If You Love Someone, You Tell Them

"Of course, Sloan. How could you be anything but perfect, all the time?" Jackson asked, doing his best to hide the smirk that was threatening to split across his face. He had to admit, though, that Mark was a damn good surgeon, and Jackson considered himself incredibly lucky to have been taken under the man's wing when he was a resident. "Yeah, but then we'd still have to answer all the stupid questions and there'd probably be even more of them. That would be horrible for all of us." Jackson gave a mock curtsey at this. "I'll wear the title with pride."

"Atta boy." Mark replied, jokingly, clapping the younger man on the shoulder. There was a reason he and Avery got along so well; and Avery's willingness to go along with his ideas and his jokes was half of that reason. Mark thought for a moment about Jackson's words, mulling over whether or not it would be worth it. "Okay, but, there might be more stupid questions but at least we would know they were coming and would mostly be able to get them out of the way. I don't know, Avery, it might be worth it." Mark mused.

Donovan simply shrugged. He would be the first to admit he was a horrible teacher. He was an excellent surgeon, but his people skills were lacking in several departments. He was a stubborn, hard-headed, stuck in his ways old man and it was likely too late for him to change any of that. "That remains to be seen," Donovan replied simply. "I might think that way if any of these brainless residents becomes a world-renowned surgeon in a few years, but until then I'll still think of them as the brainless morons they are."

"It remains to be seen with this group of interns. But it's a proven fact with intern years of the past. That's not something you can deny." Mark said with a shrug of his shoulders. He knew he wasn't going to change this man's mind. He was stuck in his ways. But he was, usually, a damn good doctor and so sometimes you had to ignore the personality. He winced, remembering when people thought the exact same thing of him.

"I don't know, I might've looked like a puppy but I had a pretty solid group of puppies with me. Vicious puppies, might I add. I wasn't as vicious, but between the five of us, we had substantially more common sense than those dweebs," Sofia giggled, shaking her head. "They sure don't, and it doesn't matter how many little tips or tricks I give them. I could navigate this place better than them when I still had all my baby teeth, so I'm really at a loss here." Leaning back, gritting her teeth together, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do once they start really doing stuff, and then their idiotic mistakes put my entire career at risk."

"Well I think you start with another tour around this place. Like you said, you've known this hospital since you could crawl. You're one of the best people to show them around, teach them the ins and outs. Use that strength of yours to your benefit when you're teaching them." He offered, giving his daughter a small grin. "We've all had dumb interns that have put our careers at risk, some more than others. You'll push through and you'll make this work. Because that's who you are. And if you need help, you've got loads of people in your corner, Sof."

"Pushed out of the nest... falling... something... there's a quote somewhere about it, there has to be." Nodding assuredly, Amelia grinned, "right?" Glancing back over at the interns, whose lost-ness only increased by the second, Amelia winced just slightly before looking back at Mark with another smile. "Perhaps... the mother bird needs nudged? Happy to do it. Say the word."

"I'm sure you're probably right. I was never the biggest literature reader, always found myself doing something else...or someone else." He mused, shaking his head at himself. "Only books I stuck my head in were medical books and they never really talked about pushing birds out of nests." He hummed when Amelia said that she would be willing to nudge the mother bird into action. "I feel like we're pulling out the big guns by sending you in...but since she's on your service it might not be so...obvious."

"My favorite game," Elaine spoke with a grin, full honesty. She had enough connections throughout the state, even the country, to where the stealing was rarely a challenge, so it was dealer's choice at that point. Whatever was the most enticing, or whatever cases she came across that she knew her medical staff were the best fit for, simply became Elaine's. At Mark's comment, she playfully rolled her eyes. It was undeniable, that for her maniacal mind and scheming, that this hospital was easily the best fit for her at the time. "Bright enough," she teased with a wink. "Enough of you are bright enough. The rest? They're on the list," she spoke with a smile, her little list of people to get rid of scrolling through her mind. To be fair, Mark's own kid was absolutely on said list for the most ridiculous reasons ( nothing to do with her actual skills ) but that was for Elaine to know and nobody else. Well, maybe Donovan.

There was some humanity to the woman sitting in front of him, not that everyone got to see it. And it was only in moments like this where she was reveling in doing something that she considered worthwhile. Normally, the things she considered worthwhile were in the best interests of her doctors working at this hospital and for the hospital itself; but the only reason it was on her radar was because it was in the best interest of herself. It was a fascinating way of thinking, but he supposed everyone in the hospital had some of that...looking at the way people fought for opportunities from the moment they walked through the doors. "Bright enough." He simply agreed, chuckling and shaking his head in amusement. "Have to keep the hospital staffed somehow."

