#thing!verse

Domestic Frat House silliness

Caroline sits with Lena and Tesa watching the opening credits of their favorite terrible movie when Susie comes bouncing down the stairs with her flavor of the month in tow. Lena sits cross-legged on the ground between Tesa’s knees while her girlfriend braids loose pigtails into her blonde curls. She looks up from the popcorn in her lap with her usual friendly smile.“Hey, guys. Wanna join us? It just started.”“Todd was just headed out, but-”“Is this what lesbians do? Sit around all day and braid each other’s hair?” Todd interjects. His tone says he might be joking, but all four women are dumbstruck.“Yes,” Lena deadpans as Susie flushes with embarrassment and tugs Todd to the door to say their goodbyes.When she returns a few minutes later, the others are still staring at the foyer.“Oh, Susie Q,” Lena finally starts as if addressing a naughty puppy (in fact, Caos, curled on his bed, looks around to see what he did). “He is so not a keeper.”“I know,” Susie groans, throwing herself down between Caroline and Tesa on the couch and dropping her head to Caroline’s shoulder. Then she pouts: “But he’s so pretty.”Caroline rolls her eyes. “Sus. You can do better.”“Yes, Mother. Sorry, guys,” she directs to the couple.Lena shrugs and looks up to Tesa as the other woman loops an elastic around the end of the second braid and drops a kiss on Lena’s forehead.“No worries. I’m not even sure that’s offensive; just stupid,” Tesa says.The girls laugh.“That was some loud ‘hair braiding’ you two were doing last night,” Caroline then says with a sly grin.(Playfully) scandalized, Lena is on her feet in a second, couch pillow in hand as Caroline hides behind Susie.“That was hair pulling,” Tesa corrects. Lena freezes, mouth open.“You are the perfect woman,” she sighs, dropping to straddle Tesa’s lap with a brief kiss.“I am,” Tesa shrugs, a teasing glint in her eye.“Oh, you two are sickening,” Caroline groans, covering her eyes. “Leave them alone, Care Bear. I think they’re sweet.”“You watch too many chick flicks,” Caroline quips, snuggling up with her bestie as her sister slides off of her girlfriend’s lap and they settle in for the movie. “That’s why you always fall for the wrong guy.”“It’s because you’re my soulmate, Cari. Still sure you’re not bi?”“Positive. You?”“Yep. It’s a shame.”Lena and Tesa roll their eyes as the younger women begin to giggle.“What?” Lena asks.“Just thinking how awkward it would be to have sex with Sus,” Caroline laughs.Susie turns pink. “Ohmygod. We’d never make it past first base.”“Whatever. I could totally make it to second.”“The bases are heteronormative.”“Oh shut up, Len’,” Cari laughs.

***

Domestic Lena/Tesa cuteness

“Come to bed, mi vida,” Tesa sleepily complains.It’s four am, the morning before the morning before a big trial, and she knows by now that Lena doesn’t sleep more than a few hours on nights like tonight, holed up with her laptop and case notes at the kitchen table, loose sweats hanging from her athletic frame, blonde curls twisted haphazardly out of the way. The fierce concentration and slavish devotion to her work would’ve been a major turn off in her previous relationships. Had been a major turn off. But in Lena, it is endearing and more than a little sexy, just like the way she strips off her t-shirt, sports bra, and low-slung sweatpants as she stumbles into her room (their room?) in a haze of sleep deprivation, clumsily pulling on a worn, oversized shirt. This afternoon she’ll come home from work, eat the big dinner Caroline will prepare, make sweet, slow love to Tesa, and then fall in a solid, near coma sleep for ten hours, curled around her girlfriend, wound up in her soft sheets.It astounds Tesa that she’s been around long enough to know all of this, to have these little rituals, to understand how Lena’s life is full of sacred rites and repetitions that make her who she is.“If you can’t sleep, at least come hold me.”There. Gets her every time. She slides under the covers, wraps her arms around Tesa’s middle, and lays her head onto her shoulder after dropping a reverent kiss there. Tesa threads her fingers through Lena’s soft curls.“Close your eyes, mi vida. Did you get things done?”“Yes,” Lena admits, voice husky with exhaustion, bones turning to goo under the careful ministrations of Tesa’s skilled fingers.“Good. Now sleep. You’ll be amazing. I’m driving you to work tomorrow.”“You don’t–”“You know I don’t like you driving like this,” Tesa says warmly. “I’ll pick you up, too.”“Mmkay.”I love you is on the tip of her tongue; it always is, faced with the woman who makes her once thought dormant caregiver instincts run into overdrive, if only because Lena is simultaneously so strong and so helpless. So unafraid to accept help, if not ask for it. Teresa, who has spent her life learning how to not rely on anyone else, simply marvels at that ability. But she’s too much of a coward to tell Lena how much she loves her aloud. She knows, of course. Doesn’t she? She must know that Tesa’s willingness to care for (and be cared for by) Lena speaks volumes. She has to know.

