S4 EP2

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE chief?" Mark asked as he approached Derek in front of the OR board.

"He's a junkie," the neurosurgeon replied as he dripped eyedrops in his eyes.

"Him?" Mark mused, "You're the one who looks all strung out."

"I'm just tired."

"Let me guess," he smirked, "You and Meredith are back together, and you've been up all night doing the horizontal salsa."

"Mambo. Horizontal mambo," Derek corrected with a smile. "And Meredith and I, we're just friends."

"There's no such thing as just friends," Mark shrugged.

Derek snorted at the other attending. "You think so?" he queried before nudging his head at the plastic surgeon's hand, "Then, who's the coffee for?"

Mark paused a moment as Derek's words hit him. "Me," he answered before taking a sip and walking away.

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH WALKED UP TO the nurses' station, where the countertop was full of boxes of electric appliances. Toaster, waffle maker, mixer, blender, rice cooker-the one that caught her eye was the espresso machine.

"Some amazing wedding gifts you have here," she voiced out as she approached the espresso machine.

"Yes, and she's giving them away," Izzie informed. "I have dibs on the Mixmaster."

"I'm not giving you the Mixmaster," Cristina deadpanned.

"I think the tradition is you're supposed to return them," Meredith suggested.

"I don't know about you, but my mum taught me never to return gifts," Norah stated. Mark walked up from behind her, checking out the same machine she had her eyes on. She smacked his hand away before he could even touch the box.

"My mother's dead," Meredith shrugged.

"Burke registered for this crap. Now I'm the one stuck dealing with it," Cristina ranted. "So, I'm using it for professional gain."

"You sure you're ready to part with this?" Mark asked, brushing his hand on the cardboard box despite the ongoing protest from the brunette resident.

"Hey-I want this!" Norah argued, sending him a hard glare.

"Sweetheart, there's nothing I want from you... except maybe your brain, so..." Cristina smirked and turned to the plastic surgeon, "It's yours if I can help on the rhomboid flap in your next Mohs defect repair."

Mark lifted Norah's hand off the espresso machine, and she stole the coffee from his hand. "Come to daddy," he muttered, though his words were less towards the machine and more directed to the resident.

❦ ❦ ❦

"SO, I'M ON DR SLOAN'S service today," Timothy spoke next to Norah. "A fucking weird situation to be in, but I've only been watching Stevens doing debridement on our patient."

"Sloan hates interns," Norah shrugged.

"Except you."

"Here's a tip," she chuckled and turned to him, "Show him that you have good hands in plastics, and he'll start giving you work to do."

He frowned. "I hate plastics. We hate plastics." She shrugged, and he nodded with a sigh.

"Dr Lawrence," Bailey called, and both the siblings turned to her. "Uh... Norah. I need you to work in the clinic today-no-before you open your mouth, just... let me say this. I need this because I have idiot interns are down there in my clinic. A clinic, dripping with my blood, sweat and tears, Lawrence-I am not at all convinced that they will not burn it down with their ineptitude."

Norah narrowed her eyes at the older resident, folding her arms in front of her chest. "Dr Bailey, are you guilt-tripping me?" she questioned.

"No, I'm not," Bailey shook her head, "But look, I understand I do not have the authority to tell. So I'm asking... nicely. Okay, I'm just saying, if I ever did anything for you, like, saving you from bleeding out in my arms... If you ever felt you owed me a debt of thanks, now is when I'd like to collect. Please."

"That definitely counts as guilt-tripping," Norah confirmed, "And threatening." She tilted her head to one side, sighing, "But you look desperate, Dr Bailey, so I'm gonna say yes."

Timothy perked up a little and raised a hand in the air slightly. "Can I come?"

Bailey looked at the intern then back to the resident. "Fine, okay," she muttered, "And Lawrence, you can bring your interns if you want. They seem well-behaved, surprisingly enough. Teach them well."

Norah smirked smugly. "So... I'm the new Nazi?"

"Yes-whatever-now, go!"

❦ ❦ ❦

ALEX SAT ON A CHAIR IN front of a mirror, where Norah was suturing his head after he got attacked by a patient. She was taking her sweet time perfecting her sutures; one, to not leave a scar, and two, because the clinic was rather empty on that day.

