S4 EP13

"YOU DO KNOW YOU'RE distracting me just by sitting there, right?" Mark spoke, lifting his eyes from the petri dish to the resident at the other end of the long table.

Norah chuckled as she went in circles on the chair. "I'm not sitting-I'm spinning."

"You know that's not what I mean," he shook his head. She merely shrugged while he resumed working in silence.

"Lawrence, don't you ever stop spinning on chairs?" a voice asked, causing Norah to come to a halt on the chair. Both the resident and the attending turned their heads to look at the woman leaning against the doorframe.

"Addison!" Norah exclaimed with a wide grin pulling her face, "You're back?"

"I'm not back, just here for a case," Addison smiled, "Just coming in to check on my patient's skin flap."

"Well, amazing, right?" Mark stated. "I pulled a couple of stem cells from the baby in utero. Six weeks later, I have grown skin," he turned to the woman behind him, "Like god."

"What happened to your hair?" Norah queried.

"Dyed it," Addison replied, "Wanted a fresh start somewhere new."

"Looks good. Hot," the resident commented, "Though red-hair Addison is still superior."

"Why are you on plastics? I thought you hated plastics."

Norah chuckled. "Meredith and Derek have clinical trial patients. So, I'm off Neuro for a while, I guess," she shrugged, "But yeah, I still dislike plastics."

Mark shot her a glare before he continued focusing on the skin in the dish. When the resident's pager went off, she took a look at it and grumbled under her breath.

"Ugh, those bloody ducklings..." she muttered with a sigh as she got up from the chair. Pushing the chair back under the table, she walked over to Mark and Addison and picked up the coffee on the table.

"Hey-that's mine," he protested.

"You grow skin. Like god," Norah quoted him. "Coffee's mine now." She took a sip of it while he scowled at her. "See ya, Addison."

Addison eyed the other attending curiously-he never let people take his coffee from him.

She looked at the way his eyes lingered upon the resident's-how behind the scowl from the coffee are eyes of adoration. His gaze trailed along with her until she left the room, then he returned to the skin flap on the table.

"Ducklings?" Addison questioned.

"Hm?" Mark lifted his head momentarily, "Oh, she meant interns."

❦ ❦ ❦

MARK WAS LOOKING FOR Norah while he wandered the hallways, peeking into windows after windows. He passed by a few nurses glaring at him, but he did not really bother to care. Eventually, he found the resident sitting inside a room in front of a computer.

She had been looking up some additional information about the special case of their patient. But now, her face was lying on her arms folded on the cold desk.

He walked into the room and moved her from the chair to the couch against the wall. She stirred, but he managed to soothe her back to sleep.

He switched off the lights in the room and adjusted the air conditioning before sitting on the chair that she had been sitting on. The empty coffee cup on the table got switched with a full one. The clock on the table got moved on top of the drawer next to the couch.

Mark sat in the dimly lit and quiet room, often stealing glances at her peaceful sleep. It had kind of become a habit-her falling asleep on desks instead of on-call rooms, him finding her and covering a blanket over her-he did not mind a single bit, though.

Addison watched him from across the hall. She was more than taken aback by the man's actions; it was a side of the Mark Sloan she never knew existed. To put it in the right words, she was impressed.

She strode across the floor to the room, giving a soft rap of knocks on the door.

"Shhh!" Mark turned to the woman at the door, studying her expression. "What?" he raised a brow at the faint smile on her face.

"You sleep with people, many people, and you leave no strings attached. But right now..." Addison nudged her head towards the sleeping resident, "There is a string, isn't there?"

Mark stared at her for a good few seconds before sighing. "There's a whole rope tying me up," he confessed, "It's suffocating... but in a good way-too good of a way."

"Does she know?" she queried.

"She thinks we're better as friends," he admitted with a tight smile, "I don't know, Addison. She makes me feel... different. I've never felt like this before. The feeling, this feeling, it's like... It's more than enough to make me uninterested in sex-and that's coming from me. Does that even make sense?"

"Oh wow... you are serious..."

"Of course I'm serious," Mark snapped his head to her, "I've never been this serious my whole life."

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH SCOOTED OVER TO allow George a space to sit as he set his lunch tray on the cafeteria table, his intern friends watching him from afar. "More special plans with your special friends?" Izzie asked him, and Norah gave the blonde a weird look.

"I would like us to talk today," Cristina declared as she sat down on the remaining empty seat. "I would like us to talk because... I care, and I, uh, want to know things. And I... have 15 minutes to hear about your feelings. So..." she turned to Norah, "Norah... Sweetheart, you look worrisome. I'm very interested to hear... um, I mean-what's worrying you?"

Norah squinted at Cristina as though the latter had gone insane. She placed her palm over the latter's forehead; Cristina looked back at her weirdly.

