Chapter Text
"So she's your girlfriend, huh?"
Callie sighed and straightened her shoulders, readying herself for the oncoming onslaught. "Yes."
"No es tan caliente."
Aria continued before Callie could defend her girlfriend. "I mean, she's not bad, but, I kind of expected something more… 'wow' for you."
"Wow' being 'male'?"
"Not necessarily. There are some pretty wowless men out there. Like that O'Malley guy you married. Pure Wowlessness."
"George was… nice."
"And we see how well 'nice' worked out for you." Aria plopped down on the couch, propping her feet up on her luggage. "You need 'wow'." She peered at Callie, "you know who's 'wow'? I mean, if you're going to do a girl?"
Callie dropped down on the couch next to her sister; her head heavy against the couch pillow.
"Montgomery. That Montgomery friend of yours. Whatever happened to her? If your gay, why didn't you jump her bones? Or did you? Ohhh! You know who else you could be with who would make sense? Yang. Yang is hot. You two do live together… are you…?"
"Yang and me?! No! Hell no! No!"
Yang cleared her throat from her spot by the entrance to the hallway. "Fuck you Callie, you know you want me."
"In your dreams." Callie leaned forward and pressed the balls of her hands against her tired eyes as Yang pontificated to Aria regarding just how much she could have rocked Callie's world, if she swung that way.
Callie tuned the women out and took a deep breath, trying to make her body relax; today soooo had NOT been her day.
(())
No matter how hard she tried, or how many pillows she buried her head beneath, the shrill ring of her cell phone wasn't ignorable. Slamming her hand on the bedside table until she found the hated gadget, she blindly answered it.
"Hello."
"Calliope?"
"What...? What? Wait... ? Aria? Is that you?! Are you okay? Is something wrong with Mama… or Daddy?!"
"Last time I spoke to them they were fine. How quickly can you get to the airport?"
Callie sat up in bed, "What the fuck is wrong?"
"Nothing, Jesus! Calm down."
"You call me at… 3 am on a Friday morning – after not talking to me for 10 months - and ask me how quickly can I get to an airport, and you think I'm overreacting?" Callie dropped back down in the bed and pulled the comforter over her head. "What do you want Aria?"
"I want you to get your ass up and come to the airport to pick me up."
Callie shot up again. "You're here… in Seattle?"
"Score one point for the doctor."
"Why are you here in Seattle?"
"Free country, I can go anywhere I want to."
Callie kicked her legs free of the comforter, "And yet, knowing I'm here in Seattle and that we haven't talked to one another in nearly a year, you still decide to come to my state?"
"Can't a big sister just want to come out and visit her baby sister?"
"With no warning? And no… no… warning!?"
"Surprise!"
Callie groaned and started digging through her closet for clothes, "Sea Tac right?"
"Right, Midwest Airlines."
"I'll see you in forty five minutes."
()
Callie almost hadn't recognized Aria when she saw her. Since the last time they'd seen one another she had added blue and red streaks to her hair, and she'd lost about 20 pounds. It was the loud pink Miami Missiles T-shirt and the too tight top and too short skirt that finally convinced Callie that she was looking at Aria.
"You're really here."
"Would have been a neat prank to NOT be here, but yeah. I'm here," she climbed into the front seat of Callie's car. "So show me Seattle."
"It's 4 am, Seattle, much like I was before you called, is asleep."
"C'mon, there have to be some after-hours bars, or, hell, coffee shops that are open that we could go to."
And that's how the day started; Callie chauffeuring Aria around Seattle, for coffee, for breakfast, for more coffee, until finally, they arrived back at her place at 7am, when all of the rest of the world was just starting to wake up.
Their time together hadn't been as bad as Callie had feared it would be. They spent most of the time reminiscing. Laughing about Daddy's love of golf, and his intense inability to play the game. Mimicking some of their mother's favorite catch phrases. Making fun of their brothers' most embarrassing moments growing up.
The discussion had been good. Better than most of the discussions they had had in the past few years.
But when they'd returned to Callie's place, her apprehension kicked back in. First, Aria met Arizona as Arizona headed out to work. Awkward introduction.
And secondly, Callie was still curious as to the real reason Aria was in town. A sudden yen to 'see her little sister' did not cut it for Callie. Despite their recent three hours of good conversation, she didn't honestly think Aria was visiting for shits and giggles.
(())
Callie was brought back to the here and now by a knock on the door. The knock was followed Mark pushing into the apartment with a loud, "Torres, Yang, are you ready?"
He turned into the living room and froze… for just a second. "New girlfriend Torres?"
"I'll get one when you get one." She offered lightly. Standing up she turned to Aria.
"Aria, this is Mark Sloan: man-whore, doctor, neighbor and friend. Mark, this is my sister, Aria."
Mark looked at Aria, saw the resemblance and wondered how he'd missed it before. "Beautiful women do run in the Torres family!"
"Beautiful and flexible." Aria suggested.
Mark and Callie spoke simultaneously:
"Don't I know it."
"Down sis, he's got a girlfriend."
"Wait, did you just say that you know we Torres' are flexible?" Aria looked between Mark and Callie; a Callie who had turned a shade of red, and a Mark who smiled, somewhat smugly.
Yang entered the living room. "There is definite carnal knowledge between these two; big time, dirty, sexy, hot, dirty, carnal knowledge."
"Yang!"
