AN: I had this idea a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth to post it. It's my first AU so please, be patient with me lol It might seem a little confusing at first but I think you guys won't be lost for too long. I really hope you like it, enjoy your reading.

My life has always been this huge mess. Since I was a little girl, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Every detail was planned out in my mind; my profession, the kind of man that I wanted to marry, how many kids I would have, how my family's house would be... I can say I was a dreamer. But when time passed and I got older, I saw that things wouldn't be so easy.

I had always dreamed about being a doctor, the thought of saving people's life had always made my heart beat faster... but I guess I just didn't have enough courage to step for what I wanted and just let my father make the decisions for me.

I'm the younger daughter of 3 kids. My sister Aria lives in Spain with her husband and her little girl, we only see each other during the Holidays; my brother Javier – the oldest – moved out when I was five, he used to call me every Sunday… but after a while his calls became rare until it arrived to the point in which he didn't call at all.

Since I was the only child left, my father made sure I would do anything he wanted me to do. Once I tried mentioning going to Med School and I thought that the man was going to have a heart attack, I've never seen him so angry.

"You're not going to any Med School, Calliope!" I remember his words as if he had said it yesterday. "You're the only one I have left and I won't lose you, you will assume the family business once I retire."

I wanted to say no, scream that I wasn't going to give up on my dream but I didn't want to hurt my dad, he's the only one I have left. My siblings moved out, my mom had died a couple years before... he's the only family I have, besides Mark, of course. Mark is a really close friend, I could say he is the only one that I have... the only real one, one that I know is not interested in being friends because I'm the daughter of the boss, he's my friend because he likes who I am. So yeah, I consider him my family.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that my father's business isn't just any business... it's huge stuff. Hotels... we have hotels all over the country.

I'm responsible for the hotel Mark works in, he's the manager and I'm his boss. We work in Seattle. When I chose to come to Seattle my father hesitated for a bit, he wanted to have me closer but after some fighting he agreed and well, here I am.

Today is another of those rainy days in Seattle, I can hear the water shocking against the window of my office, where I'm sat in my very comfortable chair signing some papers.

"Ms. Torres." Came the voice from the intercom.

"Yes, Melanie."

"Mr. Sloan is here, can I let him in?"

"I already told you he doesn't need to be announced, let him in." I said a little coldly. I'm not usually this mean with my employees, but last week I lost my favorite secretary and this one is replacing her. I know it's not her fault that Colleen lost her job, but every time I hear her voice instead of Colleen's I feel a little bit of anger taking over my body. Colleen already knew how I liked things, she made me feel comfortable... and with this one? I have to start everything all over again.

"Having a tough day, Torres?" Mark said as he entered my office.

"Hey Mark, no, I'm just a little bit stressed… too much work to do and I still have to pick my father up at the airport… what time is it?"

"Well, your father is already here." He said as he sat down in the chair in front of my desk. "I actually just came out from a meeting with him."

"What?" I said surprised as I stood up from my chair. "Are you dumb?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Torres, he's in a meeting with Robert Avery right now he-"

"Robert Avery?" I said cutting him before he could say anything else. "THE Robert Avery… from the Harper Plaza hotels?"

"Yeah, that one." He said not as excited as I was. "Cal, we need to talk."

That was the point where he got me worried. He never called me "Cal", I mean, hardly ever, he only did that when he had something serious to say... something bad serious.

"Mark, is ev-everything okay?" I asked with concern as I sat back down.

"No-yes... no. But it will be… eventually."

"You're getting me worried here... oh my God, don't tell me you got Addison pregnant?" I said as I led my hand to my mouth to hide my shocked expression.

"No, it's not that. Though, it'd be better if that was it." He let out a defeated laugh. "This meeting I had with your father?" I nodded to let him know that I knew what he's talking about. "It wasn't a good thing... he uh...he fired me."

"He did WHAT?!" I yelled, standing up from my chair.

"He called me this morning when he arrived and told me to meet him at his office here. When our meeting started he came in doing small talk which I found weird because your father doesn't make small talk. Then he started talking about how the business is going, which I should tell you, isn't going good, and said they need to start cutting departments and with that they need to fire people, and well, I was the first lucky guy." He said with sarcasm.

