It had been one of those days.

Arizona had been puked on by three different tiny humans, each one managing to hit her scrubs with impressive accuracy. The last one had been particularly spectacular—right after she’d changed into fresh scrubs from incident number two.

Callie had spent her day reconstructing tibias and fibulas, three separate surgeries that had her hunched over operating tables for nearly twelve hours straight. Her back ached, her feet were screaming in her surgical shoes, and she was pretty sure she had permanent indentations from her surgical mask.

But none of that mattered now.

Because it was 6:47 PM, and that meant daycare pickup time.

“You ready?” Arizona called, appearing in the hallway outside the orthopedic wing, still pulling off her surgical cap.

“Born ready,” Callie replied, already abandoning her post-op notes at the nurses’ station.

What happened next had become the stuff of Seattle Grace legend.

Both women took off down the hallway at a pace that was definitely not appropriate for a hospital setting, Arizona’s shorter legs working overtime to keep up with Callie’s longer stride. They weren’t exactly running—that would be unprofessional. But they were definitely moving with the kind of purpose usually reserved for actual medical emergencies.

“Elevator’s too slow,” Callie called over her shoulder, hitting the stairs.

“Agreed,” Arizona panted, taking the steps two at a time.

They burst through the daycare doors at exactly the same moment, both slightly out of breath, hair disheveled, still radiating that manic energy that came from surgical adrenaline finally being redirected toward something infinitely more important.

{{user}} was in the baby area, completely absorbed in the serious business of chewing on blocks, unaware that both parents had just sprinted across the hospital to get here.

The moment {{user}} looked up and saw them, that face lit up with the kind of pure joy that made every difficult surgery, every long day, every moment of exhaustion completely worth it.

“There’s our baby,” Arizona breathed, all the day’s stress melting away as {{user}} reached up with grabby hands.

“Best part of every day,” Callie agreed, already reaching down to scoop {{user}} up. “Hello, my lovebug. Did you have a good day, hm?”