Tonight's Ep: Re-run, which I'm not even going to attempt to watch because there's an all-day House marathon that has my attention. HAPPY TURKEYLURKEY DAY!!! Or maybe that's just what my grandfather calls it. Hmm . . . Happy THANKSGIVING people! Or if you don't live in the US happy THURSDAY . . . or FRIDAY depending on what time zone you're in. Posting this a little early because I had a lot of turkey today and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be awake tonight.

More of Addison in this chapter and a little baby name talk.
Also, I have no knowledge of radiation treatments and do not claim too. This is just how it all goes in my own little world.

Dealing with an extreme case of writers block nowadays. I don't really know what to do now that I've already written the birth. I'm thinking that I'll keep this going until the wedding. Then I'll end it and bring the sequel in beginning a year or a few later. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

VillageVoice

"Why do I still need to do radiation if everything's clean?" Erica asked.

Dr. James turned away from the x-ray box where he was looking at the PET scan of Erica's lower abdomen and grabbed the test results off the desk. "Because you know as well as I do that we have no way of knowing whether the cancer is gone for good. We need to start right away to kill any cancerous cells that were not removed when we removed the mass." He sat down in the chair next to the exam table. "And we need to start right away."

Erica blinked away the tears. "Callie's not going to let me do this alone."

"It's not safe Erica." The older doctor shook his head. "Do you have somewhere you can stay?"

Erica nodded. Addison and Mark were going down to LA next week and she didn't think they would have a problem letting her use their house. Good thing they had a guestroom, because there was no way she was sleeping in a bed Mark Sloan had sex in, and by the sound of things, a lot of sex in.

"Okay. We're going to hit it fast and we're going to hit it hard. I've scheduled you for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday-"

"I can't."

"You just said-"

"I will do it. I just can't do Monday or Tuesday. We have our nine month pregnancy shoot Monday and Tuesday is our last birthing class."

"I can push back Monday, but not Tuesday. I'll reschedule for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday."

"I'll be radioactive the whole weekend."

"Not the whole weekend. You should be fine Sunday. Dr. Hahn . . . you need to do this. Sooner, rather than later."

"I'm going with you and you are staying home."

Erica looked up from the bag she was packing to take to Addison and Mark's. "Callie it's not safe."

"I don't care. You're not doing this alone."

"It's only a few days."

"A few days now, a few more days in a month…Erica." Callie sat down next to the bag Erica was packing on the bed and pulled Erica to her. "I am not going to let you do this alone. We made a commitment. . . I want to be there."

Erica let herself be pulled over so that she was standing between Callie's legs. She ran her fingers through Callie's long, dark hair. "I can't let you do this."

"I'll wear a lead bodysuit if I have to."

"Cal-"

"Please Erica." Callie begged. "I need to be there. I have to be there. I can't – I can't just sit here and wait while you're in the hospital getting poison shot straight at you through a machine. I can't do that."

Erica took Callie in her arms and just held the younger woman as she cried. Callie couldn't do it and even though Erica knew Callie shouldn't, she couldn't ask her too. "I'll call James and see if we can try a different type of radiation that would be safe for you to be around."

Callie simply nodded against Erica's stomach and pulled the blonde in closer. Erica took a deep breath and took a step back, looking deep into Callie's eyes. Neither needed to say anything, they knew already. They were scared. Erica was scared that the cancer may still be there. She couldn't leave Callie and the baby. She was too young, she had too much to do, so many years she wanted to spend with Callie. Callie was petrified. Erica couldn't die. She wouldn't be able to go on without her.

Erica brought a hand to Callie's cheek and rubbed the pad of her thumb across the soft skin just as she had all those months ago in the elevator. She never would have thought from that one kiss that all of this would happen. Callie smiled and leaned into the touch, bringing a smile to Erica's face as well. Forgetting all about packing and leaving, Erica walked around to her side of the bed and laid down, gently guiding Callie down into her arms. Everything was fine. As long as they were together, everything would be fine.

There was a long silence between the two. Since Addison moved back to Seattle, she and Erica had become really good friends. There was nothing Erica couldn't share with Callie, but she just needed a third part to talk to.

"I'm scared." It took a great deal for the cardiothoracic surgeon to admit this to herself, let alone anyone else. "I just keep thinking five years down the line with Callie and our daughter standing beside my grave as they lower me into the ground."

"Erica, it's perfectly natural to be scared. You wouldn't be human if you weren't."

"I can't do that to them."

Addison put a supportive hand over her friend's. "You won't."

"What if I lose my hair?"

"Then you don't have to worry about protecting your hair from the Seattle rain." Addison joked. "This type of radiation doesn't typically make you lose the hair . . . on your head."

