MSC - 22B - Having a ball!
“Hey,” Erica smiled, sitting down next to Callie and putting the drinks she had bought down on the table. “Sorry I was so long, my director of studies wanted a word and then the queue at the bar was huge.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk Erica Hahn?” Callie asked, glancing at the drinks. They had been plied with alcohol all night, between the champagne reception and the free wine on the tables, and now Erica was buying them more.
Erica raised her eyebrows. “That depends, will it help?” she asked teasingly.
“Help me embarrass you by falling on my ass maybe,” Callie laughed.
Erica shook her head, laughing with her. “Then no, I’m not trying to get you drunk. This is to celebrate the fact that my director of studies has sent a special recommendation to Seattle Grace for me,” she grinned.
“As if you need that. Your grades should tell them all they need to know,” Callie smiled back. “You don’t need to come with a special recommendation for people to realize how amazing you are. You’re far better than a piece of paper with a few words on it could ever tell them you are.” She reached for Erica’s hand, squeezing it gently. “Still, no sense in letting a perfectly good drink go to waste,” she laughed, reaching for her glass with her free hand and taking a sip. She put it down, however, on hearing the band start up with the opening few notes of a new song. Standing, she smiled down at Erica, still holding onto her hand. “Dance with me?”
Erica smiled and let her lead her onto the dancefloor, where her hand fell around Callie’s waist, with Callie’s clasped around her neck. The latina leant in with her mouth close to Erica’s ear. “You know who asked for this song?” Erica leant back a little and looked at her, slight confusion readable on her face. Callie smiled and continued. “And do you know who they asked for it to be played for?” She leant forward and placed a gentle kiss on Erica’s lips. “You.” She rested her head on the blonde’s shoulder, holding Erica close to her.
Erica smiled as she felt Callie place a gentle kiss on her neck. For all Callie was the tough rock chick of campus, she could be adorably sweet sometimes. As they continued to dance, Erica listened to the words of the song Callie had chosen to have played for her. It was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t place the name of it. Still, the name of of it didn’t matter compared to what the words conveyed. She felt Callie take her head off of her shoulder, and her smile widened as their eyes met. Gazing at Callie, the honestly written on her face, she knew she was using to song to say everything she would like to if she could find the words. Leaning their foreheads together, Erica tried to blink back the tears that threatened to overflow.
‘Here I am with open arms, hoping you’ll see what your love means to me.”
She felt Callie’s hands move from her neck and into her hair, pulling her in for a deep kiss. Only in the need of oxygen did Callie pull back, leaning their foreheads together once more. She gently wiped away the few stray tears which had escaped Erica’s eyes with the pad of her thumb.
“Stay with me tonight?” Erica asked, her voice barely a whisper. Callie might not have told her she loved her, but deep down Erica knew she did. And Erica loved Callie to the point where it hurt. So deep and so intense were her feelings towards the younger woman she was often at a loss at what to do with them, how to show Callie what she felt for her. The look on her face right then, however, told Erica that she wasn’t as useless at love as she might once have thought.
Callie smiled as she nodded. She found one of Erica’s hands and tugged her with her as she left the dancefloor, returning to their table and pulling Erica into her lap so she could sit with her arms around her waist as Erica leant her head on Callie’s. She felt Erica playing with one of her curls which must have come loose and turned to see her smiling to herself, her mind obviously a million miles away as she stared into space, her beautiful blue eyes unfocused. Erica’s fingers trailed from her hair to trace imaginary patterns on her exposed shoulders. “What are you thinking about?” she asked quietly.
She watched as Erica blinked her eyes back into focus, a thousand unreadable thoughts passing through them before they finally settled on Callie’s. “Things,” Erica sighed. “The song, you, how beautiful you are,” she smiled.
“That’s some pretty deep thinking there,” Callie laughed, trying to shrug off the compliment. It still amazed her how open Erica was with her compliments. And how utterly useless she was at accepting them.
“I don’t think I’ll be changing the world with it anytime soon,” Erica smiled. “But it’s deep and meaningful to me.”
Callie tilted her head and gently pressed her lips to Erica’s. “I don’t know, you made a pretty big change in my little world.”
