Cupcakes and Tattoos

Chapter 19

"Babe!?" Callie called out as she entered Arizona's house. Usually she was greeted at the door by an overexcited blonde and an adorable kitten when she came over. Callie searched the bottom floor and found no sign of either of them. "Arizona?!" She called upstairs. No answer. "Sonny?!" She didn't really expect an answer from that one. Callie was starting to get worried. Arizona had said she would be home and her car was in the driveway. She didn't think to check for her bike and scooter in the garage. Callie decided to check upstairs before going back outside.

"Ariiizoooona!" she yelled out again as she climbed the stairs. When she got to the top she saw that the ladder to the attic was pulled down and a few boxes were sitting in the hallway. Sonny was sitting on one of the boxes mewing while looking up. Fuck, I hate attics. Callie grabbed Sonny and stood at the bottom of the ladder. She called Arizona's name again, hoping she wouldn't have to go up there. After not receiving an answer, she put Sonny down and started to slowly climb up. "The things I do for that woman!" Callie mumbled to herself as she climbed. She completely forgot about her attic hatred the instant she reached the top and saw her girlfriend crying in the middle of about twenty boxes. "Baby, what's wrong?" Callie rushed to climb over the mess of boxes, slipping on a few scattered papers along the way. When she reached Arizona she wrapped her arms around her shaking form.

Arizona didn't even notice Callie was there until she felt those familiar arms around her. She curled herself into Callie and let her tears stop. Earlier she had decided she would start bringing down her brother's boxes. That was over three hours ago. At first, it was going well. She had opened one box to find older sketches of their childhood garden. Those had made her smile at the memory. Her brother and her worked hard together to grow things, but it never worked. One morning they woke up to find their garden full and overgrown. They had been so excited they finally did it. When she was older she figured out that it must have been her parents who planted those plants in the middle of the night. She had started to pull other stuff out of other boxes. Some stuff she recognized, but most was new to her. When she went to look in another box, she found newer drawings, including the one Tim had designed for her back. She's been sitting on the floor looking at it ever since.

Callie felt Arizona calming down and sat back to look at her face. She noticed the large piece of paper that Arizona was looking at and tried to pull it out of her hand, but the blonde held onto it tightly. "Mariposa, what are you doing up here all alone?"

"I was going to bring these down for you guys." She gestured around her. "But then I found this." She nodded down at the drawing.

"What is it?"

Arizona hesitated for a moment before handing it to Callie. Callie recognized what it was immediately. She ran her eyes over it slowly, taking in all the detail that was missing from Arizona's tattoo. She didn't realize how much work actually still had to be done. It was amazing. There were no words. Callie started to look around them more. She had been so focused on Arizona, she didn't notice that there were sketchbooks, paintings, loose drawings and large canvasses spread out all over the attic floor. "Oh, baby, what did you do?"

"I just looked in one box and then that led to another and another. I don't really know what happened."

Callie kissed her temple and rubbed her back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just got overwhelmed." She looked at Callie and noticed the worry in her expressive brown eyes. "I promise, Calliope. I'm okay."

"Okay. Let's get these back in their boxes and bring then downstairs. This place is creeping me out."

Arizona smiled teasingly, "Are you afraid of the ghosts in the attic?"