Rebirth- Chapter 23
Title- Rebirth
Rating- R
Pairings- Callie/George
Summary- George and Callie try to select the right name for their son. Izzie will always insert a shoe store into her mouth. Cristina goes to Lamaze.
AN- So I'm home from Peru and after being really sick from an amazing trip. (I got sick the day we left) I came home and died by my computer. The pictures are finally uploaded and if you wanna see those and hear about what I did, you'll find it all in my personal journal very soon. Anyways, many thanks to navy_blue_scrubs and sara_ramirez_1 for their help. Now, onto the story.
Chapter 23
Callie sat upstairs in the middle of the bed, flipping through a parenting magazine, an article on natural childbirth catching her eye. George was in the shower and then they were going to watch a movie together. Over the last month, they tried to spend at least one night of the week together, just the two of them, doing something as a couple.
The experience of birth that these women described after giving birth was amazing. Something she might want to do herself. Feel that type of empowerment from bringing another life into the world. It was something to ponder. George and Addison would probably think she was nuts and it wasn’t something of Louise’s time. If she was going to do it, she would be doing it on her own.
She finished the article and set the magazine on her night stand, before pulling her hair up. She pulled her tank top over her belly, trying to cover the vast amount of skin and stretch marks beginning to form. She hated the stretch marks. She grabbed the coco butter lotion and was rubbing it on her belly when George came in. “Callie,” he groaned.
“George….”
“Addison said they’ll go away somewhat when you have the baby.”
“They’re ugly.”
‘They’re beautiful.”
“You have to say that.”
“Do not.”
“If you didn’t, I’d slap you.”
George laughed and leaned over to kiss her softly. “I love you Callie O’Malley.”
She grabbed the remote and pressed play on the DVD. “I love you too and our first month married has been the best of my life.”
“Mine too,” he grinned rubbing her belly. “You’re getting big and it’s sexy.”
“Wow, you just, wow.”
“What?”
“In two seconds, maybe less, you told me I’m getting fat, and that you find it sexy,” she laughed.
“I meant that he’s growing and that you’re beautiful pregnant…..” he trailed off, not sure if he needed to back peddle here or not. She didn’t seem hurt by his comment, maybe she just wanted to laugh at him. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, if he had. He loved her pregnancy body and being able to watch their son grow inside of her.
“I got what you meant, but you do realize we’ve been calling him, he for a month or Baby O, when we know we’re having a boy. We should think about, I don’t know, this might sound crazy,” she said sarcastically. “Naming him.”
“We have the last name and middle name. So he’ll be Something Harold O’Malley.”
“Something is a great name,” she teased.
“Callie….”
“I know what you meant. William Harold O’Malley? Owen Harold O’Malley? Jackson Harold O’Malley?”
“Jackson, you want to name him Jackson?”
“At least I didn’t say Levi.”
“Levi is a nice name. Levi Harold O’Malley,” George stated allowing it to hang in the air for a moment. “Sounds like a future President.”
“About as dumb as George Walker Busch,” Callie said rolling her eyes. “What about Apollo?”
“Apollo? As in the space shuttle.”
“It’s a nice name,” she protested pushing her bottom lip out.
“Apollo, Callie that’s a death sentence,” he chuckled. “The other kids will push his face into the sand. His middle name might as well be thirteen.”
“George! You’re terrible.”
“I’m truthful. His name is really important. We need something good.”
“It’s his name. He has to live with until the day he dies. It’ll shape who he is. Why do we have to do this? We should be able to name ourselves or we should get a paper when we conceived. Name your baby…”
“Well, we don’t. Judson. Jacob. Andrew, Melvin, Zachary, Xan, Lewis?” George tossed out.
“Judson is good, as is Zachary.”
“Judson Harold O’Malley?” George said putting it all together. “Should we have a girl name just in case?”
“Probably,” Callie replied. It was a good idea. Ultrasounds weren’t fool proof although all the doctors in the room did agree that it was a boy.
“Hannah? Lauren? Allison?”
“Sage, Tempest, Olivia.”
“Sage O’Malley is pretty. What would her middle name be?” George questioned. Even though he knew Baby O was a boy, he was secretly still holding out for a girl. He wanted a girl. He wanted a little girl so she could be his little princess.
“Sage Louise O’Malley for the girl we’re not having,” Callie laughed running her fingers through her hair. She did want a daughter eventually, but she was ecstatic that Baby O was a boy and that her first child would be a son.
“Why after my mother? Why not after yours?” he teased poking her in the ribs.
“Because I love your mother. Naming any child after my mother would be about as good as naming her Satan O’Malley, so that will never happen. Sage Louise O’Malley is perfect for the little girl we’re not having.”
“This time,” George pointed out.
“Who said I’m doing this again?” Callie questioned rubbing her belly, feeling Baby O kick under her hand.
George raised his eye brows at her for a moment. He thought she wanted the kids and the house, she wanted to be the soccer mom. Maybe this pregnancy had changed her mind? It hadn’t been bad though. Things had gone completely smooth besides their scare on the plane, but that was a minor hiccup compared to what some couples went through to have a child. “Callie, I’m confused. I thought you wanted….” He trailed off as she placed her fingers to his lips.
“I do want to have more babies, so stop worrying, but only with you,” she winked. “I love being pregnant. It hasn’t been horrible. I wasn’t really sick, he’s healthy, I’m healthy. We’re amazing, we’re married. Our life is perfect. Being pregnant hasn’t affected my job in any way, shape or form, yet. I’m sure it will as I get bigger. But that doesn’t mean I want to be pregnant again. I do want some space in between them. I want some time, just the three of us, with our son, by no means do I want him to be an only child though.”
He nodded, it sounded good. Before they considered having a second child though, he wanted to have a house and be halfway done with his residency or so. She would be an attending at that point and life would be a little less complicated, work wise, he hoped.
