Chapter 2
"I was walking with a ghost, I said please, please don't insist"
Walking with the Ghost by Tegan and Sara
Looking around the room Callie tried not to make eye contact with any of them, she felt very aware that Bailey, Teddy, Derek and Arizona were watching her every move. Sad eyes burning deep into her already guilty heart. She felt guilty because she was driving the car, she should have made sure they were belted in...She was responsible, she survived and they didn't.
How could she look her friends in the eyes, they didn't know what happened was an accident. All they knew was she killed them, she killed her best friends.
As the reality of the situation sunk in, Callie couldn't control her sobs anymore. "Callie, are you alright to continue I need you to listen to me" Derek gently asked. "I just need to run through a few things, then the police will want to talk to you. Do you think you can deal with that at the moment?" Taking a deep breath as she tried to control her composure, she nod her head in agreement.
Arizona climbed up onto her girlfriend's bed, Callie shifting slightly to make room. Watching Bailey grumble silently, Arizona looked toward the smaller woman waiting for her disapproval but it never comes so she takes Callie's hand in hers and gently kisses her forehead "I love you, it will be fine" she smiled hoping that it would be enough to reassure her girlfriend.
"Right Callie, physically everything has healed up nicely, when you came in you had lacerations to your face and arms due to broken glass. There was also quite a bit of bruising. Your main problem was that you developed a brain bleed which I controlled easily."
As Callie finally gained the courage to look up at Derek, she couldn't believe her eyes when Mark appeared. There he was standing next to him with the biggest grin on his face. When Mark caught Callie's expression change to confusion then panic he smiled in realisation and quickly raised a finger to his mouth telling Callie to be quiet.
"Ssshhhhh!"
Looking around in disbelief that no one else could see or hear him, she opened her mouth to say something but her brain caught up with her quickly telling her to do exactly what he had suggested. A strait jacket was not a look she thought she could rock. Derek smiled again noticing the change in Callie's expression as she calmed.
"You've been unconscious for 3 weeks, everything seemed to be healing and working fine but you just wouldn't wake up. You really are stubborn sometimes Torres" Derek tried to break the tension while everyone in the room lets out a nervous chuckle. "The good news is that I think I need to keep you in just for a day or two… just for observation, we still don't know why it took you so long to wake, so we just want to make sure everything is in working order and we didn't miss anything...then you'll be free to go." Finishing with a nod of his head he smiled at Callie and the gave a quick nod to Arizona.
"Do you have any questions?" Derek watched as Callie mumbled a no.
"Yeah, but I have" Arizona quickly made herself heard as she moved to vacate the bed. Pulling Derek off to the side Arizona began to talk quietly to him.
"Do you know the whole time I've known him, I used to joke about the amount of time he spends on his hair… he really is a prima ballerina, the big pansy spends more time than Meredith sorting that mop, and I swear when they have a kid that baby will come out with THAT hair." Callie watched in disbelief as Mark walked over and intently stared at Derek.
Chewing on her lip, Callie quickly debated with herself wither she should tell someone about the fact that Mark Sloan, a dead Mark Sloan was having a conversation with her about Derek's hair. Deciding against the one way ticket to the asylum, she decided it was best to hold her tongue.
Moving back over toward her girlfriend, Arizona stood beside the hospital bed. "I've missed three weeks, so I missed the funerals then" Callie asked in a childlike tone. She still refused to draw anyone's eye contact so Callie looked straight at Mark, though to everyone else she looked as though she was staring into space.
"Yeah, sweetie I'm so sorry, once we get you out we'll go to the cemetery. I know you want too, you know…" it was Arizona's turn to not want to make eye contact with Callie as she tried to keep her emotions in check.
"Emm… did they suffer?" she asked, still looking straight a Mark. She watched him shake his head with a smile trying to show her he didn't.
"No we don't think they did. From what we were told they were already dead when the EMT's got there." Teddy saw her friend struggle to form words so she answered for Arizona as she tried to stay in Doctor Mode. Callie sighed and took a deep breath as she looked back down at her hands.
"Alright well I have other patients to check up on, so I'll come back in a little while. I'm glad you're awake Torres" Derek gave everyone a short nod of his head and then left the room quickly.
"Yeah we need to go too Callie, we just wanted to see you." Callie could only offer Bailey and Teddy a small smile, she didn't feel worthy of their sympathy.
"I'll come see you later." With that they left the room. Before Teddy left the room she placed a gentle hand on Arizona's back as she moved past her.
Callie watched as Mark sat down in the chair in the corner of her room. She closed her eyes as though willing the image away. Opening her eyes… nope he was still there just smiling at her.
"Hey baby, are you ok" Arizona wasn't sure what was going on in Callie's head but she knew that her girlfriend would be blaming herself. "Cal, it wasn't your fault! You know that don't you!"
