One {Mark Sloan}

Hell Of A Life

NEW YORK

Winters in New York were harsh but still to some extent they were beautiful and perhaps that was the reason Ren had decided to call the city her home, well one of the reasons, the other was the person who was sleeping next to her. She liked these quiet times they had, free from the hospital politics and drams, free from having to go to Addison and Derek's dinner parties, free from everything when they were just the two of them. However, their quiet time was interrupted when Mark's phone went off, he groaned but didn't make any effort to pick the phone up instead buried his head deeper inside the pillow.

"You are not going to pick the phone up?" Renee asked but was responded with a muffled sentence.

"What?"

"Could you pick it up?" he asked. Renee rolled her eyes as she leaned over Mark to take his phone from his side of the bed, she looked at the caller id before pausing.

"Mark I think you should answer this," Renee said seriously.

"Who is it?" 

"It's your dad," 

Renee watched as Mark's face scrunched as he got up and ran his hand through his hair, she could see the confusion bubbling in his eyes as he tried to make sense of why his father would call him, it had been years since Mark had been in contact with his family, neither his father nor his mother had bothered to keep in touch.She watched as he picked the phone up and went to the balcony to answer the phone, the anxiety was crippling her as she bit her thumb tip waiting for Mark to return something which she had always been told was a bad idea.

"What happened?" she asked as he entered the room. Something was off, she could tell with the way he entered, there was no anger, no urge to shout or yell at anything or anybody and that worried Ren.

"My dad's sick," 

The car ride to the hospital felt long, ever so often Ren would glance at Mark whose fingers were clutching the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles had started turning white yet Ren didn't dare to speak. Family was a very sensitive topic with Mark, the absence of his parents in his life had always picked him and how they have chosen parties and vacations to forgein countries over him. He hadn't cried and that worried her, he wasn't the sort of person who would openly express his feeling or what he was thinking and instead thought it was best to suppress his emotions inside him, deep inside.

"I think you should go visit your father," Ren said softly.

"I have no interest in visiting that man,"

"What about-"

"Ren, please don't make me do this. He is not worth my time,"

"But he is your father, he's your family,"

"My mom and dad preferred to go to a party or a vacation or get high over spending time with their own son,"

"But-"

"We are not having this discussion,"

Mark turned to look at Ren who was biting her lip as she looked out of the window, he grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before keeping a hold of it in his lap as they continued driving.

"I am sorry. They aren't the greatest parents, they were barely ever home, I was alone at night, they would come home drunk as hell, I have seen them throw up so many times, I have put up with their fights.....I can't do this,"

"I am just saying you'd regret not going to atleast visit him," 

Ren and Mark went their own ways after reaching the hospital, she was scheduled to do a few general surgeries under Richard while Mark had some otolaryngology surgeries, it was distracting for her to see him like that. She couldn't decide what to do or how to make it better, Derek was probably her best shot to get something out of Mark or make him do something, she knew that even though Mark didn't want to visit his family right now, he'd regret it later.