“We so have not been paying attention to this movie,” Callie laughed laying back and placing the bowl of popcorn on her belly. “Baby O, don’t move, I don’t feel like getting popcorn everywhere.”
“Callie, our son is not a tray table,” George pointed out. “And I haven’t been paying attention to the movie because I’m madly in love with you.”
She giggled, “Hey, if I have to carry him around for nine months, he can tolerate letting me put things of my belly. He’s the little invader.”
~*~*~
George headed down to the tunnels after a six hour surgery with Derek. He no longer had any interest in nuero, yet lately those were the only surgeries he could seem to get in on. They were cool, but it wouldn’t be his specialty when it came time to pick in the fall. He found an empty gurney after grabbing a soda and some M&M’s from the vending machines.
“Hey George!” Izzie greeted warmly as she flipped down next to him. She patted his knee and smiled.
“Hi Izzie. How’s it going?” he questioned, throwing an arm over his face, trying to block out the sunlight. It had been a long night with Callie, between the newlywed sex and the cravings and having to be in at some ungodly hour.
“It’s going good, very good,” she smiled as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and flipped it open, smiling even more when she saw she had a text message.
“Please tell me you aren’t sleeping with him,” he mumbled.
“Alright, I won’t tell you about how amazing it is and how I haven’t felt this way since Denny and that I can see myself being your sister in law one day.”
“That means you’ll be sister in laws with Callie,” George chuckled, thinking about the irony of the entire situation. Izzie and his brother was just weird, but she seemed happy. He didn’t want or need her to be judgmental about his life so he wouldn’t be about hers.
“How is she? I mean with the pregnancy and all?” Izzie questioned, just trying to be nice. Ronnie had talked about the baby a lot. “Your brother is over the moon about being an Uncle.”
“He and Jerry adorable Callie,” he agreed. “She’s good, the cravings are getting a little insane, but I love her and the baby, so I handle it. We picked a girls name, just in case, but we can not agree on a first name for our son. We agreed on his middle name the morning we found out she was pregnant and naturally the last name will already be selected,” he explained.
“Well tell me the names. Baby names are fun.”
“A girl would be Sage Louise O’Malley, if we were to get a big surprise in the delivery room, but we were all at the ultrasound and that baby is all boy.”
“He’s already just like his mother,” Izzie teased remembering when Callie lived with them at Meredith’s and the numerous times she saw her naked
“Izzie!” George exclaimed.
“What?” she questioned with a shrug as she grabbed his bag of M&M’s and poured some into her hand before tossing them into her mouth.
George rolled his eyes, she couldn’t keep saying things like that about Callie. Anytime he thought it was ending, she did something to prove him wrong. “You can’t say stuff like that about my wife, I won’t have it. Maybe if you were friends with her and I knew you were making a joke out of it, but I can never tell with you.”
“George….”
“Izzie, I’m serious,” he sighed as his pager went off. “Look, I need to go, handle this, but I’m serious,” he told her as he got up and walked away.
Izzie pulled her knees to her chest and watched her best friend go. He wasn’t happy. If he was happy, he wouldn’t feel the need to always jump to his wives defense when she said something. She hadn’t really meant anything by it, or had she? Lately anytime she said anything about Callie, he went off about it. That needed to stop. She got that they were having a family and all that jazz, but it wasn’t fair that she was losing her best friend. It was going to stop.
~*~*~
Callie sighed as she pulled up in front of the house with Addison in the passenger seat of her SUV. She shut the engine off and turned toward her best friend who was giving her a bewildered look. Addison wanted answers and she wanted them now. She had no idea who else to tell this too and she couldn’t tell George, not yet. “This is my house, that my husband doesn’t know about.”
“Cal, if you bought a house, and put yours and George’s name on the deed, how does he not know about it?” Addison questioned turning her head to get a better look at the house. “The outside is beautiful, I bet the inside is as well. When can we start decorating? And why would you hide this from George? He’d love a chance to get out of his mother’s, I’m sure.”
She drummed her fingers against the steering wheel as she admired the house. It was beautiful, it was everything she ever wanted in a home, to raise her family in. She saw herself raising her family in that house, but she just wasn’t ready to move in. Not yet, not until she knew she could be a mother to her son. She needed the security of having Louise just a few feet away.
“I didn’t buy the house, my dad did, for me, as a wedding present. The inside is amazing. This is my dream house.”
“So come on! Lets see the inside! Lets decorate! Lets move you in!” Addison exclaimed reaching for the door handle.
Callie hit the automatic lock button. “I’m not ready to move in,” she admitted quietly staring at her hands. She hoped Addison would understand, that was why she had brought her out here before anyone else. She needed advice and she needed someone who wouldn’t tell George before she could.
Addison arched an eye brow at her friend. Two minutes ago she was saying this was her dream house, totally paid for with no string attached and she didn’t want to move in. She had to be crazy, or she had a good reason. “Come on Cal, talk to me.”
She took a deep breath and glanced over at Addison, before opening her mouth. “I can’t move in here and not have Louise a few feet away once I have the baby. My mother wasn’t that great of a mom and I’m afraid that’s rubbed off on me,” she whispered feeling the tears come to her eyes. She didn’t want to cry over this, she had spent enough tears on this subject to last her a life time. She protectively placed both of her hands over her belly where he son was thriving and kicking. “I want to be a good mom to him, but I just don’t know if it’s in me. While he’s inside of me, I can protect him, but once he comes out here, into this world….I have no idea what I’m going to do with him. I don’t know how to breastfed or bathe him, burp him, nothing. I need Louise right there with me. I need her and if I’m living here, she won’t be right there. She’s my security blanket and I’m not ready to give her up until I know I can do this.”
