Medicine changes constantly.  And it's our job as doctors and surgeons to change with it.  To adapt to the change along with it because if you don't then you might get left behind.  As surgeons we have the chance to make medical history.  To win awards.  To show what we are truly made of.  To have the patient's best interest at heart and to always make the best decision we can along the way.  Because our biggest fear as surgeons and doctors is that we will get left behind.

-

Mark and Alison had been dating for six months now and even with her accident, it was the best six months.  Mark cuddled closer to his girlfriend as they slept in her bed.  He nuzzled his head in the crook of her neck and she let out a content sigh.  

If Mark were being completely honest, he never really saw himself as the type to be tied down to one girl.  Now that he was, he wouldn't have it any other way.

He liked having someone to come home to.  Someone to tell them how their day went.  Who understood him.  

Even though they knew that they have been dating for six months, they didn't celebrate their monthly anniversaries.  Mainly because they thought that was stupid and secondly they were both on the same page about celebrating yearly.

This also meant that her younger brother, James, has been deployed to Afghanistan for three months.  She had only talked to him once since he has been gone and it was very rushed.  Alison promised him that she would try and call Sarah often while he was deployed and she made good on her promise.  Of course there were days when she couldn't or they played phone tag but she found out that Sarah was holding up.  If Alison were being honest, she was worried about Sarah.  She hoped that she was cut out for this life because they hadn't been married long and Sarah wasn't expecting him to be deployed so soon into their marriage.  They just hit the two year mark.

Her eyes fluttered open as she felt a pair of familiar lips all over her face and she smiled at the man who she had been dating for the last six months.

"Mmm, this is a nice way to wake up," she said wrapping her arms around his strong shoulders as she brought him down closer to her body and he smirked.  

Her second degree burn had finally gone away after a month and they got the clear from Callie to have sex again a few weeks ago.  

"I'll wake you up like this every morning if you want me to," he told her as she wrapped her legs around her waist and he peppered kisses down her neck and across her chest.

"I could get used to this."

It was Alison's first day back and as a fellow.  Now she will be learning more about neonatal, oncologic, fetal and minimally invasive surgeries.  She is also expected to attend clinic and become familiar with the outpatient aspects of pediatric surgery.  She's also going to be gaining critical and extensive knowledge on those infants that are critically ill in the NICU as well as PICU which is the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  

Her fellowship program will focus on the pre-, post-, and intraoperative management of pediatric surgical patients from birth all the way up to age twenty-one.  Since Addison left, she knew she had a new attending.  Not only will she be doing clinical experience rotations in the NICU but also the trauma service.

"Welcome back, Doctor Anderson," Tyler greets the blonde peds fellow.

"Thank you, Tyler," she smiles kindly at him.  "It's good to be back."

"Just warning you - try to be on Doctor Kenley's good side today," he told her and she frowned.

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah, he cussed me out five times already," he shakes his head.  "Something's not right with him.  I'm surprised he works in peds."

"Me too," Alison said now getting nervous to be working with him today.  "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem, Ali," he smiled at the blonde and walked away.

It was always hit or miss with him whereas with Addison it was always straight forward.  

*

"Hi, uh, I'm James.  Where do you want me?" The intern asked the fellow and she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Let me guess you're an intern?" She asked and he nodded his head.

"Are you not the attending?"

"No," she shook her head.  "I'm actually a fellow.  I'll introduce you to the Head of Pediatrics.  Just warning you - he's very temperamental.  Follow me."

"H-how temperamental?" He asks his voice a little shaky.

"If you do one wrong move he lashes out.  If you don't do as he says right away he lashes out.  Just try and get on his good side and you'll be okay."

"O-okay," he nods his head and Alison could swear he looked like he was going to piss his pants.  She started feeling bad for the intern and wondered why Alex chose him for peds today when Doctor Kenley was already in a bad mood.  

"Doctor Kenley, this is James, one of Doctor Karev's interns.  He's on peds today."

"James?"

"Uh, yes sir," he said a little nervous.

"Nice to meet you.  Today is your lucky day because Doctor Anderson and I are performing a colonoscopy today on a five year old girl.  Ever seen one?"

