Why me? ~ mark sloan

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

"Thank you." They both said and Vanessa gave one last smile to the toddler in the man's arms before waving a goodbye and walking back to Mark who still hadn't taken his eyes off of her for a second.

She sat back down at the table and stared at him as he stared at her, squinting her eyes playfully at him.

"What?" She gave up and dropped her arms at her sides, still smiling. 

"I love you." He said simply, leaning his chin on his hand as he looked at her.

"Okay, what did you do?" 

"Nothing!" His voice was a little too high pitched for her liking and she raised an eyebrow, challenging him to lie again.

"Fine. I agreed to go on the Boise trip to separate the conjoined twins there - since the other surgery was successful." He explained and Vanessa couldn't see why he was so worried about telling her.

"That's great! Why didn't you want to tell me?" She asked and he sighed.

"It's right over your due date - before and after it too." He breathed out and Vanessa's smile dropped off of her face.

"So...the chances are either way you're not gonna be there?" She asked, making sure she wasn't interpreting what he was saying in a different way. Mark just nodded.

"I have to go - there's no-one else." He defended quietly, completely understanding why she was so angry.

"For my first natural birth, you, my husband, will not be there?" She asked again and Mark looked down at the table as she stood up and left. She knew it was something he had to do - it was a great opportunity and she understood that - but she needed time to be a little bit mad that he chose a cool surgery over the birth of his child.

***

"So I'm literally going to have no-one?" Vanessa questioned as she walked past where pretty much everyone was talking.

"Huh?" Alex questioned and Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"When Mark, you, Derek, Lexie, Meredith and Cristina go to do that cool surgery I'll be here - giving birth by myself because everyone has left." She explained and everyone shared a glance. Nobody wanted to deal with her while her pregnancy hormones were going crazy but someone had to speak and soon, otherwise she would grow angrier.

"I'm not going," Jackson offered and they all noticed Vanessa relax slightly, "I volunteered to go but Sloan pushed me off of the case - said he wanted to do it - so I'll be here." 

Derek cringed and Cristina facepalmed as Jackson ran over what he had just said until he found the error. And it was a pretty big one.

"Uh oh." Alex whispered as Vanessa stormed away, needing to find a place to get her anger out of her system.

"You idiot," Meredith hit Jackson around the head, "Sloan probably told her he had no choice and now she's even more mad." 

"To be fair, Sloan shouldn't have lied." Alex pointed out and Jackson nodded before everyone walked away, determined to not get caught in the crossfire.

***

Vanessa was sat in a conference room - the same conference room where they had brought Alex when he was dying. She went there to think a lot because it seemed to give her clarity - the others didn't understand it but they weren't going to stop her if that's what helped her.

They were all gathered outside of the room, discreetly looking inside through the blinds to see her just looking at her hands as they rested on the table.