𝟘𝟞𝕩𝟘𝟠
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
That morning Natalie slowly opened her eyes, only to find Mark looking at her. At instant smile was created on her face when she saw him. A smile only he could bring on her face. "Hey." She whispered.
"Hey, I didn't think I'd see your face when I woke up." He said and tucked her hair behind her ear so he could look at her face. When Natalie was over at his apartment she always left before midnight so Amber wouldn't be home alone at night. But not this time.
"Yeah, I slept over." She snuggled on his side and Mark put his hand under her shoulder, bringing her closer against him.
"Glad you did." He kissed the top of her head. "But I also noticed that you've been sleeping over here a lot. And that you're waking up early to go to your place."
"Yeah, I am doing that." Natalie admitted. "I'm not completely abandoning my daughter. But I also cannot sleep in the same house as Isaac."
"So the only reason you're sleeping over is because you don't want to be in the same space as your ex husband." Mark realised, just because she wouldn't say it, it didn't mean that Mark didn't understand what she was doing or why.
"Correct. But also because I love you." She whispered and started leaving kisses on his neck.
"Nice safe." He smiled.
"See? I can be all cute and sweet." She looked up to him.
"Barely." He teased her.
"Fuck you."
"Gladly." He smirked and moved her on top of him making it easier for him to just kiss her and keep on kissing her. But then he pulled back, wanting to talk to her about it. "Okay but seriously you don't have to let him stay at your house, if it's making you uncomfortable. You already helped him. He can stay at a hotel room or something for as long as he needs to be in Seattle."
"Mark, for the first time since the divorce Amber wants to be around him. She can talk to him. Actually make a conversation like they used to do. And I don't want to take that away from her. She needs that. And you know, this way I actually know that he is not pulling any crap on her again, so yeah he will stay at my house as long as he is in Seattle. And I am going to stay here because even if he was sick, even if he says that he has changed, the things he has done haven't just been erased."
"Okay." Mark muttered and and just lovingly caressed her cheek, wishing he could make all this pain stop.
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And for the first time Natalie stayed over for breakfast too. After a long phone call with Amber to make sure that everything was okay and that someone could drop her off at school, she stayed with Mark in bed for a little longer and then they went over at Callie's apartment for breakfast.
"I always knew that Wallace's parents were wealthy, but not $25-million wealthy. I mean, that's libraries named after you kind of money, saved babies in Africa and has dinner at the White House regularly type money." Arizona was taking about one of her patients and how his parents gave her money to the hospital to find the cure for their son's illness.
"People don't give me that kind of money." Mark grumbled. "You have an unfair advantage. You work with children." Natalie handed him his plate of breakfast and sat down next to him with a cup of coffee in her hand. She never eat much for breakfast, only when Amber would whine that she was only drinking coffee and that she was going to die young because there would be no blood running in her veins but caffeine. Amber knew how to make it dramatic.
"Maybe I should start doing more cleft-palate kids. Everyone's a sucker for those." Mark commented and Natalie rolled his eyes at how ridiculous he could be. "Eat something." he said and attacked her with an egg toast, trying to get her to take a bite.
"My coffee is fine." Natalie moved her head away and Mark gave up.
"Cheese omelette, extra butter, cinnamon toast, crispy bacon." Callie was in the kitchen preparing breakfast for everyone. Arizona next to her helping her.
"Mine!" Cristina called out as she walked out of her room.
"$25 million is pretty cool, right?" Arizona couldn't shake off her mind those news.
"Best birthday gift ever." Natalie commented, still remembering Arizona's birthday.
"Birthday gift?" Callie asked surprised.
"Her birthday's on Friday... Do I not remember correctly?" Natalie wondered and looked at Arizona, she knew that she wasn't a big fan of her birthday, but it still mattered.
"How does Nat know about your birthday and I don't?" Callie wondered.
"We went to med school together." Natalie reminded her. "She was my only collage friend. We were hanging out on Sundays when I took Amber to the playground. She also dated my sister."
"They were doing more than just that, but they're not talking about it." Mark commented, not getting over the kiss the two women had shared.