"You don't know what happened Arizona, how can you be so sure?" Callie looked away from the intense blue eyes that were watching her. She listened as Arizona whispers through her own tears
"I know you, it was an accident and everyone in this hospital knows that".
"What…what about the car I hit, are they alright!" Callie asks softly,
"Oh sweetie, the man was fine. Ok well not fine, he had a broken arm and was suffering from whiplash…eh your dad has kind of taken care of things, l will tell you all later. We don't want to overload you with information and the police will be here shortly to take a statement" Arizona offered a small smile.
"Oh god I'm going to get arrested for manslaughter, I don't suit Orange, Arizona…" the mention of the police completely threw Callie off the mention of her father.
Moving closer to the brunette Arizona gave her girlfriend a cuddle trying to relax her. "Everything's going to be fine." When she pulled away, Callie is startled as a boney hand rests on Arizona's left shoulder though the blonde doesn't feel anything.
As the rest of the cloaked figure comes into view, it points a long finger towards Callie and then growls. The flight reflex kicks in, panic and shock took over her actions as Callie tried to back up but fell out of the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.
"Calliope! Oh god, are you alright?" When Arizona ran around the bed to help Callie up the room was filled with a loud rupture of laughter as Callie looked over to Mark who was trying to keep his composure.
"Oh my god Cal, you should have seen your face!" The black cloaked figure now with its face right in front of Callie quickly morphs into Cristina.
"That was worth being quiet for so long. Suck it Mark, told you she would freak. Pay up! That was sooo funny! I so wish I had stuck with the Scream mask though" Callie sat on the floor trying to compose herself.
"Cristina!" Callie shakily exclaimed, her panicked crying quickly turning into a low laughter.
Arizona looked down at her girlfriend in complete confusion but began to rub a calming hand down her back.
"Hey Cal, it might be a good idea if we could talk alone, if you catch my drift." Mark pointed his head towards Arizona who is looking at her girlfriend as if she has two heads. "We don't want Blondie having to strap you to the bed… Ok well maybe later!" Mark adds with a dirty chuckle.
Closing her eyes regaining her composure, Callie turns to look at Arizona. "Hey babe, I'm feeling a bit hungry would you be able to get me something from the canteen. I don't know if maybe you could..."
"I'll go, don't worry about it. Here, get back into bed" helping her back onto her bed Arizona kisses her forehead and turns to leave, "I'll be quick, ok!" and with a nod of her head convincing herself, she's gone.
"Ok, I've woken up in an episode of The Outer Limits, if the world turns black and white I am… fuck this is insane, I've finally lost it. I think my pain meds are screwed up; you know that's exactly what's happened, I'm talking to you two, you're dead…unless…you're just playin', which is a sick joke…did I wake up on April fools!" Callie gasps for air as she finished her ramble.
"First of all Cal, you lost it a long time ago but we still love you!" batting his eye lids Mark continued excitedly "Unfortunately for us we are officially expired. Unfortunately for you, I was just going to mess with Derek for a wee while, I realised you can see us so TADA!" flailing hands to add effect.
"You know how weird this place is, there's a lot of strange people still walking these halls. So far I've seen Fire-fighters and the bomb disposal guy is still about! There's even a guy dressed as a cowboy! I really need to find him again because I want to know if he actually is one, it's cool!" Mark continued his ranting.
"Oh don't forget the clown that's stays up in Ped's. He thinks he's making the kids laugh, really he's terrifying them! Think I'll join him when I get bored with you two!" Cristina smirked as she looked towards Mark and then at Callie. "WHAT! Laughter may be the best medicine, but scaring the shit out of kids...that's just fun."
"You know, Arizona has mentioned that the kids keep saying they see a scary clown… Anyway, Ok I can't believe that I'm going with this but… Why are you still here, shouldn't you be in the light, or something is that not how all the TV shows do it!?" Callie couldn't believe she let the question leave her mouth.
"Yeah well we tried, at first I was confused to what happened. Honestly Callie I felt nothing, I was passed out in the back" Shrugging at this was her way of telling Callie she was fine without showing any emotion. She continued "When I realised what had happened I was surprised to see that the man-whore here was in the same position looking down at our lifeless bodies, you were at least still breathing" Cristina looked down at her feet and kicked a bit of rolled up paper across the floor, throwing her hands up in celebration. "Did you see that, I'm getting my groove on with this."
