season 4 episode 9 - 10
cristina and veronica were dancing around meredith's bedroom, the latter standing in the doorway staring.
"you're not dancing," veronica called.
"i'm too tense to dance," meredith replied.
"which is why we're dancing," cristina reminded.
"duh!" veronica exclaimed.
meredith ignored them, "my problem is, i'm sleeping with a man who's dating. and i don't care if he dates sydney. it's the woman he dates after sydney, that's my problem. and if i had any sense at all, i would break up with the breakup sex. there would be no more breakup sexing. if i had any sense-"
"shut up! dance it out," cristina interrupted.
meredith joined in
"you know, i'm gonna tell him. i don't want him seeing other people," meredith decided.
"good. fine. whatever," veronica responded.
"i'm gonna tell him, and i feel good about it."
"dancing makes you brave," cristina told.
meredith nodded, "and ronnie, you should tell your nurse how you feel?"
"and how's that?"
"that you're basically in love with them and want to date them properly," cristina informed.
veronica stopped dancing, "shut up."
then she continued. izzie stood in the doorway, watching them dance before sighing and walking away. none of them had spotted her before she left.
---
lexie found veronica at the front of a group of interns and residents, watching mark explain the case to them all.
"where were you?" she muttered.
"alex-"
"nuff said."
nick hanscomb was their patient.
"nick was lucky enough to have me remove a large carotid body tumor from his neck." mark pulled off the bandage, showing the room nick's neck. "the fact that i was able to get clean boundaries is pretty darn impressive, even for me," mark bragged.
"congratulations," alex complimented.
"don't interrupt," mark snapped back. veronica held back a laugh. "now despite the fact that it was a wildly successful surgery, we had to dissect out deep lymph nodes in his neck. there is now only a delicate flap of skin between his carotid artery and the outside world. that said, what am i worried about?"
"i would think given the friability of the skin, that there's a great possibility that the, um, the artery could blow?" veronica spoke up, her face morphing into one of worry.
"right."
nick noticed veronica's face fall as she spoke, "oh, don't worry. i've-i've heard this before."
veronica smiled slightly.
"if that happens, whoever's in the room, i don't care if it's a doctor, a nurse, an orderly, your job is to stop the bleeding then page me, in that order. are we clear? any questions?" mark announced.
"they look scared," nick voiced.
"they're medical professionals, nick. a healthy level of fear is encouraged," mark reassured.
"okay, then, uh, if i do die, it will have been lovely meeting you all," he spoke, his gaze falling to lexie and then veronica.
"see? the patient is confident. you should be confident. that's it."
---
veronica heard the news quickly, an ambulance had been overturned. the doors were stuck and meredith was out there dealing with it. veronica knew meredith was a caring person and this wasn't going to go well. she also wasn't in a good place. no one could honestly deal with it well, not even cristina, who wasn't as cold as people thought. things still got to her. things got to everyone in the hospital, she noticed this sort of thing.
"how am i doing?" nick asked, as veronica checked his vitals. lexie was watching, meant to be learning herself as well. veronica was the one checking as there was still the chance his artery blew and she didn't want that sort of stress to be on lexie, not this early on.
"strong and stable."
"strong and stable? two words that have never been used to describe me. ever," nick joked.
"you're a pretty girl," he blurted. "i mean both of you are. i hope you don't think that's rude. i'm just... i haven't been allowed to notice that kind of thing for a while. now i'm allowed."
veronica raised a brow, "you're allowed to notice prettiness?"
"i'm allowed to notice, uh, other women," he corrected. veronica went to check his temperature. "women other than my girlfriend. my now, uh, ex girlfriend."
"i'm sorry," lexie spoke up.
"yeah, giant neck tumours weren't her thing."
veronica frowned, "she left you because of the tumour?"
"no, of course not. no. she left me because, uh, i didn't make her laugh anymore and she had just lost that loving feeling," he lied.
"she left you because of the tumor. that sucks," veronica sympathised.
"yep. you seeing anyone? i'm... i'm just making conversation. my artery's exposed, you know, which kind of limits my game," nick joked.
lexie nodded, "yeah. i kind of am."
"same here," veronica added.
"nice guy?"
"yeah, he is. well, he's kind of, um, he's kind of a nice guy disguised as a jerk," lexie informed.
"oh, yeah, i-i know that type. my- my girlfriend was a ... nice girl, disguised as a vapid narcissist. but then it turned out she really was just a vapid narcissist," nick quipped.
"ouch," veronica laughed.
"what about you, dr jennings?"
"veronica. and yeah, he's sweet. he's kind of the same. nice guy disguised as a jerk except he's never a jerk to me."
