You Promised | Mark Sloan ✓

41┃good mourning

S6 EP1&2

- DAY 1 -

THE NIGHT THAT GEORGE died, everyone was... quiet. There was a different layer of tension in the hospital's air, glazed with grievance and mourning.

Norah had most of her tears cried out in the stairwell, in Mark's arms. Right now, she sat in the middle of his hotel room in one of her college hoodies. Her head clouded with one thought, one question: Why?

She could not understand why George would jump in front of a bus for a complete stranger. She could not understand why people she grew fond of would end up dying and leaving her. But above all, she could not understand why everything could change within a blink of an eye.

Mark sat down beside her, his hair still damp. He drew his legs up to his chest and rested his chin on his knee, studying her expression. She tilted her head to him with her brows furrowed.

"Are you copying me?" she queried, seeing the similarities of the form they were seated in.

"Maybe?" he responded, and she rolled her eyes at him with a light smile on her face.

She turned her head back to look forward. "Just yesterday, we were all bickering over who stole who's food, and now... Now, we're all... mourning?" she shook her head, "George is gone, and he's not coming back... How do things change so suddenly?"

"The world isn't friendly, Laurie. Not at all," he sighed, reaching for her hand that clenched into a tight fist. She slowly loosened her hand, and he held hers in his.

Her other hand fiddled with the string on her hoodie. "People leave, and people die," she stated out rather straightforwardly, "I call that a cycle of life."

"Well, you're in luck, because I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere," Mark lowered his head to her and placed a kiss on her lips, "Now let's get some sleep, hm?"

He stood from the carpeted floor and pulled her up with him. They walked over to the bed with her dragging her steps.

She snuggled close to him, laying her head on his chest while his hand rested on her back. The rhythm of his heartbeat had never failed to calm her and to soothe her.

"You'll never go anywhere?"

"I promise."

"I love you, Mark."

"I love you more, Laurie. Goodnight."

❦ ❦ ❦

- DAY 7 -

EVERYONE WERE DRESSED in black as they stood under the shades of the tall trees in the cemetery.

They listened quietly to the priest as he recited. The woman, who George saved from the bus, was crying. Norah refrained from punching her to shut her up as she stared at the roses on top of his-

Coffin.

Even the word made her chest tight. It was like she was nine all over again. Standing under the shades in a black dress, she remembered hearing the priest mumbling words that her mind would never register.

Back then, she did not know what it meant when her dad told her that mummy was gone. But now, the knowing of the death of her friend made her feel everything.

Mark was silently checking on her, eyeing her every now and then; she knew it, of course, he would.

Next to her stood Timothy, with Lexie on his other side. Her eyes were red from crying, and all he could do was comfort her. Timothy was great with words, just like his sister. But when it comes to comforting a crying person, his mind would sometimes go blank.