In life it's not just doctors who have a competitive nature.  We always want to be better.  To do better.  It's in our nature to be competitive and do the best damn job we know we can do.  I've always been competitive.  Maybe it's because I grew up with two brothers and they pushed me.  Or maybe it was because they made me want to be a better version of myself.  Either way - I have to be grateful for it.  

-

"You know you look younger with your goatee shaved off," Alison told her boyfriend as she was making them protein pancakes in her kitchen.

"Really?" He brought his hand up to his chin and gave a smirk.

"I kind of miss the goatee," she pouted slightly.  "It was like your trademark like the leather jacket is."

"I can always grow it back," he told her as he circled his arms around her waist and brought her closer to his chest.  "If it makes you feel any better."

"It would," she told him and she felt him kiss the top of her head which made her melt.  "But I don't mind the shaved face too much," she teased him making him laugh slightly.

"Need help with anything?"

"Yeah, can you get some fruit out of the fridge and some plates please?"

"Of course," he nods his head.  

"Did you know James made it back late last night?"

"Is that who you were talking to late last night?"

"Yeah," she nodded her head with a sheepish smile on her face.  "Sorry if I woke you.  I tried to be quiet.  I was just so happy he's home now."

"Don't worry about it," he waved a hand at her and began cutting the strawberries as she flipped the pancakes.  "I'm glad he's home too.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing him during Thanksgiving."

"I'm sorry, did you just say you are looking forward to seeing my brother?" She smirked at him. 

"I'll admit I was nervous as hell at first but I got his approval so now I'm clear," he puffed his chest out a little as he was proud of himself for passing the test.

"I always knew they would like you.  Maybe at first they were hesitant, but I knew they would overcome that," she replied with a smile and put the now done pancake on the plate that he had handed her seconds ago and handed him the plate as she got her own.

*

Alison stopped walking and Mark noticed right away as he turned around with his eyebrows furrowed.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked her as he walked towards her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"He's back today."

It was four days later since Richard suspended Doctor Kenley and Alison wasn't sure how to feel but she knew she was nervous.  Mainly for how he would react when he saw her.  She knew Richard wanted her to tell him if he kept up but she hoped he didn't.  

"I'm sorry I told Richard I just-" he shook his head.  "I just couldn't watch you sit through full days of surgeries anymore for book work."

"It's alright," she told him as she put her hand on his shoulder.  "I don't blame you.  I just hate that I let it get so far.  I guess I'm just nervous if he'll hate me for having him being turned into Richard.  You know?"

"If he does anything or tries anything you tell Richard or me right away, alright?" He tells her and she nods her head, feeling almost like a little kid who was having to tell on someone being rude to her.

"I'm not a snitch though," she told him as she pointed her finger at him and gave him a look that she meant it and he raised his hands in defense.

"This has nothing to do with snitching.  This has to do with your future and if someone is messing with it that's not right and needs to be dealt with."

"You make it sound like he would be taken to a room and beaten up," she gave him a small smile and he shook his head.

"Are you sure you aren't dark and twisty sometimes?" He asked her pulling her towards him and hugged her.

"Maybe only sometimes," she mumbled as she inhaled his scent which was her favorite.  She could smell the cologne that he had sprayed on himself this morning - Versace Pour Homme.  The scents of bergamot, neroli, cedarwood filling her senses and it brought warmth to her.  "I love you," she told him and puckered her lips slightly as she looked up at him and smiled down at her.

"I love you too," he told her and leaned down to kiss her.

"Hey, no kissing in front of the little ones," Miranda chastised the couple as she put her free hand up to cover Tucker's eyes making the couple pull apart.

"Hey, Tuck," Alison greeted the baby that she had operated on days before.  "Can I hold him?" She asked Miranda and she nodded her head and handed baby Tucker to her.  "Oh you are just the cutest and now that you are all healthy all of the women are going to want you," she said walking a little bit.

