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Medical Center.
"You're the real devil!" Mark wanted to snap, but with both brothers' lives in Adam's hands, he could only muster a bitter smile.
He wasn't the type to ditch or give up. If his brother went down, he'd rather go with him.
"Dr. Duncan, the OR's ready," a nurse called from the door.
"Let's go," Adam said, opening the door, hoisting Mark onto a gurney, and heading to the OR.
Mark yanked a blanket over his face, but the juicy gossip had already spread like wildfire through the hospital. Sure, at Adam's nudge, the Anti-Mark Sloan Nurse Alliance hadn't gone out of their way to mess with him, but they hadn't disbanded either. Now, hearing this bombshell? Best Thanksgiving gift ever.
"Who did it? That's badass!"
"Gotta be Grey!"
"Yeah, she snapped one off last time!"
"That was a tumor…"
"Did it break or not?"
"It broke…"
"But neither Big nor Little Grey are here tonight."
"Maybe they snuck in."
"Whoever it was—nice job!"
"Seconded!"
"How'd they even pull that off?"
"Don't overthink it, or you'll never land a boyfriend."
"…"
The nurses' gossip mill was in overdrive.
Meanwhile, Adam wrapped up the surgery quick. Just a minor fracture—Mark's freakout aside, any on-call attending could've handled it no sweat.
Next Day.
Meredith walked in and instantly felt off. Everyone was staring. Whispers and weird looks trailed her from a distance. But she'd been through the wringer—intern for a year, resident for half. This wasn't her first rodeo; she stayed cool as ice.
"Was it you?" Cristina popped up, dragging her to a quiet corner.
"What?" Meredith blinked, clueless.
"Mark's busted. Your doing?" Cristina pressed, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"Mark's busted?" Meredith's jaw dropped. Meeting her bestie's suspicious stare, she huffed, "It wasn't me! I don't even know what's up!"
"Oh," Cristina exhaled, relieved yet disappointed. If it was Meredith, drama incoming. If not, no juicy details to dig into.
"What's going on?" Meredith demanded.
Cristina spilled the tea.
"We're finding Adam!" Meredith said, suddenly on edge. Even she wondered if she'd blacked out and done it—it sounded like her drunk MO!
"You didn't drink last night, right?" Cristina squinted, catching on. "Not a blackout job, was it?"
"No…" Meredith denied, but her confidence wavered.
Cristina's look turned downright spooky.
"It wasn't her!" Adam said, strolling up as they cornered him. "But it's tied to her."
"Sadie!" Meredith and Cristina blurted in unison, locking eyes.
"Guess you know your bestie well," Adam teased Meredith. "Oh, when you grill her, ask how she pulled it off for me~"
Meredith bolted.
"If it's awkward to ask, just tell me yourself—you know the answer anyway," Adam called after her.
"Devil Sadie, living up to the name," Cristina muttered.
"Feel familiar?" Adam grinned. "Female intern, male attending, snapped… No wonder they're BFFs."
"That's the past!" Cristina corrected sharply.
Adam chuckled, letting it drop.
Dr. Shepherd clocked in, caught the explosive news, and turned green. Like Adam guessed, his first thought was Meredith. Even when Sadie's name came up, he wasn't sold. Growing up as the only boy with a gaggle of sisters, he knew how far besties would cover for each other.
"It was me!" Sadie fessed up, shameless as ever, spilling all the details to clear the air—especially since her stunt was straining Meredith's love life. That eased Shepherd's doubts, for now.
Sure, he'd patched things up with Mark—the guy who slept with his wife—after Mark swore he'd never pull that again. But knowing his mom and sisters still treated Mark like family, even after he'd bedded their daughters-in-law and sisters-in-law, left Shepherd choking on resentment. Who's the real Shepherd son here? And that time his sister told him to forgive Mark, casually dropping, "He's Mark—what do you expect? Who hasn't slept with him?"—a disturbingly solid argument—he couldn't overestimate Mark's morals anymore.
"Three Kingdoms Manual and yoga, huh!" Adam said, enlightened by Sadie's breakdown of the deed.
Rajesh, if he heard, would've puffed up and said, "You're welcome~" 😏
George was out on leave. His dad didn't make it, passing away Thanksgiving night.
Adam took Carter and Lexie on rounds. Lexie's cheeks stayed flushed—she'd been a suspect too. It mortified her, silently cursing her sister's antics and sketchy crew.
The short guy kept watch over Cinderella.
"Adam, can we ramp up the clinical research now?" the surgical chief asked, buzzing with ideas. "Word of your success is out—applications are flooding in. The demand's huge!"
"We can bump it up a bit, but no floodgates," Adam mused. "Luck played a big role in this win. We need to feel this out slow—rushing's a bad move."
Even with this success, the ethics board loomed. Ten straight patient deaths, and the project could still tank.
"Fair point," the chief dialed back his hype. "Your call."
"Let's say two a month for now," Adam decided.
Pushing the research meant balancing enough surgeries for data with time to refine it. One case mimics Cinderella's—controlled variables, chasing repeat success to dodge ethics heat. The other tweaks variables for broader applicability. Optimizing the virus takes time, and Adam hadn't forgotten his core gig: saving lives for that sweet lifespan boost. That ate time too. Keeping the pace in check was key.
Success rate climbs? Then they'd scale up slow and steady.
(End of Chapter)