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danced around Mer's bedroom with Cristina, giggles falling out of her lips. They were waiting for Meredith to join in on the dance party, their slightly pitiful-looking friend standing in the doorway.

"You're not dancing." Cristina called out towards the door, bobbing her head.

Meredith grumbled, crossing her arms. "I'm too tense to dance."

Eleanora playfully rolled her eyes, jumping up and down as the rhythm of the song sped up. "That's the whole reason we're having the dance party, Mer."

"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. I had any sense."

"Shut up!" Cristina yelled out, dancing towards Eleanora and giving her a hip bump. Eleanora laughed, shaking her shoulders at her friend. "Just dance!"

Meredith continued on her rambling, but started to bounce to the beat. "You know, I'm going to tell him I don't want him seeing other people."

"Good. Fine, whatever." Cristina replies, throwing her arms up as she swung side to side. Eleanora twirled, running her hands through her hair as some of the stress from the past few weeks of work washed away.

"I'm gonna tell him," Meredith started, her voice sure as she picked up on the dancing. "I'm going to tell him and I'm going to feel good about it."

"Dancing makes you brave." Cristina teased, Eleanora laughing out.

"Dancing makes you smart!"

The three women, all dancing and letting their stress and worries leave them, didn't notice a scowling Izzie right outside of the door. A scowling Izzie who felt left out, like she wasn't apart of the group.

And maybe she wasn't, not fully. Everyone was a little more civil, but she did have part in ruining Eleanora's relationship and making her have a mini-meltdown.

Still, even seemingly heartless and home-wrecking models with perfect hair and skin could feel lonely and broken.

_______

feels someone shuffle beside her in the packed room, looking over to see Lexie with a slightly flushed face. Eleanora gives her a welcoming smile before focusing in front of her when she heard Mark start speaking.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen. This is Nick Hanscomb." Mark motioned to the patient, who gave a weak wave.

"Hi."

"Nick was lucky enough to have me remove a large carotid body tumor from his neck. The fact that I was able to get clean boundaries is pretty darn impressive, even for me."

Derek let out a stifled laugh, raising his brows at his friend. "Congratulations." He teased. Eleanora bit her lip to stop her own giggle at the glare Mark sent his way, a few people laughing softly at the Neurosurgeons words.

"Don't interrupt." Mark sassed, giving Derek a glare before looking around the room again. "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?"

Meredith was the first to speak up, her voice a little unsure. She thought his question sounded a lot like a trick one. "I would think given the friability of the skin, that there's a great possibility that the, um, the artery could blow?"

Mark nodded, indicating Meredith was right. The resident gave a proud look to Cristina, who was standing right beside her.

Eleanora gave a nervous look to Nick, worried that he would react badly or become upset. Nick noticed that, giving her a smile. "Oh, don't worry. I-I've heard this before."

"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?"

Everyone was silent, the tension in the room thick. Nick looked a little unnerved at that, looking over at Mark for a moment. "They look scared."

"They're medical professionals, Nick." Mark said, giving him one of his charming smiles. "A healthy level of fear encouraged."

Eleanora let out a small, quiet laugh at that one, shaking her head as she smiled down at her hands. Mark looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, his smile turning a little more genuine at the sound.

The sound of Eleanora laughing or giggling and the sight of her bright, doe-eyed smiles never failed to make him go a little soft.

Most of the doctors and nurses in the room didn't notice, too busy whispering to each other about the case or sitting down notes . However, Derek Shepherd, Lexie Grey, and Cristina Yang all did.

Derek's eyes narrowed, subtly looking between the two as he tried to pin point why they had been acting like that lately. Lexie, not as subtly, smiled, looking at the soft expression on Mark's face that was caused by her friend and feeing excited for the smaller girl.

Towards the back, Cristina let out a noise, crossing her arms.

, she thought as she clenched her jaw.

_______

Mark's little meeting, Eleanora and Jefferson, her only intern that wasn't handling labs or pre and post-ops, rushed down the the ambulance bay.

They had gotten a page about a pretty serious trauma, Eleanora quickly throwing on her trauma gown and stopping beside Bailey, Callie, Cristina, and Meredith. A few seconds later, Izzie jogs up, Eleanora nodding at her as the first ambulance came to a stop.

Callie, Eleanora and Bailey all surged forward, greeting Stan as he threw the doors open and him and Ray pushed the gurney out.

"What go we got?" Bailey asked, taking the chart.

"Jacob Nolston, 47, status post-op a double bypass surgery two weeks ago, now presents febrile with pain and tenderness in his surgical incisions." Stan told her, already heading to get back in the ambulance.