COURTNEY WAS STANDING OFF TO THE SIDE, HIDING A SMILE. She was looking outside the window, which was open to let some fresh air in. A couple of birds flew by. Cars speeding down the lanes could be heard in the distance. You could even hear the siren of the ambulance getting closer to the hospital. While Courtney was partly zoning out, Peter Allen was telling his patient that their surgery had gone well with the chart close to his chest. He was holding onto it for dear life. Even though he had presented quite a lot, it was still something that he couldn't get used to. He kept fearing that he would say something wrong. Normally when he felt that way, he would look over at his resident, who would then nodd, but she didn't this time and she wouldn't.

From the moment the patient had been admitted, Courtney had deliberately chosen to take a step back. "See it as an exercise, Allen. You'll have to do this alone eventually. I can't keep holding your hand. Trust in yourself a little bit more, okay?" Courtney had said, once he had asked why she was basically doing nothing.

"When can I leave the hospital? No offense to all of you, but I miss sleeping in my own bed. You even made me miss my husband's snoring," The patient chuckled, gently rubbing her finger over her wedding ring. "I hope that my sweet Lewis hasn't burned down the house. He's a horrible cook; can't even fry an egg."

The room was filled with laughter. "We're going to have you to keep you with us for one more day, Mrs. Gillespie. We just want to make sure that you're as healthy as a horse. I'm sure that your husband wouldn't mind." Peter said with a charming smile, which could make any lady swoon. The elder woman beckoned him over with a wave of her hand. Peter looked behind him at his resident as if to ask for permission to move over. Courtney simply stared back with her hands in her lab coat pockets.

Mrs. Gillespie took his hands in hers, giving it a squeeze. "You're going to make a lady very happy one day. You're such a handsome boy. You remind me a bit of my dear Lewis back in the day. What a lady killer he was." At that moment, her husband walked in with a bouquet of flowers and a big smile.

"But I only had eyes for you, my dear," Lewis Gillespie replied as he slowly made his way over to his wife. Once he arrived at her bedside, he gave her a peck on the lips, before he sat down on the chair — which Peter had pushed a bit closer. "I heard from the lovely nurses that your surgery went well. Didn't I tell you that everything was going to be alright?"

Courtney made eye contact with her intern and gave him a sign that it was time for them to leave. He nodded and took a couple of steps back, "Mrs. Gillespie? We're going to be back in a couple of hours to see you again. So, for the time being, we're going to leave you in the very capable hands of your husband." Peter said, making the woman smile at him. He then followed his resident out the room. He looked back the elderly couple with a smile, before closing the door behind him.

"You know what to look out for?" Courtney asked, not even looking back to see if Peter was close behind. She stopped at the nurses' station right outside of the patient's room, asking for a chart of another patient — who was going into surgery in about an hour. As she flipped it open, her intern hummed and went on to list them. "Alright, have fun, Allen. Please make sure that she's still alive when I get back from surgery."

Peter placed his hands on his hips, "Please don't say that again, doctor Grey. You're making me nervous."

"One of my many qualities." Courtney joked, shaking her head in amusement.

"She has that effect on a lot of people, munchkin #3," Mark Sloan commented as he took the free spot next to Courtney. He gave her a little shoulder massage to bother her — which worked as his hands were quickly slapped away. Peter's hazel eyes narrowed at the sight plastic surgeon, feeling rather annoyed by the new nickname. "Shoo, kid, the adults need to talk." With a scoff, Peter grabbed the chart from the table and walked away.

Courtney stopped twirling the pen in her hand around to look up at Mark, "Munchkin #3? Where did that suddenly come from?"

"I remember you talking about the book. I was going to read it to show you how good of a man I am, but I got bored after reading a couple of pages. I watched the movie instead. But I didn't come talk to you because I wanted to have an in depth conversation about the Wizard of Oz. What really matters is how your date went last night." Mark replied, waving her pen — that was previously in her hand — in front of her face. He also didn't mention that question had been on his mind all night, stopping him from having a good night sleep.

"Why does it have any importance for you?"

"We're friends, aren't we? You probably already talked about it with Torres and Romero, so you do it with me as well. So, come on, out with it. Give me all the details, Grey. I wanna know if he managed to sweep my little grinch of her feet." Mark gritted his teeth into a forced smile. Did he really know what happened? Not. That wasn't going to stop him from asking: sometimes it's better to know than to stay in the unknown.

