𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙎; 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙨𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙣

|| 32 ||

"Pull back, pull back!" Natalie yelled when Meredith had hit the right part. "That's it. Nice work, Dr. Grey." She complimented her, knowing that it was her first time. And just because she was mad at Derek, that didn't mean she was going to be mean to Meredith because she was his wife.

The beeping slowed down and returned to normal rhythm, meaning that the patient was stable. 

"I'm gonna go get some bacitracin for that face." Mark said and left the room.

"Um, page me when you get him to angio." Natalie said knowing that she couldn't do anything else for him until he was stable. She got her gloves off and threw them on the bin on her way out. 

"Mark." She called out and tried to catch up with him. "I can't just follow you around." She said loud enough for him to hear her, but to not draw everyone's attention. But then Mark continued ignoring her. "Dr. Sloan!" She exclaimed getting everyone attention, including Mark's. He stopped walking and he waited for her in the corner. He stood there, not fully looking at her. He needed to make clear that he was upset. "Didn't mean to yell there, sorry." She muttered and tried to look into his eyes, but he looked on the other side. "Okay, you brought up moving in together and marriage, and I put it off. And now you're embarrassed and you won't make eye contact with me because you feel that I have all the power in the relationship. But I don't want all the power in the relationship. I ... I'm happy to share it. Can we just skip this part?"

"Gotta make Grey redo her stitches, excuse me." He said and walked away.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Natalie always loved putting boundaries in her life, it was the thing that helped her feel better at night. It was how she never get caught in the middle of childish drama. But there was one person that was always crossing those boundaries, a person she needed away from her life. 

So when she saw Isaac calling her again, she was close to not answering, but she just couldn't ignore the call. And she couldn't ignore her need to tell him to leave her alone. "Hello?"

"Hey Nat. I'm gonna get straight to the topic this time, I promise." Isaac talked fast, like he knew that Natalie was going to hang up on him. Because he knew that he was crossing a line again, but he didn't know how to stop, especially at this point in his life. "Amber called and she told me that she never wants to see me again. I don't blame her, I don't. But she gotta come here one more time. I want to see her-"

Natalie tried to keep in the scream she wanted to let out. The frustrated scream she had been holding in since the last time he called few days before. She thought that it was over with him. She had moved on. But for whatever reason, he wouldn't leave her alone. Natalie moved inside the closer on-call room, because she didn't want to yell in the middle of the hospital. "In what world do you think this is okay Isaac? You can't just call me. You can't-"

"Nat."

"Don't 'Nat' me." She yelled. "I am not Nat to you. Pick up your own bloody mess for once. I am not doing this anymore." She threw the phone on the bed and sat down. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths. I'm stronger than this, she kept repeating to herself. The voice in her head trying to empower her as she felt ready to breakdown. 

"Are you okay?" Derek was waiting for her outside of the on-call room. He had heard her saying her ex-husband's name as she was walking somewhere private. So he wanted to check up on her, even if she wouldn't let him. Because she had managed to become one of his best friends in a really short time.