With You By My Side
Chapter 2
A/N: While most of my ships/squadrons/and Naval grades are correct, some of my information may be incorrect or there may be some inconsistency with Naval policies regarding women serving or my day to day recounts may be inaccurate. I apologize for this, and I am doing by best to back my story up with facts. Please don't take offense if something is wrong. Also, I got very low reviews for the first chapter of this, so depending on results from this, I might discontinue this story. So if you want to see this continued, please remember to review.
Callie awoke to the bugle playing taps over the loudspeaker of her small quarters. She had already been there for a week, and was finally settling in well. Her roommate was already awake, getting dressed for their early flight at 0900.
Lt. Torres and her current bunkmate, Jr. Lt. Hilary Mason, were both members of the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 84, also known as the Red Wolves. They specialized in Special Warfare support and Combat Search and Rescue. For these two weeks, Lt. Torres and Jr. Lt. Mason would be training for Search and Rescue and Extractions from various battlefields and environments. For today, a squad of marines had gone dark when they were dropped during a midnight insertion, and Callie and Mason were to go drop a team of Marines to look for them. Luckily, there were in friendly areas and chances were good for a full recovery of all team members.
Callie got up and began to change into her working uniform. She knew Mason wasn't exactly a morning person, so Callie dressed in silence, waiting for Mason to start the conversation.
"So, Lt. Torres" Mason paused and yawned "Briefing starts at 0745 in the classroom below the flight deck, the one near the officers mess. I'm going to head out now because I have a dentists appointment first. We can't all be lucky reservists, some of us are stuck here."
"Yeah, well they only called me here because I'm the best damn heli pilot they've got, Mason. Rockstar here."
"Yeah, so they called you out for a bunch of missing marines in training?" Mason quipped with a smile
"Yeah well, apparently they didn't trust you for the job" Callie smiled back, as Mason took on a fake hurt expression. "Now stop your bitching and let's go find our mini-marines"
Callie righted her uniform, as Mason circled to check. "Alright, Cal, you look good. I've gotta go, I'll meet you outside the classroom."
"Alright, Mase. Good luck" Callie waved her off as she straightened out her uniform in the mirror. She admired the sharp collar and the deep blue colors. There was nothing she loved more than wearing her blue digis and serving her country. The smell of the Navy was always one she held close to her heart, almost as much as the air from Seattle. But that memory had been long since faded away. The stresses of her everyday work aboard the ship didn't allow for many fond memories of home.
Callie moved about the ship before her brief, meeting with various officers in the mess hall for breakfast and chatting about current events and sucking up to the higher ranking officers.
Once done with her meal, she set off to find one of her friends who she heard as stationed on the ship for his final tour. Callie made her way to the medical wing, peeking into all the ORs and offices until she found who she was looking for. She knocked on the door and opened it slowly.
"Lieutentant Sloane?" she called into the office.
Marks head shot up quickly as soon as he heard that familiar voice. "Well, if it isn't my favourite girl?" Sloane returned as he stood up. "I was wondering when you'd come find me. Couldn't stay away, huh?" he said with his classic smirk.
Callie gently pushed Marks arm before giving him a hug. "You know you aren't my type Mark, will you ever stop trying?" Callie smiled at his antics.
"Hi, Dr. Sloane? I'm Ensign Torres. I've got a pretty severe laceration and they told me to come see you?"
"Hello Torres, nice to meet you. They sent you to the right place. Where are you injured?"
Callie held her arm out and winced slightly as Mark touched it. Her forearm had a thin but deep gash on the posterior side, about four inches long.
"You'll probably need stitches for this." He said, looking at the wound. "Good thing it's not on that beautiful face of yours" Sloane added with a wink.
Callie blushed lightly and laughed "Why, thank you Dr. Sloane"
Mark smiled with his signature smirk "so, how did you do this, Torres?"
"I...uh... Fell."
"You fell? And caused this cut? I don't think so. What happened, Torres?"
"I fell." Callie deadpanned.
"Ah, so you aren't going to tell me. If this is your version of playing hard to get, you don't have to. If you want this, you only have to ask." He winked again and Callie rolled her eyes.
"Dr. Sloane, please. I'm not interested. And I'm sure I'm not the first one to tell you that" Callie snapped back
"Hey, hey. Calm down, I like a little biting, but you don't have to chew my head off" Mark said, still smirking, obviously proud of himself.
Callie was tired of playing this game. "You really want to know how I got this scar?" She said, putting on her best seductive air and leaning in close.
"Yeah, I do" Mark answer, falling for Callies trap and leaning in.
Callie smirked and whispered ,"Someone pushed me up against a wall. And while they were ripping off my uniform, one of my pins cut my arm. Is that what you wanted to hear?" As she finished, her lips were inches from Marks expectant ones.
Marks eyes lit up with hope, and that's when Callie pounced. "Oh, and by someone, I meant she. You don't have a chance. Back off" Callie finished with a sickeningly sweet smile.
