Mending Broken Hearts-2

Standing Up and Sharing

Thank you all for enjoying my last chapter. I was planning that surprise for a long time. There will be an emotional rollercoaster for Mark and Gen. It will test their relationship in many ways.

3rd Person POV

"Can I talk to you?" Arizona asks Nicole as she comes into the room.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." Nicole responds.

"Dr. Herman, I wasn't kidding when I said that I...that I wanted this fellowship. And today's surgery only confirmed that more for me." Arizona rambles on.

"Close the door." Nicole orders.

"But no matter how much I need or want this fellowship, I refuse to spend the year with you speaking to me the way that you speak to me."

"We won't have a year together." Nicole speaks up. Arizona scoffs.

"Fine. Great. Thanks." Arizona goes to leave, but Nicole stops her.

"I'll be dead in six months." Arizona stops in her tracks. "I have a brain tumor. It's inoperable. I thought I had longer, but it's growing. Soon, I will show symptoms, and after that, I will die." Nicole says like it's no big deal.

"Who knows about this? Hunt? Benoist? Anyone?" Arizona asks.

"Fetal surgery is a new field. The few of us who are practicing it are basically inventing it as we go along. The things I know, the things I scribble down in the margins, no one has them. They're not in any textbook. They're only in my brain. So I can fight to write papers and try to get them published, or I can use the time I have left to try to teach another brilliant student. Benoist was my prized horse, and I want you to be my second. You and tell Hunt and the board, and it all goes away forever." Nicole lays out the rules for Arizona.

"I don't know how to feel about this." Arizona replies.

"Well, hurry up and decide. I don't have time to waste."

__________________________________
"Hey, do you know why Mark and Gen would both be off today?" Callie asks Meredith.

"They're not at work?" Meredith asks, surprised. She looks around for their person and does not see her.

"I called for a consult on a patient, and I was informed she called in and won't be here, and neither will Mark." Callie explains.

"You know they've both been acting a little strange." Meredith says.

"Do you think they're trying for kid number five?" Callie asks.

"Who has five kids?" Maggie jumps in, curious.

"Gen Benoist and Mark Sloan. Plastics, and she's our triple board-certified badass in peds, ortho, and fetal surgery." Callie brags.

"Five kids. Wow. I'm an only child, so that's a lot to me." Maggie says, trying to get to know her colleagues.

"I mean, she would tell me if she was trying for more kids." Meredith says.

"Yeah, she would have told me." Callie adds. They share a look, and Maggie notices the tension.

"Are you two competing who would know about Gen's kid?" Maggie questions.

"No." Meredith and Callie say in unison.

"I'm sure if they wanted you all to know, they would let you know." Maggie says.

"They've actually taken the whole week off." Owen informs.

"What?"

"Yeah, something personal came up, and they asked for the week. If you need anything plastics wise you will need to page Avery and Karev for peds and Herman for fetal." Owen explains as an ambulance arrives. "What do we got?"