Disclaimer: Not mine, I just like to play with them.

Mark is sitting at a nurses' station, reading through a patient's file, he feels a now all too familiar pain spread through his chest, his hand moves to just above his heart, it feels as though it could burst from his chest at any moment; after a few agonizing minutes it subsides. I really should get that checked out. But if it is bad, do I really want to know? If I'm not everyone will think I'm a hypochondriac.

At that moment Alex walks over to him, they are due to start a facial reconstruction surgery in a few minutes. Alex notices the pained, worried expression on his mentor's face.

"Dr Sloan, you okay?" Mark looks up.

"I'm fine." He stands up, straightens his scrubs, and smiles at Alex. "Ready to do this?"

"Yeah, I've read up on the condition and memorized the patient file." He quickly forgets this moment.

Nearly three weeks later Alex and Sloan are operating on a young burn victim. When they were scrubbing in Alex noticed that Mark seemed to be having trouble breathing, he asked Mark about it, and he claimed that he was fine. Alex let it go, until about half way through the surgery Mark suddenly pulled his hand away from the surgical field, and clutched his chest as he gasped for air, moments later he fell to the ground. Alex rushes to his side, and quickly starts ordering the surgical nurses.

"Dr Sloan, Mark...Mark come on wake up." He rubs his knuckles up and down Mark's chest hard; Mark opens his eyes, and tries to get up.

"Stay down Mark, we're taking care of you." Then with the help of three nurses he lifts Mark onto a gurney that Christina had wheeled in when she had seen Mark collapse from her vantage point in the observation gallery.

Christina starts to wheel the gurney out of the OR, and then she notices that Alex is following them, she turns to him. "You need to stay with the patient, finish the grafts." Alex hesitates. "Go." She says more forcefully, he lets go of the gurney, and goes to scrub in again. Christina quickly maneuvers the gurney out into the hallway, when Dr Bailey sees who is on the gurney she rushes over.

"What happened?" She asks Christina.

"He grabbed his chest, and collapsed during a surgery. I'm taking him down to the pit." Bailey stops the gurney, and listens to Mark's chest.

"Dr Sloan, how long have you been sick for?"

"Few...months. Feel...like...am...drowning." He says between gasps. Bailey adjusts the amount of oxygen flowing through the mask into Mark's struggling body.

"Yang, he needs a chest x-ray, full blood work up, and ECG." She simply nods as she motions for a couple of orderlies to move the gurney.

They arrive in the pit a minute later. Several nurses rush over to help, they quickly move Mark into a room. They start an IV line in each of his arms, place monitor leads on his chest, and change him in to a hospital gown. The entire time Mark can only lie there, gasping desperately for air. Several minutes later a radiology tech arrives with a portable x-ray machine. The tech sets up the machine before instructing Mark.

"Take a deep breath in, and hold it." Mark tries, but ends up coughing violently.

Christina goes to his side. "Dr Sloan, you know we've got to get this done. All you have to do is lie down, and hold your breath for a couple of seconds. Can you do that?" He nods weakly, and they try again, succeeding this time. The tech leaves, and the nurses return. Christina orders them around, all the while staying beside him, attempting to calm him. She had always thought of him as an arrogant jerk, but seeing the pain and fear in his eyes even she can't help but feel sorry for him.

In radiology a few minutes later Meredith and Derek are waiting for some scan results when they notice the image being examined by the radiologist, more importantly the name on the film.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Derek asks the radiologist harshly.

"No, Dr Sloan is currently being treated in the pit..." He looks at the film "...for a severe build up of fluid in his lungs, probably caused by a cardiac problem from the look of his heart."

"We'll take these downstairs." Derek volunteers quickly, after a moments thought the radiologist agrees, and together hurry down to the pit.

Despite their medical training they are shocked when they see Mark, Christina is holding him upright, gently rubbing his back as he coughs fiercely, he is pale, and connected to several IVs, and monitors, and has an oxygen mask strapped to his face. Derek walks over to his side, Meredith stays at the door. Derek takes over from Christina, who goes over to Meredith when she sees the large envelope in her hand; they walk over to a light board to check out the film. As Derek holds his best friend as he continues to struggle he wonders why Mark didn't mention that he was sick, he must have known something was wrong, he's practically drowning. The coughing fit finally ends, Mark looks up at Derek; he is still struggling to breathe.

"What's...wrong...with...me?" He asks weakly.

"The x-ray showed a lot of fluid built up in your lungs; it's probably caused by a heart condition. Have you been sick? Noticed any problems?"

"Pain...very tired...for months."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let it get this bad?"

"Scared." Upon hearing this Derek pulls his friend closer to him, and tries to comfort him. Christina and Meredith reenter the room; Christina is carrying a procedure tray.

"Dr Sloan, we've got to drain the fluid from your lungs, it'll help you breathe." Christina says, she has seen even the most experienced of physicians forget their training when they are the ones needing treatment.

