Finer Feelings - Chapter VI

Rose buried her face in the charts she was filing, as she slunk back behind the nurses' station's desk. She thought she had done quite a good job at avoiding Derek the morning after he dumped her, and she was going to congratulate herself with kiss from Hershey when she was stopped in the foyer by the sight of Derek.

Derek in the office. With Dr Grey. Kissing Dr Grey.

Without a moment's thought she swivelled on her feet and rushed down the hallways in the opposite direction, wishing to get away from both of them as quickly as possible without anyone noticing. Which is why she was now burying her face in files she had already organised, mixing them up and then organising them once more.

"Good morning Rose." A cool, deep voice radiated above her that made her jolt in nervousness, scattering the files around her.

"Oh." She looked up in a mix of relief and dread. "Dr Sloan. How can I help you?"

Mark leaned suavely against the desk, peering over at Rose. "Just wondering how you and Derek are going."

Rose glared at him. "I am not going to say you were right."

Mark looked sincerely confused. "What are you talking about?"

Rose was slightly taken aback. "You mean he didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Mark's eyebrow was raised, his curiosity now drawn.

Rose looked at Mark for a second then promptly collected her files and stood up. "Nothing."

"Oh come on," Mark looked disappointed. "You're going to keep this juicy secret away from me?"

"No." Rose crossed her arms in defiance. "Derek can tell you."

"Derek barely tells me anything since I forgot to tell him I was sleeping with his wife."

"Well, that's your problem then cause I'm not going to tell you."

Mark sighed in annoyance. "Seriously, it's not like he dumped you or something."

Rose suddenly froze up. Mark raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh my god. He did dump you!"

Rose glared at him again. "I'm not going to say you were right."

"Come on," Mark grinned in victory. "You gotta hand it to me – I know the guy inside-out. God he's predictable."

"Well, congratulations." Rose replied dully.

"Seriously though, you couldn't expect anything else when getting in between those two."

Rose clutched her files closer to her chest and walked out from the station. "I know."

Mark's smile faded as he watched Rose walk down the hallway. The thought suddenly popped up in his head that this was the first time he's really seen a woman after she'd been rejected.

He didn't think it was cool.

He needed to talk to Derek.

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Cristina waited around the ambulance bay. She needed a really good surgery. Something cutting edge, with blood and complex sutures so she could score another punch at Hahn again. So she had spent the past few hours scanning the surgery board, checking out the pit, and even venturing into the Free Clinic, which she backed out of as soon as she entered because Izzie became far too enthusiastic for Cristina to help her.

Yes, Cristina didn't have the sparkle pager anymore, but her mojo was back and pumping. Only problem was, she needed a kick-arse surgery to expel all that mojo energy, and kick-arse surgeries seemed to be in the decline today.

She heard the doors to the pit slide open behind her and she turned to see the Chief with that lost man behind him.

"Ah, Yang – I thought I'd find you here." The Chief smiled. "Allow me to introduce our interim Neo-Natal surgeon, Dr Stuart."

Ian smiled softly at Cristina. "I believe we've already met."

The Chief raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

Cristina sighed in frustration; every second taken up by the Chief and his mindless introductions was a second she could be doing something useful – like waiting for a fantastic surgery. "Yeah. I hope you found your way to the Chief's office ok."

"Actually, you pointed me to the linen closet." Ian smiled ironically. "But I was able to work it out."

Cristina studied the man for a second when the Chief interrupted her. "Anyway, I have decided to assign you to a case he has today."

"Not with babies?" Cristina snapped to the Chief.

"Well it could be anything when it comes to Neo-Natal…" Ian chided her lightly.

Cristina threw Ian a glare then turned back to the Chief. "You can't give me a Neo-Natal case, I just got back into the cardio game!"

"Calm down Yang, it's a cardio case." The Chief sighed. "It's Ectopia Cordis."

"You mean the foetus' heart's grown out of its chest?" Cristina lit up in excitement. "Wait, didn't we have another one a few months back?"

"You had another Ectopia Cordis case?" Ian turned to the Chief in astonishment.

"A few months back. I brought in Addison for the case, though she wouldn't take it this time because she thought I was just making up excuses to get her back." The Chief explained.

Ian shook his head. "Still, two cases in the same city in less than 6 months is pretty amazing. Must be something in the coffee. Guess that would explain grunge…"

"So Yang," The Chief turned back to Cristina. "Will you take the case now?" He held out the file to her.

"Of course." Cristina took the file and shot another glance at Ian, who for some reason was staring at her quite intently, a faint smile on his lips.

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Callie peered into the knee, trying in vain to clip back the layers of pastel white fat so she could get some sort of view of the joint.

"God," She murmured to herself as another white flap fell over the bone. "300 pounds and she was shocked she needed a knee reconstruction. You think you'd get the hint when you can't actually see you knees anymore." She glanced up to Lexie who was holding the cauterising needle expectantly.

"Well," Lexie tried, scanning up and down the large mass on the operating table. "Maybe she didn't exercise because of her knee. Maybe this'll give her the inspiration to get healthy."

"Don't get too excited." Callie sighed and returned to the knee. "So," she began again as she got clear view of the joint. "I hear you've moved in with George."

"Oh." Lexie's face instinctively turned red. "Yeah."

Callie looked up at Lexie. "How's he going?" She asked sincerely.

"He's going good. I mean, he had a crap time for a few months but recently he's got a lot better. Like his old self…. which doesn't make any sense because I only met him a few months ago so definitely cannot know his old self but, you know what I mean. It feels like his old self. Probably."

Callie raised an eyebrow at Lexie's rant but then shrugged and went back to the knee. "Well, whatever he's like, you've done him good."

Under her surgical mask, Lexie beamed.

"Dr Torres!" A voice suddenly interjected from the end of the table. The anaesthesiologist had stood up and was staring at the stat monitor. "Her BP's dropping."

Callie looked up from the knee and placed her instruments back on the table. "How was the anaesthesia?"

"It's steady." The anaesthesiologist shook his head. "Nothing's changed, but her blood pressure's dropping…" They all turned to the stat monitor to see the numbers trickle down. "It's dropping rapidly."

"Gimme my stethoscope!" Callie barked as she moved away from the knee and up to the patient's chest. One of the scrub nurses ran to the back of the room and grabbed Callie's stethoscope. Rushing back to Callie who stood waiting with her bloodied gloves, the nurse placed the phones into Callie's ears then placed the drum over the patient's heart.

"Everyone keep silent!" Callie shouted out to the room then listened closely to the stethoscope. "Jesus." She murmured disappointedly. "She has got a massive leak. Someone page Hahn!"

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NB: Ok, so I promised other things to happen in this chapter, like Hahn and Callie's awkward moment and Meredith's rant – but seriously, who wouldn't want to end a chapter with a leaky heart. I mean, come on, IT'S A LEAKY HEART!!

Right, probably overdid that a bit. But is it just me or when you read leaky heart do you also get an image of some old guy standing in the operating room, smoking a pipe while looking at the heart, then taping it with the stalk of his pipe then saying "yep, there's your problem."

I'm hoping it's not just me.

Anywho, because I didn't include those two things I'm going to immediately start writing Chapter VII! Too-roo!!