Exchange Fic for bandwidth_limit
This is for bandwith_limit, and due to my inability to write anything that's close to 1,000 words I did the next best thing and given you two of your wishes. You asked for a past story where Erica is in college ('All the Cards') and a story where Erica speaks a foreign language ('Woman of Many Talents') ... since the first one pretty much fails to meet the rules of 'smut' or any pairing (although I suppose the ending could be interpreted in that fashion) I tried extra hard with the second one (I even consulted a fluent speaking friend, that's how hard I tried!)
Title: All the Cards
Rating: PG-12 (is there such a rating? If not, think UK rating 12)
Synopsis: Three weeks before graduation and it really can't come quick enough for Erica.
Author's Note: I've never been to university, nor the US so I apologise if a few details don't quite match the truth.
It was raining in Baltimore and Erica Hahn was sitting on her bed under an umbrella.
She ignored the constant thud against the canopy above her, the gentle 'plink' as elsewhere in her tiny studio apartment a rain drop landed in an already full bucket, focusing all her attention on the task at hand.
Chewing thoughtfully on her pen, she pushed her glasses further up her nose and turned the page of the textbook in front of her. Three weeks. In three weeks she would be sitting her final exams as a medical student at Johns Hopkins, and she could hardly wait. She already had a preliminary offer for a place in surgical programme at Johns Hopkins and was one hundred percent certain that she would be taking up that placement. Almost certain. There was that little voice in the back of her head that she was struggling to silence - the counsellor they'd made her see told her that she needed to find a way of dealing with her anxiety that didn't involve withdrawing completely.
So she bought a plant. It died two weeks later.
She'd thought about getting another one but decided that her apartment was too dank and too dark to sustain life, even cockroaches didn't hang around for long and she was beginning to think that the strange black mould that periodically invaded her tiny bathroom was actually an extension of her own dark thoughts and not damp.
A drop of water landed on the textbook, smearing the print slightly. Sighing she glanced up, watched as another drop started to form and followed it on it's downward journey.
She was going to have to move the bed again.
Folding her notebook into the textbook she shifted it further under the umbrella and slid off the bed, kicking aside the books on the floor. She was about to start clearing a space when there was a knock on the door.
"Yes?" She asked, tugging it open. Preston Burke beamed back at her and held out a steaming cup of coffee. She glared at him.
"Peace offering?" He asked.
Leaning on her door frame she pointedly crossed her arms, "give me one good reason."
"Because I'm sorry?"
She rolled her eyes at him, "riiight. You're sorry. You don't even know what you're apologising for."
"I should have stuck up for you. I should have told them to go to hell, to mind their own business--"
"Yes you should." It was a statement. "Preston I told you in confidence. I thought you were my friend, guess I was wrong.” He felt the sting in her voice and flinched slightly. “I hope you and your friends had a good laugh about it." She tried to close the door but his foot blocked its passage. "Move it, or I'll break it."
"I told the dean." The admission was rushed and Erica found herself letting go of the door.
"You...?"
"I told him everything, or at least everything you told me. He won't get away with it... I won't let him get away with it."
The anger that had been slowly building up inside of her snapped and bubbled over. "You won't let him get with it? Fuck you Preston." She physically shoved him out of her doorway. "I don't need a knight in shining armour, I don't need you to ride in on your fucking high horse and make everyth--" suddenly his lips were on hers, his hands grabbing her hips and pulling her towards him and just as suddenly she was pushing him away. "What the hell?!" She snapped, "I've already got one asshole trying to get into my pants, I don't need another one."
"Erica," he moaned slightly and reached out for her, "I'm not trying to get in your pants."
"Pull the one one, Preston, it's got bells on."
"I've been chasing you for five god-damn years, we could be great together --"
"I'm not interested. And Preston? You were a lousy friend." With that she finally shut the door.
Two weeks later she walked into her advisor's office to find her lying half naked across her desk with Preston Burke between her legs. As she stumbled over her apology she caught the sly smile on Preston's face and was momentarily confused, but two weeks later when she graduated second she understood and felt sick. It was a game. Preston Burke was brilliant, he'd graduated first because he was better than her but he wanted her to know that he would always have what she couldn't. He held all the cards
Title: Woman of Many Talents
Rating: PG-15
Synopsis: Erica Hahn is a woman of many talents.