"Grow up!" Natalie hit his shoulder playfully.
"Birthdays are just days like any other days. I don't like them. Don't celebrate them. No big deal. $25 million? That's a big deal." Arizona commented and then she looked at the time. "Crap. I'm gonna be late. I will see you there." She kissed her girlfriend goodbye and left.
"Okay, she's downplaying it, right?" Callie wondered as Owen also joined them, having a relationship with the only resident in the room, he was also around the house a lot. "I'm her girlfriend. I have to do something for her birthday, right?"
"Yes."
"No." Owen and Cristina said at the same time.
"Of course you do." Natalie said. "But maybe not something big. But, you know, the last time I was with her on her birthday was 10 years ago. Maybe she wants a surprise party now, I don't know."
"Bad idea. Surprise parties are hostile. They're dark. People jump out and scream at you. They never come to any good."
Natalie frowned her eyebrows at her boyfriend's comment, but soon let go of it. "Oh hey Owen, how's our situation going?" She asked him.
"I'm working on it. I think I found someone you'll be pleased with." Owen replied to her.
"What situation?" Cristina asked.
"Attendings stuff."
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It was a pretty busy day at the hospital, and Natalie was already on her second surgery for the day and she had a long way to go. "Dr. Turner, they're paging you in O.R. one. The patient has an air embolus in her heart." A nurse told Natalie as her pager was going off in the O.R.
"Okay, I'm not even done here." Natalie commented. "Cristina, go tell them I'll be there as soon as possible. And be ready, because you're gonna do the procedure when I get there."
"Really?" Cristina asked surprised.
"I said I'd teach you Cristina, this is me teaching you."
10 minutes later Natalie was running from one O.R. to the other. But the situation in that O.R was not even close to pleasant. "Opening the left chest." Cristina said, ready to do the procedure Natalie told her that she was going to do, but only when she got there.
"Dr. Yang, put down that scalpel! Cristina!" Owen ordered.
"Scissors."
"Cristina, Cristina!"
"I'm here." Natalie called out oblivious of what was happening. "There's no one around, I need a good cardio attending, seriously." She commented and then she looked at what Cristina was doing. "What the hell are you doing Yang?"
"It's done. I'm done. Air embolus out." Cristina said and put the scalpel down. And damn Natalie was mad.
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"What did I tell you Cristina?" Outside in the scrub room, Natalie was yelling at Cristina.
"The patient was crashing." Cristina argued.
"Did I or did I not tell you to wait for me?" Natalie repeated the question.
"It was a procedure I've done before. I handled it, and she's fine."
"Yeah, but what if she wasn't? You could've lacerated the heart or cut the phrenic nerve. She could've died on that table." Natalie yelled. "You wanted me to be your teacher. And if you're not willing to listen to me, I am not teaching you. Maybe you should find a new cardio attending, huh?"
"You don't mean that, right?" And Cristina got nervous for the first time. " You can't abandon me too. You're the best cardio attending this hospital ever had. I need you."
"Seems to me like you're already know what you're doing."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"This girl, I swear. I've been trying to show her everything I know, but I can't teach her manners. I have a teenager daughter to monitor. I don't need another one." Natalie rambled during lunch at Mark.
"Seems to me that you actually want to make her a better doctor and person." Mark pointed out as he stole a fry from her plate.
"I seriously don't." Natalie shook her head, still mad. She did want to teach Cristina, she loved teaching, but the resident was bringing out a whole new lever of anger in her and she didn't want to handle that type of stress. That's why I asked Hunt if he knows any good cardio surgeons. Every case comes through me and if I actually want to make my clinical trial work I need someone good."
"You're still considering the job offer?" Mark asked confused.
"I forgot to tell you, didn't I? They will make a deal with Seattle Grace Mercy West, so I can work from here. They did want me, and I wasn't going to leave, so..." She informed him.
"I'm proud of you."
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"I look hideous with this hat." Natalie commented wanting to scratch the birthday hat she was wearing off her head. A day later, Callie had gathered all Arizona's friends from the hospital for a surprise party.