"He-he can't do that!" I said heading to my office's door.

"Torres!" He called coming after me and grabbing me by my arm. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to talk to him, he can't fire you, he... he can't do that."

"He's the boss. Mine and yours. He's your father, but also your boss... there's nothing you can do." He said trying to calm me down, but nothing can calm hurricane Callie Torres.

I stayed hidden for too long, took all my father's advice, I did everything he wanted me to do, but there comes a point where we have to stand up for our values and yeah, this is my time. It's my time to stand up for something I want… to stand up for my friend.

"No, Mark... he has to listen to me."

"He's in a meeting... with the Avery guy, you can't just go in!"

"Who said I can't?" That was the last thing I said before making Mark let go of my arm so I could head towards my father's office.

Once I arrived near his office's door his secretary said he was in a meeting but she'd let him know that I was outside waiting for him.

"Don't say anything, and I don't care if he's in a meeting." Was all I said before swinging open the door and getting into his office to meet the shocked expression on his face and on the face of the man who was in the room.

"Calliope..." He said with a smile appearing on his face. "Mija, as much as I love to see you I'm in a very important meeting right now, I'll talk to you as soon as I'm done."

"No!" I said. I could feel my body shake, I was scared... God! I was freaking scared, I had never confronted my father before. "You won't come and talk to me because I'm the one who is going to talk, I don't care if you're in the middle of a meeting, you'll listen to me and you'll listen to me right now"

"Calliope..."

"No, do not Calliope me! How could you do this?" I didn't want to cry but I could feel the tears filling up my eyes. "You fired Mark, how could you do this to him? He's been working here for years, he has always done an awesome job and when you need to cut the department he is the first one you cut? I mean, the second, let's not forget Colleen. Yeah dad, remember Colleen? My secretary who is also a single mother of 3 kids that now no longer knows how she's going to buy food for them because she no longer has a job? How can you do this, dad? How can you..." I couldn't say more. If I wanted to keep the tears away I had to stop talking and take a deep breath.

"Mr. Avery, I think we can meet again another time?" My father asked the man who was listening to everything in the corner of the room.

"Yes Mr. Torres, I guess you have a lot to discuss." He said as he shook my father's hand and started walking towards the door. "It was nice seeing you Calliope, you remind me of my son… you two would be great friends." He told me before leaving the room.

"Take a seat." My father said pointing to the chair next to the one he was sat. "We are not in our best moment, Calliope. This is why Mr. Avery was here-"

"I don't care why he was here; I want you to get Mark back." I cut him off.

"Listen to me, mija. Mr. Avery was here because we are now in a dangerous area, we have to cut departments and it's all a huge mess. Don't think I made the decision of firing Mark in one day. I thought a lot about it, I know how much it would hurt you... I calculated and calculated but there was nothing I could do, this was the only solution. Now, we have 4 hotels with the same manager... it's a hard time, mija... it asks for desperate decisions."

"Why couldn't Mark be this manager? Don't you think he's capable of handling the work?" I asked a little calmer now. 'God, counting to ten really does help.'

"No, of course I don't think like that."

"Then why?"

"Because I need him to do something else for me."

"What? Wait, what?" I asked surprised.

"Your friend has a really big mouth, I thought he would wait a little longer until tell you I had fired him but I was wrong."

"Of course he would tell me, I'm his best friend, I'm like his only family... to whom else would he talk?" How can my dad not know that? I kept asking myself. "But now, tell me, what is this thing you need him for?"

"Like I said before we are in a difficult time, business is not good as it used to be. And we're not the only ones in the rain... it seems like the Avery's are having a hard time... so I called Robert for a meeting, to make him a proposal."

"Proposal?"

"Yeah, I made him a proposal... about merging the companies."

"A merger?" I asked a little shocked. "What good could it bring? It would cause even more people without jobs."

"That's true... but the situation would last only for a while, once we establish the situation we would contract all the personnel back."

"But until then, what would these people do?"

"Well, we could indicate them to other companies... it's not a really clever solution but the best we could do for now."

"And what did Mr. Avery say about it?"

"It seems like they're not at that point yet, but he sounded really interested. He said he was going to think about it and he would call me back."

"Okay but you still didn't tell me… why do you need Mark to do something for you?"

"Oh right... I need him to do some field research."

