A/N: Two chapters in one day! Read and Review.
I don't own Grey's Anatomy or its characters.
"Nice of you to join us, Yang." Bailey greeted sarcastically.
"What are you smiling about? Aren't you supposed to be on the gynae brigade?" Cristina teased Alex.
"Yeah, whatever." Alex scoffed.
"Are you alright?" Cristina asked Meredith as she saw her supporting herself on one of the shelves on the corridor. She was clutching her stomach and her face showed that she was in pain.
"Yes. I think so, except for the fact that it's been a week and Mark isn't talking to me; I think it is finally getting to me. The stress of it." Meredith tried to convince herself that nothing else was wrong with her and went on with her duties.
They went to see a patient, and all the while they were in there, Meredith was feeling her stomach get sick. She caught Alex and Yang giving her weird looks while George was presenting but chose to dismiss it.
"You alright, Dr. Grey?" Dr. Bailey asked Meredith, as she was existing the patient room.
"Yeah, Dr. Bailey. I just…. Need to convince someone to talk to me, that's all."
From a distance, Mark saw Meredith, fatigued and sitting on the edge of the couch. He wanted to go to her and willed himself against it.
Derek came to her to ask if she was interested in scrubbing in on an operation he was doing.
"Dr. Grey, I am clipping a basilar tip aneurysm. You interested?" He asked her, presuming she would be excited to join in.
Just then, Meredith puked.
"What's wrong? Are you not well?" Derek asked worried about her.
"I don't know."
"Meredith come here; have a look at this." Cristina called for her.
Mark and Richard were at stairs, discussing the suitable procedure for a recent case.
"Dr. Shepherd could you come here please? We would like your input." Richard called for him.
"Of course." He excused himsef, to go join to two doctors.
"Look after yourself." He told Meredith semi- strictly.
Meredith and Cristina were leaning on the nurses' station, when Meredith started feeling lightheaded.
"Cristina." Meredith muttered softly.
"Yeah?" Cristina asked without looking up from the chart.
"I think I'm—"
Meredith fainted and fell on the grounded. The edge of the nurses' station hitting her abdomen as well as cutting her head.
"Meredith!" Cristina yelled.
Both Mark and Derek looked at them and dashed towards them.
"Meredith, Meredith!" Mark patted her cheeks, scared to his wits.
"Get a gurney here. Now!" Derek shouted.
"Move I'll take her myself." Mark told, not wanting to waste any time. Mark had forgotten all about his anger for the time being. All he could concentrate was on Meredith being healthy. He lifted her and took her to the nearest empty room.
"Move only Derek and I will be here." He shouted at the over- eager interns.
"Mark, stop the bleeding from her head, and let's take her for a CT."
"Give me a minute… yeah, she is ready to go."
"There is a small wound, up there, which likely caused her stomach to be upset and the fall." Derek stated, looking at the scans.
"How does that happen, exactly?" Mark asked confused, how a head injury would cause her stomach to be upset.
"The nerves here, might not be functioning at their best, causing her to have a problem in digestion. What about the cut? Did you inspect it?"
"Yeah, it's superficial, thankfully. Let's take her to her room and do an ultrasound, to make sure there is no damage in the abdominal area."
"Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Sloan, do you need any help? Anything at all." Cristina and George entered the CT room.
"No. We will be doing the surgery ourselves, and without any interns." Mark said.
"Sorry, but we're not going to take any chance of error or complications." Derek explained to them.
The both of them took Meredith to her room and set up the ultrasound machine.
"Derek, why don't you do it?" Mark told him nervously.
"Uh, why?"
"She isn't wearing any pants. To apply the gel, I'll have to raise her hospital gown and it's gonna expose her." Mark stuttered.
"So how is it alright for me to do it?" Derek asked him confused.
"It's... It's nothing you haven seen." Mark said lamely.
"That's not a reason. Do it. You're her best friend. Look, I know you're angry at her. But you need to look past that right now." Derek tried to explain
"I am looking past that."
"Then do it."
"Fine!" Mark first raised the comforted up her legs, then pushed the gown to her chest. He applied some gel on her abdomen and started the ultrasound.
"Uh, Shepherd, I think we need to call Addison in here."
