There Comes a Song 3/? Part Two
Half an hour later, in pairs and trios, the shivering and giggling surgical staff slowly made their way back inside. Some went to the locker room in search of dry clothes while others decided to hit the showers in hopes of thawing. Callie, still relatively dry and not quite as cold as the others, opted for neither. She was more interested in finding Erica and Mark. She was relatively sure the carnage has stopped just short of murder, but Erica was unpredictable, and the Man-whore had molested her with snow.
She found Mark and Addison first, camping out in the Attendings’ luxurious lounge.
“Hey, you’re alive.” Callie tried to feign surprise, but she couldn’t fight back a smirk at her friend’s slightly shaken state.
“Saved by the pager.” He laughed. “But damn that woman can run. It was kind of hot having her chase me all over the hospital.”
“I’m glad you find my homicidal girlfriend hot. “
“I’m serious.” Mark continued, smirking, “She must have amazing legs.”
“Hey! Her legs are none of your business. They’re mine.” Callie narrowed her eyes, trying to recreate Erica’s most intimidating glare. Her smirk won out. “And they are amazing.”
“I’m glad the two of you finally got the sex right.” Addison waggled her eyebrows suggestively. It was a clear invitation for Callie to share some juicy details.
“Thanks, but I’m not spilling the beans.” Callie waved and started to back out the door. Mark’s voice called her back.
“Hey, have you found the signup sheet yet for the Chief’s little camping trip?”
“Yeah, this morning after Cristina practically jumped me the second I got off the elevator. I didn’t really pay much attention to who else was going, though. Do you know?”
“Besides the Chief and the three of us… Derek’s dragging Meredith, Meredith’s dragging Yang, George and Lexie both thought it sounded fun, and the Chief somehow managed to talk Bailey into saying yes. Steven’s name was on the list, but someone erased it as soon as she walked away… it might’ve been me.” Mark’s boyishly charming grin was back.
“Which makes nine. So, depending on where we’re going, we can only have one more person in our party anyways, and I’m sure as hell not going without Erica.” Callie nodded emphatically, crossing her arms over her chest. Being without both Erica and surgeries was not acceptable.
“Ten, actually. I forgot to mention that the chief asked Sydney Heron to organize the whole trip.”
“…I’m not going.” Callie said firmly. There were too many ways to make homicide look like an accident while hiking for her to risk the temptation. The comprehending expression on Addison’s face told her that the redhead’s train of thought was running along a similar track.
“Yes you are. I already told the Chief you would.” Mark smirked triumphantly. “The Park Service won’t care if our group has one too many people, and if they do, we can always claim that Heron’s a raving lunatic who just randomly decided to follow us.”
“This is true.” Callie admitted, heaving a sigh of defeat. “I’ll come if I can talk Erica into it, too.”
“It shouldn’t be too hard to convince her, just keep reminding her that she wouldn’t have a bed warmer for a whole seven days.” Addison suggested helpfully and hopefully.
“That might work, but she hasn’t quite reached full nymphomania maturity. She told me this morning that she enjoyed the kissing and the cuddling just as much as she enjoyed the sex.”
“Ouch.” Mark laughed. Addison turned and elbowed him sharply in the ribs, scowling heavily.
“Mark, you pig! That’s a good thing.”
“How?! She said that orgasms weren’t any better than hugging!”
“Mark, Mark. You’re trying to translate Womanspeak with a Mannish to English dictionary.” Addison sigh, feigning exasperation. Or, at least, Callie thought she was feigning.
“Alright, then translate for me.” Mark leaned back against the couch cushion and crossed his arms across his own chest, looking at Addison expectantly.
“What Erica meant was that she enjoys just being with Callie as much as she enjoys the sex, which is actually really a sweet thing for someone to say. I wouldn’t expect you to understand that, though.”
Callie agreed completely with Addison. Hearing Erica whisper it in her ear the night before had completely melted her insides. The feeling that came with the knowledge that there was someone who loved being with her was nothing short of elation, the clichéd soaring of her heart and insides.
Mark looked skeptical, but that was to be expected. He was suave and occasionally charming, but still romantically challenged.
“Where are we going to be camping?” Callie asked, more out of the interest in keeping Addison and Mark from reopening old wounds than actual curiosity. She was sure she would look forward to the trip once she knew that her lover would be there with her, but until then the jury was still out.
“Er… Sydney was babbling about the Olympic Peninsula… and the Rialto Point Sandy trail, or something. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“The Rialto Beach to Sandy Point trail?”
“That sounds about right, yeah.”
Callie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Great.” Her statement lacked enthusiasm, but dripped with sarcasm.
