The Last Alma Guarda
Highly respected Homicide Detective Calliope Torres of the Seattle Police Department is in the pursuit of the truth. The truth about what really happened to her family 20 years before. The more she uncovers, the more she realizes that the people around her aren't all she thought they were. The deeper she submerges into this new world she soon realizes there is no escaping her calling, what she was born to do and what she must do to survive.
This is an extremely AU multi grey's character story, Callie and Arizona being the main. It is not a straightforward cop story; it's strange, weird and dark. I do not own any Grey's Character and I have no knowledge of the internal running of a police department. Everything in this story is for entertainment purposes only. I have made up places that do not exist in Seattle; again it's all for entertainment and anything relating to anything factual is purely coincidental. I hope you give it a chance and if you do I hope you enjoy. Thank you
Oh and just because I'm a complete geek If this was a movie, the opening song playing would be the bolded lyrics in this chapter. It keeps me amused in my own silly way. (my story has a theme song I am that sad!)
Sins of the Past.
Twenty years before, 18th August 1993...
Grey eyes widened in relief as he finally saw the suspicious car behind them take the last corner. The exit of the car that he'd thought had been tailing him elevated some of his panic, though not all of it. He could sense the fear in his wife as she watched her normally unflustered partner become nervous and on edge. Looking back to his daughter, as she calmly played with her dolls in the rear seat, made him smile. The four year old was completely oblivious to the fear that radiated from her parents.
This was not how it was meant to be. He was not meant to be running for his life, for his family's lives. He had to take the control back. His first priority though, was to get them to safety first. Then he would come back and deal with him in the knowledge that nothing would happen to his family. He was going to end it, even if that meant he didn't make it.
"Carlos! Please can you tell me what the hell you're up to? You're starting to really scare me." Lucia Torres pleaded with her husband through tearing brown eyes.
"I'm sorry Darling. I promise I will tell you everything, once we've gotten Callie from school. Once we are safe...I'll tell you everything." Carlos shakily spoke as he took another glance in the rear view mirror.
"I just want to go home Carlos. You just came to the Courthouse and abducted me from a trial. My client...I couldn't even pass the case over to a colleague. You are acting strange, and then we had to get Aria from the nursery and now Callie. Have you even informed Richard and Adele that you've taken the children?" Lucia was starting to get angry at her husband's behaviour.
"Please just stop!" Lucia was surprised when she heard the tone in her husband's voice; he had never spoken to her like that before. "We can't go home. Not now...not ever." Carlos briefly shut his eyes, the vision of red torn tissue splattered across his memory before he reopened them and concentrated on the road once more.
There was nothing left for them here, except death. He had to get his family to safety.
Chapter 1
Everything hurt. It was dark, wait...was it dark or was it that she couldn't make her eyes open? Lids ached as she tried in vain to move them, never mind get them open. Why did everything feel as though it was burning? No energy and no strength to move. Her brain fought with itself trying to make something move, anything.
She knew she was crying; yet she couldn't even feel the tears rolling down her cheeks as the excruciating pain took over every nerve end. Even the noise from her sobs was pitiful because it was taking too much energy to even try. She could hear her mother's voice taunting her not to be out after dark. The last thing she remembered was leaving the public library and hearing the quiet voice with the lisp behind her right ear. By the time she turned, she giggled at the lack of a presence or big scary monster, cursing her brain for creeping her out. When she returned her vision to the front to walk on, that's when he struck and now here she was.
Open your eyes damn it! With one final push she managed to open her heavy iron clad lids, as she tried to focus on anything in the room. Noises now started to drift into her consciousness. She could hear the chirpy whistling of a merry tune, nothing that she recognised, but she definitely got this happy vibe from it as the blurred form appeared, no more than a foot, from her as he untangled what looked like red straws...no…wires, that were attached to...No way! She saw the row of at least two other forms that she could make out.
