A/N: Hello! It's been a while since I've done a multi chapter fic (and this is most likely going to be done chapter by chapter aha) but I miss Calzona and writing for them and thought this would be something fun to do. Please leave comments and your thoughts. I'd love to know what you think!
She slipped on a dress, the dress, that would stretch across half of the aisle when the words 'I do' would fall past her lips. It was tight and uncomfortable and the pure white was too bright for her brown eyes to take in. This dress didn't feel right, this marriage didn't feel right…
Callie flattened the front of the dress. "Mom, I don't think this is-"
"Oh, honey!" her mother ran to the upraised floor and covered her mouth with her hands in complete awe. Her eyes glistened at the sight of her daughter in what she could only describe in her wildest dreams. "You look perfect."
She winced and hid her distaste. In theory the dress was beautiful; it was long and poofy and hugged her curves like they loved her since the day she was born. The veil that nestled cozily in her hair would have made her heart pound...if only the reason she was wearing the dress was to marry the love of her life! But…she was only marrying the father of her child and, while she loved him, she didn't love him enough to marry him.
Yet here she stood, in front of her mother and sister and her best friend with a broken heart and freshly wiped mascara from under her eyes to cover up her drunken escapades the night before.
She avoided her mother's stare, the many mirrors surrounding her—as if they were laughing and taunted her at every chance they could—making each passing moment harder and harder to bear. Her fingers, now balled into fists and digging into her sweaty palms, caused her to wince and let out a breathe she had been holding since her dress had been pulled over her body.
Lucia dabbed at her eyes—quite dramatically—and waved her hand in the air to get a worker's attention. "We're getting this one." Another employee walked by and Lucia was quick to grab the tray of mimosas. "This is the one." she breathed.
Callie knew that her mother's word was final and that no matter what, everything would go her way. That's the way it had been as long as she could remember. It's how she got into this horrid position. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she shut her eyes and leapt off the raised circle and straight to the dressing room.
She panted and whimpered and bit her lip. She fought and clawed and wiped at her eyes. This dress, this ugly reminder of where her life was headed in less than a week, was suffocating her and she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.
"Hey," the familiar voice brought a moment of relief.
"Help me get this damn thing off, Addy." she growled wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
Silently following through, Addison took the zipper and ran it slowly down Callie's back; by the time the zipper had run it's course, Callie had turned into a puddle. Her body melded to the floor, her tan skin glowing under the slightly dimmed light in the small space.
"I can't do this."
Awkwardly joining her friend on the floor, Addison lay down and held Callie's hand. "Why are you doing this again?"
Callie sniffled and locked eyes with Addison's. "I-"
"You don't love him."
"I do."
Addison squeezed her hand tighter. "You were with Erica and you two were doing great and now you're marrying Mark? Mark Sloan?"
The sound of Aria and Lucia laughing outside made Callie's blood boil. Perfect and quite ironic timing. "Can we talk later? I can't…I can't do this right now." she cried.
Nodding, Addison wiped her friend's tears away and helped her onto her feet. "Alright. If that's what you want." Callie stood in her bra and panties, debating if she should lock herself in the room forever and live out the rest of her days until she turned into dust and never had to worry about anything again.
After a few more sniffles, Addison squeezed Callie's arm gently. "Put on her clothes, Torres." she picked up a pair of jeans from the pile on the floor. "We just have to check out the dress and then we can hit Joe's."
Callie shook her head. "No, I have to pick Sofia up from daycare." she jumped into her jeans and put on her shirt in record time. With a frown, Addison helped out her friend by gently handling the wedding dress and putting it back on it's hanger. "We're having movie night; Tangled. You can always join us?" she asked once her shoes were on.
Addison tilted her head and smirked whilst tapping her chin. "Will there be a bottle of wine with my name on it?"
Digging through her purse until her fingers met her phone, Callie chuckled. "Of course." she did a quick check of her notifications and typed a few messages. "Listen, I can't deal with my mom right now." she reached for the door but Addison blocked her.
"I'm here for you, Callie. Just tell me what's going on and—"
Pushing her friend to the side as calmly as she could,
"Calliope, where do you think you're going?" her mother chased after her.
Callie stopped in her place, her mother looking at her with anger and confusion as she noticed the frantic state her daughter seemed to be in.