"Well played, Torres" Mark said, looking disappointed.
"Don't knock it til you've tried it" he threw back with a wink. "So what brings you here?"
"Just serving my two weeks. They sent me here, and I'm being briefed on a mission to drop some marines to find some other marines that went missing on a training last night. Privates too. Those boys are probably scared out of their minds. Went missing last night, and we couldn't do a night mission because we were too afraid to lose our new guys as well. Land drop."
"And what brings you to my office?" he said again, with a knowing look.
"Please?" Callie asked, with pleading eyes and a childish, expectant look. "Please please please?"
"...I've got a boy with a dislocated shoulder, you can watch me pop it back in. Deal?"
"Yes!" Callie shouted, pumping her fist in the air excitedly. "Where is he?"
"He's not coming in for another 45 minutes. Don't you have a briefing to go to anyways?" He asked, checking the time.
"Awww, yeah I do. Ugh." Callie drooped her shoulders in disappointment.
"You know," Mark began, "you're only a reservist. You could still do medical school, become an orthopedic surgeon and still stay enlisted. Best of both worlds." Sloan had pitched this idea to Callie numerous times, and she rejected it with the same logic she did every time.
"The navy is my life, it's all I know. I don't have four years to study medicine, nor do I want to. Now, I have to go find my marines. I'll find you when I come back." Callie made her way to the door
"See you, Torres." 'That girl is wasting her time here, she should be in ortho.' Sloane thought to himself as he watched Callies retreating figure.
Once out of Sloanes office, Callie took a moment to consider what he had said. She could be happy in ortho, but not if it meant she wouldn't be a sailor anymore. Maybe she could do reservist work and still have time for school, since she wasn't doing anything else outside of it. 'Maybe', she thought to herself, but shrugged it off as she made her way to the briefing room for her newest assignment.
"Mase. You ready?"
"As I'll ever be"
Callie took one more look at the rough seas below the deck, before giving her thumbs up to the other sailors, scurrying around in their color coded vests.
She flipped on her blades and wanted for Mase to do the same. Then she carefully guided her controls until she was hovering at a safe height. Once she saw her altimeter was good, she began heading in the direction for the last known coordinates of her missing men.
There were 5 other marines, members of another training squad, who would be sent in to do a quick locate and evacuate mission. Contact had remained, although it was spotty, with the commander of the group. He had said all were safe, and that he would like to continue the mission as part of training, if they were going to learn to to night insertions, they need to learn what it's like when they don't go so well.
Despite this not being typical protocol, he was granted access to continue on the grounds that this was a special forces training unit.
With an ETA of about 20 minutes, Lt. Torres was well on her way to be wrapped up with this mission by 1030, seeing as she didn't have to wait for them to find the team, only to drop the marines off and have Mason landed near by so she could easily get to the extraction point when the smoke was thrown.
Her flight went smooth, and her drop was, as always, perfect. Once establishing a safe landing for the search team, Callie turned around and began making her way back to the ship.
Her flight was going well, until suddenly, one of her signals began beeping. She checked her gauges and saw her engine temperature had shot up and was continuing to rise. Alarmed, she radioed in to tell them about the change.
"It seems I'm having some type of technical trouble in my craft. Permission to land upon arrival?"
"Roger, we will keep your landing space clear. Bring it back safe"
"Yes, sir" Callie replied as the ship became visible on the horizon. She nervously kept one eye on her gauges as she put the heli down. She was hovering above the platform and descending slowly, noticing the more pressure she put on the throttle, the higher her temp gauge went.
As she was only 15 feet off the ground, her engine began to smoke and before Callie could react, her craft exploded.
"Dr. Robbins!" Christina yelled down the hallway to the blonde peds surgeon as she rolled down the hallway. 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this...'
Hearing her name being called, Arizona made a complete circle in her roller shoes and rolled back to Christina.
"I'm surprised to see you here, Yang. What's up?"
"Well, I'm not in cardio right now, so I need..." Ring. Ring. "Hold on, let me take this" Christina finished with a confused look on her face. She was getting a call from Dr. Sloane, a man she had only been in contact with once, and only kept his number should she need to butter up the world renowned plastic surgeon.
"Dr. Sloane?"
"Yang. It's Callie. She's been in an accident. You're her contact. She's stable, but will need to be taken to a hospital. She hasn't woken up yet and there is some brain damage. Where do you want her to go?"
"What? She hasn't woken up? What are you talking about?"
"Christina, please. Where do we take her?"
"Seattle Grace. To Dr. Shepard." Christina clicked her phone closed and looked at Arizona again. "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me"
"Ummm. Okay!" Arizona shouted as Christina dashed down the hallway. 'I wonder what that was about. It sounds like her friend was in an accident or something. I hope whoever it is is okay..' Arizona thought to herself as she wheeled away to check on her next patient.