28. The Decision

"Personal relationships, personal loyalties and person favourites will no longer be a factor in our training program."

"Be nice to Lexie," she sang as Mark put the chart away. He sighed, pecked her cheek and promised he'd try. "Oh, no kissing in the hospital."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't play favourites." He sighed, stealing a kiss from her lips and she wrinkled her nose against his face. "I adore you, though," she added and he kissed her again.

"I adore you too. Kisses outside the hospital, though?" The brunette sighed, nodding. "Did Noah make it back to Boston safely?"

"Yeah, about that… I need to talk to you about something. Can you page me when you're free?" He nodded, eyebrows knitting together and whispered a quick goodbye before leaving to find Lexie.

.

"You're asking me about sex with a female?" Emily drawled slowly as Callie ranted to her.

"Yeah, what was your first time like?"

"You know you could just talk about it. That's what I did with my first partner. I never had a serious relationship with a girl but… but I mean, we were friends, we just wanted to try. We talked, a lot. Trust me, the communication is what made it work." The ortho resident nodded and left, leaving Emily to her thoughts.

.

"What are you gonna do with the trailer? Mark asked as they walked into the hospital. Derek glanced at him before letting out a short, 'No.' "Come on. Em and I need a place to live."

"'Cause there's a very real possibility she kicks me out in a week. I'm not letting go of the trailer." Laughing, he went to the elevator as Derek pushed the button. "If I know I'm staying for one more week, maybe you'll get it."

"Promise?"

"Ah, with Meredith, promises aren't possible." Smirking, Mark patted his friend on the back and left.

.

Emily read the newest addition of the medical journal, folding the corner to mark her page and looking up. "Morning, Alex." He grunted in response, sipping his coffee and she rolled her eyes, smacking him lightly. She continued on her way, spotting Derek and Meredith enter in, their hands holding and smiling at each other as if they were the only one in site. "Morning."

"Hey, did Bailey page you in early too?"

"No, but I've been on call since last night so I'm sure she'll page me sooner or later. Derek, have you seen Mark?"

"Nope." The neurosurgeon looked thoughtful. "Is that the journal you're reading?"

"Yep." She flashed the cover of his face on it causing them to both smile. "Do they airbrush your pictures?"

"I wouldn't know," he replied back and Emily shrugged, continuing on a different way as Meredith and Derek walked the opposite direction. She continued up a set of stairs and past an on-call room, glancing casually into the window before spotting her boyfriend. Going inside, she waved the magazine.

"Do you believe this?" they asked at the same time and she laughed. He raised the blankets and she crawled under them, a pleased smile on his face. "'The Shepherd Method'. It should be the Grey method, Meredith was the one who started it." Disgruntled, she pouted playfully as he tucked her into his side.

"Good morning to you too," he whispered and she snuggled up against him, closing her copy and reading the one in his hands. They enjoyed a couple of minutes of silence together until Callie barged in.

"I've been looking everywhere for you." The Latina sat across from the two.

"Well, I had an early morning palatoplasty. You see this? 'The Shepherd Method'?"

"How was your date with Hahn?" Emily wanted to know as Mark continued reading and musing aloud. Callie glared at the plastics surgeon and Emily glanced at her boyfriend.

"Do you think they airbrushed his picture? The man does not have one damn pore."

"Mark, shut up."

"Could you focus? I need you right now," Callie snapped, taking the magazine away. "I need to talk." She heaved a sigh, eyes flickering down to Derek's face as she began, "Last night, Erica and I… we… we did it. Sort of."

"Congratulations," they cheered but Callie shook her head.

"No, no, no. It was not good at all. I choked,"

"Going down there?" Emily asked and Mark stared at her. "What? I want to know."

"I - I tried. But it felt so weird and clinical like gynie rotation." Emily raised her eyebrows at Mark and he widened his eyes imperceptibly. Understanding, she scooted off and he slid out from behind her. He got off the bed, going to his lab coat where it hung on a hook. "I tried. I left this morning before she got up. I couldn't even face her. What if - what if me and Erica are a mistake? Where are you going?" she added rapidly as Mark shook his head.

"I can't talk about this."

"Oh, come on! You love talking about this stuff." Emily rubbed the bridge of her nose and she laid back down, opening up her copy of the medical journal. "Girl on girl. It's hot."

"Mark liked two girls getting nasty and loving it. And he likes dirty talk and there's this thing he does in the shower, which I also love." Mark cleared his throat and she turned her head to smile cheekily. "It's hot." Mark came over, crouching and brushing her hair away from her forehead.