"So, the happy little family makes meth," Meredith stated.

"There's no such thing as a happy family," Alex grimaced as he stared at Cristina, who was pacing restlessly in circles. "What's with her?"

"Dude-stay still," Norah moved his head back in position.

"Well, Mama Burke is here, and we don't know why," Meredith shared. "My guess is that she's here to kill Cristina," she eyed the mirror before mumbling to Cristina, "She's hovering again."

Cristina turned her head to one of her interns, who looked terrified of her. "If you're done with the charts, go fold something," she ordered, "Like, you know, sheets."

Norah snorted a laugh as she snipped the remaining suture on Alex's head before placing down the tools and removing her gloves. Alex ran a hand at the back of his hair. "Smooth."

"Of course, it is. You picked the right person to suture your head," Norah smirked.

Meredith scowled at Alex when she noticed him gazing at a certain intern from the reflection of the mirror. "What are you looking at? Don't look at her."

"Your sister. She's hot," Alex smirked, "And He-Lawrence is looking at her, too."

Norah lifted her eyes to the mirror in front of them. At the corner of the reflection, she could see Timothy stealing glances at Lexie, who still had her unwavering focus on Meredith. Ah, that cheeky little sod.

"I'm an only child. Don't talk to me about Lexie," Meredith retorted. "And He-Lawrence... well, he did kinda save my life..."

"He-Lawrence is cute," Cristina added; Norah felt slightly weirded out by their comments.

Alex's pager went off, and he groaned, "Oh, the police want to talk to me." He got up and left the clinic, grumbling under his breath.

"All I want to know is why she's here," Cristina complained, racking her brains about why Mama Burke appeared in the hospital. "Is that too much to ask?"

Norah let out a sigh and narrowed her eyes at the troubled resident. "You know, you could always just ask her why she's here?" she suggested.

"No," Cristina and Meredith answered in unison, and Norah backed up wordlessly.

❦ ❦ ❦

TIMOTHY WATCHED AS Lexie paced around restlessly in the clinic. She scratched her neck and shook her head, attempting to approach her half-sister. Meredith was writing charts while Norah swirled around on the chair behind the counter.

"Hi," he called out, gaining the other intern's attention. "Um... Grey, right?"

"Yes, yeah..." she nodded, "Lexie Grey."

"Timothy Lawrence," he smiled before nudging his head to the residents across the clinic. "Seems like we're the little siblings of our resident sisters, huh?"

"Half-sister," Lexie corrected. "Meredith is my, uh, half-sister. And I-I'm trying to talk to her, but she just told me, a while ago, that she doesn't want to know me. But I want to know her, I-I want to get to know her, but she is just going to shut me off, and-" she paused and inhaled deeply, "Oh gosh, I'm ranting, aren't I?"

Timothy chuckled and shook his head. "It's fine, really."

"Well, um, what do you think I should do?"

"Just go for it," he replied with a shrug. "I mean, she already shut you off once... What could be worse than that?"

"I don't know-shutting me off twice?" Lexie tossed her arms in the air.

"Or thrice," he joked, and she stared back at him in horror. "Just go. Better to be shut off twice in a day than once in two separate days."

Lexie nodded and took his advice with a gulp, heading over to the resident at the station; Norah eyed the intern curiously when she walked up to Meredith. "I am a nice person. Okay, I... I am," Lexie started, "And... I don't know what it is that I did to you, but we have the same dad."

Meredith set down her charts in frustration upon hearing that sentence, but Lexie continued to speak, "So I was just thinking that a simple conversation-"

"We don't have the same dad, Lexie. You and I, we do not have the same dad," Meredith interrupted, "My dad disappeared when I was five years old, and I never saw him again. Does that sound like the daddy you grew up with?" Lexie looked to the floor, unable to provide an answer.

"I kicked a man out of my bed in the middle of the night-the world's most perfect man, who loves me, and I can't let him. And it doesn't take a shrink to figure out why. Because our dad chose you," Meredith sighed, "So I'm sure you are a very nice girl, Lexie. But I hope you can understand, you're not a girl I ever wanted to have to know."

Meredith walked off, leaving Lexie to stare at the floor as disappointment flooded her chest once again.

