chapter seven.

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"Stop freaking out. Stop being scared.
It will be okay. Okay?"

JULY 28, 2013

         It was a Sunday evening and Savannah have spent her day off doing her laundry and cleaning her apartment. She just had her relaxing bath and was now making herself dinner before she sits on the sofa to watch her favourite movie, The Wedding Planner. She puts down the ladle when she heard a knock on her door.

         "Alex? What are you doing here?"

         "What? You can come barging in my house at 4 in the morning but I can't come here to sleep?"

          "You do have a point." Savannah closes the door.

          "I did two surgeries today. My intern's keeping an eye on the patient. I just couldn't sleep in the on-call room. Plus your apartment's close so I could run whenever they need me to." Alex says as he makes his way to the sofa putting down his brown leather bag.

          "Have you had dinner?" Savannah asks while scooping some of the winter soup she made on the pale blue bowls.

          "Dinner would be good." Sitting down as he takes off his jacket. Savannah takes the pale blue bowls off the counter and walks toward Alex, handing him his dinner. She sits beside him hitting play on the movie.

          "The Wedding Planner? Really? You've watched this like a million times."

          "Well you haven't! Im making sure you catch up to me." She looks at him with a teasing smile.

          "I don't look like Massimo!" Alex says making Savannah laugh.

          A few minutes in to the movie and halfway to their dinner Savannah takes a drink from her cup before speaking.

          "Mark Sloan asked me out."

          "He always asks you out." Alex answers not breaking his eyes away from the tv as he eat his dinner.

          "I said yes." Savannah stayed her gaze on her best friend sitting beside her. He almost chokes hearing what she had just said. She hands him her water.

          "What?"

          "He asked me out last night while it was raining and he did this thing where I said 'ask me tomorrow' but after I said that the clock turned past midnight so he asked me again and I couldn't say no.....

          It was the rain wasn't it? Is it bad that I said yes? Should I have said no?"

          "Sorry. Im just surprised. How do you feel?" Alex answers trying to clear his throat.

          "Weird. I don't know. Since last night I've had this flutter in my stomach. And look at my face! Its red right now. Right!? Im nervous. Probably from thinking too much about it. I haven't really been on a first date for so long. This is weird right? Totally weird?"

          "Holy crap. You are nervous Sav." He chuckles looking at her red face. He continues,

"Don't be! Dude you finally said yes to the guy. That's a huge step. Just see where it takes you. Although he might take you to his bed." He teases her making her slap him on the shoulders.

          "What!? Alex you're not helping! You know that's not gonna happen."

          "Well you do know he's Mark Sloan? He's not called McSteamy for no reason."

          "See this is why I regret sharing with you sometimes."

          "So he asked you out on the rain?"

          "You should do the same thing to Jo when you finally ask her out. Rain makes you do things you don't expect to do." Savannah smiles at Alex trying to tease him back before taking a bite from her dinner.

          "She said yes! Oh finally! I thought you've lost the McSteamy magic. Seriously, I like her! She made you wait! And you never wait!" Callie says excitedly while she was tossing the vegetables she was cooking on the pan.

          "Ooh so how did you do it?" Arizona asked Mark while she took a sip of her red wine, looking at the gray haired surgeon sitting on the chair carrying Sofia.

          "I asked her out while it was raining. On the parking lot. She said 'ask me tomorrow' I looked at my watch and it was 12:03 so basically it was tomorrow so I asked her again. And she said yes. Didn't she Sofia?" Mark answered while playing with his daughter.

          "Aww. So what are you doing for your date? I bet its gonna be romantic."

          "Well I'm thinking dinner in a great restaurant, have a nice conversation, walk around the pier."

          "Really? Thats it? You know that it has to be great right? You've been asking her for too long, you've pushed the standard too high Mark." Callie says frowning with what his best friend had just said.

          "What? Should I invite her to my place after it? I'm not gonna do that. She doesn't seem like that type. But I mean if she wants to, we can definitely do that." He looks to Callie.

          "That's a terrible idea." Callie answers turning off the stove.

          "You might want to plan something better." Arizona walks closer to him taking Sofia from his hands.

          "Shepherd! Grey! Good morning!" Mark greets the couple walking in the elevator on a Monday morning.

          "What's wrong with you?" Derek asks before pushing 3 on the elevator.

          "He's smiling. It's weird. He's still smiling." Meredith looking behind at Mark couldn't help but smile too.

          "I'm going on a date with Peters this weekend."

          "Oh thats why. So she finally said yes?"

          "She finally said yes! Is that really hard to believe?"

          "Haha you better plan a good one." Derek kisses Meredith on the cheek before waving goodbye at Mark to leave the elevator. Mark steps closer beside a pregnant Meredith.

          "Already on it!

          Hey Mer are we okay? I mean with Lexie and I, you know with our history."