Author's Note: I may have cheated. Oh, and this is the t-shirt in question http://tinyurl.com/ltkawb
Juggling her various bags, Callie Torres, managed to make it out of the elevator and down the corridor without making a complete fool of herself. She puffed at a strand of hair that had was hanging in front of her face tickling her nose before finally dropping her bags in front of apartment 46C. Home. Well, almost home. Two weeks ago her girlfriend had finally plucked up the courage to ask her to move in, and here she was with the final few bags of her stuff. Reaching out, she pressed the bell. She did have a key but had managed to lock her keys in her locker earlier that day, she'd tried for almost twenty minutes to get the thing open but had eventually accepted defeat (just not quite to the point where she'd asked for help.)
She puffed at the strand of hair again and was about to press the bell for a second time when the door opened to reveal Erica Hahn, looking very much like she'd just climbed out of bed. Grinning, Callie took a moment to absorb just how adorable Erica Hahn looked in her sleepwear, the slightly faded checked pyjama bottoms, the bunny slippers (with ears!), the multicoloured stripy dressing gown... the... the t-shirt.
The baggy light grey, washed out looking t-shirt with the phrase 'Cardiothoracic Surgeons Have Heart' printed across it.
Callie stood with he eyes wide as she mouthed the sentence that was printed across Erica's chest (mentally noting the lack of bra).
“Seriously?!” She gasped.
Erica shrugged, “I'm a geek. You knew that.”
“Yeah, but there are levels! I can cope with you owning every Star Trek episode ever made, having a cat called Schrödinger, knowing how to play 'Cripple Mr Onion'*, but this!” She gestured towards the offending slogan.
Chuckling, Erica pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head. “And how many boxes of comic books are in my study?”
Pulling away slightly, Callie raised an eyebrow: “How many of them are mine?”
“Touché.” Smiling, Erica rubbed Callie's arms, “okay I promise not to flaunt my inner nerd if you agree to watch one Star Trek series of my choice.”
“Only if you loose that shirt.”
Leaning forward, Erica kissed her on the top of the head. “Deal.” Stepping round her girlfriend, she grabbed the bags that Callie had rather unceremoniously dumped in the hallway, pulled them into the apartment and shut the door. Turning back she smiled at her before sauntering off into the living room, deliberately exaggerating her sway of her hips.
Callie stood rooted to the spot, staring after the blonde. A few seconds later, a t-shirt hit her in the face.
“You coming Torres?”
She didn't need telling twice.
***
Despite the incredibly big step that Callie Torres and Erica Hahn had taken, the rest of the world remained unchanging. People still did stupid things, like the man who thought it was a good idea to jump out of a second story window into a children's paddling pool in order to impress his fiancé. That had kept her busy for a couple of hours. Now she was flagging. Taking a sip of her coffee and enjoying the buzz, she glanced over to one of the patient rooms.
Through the window she could see Erica Hahn bending over a patient, stethoscope in hand. Choosing to ignore both her coffee and her charts, Callie turned all her attention towards her girlfriend. She loved watching the hardcore badass Dr Hahn at work, she loved knowing what it felt like to have her strong, authoritative surgeon hands on her body and speaking of hands... Erica had finished her examination and turning to the anxious looking family she began to speak to them using sign language.
Mouth dropping slightly, Callie stood transfixed, her eyes glued to the confident way that Erica signed. She had no idea. She watched as Erica smiled sympathetically, touched the woman's arm gently and finally vacated the room, closing the door behind her and headed off down the corridor.
Flicking her chart closed and ignoring her coffee, Callie quickly hurried down the corridor after her. She caught Erica just as she entered the stairwell. Linking her arm through hers she glanced around, “so... how come you never told me you had such talented hands?”
Smirking slightly, Erica deadpanned: "After last night I would have thought that was obvious."
Gasping, Callie turned to the surgeon, "Erica Hahn, are you trying to make me have a heart attack?"
"No. Would you like me to examine you? Just to make sure."
Resting her arms around Erica's neck, Callie leaned forward. "You're evil, Hahn. Pure, unadulterated evil."
"And yet I don't hear you complaining. Lunch?"
"I can think of a better thing to do." She caught the raised eyebrow, "I know, I know."
Glancing round, Erica placed an almost chaste kiss on her lips. "Meet you in ten."
"What?"
Dropping her voice, Erica pulled Callie forward, her hands resting on the younger woman's hips: "DomDI' 'IwwIj qaqaw."
Wondering if at some point her girlfriend had sustained a blow to the head Callie regarded the other surgeon. "Huh?"
Leaning forward so that her lips were almost touching Callie's ear, Erica lowered her voice as she whispered: "the memory of you sings in my blood." With a wink, she moved away from the embrace and casually headed off down the stairs leaving Callie staring after her with a mix of longing and bemusement showing on her face.
