- - -
we'll try again and we'll fail again because that's what progress looks like. progress looks like a bunch of failures.
- - -
"oh, joanne, this is why you and i need to get sick, these doctors," elaine gushes, as richard, mark, lia and alex all enter connie's room.
"one's more handsome than the next," joanne grins.
"oh, and here comes the handsomest one of them all," connie says. "hi, dr. webber."
"connie," richard greets.
"he took my appendix out three years ago. barely left a scar," connie informs her friends. "how's adele? and your daughter?"
"um, oh, she's good. good," richard mumbles. "and my daughter is now our head of cardio. in fact she's right here."
"oh my goodness, how beautiful," connie beams, and mark smiles slightly to himself at her words, from where he stands behind lia. "it's lovely to meet you. how are you, dear?"
"the pleasure's all mine," lia smiles at connie. "but more importantly; how are you doing?"
"oh, i just had a little bump on my tongue removed is all," connie tries to brush it off. "couple of taste buds. turns out it was a little touch of cancer. so i'm here to have the rest of it out. i mean, you know, the cancer, not the taste buds. i don't know exactly how bad it is because dr. sloan over there has been awfully quiet."
"'cause you don't let him get a word in edgewise is why," joanne chuckles.
"uh, how is she, dr. sloan?" richard turns to mark.
"well, we just got back the pathology report," mark explains. "connie, unfortunately, the cancer is a bit more widespread than we'd hoped. it's over sixty percent of your tongue."
"well, what- what does she do, chemo?" joanne asks.
"i think the, uh, best bet is a micro-vascular free flap," mark suggests. "dr. webber?"
"uh, he'll remove the cancerous part of the tongue, and then reconstruct it with a strip of flesh from your legs," lia explains. "karev?"
"the extra flesh will provide the bulk your tongue needs to breathe properly, chew, swallow," alex adds.
"and talk?" connie asks, hopefully. "dr. sloan... i'll be able to talk, won't i?"
"you'll be able to talk, connie," mark tells her, before pausing. "i just don't know how well you'll be understood."
■ ■ ■
"so, do you fancy getting a drink tonight?" mark asks lia as they're stood at the nurses station. "as friends, of course."
"mark..." lia trails off.
"friends," mark repeats, stepping closer to her. "friends go out for drinks together, all the time, without having sex."
"just drinks, no sex?"
"just drinks," mark confirms with a smirk. "no sex."
"no sex," she repeats, leaning slightly into mark.
"functional muscle transfer," richard announces, approaching the nurses station, causing lia to step back from mark.
"what?" mark asks, regathering his flustered thoughts.
"for connie williams," richard explains. "i was reading up on glossectomies and saw the procedure. could micro-surgically re-innervate her hypo-glossal nerve."
"a nerve graft?" mark raises his eyebrow at the idea. "it's too risky. a free flap's still your best bet."
"oh, even if that goes well, you and i both know she'll never speak the same," richard argues. "that woman loves to talk more than anyone i know."
"what's a functional muscle transfer?" lia asks.
"you won't find it in the books, alivia. it's cutting edge," richard boasts. "you connect the nerves from the leg with the nerves from the tongue. gives her a shot of really speaking."
"if it works," mark adds. "they've only done half a dozen of them."
"better than none," richard shrugs. "sometimes you gotta push the envelope, sloan."
"why?" lia queries. "why is it better to do a surgery that neither of you have done than to do a surgery that you know at least gives her a chance to have a normal life? do you know how to do this procedure?"
"are you saying we're too old to learn new ways, alivia?" richard raises his brow at his daughter.
"no."
"are you saying we're old dogs who can't learn new tricks?" richard asks.
"no, i just-" she begins.
"we're not old dogs," mark cuts her off.
"we still got it," richard reinforces.
"okay," she shrugs.
"i did do a functional muscle transfer to restore elbow function once," mark informs the chief.
"elbow, tongue... that's pretty close," richard encourages. "come on. what do you say? let's light this candle."
"yes, sir," mark nods.
"age is just a number, alivia," richard says.
"oh, yes, sir," she rolls her eyes as mark and her father walk away.
■ ■ ■
"he's killing me," lia groans, as she and callie lie next to each other on one of the on call room beds. "he's literally killing me."
"sloan?" callie asks.
"i'm trying to be his friend," she sighs. "i'm really really trying. but he's so pretty. so so pretty. and he's mark. and he just sucks me in. would it be so bad if i-"
"no!" callie cuts her off.
"would it be so bad if i slept with him?" she finishes what she was going to say. "just once. get it all out of my system. and then we can carry on our lives as just friends."
"as your best friend," callie begins her lecture. "i strongly advise against this. and i can honestly say that nothing good will come from you sleeping with sloan."
"i just miss sex," she groans.
"well if you're that desperate," callie teases, rolling over to face her, and both girls burst into a fit of giggles.
- - -
and you're going to have feelings about that because it's sad, but you cannot fall apart.
- - -
"so how did your functional muscle transfer go?" lia asks mark, taking a seat opposite him in a booth at joe's.
"let's just say, i've still got it," mark smirks, trying to show off to his ex.
"really?" she challenges, and he nods. "because derek told me he had to come in and save both your asses."
"well, it wasn't so much a save, as it was a guide in the right direction," mark attemps to recover.
"i'm sure it was, dr. sloan," she giggles, whilst he smiles, watching the brunette sat across from him.
- - -
and then one day, we will succeed and save a person's life and we will walk on the moon.
- - -