Lay, Lady, Lay

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead

Callie stood over the open drawer of the nightstand, staring down at the Tiffany's box that had, as promised, stayed in that drawer. It had been a month of same thing almost everyday. She'd get dressed and ready in the morning and right before leaving, she'd take out the ring, put it on, then take it off and put it back in the drawer a few times before deciding against wearing it after all.

This time though, she pulled out, slipped it on and looked at it against the light coming in through the window. She smiled at how it caught the light just right and nodded. When she turned around, mark was standing behind her, leaning against the doorway, one foot crossed over the other, one hand on his hip, his eyes smiling at the corners.

"What?" She asked, smiling back.

"Are you going to leave it on?"

She shrugged, "Yeah. It's mine, isn't it?"

"You KNOW what that means, right? Putting that on?"

"YES. I know what it means. I'm leaving it on."

He met her eyes for a while before pushing his weight off the doorframe and closing the door before taking a few long strides across the room. He held her face in his hands as he leaned forward and planted a long, deep kiss on her lips.

Her hands laid loosely on his hips as he kissed her. He tugged at her bottom lip with his teeth, licked the outline parting her lips, and finally simply kissing her one last time sweetly. She sighed and couldn't help but feel a little lightheaded. She cleared her throat and smiled up at him, "There. We're engaged."

"We're also going to be late for work." he added.

"No, we're not." She said, looking at her watch.

"Yes. We are. Meredith just picked up the girls. We're going to be late for work." He said and gently pushed Callie onto the bed.

XXXXXXXXX

"So?" Meredith asked Callie. They sat in the OR, watching Derek operate.

"What?"

"That's a nice, nice ring."

"Thank you." Callie answered, keeping her eyes on the surgery., "You keep saying that."

"I'm just wondering--"

"THERE it is." She turned her head and crossed her arms, waiting, "Okay. Go ahead."

"I was just--you haven't set the date yet, right? Because Cristina keeps saying that you went and got married without anyone knowing and I think that would kind of suck on your part because we were going to get you a really good present and if I had to wear the dress, so do you--"

"I'm not married." Callie interrupted her ranting and laughed, "You idiot."

"Okay. Good. When then?"

"I don't know. We haven't had time to sit and talk about it. We've been so busy. But you know…I mean, we're not in a hurry or anything so--"

"Yeah. Except you should be because you've been kind of engaged for what? Year and a half?"

"Two years."

"That's ridiculous."

"You know what? I don't care. But I'll tell you what I do care about. I care about getting Rexie to the vet because she's been puking all over the yard. I--care about convincing the school to not kick Mia out for being such a handful, and now, I apparently care about the environment, because if I don't recycle, Sophie will start crying about the penguins dying. Serves me right for thinking Happy Feet was really just about cute little non-flying birds tap dancing. Oh, and I care about all the people whose bones I have to break and set, and break, and set. There are a lot of things I do care about at the moment, Meredith."

"I get it. You're busy."

"Thank you. Plus, Mark's been really busy as well lately." She sighed, "At this point, I'd be thankful for just one full night of sleep. And some sex. Some sex would be good."

"Sex IS good." Cristina interjected, flopping down next to Callie, "What are you moaning about? Or NOT moaning about." She laughed, happy with herself, "That was funny."

"I'm going to be engaged for a decade, the way it's going."

"Why is that a problem?" Cristina sneered, "What's going to change? You're going to move in together? Have kids? Oh, wait, you've already done that. Do it when you can do it and don't think about it. All it is, is a big party where your parents warn you about fucking up and where your friends get drunk and do stupid things and if you're lucky you get pictures--on that note, get married. Meredith's fun when she's drunk."

"I am a mother now. I don't get drunk." Meredith said defensively.

"My right ventricle you don't get drunk. Speaking of ventricles, guess who's doing a humpty dumpty this afternoon. That's right. The best of the bunch."

"Cool." Callie said, before she could add anything to her comment, her phone rang, "Crap, it's Mia's school again." She flipped the phone open and pressed it to her ear, wincing in anticipation, "Hello? Yes, this is her mother. Oh, I am so sorry, I--yes, I can pick her up." As she hung up, she looked at Cristina and Meredith and sighed, resigned, "It's eleven-thirty. Please tell me how she manages to get into trouble in less than four hours at school?"

"I told you," Cristina said, "She's my daughter."

"I'll be back." She said, starting to get up.

"Tell T-Rex I said Damn the man."

"Yeah, stop feeding her lines to give her teacher." Callie snapped, smacking Cristina's arm before leaving.

"Meredith looked over at Cristina and narrowed her eyes, "I don't get drunk."