Erica’s smile widened and she trailed a finger lovingly across Callie’s cheek. “And you turned mine around.” She paused. “You know before I met you Neil was the closest thing I had to a friend. Or a date,” she added with a laugh.
“You dated Neil?” Callie asked, not believing.
Erica shook her head, her curls bouncing around her shoulders. “My mom came up to visit once and was convinced he had a crush on me. She even bought me that black dress for when he asked me out.”
“You mean that black dress?” Callie asked, her tone teasing. “That incredibly hot black dress which you look amaaaazing in?”
“I think I only have the one black dress,” Erica replied with a coy smile.
“Then it must be,” Callie grinned, kissing Erica’s neck and the sweet spot below her ear. “Which is now my second favourite dress on you. My favourite being this one.” She trailed her finger down the strap of Erica dress. She felt Erica’s breath hitch and pulled back to look at her.
“I don’t think I have a favourite dress of yours,” Erica smiled. “You could make a potato sack look sexy. And you make this dress look especially great.” She dipped her mouth close to Callie’s ear. “Just looking at you in that makes my knees go week.” Erica’s breathing had sped up notably, and she was sure someone must have turned the heating up. “Although I think I might have to take that dress off you tonight.” She saw Callie’s eyes darken with lust at the implication behind her words, and thought that finally, tonight might be the night. Pressing her lips to Callie’s forehead in a gentle kiss, she smiled against her skin. “You have no idea what you do to me,” she whispered, her arms resting around Callie’s neck as they both enjoyed the closeness they had, lost in their own thoughts. Of love. Of lust. Of trust.
**
Declining an invite to what was meant to be an ‘epic’ after party, Erica and Callie had taken a cab back to Erica’s. Callie sat with her head on Erica’s shoulder, fiddling with one of the ruffles on Erica’s dress. She was nervous, and trying to hide it. She wanted Erica, and knew beyond all doubt that Erica wanted her, but that didn’t stop her nerves kicking in. So she kept her eyes down, her hair hiding her face to stop Erica being able to read her as she knew the blonde could. If Erica knew how nervous she was, she would become nervous, not wanting to push, but that wasn’t what Callie wanted. She wanted Erica to be who she really was, not to rein everything in to please her. She wanted Erica to push, to show her all that she was, to let her get lost in her.
“Did you enjoy it tonight?” Erica asked, her voice soft. Callie had barely spoken since they had left the ball, and Erica would have been concerned that she was annoyed at not going to the after party if Callie hadn’t answered for them both when Neil had asked. She watched Callie’s fingers twirl the piece of fabric on her dress, trying not to focus on the fact that it was also tickling her thigh. A fact she was sure the latina was completely unaware of.
Callie nodded against her shoulder. “I loved it. I loved us being us. I like being able to be like this with you.” Erica could hear the smile in her voice. She placed her hand gently over Callie’s, stilling the younger woman’s, and causing her to release the fabric, and cease her unknown teasing. Callie’s hand didn’t stay still for long, however, as she turned Erica’s hand over and traced over Erica’s fingers with her own, staring down at them as though they were the most interesting thing she had ever come across. “You have such soft hands,” Callie breathed. “It’s amazing to think that these are going to be surgeon’s hands. These are going to be inside someone saving their life.” There was awe in her voice as she continued to gently caress Erica’s hands, trailing her finger across the lines on Erica’s palm.
Erica chose not to say anything, instead silently chastising herself for the places her mind went when Callie said that her fingers would be inside someone. Clearly, where her mind was going was not where Callie had intended. She forced herself to keep her breathing under control and not let Callie see how her words had affected her. Taking Callie’s hands in her own, she smiled. “So will yours one day.”
Callie let out a sigh of disbelief.
“You will. You are gonna be a superstar surgeon one day,” said Erica, meaning it. Callie didn’t just have the determination to succeed, but the personality to ensure she did it entirely in her own way ,with a style only Callie Torres could conjure up.
“A superstar with a scalpel,” Callie laughed.
Erica couldn’t keep the grin from her face. “A superstar indeed.”
“What does that make you then if I’m going to be a superstar?” Callie asked, turning to look at Erica.