***

“Keep sleeping,” Tesa whispers with a kiss under Lena’s ear as she moves to roll out of bed. “I’ll put the coffee on.”“Best. Girlfriend. Ever.”Tesa laughs at the vaguely coherent appreciation. “That’s what you’ll be saying tonight. But it won’t be about coffee.”“Don’t tease; I still have to get through today.”“That would be easier if you slept more than two hours last night.”“Don’t I know it,” Lena groans.

***

The “I love you”s

“So I was thinking of grabbing a little zucchini, but the selection here is… I mean, I know this place has sentimental value, baby, since it was our third meet-cute, but their produce is actually atrocious, and…”“I love you,” Tesa blurts, the truth of words she’s been to too afraid to say for so long bubbling out of her mid-Lena-rant. In the middle of the (really, subpar) produce section, both of them in their sweats for their domestic Saturday ritual.“Hmm?”Tesa almost smacks her. If she would just shut up about the damn produce for five seconds, and…The seriousness of Lena’s expression reveals her true purpose: she’s giving Tesa an out, a way to take back those very serious words if they were really just word vomit. Tesa maintains eye contact, marveling at this woman. She’s really never done anything in her life that made her worthy of this kind of love.“I said I love you, Lena. I’m in love with you, and I have been for way too long to just be telling you now, but–”Lena steps forward, kissing her, hard, right next to the tomatoes. “You’ve got to stop making this grocery store so important to our relationship,” Lena whispers against her lips.“Sorry?”“No, don’t ever be sorry,” Lena insists.They’re starting to attract stares with their very public display of affection, and Tesa wonders when she became a part of that couple, so blissfully in love that they don’t care what others think.Lena reluctantly steps a little further out of her space.“Screw the zucchini. Is there anything left on that list that can’t wait until tomorrow?”“No…”“Let’s check out and go home.”

