At the Television Critics Association press tour last week, Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes was questioned about various aspects of the show and its upcoming Season Five, and the topic on so many people's minds is the potential romantic relationship between Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith).

Her answers, while vague on plot details, nonetheless confirm that there will be a romantic relationship between Callie and Erica.

"We have a really interesting, wonderful, funny way of laying out the story of Callie and Erica that I'm pretty excited about, that I feel like is not necessarily your typical — if there can be a typical — your typical way of dealing with the storyline," Rhimes said.

While developing this Grey's Anatomy story, Shonda consulted GLAAD, who brought in openly gay writer-producers Nikki Weiss and Trish Doolan.

Their job? Answer questions about how they identified themselves (as lebian or bi), when were they first aware of their attraction to a woman, and if they ever slept with a man to prove to themselves that they weren't gay.

"What I love about this is we sat down with GLAAD and talked about women who figure out that they're lesbians later in life and what it means for them," Shonda Rhimes said.

"And we really were able to find some really great, humorous and serious emotional stuff to play that's going to feel really interesting and also affect their lives in the hospital."

According to Rhimes, the new season will pick up with Callie pondering "what does it mean that she's kissed a girl? Is she excited it about it?"

That's been the central focus of fans for some time. We'll also finally get to see the experience from the perspective of Erica Hahn, as well.

"We don't really know Erica's side of the story yet, in terms of what's going on with the two of them," Rhimes explained. "We're going to watch that play out and then we're going to watch the larger world of what happens when the two of them come out in the hospital, and what happens when Callie's dad finds out and that sort of thing, which I think is going to be really, really interesting."

Rhimes' comments indicating that the show will explore "what happens when the two of them come out in the hospital" answers the most pressing question for many lesbian/bi viewers by confirming this simple fact:

The two women will, in fact, have a romantic relationship.

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Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.