𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 & 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 [𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐧]

piece of my heart

piece of my heart

Grace gets homesick. She misses the feeling of being around her parents and her brother in the Rhode Island suburbs she once inhabited as a child. She is overwhelmed by the feeling sometimes. Other than holidays, she finds it hard to find an excuse to go back. Her brother helps that problem though. It seems like every five minutes Daniel and his wife, Katie pop out a baby (this is their third child, Grace just has delusional thinking that the couple is the Duggars or something).

So, after Grace and Mark had their "encounter" in the parking lot, the nurse found herself calling into work and taking a flight back to Jamestown to meet her newest nephew, Ethan. Since her week-long hometown visit, she had only spoken to Ruth to inform her of the arrival home (and Deana, to take her off the schedule, even though the woman shamed her for making life so hard for her).

Grace's return to work was met with Zibby squealing over the picture she provided of the newborn in the Poulsen family and Ruth rolling her eyes at Zibby's squeals. "So," Zibby's voice hit a new level of high, "Sloan has been asking a lot about you." That earned an eye roll from Grace. Zibby's face was asking for answers without even asking a question, yet.

Grace sighed, "That's nice."

Ruth turned, standing with one of her hands on her hip, "Is it?" Zibby and Ruth both point questioning looks at her.

"I'm not being quizzed by you two." Grace closes her locker and makes her way to the exit. "I have to go talk to Deana."

Both her friends voiced, "Ugh, good luck." Both expressing pain of talking to the unreasonable head of scheduling for the nurses.

Grace sent a smile towards them before wandering to Deana's office. "How was Rhode Island?" A voice asked from behind her.

Her mouth spread into a smile as she realized who gave her the question. She turned her attention to the nurses' station, Mark Sloan standing smug as ever. "It was nice seeing my family. A new nephew." He closes the chart he was previously writing in. The two just stare at each other for a couple of seconds before Grace finally says something, "So, how are you?"

Mark does his grin (the one reserved for Grace) and replies, "Growing skin." Grace raised an eyebrow, "Addison, you know Addison?" She nodded, "She's back from LA. Helping on the surgery for the baby with its heart on the outside of its body. I had to grow a skin flap for it. Like a god." She giggles at his ego for sure going to his head before a silence sits with them again. He fills it by telling her, "I missed you."

Grace smiled back up at him in appreciation, "I have to go talk to Deana about my schedule." She takes a step back.

"You want to join me later?" Mark asks. 

She raised her eyebrow again, "You want me to help you grow skin."

He chuckled, "On the surgery." He clarified.