𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙎; 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙨𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙣

|| 49 ||

"Natalie, that wasn't your fault." Owen reassured her. "And you can be with her now. We owe her this, and she needs it."

"No Owen, I am not being part of this." Natalie shook her head. "I know far well what it means to have a mental breakdown and I am not going to stand here watching you break her even more. She needs time. That's what she needs. And once she's ready, she is going to be the best resident of her year. But if you pressure her right now, she might never come back."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"Okay, multiple burn victims." Natalie was covering the pit that day instead, after Teddy and Owen insisted on letting Cristina go into surgery for her case, she handed it out to them. "Two with paralysis, three with vision loss, one, uh, blown eardrums, and one dislocated hip." Natalie informed the residents, Liam and Bailey around her.

"House fire?"

"Explosion?"

"Car wreck?"

One by one asked why there were so many traumas around them. "Uh, act of God." Natalie replied to her. There was a lightning strike that took out a whole flag football team. "God was in a mood today." Natalie commented.

"How did it strike all of 'em?" April questioned when one by one was walking towards the patients.

"Well, they're mostly flash burns, so it probably hit one of them then conducted off onto the rest." Liam replied to her. "Lexie." He then turned to his ex-girlfriend, giving her a look. Lexie had a hard time after the shooting and Liam was still worried about her, even after months. "T. M. Rupture, trauma one. I'll see you in there." He didn't want to leave her side. "Tell me something." Liam turned to Natalie when Lexie had walked away. "When a person gets out of the nut house... What's the appropriate amount of time to wait before you propose?"

"What?" Natalie exclaimed. "Long. Longer. Long ... a long time. Not now." She pointed her finger at him and gave him a warning look.

"Specifically, how long?" Liam asked and followed her. All the years Natalie knew Liam, he was always too bad at relationships, that's why he never had a true relationship until Lexie. But Lexie was not ready for everything Liam wanted and had missed all those years.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"Hey, how was your night in jail?" Mark asked Derek. Meredith had left him at jail after the police caught him driving too fast once again. And that resulted in him missing the wedding. "You shank someone right off the b? You gotta let the other cons know not to mess with you."

"That's not funny." Derek commented unamused. "They almost charged me with reckless endangerment."

"I'm sorry. What?" Natalie exclaimed. She had just walked down the stairs when she spotted her friend and her boyfriend chatting, so she walked towards them. "You mean that's where you've been all morning, in jail for reckless endangerment?" She yelled at him, her mother mode on.

"Nobody was endangered." Derek reassured her. "I told you that I didn't want her to know." He hissed at Mark for not noticing her.

"You were endangered." Natalie pointed out. "Are you stupid?"

"Now..." Derek took a breath, ignoring her question. "Have you ever been over 120 miles an hour before? Nat, have you ever been over 80? It's fun. It's really fun. I mean, especially when you go through a corner like that at that speed, and ... and you're not sure if the rear end's gonna stick or not, and you lose control, and then you put the throttle down, and the car corrects a little bit, and you take it to the limit and you don't lose control, you just grab it. Have you ever done it?"