ace • j. avery

xvi

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S05E18

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Following their flight on the plane, Jackson had brought her back to her penthouse. She offered a cup of coffee and food, though he said he needed to get back to his side of Seattle. He did have work in a few hours, after all.

"Call me if you need anything, alright Angel?" Jackson said, giving Angelina a quick forehead kiss as she stared at her phone. She nodded, though with a slight frown.

"Everything alright?"

"Fine," she confirmed. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "One of my best friends is still avoiding everyone including myself, and I'm finding out from an intern that my other best friend is doing the most important surgery in the world later. But it'll be fine, I guess. You should leave, and get some sleep."

Jackson just stared at her.

"Leave or stay here and sleep, Jackson, or I will personally call your chief of staff at Mercy West and pull you for a week."

Now hesitantly, he backed out, quite scared of her at this moment. She slowly nodded in approval. "Text me when you're at work," then with a sarcastic wave, she closed the door in his face.

Her phone buzzed; another text from Lexie.

LEXIE & ANGELINA

Lexie
T-2 Hours until face transplant time!

Angelina smiled for a moment. Her favorite and most promising intern in neurosurgery obviously was genuinely enjoying her time in medicine. On the flip side, the lead surgeon performing the procedure, one of her closest friends in the world, told her nothing about it.

She exhaled, then moved to take a quick nap on her sofa before she went back to the hospital in four hours.

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She woke up nine hours later. Slowly, she dragged herself off the couch and somehow ended up at the hospital.

As she walked into the hospital doors for the first time in what felt like forever, she received a text from Jackson.

JACKSON & ANGELINA

mon lutin
At hospital now x

angel!!
lol samesies

Angelina saw Owen on her way to the lounge, who gave her a nod in acknowledgement. In the lounge, she saw Arizona, who hugged her tightly. She saw Cristina talking to Meredith, both of whom gave her a wave. She saw Bailey and Karev and George and Lexie, but not who she was looking for.

And then she saw him, heading into a on-call room post world-changing surgery. "Mark!" She called. He stopped for a moment, then moved into the room. Angelina was confused, and went into the room after him.

"Mark?"

"Angelina."

She frowned. "I– I haven't talked to you in a while, and I– Congratulations on your surgery."

Mark rolled his eyes, but his back was to her. "Thanks."

"Do... do you want to talk about it?" God, this conversation was painstaking.

"No."

Angelina moved closer to him, putting a hand softly on his shoulder. He shrugged it off. He took a deep breath, turning to face her with a red face and red eyes. "Angelina, you don't get to do this."