Shooting Stars

CHAPTER 21

Aria stood beside George in the pit, arms folded loosely across her chest as they waited for Bailey to start firing out assignments.

The hospital already felt restless.

Not chaotic exactly — not yet — but tense in that specific way Seattle Grace always was when too many people were carrying too much and pretending they weren't. Meredith and Cristina were standing a little too close together and somehow still looked miles apart. Alex looked tired but sharper than usual, like he'd barely slept and had decided to make that everyone else's problem. Izzie was still orbiting her own thoughts. And Aria, despite the fact that she was awake and upright and technically functioning, felt like she was moving through a layer of fog.

Bailey stepped in and everyone straightened automatically.

"Okay, we gotta move fast, people, so focus. O'Malley, the pit. Karev, you're with me — we've got a surgery. Aria, you're with Sloan. Stevens, the clinic budget is due. Yang, Grey, wait for the Chief at the trauma bay."

Cristina's face fell instantly. "What? Why?"

"Both of us?" Meredith asked, already sounding offended by the inconvenience.

Bailey narrowed her eyes at both of them. "Yes. Both of you. I don't know what. I don't know why. Just go."

Nobody pushed after that.

Nobody was stupid enough.

As the group broke apart, Izzie leaned toward Alex and Aria and muttered, "They're both very silent-rage-y."

Aria snorted softly.

Alex nodded once. "Accurate."

Then everyone peeled off toward their assignments, and Aria headed off to find Mark.

⸻

She found him just as Lexie approached him with a far too innocent smile.

"Hi there," Lexie said.

Mark looked immediately suspicious. "What are you doing?"

"I'm saying hello."

He sighed, like he was already exhausted by whatever this interaction was going to become. "Listen... my best friend made one very simple request that I not get anywhere near you, and I slipped."

Lexie blinked.

Mark lowered his voice dramatically. "It was fantastic. You're fantastic. But it is not happening again. Ever."

Lexie's expression flickered with disappointment, though she tried to hide it.

"And," Mark added with feeling, "your sister is extremely scary."

He said it like he had seen death and it wore Aria Grey's face.

Lexie gave him a small smile anyway. "Okay."

She turned just as Aria came walking up.

Aria slowed, looking between them both.

Lexie looked a little too innocent.
Mark looked a little too guilty.
Which meant something had definitely happened.

Mark pasted on a terrifyingly cheerful smile. "Ah. Twin A."

Aria narrowed her eyes slightly.

Mark immediately moved past her and toward his patient's room, which only made her more suspicious.

But she followed anyway.

Because if there was one thing Mark Sloan could always be relied upon for, it was behaving badly and then trying to outrun the consequences.