Disclaimer: All the characters and everything related to the series of Grey's Anatomy belong to ABC and . I own nothing but my imagination.

CHAPTER 1

Callie ran from the hospital's cafe to her patient's room in seconds. If you asked her what are her thoughts every time she is paged for one of her patients until she reaches the room, she wouldn't be able to answer...because there isn't anything, just a continuous run run run.

It was a tough day, she had already lost one patient at Trauma 1 and now she was running to save the life of another one. Maybe this time she would do something and this would give a boost to her suffering ego. Maybe she could call it even at the end of the day, Torres - Death 1-1. And this wouldn't be a good day but it would be...manageable.

"Kepner…what happened?" Callie almost shouted...not because of Kepner but because at that moment she needed to shout and it just happened to be April Kepner, the 'soapy farmgirl', as the other interns used to call her. She grew up in a farm, watched a lot of Oprah and these were two things you could easily tell about her just by meeting her, maybe not from the first time but from the second for sure.

"Uh...he…couldn't breathe...and I...I...paged you right away," April stuttered, something that caused Callie more anxiety, if this could be possible.

"Page Dr. Altman, tell her we have a pulmonary embolism...hurry April! NOW!" Callie, with the help of a nurse, moved the patient from the hospital bed on a stretcher and was ready to take him to the OR.

The patient was Coran Donaldson, he had just undergone a knee replacement surgery after an accident with his bike a few days ago. He was stable ,recovering normally from the operation and everything seemed just fine, until now. Callie had to fight with a very rare case of bloodclot which had dislodged and travelled through the heart to the lungs.

The door made a loud metallic noise as Callie pushed the stretcher though the door and in the OR..

:-:

Callie's feet were running again..It was like they had a life of their own, but this time they were taking her away from the hospital beds and the patients. Somewhere quiet, where she could find peace and where she could pick up her pieces before going back inside...He was the second one the same day! Completely out of the blue! She couldn't believe it.

She managed to reach the stairs, the ones usually used by doctors and nurses. She could stay here for a while, without anyone bothering her with questions and demands. Just for a few minutes, a few precious minutes. So she stopped the powerful force of her feet and sat down.

What happened in that OR? What the hell happened? Something happened..bigger than me..am I crazy? Am I incapable? And if I am, is it just for today or is this the beginning of my death toll? There is 96% chance that a knee replacement will go through without any significant complication occurring and today of all days I got the other 4%? And not even that, because of these 4% complications only 0,5% is deadly...Who cursed me?

"Cal! Are you here?" Mark's voice dragged Callie out of the turmoil in her head. She didn't need him at that moment but she didn't have a choice, she couldn't hide forever. And even though Mark was an arrogant womanizer who used his cock instead of his brain, he was different with Callie, he was her best friend.

"Mark, I'm up here!" Callie said half heartedly.

He climbed the stairs and sat next to her. He let out several short breaths before trying to talk her into not giving up and to keep her head high because bad days happen to all the doctors.

"I know Mark,it's just that...it's just that I have been so preoccupied with work lately, trying to keep my mind off my awfully empty personal life...and now, not even this works for me. It turns out I am a failure in this department of my life as well," Callie sighed.

"Don't be ridic...!" Mark didn't have the time to finish his sentence because a very rushing Cristina came out of nowhere shouting in a mixture of anxiety and excitement.

"Move people! Move!...What are you looking at? You don't want me to lose this tremendous operation and have to practise on you afterwards, so let me pass...you have to let me pass..like...NOW!" Cristina shouted in their faces. Mark and Callie were gazing at her like kids in a movie theatre for the first time but managed to make some space when Cristina used her very notorious glare, the 'don't-become-an-obstacle-when-I-am-heading-to-the-OR' glare.

As soon as Cristina disappeared from the door behind them, they both burst into loud laughter. This was something that Callie needed at that time. A distraction from this gloomy day. And Cristina, just like that and without realising it, offered her that distraction.

"Come on Torres...let's go inside and kick some ass with our hard core medical techniques...al'right? You are a good doctor, never doubt it," Mark said making a small appreciating smile form on Callies lips.

:-:

Run, is this to be our fate,

hide, freedom is ours as we escape,

we walk in the shadows, we do..

The lyrics of Landon Pigg's 'The way it ends' pumped into Callie's ears as she was exiting the hospital. It was 8 a.m. and the wet road in front of the hospital was making walking even more difficult. She was physically and psychologically drained. She craved for the protection of her flat and the comfiness of her bed. She didn't want to be talked or to be seen, it was one of these moments that she wished she were invisible.

"Hey Cal!" Mark shouted behind her. "Are you coming to Joe's? I bet you wanna see Cristina praising herself about her latest operation, the one she almost killed us in order to get there on time, it will be fun..or not, now that I think about it," Mark said goofily, almost making Callie smile.

"Nah, I am gonna skip it today and head home. I am pretty tired, but have fun with Cristina's rambling and we are gonna talk tomorrow." Callie said without a second thought.

"Ok Cal, and you know that if you need me for anything during the night, I will be right across the hall, probably a bit drunk but, as always, glad to hear you."

"Thank you, Mark. I appreciate it. Really." And after these words, Callie turned her back and continued walking towards the bus stop, hiding her teary eyes from her best friend.

Now I am so pathetic that everyone is already feeling sorry for me..ugh..

Under my skin they fade away,

here's to life with no regrets,

see you again all one day,

give me love or give me death,

can anyone ever really say..

With a lot of effort she managed to regain as much courage as she had left for today and to let the music fill her ears and mind. She was now leaning on one of the pillars on the bus stop, waiting patiently for the bus, lost deep in her thoughts and looking absentmindedly the road in front of her. The song was gradually coming to an end..

If this is the way it ends,

then this is the way it's meant to be,

this is the way it's meant to be..

