Casualties of War 1/1
Casualties of War 1/1
Title: Casualties of War
Pairings: Mark/Callie
Rating: R, for language
Author's Notes: Spoilers for previous episodes.
Disclaimer: All characters, events, settings and situations mentioned in this work are sole property of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for profit, in constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context and are not intended to be defamatory or factual in anyway.
Summary: Callie is one grumpy lady. And Mark is stuck in a car with her for hours. Words are exchanged. And a can of worms is opened. It's war.
Author's Notes 2: Whoever figures out where this quote is from, gets bonus points.
For Megan
***************
"Anybody can blow anybody away, any second.
Which is the way it ought to be. Always."
********************
The tuning arrow is pushed yet again. He sighs in frustration, his grip on the steering wheel so tight, the leather is starting to creak.
Her jaw clenches and slowly, she tilts her head from where she's slightly hunched over, changing the radio station, "WHAT." She snaps.
"NOTHING." He snaps back.
They've at this for hours. Barely exchanging words since she reluctantly dragged her suitcase from their apartment building to his car, refusing to let him help her in spite of her struggle. It started with him "insulting" her car. He called it a tin can and refused to drive the four hours in it to Owen's newly purchased cabin, way, way out of the city. In actuality, it started with Arizona backing away from all the promises practically spewing from her never closing mouth once news of the pregnancy broke through. The blonde has this way of not giving Callie straight answer that just gets under his skin. But anyway, it's made this woman carrying his child a living nightmare. She's grumpy and snapping at everyone and everything, throwing snide comments at every chance. It's really grating on his nerves.
Having given up on finding a decent radio station, she picks up a couple of CD's sitting in the glove compartment. She scans them two or three times, slamming case after case underneath the last, simply for the sound they make when they clash against one another.
"Want to stop doing that?" He mumbles through gritted teeth.
She looks over at him and glares briefly before rolling her eyes and throwing the discs back where she found them, slamming the compartment shut, "You have shitty taste in music anyway."
"Shut up, Torres."
"Excuse me??"
"SHUT. UP." He says sharply, "Do you need me to spell it out for you?"
"You don't tell me to shut up..."
"I can tell you whatever the hell I want..."
"You think you own everyone, you want to boss me around like a little kid? I'm not Lexie..."
"That's for sure..." He laughs bitterly.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It just means--" he starts calmly, "--that you can stop being a bitch any time now."
"Fuck you." She mumbles before crossing her arms over her chest, "You're an asshole."
Without warning, he swerves off the side of the road, stopping the car so quickly, Callie has to grab onto the armrest to keep from flying forward.
She turns sharply, short locks of hair following her motions, "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU??"
"FIRST OF ALL!" He starts warningly, finger up to get her to shut up, "I am not the asshole! I am not Arizona! I'm here, remember?! She's the one who wants out, so if you have something to say to her, say it to HER! Why are you waiting around for her?! What are you expecting to get from her that she won't take back a year from now? WHAT, CALLIE! This is pathetic! SHE left YOU! She left you crying in the middle of an airport! Don't you remember that?? Remember how stupid and ridiculous you felt standing there while she went off and followed her huge, gigantic ego??? PATHETIC! WE DON'T DO THIS! WE DON'T TAKE SHIT FROM PEOPLE, SO STOP THIS AND STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!"
She doesn't miss a beat before replying with an equal level of animosity, "Oh, you want to talk about pathetic? How about you pining over a girl sixteen years younger than you are. By the time she's ready to have a child, you will be well on your way to sixty. Even more pathetic? Your constant, OBSESSIVE, tendency to want what Shepherd wants or what he says you can't have. He has Addison, so you decide you want her, he has Grey, so you want her. But you're trying to have the self control you should have had twenty years ago, so you stop. But then he tells you can't have the other Grey, so of COURSE you want her. That's not love, that's infatuation. With DEREK. What you need is a therapist..." She finishes with a tight smirk, nostrils flaring in anger and agitation.
