𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙎; 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙨𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙣

|| 48 ||

"Oh, no, because they don't charge him, because the cops worship him." Meredith scoffed.

"Because I saved some of their lives." Derek stated. 

"Is there a wedding going on?" Natalie finally asked.

"Yes, mine and Owen's. We're choosing a dress colour." Cristina informed her and Natalie decided to hide how surprised she felt. "I'm not wearing white. It's sexist and... vaguely racist. No white, no veil, no rice." 

"Well, what will your mother say?" Meredith reminded her. 

"No mother." Cristina exclaimed. 

"I'd go with a red dress." Natalie remarked. "I'll see you guys in there." 

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"I'm so glad you're back." Arizona had spent the last minute hugging Natalie. "I missed having you here so much."

"It's good to see you too Arizona." Natalie's face lightened up at the warm welcome. 

"Did you get cleared for surgery?" Arizona asked and Natalie didn't reply for few seconds as her eyes met with Mark's, who had spent the last five minutes that Natalie was in the room staring at her. And he couldn't look away.

"What do you mean, cleared for surgery?" Natalie cleared her throat and turned back to Arizona. "Who has to clear me?" Natalie questioned, but before Arizona could reply, Derek walked inside the room.

The staff started clapping. And Derek walked up the stairs so everyone could see him. "Right. Hey, uh, yes, good morning." He said to get them to quiet down. "Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's, uh, it's great to be back. First of all, I'd like to thank Dr. Webber for stepping up in my absence. Thank you." The staff cheered at the mention of their former's chief name. "Uh, I'm grateful for all of you, for all of your support during my recovery. Thank you. Uh, it's just, uh, so great to be back as chief. I'm grateful for the, uh... " He paused and he inhaled sharply. "I'm sorry. That's a lie." He confessed. "That's what people say, and, uh, the truth is... I hate being chief. I hate it. Chief Webber... Chief Webber is our chief. Um... And I'm sorry, but this giant..." Derek looked at the scans in his face. "Sorry, I gotta go look at this chordoma. I, um, I'm sorry, but... I quit. Let's go, Kepner. Come on."

Everyone looked at him surprised. And on Natalie's very first day back, she realised that nothing was the same anymore. And she wasn't sure if it would even be.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"On the, uh, day of the shooting, I understand that you had a particularly difficult day." Dr. Perkins, the shrink who was clearing everyone for surgery, told Natalie. Natalie was standing by the window looking at the rain falling down. She tried to not go back to any of the moments of that day. She tried to forget how she was all alone and bleeding with no one to help her but herself. She tried to forget how she was operating on her best friend's chest while the very same man that shot her was pointing a gun at her. Or how she had lost the baby on the very same day she realised how much she wanted it. 

"The day my ex-husband won custody over my daughter, that was a particularly difficult day. And now my daughter is with me and it's okay. Well, at the end of this day... I got shot. I got a bullet out of myself, I operated on my best friend and..." Natalie huffed... "I had a miscarriage. The, uh... Um... " Natalie stuttered. "This day was the worst day of my life."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"Should I make rice or pasta? What do you want for dessert?" A week after Natalie got out of the hospital, she was home acting like nothing had happened. Mark was constantly with her, even though they hadn't really talked about if they were back together. But Mark couldn't possibly leave her alone, and she didn't want him to.