TITLE: Family (Chapter 10)
AUTHOR: rcruz

Disclaimer: If I owned them, things would look a lot different. The characters, settings, established histories, and general Grey's Anatomy universe referenced in this work are properties of their respective owners. This is a work of fiction for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: I've borrowed somewhat (and manipulated as appropriate) from the episode where Callie's father first finds out she's gay. Standard disclaimer that I am not a doctor or a lawyer, so take all of the lingo with a grain of salt.

Complex thoughts slow you down. They make you consider actions and consequences and stifle instincts. Callie's father was standing in Erica's way, standing in the way of everything and she felt the need to get him out of her way. It was a simple thought. Get him out of my way. She stepped into his personal space, grabbed his tailored suit in both of her hands and pushed until he was up against the wall in the hallway. He was shocked by her actions. She could see it in his face, but by the time he got his hands up in protest, he was already on the wall. He tried pushing her away, but she had too strong of a grip. She used her height and weight to her advantage, so that he was finding it difficult to move.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked nervously.

"I did say excuse me, but I think you might not have heard me, so I'm emphasizing my point. You are in my way."

He studied her. Her hands were still attached to his suit and she wondered briefly if he was worried about the suit. She gripped harder just in case he was and waited for his reaction.

He was staring at her still in shock, but he was recovering. She saw a cold hard mask descend slowly. He had not expected such a strong reaction, but he was recalculating, even as she held him in place.

"I just want to talk," he said in a normal voice.

She shoved him roughly before letting go much like she had seen Diego do to David not too long ago.

"With all due respect Mr. Torres, I am not your daughter or your son, so you don't get to push me around or stand in my way. You are going to listen for a change. I am sick of your interference, your outdated attitudes and I am especially sick of how you've treated your daughter. So whatever you've come here to say, just keep in mind that I am not afraid of you. You do not intimidate me and you will not convince me to go away."

Finally she let herself breathe, loosened her grip and stepped away from him, increasing the distance between them.

"Now, what is you wanted to say to me?" she finished as she put her hands in the pockets of her lab coat.

He didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected to be tossed into a wall, let alone by a woman. She was strong, stronger than he would have guessed. He expected a certain amount of anger from her, but this he was unprepared for. He tried to project some semblance of resolve and addressed her.

"Perhaps we can go somewhere...private?" he asked looking around.

They had attracted stares. He especially noted the particularly big man standing by the nurse's station, who had been watching them almost from the start of their little confrontation. He was tall, with short cropped hair and a beard stretched out by the stupid grin on his face that didn't seem appropriate given the situation. Carlos turned his attention to the Hahn woman. She hadn't answer him yet and in fact barely glanced his way once she had let him go, but she started to move and so he followed.

"You alright, Erica?" asked the man with the silly grin.

"Not your concern Sloan and if you know what's best for you, you won't come near me today."

"No problem, but if you need a hand..."

"Shut up, Sloan," she said as she made her way to a set of elevators.

Carlos looked back at the tall bearded man as they waited for the elevators. He was still grinning, but he had stopped talking.

A short elevator ride later they were walking down a long corridor, the sound of his footsteps echoing unnaturally in his ear. He wondered at his haste. Perhaps it had been a mistake to act impulsively and seek her out now. He should have done more research, learned more about the woman before confronting her. He thought it would be easy to control the conversation. He was in the position of authority here, having the power to give or withhold his approval. Besides he'd had dealings with the staff at this hospital before. They were soft, pliable, easily molded and intimidated. But apparently the woman he was dealing with now was no George O'Malley. This was a woman who took control of every situation and if she didn't have control she was probably very unhappy. Like him. He had miscalculated again.

They approached a door, which she unlocked quickly and then held open, silently ordering him to enter. He did desperately trying to figure out how to get the situation back under his control. She walked in behind him, closed the door forcefully and motioned for him to sit at the flimsy chair across from her desk.

"I prefer to stand," he said well aware of how the flimsy chair would make it appear as if he was in a less powerful position.

"Suit yourself," she said as she made her way to her desk chair never hesitating to take a seat.

He turned to face her and was surprised again that even in this position he did not have the upper hand. He was like the subordinate that was not allowed to sit while his superior sat at her leisure. She was leaning back in her chair letting it sway slightly, her elbows on the arms, her fingers interlaced.

"Say what you need to say, Mr. Torres. I'm a busy woman and I have to get home to see my kids."

He opened his mouth, but her words slammed into him and he found himself once again at a loss. It took him a minute to recover.

"Allie is not your child," he said finally because it was what had popped into his head.

"You don't make that decision, Mr. Torres. She calls me Mom and Lucas calls me Mom and although I didn't give birth to either of them, they are my children."

"No."

