DISCLAIMER: I do not own Grey's Anatomy, nor am I affiliated with ABC. All the credit goes to Shonda Rhimes and the honchos at ABC.

Note: Here is my second chapter...I don't really know if anyone is reading it, but if you are will you please let me know. I will even try and respond, if people leave me critiques or reviews. thanks. ps: was Mark not smoking on last night's ep. every episode I fall in love with him a little bit more.


As she stood with her fellow interns awaiting assignments, Izzie stared off into space. George had the day off, so she did not really have a reason to talk to anyone. Alex was preoccupied with Ava's chart. And Christina and Meredith….well they were being Christina and Meredith.

"Christina, no way. It's Derek and Meredith night at the trailer. I'm trying to be a better girlfriend."

"Is McDreamy having a wedding crisis?" Christina looked to Meredith for an answer. She did nothing but shrug her shoulders.

"I didn't think so. I, on the other hand, need to escape from the land of holy matrimony. If I have another piece of cake, look at another strategy seating map or glance through another catalog of possible honeymoons….I might just put on my running shoes and pull a Julia Roberts."

"Christina, it can not be that bad."

Christina put her hand on Meredith's arm for emphasis, "I swear Mer, Burke could have secretly played 'the dream wedding' with barbies when he was a child. He's completely lost it."


"Alright people, alright. This is not social hour."

The interns all stood attentively at the sound of Dr. Bailey's voice.

"Karev, you are with Dr. Montgomery, Yang you are with Burke, Grey is on clinic duty and Stevens….you are with Dr. Sloan today."

It took several seconds to comprehend what Bailey had said. All the other interns went to their respected tasks, but Izzie remained glued to her spot.

"Sloan, really?"

Bailey put her hands on her hip in slight irritation. "Was I speaking Chinese just a minute ago Stevens?"

Izzie shook her head no. "Then yes, you are with Dr. Sloan"

"But…we tried this once and it failed miserably. Why can't I be in the clinic? Meredith and I could switch."

"No. You know the routine Izzie. Besides, Sloan requested you."

Izzie huffed. "Fine. But really Dr. Bailey, we should work on changing that attending-intern request policy…I mean look at what happened with Christina and…"

Bailey put her hand up in an attempt to silence Izzie, "Do not even go there with me this morning Stevens. I have had very little sleep and have very little patience for any whining from my interns today."

Izzie still stared at Dr. Bailey in hopes of changing her mind. She even pulled out the sad, puppy dog eyes.

"GO! Stevens. And I better hear nothing about your behavior or attitude today."

Izzie sighed and walked down the hallway. "Special request policy…can't wait…of course Dr. Sloan…gag."


It had been hours. Sloan was nowhere to be found. Izzie had spent three hours searching every closet, on-call room and crevice in Seattle Grace. And still there was no Mark. Frustrated beyond belief, Izzie stopped at the nurse's station on the floor she was searching through. As she looked around for one of the nurses on duty, something caught her eye. There were stars, moons, bright colors and stuffed animals all over the place. It hit her. She was on the pediatric floor. Izzie was sure that she was entering a full–blown panic attack as all the visual cues surrounded her, beating her into mental submission.

Hannah was on the pediatric floor. Clearly two days was not sufficient time for Izzie to work through this long-gone, gave away for adoption when I was a teenager, daughter issue that she was currently facing. Especially since she had no one to talk to about it; internalizing the problem was not making it go away. Izzie glanced around quickly, trying to find the stairwell or someplace to hide. She needed to regain her composure.

Running towards the first stairwell she found, Izzie caught wind of the voice. His voice to be exact. What was Sloan doing on the pediatric floor? Izzie wondered. She back-tracked her steps and angled herself in a position to see into the patient's room. Izzie had checked the board earlier and was sure that Sloan did not have any patient who would be on this floor. This was making the situation all the more confusing.

She heard a woman's voice.

"Anna, sweetie. You know that these doctors are going to take care of you."

"I'm still scared."

Izzie heard Mark's voice.

"Of course you are, but I promise everything is going to turn out fine, okay?"

The girl Sloan was talking to looked to be about 12 years old. She had curly brown hair, pale skin and some freckles on her cheeks. Izzie thought she was as cute as a button. But she still didn't understand what Sloan was doing there, and definitely was confused when he leaned over and gave the child a kiss on her forehead.

"Will you come back and see me before the surgery?"

"Of course I will. And if you're lucky, I might sneak you in some jello."

"Only the red kind. That's very important."

"Gotcha. Red jello."

Mark looked up at the mother and she smiled. As he got off the edge of the bed, Izzie backed away from the door. He exited the room and as he rounded the corner he nearly toppled over her. They both looked at each other as if they had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"Stevens, what are you doing on this floor? There are no surgery patients up here today."

"I could ask you the same question Dr. Sloan"

Mark did not appreciate smartasses and he made this known to Izzie long ago. He stared her down with a frustrated look on his face. Izzie shuffled her feet nervously under his gaze. He relented slightly.

"If you must know, I was asked to come and discuss a few surgical possibilities with a patient and her mother. And you?"

"Dr. Bailey told me I was assigned to your service today. I've been looking for you, for over three hours and I ended up here."

Sloan had seen the error in his ways. Besides, he noticed that Izzie seemed a little shook up. He didn't believe it had all to do with him practically running her over a few minutes ago. Mark knew there had to be something more, but he decided not to push the topic.

"I didn't realize the time. Meet me in my office in twenty minutes."

Izzie was shocked. There were no rude comments, no harassment about her searching skills. This was a different Sloan. It appeared that McSteamy had a little bit of McDreamy inside of him all along. They went there separate ways down the hallway. Izzie thought they really had a breakthrough in their relationship as attending and intern. That was until….

"Oh, Stevens." Mark yelled down the hall.

Izzie turned slightly and saw the smirk emerging on Sloan's face.

"Don't forget my bone-dry cappuccino. Bring it with you when you come to my office."

Izzie groaned. Mark chuckled. Maybe things weren't different after all. But standing in line at the drink stand, Izzie had fifty million thoughts running through her mind. And all of them had to do with two little girls on the pediatric floor.