A/N: Alright...so this is a post 2x08 fic/an alternate ending to 2x08 and it will be pretty short (just two parts). The whole concept is based on like two hours worth of research and, since I'm definitely not a doctor, please forgive any medical inaccuracies - I've tried to gloss over the medical stuff to keep those inaccuracies to a minimum but I'm 100% sure at least something I've written is wrong on the medical front. Anyway, enough rambling...

xxxxxx

Inhale. Exhale.

As Stef watched Callie's chest rise and fall she repeated these two words over and over in her head, counting the breaths, attempting to distract herself from the reality. Although, she couldn't distract herself for long. She never got past twenty in her count before her eyes invariably drifted upwards, towards Callie's face, and, invariably, every time, her heart constricted and her breath caught in her throat.

The site of the tube down her daughter's throat remained shocking, remained physically painful to see, all of these hours later.

xxxxxx

20 Hours Ago

Stef was nearly asleep when her cell phone started ringing, the noise causing her to jump. She fumbled a moment in the dark before she managed to grab a hold of the phone and bring it up to her ear, "Hello?"

"Stef…" the voice on the other end of the phone was barely more than a whisper.

"Callie, love?" Stef asked, sitting up and reaching over to turn her bedside lamp on.

"I…uh…I need you to come get me," Callie mumbled out.

"Are you okay?" Stef frowned, suddenly worried and already getting out of bed.

"There was..umm…" Callie took a breath and then rushed out her next words, "a house fire."

At Callie's words, Stef picked up her pace, taking the stairs two at a time, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Callie rushed to confirm.

Slipping on her shoes, Stef exhaled the breath she didn't know she'd been holding, "I'll be right there."

xxxxxx

19 Hours Ago

Callie stepped out of the master bathroom with wet hair and in fresh pajamas. She felt much better now that she wasn't covered in a layer of soot. As she exited the bathroom and stepped into the bedroom, she shuffled her feet, not really sure what to do with herself.

Stef set the book she'd been holding, but not actually reading, down on the nightstand, and, sensing Callie's hesitancy, patted the empty spot on the bed beside her, "Come on up love."

Callie hesitated only a second longer before she moved closer and climbed up onto the bed beside Stef, leaning in to the hug that was immediately offered.

Stef hugged Callie tightly a minute before she pulled back. Watching Callie stifle a yawn, she smiled gently, "Ready for sleep?"

Callie nodded and Stef reached forward, smoothing the girl's wet hair and kissing the top of her head before she rolled over and turned off the bedside lamp.

xxxxxx

14 Hours Ago

Stef woke up confused. Squinting into the darkness, it took her sleep-addled brain a minute to realize what the problem was. Callie was no longer beside her in the bed. She sat up quickly then, concerned.

It didn't take her long to locate the girl. The loud hacking sound coming from the master bathroom could only really be one person.

Stef rapped on the door but didn't wait for an answer to push it open - the site she was faced with immediately confirming that she had made the right decision. Striding quickly over to the sink that her daughter was hunched over, Stef placed her hand on the girl's lower back, just as Callie's coughing fit cumulated with her spitting out a significant amount of mucus. The action was accompanied by a shudder and a gagging noise.

"Sshh…" Stef soothed, rubbing her hand up and down Callie's back.

Callie turned the tap on, watching the clear mucus, speckled with something black that she guessed was soot, disappear down the drain, before she titled her head in Stef's direction, "I'm sorry I woke you up."

Stef raised an incredulously eyebrow, "Unless you revise that to, I'm sorry I didn't wake you up when I wasn't feeling well, I'm not accepting your apology missy," she scolded half-seriously. She paused a minute before she reached up and brushed some hair out of Callie's eyes, asking concerned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Callie nodded.

"Are you sure?" Stef asked, still sounding concerned.

"Mmhmm…" Callie nodded, "…can we go back to sleep?"

Stef watched her carefully, hesitating a minute, still not convinced, before finally she nodded.

xxxxxx

12 Hours Ago

Stef woke once more, this time to light streaming in through her window. She rolled over, glad to find Callie still asleep beside her in the bed, curled up in a ball.

She smiled gently as she reached over and placed her hand on Callie's back. The smile quickly turned to a frown though as she felt the rattling under her palm that accompanied every breath Callie took.

xxxxxx

11 Hours Ago

Despite Callie's protests, Stef wasted little time taking her daughter to the ER once it became clear how labored her breathing was becoming.

The waiting room in the ER was crowded but the line waiting to be triaged shuffled quickly. When it was Callie's turn to see the triage nurse, Stef did most of the talking, explaining that Callie had been in a fire and that now she was having a difficult time breathing and had been coughing up mucus. Callie was immediately ushered in and placed in a hospital bed.

Within five minutes an ER doctor was pulling back the curtain to talk to them. He listened to Callie's lungs, asked her how long she'd been exposed to the smoke – the answer a length of time that seemed too long and made Stef raise a curious eyebrow, making note to question the girl later – and then ordered a battery of tests.

Before they did anything else, they strapped an oxygen mask to Callie's face, making conversation difficult. So, Stef just sat beside her, holding her hand tightly, and murmuring soft words of comfort, while a nurse started an IV and drew several vials of blood.

It wasn't until Callie was wheeled away to have a chest x-ray and a bronchoscopy done, that Stef allowed herself to bury her head in her hands and succumb momentarily to the panic that was clawing at her chest.

Although the panic didn't subside, eventually she raised her head. She had to call her wife.

xxxxxx

10 Hours Ago

They brought Callie back to the ER after the bronchoscopy. Stef watched Callie carefully as the wheels of the gurney were locked into place. Callie stirred on the gurney but her eyes didn't open – the sedative they'd used to complete the bronchoscopy yet to have worn off. Stef ran her hand along Callie's arm, not taking her eyes off of her daughter until the ER doctor came back over, motioning that he wanted to speak to her.