"You," Norah replied, "You're worrying me. Are you high on drugs right now?"

"Uh-huh, okay. No, but um..." Cristina turned to another resident, "Izzie? Uh, your thoughts, your feelings?"

"Honestly? I'm a little worried about my friend Alex here," Izzie turned to Alex, "Because his Jane Doe girlfriend keeps showing up like something out of Fatal Attraction."

"She's back again?" Norah cocked a brow at him, chewing on her crustless sandwich.

"Her name is Rebecca Pope, and she's not my girlfriend," Alex deadpanned, slurping his drink. "She's married, okay? She has a husband."

"Well, that didn't stop Mer from-sorry, my bad," Norah gave her the most sincere smile, and Meredith simply shrugged.

"Well, does it hurt that she's married?" Cristina queried, "I mean, does that hurt your... your heart?"

Alex had finally had enough with this not-Cristina Cristina and placed down his fork with a scowl on his face. "What's the matter with you?"

Cristina threw her arms in the air and sighed heavily. "I'm trying to talk girl," she admitted, and Norah snorted loudly next to her, the latter receiving a sharp kick under the table.

"Well... Ya coded," Izzie laughed to herself before turning to George, "Right?"

"What the hell is wrong with people today?" the brunette wondered out loud while everyone else stared at the blonde like she, too, had gone haywire.

"What? It's a new slang," Izzie defended, "Everybody's saying it."

"The way you just said that-that was you coding," George wheezed.

Were we like this when we were interns? Norah wondered stressfully.

Callie walked over to the table with a puzzled look as she slowly crouched down between Meredith and Cristina. She placed her drink down on the table before looking at the both of them. "Anyone, uh, anyone ever think you two were a... couple?"

"No, because we screw boys like whores on tequila," Meredith shrugged.

"And then we either try to marry them or drown ourselves," Cristina added.

Norah and Alex stared at the pair, looking genuine concerned for them.

"I need to check on my patient."

"I'm coming, too."

They made their way away from the cafeteria and towards the patient's room. Alex had taken the patient's vitals and checked the foetal heart rate while Norah checked on the mother and scribbled words on the charts.

Addison entered the room shortly after and explained the procedure to the worried couple once more, reassuring them that the team of surgeons working together were the best they could get.

Norah stood by the nurses' station while she finished up the patient's pre-op notes and charts, double-checking them to ensure they were all correct. Addison had instructed Alex to get ready the patient for transport soon; she went out of the room, walking over and standing next to the resident at the station.

"Can I ask a personal question?" the attending asked.

"You want me to be a therapist for you again?" Norah queried, clicking her pen and sliding it back on her white coat.

"Not me, you."

"Me being my own therapist? That's new."

"You were the one who gave me very good advice of getting rid of Mark," Addison prefaced, "And now you're the one going after him?"

Norah cocked a brow at the other woman. "I... I'm not going after him, no," she claimed.

Addison chuckled at the conflicted look on the resident's face. "But you want to," she stated, "Why are you so hard on yourself for falling for him?"

Norah thought for a moment as she handed the patient's chart to the nurse, muttering a 'thank you' with a smile. She turned to the attending who was clearly in for chats-especially gossips-to catch up to what she had missed during the months she was in LA.

"I'm not being hard on myself," she stated, "I just have a crippling mental health, and I'm trying to prioritise it, for once."

Addison nodded slowly with a rather satisfied look on her face. "This place has changed a lot, hasn't it?"

"'A lot' doesn't even begin to cover it."

❦ ❦ ❦

THE SURGERY WAS A success; the mother was stable, and the baby had no complications in the surgery-his heart was now beating in his chest. Mark's skin flap covered the little heart perfectly, and he could not help but brag about his work.

Show-off, Norah thought to herself as she hid a delighted grin under her mask.

"Dr Lawrence!" one of her interns shouted from a distance as she was making her way to the elevator. "How did it feel to be down there? We could only observe from the gallery, but it looked so cool!"

"How did it feel?" Norah raised a brow at the intern, "Rook, you're a surgeon, not a journalist."

"Cardio looks intense," Jace noted.

Norah looked to her left and right. Three of her interns were surrounding her like... ducklings. She sighed and whispered to them, "If I'm being honest, Cardio is intense because of Dr Hahn in the OR."

"Dr Lawrence, since you had a direct look at the surgery, could you tell us about some details that we might've missed?" Nina asked eagerly with a notebook in her hand.

"Ooh, yes!" Kirian chimed with a wide grin on his face, "I'll buy you a drink, too!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax," Norah shushed them, "Be like George for a minute, please."

"You want us to fail our intern exam?"

"Okay, wow, that was rude," Norah snapped at the intern, whose laugh immediately faltered. "Be like George, not quacking around me like literal ducks on crack. Be like George."