"Just because you keep saying it, doesn't make it true. It's in Allen's genes. Izzie's kids will come out baking, YOUR kid came out advertising for Jose Cuervo."

Mark set a tray stacked with yogurts, cookies, and juice boxes down on a table at the far end of the cafeteria, expecting company. As he emptied the contents of the tray onto the table, he spotted his lunch dates approaching at the other end of the room. Sophie, in fairy wings and hair down to her shoulders that she refused to have cut held one of Callie's hands in her school uniform while Mia bitterly held the other. He laughed at her demeanor. She was clearly pissed off.

"Hey, Smurfs!" he called and picked up Sophie when she ran to him, "Smurf number one." he kissed her temple after brushing her unruly hair out of her face, "Why did you have to get your mother's hair? Are you a butterfly today?"

"Uh-huh." She answered, "Can I have a snack, Daddy?"

"Give me a kiss first." She did, and he sat her down in a chair before handing her a box of animal crackers. He then looked down at Mia, who still looked upset and angry. He bit his cheek to keep from laughing, and leaned in to kiss Callie instead, speaking low into her ear, "Is she in trouble?"

"Big time.' She answered, then looked down at Mia, "aren't you going to say hi to Daddy?" She asked sternly.

"Hi, Daddy." She mumbled, her pigtails hanging low for the same reason she was there now.

"You going to give me a hug, Grumpy?" Her hand slipped from Callie's and he picked her up into a tight hug, kissing her cheek before sitting her in the chair next to Sophie's.

"Can I have cookies, too?" She asked.

"No." Callie answered, "You can have carrot sticks."

Her eyes widened as she shot her head up in disgust, "No! Please!"

"It's either that, or no snack. You choose."

"Fine." She said through gritted teeth and sunk low into her chair as Callie handed her a tiny bag of baby carrots, "Thank you." She said, but didn't actually mean it.

Mark chuckled and pulled a chair out for Callie, then took a seat himself, "So, what happened?" He asked her.

"Mia, tell Daddy what you did."

"I pushed stupid Johnny."

"Why?" Mark asked.

"because I didn't take any shit, Daddy!" She stated sternly, clearly having adopted her angry mannerisms from Callie.

Callie sighed heavily and covered her eyes with one hand.

Mark snorted, but held back from laughing, "What do you mean, Mia?"

"Aunt Cristina said don't take any shit!" She repeated, using a baby carrot for emphasis.

"Hm--" Mark said, holding his hand up to his chin, finding it difficult to hold back the laughter.

"And Johnny called me a pussy. What's a pussy, Mommy?"

Callie looked up, alarmed, "It's a uh--it's a cat, baby."

"Oh."

"Did you kick his ass, honey?" Mark asked, suddenly interested.

"Mark!"

"I mean--you can't say those words. They're adult words."

"Is 'shut up' and adult word?" Sophie asked.

"Yes." Callie answered.

"What about 'dick'?"

"Yes, baby." Callie said again, "Where are you getting all these words from, honey?"

"Aunt Cristina said Daddy's a dick. Are you a dick, Daddy?"

"have a cookie, sweetheart." Callie said, then looked at Mia, "Mia, no more fighting, baby, okay?"

"Okay. But, if I'm really, really, really sorry, can I have a cookie?"

"Sure." Callie nodded, finally breaking into a chuckle.

"Here, Mia." Sophie said, handing her sister a cookie.

Mark looked at Callie, shook his head, and laughed.

"On my birthday, after Allen fell asleep." Izzie pointed out proudly to Meredith, who sat in a chair at the Nurses desk, while Izzie and Cristina leaned over it.

"I was not drunk!" Meredith insisted, then caught sight of something behind the other two women, "Uh-oh. Doctor Torres looks pissed and she's headed over here."

Cristina and Meredith looked over their shoulders to see Callie stalking up the hall, "Who is she looking at?" Izzie asked.

"You." Cristina answered, 'Did you sleep with another one of her husbands?"

Izzie glared back, "Very funny."

"Cristina, she's looking at YOU." Meredith warned.

"She's not going to hurt me. I'm Cristina. I babysit."

"Don't take any shit?" Callie said from a few feet away, "That's what you told her??"

"Shit." Cristina said and swiftly turned around and scurried away, leaving Izzie and Meredith in a laughing fit.

"Yeah, you BETTER run, yang!"

"Crayons. Dolls. Leggo blocks--" Callie mumbled as she pulled items from under the bed while Mark laid in boxers and a white tee-shirt, flat on his back on the bed, reading a Dr. Seuss book Sophie had left in their room earlier.

