Title: Sunrise Complications (Expanded Version)
Author: DianeB
Rating: PG
Pairing: Hahn/Torres
Summary: Erica has never been a big fan of yoga, yet she agrees to join Callie at a sunrise yoga class. Could there be something compelling her besides friendship? Set during the S4 episode, "Piece of my Heart."
Author's Note: Considering Hahn turned out to be a lesbian in the end, I've never believed she didn't at some point prior to her great "I'm so gay" moment begin to recognize that her feelings for Callie might be more than mere friendship. Thanks to my Mighty Editor Goddess Brenda S., and to Jules68 for her enthusiastic support of my fanfic attempts. Written in December, 2009. This is my seventeenth Grey's Anatomy story (wow) and is an expanded version of a story I wrote for the 2010 Erica Leaves Calendar on LiveJournal.
Disclaimer: This is femslash (lite). Don't read it if you don't like femslash. I own nothing of Grey's Anatomy. I'm only messing around with a pairing that's been television history for a while. I miss Hahn/Torres terribly, and I know I'm not the only one. Errors with regard to yoga are entirely my own.
Erica's alarm sounded, waking her abruptly from a disjointed dream that included glasses of ruby wine, red surgical scrubs…and Callie.
Lately, many of Erica's dreams included all manner of Callie, and if her id had been allowed any frontal lobe space, the reason for this would have announced itself in neon letters a mile high. As it was, Erica only knew she enjoyed Callie's company very, very much. The friendship developing between her and the orthopedics surgeon was unlike any she could ever remember. She had taken a risk befriending Callie Torres, something she didn't normally do, and to her genuine surprise, the risk was paying off better than she had ever expected.
It was this "payoff," this new thing, that caused Erica to agree, against her better judgment, to meet Callie for a yoga class.
At sunrise.
Reaching over to slap off the alarm, Erica glanced at the clock as she rolled back. Four effing thirty in the morning, on a day she did not have to get up! Raising a hand to scrub at her eyes, she wondered what had possessed her to agree to this.
Not for the first time, a quiet voice in her head provided the answer, her mind's eye provided a raven-haired vision, and her subconscious stirred with possibilities that remained unrevealed.
Exiting the bed, Erica went first to shower and then to stand in bra and panties in front of her closet, puzzling over what one wore to a yoga class, at sunrise or otherwise. She hadn't once considered details like clothing, and now regretted not taking time yesterday to look up a few things. She considered calling Callie, but dismissed that as entirely too embarrassing. At the time Callie had asked, Erica had admitted she wasn't all that crazy about yoga, but she'd agreed without asking for any help, and Callie hadn't offered. So here she was, staring into her closet at four forty-five in the morning.
It was absurd that she should be anguishing over wardrobe for something conducted before the light of day, but here she was, anguishing away. After another five minutes of fruitless pawing, and before she ran completely out of time, Erica gave up and turned to her laptop. The last thing she wanted was to be late and improperly attired.
A few minutes of selective searching armed her with information satisfactory to her needs. She dressed quickly and hurried out into the foggy Seattle predawn.
oOo oOo oOo
The class had been brutal, and not even the fiery drama of the sun rising through the big window in front of them had been able to make it any less so. Erica had been misinformed by the Internet, a fact that really didn't surprise her. She'd been under the mistaken impression that yoga was all downward-facing dog and feline stretching, when, in fact, it was a passive-aggressive workout that strained every muscle in her body, including a few she wasn't even aware she could strain. Already she could feel those muscles tightening up in protest.
The only positive thing Erica could glean from the class had been her location within it. That is, directly behind Callie. However, on her drive to Seattle Grace, her body expressing its displeasure with every tap of the brake, Erica questioned even that much optimism.
Erica met Callie again in the hospital's parking lot, her aches disappearing in the light of Callie's fifty-megawatt smile. Erica tried as they rode the elevator to conjure up some witty bit of yoga talk she could segue into a question about what Callie might be doing for lunch, but was coming up blank. She felt like a teenager, employing such a tactic, but admitted to herself she was helpless to do otherwise around Callie. What she finally managed didn't occur to her until the elevators doors were opening, and it was less about wit than about saying anything at all.
"I just had no idea that sunrise yoga would be so intense."
And Callie, blissfully unaware of Erica's inner struggle, said simply, "Told ya."
It was then, right then, that Hahn's subconscious finally had its say, providing Erica a crystal clear reason why Callie's friendship was making her feel good – so good that she would agree to participate in something she had absolutely no interest in, to willingly subject her body to myriad aches and pains, just for the chance to spend more time with Callie.
As they continued down the hospital corridor, while Callie chatted away about the yoga, about Addison Montgomery being in town, and about her day's scheduled surgeries, Erica Hahn experienced a tiny epiphany.
Glancing surreptitiously at Callie, taking in Callie's shining black hair and glossy lips, her ample cleavage and generous curves, words came to Erica that had decidedly nothing to do with "friendship." This both thrilled and frightened her, and she fought to tamp it all down, immediately certain she would never share it with Callie.
At the first intersection, Callie turned left, raised her hand in farewell, and continued on her way, leaving Erica to gaze after her, wondering how she might survive what had just happened, and realizing to her profound dismay that she had never found out what Callie was doing for lunch.
End.
oOo oOo oOo
Imagine my surprise!
I love that I have found you
But I ache all over wanting
To know your every dream.
-- The incredible, remarkable Holly Near, from her 1978 album, "Imagine My Surprise!"