I stood at the nurses' station leaning against it next to George, waiting for Bailey to come and give us our assignments for the day. Alex and Izzie were standing side by side, arms brushing up against each other. Meredith was on one side of the desk while Cristina was still on the other side, the two obviously still fighting with each other even though they were best friends. But I didn't care about their problems. My mind was somewhere else. Every time I close my eyes, my mind would drift off to the night before with Mark. The apex of my thighs was still throbbing, and I was still feeling tingly. It was amazing. Mind blowing. I could still hear his moans of approval every time I did something right or something that he liked. His blue eyes were burned into my mind as stared down at me while thrusting into me. His scent of cologne and aftershave was intoxicating, and I thought that I could never get enough of the taste of his lips and the way that his muscles rippled every time I touched them. The soft and firm muscles of his sculpted chest and chiseled abs. Mark Sloan was like a drug and I wanted my next fix. Even after three rounds last night, I wanted more. My mind was pulled back to the present as Bailey rounded the corner and came up to us.
"Whew." She breathed. "Okay, we gotta move fast, people, so focus. O'Malley and Wolfe, the pit. Karev, you're with me. We've got a surgery. Stevens, the clinic budget is due. Yang, Grey, wait for the chief at the trauma bay."
"What?" Cristina questioned her. "Why?"
"Both of us?" Meredith inquired.
"Yes, both of you." Bailey snapped. "I don't know what. I don't know why. Just go." I playfully shoved George with my elbow, and we walked side by side through the double doors and started to head to the pit.
"Did you know that it's Izzie's birthday today?" George asked me. I cocked my head to the side as I glanced over at him.
"Is it really?" I murmured.
"Yeah, do you think Alex is going to do anything for her birthday?" Alex was an asshole. He only cared about himself and showed extraordinarily little empathy. How he was going to make it as a doctor, I had no idea. Though he seemed to be a different person when he was around Izzie. She brought another side of him out and he genuinely cared about her. Probably the only person he ever cared for in his life. I shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't know. It's Alex, though, maybe he'll surprise us and actually do something nice for once."
"Maybe." As we were walking past the OR board, I noticed that Mark was standing there looking it over for the day. He wore his dark blue attending scrubs with his scrub cap obviously either getting ready to go into surgery or just coming out of one. He had his arms crossed behind his back, flexing the muscles in his biceps. He was gone by the time I woke up this morning and though I could understand why, I still felt a little twinge in my heart.
"Hey, I'll meet you in the pit." George looked me over once but said nothing as he continued walking down the hall. I waited until he was out of sight before walking over to Mark, my skipping beats as it picked up pace. My hands shook and I clasped them together and bit my lower lip as I stepped up beside him at the OR board. Just being near him sent a hot flash through me as my body remembered the feelings it had from the night before. "Hi there." I gave him a smile as he looked down at me. He didn't return the expression as he glanced back at the board, my smile faltering.
"What are you doing?" He asked me quietly.
"I'm saying hello." He finally turned to me, his blue eyes filled with sadness and confliction which caused me to panic at the thought that he was regretting last night. My smile completely disappeared.
"Listen… my best friend made one simple request—that I not get anywhere near you—and I slipped. It was fantastic. You're fantastic." My cheeks heated as I glanced down at my feet, biting the inside of my cheek to stop the smile that was aching to appear. I looked back up at him again. "But it's not gonna happen again… ever." Even though I wasn't feeling it, I forced myself to give him an understanding smile.
"Okay." I quickly turned and headed to the pit, breathing becoming a struggle. Stupid…stupid…stupid…I knew it was a mistake.
GA
I threw myself into my work, doing anything to distract myself from Mark Sloan. From sprained ankles to broken wrists, I was flying through the morning. As I discharged a patient who just had gas and needed a laxative, I headed over to George to see how he was doing. He was treating a woman in her late twenties and was screaming in pain as he tried to stretch out her right leg. I picked up her chart to see that she came in with complaint of pain in the hip and groin area, swelling and bruising of the hip and an inability to put any weight or pressure on right leg.
"Ow!" She yelled. "Ow! Ow! Damn it. Ow."
"Yep, I think you broke your hip." George confirmed setting her leg gently back down on the bed.
"Are you kidding me? Come on!" She looked up to the ceiling and yelled. George and I exchanged glances as I wrote down her prognosis.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Last month, I tripped on the sidewalk and I cracked a rib. In April, I fell in the shower and I broke my arm. January? Broke two fingers doing yoga. Yoga. This is my sixth break in a year." Once again, George and I looked at each other, this time with concern. Six breaks in a year was awfully high even for a clumsy person. "And so, I stare at the heavens, and without any belief in a higher power but a desperate need to blame someone, I yell come freakin' on. Ow." I looked back at Margaret.
