Hey guys… Sorry, again, for the longer update time. Life is spiralling in every single direction except the one I can see and it's all very confusing right now. Plus, exams are in full-swing here. But, the light at the end of the tunnel is approaching and summer is just around the corner, and I'm 100% sure that I will be more motivated to write when school is done. So please, bear with me.
"But we could get them to learn any songs we wanted. And have you seen their song list? Every single song I could imagine is in here!" I argued, flapping the pastel green leaflet in Callie's face. We were currently arguing over whether a live band or a DJ would be better for our wedding. It wasn't really and argument so much as a debate, and as the took longer and longer to consider my points I could tell she was warming up to the idea.
"How about we get both?" She suggested, flipping her laptop around to face me. It was approaching two am and we were both situated on our respective sides of the bed, researching which music options we thought were best. Our wedding was going to be on December 12th, four months from now. We had both decided that we didn't want a long engagement. Due to our hectic schedule as surgeons, planning had been put off, but thanks to our newly hired wedding planner, Anna, things were back on track and our excitement was flooding.
Callie and I had both found dresses about a month ago. Catering had been organised, invitations had been sent out, colour themes had been debated over and chosen, bridal parties had been recruited and our venue had been selected. A hotel around a half hour from the hospital, with a spectacular view of the lake, which in winter was supposed to be beautiful.
"What do you mean, both?" I asked, my brows furrowed in confusion. Her solution was probably simple, but due to my lack of sleep my brain was full of fuzz and the slightest complexity was hard to comprehend.
"We have a live band and a DJ. Whatever the band can play, they'll play, and they'll swap around with the DJ every so often so that they can play song requests that maybe the band don't know."
"Would they be willing to do that?" I asked.
She shrugged. "We're paying them for it, they can do their job even if it means they might be bored. We'll offer to feed them."
I laughed at her suggestion. "You wanna bribe them with food? Sounds great." I chuckled, before nodding. "That's a good idea."
She looked me in the eye for a second. "See? We'll be great at this married couple stuff. We disagreed, we discussed, and we compromised. Marriage 101."
"You'll be a great wife." I told her as I cleared all the papers from our bed, slotting them carefully into the drawer in the bedside cabinet. Callie shut her laptop off and reached over to turn the lamp off before gathering me up in her arms.
"So will you."
"How are Ellie and Maya doing?" Callie asked me over breakfast the next day, or should I say the same day, just later in the morning.
I sighed. "Ellie's doing well, but Maya's anaemic. She's only fourteen and she's freaking anaemic." I told her, feeling a pang of annoyance in my gut. These two girls were some of the nicest girls I had ever met, they didn't deserve this.
Callie smiled sympathetically. She knew that I had become attached to these girls. "I don't understand why their mother would just leave like that. They sound like amazing girls."
"They are. So many people have offered to foster them, but they won't leave without each other. Nobody really wants two children at one time." I sighed. It was quiet for a moment before Callie eventually spoke up.
"Do we, though?" She asked, and I had to admit I wasn't listening to her properly. I swung my stool around to face her.
"What?"
She took my hands in hers. "We've always talked about having kids. A house full of them." She begun, before the high-pitched beeping of her pager rudely interrupted us. She sighed, squeezing my hands tightly. "Look, I haven't met them, but they seem like good kids. I'm not saying 'let's adopt them right now', but just think about it. Introduce me to them later. I love you." She said, kissing me on the lips softly before rushing out. I barely had time to call 'I love you' back before the door slammed closed behind her.
In her absence, I did nothing but stare at the wall and contemplate the possibly changing future of my entire life. Of our entire life. Although the idea, as much as it shocked me, was an obvious one. I could imagine Maya and Ellie being ours… But then again, it was such a big move. Hell, Callie hadn't even met them yet. We weren't married yet.
But as Callie had said, we were only considering the possibility. I shook my head thoroughly to dispel any doubt, and I followed Callie's footsteps at a much slower pace, gathering all of the essentials that I would need for a day at work. I was on until midnight tonight, and I didn't start for another two hours, but with Callie already gone I figured I would just head in early and get some charting out of the way.
The first thing I spotted when I walked through the main entrance of the hospital was the one and only Teddy Altman standing with Henry next to her, and I smirked. With her back turned to me, she didn't have any idea I was there. I made eye contact with Henry over her shoulder and held my finger to my lips in a silent gesture for him to ignore my presence.
I crept up silently behind her and with a deep breath, I grabbed her shoulders from behind and yelled.