Courtney let out a sigh, "Fine, if you want to know so desperately. It went fine. He was kind and surprisingly easy to talk to. Great guy, really. He also didn't mind that it was so late, so another good thing about him. The food was good too. After we had dinner, he dropped me off at home and that was that. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Nothing happened? No kiss good-bye?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, you idiot! Did you want me to kiss him or something?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

"If you say so, Mark. Any more questions or can I get back to work now? I do have some things to do and that goes faster when you're not staring at me." Courtney said, taking back her pen. Mark held up his hands in surrender as he slowly backed away, maintaining eye contact. She rolled her eyes, before going back to scribbling things down in her chart. A deep sigh escaped her lips. There was one thing though that she hadn't told him.

He had been on her mind the entire time during dinner.

☤☤☤

COURTNEY LET OUT A DEEP SIGH. Water was flowing down her arms, washing away the soap. Sniffles filled the silence in the room. Courtney looked away from the operating room to glance at her intern, Emily Hanson. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she was scrubbing away the bacteria on her hands and forearms. She was trying very hard to keep her sobs quiet. Her resident leaned against the scrub sink, "It's not your fault, Emily. We did everything right. Sometimes things like this just happen." Courtney said, turning on the faucet for her.

"I feel like I was the one that killed her. Everything started going wrong the moment that you let me handle the cauterizer," Emily explained with her vision getting blurrier by the second. A couple of staff members walked by on their way out. Courtney handed her intern a tissue, while her facial expressions were getting softer. Normally the blonde looked rather cold — as some people liked to point out — but that didn't mean she was a cold person. Far from it to be honest. "Thank you. I'm really sorry for bothering you like this. I don't usually cry in front of my boss like this. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. I would rather have you crying in front of me than in front of the patient's family. Besides, we're all still human. We can't be strong all the time. Sometimes we need to have a good cry and let it all out. It took me years to let that sink in. Don't bottle everything up, okay? If you ever need to talk — it doesn't matter about what it is — know that I'm here. Me being your resident shouldn't hold you back from coming to talk to me even if it's something non-medical that's bothering you," Emily nodded. "And Emily? Don't blame yourself for what happened. It's not your fault whatsoever. I don't want to hear you say that again, got it?"

"Okay."

"If you want to you can stay here for a couple of minutes before going outside. To calm down. I can always stay with you if you don't want to be alone." Courtney offered with a kind smile.

"Oh, no, no, that's not necessary! I don't want to take up even more of your time. Patients need you and I don't want to keep them waiting just because I cried a little bit. I'm going to be fine. You can go, really. Don't worry about me please."

I'm always going to worry about you guys — even if I don't want to. You and the other three are my interns. I'm the one guiding and helping you through the beginning of the rest of your lives. How can I not worry? Anyway, enough with the cheesiness. Take a couple of minutes and then get back to work, alright?"

Emily let out a barely hearable okay, while wiping away some tears on her face. With a nod of her head, Courtney opened the door and left Emily by herself. She had a special place in her heart for her interns. She truly hoped that they would all grow up to be incredible surgeons; she was positive that they all had that potential. Courtney was probably also the only one who thought of her interns that way. Having heard stories from her friends, she could tell that they were nowhere near as interested in the interns' future as her. To each their own.

Courtney stretched her arms out behind her back as she made herself down the hallway. She hadn't gotten that far when she was already stopped by someone new. Izzie Stevens was standing in front of her. Courtney doubted that this was going to be a conversation about work — which was the only thing they ever talked about when it was just the two of them. "Hey, Courtney, I know that we have our differences and that you don't quite like me, but I really need your help. Like right now."

"What is it?" Courtney asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It's Alex — well, more like Rebecca. She thinks she's pregnant when she's clearly not. I ran the tests twice to make sure. I told her about it, but she thinks it's a false negative. She also completely forgot that she already had a baby? I tried talking to Alex about it, but he won't listen to me. Can you give it a try? You're his best friend. I just don't want him to be trapped. Normally I wouldn't ask things like this, but it's Alex we're talking about here."

Courtney played with the watch on her wrist, "I'll try. I can't guarantee anything though. We haven't been on the best terms lately. Rebecca has always been a sore point between the two of us, but I'll try." Izzie nodded and squeezed Courtney's hand, thankful that she was going to help. She honestly didn't know what she should do. The two blondes separated with the latter going to go search for Alex. She had a general idea on where he was, so it wasn't going to be that hard to find him.

She made her way down to the elevators. The doors were closing when she got there, but she still managed to jump in before they were fully closed. She kept turning her watch around her wrist as the elevator went up. She was back out the door as soon as they went open with a bing on the right floor. Luck seemed to be on her side that day as she had already located Alex in the distance. Without a lot of trouble, she caught up with him, "Look, hey, I need to talk to you." Courtney said, while she grabbed his arm.

"What is it now?" He scowled.

"It's about Rebecca. Look you—"

"Not you too. I'm not really in the mood to hear the whole thing again. Izzie already did that. Are you guys planning this together or something? Why can't you just leave me the hell alone! This is honestly none of your business. I get to some extent why Izzie came to talk to me, but you? You're not even Rebecca's doctor? Just go, Courtney. I'm sure that you have more important things to do than this."