“What’s so bad about the beach? I think it sounds fun.”
“It is fun… when it’s not forty degrees or colder. What-“
“According to the Weather Channel, it’s supposed to really warm up over the next few days. Should be nearly sixty by Friday.” Mark injected helpfully.
“That’s a little better… but, to be honest, Rialto’s a trail for more experienced backpackers. It’s twenty-five miles of sand, boulders, and seaweed covered rocks of all sizes in between. Not the safest trail Sydney could have picked.”
“It’ll be fine.” Mark assured her, rising up from the couch as his pager alerted him that was due for surgery. He clapped the Latina on the shoulder as he walked by, leaving Callie and Addison alone in the lounge.
“You liar, you said you were going to come down to join the snowball fight!”
Addison chuckled nervously to stall for time as she tried to think of a way to explain herself. This conversation could take awhile.
***************
“Hey you. What’s up?” Callie smiled brightly as she sidled up to the Nurses’ Station next to her blonde bombshell. She was nearly as happy to see her lover as she was to have finally escaped Addison. The fashionable vixen had somehow managed to wrestle control of the playful interrogation from Callie and put her in the hot seat about how the previous night had gone. There were some things that Callie wanted to keep to herself and just hold close to her heart for awhile, and her newfound intimacy was one of them. For now, at least. Her face fell somewhat, though, when she saw Erica’s irritated scowl. “ Hey, Erica. What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that Mark Sloan had his hands literally in my pants this morning, I got called into a trauma before I could even dig the snow out, so my ass has been stinging like a bitch for the past two hours, and the Chief waylaid me on the way to the my office in order to tell me that he hired a cardiothoracic fellow without telling me that he was even looking into starting a Fellowship program.”
“Ouch. How’d that conversation go?”
“I told the Chief that I would accept the Fellow under one condition… that I get surgical dibs on Yang.”
“What?” Callie’s brows shot up nearly to her hairline. Erica glanced to either side to make sure that there wasn’t anyone within eavesdropping range before she turned to face her. Her face was set in a thoughtful frown, but there was a hint of regret, too.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for… why I’ve been stalling on teaching her. Before, there wasn’t any real competition to push her. I mean, I tried using Stevens to get her fired up, but instead she just whined and tried to find ways around me.” She paused and took a deep breath, casting another furtive glance around before continuing, “I’ve always tried to push myself to the limit, especially in school, but then Preston showed up and took me to a whole new level, and that allowed me to realize my full potential… to be the best that I could be, because my old best just wasn’t good enough. I wanted to give Yang that same chance. I just… haven’t been able to… until now.”
“Oh…” was all Callie could say. She hated herself for not being able to say more, but she had never realized that Erica actually had a reason for treating Cristina the way that she did. She hadn’t given the woman she loved the benefit of the doubt.
Erica gave a facsimile of a smile and shrugged her shoulders. She was trying not to let show that she’d been hurt by Callie’s reaction, but the shallow smile and defeated air to her posture betrayed her. “I know, everyone around here thought I was just doing it to be a bitch. That’s mostly my fault. I’ve never really made an effort to be a nice person to work with. It’s just… a necessary evil.”
“I don’t think so.” Callie said softly. “We’re both here at work, but you’re not Doctor Hahn with me. You’re Erica… my Erica. If the others could see even just a little of the real you…” she trailed off with a soft laugh, “They’d realize why you’re always so cranky.”
That wasn’t quite what Erica had been expecting, and her questioning gaze said so quite clearly. The Latina couldn’t keep from smirking.
“They’d realize you’re always so cranky because hiding the big heart of yours is exhausting for you.”
“Cal…”
“Erica… I know why you hide it. It’s your armor. But… it doesn’t have to be. I could be your armor. I want to be your armor. I want to be the one to protect you, because you’re mine to protect.”
Erica didn’t know what to say to respond to that, but that didn’t much matter. Erica had always been a woman of action, and as wonderful as it was to tell Callie how she felt, showing her would always be better.
Or, rather, showing her would be better, if there was no shrill beeping of insistent pagers to interrupt and remind them that they were both at work. After sneaking into the nearest unoccupied on call room, they had made it to second base. In a interesting turn of events, it had been Callie who had pinned Erica against the wall, alternating between devouring the blonde’s mouth and succulent neck. The latter growled her frustration when Callie pulled away to look down at the message displayed on her pager. Erica’s own brows furrowed as Callie frowned in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” she slid out from in-between her girlfriend and the door she was trying to open. Her own pager went off before Callie could answer, and she read the message for herself.
“A 911 page to the Nurses’ Station? I don’t recognize the number paging the message. It’s not the chief, or any of the attendings.”