"Is that all you have? Because if that's all you got, this is a waste of my time."

"Leave her alone," he blurted out.

"You don't make that decision either," she said calmly.

"She doesn't know what she's doing."

"Did you raise a stupid daughter, Mr. Torres? Do you have so little respect for her that you don't trust her to make the right choices for herself? I don't think so. I think you're proud of her and the decisions she's made. This isn't about her. It's about you. Callie makes pretty good decisions and you know you can trust her."

"Not in this," he protested.

"Why the hell not? She's smart and caring and compassionate and she has a right to live her own life. She certainly doesn't need sanctimonious judgments from you."

"It's wrong!" he shouted.

"According to who? You? And don't you dare say God because you don't know what God would think is right and neither do any of those cowards that like to hide their bigotry behind God."

He was losing more ground with her. Obviously she wasn't seeing reason in any of this. It had been a mistake to come here at all. The woman was clearly delusional. She actually thought he had a choice in this, that he could somehow decide that all of this was okay.

"Your wife is a lovely woman," she said softly.

He blinked. He heard the comment, but it was so off topic that it took him aback just slightly. "Yes, she is."

"Is she wrong too? Is she not capable of making a decision about supporting her daughter's choices?"

He fell silent. Carmen was different. She wasn't his child. Besides he could not pretend that he had not been a little relieved when she decided to fly to Seattle. He hadn't wanted Callie to be alone in all of this. "She's a mother," he said by way of explanation.

"Yes, she is and you're a father. Is there really that much difference between the two of you in the love you show your children?"

"Of course not!" he snapped.

"She's at our house right now, putting a brother and sister to bed, not judging our family, not judging Callie's choices but trying to understand them. You're here trying to chase me away. So which one of you is right?"

"I am," he said quickly, but he wasn't really sure anymore. He didn't understand the choices Callie was making, but neither had his wife. He was handling it like he thought he should and Carmen had chosen another way. He hadn't faulted her for it even if he was unhappy at being abandoned. He even understood her desire to be with Callie. He wanted that too and there were parts of him that were glad she had gone and that Diego was also in Seattle being a good brother.

"I hope you're sure about that Mr. Torres because despite the shambles David has made of our lives, I'm not going anywhere. He's not chasing me away and neither are you. I love your daughter and I'm pretty dedicated to her, which means I'll try my best to protect her from idiots who would hurt her, even when one of those idiots is her father."

"I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm trying to help."

"Don't kid yourself. You seem like a pretty honest man who doesn't like to dick around with self-delusion. You know you're not helping. You're uncomfortable and you don't understand her choices and you want her to conform to your idea so you won't have to change how you think. It doesn't work like that. Ever. You should know that. You're a parent."

He said nothing. She continued.

"My son loves football. I wish he didn't. It's a dangerous sport that could end up crippling him, but he loves it, so I'll do my best to protect him. I'll help him make good choices about headgear and playing safely and support him, because he loves it."

"You don't let your child jump off a bridge because he wants too."

"No, but Callie is not jumping off a bridge. You know that. You know it's not the same." She paused. "She's still your daughter, Mr. Torres. She's the daughter you're proud of. She's still the same. You still get to worry about her, but you don't get to run her life."

He stared at her for a few seconds, trying to find a response she would accept, but he knew the conversation was over. He no longer wanted to be in this woman's presence. She made him uncomfortable.

"You'll lose her. I'm not threatening you and I'm not saying you'll lose her to me, but you will lose her if you keep trying to make her choices yours. Just like Diego."

Diego.

Another pain he was refusing to deal with. He nodded at her, as he had no further words, and then simply turned and made his way to the door. He needed to get away from all this talk of choices and lost children. He needed to find his wife.

Callie was in a bad mood. She had been busy all day and missed her and Erica's supply closet appointment when Webber insisted she see a new referral. It was a patient with all kinds of complications that were the result of some quack's experimentation with an Achilles tendon surgery that had gone horribly wrong. Actually the surgery was fine, but the doctor was testing a new contraption on his patient that he told her would get her back on her feet faster than traditional rehab. The contraption caused an infection to develop at the incision which spread quickly to the woman's leg and was now invading the knee she'd had replaced a year earlier. The infection needed to be controlled, but it had come to her because there was some debate as to whether a second knee replacement was in order. It was. It wasn't a complicated case, but it needed close monitoring. An aggressive antibiotic treatment had already been started by her prior surgeon, but the infection was still spreading and if they didn't get it under control, the woman was in danger of losing her leg. Webber accepted the patient when the prior surgeon asked for help and Webber didn't like failures. He liked being the hero and liked when the hospital could swoop in and make things right.

