CODING ━ grey's anatomy

chapter thirty five

Bailey entered the locker room, saving the intern from further questioning. "O'Malley, you're with Shepherd today. Yang, Dr. Montgomery. Stevens, to the clinic. Karev, Jane Doe. Grey, Harper, scut."

Meredith sighed. "Once again, I am fine."

"You can tell everybody your fine until you're blue in the face. Your mom died, and you almost joined her. You're taking it easy."

"Why me?" Cassie frowned. "My mom didn't die. Well, she did, but not recently. And I was cleared for surgery when I was discharged. I'm totally fine."

When Bailey turned to look at her, pictures of Cassie's dead body in the trauma room flashed through her mind.

"I don't need to explain myself," she said, not making eye contact. "Scut."

☆

"Sorry, who's Mark again?" Rain wondered, flipping back and forth between her pages of notes.

Cassie subconsciously smiled at the name. "Oh, Mark is—"

"Oh, wait, I found it," she interrupted, pointing down to a line written a week or so prior. "He's the boyfriend, right?"

Letting out an unattractive snort, Cassie vehemently shook her head. "Oh, god no," she laughed. "No, Mark is my best friend."

Rain tilted her head. "No, it says right here. Mark Sloan, plastic surgery attending. Smiles and blushes when she talks about him, clearly cares for him a lot, probably sleeping together and/or in a relationship."

"I—" Cassie paused, leaning forward and trying to get a glimpse of her clipboard. "Are all of your notes like that?"

Pulling the clipboard backwards, Rain gave Cassie a look, which made her huff and fall defeatedly back into her seat.

"I thought Meredith, Cristina, and George were your best friends?"

"No, Meredith and Cristina are my persons," Cassie corrected as if it were obvious. "It's different. George— well, yeah, he's my best friend too, but he's more like family than anything else. Mark is my best friend."

Rain gave her a blank look.

"That's very complicated."

"Really? Seems pretty simple to me."

☆

"Cass!" Mark shouted from down the hall, following after the intern as she slyly attempted to speed up. "Cass, wait up!"

Cassie inwardly cringed, turning around slowly. "Oh, hi Mark."

"Hey," he smiled once he caught up to her, slightly out of breath. "How are you? I haven't talked to you in a while, after, you know."

"Yeah, I know," she smiled sheepishly. "I, uh, I'm good. Ready to work."

Mark perked up. "Well, I could use another intern on my Jane Doe case, if you're interested."

"Oh!" Cassie raised her brows. "I would love to, but—" she paused, not having a good enough reason to say no.

"But..."