CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
great expectations.
season three, episode thirteen.

          CASSIE AND GEORGE WERE HAVING A LOT OF SEX. Not together, of course. George was sleeping with Callie, and Cassie was sleeping with Mark. With the death of George's dad and Cassie's suspension, they both needed a distraction.

"This can't happen again," Cassie panted, slightly out of breath. "It's not a good idea."

Mark rolled on his side, looking down at her naked body in confusion. "Really? Because I think it's a great idea."

She shook her head. "I go back to work today, and every attending is going to be watching me like a hawk to make sure I don't go all MMA fighter on them. I really can't afford to be distracted."

"You seemed to have a different attitude last night," he smirked. "I recall you saying something along the lines of oh, keep going, that feels so—"

"Shut up!" Cassie smacked him in the arm, embarrassed. "I'm serious."

Mark laughed. "So am I."

"You're awful."

"That's not what it sounded like last night."

Cassie playfully glared at him, huffing and turning on her side to face the other away.

Smirking to himself, Mark suddenly grabbed her waist and flipped them over so she was on top of him, causing her to let out a surprised squeal.

Despite herself, Cassie grinned at him, leaning down so she could whisper into his ear. "Well I guess one more distraction wouldn't hurt. But no more after today, deal?"

He smiled victoriously. "Deal."

☆

"Where have you been?" Cristina asked as Cassie rushed into the locker room. Her hair was clearly unbrushed, her makeup smudged, and she was wearing one of Mark's old button ups after she lost her shirt the night before.

To sum it up, she looked like a mess.

Meredith smirked, looking her up and down. "Either she got ran over by a truck in the parking lot, or she's been having hot hot sex with McSteamy."

"You're doing Sloan?" Cristina raised a brow. "Nice.

Cassie stuttered over her words, taking off her outside clothes to put on her scrubs. "I— I'm not doing Mark," she lied.

"You're wearing a matching set," Cristina observed, pointing obviously to her lace bra and underwear as she turned to Meredith. "She's totally doing Sloan."

"Oh, totally."

Cassie narrowed her eyes at them, tightening the waistband of her scrubs as she walked out the door. "I hate you both."

"We know," they said in unison, smiling cheekily as she left the room.

☆

Cassie, Alex, and Meredith followed Mark into a patient room. He specifically requested the former to be on his service, which made Meredith wiggle her brows in suggestion. Cassie just elbowed her in the ribs.

"Jim, annoying interns and Cassie. Annoying interns and Cassie, Jim," Mark bluntly introduced them to the unconscious patient. "Jim is semi-comatose, and has stage three decubitus ulcers."

"Bedsores?" Alex groaned.

"Right," Mark nodded. "So, he's going to need to be debrieded, have his dressings changed, and have his position changed every two hours."

"Every two hours? By the time we finish, we'll just have to start again," Meredith complained.

"I'm crying on the inside," he deadpanned. "Cass, you're on my pre-ops, and then you can scrub in on my corrective rhinoplasty this afternoon."

Cassie grinned. "Sweet."

Alex sighed in annoyance. "Can't the nurses help at least?"

"They could, but I like nurses. They're helpful and smart and already good at their jobs. So, as a going away gift to them, I'm going to let you hang with Jim, while I do one last rhinoplasty at Seattle Grace. I like to leave a city a little prettier than when I came," Mark said, before he turned on his heel and left the room.

Cassie stared at the door, replaying what he just said over and over again in her head.

"Did he just say he was leaving?" Alex raised a brow. "As in, quitting?"

"Cass," Meredith frowned, "did you know?"

Cassie blinked at the door. "I had no idea."

☆

"You're quitting?" Cassie questioned as she came up to Mark a few hours later at the nurses station. "Since when?"

"Since today," he replied nonchalantly. "As soon as I find the Chief and hand him my letter of resignation."

Casske ignored the stinging in the back of her eyes. "But why?"

Mark sighed. "I hate it here. I hate the town. I hate the weather. I hate the people. They're mean. They're unforgiving."

"The people of Seattle are unforgiving, or Derek and Addison are unforgiving?"

"What's your point?"

What about me? is what she wanted to ask. Instead, she said, "Well, I mean, you can't just back out of your contract."

He scoffed obliviously. "My non binding verbal agreement with Richard? Yeah, I'm breaking that."

"Well, it's not as if he's going to be around to enforce it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, rumor has it he's stepping down."

"Who told you that?"

"Derek, who heard it from Burke," she shrugged without care.

"You know who's going to take his place?"