"so you really like these guys? even though he doesn't have a super cool exposed carotid artery?"
they both told him they did.
"well, nick, you just hit on two doctors at once, so you can add that to a list of some sorts," veronica joked.
---
veronica never realised just how quickly things spread around the hospital, but when one of the nurses was telling her about the guy with a swastika tattooed across his torso, and that cristina was his doctor. he had apparently resisted dr bailey and the chief treating him, and now she realised why. he was a literal nazi. he wanted a white doctor.
veronica was livid, which was an understatement, but bailey decided cristina was the best choice as she wasn't black but she wasn't white. veronica let the nurse gossip, expressing her rage with the patient, and how glad she was that she didn't have to deal with him.
she felt bad for cristina though, she was jewish, and there she was, having to treat someone who wanted her dead, or at least agreed with the people that did. it was disgusting.
it was then that nurse olivia interrupted the conversation, telling her that nick wanted to see her.
"hey. nurse olivia said you needed to see me. are you okay?" veronica greeted as she walked through the door.
"my book is bad, and i hate daytime television, and all my friends are at work," he told.
"yeah, well, i'm at work, too. i have interns that i'm supposed to be teaching things. the others are pretty shit teachers, so i gotta make up for that," she joked.
"you can- you can learn about my artery and then feed it back to them. you can never know too much about arteries, right?" she raised her brows. he sighed, "come on. i have no one to talk to."
"fine, but i'm taking your vitals again," she agreed. she grabbed her stethoscope.
"okay. so, uh, you want to help me plot my revenge?" nick questioned.
veronica chuckled, "girlfriend?"
"here's what i'm thinking. i page her here, and then, uh, you know, i'm all, like, 'i'm dying, and i just need to gaze at your beauty one last time,' and then, and then she gets here, and i flash her the artery," he informed.
"it's mean," veronica replied.
"right?"
"i like it. you're good at this revenge thing and that's coming from me."
"okay, can you get me a phone?"
she agreed, going to grab it.
---
once she had entertained nick enough, she was able to join lexie in the viewing gallery for mark and hahn's surgery. she sat next to lexie, doing a slight double take as she realised the woman next to her was ava, or rebecca. the woman was going on about them being 'god's mechanics' while veronica was cursing alex with her entire energy because she realised she had to somehow tell lexie who rebecca was without causing a scene. she took a second and decided she'd do it later. she'd at least let her enjoy the surgery.
alex was her best friend, but she had to stick by her fellow woman. and what he was doing to lexie wasn't exactly fair. anyone could see that the intern had feelings for him.
rebecca turned to lexie, "so you're a surgeon?"
"surgical intern, first year. this is veronica, she's actually my resident, she teaches me. what about you?" lexie responded, gesturing to veronica who sent rebecca a slight smile, knowing the woman already knew her.
"oh, um, i'm not actually supposed to be here. the guy that i'm. ... i'm, you know," rebecca stuttered.
"your... your husband?"
"no. no, no, not my husband. the guy that... anyways, i'm just... i wanted to see him operate," rebecca stumbled around her words.
veronica raised an eyebrow, she could at least own the fact she was having an affair since it was pretty obvious she was. she still had the ring on for god sake.
"oh, dr sloan. oh, i get it." lexie started, causing veronica to tense up slightly next to her, feeling weird at the idea of him with someone else. she sighed, knowing that they never made themselves exclusive and that rebecca was definitely not seeing him. "no, no, i'm not judging. i mean, he's kind of insanely hot."
veronica hated feeling jealous. plus, it was lexie, and all she said was that he was hot, which he was.
rebecca shook her head, and chuckled, "i mean he is, but i'm not- i'm not with him. i'm with..." she glanced around, point to alex. "him." lexie's face fell. "do you know him?"
"no. no, i-i don't know him at all."
veronica was going to kick alex's ass, kill him, bring him back and then kill him again for the look on lexie's face and the way her energy plummeted. she looked like a kicked puppy and she was pissed off that alex was playing her like that. yes, they weren't exclusive, and yes, they were just having sex, but lexie was quite obviously someone who felt a lot.
veronica held out her hand, grabbing lexie's and giving it a squeeze. she kept her eyes front, leaning slightly to the side, "he's not worth it, babes. plus he gave an sti to like half the hospital once."
lexie let out a laugh.
veronica smiled, glad she'd cheered her up slightly.
"you can do better," she assured.
---
the whole ordeal had left veronica feeling a little blue. the jealousy she felt at the idea of mark being with other people, and the fact that she hated lexie for even a second for thinking about mark that way. but she didn't know they were together, if they were together, that was still unspoken about. plus the way lexie looked when she found out alex was seeing someone else. it was enough to ruin her mood.
she walked back into nick's room, smiling weakly.
