Title: Salads of Sapphic Persuasion

Pairing: Callie/Erica (Callica)

Author: Mirandyscrow

Rating: Pg-13 but very close to the cusp of R

Summary: During Callie's little Yoda and Skywalker scene with Mark in "No 'I' in Team" she decides to make a much better decision…or so she thinks.

Archive: Sure if you really want it. Lol, it would be a surprise to me, just ask my permission first. (It's just nice when people ask.)

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy and all the characters therein belong to Shonda Rhimes and ABC. Any and all other brand names belong to their respective owners. I do not make any money on this story as it is being written for entertainment purposes only. (insert a cute, witty disclaimer joke here)

Author's Note: This idea came to me when I was re-watching some of the cute, awkward Callica scenes on YouTube and my muse decided to through a tantrum until I decided 'Eh, why the hell not' and here we are. It was abandoned for awhile so I decided to blow the dust off some of the fics hidden deep on my hard drive, kinda like a fic writer's version of spring cleaning.

Big thanks to faithlessfate for beta-ing this fic for me! All simple mistakes are my own.

Onto the fic and I hope you enjoy!

-x-

Callie walked into the on-call room she knew Mark frequented for rest, other than the one she'd driven him out of with her tales of 'sick and wrong' bad lesbian sex. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw him looking up at her curiously from the bed facing the door. She drew a breath and started the speech she'd been running over and over in her head the entire walk there. She needed this to happen.

"I know you don't want to talk about it anymore," Callie started, ignoring his exasperated exclamation as she was presented with his back. "Just hear me out," she insisted. "I like to be good at things okay? I do not fail. I do not quit. I like to be good at things and I want to be good at this so I need you. I need you to show me."

Mark turned slowly, looking at her quizzically but not without a little interest. "Show you?" he asked just to be clear.

"Just because you didn't publish up a new clinical trial doesn't mean you aren't a genius," she emphasized with a smirk.

Mark stood quickly. "Fine. Take off your pants." He tugged his shirt off, throwing it to the side. "I'll show you the Sloan Method."

Callie beamed. "Really? Oh my god. Thank you. Thank you." She excitedly started to untie her scrubs and paused when she suddenly remembered Erica's disheartened expression from earlier. She could barely hold it together when she saw those ice blue eyes shimmer in the light like Erica was on the verge of tears.

"No," Callie heard herself say.

"What?" Mark asked, confused, his own pants nearly down.

"I can't do this," Callie said, tightening the string on her scrubs, "But you are still going to help me." She walked forward, snatching his shirt from the floor and tossing it to him. Mark barely had his shirt pulled down all the way when she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the on-call room. The speech she'd just given about not failing replayed in her head, giving her a new determination.

-x-

Callie and Mark sat in the former's Jeep looking at the modest sized building with blacked out windows for the past ten minutes. She chewed on her nails and glanced nervously throughout the fairly empty parking lot. Her leg bounced up and down nervously. The motion succeeded in subtly shaking the vehicle.

Mark reached over and placed a hand on her leg firmly, stilling it. "You're being ridiculous right now. My lunch break will be over before you know it and you'll be no closer to solving your horrible Hahn sex problem."

"I know," Callie whined over her nail. She snatched her hand away from her mouth and ran nervous hand through her hair in frustration. "I know," she repeated. "I just have to steel my resolve before I go in there."

"So you actually are going in there?" Mark looked far too amused at the situation.

"Yeah," she said plainly. She didn't understand why she was so nervous. She had gone into these types of places before but never for this type of problem. She turned to Mark with her most charming smile. "Unless you want to go in there for me?"

He didn't fall for it in the slightest. "Callie, Mark Sloan has never needed to enter a sex shop."

Callie raised a questioning eyebrow.

"For help," he amended.

"Not even to help his hot best friend?" she countered. It was worth one more shot.

"No, not even for Derek," he said with a smirk.

She smacked his arm with a mock glare before rummaging around in her backseat for a scarf and pair of shades. "Fine, see if I ever help you with any sex problems," Callie mumbled.

"I'll never need it, Torres," Mark replied confidently. He watched her tie the scarf on her head and shove a pair of too large sunglasses on her head. "Are you about to rob the place?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with laughter.

"Shut it." Callie held up a finger in warning and exited the vehicle. "I don't want anyone to recognize me in there," she said through the window before slamming the door to her Jeep and making her way across the parking lot.