Cassie crossed her arms over her chest, looking at him disbelievingly. "Why do you care? You're leaving anyway."

With that, she left, making sure to harshly bump his shoulder on her way out.

☆

Burke walked into Jim's room, where Alex, Cristina, and Meredith were talking. "Anyone available to assist me on a truncus arteriosis surgery?" he asked, staring directly at Cristina, who still had yet to speak to him.

"Yeah," Alex perked up.

"Yes, absolutely," Meredith nodded.

"Good," Burke smiled at Cristina. "Then the first one of you to accurately describe the condition will get to scrub in." Meredith and Alex stayed silent, racking their brains but ultimately coming up empty. Cristina, on the other hand, was shifting in place, going crazy for not being able to answer. "No one knows the answer? That's too bad. It'll probably be years before we see another one like this. Oh well."

Cassie entered the room while looking for her friends, pausing in the doorway. "What's going on?"

Burke turned to face her. "Harper, can you explain what truncus arteriosis is?"

"A single arterial trunk coming from the ventricles," she answered instantly.

"Great," he said, throwing smirk to Cristina. "See you in the OR."

"Really? Awesome," Cassie grinned.

"How could you not know that?" Cristina shouted at the other two once Burke left.

Alex scoffed. "How could you not say it?"

☆

In the lobby, Derek approached Mark with an unreadable expression. "Rumor has it you're headed back to New York."

Mark scoffed. "Where'd you hear that?"

"News travels fast," he shrugged.

"Why aren't you happier?" Mark asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "I thought you would be jumping for joy by now."

"Have you talked to Cass about this?"

"Not really. I mean, she asked me why I was leaving, then she got all mad and stormed off."

Derek gave him a blank look.

"You're an idiot."

Mark thought for a moment, before externally cringing to himself. "Oh, crap. I'm an idiot."

"Yep."

"I'll talk to her," he assured, before adding, "Besides, I suppose staying wouldn't be too bad. Rumor has it, there's a race for Chief."

"Where'd you hear that?"

Mark smirked, sarcastically patting him on the back. "News travels fast. Especially when you have a chatty sister. Anyway, I'll see you later."

☆

In surgery with Burke, Cassie was excited, to say the least. She always loved the idea of cardio, but never actually had the chance to assist Burke one on one, since he pretty much only operated with Cristina.

"Alright, Dr. Harper. Have you ever done a running whip stitch?"

Cassie looked at him with wide eyes. "I— yes, but never on a heart."

"Give it a try," Burke said, handing her the proper instrument. After watching her perform heart surgery in an elevator, he's always wanted to see what she could do if he put a little faith in her. "I'm right here if you need help."

"Okay," Cassie breathed out nervously. Focusing and remembering everything she'd learned, she carefully did the stitch. After only a few moments, she was done. "Was that good?"

Burke nodded approvingly, hiding his slight shock. "That was perfect, actually." The two continued to operate. "How are you, Harper?"

"Hm?" she looked up.

He hesitated. "You know, with everything that's happened lately."

Cassie smirked behind her mask. "How are you and Cristina? You know, with everything that's happened lately..." she fired back.

Burke shook his head with amusement. "We'll just put both of those topics in the do not discuss pile, shall we?"

"We shall," she agreed humorously.

☆

Cassie walked pass the conference room, pausing in her steps when she saw a frustrated looking Bailey hunched over a pile of papers.

"Dr. Bailey?" she knocked on the door. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh," Bailey waved her off, only glancing in her direction. "Yeah, everything's fine."

Entering the room and taking a seat next to her resident, Cassie frowned as she read the top of one of the files.

"We're getting a free clinic?"

"Not quite," she said. "I have the signatures, but now comes the issue of the funding." Shuffling the papers around, Bailey shook her head in defeat. "As much as I need this is work, I'm not sure that it's going to."

Cassie tilted her head in curiosity, ignoring the last part of her statement. "So, what exactly does a free clinic entail?"

"Well, for starters, we would offer free yearly checkups to those who can't afford a primary care doctor. And then there's blood work, labs, stitches, casts, all free of charge. I mean, with the healthcare system in this state, there's a lot of people who could really use something like this."

She hummed in interest. "Yeah, I mean, if the government provided free health care, all Americans would be able to access health services when necessary, leading to a statistical increase in quality of life. Also, many people would make use of preventive healthcare services, and therefore end up reducing the financial burden that the expensive curative services result in. It's a great idea."

Bailey sighed. "A great idea, with no funding."

Cassie nodded slowly, glancing thoughtfully down at the piles of paperwork.

"How much do you need?"