          "We're okay. Lexie's happy and you seem happy. So we're okay. And I like Savannah. Just don't whore around." Meredith nods her head as she smiles to the plastics surgeon before walking off to the fourth floor.

          "Haven't you heard! I've turned to a new leaf!" Mark raises his voice as the doors slide close before his face.

          Savannah was filling in her charts on the nurses desk when the familiar scent and physique was suddenly standing next to her.

          "Hey you." His deep voice making her jump.

          "Oh! Hi!" She says in an almost high pitched tone. If she can ever control her awkwardness by this point. That would be good.

          "Here." He puts down a disposable coffee cup with a tea bag hanging in it. His smile never leaving his face.

          "Thank you Dr.Sloan." She takes a sip.

          "So are you excited for our date?" Making her choke from her drink.

          "I'll take that as a yes. I know you're excited too. I can see it." He says confidently. Still that smile making Savannah nervous on the inside.

          "I am not! And even if I was how can you even tell?" She chuckles trying to defend herself as she continues to fill her chart. Mark crosses his arms together ready to walk away from her with this grin on his face. He leans closer to her whispering behind her ear,

          "Your cheeks turned red the moment you saw my face."

           "Oh you are so smug Sloan!" She teases him, both of them smiling to the thought of each other. She turns to the nurse sitting behind the desk and whispers...

          "Its not that red right?"


          "So any idea on what you're going to do for this weekend?" Derek asks Mark while sliding the tray off the counter from the cafeteria.

          "I thought I did. Then I made a mistake of telling Robbins and Torres about it. And now I seriously don't know what to do. I feel like I'm being pressured to do this great grand romantic gesture." Mark answers while they both walk towards the table where Owen was already eating his lunch.

          "Hey." Owen nods while chewing from his food. The men put their trays down to eat.

          "Well you should do a great grand romantic gesture. You like her don't you? So why not do it?" Derek says as he takes a bite off  of his sandwich.

          "What's this about?" Owen asks.

          "Peters finally said yes for a date, and he doesn't have a clue what to do."

          "I do have a clue. But I'm being clouded by everyone. I feel pressured! Well what did you do when you first went out with Grey?" He turns to Derek.

          "I didn't have to ask her out. We met at Joe's. Had drinks. Got drunk. Went to her house then we had sex. Lots of sex."

          "Well how about you and Yang?"

          "I pulled out an icicle from her then I kissed her. Then when I was back, I kissed her again. And for our first date, I went to pick her up from her place, drunk." Owen shrugs telling him the story making both him and Derek laugh. They were in no way helping their friend out.

          "Great. You guys are useless." Mark answers looking at his friends laugh before taking a bite from his salad.


          Savannah walked around the cafeteria looking for Alex but he wasn't on sight. He was probably still in surgery. She wanted to talk to him. About this date that she had finally said yes to. She felt like backing out, maybe it wasn't a good idea after all. All morning all she could think about were one hundred ways this could go wrong. Thinking about how he sees her. Was he really interested in her? Or was she just another girl? She finds Meredith sitting with Cristina, April and Lexie. She walks toward them and puts her tray on the table.

          "Hey." Meredith says.

          "I heard you're going out with Sloan this weekend." She continued. Making all the girls look up from their food to her face.

          "You're going on a date with Mark Sloan?" Lexie puts down her fork to ask.

          "Oh go McPretty." Cristina says while taking a bite of her lunch.

           "How did you even hear about that?" Savannah says softly.

          "I saw him at the elevator this morning. He couldn't stop smiling. I guess he's pretty excited about it. How about you?"

          "Oh me. I'm fine." Trying to say it with confidence.

          "Uhmm Savannah, your face is really red." April tells the surgeon sitting next to her. Making Cristina laugh while sipping the straw from her cup.

          "Oh she's steaming! Get it, cause he's McSteamy?" Making the other girls laugh.

          "What's wrong are you nervous?" Meredith asks her.

"No I'm not!" She says again in a high pitched voice. She breathes in before continuing.

"Oh you totally are." Cristina says pointing at her face.

          "Nothing. I mean I'm looking forward to it. But I just haven't dated in a while so it feels strange for me and I don't know, what did he see in me? Why me?"

          "Cause he likes you." Lexie smiles at her.

          "Trust me I know Mark. And when he's sure about something, he will not give up." She continues. Savannah returns her with a smile.

          "I'm sure it'll be fine." Meredith comforts the pediatric surgeon smiling as she eats her lunch.

          "Hopefully." Savannah chuckles before taking a bite from her pizza.

She continues, "well how about you guys? I mean you and Derek? You and Owen? How was your first date?"

          "Well Derek and I met at a bar, got drunk and had sex the day before I had my first day on internship here, when I found out that he was my boss."

          "Owen kissed me after pulling out this icicle that landed on me. Then for our first date, he went to pick me up drunk. Went to my shower with his tux on, kissed and had sex."

