xi. i'm like a bird

(song by nelly furtado)

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When you're in high school, your classmates usually become your best friends. It takes you a little while after you graduate and a little personal growth to realize that you were only friends with most of those people because you were forced to spend so much together. But then you go into the real world and you meet people who are actually interested in the same things you are, people you don't feel obligated to talk to but want to, people who make you laugh and don't make you feel small. Then you move away and can barely keep in contact with them. Or at least, that's what happened to Nina.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Stella's teasing voice woke her up and she blinked a couple of times before lifting her head from the pillow.

"Hey." She smiled as the brunette came into the room with a tray in her hands. "You made breakfast?"

"Yeah." Stella shrugged in response, coming to sit on the bed and placing the tray between the two.

They had been spending a lot more time together since Valentine's Day almost three weeks ago, usually just the two of them. It wasn't something Nina was even aware of doing but it was obvious to everyone else that she had been keeping Stella away from her friends for some reason, like the brunette was a dirty secret or something.

"So, hmm… Remember my friend Olive? You know, my roommate?" Stella asked with a smile as she offered Nina a plate of eggs and bacon.

"Mm-hmm." The intern mumbled in agreement as she gladly took a piece of bacon into her mouth.

"It's her birthday tomorrow night." Stella started saying with a tentative smile. "We're throwing her a surprise party at my apartment… Do you think you could come?"

It was a simple enough invite, nothing too weird about it and Stella was clearly trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. However, Nina knew exactly what it implied: meeting the friends. And that was a huge warning sign. You don't meet friends when you're just hooking up, you don't attend surprise parties when it's casual… And if she met Stella's friends, then Stella would wanna meet hers… And that was not in Nina's plans at all.

"Uh…" Nina swallowed her food and frowned. "I don't know… I think I already made plans with Sarah."

"Oh." Stella nodded with a sad smile. "That's cool then."

Nina almost groaned but contained herself in front of the woman, this was not what a no strings attached relationship was supposed to be like. Did Stella not understand it? She just wanted to have some fun! Not become the new it-couple of the month. Fuck, she was gonna have to break up with her, wasn't she? Ugh, breakups are the worst.

SGMW was abuzz with a hot and fresh new piece of gossip that morning, not only was the legendary Dr. Harper Avery in the hospital but to everyone's surprise, the man was Jackson's grandfather. It was rather funny to see how everyone wanted to impress the guy or even just get a good glimpse of him as he was lying on the gurney in the E.R.

"Can you imagine?" Miles gushed as the interns walked together to the pit. "If Harper Avery was my grandpa, I would never shut up about it." The interns laughed at his wide-eyed gaze.

"I couldn't deal." Sarah said quietly. "Those are some pretty high standards to live up to." Nina nodded as she agreed.

"Maybe that's why he never told anybody." Leo suggested, referring to the fact that apparently not even Jackson's friends from Mercy West knew about his family connections.

Nina didn't really give the whole discussion much thought though; Jackson's bloodline didn't change anything in her life and, quite frankly, she wasn't very fond of the resident anyway. He wasn't an ass like Alex or anything, but she always thought he was very full of himself… Well, and now she knew why. The only good thing about this new gossip was that it would take the shine away from the old one… Unintentionally telling Mark Sloan she had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day? Not a good idea because that was what everyone seemed to be talking about the next day and for a few weeks now. She wondered if she'd have to announce to the whole hospital when she broke things off.

As she walked into the E.R., Nina ignored the older man on the gurney besides Jackson and went straight to Callie's side. It was still a little weird for her being a free agent but great at the same time, it gave her so much more freedom than the other interns and she knew they still hated her a little bit for that. Nina was practically a resident, she looked for interesting cases and worked under who she wanted most days; and it was all thanks to Cristina Yang, who was supposed to be her resident and boss her around and whatnot but simply didn't care enough to do so.

As Nina got closer to Callie, who was treating an older lady's knee while Alex checked the woman's facial laceration, she could only laugh under her breath as the patient and what she assumed was her daughter yelled for everyone's annoyance.

"Can we not yell?" Callie interrupted the two as Nina stopped by them. "Please. Maybe."

"No, actually." The daughter disagreed with a solemn look. "My mother's almost completely deaf; a fact she refuses to accept, which is why she won't learn sign language or get a hearing aid." She explained with an annoyed look to her mother. "So we yell."

"Don't talk to her. Talk to me." The patient yelled again.

"I'm just telling them what happened!" The daughter yelled at her mother again before turning to Callie. "She stole my car… Again."

