After All This Time
By Bella Taggart
Part 6/?
Callie took the steps two at a time, holding her bag up over her head in an effort to keep dry, and came to a stop in the entrance of Mark's apartment building. She rang the bell, balanced her bag in her arms and took out the wine bottle she had stashed in there.
"Who is it?"
Mark's scratchy voice came over the intercom.
"Who do you think it is? Let me in, I'm cold."
When after a moment the door didn't open, and Callie could still hear static coming from the intercom, she realized that Mark was making her wait on purpose and listening on the other end.
"Funny Sloan." She grumbled, and rolling her eyes added in a softer tone, "Let me in, please."
"Better."
And the door clicked open.
She readied herself and started walking up the stairs. By the time she got to the fourth floor, she was anything but cold, and she was complaining to herself.
Mark was waiting for her by the open door.
"You have got to move. Seriously, who doesn't have an elevator any more? I don't know how you manage it." She walked up to him, trying to catch her breath and kissed his cheek.
"So you keep telling me." Mark said dryly, holding the door open and letting Callie pass. He took the wine she was holding out and thanked her softly, following her into the living room.
"Babe, Callie is here!" He shouted towards the kitchen.
"You don't have to scream, I'm right here" Lexie said softly, having suddenly appeared in the corridor.
"Oh sorry, Callie is here" he said, much softer this time. She walked across the room towards Callie, "I see that." She said, brushing her fingers down Mark's back as she passed him and came to stop in front of Callie, "Hey pretty lady, I'm glad you could make it." She took Callie's jacket and gave both her cheeks a kiss.
"Me too. Thanks for the invite."
"Like you need an invite." Lexie chastised.
Spotting the bottle in Mark's hand, she shook her head. "Callie, you really didn't have to."
"I know, I know, I wanted to."
"Okay, thank you, now sit, relax. I'm just gonna finish up in the kitchen and the food will be ready in about five minutes." She said walking back towards the kitchen.
"Do you need any help?" Callie asked in politeness.
"Nah, it's all done...Mark, sweaty, have you asked Callie what she wanted to drink?"
"I was just about to." He replied, pecking her on the lips as she walked by him. "So what's it gonna be Cal? Should I just pop this open or do you want something stronger?"
"Wine's fine." She said flopping down on the leather couch.
Dinner went smoothly, as smoothly as it could have under the circumstances.
Her mood, obviously feeling like having a whole-day workout; climbing high one minute and then dropping low the next, jumping through hoops and at times even hanging on single handedly, had left her exhausted by the evening. And regardless of her wish to pretend like all was right in her world, her short, clipped answers in the face of her friends' attempts at conversation gave her away.
As it happened, opening the second bottle was a cure for that. Pretty soon she couldn't stop talking, her tongue loosening at last, slurred every which way. And despite all her efforts to the contrary, conversation kept on coming back to Erica. By her hand, at that.
"And since when can she teach? Just because she is a top-notch surgeon doesn't mean she can teach. This is a teaching hospital for Christ's sake. Do we all not remember how she used to treat Christina?" she whined, taking a large sip of her wine.
"Yang did suffer a bit in her hands. That is true." Sloan conceded, sounding fuzzy himself.
"A bit? More like a lot. She used to beg me just to get her some OR time with her."
They were sitting by, or rather half lying on, the dinner table, having cleared it of the dishes hours before. Callie and Sloan were already drunk as a skunk; Lexie was at least trying to maintain a level of sobriety.
"And I suffered in Yang's hands, that just makes you want to be better."
"You say that now Lex, but who was the dumb ass operating on her friends so that she could learn?"
"That was my wife, my one and only" Sloan mumbled, pulling Lexie into his arms. "Baby, you were so young and innocent, remember?"
Lexie shook her head in amusement, letting him kiss her neck. "I remember and fine, you have a point there but…"
"No buts," Callie interrupted, "She is the devil. She is very dangerous Lexie, you must be careful. She will get under your skin," She was swaying on the table, moving her hands demonstratively.
"She'll say she doesn't like people and you'll say you don't like people either and you'll bond over your dislike for people together and even though you really don't like people, you'll like her and before you know it you'll think she's awesome and cool and funny and smart, so damn smart and even though you might not realize it at first, pretty soon you'll think that she's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen and- "
"Was there a point, Cal?" Sloan asked dryly.
"Right, sorry…where was I?" she asked, pouring herself another glass.
"She was beautiful." Lexie reminded.
"She was, wasn't she?" Callie asked dreamily, resting her chin on the bottle.
"No, you were saying that she would be the most beautiful thing-"
"Right, right. Yes, and um, you'll think that everything is great, but than right when you're not expecting it, she'll strike. And she'll hurt you and, and umm she's the devil, I'm telling you. Lucifer incarnate. In fact I'm gonna call her Lucy from now on, short for Lucifer."
"I think I'm gonna cut you off." Lexie said, taking the bottle away from Callie.
"No seriously, it fits perfectly; we should all call her Lucy. Chief Lucy. Lucyhief."
Sloan was chuckling, "I'm game."