"Boo!"
She let out a massive gasp and it was all fun and games for about two milliseconds until she jumped violently and her elbow made contact with my face. I doubled over, clutching my now bleeding nose, as she realised what she had done and started apologising profusely.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Let me see." She instructed, and I straightened up and uncovered my face. It hurt like hell, but I guess it served me right.
"Serves me right, I guess. You have good elbow power." I chuckled, pinching the bridge of my nose in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.
"Is that a complement?"
Twenty minutes later found Teddy, Henry, Callie and I in an empty exam room. My nose wasn't broken at all, but it wouldn't be a pretty sight to look at for the next week or so. I looked in the mirror at my now blotchily bruised face and cringed.
"Nice job, Altman." I said sarcastically, shooting daggers at her across the mirror. She simply raised her hands up in surrender.
"Entirely your fault. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt."
"Okay, mom." I sighed, rolling my eyes.
Henry took his turn to pipe up. "Ew, don't call my girlfriend mom."
"I'm leaving." I announced, standing up. I turned to Callie and kissed her softly, running my hands through her hair.
"PDA!" Teddy shouted.
"I'll see you later." I said, kissing her again, completely ignoring Teddy.
"Are you sure you're okay, though? Do you feel dizzy or anything?" She fretted, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. I chuckled gently and leant my forehead against hers.
"I'm fine, I promise." I assured her, planting a kiss on her forehead before walking out, but not without flicking Teddy on the forehead first.
"Children, all of you!" I heard Callie exclaim loudly as I walked out, and I smiled at her worrisome ways before heading up to the peds floor.
Just as I reached the peds floor I was instantly met by Alex Karev, who was laden with a stack-full of charts. His face dropped when he saw my face. "Dude…" He trailed off.
"Never sneak up on Teddy Altman." I simply warned him. "I'm going to see Ellie and Maya." I told him, walking determinedly in the direction of my two favourite patients.
"What happened to your face?" Was the first question Maya asked when I walked into the room. She was sitting on the edge of Ellie's bad, her legs dangling off the edge, while Ellie recounted her version of Frozen. Jane, the social worker, was out by the nurse's station, immersed in a phone call which seemed to be business related, from what I had heard when I walked by her.
"I sneaked up on a friend and regretted it instantly when her elbow made contact with my face." I explained, and her face visibly relaxed. Clearly, she'd had a more dramatic story in mind. "What did you have for breakfast?" I asked her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Slice of toast and some blueberries from Ellie's plate." She told me, and I frowned, giving her a stern gaze.
"Not much iron in there, young lady." I scolded gently and she just shrugged.
"I wasn't hungry, honest. At least it's some iron." She protested, and I made a sound of agreement in the back of my throat before turning to Ellie.
"And what about you, younger lady?" I asked her, and she smiled up at me. Her big blue eyes were always alight with curiosity.
"I watched Frozen." She said simply.
"Oh yeah? And how are you feeling?" I asked her, to which she continued to smile.
"Good. Short Hair gave me a shot this morning, it didn't hurt." She recounted, and I laughed. She was terrible at remembering the names of the nurses, and instead took to mark their existence by their prominent features. Lizzie, one of my favourite scrub nurses, was also Ellie's favourite nurse who just so happened to have a pixie cut.
"That's Lizzie, you mean." I corrected her. It made be both sad and happy to see that she was doing so well. It obviously made me happy that she was thriving once again and that these shots didn't seem to be an issue, but that also meant that she would be discharged soon: I wasn't ready to let them go, and Maya's anaemia wasn't reason enough to keep her admitted.
"I'm gonna bring Callie by later, by the way." I told them both, and they both perked up considerably. Although they had never actually met Callie, they had heard plenty of stories about her from me, and it wasn't seldom that they would ask when they could meet her.
"Finally." Maya remarked and I smiled at her, my mind flicking once again to my conversation with Callie that morning.
"Callie Callie Callie!" I exclaimed excitedly as I rolled up on my wheely sneaks beside her where she was standing by the nurse's station, writing out a prescription. Her face broke out into a smile when she saw me approaching. I used the edge of the station to stop myself.
"What what what?" She asked, an amused smirk on her face. She looked down at my shoes and frowned. "You know I hate those shoes. You're already injured enough." She pointed out.
I shrugged my shoulders. "From a completely unrelated incident. Speaking of which, you have no idea how many times I've had to tell that story today. Anyway, what are you up to right now?"
