Asystole ✷ Mark Sloan

𝟬𝟲𝟰 hand in unlovable hand

𝙇𝙓𝙄𝙑.
HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND

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    "CHARLIE CAN'T KNOW about this."

She spoke those words with such determination to him that Mark found himself caught off-guard. 

It was almost a beg (Mark hadn't heard Beth Montgomery beg him for anything in years and yet here she was begging for two things in the span of two hours) and almost a threat. 

He wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be intimidated but it caused him to at least raise an eyebrow. Her face creased as he followed her through the hospital, into the West Wing towards the On-Call rooms.

He was following her-- wait, why was he following her? 

He hadn't quite figured that out yet. All he knew was that Beth had started walking and he'd followed her and that she'd started talking and talking and... yeah, his hangover was definitely still there. He found himself needing to brace himself as Beth shoved through a double door; she held it open for him and he stepped around her, their fingers brushing on the window. 

He murmured a very small thank you and nodded listlessly to Beth's demands.

She seemed to be making a lot of those today.

Charlie can't know about this. 

Bold for Beth to assume that Mark would talk to Charlie at all. He'd barely spoken to the psychiatrist at all. They'd see each other briefly passing in the halls and there'd be that moment. That one moment, that weird second of time, the awkward polite smile that Mark always said he wasn't going to do until he did... It was mutual. 

He felt vaguely bad about yelling at the psychiatrist over Lexie, but he stood by it. For the record, Mark still had a weird feeling about him; he wasn't sure what it was, but something gave him the impression that Charlie wasn't as squeaky clean and perfect as everyone seemed to think.

(Mark really didn't like Charlie.)

But, that still didn't exactly explain why Mark found himself following to an on-call room on the opposite side of the hospital. He definitely had more important things to do; there were a handful of post-op patients that needed reviewing and an OR that needed prepping, but Beth had an iron grip on Gretchen's chart and he felt the pressure to keep an eye on her.

It hadn't hit him until Derek had shot him a sharp look while leading Bethenny Ballard away, that maybe giving Beth one of his patients really wasn't the best idea he'd had.

He was definitely going to get yelled at by Charlie or Andrew, that's what Mark was guessing. Maybe by both of them at the same time. That would be interesting. 

Charlie always seemed so passive and ineffectual. Mark wondered whether he made Beth fight all of his battles. He couldn't imagine Charlie sending back food in a restaurant. Beth, on the other hand, he had seen do many things that wouldn't exactly be considered ineffectual or passive at all--

"So, Beth huh?"

The comment was so casual and off-handed that he almost didn't notice it. 

Mark hadn't realised that Beth was talking until she was pausing in her step, looking over at him when he missed the cue for an answer. Her eyebrow quirked inquisitively. She'd been walking so quickly that the falter in her pace was what caught his attention first, and then those dark eyes fixed on him as her head rose from the medical record.