AUTHOR'S NOTE: I had just finished this chapter and was seconds away from uploading it when one of my readers, Patsy, requested the MerDer Elevator Proposal to be in the story. And because I love reading reviews and I love feedback and want my readers to know that I do gaze at their reviews, I went back and added in the proposal. Hopefully, it's to your liking. Thank you for the reviews!
I chewed on my lip as I leaned against the wall next to the Izzie's closed door to her hospital room. They admitted her last night and today was the first day of her treatment plan. Meredith and Cristina stood in front of me, shifting their weight nervously from one foot to the other. Alex was off a couple feet, face adamant and emotionless. Bailey walked up to the us with the chief behind her as a bunch of interns as well as Izzie's oncologist entered the room.
"Uh, you four, okay, I understand why you're here." Bailey began to say in an appealing tone. "I know you want to help, but I will be the resident on her case today. I will be prepping her for surgery, and if you're going into that hospital room today, you will do so as her friends. Izzie needs her people around her. She needs you to tell her everything will be find. She needs you to hold her hand. She needs you, not more doctors. Understood?" We all nodded our understanding as we followed Bailey into the room and pushed through the crowd of interns to Izzie's bedside. She was sitting up in her bed, platinum blonde hair tied back and knitting a green sweater. As we approached her, she handed her sweater off to Cristina so she could listen.
"Great." Izzie said with a smile. I had no idea how she had a smile and was still bubbly at a time like this. "Let's get started."
"Okay, as you know, you have stage IV metastatic melanoma. We have a lot of surgeries and a lot of procedures lined up for you over the next few weeks."
"We've seen evidence of mets on your liver, so one of those surgeries Dr. Bailey and I will resect them." Dr. Webber added. "We also lined up Dr. Parker from OB to harvest as many healthy eggs as she can before you undergo any radiation." Izzie smiled and peered down in her lap before scanning Alex.
"Right." She muttered. "Babies."
"We're just leaving the option open for you if you want it." Derek stepped up to Izzie. This was his first day back in the hospital since Jen's death after having a mental breakdown and hiding out in the woods where Meredith finally convinced him to come back so that he could operate on Izzie.
"But our priority today is to address the temporal lobe mets on your brain." Derek addressed. "I'm surprised we didn't catch it sooner. This kind of thing can cause headaches and seizures and intense hallucinations but hopefully the lesion has clear margins, and I can remove it all."
"Are you people done?" A voice sounded behind us and I turned to see a young African American woman, Rebecca Swender, push through us to see eye to eye with Izzie as she spoke. "Over the next four weeks, you're slated for three major surgeries, seven outpatient procedures, and that's just for the mets we've already found. In all likelihood, we will find more, which means we may have to cut into you more. You may as well get used to the idea now." The more Dr. Swender talked, the more Izzie's good attitude and smile vanished, the light in her eyes getting dimmer and dimmer with every word spoken. "I'll be administering all your radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The treatment will be aggressive. It will be harsh. You should prepare yourself. I'll be overseeing all your procedures, including today's with Dr. Shepherd, which means every surgeon in this room now answers to me. Welcome to the cancer wing, folks." She left the room and I leaned into Meredith.
"I don't like her." I whispered harshly and Meredith hummed her agreement.
"See you in the OR."
"Thanks." Izzie said quietly as the rest of the interns and doctors left the room, leaving Meredith, Alex, Cristina, and me standing around Izzie's bed, waiting for someone to say something. Cristina handed Izzie back her yarn and she went back to work but stopped when we were just staring at her. "Seriously, don't just stand there staring at me while I knit. It's making me nervous. Get outta here. Go save lives."
"Yeah, we have rounds." Meredith muttered, turned, and slowly walking out the room with Cristina and Alex.
"Page us if you need anything." I told Izzie before following my fellow residents out of the room.
GA
"What room is he in?" I snapped at Alex under my breath as we scurried through the halls of the hospice unit. I glanced through every room window that we passed by watching for him but to no success. Alex grumbled under his breath. We stuck around for Izzie's presentation and now we were late.