***

The Proposal

Lena is in their bedroom, putting away their laundry, dressed only in a time-worn Stanford soccer T-shirt and her black and white polka dot boy-cut panties. Tesa’s personal favorite pair. Some Mo-town is playing in the background, and she’s dancing while folding pj pants and matching socks.And it hits her. Not lust. Well, there’s a fair about of that; Lena’s got a nice little white girl ass that she’s shaking and her chest has filled out since she got that shirt, so the fabric strains across her breasts, and, in general, Tesa finds Lena and her bouncy curls, skilled tongue, and magic fingers pretty damn hard to resist. But not lust, primarily.No, she’s hit by the rightness of this moment, by how desperately she loves this woman, by how much she wants to spend the rest of her life earning the right to be worthy of the patient, steady, adoring love Lena freely gives. By how the words “the rest of her life” are still terrifying, but somehow appealing, when used in relation to Lena.“Will you marry me?” she says to announce her presence.Lena freezes, back to her, and Tesa can see her back expand with the big breath she draws in. She turns around, eyes wide.“Tesa…”“No, let me speak, please. I, I love you, and you know how hard it was for me to say those words, but they are so unbelievably true. I’m in love with you, and I want to marry you and meet our kids and all of that is still so scary to me, but I’ve never wanted something so badly in my life. You not only saved my life; you are my life. So, mi vida, ¿te quieres casar conmigo?”Lena smirks, just a little, before schooling her features.“Look in my underwear drawer.”“What?”“Just do it. Tesa, you attack-proposed to me in my panties; the least you can do is open the drawer.”Heart pounding with the importance of this moment, Tesa barely registers her girlfriend’s strange response, doing as she’s told. Her heart pounds right into her throat when she sees a small velvet box whose contents are obvious. A shaky hand lifts it out and opens it, tears falling at the absolutely stunning diamond ring it contains within. She feels Lena’s arms wrap around her from behind, feels the kiss she presses into her shoulder before her chin rests there.“I was going to propose this weekend. I had it all planned out: drive-in showing of The Philadelphia Story, in Mami’s old T-bird, with a picnic dinner and this perfect red wine I found. I even kicked everyone out of the house for the night. But you just had to go and steal my thunder.”“I can take it back; we can wait until this weekend, and–”“No. Baby, no. This is perfect. I can’t wait to tell the kids this story. And sí. Claro que quiero casarme contigo. You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”Tesa twists her head back to meet Lena’s lips in a warm, if awkward, kiss. It is perfect.“Put it on,” Lena orders with all that youthful enthusiasm she always manages to muster, fingers drumming against Tesa’s hipbones.“Can I still have my drive-in? And the sexy car?” Tesa asks, heart feeling fit to burst as she takes the ring out of its box and slides it onto the appropriate finger. She hears and feels Lena’s breath catch at the sigh.Lena removes one hand from her hip to gently, reverently take Tesa’s left hand, thumb playing with the gorgeous ring as she presses a kiss to the spot underneath Tesa’s ear that always makes her moan.“You can have whatever you want.”“Can I have your name?”Lena pulls away in surprise, and Tesa turns to make her case, hands taking Lena’s face gently.“I know it’s a little strange, I just… I have no attachment to mine. Mine has disowned me. And yours… Your family has been nothing but welcoming to me, even when they were certain I was going to break your heart. I want us all to have the same name. You, me, our kids. I want us all to be Robbins-Torres. Is that okay? Hyphenating would be awkward.”She knows the concept confuses Lena’s ideals, but her fiancée nods.“What’s mine is yours.”“Thank you,” Tesa breaths, leaning forward to press a kiss to Lena’s lips, hands still holding fast to her face. Lena’s hands slide back around her, warm at her hips, dipping into her back pockets.“I can’t believe you stole my thunder,” Lena marvels, pulling away to begin her descent down the column of Tesa’s neck, one hand drifting to the button of her fly.“Sorry,” Tesa says breathlessly, fingers threading through those beloved, messy curls as that amazing mouth wreaks havoc on her nerve endings. Lena presses a leg between hers. “I just can ‘t resist, mm, a hot girl dancing in her underwear.”“Sets off all your proposing instincts?”“Something, uhm, like that.”“Have to keep you away from all the other dancing underwear girls then,” Lena murmurs into her collar bone, flipping open the fly on Tesa’s jeans and starting to slide them down her thighs.“No, just you,” Tesa gasps out as she falls backward onto the bed after a gentle shove. “Only ever you.”

***

Lena wakes slowly, content to snuggle back into her warm cocoon of cotton sheets and Tesa, enjoying the way everything from her jersey pillowcase to every inch of her girl’s skin feels just a little softer in the morning. She lets out a sigh and grins at how they’ve ended up.For all her protests about a marked preference for being a cuddled little spoon, every so often (more often than she would want to admit) Tesa manages to wake up as a big spoon, wrapped protectively around Lena, face pressed into the crook of her neck. This morning is such a morning. Lena’s fingers seek the small hand pressed against her hip, tracing the warm platinum band and hard edges of the diamonds contained within. It’s a stunning ring; too much, Tesa will eventually protest, but Lena wants only the best for her fiancée, wants everyone to know how much Tesa is loved.“Possessive caveman,” Tesa will complain.Lena grins and links their fingers, loving how well they know each other.

The Wedding

“Some day, when I’m awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you… And the way you look tonight.” Lena sings the words softly in her ear as they dance slowly, almost too slow for the beat, pressed together in the middle of the dance floor. They are oblivious to rest of the world, and they have the right to be, being newlyweds and all.“You are such a walking romantic comedy,” Tesa accuses with a voice of pure adoration poorly hidden with just a touch of complaint. “You should give up your day job and write them. We’d make millions.” “There is nothing for me but to love you,” Lena just keeps singing, this time with a little teasing undertone, arm fast around her new wife’s waist, lips under her ear, breath warm on her neck. Tesa drops a kiss to Lena’s bare shoulder. “I love you, too, mi vida.” Tesa feels the smile against her neck, Lena’s own words coming next.“You’d be disappointed if I weren’t sappy and romantic.”“Only because I’d be worried you’d hit your head and forgotten who you were,” Tesa says dryly. “Hmm. That’s it, huh?”Tesa pulls back, meeting her eyes, the tone shifting to one much more serious.“I love the grand gestures and the ridiculous romance, Lena, I do. But they’re not why I love you. That’s not why I married you.”“No?”“I married you because you’re here, and you always are, no matter what. I love you because you always take my calls, unless you’re in court, and then you call me at the first recess. I love that you always send me a note at lunch, even if your lunch is half a granola bar scarfed in a bathroom during a deposition at three o’clock in the afternoon.”Tesa takes a deep breath, trying to say this right. She knows stable and consistent aren’t the most romantic of adjectives, but it is what she loves best about her Lena, that she’s always there, loving her, unceasing, undemanding. Unselfish. “The gestures are wonderful,” she finally finishes. “But it’s what’s in between them that has me standing here.”“You’re not standing,” Lena beams. “You’re dancing.”“Ay, qué suerte tienes que te quiero tanto.”“That was…” Lena actually takes one hand off Tesa’s hip to dry her eye a little. “We should’ve written our own vows.”“Oh, no. Your madre warned me about that. She said never let a Robbins write their own vows; they’ll upstage you every time.”“I know I couldn’t go any better than that.”“You could do better than that in your sleep.”“Still, you must be an honorary Robbins, because that was awesome.”“No, Robbins-Torres. And by law now, remember.”

