Chapter 9

It was officially Valentine's Day. A pointless day in my opinion. I just felt like if someone loves you they should show you year round. Not just on one day, but Jackson really wanted to celebrate it, so I agreed that we could go out to dinner.

"I can't believe we're doing this." I say to Jackson as he drives.

"It's our first Valentine's Day." Jackson smiled cheerfully.

"You know I don't do Valentine's day." I grumbled.

"There is more to life than the hospital and work." He reminds me.

"I know, there's also sleeping and eating." I say making him laugh.

"Would it kill you to be a little romantic and sentimental?"

"Probably." I shrug "Ambulance." I say excitedly looking back at the ambulance that just passed us.

"Eyes up front." Jackson says making me turn around until I see more ambulances driving by.

"Okay that seems big." I say.

"If it's big they'll page us." He says right before our pagers go off.

"Yes." I smile as Jackson turns the car around. We arrive at the hospital and rush to get dressed in our scrubs. I discharge all of the neuro patients that can go home, since we're going to need all of the rooms we can get with the amount of patients coming in. I go to the front desk to finish a chart when Mark walked up to me.

"It sucks working on Valentine's Day doesn't it?" He asks.

"Mark, you know I don't celebrate Valentine's Day." I shake my head.

"I forgot you're a scrooge when it comes to holidays." He chuckled.

"Valentine's Day really isn't a holiday it's.." I begin to say.

"A superficial day made up so people can make up for being an complete ass the rest of the year." He says remembering what I used to tell him.

"Exactly." I smirk.

"Who's that blonde standing over there?" He asks focusing his attention on a blonde girl who stood at the front desk.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"Well I'm about to go find out." He smirks before walking off making me chuckle.

"What were you and Sloan talking about?" Jackson asks walking up to me.

"Nothing important, why?" I ask.

"No reason." He shrugs.

"There has to be reason. What? Are you jealous?" I ask.

"No."Jackson says fake laughing it off.

"Oh my god, you are. You're jealous that I was talking to Mark." I chuckle, a little amused.

"No, I'm not. It's just that he has a reputation and not a good one."

"Jackson, Mark is the last person you need to be concerned about. I only have eyes for you." I say giving him a kiss.

"Okay." He sighs.

"Plus I've been there, done that." I shrugged.

"Wait, you slept with Sloan?" He frowns.

"Once upon a time." I answer honestly. I was never shy about my past or anything that I had done. Mark and I had our moment and it passed.

"And you never thought to tell me about it?"

"No, not really. I mean I don't expect you to tell me about every girl you've ever slept with." I shrug before my pager goes off.

"I have to go. Derek needs me." I say.

"We're not done here." He frowns.

"We are." I sigh before walking to the ER where Derek is examining one of the many patients who was rushed in after a roof collapse at a restaurant .

"What do we have?" I ask him.

"Decompressed skull fracture, with a subdural hematoma." Derek says.

"Dr. Shepherd you're needed out here." Izzie says sticking her head into the room.

"Take the patient to O.R. three and scrub in, I'll meet you there in a minute." He instructs me.

"Okay, let's move people." I tell the nurses as they help me move the patient and take him to the OR, where I get scrubbed in. The OR doors open and instead of seeing Derek walk in, I see Dr. Nelson."

"Where is Dr. Shepherd?" I ask.

"He needed to talk to the reporters, so I'll be performing the surgery for him." Nelson says.

"Oh okay." I sigh, a little disappointed. We began operating and I got to open up before spending the rest of the time suctioning. We finish the surgery successfully then I take the patient up to an ICU room. As I'm walking out I see Sloan, Mark's daughter, at the front desk.

"Hey Sloan, when did you get into town? Does Mark know you're here?" I ask her.

"Oh hey. No, my flight got in a little early and I took a cab over. I didn't want to bug him. Somebody said that you guys have a free clinic. Do you know where that's at?" She asks obviously surprised to see me.

"Is everything okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah I just want someone to check me out after the surgery and everything. Maybe give me an ultrasound?" She nods.

"The clinic closed an hour ago, but I have some free time I'll take a peek for you." I say before taking Sloan to an E.R. room and starting the ultrasound.

"Aw, the baby looks perfect." I say looking at the screen.

"Awesome, can I like get that in writing?" Sloan asks.

"Even better, here's a souvenir." I smile handing her a picture from the ultrasound.

"Oh Um. Don't you have some kind of official form or a hospital document you can give me?"

"Why do you need an official form?" I frown.

"Well, it's none of your business." Sloan says.

"If you want your official form it is. What's going on?" I ask her.

"It's for the adoption attorney,ok? They need like, a clean bill of health from me or something. There's this great couple in San Francisco and they have these two big dogs."

"Have you told Mark?" I ask her.

"No. And you're my doctor, right? I mean, don't you guys have some kind of rule that says you can't say anything? I'm not gonna tell him and neither are you."

"Sloan this isn't right, Mark's trying to step up and be a good dad to you, so the least you can do is tell him about your decision." I say to her.

"I'm not telling him." She shakes her head getting up and walking out of the ER room with me following behind her.

"You can't leave without telling him." I say following her as she walks down the stairs. Everyone saw how much Mark was trying to change for her and his grandchild and I couldn't forgive myself if I just let Sloan leave.