"N-no sir."

*

"I can honestly say that I'm surprised you haven't gotten my best friend pregnant yet with how much you two have sex," Derek told Mark and he laughed.

"Oh you mean like you and Meredith?  When you break up aren't you supposed to stop everything?  Including the sex."

"We have sex.  So what?"

"Has she told her friends about you guys?" Mark countered back and Derek stayed silent knowing Mark was right.  

*

"I feel old," Mark complained to his girlfriend and best friend.

"Why is that?" Alison asked.

"O'Malley said he doesn't think Richard and I could do a functional muscle transfer."

"Did he really say that?" Derek asked amused.

"Basically.  He asked if we could even do the surgery."

"Can you?" Alison asked she rested her hand at the nape of his neck and played with his hair.

"You two make me sick," Derek said shaking his head.

"What?" Alison asked.  "Don't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous."

"Mhmm.  I'll see you later," she told Mark and pressed her lips to his in a long kiss making Derek roll his eyes.  "Truth hurts sometimes, Mark," Alison said patting her boyfriend's chest. "That's why Usher made a song about it," she said beginning to skip away before he could get her and made a run for it before turning around and laughing at the face Mark made.

"Your not that young either," he called out to her as she laughed even harder.

"At least I can do minimally invasive surgery on little ones and on fetus'."

"She had you there," Derek said and Mark shoved him playfully.

"Shut up."

"You love her, don't you?" Derek asked his best friend.  

"I really do."

"Have you told her yet?"

"Not yet.  But I was thinking of doing it sometime this week."

"Good.  Don't wait too long."

"Wasn't planning on it, my friend."

"Meredith isn't telling Cristina about us," Derek confesses to Mark and Mark looks at him confused.  "She tells Cristina everything."

"I thought you broke that off."

"I meant to."

"You think she's going to want to get back together," Mark said revealing what Derek was hoping for and Derek shook his head.  "You think she's gonna grow up and get all whole and want a relationship."

"I do not," Derek said with an amused smile.

"You're a bad liar," Mark said amused as well.

"Your old," Derek countered back.

"Just getting started, my friend."

*

"Why do you look like that?" Derek asked his person as he found her in a dreamlike state of mind.

"Like what?" She asked with a sigh.

"Like you're on cloud nine.  You look the most relaxed I've seen you in a while."

"I just had the best sex."

"Okay, this conversation is done with."

"Oh come on," she complained as she walked with him.  "I listen to you talk all the time about your sex life with Meredith."

"I don't talk about it all the time."

"Really?  I know about the sex you had when you first got together, the sex you had still married to Addison, after Addison, and now the breakup sex."

"Okay," he said with a sigh giving in.  "Five minutes."

"It's like he just knows all the right moves.  Those hands," she said with her eyes wide.  "I'm sure it's his experience but damnit he makes me feel like I've died and gone to heaven.  Every time we have sex he's just so steamy and talks dirty to me-"

"He talks dirty to you?  Really?"

"Yeah.  I was intimidated at first but it's like he gave me this boost of confidence."

"Confidence," Derek repeated quietly as he was confused.

"Anyway, thanks for letting me talk about it," she says patting his shoulder and walks away while he stands there in shock.

"What the hell just happened?" He asked himself.

*

"Is it true?" Alison asks Alex when she sees him, startling him a bit.

"Damnit, Alison.  This is why I called you annoying when I first met you.  You could've at least warned me before sneaking up on me."

"Sorry," she smiled sheepishly.  "But is it true that there's a really old guy whose an intern?"

"Oh yeah.  His name is Norman."

"How old do you think he is?" Alison asked Miranda as Miranda was looking over a patient's chart.

"I am not taking part in these petty little games," Miranda said with a straight face.

"My guess is seventy-five?" Alex said and Alison scoffed.

"Okay, now that's just mean.  What about fifty-six or sixty?"

"Get back to work people," Miranda told Alison and Alex.  "Unless you want me to page Doctor Kenley," she raised an eyebrow at Alison and Alison looked mortified.