Addison watched her best friends hands move to her belly as she spoke about her baby and her fears about having him outside of the womb. She saw this in a lot of mother’s to be. “Louise would only be a phone call away. She loves you and George and her grandson very much, she would be here in an instant as would I as would Miranda. Secondly, once you’re holding that sweet little baby boy in your arms and you carry him through that door, you’ll have instincts that will kick in. You’ll know exactly what to do with your baby and how to do it. We’ll all be here to help you Cal, but sweetie, you can do this on your own. You don’t need anyone to hold your hand. You’ve got this. You’re strong and you can be the new mother. Plus, if you’re still living with Louise, you don’t want her to step on your toes and tell you how to do everything with your baby. It never works out well when the new parents are living with the in-laws,” Addison explained moving Callie’s hair out of her face. “And the way you already interact with him, in your womb, the way you always touch your belly when you talk about him, that tells me that you would do anything for him and that in and of itself will make you a great mother to that little boy.”
Callie heard everything that Addison had to say, but to her, for her, for her son, it just didn’t feel as if leaving Louise was the right thing to do. She needed to be there with her mother-in-law who had already done this three times. Maybe she would come into her own with her son, but what if she didn’t? Then she would have no one. She would be stranded with a newborn, that she had no idea what to do with. That was a scary thought that she refused to become her reality. “I figured once I get used to having a baby, we’ll move in here. Then Louise will be a phone call away for the ear infections and such.”
“So when will you move? Because you won’t want to do it with a newborn. Then you’ll be back at work and before we realize it, he’ll be a year old and then you’ll be pregnant again. It’s never going to get any easier to tell George that your father bought you guys a house, so just do it now and move and Louise is just down the road Callie. You can be a mother. You’re going to excel at it, just like you do everything else. Now, I really want to see the inside of the house.”
Addison was right, she would always find an excuse not to move. She was comfortable when she was and when Callie was comfortable, she saw no reason to change what she was doing. Now she knew what Addison’s opinion was on the situation was and there was no need to question it further, because her best friend would only push harder. “Lets go inside then.”
“I’m not trying to tell you, that you have to move in. But you do need to tell George and you two need to make a decision from there. It can’t be all about you Callie. He needs to have a say in things, like this, too.”
“When I tell him, he’s going to be upset. He’ll say so your father thinks I can’t provide for you, when I can. Or Callie, if you wanted a house, you didn’t have to go to your father to get one.”
“Cal,” Addison said shaking her head. “Just tell him it was a wedding present that you didn’t know how to tell him about,” she shrugged. “It was a gift, he can’t get too mad. So your dad bought this and paid for it?”
“Crazy, right?” she questioned unlocking the door. “I was looking at houses on night online and I set this one to Diego and Daddy must have been over his shoulder and saw it. The man bought me my dream house, but we wouldn’t pay for medical school,” Callie shrugged.
The girls shared a laugh as they got out of the car and headed up the walk way, into the house, so Callie could give Addison the grand tour. She needed to tell George, but once he got over being upset about it, he would want to move in. Callie wasn’t ready to give Louise up, she needed the security when her son came, so if it meant withholding information from her husband, she was going to do it.
~*~*~
George had been with Dr. Sloan all day. They had done a face lift, a breast reduction, breast enhancement, and a cleft palette surgery on a two year old. George had never really been one for plastics, but watching and participating in the cleft palette surgery was pretty amazing. He was writing up post op notes as quickly as he could since he needed to get changed and upstairs for Lamaze class with Callie at seven.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Mark standing behind him. He smiled politely, “Yes Dr. Sloan?”
“Our face lift patient is in a lot of pain and our little man hasn’t woken up yet, so you’re here to give our patients the best care. I expect detailed notes in the morning when I get in, with their morning labs. Nice work today Dr. O’Malley,” he added.
“Dr. Sloan, I can’t be on call tonight. Well, I can, just not in the next two hours.”
“You’re an intern, that’s part of your job.”
“Yes sir, I know that and understand that. But tonight, Callie and I have Lamaze class, sir and if I miss it….”
“What’s more important O’Malley? Learning how to breath during a child birth were you’ll probably end up on the floor? Or saving lives?”
“Dr. Sloan, she’s my pregnant wife. I can’t just not show up for a child birth class…”
“You have five minutes to either go find someone to cover you or tell your wife you won’t be at Lamaze tonight O’Malley,” he stated glancing down at his watch. “Starting now or I will make sure you don’t see the operating room for a long time, got it?”
“Wanna go to Lamaze with Callie tonight?” he questioned before heading off to the locker room where all the interns would be changing in a few minutes. When he got to the locker room the only people still there were Izzie and Cristina. “Anyone got plans tonight?”
“Why?” they both questioned turning to look at him.
“I’m going on a date,” Izzie smiled closing her locker and picking up one of her high heels from the bench and sliding it onto her foot.
“Cristina?”
“Why?”
“I need you to either be on call for Sloan for about two hours while I go to Lamaze class with Callie or go with her. Now I’m sure you don’t want to go breath and crap, but I really need someone to help me out here. Sloan doesn’t want to hear it and Callie will be pissed if she has to go alone and…..”
“George, shut up. I won’t deal with beauty queens who only brought the pain on themselves, but I’ll suffer through panting mothers for an hour, plus Burke’s still in surgery,” she shrugged.
George blinked a few times as he stared at Cristina, had just easily agreed to do something for him? He was about to ask again when Callie came into the locker room. “Hey Cristina, are we still going shopping after Lamaze?”
“You two are going shopping?” George questioned at each woman and shaking his head. He knew they were sort of friends, ever since plans for Cristina’s wedding had kicked off, after all Callie had just planned an entire wedding in under three months. Shopping after work though was a different story.
“Yeah, we’re going shopping,” Callie shrugged opening her locker. “Do you have the bag of everything for Lamaze?” she questioned as she pulled off her shirt.
“I left it in the car. I’ll run and get it, but I have to be on call for Sloan. I tried getting out of it, and I can’t,” he explained as he opened his locker to get his car keys out.
