Why me? ~ mark sloan

CHAPTER FORTY

"Dr Hunt! We haven't seen you in ages!" One of Vanessa's long-term patient's parents greeted her and she hugged them gently before she walked into Rose's room.

"Well I'm back for a few months and then I'm being forced back into maternity leave." She joked and the parents laughed lightly as Vanessa pulled her stethoscope from around her neck and placed it to Rose's chest.

"Heart sounds healthy - looks like your body is healing well. How did your surgery go, Rose?" Vanessa asked as she placed the equipment around her neck and sitting on the end of her bed.

"Good. I think they said something about taking all of the tumor (i'll spell it this way now i guess) out and I feel a lot better." Rose nodded and Vanessa smiled and turned to the patient's parents.

"I have to go but I'll be back or I'll send someone else to check on you guys." I smiled and they waved me goodbye as I closed the door and walked away from the room. 

"Dr Sl- Hunt?" Someone called and Vanessa laughed as she turned toward April who had just called her, "What do I call you now?" 

"Dr Hunt - Mrs Sloan." Vanessa smiled and April nodded before handing her a chart.

"Dr Shepherd wants you in on this case." She informs Vanessa and Vanessa furrows her eyebrows as she takes the chart and looks through it.

"This isn't even a peds case?" Vanessa questioned, looking up at April who just shrugged and walked away.

Vanessa sighed and closed the chart, walking away to find wherever Derek was to ask him why he was putting her on cases that weren't even her specialty.

***

Vanessa turned the tap off and shook her hands out gently before drying them. She had scrubbed in with Derek on his surgery and it had been a success - her first surgery back and it went well. 

Derek had just wanted the first surgery she did after her time off to be a big one - a great one - and that's what it was. She breathed out deeply and walked out of the scrub room, seeing Mark waiting for her outside, leaning against the opposite wall.

She smiled slightly as he started walking with her. Neither of them spoke - just walked together toward the cafeteria where they were going to meet the others for lunch.

---

"How's married life?" Derek asked the pair as everyone sat at the cafeteria table.

"The same as normal life." Vanessa shrugged and Mark shot her a glance from across the table. Cristina raised her eyebrows slightly, picking up on the tension between the two of them.

"Would be if you just-" Mark started to mumble.

"We're not doing this here." Vanessa hissed and everyone at the table's eyes widened slightly as they put their head down and focused on their food.

"Well, when are we gonna do it then because you're always making excuses." Mark fought back and everyone watched the two of them as if they were bombs about to explode.

"You could've chosen any time but you brought it up in front of our friends. You're forcing me to talk about it and I don't want to." Vanessa countered, dropping her fork in her food and looking at Mark across the table.

"Fine. Fine." Mark dropped his sandwich on the table and stormed off, leaving Vanessa at the table with everyone staring at her.

"What was that about?" Jackson piped up from where he had hidden himself behind Cristina.

"Mark wants me to change my name to Dr Sloan - I'm already Mrs Sloan. What else does he want from me? Having two Dr Sloan's is just gonna be confusing." Vanessa explained and Derek furrowed his eyebrows.