Callie wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and forced a cough. "I'm not feeling very good. I'll see you tomorrow at the rehearsal dinner, mom."
She studied her daughter and took note of her flushed skin and sunken, tired eyes. "Callie," Lucia reached out a hand, but before their skin could make contact, Callie left the bridal store with a strut that would leave fire in her wake. Speed walking through the mall, Callie didn't blink once until she was in her car, the engine running her her foot on the gas pedal taking her through the wet streets of Seattle.
Her hands soon found the knob on the front of her dashboard and the beginning notes played by guitar filled the suv much to her distaste once she realized what was playing.
Imagine me and you, I do, I think about you day and night—
"Dammit!" she hit the brake with much more force than she needed to when a streetlight turned red and she growled as the song continued to play. Her hands shook and she felt that if her blood kept rising to her face at the rate it did, she would turn into a tomato.
it's only right, to think about the girl you love, and hold her tight, so happy together…
She took a deep breath and held onto the wheel then counted to ten in her head over and over until the cars behind her interrupted her attempt at calming down with their loud honks. Proceeding to flip the drivers off through the rear view mirror, Callie cut the music off and decided that sitting in silence was better than hearing what could possibly be the worst song to ever exist.
(It wasn't really the worst song, but to someone who was about to marry someone they didn't love right after breaking up with someone they cared about, any love song sounded like venom or kryptonite.)
Minutes passed and rain continued to fall. The flowers were taking every drop they could, flowers blooming around the daycare she could see in the distance. It wasn't until she reached her destination that the sun finally decided it was about time to come out and play. The flowers seemed to bloom suddenly, the daycare surrounded by color and children and laughter and it was almost enough to elicit a smile onto Callie's face.
Almost.
She took a few minutes to relax every bone in her body. She took a moment to let the sun's rays touch her skin and calm the hairs standing on her neck. She took a second to remember who she was going through all this for.
Her daughter. Her beautiful daughter who, at just 4 years old, already taught her so much about love and wisdom and confidence. Climbing out of her car, she approached the yellow building and pushed the buzzer.
"Name?"
"Callie Torres." From days and weeks and months of this ritual, she looked up and smiled into the camera. The door clicked, signaling her to open the door and she walked in hoping to see her daughter within the next five minutes or else she would most likely lose her shit.
Tiny bodies let out tiny screams; just before Callie debated clawing her eyes out, a voice rang out and dominated the multiple yelling ones.
"Quiet voices! Quiet feet!"
The kids all stopped running around and wiggled in place. "Quiet or we get no treat!" they all giggled and whispered in unison. They all had their pointer fingers over the mouths and it just might have been the cutest thing Callie had ever seen.
She could see blonde hair bending down slightly to pass out treats, the kids continuing to laugh and shush each other until they were all munching on some gold fish type treat. She spotted her daughter talking to her best friend Zola and decided to lean against the desk in the parallel parent pick up room for a few minutes so Sofia could enjoy her snack.
She chatted with the receptionist until the door leading to the playroom opened. "Mommy!" she held out her arms when she spotted her daughter running towards, looking up to finally see who managed to calm and wrangle a whole classroom of preschoolers.
While her daughter jumped into her arms, she couldn't help but stare at the blonde with the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen and a smile that could knock and human being off of their feet. While she stood in awe and wonderment, she had realized that while this woman seemed professional and good with children, she had never seen her before. She raised a questioning brow and after peppering Sofia with a few kisses, set her down and held her hand.
"Sofia's mom, right?"
She rolled her lips. "Yeah, right, hi."
"Arizona Robbins. I'm the new daycare worker. They just hired me today and it was kind of my test to see how I could handle the kids." she nervously looked behind her and gave a thumbs up to Miranda Bailey, a woman Callie actually knew and trusted for the past two years with her child.
"I've seen you standing out here and I was almost worried a stranger somehow got into the building but then I remembered that they have cameras everywhere and that they don't let strangers in." she cleared her throat when Callie still remained speechless. "Yeah, so, Sofia was great! She was very kind and thoughtful and was the best helper anyone could ask for!" she moved her smile towards Sofia so the tiny human could feel validated.