Derek helps Meredith and Christina move Mark, so that he is sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning heavily on him. Christina places a sterile drape over Mark's back, applies some betadine solution, and prepares an injection.

"Mark, you're going to feel a sting when the local is injected, just try to stay still." Meredith says gently. Christina inserts a needle into Mark's bare skin, injecting the contents, he winces, Derek holds his hand, and keeps him still. A few seconds later the anesthetic takes effect, and Christina prepares to proceed. Meredith looks up at Derek, they exchange a glance, they both know that no amount of local anesthetic will stop this from being painful. Derek wraps his free arm gently around Mark's neck, ensuring that he won't move. Christina pushes a large needle into Mark's back, directly into his right lung, he weakly attempts to pull away, but fails, and Meredith attaches a bag to the exposed end of the needle, fluid rushes out.

"Just stay still Mark, it will be over soon." Derek says as he listens to Mark's pained cries. Almost ten minutes later the flow of fluid slows to a trickle, so Christina removes the needle, and places a dressing over the puncture site. She then prepares to start on the other side.

"Is it any easier for you to breathe Mark?" Meredith asks. He nods slightly. After a further ten minutes Christina and Meredith clean up the medical supplies, and help Mark lie back down. Christina then leaves the room.

"How does that feel Mark? Better?" Meredith asks as she takes his vitals.

"Much." Mark says, he is now breathing much better, and is regaining his strength a little. Meredith's pager goes off, and she quickly leaves.

Meanwhile at the nurses' station Christina is reviewing the blood test results, when she finishes reading she quickly pages Dr Hahn. The tests reveal that Mark's heart is failing rapidly, but don't show why. So she has a nurse to take an echocardiogram machine into Mark's room, just as Christina is about to follow when another nurse summons her to the phone.

"Dr Yang." She answers when she takes the phone from the nurse.

"Yang, why do you insist on pulling me downstairs everytime a possible cardiac case comes in?" Dr Hahn says frustrated.

"Dr Sloan is in severe heart failure, and because he was so damn stubborn he practically drowned from all the fluid in his lungs. The blood work is consistent with a cardiac condition; the chest x-ray showed that his heart is enlarged; I am just about to do an echo. So Dr Hahn, is this case worth your time now?" Christina blurts out.

"I'll be right down."

The nurse pushes the echocardiogram into Mark's room; Derek looks up at the nurse questioningly.

"Dr Yang has ordered an echo." The nurse says simply.

"Why?" Derek questions.

"I don't know. When she finished reading the blood test results she told me to bring this in, and she's on the phone with Dr Hahn." Mark has been resting until the nurse came in, he had kept his eyes shut though, when he hears this statement his eyes snapped open, and he tried to get out of the bed, in his weakened state it's fairly easy for Derek to restrain him.

Several minutes later Christina walks into the room, the nurse sets up the echocardiogram, pulls the gown down Mark's chest, hands the transducer to Christina, and squirts some gel onto Mark's chest. A few minutes later Dr Hahn walks into the room, she speaks to Christina briefly before taking the transducer, and continuing the test herself. She is quick to dismiss Christina, who walks out of the room in search of another case.

"So Erica, how bad is it?" Mark asks his voice clearly betraying his fear.

"You've got dilated cardiomyopathy, which has been untreated for so long that it has progressed into severe heart failure." Mark is still holding Derek's hand, and upon hearing this he tightens his grip.

"Dying?" He whispers nervously.

"Not if I have any say in it. I'm going to admit you to the hospital, start meds, run more tests, and try to stop it from worsening."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"You may need surgery to repair the damaged heart muscle, maybe implant a pacemaker, or defibrillator. Worst case scenario you might need a transplant." Mark looks at Erica in shock, she couldn't be serious, he had just been a bit run down lately. He thought about how many times he could have asked for help, and now here he was. Derek is comforting Mark when he is paged, he reluctantly leaves. Erica and Mark sit in silence for awhile before she stands up, and moves towards the door.

"I need to go; I'm scheduled to start a surgery in twenty minutes." Just then Mark remembers that he was meant to be performing surgeries almost all day today.

"Is someone covering for me?" He asks weakly.

"I don't know." She walks to the door. "You'll be moved upstairs soon. Try to get some rest Mark." She says softly before walking away.

CICU, Later that night

Alex has been sitting beside Mark's bed for several hours, waiting for him to wake up. It's a fairly quiet night, so no one minds. Just as he's about to leave to find some coffee he hears one of the monitor's alarms sound, after taking a quick look he moves to the door. "I need some help in here!" His yell brings several nurses and doctors rushing into the room. "Sats are way too low; he's starting to get hypoxic." Alex quickly uses a stethoscope to listen to Mark's heart and lungs. "Damn. Set up to intubate. And sat page Dr Hahn."

Thanks for reading.

What do you think? Should I continue or not?