As Callie walked through the door, she was immediately assaulted with the nearly overpowering smell of incense, blasting rock music, and a few other undistinguishable sounds. She found the origin of the latter sounds when she approached the sales counter. The girl behind the counter had platinum blonde hair pinned up to flair down in a cascade of short candy apple red curls in a resemblance of a Mohawk. The nose ring in her left nostril glinted in the surprisingly bright lights of store. Her full lips were turned up in a snarl as she pressed a few buttons on a game controller, whooping in triumph as another character onscreen died.

Callie couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the 'My other ride is your mom' tank top and cleared her throat when it seemed like the girl wasn't going to acknowledge her presence. "Excuse me," she said after another silent moment.

"Welcome to Hot Spot where we do everything in our power to help you hit yours. My name is Elena how may I be of service?" the girl said blandly, never once looking up from the television screen in front of her.

Cursing Mark's name for the millionth time while checking to see that her sunglasses were snug on her face, Callie said, "I need some books."

"Playboys are on the back shelf," the clerk said in the same bored tone, smashing the buttons on the controller rapidly. "Take that fucker!" she exclaimed.

"Not those type of books...how-to books for…uh sex...with a woman," Callie said in a whisper looking back and forth, clutching the scarf tighter around her face.

"Uh huh." Elena finally put down her game controller and looked at Callie. She grinned at the disguise Callie was sporting. She came around the counter to stand beside the taller woman. "So, what in particular?"

"You see I went out on a date with my best friend. We were going to take it slow, but we got back to my place and had sex…bad sex, that actually wasn't so bad for her and now I need to fix it because I really want to give this a try… not the sex…well, yes the sex, but I want more than that, and I just like to be good at things," Callie explained in babbled rush that ended with a whine.

Elena held up her hand. "Okay, breathe," she encouraged with another small grin. "I'll show you some books I think can help."

She called a co-worker from the back to cover the counter and led Callie toward a shelf on the back left wall. "Just so you know," she said as she quickly read over the titles of some of the works in front of her. "Not all sex is mind blowing the first time. My first three times with my girlfriend was awkward and only mildly satisfying. Just like with any other couple you have to work at it and find out what you and your partner both like, but just incase you're the impatient type," she took a few books off the shelf beside her and placed them into Callie's arms. "These should help."

"Lesbian Sex for Dummies?" Callie read the first book's title with a deadpanned disbelief.

"You seemed like you'd need that one first," the girl replied with a wide, easy smile and a shrug.

Callie's face took a stricken and panicked expression, well as much as it could, considering the rather large sunglasses still perched on her face. "Am I that obvious?"

"No, you aren't. It was a joke." Elena nudged Callie with her shoulder, pulling a small hysterical laugh from the other woman. "You need to lighten up about this if you don't want to choke...well again." She reached up pulling the glasses from Callie's face. "And take these ridiculous things off. Lesson numero uno: confidence works wonders."

-x-

When Callie got back to Seattle Grace, the first thing she did was rush into the locker room and place the books at the bottom of her locker and sit down on the bench across from it. She really shouldn't have put them in there, because now she all she wanted was to read them. She glanced around in the silent and blissfully empty room before she fell to her knees hastily re-opening her locker. She grabbed the first book in the pile and flipped to the table of contents, giving the chapter titles a quick scan. Each title made her more curious than the next. She flipped to the introduction and started reading.

Callie was so enthralled with the book, she failed to hear pager going off. Finally, after another five minutes she picked up the insistent, chiming device from her hip with annoyance.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, making a quick stop to shove the book in her locker, she closed the door and rushed out the side door to her consult down in the Pit.

-x-

Callie was feeling good. Setting the bones of macho idiots that cried like little girls well after the pain was over always put her in a good mood. The only thing that could make her feel even better would be to finish that story that she was reading earlier. She turned and made a quick detour to her locker and quickly grabbed a couple of books before walking into the resident's lounge.

With a quick look to ensure she was indeed alone, Callie settled down to continue reading when her stomach let loose an almighty growl. She'd nearly forgotten to eat and now she had a hunger that couldn't be solved by a measly snack from one of the vending machines across the room.

The orthopedic surgeon stood, preparing to make the trek back to the locker room once again when a book of lesbian erotica tumbled to the floor from the pile, landing open to anyone's prying eyes. Her own eyes widened and she glanced around her to see if anyone noticed the brightly colored book, when she read the title of one of the stories. She tilted her head to the side curiously and picked it up, skimming through the paragraphs. Her imagination easily conjured up the situations that the story was describing. She flushed as she had a flash of two women, frozen in the throes of passion in her mind's eye. They were captured just as they'd reached the final peak of pleasure.

Her stomach made its presence known again and she saw that she'd accidentally picked up a medical journal in her haste. It was at that moment when she was struck with a wonderful idea. She slipped the small book in her hand into the Orthopedic medical journal and proceeded to the cafeteria.

