The Dance of Deception 2/5 - Chapter Two - Deceiving (Part Two)
Chapter One - Facade (Part One)
Chapter One - Facade (Part Two)
Chapter Two - Deceiving (Part One)
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Callie sat impatiently on the end of the bed waiting for the blonde to come out of the bathroom. She’d kicked her ass into gear and jumped out of bed when the flashes of last night became more vivid; borrowing a pair of Erica’s jeans and a shirt to wear. She’d hurried downstairs to scoop up her clothes, throwing them into a paper bag, and stuffing Erica’s into the washing machine. She wanted to erase as much of the memory of last night as possible before the older woman reappeared; whatever was about to happen was not going to be easy and seeing the evidence of their activity wasn’t going to help anyone.
The door to the bathroom clicked unlocked and opened in one swift motion. Erica kept her eyes focused ahead as she hurried towards her dressing table, shrugging off the hand Callie reached out to touch her, and snatching up her hair brush.
Callie closed her eyes for a brief second, trying to ignore the hurt burning in her chest. The blonde moved to pass her again and she reached out to grab her arm again, “Erica please...”
Erica tore her arm away again and headed back into the bathroom; Callie hot on her tail. She tried to shut the door but the younger woman lunged forward and managed to get her foot in the way just in time to stop the door slamming in her face.
Callie pushed the door open and lingered in the doorway without speaking. Erica ran the brush through her hair several times, completely ignoring the dark-haired woman’s presence.
“You can’t keep ignoring me Erica; we need to talk about-”
“About what? How we spent the night fucking?” The blonde turned to look at her for a split second before turning away again.
Callie felt her jaw clench at the blonde’s harsh words, “Erica don’t be like this...”
Erica kept her eyes on the ground and shoved past Callie as she headed down the stairs and into the kitchen, bracing herself against the sink as she breathed in and out deeply. Her head was a mess, she only had pieces of the night before flittering through her brain and not knowing why or how it had happened was killing her.
Callie moved down the stairs and came cautiously into the kitchen, things had never been this strained between them and she felt unsure of herself, of what to say. Her skin itched as if it wasn’t her own and her thoughts were only enhanced by the way the blonde wouldn’t even look at her.
“Erica,” She moved a couple of steps closer when the blonde ignored her, “Please talk to me,” when she didn’t get a response again she moved behind the older woman and gently placed her hand on her shoulder; the pain radiating from the blonde was excruciating and she wished urgently that she knew how to ease it.
Erica let a few silent tears escape her eyes as Callie pleaded with her. When she felt the pressure of the dark-haired woman’s touch on her shoulder her legs propelled her away; the touch that had once been so comforting in times of need, was now agonizingly scarring her skin.
“Erica please,” Callie didn’t mean to raise her voice but the unresponsive reactions she was receiving from the blonde were leaving an icy fear settling into her veins. They’d never not talked, they’d never even argued before, and this, it was worse than any argument between them ever could ever be; the silence sounded so much like defeat, “Would you look at me.”
Erica spun around, her eyes angry and hurt, “What do you want me to say Callie?”
“Anything! You can’t just ignore me and hope it’ll all go away. It’s real, it happened, we have to deal with it together.”
“Together?!” Erica’s voice rose to meet Callie’s as their gazes locked and held for the first time, “This is all your fault!”
Callie stepped back in shock, dropping her gaze to the floor before lifting her eyes back to blue, anger now settling into her own brown pools, “My fault?! How the hell is this my fault?”
“You made me go to that club with you, you made us drink endless rounds of shots! I didn’t even really want to go!” Erica was almost shaking in rage; she wanted nothing more than to start this day over... no start this whole week over.
Callie watched Erica move a few more steps away from her, the fury making her pale cheeks even redder, “I can’t believe you’re blaming me for this! You’re the one that insisted we drink more wine when we got back here; you’re the one who moved in closer to me and cupped my cheek! So if this is anyone’s fault it’s yours!”
“Mine?!” the blonde looked scandalised by the accusation, “I may have cupped your cheek but you kissed me! You’re the one who was all over me at the club Callie! You had your hands all over me and you know it!”
Callie scoffed, “You were all over me! You wanted me to kiss you! You were the one who dragged me upstairs to your bed!”
Erica waited, ready with a retort on her tongue, stopping only when the younger woman’s words bounced around inside her head. She hadn’t remembered who had started it, all she could remember was bits of the kissing, and flashes of their naked forms shuddering together, her mind had yet to fill in the missing pieces for her to see the whole picture. She opened her mouth a couple of times, trying to form a sentence, and when she couldn’t she snatched her eyes away from Callie and turned her back to her.
Callie watched the look of confusion flash through blue eyes as she screamed the confession about their night into the air between them, and it was only when Erica faltered in her comeback that the younger woman realised that the blonde couldn’t actually remember all that had taken place between them.
