CHAPTER FORTY
love and addiction.
season four, episode two.

           CASSIE STARED AT THE CEILING FAN AS IT SPUN AROUND IN CIRCLES, COOLING OFF THE ROOM. "Wow," she breathed out heavily, turning her head to the side with a grin. "I mean, seriously. Wow."

"Believe it or not, that's not an uncommon reaction," Mark smirked, his eyes burning into the side of her head.

Cassie laughed, smacking him on the chest. "Shut up." She moved to lay on her side, wrapping her arms around his torso, looking up at him with her head on her chest. "Can I sleep here tonight? I don't feel like driving home."

"That's new."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't do sleepovers," he stated factually.

"Okay," she shrugged. "Well, I do now."

Mark thought for a moment, a strange sense of hope brewing in his chest. "Okay, but... why?"

"I just told you, I don't feel like driving. I'm super tired, and not really in the mood to fall asleep behind the wheel."

"You could walk," Mark suggested teasingly.

"Sure, yeah," Cassie scoffed dryly. "I'll walk, and then I'll be sluggish and disoriented, and then I won't pay attention to the stoplights, and then I'll get hit by a bus, and then I'll die. Sounds good to me."

"I'm kidding, Cass. Of course you can spend the night." He looked down at her relaxed figure, testing the waters a bit. "And you're sure... there's no other reason?"

Cassie tensed for a moment, not wanted to admit why she was staying. "Nope," she answered quickly. "No other reason."

Mark sighed softly to himself in disappointment, but quickly changed the subject. "So, are you going to tell me why you're so pissed at O'Malley?"

Cassie removed herself from his body, leaving him feeling much colder than before. "I-I'm not mad at George."

"Oh please," he rolled his eyes. "I could see you glaring at him during rounds from a mile away. You can tell me, I won't say anything."

"Nothing to tell."

"Tell that to your face."

"It's not..." she paused. "It's not a big deal."

Mark sighed exasperated. "Just tell me!"

She narrowed her eyes at him with a scoff. "Oh my god, you are such a gossip!"

"Am not."

"Are too."

It was silent for a moment. "So... you're really not going to tell me?"

"Mark!"

☆

"What's wrong with the Chief?" Mark wondered, coming up to Derek, who was standing in front of the OR board.

"He's a junkie," Derek mumbled, tiredly rubbing his dark eyes with a huff.

"Him?" he raised a brow, giving his friend a once over. "You're the one who looks all strung out."

"I'm just tired."

"Let me guess," Mark smirked. "You and Meredith are back together, and you've been up all night doing the horizontal salsa."

"Mambo. Horizontal mambo," Derek laughed. "Meredith and I, we're just friends."

"Sexy friends."

"You're like, the worst, most juvenile human being I've ever met in my life."

"You know, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem."

Derek gave him a look. "Yeah? And how many nurses have you slept with this week?"

Mark's smile faltered for a moment, his brows furrowing as he thought about it. "None, actually."

"None? What, are you sick or something?"

"No, I just—" Mark let his eyes trail to the nurses station, where Cassie was explaining a procedure to one of her interns. "—uh, found something better . That's all."

Derek nodded slowly, completely oblivious but not in the mood to ask questions. "Alright then."

☆

Callie came into the trauma room after being paged, with Mark following closely behind. With a brow raised, Cassie sent a smug smirk to Izzie. She may have paged Callie even though she wasn't needed at the moment, and she may be planning to make the blonde's life a living hell until George tells the truth. Maybe.

"Hello, Mr..."

"Roche," the patient said. "Archie Roche."    

"Age 60, second and third degree burns on his chest and upper abdomen, facial contusions, and fracture," Cassie presented.

"I was reading the sports section, and the next thing I know, I'm looking up at a hole in the ceiling in Dave and Marla's apartment."

"Burns should be debrided," Mark told Cassie.

"I'm on it," she nodded, turning around to face Rue, who was on the case with her. "Lennon, help me out?"

"You got it," Rue nodded immediately, trying to hold in her excitement as she moved to sit by her resident.

Callie looked to Izzie. "We'll need to do a trauma series and shoulder films, Stevens."

Cassie rolled her eyes before Izzie could even open her mouth.

"Got it."

Gesturing towards the patient, Cassie leaned in to speak to Rue. "Remember, in a trauma like this, always ask the patient if they have any pain we're not already aware of. A lot times, they forget to mention it, or assume that we already know."

Nodding in understanding, the intern turned to the patient. "Mr. Roche, do you have any pain other than the burns?"

Archie brushed her question off, not worried about himself, but about the people he was with during the explosion. "I'm fine. Just promise me you'll take care of Marla and the baby."

"Are they your family, sir?"

He shrugged. "They may as well be."

☆

"What's the 911?" Meredith and Cassie asked in unison was they approached a stressed out Cristina.

"Mama is here."

Meredith tilted her head. "Your mother?"

"Mama," Cristina emphasized. "Mama is here."

"Oh, Burke's mother?" Cassie gasped. "Fuck."

"Yeah, make the synapses fire a little more quickly, guys."

Cassie frowned. "You know, I was just with a patient. I'd be very happy to go back there."

