flatline [m.s]

xci.

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every action has an equal and opposite reaction. emergency rooms are kept in business by people who have learned that lesson in the hard way. skydivers, bullriders.
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"i e-mailed dr. yang twice about the conduit babies, and her only response was, 'not your problem'," maggie informs richard as they walk through the hospital together. "i'm the head of cardio. i'm her boss. and the way she talks to me sometimes-"

"look, dr. pierce, i-" richard begins.

"maggie. margaret," maggie corrects him. "maggie is fine."

"dr. yang will be coming in later for a final checkup with her conduit baby before she-" richard starts to explain.

"and then she's leaving?" maggie hopefully asks. "for good?"

"yes," richard nods. "yes, she will be gone by the end of the day. back to minnesota. is that it?"

"yes," maggie nods. "actually, no. there's a couple of things i wanted to go over with the other dr. webber. do you know where i can find her?"

"uh, dr. webber has decided to take some time off," richard informs her. "she should be back in the hospital in the next couple of days."

■ ■ ■

"hasn't it felt good to get away for a few days before you go back to work?" lia smiles at mark from where she lies in bed.

"not really," mark shakes his head. "i mean why did we have to go camping? why couldn't we just stay at the apartment?"

"staying in derek's trailer is hardly camping," lia rolls her eyes.

"we could have gone anywhere," mark smirks, as he crawls on top of lia, propping himself up on his arm so that he's hovering above her. he then leans down to kiss her.

"i thought we were taking things slow?" lia raises her brow, pulling back from the kiss. they then both look at each other with their faces centimetres apart for a for moments.

"slow enough?" mark whispers.

"yeah," lia breathes, bringing her hands to the back of his neck to pull him close to her.

■ ■ ■

"babe, you ready to go?" mark asks lia, standing in the doorway of derek's trailer, once he's finished loading their stuff into the car.

"yep," she nods, getting up and walking over to him, and kissing him before he locks the door behind them. "oh... by the way, i forgot to mention, mer invited us for dinner."

"did you say yes?" mark raises his brow. lia nods in response and he groans. "do we have to? i'm better now. we could just go back to the apartment and have a ton of sex."

"we're going," she insists, climbing into the passenger seat of mark's car. mark rolls his eyes, but luckily for him, lia doesn't notice. "and then we can go back to the apartment and have a ton of sex."

mark grins to himself as he pulls the car away from derek's land. he places his other hand on lia's thigh, gently squeezing it.

■ ■ ■

"dr. pierce," richard greets maggie as she approaches the bench she is sat at outside the hospital. "rough day, huh?"

"seven traumas, two of which had right ventricular perfs, topped off with a pedi attic heart transplant," maggie informs him with a chuckle.

"other than that, how are you settling in?" richard asks her.

"it has been the weirdest two weeks of my life," maggie laughs. "i don't know anyone. no one knows me. i haven't had one conversation that wasn't related to work."

"well..." richard sighs, taking a seat beside her. "you know me now."

"no," maggie chuckles. "god, i sound like a kid crying at camp. no, it's no- it's not that. it's... something else. i was adopted. two years ago, i looked up my birth mom. i had to go to the court for the records. she's dead now, um, so i could only get her name. but she was amazing. she was a surgeon here. that's not why i took the job. i mean. it's a little bit why i interviewed, but it's just... so weird."

"w- what was her name?" richard furrows his brow. "your birth mother."

"ellis grey," maggie smiles. "did you know her?"

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people whose bold ideas can often result in broken bones and smushed spleens. surgeons are trained to deal with the fallout of bold ideas. we pick up the pieces and do our best to fit them back together.
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"please come back to cardio," meredith jokingly begs lia over their dinner with mark and derek.

"why?" lia laughs.

"your replacement is horrible," meredith groans.

"dr. pierce?" lia raises her brow. "she seemed lovely when i interviewed her."

"well, she's not lovely in the o.r," meredith scoffs.

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the thing about the bold moves is they're terrifying, could end in nothing but tears and broken bones. and that's exactly what makes them so damned exciting.
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