𝐧𝐨 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞 [m. sloan]

[005] helen keller

Izzie nodded, mouth parting to say something, but she was distracted by something over Clementina's shoulder. "Dr Harper!"

Clementina froze, eyes widening in mild panic. After they'd shared a 'moment' the other day, Clementina gradually descended into a crisis. As a result, she avoided Ezra in the hopes he would overlook the crisis he had inadvertently caused. What sort of idiot almost kisses someone after bonding over their dead mothers? Obviously, she knew he was attractive — she wasn't blind. And yes, maybe she tended to blush when he was around. But she had been handling that — everyone had attractive co-workers. They were friends — people could find their friends attractive. And yes, maybe there was some underlying tension. But—

That had been her general stream of consciousness for the previous few days.

Returning to the present, Clementina looked around frantically, spotting Ezra walking through the gallery towards them, and she smiled shakily.

"You and Clem are friends!" Izzie exclaimed, causing Ezra to give her an amused look as he sat on the chair next to Clementina, "Party at our place — 9 o'clock!"

Ezra looked from Izzie to Clementina, who had become incredibly interested in the ongoings of the OR below them, "Wouldn't miss it."

For a second, Izzie smiled giddily, excited at her party's prospects, until she was disturbed by Alex popping up behind them, "Did I hear there was a party at Meredith's house?"

All of the other interns feigned ignorance. "Oh really, party?" Cristina asked, a faux-confused expression on her face.

"Uh, news to me," Izzie bluffed, deliberately not looking at him.

"No party," George answered, scratching behind his neck awkwardly.

Maintaining her focus on the OR, Clementina added coolly, "You should really get your hearing checked." Then, her pager beeped. She pulled it from her waistband, glancing down at it, "It's Shepherd, I should go."

She got up. As she started to walk away, a hand brushed her arm, making her pause mid-step. She glanced down, Harper looking up at her with an unreadable expression. "I'll see you later?"

Clementina sent him another shaky smile, one that barely reached her eyes, "Yeah," before quickly leaving the gallery — the smile falling from her face and being replaced by a startled look.

Ezra watched her leave, his eyebrow raised in curiosity. Once she'd left his line of sight, he turned to the other interns and said, "She's being weird, right?"

Knowing she was being weird but unwilling to expose her friend, Cristina replied curtly, "No." Izzie and George didn't quite catch on.

"Uh, yes."

"Absolutely."

Alex was even further off the mark, scoffing arrogantly, "Who cares?"

Ezra slowly turned to him with a lethal glare, watching the smirk melt off his face. Alex cleared his throat, averting his gaze, "She's being weird."

⋆✦⋆✦⋆

CLEMENTINA MET DEREK outside the elevators on the surgical floor. She looked at him expectantly, "You paged?"

He looked up from his phone, a bright smile appearing as he spotted her, "Ah, my favourite student! You haven't been on my service yet, so I thought we could work together today – I wanted to hear how you were finding things so far."

He pressed the button for the elevator, and it arrived a few seconds later. As they entered the empty elevator, Clementina said, "You're a busy man." The hospital was a hectic place, and Derek was a highly in-demand neurosurgeon — there was hardly time for them to work together, let alone catch up.