There's a Light | PG13 | Grey's Anatomy/Glee
Title: There’s a Light
Prompt: On the way to a singing competition, the glee bus crashes and the gleeks are brought into Seattle Grace. One of the gleeks is hurt pretty badly and Callie calms him/her down by singing to them as they are being worked on. Someone unexpected should be really, really moved by Callie’s song and confess something to someone else.
Challenge: 100 Fic Challenge (#30)
Fandom: Callie/Rachel, Brittany, Santana, Grey’s Anatomy/Glee
Requested by: burningeden/lestobiosis
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 1301
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were. Please don't sue.
Author's Note: I had no idea where to go with this initially, so I hope I managed to make the right choice even if I skimped a little on the prompt. For reference, the song that Callie sings can be heard here. This is burningeden’s request, but it’s also written for lestobiosis, who asked for a Grey’s/Glee crossover but did not specify a character/prompt. Let me know what you think!
-
Callie Torres picked up the chart outside of the exam room, glancing quickly over the notes on the page. Bus accident. Seventeen year old female, dislocated left shoulder. She felt a thrill of excitement. Much as she enjoyed the intricacies and bad-assed-ness of performing orthopedic surgeries, there was nothing like popping a shoulder back into its socket with your bare hands to start the day.
She made a quick note on the chart of which medications had been administered and copied down a few notes of her own; as she wrote, the voices inside the room drifted into the hall.
“You really don’t have to stay,” said one female in quiet desperation, her sentence punctuated by a gasp of pain. Callie guessed that she was the patient.
Another female gave a bored sigh. “Mr. Schuester said we had to babysit you.”
“’Babysit’ was not the term he used…”
“As if we want to be in here anyway,” said the second female. “Your skirt’s giving me hives. Really, Rachel…do you scavenge for clothes at homeless shelters?”
Callie furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, deciding not to prolong the abuse of her patient. She ducked into the room with a wide, cheerful smile, scoping out the situation at hand. A brown-haired girl sat on the exam table, tears staining her cheeks as she clutched her injured arm. Two other girls stood nearby, their pinkies hooked, both wearing matching amused grins. Callie immediately disliked them.
“I’m Dr. Torres,” she said, crossing the room to stand beside Rachel. “Miss Berry?”
The girl nodded. “Rachel.”
“So, what happened here?” Callie inspected the injury.
Rachel winced in pain, another tear rolling down her cheek. “We were on our way to a glee club competition. There was an accident…the bus swerved into a ditch and flipped onto its side.”
Callie nodded. “Nasty little dislocation you’ve got, huh?”
Rachel nodded, her lip quivering. Her tears threatened to return but were halted when the blonde standing in the corner of the room gave a derisive snort.
“Is something about this funny?” Callie asked, eyeing the blonde. The girl’s vacant expression didn’t match the malicious smile on her face; it seemed to mirror that of the olive-skinned girl beside her.
The blonde shook her head but her smile didn’t falter.
The other girl piped up. “This wouldn’t have even happened if you hadn’t been standing in the aisle trying to get us to sing that lame song.”
“My attempt at boosting morale did not cause this accident! It’s not my fault that someone fell asleep at the wheel and our driver swerved to avoid a head on collision!” Rachel yelped. “You can’t blame it on me, Santana!”
“But it was sort of your fault that you ended up here,” the blonde said. “If you had just been sitting like the rest of us…”
“Brittany’s right,” Santana added. “We should be on the road now. We’re probably going to miss the competition now because of you.”
Callie felt anger boil within her. “You’re meaning to tell me that Rachel is the only one who was injured?”
“No!” Rachel replied defensively. “Tina’s getting stitches right now because she gashed her forehead, and they’re doing all sorts of tests on Quinn to make sure her baby is all right. Just because you two don’t like me doesn’t mean you can say it’s all my fault.”
Brittany shrugged and looked away, bored with the conversation.
