Ten Fingers, Ten Toes
Summary:
Callie, Derek, Owen and Mark in one house together. Derek and Meredith are apart, Owen and Christina are going strong, Mark is … well himself and Callie's divorce is in progress. However something is about to be added to the mix that will change everything.
Chapter One:
Owen hunt walked out of the bathroom zipping up his fly on the way to the kitchen to collect three more beers. He heard Derek and Marks synchronised and enthusiastic cheer and concluded that the Yankees must have hit it home again. Owen grinned as he walked back into the large living room to see Mark pitch a cushion at Derek's head before turning to Owen,
"Now did you put the toilet seat down Owen" He said in the tone of a mother carefully reminding her son of something he had forgotten. The smirk that formed on the plastic surgeons lips however contrasted largely as Owen groaned travelling back up the hall after throwing a beer at each of them. The remaining men laughed as Owen padded back down the passage,
"Yeah the tampons left on the sink are worrying" The men laughed again, reminding themselves that they had welcomingly invited Callie Torres to move into what she called the ultimate bachelor pad. In fact the first time she had visited the place and Derek had questioned her why she was inspecting the ceiling she had responded that she was looking for where the retractable strip pole had been installed.
It had been Derek who had initially proposed the idea after witnessing the horrible catastrophe that was George and Callie's divorce in Meredith's kitchen. He had been the one to run out the door after Callie and take her keys from her knowing there was no way she could safely drive but also knowing that there was no way she was going to stay anywhere near George. He had driven her back to their newly bought place and led her inside knowing she was trying to keep it together for his sake. That all went to waste when they both stepped into the house and Mark turned to Callie before opening his arms and enveloping her in his hold. After that she could no longer keep the tears at bay or the hurtful things that had flowed from George's mouth from her mind. While Mark had guided her to his room Derek had talked it over with Owen after realising she was without a place to stay and they decided that she would be a great housemate and cleared out the spare room even before Mark reappeared informing them she was sound asleep. Being her best friend they weren't concerned about getting Mark's input and like they knew he would he agreed straight away congratulating Derek for a great idea.
It was three weeks later and they didn't regret their decision at all. Having a woman in the house balanced things out a great deal, particularly if the woman was the strong, take no crap Callie Torres and even more if Christina was a regular guest of the house now that her boyfriend and best friend resided there. Plus Callie Torres could cook, and she had treated them to some gourmet home meals that had them drooling after living on beans and pizza for the two weeks beforehand. While they playfully whined about the tampons and having to put the toilet seat down (because Callie had chucked a hissy fit after falling into it one night) they were happy she was living there and they knew she was just as thankful to them for rescuing her from her humiliating, homeless marriage breakdown situation which was still a touchy subject nearly a month later.
Currently Derek, Mark and Owen were lazing around on the couches enjoying one of the very rare days that they all had time off together. Callie and Christina obviously had the same idea as they had left for lunch and shopping around an hour ago and even though they would never ever say it out loud the boys were half relieved when Callie walked out for a day. All three of them had been subject to Callie Torres' temper in the last few days. If either Derek or Owen had doubted it was there or if Mark had for some reason forgotten they'd definitely all been on the other end of it over the last several days. They'd been walking around on eggshells praying her mood would pass soon and that it was just a serious case of PMS but the unopened tampons on the counter that Mark had raided begging to find the cause and put an end to his best friends' frightening moods weren't convincing them. Under the impression that the girls would be out for most of the day the boys had piled the orthopedic surgeons' new and improved rabbit food diet crap to the back of the fridge and piled in the beers for a day in front of the television. Therefore they were quite shocked when they heard the front door opening and suppressed their groans when they heard the clicking of heels on the polished, wooden floors. The boys looked towards the entrance before making one perfectly timed leap towards the table to quickly tidy the chips, beer bottles and pizza boxes strewn all over the table before the girls walked in.