Her eyes widened. "Slow down, Speedy Gonzalez. Less than a thousand words per minute, please. I'm just finishing up some charting. Why?"
"We're going to see Maya and Ellie." I announced, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her with me. She smiled and simply followed my lead. Before we entered the room, I turned to her with a nervous smile. "I know our conversation topic this morning was only a maybe. But I've got my hopes up even though I tried not to. So please, tell me you're sure?" I asked her, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth.
She took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm sure about this. I have doubts, yes, and it scares the hell out of me, yes, but I'm sure I want to try." She said simply, walking into the room before me. This time when I walked in, Maya was nowhere to be seen and Ellie was colouring a blur of very bright colours, with assistance from Lizzie. From what I could see from the outline of the picture, it was a butterfly.
"Zona!" Ellie exclaimed cheerfully, abandoning her drawing to instead run powerfully towards me, wrapping her arms around my legs and holding on for dear life. "I missed you!"
I pried her arms from around my legs and instead crouched down to her level and placed an affectionate hand on her hair. "I've only been gone for half an hour, silly bean." I laughed, and she rolled her eyes, something I didn't even know that four-year-olds knew how to do.
"A looong half an hour." She sighed. I looked around, looking for Maya. I knew fine well that she wasn't in here, because there was nowhere she could exactly hide, so instead I asked Ellie.
"Where's your sister?" I asked her, and she pointed toward the door and giggled.
"She's right there, silly." She laughed and I stood up and spun around to see Maya leaning against the doorframe, smiling mischievously.
"How long have you been there?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her in a tight hug.
"Ages. I'm like a ninja!" She smirked and Ellie laughed loudly. "Jane wanted to talk, about the options we have." She exclaimed. I nodded, and looked at Callie, who was standing in the corner, intently watching the whole interaction.
"Girls, this is Callie. Callie Torres. My fiancée." I introduced her, taking her hand in mine. Maya smiled shyly and said hello while Ellie just looked confused.
"What's a fo-ncy?" She asked, her face screwing up in curiosity.
"It means we're going to get married." I said, bending down to show her the ring on my left hand. Normally, while I was at work, I left it in my locker in case of emergency surgeries, but I hadn't gotten around to removing it yet.
"Oooh that's pretty!" She exclaimed, examining it closely.
"So, you're a doctor, too?" Maya asked Callie, bringing up a titbit of information I had given her prior to the meeting, as if the navy-blue scrubs and lab coat hadn't given it away.
Callie smiled. "Yeah, orthopaedic surgeon. I fix bones." She added, just as Ellie was about to ask what it meant.
"That's so cool! Do you have to, like, set them back in place? Because I broke my arm when I was eight and they had to set it back in place and it was so cool." She said in wonder, while Callie and I exchanged incredulous glances.
"Did it not hurt like hell?" Callie asked and Maya shrugged.
"Yeah, it hurt a lot, still cool, though." She said nonchalantly.
Ellie piped up. "I want to be a teacher when I grow up." She told Callie seriously, as if the nature of her future all depended upon whether Callie knew this fact.
"Oh really? I was nearly a teacher. But then I wanted to be a doctor instead."
That night as we climbed into bed, Callie wrapped her arms around me from behind. "I think we should talk to Jane tomorrow." She revealed, and we both had smiles that lit up the room.
"Really?"
"Really." She nodded. "Those girls are amazing, you were right. They don't deserve everything that's happened to them, and we can make it better."
"I'm not sure if I'm extremely excited, or just scared shitless." I admitted, taking in her sweet cocoa butter smell. I loved that smell, and I loved how it lingered. On her pillow, on our duvet, around our apartment. It made it feel like home.
"We can be both. But this is the right thing to do."
I untangled myself from her arms and turned around on to my other side to face her. I examined her features, every line and freckle that fell upon her beautiful face. I kissed her softly. I felt the exhaustion from the day's events sink in, most likely aided by the painkillers I had taken for my nose. Callie chuckled quietly.
"I have no idea how you can fall asleep so quickly. You have no tolerance for pain medication."
"No mocking, you bat."
"A bat?"
"Yeah. You're nocturnal."
"You're worse, you're a morning person."
I smirked. "At least I'm not a grump." I said, sticking my tongue out and rolling back over. I heard her laugh loudly next to me.
"You're so immature." She laughed, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pulling me in closer.
"Goodnight, Calliope."
"Goodnight, Arizona."
And that concludes another chapter. Nothing too heavy, just some fluff. Do you guys like the Elllie/Maya storyline? Let me know!