Asystole ✷ Mark Sloan

𝟬𝟳𝟴 beth and derek

There was a slight redness in her cheek that suggested she'd been on the phone for a long time, the receiver pressed in between her jawbone and her shoulder. From the sight of her alone, Derek could tell that she had not had a very good day.

"I appreciate it, but I don't think you're going to be saying that for much longer."

Ballard's amusement made his eyebrows raise in apprehension. 

He sat forwards in his seat and very gradually, caught onto the fact that this wasn't his average midnight meeting. 

No, he encouraged her to take a seat and she set the folder on the edge of his desk, crossing her ankles. It didn't surpass him how she looked, somehow, more tired than he did. It was as if this week in particular had aged both of them—he supposed that was, in some capacity, a world record. 

She'd only been here for a week and a half and already, Bethenny Ballard had been worn down by some degree, by the charm of Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital.

"How can I help?"

 His apprehension came hand-in-hand with his need to help. He shared that with his ex-wife, the need to constantly fix things and save the damsel from the burning building. Maybe that's why, instead of dread, when he watched Ballard sigh, he was filled with an inherent sense of duty.

 Wasn't it his job now anyway? 

To help everyone no matter surgical or administration or even business?

"I'm hoping you can," Ballard said with another breath that seemed to further age her. 

She reached forwards and untied the front of her folder. Across from her, Derek leant back in his chair, his attention completely caught on the way the tie twisted in between her fingers.

 "Honestly," She said, "I don't really know where to start but I was hoping that you could give me some guidance on where exactly to go with this—"

"Of course," Derek said lightly, although something at the back of his head stirred. 

She seemed to move in slow motion and, for a moment, Derek ran through every incident at the back of his head, every reason she could have had for appearing in his office like this. 

He thought over the past week and a half, over everything meeting he'd had, over everything conversation and every revelation and he got caught on the way her mouth dipped into something a little more troubled. 

A long sigh fell through Derek's lips as he came to a mental halt at a picture of Mark's face. 

"If this is about some sort of complaint for misconduct against Doctor Sloan—"

That was how his day was going to go, right? He was going to start his Saturday by defending the fact Mark had slept with his new hire and probably been an ass in the process. 

Of course, it was. That folder was probably containing all of these papers about how Mark was a HR case just waiting to happen. He supposed that he should have seen it coming, wasn't this exactly what he was supposed to expect? 

Mark had caused so many issues for so many doctors that really didn't it just make sense?

But, to Derek's surprise, Ballard looked upwards, her brow furrowing as she looked over at the Chief of Surgery.

"No," She shook her head and then, a very slow amused smile crept onto her face, "I guess you can say that I've been won over by his charm..."

 Derek's eyebrows raised as she chuckled soundlessly and drew the papers out of her folder. Her smile slowly faded into something far more professional.