"DO YOU REALLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS, DOORMAT???"
Her jaw drops and there's nothing to say. her eyes pool with tears threatening to fall and she blames it on the baby as she struggles with her seatbelt, and to unlock the car door before stepping out onto the snowy road.
The baby. He remembers their baby. She's pregnant and somewhere in between the shouting, he had forgotten. And now it's snowing. Blind spot no matter where you look SNOWING, and she's out there, upset, probably crying. Because of him. "SHIT." That's one thing he can never be okay with. Making her cry. It makes him feel like road kill.
He clicks his seatbelt undone and it snaps against his thumb, "FUCK." He hisses, pushing the door open with more force than necessary, "Callie! It's freezing, what are you doing?!"
She's walking, is what she's doing. Walking away at a very rapid pace and so he sprints to catch up to her, "Callie, what the hell do you think you're doing? Do you even know where you are?"
"I don't care, I just want to get away from you!" She yells over her shoulder, tucking her hands into her coat pockets with a shiver, a halo of snow flakes crowning her hair now.
Finally caught up with her, steps in her way and grips her shoulders.
"Don't touch me!"
His hands go up, "Fine! Get back in the car!"
"No!"
"Callie--" He starts, wanting to yell again, but closing his eyes instead to take a deep breath, "--Callie, I'm sorry about what I said. Just please get in the car."
"NO."
"YOU'RE PREGNANT! GET IN THE CAR!
"Let me explain something to you!" She yells as she steps forward, only inches from his face, "I am NOT your WIFE. I am NOT your GIRLFRIEND. Do not EVER talk to me like that again."
"That kid is half mine--"
"Maybe it's not." She turns to stomp off but gasps when he grabs her waist and holds her back before picking her up over his shoulder, "Mark!"
"I don't have time for this." He growls, holding her at the knees, tightly to stop the kicking, "You want to act like a five year old, I'll treat you like one."
His feet sink into the snow and he grunts as he readjusts her, "You owe me new shoes!"
"I owe you shit, Sloan! Put me down!"
As is his luck, a towing truck is approaching and much to his dismay, slowing down. He starts to think his car is being towed because the universe has decided to hate him today. Thankfully though, he spots another car as the truck seems to slow down when it nears them. Mark stops when the truck does and tries his best to smile as if strolling down the road with a voluptuous, rioting woman on his shoulder is just a thing people do.
"You guys need a ride or something?" A kid around nineteen or twenty calls after rolling down the window, looking Mark over suspiciously as Callie continues to curse up a storm.
"No." Mark smiles politely, "Thank you. Me and the little lady just having a little misunderstanding. You know how it is." He winks smugly.
Hearing this, and infuriated, Callie tries to twist and turn to face the stranger in the truck, "I don't know this man." She lies unsuccessfully, "He's trying to rape me."
Mark laughs then, patting her behind with a moderate level of force. Enough to say 'that's not funny, shut the fuck up'. "Honey...such a kidder."
"Well...do you need a ride somewhere? I saw a car down the road. Is that yours?" The young man asks, obviously high as a kite.
"No." Mark replies, "Really, we're okay. Thank you though."
"Alright. I'll be driving by a couple of more times before ten if you change your mind."
"Great. Thanks."
He waits for the truck to move again before resuming to walk in silence, Callie finally defeated and hung limply. Once they reach the car, he releases her quickly, causing her to lose balance. She stumbles for a second and glares at the back of his head.
"Get in the car." He says sternly, then turns on second thought, "Do you think that was funny back there?"
"Oh, please, like he really believed you were going to rape me. Did you see his eyes? He thought he was driving through Oz."
"Not that!" He pauses for a moment, his breathing ragged, "--what you--what you said about the baby. Don't ever say that to me again."
She feels badly for a about a second. A very short second before she raises her chin and asks defiantly, "Why? What the hell do you care? I'm sure Lexie is ready and willing to give you ten, adorable, nervous all the time, babies..."