"Mayzie!" I heard a hush, harsh whisper behind me and I skidded to a stop and spun around to see Lexie nonchalantly standing in the threshold of a room. I sped walk to her and squeezed my way into the room and quickly walked over to Mark's side who eyed Alex and me before turning to the patient and her family. I smoothed my lab coat and cleared my throat as Lexie handed me the chart so I could get caught up on the patient as Mark continued speaking.
"This is Dr. Karev and Dr. Wolfe, who are late," Mark threw a glare in our direction. ", but will also be monitoring your aunt." Lexie and Mark performed surgery on a ninety-three-year-old woman. She had breast cancer three years ago and made a miraculously recovery. A month later, she became ill from a complication with the procedure and was in and out of the hospital since then. Mark was hoping that he could reverse but she ended up having an allergic reaction and it now had spread to her lungs. Committing the chart to memory, I handed the binder back to Lexie. "I'm sorry. Your aunt is very sick. There's not much more we can do for her. Probably time to say your good-byes." I waited for the sobs from the sister and the tears streaming down from the faces of the brothers but there was nothing. They didn't even so much as to blink when Mark told them that their aunt was dying. The sister and the youngest brother studied each other.
"Do you mean, like say our good-byes now or sometime in the next twenty-four hours?" The oldest brother asked, and I frowned. "I mean, what kind of time frame are we talking about?" Okay, maybe they just needed a time frame to prepare themselves.
"Twenty-four hours seems unlikely."
"You sure? Because I have a flight to catch in the morning and if I wait past noon…" He clicked his tongue and shrugged his shoulders. "…I can't change it." Mark and I both cocked our heads to the side in unison, our brows furrowing in confusion.
"I actually need to be on a plane tonight." The youngest brother admitted. "Board meeting tomorrow, so do you think she'll die before tomorrow?" My lips parted in astonishment and I browsed Mark for an answer who was speechless as well. I knew how to console grieving family members; I didn't know how to deal with family members who didn't seem to care.
GA
"Clear." Alex called out and the defibrillator whined as Alex placed them over Joyce's chest as I pushed one of epi. The paddles thunked and the shock went through Joyce's body, but the monitor continued to beep erratically.
"This might be it." The oldest brother mumbled from the corner of the room.
"From your lips to God's ears." The youngest brother prayed. This family was unbelievable. I was furious that they were acting like this while we were desperately trying to save their aunt's life.
"Charge to three sixty." Alex ordered. "Clear." The paddles thunked once again and the monitor began to beep rhythmically. Joyce groaned and coughed as she began to come back down to Earth.
"Oh, for the love of God." The oldest brother cried out and I rounded on him, hands and arms shaking with anxiety and anger.
"Hey, you know how many people are in this hospital right now waiting, hoping that their loved one might actually live?" I berated them. "You people are a disgrace."
"But we're not." The sister protested. "Aunt Joyce was given one month to live three years ago, and we were crushed, and we held her hand at her bedside for weeks, and we said our tearful good-byes, and then…" She let out a crackle that was a sorry excuse for a laugh. "Well… she stabilized. She's been in and out of the hospital once a month. Each time, we jump on a plane, sit by her bed, say our good-byes all over again, and each time, she winds up getting better."
"We want to be here when she goes." The older brother added. "We—we really do, but… it's a lot of flying around the country."
"She's ready." The youngest brother said. "We're all ready. It's time and I've got a board meeting tomorrow." I narrowed my eyes at him as the monitor continued to beep rhythmically behind me. "Big one."
GA
After making sure Joyce was stabilized, I wandered the halls with my hands in my pockets, my energy slowly draining. Maybe I could take an hour nap in the on-call room and then go back to check on Joyce. I thought about going to see Izzie, but she told us that she didn't want us standing around. Besides, I didn't know what to say to her. I could break heartbreaking news to strangers all day, but I was speechless when it came to a friend. So, nap it was. I walked to the nearest on call room and walked in the dim lit room to see Alex sitting on the edge of the bed, shaking his leg, and rubbing his hands together nervously. I slowly closed the door and eyed him suspiciously when I noticed a small cup in front of him that he was staring at.
