trauma [m.s]

xxviii.

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i am a rock. i am an island. that's the mantra to pretty much every surgeon that i've ever met. we like to think we're independent. loners. mavericks.
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"god, i've been looking everywhere for you," callie groans as she pushes open the on call room door to find mark staring at a magazine.

"well, i had an early morning palatoplasty," mark tells her as she takes a seat across from him on the bed. "you see this?" mark frowns as he reads the magazine that has derek's face plastered on the cover. "'the shepherd method'?"

"yeah, yeah, very impressive," callie waves her hand in dismissal. "listen, last night, erica-"

"you think they airbrushed his picture?" mark furrows his brow, clearly not paying attention to callie as his eyes never leave the article. "i mean, the man does not have one damn pore."

"could you focus? i need to talk," callie snatches the magazine from his grasp and discards it to the floor, forcing mark's attention to her. "last night, erica and i... we... we did it. sort of."

"congratulations," mark unenthusiastically nods.

"no. no, no. it was not good at all," callie shakes her head. "i choked. i couldn't go down there. i- i tried, but it just felt so weird and clinical, like gynie rotation. i left this morning before she got up. i couldn't even face her," callie sighs as mark pushes the covers from him and stands from the the bed, making his way over to the door. "what if- what if me and erica are- what if- what if we were a mistake? where are you going?"

"i can't talk about this," mark pulls his lab coat from the rack and shrugs it on.

"oh, come on," callie attempts to coax him. "you love taking about this stuff. girl on girl. it's hot."

"two girls getting nasty and loving it? that's hot. one girl talking about how much it sucked? depressing and wrong," mark frowns as he pulls open the door. "just wrong."

- - -
that all we need to do our jobs is an o.r, a scalpel, and a willing body... but the truth is, not even the best of us can do it alone.
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"'the shepherd method'. it's about time this hospital got some good publicity for a change," richard taps on a copy of derek's medical journal before he turns to the blonde beside him. "oh, i heard you found a donor."

"yes, sir," chloe nods, lacking her usual enthusiasm and joy, despite her best efforts. "the last piece of the puzzle finally fell into place."

"this is the day, dr. altman," richard nods, glancing back down to derek's image. "the day that seattle grace comes back swinging. shepherd on the front page of a national journal, bragging rights to a flashy surgery- i don't see mercy west taking on a project if this magnitude, do you?"

"i'd rather wait to celebrate till we pull this thing off," chloe tells him.

"yeah, that's a good call," richard nods in agreement. "we don't want to jinx it."

chloe smiles at him before she turns to write on the o.r board beside her. tapping with pride, again, on the magazine cover, richard walks away from the blonde.

once she has finished filling out the o.r board, chloe turns around to see that mark is stood at the nurses station, going over a chart. sighing to herself, she decides to head over to him.