"There's tenderness over the zygomatic process and a hematoma to the left temporal area." Alex interrupted as he finished checking over the patient.

"Okay. Run a head and face CT, I'll get Sloan and Shepherd." Callie told the two before turning back to the daughter. "She's got a ruptured tendon in her knee that will need surgery. So she'll be off her feet for a few weeks."

As Nina followed Alex, who was going to order the CTs, they could still hear their patient yelling when suddenly a lot more yells came from right behind them and they stopped in their tracks to look back. Owen, Cristina and Charles were wheeling their patient out of the pit when the man starting bleeding out in the most bizarre way with his blood literally spraying Cristina all over her face to everyone's shock.

"Oh my God." Nina whispered under her breath. "Damn, today is gonna be a rollercoaster, huh?" She snickered to Alex as the two continued on their way out. "You ok?" She frowned, seeing as he barely even looked at her when she spoke.

"I'm fine." His voice came out way too snarky, contradicting what he was saying.

"Okaaay." She mumbled and he scoffed, to which she stopped and grabbed his arm to stop him as well as make him look at her. "Seriously, what's up with you?"

"Oh, so now you wanna know?" He almost barked back at her and she took a step back in surprise.

"Uh… Yeah?" She asked confused.

Alex gave her one more sneer before shaking her hand off his arm and walking away, ignoring her completely. Nina rolled her eyes before walking faster and putting herself right in front of him, determined not to let him go. If they were gonna have a throw down, they were doing it right there and right now.

"Why are you mad at me?" Her voice came out angrier than before; she crossed her arms as she sidestepped him to prevent him from walking away again. "Dude, you've gotta give me something here… I'm lost."

"I'm not mad." He sighed as he spoke calmer than before. "I'm annoyed." She only raised an eyebrow, still not following why and he rolled his eyes as he grew angry. "We haven't talked in a week!" He complained. "You know, when you had no friends we'd hang out all the time after every shift… You were around, ok? We'd have lunch, or just talk for a few minutes at least…" He explained. "But now… I guess you don't need me anymore." He sneered and she gasped slightly.

"Are you fucking serious, Alex?" She mumbled but he interrupted before she could say more.

"No, ok! You know I'm right. You're always out with your intern friends and… And… And don't even get me started on your little secret girlfriend…" He spat out the words. "Which you haven't even explained to me! What's up with that? Suddenly you're gay?" He went silent for a few seconds, breathing hard after his little rant. "Have you told her and your little friends about why you left Chicago?" He glared at her with a smirk on his lips, because he knew she didn't and that she probably never would.

As Alex walked away from her, this time without her trying to block his way, Nina could only blink as she stood there stunned. For one, she had no idea Alex was feeling that neglected; and two, she couldn't believe he actually accused her of using him because she was lonely; and finally that he would throw what she had told him about Chicago in her face like that. She didn't even know if she was supposed to feel hurt or offended.

She decided to go look for Callie and let Alex order the scans by himself, thinking it was best not to poke the bear any longer and that maybe he just needed some time alone to cool off. As the intern walked to the nearest nurse station to ask if the nurses had seen Callie, she thought about the last couple of weeks and realized that maybe Alex was right. She had been spending a whole lot of time with Stella and when she wasn't, she was usually out with the other interns. It wasn't entirely her fault though, she did try to get Alex to come with them but he always refused and said he didn't wanna hang out with interns, completely ignoring the fact that she was one. So not only did she have to keep Alex away from her intern friends, she was also trying to keep Stella away from everyone… This double life was only giving her a headache.

She found Callie and Mark some time later with the help from the nurses, it always pays off when you're nice to the nurses, and they walked together to the CT booth. Alex was standing there with Derek already as their patient, Mrs. Nelson, got ready for her scan. Seeing as the older woman had been in a car accident, they wanted to make sure that there wasn't any bleeding in her brain.

Just as soon as they walked in Mark yelled at Alex to leave the room making everyone look at him weirdly, not understanding why until it became obvious it was because of Lexie. Nina laughed to herself as she heard the three attending talking about Mark's issues with keeping his pants on in the hospital, going so far as Derek threatening to fire him if he didn't stop sleeping with the nurses.

Callie had to call out for the two to stop when the patient's scans were up; Mrs. Nelson didn't have any bleeds or fractures but Mark recognized she had otosclerosis, an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear that made her deaf, which he explained could be solved through surgery to the others surprise making the plastic surgery practically rejoice in arrogance.

