Author Note - Sorry for no updating yesterday. By the time I finished cooking/baking for my son's birthday party today, I was exhausted and went straight to bed. I hope you enjoy this longer chapter though

No amount of guilt can change the past. No amount of worrying can change the future.

'Damn it Miranda Bailey, I am leaving this hospital room!' Grace said as she heaved herself into a wheelchair. 'I am not spending one more minute in this room! I'm leaving!'

Logically, Grace knew that most of her current state was because there had been an issue with her sedative and she had been temporarily removed from it. But logic wasn't really part of her thought process at the moment.

'Gracie?'

'Mark!' Grace said with relief. 'Miranda won't let me leave the room! And I want to.' She sent another glare at her shorter friend.

'Okay.' Mark knelt in front of her. 'Now let me hear what Doctor Bailey has to say. Ah!' He held up a hand to stop her from talking. 'Doctor Bailey?'

'The IV port showed signs of infection this morning, so it was removed. We were planning on giving her an injection but…the drugs wore off a little too quickly.'

'No more injections. I need to get out of here.' Grace said as she folded her arms, trying to hide their shaking.

Mark noticed though, he always did. 'Gracie, look at me.' He waited until she did. 'I know, I know how much you hate hospitals. But you can't leave, and don't bother lying. We both know, as soon as you got out the room and away from people you would have made your way home.'

Grace pursed her lips and looked away again. 'I'm not staying. I can't stay.'

'How about, you hang out with me today then?' Mark said as he stood. 'You don't have to have an injection, you stay in the wheelchair though, and you stick with me. Get out of the room for a bit and then come back later on.'

'Fine. But I want hot chocolate and a bagel.'

Mark nodded at Miranda and started pushing her from the room. 'One hot chocolate and one bagel, coming up.'

'Doctor Burke has summarised the medical facts of this case. Are there any questions for me?'

Grace frowned as more than a dozen hands flew into the air. Damn vultures were just waiting to pick her over. Miranda pointed to the same doctor that had been starting on Preston.

'You recently had a baby, Doctor Bailey?' Savoy asked condescendingly.

Bailey frowned. 'I don't see what that has to do with – '

'Sleep deprivation coupled with wild swings in hormone levels,' the ass interrupted her and stood up. 'Are factors that could cloud anyone's judgment.'

'I sleep just fine, Doctor Savoy,' Bailey said calmly, not letting him intimidate her.

'Really? 'Cause if a patient died due to my poor decision making, I'd probably lose a bit of sleep over it.'

Grace was mentally listening insults in the four languages she knew.

'Let me remind everyone,' the Chief said as he stood up, 'that our purpose here is not to place blame. This is a forum to discuss mistakes in patient care and learn from them.'

And the ass kept going. 'Well, so far, I haven't heard Doctor Bailey admit to a mistake.'

Grace got distracted when she heard muttering coming from Miranda's interns.

'So, for a period of several hours, your interns were running amok in the hospital, totally unsupervised.'

After a moment Miranda shook her head slightly. 'I'm waiting for a question.'

'The question is: where were you?'

'She was saving my life.' Grace said loudly, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room. 'See, there was this little thing happening downstairs in the ER, I don't know if you heard, but two attendings were shot.' She smiled slightly and wheeled herself down to the front of the room easily. 'Not to mention almost a dozen other previous victims of the same shooter. Where were you when the most skilled attendings and residents were busy saving lives?'

There was some snickering in the room at this comment.

Savoy switched his gaze back to Miranda. 'The ER is always chaotic, that's no excuse. Did you page any of them at this time?'

'Yes, I paged them multiple times.' Miranda answered in a cool voice.

'Well, apparently, they thought it was okay to ignore your pages. Doctor, why do you think your interns hold such contempt for your authority?'

'You don't know what the hell you're talking about!' Karev burst out, and Grace already knew how this would play out.

'Doctor Karev, sit down.' Miranda's voice rang through the hall in a hard tone. 'Now.' Karev crossed his arms over his chest and sat in his seat with a disgruntled look. A few more sniggers ran through the room, Savoy looking just as annoyed as Karev.

Grace smiled pleasantly. 'Next question then?' Quite a few hands went up but Grace continued. 'Oh sorry, I meant from me.' Her tone made every hand slowly drop. 'So, first question, hands up who here has had a patient die during a surgery, whether you were the one cutting or not?'

Nobody moved.

'Don't be shy,' Grace said with a hard smile. 'Hands. Up.'

Slowly hands began to lift, Grace even lifted her own. There wasn't a single person without a hand up.

'Next question, who has had a patient die, when they were cutting, as a result of complications?'

Grace lifted her hand and others followed, obviously not as many now, but still a fair number.

'Last question,' Grace said in a hard tone. 'And keep in mind, I know every single one of you by name and by deed. Who here has had a patient die as a direct result of their actions or orders?'

Grace was the first person to raise their hand, but then Karev followed and slowly others did as well. After a long moment, making sure her point really sank in, Grace lowered her hand again, everyone copying her. In the silence that followed Grace spoke again.

'Nobody is completely without blame. We are a teaching hospital, people are here to learn, so mistakes will be made.' Grace sighed heavily and shot Savoy a dirty look. 'Any decent human being loses sleep when they lose a patient. Anyone who says different is a liar. Next time you try to tear someone down, make sure you have solid ground to stand on first. Chief Webber, perhaps this case should be put off for a month.'

Grace turned and wheeled herself out, silence reigning as she did.

After leaving the M&M, she found Mark coming down the corridor towards her not looking too happy with her.

'You were supposed to wait outside,' Mark said as he stopped in front of her, his arms crossed.

'I got antsy and needed a distraction.' Grace shrugged as Mark sighed and started pushing her. 'I figured I'd pass by here, and I'm glad I did! They were trying to tear Miranda apart over the Denny thing. I wasn't going to stand by and watch that. So, I showed them the odds.'

Mark was quiet for a moment before he put it together. 'You made them put their hands up, didn't you?'

'Yep.'

'Did they shut their mouths?'

'Yep.'

'Good for you.'

Grace saw Stevens walk out of the conference room Preston had been in all day. 'Mark, I'll be back in a minute.'

'Woah, where you going?' Mark jammed a foot in front of her chair without looking up from his paperwork.

'Just to talk to Preston, I'll be back in a minute.' She kicked his leg out of the way and wheeled off. At the door she stopped to speak. 'I'm not the best at lip reading, but I know enough.'

Preston just looked at her. 'What does that have to do with anything?'

'You told her, she has two good hands,' Grace wheeled into the room a bit more. 'There's something wrong with yours, isn't there?'

For a long moment Preston didn't say anything. Then he silently held out his right hand, at first Grace didn't see anything wrong and then it was obvious.

'I'm guessing you haven't told Derek?'

'No.'

Grace sighed. 'I'm guessing Cristina…?'

Preston nodded. 'Yes.'

'Preston…' Grace trailed off again. She did not like the position she was suddenly in. 'I…this topic never came up.' She turned and quickly left before she changed her mind.

Later that night, Mark came into her room and climbed onto the bed to lay beside Grace.

'She told him it wasn't a fling, didn't she?'

Mark nodded. 'He said I wasn't his friend.'

Grace, being careful of the new IV, just cuddling into Mark's arms. She didn't say anything, because there wasn't anything that could possibly help.