The Accident:
Callie is recovering after Erica left, her life is becoming the focal point of too many people at SGMW. During a much required and long overdue day-off, Callie has an accident - and may find happiness in the process...
A/N: No copy write infringement intended. Merely for pleasure of writing.
Ch 1:
The last few weeks of work had been really hard for Callie, especially because she had noticed how people kept watching her all the time, obviously making sure that she didn't screw up. At first she had been too wrapped up in her own self pity to really notice much of anything other than the bones that she had regularly felt under her hands. Life outside of patient rooms and the OR had become non-existent, she had lived in those rare surgical moments rather than through them, like the rest of her moments that she was forced to endure. It was only a few days ago that she had noticed the stares, actually really noticed them. It had started when Bailey was looking over her shoulder the whole way through a consult, nurses double and triple checking her orders, then the last straw was Shepherd watching an entire day's worth of surgeries from the gallery. It wouldn't have been strange if they had all been really amazing rock-star surgeries, but they were actually eighteen hours worth of the most mundane surgeries that there were out there. They were all due to old people being old; there were no car accidents, and skydiving's gone wrong, no plane crashes or daredevil stunts, nothing. The day she had noticed this was the day that she had finally decided to leave the hospital and spend the night at home and that too, had ended up rather tragically.
Christina being the ever considerate roommate had made sure that Callie's absence wasn't missed. When Callie reached the apartment door she knew that there was a chance that it may look slightly dishevelled and messy, but upon opening the door she gasped in shock and disgust. She had seen bomb sites that looked better than the apartment! Her eyes moved from the upturned couch, with medical books lying around it like a fort to the television still blaring, broadcasting the latest music that MTV had to offer. The coffee table seemed to be in the same condition as the couch, literally upside down with journals, books and rather rancid looking food scattered on and around it. Callie couldn't bear to imaging what Christina's first apartment had looked like before she had moved in with Burke. Clothes were draped over every surface imaginable, the upturned couch and coffee table, the end tables, the television, lamps, the floor, everywhere. She followed the trail of clothing into the kitchen where her stomach turned upon the sight that she faced. Every single dish and piece of cutlery that they owned was piled into the sink with moulding food still adorning them. The bin was full to over-flowing from the take out containers that Christina had obviously started living off of in Callie's absence. Paper plates and cups were strewn across the breakfast bar with clothes, a sneaker that looked to be Owens, and about six empty bottles of Tequila. The only surface that seemed to be free of food, tequila bottles and clothing was the dining room table, where it looked like Christina had been keeping her research notes.
Callie took one last look at her revolting home and stepped over countless objects until she made her way into her room, the only placed left untouched. She knew that she wouldn't be able to relax completely in sight of what she had discovered today, and the chaos outside of her room, so she put her bag down, changed into grey slacks and a purple top and headed into what would be a whole afternoon of cleaning and organising. After eight solid hours, a whole bottle of washing liquid, two bottles of cleaning agent, fourteen bin bags, three boxes of recyclables – most of which were tequila bottles and plenty of swearing Callie found herself drifting off to sleep on the couch which was now the right way 'round and exactly where it should be.
"What the hell!" Callie heard the door burst open and Christina's outcry of shock before Christina noticed her. "Owen we've been robbed!"
"By whom, the cleaning fairy?" Callie sarcastically retorted, causing Christina to finally notice her.
"How am I supposed to know where all my shit is now? You messed up everything!" Christina whined as she threw her bag onto the floor and made her way to the fridge. Upon noticing its lack of contents she turned on Callie again, "Where's all the food, and the tequila?"
"I've just spent the last eight hours cleaning your shit and putting it in your room. I haven't had time to go shopping for food!" Callie shouted vehemently at Christina who was now sitting on the kitchen counter sulking. "I'm surprised that they hadn't turned this place into a bio control hazard. It was gross Christina, even for you!" Callie turned on her heels and walked back into her room. She knew that after the physical workout of cleaning up she would fall into a deep slumber within moments of her head touching her pillow.
She awoke the next morning in a good mood, probably the best mood since that day. She knew without having to look outside that the skies were blue and that the sun was shining. It was hard to place where her good mood was coming from, probably from an entire night's worth of uninterrupted sleep, or from the fact that it was finally her own bed that she was sleeping in, but she didn't care. She sang in the shower whilst washing her hair, hummed whilst making herself breakfast, in the clean kitchen, and danced whilst washing up afterwards, and all this before she had even smelled her morning coffee being brewed.