Title: Stockings

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PG-13 (mostly clean, but some innuendo)

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one and a half years of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Thing!verse

Summary: "Santa came? Are you so sure about that?" [Christmas 2020]

Author's Note: A holiday Thing!verse fic only one day late. Unbeta'd 'cause I'm a little proud of this "only one day late" thing. The beautiful Thing!verse artwork is by the amazing strandedinaber.

Callie is sleeping rather peacefully when the baby monitor crackles to life.

"Christmas, Cari! Wake up, hermanita. It's Christmas!" Lena's oh-so-bubbly voice comes through scratchy.

Callie sleepily listens to her five-year-old talk-sing to her twenty-two-month-old until Lena says:

"Dejame get Asa. We'll get you out of that crib, Caroline."

Callie bolts upright: seven-year-old Asa is capable of getting his baby sister out in an emergency, but the idea still makes Callie extremely nervous. Her sudden awakening shakes Arizona with a jolt. Her adorable wife feels around blindly as Callie pulls on her warm, fluffy robe (a Christmas gift from the "kids" last year) until a flip seems to switch inside Arizona.

"It's Christmas!" she exclaims, sounding not unlike Lena. She's as excitable as the children.

"Yes," Callie confirms, leaning down to kiss her good morning. "I'm going to go round them up. Do you want to play gatekeeper? It means you get to eat the cookies."

"Santa eats the cookies," Arizona counters.

"Sure," Callie allows. "Don't forget the carrots, Rudolph."

Arizona grins ever as she rolls her eyes. "Okay!"

"Just call up when you're ready."

Upstairs, Callie finds Lena pulling her sleepy older brother out of his room. The seven-year-old grumbles as Lena continues to tug on the sleeve of his reindeer pjs, the same matching ones that Lena and Caroline sport.

"C'mon, Asa. Santa came!"

"Santa came? Are you so sure about that?" Callie interrupts.

Lena freezes.

"Did he?" she asks, eyes wide.

"I don't know. You're gonna have to go wait at the top of the stairs."

"Okay!"

Before she sprints over there, Lena stops to throw herself at her madre with a warm hug.

"Morning. Merry Christmas, Mami."

Callie picks her up and kisses all over her cheek.

"Feliz Navidad, m'ija."

She sets her down and kisses Asa's cheek good morning as well. Inside her room, Caroline has heard Callie's voice and starts squawking for attention.

"Ma-mee," she whines, having hauled herself to her feet, rattling her crib impatiently.

Her pajamas are the same red with brown reindeer as her siblings, but instead of long johns they're a footie sleeper. It is Callie's year to pick Christmas jammies, and while she usually avoids such cutesy camp, she just couldn't help herself this year.

"Buen día, m'ija. Merry Christmas."

"Hambry," Caroline announces.

"Sé que tienes hambre, Caroline, pero también necesitas paciencia." [I know you're hungry, but you also need to be patient.]

The look Caroline gives her, chin length hair all asunder, is pure skepticism.

"Wanna go see Momma?"

Caroline's scowl softens and she holds her arms out more politely.

"I thought so. Okay."

She grabs the toddler, who immediately demands:

"Beso."

"Oh yes, a kiss for you, my sweet girl."

Caroline magnanimously accepts Callie's lips on hers.

"Mami, hurry!" Lena is calling.

"Calmate, Lena," Asa complains. "Mami, she's hurting me."

Callie emerges with Cari on her hip to find Lena squeezing Asa's hand in excitement, and Asa pushing her off.

"If Santa did come, I'm telling him to take it all back."

The older two jump apart, safely on opposite sides of the stairs.

"Oh, Momma," Callie calls down to her wife. "Did Santa come?"

"Oh, I don't know," Arizona calls back over-dramatically. "Let me triple check."

Lena is literally bouncing on the toes of her feet and even Asa, who has started to question the whole Santa deal a bit, looks anxious.

"I think... Yes! Yes, you can come down. Santa came."

The kids fly down the stairs, which makes Callie more than a little nervous, but not as nervous as it would've a year ago.

"He came!"

"Look, Leni, he ate the cookies!"

"Carrots, too!"

