17

her chart on the nurses station, Eleanora sighed as she looked up at her boyfriend. Mark raises a brow, looking up from the paperwork in front of him.

"What's with the face?" He asked, stifling a smile as she rolls her eyes.

"For the last time I do not makes faces." She watched as he just nodded, obviously not agreeing. "And I don't know, there's just something wrong with Izzie. I can't put my finger on it, but she's been acting weird. Georgie has noticed it, too."

Mark let one hand move to her upper arm and squeezed it, his voice soft. "I'm sure Stevens will tell you guys what's going on in time."

Before their conversation could continue, however, Max walked into the lobby. He had the work he was taking home in his hand, and when his eyes landed on the couple, a smirk fell on his face.

Mark quickly removed his hand and coughed into it, turning to look back down at the chart. Eleanora turned to her brother, giving him a wide but shaky smile.

"Max, hey! You leaving?"

He nodded, stopping in front of her. "Yeah. It's great, having a consistent schedule." He teased, shoving the work in his bag. He looked over her shoulder at Mark, nodding his head in greeting.

"Dr. Sloan, right?" Mark looked up and gave a tight lipped smile.

"Yeah."

Max looked between him and Eleanora for a moment, the silence between the three awkward. Max finally flashed a toothy grin, pushing his glasses up. "Well, I gotta head out. But the three of us should go out for dinner sometime soon, that way I can get to know Mark here."

Eleanora opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. Mark furrowed his brows, shifting his weight to look at the younger man.

"Why do you need to get to know me?"

Max let out a 'pssh', pressing a kiss to Eleanora's head before passing by the two. "I have to know the dude my sister is dating. It's kind of like a rule. Oh, Italian would be great!"

The last sentence was called over his shoulder as he reached the doors, leaving the couple to stare after him with open mouths.

Eleanora finally let out a noise, turning her head towards her boyfriend. "At least he knows now and we don't have to worry about when we should tell him?"

Mark let out a groan and hung his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "This is gonna look so bad for me with your family."

Eleanora comfortingly pat his shoulder, nodding her head. "It'll be okay, Mark. I'm 80% positive my dad won't storm to Seattle to meet you."

At that, Mark's head snapped up, his voice a little pitchy. "Only 80%? That's like nothing, Nora! Nothing at all!"

_________

Bailey yelled out, flagging down the second year. Eleanora stopped in her walking, turning around to find Bailey in the slightly crowded O.R floor. Once she found her, she gave a smile and walked over, wringing her hands together.

"Hey, Dr. Bailey. You need something?"

Bailey nodded, looking around as if to make sure nobody was listening before continuing. "You know everyone in the hospital, correct?"

Eleanora tilted her head, thinking about it. "I mean, I know a lot of people, but I don't know-"

"And everyone adores you, with your smiley personality and pretty smile." Bailey interrupted, raising her hands to drag Eleanora attention to her face. "Arizona Robbins, Pediatric Surgeon. Blonde, with a bright personality like you? Well, in my opinion hers is just a tad annoying while yours is adorable but that's just me. What do you know about her?"

Eleanora blinked for a moment, letting her thoughts race for a second. "Dr. Robbins? She's nice, pretty talkative. Oh, this one time while I was working a Peds case with Dr. Shepherd, she talked to me about my lipgloss and said it was really pretty and she wanted it. But then I told that I loved her lipstick, and-"

Bailey shushed her, her face showing she didn't have time to listen to her rambles. "I need to know about her as a surgeon, Amedeo. Is she capable?"

"Ooh, yes. Absolutely she is. Dr. Robbins is super talented and she has really good instincts. If I weren't so adamant on not working on Peds, I'd physically fight someone for her to be my mentor."

Bailey made an aggravated noise, shaking her head as she turned to walk away. "I was you would say she was incapable so I had a reason to bother the Chief. Just....get back to work, Amedeo!"

Eleanora watched in confusion as Bailey stormed off. Slowly turning back to head to the elevators, she shook her head, talking to herself.

"I really need to remember what brand of lipstick Dr. Robbins said she used. Dang it!"

_________

raised a brow at Mark, her boyfriend hovering shirtless by the door to the attic. He was listening to the music and drunken laughter from downstairs with a frown.

"Are you okay, babe?" Eleanora asked, trying to hide the laughter in her tone. Mark glanced over his shoulder at her for a moment before focusing back on the door, his voice stressed.

"Why do you have to live in Meredith's attic? How am I supposed to sneak out of here with that frat party going on downstairs?" He finally turned from the door to crawl back into the bed, moving the book in Eleanora laps to the side so he could hover over her. A grin slipped onto her lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck, looking up at him as she waited for him to continue. "Don't you kids ever sleep?"

"You know as well as I do sleep is hard to come by in residency. And besides, they're not , they're cleaning the house for Derek's mother. I cleaned some before you got here, but-"

Mark's face and voice grows panicked at the information just given to him, moving his face out of the crook of his girlfriends neck, where he had started to press kisses when she started talking.