"We're back" ….well she didn't sound angry, annoyed, frustrated, murderous….there was something though,
"Hey, we're in the dining …lounge whatever we're calling it now" Mark hollered back. When they came into view their eyebrows rose with incredulity at the amount of bags in the women's arms and Owen stood up offering to take some of them when Christina pulled it away from him
"I'm good Owen, thanks but we're good" Owen stepped back in surprise as Christina looked to Callie
"Ready?"
"No, but let's go" Callie tried to make her voice normal and appear like nothing unusual was going on but she knew the boys had noticed that something was off. She avoided Mark's eyes knowing that if she met his she would have a million and one questions to answer, questions she weren't ready for yet.
"I can't believe how many we bought" Christina almost laughed,
"Retail shopping ladies" Mark asked only to get a snappy reply from Callie making him frown,
"No, not really!"
"O..k sorry?" Callie rolled her eyes, still avoiding his as Christina added her thoughts to the situation,
"Shut up Sloan, ok lets go" And with that the two women headed down the hall and into the bathroom leaving the boys in silence. Derek turned to the other men, who had bewildered looks on their faces matching his,
"That was….weird."
Christina shut the door sliding the lock into place to ensure there wouldn't be any surprise visitors and followed Callie's movements emptying the bags out onto the bathroom floor. It was a sight, brightly coloured boxes piled on the floor and besides the strangeness and seriousness of the situation Christina began to laugh. It seemed it was contagious as Callie too, began to chuckle until she was outright laughing alongside Christina who had ripped one of the boxes open and handed it to Callie. The older woman stumbled into the toilet and still laughing placed the stick beneath her and started to pee.
"How much do I need to pee" she directed the breathless question interrupted with laughter at her best female friend who laughed back at her,
"How the hell am I supposed to know, you're a doctor"
"Funny I was under the impression you were too…oh I don't know..Chris…ok, ok, ok here!" Christina reached forward and took the stick from her laying it on the sink before handing Callie another.
"How long does this one take?"
"Um…three minutes I think"
Surveying the room again Christina couldn't help but laugh but this time it was more forced this time her eyes kept darting towards the stick sitting on the sink. She knew if she was feeling that nervous she could only imagine how Callie's insides were doing.
There was a loud rapping from the front door causing Derek to stand and answer the front door only to find Meredith, Izzie, Alex and George
staring at him.
"Hey Mer"
"Hi" She returned the greeting, it had been nearly six weeks since their breakup and five since Addison had left Seattle. An awkward silence filled the air before Derek gestured them to come in and the four moved into the room where Owen and Mark still lounged on the couches.
"Is Christina ready?" It was Izzie who spoke up, she was in a light blue dress, looking beautiful as ever and she looked towards Mark who supplied her with an answer,
"I doubt it, check the bathroom"
Meredith moved towards the bathroom and knocked on the door. Several seconds later it was opened a fraction and they heard a surprised Christina exclaim,
"Mer?...Oh hi Meredith right…and iz and.." She poked her head around the side " And Alex and George and ….dinner right dinner ok…Cal I'll be back in a minute okay" She stepped out of the bathroom being careful to close the door and moved into the kitchen. She looked up to see everyone staring at her,
"Hi guy—what!" Christina shoved a tumbler under the tap letting it fill up.
"Are you ready to go?" Meredith surveyed her person who was in jeans and a dark marooney/dark pink top that looked nice on her, but a bit casual for dinner.
"Yes, I will be in all of three seconds just wait a minute and I'll be back just…sit or something"
"Chris our reservation is in thirty minutes" George dramatically stated before going back to peering down the hall obviously trying to get a glance at Callie,
"I know and I will be ready….as soon as I get dressed ok..just…wait a minute alright?" Alex raised an eyebrow recalling the last hour he had spent waiting for Meredith and Izzie to get 'dressed' and almost groaned pulling out a kitchen chair and making himself at home. He wasn't really fussed if they were late he had no need to go to some posh restaurant and waste his hard earned money. Mark passed the bowl of chips towards him and Alex grinned. The two had become friends after Alex had spent nearly three weeks on ortho rotation meaning he had been with Callie a lot…and where Callie was Mark was.