"It was amazing Cal, just like the movies, bright blinding beautiful light but when we tried to move to it, it was like hitting a glass wall. We couldn't get in and she got pissed off trying so we decided to stay with you…followed you back to the hospital." Mark laughed
"We didn't know what to do with ourselves so I sat next to Blondie and you, and Christina pissed off for a while. That's when I realised I could get into your head. Thought I'd try that thing from that movie you made me watch ages ago, Ghost! Ha I Whoopi'd your ass. Though I couldn't get you to move, false advertising that movie was but I must say...loving the dreams, three weeks worth of them. I would never have thought that of Blondie, grrrr! Oh and your musical one I laughed my ass off." Callie blushed furiously.
"We went to our funerals, which was weird, and mushy." Cristina quickly skimmed over trying to keep up her I don't give a fuck mentality.
"Yeah, you were taking ages to wake up and idle hands and all so I went to check on Meredith. I'm having soooo much fun, I've figured out how to move things and I keep hiding her keys and moving things around. I swear I can't get enough of moving that damn Post it note" Cristina couldn't stop herself from laughing.
"Oh my god, Christina! Don't you think that's a little insensitive she's your best friend...struggling with the fact she might have Alzheimer's, and you're giving her symptoms! God, your Casper the nasty bitch!" Callie squealed appalled by Cristina's behaviour, in other circumstances she would have found it quite amusing.
Meanwhile, after picking some food from the canteen Arizona was in search of Teddy, finding her at the nurse's station just a few doors down from Callie's room, she quickly came up behind her best friend grabbing her arm and dragging her over to the nearest on call room.
"Arizona, I love you but you know, not my thing" laughing Teddy quickly realises the serious face of her friend. "Ok not the best time for joking what do you need to talk about?"
"It's Callie, there's just something off, she's not telling me something and I know it could be grief, but there's just something." Shaking her head Arizona sat down on one of the beds.
Leaning against the door Teddy replied "Well you two have never really been the best at being completely open with each other, but yeah I do agree with you, I swear sometimes earlier she wasn't really there!"
"What did you ask Derek about, may I ask?"
"Oh just being over protective girlfriend and all, I'm just worried that something was missed coz she was out for too long, with no explanation. Derek agreed and that he was going to keep a close eye on her that was all." Arizona offers Teddy a small smile.
"Look I'm going to keep an eye on her as well and I'm sure Bailey is too, so if there's anything not right with her we will catch it ok. I was thinking that since Callie can't get out right away and you're not going to leave the room, how about I pick up food later and stop by and we can all eat together, I'm on call tonight."
"Yeah that would be great, thanks Teddy. I'm sure she'll be fine but I'm just worried. I'll need to be getting back she was looking for food."
Entering Callie's room she was surprised to find only her girlfriend. She was sure she heard Callie talking to someone or even shouting at someone because she looked flustered and angry.
"Calliope, are you alright?" she asked, watching the brunette turn around as though she's been caught doing something she shouldn't, "I have your food and I've snuck you some coffee, luckily going by your face apparently you may need it" smirking at her girlfriend.
"Sorry, I'm just…going through some things in my head…obviously they escaped!"
Moving over to the chair that Mark is currently sat in she stopped right in front of it as Callie motioned for him to move. When he didn't budge, she shouted "MOVE!" much to the surprise of Arizona.
The startled blond looked over to her girlfriend trying to figure out what was going on. "Callie that was just rude, I'm just bringing it. Please tell me what's wrong with you." Arizona placed the food and coffee down on the table next to the chair and glared at her now very embarrassed girlfriend who was now sitting.
Callie quickly looked at Arizona "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean…oh come on! Give me strength" her voice starting to trail out at the end. She was trying to apologise to her but Mark was doing his best insane person impression and Christina had decided to move the coffee cup to the other end of the table. "Oh I'm sorry sweetie, my head just starting to hurt and I'm so happy you brought coffee" Arizona still wasn't sure what was going on, Callie was acting strange but there was no point trying to get anything from her at the moment, so she just settled in the seat next to her. She was confused that the coffee cup was not where she though she put it though.
"Excuse me, Is this Dr Calliope Torres room?" both women turned to see two police officers at the door, Callie was glad she wasn't hooked up to a heart monitor as it would have probably exploded!
"Yeah, I'm Torres." Looking nervously over at to Arizona for a little bit of strength, all she need was to see her smile. Happier, when her girlfriend gave her a full dimpled smile and a nod Callie motioned for the officers to come in and take a seat.
"Dr Torres, this is my partner Officer Garcia and I'm Officer Black. We would like to take a statement from you about your accident. Could you just tell us what you remember happening." Officer Black smiled encouragingly at her and then to Arizona.
