sunshine | mark sloan

chapter fifteen

alex shrugged, "so, now he's downstairs puking."

---

veronica almost laughed at how bad george looked. he was more hungover than she thought she had ever seen before. 

the interns were all in jane doe's room, watching mark explain how she used to potentially look. they were showing her a few different faces, she was meant to choose which one she wanted. she turned to alex for him to explain. 

veronica watched carefully, she obviously liked him and he had started to like her, which surprised her slightly, after all alex seemed a bit shallow, but here it was, evidence that actually he wasn't. 

"he'll make an incision along your hairline and then..." alex trailed off. 

"it's ok, i can take it."

"he'll literally pull your face off."

veronica snorted at alex's blunt reply, covering up with a cough. 

"it sounds a lot worse than it is. your face is extremely elastic and pulling it down will allow me to correct the bone fractures underneath without any scarring. and once you've healed, no one will ever know you had the surgery. i'm that good," mark explained. 

"he is. it's annoying," addison told. 

"the surgery won't affect my baby?"

"i'll be monitoring the baby throughout, ok?" 

"okay, so... then i just have to pick one. do i have to pick one now?" jane asked.

"take a couple hours and think about it," mark comforted. 

they began on their way out, through the hallway, bumping into richard on the way, who had witnessed her crying outside an or only a few days prior. there was a short conversation between him and dr bailey about jane doe's facial reconstruction before he turned to veronica. 

"how are you doing, jennings. you didn't take to much time off after..."

she hated the look of pity on his face. 

"i'm fine, sir. really. i think working's the best thing i can do," veronica assured. 

"i assume it is for someone like you," he responded. 

mark, who had handed off jane doe's chart reached them and noticed the wat richard was looking at ronnie, like she would break. 

"dr jennings, what can you tell me about reconstructive neuro floor?" he asked. 

"uh, you can create a new base from the eye socket by harvesting bone from the skull."

"dr bailey, dr jennings will be scrubbing in on the jane doe case. come on, i'll show you how to do it without breaking the bone graft into a million pieces."

veronica followed him. 

---

veronica was with alex as jane doe tried to pick her face. she was struggling to choose. 

after, she had to research the procedure, there was no way she was getting it wrong. 

"oh, hey derek, i thought you were meant to be prepping for your board interview?" she greeted, noticing the doctor lurking in the doorway. "i don't know where mer is."

"no, that's fine. what are you up to?"

"researching the calverian bone harvest i get to do on sloan's jane doe later."

"sloan's gonna let you do a harvest? by yourself?"

"yep. pretty fucking cool, isn't it?"

"yeah." 

---

"oh, hey, mark, addie. addie, good luck at the board interview. it'd pretty dope if we had a female chief."

"sweetheart!"

"mark, you're a manwhore. you can't be in a position of power, it makes you look like a filthy manwhore who uses his power to get women into bed. do you want that?" she paused. "plus i gots to support my fellow woman. we've got to work twice as hard to get half the opportunities of a man."

"hear hear."

veronica held her hand up for a high five from addison, one which she returned. 

she went straight back to practicing the bone graft, which derek expressed that he was against. he tried to convince her mark was using her to look good in the race for chief. she dismissed his attempt at convincing her to step down. 

"hey, sweetheart," mark greeted. "what would you change about this hospital?"

"i'm not doing your homework for you, mark."

"all the other attendings are putting together ten-year plans, i was just looking for some input," he admitted. 

veronica sighed, "then do something different. i told you before to focus on what's happening at the moment. talk about what can be done right now. there's no point in talking about ten years on. we need change now, mark."

mark nodded, watching her carefully as she continued her practice. he was lost in her for a second that he forgot to reply. 

"oh, thank you. this is why you're my favourite," he flirted. 

"don't flirt with me, it makes me think you only chose me because of shit like that," she revealed. "or because you're using my almost death and breakdown about my mum showing up to win points with the chief."

mark shook his head, stepping closer to her, "the chief, the way he was looking at you this morning, it was like you were some beaten down puppy he picked up off the side of the road. you do this procedure and you do it well, he'll start looking at you like a surgeon again. if you wanna pass up this shot, that's up to you." mark grabbed her hand. "i wouldn't use you like that, promise."

she stared at their intertwined hands for what felt like a lifetime before looking to his face. he was being sincere. 

"thank you. i- thanks."

she gently pulled her hand away. 

---

the procedure went well, she successfully did the part of the procedure that she was given. she was over the moon, elated.