They took a couple of steps away from Callie before Stef asked, "Is she okay?"

The doctor took a breath before he explained, "I want to move her to the ICU."

"The ICU?" Stef frowned. Wasn't the ICU for people who were really sick? Stef shuddered at the thought, the panic mounting once again, even higher than before.

"We saw edema and inflammation when we did the bronchoscopy. We would like to intubate now before it becomes more difficult, or impossible, to do so," the doctor explained.

"Intubate? Is that…necessary?" Stef's frown deepened. She felt like someone was twisting her stomach in knots. "I don't understand how…she…she was fine right after she left the burning building."

The doctor nodded, not surprised by the confusion, "With smoke inhalation injuries, symptoms are often delayed until the edema grows sufficiently large to impair the airway diameter, which is what has happened in Callie's case. The concern is that the edema and the inflammation will only get worse over the next several hours. Putting Callie on machine ventilation now is really the most prudent course of action."

Stef rubbed her hand across her face, "I…my wife is on her way. She was away…it's a long drive." How could she possibly make these decisions without Lena?

The doctor nodded sympathetically, "I understand but we really shouldn't wait much longer. I want to move Callie up to the ICU now and I'm sure they'll want to intubate within the next hour."

xxxxxx

9 Hours Ago

Stef sat beside Callie in the ICU. The wide frightened eyes staring back at her made her stomach clench and her heart ache. She was supposed to be her children's protector but she wasn't sure how to make this better.

"I know it sounds scary sweets," Stef hummed, running her thumb along the back of Callie's hand, "but they're going to sedate you and when you wake up again you're going to feel so much better."

Callie reached up and pulled the oxygen mask away from her face. Stef moved to stop her but the determined look on Callie's face froze her hand midair.

With the oxygen mask no longer impeding her, Callie's lower lip trembled and she wheezed as spoke, "Will you tell Jude that I love him?"

If Stef's heart had ached before, now it was broken, "Oh baby," she murmured, leaning in closer and brushing hair out of Callie's face, "Love, you're going to be able to tell him yourself. The ventilation will just be temporary. Until your lungs are better."

Callie's lower lip trembled again, tears starting to collect in the corner of her eyes, "I…" she started but stopped not sure what she wanted to say. That she was terrified? Her chest rose and fell in a labored effort as she tried to come up with the right words.

"Sshh…" Stef hummed, prying the oxygen mask from Callie's fingers and easing it back in place over her mouth and nose, not liking her labored breathing one bit. "Just listen to me. I love you, Callie. Mama loves you too. And Brandon and Jesus and Mariana and Jude love you. We all love you. You know that. Yes?" She waited for Callie's nod of confirmation. "And just like you know that we love you, we know that you love us. Okay? So you don't have to tell Jude, and I don't have to tell Jude for you. He already knows."

Some of the tears that had been collecting spilled out from the corners of Callie's eyes then and Stef reached up and caught one with the pad of her thumb. She leaned in a kissed Callie's temple before she spoke again, "It's okay if you're scared Callie. This is scary. But, love, I'm not leaving. I'm still going to be sitting here holding your hand when you wake up," she squeezed Callie's fingers tightly, as if to strengthen her words, "I promise. Okay?"

Callie blinked slowly, watching Stef for several long minutes before she mouthed a single word through the oxygen mask. "Okay."

xxxxxx

3 Hour Ago

When Stef got a text from Lena saying that she'd dropped Jude off back at home and that she was on her way to the hospital, she immediately went downstairs to wait in the lobby.

For that reason, Stef's face was the first thing that Lena saw when she walked into the hospital. The site of her wife, standing there with slumped shoulders, looking exhausted, nearly sucked all of the air out of Lena's lungs and for a moment she wondered if that breathlessness was how Callie felt – or at least how Callie had felt before they sedated her and she didn't feel anything at all. Lena didn't get to contemplate that thought long though because within seconds Stef was in front of her, wrapping her arms around her, and burying her head in her shoulder.

"You're here," Stef mumbled into Lena's shoulder.

"I am," Lena confirmed, rubbing her hand across Stef's back, providing her wife as much comfort as she was drawing from her.

Stef clung to Lena a moment longer before she pulled back, rubbing at her face with the back of her hand, and sighing.

"Can I see her?" Lena asked, her desperation to see Callie evident in her tone.

Stef just nodded, grabbing Lena's hand and pulling her towards the elevator. As they went up the four floors to the ICU, Stef tried to warn Lena about what awaited them. She explained about all of the wires, and the beeping machines, about the tube down Callie's throat, and the awful whirring sound that the ventilator made.

Despite Stef's warnings, when they stepped closer to Callie's hospital bed, Lena's hand flew to her mouth and she stifled a gasp – hearing about and seeing were two completely different things. Her poor baby. Mindful of the wires and tubes, Lena stepped closer, gingerly taking Callie's hand in her own, and leaning down to kiss first one and then the other of Callie's closed eyelids, as she whispered, "Mama's here sweetheart. I love you."

As she took a seat beside Callie's bed, the girl's fingers still clutched in her own, Lena couldn't help but think that she'd already lost one daughter in this hospital, she couldn't lose another.

xxxxxx

Present

Stef could only stand to look at the tube down Callie's throat for a minute before she had to force her eyes to drift again. They passed momentarily over Lena, who was sitting on the other side of the ICU bed with Callie's right hand clutched firmly in her own, before they returned to their original position. She watched Callie's chest rise and fall and she began her count once more.

Inhale.