Managing to look down her own body toward her toes, she realised why her body felt pain. That's when she began to feel woozy as her head thumped back onto the cold metal table she was lying on. The blurred form made his way over to see what the movement was, loitering menacingly above her. As her eyes tried to focus on the evil smile above her, she began to feel herself get lighter as she started to fade, once more into the darkness.
Emanating from the door frame
Was a hum that grew into a roar
Followed by the light
Followed by the light
Followed by the terrible light
In my life I've never seen
Anything quite like it
And I've been around for years
With the eyes of a bird, me
And the nose of a fox, me
I'm prepared, but I'm scared
It's coming for me
It's coming for me...
Golden Frames by KT Tunstall
The intense heat from the fire scorched her skin. The smell of burning flesh...The screams, the agonising screams echoed around her head.
The thud from a forearm against the window that her head had been resting against violently woke her. Instantly she checked her arms for burns, it had felt so real. Looking through the glass pane, the greying man gave her a shit eating grin. He was happy with himself that he'd caused that reaction. She reigned in her annoyance and looked at the man through a steely stare, her brown eyes showing him exactly how she was going to detach his testicles.
"Did you have a nice nap Sleeping Beauty; we're at the crime scene. I have uniforms canvassing the block. I'm going to go start taking statements from any witnesses. Once you've got your equilibrium back, the ME's already up there." His eyes softened and the playfulness disintegrated as he took the dishevelled and tired form of his partner in. "Are you sure you're ready to be back so soon?"
"I'm fine, just had another nightmare. The joys of this time of year. It's probably the painkillers the Doc has me on, they're messing with my head, I think, but you go. I'll be there in a moment." She gave him a nod in determination and with that he accepted her words and he left her to ready herself. Watching as he walked toward the flashing lights, she brushed her hand through her dark brown hair removing the band she had earlier quickly used to try tame the wavy locks. The back of her skull was now firmly pressed unhindered against the headrest as she sighed. Pulling out her notebook and a pen, she printed the date and time at the top of a fresh page. Sunday August 18th 2013, the time, 10.47 pm. She wrote over the statement at least 3 times creating darker ink and an indent in the page. Taking a moment as she read the date once more, she could remember her dream again. She never was in the car, yet she always remembered it as though she was. Taking a deep breath composing her being, she knew she had to switch off as another body waited. Her breathing exercise was interrupted, as she hadn't notice until the warning sound went off that her partner had left his radio station on.
"Breaking news...Please stay tuned to your News Traffic and Weather station for an update right after this." She stilled for a minute whilst the stupid jingle sounded and turned the volume up slightly, listening intently.
"Weather Officials are confused with the strange behaviour of the elements; today's unprecedented heat wave looks like it is just the beginning of an unstable and unreliable shift in the weather front. Officials are asking you to be extra vigilant and say that the many that are blaming the up and coming full moon are simply pandering to Doomsday fanatic's ridiculous and unfounded claims. The August full moon is often a beautiful sight because of the angle of the Sun and that's what causes the red glow. Weather officials say there is nothing to worry about and that the comments are preposterous. We'll keep you up to date as this progresses. Don't change that dial."
Turning the radio off, she opened the door, swinging her long legs out before standing and taking a deep breath of the night air. It was definitely a hell of a lot colder than it had been earlier. Fixing the rolled up sleeves of her black fitted blazer, she settled the twisted material before ruffling her hair in one more attempt to make herself look presentable and professional. Get your head in the game detective she told herself as she made her foot take the first step.
Always taking the time needed, she tried to detach the caring part of her brain, composing herself was the key. Some of the general public would label her cold, weird, insensitive, but she couldn't afford to be shocked by catastrophe. She needed this time to prepare, just like a surgeon, the burn ward nurses, emergency room attendants, paramedics, fire fighters and cops. The first responders who scrape the still screaming remains from car wrecks, all have to have an off switch. In her head she was yet again finding hers.
She took her time looking at the buildings in the walk up to the alley, crime scene characteristics were always an assortment of chaos and she took the slow pace to calm her thoughts as she drew nearer to the crowd. As she approached the officer at the perimeter tape she smiled at him, he was new because he just stood there ogling her. She could feel his eyes burn into her ass.
