alaska | grey's anatomy

⇢ CHAPTER 6

season 4 episode 9 & 10

"Be strong." Holly noted as she saw Alex walking up to her and Lexie as they made their way towards the room for Sloan's meeting.

"Hey." Alex greeted as he caught up to the duo.

Lexie sighed, "I'm late for Sloan's meeting."

"Yeah," Alex exhaled, "so am I." He turned his head at Holly, "You're not mad at Red?" 

Lexie tightly smiled, "Because 'Red' didn't do anything wrong, you did." 

"Okay," Holly chuckled, "'Red' is right here, and would like to be called Holly."

"Also," Lexie barely turned her head to look at him as she turned the corner with Holly, "I'm not speaking to you."

Thinking they had lost him, Holly nodded, "Like I said, just stay strong and--" She turned her head at nothingness and turned around, "Lexie?" Walking up to a room they had passed by, Holly groaned as she saw Alex and Lexie making out, "Gah, oh God." She looked away, "Okay, I did not need to see this."

✧

"Okay," Mark announced to the mass of surgeons and nurses in the patient room, "ladies and gentlemen, this is Nick Hanscomb." 

Holly managed to make her way through the tall crowd with Lexie and Alex's help as they lightly pushed their way through and Holly followed. Being able to see everything, Holly caught Nick's eyes glancing around the crowd as he spoke, "Hi."

"Nick was lucky enough to have me remove a large carotid body tumor from his neck." Mark revealed as he lightly pulled away Nick's bandages to expose the throbbing closed wound, "The fact that I was able to get clean boundaries is pretty darn impressive, even for me."

"Congratulations." Alex commented from the crowd.

"Don't interrupt." Mark lectured, "Now despite the fact that it was a wildly successful surgery, we had to dissect out deep lymph nodes in his neck. There is now only a delicate flap of skin between his carotid artery and the outside world. That said. What am I worried about?"

"I would think given the friability of the skin," Cristina answered, "that there's a great possibility that the, um, the artery could blow?"

Mark nodded, pointing at Cristina, "Right."

The doctors murmured and Nick assured, "Oh, don't worry. I've--I've heard this before."

"If that happens," Mark spoke up, "whoever's in the room, I don't care if it's a doctor, a nurse, an orderly, your job is to stop the bleeding then page me, in that order. Are we clear? Any questions?"

The doctors all unanimously nodded and Nick turned his head to Mark, "They look scared."

"They're medical professionals, Nick." Mark reassured, "A healthy level of fear is encouraged."