DISCLAIMER:: not mine. still belongs to shonda and abc studios.

A/N:: i just want to say a super big thanks for all the support, not just on this story, but all my stories. your feedback has been wonderful, not only for my ego but also for the improvement of my work. this chapter and the next couple that follow are going to focus on callie's family and her relationship with them. i am not greek, but i do come from a culture that values family just as much. i modeled callie's family loosely after my own, since we know very little about them from the show. i promise that callie's family will provide just as much drama as the donovans (from queen of hearts) did, especially when callie's sister shows up with her new boyfriend. so stay tuned for that!

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Erica woke to light from the open window. It was still daylight outside though it was waning. She had slept all morning and most of the afternoon. When Callie had led her upstairs that morning it had been to a room with the curtains drawn and the lights off. Callie had led her blindly to what she assumed was a bed and they had curled up together. She had thought she wouldn't be able to sleep with the coffee in her but she had underestimated the comfort of Callie wrapped up in her arms.

She sat up and looked around Callie's childhood room and tried to hold back her surprise. She had expected lavish decorations, paintings, silk curtains, all the things her parents had had in their bedroom when she was a child. But Callie's was the polar opposite. The bed she was in had a frame of black oak, fancy for what it was, but not very grand. Her sheets were of a burgundy color, but plain. The only other furniture in the room was a bureau made of the small oak as the bed frame. A burgundy silk runner ran across it's length, the most extravagant piece of décor in the room. A small lamp sat off to the right side, offering the only source of light in the room with the exception of the window and holding the runner in place. Three of the four walls were bare. The fourth, across from the window, was covered from floor to ceiling in photographs of all shapes and sizes. The room wasn't lighted enough to make out what was on them from that distance but Erica was pretty sure she would find a photographic history of her wife's life up there. At least her life before Seattle Grace.

Callie stood with her back to Erica, examining the pictures. "My father just arrived."

Erica yawned. "Is this supposed to scare me?"

Callie smiled though Erica couldn't see it. "You should be terrified." She turned away from the wall and crossed the room back to the bed. She crawled across it and laid down next to Erica.

"I think I can hold my own." Erica pulled Callie in for a smoldering kiss.

The door burst open and two dark forms hurtled themselves onto the bed, seemingly oblivious of the two women kissing. Callie pulled away quickly, embarrassment coloring her face.

The two dark forms, which Erica now was able to make out were men, full grown men, tackled Callie, accidentally knocking her out of bed and onto the floor, though it didn't seem to phase any of them. Callie playfully wrestled back as Erica watched in confusion. Finally Callie pinned both boys with a knee on each of their stomachs and a hand on their chests. "I win."

"All hail Calliope. We are unworthy."

Callie got up and smiled triumphantly down at them. "Due to your recognition of your inferiority I've decided to let you live."

The boys crawled up onto their knees and bowed. "Oh thank you Queen Calliope. We are forever in your debt."

Callie rolled her eyes just as Erica cleared her throat. Callie looked over her shoulder and, upon remembering her wife was still in the room, grew even more red. "Oh, um, Erica, this is man-child one and man-child two, otherwise known as my cousins Darius and Damian. They work with my father."

Erica nodded slowly, still trying to process what she had just seen. Callie was not normally like this at home. She was sensual and confident. She enjoyed curling up on the couch with Erica and taking walks. She wasn't extremely introverted but she respected silence. But Erica found that she was currently looking at an overgrown kid. Normally this would be a negative thing, but somehow it brought out a life in Callie she had been lacking in recent months. Erica knew she had made the right choice by bringing Callie here, even if she did feel out of the loop.

"Boys, this is Erica."

Erica smiled at the love in Callie's voice. She didn't need to add the title, girlfriend or wife, it was implied in her tone and the way she looked at Erica as she said it.

The boys stood and bowed, the epitome of good Greek gentlemen.

"Darius! Damian! You get out of that room and leave those girls alone!" The woman who had answered the door when Erica had first come to Callie's family home stood in their doorway. She was scowling at the boys. They backed out of the room. Once they were out of sight the woman gazed in at Callie and Erica blankly. "Your mother will have dinner ready in an hour." She shut the door behind her as she left.

"Who was that? She answered the door the first time I was here, looking for you."

Callie frowned. "That was my mother's older sister, Adara. She's Darius and Damian's mother."

"So she's your aunt?"

Callie nodded. "She used to be."

Erica frowned. She had thought Callie was close with all her family members. "What happened?"

Callie sighed and sat back down on the bed. "In Greek culture, family is important, just as it is in Spanish culture. You do anything and everything for your family, you protect them at all costs. Adara grew up beautiful. She's older than my mother, and the oldest children in the family are expected to… carry the weight in a way of the family's expectations. Adara married really young, to a man her father selected. She had her oldest son right away. Her husband owned his own shipping company and he traveled a lot. She stayed home with the baby and was a good Greek wife. After Darius and Damian were born, their father started to change. He became darker and more… violent. He would hit Adara in front of the boys. It took her nearly ten years before she admitted the abuse to my parents. They left right away for Greece. The next day, while he was at work, they snuck her out of the house, Darius and Damian too. Her first son and Gorgonio, her husband, came home from work to find them gone. The next few months were rocky for everyone. Gorgonio wasn't ready to give Adara and the children up without a fight and neither were my parents. In the end, we won and he stopped coming around."

Erica put a comforting hand on Callie's arm. "But that sounds like a happy ending to a tragedy."

Callie shrugged and met Erica's eyes. "You would think." She looked away. "Adara still feels it was her responsibility to make the relationship work. It hurts her that she feels she wasn't strong enough to do so and it hurts her even more that her eldest took his father's side. He does not speak to her. She has never met his wife or his two children."

Erica pulled Callie back and into her lap. "Family is so important to you, isn't it?" She pushed a loose strand of Callie's dark hair behind her ear.

Callie nodded.

"I've never really had a family before. I have Gail and Benjamin and Michael, but I don't have parents or siblings anymore." She put a hand to Callie's cheek. "So maybe we should make more of an effort to come and see yours more often. I want them to be a part of our life, together, a big part. I think it might be nice to have a family."

Callie smiled and Erica could see in her eyes that the words had warmed her. She slid off Erica's lap. "You might want to hold that thought until after your first Torres dinner. An hour with my father and you might be singing a totally different tune."