1.

“So how’s Derek?” Lexie asked rather nervously as she fiddled with the paper coffee cup in her hand, trying desperately to look at anything but Meredith.

Callie tried to concentrate on the chart that was laid out in front of her at the nurse’s station, but she couldn’t seem to hold back the snort that erupted from within her. It seemed to distract both Grey’s as they turned there attention from the awkward silence to the red faced Ortho sitting in front of them. Callie looked down at her chart then back up again with a humiliated look on her face, “uhh, I’m gonna…I’m going…bones!” Callie suddenly yelled out quite loudly as she jumped from her chair to gather her charts and other belongings into her arms, “that’s what I do around here…I’m the Orthopaedic, and I look after broken bones…so I’m um gonna go find some broken bones” Callie managed to stutter out and then scampered off.

Meredith and Lexie both stood in silence as they watched Callie disappear down the hallway; Lexie couldn’t help but shake her head at the woman she had come to consider a good friend after this whole ordeal. When Lexie managed to pull herself together and finally look Meredith in the eye she wasn’t greeted with a look on her sister’s face but rather her sister’s retreating back. Lexie sighed in defeat and shook her head, it had been four weeks since Derek and Mark’s fight and still neither one was talking to the other. Lexie hated not talking, she hated the fact that Mark and Derek weren’t talking, she hated the fact that she and Meredith were not talking and now even she and Derek were not talking. While Derek was till struggling to overcome his spout of self doubt everything else had changed and not for the better, now the four hardly even spoke…Lexie hated all of this because deep down, despite the fact that Mark never said it, she knew how much he was missing his best friend.

“Grey!” Lexie jumped at the sound of her name being called out and quickly turned on her heel to be greeted by Dr. Bailey.

“Grey you’re with Dr. Reid today…”

“Ahh…ex…excuse me, Dr. Reid…as in Dr. Jackson Reid, renown neurosurgeon...that Dr. Reid?” Lexie stuttered out as she cut off the attending.

Bailey stood there shaking her head in disbelief at the intern, “did I stutter Grey, do you know of another Jackson Reid walking down the halls of Seattle Grace?”

“No Dr…Dr. Bailey it’s just that, well….”

“Spit it out Grey we ain’t got all day because there are lives to be saved, patients who would like to live through the day to see tomorrow”.

“Isn’t Dr. Reid in Boston?” Lexie asked bluntly, knowing that Dr. Bailey was getting tired of the nervous act.

“He was, and he is, but unfortunately Dr. Shepherd’s patient requires a procedure that has only been preformed by 2 doctors in this entire country, if his ever going to have a chance at walking again. And it just so happens that Dr. Reid is one of them, so Dr. Shepherd put in a call and Dr. Reid agreed to take a look at the patient, to see if surgery is a viable option…so know he needs an intern and that intern is you, so GO!” Bailey barked, Miranda couldn’t help but shake her head and laugh as she watched Lexie run down the hallway. “I still got it” Miranda cheered herself on as she too made her way over to her patient.

“Where’s Dr. Shepherd?” Jackson Reid asked as he leant against the nurse’s station in front of Mark.

“How the hell should I know?” Mark snapped back, he was really starting to get frustrated because lately everyone was under the impression that Mark and Derek were ok, that they were back on neutral ground. But they weren’t, they were not ok and as far as Mark was concerned they wouldn’t be ok….at least not until Derek apologised.

Reid let out an awkward laugh at Mark’s reaction; while he may be the new guy around here he didn’t need a crystal ball to see that something was going on between Drs’ Sloan and Shepherd.

“Hey”, Callie jumped in before Reid could ask another question.

“Hey” Reid responded with a huge smile on his face because right know he was really happy to see a friendly face. “Dr. Jackson Reid, I’m a Neurosurgeon.”

At first Callie couldn’t help but notice how incredibly hot the man standing in front of her was, he looked like he belonged on the billboard of a Calvin Klein ad. He was tall, around Mark’s height and was built pretty well, but it was the face that did it, a chiselled jaw, piercing blue eyes. Callie hated to admit it but the guy practically looked like a walking, talking younger version of Mark Sloan…only without the grey hair. But then her careful appraisal of the man turned into a blank stare, because she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to a man whom who just declared himself as a Neurosurgeon, especially when there one was still a bit loopy....“Ahh Dr. Callie Torres and I am the Ortho surgeon around here”.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Dr. Torres” Reid responded while holding his hand out to shake Callie’s, “and I hope your having a wonderful day so far”.

Callie knew in that instant that she didn’t like this man because he had this flirty, sexy grin all over his face. Callie gave Mark a look that screamed who the hell is this guy? This only got a shrug from Mark. Turning her attention back to the new Neuro “well I am now officially a one woman woman, so I guess you could say I’m great” Callie replied with a huge dopey grin on her face.

Reid was now confused as hell and didn’t know what Callie was talking back. Mark saw the puzzled look on Reid’s face and couldn’t help but smirk at the situation. Mark enjoyed it when he had the inside scoop and others didn’t. “She’s referring to the fact that she’s dating the surgeon from Peds”.

“And he’s a she?” Reid asked, slowly putting the pieces together.

“Yep he’s a she, but no one knows yet. We’re kind of keeping it quite for now, the only ones that know are Mark and Lexie…well and you, but you can’t tell anyone” Callie quickly rambled on as she concentrated on the chart in front of her.

“Hey” Mark exclaimed as he quickly straightened his posture and pasted a huge cheesy grin on his face.