"Give her some time, Grey," Norah voiced out, and the intern lifted her head to the resident. "Us with abandonment issues? We push the good away from us, but we just need time to accept them in our lives. Meredith is a nice person when you get to know her, though she could get a little dark, sometimes."

Norah leaned back against the chair and turned to look at the clock, a grin setting on her face. "Alright, interns. It's getting late, and I doubt there'll be patients coming in this hour," she announced, "Let's close up, shall we?" The interns nodded and quickly scattered around to clear up the clinic.

"Lee, Rook, Thompson-come sort out these files with me."

"Coming!"

"Alphabetical order? Or following the patient number?"

"We are... sorting these together?" Jace questioned.

Norah narrowed her eyes at him, "Um... yes? It's done quicker if we do it together, though I wouldn't mind if you'd rather take a stack away to sort it out yourself."

"He meant that the other residents had been ordering us around to do things the entire day," Nina explained, and Jace nodded shyly.

"Huh... You four are some lucky gits, then," Norah chuckled. "Surgeries require a team of doctors and nurses to work together. So, if you fail in teamwork, you fail in surgery. End of story."

"Well said, Dr Lawrence," Kirian grinned.

The resident shook her head with a smile, "Come on, alphabetical order. Let's do it quick, 'cause I'm starving."

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH WAS ON HER WAY out of the hospital when she saw Mark walking out of the elevators. He had the espresso machine in his arms and quickened his pace to catch up to her.

He purposely 'showed off' the large box he was carrying while walking next to her, causing her to huff in annoyance. "Mark, I'm starting to hate you, you know?"

"Well, we both know you don't," he corrected rather surely, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, yeah."

He chuckled, looking down at the box. "Don't worry, Laurie. I'll bring you coffee every morning."

"Bone dry cappuccino."

"Double?"

"Triple in the early morning, and single if I'm in after nine," she smirked.

He nodded with a smile plastered on his face and a warm feeling in his heart. "Where's your brother?" he asked as they walked to the parking lot together.

"The interns are drinking at Joe's," she stated.

Mark clicked his tongue as he lowered his head next to her ear. "So your apartment will be empty?"

She turned her head to him-his head above her shoulder and her face in front of his-it was no surprise that the first thing they stared at was each other's lips. Mark did not hesitate as he placed a gentle kiss on her lips, but when she leaned in for more, he pulled back. Tease.

"Don't you just miss me naked in your bed, Laurie?"

She could feel the butterflies in her stomach and the steam climbing her head. Gosh, they were still at the hospital, for god's sake-well, the parking lot, technically.

"Would you believe me if I said no?" she wondered.

He shook his head with a light chuckle, "Impossible."

❦ ❦ ❦

S4 EP5

NORAH WAS OVER AT Meredith's house, helping out with some weird Halloween decorations. Alex was carving pumpkins while Izzie was spreading jam over pieces of toast.

Norah stole a piece of the spread bread and took a bite of it, and her eyes widened slightly. "Tastes good," she commented.

Meredith walked into the kitchen half-awake and squinted at her three friends who gathered in her kitchen. "What are you guys doing up?" she asked.

"Couldn't sleep," they replied in unison.

Norah raised her brow as Meredith walked into the kitchen, placing the urn in her hands on the kitchen counter before taking out a Ziploc bag from one of the drawers. Izzie and Alex both stared in confusion as Meredith poured the contents of the urn into the bag.

"What is that?" Izzie questioned.

Meredith spared them a glance while she emptied the contents into the bag. "My mother," she replied casually with a shrug.

They stared worriedly at their friend with the bag of ashes now sitting in a Ziploc bag in her hand. Well, that isn't creepy at all.

"Happy freakin' Halloween," Alex deadpanned.

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH PUT HER BAG AWAY in her cubby in the residents' locker room before clipping her pager to her scrub pants. The residents in the room stared at Meredith disturbingly as she held the bag of ashes in her hand, trying to figure a way to place it.

"What are we looking at?" Cristina asked as she entered the room.

"Late Ellis Grey in a bloody Ziploc," Norah replied. "Mer's taking Halloween to a different level."

"I had to get her out of my closet," Meredith explained, "She was haunting me."

