Sutures and Secrets | Mark Sloan

6 | Unforeseen Reunion

01x09

One morning, I was waiting for George to finally get out of the bathroom, so I could take a shower before work. "George. You locked the door. I need to take a shower.", I said, rattling the door. "I'll be out in a minute." "What are you doing in there?" "It's private.", he replied. "Oh, God. I'm sorry. I get it. I don't mean to interrupt.", I said, chuckling a little. "No, it's not that!", he yelled from the other side of the door." "It's okay, George, really. Take your time." "I'm not doing what you think I'm doing, Charlie." "There's really no need to explain. I'll wait. You just - finish." "No, I'm coming. I'm coming out!"

He then finally came out of the bathroom. I looked at him, smirking. "There's no reason to be ashamed. It's normal, healthy even." "I'm not ashamed 'cause I wasn't doing anything. I don't have to. I have a girlfriend.", he said. I raised my eyebrows. "An imaginary girlfriend?" He gave me a stern look. "An actual girlfriend." "You know what? It's no big deal. You don't have to lie. I get it. You have needs. We all do." Suddenly, Meredith opened the door to her room. "What's going on out here?", she asked. "Nothing." "Yeah, nothing.", I said as George walked away. "He's freaked out because I caught him playing with little jimmy and the twins." "I have a girlfriend.", he yelled from down the hall. "This sounds like fun out here.", Derek said, exiting Meredith's room. "Well, George definitely had a lot of fun.", I said, still nagging him. Derek's phone suddenly started ringing. He looked at it, rolling his eyes. "Aren't you gonna get that?", I asked. "No, it's not important. Let's go get breakfast." Something was up, and I was gonna find out what it was.

Later, at work, I saw George reading some labs at the nurses station, taking them out of his hand. "Hey, what did you get, something good?", I asked, reading the labs. "Syphilis? That's not surgical. Who has syphilis?" He exhaled, taking my hand and leading me to a quiet corner. "You have syphilis?" "I don't know how this happened? ", he said, looking worried. "Of course you do. God, Olivia must be really getting around.", I said as he had told me that he had been sleeping with nurse Olivia. "Olivia, she's not like that.", George said. "It's a new millennium, George. The only people who aren't like that are the Amish and, apparently, you." I laughed. "You don't know! Maybe I've been sleeping around. Maybe I got ladies." I looked at him, trying not to laugh. "Shut up, Charlie. What am I gonna do?" "It's no biggie, George. A couple of doses of penicillin will knock it right out." "No, what am I gonna do about Olivia.", he asked. "For starters, stop sleeping with her, unless you want that thing to fall off." I laughed, again. "Okay, that's twice that you have trash-talked the girl that I could one day potentially - not love, but like a whole lot." I slowly started to feel bad for him. "Well, if she gave it to you, you have to tell her." "Three." I rolled my eyes. "Fine! She didn't give it to you. She was a virgin when you met. You still have to tell her so she can get tested.", I said, trying to calm him down. "Yeah? How am I gonna tell her? 'Hey, Olivia. How you doing? By the way, I got the syph. How about you?'" I chuckled. "Maybe not quite like that." "No, it's good advice, really good advice. Thank you very much, Charlie.", he said, walking away.

Later, I was sitting at lunch with Cristina and Izzie as George and Alex came. "Hey, syph boy.", Cristina said. George immediately turned to face me. "You told her?", he asked. "Just Cristina and Izzie." "Syph boy. It's got a nice ring to it, kind of like super boy, only diseased.", Alex said, teasing George. "Charlie didn't have to say a word. Around here, the only thing that soreads faster than disease is gossip." "That's not true. Just because Charlie can't keep her mouth shut doesn't mean everyone -" Meredith came, interrupting George. "Hey George, how are you feeling? Sorry about the syphilis." "Everyone in this hospital knows?" I let out a chuckle, trying to hide it from George. "Knows you're a player.", Alex added. "You're disturbed." "True. Everybody's got a secret, just be glad yours is out in the open." "Yeah, Alex? What's yours?", I asked. "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine. I bet you've got some seriously kinky skeletons in your closet.", he replied. "What's in my closet is none of your business, asshole." Izzie joined the conversation: "Well, I don't have any secrets, my life is boring." "Everybody's got something to hide."