"You complete me," he said honestly before turning to Callie. "But, one girl talking about how much it sucked? Depressing and wrong. Just wrong." Scrunching up his nose, he kissed Emily's forehead before leaving.

"Was it that bad?" Emily asked, mouth twitching into a smile. Callie groaned, burying her face in the journal and Emily flipped the page. "It's okay, Callie. You know, you either like it or you don't."

"Whatever. You've already gone through it."

"Well, you could try talking to Hahn about it. It's awkward but maybe you'll get it done eventually. I mean, that's what we did. Lots and lots of practice." Callie made a face, face contorting.

"I didn't need to know that."

Stifling a smile, she checked her pager when it began ringing. "Gotta go. Bailey's paging me. Update me when you can." With a wink, Emily rolled off the bed and left the room, medical journal rolled up and stuffed into her lab coat pocket.

.

"Callie wants me to dispense sex advice."

"That's terrible," Mark remarked and she rolled her eyes, walking around to the chair beside him.

"Is that a clinical trial?"

"Just a little research on cleft palates. I need you to read over my new facial reanimation paper. I want to put it into effect by next year."

"Uh-huh." Sitting down, she read the screen as he checked his emails on the computer. She draped her lab coat over the back of her chair as she asked, "Are you home tonight?"

"Yes. You?" She nodded and he smirked. "Perfect. Hey, remember you wanted to talk about this thing? Well, we're both free, aren't we?" She brightened and nodded.

"Okay, so, when Noah was here, he talked about this deal. Harper Avery invited me to work at Mass Gen." His smile was luminous and he leaned over to kiss her.

"That's great!"

"Yeah, but I don't know about it yet. Just wanted to talk to you about it first, y'know?" She sat up straight and he nodded, index finger and thumb tracing her jaw.

"Okay." He pulled her face towards him, kissing her chastely. She sighed against his lips when Callie walked in.

"Apparently, Erica loved it, the non-sex sex." She tossed her salad onto the table and Mark cleared his throat, tossing a glare to his friend. Emily bit her bottom lip, closing her eyes and pulling away. Leaning back into her chair, the brunette picked up some of the papers her boyfriend had printed on cleft palates."I think she might want more."

"Happens to me all the time with women. I barely remember it, their minds are blown." Emily narrowed her eyes and Mark smiled. "Happened."

"I hope you remembered the last time we did it," she commented snippily, setting the stack of paper down and getting up. She gathered her lab coat in her arms and stopped behind Mark, placing a hand on his shoulder and kissing the spot in front of his ear. "See you."

"Bye," he called after her and she waved to Callie before leaving for the cafeteria where her friends were waiting.

.

Wrapping her arms up in the towel, she pushed open the door with her shoulder just as Mark caught her.

"Hey!" Starting, she smiled up at him behind her mask. "In the middle of a surgery?"

"Uh, yeah. Going to put the kidney in O.R. six. Do you need something?"

"Can we break up, real quick?" Mark asked and Emily started, panic flooding her gaze. He immediately understood and proceeded to reassure her.

"What? Why? Did I-"

"No! No, no, no. It's not you, it's Callie. She needs to know about the-" he lowered his voice- "the motherland and I'm the best around." She didn't like it. "Come on, it's Callie. She's like one of the only people who knows that I'm more than sex. She sees me like you do."

"Mark…" She looked off to the side and he cupped her neck. Their foreheads pressed together and he was careful for her not to need to scrub in again.

"I love you. I love you and it won't change because I'm helping out my friend." The admission left him breathless and her eyes widened. Despite his initial doubts, there were none now. He loved the woman in front of him. With his whole heart, he loved her. "I love you."

"You love me? This isn't some way to change my mind?" she echoed, holding his hand and he nodded. "Are you sure? Not some sick joke, right?"

"Definitely. I love you," he repeated and she broke out into a wide smile. The dimples he adored appeared even behind her mask. Although she wanted to hug him and kiss him and a million other things, she knew she had a surgery to get to.

"Well, I guess then it's not okay." She wrinkled her nose at him and brushed past him. Walking down the hall, she glanced behind him to see him trailing after her, hopeful, eyes alight and asking for something- "And for the record, I love you too."

"No shit?" he said before he could stop himself. Amusement flickered in her eyes briefly and he reddened. Pausing at the door, she shouldered open the door.

"No shit." She nodded and took in his face, caving, "Fine. Only because Callie is my friend and not because I love you." He'd never get tired of hearing those words or saying them.

"Okay, I'll see you later, ex-girlfriend. I love you," he emphasized it causing a little burst of giggles as she walked into the scrub room. Turning, he smiled to himself and felt like there was a little spring in his step as he almost skipped down the hallway.