"Okay that's enough!" He yells, stepping back around the car, "You want to do this? Let's this NOW. You obviously have something you want to say to me too, so say it."
"Shut up.."
"Don't get dismissive, just say it..."
"I have nothing to say."
"What is it? You don't like Lexie? Are you jealous because I have someone and you're not sure you do? What?"
"I HATE HER OKAY!" She screams at him, her voice echoing in the seemingly empty woods surrounding them, "I hate Lexie, is that what you wanted to hear?! You're mine! This is OUR baby! Not hers! I'm the mom and you're the dad! SHE'S NOTHING. I. CAN'T. STAND.HER. She's TAKING you from me!!" She realizes when she's done screaming, first, that her throat hurts, then that she sounds like a crazy person and her gaze averts immediately, too embarrassed to take it back.
He remains silent for a moment, somehow feeling a little warmth through all the shouting. He says quietly, although still a little pissed, "Well, I've always hated Arizona. I can't stand her. She's annoying and talks like a child and she treats you like shit. And SHE'S nothing. She took YOU from me. You would have been gone if she wouldn't have changed her mind. If she would have stayed gone, my life would be perfect because I would have my best friend, and a child, and Lexie."
She rolls her eyes and turns her back on him, "There you go again with that. I'm so fucking tired of hearing her name..."
"How do you think I feel!"
"I hate you." She says softly.
"What?"
"I hate you."
He sighs, squeezing the ridge of his nose in between cold fingertips, "No you don't."
Teeth chattering again, nose numb in the freezing weather, she turns sharply and literally stomps her foot into crunchy snow, "Don't tell me I don't! I hate you!"
"Fine, Callie, get in the car--"
"And there was nothing wrong with MY car." She sneers, eyeing his with distaste before kicking the front, right tire, "I hate your car."
Mark watches in seething amusement, hand covering his mouth, keeping himself from saying anything else as she kicks the tire again, then the bumper. It's not the fact that she's throwing a fit that's amusing him, but that they've said so much to each other in the past twenty minutes and she's still got some fight in her. Hands up in defeat, he starts walking back towards the driver's side, "You wear yourself out, just get in when you're done."
Just as he turns his back on her, she leans over, picks up a handful of dirty snow and tosses it at his head.
He reaches out and touches the icy substance. Noticing the black dirt on his palm, he whips his head around and asks demandingly, "Did you just throw mud at my head?!"
"I hope it was deer shit." She throws back, pouting her way into the car and making sure to slam the door shut.
He glares up at the sky, wondering what he did to be sucked into limbo with the worst side of Callie he's ever seen. Snowflakes fall against his face, seemingly melting on contact. This seems to ease his tension, of only enough to tolerate sitting next to her for the remaining distance to their destination.
However, as soon as he shuts his door, she's quickly wiping away bitter tears and the feeling of self hatred comes back again. His heart instantly melts for her and exhales heavily, "Callie, I'm sorry. Okay? I don't want to fight with you anymore. I'm sorry."
She shrugs.
"Callie--why ARE we fighting? What's going on with you?" He waits and gets no answer, "If I had to choose anyone in the world to have my baby with, it would be you."
"Lexie--"
"NO. YOU." He shifts and turns his body so that he's fully facing her, "The ideal situation would be you in love with me, me in love with you. But we're not in love." And other pause as she stares out the window. He gulps audibly, scanning her profile, recently cut hair falling beautifully against her skin, "Are we?"
There's so much silence now, it's deafening. She keeps licking her lips, trying not to deny or accept or cry. Tears would give her away too quickly. Meanwhile, he can't stop glancing up at her. He wonders when exactly he started waiting on Callie to love him. As she wipes a stray tear from her cheek, he realizes he's been waiting since they met.
"Callie, we have to go. We can't stay here--sitting--doing nothing--"
"Okay." She sniffles, "Let's go..."
"No. I mean, us."
She stops, eyes glued to the dashboard now.