"And now she's haunting us all," Alex inputted grimly.

"I'm putting her to rest."

Callie opened the door and stepped into the room along with Bailey as Norah shrugged on her white coat. The other residents put their attention to the Chief Resident, too. "Okay, listen up. Today is a holiday, which means the pit will be overrun," Callie informed, "You've got the usual drunken stupidity..."

"And then you've got Seattle's annual chain saw pumpkin carving contest," Bailey added gleefully. "I love this city."

"Stay on your toes, and stay on top of your interns, okay?" Callie advised.

"So we should round before heading to the pit or-"

"Yeah, you should direct your questions to Dr Bailey, Stevens," Callie cut Izzie off mid-sentence. The residents glanced curiously at the older resident, then at Izzie's alarming look on her face.

"Are we all directing our questions to Dr Bailey?" Norah queried.

"Oh, no. Just Stevens."

Bailey narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Why is Stevens directing her questions to Dr Bailey?" she asked.

"Because she's been sleeping with my husband," Callie exposed, and everyone went silent. The residents turned to look at the person in question; Norah's eyes widened. George? And Izzie? "Alrighty, then. Have a good day."

Their eyes followed Izzie as she left the room hurriedly out of embarrassment. Cristina had her mouth gaped open as she turned her head to Meredith. "Okay, this is even more disturbing than your bagful of mommy."

❦ ❦ ❦

"CAN WE BOND OVER DEAD mommies, for a second?" Meredith asked while they walked down the hallway. "How did you put yours to rest?"

"Uh... I was nine when mine died," Norah replied. "And I think she's still sitting on a shelf back in London."

"Cubby or car?" Meredith asked instead, "I mean, is it disrespectful to leave her in the car?"

"She could get evaporated," the brunette shrugged, just as Meredith walked right into Derek at the end of the corridor. The items in her hands fell and scattered around the floor.

Derek crouched down to help her gather the items, but he furrowed his brows in confusion seeing the Ziploc bag. "What is that?"

"It's charts."

Norah snorted before informing, "It's her mum."

"What?"

"I had her in the cubby, and she was freaking people out. So I was just gonna put her in the car," Meredith explained. "I'm trying to figure out how to put her to rest. I can't shove her in the back of my closet anymore. I have to deal with her."

Derek scooped up the ashes back into the bag while Norah picked up the charts on the floor, finding the whole ashes-in-a-Ziploc-bag thing still remarkably troubling.

"And this is me trying to evolve. I'm trying here," Meredith sighed. "So... cubby or car? Norah?"

"I... say... um, I don't know," Norah frowned. "That's your mum's ashes, which is concerning. It's Halloween, not 'bring-your-dead-mom-to-work' day."

"Are those really your mom's ashes?" a boy asked as he walked up to the three.

"It's strange, right?" Derek noted, "It's strange..."

"Are you lost, kid?" Norah asked.

"No, my mom works in the cafeteria," the boy replied, "And she said I could come up here and look for Dr Sloan. Do you know him?"

"I do, actually," the brunette resident nodded. "Um... Derek?"

"Can you take care of him?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah," the attending stood up from the floor, still staring concernedly at the bag of ashes. "Can you... take care of her?"

"Hmm... trick-or-treat, right?" Norah narrowed her eyes at the boy, an involuntary smirk growing on her face. The boy stared back at her with his head tilted aside. "Derek, I have a good trick," she grinned before lowering her head, "What's your name, kid?"

"Ryan."

"Okay, Ryan. Listen to what I have to say..."

Ryan's eyes widened in excitement as Norah whispered her plan to him. Derek was amused as he listened closely to the resident.

The three of them made it to the nurses' station, where Mark was standing. Norah could not help but rush up to him, jabbing him right in the waist, which made him yelp before he turned to face her. "Oh, hey, Laurie. I-"

"There's a, uh, kid looking for you," Derek interrupted behind them.

"What?" Mark turned to the other attending, puzzled.

Ryan walked out from hiding behind Derek with an awestricken look on his face with big glistering eyes. Norah swore it was superb acting. "Daddy?"

"What?" Mark stared at the kid; his eyebrows raised in shock. He turned his head to the resident next to him, who had the best neutral expression she could muster while staring back at him.

