Title: Braces Not Glasses 3/?

Author: Jay

Rating: On the cusp of R

Pairing: The only one really significant Callie/Erica

Summary: Picks off after Erica walks of, leaving Callie in the parking lot at Seattle Grace. In my mind the time between Callie telling Erica she slept with Mark twice and the unwanted return of Denny is about a month or so instead of a few days or a week.

Disclaimer: Well obviously if I owned Grey's the world of Callica would be a happier place because it would be Callica's Anatomy and would therefore be Callica 24/7.

AN: I gave you guys a little extra on the word count. Figure it was the least I could do since I was supposed to update yesterday. I won't tell you what happens next until you give me a little feedback on Callie's little story so read on and feed back !

Braces Not Glasses

Callie threw her hand up at the door just as Erica had started to close it. Erica looked away from Callie's eyes, knowing there would be a clear amount of pain as a result of her refusal to let her in and attempting to close the door on her.

"Dr. Torres—", Erica started as she shook her head while looking at the ground, refusing to make eye contact with her.

"I had braces," Callie blurted out as she interrupted Erica.

Smooth Torres. Just shout at her inside her own house cause I hear that's what all the girls are doing these days to fix their relationships.

Erica looked at Callie with a curious expression trying to figure out what Callie was talking about. She silently cursed herself next as she took a step backwards which Callie took as a sign for her to enter the house.

Shut the door. All you had to do was shut the door Erica and then you could have finished drinking and start crying yourself into oblivion. But no, you had to move the damn door open.

Callie made her way over to the couch where Erica was sitting moments before. She took in the sight of the empty beer bottles and looked for the first time at the woman who now visited her every night in her dreams. Erica looked weary. Callie realized she had caught the ever strong cardio goddess in a moment where she looked just as broken as she felt.

Maybe I should have given her some time before I came over. Way to think about that now as you sit on her couch dumbass. Plus you've already from her so much. If you leave now she might not be here when you get back. Pull yourself together Callie. You're a Torres. Torres' don't run. Cause their brave. Yeah that's right. The Torres family isn't afraid of anything.

Callie took a deep breath and opened her mouth only to close it again. She reached for the open beer that Erica had been drinking from and chugged down the rest of it with the hopes of drinking away her nerves so she could get through the next moments with Erica.

You're a Torres. You are a Torres. You are a—

"Torres, are you actually going to say something to me or are you just going to sit there mumbling your name over and over again while you nod your head like one of those damn bobble head toys on the dashboard of a car?" Erica asked her as she grew tired of watching Callie's actions or lack there of.

Callie finally bucked up the courage and began to speak, "I used to have braces, when I was little. Not the mouth kind but the leg kind. I um…I was eight when they put them on my legs and I didn't want them. My parents told me that I would have to be in a wheel chair if I didn't have them. But I didn't care. I was already the damn metal braces on my teeth, over weight, and the only Hispanic kid in my entire class, and now I had to have braces on my legs? What the hell right? What sins did my parents do to bring the hell hole that was my childhood down onto me?" Callie took a minute to take a sip from Erica's beer that she was still holding in her hand, only to remember that she had finished it off before she began talking. She reached over to one of the beers that was remaining on the table and opened it up and took a sip.

Erica watched as Callie gave her a glimpse into her childhood. She had heard Callie's stories about her awkward teen years and her partying college days but she realized that Callie had never made an attempt to talk about herself as a child. Callie had been looking at the bottle in her hands for her entire story so far, so Erica couldn't really get a clear look into her eyes, to see what she was feeling as she said each word.

Callie took one more sip before continuing her story.

"Of course, the word and wants of an eight year old don't really matter when compared to two strong willed parents. So they put the braces on my legs. I had always walked okay in my opinion. I knew I walked a little different when compared to the other kids, but everything about me was already different so it didn't bother me. The way I had been walking my entire life had been doing working for me so far so I thought why ruin a good thing. But when they put them on my legs, it changed everything. Everything went from being okay to wonderful in an instant and I didn't know what to do. I had been hiding the braces under my pants for weeks cause I didn't want to give the other kids another reason to laugh at me. Of course my mom wanted me to wear a dress to school one day and suddenly I was terrified. I was faced with the reality that I would have to admit that I something else was different about me. So I wore the dress with the braces on and as soon as I got on the bus I took them off. I threw them in my bag for the entire day and then I put them back on when I got back on the bus. I missed not having them on my legs all day. It felt amazing to finally find something that made me feel like a regular kid. They made me feel amazing and it scared me cause I had never felt amazing Erica."

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Erica had been silent the entire time and now that Callie was done with her story she really didn't know what to say. Her mind was going through all kinds of questions and statements and she thought that she was going to explode from all of them.

I'm going to have to say something to her pretty soon. What should I say? What do I say? Do I thank her for the story? Ask her what it means? Fuck I hate thinking like a girl! I need to practice speaking girl cause this would go by a lot faster if I could think girl.

"Is that what you chose ortho?" Erica found herself asking.

She tells you about having braces on her legs and all you can ask is 'Is that why you chose ortho?' Nice job Erica Jane. Nice.

Callie looked up at her for the first time, "Yeah. I wanted to make someone else's world amazing like those people did for me."

Erica took in the smile on Callie's face and felt her own heart healing just a tiny bit at the sight. She cleared her throat and asked with a very cautious voice, "So what does this mean about us Cal?"

AN: Should I post the next chapter now or later?