"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to step back." She saw that he wasn't even talking to her face, his eyes very blatantly zoned in at the tanned skin that the red button down shirt had allowed to be on view. In this moment she was very glad of her decision to wear the black vest top underneath even though she hated it.
"I'll tell you what, if you can drag your eyes away from my boobs long enough." The officer followed the hand she had put in front of his eye line snapping his attention away from her cleavage; he followed it down to her hips where she cleared her blazer behind her sidearm holster. She tapped her fingers against her shield that was now in clear view attached to her belt. The tapping noise sent a satisfying feeling of authority as the officer straightened rigidly, she watched as the red blush worked up his neck and onto his face as he held up the barrier tape high enough for her to get under it. "Thank you, Officer. Now, how about you watch what's going on down here and I'll watch my own ass from here on?" She smiled smugly at the young officer and then made her way up to the busy Medical Examiner stopping only once to flick her head back around to make sure the officer was looking, she grinned once more when she caught him trying to pretend that he wasn't, his face became redder.
Concentrating once more, notes were added to her little black notepad along the way as she looked around the musk filled darkness. As she examined the scene, she took down every note that entered her head. She would make sense of it later, well she hoped she would. As she approached the body, the air was still filled with the smell of fresh blood, that metallic stench that would linger in her nostrils for days. She stayed well enough back from the ME letting her do her thing, although she got close enough so that she could see enough of the body from her position a few feet away.
She closed her eyes composing herself when she saw lifeless stone eyes that stared up to the sky as though pleading for peace, looking at the body which had obviously lain for a few hours without detection as quite a few flies had already tried to set up home. She watched as the ME crouched beside the corpse and tried to assess the wound, the flies dispersed from the area for seconds before settling once more obstructing her view, resulting in her trying to back hand them again.
A violent death makes visible things that were never meant to be seen. Innards and delicate organs that normally stayed hidden, caged beneath skin and bone could distort human identity. Tonight's victim, however, at first look, her death didn't seem too violent, what a ridiculous thought! Who cared that the death wasn't violent? It still resulted in the fact that this young woman's body now become evidence. She had become a story, the ultimate clue to the workings of the perpetrator.
Homicide Detective Callie Torres of the Seattle Police Department scanned the crowd of already growing gawkers further down the other side of the alley, two entrances, two exits she noted. The faces all began to look the same as every other scene she had been to. The same look of shock, and discomfort of it all…but yet, here they stayed just trying to catch a glimpse of this poor woman's final resting place. Would they have been so inquisitive when the woman was no doubt screaming for her life as she ran through the streets looking for safety? Did anyone of them witness that or are they just here because they heard the sirens? It was Human nature to be inquisitive...when they wanted to be.
Her forced vacation time hadn't helped her mellow her thoughts. A month, everyone, The Chief through to the Captain, even her partner thought it would do her good. Sometime to recuperate. Two weeks healing, two weeks resting...It was complete and utter hell for her. It had just given her head more time to come up with the most ridiculous of scenarios for why it happened.
When the wind picked up, she felt a cold breeze that made her shiver. The pang of pain in her shoulder as the scar itched, just reminded her of her idiocy.
She watched the Medical Examiner as the woman barked orders at a uniform that got too close to her corpse. Meredith Grey was meticulous at her work and hated it when detectives came over and mouthed off while she was concentrating. She was married to Callie's lead detective, and Callie really didn't want to piss her off because then it got back to Shepard, and she didn't need him on her ass a week after she had finally been allowed back onto active duty. Derek was a great guy, but highly protective when it came to his wife.
"Sloan! Is there any sign of CSU yet?" Callie watched as her partner approached after he'd been talking to a female officer at the police line at the other end of the alley. As he sauntered toward her, she rolled her eyes as she watched a cocky grin appear on his face. "Is there anything other than her cell number on that notepad?"
