Don't say victim
Chapter 14
As Owen pulled up to the sidewalk Christina flung the car door open so fast the man driving cringed before swinging his own open to follow her. He ran up the front stairs behind her and walked into the house only to hear her already yelling,
"GEORGE WHERE ARE YOU" Christina heard a muffled yell from upstairs and began to climb the stairs, Owen followed her barely thinking about staying down stairs, he had never seen his girlfriend so angry.
She stormed up the stairs hot fury pulsing through her veins, when she reached the end of the hallway and walked into George's room she stopped. Usually seeing George O'Mallie red and swollen eyed would have caused her to soften maybe just a tad. But the image of the crying man seated between Meredith and Izzie who were both comforting him enraged her further.
"So have you got anything to say for yourself?" Owen's eyebrows rose at Christina's malicious tone.
"Look Chris, Callie just wouldn't listen to me, I told her to get in the car I waited for her and she was just being difficult, she ...she was too hard, she's hard work Chris"
"Excuse me, don't you dare even talk about her like that!"
"Christina!" Meredith looked appalled at Christina's words,
"No tell me George does Meredith know? Have you told her or was it just me and Alex out of the loop...I'm trusting that your slut knows"
"HEY"
She turned around curls flying and raised her eyebrows at George who stopped talking,
"How could you do that to her? She made you happy, genuinely happy and I know that Izzy didn't like her but you loved her so how the hell could you do that to her?"
"I don't know Chris I...I ..I have no idea, I don't know I just...I don't know"
"That's disgusting, you're disgusting and pathetic. You've known this entire time and what, you didn't think it might just be a good idea to oh I don't know tell somebody!" Christina's voiced raised again,
"I thought she would have"
"Oh for Christ's sake George this is Callie we're talking about. Not Izzie, not Meredith, not you she doesn't talk about her problems she doesn't go for help, I really thought you would have realised that when all that happened, no?" George just looked at her,
"I'm sorry Chris" Christina rolled her eyes,
"I really don't think that it's me you should be apologising too" George shook his head,
"No, I mean I'm sorry for lying to you, to you and Meredith and Alex about everything. I mean we tell each other everything I'm sorry" Christina laughed wryly,
"George I'm not angry at you for not telling us the truth, you don't share somebody's private secrets like that" Christina stopped and looked at the three again,
"Which you've probably done now right?" She rolled her eyes,
"I'm angry at you for what you did tell us that happened. I'm angry at you for making it all about you when Callie needed you. Do you know what she did, what she went through? How the hell could you sit back and let her go through that alone?"
"Well what could I do Chris? What would you do?" He tried to defend himself weakly,
"Even if she didn't want to see you, talk to you whatever. Which she did by the way, but even if she didn't you ring someone. Addison, Bailey, Mark, Chief, Her parents. Anyone do you get it yet. You don't let her go through that alone." George just looked at her before he finally nodded. His submission did nothing to relieve her anger though. It seemed like he was just doing it to make her happy to make her be quiet. She turned to the other two,
"If you two could not spread the story, just this once, that would be nice" Before anyone could talk again Christina turned on her heel and walked out, passed Owen and down the stairs. The man looked at the three ex best friends of his girlfriend and couldn't help the surge of anger that spread through him along with the surge of pride for Christina. He shook his head and turned following her back down the steps relieved he still had the car keys.
Mark became a permanent fixture within the four walls that had housed Callie for over the past week, barely ever leaving. Addison, Christina and Alex were still often found in the room but as long as Mark was in there Callie could breathe normally. She still slept through most of the days but was waking up for more and more time and every time she was he would be there. Sitting in a red cushioned chair beside her bed. His fingers would usually be laced with hers but that was as close as he would get. Everyone was relieved at the progress with Mark in the room it meant that other people could be in the room, others such as Derek and Owen.
Within half a day of Mark being back in Callie's room he, Derek, Owen and Addison had taken back Callie's case as the primary doctors. Within two hours Derek stood staring at Callie's newest CT scans that he had ordered,
"Looking good, you did a good job" Owen commented as he moved into the room with his own scans. Derek nodded,
"The swelling is taking longer to go down than I thought it would" Owen stopped and looked at her scans more closely,
"Still it's going down and she's got a lot of stress on her at the moment" Derek turned to Owen now,
"Her parents still up there?" Owen almost shuddered himself as he moved to pin his xrays to the board,
"Oh yeah and they're not a happy pair either they're furious that Callie changed her emergency contacts. Mark's not letting them near the door though last I heard he threatened to call security" Derek shook his head,
"yeah I don't envy him or her at the moment I think I scared Mark telling him how much the swelling still needed to reduce"
"I think he's just scared mate" Derek nodded. He was still shaken from the fact that this had all happened to Callie before,
"Speaking of stressed by the way the police want to talk to Callie again they said they've left it as long as they can but they need some sort of statement from her now" Derek sighed, they had been trying to put it off for as long as they could knowing that Callie wasn't ready for it.
Derek was worried, he had watched Callie become more and more dependent on Mark's presence that he hoped against everything that as she healed she could learn to stand on her own again. And what would happen when Mark began work again and had surgeries again?