Erica raised an eyebrow. That could be interesting. "I don't even really care about that. I just – I don't want to drag Callie through this if …" She trailed off. She was a doctor. She told people and their loved ones that they were dying all the time. But it was another thing entirely to be facing her own mortality.

"Erica, nothing is certain in life. You could be totally cancer free, but walk out the doors of this hospital and get hit by a car."

"That's comforting."

"All I'm saying is none of us know when our time is up. But it's better to spend that time with people we love rather than closing ourselves off waiting for the worst case scenario."

"I'm a surgeon. We're trained to look at the worst case scenario."

"I know. But right now this has got nothing to do with Erica the surgeon. Erica the surgeon is dead – Okay, bad choice of words."

Erica laughed.

"This isn't happening to Erica the world famous 'Cardio God' if I hear correctly. It's happening to Erica the woman. The woman who has a home and family. She has someone who loves her more than her own life. Callie would die for you Erica. So fight this. Fight this for her."

"Okay Dr. Hahn, I'm going to need you to stay perfectly still." Dr. James instructed through an intercom as he finished calibrating the exact parameters for the radiation. "We don't want to accidentally fry your liver."

Erica looked over at the older, slightly overweight, balding doctor. Was that supposed to be funny?

"What do you not understand about the word 'still' Dr. Hahn?" Erica turned her head back to where it had been and resisted the urge to laugh at Callie. "Sorry Dr. Torres. I wasn't aware we were starting yet."

"Okay Erica, you ready?" James asked, totally ignoring the banter between Callie and Erica.

Erica closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ready."

With the push of a button Dr. James began the first of Erica's radiation treatments. "I'll be back in half an hour. Make sure she doesn't move." He said to Callie before leaving through the back door. Callie looked through the glass at Erica. She had fought tooth-and-nail to be able to be in the room, and had grudgingly agreed to stay behind the partition and wear a lead apron just to be safe. It was either that or nothing, so she cut her losses.

Erica looked so vulnerable lying there on that cold metal table, only a thin hospital gown protecting her from the world. She was pale, but she'd pretty much always been so that wasn't it. It was the look in her eyes. She was scared. Erica Hahn was scared and that scared the crap out of Callie. Erica was always the one to put on a brave face and tell her things were going to be alright and if she was scared…

"You know there's a bet going?" Callie began needing to break the deafening silence.

"About what?"

"About how much longer I can go until I 'drop' the baby."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I hear there's a pretty good pay out for the winner too."

"Do people at this hospital have nothing better to do with their time?"

"Apparently not." Callie chuckled to herself. She didn't want to make Erica laugh, she needed to stay as still as death. "So I was thinking..."

"About?" Erica probed.

"We have four weeks until this baby comes; we need to seriously think about what we're going to name her."

"Oh yeah."

"We need to narrow down out name pool."

"Okay, so how 'bout you take one name off my list you don't like and I'll take one off yours."

Callie nodded and thought for a minute. "Kathryn."

"You don't like Kathryn?"

"Everyone will be calling her Katie and that's just…eh. Too dumb blonde cheerleader for me."

Erica tried not to laugh. She could just imagine the look on Callie's face. "Okay fair enough. Hallie."

"Hallie?"

"Really Callie? Callie, Hallie…Hallie, Callie. It's a little too cutsie for me."

"I didn't even think about that."

… … … … … … … … … … …

Thirty minutes later they were still debating over names. "I'm sorry." Callie laughed. "But that one just has to go."

"I was really pulling for that one." Erica sighed, she'd lost this argument. "Fine, but Christina is gone too." Callie tried to object, but Erica beat her to it. "And no we're not going to call her Tina or Nina or Chrissy or some other lame attempt to cover up the name because the fact still remains that if we named her Christina her legal name would still be Christina."

"I've had this name picked out long before I met Christina Yang."

"It's still a no."

Callie leaned back in the chair. "So that only leaves …"

"Yeah."

"You don't think people will think we're idiots for naming her after-"

As if on clock work, the good doctor returned. "I see everyone is still doing well." He interrupted as he took a seat beside Callie and spoke into the intercom. "And how are we doing Dr. Hahn?"

"Oh just great. Never better."

Dr. James pushed a few buttons and the machine powered down. "I'm going to ask you to lie there for a few minutes to give your body some time to catch-up, then I'd say you're good to go." He took his hand off the intercom button and turned to Callie. "So, I uh…I heard you two discussing names?"

"Are you serious?" Callie asked. "There's a pool going for that too?"

James shrugged. "What else have we got to do around here?"

"God forbid we treat patients." Came Erica's reply from the other side of the partition. Dr. James turned back to Erica's chart and tried to hide the embarrassmen painted so perfectly on his bright red face.