What I Come Home To
Today had been a long day. One of those days where you wake up late and don't stop running until your head hits the pillow at the end of the day. I sat on a bench in the attendings lounge and changed out of my dirty scrubs, I quickly glanced over at the pictures of Calliope and I plastered across my cubby. My favorite was the one that Lexie snapped at Mark's birthday party. Callie had leaned in to surprise me with a kiss right as Lexie snapped the picture. I couldn't wait to get home since I knew she would be there waiting for me. Home, I guess by home I mean the apartment she shares with Christina. But that is my home now. I smile to myself as I get up and start walking over to the apartment, thinking about how my home with Calliope will one day be.
I stopped in front of her apartment and dug around in my bag for keys. I heard a commotion inside but I just assumed it was the usual, Mark and Callie arguing over some reality TV show or Christina dancing it out. But as I swung open the door I felt the sudden rush of being pulled down.
"Babe get down... they'll shoot you and count it as a kill for their team" Callie whispered as she pulled me behind a wall of couch cushions.
"umm..wha..ha..ha. whats going on Calliope?" I asked once I got my bearings. I see her crouched down behind the make-shift couch-cushion wall wearing a long sleeve black shirt and black leggings that cling to her body perfectly. She's got what looks like a Nerf gun held up in her hand and there were more surrounding us. Her face is immersed so intensely in whatever fight seemed to be happening around us.
"HA! You got roller girl, Owen gets to come back in" came a yell from the other side of the apartment.
"Ugh fine" Callie yelled back as she hands me two smaller looking Nerf guns. "We're against Christina and Meredith and now Owen is back in too. Mark is on our team. Just shoot the other people now and don't get shot." She says in a rush as she ninja rolls over behind the kitchen counter.
I look down at the toy guns in my hand and realize that there's no point in questioning what's happening. I throw my bag and jacket over to the couch as I slide behind it to get a clearer view of the transformed living room. Owen is lying on his back with the Nerf gun to his chest underneath the table and Mark seems to be taking shelter behind the door of Callie's room. Meredith and Christina are sitting together on the other side of the couch. Christina is explaining to Meredith, for what looks like the 12th time, how to load the gun and they seem to be unaware of my presence. I decide to make a dive for it as I jump across the space between couches and fire off three shots as I dive. I don't need to look up to see that all those shots hit someone because I can hear the aggravated grunt coming from Christina and I can see Meredith get up to grab more tequila.
"Hell yeah! That's my girl" Callie shouts enthusiastically from behind the kitchen counter. I can't help but flash her a mega-watt smile as our eyes meet. She throws me a quick but beautiful smile back before ducking below the counter to avoid Owen's bullets.
I see Mark starting to crawl out of the door towards Owen and I can see that he's trying to distract him. Owen only turns over for a moment as Mark makes more noise but that second is long enough for me to fire two shots, one of which hits Owen directly in the back of the head.
"Dammit! We get Rollergirl next time" Christina yells with a stomp of her foot as I stand up and walk to the middle of the living room to see the carnage. All the couches have no cushions and a few tables are over turned to make barriers. I'm pretty sure there are 20 Nerf guns laying around the living room, and I really hope that they don't ALL belong to Calliope.
"Nice job Blondie!" Mark says with a high five "Where did that come from?"
"My dad was intensely into the Army stuff. He gave my brother every one of these guns that he could buy and made him practice. Unfortunately he only had me to practice on so I learned a few things about Nerf guns back in my day" I said, laughing at the memory. There had been many days of fighting between Danny and I.
"Good shot Arizona! I didn't expect that at all" Owen said with friendly pat on the back.
"Okay let's go again" Christina said. Everyone else (especially Meredith) groaned at the suggestion.
"I've gotta go take a shower and treat these floor burns" said Mark as he walked in obvious pain out the door "See ya"
"Yeah Derek probably needs me home or whatever" Meredith said as she grabbed the tequila bottle and shuffled out the door.
"Wait! I'm coming with the Tequila" Christina yelled as she followed Meredith out the door.
"I guess I'm gonna go home and shower now. She you guys tomorrow at the hospital. Good game!" Owen said as he walked out the door.
"Wow we sure know how to clear a room don't we!" I said as I looked over at Callie. She was wearing the grin that I have come to learn means I wont be sleeping much tonight. She walks over to me slowly and takes the gun I'm still holding out of my hand and puts it on the cushion-less couch. She takes my face into her hands and plants a passionate kiss hard onto my lips. Her tongue runs along my bottom lip begging for entrance and I let it in as our tongues begin the usual fight for control. But there is something new in her kiss. A fire that's different from the usual passion. As oxygen becomes an issue I pull away and lay my forehead against her, watching her chest rise and fall in that tight shirt she's wearing.
"That was hot" she whispers huskily into my ear as she begins a trail now my neck to the collar of my shirt. "Our kids will never be able to beat you" she continues and my heart stops. We'd never discussed kids before. I mean I know I want to spend the rest of my life with her and I do want to have a mini-Calliope running around our backyard but it had never really been said out loud. I sense her stiffen at the words and I realize, in true Callie fashion, she's spoken without thinking again.
"I uhhhh..I mean..umm sorry" she stutters as she turns away pretending to clean up the disaster that is our living room.
"Calliope, look at me" I say as I turn her head to look deep into her beautiful brown eyes. "I'm sure one day they'll be able to beat me" I say simply, knowing that she didn't need a huge speech right now because her features suddenly flooded with relief.
"So…you were saying that was hot?" I continue, trying to get her to go back to what she was doing before. She quickly picks up the hint and walks over to me placing another immensely passionate kiss on my lips. We stumbled into the bedroom, tripping over foam bullets and plastic guns. That night I got a new appreciation for Nerf gun fights. Multiple times.