After a minute, Ryan broke into a smile. "Nicely done," Derek laughed as he handed the kid a 10-dollar bill.

"Thanks," the boy grinned and gave Norah a fist bump.

"I'll be getting you back for that," Mark gasped in relief, pointing at the two other surgeons accusingly, "Both of you."

Norah laughed as she clapped him on the shoulder. "The kid's all yours, Sloan," she chuckled. "Have fun."

❦ ❦ ❦

TIMOTHY SIGHED AS HE placed down his tray at Norah's table, dropping into the seat opposite her. "Holidays fucking suck," he groaned.

"Tell me about it," she snorted while tearing the layer of bread crust off her sandwich.

"At least I get to watch a heart transplant later," Timothy shrugged as he stabbed his fork in a piece of chicken. "The recipient is the donor's fucking father. The daughter is brain-dead."

Norah lifted her head from her food and asked, "Who's doing the transplant?"

"Dr... Hans? Ha... or is it..."

"Hahn? Erica Hahn?" Norah questioned, and he nodded. "I've met her once in Mercy West... The night I got shot."

Before Timothy could speak, three interns had sat down on the remaining unoccupied seats, squeezing Timothy away from the table. He threw his hands in the air before cursing under his breath. Norah stared at her four interns, who were looking back at her, all with eager faces.

"Did you lot kill a patient already?" she questioned them. "Because I really have no interest in doing extra paperwork today."

"There are many, many patients in the ER, and most of them needs to be stitched up," Kirian spoke up first.

"I can do decent sutures," Nina stated and received glares from the others. She sighed, "But you, Dr Lawrence, have flawless sutures."

"Uh... thanks?"

"We were wondering whether you could, you know, teach us," Kirian asked. "We are interns-"

"Ducklings," Nina interjected.

"-who'd like to learn."

Timothy frowned at them as he rounded behind Norah. The resident was deciding whether or not her interns had gone insane. She snapped her head to the last one, who had remained quiet throughout the conversation.

"Thompson, you have five seconds to tell me what the bloody hell is going on here."

Jace's eyes widened. "Um, I... we... uh..." he stammered, "C-Coffee, Dr Lawrence?"

Norah was confused beyond possible as she took the cup of coffee from the intern, who smiled awkwardly back at her. She took a sip off the coffee and immediately frowned.

Vanilla-how funny.

"Eleven o'clock," Timothy whispered as he took the coffee from her hand and drank it. He shrugged at the taste of it and stole it away from her.

She met eyes with the attending standing by the coffee cart with a smirk on his face. "Ducklings, huh?" she rolled her eyes at him before glaring at her interns, "What did Dr Sloan bribe you lot for?"

"He said that we can scrub in on Ryan's ear surgery this evening," Nina replied.

"Ah, surgical junkies. Very funny," the resident shook her head before checking her watch, "There's still some time before the surgery, and I'm open to correcting your suture skills. Anyone in?"

"Yes!"

"And please," she cleared her throat, "If anyone wants to get me coffee next time-bone dry cappuccino. Remember that. And, keep in mind that I still won't be letting you on big stuff if you get my order right, but if you get it wrong-I will make sure your name is on every nurses' page it comes to vomits and rectal exams."

The interns' eyes widened, and they nodded heartily.

❦ ❦ ❦

JOE'S BAR CROWDED ON Halloween night. The walls of the bar were decorated in orange and black-a classic theme-with fake spider webs, hanging bats, and carved pumpkins. The place was booming with loud music to lift customers' spirits; most of them were in costumes.

Timothy had suggested that they wear bloody scrubs to the bar, but Norah shot down the idea. Her brother did not know about her flashbacks of her bloody scrubs, and she preferred it kept that way. Although it no longer affected as much as before, she did not want him to worry.

The older sibling was supposed to protect the younger one, wasn't it? Not the other way round.

The bar was also filled with people from the hospital Norah recognised-nurses and surgeons, anesthesiologists and radiologists-they all seemed to be happily drinking and chatting with one another.

Guess that's what holidays are, isn't it? Bringing people together. Still, she was not a big fan of holidays.

