Part of her wanted to leave, just bail, right then and there. So she already rang the doorbell, big deal. She could still leave… but the other part of her had to ask. They had to move on with their lives and that meant taking the next step; which was officially ending their marriage. No more strings attached. She impatiently rang the doorbell again, praying anyone but she would answer the door. And then…
"Callie! Hi, what are you doing here?"
Crap. It was her, Izzie.. the one person she did not want to see. "I need to see George." Callie let herself in the door forcing Izzie to move back. "Is he in his room?"
"Um, yeah." Callie nodded and started to go towards the stairs but Izzie stopped her. "Where you going? George sleeps in here now… Alex is in his hold room."
"Oh. Okay, thanks." Callie walked toward the closed office door and Izzie, being her nosy self, went into the living room across the hall; which was close enough to hear them talk but far away enough to not make it seem so obvious.
She knocked on the door, "George? It's me… I need to talk to you."
"Come on in." She heard from the other side. Callie closed the door behind her knowing well that Izzie would probably try to ease drop. He didn't even have to know that it was her walking in the room, he could smell her shampoo a mile away. One thing he realized when they were married is when you live with a person, you tend to learn their little rituals, smells, eating habits etc. Even though it wasn't the first time George had a roomate, Callie wasn't just a roomate, she was his person. And living in a hotel room, well, there isn't many places one could be alone. It was only natural to learn all the amazing things no one else knew about her. He felt special knowing those things.
When she walked in the room she was surprised to see him laying on the floor inside a sleeping bag. You would think with him living there before Meredith would at least give him a cot or something, but a sleeping bag?!
George was playing his Gameboy, which she knew meant he had a hard day because he only plays it when he's stressed out. (One of the things she learned about him after they started living together) "Hey… I, ah, didn't realize you didn't have your old room back. I didn't even think about it with Alex living here now."
"Yeah well, I won't be living in a sleeping bag much longer. Lexie and I are ganna be roommates, find an apartment together." George couldn't help but notice how amazing Callie looked. Even after everything that happened between them, he could not deny that every single time she walked in the room, he looked twice. And every single time he had to remind himself that he had no right to look anymore that way at her anymore. But once he realized he was lookin again,he tried to save himself, "I heard you are living with Cristina now."
"Yeah, she was looking for a roommate and I needed a new place so…"
"Cool. I guess it was a good thing that we didn't buy a place of our own together. Would have been pointless."
"I know, we really don't own anything together…" At that moment, they both realized they never thought about it before. On cue, they had the same shocked expression- it was kind of sad. They were married but didn't own a house, or a car, or even a TV together.
Callie broke the silence and said, "Anyway, that's kinda the reason why I'm here." She took a deep breath, looked at George, who was still in his sleeping bag, and noticed he was closely listening to what she was saying. What the hell, she mustered up the courage to go there, might as well stay for the ride, "I was wondering if you filed for a divorce yet."
He wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth that's for sure! He must have had a surprised look on his face because she quickly went on saying "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. It's just when your mom came back to the hospital with baby clothes, she made me realize that we are technically still married. And I didn't file for divorce papers yet so I was wondering if you did." Damn it. Why did she feel bad? Why was she getting this sharp pain in her stomach? Why was he so damn cute, laying there on the floor? How was it that he still had this affect on her? If she wasn't there to legally end their marriage, she would so be in that sleeping bag by now with him; holding him and making whatever happened to him earlier that day go away… "Snap out of it Callie, he doesn't love you, he loves that blonde bitch across the hall who destroyed, hell humiliated you! He cheated on you, he doesn't deserve you!"
When she came back to reality she noticed he was staring at her. George knew this conversation would have to happen someday, but he didn't know how horrible he would feel. He too could see the discomfort this was making her; all he really wanted to do was hold her, tell her it would be ok and the feeling will pass. She didn't deserve this… she was a wonderful, gorgeous, caring woman who deserves better; better than a cowardly, cheating man who failed his internship. So even though she was hot, and had the hots for him, George had no choice but to let her go. If he wanted to end their relationship the right way, he had to just let her go and move on. "Uh, no. I didn't file for a divorce. I didn't even think to. I'm surprised your dad isn't all over it. He probably think I did marry you only for your money."