"No, no, no. You have to help me."

"Dr. Yang, you scrubbing in?" the Chief asked as he passed by, heading towards the elevators.

"Yes, sir. Absolutely." He nodded and left, and Cristina returned to her frantic state. "Just get rid of her, okay? Politely."

Cassie watched her leave, and turned to Meredith expectantly. "You do realize that this is your responsibility, right?"

"Why me?" she groaned.

"I jumped into the ocean and saved your life while I was slowly dying," the brunette shrugged nonchalantly. "Consider this a debt of gratitude."

Meredith narrowed her eyes. "Ugh. Fine."

☆

Izzie, who was flustered while in the presence of both George's wife and the girl who currently hated her, knocked over a tray in the trauma room.

"Sorry," she hastily apologized. "Sorry."

"Any news on Marla?" Archie asked. "My neighbor."

"I promise, as soon as we hear something, we'll give you an update," Cassie smiled softly, helping Rue finish bandaging his burns.

Once again, Izzie knocked over a tray instruments, this time dropping them onto the intern.

"Okay, can you not?" Rue snapped.

"Crap. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry."

Cassie glared at her in annoyance. "Watch your step, Dr. Stevens, and please stop knocking scalpels onto my interns. She could've been cut."

"Sorry," Izzie repeated. "Really, sorry."

Callie sighed, choosing to ignore the tension. "3-part proximal humerus fracture. He's gonna need a percutaneous reduction and internal fixation."

Archie glanced between the doctors. "That boy of theirs, Brian, he's gorgeous. Sometimes they're not. Kids. Sometimes they're ugly." He looked at Mark. "You have any kids, doctor?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"Not that he knows of," Cassie cut in.

Mark looked offended at first, but ended up agreeing with her after a moment. "Yeah, not that I know of."

"Not married either, are you?"

Mark quickly glanced to Cassie, who was already looking at him. "I'm afraid I haven't found anybody who will put up with me."

Archie shrugged. "Well, get on the stick. Don't do it like I did. Don't be a bachelor your whole life. You can only play the field for so long. Then suddenly, one day, your whole life passes you by, and those parts aren't working like they used to."

"They have medicine for that now."

"They don't have medicine for that all alone part, now do they?" he raised a brow, causing Rue to laugh under her breath, earning a playful elbow in the ribs from her resident.

Mark smiled tightly. "No, I suppose not."

"You got some pretty ones right here," Archie observed.

"Oh, I'm off the market, Mr. Roche," Callie said quickly. "I-I'm very happily married."

Izzie once again knocked over a table. "I'm really sorry. Sorry."

"I'm sure you are," Cassie muttered to herself.

Rue noticed the patient looking at her, causing her to instantly shake her head. "Yeah, no. I'm like, super gay."

"What about this one?" Archie wondered, pointing at Cassie, who froze like a deer caught in headlights.

"I'm not, uh, I don't, I mean any girl would be lucky to—" Cassie took a deep breath, smiling falsely while avoiding everyone's questioning gaze. "Relationships aren't really my thing."

Mark sighed to himself, still looking up at her. "Yeah. Me either."

☆

"Harper."

Cassie turned around and was greeted by Bailey. "Yes?"

"Harper."

She raised a brow. "Yes?"

"Okay, Harper, I need you to work in the clinic with Grey."

"Well I actually have—"

"No, no," Bailey cut her off. "Before you open your mouth and tell me all the reasons why you can't, just... just let me say this. I need this. Because I have idiots... you understand me, Harper? Idiot interns are down there in my clinic, our clinic, a clinic dripping with my blood, sweat and tears, and I am not convinced, not at all convinced, that they will not burn it down with their ineptitude." Cassie went to speak, but was cut off. "Look, no, I'm not telling, because I understand that I do not have the authority to tell. So I'm asking. Nicely."

Cassie tilted her head. "Nicely?"

"Okay, I'm just saying, if I ever did anything for you, like, I don't know—" Bailey shrugged dramatically, "—save your life—" Cassie gave her an exasperated look, "—if you've ever felt you owed me a debt of thanks, now is when I'd like to collect. Please."

Cassie pursed her lips in thought.

"Normally, I would be mad that you used saving my life against me, but I just did the same thing to Meredith, so... fine."

Bailey sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you."

☆

Cassie was treating patients in the clinic, trading annoyed looks with Meredith every couple of minutes. Just as she closed a chart, Cassie came face to face with a semi-familiar brunette.

"Hi," Lexie grinned.

Cassie looked behind her confused. "Um, hi?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, startling the resident. "I totally forgot to introduce myself. Lexie Grey."

"Yeah, I know," Cassie smiled, trying to be polite but also extremely confused about why she was talking to her. "I'm—"

"Dr. Cassandra Lynn Harper. Second year resident, child prodigy. Graduated from Lincoln High School at 14, got your bachelors from Columbia at 18, and graduated from NYU with your medical degree at 22. IQ of 168, and a photographic memory," Lexie said in one breath, leaving Cassie wide eyed and slightly impressed.

"Wow," she nodded. "Yep, that's me."

