4.10

"My first day! My clinical trial, my baby, all grown up." Meredith told Izzie and Helena, who stood at a nurses station.

"Yeah, nobody cares about your clinical trial or your sick, sick terminal patients." Izzie shot back.

"Hey, I do! I'm excited. You know, if I didn't like peds or neonatal this much I might actually chose neuro." Helena let out, looking over Meredith's shoulder to look at her paperwork. "And, you, Izzie, are just jealous." The girl giggled.

"Well, yeah." The taller blond admitted.

"Anyone can come up with a clinical trial. I could come up with a clinical trial." Cristina complained, Helena smacking her arm as she sipped on her coffee. "Not that it would matter cause Hahn wouldn't sign off on it. You know, she won't even talk to me?"

"She always enjoyed talking to me." Izzie answered, shrugging.

"Really? About what?" At that, Cristina perked up.

"About her hopes and dreams. And then we'd braid each other's hair." The former model answered sarcastically.

"Well, I know she's not the warmest person ever but she's actually not bad. I mean, when she met me she was kinda mean but when I went out for drinks with her and Callie the other day, she was pretty nice." Helena told her.

"You use your sparkle pager to get me in on Hahn's surgery today." Cristina asked the short girl.

"And you really think that'd make you like her more?" The brunette scoffed.

At that, Cristina tried to get the pager out of Helena's lab coat, making Izzie yell. "Sparkle pager stealer!"

Grabbing back the pager, Helena smacked Cristina, turning to leave. "Stop stealing my pager! Anyway, I gotta go, Addison is back and I'm scrubbing in on her surgery."

At that, she walked down the hallway, smiling to herself. She missed working with the neonatal attending.

——

As Helena stood in a stool in Mark's skin lab, she watched the man work, talking to him. "Oh, and Mer's clinical trial starts today, which I hope goes well."

Just then, they heard a knock at the door, Helena turning around. Addison stood in the doorway, giving the two a tight lipped smile.

"There she is!" Mark boomed, looking at the woman.

"Addy, you're back!" The short girl gave her a wide smile, her dimples showing. "How are you?"

"I am back, Lena, just here for a surgery. But it's good to see you, how's my favorite intern?" The taller woman smiled at her.

"Favorite , now." Mark corrected, smiling at the girl.

"Oh, yes, the personalized lab coat does fit you." The redhead laughed.

"I'm good. I'm... really good, actually." The girl smiled, glancing at the man beside her.

"Just coming to check on my patient's skin flap." The attending explained, coming near the skin Mark was working on.

"Amazing right? Pulled a couple stem cells from the baby in utero, six weeks later I've grown skin. Like god." The man told her.

"Huh, not an ok comparison, Mark." The short girl giggled.

The older woman's eyes jumped between the two for a second, before speaking up. "Actually, I heard some rumors about you two."

"You did?" Mark asked.

"Yes, about you two being together." Addison explained.

"Well, yes, those are more than just rumors." Helena told her, squeezing Mark's shoulder. "We together."

"Now, that's something I didn't expect to see, Mark Sloan settling down." The redhead smiled. "But I'm happy for you two, really."

"Thanks, Addy." Mark smiled up at her.

"Now, I do get to scrub in on your surgery, don't I?" Helena asked, the neonatal attending nodding. "Oh, great! I've missed working with you."

"Ok, let's go, Lena. We got work to do." Addison told them as they turned to leave, but not before Helena pressed a kiss to Mark's forehead.

——

"Cristina spoke up, Hahn, Helena, Addison, Bailey, Mark and Webber in the room.

"The baby's heart is growing outside of his body in utero. There are less than 200 reported cases." Helena explained. "Only a handful survived."

"I was on one of these cases ten years ago. The baby squeezed his own heart in utero and died." The redhead told them.

"He squeezed his own heart? With his tiny little hands?" Bailey asked, shocked.

"Richard, you said there's a possibility of a dieframatic hernia?" Addison asked.

"Yeah." The Chief told her, showing her the scans.

"You and I have a lot of work to do on this little guy..." Hahn sighed.

"You up for it?" Addison asked.

"Always." Erica accepted.

"What about my work?!" Mark pouted. "I grew an amazing flap of the baby's own skin." At that, Helena tried her best to stop herself from laughing. "Pretend all you want, I know you're impressed."

——

Now in the patient's room, Cristina presented the case. "Nikki Jones, 25 year old female, 35 weeks pregnant. Six weeks ago she was diagnosed with ectopia cordis."

"Which, as you know, means your baby's heart is currently growing on the outside of his body." Hahn added.

"Which doesn't get more bizarre the more times I hear it." Nikki told them.