"She's right," a voice spoke from behind her that she instantly recognised. Her shoulders relaxed down almost immediately when the figure stood next to her.

The interns' eyes darted between the both of them, hiding a knowing smirk on their faces.

Mark folded his arms in front of his chest. "Look, interns, I'm sure your resident will be glad to go over today's surgery with you children," he stated, "But the surgery was intense, and everyone's tired."

"We'll go through it tomorrow," Norah stated, and the three interns nodded. "Okay, shoo off now, you lot. Goodnight."

Mark smirked as the interns scrambled away; Norah was glad that he saved her from having to deal with them at this time of the night. She loved her interns, but those junkies were sometimes just too eager to learn.

Plus, they seem to have an insane amount of adrenaline running in them every second of every day-that was one thing she was envious of.

Mark lowered his head to Norah as they stood in front of the elevator. "Joe's bar?" he asked, "It's been a while."

"Sure, but you're driving," Norah turned her head to him, "Tim's got my car."

"There are many things we can do in my car, you know?" he whispered in her ear as he stepped closer to her; his chest was against her back when he planted a kiss on the side of her neck. "For one, I suggest-"

The elevator ding-ed and Norah took a step forward, smirking over her shoulder while Mark groaned in frustration. The doors opened shortly after, and within the four walls stood Addison, Meredith, Rose, and a very difficult-looking Derek, his face pleading for the elevator to drop like a rollercoaster.

Norah was caught off-guard and snorted aloud, wanting nothing more than to get away from the elevator and take the stairs. Before she could burst into a fit of laughter, Mark had covered her mouth with his hand, nudging her into the elevator.

What a git. She kicked him in the shin, and he winced in pain.

Mark entered after her and stood behind Derek, lowering his head to the neurosurgeon with a smirk. "I bet you wish you'd taken the stairs right about now," he taunted in a low voice.

Norah stood between Addison and Meredith, looking left and right at the two, then at Rose, who held her handbag uneasily. "I'm loving the awkwardness in the air."

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH HAD DOWNED THREE shots of tequila in one go, feeling the booze getting up her head. She took the single dart from Timothy before stepping in front of the wall; the crowd of interns surrounding her were cheering gleefully.

With a simple swing of an arm, her dart hit very close to the centre on the dartboard. The interns erupted in cheers; Kirian was wolf-whistling on the barstool. She gave George a fist bump, then a high-five to her brother.

"Alright, alright... Who's next?" she smirked at them. Several hands shot up, and they each took a turn.

Kirian walked up to her, a smile on his face. "Can I buy you a drink, Lawrence?"

Norah eyed him up and down as he waited patiently for her reply. "You could," she spoke, "But I'm kinda seeing someone."

Was she, though? Not really, but...

"Dr Sloan, is it?" Kirian guessed, and Norah snapped her head at him. The intern let out a laugh, "You look like you're trying to ignore it, but just to notify you, he's practically eye-fucking you from across the bar."

Of course, she noticed Mark's stare from across the bar-it was not easy for one to just... ignore it entirely. She shook her head with a smile. "You know what, Rook?"

"Kirian is fine," he insisted.

"It's still Lawrence to you," she stated, "But, I'll take up that drink offer."

"Ah, the jealous boyfriend trick," he smirked, waving for Joe at the bar counter, "I'm happy to help, as long as I don't get killed by him."

"You are insanely blunt and straightforward," she noted, "Just so notify you, that's why you suck in patient care."

He blinked at her.

Across the bar, Addison walked up to Mark. He was leaning against the counter with a glass of scotch in his hand, observing the brunette. He was trying to figure out what the hell that intern was making her laugh about.

"Jealous?" Addison spoke up, and Mark merely finished his drink before turning to her. "I have a plane to catch, and I can't go without trying to fix the relationship problems in Seattle," she stated, "And I am telling you, Mark, you have no chance if you just sit here all night."

"Maybe I can," he shrugged.

"You've been staring at her all night. It would be creepy if she doesn't know you," she stated, "Are you really gonna sit here and stare at that... boy there chatting her up?"

He sighed in frustration as he turned his head to her. "She was here, sitting beside me. Then the interns invited her over for the darts game, and she just left. I mean..." he sighed, "She drives me crazy, but maybe... maybe she doesn't want me."

"You know, I've been rooting for you two since before I left Seattle," she stated, "Just go for it, Mark. The feeling's mutual-what's stopping you?"

He let out a low chuckle. "What makes you think that the feeling's mutual?"

She sighed, shaking her head. "I asked her why she was so hard on herself for falling for you," she told him. Mark shifted his gaze from the brunette across the bar to the woman next to him.

"She said she wasn't being hard on herself," she recalled. "But for the part of her falling for you?"

Mark sipped on his drink attentively.

"She didn't deny it."