First Contact- Chapter 1
Disclaimer: All characters in this fic belong to ABC/Shondaland. No profit intended.
Rating: PG. At least for this chapter.
Pairing: Addison/Erica
Summary: A re-envisioning of that night when Callie and Mark oh so rudely bailed on Addison and Erica.
Personal note: I always wished there had been more interaction between Addison and Erica on that godforsaken show, because in the few scenes they had together I thought they had an interesting chemistry. (Add it to the list of complaints, right?) So I got to thinking...
First Contact
Chapter1
It was human nature to let experience shape you, transform you in some way. Everyone changed, everyone evolved. Everyone, apparently, except Mark Sloan. Addison took a sip of her scotch and shook her head a bit as Mark whisked Callie off to the dance floor, leaving her alone with Dr. Erica Hahn.
She looked toward the cardiothoracic surgeon, not at all surprised to find her baby blues locked on the dance floor and, more specifically, on Callie's gyrating form. Addison took another sip and wondered if the guarded Dr. Hahn realized just how obvious she was being at that moment. Addison turned her own attention to the small dance floor and watched as Callie shimmied up to Mark, her movement the epitome of provocative as she ran her hands up his chest.
Calliope Torres was certainly attractive. No one in their right mind could deny that. She had an exotic air that drew the eye and a blatant sex appeal that kept it. There were no two ways about it, Callie was a sexy woman. Sexy enough that the latent bi-sexual in Addison hinted on too many occasions that she should take the fiesty latina out for a spin. She'd always resisted, though. Not so much because Callie was a good friend, but because Callie was an emotional trainwreck. While Addison was fully cognizant of her own special brand of crazy, anyone who would marry George O'Malley had some deep seated issues that could only be guessed at.
Not that Addison didn't love Callie. She did. She loved her dearly, but the woman had so much growing up yet to do. In that respect, she and Mark were a perfect match and, in her heart of hearts, Addison almost wished they'd hook up together on a more permanent basis. Though both of them were intelligent in their own way, they were both more sensual than sensible. The truth of the matter was, Callie and Mark were two of the most over-sexed people she'd ever known, and she'd known some freaks.
What Addison couldn't figure out, however, was where the woman sitting across from her, quietly sipping her wine, fit into the equation. Erica Hahn seemed too reserved to be hanging around with Torres and Sloan. She seemed too staid, too cerebral. Yet she was here, so apparently she and Torres were friends and, since the woman would not take her eyes off of Callie for a second, Addison was starting to suspect something beyond friendship. Unless of course, she was reading the whole situation incorrectly, something she'd been known to do on too many occasions with less than hilarious consequences. She decided to test the boundries, to see where they were, to see if she was even a little close in her assessment of the other woman. "She's pretty, huh?" She tossed it out there, eyes glued to Dr. Hahn.
"She's beautiful," the woman asserted, eyes never leaving Callie.
Addison raised an eyebrow at that response. The woman was definitely smitten, which was a shame because she knew Callie. She knew what Callie was capable of handling and what Callie wasn't capable of handling. It had been pretty hard to miss the unadulterated panic on Callie's face at the mere mention of a lesbian attraction between herself and the enigmatic Dr. Hahn.
Callie was too emotionally immature to handle the problems associated with the straight aspect of her personal life. There was no way, at least not at this juncture of her life, that she could handle being labelled as gay or even bi-sexual. Not so soon after the sting of O'Malley's betrayal and that all too public humiliation. Callie was still too fragile, still too unsure of herself to handle something as monumental as what Addison assumed would be her first lesbian love affair. Addison didn't know Dr. Hahn at all, but just looking at the way she held herself, the quiet dignity, made her think the woman wouldn't be very accepting of some covert fling. If she was interested in Torres, it was probably for something more substantial, more permanent. Which kind of sucked for her.
Addison would have loved to say that she was surprised when Callie abruptly tugged Mark from the dance floor with an intent that was obvious, only she wasn't. Not in the least. From the moment Callie had pounded back that last tequila shooter and slinked onto the dance floor, Addison had known what the outcome was going to be. She was a touch surprised, though, that neither of them thought to stop back by their table to at least say good-bye before bee-lining for the door. She was flying back to L.A. in the morning, after all.
Now she was awkwardly stuck with Dr. Hahn. At first blush, the woman looked as stoic and unaffected as ever, as if her friends ditching her without a glance didn't bother in the least. If it wasn't for the eyes, Addison would have even believed that was the case. She sipped her scotch and wondered if the good heart doctor knew just how expressive those pretty blue eyes were, because right at that moment they were shining with so much jealousy, so much hurt that Addison couldn't help but feel for her. So, she made an executive decision.
She slammed the remains of her drink then stood. "How about you and I get out of here?"
Hahn blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"
She gathered up her bag. "You and me. How about we go back to my hotel room, order an obscenely overpriced bottle of wine and get to know each other better?"
The surprise on Hahn's face, turned to amusement. "Are you hitting on me, Dr. Montgomery?"
Addison paused in slipping the bag's strap up her arm. Was she? It hadn't occured to her that she might be. Okay, so she'd had a couple of scotch-rocks and, admittedly, whisky always made her a bit slutty, not to mention, it had been entirely too long since she'd had sex.
Dr. Hahn was waiting with the patience of the Sphinx for her answer and Addison took the moment to look at the woman, to indulge her own eyes. The woman was not what passed for traditionally beautiful. There was nothing delicate or soft about Erica Hahn. Her eyes were hard and challenging, her lips drawn in a tight line of daring. Despite the unyielding expression, or perhaps because of it, Addison couldn't deny an attractiveness there. It wasn't the features of Erica Hahn so much as her aura, a heady mixture of raw intelligence and swaggering confidence. The woman radiated a personal power so potent it seemed almost dangerous, yet underneath it all there was a subtle hint of vulnerablity. A lonely queen on her throne. It was a jolt of realization. Addison found Dr. Erica Hahn quite tantalizing. She swung her hair just a bit and slipped the bag's strap all the way onto her shoulder. "I don't know, Dr. Hahn, should I be hitting on you?"
Erica's eyebrows went almost comically high on her forehead. The pink that flushed her face was unmistakeable and entirely more adorable than Addison was certain the woman would have liked to know. A long, elegant finger encircled the rim of her wineglass as Erica cleared her throat. "I'm not gay."
Now that surprised her. Addison would have put money on that one. She hoped she managed to keep the doubt off her face. "Then we have nothing to worry about."
The blonde's lips pursed, eyes speculative as they looked across the table. Decision clearly reached, Erica down her own drink and stood. "Fine. Let's go."