Seeing as she still didn't wanna to be around Alex too much just yet, Nina asked Mark if she could scrub into his surgery instead of Callie's. She walked into the O.R. with Mark just as Callie and Alex were finishing up with Mrs. Nelson's ruptured knee tendon. Once again, Mark was an ass to Alex and demanded that the resident leave the O.R.; Callie tried to stand up for him but with one glare towards Nina, Alex decided to walk out.

The intern kept quiet as Callie began to chew Mark out, saying that Sloan leaving could be the opportunity he needed to grow up or that he could simply become the awful attending who abused the residents and screwed anything around. As Callie left and they got ready to start their surgery, Nina could feel Mark's eyes on her and looked up in question.

"You got anything to say to me too, White?" He asked as he was handed the tools to start.

"There are many things I would like to say, but I'm an intern and you're an attending so I can't." She chose to tell the truth and he smirked under his mask.

"Never stopped you before."

"Maybe… But I'm a little mad at Alex myself today so I found the whole thing to be a bit entertaining." She shrugged with a smile and he laughed before they started.

After a successful surgery that restored Mrs. Nelson's hearing, Nina decided she gave Alex enough time to cool off therefore she went looking for him. She hadn't given much thought to what she would say, if she were honest, but she knew she wanted to say something. Alex was important to her, he was a good guy and she really liked hanging out with him; she didn't want him thinking that she had used him when it was convenient and was now throwing him aside.

She found him in the resident's lounge, writing on some charts with a serious look on his face. She sighed and took a deep breath before walking in, Alex looking up quickly before going back to what he was writing. Stubborn as she is, she ignored his cold shoulder and sat down right next to him.

"Look…" She started saying after a few seconds. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you're not important to me… Because you are." She tried to catch his eyes but he kept his gaze on the papers. "I just… I'm bad at this." She admitted with another sigh. "I can't juggle, ok? Work, Stella, the other interns, you… My mom keeps calling… And… My friends from Chicago… I feel like I need to clone myself or something."

He looked up at her slightly and she smiled because somehow that meant he was willing to listen.

"I didn't mean to ignore you." She told him earnestly.

"I know." He sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "I was just mad because it feels like we haven't talked in forever…" He rolled his eyes. "You better not tell anyone but I like when we talk." He threatened and she laughed.

"I like it too." She grinned and placed her elbows on the table. "So let's talk. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing." He grumbled but she didn't believe him.

"Oh yeah? Then tell me about Lexie." She smirked and he squinted.

"Tell me about Stella." He responded with a challenge and the two laughed.

"I'm breaking up with her." She answered simply and his eyes widened, not expecting that answer or the fact that it came out so nonchalantly. "She… Wants more, she wants a relationship but I'm not there yet."

"I get it." He nodded and the two stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"I… I'm not over him." She confessed and Alex gave her a small smile, understanding exactly what it was like. "I know I need to move on and I thought it'd be easier with a girl first because she wouldn't remind me of Jake, you know… But the truth is… I'm just not ready."

Mark Sloan was standing by a nurse station, chatting up one of the prettier nurses when a blonde caught his eye. The woman was young, probably under 30, and wore white jeans with a grey shirt underneath a black blazer paired with simple black heels; she was definitely not an employee because he would have remembered her face. She walked over to the nurse station as he watched discreetly.

"Hello." She greeted one of the nurses with a thick Chicago accent. "I'm looking for an employee, her name is Kahlani White, she's an intern."

"Kahlani…" Mark tested the name on his thought and the woman looked up at him with a raised eyebrow for eavesdropping. "Nina White?"

"Yes." The woman answered with a surprised smile.

"I know where she is, I can take you there." He offered with a sly smile, thinking he could use the opportunity to flirt with a beautiful woman.

"Oh thank you." She agreed as he showed the way and introduced himself before asking her name. "Abigail King."

"You're a friend of Nina's?" He smiled as they were almost to the resident's lounge, where he had seen her last.

"Sister, actually." The woman answered before shaking her head. "Well, sister-in-law if we're being technical but it's all the same."

"Oh." He grinned as he saw the intern through the window, sitting down at a table with Alex. "So you're the famous Stella's sister."

"Stella?" The woman repeated the name as she too quickly found Nina with her eyes. "Who's Stella?" She asked with a smirk and Mark's smile quickly began to fall.

Mark had no idea what was going on but he could feel the tension and knew that someone who called herself a sister-in-law would've known the girlfriend's name. Unless there was someone else. Was Nina some sort of player? He didn't know but he decided right then and there that he desperately needed to learn how to keep his mouth shut. He knocked on the door to the lounge, Nina and Alex looking up and Nina's eyes widening as she noticed the blonde woman standing right behind Mark who was mouthing the word Sorry to her.