Callie dared a step closer and calmed her voice as reason flooded her senses, “Maybe it’s no one’s fault Erica. It just happened... we can get past this.”
Erica swirled on her feet and faced her again, “I want you to leave.”
“What?” Callie shook her head, “You don’t mean that Erica... last night we just got caught up in the moment, it just happens sometimes...”
Erica scrunched her nose up in response, “Caught up in the moment?!” she opened her mouth to continue and stopped when the shrill sound of her pager rang through the air. Snatching it off the side, she glanced at the message before looking back at the other woman, “Sex doesn’t just happen!”
“We were drunk!” Callie desperately tried to reason, she hated that this, the awkward morning after had turned into a hurtful screaming match, “Things heated up; we just got carried away...”
Erica pursed her lips together, nodding her head and taking a step towards her, “Well you must have got pretty damn carried away in our frenzied night because you fucking marked me Callie,” she pulled at the neck of her shirt and tilted her head to the side, exposing the mark on her neck to Callie’s astonished gaze.
“I didn’t- Erica I...” she trailed off not knowing what to say. She’d never marked anyone before in her life, she’d never felt enough passion during sex with anyone, where she’d felt compelled to cover the person with every part of her; branding their skin and claiming them hers.
When the blonde was satisfied she let go of her shirt and moved back to the other side of the kitchen, “I want you to leave,” she flicked her gaze to Callie’s face for a brief second, “I’ve got to get ready for work.”
Callie watched Erica head towards the stairs, “What about us?”
Erica turned to face her again, shaking her head, “What about us Callie...” she let her gaze linger on the younger woman long enough to convey her pain before she turned her back to her and began up the stairs, “Close the door behind you when you leave.”
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Callie had lingered in the doorway of the gallery for the most part of the surgery, not wanting to be seen in case her presence caused the surgeon below to lose her concentration. Eventually when her pounding head and tired legs became too much she’d snuck in and settled into a chair on the back row, right in the far corner so that the blonde wouldn’t see her if she glanced up at the observation deck.
She hadn’t seen Erica at work; the older woman had managed to successfully avoid her the entire day so far, since she’d left the dark-haired woman standing alone in her kitchen earlier that morning. Callie lifted her fingers to rub at her temples; her mind had been mixing a series of memories from last night and echoing the blonde’s harsh words around her head all day.
Callie didn’t know if she wanted to scream and shout or cry her eyes out at what had happened between them, so instead she’d settled for the happy medium of wallowing.
After Erica had vanished up the stairs, Callie had stood rooted to the spot for a good ten minutes, all she could hear was the pounding of her aching heart and the blonde’s final words, ‘What about us Callie...’ in the silence of the house. She wanted nothing more than to follow Erica up the stairs, to grab hold of her arms and shake her. She wanted to scream that she was sorry, that she hadn’t planned it, that she didn’t know why she’d let it happen, but she didn’t, instead she grabbed her bag of clothes and headed out the door, what was the reason in trying to explain something that she just didn’t know the answer to.
“You look like hell Torres,” Callie’s thoughts were interrupted by Mark’s cocky voice as he settled into the seat next to her and gazed down at the surgery, “And so does Hahn for that matter. You two out drinking like fish again?”
Normally his teasing tone and smarmy smile failed to rally her, but on top of the day she was already having, Callie just couldn’t handle it, “Just shut up Mark, okay? Leave it alone, I’m not in the mood.”
She shot him a warning look that let him know that she wasn’t joking and then returned her attention to the surgery taking place below. She watched Erica nod to the resident and the nurses and pull at her gown as she headed towards the scrub room. Callie jumped from her seat without saying another word to Mark and hurried down the steps, rounding the corner and pushing open the door to the room.
Erica looked up as the door swung open and then turned away when she saw Callie step into the room; continuing to scrub at her hands.
“We need to talk.”
Erica stepped off the peddle, and shook her hands to remove the drops of water from them as the tap turned off, “No, we don’t,” she turned to grab a towel and dried her arms, glancing at Callie, “I have patients waiting and I’m sure that Orthopaedics does too Dr Torres, so let’s get back to our jobs shall we?”
Callie shook her head as the blonde stepped to pass her and moved to block her exit, forcing the blonde to meet her eyes, “Oh, so what? We sleep together and all of a sudden I’m Dr Torres to you now?”
Erica stepped forward and clamped her hand over the dark-haired woman’s mouth, stopping her from saying more, “For God’s sake Callie!” she removed her hand and shook her head, “What if someone heard you?”
Callie’s expression softened and she lifted her fingers to her lips briefly before looking sadly at the blonde, “That’s the first time today that you’ve touched me,” she saw Erica avert her gaze and took a step towards her, forcing the blue eyes back to her face, “Actually, it’s the first time today that you’ve even looked at me properly.”