Callie nodded, she understood. Sure she hated that he was missing a class since it was nice for them to spend that hour together, but she knew that Mark was a hard ass with the interns. “Just get me the bag and I’ll see you at home later. I understand,” she said as she finished getting changed. She closed her locker and went over to George, placing a kiss on his cheek.
George smiled at her and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. He was glad that she was being understanding about this, but with their careers and Baby O coming in fifteen weeks, adapting was something they needed to be able to easily as a team. He headed down to his car and collected the duffle bag and headed back upstairs to meet the girls.
“We need to go, class starts in five minutes,” Callie stated glancing at his watch. “Is everything in here?”
“Pillow, the mat, the focus object, it’s there,” he smiled handing the bag to Cristina. “Take it easy on her drill sergeant.”
Cristina rolled her eyes as her and Callie got into the elevator to head upstairs for a class. “Why do you need to take a class on something that is completely natural?” Cristina questioned. “And why do you need a focus object? What is your focus object?”
“It’s not a class on giving birth, it’s a class on how to breath during labor. Believe me, if I had too, I could give birth on my own, without Addison. The focus object is to channel your energy or something, I don’t feel myself using it when I’m in labor with him, but you never know. George is sort of my focus object and then we went to Build-A-Bear one night and we made the babies first teddy bear, his name is Baby O and that’s the focus object.”
Cristina shook her head as the doors opened and they headed into the room where the class would take place. “Callie, you are getting softer as this pregnancy progresses,” she said shaking her head as they found a spot.
Callie laughed, maybe she was getting soft when it came to things dealing with Baby O, but that was alright with her. She showed Cristina how to lay out the mat and how to place the pillow before setting against her friend.
‘So do I have to hold this bear in front of you?” Cristina questioned looking at it oddly in her hand.
Callie shook her head and took the bear from Cristina, placing it in between her knees. “You’re supposed to breathe with me and hold my hand.”
“I’m not George.”
“But you’re my coach tonight. In a few years time, you and Burke will be doing this. You’ll have a leg up.”
“I am not attending some stupid class that tells me how to breath because I will never be pushing anything out of my body.”
“So you want them to cut you open when you have a baby?” Callie questioned before taking a deep relaxing breath.
“I’m not having children.”
Callie rolled her eyes as the instructor stood at the front of the room and began to go over breathing techniques, explaining the use of each one, the role of the coach in each exercise and the importance it had to the laboring mother.
After an hour of deep breathing and misery for Cristina the girls repacked the bag and headed out to the parking lot. They got into the car and headed off to the mall, on a mission. “So his mother is throwing you a bridal shower and you need a dress?” Callie teased.
“No, even worse, an engagement party that I need a dress for. As do you because I’m sure nothing in your closet fits the monster.”
“When is the party? Because that depends on when I need to buy the dress or what type of dress I need to buy,” Callie pointed out.
“It’s in five weeks and if I have to suffer through buying a dress tonight, then so do you.”
Callie rolled her eyes as they found a parking spot and headed inside. She wasn’t good at shopping and neither was Cristina, so this was going to be an adventure. “So we need an evening dress that isn’t too over the top,” Callie said as she thumbed through the rack, pulling out black dresses.
They went in and out of the dressing room for nearly half an hour, Cristina finding something wrong with each and every one of them. Callie searched the racks in frustration and finally found a red dress with an empire waist, short sleeves and some bunching around the collar. The dress would land just below Cristina’s knee. “Get in there, put it on, and like it.”
Cristina came out dressed and Callie smiled. It was the one that by far looked the best on her. “Burke will be drooling,” she smiled.
“Great, his mother will probably find it tasteless,” she said examining herself in the mirror. It wasn’t a bad dress, it was something she could live with.
After Cristina got changed into her regular clothes and they paid for the dress they headed across the mall to Motherhood. They searched the racks for a few minutes before Callie found a chocolate wrap dress that she could live with. The black one Louise had gotten for her, was getting a little short as her belly expanded.
“I can’t breath in here,” Cristina complained. “There’s too many mom’s with bellies and….”
Callie motioned to her belly, “Cristina! He can hear you! Shut up!”
“Cal, at least your hot and pregnant, some of them are dropped and…..”
“In a few weeks I’ll be dropping, so shut up. My baby has tender ears and he was innocent until I started hanging around you,” she said rolling her eyes as she changed into the dress.
“Me? I’m sure you and George haven’t given up the sex, especially with your honeymoon only a few weeks ago, so that child is already banging his head on your uterus, trying to escape.”
Callie laughed to herself, that image now etched into her mind forever as she finished changing and glanced at herself in the mirror. She loved her pregnant shape. She was sure in a few weeks as she got bigger, she wouldn’t love the shape so much, but right now, she was embracing the whole idea. She opened the door to the dressing room and stepped out.
“You look amazing and did you always have that great cleavage?” Cristina questioned.
Callie laughed as she glanced down at the plunging neck line. The dress was an empire waist, with some beading on the shoulders, gathering the material together, and at the waist. It fell just below her knee, which meant by the time she wore it, it would likely be above her knee. “Nope, that’s a benefit of pregnancy. I always had nice cleavage, just not that well endowed.”
They shared a laugh before Callie went into the dressing room and changed into her clothes. She paid for the dress and they grabbed some ice cream, vanilla soft serve with chocolate sprinkles, which was Callie’s craving of the evening. Cristina dropped her off at the house.
“You’re home late from Lamaze,” Louise stated from the sofa where she was working on a needle point.
“I went out with Cristina. George is on call and couldn’t come to Lamaze. Cristina went with me. I would have called you, but you had your Tastefully Simple party to attend,” Callie smiled as she went into the living room and sat down next to her mother-in-law.
“You could have called Callie. I wouldn’t have minded.”
Callie nodded and leaned her head on Louise’s shoulder. “Would you be bothered if I asked you to be in the delivery room when I actually give birth to him? I know that bothers some people, but besides George your really one of the only people I want there.”
Louise smiled and placed a kiss on Callie’s head, “Sweetie, I’d be honored.”
tbc....
