CODING ━ grey's anatomy

chapter seventy seven

"Yeah, no. I'm on peds."

Owen frowned. "You've been on my service all week, Harper."

"Exactly, which is why I'm on peds today." Mark couldn't help but to admire Cassie, even when she was being a little bit of a bitch. In fact, he preferred her that way, a lot of the time; mean Cassie was hot. "I mean this in the nicest way possible, but being on trauma gives me trauma."

It was clear that Owen was already having a day, so to avoid making matters worse, Mark chipped in with, "To be fair, once when she was on your service, her best friend showed up in your ER dead, so..."

Cassie nodded, pointing at Mark as if he took the words right out of her mouth. "Yeah, that too."

He knew that she just wanted to suck up to the new peds attending, whoever they were, but Mark was more than happy to use it as another excuse to piss off the ginger.

(As judging by the way Cassie batted her eyelashes at him, she liked it when he was mean, too.)

Owen glanced between them, his eyes hardening just a fraction. "I don't care. Harper, go get changed, and get back here. Now."

Mark winced at the harsh order.

To be fair, trauma really wasn't that bad—usually—and she was being a bit dramatic, but he couldn't exactly blame her. He wouldn't want to spend the next ten hours with Owen, either.

He sent her a sad smile, which Cassie reluctantly returned, and whatever annoyance he'd felt that morning had washed away without him even realizing it.

But before Owen could get too far, Cassie called after him, a hand briefly going towards her stomach and a pained expression coming over her face. Out of instinct, Mark frowned, until she started to speak and he understood what she was playing at.

"Sorry, Owen, but I'm just really not feeling well, so..." Eyeing Meredith, Cassie raised a brow as if to say there's the resident you need, "I'm sure Mer would be happy to take my place. I should probably take a sick day, or... just do some charting. You know, so I don't spread my illness."

Meredith, who clearly assumed she'd been removed from the conversation at this point, immediately refused. "No, no, I'm with Derek—"

"Fine," Owen said with finality, although Mark couldn't help but to find it funny how easily he gave up. "I don't care. I just need someone, so... let's go, Grey."

Pausing to glare at Cassie before she left, Meredith reluctantly followed him. Once they were out of hearing distance, Mark scoffed a laugh, turning back to Cassie with nothing but pure adoration.

"Illness, huh?"

Cassie looked up at him, and it was then that he could see the devious glint behind her hazel eyes.

"It wasn't a total lie," she smiled, white teeth shining under the lights. "My cramps are god awful today. I feel like my uterus is trying to rip through my stomach and escape, like a weird little baby alien in my st—"

Mark cut her off with a chaste kiss on the lips to shut her up, something he'd been dying to do for hours.

"I'm an attending, you know," he said through a lowered voice, his hands delicately placed on her waist, "I could get you in trouble."