"We say it's nothing. It's just a sex thing and--we do this thing where we almost get there but we don't so we end it. And then we start up again and it never gets us anywhere. Now we're here, we're having a baby together and this blow out isn't about anything else but you and me. This could be something." He taps his hand against the steering wheel, "Callie, say something, please--"
"I don't know what to say." She replies honestly, her voice small. "I don't know. Maybe we're not supposed to be together and we keep pushing it and now I'm pregnant and we've royally fucked up."
"You don't mean that."
Shaking her head, her hand falls on her abdomen, "No, I really don't."
"So...what should we do?"
"What do you want to do?" She looks at him then, their eyes locking before she reaches over to touch his cheek.
She hesitates in leaning in, wondering if this will be the end to all ends and the biggest mistake of their lives. But he silences any doubt in her head as he presses his lips to hers. Softly, lingering--sweetly--as he cradles her neck, gliding his thumb over a tender spot behind her ear. She shivers as they pull apart, but remain close, eyes shut to keep from having to say anything for as long as possible.
"I can't not do this for the rest of my life, I can tell you that."
"What?" She asks in a whisper.
"Kiss you."
She sighs and opens her eyes as she pulls back. "How do we do this?"
"We do this when you want to do this." He says before kissing her cheek, "No rush. You and the baby are what's important right now. We'll deal with everything else later."
"Okay. Soon, though."
"Soon." He nods, moving his hand to the ignition, "We should get going. You okay?"
"Yeah." She nods with a smile.
The engine roars quietly to a start, he switches to Drive, but as he steps on the pedal, the tires move but the car doesn't. After a few more tries, he shuts the engine off, waits a minute, looks over at Callie and it isn't long before they're both bent over laughing.
"Do we--" He tries to speak against his chuckles, "--do we wait for Puff the magic dragon to drive by again?"
She throws her head back and laughs her heart out, "Jesus, this is ridiculous..."
She settles against his shoulder, and for a while he toys with her fingers, which are entwined with his, while they bask in a more comfortable silence.
"Do you think we can just name it Mighty Oak Sloan?"
She giggles, "Absolutely not."
end.
Title: Casualties of War
Pairings: Mark/Callie
Rating: R, for language
Author's Notes: Spoilers for previous episodes.
Disclaimer: All characters, events, settings and situations mentioned in this work are sole property of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for profit, in constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context and are not intended to be defamatory or factual in anyway.
Summary: Callie is one grumpy lady. And Mark is stuck in a car with her for hours. Words are exchanged. And a can of worms is opened. It's war.
Author's Notes 2: Whoever figures out where this quote is from, gets bonus points.
For Megan
***************
"Anybody can blow anybody away, any second.
Which is the way it ought to be. Always."
********************
The tuning arrow is pushed yet again. He sighs in frustration, his grip on the steering wheel so tight, the leather is starting to creak.
Her jaw clenches and slowly, she tilts her head from where she's slightly hunched over, changing the radio station, "WHAT." She snaps.
"NOTHING." He snaps back.
They've at this for hours. Barely exchanging words since she reluctantly dragged her suitcase from their apartment building to his car, refusing to let him help her in spite of her struggle. It started with him "insulting" her car. He called it a tin can and refused to drive the four hours in it to Owen's newly purchased cabin, way, way out of the city. In actuality, it started with Arizona backing away from all the promises practically spewing from her never closing mouth once news of the pregnancy broke through. The blonde has this way of not giving Callie straight answer that just gets under his skin. But anyway, it's made this woman carrying his child a living nightmare. She's grumpy and snapping at everyone and everything, throwing snide comments at every chance. It's really grating on his nerves.
Having given up on finding a decent radio station, she picks up a couple of CD's sitting in the glove compartment. She scans them two or three times, slamming case after case underneath the last, simply for the sound they make when they clash against one another.
"Want to stop doing that?" He mumbles through gritted teeth.
She looks over at him and glares briefly before rolling her eyes and throwing the discs back where she found them, slamming the compartment shut, "You have shitty taste in music anyway."
"Shut up, Torres."
"Excuse me??"