The grip on his arm tightened, "This is important! Alex, you're one of my best friends. We might be in a little bit of a rough spot now, but all friends go through that. Just because we don't talk as regularly as before doesn't mean that you're suddenly not one of the most important people in my life. If we want to go on the cheesy route; you're my person! I don't want you getting sick because of her! Yesterday you couldn't even scrub in on an awesome surgery because of a fever! You're pushing yourself too hard for a baby that doesn't even exist! You can't throw away your career like this, Alex!"

Alex removed her hand from his arm, glaring at her, "Who says that Izzie's right!? She could've read the results wrong. The tests could even be wrong. She even throw up this morning because the breakfast didn't sit right with the baby. Our baby. Is that something you fake?"

"Alex, come on. You're smarter than this. I know that you like her, but come on. This is going—"

"Just stop, okay? Why can't you just leave me alone! Don't you want me to be happy? To be a good man? Well, I am trying! But you and Izzie keep screwing things up!"

Now it was time for Courtney to start glaring, "Oh, really? We are the ones screwing things up? We are literally trying to help you, Alex! Rebecca is the one derailing your life? Have we forgotten about the fact that she got you suspended?"

"That wasn't her fault!"

"Tomato, Tomahto," Courtney let out a deep sigh and went with her hand through her hair. She was becoming a bit frustrated by his constant need to defend Rebecca Pope. "Alex, we do want you to be happy. When did we ever do anything that seemed like we didn't want you to be happy? We just don't want it like this. Why don't you just let her go? This was a bad idea from the beginning. When did dating patients ever work out well? Take Izzie for example. Look what happened and honestly? From the looks of it now, you look like you're ready to go cut an LVAD wire for Rebecca."

"Fuck off, Courtney." Alex fumed, before he passed her by and bumped into her with his shoulder. Her hand reached out to grab him, but she didn't have enough strength to hold on. Instead she let him go and watch him disappear with a sad look on her face.

"What the hell are you doing, Alex?" She muttered to herself.

☤☤☤

COURTNEY WAS NODDING ALONG TO ONE OF THE NURSE'S STORIES. From time to time she hummed in agreement as if she was really paying attention. She wasn't by the way as figuring out what one of her intern's had written in a patient's chart took up most of her focus. She could tell that it was Samuel's handwriting, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out if he had written a 7 or a 1. An annoyed sigh escaped her lips. She had told him so many times that he needed to work on his handwriting. Courtney leaned over the desk a bit more and showed Nicole the chart, "Can you tell if this is a 7 or a 1?"

"A 7. Do you need to dig through Samuel's charts again? He really needs to work on that. Hey! Have you been tuning me out this entire time?" Nicole asked, squinting her eyes at the blonde — who shot a sheepish smile her way.

"I was listening! Well, in the beginning. I knew you were telling the story of your cousin's baby shower. I was passively listening if that makes you feel better," Nicole scoffed, sliding the chart back to Courtney. "And I know. I told him to work on his handwriting like a million times. Apparently he doesn't listen. I guess I'll let him do some rectal exams for a couple of days."

Nicole laughed, "I'm sure that he'll appreciate that. I fully support your idea. That'll learn him," The nurse let her chin rest in her palms as she watched the resident continue to correct parts of her intern's handwriting. When her eyes fell on someone in the distance, she perked up. "Oh, look! It's Mark Sloan. He looks pretty pissed though. Or determined? Did you do something wrong?"

"What? Why would you think that?"

"Because he's coming this way and you're the only one here who's friends with him. I barely talk with the guy ergo that look on his face is because of you." Nicole explained, before she pretended to be working on the computer. Courtney barely had the time to be confused as Mark was by her side in no time.

"I need to talk to you."

Courtney turned her head his way, "Sure, what is it?"

The typing on the keyboard stopped. Nicole — who was rather interested in the conversation — tucked her hair behind her ears and looked over at Courtney and Mark in a subtle way. It felt like she was watching a movie in the cinema. Mark, however, noticed her interest, "Not here." He said, directly looking down at Nicole. Mark then grabbed Courtney's wrist and gave it a gentle tug so that she would follow him.

Once he knew that she was following him, he let go of her wrist, since he didn't exactly want to drag her around the hospital. Besides that way the rumors would stay down. With Mark not saying anything to hear, Courtney was left to wonder what the hell was going on and where they were going. She had lost her sense of direction from the moment they were walking at a fast pace through halls she didn't recognize.

After what seemed like a long time, Mark pushed open a door, leading outside. They were standing on a balcony — that was for sure — but Courtney had no idea where they were precisely. She didn't recognize anything. She even began to question if they were still at Seattle Grace. "So, what was so important that you needed to get me alone?" Courtney broke the silence first, nervously playing with her watch.