“An insomniac intern trying to worm her way into every OR she can,” Erica smiled.
Callie shook her head. “No. You won’t need to worm your way in. They’ll roll out the red carpet for you,” she laughed. “No, you are going to be an absolute Goddess when it comes to surgery. You wait and see. You’ll be the attending everybody wants one day.”
Erica laughed. “I think we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here Cal. Neither of us have even been inside an OR.”
“Not true. I had my appendix out,” Callie smiled.
“Yeah, but you didn’t do it did you?”
“No, but I have the video,” Callie replied.
Erica’s eyebrows furrowed in something akin to confusion. “You have a video of you having your appendix removed?”
Callie nodded. “I told them I wanted to watch because I wanted to go into medicine, so they videoed it for me,” she shrugged as if it was perfectly normal.
“I’m willing to bet it wasn’t your best look,” Erica laughed.
Again Callie shrugged. “It’s hard to look good under anesthetic. But I was in my underwear for it,” she said, grinning slightly.
Erica narrowed her eyes, mock glaring at her. “You are nothing but a tease Calliope Torres.”
“Ooh, almost full name, am I in trouble?” Callie laughed.
Erica was about to give her a sassy retort when one word suddenly nagged at her. “Almost your full name?”
Callie opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. Erica wasn’t getting her middle name that easily.
“You have a middle name?” Erica prompted.
“I do,” Callie nodded.
“Well, what is it?” Erica asked, curious now.
“You don’t need to know,” Callie said, shaking her head.
“You know mine,” said Erica as way of a bargaining chip.
Callie laughed. “Yeah, but Brooke is a nice middle name.”
“How bad can yours be?” asked Erica.
“Bad enough you don’t need to know,” Callie smiled sweetly. Then she proceeded to stop Erica’s further attempts to speak with small kisses until the blonde finally gave up trying to speak, and instead let herself indulge in nuzzling into Callie’s neck, inhaling her sweet scent; her spicy perfume mixed with something unique that was the woman she loved.
*
Callie took Erica’s bag from her and promptly removed her keys. “See, not that difficult,” she laughed as she opened the door for them.
“My keys hate me. I should just wear them around my neck. At least then they couldn’t hide from me!” Erica ranted as she followed Callie inside her building, reaching to take her bag back but instead receiving Callie’s hand in her own. Smiling to herself she happily followed after Callie, who thankfully had opted for the lift rather than the stairs. Although Erica’s her feet were killing her, she would never admit to it. Erica Hahn didn’t show she was in pain. As the elevator doors closed, Erica found herself gazing into mirror at Callie’s reflection. The young latina was staring into space, a faint smile on her lips. Erica gently rubbed her thumb across her fingers, causing Callie to turn her smile on her. She smiled back, allowing herself to smile the big, open smile she reserved only for Callie. “I love you,” she said quietly.
In response, Callie suddenly found herself pressing her body against Erica’s, slamming them both into the side of the lift, and the emergency stop. She crushed her lips against the blonde’s, her hands sliding into her golden curls. She wasn’t ready for the words yet, but she wanted to show Erica in no uncertain terms she was in this. She removed her lips from Erica’s only to place a series of kisses across her cheek and down her neck. Erica’s head lolled to the side as her breathing came in a series of passion fuelled gasps at the sensations flooding her system. Her hands slid from Callie’s hair over the soft skin of her powerful shoulders, and finally down to clasp at the small of her back, pulling Callie closer and eliminating the space between them. She hissed as Callie nipped her bottom lip before soothing the hurt away with her tongue, which she then slipped into Erica’s open mouth, mapping its contours as she coaxed a series of small moans from the blonde. She felt a small tug at her hair and pulled back, looking into Erica’s lust darkened pools of blue.
“We need to take the emergency stop off. If it’s on too long it alerts security, and as much as I’m enjoying this I’d rather we moved it than they broke it up,” she smiled.
Callie chucked, reaching behind Erica to release the stop with one hand, and cradling Erica’s head in the other as she brought their lips together once more. What parted them this time was not the need for oxygen, but the doors parting. Erica took Callie by the wrist and tugged her quickly along with her. Stopping at her door, she simply pointed to the door and then at Callie, and then back at the door.