          "You and Jackson?" She asks Lexie trying to find some sort of answer that doesn't involve drinking or sex for the first date.

          "Got drunk and had sex. Sorry."

          "You and Matthew?" She turns to April.

          "Oh yeah, she'll have a good one for you. I promise you it won't include sex." Cristina teases.

          "Shut up! We had lunch inside the ambulance. I know its not romantic. Not like beach on the sunset but he was sweet. So it was sweet for me. I'm sure Dr. Sloan has something nice planned for you." She gives Savannah a warm smile.

          "Thank you April." Savannah says.

          "Like rainbows and unicorns." Cristina continued to tease her making everyone laugh even April.



          Alex was scrubbing in for his next surgery when Mark walked out from the OR that he was looking at through the window. Mark had just finished his abdominoplasty that took 5 hours. He walks out and sees his future date's bestfriend/brother.

          "Karev." He nods taking off his blue gown and mask.

          "I heard you're going on a date this weekend. She finally said yes to you. Ha." Scrubbing his hands he chuckles at the plastic surgeon.

          "Oh I know. Took us long enough. Any advice?"

          "She likes pasta. Serve her pasta. She'll go nuts with that. She might finish the whole thing. She doesn't drink alcohol. I know, its weird. You know that?"

          "Oh she told me once. Haha I've actually never met anyone her age who doesn't drink."

          "She only drank once when we were young and our parents were away. She... no I should let her tell you about that story." Alex continues while washing his hands.

          "Anything else?" Mark looks to him shaking his head as he smiles while he scrubbed his hands.

         "Her face turns like a red tomato when she gets nervous. From that point on she might say something stupid or weird, it means she's freaking out."

          "Nervous huh." He thought of seeing her this morning.

          "Hey Sloan, Do you think that you've never met anyone like her?" He looks up and looks straight to Mark's eyes.

          "I do." The gray haired surgeon stopped from washing his hands to look back at him and answered like he was sure.

          "Good. Cause there is no one else like her. And I know you used to sleep with everyone else and whatever it is that you had or still have with Lexie, look thats none of my business. But she's Savannah. You'll never meet anyone else like her. So don't mess this up Sloan." Alex walks away from the sink.

          "I won't." He answers while pulling a cloth to wipe his hands as the pediatric surgeon walks in the OR with his hands raised. He nods to the other surgeon.  It was an understanding between them. Somehow Mark felt like Alex gave him an approval.


          "Mr. Daniels! This is gonna come out weird, but I'm glad to see you go." Mark went inside his patient's room to check on him before he gets discharged.

          "Dr. Sloan thank you for all your help. And please call me Steve." He chuckles while he fixed his bag.

          "No wife today?"

          "She's here. Of course she's here. She just had to sign some papers outside but she'll be back soon. Now tell me, how did it go with our girl?" Mark felt his cheek turn warm. Hoping that it didn't turn red the way Savannah's did.

          "Well Steve, she finally said yes. Thank you for that."

          "Oh you had it in you son. So what now?"

          "Well we're going on a date this weekend and I had something planned but my friends told me it was a terrible idea, and well some of us don't really know how to date. Any thoughts Steve?"

          "Well what did you had planned in the first place?"

          "Dinner at a fancy restaurant, a nice conversation, a walk on the pier."

          "Well your friend was right. That is a terrible idea. Look, you like this girl right? And she finally said yes to you. So you have to plan something that says 'it was worth saying yes to you.' Plan something for her. Not from what you've heard from your friends or the movies. Plan something she'll like. If you know her, you'll know what to do. Do it for her."

          "Steve, can I get your number? You seem to be very good at this." Mark jokes to the old guy making both of them laugh. From listening and hearing what his patient have just said, he was right. He finally understood what dating meant. It wasn't just a thing you had to do just for the sake of doing it. It had to be intentional.

|author's note: play the song from this point|


          Savannah walked inside the elevator and hit the number on the side. She still couldn't find Alex. Somehow her uneasiness have slightly died down when she got busy with her patients and paperwork on the afternoon. But now heading home she had already found herself thinking about Mark and their date, again.

          She could call her Mom but that wouldn't be a good idea she'll get too excited and that would just make her more nervous, Eric would just tease her, Paige would just say something romantic and dreamy and well Brian, he's probably busy filming somewhere in Seattle. She didn't want to burden anyone. She knew who she wanted and needed to talk to. She thought of him, what he might say in this situation. "Stop freaking out. Stop being scared. It will be okay." She closed her eyes, finding the crescent moon necklace on her chest trying to find peace. Is this right? Tell me if this is right. Just give me a sign please.

          Mark was waiting infront of the elevator doors to open. He had just two more hours of work and then he could go. He's been thinking about almost everything the whole day. Savannah, their 'perfect date', his friends, what Steve had said to him. Thinking of it all somehow made him nervous, like the feeling as if he asked the prettiest girl from high school to the senior prom, or he just had his first

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