Santana rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Hey,” Callie interjected, “if the two of you are going to stand there simply to make my patient feel worse, perhaps there are other people in your little group that you can terrorize instead.”
“But Mr. Schue-“ Brittany said.
“Then keep your mouths shut,” Callie ordered, raising an imperious eyebrow. She turned back to Rachel and smiled. She lowered her voice. “Pain’s not so bad compared with those two, isn’t it?”
Rachel gave a weak smile. “They’re not so bad. They just…don’t like me.”
“That doesn’t give them permission to treat you like this,” Callie said, shooting a glance over at the two teenagers.
“I don’t mean to sound rude,” said Rachel, her eyes brimming with tears, “but would it be possible to get something else for the pain? Or…you know…to fix this?”
“It’s going to hurt when I pop your shoulder back in,” Callie truthfully told her. “You’re a singer, right? Maybe you should sing something to distract yourself while I do it?”
Rachel flashed a glance at the two girls standing in the corner and sighed. “I don’t think I could sing right now even if I wanted to.” She blinked, her large brown eyes settling on Callie’s face. “Would you?”
“Uhh…” Callie balked, glancing down at her tennis shoes. She cleared her throat.
“Please? Singing always calms me down,” Rachel added.
Callie pursed her lips and took a deep breath, knowing it was out of the question for Brittany and Santana to step up to soothe the girl’s pain. “All right. Hmm…lemme think…” Despite knowing the words to hundreds of songs, her repertoire was suddenly blank. Rachel seemed like the showtune type and she racked her brain, reaching for anything that she actually knew the words to. Her mind finally settled on the most recent musical she’d forced Arizona to watch. If anything, it would make the girl smile. Clearing her throat, she said, “No laughing, got it?” She glanced at Brittany and Santana. “I fix bones but I can break them just as easily.”
The two girls shifted uncomfortably and Callie grinned. “Here goes.” She took a deep breath and began to sing. “In the velvet darkness of the blackest night, burning bright there’s a guiding star, no matter what or who you are…” Callie caught a glimpse of Rachel’s amused smirk at her song choice and continued. “There’s a light…”
“Over at the Frankenstein place…” sang Brittany quietly.
Three heads snapped in the blonde’s direction. Rachel grinned, Callie’s eyebrows climbed her forehead, and Santana nudged Brittany with her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Brittany mumbled.
Callie suppressed a snort and, at Rachel’s expectant gaze, continued the song. “There’s a light burning in the fireplace…There’s a light…a light…in the…darkness…” on the last word, Callie popped Rachel’s shoulder back into place with a grunt, “of everybody’s life.”
Rachel let out a pained howl and then grimaced, as if trying to swallow back the amount of pain she was in.
“No offense,” said Santana casually, “but you should totally be singing instead of wasting that voice in a hospital.”
As Callie blushed slightly, Rachel shrieked, “Nope! No, she should definitely be fixing bones…especially mine…”
Callie pat Rachel’s knee comfortingly and explained the aftercare process for her arm as she gently set it in a sling. “The pain will gradually subside as the meds fully kick in. You’ll be perfectly fine.”
“Thank you,” Rachel replied meekly. “For this and for Rocky Horror…”
Callie smiled at her. “I don’t sing for just anyone. So when in doubt, remember that there’s always a light.”
Rachel beamed. “I will.”
Callie scribbled a prescription for pain medication and as she retracted the point of the pen with a sharp ‘click,’ she eyed Brittany and Santana. “I’m not your mother. I’m not your teacher. I’m not even your friend. I’m not so sure I’d want to be. But even while you two stood here and snickered at this girl’s pain, she still stood up for you and defended you. Think about that the next time you decide to make someone your verbal punching bag.” With that, Callie left the room, easing the chart into its holder on the wall. As she turned to leave, she heard two quiet apologies issued to Rachel, followed by one of the three girls humming the Time Warp.