"Nice." Lexie added, taking a sip of her wine, rolling her eyes.
"And why is she coming back to Seattle? Wasn't she some rock star in New York?" Sloan asked.
"Mark!" Lexie groaned disapprovingly.
"Exactly, that's what I said, Seattle is mine."
"I admit I don't know her like you guys do but she might not be that bad you guys. I spoke to her today and she was actually kind of nice."
"Lexie!" Callie exclaimed, exasperated.
"Bitch. She's a bitch, sorry."
"Thank you."
* * * * * * * * *
"You wanted to see me?" Callie poked her head in through the crack of Erica's office door.
After 2 days of playing hide and seek within the hospital halls, Callie was no longer allowed to delay her inevitable face off with Erica, when as the chief of surgery, she called her in to a meeting. She had been holding private meetings with most of the surgeons one at a time, and it seemed, despite all her wishing to the contrary, her time had come.
"Come on in Callie."
She was sitting behind Richard's old desk, looking like she already owned her environment. Callie felt a pang of anger flair at that as she walked further into the room.
Erica was already making major changes in the hospital, starting by bringing in 3 of her various colleagues from across the nation with her, and even though no one could argue that they were great technical additions to the hospital, people were starting to get worried about loosing their jobs. After all, everyone agreed that cuts would have to be made in order to afford those new additions.
"Please sit down."
She sat down as she was told and waited.
"Thanks for coming."
Erica looked at Callie expecting her to say something in return, when she didn't she cleared her throat and looking down at her table, continued.
"Um…I wanted to talk to you, as you know I've been meeting with all the attendings, and some changes are going to be happening in the near future that's going to have a real impact on the way we do things around-"
"Are you going to fire me?"
Erica's head shot up, her eyes going wide as they met Callie.
"What? No!…Why would you ask that?"
Callie crossed her arms in front of her," Well, you've brought in Dr. Bradley, Phillips and Connor. Obviously, people see that budget cuts are inevitable and I'm one of those people."
"I see."
Callie nodded, her face straight and cold.
"This, despite the fact that no one has been fired yet." Erica said slowly.
"Yet." She repeated, as though Erica was making her point for her.
Erica looked at her for a long moment, studying her, "And you thought, that I would fire
you?
Callie could tell that she was offended. Though why, she couldn't understand. What was she supposed to think or expect from Erica. Erica who wouldn't have even told her she was back, had she not bumped into her accidentally.
"Why not? They are right, aren't they? There will have to be budget cuts?"
Erica straightened in her chair as her jaw went rigid for a moment and than settled back to its relaxed state.
After a moment, she nodded. "Yes there have been additions to the staff, and yes there will be budget cuts… Not that it's anyone's business but at the moment those cuts are being made in spending, mostly in advertising… I would rather have more good doctors and fewer commercials than the other way around."
She leaned back on her seat, looking at Callie, her annoyance clearly visible in her narrowed eyes. Then she took a deep breath and the traces of the feeling vanished once again from her face. "For your information, if I do decide to fire someone, their incompetence will be the deciding factor not the hospital's budgetary needs."
When Callie remained silent, she grunted, shaking her head, "I guess it was silly of me to think that people would have a little more faith..."
"Oh, don't even"
"What?"
"You don't seriously expect me to-"
"What? Expect you to what?"
"Nothing. Forget it."
"Tell me what you were going to say Callie." She insisted.
But Callie wouldn't. She swallowed, locking her chin in place. Looking at Erica as neutrally as she could manage, she waited. They weren't going to argue, or debate. Hell, they weren't even supposed to be speaking, she reminded herself.
Erica knitted her eyebrows, looked down and then back up again.
"Listen Callie, I think we need to talk… I know that my coming here, this way, was a surprise-"
"Is that what that was?" she shot back, before she was able to stop herself.
"I…I know that it might be difficult… or at the very least umm awkward to have me here…"
Callie's stomach churned as she listened. Erica was clearly getting ready to give her a list of excuses. She didn't want to hear it. Any of it.
"I am sorry that you-"
Callie held up a hand and stopped her, standing up and scrunching up her face.
Erica looked up at her questioningly, confusedly.
"Erica, you're probably right, we probably should talk."
Erica nodded, but Callie held up a finger, indicating that she wasn't finished. "But I don't want to, and I am not going to."
"Callie-"
"No-I think, we can have a respectable, professional working relationship but it's obvious that we are not really good at the personal stuff." She shook her head in irritation. "So from now on if you could be Dr. Hahn and I could be Dr. Torres, we could get along much better. I think so, don't you think? I do."
Erica was the one to remain silent this time. Looking at her, her lips drawn into a thin line.
Callie walked backwards towards the door as she continued speaking. "So, if there is something you want to tell me about work, tell me, if not, let's not do this. Let's just…just let me go back to work. Okay?"
Some color had drained off Erica's face. It had to be the held back anger, but there was nothing Callie could do about that. She had told her what she needed to tell her and how Erica dealt with that was not her problem.
Erica cleared her throat, blinked once and very calmly said, "All right, go back to work, Dr. Torres."
Continued...