The Baby

Lexie Grey is doing her chiefly rotation in the Pit when they bring her in.She recognizes her immediately, even with the head lac bleeding everywhere. Her blood turns to ice when she realizes the patient is unconscious.“What happened?”“Female, thirty-one. Head lac following LOC at the scene; hasn’t regained consciousness yet. Vitals are okay, otherwise.”“Okay, but what happened?” Lexie demands, helping wheel her toward a trauma room. She turns to a nearby intern: “Get Nurse Sloan.”“She fainted,” a new voice interrupts, breathless. Tesa finally catches up with the paramedics, placing one hand on the gurney. “We were just cleaning up. After breakfast. And she…” Tesa trails off, obviously distraught. “Has she been sick lately? Any strange behavior? Nausea? Vomiting?” She turns to a nurse. “Get me Dr. Grey.”“Of course. She’s… ay, Dios. She’s pregnant.”Lexie’s eyes snap up to meet Tesa’s teary gaze. “Eleven and a half weeks. We were waiting until twelve to tell everyone.”The gurney jolts to a stop in the trauma room, and they grab the sheets to move Lena over.“Extra careful now. Precious cargo,” Lexie says, eternally grateful that so far the only blood is from the head wound. “Mi vida, please wake up,” Tesa says, reaching for a hand only to be gently moved away by a nurse. “How’d she get pregnant?” Lexie asks gently. Then to a nurse: “Get me an ultrasound and page OB. And then go get my sister, even if you have to drag her in here.”“How?” Tesa asks, confused. “Insemination, in vitro…”“Oh. Sorry. IVF. My egg. Oh god. You don’t think something-”“Sh. It’s okay. We don’t know anything yet. Her vitals are pretty good.” The tiny portable ultrasound arrives and gets plugged into the display. “Now, let’s see if we can get your baby to give us a show, okay?”Her voice remains steady and calm, but this is her almost niece, which means this baby is family, and she’s already inexplicably attached. She starts praying for a heartbeat.Her son finally arrives in the doorway. His expressive blue eyes betray his pain, but he manages a reassuring smile in Tesa’s direction. “What’s this I hear about me being an uncle?”Tesa just nods weakly, and Grey wraps her up in his arms. Watching them together is a little odd; it’s like if Mark and Arizona had liked each other from much earlier on. They let their love of Lena unite, not divide them.Lexie runs the wand over Lena’s stomach with practiced movements, still praying hard like Grey seems to be, too.Very soon, the reassuring, whirling thud of a tiny heartbeat fills the room, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.“Baby Robbins-Torres looks perfect. Vitals are strong, and-”“Holy crap, that’s its head,” Grey says in awe. “Tesa, look.”Grey outlines the shape of the fetus’s crown, and Tesa relaxes almost imperceptibly, eyes locked on the screen.“Alright. Let’s figure out what’s wrong with Lena, okay? We’ll get Meredith down here, and OB’s on its way. Then I’ll stitch up that lac myself.”Tesa nods her thanks. “Grey, if it’s okay with Tesa, you should probably get the rest of the family. Without causing any heart attacks.”“Arizona is still with the twins,” Tesa speaks up. “Right, okay. I’ll get Aunt Callie here.”Grey gives Tesa one last squeeze and steps out to make his calls. Lexie moves to put away the ultrasound.“Wait. Just one more minute?” Tesa begs, eyes glued on her child. Not for the first time, Lexie wonders what it would be like to be anticipating a child you can’t feel inside of you. The love doesn’t seem to be any less. Tesa’s eyes reflect the same awe, adoration, and terror she twice saw in Mark.“He or she is strong. I promise.”Tesa nods. “You can’t tell the gender?”“Not quite yet. We’ll take good care of Lena and the baby.”

