The next morning, Helena and Cristina walked through the hallway to find Meredith. Once they did, they shared a look, each of them grabbing on of the girl's arms and pulling her into a meeting room.
"What's happening?" The blond asked, Helena closing the door behind her.
"Teddy. Turns out she loved Owen. And I though she came here to be all Teddy and Owen but there's me and now she's all pained and threatening to leave and I told her she could have him." Cristina explained as the short girl nodded along.
"What?" Meredith asked, shocked.
"She's an amazing teacher and I'm happy again and I-I'm in the OR and I'm feeling like myself. And of course I didn't mean it, I mean, I love Owen. I love him. But that means I don't get to have her so... maybe I meant it?" She finished.
"Ok, here's the thing. You can't talk like this. I mean, I get you, but other people don't. So you can't talk like this." Meredith told them, Helena humming in agreement.
"Yes, it's like telling someone their baby is ugly. I mean, they know it, you know it, everybody knows it but you don't say it." Helena explained.
"So you two are saying surgery, right? Gun to your head, you'd chose surgery over Derek and Mark?" She asked.
"We're saying don't talk about this. And don't talk about it to Owen." Meredith told her.
"Ok, my turn. Mark just, out of the blue, told Sloan she could move in with us and we'd help her raise the baby. Without asking me first." Helena sighed.
"What?" Cristina asked. "Is that why you were sleeping in my couch?"
"Yeah, we had this big fight and, I-I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't do it but he didn't even ask me! He changed out whole lives without even consulting me." The brunette explained. "So now I'm trying to figure out if I can do this. Because I want to and I love him, and Sloan could become our family, she could... but I don't wanna say I'm ok with this and then bail down the road, so I'm trying to figure out if I've got it in me to be a grandmother... at twenty six." She took a deep breath as she finished. "It just hurts that he didn't respect me enough to ask me first, you know?"
"I'd bail." Cristina shrugged.
"Yeah, my commitment issues would have me half way across the country." Meredith chuckled.
"Not helpful." Helena glared at her people.
——
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Addison asked Mark, who followed her into her office in LA. They had left Sloan with one of Addison's coworkers, one Mark had practically started a fight with.
"Me? You're as wound up as I've ever seen you!" Mark accused.
"I'm not the one starting school yard fights with other doctors." She scoffed.
"You're wound up Addy, just admit it."
"Bizzy is a lesbian." The redhead let out.
"What?" He asked, shocked.
"My mother is a lesbian, which means the captain wasn't a cheater. It was all a sham, my whole childhood, everything I believed about my dad, my mom, love, marriage... it's all turned on his head. So, yeah, I'm a little... wound up." Addison explained. "Your turn."
"Lee and I are fighting." He sighed, sitting on the couch. "I asked her to raise Sloan's baby with me. Or, you know, raise her with me and Sloan. A-And maybe not ask... I might have told Sloan before I asked her."
"You didn't ask her if she was ok with raising your granddaughter in her own home?" She scoffed. "Besides, she's a little young for that, don't you think?" Addison asked, furrowing her brows.
"Do not take her side!" Mark asked, huffing.
"I'm sorry."
"It just sucks, you know? I mean, we've had a few disagreements here and there but we've never fought, not like this. And I never meant to assume o-or disrespect her like she says, I just... I was so excited." He sighed, reclining on the couch. "Your thing sucks too. Bizzy's a lesbian?"
"Thank you!" Addison let out, sitting in the couch by him. "But, for what it's worth, Lena loves you. That girl loves you and I know you love her too. You'll figure it out."
"Yeah. I should text her." He answered, leaving the room to tell Helena that Addison had agreed to do the procedure.
——
"If you had to choose between the thing you love, surgery, and the person you love, you which would you choose?" Cristina asked her friends as they had lunch in a lab, Meredith practicing for her surgery on a cadaver.
"Alex would choose Izzie, right? Because you two are gonna get back together." Meredith asked.
"Shut up." Alex told her between bites of his sandwich.
"I'd choose Mark. He'd never make me chose and that's why I'd choose him. Even if I'm pissed at him right now." Helena told them.
"Baby Einstein, we all know you're lying to yourself right now." Cristina told her, Helena shooting her a look.
"Why do we have to choose?" Jackson asked.
"It doesn't matter, you just do!" Cristina told them. "Surgery or love?"
"I want both." The man shrugged.
"That what I said." Meredith informed, Helena nodding in agreement.
"No, you can't have both."
"Why the hell not?" The boy questioned.
"Why the hell is he here?" Cristina asked, scoffing.
"Because he's nice. We're friends, so he's here." Helena shrugged, Jackson taking a bite of his baby carrot with a grin.
"Plus, I said he could be here. He's scrubbing in on the Whipple." Meredith explained, Jackson smiling up at her too.
"Ok, whatever. Once again, you cannot have both, you have to choose!" Cristina explained.
"Choose what?" A voice asked from the doorframe, everyone turning to see Izzie.
The woman was back, apparently aiming for a job in a city nearby and being at the hospital for a procedure.
"My PET scan got pushed back an hour so I thought I'd join you for lunch." The blond explained, sitting down next to them.
At that, Helena discretely rolled her eyes, getting up with her tray, Meredith asking. "Hey, where are you going, Lena?"
"I have post ops to do." She explain, her jaw locked up in anger. "But, honestly, Cristina, I'd choose Mark. I am a woman of many interest, as hard as it might be I'd find another passion. I could learn to live without surgery, but not without Mark. Even if he assumed I wanna be a grandmother."
At that last sentence, everyone but Cristina and Meredith seemed to get confused, Izzie asking. "Is she mad at me?"