"Have you looked yourself in the mirror?" Mark almost rolled his eyes at her at the use of the word hideous.
"Yeah, and I look hideous with this hat." Natalie insisted.
"Turner, I swear" Mark raised his voice a bit, "you could never, no matter how much you tried, look anything less than beautiful."
"I'm sleeping with you, you can stop with the compliments." Natalie chuckled.
"Never." He pecked her lips.
"She's coming." Someone called out and the lights turned off and everyone stayed quiet.
"Surprise!" Everyone screamed when Arizona unlocked the door and turned the lights on. "Happy-" Callie tried to speak.
But Arizona already had tears in her eyes and her face was all red. "I... I...um..." She struggled to speak. "I... I..." And then she ran away.
"Told ya." Mark commented and Natalie sighed wondering what was wrong with her friend.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
𝟘𝟞𝕩𝟘𝟡
Few more days later, Natalie was with Bailey and the chief when Cristina ran up to them, trying to get them to speak about the new cardio attending that was in the hospital. The one Natalie had requested. Teddy Altman. She was in the army along with Owen and he had promised her that she was really good. And Natalie trusted him, and she was right to. Because the previous day she had met Teddy and she was very pleased with having her on her team. "The chief has an emergency cardio situation. The new attending doesn't even know how to put in a temporary pacemaker." The three of them looked at Cristina unimpressed. Cristina was not easy to please. And since Natalie had been ignoring her a lot lately, she wasn't sure how to react.
"Yang, this woman was in the army saving more people than you ever will." Natalie spoke up. "I wanted a good cardio attending and I got one. So maybe, just maybe she's not the problem, and you are." She snapped at her.
"R... right." Cristina stuttered taken aback.
"So go torture the new attending." Bailey added.
"Sir." Cristina looked at the chief for help.
"Yang, do as Bailey says." The chief sighed and Cristina quickly left.
"And you are due in surgery."
"Bailey, what would I do without you?" he asked her.
"Let's hope you never have to find out." Bailey commented and the moment the chief left, his wife showed up and she looked really angry.
"Hey, is your trauma patient stable for skin grafting? The one with the pancreatic duct rupture." Callie and Mark joined them.
"Miranda." The chief's wife remarked.
"Oh, Adele. Oh, I'm so sorry. I sent the chief into surgery. Do you want me to..."
But Adele cut her off. "What I want is for you to tell me the truth. Are you having an affair with my husband?" The three attendings shared a look and Natalie took a step back, not wanting to get caught in the middle of it. "I saw the way you handled him just now."
"I did not handle him. I j ... There was no handle ... we work together." Bailey stuttered, not really expecting to hear something like that.
"You spend every waking moment together. You finish each other's sentences. You read each other's minds. You're more married to that man than I am."
"Yeah, but that's just because they're husband and work-wife." Callie spoke up, trying to help Bailey.
"Excuse me?" Miranda hissed at her, not really seeing how that was helping the situation.
"The chief's your work-husband, and you're his work-wife. You look out for each other. You take care of each other. There's nothing wrong with it. It's like me and Sloan. And Natalie with Shepherd." Callie continued and Natalie made a face at the sound of her being married with Derek.
"Excuse me?" Mark asked.
"Nobody's talking to you." Callie told him. "He's my work-husband, but he has a girlfriend, and I have a girlfriend, but there's nothing going on between us." She added.
"I mean, there was at one point..." Mark said.
"You're not helping." Natalie commented.
"Neither one of you are helping. Adele, I promise you, there is nothing going on." Bailey said, she had never thought of the chief that way. He was her mentor.
"Something is going on, because he hasn't been in his bed all week." Adele informed them.
"Really?" Mark asked, suddenly interested in the conversation.
"The last time he acted like this... disappearing, sleeping at the hospital every night... He was with Ellis Grey. He may not be having an affair with you..."
"He's not. I promise you. I promise you, he's not." Bailey cut her off.