Callie grinned. She loved her job.
---
Prompt: On the way to a singing competition, the glee bus crashes and the gleeks are brought into Seattle Grace. One of the gleeks is hurt pretty badly and Callie calms him/her down by singing to them as they are being worked on. Someone unexpected should be really, really moved by Callie’s song and confess something to someone else.
Challenge: 100 Fic Challenge (#30)
Fandom: Callie/Rachel, Brittany, Santana, Grey’s Anatomy/Glee
Requested by: burningeden/lestobiosis
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 1301
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were. Please don't sue.
Author's Note: I had no idea where to go with this initially, so I hope I managed to make the right choice even if I skimped a little on the prompt. For reference, the song that Callie sings can be heard here. This is burningeden’s request, but it’s also written for lestobiosis, who asked for a Grey’s/Glee crossover but did not specify a character/prompt. Let me know what you think!
-
Callie Torres picked up the chart outside of the exam room, glancing quickly over the notes on the page. Bus accident. Seventeen year old female, dislocated left shoulder. She felt a thrill of excitement. Much as she enjoyed the intricacies and bad-assed-ness of performing orthopedic surgeries, there was nothing like popping a shoulder back into its socket with your bare hands to start the day.
She made a quick note on the chart of which medications had been administered and copied down a few notes of her own; as she wrote, the voices inside the room drifted into the hall.
“You really don’t have to stay,” said one female in quiet desperation, her sentence punctuated by a gasp of pain. Callie guessed that she was the patient.
Another female gave a bored sigh. “Mr. Schuester said we had to babysit you.”
“’Babysit’ was not the term he used…”
“As if we want to be in here anyway,” said the second female. “Your skirt’s giving me hives. Really, Rachel…do you scavenge for clothes at homeless shelters?”
Callie furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, deciding not to prolong the abuse of her patient. She ducked into the room with a wide, cheerful smile, scoping out the situation at hand. A brown-haired girl sat on the exam table, tears staining her cheeks as she clutched her injured arm. Two other girls stood nearby, their pinkies hooked, both wearing matching amused grins. Callie immediately disliked them.
“I’m Dr. Torres,” she said, crossing the room to stand beside Rachel. “Miss Berry?”
The girl nodded. “Rachel.”
“So, what happened here?” Callie inspected the injury.
Rachel winced in pain, another tear rolling down her cheek. “We were on our way to a glee club competition. There was an accident…the bus swerved into a ditch and flipped onto its side.”
Callie nodded. “Nasty little dislocation you’ve got, huh?”
Rachel nodded, her lip quivering. Her tears threatened to return but were halted when the blonde standing in the corner of the room gave a derisive snort.
“Is something about this funny?” Callie asked, eyeing the blonde. The girl’s vacant expression didn’t match the malicious smile on her face; it seemed to mirror that of the olive-skinned girl beside her.
The blonde shook her head but her smile didn’t falter.
The other girl piped up. “This wouldn’t have even happened if you hadn’t been standing in the aisle trying to get us to sing that lame song.”
“My attempt at boosting morale did not cause this accident! It’s not my fault that someone fell asleep at the wheel and our driver swerved to avoid a head on collision!” Rachel yelped. “You can’t blame it on me, Santana!”
“But it was sort of your fault that you ended up here,” the blonde said. “If you had just been sitting like the rest of us…”
“Brittany’s right,” Santana added. “We should be on the road now. We’re probably going to miss the competition now because of you.”
Callie felt anger boil within her. “You’re meaning to tell me that Rachel is the only one who was injured?”
“No!” Rachel replied defensively. “Tina’s getting stitches right now because she gashed her forehead, and they’re doing all sorts of tests on Quinn to make sure her baby is all right. Just because you two don’t like me doesn’t mean you can say it’s all my fault.”
Brittany shrugged and looked away, bored with the conversation.