“We’ll find out when we get there.”
As it turned out, finding out the originator of the summons single-handedly destroyed the remaining vestiges of a good mood either the ortho or the cardio goddess had. Sydney Heron was front and center, surrounded by a half moon of colleagues that Callie, with a sinking feeling in her gut, realized were also the same names as were on the Sign Up sheet for the ‘bonding experience’.
The short, pale doctor was bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet, grinning like there was nothing that could make her happier than being exactly where she was. It didn’t matter to her that she was on the receiving end of frowns, a few scowls, and one very impressive glacial-blue glare. Sydney Heron was blessed with near-imperviousness. Very few things could penetrate her perpetual peppy and cheerful air.
Not many of those gathered turned to acknowledge the arrival of the final two members. Derek absently nodded his head in greeting, not really taking his eyes off of the resident he would love nothing better than to flee from. Mark, however, turned to smirk his own greeting. His eyes widened, though, as he took in one particular aspect of Erica’s disheveled appearance, and he, in a truly heroic move, threw his arm companionably over her shoulder. Erica stiffened immediately and tried to pull away, but Mark only tightened his hold.
“What are you doing?” Erica snarled, more than slightly annoyed. Mark plastered on a large smile and leaned down to whisper his reply in her ear.
“Covering the enormous hickey on your neck. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Erica couldn’t bring herself to thank the man-whore, but she did allow herself to relax the slightest bit. Not too much, though. It was Mark Sloan, after all, and the bastard still hadn’t paid for his earlier snowy felony to her satisfaction.
***************
“So, I’ll bet you’re all wondering why I called you here, huh?” Sydney looked around at the assembly, the damned grin still firmly plastered on her face. It was fortunate that she didn’t wait long for a response, because even if she had, she sure as hell wouldn’t have gotten one. Even the cheery and excitable Lexie was pressed into silence by the pressure of the varying levels of annoyance radiating from her superiors.
“Our little camping trip is only a few days away--yay!-so we need to start getting ready for it. I have with me a little checklist of all the things it would be a good idea for you to bring!” she waved the half-sheet of paper in the air for emphasis, “So! First order of business is finding out who’s going to tent with who. There are only a couple of places to set up camp along the way, and space is limited, so we’re going to need to keep it limited to three tents, which is perfect, because I happen to have three Eureka three-man tents!” She added an extra bounce for emphasis, as if the owning of multiple tents was some sort of accomplishment.
“Why can’t we just split up the groups to two different camp sites?” Bailey didn’t bother raising her hand or trying to hide what she obviously thought of Sydney’s three-tent limit. She, like the rest of the group, knew how to add and divide. “I can assure you that trying to put more than three surgeons in a three-man tent is a bad idea.”
“It’s the best we can do, I’m afraid. I called the Park service to make our reservations, and it seems that there will be a high school group from central Ohio hiking the beach some of the same days that we will be.”
Mark snorted, then snickered. “Why the hell would a bunch of teenagers from Ohio let themselves be dragged across the country to hike?”
“From what I understand, they’re part of a nifty little science club or class of sorts, called ‘Field Studies’. They’re actually getting high school and college credit for this trip.” Syndey nodded for emphasis. Idly, Erica found herself musing about how the resident’s mind worked. Thus far, it seemed that Sydney had a mental ‘Wheel of Fortune’ with a small set of ten or so actions actions written on, instead of various dollar amounts, and that she spun it whenever she needed a reaction to an outside stimulus.
“Which begs the question ‘Why can’t they hike in Ohio?’.”
“Because the temperature hovers in the low to mid twenties in December, and drops to near zero some nights, whereas Washington’s temperature averages in the high forties and low fifties. Now, can we get back to discussing our own trip? Yes? Good. Now, as I was saying, I think the best way to handle roomies is by having the girls put their names into a bowl. The first three names pulled out can tent together, and the four left get the third tent.”
“Or, the four smallest can take the third tent, as they’ll have more room that way.” Callie offered, clearly not liking the thought of being stuck in a tent with three other people, especially if one of those people was Sydney Heron.
“I have a better idea. Because this was your idea, you can sleep in the tent of four, and Hahn, Torres, and I will take advantage of seniority to be the tent of three.” Bailey said in her talented way of twisting suggestion into command. Even the irrepressible Sydney knew better than to argue.
“Well, okey-dokey then, that’s settled! Now, as for gear, you’re going to need…”
***************
Well, whatcha think? :D I'm kind of proud of the random plot bunnies I was able to work into this story XD But feel free to offer up any ideas of your own, of things or people you want to see! And feedback is always a good way to motivate my muse to cooperate with me :D