"Why? Is she pregnant?" Derek asked confused.
"No. But I'm pretty sure this cut here, is on her uterus." Mark explained while paging Addison.
Soon, there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Mark asked.
"Addison."
Derek went and opened the door, stepping aside for her to enter.
"What's going on here?" Addison asked, eyeing Mark and Derek and finally landing on Meredith. "What's happened to her?"
"She fell due to a wound on her head. She hit the nurses' station in the abdomen." Mark explained.
"Oh! You'll treat her, right?" Addison asked Derek.
"Of course, Addison." Derek answered.
"So why am I here? As much as I love that the four of us are in the same room with our splitting each other's necks, I have patients."
"We're trying to be professional here, for Meredith. There is a cut on one of the organs in her abdomen. We think it's the uterus." Mark justified paging her.
"Oh, let me take a look…. You're right. It is the uterus. We need to get her up to the OR."
"It's just going to be the three of us and a few scrub nurses. No interns. We do the entire procedure ourselves. No wasting time quizzing them and teaching them." Mark told the other two surgeons.
"She is going to be fine, Mark. The injuries are not fatal."
"The three of us have enough experience to know that even the simplest procedures can take unpredicted complications. So, no. Just us."
"As you say, just us. And an OR without a gallery." Derek agreed.
"I'll tell the nurses to set everything up." Addison said and left to get things in order.
There was another knock on the door after sometime.
"Who is it?" Derek asked confused.
"Dr. Bailey." Came the answer.
Mark partially opened the door, and poked his head out.
"What do you want?" He asked. He saw Cristina, Alex, Izzie and George standing behind her.
"What I want, is to see my intern."
"No. Nobody enters the room or examines Meredith except Derek and me. And now Addison."
"Is she pregnant?" Asked Izzie.
"No, she is not." Mark replied flatly.
"Then what's wrong with her?" Bailey demanded.
"That's not your… Look, I know you all care about her and are concerned. But we will take care of her. No one is more tensed about Meredith than me. So, let us do our jobs." Mark told them clearly, to make sure they understand.
"Will you need to operate?" Cristina asked.
"Yes."
"Can we be in the OR and assist?" Alex asked, tensed for his friend.
"No. As I said, only Derek, Addison and me. Except a couple of scrub nurses that we trust, no one enters that OR. Let us do our jobs and go do yours. All three of us have pre and post op patients. Take care of them." He ordered the interns.
The four of them unwillingly left, only Dr. Bailey was left standing.
"Are you really not gonna let me see my intern?" She asked Sloan.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Mark answered irritated.
"I need to see her. Move." She thought that using her strict voice would get him to budge.
"No. I know that everyone in this hospital fears you, and maybe on any other day, I would too. But this, this is my best friend lying unconscious. I don't care, who you are; no one enters this room without my permission."
"But you need a general surgeon to examine her."
"Fine, I'll page the chief."
"But I'm standing right here."
"You're a resident. I'm not taking any chances. Leave."
"Dr. Sloan, you paged 9-1-1? Asked Dr. Webber as he came to Meredith's room.
"Yes, just examine her once and make sure there is nothing else wrong with her other than what we have diagnosed."
"Dr. Bailey could have done that."
"Only attendings, Richard. I'm not leaving anything to chance." Mark explained.
Richard entered the room and saw Derek carefully reading Meredith's scans. He proceeded to examine Meredith and was grateful that apart from the minor head injury and the uterus, there were no injuries.
"It's all good on my part, Mark, Derek."
"Oh, thank God." Mark exclaimed.
"Thanks for your input, Richard." Derek added.
"The both of you are being overly cautious with her, aren't you?" Webber asked the gentlemen in front of him.
"Yes, we are." Derek agreed.
"No one, but top-class surgeons for her." Mark expressed.
Mark was nervous as he pushed Meredith's bed to the OR. He had many risky procedures on many high value clients, but he was never as nervous; he wasn't even doing the major surgery, but he was scared, for her.
The OR was equipped and ready for them. All three of the surgeons were in the scrub rooms, washing their hands, mentally preparing themselves.
"Please don't mess this up." Mark pleaded with his friends.