"What? No, he doesn't. Actually, I- uh, didn't tell my parents that we broke up." George didn't expect that to come out of her mouth either. He knew she wasn't exactly tight with her parents, but that's because they were so strict with her growing up. She had to break free and move across the country for them to realize she needed to learn life on her own. They loved her dearly, spoiled her roten as a child, and would do anything to protect her, and she knew all of this... but she also knew that she had to do something with her life. She wanted to prove to them that she could become someone, something in this world. And that she did- Callie became one of the few top orthopeadic surgeons in the country. She couldn't bare the thought of disappointing her parents by telling them her and George were already over. She would hear the never ending "I told you so mija- there was something about that George O'Malley that did not sit well with us. He is no bueno!" Yet even though he was no bueno, as much as she would like to forget it all, she still loved him.
"Oh, so that's why I'm still alive… I was wondering why your dad hadn't come here to hurt me!"
"My dad wouldn't hurt you… he seems tougher than he is. He has to put up a front like that; otherwise people would walk all over him."
"That's not what he told me."
"What are you talking about?!" Callie thought George gave a pretty good impression when her dad came to meet him. Her mom even called her the next day to say she couldn't wait to plan their wedding party and meet her groom. They trusted she picked a good, caring man who would bare their future nietos.
"He said that if I ever hurt you, he would return the favor."
"When?"
"When he came here to meet me…"
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Um, because I was scared…" They realized what they were talking about and both laughed. It seemed like some of their pain that was filling up the room was replaced with forgiveness.
"Okay, well I guess I better tell my parents. I'm sure my dad will contact our lawyer and I'll get the divorce papers going."
"Yeah, ok. Just let me know if you need help with any of it. I don't know exactly how this is supposed to work so."
"That makes two of us!"
"Right, sorry."
"Well, I should go. I'll let you get back to your game. I know you probably had a bad day and I didn't mean to make it worse by coming here about this so…"
George smiled and replied quickly, "You could never make by day worse. Only better."
She blushed a little after he said that, not enough to turn her cheeks darker, but he could tell she was blushing. That made him feel- well, better honestly. He didn't think he could ever make her smile again let alone blush. She gave him that ridiculously cute smile of hers in return and headed out of the office. He did not know why, but he felt the need to go after her. The front door creaked open; it was now or never, literally. George quickly yelled her name and tried to get up from the floor, but his foot slipped on the silky sleeping bag and he fell back onto the floor, hard. His shoulder took the fall and Callie heard a loud thud and ran back into the office.
"George! Are you ok? Can you get up?" Izzie heard him fall too and ran into the room to see what happened.
"I'm okay… but I think my shoulder popped out of it's socket." Callie knelt down and checked out his arm.
"Izzie, can you get him some ice please?" Izzie nodded and ran into the kitchen. " George hold still, let me see... Crap, it's the same shoulder too from last time you popped it out."
"From when I fell down the stairs? How'd you know?"
"I was your doctor before your wife George."
He grunted. "Right."
"Here, here is a bag of frozen peas!" Izzie held out the bag to Callie who first glared at the peas, then at Izzie, then back at the peas.
"Thanks, but I think we should take you to the hospital George. I could try to set it here but it might not work. And I know you didn't take any pain meds last time, but it will hurt even worse now."
Izzie jumped in saying "I could take him!"
"Thanks Iz, but just let Callie take me. She has to do it anyway, this way you can just stay here and not worry about me." Callie could tell that hurt Izzie, she had this dumbfounded look on her face. Honestly, what George said made Callie feel a little better! She tried to hide her smile but he saw the look on her face and could tell what was going on. Callie helped George stand up, grabbed his coat and her keys and the O'Malley's headed for Seattle Grace.
