DISCLAIMER:: not mine. belongs to abc studios and shonda
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I don't use excuses, don't ask why
It's just a breakdown; it happens all the time
So get out of my face, don't even try
You wanna help me?
Just let me cry
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Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeep.
"I'm sorry Mr. Hauder, Mrs. Hauder. We were unable to successfully extract the bullet before the damage to your daughter's heart became irreparable…."
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeep.
"There was too much blockage in your father's artery to repair it before his heart gave out."
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeep.
"We were able to successfully transplant a new heart into Lisa, but while in recovery her body rejected the new organ. I'm so sorry Ivan."
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"You look…"
"Don't." Erica held up a finger in warning, cutting Danielle off midsentence.
"Erica, you need to calm down. Don't snap at me, please. I'm here to help."
"Help?" Erica looked up at Danielle with dark amusement in her eyes. She laughed dryly. "Are you going to bring them back? Three patients died today, on my watch. So forgive me if I'm not exactly open to being social right now."
"Fine. You don't want to talk about it, then we don't have to talk about it." Danielle raised her hands in defeat. "I'll be in my office if you change your mind." She backed away to the door. "By the way, there was a call for you earlier, while you were in surgery. Gina thought it best not to page you even though the caller said it was urgent."
"Who was it?" Erica tried not to sound as relieved as she felt. Even if she failed in saving the lives of her patients anyway, she would have beaten herself up far worse if she had paused to take the call.
Danielle shrugged. "A Dr. Torres from Seattle. Anyone you know?"
Erica froze. She hadn't heard that name outside of her own thoughts for over five months now. Not once since the day she'd left Seattle. Could Callie have somehow found her? Why was she calling now? If she had known all along where Erica was, why now? Why five months later?
"Erica, are you okay? You look a little pale."
"I'm… I'm fine."
"Gina got off about an hour ago, but she left your messages with Karen."
Relief and disappointment flooded through Erica. Disappointment that she'd missed her call and relief for the same reason. She was dying to hear Callie's voice, even if she couldn't admit it, but what would she say if she had her on the phone? Sorry seemed too feeble. She could tell her how much she missed her but that might be crossing a line. She had no idea how Callie felt towards her now. No, it was definitely better that she'd missed the call.
"Erica?"
"Hmm?" The blonde looked up, slightly surprised to find Danielle staring at her with her head tilted questioningly to the side. She had forgotten the brunette was still there.
"I'm okay, I swear."
Danielle looked unconvinced. "Okay, I trust you." She reached for the door. "I'll be in surgery until eight, but what do you say you and I grab a late dinner?"
Erica nodded, already back off in her thoughts. "Sounds great."
Danielle smiled and shook her head. "I'll meet you in the lobby at 8:30 okay?"
Erica just nodded in response, too caught up in long suppressed thoughts of Callie.
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"What do we say to him?" Arizona looked sideways at Richard Webber. They were standing calmly in front of the main entrance to Seattle Grace in the pre-dawn gloom waiting for the limo.
Richard Webber had his usual straight mouthed glare that somehow always seemed to look disapproving. In this particular case however, disapproval was exactly what he felt. "We will take him to my office and tell him the truth Dr. Robbins."
"I don't think he's going to like that very much."
"No, I'm sure he won't"
Just then a long black vehicle slid into the parking lot, silencing all conversation. The driver pulled to a stop in the passenger unloading zone and got out, rushing around to open the door. He helped out a young woman in her late twenties with dark brown hair. She was tall and slender. Behind her followed a young man in his mid twenties with platinum blonde hair and behind him came Senator Hanley.
He gave the driver a slight nod and then led the way forward, toward the two waiting doctors. A man silently exited from the passenger side of the cab and followed.
"Senator Hanley, I'm Richard Webber, Chief of Surgery here at Seattle Grace and this is Dr. Arizona Robbins, head of pediatric surgery. She worked on your daughter."
The senator shook both their hands in turn. "Richard Hanley. Very nice to meet you both and thank you for standing out here in the cold to welcome me. I would have waited until a more decent hour to come, but I am quite eager to see my daughter, I hope you understand. This is my daughter Bree and my son Richie." He didn't mention the name of his guard and the two doctors didn't ask.
Dr. Webber shook their hands, as did Arizona.
The woman looked up at the hospital, a concentrated frown on her face.
"Now that we've concluded the formal pleasantries, I'd like to see my daughter. I trust she's well."
"I was hoping we could speak to you in my office first, tell you the details of your daughter's condition when she came to our hospital."
"I don't mean to be rude Dr. Webber, but there will be plenty of time for that later. I'd like to see my daughter."
"You can't." Everyone's gaze shifted in surprise to Bree.
"And why is that?" Senator Hanley turned to his daughter.
"Because she's not here." And to the shock of everyone, she grinned.
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Elizabeth kept her eyes glued out the window, trying to ignore the empty seat beside her. The bus wasn't crowded, due to the late hour they had set out. It made good time all through the morning and they were scheduled to come into San Francisco half past six.
She didn't know who this Erica Hahn was that she was supposed to find, but Callie had said that she could trust her. She wasn't so sure, but she had no choice but to give this woman the benefit of the doubt. She just hoped she wasn't setting herself up to be burned.
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Erica strolled casually up to Karen. "Any messages for me?"
Karen raised an eyebrow in thought. Finally remembrance graced her features. "As a matter of fact, there are." She dug through a stack of message slips, eventually extracting a small pile of three or four slips from the middle of the stack. She handed them to Erica.
The blonde flipped through each as she scanned them thoughtlessly until she came to the last one, the one she was looking for.
Karen nosily looked at the slip Erica was reading. "Gina said she was a really sweet gal. She said she was one of your old co-workers."
Erica glanced at Karen and then back to the slip. It didn't say much. Just that Callie's name and where she was calling from. It mentioned that she was Erica's old co-worker, everything she already knew. But she saw no number, or any way to get back to her.
"Did she leave a number to call her back?" Erica was slightly disgusted at the blatant hope in her voice.
Karen shrugged. "Gina said she didn't leave one, said she was going to be unreachable."
Erica frowned deeply, a fact that was not lost on Karen, so she continued. "But she's gonna call back around seven."
"Thanks." Erica tucked the rest of her messages into her pocket and walked away, hoping the three hours until seven went by fast.
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Callie felt her eyes growing heavy. She had been driving for hours. She knew she should pull over at the next motel and get a room. She wouldn't be in San Francisco until midnight at the earliest, and that was if she made wonderful time. But something inside of her wouldn't let her stop. She watched as the exit she should have taken to get to the relief of a bed raced past her. She had another forty miles to the next town and the next opportunity to stop. But that's how it had been since Olympia. She'd tell herself she was going to take the next exit, and then at the last minute she'd change her mind and shoot past it, deciding she could push herself to make it to the next town. And she knew she wasn't going to stop before she got to her destination. She had to get to San Francisco, to Erica.