7.06

As Helena's alarm woke her up, her hand automatically swung to shut it off, her eyes still closed. Letting her eyes flutter open to her right side, she sighed as she saw Mark's half of the bed empty. Swinging her legs out of the bed, she glanced at her alarm clock as she put on her robe.

She yawned as she entered her bathroom, grabbing her toothbrush with a groan. She hated the night shift. And she hated it even more when it meant she wouldn't be with Mark for over twenty four hours.

——

As Helena and the rest of the interns got to the hospital lobby, the short girl smiled at the sight of a group of attendings, her husband included. Happily moving over to him, she pressed a kiss to his lips, the man smiling into it.

"Did you just yawn?" The man's eyes focused on April once they pulled away. "Was that a ?"

At his serious and dramatic tone, Helena rolled her eyes, as Teddy spoke, disbelief in her voice. "Don't tell us you're tired after getting to sleep all day."

"It's not as easy as it sounds..." April complained, looking down.

"Not easy? Not- what I was a resident, I actually for a living, I did every other night call for five years." Bailey told them, making Helena and Lexie share an amused look.

"There were days I didn't even go home for seventy two hours. I love it." Stark added from behind Bailey, scratching his brow.

"As you trudged through the snow, while you whittled yourself own scalpels." Alex mumbled, making Helena let out a choked laugh, her hand over her mouth.

As Mark, who had his arm over her shoulders, looked down at her with an offended look, the girl simply gave him her best dimpled, innocent smile.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, Karev." Stark reprimanded.

"Uh, Karev, Campos, I need you to follow up on my post ops." Bailey told them, handing them some paperwork. "Here, take this research, divide out all the fistula cases."

"Avery and Little Grey, Hunt is waiting for you in the pit." Teddy told them, leaving behind Bailey.

"Try not to screw up our patients." Callie joked. "Goodnight and good luck."

As Helena rose up to her tiptoes, to press another kiss to her husband's lips, he explained. "We're going to Joe's to celebrate that Derek got the Alzheimer's grant."

"Ok, just look out for Callie, please. She's gets drunk when she's sad, and she's unpredictable when she's drunk, you know the deal." The small girl smiled up at him as he left.

——

After having ordered some pizza, Helena sat with Alex and Meredith in the attending's lounge, as she read over the research Bailey had asked her to go through.

"What are you doing in the attendings lounge?" April asked as she entered the room. "And why are you eating pizza? You could get in trouble!"

"I really wanted some, so I ordered it from the 24 hour pizzaria down the street." Helena explained, looking up from her paperwork. "I've been wanting so much plastic food, lately..."

"Pizza?" Alex offered, April ignoring him.

The man had made out with her, the two almost having slept together. However, as April had asked him to take it slower, as she was still a virgin, the boy had snapped and told her he couldn't hold his hand through the process.

"I have stupid teenage patients who superglued themselves together so their parents can't tear them apart." The redhead told them, Helena chuckling.

"Hum, that sounds romantic." Meredith accessed.

"More like moronic, I have no idea how to get them apart without taking off half their skin." April rolled her eyes.

"Try acetone." Alex tried between bites of his pizza.

At that, April snapped at him. "Try going away! Meredith, Lena, any ideas?"

"Acetone?" The blond suggested.

"Acetone sounds good." The short girl agreed, April smiling at them as she turned to leave.

"Thank you!"

"So what's the deal with Stark?" Meredith asked her friend.

"He's a lazy, traitorous, disrespectful little man." Helena let out, a bit bitterly.

At that, Alex let out a chuckle. "Angry Lena."

"Well, yeah! He refuses to call me by my actual name, doesn't give his patients a second thought, stole my idea for a surgery and has me doing his job, constantly." She sighed, turning to the blond. "Why?"

"Because I called him in to examine this patient. My kid just had a pectus excavatum surgery and was in serious pain." The blond explained.

"Yeah, you don't call Stark." Helena shrugged.

"Well, my kid's mother is a nurse at Seattle Pres." Meredith argued. "Normally I'd handle this myself, but I haven't been on peds in while, you know the complications with these kids!"

"Did you order a blood work and a CT?" The brunette asked, taking another bite of her pizza as her friend nodded. "I'd add a LDH, a CRP and a sed rate. Look, with Stark you have to cover all the bases so he was no excuse not to get off his little butt and come in. He's incompetent and he's lazy, but if he has no other choice he'll have to show."

——

As Helena got home, at the end of her shift, she kicked off her shoes and put down her bag, approaching the bedroom as she unbuttoned her shirt on the way. Once she reached the bedroom, finding Mark's sleeping form, she quickly slid out of her jeans and into one of the man's old t-shirts, sliding into bed by him.