A/N: Warning, major plot twist coming in the next few chapters. I figured I'd wrap this story up on an exciting note. Be prepared to break out the tissues! :D
Thanks to all of you who have read and left such wonderful reviews so far! They mean so much to me!
Callie approached the wing where her mother was staying with a bounce in her step. There was just something about successful trauma surgeries that gave her such a high. She couldn't wait to tell her mom and Erica all about her latest one. Her patient had fallen from a ladder, amazingly landing on his feet, but his ankles and knees had not come through the landing very well. In addition to open reduction, internal fixation on both ankles, she'd done a total knee replacement on the patient's left leg and a successful patellar reconstruction on the right knee. It would be a while before the patient would be back up and about, but at least the patient would walk again. Arriving outside of her mother's room, she glanced in and saw that it was empty. Callie figured Erica was walking the halls with her mother and she felt a little higher, a little bouncier knowing that Erica had endeared herself to her mother and her mother had accepted Erica's role in Callie's life with minimal resistance. The first few days had been hard for all of them- there were awkward moments and uncomfortable silences, but they'd gotten through all of that. Callie could see that her mother had taken a genuine liking to Erica, and that Erica was slowly learning to trust Callie's mother. This was quite a breakthrough for Erica, because after her own experiences, it was difficult for her to trust any kind of mother figure. Callie beamed at the thought of it.
Turning the corner at the end of the hall, Erica was supporting Callie's mother with one hand and pushing her IV pole with the other. They were deep in conversation, heads bowed together and both were unaware that Callie was observing them from outside of the room where Callie's mother was staying. It wasn't until they were just a few feet from Callie that Callie could hear bits of their conversation.
"Well, we'll tell her that you're coming to stay with us. That will make her happy. We don't have to tell her that he's leaving yet, we can wait until tomorrow when you're discharged to tell her." Erica had been speaking quietly, but the deep timbre of her voice had carried across the few feet separating Callie from her mother and Erica.
"Who's leaving?" Callie asked, interrupting them. She already knew who they were talking about, her happy mood all but completely dissipating and her fears confirmed when both women looked up at her in guilty surprise.
"Hola, mija," Maria said, cupping Callie's face in her hands and giving her a peck on the cheek. "Erica was telling me you had a trauma surgery this morning. How did it go?"
"Daddy is leaving?" Callie asked, completely ignoring her mother's warm greeting and her weak attempt at distracting Callie. "He's leaving you here? Alone?"
"Si, mija." Maria confirmed, shaking her head sadly. "He's decided he needs to go back to work. But Erica spoke to me and told me that you'd like me to stay with the two of you after I'm discharged. I'd really like that- we have a lot of catching up to do and-"
"He's just going to walk out of your life now too, mom? And you're going to let him?" Callie asked, angry and frustrated over the lack of progress that she'd made with her father in the weeks since he'd arrived here. She's tried, she really had. All of them had tried, but her father had been as unmoving as a mountain. He'd leave the room when Callie walked in and he'd refused to sit with her so she could speak to him, even without Erica there. In the rare moments when he did speak, it was usually to fling an insult at her or to remind her of the eternal damnation that he was so sure awaited her. Her mother had been bringing Callie up in their conversations every chance she had- she'd told her as much- in an effort to bring him around. And Erica, sweet Erica, had reigned in every bit of her anger and distrust around Callie's father so that she could speak with him civilly, despite the fact that she'd told Callie in private that every breath she'd taken around him felt like she was breathing in a noxious gas.
"Calliope, he wants to go. And if he wants to go, I cannot stop him. He and I will have plenty of time to work out our differences when I go home in a few weeks, and perhaps he'll have some time alone to think about what he said and did here and the mistakes that he has made. Right now I would like to get better so I can be strong when I go home, and so I can have the strength to work this out with him."
