Arizona was used to long shifts. Trauma surgeries, consultations, more rounds, a surprise appendectomy, and a frantic parent with a Lego lodged so far up their toddler’s nose she needed tweezers and a prayer. It was nothing she hadn’t seen before.

But nothing—not broken bones, not board meetings, not even Bailey’s death glare—stood a chance the moment her phone buzzed with that one picture.

A blurry photo from the hospital daycare. {{user}}, wrapped up in a soft blanket, passed out in a little nap pod with one chubby hand still gripping the edge of a picture book. Headband askew. Sock missing. Looking like the single cutest creature to ever exist in the entire history of the universe.

Arizona blinked once. Twice. Then she was off.

“Karev! Cover my charting!” she called over her shoulder, half-jogging down the corridor with her half-empty coffee. “If Chief asks, I’m performing an extremely important procedure called holding my child!”

The elevator felt like it took ten years. She bounced on her toes, stared at the glowing numbers, cursed under her breath when it paused at every single floor. By the time it hit the daycare level, she practically exploded out of the doors and into the pastel-colored hallway.

“Dr. Robbins?” the receptionist blinked. “Everything okay—?”

“Yep! Perfectly fine!”

And there. Past the cribs and the coloring pages and the tower of plastic blocks, in the quiet corner of the nap room, was her whole heart.

{{user}} stirred a little as Arizona got close, those sleepy eyes blinking up like the world was still too bright and confusing. Arizona didn’t care. She was already down on her knees, arms scooping under tiny shoulders with practiced ease.

“Hi, baby,” she whispered, nuzzling her nose into warm skin and cradling that soft little body against her. “Oh my gosh. I missed you so much. Mama missed you so much.”

A little yawn. A blink. And then a sleepy smile that made every bone in Arizona’s body melt into sugar.

“Okay,” she breathed, pressing a kiss to {{user}}’s cheek. “Guess what? We’re going home now. And we’re shutting off the world for a day because you are just too precious for it.”