A/N: Meh. I'm not thrilled with this chapter, but here it is. :p There's only so many times you can re-write something.
One month from today is the season 5 premiere... is anyone else counting down like I am? :)
Callie wasn't sure what the noise was that woke her, but she was surprised to see that Erica was no longer curled up in bed beside her. Glancing over at the clock radio, she was further surprised to see that it was only two o'clock in the morning. There was no reason for Erica to be out of bed so early. Sitting up, Callie heard the noise again and realized it was coming from the bathroom. Callie stood up and walked towards the master bath, flipping on the light as she entered.
Erica, who was kneeling, doubled over at the toilet, quickly put her hands over her eyes as she retched. When she finally could, she spoke. "Please Cal, turn the light off, it's killing me."
Callie flipped the light switch back off but moved towards Erica, holding her hair up behind her head as she continued to get sick. "What happened? What's wrong?" Callie asked.
"I had too much wine. Derek told me not to drink because of my concussion, and I had been feeling so good that I completely forgot." Erica gasped.
Realizing that they were both stark naked and that the bathroom tile was freezing cold beneath them, Callie pulled the bath towel down off of the rack and wrapped it around Erica. When Erica's retching had stopped, Callie got up and filled a glass of water at the sink. "You need to rehydrate." Callie said gently as Erica shook her head, trying to refuse the water. "Just take small sips. Don't gulp it." Slowly, Erica was able to drink the entire glass. After Callie was sure that Erica was going to keep the water down, she got back up and refilled the glass, taking two acetaminophen tablets from their bottle in the medicine cabinet.
"Take these." She whispered, putting the tablets in Erica's hand.
Again Erica shook her head. "I can't, I think I'm going to be sick again." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she was retching again. After the water she just drank came back up, she started dry heaving, the contents of her stomach evacuated long before Callie had woken up.
"Stay here for a second, I'll be right back." Callie whispered as Erica curled up on the floor at the base of the toilet. Rushing back into their bedroom, Callie pulled on clothes and grabbed some of Erica's. Bringing them back into the bathroom, Callie handed them to Erica.
"What's this?" Erica asked, confused.
"We're going to the ER. Derek said if you started to vomit, we needed to bring you back to the ER. So please put some clothes on while I go pull the car out of the garage."
"Callie, I'm hung over. I don't need to go-" Again Erica started dry heaving. The retching became so bad at one point that the blood vessels in the side of Erica's face began to pop, leaving red marks.
"Come on, you don't have a choice in the matter." Callie was adamant. When Erica refused to move, Callie began to dress her, and at first Erica put up quite a fight. When her head started to pound, she quickly gave in, letting Callie finish. "Just stay here for a minute; I'm going to start the car. Grab the garbage pail," Callie pointed to the small pail beside the sink, "and I'll come and get you. We'll put you on fluids and you'll be fine by the time the sun comes up."
When Callie returned a few minutes later, she was shocked to see Erica just lying in front of the toilet. Grabbing the garbage pail, she bent down and tried to help Erica to stand. Erica tried, but couldn't keep her footing under her. Scared, Callie sat Erica back down on the floor and grabbed her cell phone.
"Who are you calling?" Erica mumbled, too dizzy to even lift her head.
"I'm calling an ambulance. Just stay there, try not to move too much."
"No! No, I don't want an ambulance. Help me up again; we'll do it this time."
Callie bent over again and wrapped one of Erica's arms around her shoulders. Slowly she got Erica up and Erica leaned heavily on her. It took them twenty minutes to make it to the car, and the entire time Callie kept saying it would be better to call an ambulance and Erica kept refusing. When Callie finally got Erica in the car seat, she buckled her in and then ran around to the driver's side. She hit the gas so hard pulling out of the driveway that she left tire marks. As they got on the freeway, Callie pulled out her cell phone and called the triage desk in the emergency room, notifying them of their impending arrival. Erica had already passed out in the passenger seat, and Callie pulled off to the side of the road at one point to check her pulse and breathing. Relieved that both seemed normal, Callie pulled back out into traffic and sped back towards Seattle Grace Hospital.
Pulling up in the ambulance bay, Callie was shocked to see Miranda Bailey and George O'Malley standing outside in trauma gowns with an empty stretcher. "Is there a trauma coming in behind me?" Callie asked, worried she'd have to move her car before she could get Erica out of it.
"No, we're waiting for you." Miranda said as she and George lifted a semi-conscious Erica onto the stretcher. Callie followed the stretcher in with Miranda and George, explaining what Erica had been drinking earlier that night.
"I expected better from the two of you." Miranda said sharply as she located a vein in Erica's hand and set up an intravenous line. "I mean, Dr. Torres, you're both doctors. One of you didn't think that Dr. Hahn drinking with a concussion would be a bad idea?"
"I'm sorry." Callie dropped her head. They'd been too busy celebrating Callie's personal victory with her mother to even think about Erica's concussion. Callie suddenly felt ashamed and stupid, and guilty as hell for the way Erica was feeling right now.