"Oh no, don't get that look," Miranda said as she put a finger out to the attending and he turned to look at her.

"What look?" 

"You know, the 'I want babies' look," she said doing quotation marks with her hands.

"Well, you don't have to worry about anything, Bailey."

"And why's that?" She raised her eyebrows at him and put a hand on her hip.

"Alison doesn't want any kids just yet," he let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.

"And she shouldn't," she chastised him.  "She is in her first year fellowship.  She needs to only concentrate on that.  Though, I do admit you two would make cute babies," she told him going a little soft.

"We would, wouldn't we?" He smirked at the resident doctor.

"Do not get any ideas, Sloan," she pointed a finger at him and then went up to Alison and took Tucker from her before walking off and Mark walked up to his girlfriend.

"He's just the cutest little guy, isn't he?" She let out a sigh and looked up at her boyfriend.

"He is pretty cute," he agrees with her.

"I should get up to peds.  See you later?"

"Of course," he tells her and kisses her briefly before she went up to the peds floor, ready to brace whatever will happen today.

*

"Hi Doctor Kenley," Alison greeted the doctor cautiously and he replied in a gruff tone.

"Your here," he remarked as he moved over to his desk and let out a loud sigh.  "We have a surgery at noon.  You get to scrub in," he told her not even apologizing for how he treated her the last week because he didn't really care as he left the room.  

"T-thank you, Doctor Kenley," she smiled at the older doctor and he ignored her as he walked out.

Doctor Kenley was back at work and though he still seemed like he had a bad attitude, he worked with Alison more and grudgingly allowed her in on surgeries.  Even though he wasn't like Addison, at least she was able to do surgeries again.  That's all she really wanted.

*

"What do you see in her?" Mark asked his best friend when he saw Rose walk away.  "Is it the hot sex?  Is she an animal?  Is she a bobcat?"

"Mark," Derek chastised him.  

"Come on," he groaned as he wrote in his patients charts.  "Lady in the streets, tramp in the sheets.  Am I right?"

"Oh yeah, she's amazing.  Hot, sweaty.  Very pretty, hot, sweaty sex," he replied and Mark looked at him weird.

"You haven't slept with her yet, have you?"

"She's waiting until we're serious," Derek defended himself.  "She has morals, she's a lady.  Besides, you know what's better than sex?"

"What?"

"Anticipation."

"And Alison's not a lady?" Mark asked, suddenly annoyed and Derek wished he didn't say the last part.

"I wasn't talking about Alison," Derek told him.  "They're two completely different women."

"Uh huh.  I'll allow you a pass this time, my friend, but next time you'll get it."

*

"How's it living with George?" Alison asked Lexie as they were now in surgery taking out an appendix.  Alison had offered to Cristina earlier that she would take Lexie off of her case today.  Not to do Cristina a favor but because she genuinely loved working with Lexie.  

"He hates it," she complained.  "And I can't say that I blame him.  I mean there's cockroaches going around the apartment.  But you know I can't live with my dad anymore.  I won't.  So even if George doesn't like it now I'm going to try and find how I can make it comfortable for him."

"Did you just say you're living with cockroaches?" Alison asked with a serious face.

"I said everything else and that's the only thing you gathered from that?" 

"I hate bugs," she slightly shivered.

"So what do you do when you have a bug in your apartment?"

"I don't get bugs.  Occasionally spiders but they're small and Mark kills them for me."

"Right, okay," Lexie nods her head in understanding.  

"So are you going to tell George that you like him more than a friend?"

"Definitely not yet.  He's still going through his divorce and also it would just make our living situation weird if he doesn't feel the same way.  You know?"

"I get it," Alison nods.  "We are done here.  If you can stitch her up and I'll go get Clair," she tells the intern.

"Wait, you're leaving me alone?" Lexie gulps.

"Nothing bad is going to happen," she tells Lexie and Lexie nods.  "I'll be right outside."