Lexie immediately regretted her rambling. "Sorry," she apologized. "I do that sometimes. I have a photographic memory too. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"Lexie, chill," Cassie laughed. "I'm actually known for my rambles. You're fine."

"Oh," Lexie smiled. "Cool."

The intern stared at Cassie with a huge grin, that looked borderline creepy to anyone passing by. It wasn't a secret that Cassie was highly praised, but Lexie was shocked that she completely lived up to her reputation. Not to mention, she'd overheard Rue gushing about how awesome her resident was more than once over the past weeks.

Cassie gave her a questioning look when she continued to stand there. "Is there something you need?"

"Oh, no," she shook her head. "I just... does Meredith hate me or something? Because it kind of seems like—"

"Lexie," Cassie sighed, interrupting her. "I'm not getting in between whatever's going on with you and Meredith. You're going to have to talk to her yourself."

Lexie sighed, but nodded nontheless. She turned to leave, but turned back to Cassie at the last second. "Uh, if you wanted to, I mean, if you aren't busy, we could go to Joe's tonight? I don't really have that many friends here, and you're the only one who's not five years older than me. Actually, you're younger than me, which is super cool. But, uh, I totally get if you think it would be weird—"

"Lexie?"

"Yeah?"

Cassie smiled. "I'm in."

☆

"Hey Mer," Cassie called out. "I'm going up to admit my patient, can you cover the clinic for a second?"

Meredith nodded. "No problem."

After Cassie put her patient in his room, she was walking the halls alone. The floor she was on was fairly deserted, only a few nurses and surgical staff were present.

When she heard yelling, she furrowed her brows in concern and began to head towards the argument. As she got closer, she recognized one of the voices to be Alex, and she could also hear a baby crying. Suddenly, the yelling stopped.

When Cassie turned the corner, a frantic man in a hospital gown holding a crying baby shoulder checked her.

"Sir," she said, causing him to stop and turn around. "You shouldn't be out of bed." When he just stared at her with an unknown glint in his eye, she walked closer with her arms out. "Here, I can take the baby, let me just—"

She was cut off with a hard punch to the face, knocking her into a wall as the man ran off with the baby.

"Okay," she groaned. "Ouch."

☆

Derek carefully held an ice pack to the side of Cassie's face, while she struggled to hold in her laughter.

"I can't believe I got punched in the face by a drug dealer," she laughed.

"Should I get a CT?" he frowned. "Why are you laughing?"

She gave him a duh look. "Um, because it's awesome? Of all the people I thought I would be punched by, an on the run 40 year old strung out on meth was not one of them. "

He gave her a blank look.

"Your thought process concerns me."

"Tell me something I don't know," Cassie rolled her eyes. "Plus, I'm fine, and now I've got this wicked black eye. I look like a total badass," she smiled, pointing to her eye that was swollen, but not so much that it was gross to look at.

Derek shook his head with a chuckle. "You're insane."

Cassie shrugged. "All the best people are."

☆

"Check out the shiner," Cassie laughed, showing Mark her eye with a grin. She joined him in the lobby after a long day, waiting for Lexie to join her.

Rather than laughing along, he grabbed her face with both hands and a frown etched on his features. "What the hell happened?"

"I got punched by a drug dealer!" she exclaimed. "Cool, right?"

"What?"

"Archie's friends from the explosion," she clarified. "Alex called him out and tried to keep the baby away from him, so the guy freaked and ran off. I got in the way, and well, this happened." She smiled widely. "It was so cool."

"No, not cool," he shook his head with wide eyes as he carefully turned her head and closely inspected her face. "Are you okay? Does it hurt? Are you sure you didn't fracture a bone?"

Cassie continued to laugh and pulled his hands off of her face. "Mark, I'm fine. Calm down."

"You just told me that you got punched by a drug dealer, and you want me to calm down?"

"Yes," she nodded, her smile dimming. "Seriously, I'm okay. There's no reason to be so dramatic."

"Yes, there is."

"And what reason is that?"

Mark ignored her question. "Where is he? I'm gonna kill him."

"You're not going to kill anyone," Cassie rolled her eyes. "Stop being so overprotective."

"Of course I'm going to be overprotective."

"Why?" she scoffed, starting to get annoyed. "You've never been like this before. Normally, you would laugh along with me. So, why now?"

"Because, Cass, I l—"

Mark quickly cut himself off, cursing himself for almost saying something he shouldn't.

Cassie tilted her head, slightly worried about what he would say. She knew what it sounded like he was going to say, but... there was no way. "Because you... what?"

Just as he was about to make up a bullshit reason, Lexie came up to them, throwing her purse over her shoulder. "Ready?" she asked Cassie, nodding as a greeting to Mark.

Cassie shook her head to get rid of the frown, and sent Mark one last questioning look before she smiled at Lexie. "Yeah, let's go."

☆

Mark entered the conference room where Derek was seated, sitting next to him with a huff. "Want to grab a drink?"

"I have a problem," Derek sighed.

"What's up?"

"No, I'm just..." he paused. "I'm admitting, I have a problem."

"Yeah," Mark frowned. "I have a problem, too."