"What? I should lie?"
Callie groaned.
"Okay ladies as much as I love having my sexual prowess discussed, we have a staff meeting this morning in like five minutes and I'm on Webber's shit list already."
Yang looked through her bag for her pager and turned it on, "you're not abusing the on call rooms again, are you?" The two of them walked to the door while Callie picked up her bag and turned to Aria.
Pulling a key off of her key ring she nodded her head down the hall. "My room's on the left, don't open any drawers. You can eat anything in the fridge except for the Kugels; those are Yang's and she'll seriously kill you if you touch them."
Yang yelled from the door. "She's not kidding."
"Here's my key. Don't copy it, lose it, or give it to anyone. I'll be back around five." Awkwardly hugging her sister, Callie bounded to the door where her friends were impatiently waiting.
"Hey Calliope!" Aria called as Callie closed the door.
Frowning at the use of her full first name, Callie pushed the door back open, "What?"
"Sloan? Now THAT's a 'wow'." She grinned as Callie rolled her eyes and escaped out of the apartment.
(())
They were finishing up dinner – pizza and cheesy bread from Altonos, when Aria asked the question Callie had been dreading. "So, what's the story with you and the hottie?"
Callie feigned misunderstanding. "Arizona?"
"No. She's the non-hottie."
"Arizona is hot!"
"If you like blondes. Which we don't."
"Speak for yourself." Callie muttered.
"I'm your older sister, I know of what I speak."
"Are you the same older sister who told me that rubbing Ben-gay on my boobs would make them stop growing?"
Aria gave a bark of laughter. "That was funny."
"I still can't get near that stuff without getting the shivers."
"Speaking of shivers, spill… you and Sloan. What's the deal?"
"There is no deal. we're deal-less."
"But that hasn't always been the story."
"We had a … fuck-buddy deal for a while, but now we're just friends."
"Did he dump you?"
"No! No. I… I guess I kind of – well we were never a couple, just friend with benefits, so no one dumped anyone."
"Why didn't you become more than friends with benefits?"
"Any of your business?"
"You're family, all your shit is my business."
"Which brings me back around to: 'why are you here'?"
"Can't a girl just want to see her baby sister?"
"Not when the girl is you. You're the queen of ulterior motives."
"I… just really wanted to see you."
Callie raised a brow questioningly.
"And NOW, I have a purpose. You said Sloan is your neighbor?"
"Yeah he and Lexie live across the -.... wait, why?"
"Unless you give me a good reason for why you're with Arizona… or a good reason for why you're not with Dr. Hotness, I'm going to get you a 'wow'."
"I'm with Arizona because I'm happy with her. She's great. We're good together. Do you need more reasons?"
"I didn't hear you say you love her."
"Of course I love her!"Callie snapped.
"Uh huh." Aria reached into her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "If we were talking about someone I cared about the words 'I love them' would have been the first part of my argument." She flicked on her lighter.
"No smoking in the apartment."
Aria sighed, "Fine, I'll go stand in the street."
Exiting Callie's apartment, Aria looked across the hall to Dr. Mark Sloan's apartment. Maybe she should work at this from another angle.
Knocking lightly on the door, she heard a woman's voice from inside of the apartment chirp, "I'll get it."
The girlfriend. Well this ought to be fun.
When the door swung open, Aria had her most innocent smile on her face: "Hi! Is Mark avail—" she paused when she saw him walk through the hall. "Mark!"
"Aria? Hi, come in!" He did quick introductions, "Lexie this is Aria – Callie's sister. Aria, this is Lexie Grey, my girlfriend."
Aria didn't miss the roll of her eyes that Lexie delivered at the mention of Callie's name. Nor did she miss the way that Lexie draped her hands around Mark's arms – proprietorially.
Don't worry sweetie. I don't want him – not for myself at least.
"Nice to meet you." She turned back to face Mark, "Is there anywhere where a girl can go have a drink and a cigarette in this town?" She held up her cigarette pack.
"Sorry, non-smoking state. But there IS a good bar down the street." He paused, "Hey Lex, dinner won't be for another hour or so, right?"
Lexie opened her mouth to protest, having a funny feeling as to where Mark's mind was going.
Aria beat her to it.
"An escort! I haven't had an escort since High School." She put her hand on Lexie's arm – assuring her she was teasing – at the same time she leaned in to Mark, "And let me tell you, THAT was a fun night." When she started losing weight, her boobs had shrunk with the rest of her. But the girls were still pretty eye-catching. And if she'd read Mark right, he was a boob man. Which meant Aria could use the girls to manipulate him. It also meant Callie was more his type of girl than his current girlfriend was. Oh Lexie was pretty, in the girl next door kind of way. But, she glanced up at Mark who had just torn his eyes away from her chest, who wanted the girl next door, when you could have the girl across the hall.
Leading him to the door, she threw over her shoulder. "Thank you so much for letting me steal your boyfriend Lexie. I promise to have him home in time for dinner…, and only slightly tipsy."
With that, they were out the door and in the hall. Aria talking and pulling him after her the whole time. "Callie's tired, so we'll just leave her at home this time, and you and I can get to know each other. I've always wanted to meet more of Callie's friends. Especially the cute ones!" A little flattery never hurt any plan, she thought before pushing on. "AND, if you get a couple of drinks in me, I'll tell you the best story about Callie's breasts."