Callie had a death grip on the journal as she walked the halls of Seattle Grace. Her face seemed to have a permanent blush. She refused to walk with her head held high as she normally did, too worried that people would be able to see her face and just know what she'd been reading. She'd just gotten out of the rumor mill and didn't need the gossip that would spread like wildfire if anyone caught her reading the book currently in her possession.

Thankfully though, Callie made it to the cafeteria without incident. She breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head a little at how silly she was being. She grabbed a tray and looked through the lunch choices. Her mouth began to water at the sight of the large roast beef sandwich sitting proudly in the cooler case. She hurried forward, reaching out for the sandwich when she brushed a pale hand. Mocha colored eyes glanced up into icy eyes.

"Erica," Callie gasped softly. The woman in question looked stunned for just a moment and Callie saw with a little guilt that hurt flashed in her eyes before it was gone.

"You can have it. I'm suddenly not hungry anymore." Erica said, setting her tray down and preparing to leave.

"Erica." Callie said once more, grabbing her hand.

"No, Callie." The Cardio surgeon snatched her hand away. "I can't do this." She spat, echoing Callie's words from earlier. She turned smoothly marching out of the busy cafeteria.

"Erica, wait." Callie stepped out of line and rushed after the departing woman. Unfortunately, in her rush she wasn't watching where she was going, so it was no wonder that she ran right into Bailey. The collision effectively tossed the shorter woman's tray and Callie's book that she seemed so keen on protecting into the air. The tray hit the floor with a loud clatter and the book followed just a split second later with a muted thud.

"I'm so sorry, Bailey," Callie said, turning to see if she would catch sight of Erica. She gazed down the hall but there was no hint of which direction the woman disappeared to. "Shit," She grumbled to herself.

"Torres!" Bailey barked to from her left. She was still on her knees gathering the remnants of her lunch.

Callie fell to her knees swiftly. "I'm sorry, Bailey."

"Yeah, you said that," The shorter doctor sniped back.

Callie stood and held her hand out to the shorter woman, helping her to her feet. She saw that her medical journal was still sitting on the floor littered with a couple of pieces of lettuce and quickly bent down to retrieve her book. She watched in slow motion as the lesbian erotica came sliding out it and landed onto Bailey's tray that was now currently perched in the woman's hands.

The orthopedic surgeon grabbed the second, smaller book form the tray so fast, Bailey briefly wondered if she was granted with the power of supernatural speed for just those few moments. "Bailey…" Callie began as her face invented a new shade of red.

"Ah-ah!" The shorter woman threw up her hand, quickly halting the rest of Callie's explanation. "I don't want to know, Torres. We've discussed as much as we're going to about your trip to the motherland." Bailey said and walked away mumbling about the drama of 'crazy late in life lesbians.'

Callie ignored her and walked out of the cafeteria and made a path straight to the nurse's station, checking to see if Erica had any surgeries scheduled for the evening when she realized that ambushing the woman just before she went into a sterile room designed to save a life was probably a low blow but she wanted to make things right and at this point she was just the tiniest bit desperate.

She arrived at the nurse's station to see an amused Mark Sloan leaning against the desk with his eyes turned toward the nearest on call room. Callie leaned next to him casually and glanced at the door trying to see what had her friend so invested in his position. After a few more seconds of just not seeing it she spoke. "Mark, what-?"

"Just wait." He said with a positively vindictive smile on his face now. "Three, two, one." He counted down just in time for George O'Malley to come flying out of the door as if he'd been tossed out by the Hulk.

The intern's face is bone white and drenched in sweat as he choked out, "S-sorry to bother you Dr. Hahn." He stood promptly and tripped over himself to scurry down the hall.

Mark didn't even wait for the intern to round the corner before starting to laugh uproariously.

"What did you do, Mark?" Callie asked at once, still waiting to see what so amusing.

"O'Malley was on my service today and I was still feeling a little bad so I decided to send him on a fool's errand." Mark paused just enough to wipe his eyes free of imaginary tears. "When I saw Erica tear ass into the on call room and everyone vacate I had my silver lining."

"Mark?" Callie said in warning. "What did you put him up to?" With as large as the grin was on his face she wasn't even sure if she wanted to know what he had O'Malley say to Hahn.

If Callie thought Mark's smirk was already large, it became practically on par with the Cheshire cat when he replied, "I made him ask if she was a boycut panties, thong, or commando kind of gal."

"Oh, Mark, you didn't." Callie groaned. She shook her head but couldn't stop the small smile that graced her face. She had to admit that it was a little funny. She also knew exactly where Erica was so it was just a matter of finding the courage to confront the other woman again.

