Nothing Else Matters: Chapter 8
This is mostly a Callie/Mark friendshippy chapter. I love their friendship on this show and I wanted to incorporate some of it into this fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy or it's characters.
Callie Torres liked to think she was stealthy. Or at least that's what she hoped as she looked around the surgical floor for the new Peds surgeon, Arizona Robbins.
But her search was momentarily put on hold when she felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders and steer her towards an on call room.
As soon as the door was shut behind her, Callie felt a pair of lips on hers. Fantasies of a new blonde surgeon went through her mind as she responded to the kiss, but when she felt the stubble against her own skin, she quickly realized that this wasn't the pair of lips she was hoping to be attached to.
Callie opened her eyes and forcefully pushed the owner of the unwelcome lips off of her. "Mark, what the hell are you doing?"
Mark looked at her like she was a few eggs short of a dozen, "We're in an on call room. What do you think I'm doing?"
Callie stared dumbfounded as Mark pulled off his shirt. She quickly regained her focus when she noticed his hands about to pull down his pants.
"Whoa, hold on a minute there cowboy" Callie said as she rushed forward and put her hands on his.
Mark looked at her in confusion, "You want to do it yourself?"
Callie shook her head and removed her hands. "No. I'm not doing anything. We're not doing anything."
Mark then proceeded to pout like a child not getting his way. "Why not?"
"Because you really don't want to do this."
"What are you talking about? I just pulled you into an empty on call room. Why wouldn't I want to do this?"
Callie stared at him in silence and then gazed pointedly at the front of his scrub pants where they both noticed absolutely nothing was going on below his belt.
Mark frowned dissapointingly at his crotch, "It's been like this for weeks. I think it's broken."
Callie laughed as Mark looked down into his pants at his uncooperative body part, "It isn't broken Mark. You just don't want to have sex with everything that moves. I think you've finally grown out of your manwhore stage."
Callie then grabbed Mark by the arm and sat him down next to her on the on call bed.
"Now that we're here, I have to tell you something."
"What?" Mark said dispassionately now that this meeting in the on call room wasn't going as he planned.
"I think I have a type now." Callie said excitedly.
Mark frowned, "What are you talking about?"
"Erica, Sadie and now Arizona. All blondes. I think I'm a real lesbian now that I've got a type" Callie said with a big smile on her face.
"Been there, slept with that. Not really my thing."
Callie smiled knowingly "Brunettes more your thing?" Her smile got bigger when Mark groaned.
"The hair touching? Yeah, I kind of saw that. As a matter of fact, I think the entire surgical floor saw it."
Mark sighed, "I have no idea what's wrong with me. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't even get an erection without thinking about her."
Callie raised her shoulders and threw her hands up "Okay, I might be your friend but that's wa-a-ay too much information."
Mark ignored her comment, "It's like she's got this power over me and makes it impossible to control myself. I do and say things that I shouldn't do or say. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. This has never happened to me before." He then sighed and placed his head in his hands.
Callie felt sorry for him. He had lived his whole life believing that he was never good enough for anyone. Believing that all he was good for was a quick round of meaningless sex. Something she was guilty of thinking herself. But as she got to know him, she saw that there was so much more underneath the surface of the infamous Mark Sloan. After years of sleeping with countless women, he was finally developing legitimate feelings for someone that could actually turn into something real. Even if it was with Lexie Grey. Callie couldn't really see what was so special about Lexie but she could see how special Lexie was to him. And as a friend, she would try and support him in anyway that she could.
Callie placed her arms around his shoulders and felt Mark stiffen at the contact.
"What are you doing?" he asked and she could hear the genuine confusion in his voice.
"This is called a hug. It's what friends do when one is feeling lost" Callie explained like she was talking to a child. Sometimes she wondered what kind of childhood he had growing up if he couldn't recognize a hug when he got one.
"Oh...Okay," Mark replied and awkwardly placed his right hand on her arm that was across his chest.
It was in that moment of friendship that someone decided to enter the on call room.
"Dr. Sloan, Dr. Yang needs a consult for..." Lexie's sentence trailed off as she took in the scene before her; a very shirtless Mark sitting on a bed with Callie hugging his bare torso.
Lexie stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before she quickly regained her composure. "Uh, I'm sorry...I'll just...." she managed to say before running out of the room.
Mark stood and grabbed his shirt from the floor, roughly pulling it over his head. He wanted to hit himself for being so stupid. What was he thinking; trying to sleep with someone else when his feelings for Lexie were so obvious. His fear of what he was feeling for Lexie caused him to make a huge mistake. He needed to fix this and he needed to fix this now.
"What do I do?" He said looking at an equally unnerved Callie.
All Callie had wanted to do was comfort her friend and now she was worried she might have screwed up his chance with Lexie.
So Callie said the only thing she could think of, "Why are you looking at me? GO AFTER HER!"
And with those words of wisdom, Mark bolted out of the room.
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(next chapter)