I lost a piece of me in you; I think I left it in your arms. I forget the reasons I got scared, but remember that I cared quite a lot.
He finds her in the gallery (and mentally kicks himself for not thinking to look there sooner), gingerly perched on the edge of the metal bench with her hand hovering near her mouth.
He knows she's trying to resist chewing on her perfectly manicured fingers—that like all of her flawless external attributes, those nails are a product of a strapping self-discipline that requires continuous effort. Mark knows this because he's been privy to the punitive turmoil that arises when she fails to live up to the expectations she sets for herself.
After casting an inspecting glance at the three interns huddled on the other side of the room and determining they are engrossed enough in conversation that they won't be tuning in on every word he is saying (God he hates interns), he makes his way over to stand in front of the redhead and looks down into the O.R. He cocks an eyebrow at the anxious woman beside him when the fuss and commotion he expects to find below (judging from her demeanor) is absent. Instead, Derek is leisurely suturing up a stable patient and chatting lightheartedly with the assisting nurses.
"Important patient?" he asks when she doesn't acknowledge his presence.
"Hmm?" her focus remains on her husband, studying his every move as if she's still the petrified first year that she was (which, he muses, she still is, in a way).
He gestures to the man on the operating table by way of an explanation and makes his was over to sit beside her.
"Oh, I don't know him," Addison shrugs, curling her fist beneath her chin, "just watching the surgery."
"A…craniotomy," he verifies, watching her from the corners of his eyes. He knew she was a dedicated observer of Derek's surgeries but he's never seen her skip out on her own responsibilities around the hospital to sit in of his routine procedures, especially with such diligence.
"What are you getting at?" she finally snaps her head around to stare at him, making him recoil at her hostility.
"Hey I'm just saying it's a simple-"
"Simple? No brain surgery is 'simple,' Mark," she spits, eyes widening in fury, and he thinks if she was a cartoon character her eyebrows would be drawn up above her hair and not on her forehead, the way nature intended. "You think that man's family is out there laughing over how 'simple' this is? Why are you even here, don't you have some more complicated procedure like a breast augmentation to attend to?" Yeah, eyebrows on her hair and steam blowing out of her nose too, he decides.
He ignores her jab at his specialty, opting to point out the inconsistencies in her arguments instead because if there's anything that gets her more fired up than people insulting her field of expertise, it's people seeing through her façade.
"Oh so you know his family, then?" he feigns puzzlement, "because a second ago you affirmed, and I quote, 'I don't know him, just watching the surgery.'"
A grin stretches across his face when she sets he jaw and turns her attention back to the operation taking place below. He's about to press further when he spies the trio in mint green scrubs sneaking glances in their direction. And as much as he likes pushing her buttons, he decides she's dejected enough without feeling a sense of lost credibility in front of her inferiors. So he sidles closer and lowers his voice.
"I just needed a consult, if they can spare you," he nods towards the team wrapping up the surgery. She rolls her eyes but rises anyway, smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt. He eyes what he can make out of her figure through the gap of her lab coat, appreciatively. "Someone's been spending an extra hour putting together her outfits, lately," he teases, preparing to get the customary slap on the arm but receiving no response to his flirtatious remark. She stands paused in front of the glass for a minute, and he knows he is not the one whose attention she's trying to grab. He knows, then, that she sits in on even the most routine of neurosurgeries to equip herself with enough topics of conversation to hold Derek's interest for longer than a couple of minutes.