Santana rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Hey,” Callie interjected, “if the two of you are going to stand there simply to make my patient feel worse, perhaps there are other people in your little group that you can terrorize instead.”
“But Mr. Schue-“ Brittany said.
“Then keep your mouths shut,” Callie ordered, raising an imperious eyebrow. She turned back to Rachel and smiled. She lowered her voice. “Pain’s not so bad compared with those two, isn’t it?”
Rachel gave a weak smile. “They’re not so bad. They just…don’t like me.”
“That doesn’t give them permission to treat you like this,” Callie said, shooting a glance over at the two teenagers.
“I don’t mean to sound rude,” said Rachel, her eyes brimming with tears, “but would it be possible to get something else for the pain? Or…you know…to fix this?”
“It’s going to hurt when I pop your shoulder back in,” Callie truthfully told her. “You’re a singer, right? Maybe you should sing something to distract yourself while I do it?”
Rachel flashed a glance at the two girls standing in the corner and sighed. “I don’t think I could sing right now even if I wanted to.” She blinked, her large brown eyes settling on Callie’s face. “Would you?”
“Uhh…” Callie balked, glancing down at her tennis shoes. She cleared her throat.
“Please? Singing always calms me down,” Rachel added.
Callie pursed her lips and took a deep breath, knowing it was out of the question for Brittany and Santana to step up to soothe the girl’s pain. “All right. Hmm…lemme think…” Despite knowing the words to hundreds of songs, her repertoire was suddenly blank. Rachel seemed like the showtune type and she racked her brain, reaching for anything that she actually knew the words to. Her mind finally settled on the most recent musical she’d forced Arizona to watch. If anything, it would make the girl smile. Clearing her throat, she said, “No laughing, got it?” She glanced at Brittany and Santana. “I fix bones but I can break them just as easily.”
The two girls shifted uncomfortably and Callie grinned. “Here goes.” She took a deep breath and began to sing. “In the velvet darkness of the blackest night, burning bright there’s a guiding star, no matter what or who you are…” Callie caught a glimpse of Rachel’s amused smirk at her song choice and continued. “There’s a light…”
“Over at the Frankenstein place…” sang Brittany quietly.
Three heads snapped in the blonde’s direction. Rachel grinned, Callie’s eyebrows climbed her forehead, and Santana nudged Brittany with her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Brittany mumbled.
Callie suppressed a snort and, at Rachel’s expectant gaze, continued the song. “There’s a light burning in the fireplace…There’s a light…a light…in the…darkness…” on the last word, Callie popped Rachel’s shoulder back into place with a grunt, “of everybody’s life.”
Rachel let out a pained howl and then grimaced, as if trying to swallow back the amount of pain she was in.
“No offense,” said Santana casually, “but you should totally be singing instead of wasting that voice in a hospital.”
As Callie blushed slightly, Rachel shrieked, “Nope! No, she should definitely be fixing bones…especially mine…”
Callie pat Rachel’s knee comfortingly and explained the aftercare process for her arm as she gently set it in a sling. “The pain will gradually subside as the meds fully kick in. You’ll be perfectly fine.”
“Thank you,” Rachel replied meekly. “For this and for Rocky Horror…”
Callie smiled at her. “I don’t sing for just anyone. So when in doubt, remember that there’s always a light.”
Rachel beamed. “I will.”
Callie scribbled a prescription for pain medication and as she retracted the point of the pen with a sharp ‘click,’ she eyed Brittany and Santana. “I’m not your mother. I’m not your teacher. I’m not even your friend. I’m not so sure I’d want to be. But even while you two stood here and snickered at this girl’s pain, she still stood up for you and defended you. Think about that the next time you decide to make someone your verbal punching bag.” With that, Callie left the room, easing the chart into its holder on the wall. As she turned to leave, she heard two quiet apologies issued to Rachel, followed by one of the three girls humming the Time Warp.
Callie grinned. She loved her job.
---