Callie was a little more realistic. It might already be too late to save the leg, but she would try. She spent the afternoon researching the case history and ordering everything from a wound care vacuum to an interesting combination of antibiotics to stop the infection. When the somewhat frantic call from Elaine came in, she just added that to the rest of the reasons this day sucked and went about making arrangements so she could meet with Elaine and Danielle. It meant she probably wouldn't see Erica again tonight. She would be lucky to make it home in time to see the kids to bed. They liked their grandmother, but they knew things were not exactly right in the house and it had started to worry her. Lucas had been unusually shy around her mother at first, but once he tasted her pumpkin pie, all of his doubts seemed to vanish. She sighed remembering how she had teased him about how easily he was won over. But even though he warmed up to her mother, both kids seemed more subdued ately. The chaos that usually reigned in the house seemed to have quelled. The house was especially quiet if Erica didn't make it to dinner. Sighing in frustration, she counted the days in her head. Only two more weeks of this madness and then she would insist on Erica moving back. She couldn't take much more. Putting those thoughts aside, she concentrated on what could possibly prompt Elaine to call an "emergency" meeting.

"We can't find him."

"What? You can't find him? What does that mean?" asked Callie. She looked at Danielle who was sitting quietly, apparently content to let Elaine do all the talking.

"His last known address is a rehab clinic. We have addresses from the various substance abuse specialists he's seen, but none of them know where he is. We haven't heard from a lawyer, which is frankly a little surprising given what I was told about this case," continued Elaine clearly frustrated. "Apparently the only times he's been seen recently are when he showed up at your house to establish contact and when you went to lunch. You should have told us you were doing that. We could have served him then."

"Can't you trace him from the phone numbers he's called me from?"

"The phones that have been reported stolen? The ones that have now been deactivated? No, Ms. Torres that's a dead end. Apparently he has only made his presence known to you. This case can't proceed without him. I can't threaten him if I can't find him and frankly..."

"Callie has he given you a way to reach him, a place he's staying? Anything?'" asked Danielle with an exasperated look at Elaine who was working herself into a frenzy. Her face was flustered, her neat red hair starting to stick out in odd places.

"He usually calls me. I've never really thought about asking him where he's staying. I don't want to see him, you know."

"We know that, but nothing can happen until we locate him," said Danielle calmly.

"You mean to tell me that Erica and I have been living apart, barely seeing each other for two weeks and nothing's happened?" Her voice was getting tighter, the words coming out in clipped crisp tones.

"We've written all the motions," said Elaine getting a little defensive and looking through the stacks of paperwork in front of her.

"We've written motions to compel a paternity test; we've written petitions asking the court to grant you full custody of Allison. We drew up a petition stating that he desires to voluntarily relinquish his parental rights. We've even written a proposed order to terminate his parental rights for the judge to sign. We have almost every avenue covered, but I can't file most of these things without paternity being established and I certainly can't threaten him with anything if I can't find him. It's almost like he doesn't want to be found and if he doesn't want to be found, we have no case."

Danielle stood up and started pacing. "Callie, what exactly does he say he want? Does he understand what you want out of all of this?"

"Look, we had a hotdog in the park. It wasn't like I spent the day with him. He told me about how he's changed and all the things he's been doing to improve himself and how he wanted to be a father to Allie. I didn't say much. I thought you all would be handling that aspect of it."

"Well, we would if we could find him," interrupted Elaine. Danielle shot her a look.

"So, he has no idea you've started legal proceedings against him?"

"I don't know. He didn't mention it and I didn't either."

"Have you talked since the lunch?" asked Danielle.

"He's called one other time, said he was at the Waterfront looking at all of the families and wishing he would have stuck around or something like that."

"What did you say?"

Callie rolled her eyes. "What do you think I said? I laughed and told him he wasn't kidding anyone." She paused. "He hung up shortly after. He knows I'm not buying his little act."

"We're going to file the paternity suit, but you're going to have to get him to come to us or serve him with the paternity suit yourself, Ms. Torres. We can hire someone to do it, but frankly I think you'd have better luck."

"Wait a minute, don't go meeting him by yourself Callie. Just arrange it and we'll come with you," said Danielle looking concerned.

Callie was trying to digest everything. She hated that everything was vastly more involved and complicated than it needed to be, all because of one person who was no longer a part of her life. There were so many times she had thanked her stars that David seemed content to disappear from her life, but now she needed him to not be such an elusive loser and show up. She heard the warning in Danielle's voice but knew she couldn't heed it. David was being very calculating and as much as she hated to admit it, Diego was right. He was hiding from everyone except the person he was banking on getting something from. And why not? She or rather her father had paid every other time he had shown up just to make him go away. That's all David wanted now. He wanted to be paid to go away, but for once she didn't want him to go away, at least not before she got what she needed from him too.