"hey," he greeted.
"hi."
"you, uh, checking in on me again?"
"yep."
"will you call me strong and stable again?"
"let's hope."
he stared at her for a second, "what's wrong with you?"
veronica turned to him, plastering a fake smile on, "what makes you think something's wrong?"
"well, your cheeks are all flushed, which they- they weren't earlier. is it creeping you out, how observant i am? i'm sorry. it's the boredom, i'm telling you."
veronica let out a slight chuckle, "men are the worst you know. you remember lexie's- the guy she was seeing? he turned out to-"
"to just be a jerk."
"yes. and i'm friends with him and i hate that he made her feel that way and i wanna fight him or kill him or both. and i felt jealous because of something someone said about my boyfriend and i hate that i hated her for a second because she doesn't know and she's my friend and that's such a terrible thing to feel and-"
veronica was so preoccupied by her rant, she didn't notice her slip. she didn't notice what she called mark.
"maybe don't admit you're going to kill him."
"you heard nothing."
"and i think she'll forgive you for being jealous, you can't control that."
veronica nodded, "i guess not."
"well, you want me to help you plot your revenge on the jerk that hurt your friend?" he offered.
veronica smiled, moving to check his artery, "okay but it's gotta be big. but not physical injury big."
she began changing his dressing.
"okay. here's what i'm thinking. you convince her to go out with me. just like that. bam! she has a new boyfriend. and he'll be all, 'what's he got that i don't have?' and she'll be all, 'carotid artery. exposed! top that, loser.' and he'll be all, 'i can't- i can't top that. no. i am a loser.'"
as he laughed, his artery burst. veronica gasped, springing into action. she was covered in blood already but she grabbed the closest thing she could that could to stop the bleeding.
nick was wriggling about, in pain.
"stop, hold still!" veronica yelled.
he did as she said.
"okay. that's it. i got it. it stopped. i got it."
nick looked to her, "holy crap. my artery blew."
"no shit your artery blew."
"i didn't think that would happen," he admitted. "i mean, i thought it was something that the doctors say might happen because they have to, but i didn't think that it would really happen."
veronica nodded, letting out a breath, "me neither."
veronica realised in that moment she had an artery that would cause him to bleed out that had burst and no way to reach her page or the call button.
"nick, can you reach your call button?" she asked, as calmly as possible but she knew there was still a shake to her voice.
"i think so."
he began reaching.
"no, no, no. don't move that much," veronica yelled when the blood spurted out once more. his arm was still outstretched. "okay. can you reach your phone without moving very much?"
he followed her instructions, getting it.
"dial eight."
"is that eight?" he sought as he followed her orders.
"okay. put it to my ear."
he did that.
she almost sighed in relief when she heard one of the nurses speak over the phone.
"hi, this is dr jennings. mr hanscomb's artery just blew. can you page dr sloan for me please? and dr yang? i'm also going to go ahead and call this a code blue, just in case. can you announce that please? thank you so much."
she instructed him to drop the phone.
"code blue. that means i'm dead, right? that's what they call when people go, like, flatline."
veronica shook her head, "we have the bleeding under control at the moment. i figured we could use all the help we could get."
veronica sighed in relief when people entered, immediately going to work in handing more blood and helping stabilise nick as much as possible.
"how you doing veronica?"
"i'm okay. are you okay?"
"i'm a little freaked out if i'm being honest," he revealed. "mostly because you look like carrie at the prom. but seriously, you're wearing like half my blood."
"which is why we're some hanging more."
cristina entered.
"oh thank god you're here cristina, i paged dr sloan but he's not answered and there are no or's."
veronica glanced to nick.
"tyler? you should run and get some more blood, just in case, okay?" veronica spoke.
tyler nodded.
"thank you."
cristina handed veronica something to keep her hands from slipping, "apply pressure, i'll get sloan. you can do this. you're doing this."
veronica was doing her best to keep nick talking but he was starting to feel weak and sick.
"i think the bleeding has stopped," veronica muttered.
"how you doing, nick?" sloan asked as he entered.
veronica relaxed slightly.
"oh, dr sloan. it's dr sloan," nick muttered out.
veronica turned to sloan, "i think the bleeding stopped."
sloan addressed nick, "you okay?"
"do i- do i look okay?"
"actually, you do. sweetheart, it looks like you got the bleeding under control."
"so it could have been the herald bleed? so there's a possibility of it bleeding again?"
"yes, but it won't, 'cause i'm gonna get it closed up before it does."
"there's no or," veronica and nick announced at the same time.