"Don't worry, Mark. All three of us are the best in our respective fields. She will be fit as a fiddle soon." Derek said, trying to calm him.
"I just hope so." Mark told him with a slight smile.
"She is really special to you, isn't she? I've seen you like this." Addison asked Mark.
"She is. I can't put my finger on the reason, but I have the feeling of always protecting her with my life."
"You are good for her." Derek told him. They both looked at each, conveying the silent truce with their eyes.
"Look at three of us, being friendly, operating together." Addison remarked.
"Like things were before." Mark added in a low voice. The both of them looked at Derek, asking for his forgiveness once and for all.
"Yeah…, alright. I can try harder to forgive and forget. Now, let's go and operate on Meredith."
The operation went smoothly. No complications at all. Derek was able to repair the head wound, and Mark did an excellent job with the scar on her head, making sure that it wouldn't be a permanent mark. Addison had cut her open but was able to rectify the tear in her uterus as well as prevent it from having lifelong damages.
"So, Mark, are you going to forgive Meredith?" Addison asked as she was closing Meredith up.
"I will obviously talk to her about it. But," Mark replied.
"You do mean a lot to her, Mark. What she said was wrong, but don't let it impair your friendship or whatever the two of you have." Derek added.
"I know she is sorry, and I guess I should forgive her and put this behind us. And Derek, what you implied... nothing more going on." Mark rubbished his insinuations.
"Yeah, right. The Nile is just a river in Egypt." Addison butted in.
"Tell her how you feel. It's gonna be mutual." Derek suggested.
"The both of you were in a relationship, not even a year back." Mark argued.
"The both of us aren't meant to be, romantically. We're better off as friends." Derek defended.
"We can go on double dates." Addison joked.
"Yeah, that won't be awkward at all."
"It will be alright, Mark. We are all adults here. We can move on. You need to talk to her. Whether it's friendship or anything more, that's for you to decide." Derek told him.
"I have an idea. She will need at least a few days of leave to recover, and a day in the hospital, take some time off. Take care of her and fix your relationship." Addison suggested.
"That's not a bad idea, you know. I'll go talk to Richard." Mark agreed and left the room to go to the Chief's office.
"Mark Sloan is in love. Never thought I'll see the day." Addison told her husband.
"You're right."
"You're okay with it right, Mark and Meredith?"
"Yes, I wasn't lying when I said that her and I are better at being friends. Nothing romantic."
"Okay, then. Even I can be friendly towards her then." Addison urged herself.
"You can, you should." Derek agreed with her.
"Eh, the little harsh looks and comments exchanged were fun." Addison said innocently.
"Really, Addison?" Derek looked at her jokingly.
"Chief, can I come in?" Mark asked.
"Of course, Dr. Sloan. How was Meredith's operation?"
"All went well, thankfully. That's what I needed to talk to you about." Mark wasn't confident about this conversation. Derek and Addison had put all sorts of thoughts in his mind, which was now going in all directions.
"What is it?" Richard asked, putting the paper he was reading down.
"Meredith will need some time off to heal. She will be staying at the hospital till tomorrow, but Addison and Derek have suggested that she take a week off to heal properly."
"That's completely all right. She can take as much time she needs." Richard agreed with Mark.
"Actually, I was wondering if I could take some time off as well. Not an entire week. I'll perform my surgeries that are scheduled for tomorrow as she will be here, and then if i could take a day or two off."
"Why do you need time off, Dr. Sloan?"
"I do not want her living at her. There are stairs, which are risky for her. I want to take her to my place." Mark explained.
"Fine, Dr. Sloan, do your surgeries tomorrow. Take two days off to help Meredith. I'll give you another free pass, The entire week, after the two days, you can come in only when you have surgeries scheduled and can leave immediately after." Richard told him smiling.
"Thank you, Richard. You're the best, boss." Mark told him, relieved.
He left the office for Meredith's room and perched himself on the chair, for when she would wake up. They had a lot to talk about. Even after his conversation with Addison and Derek, the most important thing was their friendship. They could figure out the more part later. He regretted talking to the, about this. Oh, he so did. 'You'll be okay, girl. I'll make sure of that.' he thought, tucking a strand her behind her ear.