"Field what?"

"I need him to do some research for me... going to some other hotels, see what they have-"

"Espionage? Really, dad?"

"It's not that. Okay, let me make it simple to understand, I need him to find a way to cut the costs without having many trouble or having to fire much more personnel... I heard he is good with numbers."

"Yes, he is... but-"

"Do you think he'll accept?"

"Well, yeah... he'd be a dork if he didn't."

"Okay, great... I can talk to him later. Are you calmer now?" He asked in a playful tone.

"Yeah..yeah, I'm sorry I just..."

"You stand up for the people you love."

"Yeah..."

"You surprised me today, mija. I've never seen you like this before."

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay. How about I take you and your big mouthed friend for lunch so I can tell him about my plans?"

"That'd be great."

It's been a week since I exploded on my dad. Later that day we had lunch with Mark, who was really relived when he heard about my dad's plans for him... he accepted without hesitation, so now we're all fine.

I'm sitting in my father's office staring at the wall waiting for Robert Avery to arrive. He had called my father the night before saying he had an answer to my father's proposal.

"Are you nervous, mija?" He said as he noticed I could stop tapping my fingers.

"A little, I guess... it's insane, isn't it?" I let out a nervous laugh.

"No, it's not." He said giving me a supportive smile.

"Mr. Torres, Mr. Avery is here."

"Thank you, Mariska. Let him in, please."

Not ten seconds later the man entered the room.

"Good afternoon, Mr. And Ms. Torres." He said.

"It's Callie, please... Ms. Torres was my mom." I said and he just nodded.

"Well, you're both aware of why I'm here today so I guess we can go straight to the point, shall we?"

"Yes, please." My father said pointing to the seat the man was supposed to take.

"I gave your proposal a lot of thought, Mr. Torres. I must admit that business is hard at this point and it asks for some desperate solutions." He said just repeating the words my father said a few days ago. "I think your proposal may be the best option for both of us."

"So you're saying yes?" I said a little anxious.

"Yes, but I have some... requests."

"Okay, what are those?" My father asked.

"Better than a merger I think we should create a new logo. I mean, it would be a merger but I think that "Torres Avery" hotels or something like that wouldn't be the best name, and people –from the business field, I mean – would notice that we're not doing so well and that wouldn't be good for us. You know… the old story about not letting your enemies know about your secrets slash weaknesses?" We just give him an assuring nod. "So I say we should get a new name, as if we kept our own business but also had another one together."

"I think that could work." My father said. "Is that all?"

"Also, I want your daughter to go on a date with my son."

"I'm sorry, what?" I said laughing. "I think I heard wrong."

"No, Callie you heard right... I want you to go on a date with my son."

The man is insane, isn't he? Go on a date with his son?! This is business not a web site where you put in your information in hope that someone likes it and asks you out.

"I'm sorry but...no. I'm not-"

"Calliope..."

"No, dad. No! I'm-I'm not doing it."

"It's just a dinner Ms. Torres... I'm not telling you to marry him."

"I already told you it's Callie!" I snapped at him.

"Mija, calm down..." My father said placing his hands on my shoulder. "It's just dinner, nothing else."

"Dad, are you insane? I can't believe you're asking me to do this... this is business, this isn't about personal stuff. I'm not something you can use for your business."

"So we don't call it a date. We call it a business dinner. He's going to assume the company after me just like you will assume after your father. And since we're merging the companies it's good for you to meet each other, you're going to be working together."

I could feel my cheeks blushing in anger; I couldn't believe this was happening.

"So..." He said looking at me.

"Fine." I answered after thinking about it for a while. Not that I like the idea, I hate the idea but he's right, we're going to work together so I have to get to know him.

"Great, so I think we have a deal." He said turning to my father to shake his hand. He had this huge smile on his face that made me want to punch him.

"Deal." My father answered.

With a last shake of hands he left the room leaving only me and my father.

"Thank you, Calliope." He said placing his hands once again on my shoulder.

"Whatever." I said storming out of his office.

This is so not what I wanted.

AN2: So, Arizona wasn't in this chapter but we're going to "see" her on chapter two, don't worry. So, what do you think? Should I keep posting it? Did you like it? Let me know what you think. See you next chapter! Xo;