A/N: My first Grey's fic. I felt compelled to write it and here is chapter 1. If you would be so kind as to drop me a line and let me know what you think, it would be greatly appreciated.
We all expect things. There is this built in urge to want things to happen or go a certain way. We wake up every day and once that cloud of sleep is gone from our minds we get up and start processing what we want and what we need the day to give us. That is where the trouble starts because sometimes you are given things you don't want. You are given things that smash those expectations right back where they came from. So we deal with our nonreturnable gifts and we move to tomorrow with even greater hope because yesterday must have been a fluke and the universe must owe us something, right? We tell ourselves that no one can have this much bad luck and if something good would just happen we will be so thankful that we decide that the smashing thing won't be such a big deal. It all balances out in the end. That is the theory and sometimes it proves positive.
Calliope Torres had expectations of this day. She was going to make it a good one. Nothing was going to touch her. She was finally back were she belonged and with the added bonus of having acquired the position that she deserved. She blessed that piece of inspiration that had guided her when she needed it most during her confrontation with the Chief. She had let her gut lead the way and now all of the stress she had put on preparing for that moment seemed a little overboard. Maybe Arizona was right once in awhile, she thought with a smile. She had been smiling a lot since that certain Peds surgeon had walked into the bathroom at Joe's and given her her second and best girl kissing experience.
She strode through the doors of Seattle Grace with her bag over one shoulder and a grin on her face. Things were going right for once and she wasn't going to let that slip away. She had a shiny, shiny future that she was finally in a position to fully embrace. Sure there had been tragedy recently. The loss of her ex-husband George and her temporary relocation to Mercy West. The toll these events might have taken was greatly lessened by the support she'd had from Arizona. Her girlfriend seemed to instinctively know just how to explain things and how to move around Callie's emotions while making her feel nothing but honest affection and support. She felt lighter and extremely happy now that she had Arizona. Everything was set to go, she had settled the status of her relationship, she was feeling a little better about George, and she had come through the beginnings of the merger in good shape.
She stopped in the lobby for a moment to take it all in. It was amazing how much you missed about a place when you saw it day after day. Now that she was actually looking around there were things that she had never noticed or had forgotten about. The place looked a million times bigger than it had before. That was a good thing. All the more to reconquer. She felt like an explorer returning home to reassert herself in the land that she had lost. She strode on through the lobby and around the corner to the bank of elevators that was home to a significant amount of the socialization that went on inside these walls.
The medical profession as a whole was one that forced it's professionals to spend much of their time together. This phenomenon was a tried and trusted fact that was supported by hours and hours of mingling in on call rooms, cafeterias and nurse's stations alike. Callie didn't have long to think on socialization because the "ding" that sounded indicated that she was about to be subjected to that weird elevator etiquette where two passengers both faced forward and ignored each other... unless you were somehow acquainted with whomever was getting on. It was human awkwardness at its finest.
She waited patiently for the doors to open and she looked down as she remembered that night Arizona caught up to her in the elevator and had healed that wound that had been ripped in her pride by asking her to dinner after she had initially rejected Callie's original invitation. The smile that tinged her face at thought of the surprise that she had felt and that fuzziness in her stomach that was caused by those blue eyes and that assured smile. As she reveled in one of the best recent memories she had made the doors slid completely wide open and the new passenger stood ready to board.
Moments ticked by and when Callie registered no movement from the person standing opposite her outside the elevator her gaze rose to meet another. Brown eyes gazed into blue and Callie's heart pounded into over drive. Her breathing quickened and the world turned a little upside down. Those were not the eyes she had been fondly remembering and that was definitely not a smile. Those were the eyes and the hard set lips of Dr. Erica Hahn. Just like that Callie's expectations for the day crashed down around her.