Mason's Medical

Yesterday

It was going well for a bit, but then it went south.

As the OR team scrambled to resuscitate Jake, Miranda swiftly took the baby out of the room.

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Grace was sat in the Attendings changing room with Mark. 'You okay?'

She knew that despite how much he loved doing the boob jobs and face lifts, it was cases like Jake that he lived for. Whether through disease or accident, he loved to give them back the face they wanted. And now he couldn't do that.

'Yeah,' Mark said quietly as he started to change. 'I just wish he could have got the face he wanted.'

'Me too,' Grace said with a smile as Mark started to strip. 'From what the nurses told me, he was a good kid.'

They fell into silence but it didn't last long before Karev and Yang came into the room.

'Doctor Sloan.'

'Yeah?' Mark said as he turned to look at them.

'Er…' Yang paused slightly. 'We, want you to do the surgery on Jake.'

'What?' Mark asked, with a frown.

Karev took over. 'You saw what he was like, sir, how much he wanted it. He should have the face he wanted so badly.'

Yang cleared her throat. 'Even if he never sees it himself.'

Mark stopped, and then looked at Grace. 'I see what you mean about them, Gracie.'

'When will you learn?' Grace said as she stood up. 'I'm always right.' She grabbed Mark's scrub top and handed it to him.

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Grace sat in a corner of the room and watched Mark as he changed Jake's face. She had always liked watching him work, quite happy to do it for hours.

'I got a text about you.' Mark said out of nowhere, glancing at Grace.

'You did?'

'Yep.'

'The topic being…?'

'Your tremors.' Mark gave her a look before going back to work.

Grace thought for a moment. 'Miranda. Of course.' Then she frowned. 'How did she get your number?'

Mark chuckled quietly. 'Said she took it from your phone last week, after the baby threw up all over you and you went to clean up.'

'I thought she had a strange look on her face after that. Sort of…satisfied.'

'Stop trying to change the subject.'

'There is no subject to – '

Mark stopped and looked up at her. 'They're getting worse. Don't lie to me.'

Grace sighed slightly. 'Yeah.'

'How long?'

'Couple of months.'

He sighed and went back to his work, both of them continuing to ignore the two interns. 'You should have told me.'

'Yeah.'

'You should have had the operation years ago.'

'I didn't want to be left unable to help my patients in the way I had left.' Grace said tensely, this was the only thing they had ever argued about. 'Besides, even if I did, the chances of it working are – '

'I know the odds, Gracie. We could recite the steps for the op in our sleep.' Mark smiled slightly. 'But now you're starting to lose what you've got, no stopping it. The operation might fail, but it might give you back everything.'

Grace smiled in his direction. 'Yeah, it could. And what do I do if I lose what mobility time I have left? Hm? I get stuck in a wheel chair with nothing.'

Mark looked up and gave her a hard look. 'Not nothing. You'd have me, just like always. And I've told you a dozen times, I wouldn't leave you to rot in a chair. We'd go places, spend the rest of our lives seeing everything we could. We're both loaded, we don't have to work.' He finished with a wide grin, that Grace couldn't help but return.

'You'd give up your career, sir?' Karev asked, suddenly reminding them they weren't alone. But his tone wasn't sceptical or derisive, just curious, so Mark answered him.

'In a heartbeat. Gracie is more important than any surgery.' He gave her another grin. 'Always and forever, right Gracie?'

'Always and forever,' she said with a smile. 'I'm gonna go to Joe's across the street. I'll see you in a while.' Grace got up and dropped a kiss on Mark's cheek as she left.