Disclaimer: Illusion of Purgatory does not own any of the said characters, as well as anything else related to Trauma Center. Don't sue please.

Summary: [Oneshot, TC: New Blood, MarkusVal.] Valerie confronts Markus after getting the silent treatment. Markus just thought she was being childish.

Notes: People who talk are in normal fonts. Thoughts are in Italic and are in between apostrophes.

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Childish
By: Illusion of Purgatory

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Markus calmly left the Emergency O.R after finishing an operation on a little girl who had life-threatening wounds to her heart. The clock was like a bunch of L.E.D blurs to him as he yawned and sat down on one of the waiting room chairs. The little girl and her parents had suffered a serious car accident that needed immediate treatment, but his fatigue made him mistake a few tools and forget a few standard procedures when treating a patient. Nonetheless, he thought it was a job well done, as the patient would recover nicely.

"What the hell was that, Markus?" stormed Valerie, who was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"What the hell was what?"

"That!"

"Val," he paused, putting a hand on her shoulder, "If I knew what 'that' was, I wouldn't be asking."

She slapped his hand off, her voice getting harsher. "You know what I mean! We almost lost a patient in there! A little girl, even! If we didn't know the Healing Touch–"

Sighing, he got up and started to walk to their office while Valerie stomped after him. About halfway from their office, she opened her mouth to scold him even more.

He stopped. "She's alive, isn't she?" Markus replied, his voice also getting harsher. He rubbed his forehead, he was getting a headache.

"You were so careless in there! We could've been sued for Malpractice! You're not supposed to be–"

"Alright, alright. I understand. Director Quatro will probably tell me all about it tomorrow. I don't need you to keep on telling me." He began walking to their office again.

The rest of the walk was silent; he opened the door and looked at her. She was about to open her mouth to speak again.

"Val." He said, raising a hand to silence her. "Calm down."

"I don't understand how you could be so calm about this!"

He understood her. She always was so on edge when it came to a child's operation. "It's fine. You go home and have a good rest."

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In the morning, Markus left Director Quatro's office and made his way to make his rounds. He entered the office to find Valerie and Elena doing some charting.

"Good morning Dr. Vaughn." Elena smiled.

"Morning, Markus." Valerie greeted.

"Morning." He replied, a little groggily.

"What did the Director say?" Elena asked. Valerie stopped at her charts and looked at Markus.

"She's letting it slide, which is very, very, very lucky for me."

"Well, that's good!" Valerie cheered.

Without any reply, Markus picked up his clipboard and left the room. Silence filled the air between the two women who just stared at the door for a good while.

"Do…you think that he's mad?" she asked Elena.

"Uh…yeah."

Later in the day, a patient who suffered trauma to the forehead needed some glass removal and stitches done. Valerie noticed that Markus was concentrated and extremely professional during this operation. It was like he never needed any assistance at all, more or less needed guidance either. He could've done it without her.

After the operation, Valerie followed Markus out of the O.R. "Hey, that was really a change from last night's operation. You going for a Coffee Break?"

He said nothing.

"I, uh, couldn't have done a better job."

Still, he remained silent. Valerie's voice was cracking as she put on a goofy smile.

"Heh…good job, Markus."

She stopped in her place as Markus continued to walk away from her. She sighed hopelessly, and regretted every word she yelled at him the night before.

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The next day, Markus continued to ignore Valerie and leaving her to look like she was talking to herself. Idly working on charts, she sat at her desk thinking of ways to try and get Markus to talk to her.

"I see you're busy doing some work, Dr. Blaylock." Elena smiled.

Valerie sighed. She didn't notice that Elena walked into the room.

"Need some help?" Her singsong voice tried to catch Valerie's attention. Still, she kept on doing her work.

"You know," Elena cooed, "Just because Dr. Vaughn is giving you the silent treatment doesn't mean you could do it to everyone else."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Oh! Sorry Elena," she said, dropping her pen, "I was, uh…"

"Worrying." Elena smiled.

"I was not! He's just ignoring me because I was right about his performance the other night! He hates being wrong, you know." Valerie said in a huff.

"So do you, Dr. Blaylock." She giggled.

"Ugh! Elena! You're going totally out of context here! I have every–" She stopped.

"You were saying?" Elena's smile widened. Valerie groaned in defeat.

"I think you should give a peace offering." She laughed. "Something small."

"And I have just the idea. Just in time for our break too. Thanks, Elena!" Valerie grinned, before running off.

It took Valerie exactly half an hour to get back to Caduceus where she found Markus alone sitting at his desk eating his lunch. One hand was holding his sandwich while his other was idly working on some paperwork, possibly writing the billing for a patient's operation. He didn't even look up to see Valerie closing the door to the room. She held two cups of coffee in a drink tray.

"Er, Hi Markus." Valerie stumbled. "I brought coffee."

He didn't move while his eyes kept on his work. The silence in the room was deafening, at least to Valerie. Still, she kept a strong face as she walked towards his desk and placed the cup of coffee in front of him.

"I got your favourite from the best coffee shop in town, Irish Cream double double." She smiled.

Markus still had no reaction as Valerie groaned. "Oh, come on Markus! I rushed so I could get you this coffee!"

The only sound that Markus made was flipping to the next page of his work. She sighed loudly.

"Look! I'm sorry, okay? It was late at night, and I was just really cranky. You must've been too, and I should've thought of that. I'm sorry for the whole lecture thing, I should've left that to the Director. I'm sorry for being all self-righteous all the time too. Just…talk to me, please Markus?"

She paused for any reaction, any body movement, but he kept on writing. Her eyes dropped, "I guess…saying sorry doesn't cut it either."

She turned to walk away as she placed her coffee on her desk. Valerie decided to give him some more time to himself until he was ready to talk to her. She was about to place her hand on the doorknob when a small chuckle escaping from his lips were close to her ear.

"That didn't take long, did it?"

Valerie turned around to find Markus awfully close to her, grinning. "I was waiting for you to crack and start apologizing."

"What?" Valerie asked, confused.

"You're being childish, Val. I wasn't ignoring you."

"I'm the one who's childish? Look at the one who's been playing a prank like this all along!" She snapped.

"A prank?" Markus laughed, "This was just a grand scheme of sorts."

"Markus, I don't see how you could call me the one being childish! You're the one playing tricks in order to get me upset!"

"This wasn't supposed to make you upset, it was to prove you're childish."

She was about to scream at him until she took note of his position and her own. She was backed against the door with her hands at her sides and his hand was planted onto the wall a little bit to the side of her head. Before she could ask, Markus chuckled through his light grin as his free hand cupped her chin. He slowly moved her face closer to his until he pressed his lips onto hers for a soft, light kiss.

He pulled away and looked at her with a debonair stare. Valerie looked at him, confused. "Markus…what the hell was that?"

The suave look on his face soon turned to seriousness. "There is just no pleasing you, is there?"

"Actually, yes there is."

With one swift movement, Valerie had pinned Markus to the wall with her petite body and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled him down into a rough, but passionate kiss as Markus' arms slowly wrung around her waist.

She let go and pulled away from him, grinning in the process. Markus looked at her, dumbfounded.

"Val…what the hell was that? That was supposed to be my plan!"

"Markus, stop being so childish." She cooed.

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