Timothy, however, was an entirely different spirit when it came to holidays.

"Cheers to the fucking ghosts and spirits, who are joining us on this fine night!" he raised his glass in the air.

"Cheers to being alive to taunt the spirits," Norah cackled and clinked on his glass before they downed their shots. She leaned her head back against the cushioned seat as she felt the fiery taste down her throat.

The younger Lawrence had always had extra joy, whether it was Halloweens or Christmases, even Easters. That was because young Norah had never wanted her brother to miss out on these events in his childhood; hence, the older sister always had games and ideas planned out for them.

Holidays were not her favourite thing, but spending time with family was and will always be.

"I'm gonna head over there," Timothy raised his voice in the booming noise in the bar. "Because your intern has been making eyes at me the whole night."

Norah followed his gaze to the counter, where three of her interns sat next to each other; Kirian was looking towards their direction, or more specifically, at Timothy. "Geez, do I need to spare the apartment tonight?"

"Mm..." he stood up from his seat opposite her with a smirk on his face, "I hope so."

Norah watched as her brother went over to join the other interns, already chatting along with whatever they were talking about. She watched the lingering look on Kirian's face towards Timothy; the former's cheeks glowed in a slight shade of red.

She was sure that Timothy noticed because he had his hand very close to Kirian's. Smooth git. Kirian was grinning widely as he always were, flirting with some ladies on the other side of the counter; Jace looked slightly unsettled from the large crowd, gripping on his glass tightly.

Norah was effortlessly pushed further into the seat when Mark slid onto the seat next to her. A smile settled on her face almost at once, even if she did not realise.

"Get your hand off my shoulder, Mark," she muttered, moving his arm away from her shoulder and back to him. "This place is crowded with people from the hospital."

"It's crowded. No one will notice us," Mark disagreed, smirking at her flustered look.

"They will," she insisted, "We're hot people. We stand out."

He chuckled and let out a long sigh. When Norah rested her chin on the side of his arm, he could feel the fuzziness in his chest creeping up to him; he knew that he was making lesser and lesser effort to suppress it.

He wondered if anyone was seeing them, and if so, he thought about the words he would use to shut them up from whispering. She tilted her head so that the side of her face leaned on his leather jacket, unaware of what her simple action did to him.

She was watching the two interns at the bar counter; Timothy was already halfway through his drink, sitting ridiculously close to Kirian. Smooth was all she could say.

"Save me," Derek pleaded as he dropped on the seat opposite them; Norah's head shot back up immediately. "A lady who's clearly very drunk was trying to feel me up."

Mark cocked a brow at him. "Problem?"

"Problem?" Derek let out a scoff, "I'm with Meredith."

"Correction: you're having constant breakup-sex with Meredith. It's different," Norah snickered, and Mark nodded in agreement.

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny," he rolled his eyes, "I hate you."

"Pfft-you don't. Admit it: I'm your favourite resident," she smirked, "After Meredith, of course."

"That is..." he sighed, "true."

Mark had gotten hold of her hand under the table, this time. He traced words on the centre of her palm, which she could not quite figure what they were. She could feel the sparks shooting up her arm; his action alone was slowly making her giddy-he noticed it.

When the three of them clinked their glasses, he sneakily moved his hand from her palm to her leg. She did not react to it at first, but when his hand moved to her inner thigh, she nearly spat out her drink. She cleared her throat and stomped on his foot, all while remaining a neutral look on her face.

"You know, I used to play a game with my classmates back in Med School," Norah spoke up, sending him a warning glare. "Three shots of tequila straight, then we see who can hit the middle of the dartboard."

"Yeah, sure. Sounds fun," Derek shrugged and stood up. He walked towards the dartboard first while Norah harshly bumped Mark out of their seat.

"Mark, I swear to god," Norah whispered-yelled at the man, who could not wipe his stupid smirk off his face.

"Admit it, Laurie. You love it."

"Y-You-"

"I...?" he teased, taking a step closer to her.

Norah let out a frustrated huff when she felt her cheeks heating up. "You just wait, Mark Sloan," she grumbled before walking off to join Derek at the dartboard.

"Yeah..." Mark followed lazily behind her, hiding a soft chuckle. "I am waiting."