"Please tell me that is not what I think it is." I muttered, blood draining from my face and Alex swallowed hard.
"Izzie's eggs will freeze and survive better if they're fertilized." Alex muttered, still staring at the cup. "The chief asked me—"
"The chief? Have you spoken to Izzie about this?" Alex finally shot me a glare and I walked over to the chair and sat down, settling deep into the cushions. "You left the door unlocked. That's bold."
"The chief send you in here?"
"No. I came in here to take a nap, but I'm not stuck here talking to you." I paused for a moment. "Do you need to talk?" Alex let out a laugh.
"You think talking will help? You think a dixie cup full of my swimmers will make everything okay? It's crap. This is crap. You just can't go messing with people's heads like that." Alex stood up and began to pace. I wasn't sure if he was talking about the fact that Derek went scalpel happy on Jen's brain or the fact that Izzie never told her boyfriend that she was sick. "I mean, even if she freeze the embryos, you think—you think we'll get a chance to use them. You think she'll still be here? You think she'll survive all this? Do you think…" Alex sighed. "I think…" He was lost for words as he rubbed his face with his hands. "She t-told me—she told me she was seeing a ghost, okay? And I'm so used to all the crazy chicks in my life that I didn't even…" His voice began to break as he continued his rant. "I'm a doctor. A doctor! And I didn't even think to… and now she's… this is… this is wrong. This isn't how it's supposed to happen."
"I know." Those two little words was all I could come up with. I didn't know what to say to make Alex feel any better.
"It's crap."
"I know." Alex sat back down on the edge of the bed and rested his elbows on his knees.
"This isn't… this isn't how we… how we were supp—this isn't how I wanted to do this. This isn't how Izzie and I were supposed to make a baby."
"I know."
GA
Alex and I ran into the room and pushed past the vultures that were standing around the room eyeing each other bored. The monitor beeped erratically as Lexie was already beginning to ventilate.
"Clear." The oldest brother muttered under his breath and I spun around to face him as Alex grabbed the defibrillator.
"You know what?" I snapped at the three stooges. "Why don't y'all wait outside?"
"Will you let us know if she—" The sister began to speak but I cut her off with a dismissal wave.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll let you know." The beeping continued as I turned back to my patient.
"Push one epi." Lexie said and I nodded my agreement as I took over the ventilation for her so she could get the epi.
"Charge to three sixty." Alex ordered as he placed the paddles on Joyce's chest. "Clear." I let go of the ventilation as the defibrillator whined and the paddles thunked against Joyce's chest. I went back to ventilating as we waited for a response. "Come on, Joyce, you old bag. Don't give 'em the satisfaction. Charge again. Clear." The paddles thunked again and the monitor began beeping rhythmically. I took the ventilation bag off Joyce's face as Lexie stepped up to place the oxygen around her nose. Joyce opened her eyes and glimpsed wearily around the room at the doctors and nurses sounding her. "Hey, I'm Dr. Karev. You're a fighter, you know that? You worked hard today. She needs some rest. Um, see the family, make sure they don't come back in here. Give her a break from all the love."
"No." Joyce rasped, and Alex reviewed her in confusion. "They're impatient. It's been a long time, but they always come. They're my people. People keep you going. People are better than no people."
GA
Once Joyce stabilized, I met up with Meredith at the OR board. Izzie was taken into surgery an hour ago. Meredith leaned against the board, staring absently directly in front of her. Alex was closely behind me.
"Surgery started." Meredith muttered and Alex sighed as Cristina rounded the corner and leaned against the board next to Meredith.
"Hey, have they started the surgery?" Cristina asked.
"Yeah." Alex answered her, voice full of dread. Several interns entered the hallway and walked up to us but still keeping a safe distance away.
"Dr. Wolfe, did Dr. Stevens' surgery start yet or—" Steve began to speak but Meredith quickly shut him up.
"Keep it moving." My older sister snapped. "No loitering in the OR hallway. That's the rule."
"If they want to stay let 'em stay." Alex protested and we all inspected him questioningly. "People are better than no people." Alex and my pagers began beeping and we looked down to see that it was Lexie paging us for Joyce. Alex sighed irritability.