Mark pushed the door back open and caught Callie's eye a second later. He smiled softly and then moved towards her. Really all he wanted was to walk back outside the room and tell the two serious officers that Callie wasn't ready, that they'd have to wait, that they couldn't go in. The conversation between Addison, Christina and Callie came to a close as Callie frowned watching Mark,
"What's wrong" He offered her a smile that he knew wasn't convincing,
"nothing baby it's okay...um the police are here love and they want to know if they can speak to you" Mark watched Callie's face lose what looked like every drop of blood in it and turn ashen grey.
"love Cal you don't have to do this if you're not ready okay" Mark assured Callie who was still holding his hand in hers.
"but Cal it's better to get it over and done with" Mark glared at Addison even though he knew that she was right. The red head returned the stare pointedly,
Callie looked at Mark who met her eyes.
"It's up to you baby, we'll all be here either way it's up to you" She didn't moved,
"I don't know Mark" her voice was back to being vulnerable and frail and helpless and the voice that chilled him to the spine,
"How about if we let them in and you can say as much as you want to Cal and then they can leave whenever you want alright. A short visit today" His words, his proposition seemed to calm her and after a few minutes she nodded and gave his hand a tight squeeze,
"Okay"
"Do you want us to stay" Callie gripped his hand,
"Don't leave" Her voice was shaky,
"hey, hey, hey Cal I said I wasn't going anywhere remember" She nodded and then grinned and Mark almost reflexively jammed his finger into the pain relief button. Mark took a deep breath and walked to the door allowing the two officers to enter.
They were both female at least Mark could give them that and as they walked into the room they smiled at Callie gently.
"Hi Callie, how are you doing today?"
"I'm okay"
"glad to hear it, now we just need to ask you a couple of question Dr Torres is that alright, you don't have to answer anything you don't want to just yet" She nodded and squeezed Mark's hand tighter,
"Ok Callie, can you tell me what you remember from that night?"
"I ..don't remember much" The police officer moved towards her and looked at her,
"Callie, I know that this is hard, I understand but we need to know as much as you can tell us alright" The woman said gently looking at Callie who nodded tightening her grip on Mark's hand once again,
"I remember going downstairs to ... I wanted to go.." She frowned,
"I don't know I...was going somewhere and then I was going to head to the restaurant. I was walking to the ... I don't remember and then I...heard a voice behind me."
"That's okay Callie can you tell me what he said to you?" She shook her head trying to recall the memory,
"I don't remember exactly, I think he asked me where I was going" She shook her head again and Mark leant up placing his hand on her forehead,
"Love keep your head still" She smiled at him and he lowered his hand,
"I don't know I'm sorry"
"It's alright Callie we don't expect you to remember much at the moment but if you think of anything maybe write it down or tell Mark or somebody else and let us know yeah?"
"Ok, Um he had a knife, I remember, he had a knife and he made me walk with him into the park" The officer nodded at her encouragingly,
"we walked behind the building and then he ...I think he let go of the knife or threw it and then I tried to get away, I tried..I ...I tried" Her voice became strained and the heart monitor beside the bed beeped erratically. Mark looked towards the officers, who both knew that he was serious in making them leave if she became to stressed,
"Callie I'm positive that you've been told already that what happened was not at all your fault but I'd like to tell you again. This happens to women all the time, it's traumatic and you can take as long as you need. We aren't here for all the answers today and Drs. Shepherd and Hunt have given us most of the details about your physical condition. Can you tell us what you remember after it happened, when did he leave?"
Callie shook her head but stopped as Mark moved closer caressing her hand reminding her to keep her still healing body as still as she could.
"I don't know, I...woke up and he was gone"
"You were unconscious?"
"Yes"
"Ok and how did you get back to your apartment?"
"I ...I ..I just ran ...I just...there wasn't another way I had to ..I had to get..." Tears welled up in her eyes and that was enough for Mark who leant over the side of the bed to her,
"love Cal it's okay you did good love you're okay alright" One of the officers moved forward at Mark's words as well standing beside him,
"Callie that's all we need for today, thank you for speaking with us, you let us know when you're okay to talk a little bit more love okay" Callie nodded and without another word the women left shutting the door behind them.
With the click of the door tears began to fall down Callie's bruised face,
"Hon it's alright love" Mark tried to reassure her. She looked up to him trying to breathe evenly again and she let him run a gentle hand down the side of her face.
"It's okay Callie just breathe" The pair barely even registered Christina and Addison leaving both women rattled by just the few details of Callie's ordeal.
At some point Callie reached for Mark she had got herself more and more stressed and Mark's attempts to settle her were becoming futile. Finally she simply reached her arms out for him in pain. He didn't hesitate to gently slide into the bed next to her testing her reaction,
"It's okay sweetheart, relax" She just reached for him further,
"No love don't move" He slid into the bed next to her moving around her so she didn't need to move. She tucked her head into his neck and cried. He rubbed her back slowly calming her down,
"It's alright love, it's okay"
Slowly she began to relax, slowly she began to breathe again but she didn't let go and while Mark's chest thumped uncomfortably at hearing Callie's cry he couldn't help but marvel at having her in his arms again. He held her tighter against his chest promising to never let her go again.
PLEASSEEE REVIEW!
needing some motivation!
Sorry it's taken so long guys. xx