29

   in beside Cristina in the lobby, Eleanora winced as she watched Derek shuffle through cards on the steps. He was apparently their new Chief of Surgery, which meant there was a whole meeting about it.

"What the hell is he wearing?" Callie asks, a laugh in her voice.

"He looks good. Chiefly." Owen defends, Cristina snorting.

"He looks like an undertaker."

"He looks like my Nonno Vincent." Eleanora whispers. Everyone glanced over at her, and she shook her head. "He was a Coroner."

"Close enough." Cristina sing-songed, Owen giving her a look. Arizona turns to look at everyone, her voice worried li

"I promised him we'd clap." Eleanora nodded, straightening up when Derek looked out in the crowd. She sent the man a thumbs up, him visibly relaxing.

"Oh. Now?" Cristina sasses back, Jackson and Charles snorting at her tone. Arizona gives her a little glare, but Eleanora just pats her on the back. She feels someone walk up behind her and glances over her shoulder to see her boyfriend. She gives him a big grin and gets up on her tiptoes to press a quick kiss to his lips.

"Morning."

"Good morning, my lovely girlfriend who I haven't seen in what seems like forever." Mark grumbled. "All these doubles you're pulling are making me grumpy."

"All these cute moments of you two are making me gag." Cristina told them, Eleanora smacking her arm.

"You think you're a comedian now?" Eleanora teased, a giggle on her lips. They all grow quiet when Derek clears his throat, indicating he was about to begin.

"I want to thank you all for being here. I know you're busy, so I'll try to make this quick. As you may have heard, I have been appointed the new Interim Chief of Surgery. It's my personal goal to make this transition as smooth as possible. I know we've had a rocky few months-"

"Here it comes." Alex tells Jackson and Charles, who had had previously teased about being let go due to Derek hating the Merger. Eleanora threw him a look before focusing back forward, wincing at how nervous Derek looked.

"He looks so....sad." Eleanora whispered, Mark squeezing her shoulder as they continued to listen to their new Chief.

"Mistakes have been made-"

"He's talking about the merger." Alex jokes, Lexie shushing him and Eleanora smacking him.

"-I intend to right those wrongs, and, uh, bring this hospital back to its former glory." Derek stated, giving a smile. Eleanora grins, nodding her head.

, she thinks.

Former glory?" Cristina asks, crossing her arms. "Undertaker needs a speechwriter."

"We are screwed." Jackson decides, Alex chuckling and nodding.

"Yes, you are, sucker."

Reed whispers to the group, nodding just past the bottom of the stairs. "Check it out! Chief Webber."

The crowd grows a little restless as Eleanora gets on her tiptoes to look over Arizona's shoulder, her eyes widening a bit when she sees the former Chief and Jennings from the Board head towards Derek.

Derek notices too, and grows silent. He and Webber have a stare down for a moment before he continued, glancing down at his cards. "What I meant....uh, by that is- what im trying to say is, I want to thank you for your support in advance."

Eleanora scrunched her nose up and shakes her head, Mark letting out a small, pained groan.

"Oh no. He just ruined the whole thing with that one." Mark told the group, Eleanora, Hunt, and Callie all nodding in agreement. "Should have never thanked the people who definitely don't support him for supporting him. Makes him seem egotistical, and that's my job."

"Okay, let's get back to work." Derek tells them before starting to jog down the steps to meet Jennings and Webber. The room is quiet and tense for a moment before Arizona perks up and starts clapping, making the small group she was with slowly follow suit. The clapping quickly dies down and everyone heads their separate ways.

Eleanora shakes her head as she turns to walk off with Mark, intertwining their hands. "That was so sad. I feel so bad for him."

"It was just embarrassing." Mark decided, shaking his head. "And you can't even blame anyone but for it."

Eleanora nudged him with her shoulder, the two grinning at each other. Once they reached the elevators, Eleanora spoke up again.

"Did Sloan say what day she was gonna be back? The crib is still kind of wobbly and I feel like we should fix it before she sees it."

Mark looks down at her, something in him shining at the idea of Eleanora being so excited about the baby. "She said she'd call me when she got a flight scheduled, probably won't be for another couple days. I'll fix it tonight, how about that?"

The couple entered the elevator, Eleanora laughing. "You're the reason it's so wobbly in the first place, Mark. Maybe we shouldn't leave you alone with it, huh? And to think, you're one of the best Plastic Surgeons in the world and you can barely put a wooden crib together."

"Hey, don't be bringing my career in this." Mark told her, raising a brow as he looked down at her. "You're supposed to be a Neurosurgeon, you'd think you could handle putting a wooden crib together."

"I just a resident." She said matter-of-factly, pressing a kiss to his cheek before they reached the floor she needed to get off on. "My skills are questionable sometimes. But you? You're a full grown adult-surgeon. You have no excuse, baby."

Eleanora skipped off the elevator, laughing as she headed to go and do rounds. Mark grinned after her, glancing to his side to see another Attending. He nodded, speaking to the man as he focused forward, eyes bright.

"I'm gonna marry that woman."

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