Rating- R
Pairings- Callie/George
Summary- George and Callie try to select the right name for their son. Izzie will always insert a shoe store into her mouth. Cristina goes to Lamaze.
AN- So I'm home from Peru and after being really sick from an amazing trip. (I got sick the day we left) I came home and died by my computer. The pictures are finally uploaded and if you wanna see those and hear about what I did, you'll find it all in my personal journal very soon. Anyways, many thanks to navy_blue_scrubs and sara_ramirez_1 for their help. Now, onto the story.
Chapter 23
Callie sat upstairs in the middle of the bed, flipping through a parenting magazine, an article on natural childbirth catching her eye. George was in the shower and then they were going to watch a movie together. Over the last month, they tried to spend at least one night of the week together, just the two of them, doing something as a couple.
The experience of birth that these women described after giving birth was amazing. Something she might want to do herself. Feel that type of empowerment from bringing another life into the world. It was something to ponder. George and Addison would probably think she was nuts and it wasn’t something of Louise’s time. If she was going to do it, she would be doing it on her own.
She finished the article and set the magazine on her night stand, before pulling her hair up. She pulled her tank top over her belly, trying to cover the vast amount of skin and stretch marks beginning to form. She hated the stretch marks. She grabbed the coco butter lotion and was rubbing it on her belly when George came in. “Callie,” he groaned.
“George….”
“Addison said they’ll go away somewhat when you have the baby.”
“They’re ugly.”
‘They’re beautiful.”
“You have to say that.”
“Do not.”
“If you didn’t, I’d slap you.”
George laughed and leaned over to kiss her softly. “I love you Callie O’Malley.”
She grabbed the remote and pressed play on the DVD. “I love you too and our first month married has been the best of my life.”
“Mine too,” he grinned rubbing her belly. “You’re getting big and it’s sexy.”
“Wow, you just, wow.”
“What?”
“In two seconds, maybe less, you told me I’m getting fat, and that you find it sexy,” she laughed.
“I meant that he’s growing and that you’re beautiful pregnant…..” he trailed off, not sure if he needed to back peddle here or not. She didn’t seem hurt by his comment, maybe she just wanted to laugh at him. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, if he had. He loved her pregnancy body and being able to watch their son grow inside of her.
“I got what you meant, but you do realize we’ve been calling him, he for a month or Baby O, when we know we’re having a boy. We should think about, I don’t know, this might sound crazy,” she said sarcastically. “Naming him.”
“We have the last name and middle name. So he’ll be Something Harold O’Malley.”
“Something is a great name,” she teased.
“Callie….”
“I know what you meant. William Harold O’Malley? Owen Harold O’Malley? Jackson Harold O’Malley?”
“Jackson, you want to name him Jackson?”
“At least I didn’t say Levi.”
“Levi is a nice name. Levi Harold O’Malley,” George stated allowing it to hang in the air for a moment. “Sounds like a future President.”
“About as dumb as George Walker Busch,” Callie said rolling her eyes. “What about Apollo?”
“Apollo? As in the space shuttle.”
“It’s a nice name,” she protested pushing her bottom lip out.
“Apollo, Callie that’s a death sentence,” he chuckled. “The other kids will push his face into the sand. His middle name might as well be thirteen.”
“George! You’re terrible.”
“I’m truthful. His name is really important. We need something good.”
“It’s his name. He has to live with until the day he dies. It’ll shape who he is. Why do we have to do this? We should be able to name ourselves or we should get a paper when we conceived. Name your baby…”
“Well, we don’t. Judson. Jacob. Andrew, Melvin, Zachary, Xan, Lewis?” George tossed out.
“Judson is good, as is Zachary.”
“Judson Harold O’Malley?” George said putting it all together. “Should we have a girl name just in case?”
“Probably,” Callie replied. It was a good idea. Ultrasounds weren’t fool proof although all the doctors in the room did agree that it was a boy.
“Hannah? Lauren? Allison?”
“Sage, Tempest, Olivia.”
“Sage O’Malley is pretty. What would her middle name be?” George questioned. Even though he knew Baby O was a boy, he was secretly still holding out for a girl. He wanted a girl. He wanted a little girl so she could be his little princess.
“Sage Louise O’Malley for the girl we’re not having,” Callie laughed running her fingers through her hair. She did want a daughter eventually, but she was ecstatic that Baby O was a boy and that her first child would be a son.
“Why after my mother? Why not after yours?” he teased poking her in the ribs.
“Because I love your mother. Naming any child after my mother would be about as good as naming her Satan O’Malley, so that will never happen. Sage Louise O’Malley is perfect for the little girl we’re not having.”
“This time,” George pointed out.
“Who said I’m doing this again?” Callie questioned rubbing her belly, feeling Baby O kick under her hand.
George raised his eye brows at her for a moment. He thought she wanted the kids and the house, she wanted to be the soccer mom. Maybe this pregnancy had changed her mind? It hadn’t been bad though. Things had gone completely smooth besides their scare on the plane, but that was a minor hiccup compared to what some couples went through to have a child. “Callie, I’m confused. I thought you wanted….” He trailed off as she placed her fingers to his lips.
“I do want to have more babies, so stop worrying, but only with you,” she winked. “I love being pregnant. It hasn’t been horrible. I wasn’t really sick, he’s healthy, I’m healthy. We’re amazing, we’re married. Our life is perfect. Being pregnant hasn’t affected my job in any way, shape or form, yet. I’m sure it will as I get bigger. But that doesn’t mean I want to be pregnant again. I do want some space in between them. I want some time, just the three of us, with our son, by no means do I want him to be an only child though.”
He nodded, it sounded good. Before they considered having a second child though, he wanted to have a house and be halfway done with his residency or so. She would be an attending at that point and life would be a little less complicated, work wise, he hoped.