"Oh good, he came," Callie sighs theatrically. She drops Cari to the ground, and the toddler practically sprints to join her siblings. Callie moves to kiss her wife warmly. When she pulls away, she grins and brushes a few stray crumbs from the corner of Arizona's mouth, whispering: "How were the cookies, Santa?"

"Good, but not the best thing I've eaten since last night."

"Santa!" Callie gasps, still barely audible. She feels blush color her cheeks at the memories of last night. "Not in front of the elves."

Arizona grins and kisses her again before they fall prey to "Oh, Mami, mira!" and "Momma, what's this?" and their living room descends into a flurry of gift opening.

Seemingly hours and three breakfasts later, at about noon, they're still in their pjs. Asa and Lena have miraculously started playing, nicely, together, building the epic Hot Wheels track Santa brought them. Arizona and Caroline cuddle on the floor, engrossed by Cari's newest puzzle, and Callie has a stack of books with her name on them while Christmas dinner bakes in the over.

The relative quiet is broken by the obnoxious "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells," ringtone Asa downloaded for her after Thanksgiving dinner. Callie grabs for her phone, momentarily distracted by the new background picture she took last night. Snuggled together with candy canes in one of the back pews are the kindest shepherd, sweetest angel, and surliest (but still most adorable) sheep that St. Luke's has ever seen.

"Hola, Mamá. Hola, Papi," she finally answers.

"Merry Christmas, m'ija!" Rosario and Carlos greet excitedly.

"We thought since we'll be so spoiled to have you tomorrow night, we'd let you have some time to enjoy la mañana," Rosario continues. "Julia y Lucas están tan emocionados para ver los primos." [Julia and Lucas are so excited to see their cousins.]

"Lucas is a baby, mamá, but okay. ¿Quieren hablar con los nietos?" [Do you want to talk to your grandkids?}

"Claro," Carlos says. "Put them on video."

Callie activates the video chat and calls the kids over. Even Caroline toddles to the couch and somewhat contributes as they gab with their abuelitos.

With the kids distracted, Arizona sits down beside Callie at the breakfast bar.

"Hey. You've got one more present from me."

"Arizona, really, you've gotten me enough."

"You're my wife; I'm allowed to spoil. Open it."

Callie tears the wrapping off the box, which seems like a normal department store gift box with something neatly printed in Arizona's meticulous handwriting:

"For #4."

Curious, Callie pulls off the lid to find The Onesie (badass black proclaiming: "I 3 my moms!") that every Robbins-Torres baby has worn since Mami gave it to Momma for Valentine's Day. Breath caught in her throat, and Callie lifts it and finds underneath it piles of brochures for every kind of adoption agency.

"Oh, Arizona."

"I'm ready when you're ready. And that doesn't have to be now. I know we're still finding our feet with Terror Number Three, the grumpiest baby ever, but whenever you feel-"

Callie lunges forward to kiss her too-talkative wife.

"I'm ready," she says as the kiss turns into a warm, clutching embrace. "I'm so ready. Thank you."

"We have a plan. Plus," Arizona nods, just a little teary, to the fireplace mantle. "We have to balance out the stockings. Five is awkward. If you'd let me hang three for the chickens..."

Callie ignores her and declares resolutely: "We'll start looking in the new year. Yeah?"

"Of course."

"Oh, Arizona, thank you," Callie repeats.

"Let me know if you feel that way when we're back to two a.m. feedings and double dirty diapers."

"Oh, time to start potty training Cari now," she says quickly. She looks back to the onesie in hand and brings it to her face. It still smells like tiny baby.

"Hello!" Lena interrupts, appearing at her moms' sides, frizzy blonde braids askew, fingers immediately seeking a tactile connection with her madre's arm.

"Hey, baby girl. You done with the abuelitos?"

"Yep!" Lena giggles as Arizona wrangles her into her lap, kissing her cheek.

Asa and Caroline soon join them, and they say goodbye to Carlos and Rosario. Asa lifts Caroline up onto their madre's lap and then leans against her, shoulder to shoulder. Callie runs her free hand over his buzzed head, wishing he would grow his beautiful curls out.