Only Erica Hahn would choose Klingon as her language of seduction, and only Erica Hahn could make it work. Many times.
(*'Cripple Mr Onion' is a card game from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett - http://tinyurl.com/myjtl)
Title: All the Cards
Rating: PG-12 (is there such a rating? If not, think UK rating 12)
Synopsis: Three weeks before graduation and it really can't come quick enough for Erica.
Author's Note: I've never been to university, nor the US so I apologise if a few details don't quite match the truth.
It was raining in Baltimore and Erica Hahn was sitting on her bed under an umbrella.
She ignored the constant thud against the canopy above her, the gentle 'plink' as elsewhere in her tiny studio apartment a rain drop landed in an already full bucket, focusing all her attention on the task at hand.
Chewing thoughtfully on her pen, she pushed her glasses further up her nose and turned the page of the textbook in front of her. Three weeks. In three weeks she would be sitting her final exams as a medical student at Johns Hopkins, and she could hardly wait. She already had a preliminary offer for a place in surgical programme at Johns Hopkins and was one hundred percent certain that she would be taking up that placement. Almost certain. There was that little voice in the back of her head that she was struggling to silence - the counsellor they'd made her see told her that she needed to find a way of dealing with her anxiety that didn't involve withdrawing completely.
So she bought a plant. It died two weeks later.
She'd thought about getting another one but decided that her apartment was too dank and too dark to sustain life, even cockroaches didn't hang around for long and she was beginning to think that the strange black mould that periodically invaded her tiny bathroom was actually an extension of her own dark thoughts and not damp.
A drop of water landed on the textbook, smearing the print slightly. Sighing she glanced up, watched as another drop started to form and followed it on it's downward journey.
She was going to have to move the bed again.
Folding her notebook into the textbook she shifted it further under the umbrella and slid off the bed, kicking aside the books on the floor. She was about to start clearing a space when there was a knock on the door.
"Yes?" She asked, tugging it open. Preston Burke beamed back at her and held out a steaming cup of coffee. She glared at him.
"Peace offering?" He asked.
Leaning on her door frame she pointedly crossed her arms, "give me one good reason."
"Because I'm sorry?"
She rolled her eyes at him, "riiight. You're sorry. You don't even know what you're apologising for."
"I should have stuck up for you. I should have told them to go to hell, to mind their own business--"
"Yes you should." It was a statement. "Preston I told you in confidence. I thought you were my friend, guess I was wrong.” He felt the sting in her voice and flinched slightly. “I hope you and your friends had a good laugh about it." She tried to close the door but his foot blocked its passage. "Move it, or I'll break it."
"I told the dean." The admission was rushed and Erica found herself letting go of the door.
"You...?"
"I told him everything, or at least everything you told me. He won't get away with it... I won't let him get away with it."
The anger that had been slowly building up inside of her snapped and bubbled over. "You won't let him get with it? Fuck you Preston." She physically shoved him out of her doorway. "I don't need a knight in shining armour, I don't need you to ride in on your fucking high horse and make everyth--" suddenly his lips were on hers, his hands grabbing her hips and pulling her towards him and just as suddenly she was pushing him away. "What the hell?!" She snapped, "I've already got one asshole trying to get into my pants, I don't need another one."
"Erica," he moaned slightly and reached out for her, "I'm not trying to get in your pants."
"Pull the one one, Preston, it's got bells on."
"I've been chasing you for five god-damn years, we could be great together --"
"I'm not interested. And Preston? You were a lousy friend." With that she finally shut the door.
Two weeks later she walked into her advisor's office to find her lying half naked across her desk with Preston Burke between her legs. As she stumbled over her apology she caught the sly smile on Preston's face and was momentarily confused, but two weeks later when she graduated second she understood and felt sick. It was a game. Preston Burke was brilliant, he'd graduated first because he was better than her but he wanted her to know that he would always have what she couldn't. He held all the cards
Title: Woman of Many Talents
Rating: PG-15
Synopsis: Erica Hahn is a woman of many talents.
Author's Note: I may have cheated. Oh, and this is the t-shirt in question http://tinyurl.com/ltkawb
Juggling her various bags, Callie Torres, managed to make it out of the elevator and down the corridor without making a complete fool of herself. She puffed at a strand of hair that had was hanging in front of her face tickling her nose before finally dropping her bags in front of apartment 46C. Home. Well, almost home. Two weeks ago her girlfriend had finally plucked up the courage to ask her to move in, and here she was with the final few bags of her stuff. Reaching out, she pressed the bell. She did have a key but had managed to lock her keys in her locker earlier that day, she'd tried for almost twenty minutes to get the thing open but had eventually accepted defeat (just not quite to the point where she'd asked for help.)
