Army Goddess

Chapter 20: Hearts

♤Season 8, Episode 18♤

Angela yawns as she rests her head against Mark's chest. He chuckles before laying a kiss on the top of her head, "A little tired there?"

"Shut up."

Callie and Arizona join the couple, while holding Sofia, Callie snickers at Angela, "You look like you got ran over by a bus."

"Yeah, well, I had a long night," Angela shrugs, accepting the coffee Arizona hands her.

"Mark, you've got to let Angela sleep at night," Arizona hits his shoulder.

"Hey! This time, it wasn't my fault. She was up all night studying Altman's growing heart plans. I was trying to sleep next to her but anytime anything exciting was brought up in the plans, she'd shake me saying, babe, babe, look at this! My friend's a genius."

Angela fights a smile, wrapping her arms around Mark's waist, "You love me."

"I do. I do love you."

Derek joins the group, holding Zola and side-eyeing Mark and Angela, "I just saw a lion."

Mark snorts, "Yeah, there's a whole exhibit dedicated to them at the zoo."

"No, I mean it was walking on the street. Right in front of my car."

"Whoa. That's kinda cool. Right, Sofia? Right, Zola?"  The two girls let out roars, imitating a lion as the grown-ups all praise them, "Well, as much fun as this is, I've got to go check in on T. She had her first day of widow group today and she doesn't handle emotions all that well. Knowing her, she probably laughed at the meeting."

Before she could walk away, Sofia holds her arms out to Angela. The cardio surgeon smiles, taking the little girl into her arms and giving her a hug, "I will see you later, Miss. Sofia. You behave in daycare today, alright. Save all the trouble for your dad when you go home."

"Hey!"

"Love you," Angela says, kissing Mark before kissing the top of Sofia's head and handing her to Mark.

"I love you too."

♤♤♤♤

Angela swings an arm around Teddy's shoulders, "So, how was grief group?"

"I laughed."

"I knew it! Let me guess. Woman talking about husband gone too soon, probably something medical related, and you corrected her cause she was super wrong," Angela guesses, smiling slightly.

"Damn your good," Teddy laughs, "But it doesn't matter. Cause I won't be going back."

Cristina, grimly, joins the two cardio surgeons, "Dr. Altman, Dr. Karev, I'm ready to begin on your stem cell research."

Teddy smiles, genuinely, "You see? Who needs grief group when we are doing cutting-edge stem cell research. I-I'm looking toward the future, not dwelling on the past. Right?"

"Right. Now, let's go get to work before you laugh again."

♤♤♤♤

Teddy and Angela go over the plan with Cristina so they are all on the same wavelength, "So I dissect out and remove the animal cadaver hearts. Then I insert them with the catheters and begin injecting them with the solvent."

The head of cardio nods, "Correct, and why do we do that?"

Cristina thinks for a second, "To drain the hearts of their existing cardiac cells so all that's left is their extracellular matrix."