"Mami," Lena complains. "We still have stockings."

"Oh, more presents, hm?" Arizona laughs.

"Yes, ma'am," Asa confirms.

"I don't know if you were good enough for stockings this year..." Callie leads.

"Momma, please, tell her!" Lena makes her case. "Asa and me were really good!"

"Asa and I," Arizona corrects gently. "And I guess so. You two sure do fight a lot."

The older two immediately adopt repentant expressions, while Caroline, totally unfazed, plays with a spare ribbon tied loosely around Callie's neck.

"Well I guess they've been playing very well together this morning, Arizona, don't you think?"

"Yeah, Arizona," Lena pipes up, earning a mostly playful death glare from her mother. She immediately gulps and corrects: "Yes, ma'am." She buries her face in Arizona's shoulder, wincing as she prepares herself for a denial.

Arizona shakes her head and kisses Lena's riotous curls before sighing:

"You're right, Calliope, they've been very good. Let's go get some stockings!"

"Mami, this is yummy," Lena announces, digging into the ham as soon as Arizona is done cutting it for her.

"Yeah, Mami, gracias," Asa says with his mouth full of potatoes.

Caroline rattles off a string of incomprehensible Spanglish that seems to generally agree as she gnaws on some green beans.

"Otra vez, Caroline?" [Come again?] Callie grins at her, but Caroline just shakes her head and keeps eating. "And thanks, guys. You're welcome."

Arizona meets her eyes across their kitchen table, not for the first time missing the ability to eat a meal with her wife at close quarters, without a table full of her beautiful, charming, extremely loud children between them. She smiles her thanks as well.

They go around the table discussing their favorite presents of the day. Asa claims it's the electronic talking Battleship board game from Uncle Mark (much to his mothers' dismay), Lena immediately bubbles on and on about the bright purple bicycle Santa brought (without training wheels!), and Caroline... asks very sweetly for a cookie.

"For dessert, Care Bear," Arizona promises her. "Drink your milk."

"What's your favorite, Momma?" Asa asks, going to wipe his mouth on his sleeve but stopping short at his mother's arched eyebrow. He grabs his napkin and finishes the job.

"Oh, I think... My beautiful new picture!" she grins, and the children beam at the praise for their gift: a large, framed sheet of paper with their names, birthdates, and recently done handprints and footprints in bright primary colors, for Momma's office, done under Grammy and Grandpa's supervision at Thanksgiving.

"Cari got paint everywhere," Lena says for the tenth time.

"What about you, Mami?" Asa prompts.

Callie immediately answers whatever they got her, of course, but her heart is immediately back with that tiny little onesie waiting to be filled and the idea of one more stocking to place above the fireplace.

Hyperactive but exhausted angels finally put down for the night, their moms settle into the couch with an embarrassing amount of pie. They eat their late night treat while teasing and giggling, surveying the miraculously now controlled chaos of their living room, the tree lights providing most of the illumination.

"I don't wanna fly tomorrow," Arizona sighs as she sets down her pie plate next to Callie's on the coffee table, melting into her wife's embrace.

"I know, babe, but it means the world to my parents."

"Oh, I want to see your parents, and watch you chase our babies around the beach, and continually get sunscreen pushed on me by your mother as if it were heroin. And enjoy the fact that you'll spend nearly all day, every day in a swimsuit. I just really don't want to get on a plane with three grumpy kids on December 26th."

"It's the price we pay for a Christmas at home with just the five of us."

"Soon to be six," Arizona grins. "And I know, and it's worth it. I'm just a little pouty."

"It's cute," Callie promises. "Can I do anything to cheer you up?"

Arizona smiles slowly.

"Not until we're in the bedroom." She lets the innuendo settle between them for a few moments, Callie's hands on her hips getting more adventurous. She takes a deep breath, shivering a little as fingers dip past her waistband, and finishes: "I could really use your help with some last minute packing."

Callie lets out a mock gasp and pinches her hip.

"Arizona Robbins, you are such a tease."

"Mm, well, I actually do need help." Callie pinches her again. "But I'll definitely reward you if you do."

"You've got a deal."

el fin