"Hey, how did the surgery go?" Clair asks Alison.

"It went good," she smiled at the blonde.  "We're done if you want to follow me and talk with the family."

"Of course," she nods her head and gets up from her chair and follows her out of the room and as they near closer to the family they spot Lexie talking to her.  "What is she doing?  Does she know I'm supposed to be talking to them?"

"I'll go let her know.  Wait here," she tells Clair and walks up to Lexie.  "Hey, what are you doing?" Alison asked as she pulled her intern to the side and the family looked at them.

"I was just getting ready to tell them that the surgery went really well," but then she saw Alison's face and realized that was wrong and she blushed out of embarrassment.  "We don't do that up here, do we?"

"Up here in peds, normally Clair is the one to talk with the families after we have surgeries," Alison told the intern and realization dawned on her.

"Right, I should have known that," Lexie winced.

"It's okay," Alison lightly laughed.  "No one really knows that unless they're up here.  It's an honest mistake.  Don't worry about it.  I'm just going to inform the family that Clair will be right out to talk to them and she'll talk to them more in depth in Lizzy's room."

*

"CT is clear," Derek told their patient, Jennifer.

"But it's deep," Mark told her as he tended to her skull.  "That bear clawed you good."

"I couldn't even feel it," Jennifer said slightly scared at the possibility that could have been.

"Adrenaline is a pretty powerful drug," Meredith told her.

"Squeeze my fingers as hard as you can," Derek tells Jennifer and she does.

"I just got happy.  I just got married and I'm really, really happy.  I don't have permanent brain damage, do I?"

"No, it appears that you do not," he tells her and she lets out a sigh of relief as Mark continues to tend to her wound.  "Page me if any neuro deficits appear," he tells Meredith and leaves.

"You got lucky," Mark tells Jennifer.  "Your scalp wasn't completely taken off so we can just sew it back it on.  Your hair should cover the scar," he continued and she smiled at the news.  "You won't even need surgery."

"Wow, that's great.  Thank you."

"Doctor Grey here will take of you and you can go back to being a happy newly wed," he tells her as he puts his hand on her shoulder as he was happy for her too.  "You know as well as I do that Derek and Rose won't last," Mark whispers to Meredith before he leaves.

*

"So, whose winning the contest so far?" Alison asked the residents and they looked at her, shocked.

"You know about the contest?"

"Know about it?  I won the contest," she smirked at them.  "The sparkly pager?  Yeah, that was mine my first year residency."

"How did you win?" Alex asked impressed.

"I diagnosed a child who came in with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.  Eighty points right there with the medical mystery," Alison said proudly and they looked even more shocked, a few of them had their mouths wide open.

"H-how did you do that?" Cristina asked impressed.

"Well, her case was pretty complicated and none of the doctors before me got it right.  They got the symptoms right of having Tetralogy of Fallot, she had a submucosal cleft palette and some developmental delays but that was it as far as they could tell.  I looked more into her case and really spent time asking questions and somehow during my research I came across the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.  It all made sense."

"What happened to her now?" Izzie asked.

"Now," Alison said with a proud smile on her face.  "She is a normal teenager who comes in for her yearly heart check ups and is doing everything that anyone else does.  She's not behind in her school work, she kicks ass on the varsity soccer team and she has normal speech now instead of the nasal speech she had before from her first surgery."

"That's amazing," Cristina said.

"Yeah," Alison agreed with the group.  "You guys will actually get to meet her soon.  She's coming in next month.  She's awesome and I know you all will love her.  I have to go meet Mark for lunch," she told them walking off.

"I still don't know how she ended up with Mark," Izzie said as they all watched her walk away.

"She's hot.  He's hot.  Hot people get with hot people," Cristina said and they all looked at her.  "What?"

*

"Wait, wait, wait," Alison said making hand motions.  "You worked on someone who had a piece of her skull dangling off of her head and Doctor Webber worked on someone who had his intestines out from a bear attack?"