"How about we call ortho, have them run a few tests?" I suggested.
"Might be a little more satisfying than shouting to the heavens." George added.
"Thank you." Margaret smiled at us, leaning back in her bed.
"I'll go ahead and get an order in for an x-ray and MRI if you can page Dr. Torres for a consult." I told George as we walked away.
"You got it." George agreed.
GA
"You've got a tumor on a little gland in your neck." Mark informed Margaret after we paged him for a consult. Mark and Callie stood at the foot of the bed with George on the left side. I was by the door, staying out of the way and not interfering, waiting for Lexie to come back with the lab results. Of course, Margaret lifted her eyes and hands to the ceiling.
"Come…on." She moaned loudly. Mark and Callie looked to us in confusion.
"Yeah, she does that." George explained before taking a step closer to Margaret's side. "Margaret, uh, the tumor's benign, and it's not hard to remove. Dr. Wolfe." I stepped closer into the room, crossing my arms behind my back.
"A parathyroid tumor tells your body to leech the calcium out of your bones." I explained to her. "That's why you've had so many fractures. Once we take the tumor out, you'll be back to normal." We all smiled reassuringly at her as she looked from one doctor to the next before lifting her eyes to the ceiling once more.
"Come on!" She yelled once more.
"Margaret, this is good news." George said.
"I've been living like an old lady. I don't take the stairs, I gave up running, skiing. I sit and I knit, and I hope that the knitting doesn't break a finger—all because of a tumor?"
"A tumor that's benign and easy to remove."
"Come on! There was a guy." Her voice began to break as she continued speaking. "I fell in love with the most amazing guy. He was sweet, kind—best sex of my life—" My cheeks warmed as I thought about last night. Granted it was the only sex that I'd ever had, it was still really good sex. "And he had to move to Denver, and he wanted me to move with him, and I didn't because Denver is icy. There were too many ways for me to slip and fall. So, I lose my guy and I break all these bones from a bone-sucking tumor? Are you kidding me?"
"Sorry." A small voice sounded behind me and I turned to see Lexie walking in. "Here, Dr. Wolfe."
"Thank you." I muttered to her before pivoting back around to Mark and handed him the folder. "From the lab, Dr. Sloan." He took them without looking at me or saying anything to me, so I took a step back and stood next to Lexie by the door to the room. I saw Mark lean over and whisper something to Callie and she muttered something back to him. I looked down at my feet in embarrassment.
GA
I sat to the left of George in the cafeteria with Cristina on the right of him eating an apple and reading Surgical Syndromes as I absently picked at my pasta salad. Anxiety filled every vein in my body at the thought that maybe Mark was lying to me this morning when he told me that last night was fantastic. He was probably laughing it up with Callie right now. I internally kicked and scolded myself for caring so hard. It was just a one-night stand. Get over it. I threw my fork down onto my plate and leaned back in my chair, pressing my thumb into my palm, and biting my lower lip. Alex came over and sat down across from George and began to dig into his food.
"Hey, Cristina." George said around a mouthful of food, never taking his eyes off Alex. "Can you mention that it's Izzie's birthday today? Because someone should do something about it." Alex slowly raised his eyes from his food and glared at George.
"I myself am planning a party with balloons, streamers and a bouncy house." Cristina said sarcastically.
"Oh, that's a good idea." I agreed, happy that there was a topic to take my mind off Mark Sloan. "You should include a unicorn and rainbows."
"That is a good idea." George confirmed, taking another bite of his sandwich. "But you know what? Alex should do something about it."
"I know, hosebag." Alex retorted. "I got it under control."
"Oh, a bouncy house?" Cristina inquired as Izzie came up and dropped her tray next to Alex and the couple huddled together to begin whispering between each other.
"You okay?" George whispered to me after swallowing his food. "You seem a little on edge." I gave him a reassuring smile.
"I'm fine. Just one of those anxiety days. I'm fine. Thanks, George." Meredith came up behind us and sighed heavily and I looked over my shoulder to see her staring down at Cristina who never acknowledge her presence. Meredith glanced at George who instantly got the silent message.
"Oh, I'm done here." George picked up his tray and trash and got up, leaving Meredith to sit down between Cristina and me with her coffee in hand.
"The dude from MRI was all freaked out about death row guy." Alex said. "Couldn't put his cuffs in the machine, so they had to Velcro him to the table. The tech thought he was gonna tear it all off and storm the booth like the hulk or something."
"I heard a rumor going around the hospital that there was a death row prisoner here." I muttered, poking at my pasta. "I can't believe you and Cristina are on his case. What did he do to get on death row?"