She puffed at the strand of hair again and was about to press the bell for a second time when the door opened to reveal Erica Hahn, looking very much like she'd just climbed out of bed. Grinning, Callie took a moment to absorb just how adorable Erica Hahn looked in her sleepwear, the slightly faded checked pyjama bottoms, the bunny slippers (with ears!), the multicoloured stripy dressing gown... the... the t-shirt.
The baggy light grey, washed out looking t-shirt with the phrase 'Cardiothoracic Surgeons Have Heart' printed across it.
Callie stood with he eyes wide as she mouthed the sentence that was printed across Erica's chest (mentally noting the lack of bra).
“Seriously?!” She gasped.
Erica shrugged, “I'm a geek. You knew that.”
“Yeah, but there are levels! I can cope with you owning every Star Trek episode ever made, having a cat called Schrödinger, knowing how to play 'Cripple Mr Onion'*, but this!” She gestured towards the offending slogan.
Chuckling, Erica pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head. “And how many boxes of comic books are in my study?”
Pulling away slightly, Callie raised an eyebrow: “How many of them are mine?”
“Touché.” Smiling, Erica rubbed Callie's arms, “okay I promise not to flaunt my inner nerd if you agree to watch one Star Trek series of my choice.”
“Only if you loose that shirt.”
Leaning forward, Erica kissed her on the top of the head. “Deal.” Stepping round her girlfriend, she grabbed the bags that Callie had rather unceremoniously dumped in the hallway, pulled them into the apartment and shut the door. Turning back she smiled at her before sauntering off into the living room, deliberately exaggerating her sway of her hips.
Callie stood rooted to the spot, staring after the blonde. A few seconds later, a t-shirt hit her in the face.
“You coming Torres?”
She didn't need telling twice.
***
Despite the incredibly big step that Callie Torres and Erica Hahn had taken, the rest of the world remained unchanging. People still did stupid things, like the man who thought it was a good idea to jump out of a second story window into a children's paddling pool in order to impress his fiancé. That had kept her busy for a couple of hours. Now she was flagging. Taking a sip of her coffee and enjoying the buzz, she glanced over to one of the patient rooms.
Through the window she could see Erica Hahn bending over a patient, stethoscope in hand. Choosing to ignore both her coffee and her charts, Callie turned all her attention towards her girlfriend. She loved watching the hardcore badass Dr Hahn at work, she loved knowing what it felt like to have her strong, authoritative surgeon hands on her body and speaking of hands... Erica had finished her examination and turning to the anxious looking family she began to speak to them using sign language.
Mouth dropping slightly, Callie stood transfixed, her eyes glued to the confident way that Erica signed. She had no idea. She watched as Erica smiled sympathetically, touched the woman's arm gently and finally vacated the room, closing the door behind her and headed off down the corridor.
Flicking her chart closed and ignoring her coffee, Callie quickly hurried down the corridor after her. She caught Erica just as she entered the stairwell. Linking her arm through hers she glanced around, “so... how come you never told me you had such talented hands?”
Smirking slightly, Erica deadpanned: "After last night I would have thought that was obvious."
Gasping, Callie turned to the surgeon, "Erica Hahn, are you trying to make me have a heart attack?"
"No. Would you like me to examine you? Just to make sure."
Resting her arms around Erica's neck, Callie leaned forward. "You're evil, Hahn. Pure, unadulterated evil."
"And yet I don't hear you complaining. Lunch?"
"I can think of a better thing to do." She caught the raised eyebrow, "I know, I know."
Glancing round, Erica placed an almost chaste kiss on her lips. "Meet you in ten."
"What?"
Dropping her voice, Erica pulled Callie forward, her hands resting on the younger woman's hips: "DomDI' 'IwwIj qaqaw."
Wondering if at some point her girlfriend had sustained a blow to the head Callie regarded the other surgeon. "Huh?"
Leaning forward so that her lips were almost touching Callie's ear, Erica lowered her voice as she whispered: "the memory of you sings in my blood." With a wink, she moved away from the embrace and casually headed off down the stairs leaving Callie staring after her with a mix of longing and bemusement showing on her face.
Only Erica Hahn would choose Klingon as her language of seduction, and only Erica Hahn could make it work. Many times.
(*'Cripple Mr Onion' is a card game from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett - http://tinyurl.com/myjtl)