"It's fine, Alex." I told him pushing off from the wall next to Meredith. "I got it. Stay here." My tennis shoes slapped against the tile floor and I panted as I ran through the halls, twisting and weaving through personnel and patients to get to Joyce's room. The defibrillator whined as I entered the room.
"Clear." Lexie called out and the paddles thunked against her chest. I snatched her chart and saw that Lexie already pushed an epi. The monitor continued emitting its annoying flatline tone.
"Push another epi and charge again."
"Come on, Mrs. Wallington. Clear." The monotone monitor continued. Lexie looked up at me and I sighed heavily. It was Joyce's time. She fought and came back so many times already, but this was a battle that she could not win anymore. I shook my head at Lexie to signal that it was time to let her go. Though I've gotten used to having patients die on me, every single time the blood still drained from my face and my abdomen still tightened. I tilted my chin to Lexie, letting her know that she needs to explain to the family. Breaking awful news to patients' families was all part of the learning process after all. She set the paddles down and I reached over to begin buttoning Joyce's gown back up as Lexie turned to the family who made no gesture to say that were grieving. "Uh, I-I'm so sorry. She's not responding. We've done everything we can so… she's gone."
"Thank you." The sister said, placing her hand on her chest. "You did a wonderful job." The tone on the monitor continued until it started beeping rhythmically and the entire family groaned. "Are you kidding me?" Lexie spun around and looked from Joyce to me in confusion as I cocked my head to the side observed the monitor. It wasn't a normal heartrate wave link.
"Oh, God, this is never gonna end." The youngest brother muttered, rubbing his face with both hands. I took my stethoscope off from around my neck and placed it in my ears and moving it around on Joyce's chest, trying to find a heartbeat. There was none. And there were no lung movement. It had to be her pacemaker. Lexie never took her eyes off me, waiting for a verdict with deer in the headlights eyes.
"No, no, she's—she's gone." I told them. "She's really gone." I placed my stethoscope back around my neck and turned to them. "It's really gone. It's—it's, um, it's her pacemaker. It's still firing, so it makes it seem like there's a heartbeat, but she's gone just… with a heartbeat." The beeping continued as I walked around the side of the bed to Lexie.
"Are you sure she's dead, young lady?" The oldest brother questioned me, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared down at me intimidatingly. My voice choked in my throat as I tried to speak.
"Yes, sir, she's dead."
"How are you sure? What are your credentials? Are you even authorized to call time of death?"
"I'm the resident on this case. I'm sorry for your loss." I glanced at the clock on the wall. "Ti—" He cut me off again.
"How are you sure that the pacemaker isn't still keeping her alive? Is she really dead?"
"I'm going to get Dr. Sloan." Lexie whispered to me.
"Please do." I whispered back to her and she left the room as I continued speaking to the man in my normal voice. "If you do not trust my diagnosis that your aunt is dead, then we will get our attending, Dr. Sloan. Will that satisfy you?"
"Yes."
"Okay." Jesus Christ. So eager for their aunt to be declared dead. Well, if they were that eager, they have just let me call it. I slowly walked to the corner of the room and by the time I did Mark walked into the room which meant Lexie didn't have to work too hard to find him. "No obvious heartbeat and no respiratory activity." The monitor continued beeping rhythmically as Mark still took his stethoscope off from around his neck and listened to Joyce's chest. When he heard nothing, he pulled out a device from his pocket and placed it over Joyce's pacemaker.
"This will shut the pacemaker down." Mark explained to the family. The beeping continues before fading down to an emitting a monotone frequency. "Time of death—22:40." I reached over and turned the monitor off as Lexie turned to the family.
"There you go." She said. "She's officially dead. You can catch your plane and get to your board meeting. You can—you can leave." I looked from each family member to the other and for the first time all day, I saw emotion in their eyes. Their aunt wasn't dying anymore. She was actually dead now. There was no more waiting around and now it was hitting them that their aunt was actually dead. The oldest brother slowly walked over to the bedside and I stepped back to give him room, weaving my way through the other two siblings to the threshold of the room.