"You really need to stop letting them play under here, Mark." She said, sitting up on the floor and looking over at Mark, who seemed to be engrossed in the book, "You going to help me? Or finish your book. It seems terribly interesting."

He set the book down on his chest and turned his head to the side, reaching out to twirl a strand of her hair in his finger, "You've got dust on your nose, dude."

She reached up and cleaned the tip of her nose, "Did you just call me dude?" He smiled and she smiled back, before slumping her shoulders forward and sighing, "I'm so tired."

He tossed the book side and scooted to the side, placing an arm under his head and patting the bed with his free hand, "Well, screw cleaning. Come here."

She grinned and quickly climbed onto the bed, settling her head on his chest and bending one of her bare legs over his waist. She sighed contentedly as when he tickled her knee, "I haven't even asked you about your day. How was it?"

"Long." He answered, running his hand up and down her thigh, "Yours?"

"Well--" She started, letting her eyes drift shut at Mark's soothing gestures, "--after dealing with the future felon that is your daughter, it was okay. Long as well, but okay. Do you know we haven't had sex in three weeks?"

"Liar!" He exclaimed, lifting his head for only a second.

"it's true. It's ridiculous. We really do need a vacation." She snuggled closer to him and softly drummed her fingers on his chest, "We have to take Rexie to the Vet tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll take her after work." He assured her, kissing the top of her head.

"Mm--you're the best pillow in the world."

"Was George?"

"What?" She asked through a long yawn.

"O'Malley. Did he ever make you happy, even during naps?" He chuckled.

"George--" She sighed, "--everything with George was forced." her voiced trailed off as she fought the urge to dose off, "I had to--remind him that when you get married, you have to be civil to the person you're married to and--I don't know. I don't think he knows what commitment is or--what he wants even. I think he's still a child--sort of."

"I was, too, sort of." he said, becoming submissive to her breathing against his chest and he started to close his eyes.

"Yeah, but I never had to remind you to pay attention to me."

"Attention whore--" He joked through a drowsy laugh.

"Yeah, well. Better than a manwhore, right?" He groaned and she smiled.

"Low blow." He said, then hummed some song they had heard in the car earlier and he tapped her knee, "What's that song?"

"Mm--" She cleared her throat, shifting a bit, "'Something'. Beatles."

"Hmm." There was a long, comforting silence before he spoke up again, "Let's get married next month. Here, in the backyard. Just us and Derek and Meredith and Richard and, and Yang and Mike."

"Really?" She asked, half asleep, "That would be nice."

"Yeah. It WOULD be nice. Sophie and Mia can be flower girls…"

"Sophie would LOVE that."

"Yeah. Our little hippie. I'm worried about her teens though."

"Why?"

"One word. Marijuana."

"Shut up."

"I'm telling you. It's a definite possibility."

She took a deep breath and sighed, "Okay. First of November. We get married."

"Deal." He said, linking her pinky with his, "First of November."

"I'm not wearing white."

He chuckled, "You can wear what you're wearing right now, I don't care."

She laughed sleepily, "Yeah. We should just get married in our underwear. Me in panties and a chocolate stained tee-shirt and you in your boxers and a tie."

"I kind of like you."

"I kind of like you too."

They fell into a heavy sleep soon after, and didn't even notice the girls sneak into the bedroom and climb on the be din the middle of the night.

The wedding went by with minor glitches. There were enough seats set up in the backyard for the twenty guests that arrived, which included Addison, who flew in just for the ceremony and was off as soon as it was over.

Mia managed to keep her dress on for about fifteen minutes before jumping into a puddle and dragging Allen and Sophie in with her.

The 'reception' took place in the living room, where everyone hung out after it started to rain.

Mike and Cristina fought--loudly--about something no one was really sure about, but the fight soon ended after they excused themselves to go outside and they didn't come back. It was assumed they had made up.

Meredith didn't get drunk, surprising even herself, but did manage to slip in a couple of group tequila toasts.

They managed to get in a few songs before Mike and Cristina made it back as if nothing had happened and they toasted some more. This time with champagne and not Tequila. Meredith was disappointed.

They finally got down to eating something at around midnight and after most of the guests had left at around one-thirty, Mark, Callie, Meredith, Derek, Cristina and Mike sat in the living room, music playing softly while they talked about everything and nothing, while Sophie slept soundly on her father's lap and Mia still stood strong, running around with Allen upstairs.

At around two, Cristina and Mike were gone, and Derek and Meredith were getting ready to leave, placing Allen and Sophie and Mia in the car, having offered to give Mark and Callie a night to themselves.

Needless to say--they fell asleep as soon as the house was empty.