"there will be in ten minutes. dr jennings, get a pressure dressing on this wound. dr yang, get him prepped for transfer, and straight to or three. i'm gonna make sure it's cleared out. you did good work, ronnie," mark ordered.
"thank you."
nick turned to veronica as mark left, "hey. i'm in love with you now. i've forgotten entirely about my ex and your friend. how about you ditch your man?"
"inappropriate," she sing-songed.
nick began speaking again to veronica about how he didn't have the feeling he was going to die, so he couldn't. then the artery began bleeding again and he stopped responding.
he had a stroke.
"shit. shit," veronica exclaimed. she climbed onto the bed, holding his artery, blinking back tears.
cristina burst into the or, explaining nick's situation, before the bed came forward, showing the situation through the door. they were ordered to get him to a sterile procedure room.
veronica was still covered in nick's blood, watching the surgery.
"please live," she whispered. "come on nick."
he didn't live and veronica felt she owed it to him to stay with him. tyler was covering the body as someone else mopped the floors.
"are his parents coming?" she questioned.
tyler turned to her, "they're on a plane from california. you gonna wait?"
"yeah, i'm gonna wait. kinda feel like i owe it to him, y'know?"
tyler didn't say anything, only nodding in reply. it was no secret around the hospital that veronica cared a lot about her patients. sometimes a bit too much. it was her fatal flaw. it was the only thing that would stop her being a surgeon.
she changed into a new pair of scrubs so she wouldn't greet the parents covered in their sons dead blood.
she sat back where she was before, mark spotting her in the room alone. he walked in.
"you did good today," he began. "and it was not easy. what you did was not easy. it was brave."
veronica glanced up at him, "we killed him. the hospital, us, we were not prepared."
mark sighed, moving around the operating bed in the middle, he moved to sit next to her, "yeah, that happens sometimes."
she looked to him, teary eyed, "that's ... do you have any idea how backwards that is?"
"we help more than we hurt," he breathed.
she shook her head, "it still sucks that we can't help them all."
"yeah, it does sweetheart."
veronica turned to him, "you're feeling shit too, huh?"
"yeah."
she lent her head on his shoulder.
"well, you're insanely hot and i'm not the only one who thinks that," she quipped.
"i don't care what everyone else thinks, just you," he admitted.
she turned back to him, moving her head of his shoulder, smile on her face, "that's cheesy. but sweet, mark."
she kissed his cheek then his lips.
"i'm gonna have to be cheesy more often," he mumbled, pressing his lips to hers again.
they pulled back, mark opened his mouth to say something when the door opened. veronica pulled away, facing the person entering. it was lexie.
she was teary-eyed, "alex- he-"
veronica stood and nodded, "yeah, he's a jerk."
"and-"
"a massive asshole, who deserves to have his head shaved and his eyebrows."
lexie chuckled, "yeah." her face fell. "i have no one," she whispered, her voice breaking.
"you have me."
lexie nodded, eyes widening as veronica said that, before her face fell once more and the tears started flowing. veronica pulled her into a tight hug.
"i got you."
mark sat awkwardly behind the pair, not sure what to do or if lexie knew he was there.
"am i interrupting something?" lexie spoke between cries.
veronica rubbed her back, "no."
lexie pulled out of the hug, arms still around veronica, "wait, is dr sloan the nurse you're seeing?"
"um-"
she glanced back to mark who nodded, telling her he was okay with her telling lexie.
"yes but it's kind of a secret," she revealed. lexie nodded, agreeing to keep it a secret. "mark, i'm going to leave with lexie, are you-"
"me, callie and hahn are going for a drink at joe's."
---
veronica entered her home, meredith and cristina already there.
"hey, i bought supplies," she announced. she had left the door open for lexie to walk in. she waved her in, revealing herself to the other two who looked at her in disbelief. "she's got no one," she defended.
lexie smiled awkwardly and held up a bag of limes while veronica unpacked the tequila.
"i'm drinking. are you drinking lexie?" meredith asked.
lexie smiled properly, "yeah. a drink would be good."
so, the three drank and danced it out, george and izzie watching them as they did.
"come on, izzie," veronica called, seeing her in the doorway. "dance party."
george joined in too.
veronica grabbed lexie's arm, spinning her, the pair laughing, lexie was overjoyed that her sister was slowly accepting her and that maybe she wasn't as alone as she had thought.
a/n here's another chapter!! i really am trying to update more often i promise but turns out i am really bad at sticking to a schedule. anyway, i hope you enjoyed it despite the fact i update so sporadically. hopefully, i made up for it with some more lexie and veronica and a little extra mark and veronica.
also this story is number 3 in the mark sloan tag!! wtaf! i was not expecting that but thank you for reading!
:)