Another Chance - Grey's Anatomy Mark/Callie fic - 3/3
Three days before Callie’s due date, her water broke. She was laying in bed with Mark, asleep, at three in the morning, when she felt it. For a moment she thought she wet the bed - pregnancy does unfortunately make your bladder control a little weak. Then she realized the truth. She was in labor.
She blinked slowly. She was actually having this baby.
“Mark?” she called out.
He woke with a start. “Huh? What? What’s wrong?”
“Um, well, nothing’s wrong. I’m just in labor.”
“You’re…you’re in labor?”
Callie nodded in the darkness. “I would expect so. Can’t you feel the disgusting, wet sheets?”
“Are you okay? Have you started having contractions? How do you feel?” he asked hurriedly as he got out of bed and grabbed his phone.
“I feel fine so far, don’t worry. Just…get the bag and help me up?”
Mark helped her slowly stand and smiled at her. “Looks like we’re having our baby.”
“Yeah,” Callie smiled. “I guess we are.”
Mark brushed a stray hair out of Callie’s face. “Hey, Callie?”
She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. “Yeah?”
“I love you.”
Callie gasped quietly, not expecting the statement. They’d been together forever at this point, it seemed. They were having a child and planned on having more. But love? They’d never used the word. Yes, the manwhore really was reformed.
She kissed him gently on the lips. “Good,” she replied. “Because I love you, too.”
* * *
Mark called Addison from the car, and she was at the hospital ten minutes after they arrived.
As Callie was wheeled into a hospital room, she said, “Thank god rounds haven’t started yet.”
“Don’t want everyone witnessing the miracle of life?” Addison asked. “Because you know they’ll realize you’re here in labor soon enough, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Callie sighed. “Do try not to remind me. I need something positive to hold onto once the contractions start.”
Mark raised an eyebrow. “Us having a baby isn’t positive enough? Or the part where we just confessed our love to each other?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “I’m about to be in a great deal of pain. I’m just saying that it’s pretty likely that I will blame you for every ounce of it.”
Mark sat down beside her and replied, “I expected nothing less.”
Callie smiled softly and grabbed his hand. “You do know that I am excited to have this baby and that I do love you, right?”
Mark grinned. “Yeah, I know.”
It was only an hour later when Cristina Yang burst through the door. “Torres, why was I not informed you are in labor, exactly?”
She seemed pissed.
“Because,” Callie said with gritted teeth, “I knew it wouldn’t be long before you showed up bursting through my door just like this. I haven’t had your goddaughter yet, Yang, calm down.”
Cristina replied, “How long have you been here?”
“An hour or so,” Callie replied, “Not long. You’re in early.”
“I got paged. My patient is fine, so I assume it was really about you.”
Callie laughed. “Probably. So are you going to tell the rest of the hospital you’re about to be a godmother?”
Cristina wrinkled her nose. “Nah, they can find out on their own. You know how gossip is in this hospital. One of the nurses is bound to let it slip. Or Mark,” she added.
Mark glowered at her. “I resent that.”
“Oh, come on, like you haven’t told Derek you’re about to be a dad.”
“Uh…”
“Mark!” Callie exclaimed. “Then Meredith must know, and that means the whole hospital must know. Oh, geez. This is going to be an experience. Who should we expect a visit from next?”
Cristina shrugged. “You’re pretty well-liked around here. I don’t think you’ll be getting much privacy.”
And she was right. Over the course of the next sixteen hours she had multiple visits from Cristina, Meredith, Bailey, Richard, and others.
Bailey visited the most, checking up on her friend periodically and bringing her ice chips. She had been through labor before and understood the pain Callie was going through, contraction after contraction. At seventeen hours, they headed for the delivery room.
While pushing, Callie squeezed Mark’s hand so tightly that he was concerned she might have broken a finger.
“It’s a good thing I’m an orthopedic surgeon, then!” Callie exclaimed loudly.
The baby was born at 8:15 PM, and the new parents were beyond proud.
Looking at their daughter, bundled in a soft pink blanket, Mark asked. “So what do we name her?”
Callie bit her lip. “What do you think of the name Sofia?”
“Sofia,” he repeated agreeably. “Sofia sounds good. What about her middle name?”
“I don’t know,” Callie said. “I was thinking Aria after my sister, but those two names end the same, so that’s weird…”
“What about Arianna?” Mark asked. “Same beginning, slightly different name. It can still be for your sister.”
“Sofia Arianna Torres-Sloan? I like it.”
“I like it, too.” He climbed into bed with her. “Want to sleep?”
“Mm,” Callie mumbled. “Yeah, sleep sounds good.”
Just before the pair drifted off, Addison took little Sofia away to the nursery.
* * *
The next morning, Cristina barged in. “Can I see my goddaughter now?”
Sofia was in Callie’s arms, and she was giving breastfeeding a try.
“Do you mind, Yang? I’m kind of exposed.”
Cristina rolled her eyes and approached her. “I was your roommate, Torres. I’ve walked in on Mark in that baby’s exact position.”
Callie snorted, then cringed when the baby latched on to her nipple. She gestured to her daughter. “Well, here she is. Meet Sofia Arianna Torres-Sloan.”
“Two last names? How modern of you.”
“It’s not like we’re married,” Callie explained.
“You may as well be. You’re happier with McSteamy than you ever were married to O’Malley. And he’s way hotter.”
Callie pursed her lips. “Cristina?”
“Yeah?”
“Please stop sexualizing the father of my child.”
Cristina nodded. “Got it.”