"What...Torres, you have no faith in me, do you?" He said with a pathetic looking pout adorning his scruffy but handsomely sculpted face. "I'll have you know I was doing serious detective work, taking statements. The poor dishwasher who found her when taking out the trash is in a bit of shock. I took a statement, but we'll probably have to go back and speak to him tomorrow once he's calmed down...not much use just now. Oh and it's page two has her number by the way." He raised his brows playfully as Callie shook her head. "CSU will be here shortly, they were on another scene across town. It's a busy Seattle night as always."
Callie sighed, "This weird weather seems to be bringing out the crazy in people." Looking around the scene once more Callie began to take a mental picture. "Nice to see the new CSU lead is taking her job seriously! Anything useful come from the crowd?" Callie looked over toward the group behind the yellow tape. She did a double take, when she spotted the Asian looking woman with long dark curly hair and a stoic expression. By the time her eye's scanned back, the woman was gone. Sloan was drawn to Callie as she let a noise escape, almost what sounded like a strangled laugh.
"What was that Callie, did you see something?" Mark Sloan had been Callie's partner since she was promoted from beat cop three years before. She was the youngest officer to be promoted to detective in the history of the department. After a very brief fling, the two realised they were better off as friends than anything else, they didn't fit. That and Sloan's inability to keep it in his pants. He loved Callie very much, but there was nothing sexual in it anymore, it was more of an older protective brother role that he'd found himself in. He was beside himself when she had been shot, sitting by her bedside night after night. No one else appeared to care.
He watched as his partner looked around carefully. She looked to the sky and closed her eyes as though she was basking in the sun, even though the only illumination came from a barrel fire about 20 ft. up the alley. Sloan looked up in the direction Callie was. "Do you hear that?" Callie spoke quietly to her confused partner.
"Callie. All I can hear are people talking in the distance and the sound of the traffic." Mark looked at Callie again; she looked so at peace, so calm. He knew through years of working with her that you took every feeling Callie had seriously.
"I saw her again Mark. She was in the group down there, I'm sure of it." Callie stated calmly as Mark looked down to the dwindling crowd, scanning trying to find this woman that Callie had now seen. Okay, he'd lost track of how many times she had been at a crime scene. He was kind of worrying for a while that he'd picked up a stalker. Derek had joked with him on numerous occasions that one of these days a pissed off woman was going to come tell him he's a father.
"Mark...Go tell the technicians we have around five minutes to get the tents up, or the CSU team will have nothing to investigate thanks to their pain in the ass boss. The evidence is going to get washed away, there's a storm coming!"
"Oh yay! There's a storm coming? I love storms." The peace that Callie had begun to build started to crumble as she heard the very identifiable chirpy voice; she chastised herself hoping the other woman hadn't heard her pain in the ass comment. "The air's been yucky these past few days; a storm is needed to clear it. Let the city refresh. Don't you just love the smell after a storm?"
"Holy fuck! Robbins...You looooook HOT!" Mark couldn't help his eye's roam over the sexy heel clad blonde as she messily tied her hair up. Callie tried not to react when she felt the delicate hand grip her shoulder as she tried to steady herself when she less than gracefully removed her heels.
"It was my night off. I was on a date!" Callie rolled her eyes at the phrase, hitting the brunette exactly where she had intended it to. "All other CSU members are on a case. So you have me. And well Mark, I heard it was you and I just had to come bask in the aura of manliness that resonates from your sexy man candy body." The blonde smiled sweetly at him. Sloan took in every word of the intended slur on his reputation with a pinch of salt. He didn't care too much what the newbie thought, or he tried to show he didn't care.
"You're just pissy that I never found you attractive enough to try it on with." Mark tried his best to find a suitable retort as he saw Meredith wave them over. "Well now that you've graced us with your presence looks like Meredith's ready for you, Callie, I'll go sort out the preventative measures if your storm develops." Mark turned to face Callie and out of earshot of the blonde he whispered to his partner. "And we both know it's not me she's here to tease, have fun with that!" Mark winked and smiled as he watched the blush run up Callie's neck onto her cheeks. Callie opened her blazer to cover her hand from onlookers as she gave the still laughing man the finger as he walked away chuckling to himself. This was going to be anything but fun, since that night she had tried desperately to avoid her, but it had failed terribly so far.