“We so have not been paying attention to this movie,” Callie laughed laying back and placing the bowl of popcorn on her belly. “Baby O, don’t move, I don’t feel like getting popcorn everywhere.”
“Callie, our son is not a tray table,” George pointed out. “And I haven’t been paying attention to the movie because I’m madly in love with you.”
She giggled, “Hey, if I have to carry him around for nine months, he can tolerate letting me put things of my belly. He’s the little invader.”
~*~*~
George headed down to the tunnels after a six hour surgery with Derek. He no longer had any interest in nuero, yet lately those were the only surgeries he could seem to get in on. They were cool, but it wouldn’t be his specialty when it came time to pick in the fall. He found an empty gurney after grabbing a soda and some M&M’s from the vending machines.
“Hey George!” Izzie greeted warmly as she flipped down next to him. She patted his knee and smiled.
“Hi Izzie. How’s it going?” he questioned, throwing an arm over his face, trying to block out the sunlight. It had been a long night with Callie, between the newlywed sex and the cravings and having to be in at some ungodly hour.
“It’s going good, very good,” she smiled as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and flipped it open, smiling even more when she saw she had a text message.
“Please tell me you aren’t sleeping with him,” he mumbled.
“Alright, I won’t tell you about how amazing it is and how I haven’t felt this way since Denny and that I can see myself being your sister in law one day.”
“That means you’ll be sister in laws with Callie,” George chuckled, thinking about the irony of the entire situation. Izzie and his brother was just weird, but she seemed happy. He didn’t want or need her to be judgmental about his life so he wouldn’t be about hers.
“How is she? I mean with the pregnancy and all?” Izzie questioned, just trying to be nice. Ronnie had talked about the baby a lot. “Your brother is over the moon about being an Uncle.”
“He and Jerry adorable Callie,” he agreed. “She’s good, the cravings are getting a little insane, but I love her and the baby, so I handle it. We picked a girls name, just in case, but we can not agree on a first name for our son. We agreed on his middle name the morning we found out she was pregnant and naturally the last name will already be selected,” he explained.
“Well tell me the names. Baby names are fun.”
“A girl would be Sage Louise O’Malley, if we were to get a big surprise in the delivery room, but we were all at the ultrasound and that baby is all boy.”
“He’s already just like his mother,” Izzie teased remembering when Callie lived with them at Meredith’s and the numerous times she saw her naked
“Izzie!” George exclaimed.
“What?” she questioned with a shrug as she grabbed his bag of M&M’s and poured some into her hand before tossing them into her mouth.
George rolled his eyes, she couldn’t keep saying things like that about Callie. Anytime he thought it was ending, she did something to prove him wrong. “You can’t say stuff like that about my wife, I won’t have it. Maybe if you were friends with her and I knew you were making a joke out of it, but I can never tell with you.”
“George….”
“Izzie, I’m serious,” he sighed as his pager went off. “Look, I need to go, handle this, but I’m serious,” he told her as he got up and walked away.
Izzie pulled her knees to her chest and watched her best friend go. He wasn’t happy. If he was happy, he wouldn’t feel the need to always jump to his wives defense when she said something. She hadn’t really meant anything by it, or had she? Lately anytime she said anything about Callie, he went off about it. That needed to stop. She got that they were having a family and all that jazz, but it wasn’t fair that she was losing her best friend. It was going to stop.
~*~*~
Callie sighed as she pulled up in front of the house with Addison in the passenger seat of her SUV. She shut the engine off and turned toward her best friend who was giving her a bewildered look. Addison wanted answers and she wanted them now. She had no idea who else to tell this too and she couldn’t tell George, not yet. “This is my house, that my husband doesn’t know about.”
“Cal, if you bought a house, and put yours and George’s name on the deed, how does he not know about it?” Addison questioned turning her head to get a better look at the house. “The outside is beautiful, I bet the inside is as well. When can we start decorating? And why would you hide this from George? He’d love a chance to get out of his mother’s, I’m sure.”
She drummed her fingers against the steering wheel as she admired the house. It was beautiful, it was everything she ever wanted in a home, to raise her family in. She saw herself raising her family in that house, but she just wasn’t ready to move in. Not yet, not until she knew she could be a mother to her son. She needed the security of having Louise just a few feet away.
“I didn’t buy the house, my dad did, for me, as a wedding present. The inside is amazing. This is my dream house.”
“So come on! Lets see the inside! Lets decorate! Lets move you in!” Addison exclaimed reaching for the door handle.
Callie hit the automatic lock button. “I’m not ready to move in,” she admitted quietly staring at her hands. She hoped Addison would understand, that was why she had brought her out here before anyone else. She needed advice and she needed someone who wouldn’t tell George before she could.
Addison arched an eye brow at her friend. Two minutes ago she was saying this was her dream house, totally paid for with no string attached and she didn’t want to move in. She had to be crazy, or she had a good reason. “Come on Cal, talk to me.”
She took a deep breath and glanced over at Addison, before opening her mouth. “I can’t move in here and not have Louise a few feet away once I have the baby. My mother wasn’t that great of a mom and I’m afraid that’s rubbed off on me,” she whispered feeling the tears come to her eyes. She didn’t want to cry over this, she had spent enough tears on this subject to last her a life time. She protectively placed both of her hands over her belly where he son was thriving and kicking. “I want to be a good mom to him, but I just don’t know if it’s in me. While he’s inside of me, I can protect him, but once he comes out here, into this world….I have no idea what I’m going to do with him. I don’t know how to breastfed or bathe him, burp him, nothing. I need Louise right there with me. I need her and if I’m living here, she won’t be right there. She’s my security blanket and I’m not ready to give her up until I know I can do this.”
