CODING ━ grey's anatomy

chapter thirty five

Derek raised a brow at her. "Letting go?"

"Oh, right," Cassie shook her head. "I mean, yes please. Have a good day, or whatever." She turned to Meredith, who was smiling down at her in amusement. "Was that good?"

☆

"Yeah, that is so not going to happen."

Rain sighed heavily, glancing up from her clipboard to meet Cassie's determined gaze. "Listen, Cassie, just hear me out—"

"There isn't a chance in hell I'm going to even think about being nice to that psycho killer," Cassie scoffed. "Why should I? So she can stop feeling guilty?"

"Well," the therapist shrugged, stuttering slightly on her words. "Yes, actually."

"Yeah, definitely not."

"Just listen to me," Rain ordered. "You said it yourself only a few days ago, remember? When you died, you realized that the hatred and anger you held towards Dr. Stevens was doing nothing but harm, to both her and yourself. So what changed?"

Cassie gave her a tight lipped smile. "I woke up."

Rain rolled her eyes, which made Cassie feel slightly offended.

"You need to let that go, and you need to let Denny go, and you need to start worrying about yourself. Or else you'll never heal."

Eerily reminded of her mother in that moment, Cassie looked to the ground, playing with a loose thread on her sweater. "Yeah."

"Yeah," Rain repeated sympathetically, writing a note down in her clipboard.

☆

Meredith and Cassie entered the locker room, earning stares from both their friends as well as people they'd never met. Meredith, because she drowned, died, came back to life, and her mother died. Cassie, because she also died and came back to life, but also because the whole hospital was now aware of her personal mental health issues.

Sharing a look, the pair simultaneously rolled their eyes as they began to change clothes.

"Okay, everybody, lets do this once," Meredith spoke. "I'm fine. She's cremated, I picked out a beautiful urn, and she's hanging out in the back of my closet. Any more questions about my dead mother or can we get back to work?"

They all nodded, looking at Cassie expectantly, who shrunk under their intense gaze.

"Um," she shrugged. "I'm fine, too. Just don't like, shove a donut in my face or something and we're good."

Noticing how Cassie was receiving pitying looks, Cristina opted to change the subject entirely.

"Does anyone know who the new chief candidate is?" Cristina wondered aloud.

"Chief's bringing in a ringer, just in case he doesn't want to give the job to one of your boyfriends," George joked.

"Mark's not my boyfriend," Cassie said hastily, throwing her stethoscope over her lab coat.

Cristina smirked up at her from her place on the bench. "No one said he was."

"Good," she laughed awkwardly, making the other's frown in confusion at her unusually flustered state. "Because he's not."