When Callie felt the hand leave her shoulder, she slowly turned herself around taking in the sight of the undeniably beautiful woman, a long black dinner dress gracefully sitting extenuating every one of those curves. "Anna, you can't examine a crime scene wearing that. It's not Baltimore PD here; Bailey will suspend you without hesitation."
"Well thanks for your concern Torres, but Lexie's just bringing me some overalls" Arizona almost growled "So don't you worry your sexy behind over me." Callie couldn't help but watch as Arizona began to wiggle her hips as she brought her dress up to her waist, that woman has sexy fucking legs. She tied it at the sides creating a mini dress.
Callie smirked when she saw the strap and it poking down from the inside of her thigh. She remembered those thighs very well. Callie's subconscious toyed with her. "Seriously is that a gun or are you just really happy to see me." She watched as Arizona smiled, Callie cursed herself silently as she just couldn't stop herself from flirting with the woman. Arizona never stopped eye contact with her as she unclipped her gun from the now not so hidden holster.
"Okay, you go get started with Grey, and I'll be over in a minute once I've instructed the techs on the sweep. Oh and Calliope, remember, no touchie, till I get there." Arizona beamed a smile towards her. Callie blushed again as she turned away mumbling internally, speaks to me like I'm the newbie! Oh that woman's infuriating and far too up her own ass. Callie hated being called by her full name; Arizona Robbins was the only person brave enough to keep doing it after being told not to.
"Good evening Grey. So what's this poor woman's last story tell us?" Callie looked sadly down at the body; she could see the fear left in those eyes. She made her own visual survey as Meredith filled her in on her findings. Meredith was more about the body; Callie had to take in the surroundings as well. The woman had been discarded like a piece of trash, lying face up on top of a pile of black garbage bags. Now that she was closer, she noted that the not so violent death was violent. She had a ghastly neck wound. What looked like ripped marks on the underside of her face. Scratches on her stomach, her ripped T-shirt allowing a clear view. Crouching down so that she was in line with Meredith as she spoke, allowed Callie to intently follow what Grey was describing as she explained the wounds.
"Unknown Hispanic female, no purse, no identification. Preliminary age range: twenty-two to twenty-five, in my opinion. Severe blunt force trauma to the head and chest. Her jugular suffered extensive damage."
"Scavenger bite marks?" Callie offered, as she looked closer at the wound.
"Yeah, post mortem is my guess at the moment due to lack of blood. I'll know more when I get her back." Callie watched as Meredith paused slightly as though deciding whether or not to disclose her next piece of information. "See the wounds on her hands and forearms?" She indicated the victims open palm that draped awkwardly over her body. "Those...have not been caused by an animal. They possibly look like defensive wounds from an extremely thin weapon. I'm pretty sure if it was an animal attack she would have bite marks on her hands as she tried to protect herself."
After a moment of listening to Meredith talk over some of the smaller defensive wounds, she became aware of someone at her back, looking up quickly she turned and all she saw was wide yellow penetrating eyes, the iris's completely black. Closing her eyes and shaking her head, Callie looked back around as her eyes focused on the woman above her. "Oh, hey Lexie" Meredith spoke as she watched Callie's reaction to seeing her sister. Taking note, she smirked when Callie finally accepted that it was Lexie.
"Are you alright Torres?" Arizona asked as she came up and witnessed the confused features of the brunette. The blonde now draped in oversized overalls came down to the same level her colleagues were at.
"What...uh huh, just...yeah it's been a long day." Callie shook the confusion away, trying to tell herself that she saw nothing.
"Well, you would think Calliope, with all the rest you've had over the past month that you'd be fully revitalized." Arizona smirked as she caught Callie growl. It was just far too much fun teasing for the blonde.
"Ladies, shall we? I know she's dead and not going anywhere, but I would like to make it home to my Husband tonight!" Meredith reined the two women's attention back to the corpse.