Glancing down and noticing the humongous grin on Sofia's face, Callie let her heart flutter and beat an extra bpm and reached out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Robbins."
"Please, call me Arizona."
Their hands shook and lingered a little longer than what was socially acceptable, but the way Arizona's hands just melded into Callie's left her quite starstruck.
"My parents are getting married." Sofia interrupted. "I'm going to be a flower girl!"
Arizona intent on engaging with Sofia eventually let go of the brunette's hand and knelt down to join the exciting conversation. "Really? I bet you look super pretty in your dress!"
Sofia smiled widely and shrugged her shoulders, because she knew how cute she was. "I do. My mommy told me."
"Well I'm sure you'll do an amazing job."
Callie bit her lip, trying her best to hold in the smile that would split her cheek if she let it out. "She is pretty good at throwing flowers." she mentally smacked herself. That sounded really stupid coming out. Debating on whether or not to make more of a fool of herself and get going, she tugged on her daughter's hand and decided on the latter. "We should really get going. Come on, Sofia."
The two adults waved, Arizona turning on her heel to go back to the room full of children.
"Wait!" Sofia pulled away from her mother and tugged on Arizona's shirt. "Miss Robbins, can you come to the wedding?"
Blue eyes widened. "Um, sweetie, I don't think that's—"
Sofia bounced in place and her voice grew in both pitch in velocity. "Pleeeaaasseeee!"
Callie picked her daughter up and looked at the beautiful, dimple popping daycare teach with apologetic eyes. "We're really leaving now."
Sofia wailed. "Mommy! Pleaseee! Let Miss Arizona come!"
Callie wished her hands were free so she could rub the knot that was quickly forming in her head. "Sofia…"
A cry no one Sofia's size should ever be able to make filled the room, the kids located on the opposite side even gathering around the door to see what all the fuss was about.
"Fine!"
The tears instantly stopped and a smile that was stained by boogers and fake tears replaced the trembling frown.
Callie was close to snapping at the next person who spoke to her, but the ritual of counting up to ten with closed eyes and calm breathes always seemed to do the trick.
"Well…" Arizona said awkwardly. "It was nice to meet you, Ms. Torres. I'll see you tomorrow." she sent a genuine and heart warming smile before returning to tend to the other children and Callie mustered up all her strength to take her daughter to the car without having a break down.
Hours later, Callie found herself with her second glass of wine and chatting quietly with Addison and Mark while her daughter slept soundly on the couch. The credits of the disney movie were rolling and to say today had been a long day was a massive understatement.
"So, are you going to talk?"
Taking a sip of her wine, Callie avoided the question and licked her lips. "Talk to my mom? Well, I just invited someone last minute to the wedding so, yes."
Noticing the bitterness in her voice, Mark decided that putting Sofia to bed was his best option; he loved Callie but he wasn't sure he could take another night full of drunken sobs and complaints while their daughter entertained herself with movies and toys in her room.
"Don't change the subject." Addison chastised. Taking Callie's glass of wine away before getting too carried away, Addison leaned in. "Who did you invite?"
Callie's mind drifted to the blue eyed blonde and she couldn't help but smile. Something about her caused the butterflies in her stomach to awaken, the caterpillars that had slept for quite sometime decided to grow and evolve. "Sofia's new daycare teacher."
"What's his name? Is he hot? Did you invite a hot guy to your wedding?" she whispered loudly.
Callie remained quiet.
"Wait…did you invite a woman?"
Callie let her head fall back against the couch. "Technically Sofia did."
"Sure, okay." Addison mimicked Callie's position. Addison moping in her own single misery stared at the ceiling. "I wish it was a hot guy."
Callie let out a dry laugh and sighed. She needed to tell Addison, tell someone…because lying to Mark and telling him that she wanted to marry him for Sofia, that them two being together would benefit her in the long run—which, statistically, it would—was not the truth. Far from it. "My mother is making me marry Mark Sloan." she deadpanned.
Addison shot up from her position, her jaw close to touching the floor. "Excuse me?"
"I either marry Mark Sloan or they take away my trust fund."
A/N: This is based off of the iconic movie, "Imagine Me & You" but there were be slight adjustments to fit my creative mind and Calzona aha. So! I hope you guys liked the chapter, if you want more please let me know!