“Hey” Lexie quickly replied back with a smile on her face that could rival Mark’s. However her demeanour change the minute that her attention was turned to Dr. Reid and Mark couldn’t help but notice it. All of the sudden Lexie became quite fidgety and nervous…as if she was about ready to crawl out of her own skin and that was just from being around this guy for two seconds. “Dr. Reid I’ve been assigned to your services today”.

The instant that Lexie said those words Mark’s big cheesy grin turned into a huge frown, while Callie tried her hardest to keep a smile off her face. Mark didn’t like the way that Reid’s face lit up at the news that Lexie would be his intern…not one single bit. Reid on the other hand was actually looking forward to this, to have the chance to work alone with Dr. Grey without any interruptions. To find out what it was about this Mark Sloan that had tongues waging about the two of them, because try as he might Reid just couldn’t picture Dr. Grey with a guy like that. “Dr. Grey it’s a pleasure to have you on board, why don’t we go and check on our patient shall we?” Reid asked in his most sincere voice and made his way down the corridor.

“Bye”, Lexie quickly waved to Mark and Callie and followed in Addison’s direction.

Mark shook his head at Callie, but before he could get a word in he was cut off by the sound of Derek’s voice, “Have you been in to see Mr. Brooks today Dr. Sloan?”

“No Dr. Shepherd I haven’t been in to see Mr. Brooks, in fact I was just on my way” Mark responded, thinking to himself that if this was the way that Derek was going to act then he would do the same.

“What are you so happy about?” Derek asked Callie, who still couldn’t stop smiling at the situation.

Mark shook his head and pointed in Torres’ direction, “not a word”, with his most intimidating look, a look that he knew Callie was now immune to…just like Lexie.

Callie took a deep breath and turned to Derek, “well if you must know Dr. Shepherd I’m smiling because his” Callie exclaimed while pointing at Mark “girlfriend is now spending the entire day working side by side…one on one with the Neuro guy that looks like he just came out of an underwear ad. So they have all the time in the world to get to know each other and I think that our Head of Plastics here is just a little bit threatened by that”.

Mark looked Callie dead straight in the eyes, “you just love this, don’t you?”

Derek wanted to laugh, Derek wanted Mark to squirm but an even bigger part of him didn’t. It was the part of him that knew exactly how Mark was feeling right now that stoped him, because it was the same thing he had felt every time he had seen Meredith with that McVet. “It’ll pass” Derek simply offered in a small attempt of sympathy.

Mark merely shrugged his shoulders because he wasn’t really sure how to respond to that.

Callie shook her head in disbelief, “morons” Callie intentionally mumbled loud enough so that both surgeons could hear her.

“Excuse me?” both men asked simultaneously.

Callie rolled her eyes at both men’s complete and utter ignorance of the situation, and they weren’t making it easy for anyone else...especially Meredith and Lexie. Until now everybody else, including Meredith and Lexie, had made a silent pact to let the two of them deal with all of this themselves but as far as Callie was concerned, enough is enough. “You two have known each other practically your entire lives, you’re practically brothers and if you were able to get past the whole Addison thing then why the hell can’t you two get past this stupid fight. Do you two even realise what you’re putting the rest of this hospital through...what your putting your girlfriend’s through? Who may I remind you are sisters, sisters who feel like they have to side with their stupid boyfriends, so therefore they’re not allowed to talk to one another? So I’ll tell you what Mr. Big Shots…grow the hell up and get over yourselves!” Callie practically yelled at Derek and Mark. “You” Callie exclaimed while pointing at Mark “are pissed at Derek for hitting you and I get that, we all get that” Callie said while waving her hand around, “and you’re also pissed because he didn’t trust you to not hurt little Grey, and because he made you feel like what you were doing was some sort of dark and dirty thing. But what you need to get is that right now he” pointing at Derek “needs you. He needs you to be his person and tell him what he needs to hear so he can get through these surgeries one day at a time. Because while you’re all pissed off at him you’re missing the fact that is hurting, that his lost and he doesn’t know where to go from here”. Callie then turned her attention to Derek, “and you! You’re pissed off as hell…you’re pissed off at yourself, you’re pissed off at the fact that your patient died and you’re pissed off about Mark and Lexie. But at no point was your anger directed at the fact that he lied to you about Lexie, you’re pissed off because somewhere along the line your best friend grew up…he grew up and finally became ready to commit to something real and you missed that”. Callie had to take a deep breath before she went on any further because she was running out of juice, “try as he might deny it, Mark Sloan has fallen in love with her…he has fallen in love with little Grey and while Mark may have grown up his still the same. There’s apart of him that’s freaking out right now because he’s never done this before, so you need to wake up and realise that while you’ve been all dark and stormy your best friend came over to the dark side…he fell in love and right now he needs you Derek. He needs you to reassure him that he can do this, that he can actually be a one woman man kind of guy and that he’s not going to screw it up, because if he does god help us all…I mean if this is the way he is when he’s lost you what the hell would he be like if he lost Grey?” Callie took a deep breath to try and gain her composure before storming off while shouting out “morons!”

Mark and Derek both stood rooted in their spots while seriously thinking about what Callie had just said, slowly Mark and Derek began to shift their gaze to each other, they both looked each other in the eye for a second before quickly shaking their heads and walking off in opposite directions.

“Morons” Callie mumbled to herself again as she watched the two walk away, while suddenly a nurse came down the hall only to see Dr. Torres’ head sticking out from around the corner while the rest of her body was hidden behind the wall; Callie let out an awkward smile as she straightened herself up and sprinted down the hall.

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