"The woman's jugular has been ripped open. I can't identify whether it was made by a weapon, tool or by some other means like an animal...She's lost a lot of blood, the majority of it while she was still alive. I'll know more after the autopsy." Meredith spoke to both women in a cold detached tone as Lexie looked on in the background observing.
"That's strange then, the lack of blood around the body would mean that she has been moved post-mortem and this is not where the attack happened just a dumping ground, but you say that the blood loss was whilst she was still alive, her body does not look as though it's been moved, this is where she fell but...Where is the blood then?" Callie stood up and looked around the scene; the alley was as clean as well an alley could be other than the dumped garbage around them. "There is a small amount of blood on the wall over there Anna." Arizona narrowed her eyes at the name, but nodded and moved over to where Callie had pointed. Lexie and Meredith looked at each other confused as Arizona took a swab from the small drop on the wall, as she looked closer she smiled as it was a very faint partial hand print.
"Lexie, bag this for me and photograph the scene when Dr Grey here allows. That's a hand print; make sure you get a clear shot of that." Arizona's mind quickly went back to the dead female. "Torres, this woman has no bag. I would have a bag?" Arizona stood bringing herself beside Callie as she looked around for any obvious signs of the item, Callie felt the warmth radiate from her, but she continued to look to the sky again.
"Looks like you're about to get your wish Robbins!" Callie didn't even look at Arizona as she moved off further up the alley looking, sensing anything that looked out of place. Arizona looked on confused as Callie made it five steps away from her before the first large drop of rain hit her head. Looking upward, another drop hit her forehead and ran down into her make-up covered eyelid before she whipped her head around in realization at Callie's words "Lexie, PHOTOGRAPHS NOW, YOU TWO!" Arizona shouted over two uniforms as she threw them some gloves and told them to bag every item of garbage around the body. She watched as the rain started falling quicker, soaking everyone. She watched the water run off the body as Meredith and her Assistants loaded it onto the stretcher; she took note at the lack of urgency from Meredith and the lack of the waterproof coroner's bag. That was strange. Her attention was snapped back as she saw that Callie had returned looking pleased with herself holding a purse.
"At least we know who the victim was." Blue gloves held the bag aloft as she wiggled it in celebration. "One Maria Mendes, 24 years old. We have a cell phone, about 100 dollars cash and a few credit and bankcards. So it doesn't look as though it was a mugging gone wrong. The fact that her attire seemed in generally good condition and nothing seemed removed, it doesn't appear to be a sex crime. However, we'll need to wait for Grey to rule out sexual assault." Callie smiled smugly as the rain dripped down her forehead, her shirt underneath her blazer starting to cling to her body uncomfortably.
"How do you do that?" Arizona asked, she'd only been here a couple of weeks, but she had heard that Callie was...Callie was mysterious at times. Then again it was one of the things that had drawn her to her that night, tortured eyes or something.
"What find a purse?" Callie looked at the blonde teasingly as Arizona returned a less than amused look at Callie's deflection. When Callie's cell rang, it was Sloan telling her that the Captain wanted to see her and Robbins in her office. He had been ordered to stay and finish up working the scene.
"Urgh!" Callie hung up as Arizona looked on waiting for Callie to explain why she had suddenly turned into a teenager. "Bailey wants to see us in her office right away. Can you give me a lift, Sloan's my ride and he's to stay here?" Callie asked sheepishly.
"My pleasure Calliope, your chariot awaits." Arizona showed Callie the direction to her car before she told Lexie that she had to go back to the precinct. As the two women walked tentatively toward the black Audi both their brains drifted back to that night before both brains clicked into gear.
Fuck has the Captain found out about what happened?
AN/ My lovely beta is Shinata-Riyoko she's awesome. Thank you to Zoe for just being my girl. Thank you T and Sandi your support has been absorbed, thank you my friends. I wanted to get this out for Halloween, The game changer will be completed soon. Due to health reasons and hospital visits this will be updated as soon as I can.