"What do you think?" Alex scoffed.
——
"You blew the AVM?" Mark asked, angrily storming into the room Addison was at, after the surgery.
"Not on purpose!" The redhead explained.
"I already told him that." Naomi, Addison friend, informed.
"Well, then what the hell happened?" He yelled.
"Don't yell at her." The woman requested.
"She lost a lot of blood but she'll be ok." Addison explained, Mark taking his hands to his head.
"And the baby?"
"I think he's gonna be fine..." Addison told him.
"You think?" Mark's voice was harsh with his worry.
"I hope, I'm sorry. The AVM is very delicate, Mark, it's directly below the dissection and I-it just blew." She explained.
"I need to see her." He explained, panicked all across his face.
"Ok, look, Mark, she's gonna be in bad shape when she wakes up. She hemorrhaged, I had to open her up, she's gonna look much worse than last time. The last thing she needs is to see you hovering, terrified." The fetal surgeon explained.
"Well, what do you expect me to do?!" He asked.
"We should just go take a walk..." Naomi suggested
"Naomi, don't talk to me like I'm a child, I'm not twelve years old!" Mark snapped, his voice raising yet again. "I need to call Lee."
"I don't think we should be calling anyone right now, Mark." Naomi suggested.
"Let him call her. Lena can calm him down." Addison asked, Mark going out to the hall and picking up his phone.
——
Helena was unpacking some things she had bought for Sloan's baby when she heard her phone ringing, putting down the toy she was currently holding, she reached for it.
Once she saw the caller ID, her brows furrowed in worry.
"Mark, honey, is everything on with Sloan?" She asked.
"Addy blew the AVM." He told her, his voice broken and clearly panicked.
At the state of her boyfriend, Helena felt her own anxiety rising, trying to keep her voice steady and calming as she spoke. "I-is she ok? And the baby?"
"Sloan is ok, but she lost a lot of blood. She d-doesn't know about the baby yet... God, Lee, I should have never brought her to get the surgery..." Mark let out, his voice breaking.
"Hey, hey, don't do that. You couldn't have known, no one could have known, not even Addy. You hear me, Mark Sloan? This is not on you. You just need to try to keep calm for me, ok?" She asked through the phone, her voice breathy as she talked her boyfriend through his anxiety. "Now, Sloan should wake up soon and you'll get to check on the baby and her. I'm assuming you'll need to stay there for a few days, keep me updated?" She requested.
"I'm coming home, Lee." Mark told her, his voice sure but loving. "I can't stay away for so long, not when we're fighting. As soon as I make sure they're both ok, I'm coming home. And we're gonna figure this out, ok, sweetheart?"
"Ok, I'll see you soon." The brunette nodded even if he couldn't see her, her heart warming at the words. "I love you."
"I love you too, sweetheart. Bye."
As Mark hung up the call, Helena took a hand to her chest, rubbing away the anxiety she was feeling as she got back to work.
——
Early the next morning, Helena sat on the floor of her living room, trying to set up a changing station as she heard the door to the apartment open.
Expecting to see her girlfriend still asleep from her previous shift, the man's eyes widened at the sight of her awake. "Hey, sweetheart. What are you doing?"
"Oh, hi, you're back!" She let out, her face lighting up with a smile. "I am miserably failing at setting up a changing station..." The short girl got up, pointing her screw driver to Mark. "Wanna help?"
"A-a changing station? As in for Sloan's baby?" The man asked, taking off his coat as a smile formed on his own lips.
"Well, yeah, you know Sloan is still a bit lost about the baby stuff so I though we should get a makeshift nursery ready, at least for now." She explained. "I also have toys, a crib, baby bottles and a breast pump..." Helena waved to the objects as she spoke. "You know, the basics."
At that, Mark approached her from across the room, taking her in his arms as she pressed a passionate kiss to her lips. "I love you so much, Lee."
"I love you too." She smiled into his lips, joining their foreheads as they pulled away.
"Are we really doing this? Are we forming a family?" Mark smiled as wide as Helena had ever seen, the girl playing with the hair on the nape of his neck.
"We're forming a family." She smiled back, letting out a giggle at her own happiness.
"Lee, I am so sorry that I didn't... I never meant to hurt you o-or make you feel like you don't matter. You matter so much to me, you are everything." He told her, holding her hand to his chest.
"I know, honey..." She whispered, nodding with tears in her eyes. "I know you didn't mean to. And it's ok, we're ok. But don't ever disrespect me like that again, ok? Don't ever belittle me like that..."
"Never again. I promise." He told her, pressing a kiss to her palm. "I promise..."
Helena flashed him a smile. "And I'm sorry if I made you feel as though I don't value your family... our family. I do. And I want to do this." She nodded, her voice sure, before she shook her head, shrugging off the heavy feeling. "Now, help me set up the changing station."
"Fine." He conceded, grabbing the screw driver Helena handed him. "But, before that, what on earth is a breast pump?"
The girl giggled at the question, shaking her head. "Mark Sloan, you have so much to learn."
And, as the two struggled to put together the furniture, the excitement in their eyes was unprecedented. They were forming their own family. And, in that moment, they knew that, despite everything, this was all they ever wanted, all they'd ever dreamt of. Maybe their dreams had just been presented in a bit of an unconventional manner.
——
Word count: 2195
AN:
I hope you enjoyed how Mark and Helena worked through this situation! I tried to find the balance between them actually having a fight and then making up, because I genuinely believe this is how it would happen.
To me, Helena has always been so motherly and had a dream of having a family, that she wouldn't refuse helping to raise the baby. But I do also think she wouldn't put up with how Mark made such a decision for her.
Anyway, let me know what you think?