***

Lena regains consciousness while they wait for lab results and the elder Dr. Grey, immediately calling for Tesa. Her wife is at her side in a second, and the nurse and interns give her space at a nod from Chief Grey.“The baby is perfect, mi vida,” are Tesa’s first words, as she threads their fingers together. “And Grey has called your madre.”“She doesn’t know about the baby,” Lena says groggily.Eyes now open, Lena is displaying classic signs of a mild concussion, but Lexie knows Meredith will want to confirm via CT.“We’ll just tell her a few days early. Grey knows, too. Nunca lo he visto tan emocionado.”“Can you tell me your name?” Lexie interrupts gently, examining pupil reaction (a tad sluggish) and leaning in to look at her head laceration.Lena obliges, and Tesa squeezes her hand.“And the date?”Another right answer.“And who am I?”“Aunt Lexie.”Lexie grins. “Good job. And who is that lovely lady to your right?”Lena smiles tiredly and quips: “That would be my very hot wife, Dr. Grey. Haven’t you seen the big honking ring?”Tesa rolls her eyes and looks to Lexie.“Is she okay? I mean clearly the snarky part of her brain hasn’t been damaged.”“Love you, too, baby.”Lexie shakes her head. Yes. Lena is definitely herself.“She should be fine, but we’re doing a full work up, just to be safe. What I think happened is this: Lena-nena-”“Really, Aunt Lex?”“-here fainted this morning because, her labs are going to show me, she is dehydrated. Because she’s been puking her guts up like clock work but hasn’t been properly compensating in her liquid intake. I think she hit her head in the fall, and probably has a minor concussion.”“Are you talking about me in the third person on purpose or is that a concussion symptom?”It’s Lexie’s turn to roll her eyes.“How many concussions did you have in high school, Lena?”“Just the one. Freshman year. Another and I would’ve been benched. Why?”“Long term memory test. Congratulations, by the way.”Lena gives a soft, exhausted smile, but Tesa fairly beams, laying a gentle hand on Lena’s still flat abdomen. “Thanks,” Lena says for both of them.

***

Meredith and an array of tests confirm Lexie’s diagnosis, and Lena is moved into a curtained room so she can get a little rest while Lexie expertly stitches up the cut on her forehead.“It won’t even scar. One for your collection. Quite the VIP treatment,” Lexie teases. “Even better than all of Uncle Mark’s.”“All of them? ¿Cuantas veces has tenido stitches en la cabeza?”“This is six,” Lena grins.Lexie begins to point them out. “Age six, goal post. Age ten, monkey bars mishap. Twelve, fell chasing Nicky and Teo on the back deck-”“They stole my popsicle.”“Fifteen, walked into an open car door.”“Totally a hot girl’s fault.”“Barely seventeen. Soccer cleat to the forehead.”“Blood, sweat, and tears. Leave it all on the field. No excuses. Play like a champion.”“Now you’re just spouting sports clichés,” Tesa rolls her eyes.“Our little soccer star. That was a great game. Awful, but great.”“Great because we won.”“Maybe we should break out the highlight reel later,” Tesa says playfully.The door swings open; Mami Torres finally arrives.“Dios mio. Lena! Is she okay? Is she-”“She’s just fine,” Lena speaks up, her voice bringing instant relief to her madre. “Minor concussion after she fainted. Dehydrated,” Lexie says quickly.“What happened?” Callie demands.“Should we give her the show?” Lexie asks softly.The mothers-to-be nod.Callie asks after a battery of tests while examining every inch of her daughter. Thirty-one or not, she’s still her baby girl. Lexie answers patiently while prepping.“Back up just a second, Callie?” Lexie can’t help her grin.Callie backs up, confused, and her eyes widen when she sees Lexie press the wand to Lena’s bare abdomen. The screen leaps to life, followed soon after Baby Robbins-Torres’s strong heartbeat. Callie gasps. “¿Quieres conocer a tu nieto, Mami?” Lena beams.Callie can’t tear her eyes away from the ultrasound. Her little Arizona 2.0 is pregnant. Grandchild number three.“It’s just the one, right?” Callie manages, through watery eyes and an adoring smile. “Just the one,” Lexie confirms.“Is that why Cari or Nate have been feeding the chickens every morning while your mother’s been away?”“Too busy puking,” Lena says wryly. “And Tesa was holding my hair. And deathly afraid of poultry.”“Am not!”“So are.”“Your mother!” Callie exclaims.