Sparks - Grey's Anatomy - Mark/Callie - 1/1
Callie opened the door to the on-call room with a groan and a yawn. She was sore and stiff from a long eight hour surgery. A man had been in a car crash and the bone repairs were nasty. She was exhausted, and she still had a long night ahead of her. Noticing Mark sleeping in one of the lower beds, Callie smiled and plopped down next to him. “Wake up, Sloan.”
Mark woke with a groggy yawn. “Torres? Aren’t you supposed to be in surgery all day?”
“Just got out,” she replied, rolling her neck around in a circle.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
“Good,” Callie grunted and repositioned herself. “Long.”
“Stiff?” Mark asked.
Callie nodded mutely.
“C’mere,” Mark muttered, sitting up.
Callie crawled towards him and smiled softly when he began rubbing her shoulders, giving her a massage.
“That pressure good?” Mark asked.
“Mmm. Yes. I have a good best friend.”
“You do indeed, Torres. I’m glad you know it.”
Callie sighed quietly with pleasure, making the occasional moaning noise. Mark shifted uncomfortably when she did so.
“Mark?” Callie spoke up after a few minutes.
“Yeah?”
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Sure,” Mark replied. “My place or yours?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “Not that, dumb ass. I need your help with something.”
“I think that would help you plenty,” Mark suggested teasingly, continuing to massage her back and shoulders.
“Hmm, I’m sure it would, but that is not what I’m referring to. Help me pick out a Christmas tree tonight. And then lug it back to my apartment.”
“Are you trying to domesticate me again?”
Callie laughed. “Shut it, Sloan. I suggested that cooking class for your own good. All you can make is macaroni and cheese. And toast, when you feel like taking a culinary risk.”
“Sure, Torres. Why are you getting a tree? And decorating? Sounds like a whole lot of effort for someone that isn’t Izzie Stevens.”
Callie groaned as he increased the pressure of his massage. “My parents are coming to town, and they are always in the Christmas spirit. My mother loves the holidays and decks out the whole house. She’ll have a fit if my place isn’t decorated, and I just got back in my family’s good graces. I don’t need anything else against me.”
“Do they know that you and Arizona broke up two months ago?”
“Not exactly. I didn’t want to give my dad the satisfaction. But I’m sure he’ll be pleased. You know, as long as I date a man next,” she added bitterly.
“More women for me then, hmm?” Mark said lightly.
He and Lexie had broken up a little over a month prior. It was the season for break-ups, it seemed. It was Lexie’s youth, in the end, that had done the pair in. They were in very different places.
“So will you help me tonight?” Callie pleaded.
“Of course, Cal.”
* * *
Mark decided that Callie needed the biggest tree that they could possibly get to fit into her apartment. He strongly regretted this decision once he started needing to actually get it inside and through the door, but he did have eventual success. It was set up in the corner of the living room. Callie had gotten her Christmas decorations from storage a few days earlier, so she and Mark started decorating.
Cristina joined them a little later when she got off her shift. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked as she removed a beverage from the fridge.
“Decorating,” Callie replied simply.
Cristina plopped onto the couch and eyed the decorations with disdain. “Obviously.”
Callie put another ornament on the tree.
Cristina took a long drink from her bottle of alcohol-altered eggnog and grinned. “I think we need a menorah.”
Mark chuckled quietly, and Callie scoffed.
“Why?” her roommate asked.
“I’m Jewish!” Cristina exclaimed.
“Barely,” Callie retorted. “You don’t celebrate any of the holidays and never go to Temple.”
“I go to Temple on Yom Kippur!”
“Yeah, the day of repentance,” Callie laughed. “To repent not going to Temple.”
Cristina smirked. “If we’re having Christmas decorations, I want a menorah.”
Mark spoke up, “Didn’t Hanukkah already start, Yang?”
“Then maybe they will be on sale,” Cristina suggested.
Callie sighed. “What is in that milk you’re drinking?”
Cristina cackled. “Not milk. Nogasake!”
“Oh, Lord,” Callie muttered.
Mark beamed with amusement.
Callie began, “Cristina, if you’re not going to help decorate…”
Cristina stood up and grabbed a single piece of mistletoe from a box. She moved a chair from the kitchen, stacked a few phonebooks, stood upon it, and hung the piece a few feet from the tree.
“Voila!” she exclaimed. “My contribution to the cause. I still want a menorah.”
“Then go get one,” Callie suggested.
“I think I will,” Cristina responded. She put the rest of her altered eggnog in the refrigerator and left the apartment.
Mark let out a long, hearty laugh.
“What?” Callie asked. “What’s so funny, Sloan?”
“You two,” Mark replied. “You’re good roommates.”
Callie rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but smile. Mark’s statement was true. While a rather unlikely pairing, she and Cristina had ended up as very compatible roommates and friends.
The pair worked, hanging ornaments and stringing strand after strand of lights for another hour, chatting amicably. Finally, they’d covered every inch of the tree, with the exception of the final ornament.
“Help me with the star,” Callie requested.
Mark approached her and took the star from her hand. He climbed up on the chair Cristina had left and placed the golden star at the top of the tree. He put the chair up, and stepped towards his best friend again. He grinned knowingly.
“Hey, Callie?”
“Yeah?” she whispered. They were very close.
“We’re under Yang’s mistletoe.”
Callie’s eyes widened. She looked up at the ceiling, and sure enough, they were directly below it. She looked back at Mark and smiled. “It would appear so. Are you going to do something about it?”
She knew that it could be just a peck. The mistletoe rules state that you kiss, but only that. It could be a quick peck on the lips, friendly, casual, and safe. The last time they truly kissed, all that time ago before committed relationships and eventual break-ups, it hadn’t been there. Their usual spark had been absent. Their innate chemistry. But times were different now.
Callie was vaguely reminded of their first time together - dirty sex at the Archfield and too much alcohol - as they inched closer together. It had been years since they’d met at Joe’s, complete strangers. Now they were best friends. And ever since both of them had become single again, they spent every moment of their time together. Mark lived just across the hall, after all.
More recently, the pair could feel it in the air again. Their spark. Their chemistry that followed them everywhere. It was back. But neither of them had wanted to be the first to give in. This mistletoe was proving to be a wonderful excuse.
They inched closer and closer until their bodies were completely pressed against one another, lips mere millimeters apart, breath heavy.
Mark was the one to close the gap between them and capture Callie’s plump lips in a searing, heated kiss.
Oh yes, their chemistry was certainly there.
Mark pulled away only to go back for more, his tongue delving and mingling with hers. She tasted like ginger and cinnamon from the cookie she’d had earlier. He twisted his hands in her hair and backed them up against the nearest wall. Mark tripped slightly as he walked, his foot tangled in an unused string of lights. He growled and tried to shake them off, losing his shoe in the process. Callie laughed and watched as he kicked the other one off, as well. He turned back towards her and sunk into another kiss. Mark’s hands were everywhere - on her face, her hips, her ass, her…
“Looks like my mistletoe was effective!” Yang spoke from the doorway, menorah in hand.
Callie and Mark stumbled apart, surprised looks on their faces.
Cristina grinned.
Mark spoke up, “Shut it, Yang. I’ve got business to attend to.”
Callie giggled as he practically dragged her to her bedroom.
“DON’T FORGET TO USE A RUBBER!” Cristina yelled after them.
They didn’t forget. They didn’t forget three times.