Addison watched her best friends hands move to her belly as she spoke about her baby and her fears about having him outside of the womb. She saw this in a lot of mother’s to be. “Louise would only be a phone call away. She loves you and George and her grandson very much, she would be here in an instant as would I as would Miranda. Secondly, once you’re holding that sweet little baby boy in your arms and you carry him through that door, you’ll have instincts that will kick in. You’ll know exactly what to do with your baby and how to do it. We’ll all be here to help you Cal, but sweetie, you can do this on your own. You don’t need anyone to hold your hand. You’ve got this. You’re strong and you can be the new mother. Plus, if you’re still living with Louise, you don’t want her to step on your toes and tell you how to do everything with your baby. It never works out well when the new parents are living with the in-laws,” Addison explained moving Callie’s hair out of her face. “And the way you already interact with him, in your womb, the way you always touch your belly when you talk about him, that tells me that you would do anything for him and that in and of itself will make you a great mother to that little boy.”
Callie heard everything that Addison had to say, but to her, for her, for her son, it just didn’t feel as if leaving Louise was the right thing to do. She needed to be there with her mother-in-law who had already done this three times. Maybe she would come into her own with her son, but what if she didn’t? Then she would have no one. She would be stranded with a newborn, that she had no idea what to do with. That was a scary thought that she refused to become her reality. “I figured once I get used to having a baby, we’ll move in here. Then Louise will be a phone call away for the ear infections and such.”
“So when will you move? Because you won’t want to do it with a newborn. Then you’ll be back at work and before we realize it, he’ll be a year old and then you’ll be pregnant again. It’s never going to get any easier to tell George that your father bought you guys a house, so just do it now and move and Louise is just down the road Callie. You can be a mother. You’re going to excel at it, just like you do everything else. Now, I really want to see the inside of the house.”
Addison was right, she would always find an excuse not to move. She was comfortable when she was and when Callie was comfortable, she saw no reason to change what she was doing. Now she knew what Addison’s opinion was on the situation was and there was no need to question it further, because her best friend would only push harder. “Lets go inside then.”
“I’m not trying to tell you, that you have to move in. But you do need to tell George and you two need to make a decision from there. It can’t be all about you Callie. He needs to have a say in things, like this, too.”
“When I tell him, he’s going to be upset. He’ll say so your father thinks I can’t provide for you, when I can. Or Callie, if you wanted a house, you didn’t have to go to your father to get one.”
“Cal,” Addison said shaking her head. “Just tell him it was a wedding present that you didn’t know how to tell him about,” she shrugged. “It was a gift, he can’t get too mad. So your dad bought this and paid for it?”
“Crazy, right?” she questioned unlocking the door. “I was looking at houses on night online and I set this one to Diego and Daddy must have been over his shoulder and saw it. The man bought me my dream house, but we wouldn’t pay for medical school,” Callie shrugged.
The girls shared a laugh as they got out of the car and headed up the walk way, into the house, so Callie could give Addison the grand tour. She needed to tell George, but once he got over being upset about it, he would want to move in. Callie wasn’t ready to give Louise up, she needed the security when her son came, so if it meant withholding information from her husband, she was going to do it.
~*~*~
George had been with Dr. Sloan all day. They had done a face lift, a breast reduction, breast enhancement, and a cleft palette surgery on a two year old. George had never really been one for plastics, but watching and participating in the cleft palette surgery was pretty amazing. He was writing up post op notes as quickly as he could since he needed to get changed and upstairs for Lamaze class with Callie at seven.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Mark standing behind him. He smiled politely, “Yes Dr. Sloan?”
“Our face lift patient is in a lot of pain and our little man hasn’t woken up yet, so you’re here to give our patients the best care. I expect detailed notes in the morning when I get in, with their morning labs. Nice work today Dr. O’Malley,” he added.
“Dr. Sloan, I can’t be on call tonight. Well, I can, just not in the next two hours.”
“You’re an intern, that’s part of your job.”
“Yes sir, I know that and understand that. But tonight, Callie and I have Lamaze class, sir and if I miss it….”
“What’s more important O’Malley? Learning how to breath during a child birth were you’ll probably end up on the floor? Or saving lives?”
“Dr. Sloan, she’s my pregnant wife. I can’t just not show up for a child birth class…”
“You have five minutes to either go find someone to cover you or tell your wife you won’t be at Lamaze tonight O’Malley,” he stated glancing down at his watch. “Starting now or I will make sure you don’t see the operating room for a long time, got it?”
“Wanna go to Lamaze with Callie tonight?” he questioned before heading off to the locker room where all the interns would be changing in a few minutes. When he got to the locker room the only people still there were Izzie and Cristina. “Anyone got plans tonight?”
“Why?” they both questioned turning to look at him.
“I’m going on a date,” Izzie smiled closing her locker and picking up one of her high heels from the bench and sliding it onto her foot.
“Cristina?”
“Why?”
“I need you to either be on call for Sloan for about two hours while I go to Lamaze class with Callie or go with her. Now I’m sure you don’t want to go breath and crap, but I really need someone to help me out here. Sloan doesn’t want to hear it and Callie will be pissed if she has to go alone and…..”
“George, shut up. I won’t deal with beauty queens who only brought the pain on themselves, but I’ll suffer through panting mothers for an hour, plus Burke’s still in surgery,” she shrugged.
George blinked a few times as he stared at Cristina, had just easily agreed to do something for him? He was about to ask again when Callie came into the locker room. “Hey Cristina, are we still going shopping after Lamaze?”
“You two are going shopping?” George questioned at each woman and shaking his head. He knew they were sort of friends, ever since plans for Cristina’s wedding had kicked off, after all Callie had just planned an entire wedding in under three months. Shopping after work though was a different story.
“Yeah, we’re going shopping,” Callie shrugged opening her locker. “Do you have the bag of everything for Lamaze?” she questioned as she pulled off her shirt.
“I left it in the car. I’ll run and get it, but I have to be on call for Sloan. I tried getting out of it, and I can’t,” he explained as he opened his locker to get his car keys out.
Callie nodded, she understood. Sure she hated that he was missing a class since it was nice for them to spend that hour together, but she knew that Mark was a hard ass with the interns. “Just get me the bag and I’ll see you at home later. I understand,” she said as she finished getting changed. She closed her locker and went over to George, placing a kiss on his cheek.