"This is my girlfriend, Dr Arizona Robbins, do you mind if she stays with me?" Callie asks unsure if they would allow her to stay. When he nodded his head, Callie continued "I had been called to the bar to pick up my friend Mark; he'd had a little too much to drink. While we were there I met Arizona, Teddy and Cristina. While we were talking, Cristina had managed to get drunk herself. I went to take them home. Mark stays…stayed across the hall from my apartment and Cristina used to be my roommate so I was going to put her in her old room. Anyway on the way home Mark was messing around in the front seat with the lighter, when he dropped it on my lap I panicked and in my rush to get it I managed to veer into the traffic. It was an accident and…I didn't know they didn't have their seatbelts on."
"Dr Torres, we understand that you lost your friends and we are sorry for your loss, we have witnesses on the street that confirm that you were not going at a dangerous speed. The bar tender and blood tests taken from you at the time of the accident confirm that you had not been drinking. Your story about the lighter even helps as forensics found the burn marks on your seat and trousers you were wearing." Smiling at Callie the officers stood. "Someone will contact you shortly, once we've filed or report, but you might want to get yourself a lawyer just in case, Ma'am". With that the officers said their goodbyes.
Callie looked down at her sweating hands "Oh god I thought I was going to get arrested on the spot" she said, letting out the breath that she didn't realise she was holding.
"Yeah remember I told you your dad was dealing with some stuff, you already have one of the best lawyers he says. They'll be here in a day or two. Is he part of the mob…because the guy you hit isn't claiming anything! Actually I'll need to see if he's still alive or if he's been dismembered!" Arizona laughed half kidding and half seriously thinking about it.
"Did you just suggest that my dad could hurt someone and make them what, swim with the fishes?" Callie giggling at her girlfriend before flinching when Mark appeared next to Arizona, his hands in the air trying to get her attention just as Alex Karev comes bulldozing into the room.
"Hey Callie, I'm glad your awake. Hopefully now the boss here will relax." Smiling a toothy grin Alex continued "Eh…Doctor Robbins I know that it's your day off but we need you up in peds. Four of the kids are complaining about the clown again and Suzie Brown room 2 has drawn what appears to be a picture of you in your heelies, being chased by someone who eerily resembles Yang with a chainsaw. It's been drawn in crayon on the wall of her room, though all she kept saying was that it was the rude Doctor who did it."
Callie watched the exchange biting her bottom lip trying to keep the laughter in as Mark pipes up "I tried to stop her but there's noooo stopping her when she has an idea in her head. The twisted sister nickname was not lost on her"
"Ok Callie, I need to deal with this how about when I get back we'll go wonder round to the coffee cart and get you another coffee? Change of scenery maybe…an on call room." Arizona winked toward Callie.
"I'd love that idea, I need a good stretch. I'm going to get changed into some spare scrubs from my locker, I don't fancy showing my ass to wondering eyes plus this is just itchy and yucky!" Callie watched as Arizona left the room. She did a double take as she thought she saw a shadow move with her. Shaking her head Callie turned back to Mark with her eye brow raised.
"Umm do you still have angry birds on your phone? I want to see if I can work a touch screen!" Mark said as he bounced on his heels.
"Hey, I was just doing some art time activities with the kid's and roller girl is no fun. She came and got the cleaners in to wipe off my hard work! I thought she believed in fairy dust and magical crap…" Christina appeared in the room startling Callie who had been watching Mark try to play angry birds on her phone. "Oh and that weird shadow thing is still following Blondie by the way."
"I'm going to have to get you a bell, if you're going to keep doing that! What do you mean something still following her?"
Mark stopped pinging birds across the screen long enough to answer "Yeah, we were going to get to that! There's a shadow thing following Arizona about." Callie looked at her friend opened mouthed.
"We were going to try and grab it the next time we saw it together. Oh and we might be able to do that right now cause I can hear Blondie" Cristina backtracked when she saw Callie's face.
"Hey Callie, are you ready to go get this coffee cause I really need one after that. Those kids were really spooked!" Callie looked towards Cristina who was looking very proud of herself. When she looked back towards Arizona the dark shadowed figure was slowly becoming more prominent.
"Yeah I'll walk with you, lets GRAB A BLACK COFFEE" walking past Arizona out of the room hoping that Mark and Cristina had got her hint. Arizona turned and followed her girlfriend.
Slowly walking down the hall, Callie kept looking over at the blonde and the following figure. Mark and Cristina walked a little behind them trying to keep a short distance. As they got close to the toilets, Callie exaggerated a cough and pointed towards the toilets.
Mark and Christina made their move grabbing the figure and dragged it through the wall with them. "Sorry babe, I'll be back in a minute" Callie barked out through fake coughs.
"Ok I'll wait!"
"Right, what are you and why are you following my girlfriend?!"
Stepping out of Mark and Christina's grip the figure revealed itself. The two friends shrug their shoulders at the person in front of them not knowing who it was but Callie knew exactly who it was.
"YOU!"