"SHUT. UP." He says sharply, "Do you need me to spell it out for you?"
"You don't tell me to shut up..."
"I can tell you whatever the hell I want..."
"You think you own everyone, you want to boss me around like a little kid? I'm not Lexie..."
"That's for sure..." He laughs bitterly.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It just means--" he starts calmly, "--that you can stop being a bitch any time now."
"Fuck you." She mumbles before crossing her arms over her chest, "You're an asshole."
Without warning, he swerves off the side of the road, stopping the car so quickly, Callie has to grab onto the armrest to keep from flying forward.
She turns sharply, short locks of hair following her motions, "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU??"
"FIRST OF ALL!" He starts warningly, finger up to get her to shut up, "I am not the asshole! I am not Arizona! I'm here, remember?! She's the one who wants out, so if you have something to say to her, say it to HER! Why are you waiting around for her?! What are you expecting to get from her that she won't take back a year from now? WHAT, CALLIE! This is pathetic! SHE left YOU! She left you crying in the middle of an airport! Don't you remember that?? Remember how stupid and ridiculous you felt standing there while she went off and followed her huge, gigantic ego??? PATHETIC! WE DON'T DO THIS! WE DON'T TAKE SHIT FROM PEOPLE, SO STOP THIS AND STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!"
She doesn't miss a beat before replying with an equal level of animosity, "Oh, you want to talk about pathetic? How about you pining over a girl sixteen years younger than you are. By the time she's ready to have a child, you will be well on your way to sixty. Even more pathetic? Your constant, OBSESSIVE, tendency to want what Shepherd wants or what he says you can't have. He has Addison, so you decide you want her, he has Grey, so you want her. But you're trying to have the self control you should have had twenty years ago, so you stop. But then he tells you can't have the other Grey, so of COURSE you want her. That's not love, that's infatuation. With DEREK. What you need is a therapist..." She finishes with a tight smirk, nostrils flaring in anger and agitation.
"DO YOU REALLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS, DOORMAT???"
Her jaw drops and there's nothing to say. her eyes pool with tears threatening to fall and she blames it on the baby as she struggles with her seatbelt, and to unlock the car door before stepping out onto the snowy road.
The baby. He remembers their baby. She's pregnant and somewhere in between the shouting, he had forgotten. And now it's snowing. Blind spot no matter where you look SNOWING, and she's out there, upset, probably crying. Because of him. "SHIT." That's one thing he can never be okay with. Making her cry. It makes him feel like road kill.
He clicks his seatbelt undone and it snaps against his thumb, "FUCK." He hisses, pushing the door open with more force than necessary, "Callie! It's freezing, what are you doing?!"
She's walking, is what she's doing. Walking away at a very rapid pace and so he sprints to catch up to her, "Callie, what the hell do you think you're doing? Do you even know where you are?"
"I don't care, I just want to get away from you!" She yells over her shoulder, tucking her hands into her coat pockets with a shiver, a halo of snow flakes crowning her hair now.
Finally caught up with her, steps in her way and grips her shoulders.
"Don't touch me!"
His hands go up, "Fine! Get back in the car!"
"No!"
"Callie--" He starts, wanting to yell again, but closing his eyes instead to take a deep breath, "--Callie, I'm sorry about what I said. Just please get in the car."
"NO."
"YOU'RE PREGNANT! GET IN THE CAR!
"Let me explain something to you!" She yells as she steps forward, only inches from his face, "I am NOT your WIFE. I am NOT your GIRLFRIEND. Do not EVER talk to me like that again."
"That kid is half mine--"
"Maybe it's not." She turns to stomp off but gasps when he grabs her waist and holds her back before picking her up over his shoulder, "Mark!"
"I don't have time for this." He growls, holding her at the knees, tightly to stop the kicking, "You want to act like a five year old, I'll treat you like one."
His feet sink into the snow and he grunts as he readjusts her, "You owe me new shoes!"
"I owe you shit, Sloan! Put me down!"