Mark didn't answer at first, only looking at the scenery. Silence surrounded the two of them. Eventually, he turned his head to face her. "I was not going to say this, because we're friends, Court. I was going to push this away, because I didn't want to lose you. But then I realized I might lose you if I don't do something,"

Mark took a couple of steps closer and took her hand in his. Courtney's eyes got bigger with her heart beating at a quicker pace than usual. "I can't stop thinking about you. You're on my mind the entire time; from the moment I wake up till the moment I go to sleep," With his free hand, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's driving me absolutely nuts. Then, ever since yesterday, I couldn't stop picturing some guy with his hands all over you. I want that to be me. I want to kiss you, hold you, do everything in between with. I want you and only you."

Courtney was lost for words. She looked down to see their hands interlocked and thought why the hell not. Taking a deep breath, she let out everything she had bottled up, "I'm broken and I know that. I was okay with the fact that I would probably die all alone, because no one wanted me. Being alone for the rest of my life? I was fine with it, until you arrived and made everything different! Suddenly I wanted more. I wanted to be the kind of person that had someone who loved them. I wanted a happy ending for myself. I want one with you. I want you to hold me when things get tough. I want to laugh with you; talk till early in the morning; kiss you in the morning, afternoon and at night. There's nobody else that I want but you. "

It stayed silent for what seemed like eternity. They were staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. The only thing that mattered in the world was the two of them. Time didn't seem like a construct that existed anymore. Their eyes were sparkling. There was nothing but love there. Mark's eyes flickered down; his hand giving hers a squeeze as a way to ask for permission. He only had to look in her eyes to know. They were about to cross a line, changing things forever.

They were never going to be the same after this.

Mark cupped her face with his hands and leaned in closer. Her breath got caught in her throat as she felt his soft lips touch hers. Her entire world felt like it was spinning as she felt the warmth of his body. Her heart was beating as it had never done before. Her arms were thrown around his neck as a way to pull him even closer. Their desperation, their need for each other was translated into a passionate kiss. They were holding on to each other as never before. Both of them were scared to let each other ago, afraid that the moment was going to end. They couldn't get enough of each other. After all that build-up, the unspoken feelings, the lingering looks, they were finally rewarded.

Slowly, they started pulling away from each other. A breathless laugh escaped their lips as they gazed into each other's eyes. They were genuinely happy. A huge amount of pressure was lifted off their backs. They were no longer holding things back or tiptoeing around each other. Courtney's smile had never been that big as Mark caressed her cheek. However, as reality set in and the euphoric high began to disappear, that smile on her face faded away. She couldn't help but wonder.

What were they going to do now?

☤☤☤

HELLO!

We finally got there! I have been looking forward to writing this chapter ever since I started Courtney's story I think more than 4 years ago. It's honestly a little crazy. After what seemed like ages we're finally here, yay! I enjoyed writing it, but then I read it over and I started feeling unsure about it? So now I'm left with a somewhat iffy feeling thinking that it isn't that good or that it's cringe. I tried really hard to write their kissing scene without making everyone want to yeet their phone away and I hope that I did that succesfully? I have absolutely zero experience in romance. The only romance I know are from backs and tv shows so you're going to have to bear with me. I'll try my very hardest to not make everyone cringe as we go further and Court and Mark's relationship grows more.

I also gave my little interns some time to shine. I think that it's been a couple of chapters since we last really saw them? I'm trying to include everyone, but I still have some trouble wit that sometimes. Because I think it's been a while since I wrote Mer and Court together in a scene. Sometimes it's a bit hard to find a right balance. On the one hand I want to include everyone, but then I don't want to write super super long chapters or put Courtney in scenes just for a line or two. 

Also, fun fact, the ending was going to be different, but I ended up changing it. For the longest time I was planning to go with Courtney ending up running away after their kiss since it all became a bit too overwhelming. But then I was trying to go to sleep and suddenly I started thinking if that's what I wanted to do? And also, I didn't have it in my to write another chapter where I was actively keeping them apart hahaha. So I ended up making her stay. It also fits a bit better I think? Changing the ending also means that this is the last chapter of act 1. Normally the chapter after this would have been the last one, but that one's been deleted. This chapter thus concludes season 4.

I'm going to take a little break to prewrite some chapters! I can't exactly put a date on when we'll start with season 5. It might be late May or June? I'm also going to start on a new story (I've written a little bit already!) and prewrite some chapters for that one before I post it. It's going to be one where Jackson Avery is the love interest, so there's something to look out for.  

SEE YOU SOON! 

STAY HEALTHY AND SAFE, EVERYONE!