Callie took and step and froze. What if she couldn't fix it? She thought. What if they were over way before they had even begun?

"You going in there or what because I have a surgery in an hour. I want to know that all my hard work wasn't all for naught." Mark asked, breaking through Callie's musings.

"Your hard work?" Callie asked in incredulity.

"I drove you to the place and went without lunch." Mark argued smoothly.

Callie narrowed her eyes at him. "We both went without lunch you ass."

"It's the same difference." Mark said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He pressed a hand to her shoulder. "Go get your girl Torres." He whispered in her ear before shoving her forward.

Callie nodded and tossed her hair back. She walked forward with determination and a confident smirk firmly in place. She stopped suddenly remembering the weight resting in her right hand and turned to toss the book at Mark. "Go put this in my locker." Remembering Elena's advice from earlier that day, Callie nodded to herself and continued her resolute strides to the on call room, locking the door behind her. "Confidence works wonders."

Erica had her back turned to Callie, thumbing through a medical journal though it was obvious she wasn't actually seeing any of the words printed on the pages.

"Take off your pants," Callie said.

Erica turned, looking at Callie like she'd escaped from a circus. "Excuse me?" she questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I said. Take. Off. Your. Pants," Callie stated confidently and clearly with a devious smirk upon her face. She pulled her shirt over her head, revealing the wine colored bra. "We're trying this again." She walked to Erica, pulling her closer by her hips and kissing her soundly.

Erica relaxed but tensed as the younger woman began to back her up against the bunk beds. She broke the kiss. "Callie, stop."

Callie giggled quietly and leaned back in but Erica pressed a restraining hand to her chest. She frowned "What? What's wrong?"

"I'm not having sex in the on-call room where quite possibly eighty percent of the hospital has." Erica said with unconcealed disgust.

"Oh." Callie said, leaning back with a sigh and trying to calm her raging hormones.

-x-

Callie couldn't quite recall how they made it out of the hospital or into Erica's car that was currently making its way to the blonde's apartment. She did, however, notice the thick tension filled silent ride there. The two women spent the entire time, shooting each other short, nervous glance. It was as if a thin taut band of restraint in the small space of the car with them was keeping them from jumping each other. After what seemed like an eon, they finally pulled into the driveway of Erica's house.

The blonde shut the car off but did nothing else but hold her car keys in her hand, staring at them like they held all the secrets to life etched upon each and every groove and notch.

"Erica?" Callie asked when she realized the other woman would be making no move to get out of the car anytime soon.

"What is this Callie? What made you change your mind?"

"I just realized I don't like to fail at things at life, love, or people. I want to be good at this. I want to be good at us and I want to be better with you," Callie said gently placing her hand over Erica's. "Look, can we just start over again and try it slow?"

Erica grinned just a little. "Because that worked so well the first time," She remarked wryly.

"I know but maybe we should just try first base and only first base for awhile until we feel each other out." Callie said leaning forward just a bit. She inhaled slowly, taking in Erica's muted cedar and citrus smell. It was accented with just a bit of talc. On anyone else it might have been an odd combination, but on the blonde it always seeped into Callie's senses and drove her to distraction, so much so she nearly missed Erica's whispered reply.

"I meant what I said earlier today. I enjoyed our time yesterday and I'm going to want more." Erica said quietly, her tone dripping with self-consciousness.

Callie's smile was nearly blinding as she closed the distance between them. "I can do that," She murmured against soft lips. The younger woman gave a feather light kiss once, twice letting the teasing sensations awaken Erica's senses. A seeking tongue gently asked for permission which was quickly granted.

Callie's tongue slipped past Erica's lips and she felt the blonde melt at the meeting of the two dancing muscles. Erica's hands fisted in Callie's scrub top while the tan woman tangled her hands into blonde tresses. They tried to get closer but were restrained by their seatbelts.

Eventually, they were forced to break for air. Resting her forehead against Callie's, Erica breathed in deeply. Her face flushed as she breathed, "I think we've gotten first base down pat."

"I'd agree." Callie said winded and unbuckled her seatbelt. "Let's go inside or I'm afraid we'll wind up giving your neighbors a show."

They smiled softly at each other before gathering their belongings and exiting the car. Erica opened her door and just marginally missed stepping on the tiny Shih Tzu from next door, Suki. She glanced up to see her frozen elderly neighbor staring at her in shock. "Hi, Mrs. Martin." She said cheerfully walking around to the passenger side. She laced her fingers around Callie's and proudly walked up the steps and disappeared through her door.

~Fin~

Thanks for reading!