"Actually… could we stay a little while longer?" The brother asked and Mark nodded, and we left the room.
"Lexie, can you finish the chart?" I asked her, handing her the chart before looking up at Mark. "If you don't need me for anything else, I would like to go and be there for when Izzie gets out of surgery." He gave me a short nod and I turned to head back to the OR hallway.
GA
I paced back and forth along the OR board waiting and waiting and waiting. It had been hours since she went under. That could only mean two things. Either Derek was taking his time and being careful or something had gone terribly wrong. I tried to focus on the former and not let my mind come up with all the different possibilities on why it was taking so long. The OR hallway was currently packed with doctors and interns waiting for any news on Izzie. The chief walked in and we all froze staring at him.
"What are you all doing out here?" Dr. Webbed questioned us all.
"Waiting for Izzie, sir, we're waiting." Alex answered him and the chief looked around at all of us.
"You're scared. I'm scared, too." Bailey walked through the double doors of the OR, still in her scrub cap and scrub gown and we all surrounded her.
"Were her vitals stable the entire time?" Cristina asked.
"Were there any spikes in her intracranial pressure?" Meredith inquired.
"Is there any residual tumor?" Alex pressed.
"What about bleeding in the brain?" I questioned her. Bailey inhaled deeply before answering us.
"Shepherd was able to resect all of the tumor." She said and we sighed in relief. "She'll be in the PACU for about an hour. She's fine. Your friend is just fine, no thanks to any of you. Tomorrow, do better." We all nodded hastily as Bailey turned to head back to Izzie. After going back to the resident lounge to change, I was rummaging through my purse for my car keys as I began to walk out of the hospital.
"Grey 2.0!" Someone called to me from behind and I spun around, my hand still rummaging through my purse. Derek was walking quickly towards me, holding overwhelming large folder, and sweating while he was breathing heavily.
"Can't you call me something else?" I sighed irritably, my fingers still searching my purse for my keys. Honestly, my purse wasn't that big, it shouldn't have been too hard to find my keys.
"Little Wolf?" I scrunched up my nose in distaste at the thought of anyone besides Mark calling me Little Wolf. "Mazikeen?" My facial muscles relaxed a little bit but still contorted with disapproval. "Mayzie?" Giving up on looking for my keys, I retracted my hand from my purse and clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth as I looked at Derek.
"Is there something you want, Dr. Shepherd? I'm tired and would like to go home and go to bed."
"I need your help, Mayzie. Can you come with me?" Biting back a sigh, I waved my hand to signal him to lead the way.
"I just want you to know that the only reason why I'm doing this is because you're an attending and I don't want you to make my residency a living hell." Derek gave me a side glance but didn't say anything as we walked to the east wing elevators. He pressed the button and when the elevator on the left opened, he stepped in and I followed in suit. There was x-ray light boards already hanging up on the side walls and the back wall. My body froze when he pressed the stop button for the elevator. "Okay, so far I have followed you without question, but now I'm questioning because I am very much concerned right now."
"I'm proposing to Meredith." My heart fluttered and I relaxed a little bit as I smiled at him.
"Really? That's amazing, Dr. Shepherd! How are you going to do it? When are you going to do it? Where are you going to do it?"
"I'm going to do it right here." I furrowed my brows in confusion and looked around at the elevator.
"In an elevator?" He finally opened the folder that he had been carrying to show me the contents. There were a stack of scans inside. I looked at the top scan of a brain and then back up at him, waiting for him to explain his plan.
"These are all the cases that Meredith and I have worked on. I was going to hang them up on the light boards." I looked at the light board, visualizing his plan. When I understood, I beamed up at him.
"A walk down memory lane on how you fell in love with her." He nodded. "That's perfect." He pulled out more scans from the same case and handed them to me so I could start hanging them on the board.
