Five Times Mark Sloan Wanted Callie Torres by roadtoforever
“You’re an asshole.”
“Well, I have an ass hole, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am one.”
She rolls her eyes and he grins, taking her hand across the table. “Don’t touch me.”
“You liked it when I touched you last night.”
“Shhh.” She hisses, smacking his hand. “We’re in a public place.”
“And?” He smiles when she wrenches her hand out from underneath his and leans back in her chair. “Callie…”
“It’s Dr. Torres.”
“It wasn’t Dr. Torres last night.”
“Stop.” She stands. “I can’t do this with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m dating someone, sort of, and you…you’re in love with Addison.”
“Oh I am not.”
“I saw the way you looked at her this morning. Smug look or not, you can see it in your eyes. You want that woman more than anything.”
“That’s not true.” He stands and walks around the table, touching her shoulder. “I’ll show you, Callie Torres. She’s not the woman I want.”
§
When she enters the hospital in her bridesmaids dress, he can feel it in his groin. It hugs her curves and it brings out the color of her eyes and he wants to have his way with her in an on call room, but he can’t. She’s still married, and he’s made that mistake once before. He won’t make it again. He’ll wait for her this time, even if it kills him. Their marriage isn’t going to last anyway.
“Hey, Torres.” He smiles, leaning against the nurses’ station. “Isn’t it kind of early for the wedding to already be over?”
“The wedding never happened.” She says softly, running her fingers through her hair. “Dr. Burke - he left.”
“Oh.” He frowns. “Well that’s…too bad.”
“Oh, you don’t care.”
“Who says I don’t care? I feel bad.”
“You didn’t even talk to him.”
“That might be true, but I knew Yang. Sucks to be her today, huh?”
“Yeah,” She rolls her eyes. “Could you be any more insensitive?”
He sighs. “I’m not trying to be insensitive.”
“Well, you’re not trying not to.”
Mark stared. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
She shakes her head. “Just, be nice to people today, okay? “
He smirks. “I’m always nice.”
She rolls her eyes and walks away, and he watches her strut down the hallway, the dress hugging her curves as she walks away.
§
“I HATE HIM.”
“Callie…”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE HE DID THIS TO ME!”
“Cal,” He ducks, covering his head as she chucks a lamp at the wall and it breaks. “You need to take a deep breath.”
“I DON’T WANT TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH. I WANT TO KILL HIM.”
“I know.” He stands up, reaching for her. “Just sit for a second.”
“I DON’T WANT TO SIT.”
“Callie!” He launches at her, grabbing her pacing body by the waist and setting her down on the bed. “I know you’re upset…”
“HE CHEATED.”
“I KNOW!” Mark yells back, and it’s his voice that makes her stop. “I know. And I know it hurts, because I’ve been the one that does the hurting. It’s painful. And you want to kill them. I get it. But you have to calm down.” He runs his fingers through her hair and rests his hand on her shoulder. “If you let them get to you, it’s not going to do any good. You have to let them think you don’t care.”
“Why?” Tears are streaming down her face at this point, and he hands her a box of Kleenex, smiling softly when she leans in to his touch as she blows her nose. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sure it does,” He grins, tilting her chin up. “If they think it doesn’t bother you, it’s just going to make them squirm.”
She laughs softly and buries her head in his shoulder, letting the tears she’s been holding back for hours spill over. As he holds her to him, rubbing her back and letting her cry, he realizes he doesn’t care if what he just told her is true or not. She laughed a little, and smiled at him, and that was all he wanted.
§
It isn’t really that they’re kissing. Sure, it’s kind of hot, the way Callie’s hands are tangling in Erica’s blonde hair, and the way they’re inching closer to each other every second, but that’s not why he wants her so badly.
It’s because she was confident enough to do it. To show the person she was interested in that she’d fallen for them, even if it was against her nature. He watches as Callie pulls away, a smile on her face, and asks Erica if she would like to head to Joe’s, for a drink. They walk away, and when Callie slips her fingers through Erica’s, Mark finally turns and walks away.
He spends the rest of the night alone in his hotel room, nursing a bottle of scotch. He tells himself that they never would have worked; that it was too much about sex and not enough about who they are, but he knows that isn’t true. It’s that he is too much about sex, and he makes a vow to himself, as he finishes the bottle of scotch and heaves it at the wall, watching it break into pieces, that he’ll change for her. He’ll show her that whatever she’s got with Erica isn’t nearly what she’d have with him.
§
He waited three months. He watched as they had a relationship that he didn’t understand, avoiding flirting with her as much as he could, and then watching Callie’s heart break again when Erica found someone else.
“She said I was just experimenting.” Callie sighs, resting her head against the headboard. “Maybe I was.”
“Do you really think that?”
“I don’t know.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “I thought I was in love with her.”
“Maybe you were.”
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “I think I was just hiding from someone else.”
“Who?”
She turns to look at him. “You.”