Erica pursed her lips together sadly, her eyes never leaving the younger woman’s. Just as she opened her mouth to reply the door swung open and Lexie Grey appeared, “Oh sorry, I’m interrupting something... it’s just I need you now Dr Torres,” she gave Erica an apologetic smile and waited for Callie to follow her.
Callie paused at the doorway and opened her mouth once before closing it again; she gave the blonde a sad half smile and disappeared after the young intern.
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Mark grabbed a tray and pushed past the interns and residents in the line to grab his food, stealing an apple from O’Malley’s tray as he passed. He caught a glimpse of Derek and decided to go and sit with him. He glanced over at Callie and Erica’s usual table and found the dark-haired woman sitting by herself, aimlessly stabbing at her food, while her eyes stayed trained to a table across the room; a table which he noticed seated one Erica Hahn.
He looked back and forth between them, unsure that he was really seeing this weird occurrence. The two women always sat together, even if one of them was having a terrible day and bitching nonstop about it to the other. He’d never seen them not sit together at lunch; it was their thing, their Callie and Erica, best friend, everyday thing.
Mark watched Callie pull her phone from her pocket, her fingers working rapidly across the keypad, before she lifted her eyes back to the blonde. Turning his head so that he wouldn’t miss the response, he caught sight of Erica lifting her phone from its place on the table, skimming over the message, before placing it back down, her eyes not looking over at Callie once.
He changed his direction and headed towards the dark-haired woman. She’d been in a bitchy mood all morning and now with the weird Erica lunch fiasco, he was really curious to know what exactly was going on between them.
As he reached the table, Callie scraped her chair back with enough force that the metal legs made a loud screeching noise against the floor, causing everyone to look over at her. She watched Erica for a few seconds longer, and when she noted that the older woman was completely unfazed by the noise, she shoved past Mark and disappeared back into the busy hallways of the hospital.
Within a few seconds of Callie’s departure, Mark was sliding into the seat opposite Erica, and grinning at her like an idiot, “And here I was thinking that you two looked like hell because of alcohol,” he paused to regard Erica when a look of surprise covered her face for a brief second, before she hid it behind her Dr Hahn death stare, “What the hell is going on between you two? You’ve been best friends for like two years, you always sit together at lunch; you’re practically inseparable.”
Erica stared at his with disgust, merely annoyed by his presence in her life, “We’re not inseparable Sloan.”
“Sure you are,” he flashed her another annoyingly smug grin “You’re like damn Siamese twins, spending all your free together, it’s like your joined together somehow. So did you have a fight or what?”
Erica looked away, staring off at some spot in the distance as her mind flooded with flashes of vivid memories from the night before.
She growled as Callie bit at her bottom lip again, whimpering in response at the pleasure that soared through her body. Pearly teeth nipped a pathway across her jaw, stopping to nibble at her earlobe before trailing molten kisses down her neck.
Her head fell back against the wall as Callie dipped her head and took one of her awaiting taut peaks into her mouth, suckling the bud between her lush, full lips, bathing it with strokes of her tongue.
Her body was humming in delight as Callie nipped her way down the sensitive skin of her stomach, stopping only to swirl her tongue around her navel before feathering kisses along both of her thighs and looking up at her with devilishly dark eyes.
Callie’s name was escaping her lips as her skilled tongue flicked continuously over her throbbing clit; her long fingers thrusting inside of her.
Her hot breath was panting against her ear as her deft fingers thrummed away inside her once again; her body shuddering against her own as they came together, screaming their satisfaction.
Erica snapped her eyes back to Mark, and pushed her chair back; standing abruptly from the table, “Mind your own damn business Sloan! And stay the hell out of mine,” she squared her shoulders and moved briskly through the cafeteria.
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Callie opened the door to her apartment, shrugged out of her jacket, letting it fall to the floor before throwing herself down on the couch. She was so glad that Cristina was working late tonight; all she wanted to do was try and relax, try to get the burning tension to leave her aching body.
She’d gone straight to the Attending’s locker room when she’d finished her shift, hanging her lab coat and stethoscope into her locker and plonking herself down on the bench. Erica’s locker was shut, her lock carefully added in place meaning that the blonde had already headed home.
They hadn’t spoken another word to each other the entire day, Erica had disappeared into the nearest room as soon as she caught sight of Callie coming towards her, and the dark-haired woman was too tired to keep chasing her. She didn’t know what to say to change anything between them; she’d tried sending a text to the older woman only to have her attempts completely ignored; after their fight this morning she just didn’t have anything else left to give.
Callie picked up the remote and flicked on the TV, she flipped through the channels until a movie caught her eyes, it was one of her many cheesy favourites, and she was immediately propelled into thoughts of one of the random times Erica had been over at the apartment watching movies with her.