"This is the CT for Katie Bryce—sixteen-year-old female, subarachnoid aneurysm from a fall during rhythmic gymnastics. It was the first surgery we ever scrubbed in together on, our first save." He handed me some more scans and I hung them up next to Katie's. "This is a cerebral cyst. It was a tough save, but we did it. I kissed her in the stairwell after the surgery." I laughed as I took some more scans from him. "Right here is where Dr. Bailey kicked her out of the surgery because she caught us in the driveway in my car." He laughed as we continued our rhythmic work. "Right here—this was a seven-hour craniotomy, and she held the clamp the entire time, never flinched. That's when I knew she was gonna be an incredible surgeon. And Beth Monroe, who made our clinical trial a success by surviving. She talked me into putting her under. That's when I knew I needed her. And this is today's post-op head CT of Izzie Stevens." I reached into the folder and took the scan and hung it up on the board and reviewed it. It was clean. There was nothing there. The surgery was a success. "You see that? See? Tumor free… because of her. She got me into the OR. If there's a crisis, she doesn't freeze. She moves forward. She gets the rest of us to move forward, because she's seen worse, she's survived worse and she knows we'll survive, too. She says she's all… dark and twisty, but that's not a flaw. It's a strength. It makes her who she is. I'm not gonna get down on one knee. I'm not gonna ask a question. I love Meredith Grey and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. That's how I'm going to propose to her." I nodded my head and smiled brightly at him.
"It's beautiful, Dr. Shepherd. Perfect." He took out some lab results and clinical trial forms and together we began to fill in the blank spaces around the light boards. Silence hung in the air as we worked to prep the elevator and the more, I thought about Derek proposing to Meredith and how happy they were going to be, the more I thought about my own relationship with Mark. "I'm really delighted for you. I really am but I think you should be happy for Mark as well." Derek sighed behind me.
"Mayzie…"
"No, listen, you have no reason to be angry with him. I was the one who seduced him. Not the other way around. He tried to respect your wishes, but I pushed him, and we're content together." I hung the last form up as I turned around to see Derek staring at me but not saying anything. "Looks like you're all set up here. I'll go steer Meredith this way." I hit the button to resume operations on the elevator and when it opened, I quickly walked out to head to the other side of the hospital where I knew Meredith had just gotten out of surgery and was probably on her way home. I caught up with her about to board one of the elevators on the other side of the hospital and I quickly ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm and whipped her around as we started walking back to the other elevators. Without missing a beat, I began rambling about the first thing that came to mind which of course was Mark and all the while she kept looking at me and over her shoulder at the elevators in confusion. I talked and talked and talked because if she couldn't get a word in then she couldn't argue with me about not taking the other elevators. Once we approached the nurses' station by the elevators, I let go of her arm and she turned to face me, still with a look of confusion on face. I panted softly, trying to catch my breath from the ranting. She was quiet for a moment until she spoke.
"You do realize that I now have to walk all the way back to those elevators because my car is on the side?" She questioned me, gripping her purse. I held my hands up in surrender.
"Or, or, hear me out, just hear me out. You could just take these elevators right here and just walk to your car on the first floor. I mean, you're already by these elevators." She glared at me for a moment before turning on her heel and storming over to the elevators and pressing the button.
"Everything set up?" The chief asked me as he walked up to my side, glancing over at Meredith.
"Yep. All she has to do is—" The elevator on the right dinged as it arrived before the left one. "—not get on that one. Wrong one." The chief ran as fast as he could over to the elevator and blocked Meredith's path. She looked up at him questioningly.
"Wait. Uh, wait. No. Y-you can't take that one."
"Why not?" Meredith inquired.
"I said don't take it."
"I will take the elevator I want to take." Meredith made a move to go around him to the open elevator, but the chief blocked her path. She made several attempts to go around him but each time, he wouldn't let her pass. The doors finally closed and glaring at the chief, Meredith frustratingly stabbed the elevator button three times. The elevator on the left dinged and before it opened, Meredith look at the chief.
"Well, go on." As soon as the elevator doors opened, Meredith's whole demeanor changed as she peered inside.
"Hey." Derek greeted her with a smile. "Come on in." A smile appeared Meredith's face as she walked into the elevator and the doors closed behind her.