As is his luck, a towing truck is approaching and much to his dismay, slowing down. He starts to think his car is being towed because the universe has decided to hate him today. Thankfully though, he spots another car as the truck seems to slow down when it nears them. Mark stops when the truck does and tries his best to smile as if strolling down the road with a voluptuous, rioting woman on his shoulder is just a thing people do.
"You guys need a ride or something?" A kid around nineteen or twenty calls after rolling down the window, looking Mark over suspiciously as Callie continues to curse up a storm.
"No." Mark smiles politely, "Thank you. Me and the little lady just having a little misunderstanding. You know how it is." He winks smugly.
Hearing this, and infuriated, Callie tries to twist and turn to face the stranger in the truck, "I don't know this man." She lies unsuccessfully, "He's trying to rape me."
Mark laughs then, patting her behind with a moderate level of force. Enough to say 'that's not funny, shut the fuck up'. "Honey...such a kidder."
"Well...do you need a ride somewhere? I saw a car down the road. Is that yours?" The young man asks, obviously high as a kite.
"No." Mark replies, "Really, we're okay. Thank you though."
"Alright. I'll be driving by a couple of more times before ten if you change your mind."
"Great. Thanks."
He waits for the truck to move again before resuming to walk in silence, Callie finally defeated and hung limply. Once they reach the car, he releases her quickly, causing her to lose balance. She stumbles for a second and glares at the back of his head.
"Get in the car." He says sternly, then turns on second thought, "Do you think that was funny back there?"
"Oh, please, like he really believed you were going to rape me. Did you see his eyes? He thought he was driving through Oz."
"Not that!" He pauses for a moment, his breathing ragged, "--what you--what you said about the baby. Don't ever say that to me again."
She feels badly for a about a second. A very short second before she raises her chin and asks defiantly, "Why? What the hell do you care? I'm sure Lexie is ready and willing to give you ten, adorable, nervous all the time, babies..."
"Okay that's enough!" He yells, stepping back around the car, "You want to do this? Let's this NOW. You obviously have something you want to say to me too, so say it."
"Shut up.."
"Don't get dismissive, just say it..."
"I have nothing to say."
"What is it? You don't like Lexie? Are you jealous because I have someone and you're not sure you do? What?"
"I HATE HER OKAY!" She screams at him, her voice echoing in the seemingly empty woods surrounding them, "I hate Lexie, is that what you wanted to hear?! You're mine! This is OUR baby! Not hers! I'm the mom and you're the dad! SHE'S NOTHING. I. CAN'T. STAND.HER. She's TAKING you from me!!" She realizes when she's done screaming, first, that her throat hurts, then that she sounds like a crazy person and her gaze averts immediately, too embarrassed to take it back.
He remains silent for a moment, somehow feeling a little warmth through all the shouting. He says quietly, although still a little pissed, "Well, I've always hated Arizona. I can't stand her. She's annoying and talks like a child and she treats you like shit. And SHE'S nothing. She took YOU from me. You would have been gone if she wouldn't have changed her mind. If she would have stayed gone, my life would be perfect because I would have my best friend, and a child, and Lexie."
She rolls her eyes and turns her back on him, "There you go again with that. I'm so fucking tired of hearing her name..."
"How do you think I feel!"
"I hate you." She says softly.
"What?"
"I hate you."
He sighs, squeezing the ridge of his nose in between cold fingertips, "No you don't."
Teeth chattering again, nose numb in the freezing weather, she turns sharply and literally stomps her foot into crunchy snow, "Don't tell me I don't! I hate you!"
"Fine, Callie, get in the car--"
"And there was nothing wrong with MY car." She sneers, eyeing his with distaste before kicking the front, right tire, "I hate your car."
Mark watches in seething amusement, hand covering his mouth, keeping himself from saying anything else as she kicks the tire again, then the bumper. It's not the fact that she's throwing a fit that's amusing him, but that they've said so much to each other in the past twenty minutes and she's still got some fight in her. Hands up in defeat, he starts walking back towards the driver's side, "You wear yourself out, just get in when you're done."
