sofia down next to Zola. It took a few tries, but eventually, the girls gave up and went to sleep.

Derek and I walked into the crowded room. Grey morning light peered in through the windows

Miranda was holding the little boy, cooing softly to him.

Cristina was walking around the room, taking pictures of everything. Miranda holding Bailey, Meredith hooked up to several IV's in her bed, Derek, even an occasional group photo.

I glanced around the room, and spotted Arizona. My smile immediately faded into nothing. Her blue eyes flickered up to me. She stared back at me in shock. I quickly dropped her gaze.

"Torres," I looked up upon hearing my name. Bailey looked at me briefly, before turning her attention back to the baby in her arms.

"This is Bailey. Yes, Mr. Derek Bailey Shepherd," she said, putting extra emphasis on her name.

Everyone laughed.

"He's beautiful, guys," I said, smiling at the baby.

Meredith smiled at me in thanks.

"What does Zola think of him?" this came from Arizona, who sounded oddly cheerful.

"Oh, she wants to bring him into daycare for show and tell," Meredith laughed.

Everyone let out a chorus of 'awws' and laughs.

"He's perfect. Absolutely perfect," I said, bending over Miranda to get a look at the truly beautiful boy, and shaking my head slowly.

"He looks like you, Meredith," Arizona commented.

"Yeah, Derek thinks so, too," said Meredith, beaming up at her husband.

"He has thin blonde hair like you, and he has your nose, too. He's got Derek's eyes, though," Cristina noted, flashing the camera over Bailey's head.

We all looked at her- surprised she payed attention to such detail.

"What?" she asked, defensively. "He's my godson," she dismissed.

We all laughed. I walked over, and leaned against the wall while everyone was gushing over the baby.

The whole time, I tried to be happy and cheerful, but Arizona's mere presence was screwing that up.

I couldn't even be in the same room as her without either breaking down, screaming, or being thoroughly repulsed.

I didn't know which one was going to happen this time, but I tried my hardest to refrain from it being the second for the baby's sake.

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I was there along with everyone else for almost two hours.

It was now around nine in the morning, and not a single person had left.

I completely tuned out of every conversation, and dwelled on my negative thoughts. But I did tune into the conversation when I heard Cristina and Meredith's conversation.

"Dr. Boswell?" Cristina had asked. "Who's Dr. Boswell?"

I looked at Arizona who had a pained expression on her face.

She knew what I was going to say. I didn't want to say it, but I couldn't refrain. Sooner or later they'd all find out, anyway. Why not now? I hated to draw the attention away from the baby, but I couldn't stop myself.

"She's the woman Arizona slept with last night,"