GA
I laid on my stomach on my bed with my textbook in front of me as I slowly flipped through it, studying. I buried my feet under my pillows to keep them warm. I flipped through my textbook as Mark walked into my bedroom, just getting done with a shower. I lifted my eyes ever so slightly from my book seductively biting my lower lip as I surveyed the water droplets trickling down his pectorals and carved abs. Blushing, I looked back down at my book as he walked to his side of the bed and laid down next to me. He grabbed my feet and pulled them into his lap, shifting my body causing me to reposition my book so I could still read it. He ran his thumb gently but firmly up the arch of my right foot, starting from the ball of my foot to the heel and I moaned as the blood rushed to the spot to relieve the muscle.
"Mm." I hummed. "That feels good." He leaned back against the headboard and closed his eyes, his left hand massaging the arch of my foot while his right hand worked my Achilles tendon. I went back to reading as I reveled in how normal and relaxing to lay here in silence with my boyfriend after a day's work. "Is there different z-plasty surgeries?"
"There's the z-plasty for the hands to close the wounds around the knuckles and there's z-plasty for scar revision where incisions are made on either side of the original scar site and can reposition the scar." I hummed my understanding.
"Derek proposed to Meredith. He did it in the elevator at the hospital and he showed me Izzie's post-op CT scan. Tumor free."
"That's good."
"And I spoke to him about us." Mark's fingers paused their movements. "Told him that he has no reason to be mad at you."
"Shouldn't have done that."
"Well he needs to get over himself and focus on his relationship with Meredith instead of ours. I'm happy for them so I figured they could be happy for us." I focused back on my studying and Mark resumed rubbing my feet. After another minute of rubbing my feet, Mark put my feet back down on the bed and crawled over top of me, hovering over my back, his left arm supporting his weight as his right hand snaked his way under my shirt, slowly lifting it up and peeling it off over my head. The cool breeze from the open attic window chilled my back and bare breasts but I kept my focus on my textbook. Even as Mark slowly pressed his lips to the side of my neck, moving around to my shoulder blades and peppering kisses all the way down my spine, his right hand soothingly over my scars. I could barely keep my eyes open from all the sensations coursing through my body. I let out a low laugh. "Mark, I'm trying to study."
"So… study." His lips grazed the skin of my lower back and he sat back on his heels to hook his hands under the waistband of my yoga pants and slowly began to pull them off. I placed my forehead on my textbook and breathed deeply.
"Mark…" He pulled my pants down to my knees and wiggled them off and down over my ankles. I was bare beneath him. Using his knees, he parted my legs and laid down between them. I tried to roll over, but Mark held me down by the back of my legs. One lick from him had me catching on fire. I moaned loudly as I shoved my textbook off the bed to grip the sheets with white knuckles. He flicked the tip of his tongue over my clit before laying his tongue flat against my slit and licked up. Over and over, he repeated that movement until the point where my breath hitched in my chest and my voice was coming out in whimpers. "Mark… oh God, Mark." He pulled back and I whimpered in protest.
"You're going to have to be quiet. Lexie is right below us." I groaned that turned into a gasp as he inserted a finger, pushing against my front wall. I buried my face into the bed, my moans being muffled by the sheets as the pressure in my core kept building and building. He kept a firm grip on the back of my legs as my body shook with an orgasm. He flipped me over onto my back and his lips were on mine, the taste of myself still lingering on his tongue as he flicked it across my lower lip. He pulled the towel off his waist and lined himself to me and sank himself deep inside me with a single stroke. I buried my face into the crook of his neck with a whimper as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and crossed my ankles on his lower back. His left hand wrapped around my right shoulder as he right hand cradle the back of my head against him as he thrusted into me vigorously, panting heavily in my ear. I clawed at his back as my body needed to find some way to release the raging pleasure stirring in my core as I could not scream his name to release it. His back bowed under my assault. I thrusted my hips up to match his pace and my whimpers growing more and more intense. The groan in my ear was my undoing. The heat in my core shot through me, up through my chest cavity until it was released through my mouth as I moaned in his ear. His released followed quickly after that. He gave one more soft, easy thrust before he pulled out and rolled off me, pulling me into his chest and curling his arms around me. My body was still shuddering as I tangled my legs with his and he pulled the blankets over us and I fell asleep in the crook of his arm.
Author's Note: Sorry that the ending sucks