Chapter 16
Everyone was silent after the questions were exploded. Both Callie and Aria looked like they wanted to lunge at each other.
Finally, Annabelle cleared her throat and stood up, "I invited her and Mark to join us this week." she told everyone as she walked toward her daughter. "Calliope, darling, how are you?"
Callie hugged her mother as she came to stand in front of her, "I'm great, Mom." Annabelle smiled then turned to Mark, who was still looking at the scene is shock. "And you must be Mark." to which he nodded, "It's good to finally meet you."
"Likewise." Mark smirked.
Suddenly, Santana bursted up from her seat and ran toward her aunt, causing her mother to cross her arms across her chest and roll her eyes. "Aunt Callie!" she squealed as she lunged toward her.
Callie stumbled but quickly recovered and hugged her niece close, "Hi sweetie." she laughed, "Happy to see me?"
Santana chuckled as she pulled away, "More than you know." she then turned to Mark and jumped into his arms. "Uncle Mark!"
"Hey, squirt." he said happily hugging the young latina. Puck who had gotten up from his seat and made his way over to them, stepped forward and hugged Callie.
"Hey, handsome." Callie smirked as she ruffled Puck's mohawk a bit.
Puck laughed, "Aunt Callie, looking hot as ever." he said with a wink which earned him a punch to the arm from Santana.
"Atta girl." Mark commented then threw an arm around his nephews' shoulder and rubbed his head with his knuckles, "And, you, what did I tell you about hitting on my woman?"
"Yeah. Yeah, whatever." Puck grumbled as he shooed his uncles hands away from his head.
"Wait." Annabelle finally spoke up after watching the scene unfold before her, "You all know each other?" she questioned the two couples to which they all nodded. "Anyone care to elaborate?"
"Well," Callie started and glanced at her niece, "a few weeks ago, Santana decided to pay me a little visit."
"It was for a good reason." Santana interjected. Callie nodded and continued with her story.
"Yes it was. Anyway, she shows up, and then he shows up," she says pointing to Puck, who smirks, "at his house." she then gestures to Mark who smiles at Annabelle, "The next morning we find out that Puck is Mark's nephew, and they find out that Santana is my niece."
The three others nod their head as Annabelle's perfectly waxed eyebrow goes up, "And what was the reason for her visiting you?"
"Him." They all point to Puck as they answer. Puck looks like a deer in headlights as he holds his hands up in defense.
"It wasn't all me." he says defensively. Santana laughs and loops her arm through his.
"You're right." She agrees, "But it was mostly you."
Callie laughs before she continues to explain their story, "So they spend a week with us and then, of course, Aria shows up." she says glancing over at her sister, "Her being the A-list control freak that she is, comes to drag Santana away kicking and screaming. The End."
"Oh please." Aria sneers as she gets up from the table, "She was not kicking and screaming. You are being dramatic as always, Calliope."
Callie turned to her sister and glared, "She was as close to it as she possibly could be, Aria."
The two women began to bicker, going back and forth, throwing insult after insult at each other.
Everyone could only sit and watch as the two sisters argued quite enthusiastically. Unknown to both women, the men had come to stand all in the same area.
"Antonio Lopez." Antonio greeted extending his hand to Mark. "Santana's father."
"Mark Sloan. It's nice to meet you." Mark replied and shook his hand. "You raised one hell of a daughter." he remarked and smiled at Santana, who winked in return. "Are they always like this?"
"Yup." came a voice beside him. "Hector Torres. Their father."
Mark tensed a little before hesitantly extending his hand, "Mark Sloan." he cleared his throat, "Callie's, uh, boyfriend."
"Hm." Hector examined him, "So you're Mark Sloan."
"Y-Yes Sir."
"It took a lot of guts to call us behind Calliope's back." he commented, "I respect that."
"Tha-Thank you, sir." Mark stumbled on his words.
"Please, call me Hector." Mr. Torres finally smiled, but it was soon turned back to a serious glare, "If you hurt her, I will have your head on my wall before you can even say you're sorry. Got it?"
"Yes, Sir." Mark gulped and nodded. The other men laughed as Mark wiped the sweat that had collected on his forehead.
"It's okay." Antonio reassured him, "I almost fainted when I saw the animal heads on his wall in the den." All four men laughed at that and continue to watch the women bicker.
"Would anyone care for a drink?" Hector offered. "Well, soda for you." he told Puck. All men nodded and followed him into the house.
Annabelle Torres huffed as she listened to her daughters argue just like she had for the past 10 minutes, finally fed up she shouted, "Girls!" immediately both Torres daughters shut their mouths.
"I have listened to you to go at it for 25 years, and I am done." she said sternly. "Look around," the girls surveyed around them and noticed that they were the only ones left, "You girls have driven everyone out with your constant bicker."
"But mom-" Aria tried, but her mother simply lifted a finger.
"Hush." Her mother snapped, "This week you two are going to do whatever it takes to get along for the sake of those kids or so help me god I will rip out both your voice boxes with my own bare hands. Do you understand?"
Both women nodded silently.
"Good." Anna nodded, "Now get inside and freshen up. We have reservations at 6."
Again, both women nodded silently and moved to leave but Anna caught Callie's hand before she could leave. "It's good having you back, Calliope."
Callie smiled and kissed her mother's cheek, "It's good to be back, mom." with that, both women made their way into the house.
