Sorry it took so long, but I warned you guys I was lousy at updating. I blame it on all those stupid papers. Nothing like a linguistics paper to spoil your writing appetite…
Anyways. Hope you enjoy this.
"Dr Stevens, is anything wrong?"
The intern looked up from the baby at the attending. "No, it's just. She's so tiny."
Addison smiled. "Yeah, but she's a fighter, look at the strength with which she's clinging on to your finger." She was a bit concerned with this intern, she was getting too attached to this little baby and then she noticed the tear on her cheek.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Addison asked the younger woman. "If you need to talk to someone."
Izzie sighed. "I have a kid."
Addison kept silent while they watched the baby breathe, attached to all the tubes and clinging on to Izzie's finger as if her life depended on it. "It's her tenth birthday today." Izzie wiped away another tear with her free hand.
"The last time I saw her…" Izzie closed her eyes and gently pulled her finger from the babies hand and out of the incubator. Addison put her arm around her to soothe her. "God, I'm sorry I'm bothering you with this, it's just, I can't tell George, or Meredith, if they knew, I mean, I just can't."
Izzie hated crying, but sometimes it was all you could do. "It's okay, I asked." Addison said reassuringly as she led Izzie to her office, just across the hall from the NICU and sat her down on her couch.
"She was the beautiful thing I'd ever seen." The tears were streaming down Izzie's face. Addison had sat down next to her and was holding the crying interns.
"How old were you?"
"Sixteen." Izzie had calmed down a bit. "I couldn't keep her, I didn't want her to grow up in that crappy trailer park."
"You did a brave thing."
"It was the right thing to do, I know that, but I miss her."
"Hey, if you want, my daughter and I have this little tradition, every Monday we ban Derek from wherever we're going and we do something girly, you could come."
Addison had been observing Mark for a while. He was standing at the check-in counter, watching someone himself. That someone happened to be none other than Callie Torres, who was explaining something at a patient's family.
"Need a tissue for your drool?" Addison whispered in his ear. Mark jumped up and turned around.
"Hello Addison."
The woman smiled. "She's not just one of your silly nurses, Sloan."
A grin appeared on Mark's face. Addison rolled her eyes.
"You already slept with her, didn't you?"
His silence and his smile answered her question.
"You like Dr Torres." Addison teased.
"Shut up, Montgomery."
Callie Torres turned away from her patient and found herself watched by two attendings.
"Can I help you people with anything?"
Addison couldn't help but chuckle, while Mark just put up his stupid smile. "We're fine, thanks." Addison managed to answer.
"Hey, George, could we talk for a moment?"
George O'Malley turned around and looked at Olivia. What would she want to talk to him about? "Sure." As soon as he'd answered, she pulled him into a storage cupboard.
"Uh, Olivia, I wanna talk, but that's all." From experience, the intern knew that talking in storage cupboards was never a good idea.
The nurse rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I just don't want people to eavesdrop. I don't want to end up on Nurse Debbie's blog again. I just need to explain something."
George sighed, neither did he, she never said anything positive about him, first the 007 story, then the syphilis and the fact that Olivia had cheated on him with Alex. He sat down on a pile of supply boxes.
"I'm really sorry about the whole Alex thing, I really didn't mean too and well, I wondered, if maybe, uhm, you'd like to go on a date with me again." George opened his mouth to speak, but Olivia interrupted him. "I like you, George, you're funny and considerate and a made a huge mistake and I just feel like we should try again."
George stared at the nurse before him. He had to admit he liked her as well and it wasn't as if women were lining up to date him. "I guess we could have a drink tonight together." Nonchalance was normally not his thing, but he felt that for once, he'd pulled it of.
"So, Joe's after work?" A smile appeared on Olivia's face.
"See you there."
The observation area was rather empty. Addison Shepherd was there because she enjoyed her husband operate. Callie Torres sat next to her because this particular procedure had always fascinated her, even if it was only a simple one. Maybe because it had been the first one she had ever been allowed to assist on.
Addison couldn't help but stare at Callie Torres. She had always wondered how strong women could give in to a man whore like Mark, he slept with silly blonde young nurses, not with hot residents. "Can I ask you something non-medical and extremely impolite?"
Callie shrugged. "Sure, I guess."
"You seem like a strong woman."
Callie frowned at the attending's comment. "Thanks, I guess."
"Why would you sleep with Mark?"
Callie's eyes opened. "How'd you know about that? Has that damned Debbie put it on her fricking blog or something?"
Addison chuckled. "No, he was checking you out earlier and I asked him."
Callie sighed, she couldn't believe this.
"Look, Dr. Torres, I know it's not any of my business, but…"
"Seriously, if we're going to talk about my sex-life, it's Callie."
"Addison." Dr Shepherd introduced herself once more. "Callie, Mark is,… I've known him for 14 years and I've only seen him serious about a woman once."
"Well, yeah, he's a man whore, I know that." Callie was not naïve, Addison let out a little sigh of relief.
"But why?"
"Have you ever taken a good look at him?"
Addison grinned. "Well yeah, he's hot, but I've never really understood the attraction, the whole look-at-me-I'm-the-cutest-man-you've-ever-seen thing really annoyed me from the beginning. I remember when Derek introduced him to me, he tried to hit on me, while Derek was there."
Callie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sounds like him. But the sex is just, well, …"
Addison nodded. "So my sisters-in-law tell me."
Callie frowned. "In plural?"
Addison shrugged. "all four of them, much to Derek's horror. But don't worry, they're all happily married with children now."
Callie couldn't believe herself, what had she gotten herself into this time.
"Would you sleep with him if you wouldn't have your husband?"
"No," Addison looked disgusted. "he's like a brother."
"I'm having drinks with Mark tonight."
Derek kissed Addison.
"Good to hear you've come to your senses."
"I can use a friend."
"Izzie Stevens is coming over tonight."
"Why?"
"I'll tell you some other time." Addison nodded at the interns who came in their direction.
"I saw you making friends in the observation area earlier."
A little smile appeared on Addison's lips. "She's sleeping with Mark." She said quietly.
Derek couldn't believe it. "Poor woman."
"I need sex." Meredith said as she walked into Really Old Guy's room.
"Me too." George concurred while taking a bite from his chicken sandwich.
"Maybe you should get it over with, sleep with each other."
George's face reddened, Meredith did an eye-roll and turned back to picking in her salad.
"Shut up Karev." Cristina shot at her fellow intern.
"What? I'm just saying that if they're both so desperate to get laid, they should just do each other, it's not like O'Malley hasn't been trying to get her to sleep with him since the intern mixer."
Cristina couldn't help but chuckle, he did have a point.
"I'm sitting right here you know!" George objected, trying to hide his redness behind his sandwich. "Talking about getting laid, Alex, has anyone seen Izzie since this morning?" He attempted to change the subject.
"No." Alex had to admit he hadn't seen her since this morning.
"Is she trying to exclude us on a cool surgery?" It was the only reason Cristina could come up with.
"You're just sad."
"Shut up, evil spawn."
"Hi guys."
"Izzie. Have you been crying?"
"Meredith, don't be silly, I'm just tired."
"Yeah, we didn't get a lot of sleep tonight." Alex grinned. Izzie smiled back, but he could see something was wrong. Just as he was about to ask something, Izzie kissed him.
"I'll tell you later." She whispered in his ear, before kissing him again.
"Geez, kids, get a room." Cristina had never been a big fan of PDA.
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