Callie felt a nudge on her right arm but thinking it was just her tired mind playing tricks on her she didn't even bother to look. But when she felt it again, she realised that she had to pull herself out of her pool of thoughts for a few seconds. She looked to her right and saw a ball of clothes and two sea blue eyes looking at her..there was also a short blond lock coming out of the rainbow woolly hat that this...human being was wearing. In two seconds, a small creamy white hand pushed down the matching rainbow scarf from the being's mouth and now Callie could also distinguish a pair of rosie thin lips. From the eyes, the lips and the hand, Callie figured out that this was a woman, a woman with gorgeous eyes, lips and...hand.

Callie was staring like a complete idiot, those thin cherry lips were moving, forming words…words that Callie could not make out. Suddenly she pulled the earpiece of her ipod abraptly and blushed a little, hoping it hadn't been so obvious that she was staring and drooling like Mark does with the nurses.

"Well...I said Hi, but you probably couldn't hear me...so…Hi!" The woman said locking eyes with Callie and giving a radiating smile towards the brunette.

Are those dimples? wow! I haven't seen cute dimples on somebody for a long time. Or I haven't noticed, I am not sure..but I am sure I haven't seen these magic dimples before.

"Hi…" Callie said smiling slightly and blushing some more since she has been staring like a 16-year old horny boy…again!

"Well, you don't know me...but I have seen you a couple of times... I mean here, at the bus stop. It seems that most of the days our work schedules are similar. Don't get me wrong, I am not a stalker or anything...but today, you don't look good...I mean…you look good, you always look good...what I mean is...you seem, sad...and I wanted to ask, are you OK?" The blonde woman looked the brunette with worrying eyes and with a hint of shyness for the words that had just come out of her pretty mouth.

"I'm fine." Callie replied, a little bit confused with the fact that a complete stranger was worried for her, but not that much since this complete stranger happened to be a cute blond with dreamy eyes.

Did she just say that I look good? That I always look good? Was she flirting with me?

"Oh then," the blonde whispered and turned to look at the road again, obviously disappointed that Callie didn't appreciate her concern.

Callie Torres you don't have to be such an idiot all the time.

Callie mentally slapped herself and continued. "Well...if fine can be defined as losing two patients in the same day. One of whom had only 0.5% chances of dying. Then I can say..I am more than fine." Callie quickly mumbled letting a small sigh of disappointment when she finished. The blond turned her head again, a bit surprised.

"That surely can't be defined as fine and maybe it would be a lie to tell you that I understand how you feel…but I can tell you one thing for may seem like a shitty dayto you but in a few hours it will be tomorrow and you will have a new opportunity to make it up for today. I am sure you save lives everyday and tomorrow or the following day will be your day again. You just have to be patient, and see the bright side of things...even when things are so pitch black that there is no bright side in sight. But it is there, somewhere." The blonde said quite convincingly. Her words seemed so natural that even if Callie wanted to disagree and nag for her bad luck some more, she couldn't.

"I guess you are...right. Maybe tomorrow is my day, maybe I will find my luck again. However, as you said, I cannot see any bright side when people die and I'm not able to do something about it." Callie shrugged while finishing her pessimistic sentence.

The blonde kept looking at her for a few seconds, probably thinking about something to say, when she, all of a sudden, hastily opened her red leather handbag and pulled..what looked like..a banana.

A banana?Great! I am so boring and I nag so much that now she is so bored that she wants to eat her banana and I...should probably take my charmless personality and vanish somewhere like my flat...or a cave wouldn't be a bad idea. Where is the f- bus?

"Here, take this," she said and pushed the yellow fruit towards Callie.

"A banana?" Callie said raising her eyebrows in confusion.

"Yes...well I want you to take it and think about this: When you look at it, it looks hard and yellow and not appealing to your taste at all. And if you make the mistake to taste it as it is now, ugh..it would make your mouth hurt with disgust. But...when you peel it, it becomes something different." She started peeling the banana and continued talking. "Now, it is soft and it also smells better. And if you taste it, you will see that it wasn't that bad as it seemed at the beginning. Actually, it will be pretty yummy." She ended her sentence and gave a full dimpled smile again, making Callie's knees weak.

Callie took the banana, looking less confused this time.

"What I'm trying to say is...What happened today in that hospital is fresh for you. Sleep on it and you will see that in the morning you will be able to think one tiny thing that you gained from this experience. There must be something that you learnt today, in this hospital, something that will help you in the future. So 'peel' this day tomorrow and when we meet again you' ll tell me if I was right." A small hesitant smile formed on her lips again, but this time it was on Callie's lips as well.

"Thank you. That was the wisest thing I've heard today...and I hope things turn out to be as optimistic as you say they will be." Callie said, still smiling. "Hey, I'm Calliope by the way, but everyone calls me Callie. What's your name?" Callie extended her arm to the blonde as an attempt for a late introduction.

"Nice to meet you, Calliope," she said grabbing the brunette's hand.

Her hand is so soft. Like everything on this woman, her soft lips, her soft-looking eyes..

Callie was pulled out of her thoughts as a bus arrived and stopped in front of the two women. It wasn't Callie's bus but she quickly understood it was the blonde's. She stood up and straightened the red coat which was covering her small and slim body.

But before stepping in she looked at a dazzled Callie and said. "Most people think that I was named for the state, but it's not true. I was named for a battle ship. My grandfather was serving on this ship when the japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he saved nineteen men before he drowned." And with these last words she stepped on the bus and turned her body so as to be opposite Callie's.

"Eat your banana, Calliope." She said smiling again and winked, just before the bus' doors closed leaving a puzzled Callie looking at the road again. Feeling much better now but hungy to learn more about this beautiful mysterious woman, and with a banana in her hand.