Callie slid back against the arm of the couch, letting her legs drape further into Erica’s lap; the blonde was unconsciously rubbing her fingers against the ball of her feet; she loved the way they were so relaxed around each other, especially when she got foot rubs after a long day of standing in surgery.
She flipped through the channels on TV and smiled at Erica when the beginning credits started, “Erica we have to watch this one, X-Men is one of my favourites; you have to see it.”
Erica rolled her eyes, “Really Cal, another superhero film? How many of those have you made me sit through so far?”
“Oh come on, you’re my best friend, you have to watch the movies I like. It’s just the way friendships work,” she smirked teasingly.
“Friendships in general? Or is it just ours where a blonde haired woman always does what the dark-haired one says because she doesn’t really have a choice?”
Callie feigned hurt, “You have choice, I totally let you chose what we watch and what we do,” the blonde raised an eyebrow in question, “Well sometimes at least.”
Erica chuckled, “Sure Cal, we’re on totally equal bases.”
Callie sat up and grabbed the blonde’s hand, a serious expression covering her features, “We are on equal bases, right? Because I don’t want to be one of those friends who’s completely self obsessed.”
Erica grabbed Callie’s hand in her own and smiled gently, “We’re totally on equal bases Torres. You pick the movie and I...” she grabbed a cushion from behind her head and whacked the younger woman playfully, “Kick your ass in the pillow fight for making me watch the movie,” she jumped up when Callie reached for her and whacked her playfully again, “It’s totally 50-50 in our friendship,” she bopped the dark-haired woman on the head and took off running.
Callie jumped off the couch, grabbed a cushion and took off after the blonde, laughing at how the mature Dr Hahn fell away when they were together and left the real Erica behind. She swung her cushion and hit Erica in the back.
The blonde turned around with a scandalised look on her face, “You did not just hit me,” Callie wiggled her eyes and broke out into a fit of giggle, before shaking her ass at the blonde and running off again, “You’re dead Torres!”
Callie looked back at the screen, and realised she’d missed the start of that same movie for a second time. She bit at her bottom lip and grabbed her phone out of her purse, finding the blonde’s number and hitting the dial button. She waited through the chorus of rings until the phone went through to voicemail, leaving her best friend one more final attempt to repair their friendship for that night, and if that didn’t work, then tomorrow... well she’d just have to try all over again.
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Erica pulled the device away from her ear and slid her phone shut, Callie’s voicemail lingering in her ears as she stood in the doorway of bedroom, looking at the mess they’d left behind, ‘If you see my best friend can you tell her to call me? Because I need to talk to her about what happened last night. I miss her already.’
The blonde stepped further into her room, staring at her bed, her mind conjuring images of another time Callie had been in her bed, only a few days previous.
Erica shuffled under the covers, moving for the umpteenth time since they’d gotten into the bed twenty minutes ago.
“Do you want to tell me what’s on your mind or are you just going to keep fidgeting?”
Erica smiled at the sound of Callie’s sleepy voice and turned on her side to face her, forcing her eyes to fight through the darkness and focus on Callie’s face, “You don’t think we're really like Grey and Yang do you?"
Callie let out a laugh as she opened her eyes to find Erica’s, “You’re not seriously still thinking about what Derek said at lunch are you?” The blonde shuffled again, moving to turn away but Callie reached out to stop her, “No, I don’t really think we’re very much like them. I mean we actually hang out and have fun, those two just get together to whine about Derek and how you’re keeping Cristina out of your surgeries.”
Erica chuckled and then smirked, “I guess you’re right. We really don’t whine, or mope about like those two do,” she moved to lay flat on her back, “Night Cal.”
Callie snuggled closer to the blonde, stealing some of her heat, “Night Crist- I mean Erica,” Callie let out a laugh when a pillow hit her lightly on the arm.
“You are so sleeping in the guest room next time you stay over Torres."
Callie snuggled back into her position and lazily slung her over Erica’s stomach, "Whatever Hahn, just admit it, you like having me in your bed.”
Erica chuckled at Callie’s teasing tone and smiled when she felt the younger woman’s smile fill the room, “Go to sleep Torres, before your ego outgrows mine.”
The images before her disappeared and left her alone with her empty bed, the rumpled sheets a painful reminder of what had taken place only two nights after the one she’d just remembered. Erica moved out of the room, unable to be in there any longer, slamming the door behind her in hopes that it would keep the damage contained.
Erica moved into the kitchen, her mind spinning with images of her and Callie. She clamped her eyes shut and let herself slide down against one of the kitchen cabinets, the waterfall of tears she’d been holding in all day, flooding over her eyelids as the pain and hurt consumed her.
In life, there are some things, that you can’t deceive no matter how hard you try; eventually the truth always comes out, whether you’re ready for it to or not.