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A little while later, Mark found Callie out on the porch swing with a brown, leather book in her hand. He leaned against the doorjamb for a minute and just watched her. The sun was hitting her skin perfectly that it almost seemed as if she was glowing. Her black locks were flowing freely in the light breeze that whirled through the air. She was absolutely stunning.
As quietly as he could, he made his way over to the back of the swing and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Boo." she jumped in surprise and he laughed as he made his way to the front and sat down beside her.
"Jackass." she muttered and continued to flip through the pages.
Mark calmed down from his laugh decided that she was too far away and pulled her until she was seated in his lap. "What's this?" he asked gesturing to the book in her hands.
"A photo album." she says simply. Mark groans and leans his forehead against her shoulder as she laughs.
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Calliope." he tells her, "I meant what kind of album."
"Oh." Callie says, "You should learn to be a little more specific, Sloan. I don't know what goes on in there." she said tapping his forehead, "It's pictures of me and Aria." she smiles as she comes across a picture of both of them playing in the sand wearing matching sunhats and glasses.
"Oh, cool." Mark says and leans over to look at the picture on the page. "You guys were cute."
"Duh."
Mark playfully bites her shoulder as they continue to flip through pictures. "You guys look really happy." he tells her as he points to a picture of them at Disney World.
Callie sighs, "We weren't always like this. Always arguing with each other." she says sadly, "We were the best of friends before...you know."
"Yeah." Mark leans over and kisses her cheek. "I know."
"I just-" she begins, "-I just miss my sister."
Mark nods his understanding, "I know." he repeats. "But, it's never too late to get her back."
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At precisely 6 o'clock the entire Torres clan was being seated at one of the best restaurants in town, 21. Although things were calm, you could still feel the tension lingering in the air.
Once they were all seated, the waiter greeted Hector and Annabelle by name and prepared to take drink orders.
"Give us the most expensive bottle of wine you've got, Nate." Hector told the man who nodded once and left the table. Hector turned back to the table and smiled, "Santana, how's school sweetheart?"
Santana smiled at her grandfather and answered, "It's great!" she said excitingly, "Cheerios is awesome, I just got bumped up to co-head cheerleader."
"That's great, sweetie." Annabelle told her granddaughter and Santana nodded.
"Yeah. Me and Puck also joined the glee club." she told them and smiled at Puck, "But only because Coach Sylvester told Q, Brit, and I that we had to spy on the teacher who runs it. But I dunno, I kinda like it." she said with a shrug.
"Good for you, sweetheart." her grandmother said, "You're voice is beautiful. You take after your Aunt Callie." Santana smiled over at Callie who winked at her.
Aria rolled her eyes and raised an eyebrow at her daughter, "Since when are you in glee club?" she questioned.
Santana turned to her mother, "I told you me and the girls joined a few months ago." she said matter-of-factly.
"I don't remember that." her mother stated.
Santana smirked and crossed her arms over her chest, "That's because you're too busy planning your next book club to take any interest in what goes on in my life."
Callie fought hard to stifle her laugh and received a kick from Mark under the table to which she glared at him.
"Don't take that tone with me, young lady. I am still your mother." Aria snapped.
Santana raised her chin defiantly, "As my mother you should have remembered me telling you about it. I guess some things in your life are just a little more important huh?"
"Girls." Antonio said in warning tone to both ladies in his life. Aria shot him a look before looking down at her menu, deciding what she was going to have.
"She started it." Santana mumbled under her breath. Puck put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze letting her know to stay calm.
"Calliope," her father said loudly, quickly changing subject, "How's everything at the hospital?"
Callie smiled, she always loved talking about her job, "It's amazing." she told her father, "Last year of residency before I can finally become a attending. Oh! And my cartilage research is progressing a lot." she said with a wide grin.
Her mother and father both smiled at their daughter, "That's great, mija." Hector said proudly then turned to Mark, "You work at the hospital also, yes?"
Mark cleared his throat, "Yes Sir. I am the Head of Plastics at Seattle Grace."
"Plastics?" Antonio cut in, "Like boob jobs and stuff?"
Mark laughed and nodded, "Yeah. But I get mostly reconstructive cases." he told everyone, "I had this one patient, her entire face was ruined from a fairy boat accident. Everything was mangled and nothing was salvageable. I had to reconstruct her a completely new face." Callie smiled up at him and placed her hand on his thigh under the table.
"Wow." Annabelle commented, "It's sounds impressive." Mark shrugged off the comment trying to hide the blush that had crept to his ears.
The waiter returned and they all ordered their meals with the exception of Puck who had Santana pick something for him since he had absolutely no idea what anything on the menu was.
The rest of dinner was light and comfortable. Callie and Aria hadn't said a word to each other the entire time and no one had a problem with that because it kept the fighting to a minimum. By the time they were done, everyone was tired and eager to go home.
Hector paid the bill, even though Mark, Antonio and even Puck offered but he simply declined and told them that he had nowhere else to spend his money than on his family.
Once they were back at Casa de Torres everyone decided that they would call it a night and meet for breakfast in the morning.
Puck and Santana climbed into the king size bed in the room especially for her when she came to visit. Mark and Callie returned to Callie's childhood bedroom where they fell asleep on the huge California King bed as soon as their heads hit the mattress. And finally, Aria and Antonio turned in to the guest room that was at the end of the hall because Aria had found earlier that day that her childhood bedroom had been converted into a yoga room for her mother.
Annabelle and Hector fell to sleep blissfully in their master bedroom hoping that the next week would bring wonderful memories for their family.