"Now that's just mean," Alison said with a pout and Miranda smirked as Alison went back up to the peds floor.

*

Alison and Doctor Kenley were performing a colonoscopy on a patient that Doctor Kenley had seen a couple weeks prior.  Samantha was a five year old, complaining of her stomach bothering her as well as other symptoms.  The week before the procedure and three days after the procedure he had told her parents not to have her take any anti-inflammatory prescriptions such as ibuprofen or naproxen.  He said it was fine to take Tylenol if she needed it.

They used a flexible tube which was the colonoscope to move through Samantha's colon.  They took several samples from the lining of the colon to be looked at under the microscope.

The procedure was done and after they finished in the OR they wheeled her out to her room.

*

"You want to have sex with Karev?" Alison asked Lexie as she gasped.  

"Just once," Lexie said trying to make it sound better.  "Okay, maybe a couple of times.  But come on Ali, he's hot.  How can you not have sex with him?"

"He doesn't deserve you, Lex.  I mean you're so sweet and kind and he's Alex.  Don't get me wrong, I love him too, but Alex is different.  He doesn't do relationships.  Besides I thought you liked George not Alex."

Since Alison met Lexie a couple days ago, they really hit it off and became fast friends.  If Alison was being honest she wasn't sure what was going on with Callie and George.  They had been ignoring each other and while Callie had confided in Mark but about the situation, neither of the two would tell her what was up.

"Who said I want a relationship right now?" Lexie asked looking a little frazzled as she tried to defend her actions.  "Maybe I just want to have one night stands and have forget about my sister who hates me."

"I'm sure Meredith doesn't hate you.  You just surprised her is all."

"Yeah," Lexie let out a scoff and shook her head.  "I'm sure that's why she doesn't want me on her services and doesn't say anything to me unless she's belittling me every chance she and Cristina get."

"I will handle that if you want me to," she told Lexie as she put a caring hand on her forearm and Lexie smiled kindly at her.

"No, it's okay," Lexie said with a pout as she crossed her arms.  "I'll just handle it.  But I don't like it," she said reminding the peds surgeon of when Chris Evans has said that in interviews.

*

"You got to reattach a woman's tongue," an intern said with excitement to George as they were in the elevator.

"I was there," George told her.  "I didn't actually reattach it."

"Yeah, but still.  You're the intern they wanted on that case," another intern said.

"He's a repeater," Alex blurted out having enough of the interns glorifying George.  "Your big hero over here was an intern last year.  That's why he knows all of this stuff.  He's already been through it.  But if you want to learn from someone.  Really, really learn.  Go to a resident - not this dude."

"No, he's right," George said taking the blow.  "If you want to learn from someone that's definitely not me.  I'm not that guy," he said exiting out of the elevator and Norman turned to look at him.

"What the hell are you looking at?  Interns," he scoffed laughing as he turned to Lexie.

*

"Just say it," Callie said as she saw George in their hotel room.

"I slept with Izzie," George said.

*

"Aw, bubs, you brought home all of my favorite things?" Alison exclaimed at the Panda Express meal and her favorite candy which happened to be Sour Patch Watermelons and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for chocolate.  "What's all this for?"

"I just wanted to do something nice for you," he said with a shrug of his shoulders as he leaned down and kissed his girlfriend.  "I love you, Alison.  And I think I always have since the moment I met you at the Aquarium.  I love that I get to come home to you every night and that your the first thing I see when I wake up."

Sometimes the truth has to come out.  Whether it hurts someone feelings or whether it makes someone the happiest person alive. 

--

Alison and Mark's relationship is going to be way different than his relationship with Lexie.  I don't like reading fanfics where it's basically the same relationship and just a different girl.  That's not how relationships are.  So I hope you guys are liking their relationship because I have so much more in store!

Also if you guys didn't read my status update - I'm unfortunately not going to be able to post the new chapter of my Jackson Avery fanfic until I finish season 4 because there is a HUGE spoiler alert that I'm having.  My Jackson Avery fanfic is a spinoff of this book and that's also why I can't post the new chapter yet.  

What's been your favorite saying or part so far in the story?  I'd love to hear :)