.

Mark sighed and kissed her sweaty forehead as she traced absent circles on his arm. "So, about Mass Gen?" he prompted and she sighed.

"I want to work there, but I don't know. You know it feels like I just found my place."

"Do you have a deadline?"

"Noah didn't say," she admitted as she ran her palm down his arm to hold his hand. "I just want to stay with you."

"Em-"

"Mark, we've just gotten happy. And we're looking for an apartment, and I love you. And… I don't want to mess that up." Her nose brushed against his and he took her chin between his fingers. "I love you."

"I love you, too. And I want you to be the best." She frowned, pulling her face away. She turned around onto her side and he spooned her back, kissing the plane of her shoulder. "I'm sorry you have to make that choice."

"I don't have to make that choice yet," she whispered and he inhaled her in. "There's always tomorrow." Kissing the spot behind her ear, he sighed. She was comfortable. If she wanted to put it off because she could, then it was fine by him. "Goodnight, Mark."

"Goodnight."

.

"So we have to get this man to walk? With his injuries?"

"I'm sure Torres can make something up."

"Mark," she started, about to chastise him. He kissed her hard against the lips and she tossed an arm around his neck, deepening the kiss.

"Major Hunt can kiss my ass," he muttered and she rolled her eyes, kissing him twice more. "Please, just let me prove him wrong." Laughing, she nodded and they walked into the office where Callie was sitting.

"Fine."

Breathing in, she walked towards the computer where Callie was already bringing up the 3-D bone pictures. "Can you build the man legs, Torres?" Meredith and Cristina came in followed by an unknown blonde as Emily bent down to look at the pictures. Immediately her head began clicking, trying to put the pieces together.

"Damn, and his femur is impaling himself?" The two flanked the sitting orthopedic surgeon by sitting on the desk.

"Yeah. The right femur's toast." Callie informed, clicking to zoom in.

"So is the hip and half the pelvis."

"But if I put some pins here-"

"-and a plate there." Emily pointed at one of the fragments, "I see where you're going."

"There are some viable bone fragments. We're not starting on nothing. Moore, you've got the vision down so we can work something out. What do you think?" The woman glanced at Mark who looked thoughtful.

"I think it's wide," the unknown blonde said as Cristina turned to shut her up. Straightening, Emily looked at her.

"It's her first day. Could you not be so-"

"No, she's an intern. She needs to learn her place," Cristina said with a glance at both of them.

"Cristina…" Emily glared at her as Mark said it would be a lot of hardware, that what the man needed was a whole new leg. Callie's eyes lit with inspiration as she looked at the screen again. The woman remarked that maybe she could do that and took out a notepad.

"Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a puzzle. I just need to figure out what equipment I need and - and how to pull it off."

"Like Lincoln Logs,"

"It's a little more high-tech than that,"

"It's exactly like Lincoln Logs," Callie rambled, now inspired. "Okay, I need you guys to grab every piece of titanium we've got in the hospital." Nodding, the residents and the single intern began to head out. Mark leaned over to kiss her cheek as she left and she smiled, catching up with Cristina who stayed back. The brunette shoved her hands in her lab coat pockets, glancing at her friend.

"What is your deal with the intern?" Emily asked under her breath as the woman shrugged her off.

"She's some girl who went backpacking over Europe with Meredith. She's never mentioned her before so how important could she be?"

"I don't know. They're acting like sisters." She gazed ahead where the two blondes were chatting animatedly. "Jealous?"

"Whatever, Moore." Chuckling, she began searching for the titanium Callie needed.

.

"Little Grey, Torres is, uh, trying to set a world record for most titanium rods used in one patient. You in?"

"Little Grey?" Meredith repeated, arching an eyebrow.

"Little Grey. Big Grey. That's how I tell you two apart," Mark said as if it were obvious and Meredith scoffed.

"Do you call Em Little Moore and Noah Big Moore, then?" she teased. "I'm sure that he loves people calling him big." Mark's face contorted in disgust and he began to walk away. Meredith's smile faded as Lexie nodded. Right. Possible secret cutter sister.

"I'm in. I'll just be a minute." Walking after Mark, Meredith couldn't help her smile when the thought of teasing her friend's boyfriend came into her nefarious mind.

"You know, Derek told me once that he called Emily forbidden and little," she began. Mark groaned, sending her a look. "So, I was just wondering-"

"Grey." She respectfully shut up but her shit-eating grin caused him to scowl. "I do not call the Moore siblings Big and Little. That is just creepy and wrong."

