It was a Friday afternoon at the hospital, and Callie was studying a chart at the nurses station, when her best friend, and pseudo-brother walked up.

"Callie, this is Ashton, my niece. She lives with me now," Mark said, pushing his niece forward a bit.

"Right," Callie said laughing, "you're caring for a child now."

"My parents died eight months ago, so, yeah, I live with Mark now," the girl, Ashton, stuck out her hand to Callie.

Callie immediately stopped laughing. "Oh, I..uh, I'm sorry for your loss," she said returning the handshake, "and nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," the girl said, pursing her lips into a clearly, fake smile.

"So, I have to go help Callie on a case. You can do whatever, eat, sleep, chill. If you need me, ask a doctor. The nurses might..they..uh, might not be happy to help me out, by helping you out. Just stick to asking doctors, okay?" Mark finished awkwardly.

"Okay, see you later," Ashton responded.

"You have a teenager living with you?! You could have told me instead of letting me make fun a kid who just lost her parents!" Callie hissed at Mark, as they walked to her consult.

"Sorry, must've slipped my mind."

Callie stopped, "It slipped his mind, just slipped right out. Yeah, this is why you shouldn't be raising a child!" Callie jogged a few steps to catch up to her friend, "So, how long has she been living with you?"

"Well, her parents died eight months ago, as you so gracefully discovered, and she's been living with me for 2 weeks, the custody agreement took forever. Her dad was one of my best friends in high school and after, so she's not actually my niece, but I was who he requested be in charge if anything happened. I mean it was me or foster care."

"So pretty much two of the same options," Callie muttered under her breath.

"Hey, play nice, tiger. She goes to school about two blocks away, so she'll be coming here everyday after school. Yes," Mark said when Callie opened her mouth, ready to speak, "I've cleared it with the chief. He said as long as she doesn't get in anybody's way, she can stay."

Callie nodded, "So your best friend, huh? Are you okay?"

"One of my best friends, and, yeah, I'm over it," Mark said nonchalantly. Callie could tell he was lying, but she could also tell he didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't push him.

"How's she doing?" Callie inquired instead.

"She's good. She's strong, doesn't show very much emotion. I don't know, if that's good or bad though...," Mark trailed off.

Callie shrugged, "I couldn't tell you, but I guess if she doesn't hate you that's a good start, right?"

"Yeah."

Ashton finished her homework within three hours, and decided to look around. She had found the cafeteria and the on-call rooms in the hospital, when she stumbled upon Callie, in a patient's room. The raven-haired women didn't notice her and continued on with her patient. Ashton stood transfixed, as she watched Callie calmly pop a man's dislocated shoulder back into place.

When Callie turned to leave the room, she saw Ashton watching her, amazed. She was about to invite the girl to come on her rounds with her, but when the girl realized Callie was looking at her, she turned and quickly walked away.

An hour later, Callie was looking at charts at the nurses station, when she saw Ashton on a computer in the research lab. She quietly walked up behind the girl, and realized she was researching dislocated shoulders.

"You know, you could've just asked me about them," Callie said.

Ashton jumped a bit, "What..uh, I..umm, could've asked you about..about what?" She had quickly minimized the window she had open.

"About shoulders, why didn't you just ask?," Callie questioned, giving the girl a look that said she had seen the website Ashton had been looking at.

"I, I..umm..I don't know. I don't really know you. Like at all," Ashton responded rudely, trying to seem aloof, despite her legitimate curiousity.

Callie saw right through the young girls tactic. "Are you done with your homework?" When Ashton nodded, she continued, "Come do rounds with me." The girl hesitated, "Come on, it'll be fun," Callie assured her. Finally, Ashton stood up, and slowly followed behind Callie as she completed her rounds.

For the next few days, Ashton came to the hospital after school, and followed Callie on her rounds. It became routine, but the girl never spoke. She just observed from the back, observed from the gallery, and observed the X-rays.

Callie was having lunch with Mark, when she decided to ask about it. "She doesn't talk."

"What? Who?" Mark said, clearly confused.

"Ashton. She's been doing rounds with me for about a week now, and she's spoken like fifteen words to me in total. And like eight of them were ums," Callie responded.

"She doesn't open up easily. It took me about three years of comig by once a week before she started actually talking to me," Mark stopped for a second, thoughtful. "And that was when she was fourteen. Now she's two years older, and she just lost her parents."

"Huh," Callie frowned. "But people always talk to me."

"Not this one. She's a tough nut to crack. But she likes you, she keeps coming home and asking me complicated ortho questions. I keep telling her to ask you, but she just kind of shrugs and shuts up."

Callie sighed, "So I guess I'll just keep working on her."