Christina surveyed the group becoming increasingly annoyed at their impatience although knowing it wasn't really their fault.
The three attendings looked at the scene in front of them, before Owen turned to Christina taking in her stressed appearance,
"Are you two alright?
"What?" She frowned in confusion
"You and Callie is everything okay?
"Oh yeah" She turned to the hall, before swiveling back around
"Wait no, I need more water" A frazzled Christina hastily filled the glass of water and quickly moved back up the hallway into the bathroom. Callie still sat on the toilet, she wasn't laughing anymore.
"Ok, ok here"
"Are you freaking out too?" Christina looked down at her,
"Um yeah…..they're here for dinner by the way, have you looked at these ..oooo squiqqly line that's good hey!"
"oh gosh Chris I forgot you have to go, and I looked at a couple but… and …good..is it.. are you sure?" Callie looked up hopefully,
"Oh no..no no no no that's bad ok…."
After numerous tests later and even Christina being forced to try one, Callie spoke again,
"Oh my god that's like how many?"
"um lots, Cal …I think you're –"
"No, shhhh no talking"
"Yeah I'm sure they're all wrong, all horrible brands that are wrong" The sarcasm in the budding cardiac surgeons' voice was noted. It was meant as a joke but the horror in Callie's eyes effectively shut Christina up
"Yes..yes that's it they're wrong all really wrong right?" Christina just watched her friend looking at her in desperation,
Callie put her head in her hands knowing it was stupid to deny it anymore before looking back up,
"You should go"
"No it's okay Cal, I can"
"No Chris really, you've done enough for me today…and …I really don't want them to suspect anything" Christina nodded and reached out to pull Callie up,
"Ok …yeah are you sure?"
"Yeah, go have fun , come back later!" The plea in Callie's voice made Christina smile,
"Yeah I will, I'll get them to drop me back here afterwards, alright? Call me if you need me"
"I will Thanks Chris seriously" Christina ran quickly out of the room into Owen's bedroom getting dressed in a matter of minutes. Pleasantly surprising Alex Karev.
Five minutes later Callie had just shut the door after reassuring Christina again that she would not hesitate to call her if she needed.
"Callie?" In response to her best friend, she shook her head and slowly walked back towards the bathroom.
"Cal?" Owen tried this time, getting no response. Callie shut the door and moved to the far wall and slid to the ground taking in the room. There were boxes everywhere, folded out sheets of instructions and a pregnancy tests all confirming the same thing. She started to laugh at the chaos of the room, her stomach ached with laughter and her eyes stung with tears.
"Callie?" it was Mark again and she shook her head as he pushed the door open,
"Cal" Derek spoke this time, and she was still laughing.
The door was pushed wide open and the guys stood there peering into the bathroom
"Callie, what is this?"
"Oh …nothing we just…we took a few tests"
"Cal are you?" She ignored the question from Mark, laughing
"Look how many tests we took you should have seen us in the shop…oh my god" Laughing suddenly turned into sobbing Mark moved into the room pushing bodes out of the way before crouching down in front of her. Owen picked up a test and then another and another seeing that they were all positive. He looked up when Derek spoke,
"this one's negative"
"Christina took one" She looked at Owen offering him an explanation,
"we wanted to prove they were wrong…or I did" Mark collected her in his arms,
"Oh my God Mark …what am I going to do?"
"George's right?" he asked, and then quickly amended his question when she glared at him,
"Only checking" Her face crumpled again.
"No …I can't ..Mark I can't do this, I can't"
"Yes you can" His voice was sure, with no room for question.
"You can Callie, You can" He gripped her tighter as she slumped into his arms.
Thank you for reading guys, would love to hear what you think! :D