David would run the moment he saw anyone with Callie. As much as she appreciated Elaine and Danielle's legal strategizing, this wasn't getting resolved through the courts. It would have to happen differently. She would need to convince him to sign all the right papers. In order to get what she wanted, she would need to give him what he wanted too. She wondered what the price would be. No doubt once he knew what she was asking, the amount he'd had in mind would triple.

"Callie? You understand that, right? Do not go meeting him by yourself."

Callie looked up. "Sure, yeah Danielle, I understand." She turned to Elaine.

"You said you were going to offer him money in exchange for the termination of his rights. How much did my father authorize?"

"Well I..."

"I'm the client remember?" said Callie.

Elaine looked at her papers. "He authorized 5 million dollars. I have the paperwork that will allow me to transfer up to that amount into an account for Mr. Gentry."

Callie was surprised and a little perplexed. Her father had threatened to cut her off entirely and yet... She stopped not wanting to think about money and what it did or didn't mean.

"Ms. Torres, please do heed Danielle's advice. We know what we're doing and who we're dealing with. Please let us handle this. I don't mean to insult you, but these are delicate matters that must be handled with extreme care and caution if we wish to achieve a desirable result. I know you have a personal connection with Mr. Gentry and you want to believe his intentions are..."

"It's not personal," said Callie. "I have no illusions about him. I know what this is about and I know what he's about. I know him and that makes me the best person to deal with him, no matter how...complex," she said with a sneer at Elaine. "I understand more than you think I do and probably more than you do." She stood. "I'll let you know if he contacts me." She picked up her purse and started walking out.

"Callie!" Danielle called after her, but Callie no longer wanted to continue the conversation, so she ignored her and kept walking.

Danielle caught up with her at the elevators. "Wait a minute will you?"

Callie had no choice but to stop at the elevators and because Danielle was still a friend she turned to her. Unfortunately her bad mood had not really waned. It had only increased much like Erica's stress headaches when gone untreated.

"What?" she snapped at Danielle.

"How are you and Erica?" asked Danielle.

"Well we don't see each other enough. I didn't get to see her today. I'm seeing no benefit from this little plan. In fact I'm beginning to think this plan was crap." She stopped trying to hold back the tears of frustration that were threatening. "I wish she was here, with me. I'm starting to feel very alone and I'm the one still at home, so I can't imagine how she must be dealing with all of this. So everything is pretty much fucked up."

Danielle stepped forward and put her arms around her. "I know this seems like a mess, but we will make progress. We are going to make this happen. One way or another he will be forced to relinquish his claim to Allie and then you can put this ugly little mess behind you. I promise you."

Callie's eyes were watering. "Thank you. I know that. One way or another, this will be finished. Thanks for all your help Danielle," she finished. The elevator doors opened slowly. She gave Danielle's shoulder a light squeeze before stepping into it. One way or another, this would get resolved.

Danielle watched her get on the elevator feeling uneasy. She knew none of this was sitting well with Callie despite the reassurances she was giving Danielle. She turned as the elevator doors closed to see Elaine watching them from the doorway.

"She really needs to leave emotions out of this. It would be less difficult for her if she thought about this logically."

Danielle shook her head as she walked toward her.

"You have it all wrong. The emotions are what make it all worthwhile." She stopped in front of Elaine. "Besides, no matter how much you want to set them to the side or bury them somewhere, feelings, emotions, empathy," she stressed the last word, "have a way of finding themselves into all of this. Even you feel it. Don't be frightened by strong emotions, Elaine. It's the reason you're getting so exasperated by this case. It's not just that you want to win. You want to put this family back together. Don't deny it. You care about this."

"I care about doing my job," said Elaine defiantly.

"If it was just a job, you wouldn't care so much," said Danielle as she moved forward forcing Elaine to step away from the doorway as she passed.

Callie was restless. The meeting had made her uneasy and the thought of what was waiting for her at home was causing a slight panic. She called her mother wanting to make sure the kids were okay, hoping to just have a quick conversation before calling Erica. It had been quick, but her mother's news that her father was waiting for her at the house was just one more unpleasant thing she didn't want to deal with right now. Right now she wanted to find Erica.

But Erica was not answering her phone. She wasn't at the house and according to Diego, Erica wasn't across the street either. That only left the hospital. Callie steered her car in that direction hoping to find her, but she would be disappointed. If Erica was there, she was hiding as Callie had not been able to locate her and instead was pulled into another unplanned consult. She tried Erica's phone several times, although she stopped leaving messages after the fifth one. She checked on the patient with the infection who had been admitted to her care earlier and then at a loss as to what else to do, she headed home.

She tried Erica half a dozen times on her way home. She was tempted to throw her phone out the window after her last attempt. She didn't want to face her father alone, but apparently in this moment she was very much alone.

Continued in Chapter 11