"Okay. But wife-wife to work-wife, someone is this hospital is sleeping with our husband."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
On the way to lunch, Mark couldn't stop talking about the latest gossip to Natalie. "You don't think it's Bailey?" He asked her.
"No."
"Really? I kinda like them together. Who do you think it is?" He insisted even Natalie was uninterested in the conversation.
"I don't really care." Natalie rolled her eyes and took a seat at the table Callie and Arizona were already eating lunch.
"What are you guys talking about?" Arizona asked them.
"Oh, you haven't heard. The chief's having an..."
"Mark, you are a terrible gossip." Natalie cut him off. She hated gossip, she couldn't see the point of it.
"I'm an excellent gossip." Mark commented.
"Hey, mind if we join you?" Owen said a minute later a tall blonde standing next to him. The one everyone knew at Teddy, the new cardio attending.
"No, have a seat." Natalie smiled politely. "How's your first day going? You ready to go back to Baghdad yet?" She joked.
"I'm actually really impressed..." Teddy admitted. "The facility, the equipment, the calibre of the residents."
"Have you met Cristina Yang yet?" Arizona asked.
"Mm. Cristina Yang may in fact be the best resident I've ever seen." Teddy confessed.
"You think?" Owen asked happy to hear that for his girlfriend.
"Yeah, I do. I don't think she likes me, but yeah."
"Ooh. She doesn't like you?" Mark asked.
"Mark." Natalie gave him a look.
"No, you're probably right. Just because Yang drove off the last three cardio attendings doesn't mean..."
"She did not. I'm still here." Natalie cut Mark off for the third time in the last five minutes.
"Burke? Hahn?" Mark reminded her.
"She had nothing to do with Hahn leaving." Owen said.
"Nope, that was me." Callie commented.
"Dixon?" Mark said.
"It was not Cristina's fault. And Natalie was out for a while, so you know." Owen defended his girlfriend.
"Cristina?" Teddy asked, realising that something was going on by the way he said her name. "Huh. Wow. So ... so you and Yang? What happened to you and Beth?"
"Oh, he didn't tell you? Beth showed up at the hospital one day. She didn't even know he was-"
"Ow! Did you just kick me?" Mark looked at Natalie.
"That was me." Arizona smiled pleased at herself.
"You deserved that." Natalie told him.
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Later that evening, Natalie had returned home to see her daughter a bit and get ready for a date night with Mark. She was in her room fixing her hair when Amber found her. She tried to decide whether to let her natural waves down or put her down in a low bun.
"Hey mom." Amber entered her room. "Are you leaving?" She asked noticing the black dress she was wearing and her heels.
"I have a date with Mark." Natalie informed her. "Did you need something, because I could totally cancel it."
"No, no." Amber argued. "Go out, have fun. I get why you don't want to be home, at all. And thank you for letting dad stay. I wanted to talk you about him actually."
"What about your dad?" Natalie turned her full attention to her daughter, not caring about her hair anymore. "Did he do something? Because I swear I'll put the tumor right up his a–"
"Mom." Amber exclaimed. "He hasn't done anything. He seems different. Good different. Do you think that he has actually changed?" Amber wondered, not able to fully trust him yet. "I mean, the last few days he has been just like he was before... Before everything. And I wonder you know. Is it just because he's still in pain? Or because he regrets everything?"
Natalie took a seat at the edge of her bed, Amber following her. She took a deep breath, gaining a few seconds to compose her thoughts. She didn't want Amber to grow up hating her father. "I think your father has been through a lot lately. After everything he did. And I want to think that he is trying for you. And just because I can't be around him. That I can't forgive him, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't either. You've been with him a lot lately, what does your gut tell you?"
"That he wants to be my father again. That he wants to try."
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When the mother-daughter conversation was over, Natalie walked downstairs ready to leave, since Mark was waiting for her outside. They were going out to a museum for a night tour and then for dinner. The museum was Natalie's ideas. She loved history and art and she always wanted to tour a museum while it was dark outside. And Mark loved the idea of kissing in the empty corridors, so he went along with it.
