Inaugural Fic: Erica Leaves 1/1
Title: Erica Leaves
Author: reefermadniss
Rating: G
Summary: Erica takes the first steps
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not-for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. Any original characters, settings and plots are the property of reefermadniss.
Un-beta-ed.
A/N:
Let's start off with something that shows Erica moving forward, with her career and with her life. Here's just one possibility. I hope you like it!
Erica Hahn was glad she'd chosen a window seat on this flight. In first class, she wasn't restricted to the aisle seat for its tiny bit of extra legroom. She marveled at how different the land looked from this height. All the individual features blended into larger patterns of mountains, irregular lines of rivers and pockets of civilization.
She felt oddly free. For the first time in her life, she wasn't following a structured plan, one that mapped out every possible move and countermove along the way to her next goal. She had taken a leave from Seattle Grace and used the time to rigorously examine her life and her assumptions about it. For perhaps the first time, she considered her inner life, the quality of 'be-ing' rather than simply 'do-ing'. It was a sometimes painful process, but one she realized was long overdue. Nearing the end of what she viewed as her sabbatical, she recognized that her outlook had shifted, in a subtle but possibly seismic way. She was no longer entirely focused on external goals, on the destination. She found herself interested in the journey, the sights, the people, the food, the very experience of traveling.
Her brief affair with Callie - she didn't have a better way to describe it - had been one catalyst.
Erica had a strong bias toward order, yet over the years had accumulated odd puzzle pieces in her personal life that simply didn't fit. Callie had caused some of those pieces to snap into place. She knew, in her bones, that her primary attraction was to women. At her age, the reality of that didn't bother her nearly so much as the logistics of it. Finding decent men was hard enough, and they were about half the population. But finding women? That seemed daunting, even to her. Without realizing it, she sighed.
A voice startled her.
"Business or pleasure?"
She turned to look at her seatmate, composing her face as she did.
"Business. You?"
"Business, always," the woman replied with a touch of resignation.
The two women took each other's measure. Well-dressed, top-tier professionals, hair and makeup perfect, and both quite at ease in first class.
Erica saw a redhead. The green eyes and fair complexion told her it was probably natural. Shorter than her own 5'10". Lean but not skinny. Elegant hands. Erica caught herself looking . . . no wedding ring. The woman noticed. And smiled, a twinkle creeping into her eyes.
"What business?" she asked Erica.
"Medicine. I'm a cardio-thoracic surgeon."
"Good thing I'm not an ambulance chaser, then." The woman laughed and introduced herself. "Larissa MacDiarmid, intellectual property law."
"Erica Hahn."
"So, Erica Hahn, are you going to or coming from," Larissa asked as she took off her reading glasses and put them atop the folders in her lap.
Erica smiled back at Larissa. "Both, I think. I'm interviewing at Mass Gen."
~end~