* * *
Callie and Mark took the baby home two days after delivery, and Addison left the day after that. Derek gave Mark some extra time off of work, for which both of them were thankful. Sofia was quite the crier, but the pair managed. Mark caught on to diaper changing pretty quickly, and Sofia loved to eat. After the first few weeks, Sofia started sleeping for longer periods of time during the night, which her parents were very happy about. Both Callie and Mark were used to being awakened in the night once in a while by pagers and emergency surgeries, but parenthood was a whole new ball game.
When Callie returned back to work, Derek kept his promises of not mommy tracking. Callie suspected it was more Cristina’s doing than anyone else’s. She was friends with Meredith, and Meredith could call “post-it” on the situation - whatever the hell that even meant.
When Sofia was 18 weeks old, Mark started acting oddly. It made Callie incredibly nervous. He was still there, still being a loving father, still being loving towards Callie, but he was different. He seemed to be thinking a lot. Callie didn’t know what to make of it. Was he panicking? The idea was something that Callie had been afraid of from the start but honestly thought she’d avoided.
Callie approached him about it one morning over breakfast.
“Mark?” she asked.
“Yeah?” he asked, looking up from his cereal.
“What’s up with you lately? You’ve seemed…off. You’re zoning out constantly. It’s kind of freaking me out.”
“Nothing, babe. I’ve just been thinking a lot, I guess.”
“You’re not panicking about all this are you? You’re not freaking out?”
Mark grabbed Callie’s hand and squeezed it tightly, causing her fears to ebb away. “I’m not freaking out. It’s nothing like that. Trust me.”
“Then what is it?” she asked.
“Like I said…I’ve been doing some thinking.”
“About what?” she asked.
He took a sip of his coffee and looked her in the eye. “Marriage. And you. And the idea of us possibly getting married.”
Callie blinked. That, she had not been expecting. “Oh. I see.”
“Do you ever want to get married again?” Mark asked. “Because I know after some people get a divorce, they never want to marry again, and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but…” he drifted off.
“I…wouldn’t be opposed.”
“Hmm,” Mark replied in a ponderous manner. “Alright, thanks. Gotta go to work, see you there?” He kissed her quickly and walked out the door.
Callie was left in a stupor. She said to no one, “What the hell?”
* * *
At work that day, Callie approached Cristina. “So I think Mark wants to marry me. But I’m not exactly sure.”
“And what brought this on, exactly?”
“Well, he asked me if I ever wanted to get married.”
“To him?” Cristina asked. “Yeah, well, I would take it that way, too…”
“Not to him,” Callie clarified. “In general. He knows I’m divorced and wanted to know if I’d ever get married again. Plus he said he’s been thinking a lot about it. The pair of us getting married.”
“Well, yeah,” Cristina replied. “I would probably take that as a hint that he wants to marry you. Do you want to marry him?”
“I think so. I mean, my last marriage was a complete disaster. But this is a different situation. You know? We have a kid. We’re living together. And god knows how, but we actually manage to communicate with each other.”
Cristina shrugged. “Sounds like a marriage to me. How’s the kid? I haven’t seen my goddaughter in a few days.”
“Just walk across the hall, Yang.”
“When ever I drop by unannounced, you and Sloan are usually doing it.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “Every time?”
“Yes, sex addict, every time.”
“Well…call ahead?”
“Looks like I’m gonna have to!” Cristina lamented. “But listen, about Mark possibly proposing…don’t let it freak you out, okay? I think we both know it’s what you want. So don’t let it freak you out.”
Callie nodded sharply. “Got it.”
* * *
Over the next few weeks, Mark asked Callie a lot of questions. Specifically, he asked a lot of questions that made her think he was going to propose. And he didn’t. He was teasing Callie, and she very well knew it, waiting for the right moment to actually pop the question.
He would say things like, “Hey, Callie? I have a question. It’s a pretty important one.”
And she would turn to him all wide eyed, waiting for the question.
Then he would follow it up with something along the lines of, “Would you mind passing the salt?”
He was a jack ass, Callie decided. She loved certainly and did want to marry him, but he was a jack ass, teasing a girl like that.
So Callie decided to take matters into her own hands. It was the 21st century - she could do the proposing herself.
That’d show him.
Two weeks later, after more continued teasing questions, Callie and Mark were out at dinner, having left Sofia with Cristina as the pair had planned.
Callie took a sip of water, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and smiled at Mark. “I have a question for you.”
Mark looked up at her from his food and raised an eyebrow casually, not expecting anything serious. “Shoot.”
Callie bit her lip. “Will you marry me?”
Mark’s jaw dropped. He made a strangled noise. “But…I was finally going to ask you tonight.”
Callie smirked. “You shouldn’t have teased a girl for so long, then, hmm? You also shouldn’t leave a girl hanging like this. It’s pretty rude. So…will you? Marry me, that is.”
Mark continued to gape at her for a moment and then grinned. “Of course.”
Callie smiled brilliantly.
Mark reached into his pocket and extracted a ring. “Um…well, I was planning on asking you myself,” he stumbled, “but…uh…here’s the ring if you want it?”
Callie laughed loudly. “You can ask if you want. Just know that I beat you to it.”
Mark smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting being proposed to anytime soon. But here it goes…Callie, you’ve been my best friend for a long time. I knew you before you were married. I knew you when you were divorced. I knew you when you were confused about who you were. I’ve known you for a long time, and I’ve loved you for a long time. You’re my best friend, the mother of my child, and the love of my life. So, Callie, will you marry me?”
Callie grabbed his hand from across the table, squeezing tight as ever.
She beamed at him and replied, just as he had, “Of course.”
fin.