"Well, what's done is done." Miranda said, seeing Callie's face fall as she hung a bag of saline on the IV stand. "Dr. Hahn, do you hear me?" She asked, bringing Erica back to a confused consciousness.
"Huh?" Erica mumbled, covering her eyes from the light.
"Dr. O'Malley, please go get me one of the yellow saline bags. We're going to need to double up our efforts here." Miranda said, pointing her finger towards the supply closet. "Dr. Hahn, can you look at me?" Miranda asked, her voice ricocheting between Erica's ears like a shotgun shell.
Erica turned and lifted her hands from her eyes to look up at Miranda, then re-covered her eyes. The stark lighting in the pit was enough to blind her tonight.
"I think you're just dehydrated, Dr. Hahn. I'm going to put you on fluids for a little while, and we'll see how you fare. Can you answer me?"
"Headache..." Erica mumbled.
"I'm sure you have one hell of a headache, yes. But based on how much alcohol you consumed, I can't give you anything for it right now." Miranda made a ticking sound with her tongue as she patted Erica's hand. George returned a few moments later and added the yellow saline to the IV line. "That ought to sober you up a bit. I'll draw blood in a little while and see what your ETOH levels are. If you're sober enough, I'll shoot you up with something good for the pain." Looking over at Callie, Miranda said, "If you're sober enough yourself, Dr. Torres, I'd appreciate it if you could move your car to the parking lot. You never know when we're gonna need that ambulance bay."
Erica grunted and rolled over, still covering her eyes as Miranda left. George shot Callie an awkward smile, shrugging his shoulders. "I can move your car for you Dr. Tor-, I mean, Callie. I'll park it in your usual spot, if you want."
"Thanks George." Callie said, handing him her keys. She found it sweet that he remembered her usual parking spot, and that he'd offer to park her car for her. George was just thankful for the opportunity to get away from his ex-wife and her girlfriend for the moment. He was genuinely happy that Callie had found someone to love; he was just a little bit shocked that it turned out to be another woman.
"Callie..." Erica groaned.
"Sweetie?" Callie asked back.
"Headache..." Erica groaned again. "Please Callie, it's so bad."
"I'm sorry, Erica. It's just not safe to give you painkillers right now. Just let the fluids rehydrate you and then we'll be able to give you something for the headache. There's too much alcohol in your system."
Callie was completely shocked when Erica burst into tears. Erica wasn't a big crier, and she certainly hadn't cried when she'd first gotten this concussion, but right now, huge tears were streaming down her face and sobs were wracking her body. "Oh sweetie," Callie crooned, kicking off her flip flops and getting on the bed behind Erica. "Lean back," Callie whispered, cradling Erica tight against her. "Just close your eyes, baby. Try to think of something other than the pain."
"Like what?" Erica cried, the headache making her feel like she'd go blind.
"Well..." Callie whispered against her ear. "How about the mind blowing sex we had earlier?"
"What?" Erica moaned, thinking the headache had made her lose her senses as well.
"You know that people who are allergic to painkillers often use porn to release natural endorphins in their body to fight pain, right?" Callie whispered.
Erica did know that, she'd read it in a medical journal somewhere. But despite that knowledge, she couldn't bring herself to think of anything right now, let alone the intimacy she and Callie had shared hours earlier. "I can't, Callie." Erica whispered.
"Well, let me help you then." Callie whispered back, her voice as low as possible. "Let me tell you all the things I'm going to do to you when you get better." Callie started rubbing slow circles on Erica's back with her palm, trying to ease away some of the tension and therefore some of the pain.
"I don't know…" Erica started, but Callie interrupted her.
"Erica, the next chance we have, I'm going to pin you down to the bed, and do very wicked things to you with my tongue."
"Callie," Erica started again, afraid someone would hear Callie whispering to her, but Callie continued undaunted.
"I'm going to pin you down and kiss you senseless. I'm going to trace a path to your nipples and I'm going to suck on each of them until they're so erect that they'll never go back down, because I know just how sensitive they are. Then I'm going to continue down to your stomach, where I'll plant kisses like butterflies while I knead your tits with my fingers, because I can't get enough of your tits. And when that becomes too much, I'm going to slide on down between your legs, where I'm going to lick, nibble and suck on you until you scream my name. And I'm going to do it over and over again until you can't stand it anymore."
Erica's sobbing had stopped by now and she had rested her head back against Callie's chest. As Callie continued, Erica's breathing regulated, and after another twenty minutes, Erica had fallen off into a deep sleep. Callie leaned back against the bed and closed her eyes too, satisfied that she could at least ease some of Erica's pain, even if it wasn't in the most conventional of methods. They both had a big day ahead of them tomorrow, and they both needed some rest. Neither of them were aware of when George came back with Callie's keys and put them in her purse for her. Neither of them ever heard Miranda come back and check on Erica, skipping the pain killer since she'd apparently been soothed by other methods. Callie did stir when Lexie Grey came by with a blanket and covered them, but she never woke up. The two just slumbered on until the morning sunlight started to filter through the doors to the ambulance bay and an EMT with a squawking radio walked by the curtained partition where they slept.