Erica knew the look on Callie's face. It was the look she got right before she started to cry so hard that she'd hyperventilate. The last time Callie hyperventilated, she vomited, so Erica jumped into action, hoping to avoid a scene and a mess in the hallway. "Maria, please, let's get you back into bed. Callie's going to need to sit down too." Gently steering both women and the IV pole back into the room, Erica helped Maria back onto the bed. Callie sat on the edge next to her mother, burying her head in her hands as her shoulders started to shake as she sobbed. Maria rubbed her back, whispering words of love and encouragement to her daughter, but there were really no words to ease the finality of it all. Their combined efforts had been futile; Jesus Torres was leaving. Callie Torres no longer had a father to speak of. The weight of this knowledge crushed them all, but none more so than Callie.
"Callie, just because he's leaving doesn't mean that the two of you won't work it out." Erica whispered, bending down near the bed and wiping away her tears. "This isn't over yet, so don't give up."
"But it is over, Erica. Because when he leaves, he's not coming back. He'll wait for my mother to come home to him- he won't come back here to get her. And I won't see him again. It is over, Erica."
"Calliope, just because he's leaving doesn't mean that you won't see him again. You will see him when you and Erica come to visit me."
"How can we come to visit you? You know he won't let me into his house."
"Ah, but Callie, mija, my love… you forget one thing…"
Callie waited, her eyebrows raised in expectant curiosity.
"It's not his house. It's my house." Maria grinned.
"Oh?" Callie asked, surprised.
"Your daddy worked hard to make his money, there's no doubt about that. But the house, and the property we own, that's all mine. My father gave that to me for my wedding gift."
"I didn't know that." Callie said, surprised at the secret her mother had just told her.
"We sold off a portion of the property a few years into our marriage so your daddy could start his business. But my point is that even if your father leaves, you're still welcome in my home. And I do hope that the two of you will come and visit me, as often as you can."
"Of course we will, Maria." Erica said, surprising herself and Callie with how readily she was willing to go and visit. "I'd love to see where Callie grew up and hear more about her childhood." Erica said to Maria, but in response to Callie's reaction. "And I hope you know that you're always welcome in our home, too."
"Gracias, Erica." Maria said as she hugged the two women to her. "Now, let's talk about something cheerful. Erica says I'm being discharged soon. Is it really true that you want me to stay with you, Calliope?"
"Yes mom. I would really love it if you came and stayed with us. I've been setting up the guestroom for you downstairs for the last week. It's all ready for you, and I think you'll really like it. And when you're ready to come home, I'm going to take some time off from work so we can spend it together. I'll help you get your strength back up and we can catch up on with one another when Erica finally takes her lazy butt back to work."
"Hey- it's not like I'm staying out of work on purpose!" Erica protested, with a smile on her face. She really, truly had missed surgery these past few weeks, but spending this time with Callie had been priceless. She also knew that Callie would really benefit from having her mother around for a few weeks after her father returned home. Secretly, Erica also hoped that Maria would include her in some of her and Callie's activities while she was there, because she was finally starting to see what it was like to have a real mother who cared about her and what went on in her life.
"I know you just can't wait to get back into a surgery." Callie said, smiling and patting Erica's hand.
"It's true: I can't wait to go back to doing surgery. These past few weeks have been hard, because I've never gone so long without a surgery before. But being on medical leave has taught me a few things too, and I wouldn't have had it any other way." Erica said to ease the discomfort on Maria's face.
Maria knew that it had been Jesus and his kick that had kept Erica from working for so long. The complications from her post-concussion syndrome had nearly cost Erica her career. Thankfully, the headaches were going away and Erica was no longer experiencing episodes of dizziness, nausea and fatigue like she had been in the days following her visit to the emergency room. Richard had kept her from doing surgery as a precaution after her first post-concussion MRI came back abnormal, but he was allowing her to do basic consults and follow up care. Doing consults had been soothing for Erica, but hadn't completely numbed the need she had for going elbow deep into a patient's chest. At the same time, Erica knew she'd miss Callie terribly her first few days back at work full-time. Meanwhile, she was so desperate for a surgery that she was considering opening up Jesus Torres without anesthesia to see if he still had a heart. She laughed inwardly at the thought and then turned her attention back to Callie and her mother, and their plans to take her home with them.