"Probably found his wife in bed with a hooker and a handyman." Cristina said.
"They don't give you the death penalty for crimes of passion." Izzie said. "People understand that."
"All crimes are crimes of passion." Meredith corrected her. "There's always a reason. People don't do stuff like that because they forget it's illegal." Cristina closed her book and grabbed her coffee and apple, standing up and leaving without saying another word. Izzie and I exchanged uneasy glances with Meredith who just shrugged her shoulders as Sadie came over and sat down next to us.
"When you kill her, is it gonna be a crime of passion?" Izzie, Meredith, and I all shared a laugh at the joke.
"That still hasn't blown over?" I asked her still laughing at Izzie.
"No." Meredith sighed, taking a sip of her coffee. "It's not a big deal. We had a fight. She took it too far. That's all."
"Wanna know what I think?" Sadie offered.
"Not really." Meredith retorted and I let out another round of laughter.
GA
After a successful surgery, I sat at a table in the far corner of Joe's bar. I sipped on my Buffalo Trace Bourbon watching Sadie and Lexie taking turns throwing darts. I never thought much of sex before last night. I mean, yeah, I got horny like any other normal human being but never thought much of sex. Until Mark Sloan and my God, I thought I could never get enough of him. Obviously, he had a lot of experience and he was a god in bed, and I was never going to have him again. Ever. He made that crystal clear this morning. Almost as crystal clear as his eyes. I closed my eyes and sipped my bourbon desperately tried to get rid of his eyes that seemed to be forever burned into my mind, praying to God that in a few days he would be out of my system. The chair across from me scraped across the floor and I opened my eyes to see Lexie sitting down, leaving Sadie to play darts by herself.
"Are you going to tell me what's on your mind or have we not reached that level of our sister relationship yet?" Lexie asked me and I gave her a heartwarming smile.
"It's not that I can't tell you because we don't really know each other that well yet, it's just…I…I just can't tell you. Or at least I don't think I can. I mean, I shouldn't tell you." We sat there in silence for a moment before I looked around the bar to make sure not there were no prying ears. Taking another sip of bourbon and allowing the liquid courage to warm me up from the inside, I leaned across the table towards Lexie who leaned in as well. "You have to promise that you won't say anything. Not even to Meredith." She crossed her heart. "I slept with someone and it was…" I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "It was…amazing. It really good sex. I mean, really, good sex. And there was talking…and laughing…and then more talking…it was…" The smile on my face made it hard to continue talking as I let out a sigh.
"Then what's the problem?" I clicked my tongue.
"The problem is that one, I wasn't supposed to do it and two, it's never going to happen again. He made the perfectly clear. Which is fine. I mean, I knew that it was a one-time thing going into it. It's just…" Once again, my mouth was unable to form any words.
"The sex was really amazing?" I laughed and nodded. "Come on." She stood up and I followed her with my bourbon in hand. I followed her to the dart board after Sadie abandoned it to go grab a few more drinks. "You'll feel better after you've thrown something." I laughed and took the darts from her that she plucked from the board.
"I have to warn you, I suck at darts." She laughed with me, her smile bright and bubbly. We played a few rounds of darts, laughing and joking around with each other. I stood off to the side while it was Lexie's turn and I felt him come up beside me. I didn't even have to look to know who it was. The way that my heart skipped a few beats and my breath hitched in my throat and the smell of his cologne. I looked over my shoulder and up at Mark and locking eyes with him is what did it. Staring at him, I didn't notice any of the other men in the bar. He didn't have to say anything. The incline of his head towards the exit of the bar was enough of an invitation. Mark walked past and weaved through the crowded bar and disappeared out the door. I don't know whether it was lust or the bourbon, but my cheeks heated, and a smile was plastered on my face as I turned back to Lexie who staring at me in shock. "You promised." I downed the last of my bourbon and grabbed my jacket from my chair and followed the same path that Mark took out the bar. I found him outside, leaning against the hood of his car, arms crossed over his chest, the muscles of his biceps pulling his leather jacket taut. He smiled at me as he walked over to the passenger door and opened it for me, and I climbed in. The car smelled new and clean and was pristine condition. He closed the door and I watched him walk around the front of the car to the driver's side and get in. As soon as his door was closed, his hands were wrapped around my face, pulling me to him for a bruising kiss. I cupped his cheeks between my hands and kept him to me, never wanting to let him go. I pulled away slightly so that our lips brushed together as I spoke. "If we leave now, I could sneak you up to my room before everyone else gets home."
"Perfect," he whispered against my lips. "I can teach you how to be quiet." I laughed into his mouth as he started the car and drove away.