That night Isaac was sitting at the couch, waiting for Amber so they could catch a movie. There wasn't much he could do after the surgery, but at least he could walk on his own. "Are you going out?" He asked when he noticed her all dressed up. He hadn't really seen her around the house, so he tried to make conversation with her.
"Yeah." Natalie replied shortly and reached for her coat in the hanger behind the front door. She put a red coat over a black dress she was wearing.
"Is this the coat I bought you on your 30th birthday?" He asked.
"No." Natalie tried to not ruin her mood, because she was really excited for her date night with Mark. But she had just realised how bad of an idea it was to have Isaac around her again so much. But there wasn't a thing she wouldn't do for her daughter.
"But it looks exactly like that coat. You really loved that. You bought a bunch of new clothes just so they could match with the dress." He reminded her.
"It's not the coat you have bought, because I gave that one away, exactly like everything else you've given me." Natalie snapped. She looked at herself in the mirror that was close to the door and fixed her hair, trying to seem unfazed by him.
"Right. Sorry." Isaac looked at the other side, giving her a moment. Then he got up slowly from the couch, walking towards her. "Are you going out with that Mark guy?" He asked again, resulting Natalie to glare at him. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to be noisy. I was just making conversation. I mean, I've been staying at your house and I've barely said anything to you other than yes or no when you ask me about my meds."
Natalie shook her head almost laughing at herself with the irony. "Funny, isn't it? That I am letting you stay at my house when the last time you were in here, you took my daughter away from me."
Isaac stopped few feet away from her, knowing that Natalie wouldn't want him closer to her. He leaned against the wall and he just looked at her, as she kept her eyes at the mirror, looking at herself instead. "You're just a better person than I ever was." He said softly.
"Yeah, you got that right."
"Natalie, I am sorry."
"Isaac, I can't-" She looked at him for the first time, but she quickly looked away, only his face causing her pain.
"No, I know you don't want to hear this." He interrupted her, knowing exactly what she was going to say. "But please know that I regret everything. I wasn't myself the last two years. I wasn't... When someone asks 'who's the nicest person you know' the answer certainly isn't me. I am very selfish and my therapist calls me self destructive. The word asshole is more preferable. But I want to be a good father for Amber and I don't know how if you can't forgive me. How can I be in her life if her own mother can't even look me in the eyes for more than two seconds?"
"How could I ever forgive you?" She looked back at him again. "You want to be in Amber's life? That's fine. I wished for that more times than you tried to be in it." She scoffed. "But for me to forgive you? I don't see the reason I have to when you'll be all the way to San Francisco."
"And what if I want to move to Seattle?" He asked and Natalie almost gasped at the idea.
Silence fell between them and they were just staring at each other. Natalie wanted to ask if he was joking, but the words could not be formed properly. And then the doorbell rang and Natalie just turned around opening it only to see Mark standing there. "What's taking you so long?" He asked and then he smiled when he truly looked at her. "God, you look amazing." He kissed her cheek, making her smile softly. His eyes then fell on Isaac, only then noticing him. "Oh hey."
"Hey man." Isaac waved his hand awkwardly.
"Okay, I am going to make popcorn." Amber exclaimed as she ran down the stairs. "Oh you're still here." She said when she saw her mother. "Hey Mark." She smiled at him and tried to stay unfazed by the icy atmosphere in the room. "I got an A on biology." She shared the news with him.
"Good job!" Mark high fived her. "But hey, if you need help I'm always available. It's going to be easier now that we will be all staying together." Natalie tried to get Mark to stop talking, because she hadn't talked with Amber yet. And because she didn't want her ex husband to know what she was doing in her life. Even though the only reason Mark said that was because he wanted to show Isaac that he had completely lost Natalie.
But Amber had no idea and Natalie was mostly worried about that. "We're gonna do what?" Amber asked taken aback and she looked at her mother confused.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
ʜᴇʟʟᴏ! ʜᴏᴡ'ꜱ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ?
ʟᴇᴛ'ꜱ ᴛᴀʟᴋ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪꜱ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ ɴᴇxᴛ. ᴀɴʏ ɪᴅᴇᴀꜱ?