"That's right," Mark told his girlfriend as they were now at lunch.

"That's wild.  How are they?"

"The brother died," Derek told her as he let out a sigh.  "But the other one lived and so did his wife."

"I still can't believe her CT scan was clear and that she didn't have any other injuries.  I hope the brother is okay."

*

"I'm thinking we need to have a little contest of our own," Mark tells Derek as they walk down the stairs.  

"You want to live in a hospital like Rose?"

"Different kind of contest.  You and Rose your not exclusive, right?  So I'm thinking-"

"Your not serious," Derek interrupts.

"One woman ten points, two women same time twenty points.  You get out the morning before anyone wakes up - five point bonus."

"You are serious."

"You need a little spice in your life, man.  I'm just trying to help."

"I am truly a worse human being for knowing you," Derek jokes with a smile.  "I don't know how Alison puts up with you."

"She loves me," he puts a hand to his heart.  "And you love me, just admit it," he tells him before he walks away.

*

"Well I finally got to do surgeries today," Alison tells her boyfriend when they meet up at the end of the day for them.  "They weren't anything major but it was just nice to actually do surgeries."

"Good," he smiles at her.  "I knew it would all work out for you."

"Wasn't there a picture there before?" Alison asks Mark as she stops and looks at the wall as he furrows his eyebrows.

"You actually pay attention to the decoration in the hospital?"

"You don't?"

"No, that's lame," he teased her.

"You're lame," she fired back with a smile.

"Lame enough to kiss me?"

"Hmm," she pretends to think and then smiles.  "I think I can make an exception," he leans down and presses his lips to hers as she leans on her tip toes and wraps her arms around his neck to be closer to him.  

"Come on, let's go," he tells her as he holds her hand and they walk to the elevator where they meet Derek and walk in.

"I don't like her," Mark tells Derek and Alison jabs Mark in the side making him wince.  "I'm sorry but as your friend it's my job to say I don't like Rose."

"Why?" Derek asks as he was looking down at his phone texting.

"Your not even sleeping with her," he points out.

"Really Mark?" Alison asks shocked.

"You don't like her because she's not sleeping with me?" Derek asks.  "That's a little weird."

"It's not weird."

"It's a little weird," both Derek and Alison agreed.

"Hey, if you were sleeping with Rose I could understand why you are spending time with her but you're not."

"So are you saying the only important thing to you in a relationship is the sex?" Alison asks crossing her arms.

"Yes," Mark says but then realizes what he said and takes it back.  "No.  No it's not the only important thing.  But why go through the other stuff if you don't have sex with each other?"

"Every couple is different, Mark," Alison explains to her boyfriend.  "Just because we had sex before we started dating doesn't mean Derek and Rose have to have sex right now also.  

"Are you serious about this woman?" Mark asks him.

"I don't know," Derek lets out a breath.  "I could be."

"Alright," Mark nods his head making Alison smile.  "I'll give her a chance."

"If it makes you feel better I've liked her this whole time.  Way better than Sydney," she says making both men laugh.

"What a disaster that was," Derek shakes his head as the elevator rings.  "Good boy," he tells Mark.

"Your pathetic and I'm a lesser man for knowing you."

"That's my line," Derek tells him.  "Can't use my line," Derek lets out a laugh and leaves.

"Was I better?" Mark asks as he turns to Alison.

"Much," she nods her head.  "I'm proud of you."

--

I'm so sorry for not updating last week!  I was busy with school and started a class project.  Hope you guys enjoy this new update!

Also I would really appreciate it if you checked out my Harry Potter fanfics also and gave them some love!  I have Bill Weasley, George Weasley and I'm also working on Cedric Diggory :).  

Whose everyone's favorite character on Grey's?  Mine was Addison, April, Derek & Mark

Whose everyone's favorite persons on Grey's? Mine was Meredith and Cristina