You Promised | Mark Sloan ✓

02┃friendships

"Anyone else?"

Alex spoke up, "Stress reduction because of the previous surgeries-"

"O'Malley," Burke interrupted.

"I know... I know the answer," Alex claimed.

"I'm asking O'Malley."

"Scar tissue's too deep. The heart's too weak to start up again," George answered.

"So, what should we do? Lawrence?"

"Only immobilise the portion you're working on and leave the rest of the heart on its own," Norah responded at once.

Burke nodded at the both of them and handed them the patient's chart. "Welcome to the case."

❦ ❦ ❦

"OH, HEY," NORAH CALLED out as she stepped into the elevator with Meredith, Cristina and Izzie, who had their eyes glued onto a thick chart in Meredith's hands. "What do you guys got there?"

"A pregnant man," Izzie announced proudly.

Norah's mouth gaped open. "A pregnant-what?" Now she knew why Cristina and Izzie could not answer Burke's question-they were refusing to answer him. "Where did you find a mystery case like that?"

"We kinda stole it from Psych..." Izzie trailed off.

Norah stared among the three. Oh, how she would kill to be on that case. "That's actually brilliant."

"Wanna place bets?" the blonde intern suggested. "We've been collecting from all over the hospital. Highest bid is a tumor, which is lame."

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good," Norah sipped on her coffee. Cristina sneakily snatched the drink over, taking a sip from it; her eyes instantly narrowed at the taste of it.

"What the hell is this?"

"Bone dry cappuccino."

"Ew."

Norah let out an offended scoff. "Return it, then."

The elevators doors opened, and the four of them stepped out, still flipping over the chart, looking over it excitedly.

They went into a complete halt as they ran into Derek without noticing. Meredith froze while Cristina and Izzie's defence mode went on; Norah held back a snort.

"Hi. Hello. Hi. Morning," Derek greeted each of them, and his gaze landed on the currently-famous intern in the hospital. "Meredith. Maybe we could, you know, uh, talk?"

Cristina and Izzie gave each other a glance. "No," they replied in unison, putting on their most polite smile towards the attending before hauling Meredith away from him.

"Okay..."

Norah watched as Derek's eyes followed her as they walked off. "Shepherd, you're a bloody idiot," she finally laughed out.

The neurosurgeon scowled at her, finding his situation unamusing. "It's not funny," he deadpanned.

"No, no, indeed, it's not," Norah agreed, clicking her tongue, "It's sad, really. Hilarious, even."

"Yeah, yeah..." he rolled his eyes, knowing very well of the intern's humour. "It's been what, six months? We need to catch up."

"My cardiac patient's scans would be up any minute now."

He nodded with a smile. "Soon, then."

The elevators doors opened again, and more people came out. Addison stepped out and saw the two; Derek, too, had noticed her presence and the smile on his face seemed to drop partially. Norah turned her head and saw the red-headed surgeon, who walked towards Derek and laced her arm in his.