George smiled at her and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. He was glad that she was being understanding about this, but with their careers and Baby O coming in fifteen weeks, adapting was something they needed to be able to easily as a team. He headed down to his car and collected the duffle bag and headed back upstairs to meet the girls.
“We need to go, class starts in five minutes,” Callie stated glancing at his watch. “Is everything in here?”
“Pillow, the mat, the focus object, it’s there,” he smiled handing the bag to Cristina. “Take it easy on her drill sergeant.”
Cristina rolled her eyes as her and Callie got into the elevator to head upstairs for a class. “Why do you need to take a class on something that is completely natural?” Cristina questioned. “And why do you need a focus object? What is your focus object?”
“It’s not a class on giving birth, it’s a class on how to breath during labor. Believe me, if I had too, I could give birth on my own, without Addison. The focus object is to channel your energy or something, I don’t feel myself using it when I’m in labor with him, but you never know. George is sort of my focus object and then we went to Build-A-Bear one night and we made the babies first teddy bear, his name is Baby O and that’s the focus object.”
Cristina shook her head as the doors opened and they headed into the room where the class would take place. “Callie, you are getting softer as this pregnancy progresses,” she said shaking her head as they found a spot.
Callie laughed, maybe she was getting soft when it came to things dealing with Baby O, but that was alright with her. She showed Cristina how to lay out the mat and how to place the pillow before setting against her friend.
‘So do I have to hold this bear in front of you?” Cristina questioned looking at it oddly in her hand.
Callie shook her head and took the bear from Cristina, placing it in between her knees. “You’re supposed to breathe with me and hold my hand.”
“I’m not George.”
“But you’re my coach tonight. In a few years time, you and Burke will be doing this. You’ll have a leg up.”
“I am not attending some stupid class that tells me how to breath because I will never be pushing anything out of my body.”
“So you want them to cut you open when you have a baby?” Callie questioned before taking a deep relaxing breath.
“I’m not having children.”
Callie rolled her eyes as the instructor stood at the front of the room and began to go over breathing techniques, explaining the use of each one, the role of the coach in each exercise and the importance it had to the laboring mother.
After an hour of deep breathing and misery for Cristina the girls repacked the bag and headed out to the parking lot. They got into the car and headed off to the mall, on a mission. “So his mother is throwing you a bridal shower and you need a dress?” Callie teased.
“No, even worse, an engagement party that I need a dress for. As do you because I’m sure nothing in your closet fits the monster.”
“When is the party? Because that depends on when I need to buy the dress or what type of dress I need to buy,” Callie pointed out.
“It’s in five weeks and if I have to suffer through buying a dress tonight, then so do you.”
Callie rolled her eyes as they found a parking spot and headed inside. She wasn’t good at shopping and neither was Cristina, so this was going to be an adventure. “So we need an evening dress that isn’t too over the top,” Callie said as she thumbed through the rack, pulling out black dresses.
They went in and out of the dressing room for nearly half an hour, Cristina finding something wrong with each and every one of them. Callie searched the racks in frustration and finally found a red dress with an empire waist, short sleeves and some bunching around the collar. The dress would land just below Cristina’s knee. “Get in there, put it on, and like it.”
Cristina came out dressed and Callie smiled. It was the one that by far looked the best on her. “Burke will be drooling,” she smiled.
“Great, his mother will probably find it tasteless,” she said examining herself in the mirror. It wasn’t a bad dress, it was something she could live with.
After Cristina got changed into her regular clothes and they paid for the dress they headed across the mall to Motherhood. They searched the racks for a few minutes before Callie found a chocolate wrap dress that she could live with. The black one Louise had gotten for her, was getting a little short as her belly expanded.
“I can’t breath in here,” Cristina complained. “There’s too many mom’s with bellies and….”
Callie motioned to her belly, “Cristina! He can hear you! Shut up!”
“Cal, at least your hot and pregnant, some of them are dropped and…..”
“In a few weeks I’ll be dropping, so shut up. My baby has tender ears and he was innocent until I started hanging around you,” she said rolling her eyes as she changed into the dress.
“Me? I’m sure you and George haven’t given up the sex, especially with your honeymoon only a few weeks ago, so that child is already banging his head on your uterus, trying to escape.”
Callie laughed to herself, that image now etched into her mind forever as she finished changing and glanced at herself in the mirror. She loved her pregnant shape. She was sure in a few weeks as she got bigger, she wouldn’t love the shape so much, but right now, she was embracing the whole idea. She opened the door to the dressing room and stepped out.
“You look amazing and did you always have that great cleavage?” Cristina questioned.
Callie laughed as she glanced down at the plunging neck line. The dress was an empire waist, with some beading on the shoulders, gathering the material together, and at the waist. It fell just below her knee, which meant by the time she wore it, it would likely be above her knee. “Nope, that’s a benefit of pregnancy. I always had nice cleavage, just not that well endowed.”
They shared a laugh before Callie went into the dressing room and changed into her clothes. She paid for the dress and they grabbed some ice cream, vanilla soft serve with chocolate sprinkles, which was Callie’s craving of the evening. Cristina dropped her off at the house.
“You’re home late from Lamaze,” Louise stated from the sofa where she was working on a needle point.
“I went out with Cristina. George is on call and couldn’t come to Lamaze. Cristina went with me. I would have called you, but you had your Tastefully Simple party to attend,” Callie smiled as she went into the living room and sat down next to her mother-in-law.
“You could have called Callie. I wouldn’t have minded.”
Callie nodded and leaned her head on Louise’s shoulder. “Would you be bothered if I asked you to be in the delivery room when I actually give birth to him? I know that bothers some people, but besides George your really one of the only people I want there.”
Louise smiled and placed a kiss on Callie’s head, “Sweetie, I’d be honored.”
tbc....