Just as he turns his back on her, she leans over, picks up a handful of dirty snow and tosses it at his head.
He reaches out and touches the icy substance. Noticing the black dirt on his palm, he whips his head around and asks demandingly, "Did you just throw mud at my head?!"
"I hope it was deer shit." She throws back, pouting her way into the car and making sure to slam the door shut.
He glares up at the sky, wondering what he did to be sucked into limbo with the worst side of Callie he's ever seen. Snowflakes fall against his face, seemingly melting on contact. This seems to ease his tension, of only enough to tolerate sitting next to her for the remaining distance to their destination.
However, as soon as he shuts his door, she's quickly wiping away bitter tears and the feeling of self hatred comes back again. His heart instantly melts for her and exhales heavily, "Callie, I'm sorry. Okay? I don't want to fight with you anymore. I'm sorry."
She shrugs.
"Callie--why ARE we fighting? What's going on with you?" He waits and gets no answer, "If I had to choose anyone in the world to have my baby with, it would be you."
"Lexie--"
"NO. YOU." He shifts and turns his body so that he's fully facing her, "The ideal situation would be you in love with me, me in love with you. But we're not in love." And other pause as she stares out the window. He gulps audibly, scanning her profile, recently cut hair falling beautifully against her skin, "Are we?"
There's so much silence now, it's deafening. She keeps licking her lips, trying not to deny or accept or cry. Tears would give her away too quickly. Meanwhile, he can't stop glancing up at her. He wonders when exactly he started waiting on Callie to love him. As she wipes a stray tear from her cheek, he realizes he's been waiting since they met.
"Callie, we have to go. We can't stay here--sitting--doing nothing--"
"Okay." She sniffles, "Let's go..."
"No. I mean, us."
She stops, eyes glued to the dashboard now.
"We say it's nothing. It's just a sex thing and--we do this thing where we almost get there but we don't so we end it. And then we start up again and it never gets us anywhere. Now we're here, we're having a baby together and this blow out isn't about anything else but you and me. This could be something." He taps his hand against the steering wheel, "Callie, say something, please--"
"I don't know what to say." She replies honestly, her voice small. "I don't know. Maybe we're not supposed to be together and we keep pushing it and now I'm pregnant and we've royally fucked up."
"You don't mean that."
Shaking her head, her hand falls on her abdomen, "No, I really don't."
"So...what should we do?"
"What do you want to do?" She looks at him then, their eyes locking before she reaches over to touch his cheek.
She hesitates in leaning in, wondering if this will be the end to all ends and the biggest mistake of their lives. But he silences any doubt in her head as he presses his lips to hers. Softly, lingering--sweetly--as he cradles her neck, gliding his thumb over a tender spot behind her ear. She shivers as they pull apart, but remain close, eyes shut to keep from having to say anything for as long as possible.
"I can't not do this for the rest of my life, I can tell you that."
"What?" She asks in a whisper.
"Kiss you."
She sighs and opens her eyes as she pulls back. "How do we do this?"
"We do this when you want to do this." He says before kissing her cheek, "No rush. You and the baby are what's important right now. We'll deal with everything else later."
"Okay. Soon, though."
"Soon." He nods, moving his hand to the ignition, "We should get going. You okay?"
"Yeah." She nods with a smile.
The engine roars quietly to a start, he switches to Drive, but as he steps on the pedal, the tires move but the car doesn't. After a few more tries, he shuts the engine off, waits a minute, looks over at Callie and it isn't long before they're both bent over laughing.
"Do we--" He tries to speak against his chuckles, "--do we wait for Puff the magic dragon to drive by again?"
She throws her head back and laughs her heart out, "Jesus, this is ridiculous..."
She settles against his shoulder, and for a while he toys with her fingers, which are entwined with his, while they bask in a more comfortable silence.
"Do you think we can just name it Mighty Oak Sloan?"
She giggles, "Absolutely not."
end.