"Well, you like it's so wrong it's right. Why else would you take the Forbidden Fruit?" Meredith continued and Mark glowered at his best friend's girlfriend. She winked and laughed, walking ahead as he stopped at the elevator.

He hadn't realized being friends with Emily's friends meant being in a certain layer of unending Hell.

.

"Charlotte, watch that vein over there," Emily murmured as they inserted a titanium rod into the man's leg. "Good, okay. Callie, I'm inserting the plate near his hip now." Reaching for the metal, she accidentally bumped into Charlotte's forearm and the woman immediately flinched, dropping her instruments.

"Ow!"

"What happened?" Derek immediately asked and Emily gazed at her intern in shock before looking at the Meredith. The notion of Lexie being a secret cutter did not go unremembered.

"Are you alright?"

"Of c-course," the redhead stammered, picking up the tools with shaking fingers. Shaking her head, she gestured for her to step back.

"Take a step back. If you're injured then you don't operate. You tell your resident. Kinney, take Charlotte's place." Michael stepped forward with the suction and Emily shook her head again in disbelief, readjusting the metal against the man's fractured hip bone. She could think about it after the surgery. So they continued on.

When the Chief came in to check on them and found that Lexie's pulley stitch was nearly flawless, Emily shared an uneasy glance with Cristina. The woman didn't teach her interns the pulley stitch. Emily was the only one out of the six of them who actually taught so how in the hell did they know? "You taught Lex the pulley stitch?"

"Of course not. I haven't seen them practicing at all except…" The asian woman paused, realization dawning on her. The rapid beeping of the monitors interrupted whatever revelation she was about to uncover as they immediately stopped their work.

"He's crashing. V-Fib."

"Starting C.P.R. Push one of epi and charge the paddles to three-sixty."

"Clear!" Callie and Emily looked at their handiwork, praying that the man would come back as the defibrillator paddles whined again with electricity. "Clear!"

"Push another of epi and charge again."

"Clear!" They waited for a few tense moments. In her mind, Emily imagined the monitor would start beeping again and that they would achieve a sinus rhythm. That wasn't reality as the monitor emitted an ominous tone, flat and cold. Breathing in, she pulled the top string of her mask over her head before bunching it in her hands and ripping it off.

"Time of death: nineteen twenty two." They exhaled deeply.

"I built his bones," Callie whispered, voice cracking.

"You tried. We all tried."

"No, I didn't try. I did it. I did my part; I built his bones. I built his bones from scratch, and you…" Her glare swept across them, anger like fire behind her brown orbs. "All of you, you were suppose to keep him alive. That is all you people had to do. You just had to…" Emily inhaled a quivering breath, covering her teeth with her lips and looking away. Cristina looked to the floor as the other surgeons shared uneasy glances. "You just had to keep him safe and - and breathing and living until I made his bones. I made… I made his bones…" Her voice was raspy and her face was red as she cried. "Until… until I made his bones. I made his bones." Callie's eyes were scrunched tight as she repeated the statement like a mantra.

"You guys go," Emily said after a moment. She swallowed as Mark made his way to stand behind Callie, his hands on her shoulders.

"We'll stay behind and help Dr. Torres clean up. Call the morgue."

"Go, we've got this."

"Everyone, clear out." Hunt ordered and they complied, going into the scrub room. Emily took off her gown and gloves, beginning to take away the blue fabric that covered his face. Mark wrapped the woman in a hug and she sent her boyfriend a gentle look. Extubating the patient, she wrapped the tape around the tube and took off the wires leading into his body as Callie continued to cry into Mark's chest. Cristina unhooked the I.V. bags and turned off the monitors and began pushing the instrument trays to the side walls as they cleaned up the O.R. in silence.

"Cristina, when I bumped into Charlotte, what was that all about?" Emily asked as they went into the scrub room. They had finished cleaning up and waited for Mark to take Callie out before going in themselves.

"I just need to know for sure. Lexie had bandages on her arms… why didn't I think about it before?"

"What? Think about what before?" The woman stormed out of the scrub room after drying her hands. "Cristina!" she called after her friend, throwing the towel into the container for them and chasing after her but she was nowhere to be seen.

A/N: Edited - October 7, 2018

Many of you may protest that Emily and Mark are both too casual about him sleeping with Callie. The answer is simple: they know each other. Mark knows that Emily would do anything to relieve someone of their burden and Emily knows that Mark is the right person to help. Although it's a great difficulty for her to tolerate that Mark slept with another woman, she appreciates that he asked her first. (The 'I love you' softened the blow too, I suppose.)

Next: The Mass Gen offer, and an appendectomy.