"I've started taking it as a challenge, honestly," Elaine shrugged. "They bring in cases that they know they can't handle, and they just wait to see how long it takes for that case to get relocated." Relocated being the kind term here. Stolen would be more of the correct terminology, but that didn't need to be thrown around. "Either way, they're imbeciles for even thinking that any of their dim-witted surgeons could've handled it. Not that any of you are necessarily the brightest," she teased, cracking a small smile, "but that case wouldn't have survived at Seattle Pres, I'm almost positive. I worked with a handful of those Attendings during my residency, and damn near all of them were clueless when it came to challenges. If they didn't know how to approach something, they simply didn't. As much as the teaching aspect of this hospital is one of the many banes of my existence, at least it allows for new techniques and.. all of that boring stuff."

"I imagine it becomes a bit of a game at times. See what you can get away with...relocating and how much of a fuss they put up." Of course, he was sure that they didn't put up as much of a fuss anymore. People didn't win against Elaine...not unless she let them. He tapped his temple when she said that none of the physicians here were the brightest. "Now you know that's not true or you'd be finding another hospital with brighter minds to be chief of." He smirked when Elaine said that the teaching part of the hospital was something that haunted her. It was well known that it drove her absolutely insane to need to deal with interns in any way shape or form. And while he agreed that they could be frustrating at times, and they were certainly difficult to manage when they started out, it was fun to see them learn. It was awesome to see them come into their own and really take grab of the reins...see what they could eventually do and accomplish. Some of them became some of the best doctors he'd ever known. While some...didn't.

"As close as perfect as you can get, huh?" Jackson asked, eyebrow cocked in Mark's direction. "If you say so, Sloan. You do have a point, though. All interns are hopeless at some point in time. My intern year, I can't even count how many times I got lost at Mercy West. It was embarrassing." And he was glad he was a little more well-versed before he came to Seattle Grace, even if he did have to relearn where everything was. "Are you paying me a compliment, Mark?" he asked, letting out a little laugh to show he was only teasing. "Calling me a beautiful butterfly?"

"Yes. And I will not take any slander from you, Avery. Of all people I expect you to believe that." He said, pointing at the other man and turning his grin into a serious expression as though he would be extremely hurt if the man said anything contrary. He was glad when Jackson eventually gave in and agreed that interns were hopeless until they weren't any longer. "I believe it. We almost need an orientation before the orientation so they can ask the stupid questions." His grin returned and he winked playfully. "Of course I am."

"That's a good point," raising her coffee cup like she was raising a glass of champagne for a toast, Amelia nodded her head and took a drink. Amelia winced slightly, only having interacted with Sofia a handful of times since she'd arrived in Seattle and having nearly no interactions with the interns, therefore unable to form any sort of consensus. "Can't say for certain that there's much of a lesson here, maybe she's just trying to push the baby birds out of the nest? I mean, they've literally just hatched, so they're not flying. They're just landing on the grass." Trailing off, realizing that she was not helping Sofia's case in the slightest, she looked over at Mark, "maybe that's the valuable lesson? Falling out of the nest?"

He smirked when Amelia said that he'd made a good point; always happy to hear that coming from her. "Falling out of the nest...is the valuable lesson." He let out a huff of air and rubbed at his face. He knew that Sofia was going through a lot, he just hoped that she wouldn't let it negatively impact her work or the work of the interns assigned to her. He hoped that she would ask for help from someone, even if it wasn't him, if she needed it. But she was a stubborn one; looking at all of her parents...it made sense.

Sofia nodded, letting out a long sigh. "Those're mine," she giggled, a little maniacal. "I thought about putting them in a box with free to a good home on it outside, but then I decided that the real problem here miiiight be me having that thought." Nose scrunched, she watched them work together on their charting. "I should probably be over there helping them, but the less I interfere, the better they seem to do. I surely don't remember looking that much like a lost puppy, and I thank the universe daily that none of you witnessed my intern days."

"Oh I'm sure you looked like a puppy. All interns do at some point. But I think you would have been a strong puppy. One that took initiative." He said with a strong nod of his head. It had been painful when Sofia had run off to intern at another hospital, having hoped that she would stick by Seattle. But he'd understood her need to spread her Goosey wings and make some waves on her own first. "Do they even...know their way around this hospital yet?" He said with a curious look over at his daughter. "Might want to start there with them."

"Mark, I love you to death, but didn't you think the same thing about my class?" April asked with a small laugh, shaking her head. "Plus, you came to love Jackson enough to call him your protégée and create the Plastics Posse," the redhead snickered, taking a seat beside the older male. In truth, it was endearing that Mark and Jackson were so close, and she'd never be one to argue about that. It was just fun to harass him.

"Kepner, of course I thought the same thing about your class. And at the time I was right." He said with a sharp look in her direction. "I'm not saying that they will never grow or learn. I'm saying right now they are hopeless. And they will remain so until they take some initiative and ask some questions." The mention of Jackson caused him to chuckle. "He deserved that. He worked hard."

"Yeah, eventually. Unfortunately for us, we're the ones who are supposed to shape them into actual doctors, or whatever." Why Donovan had ever decided to come to a teaching hospital, he would never know. Maybe it was the prospect of seeing Elaine again, but whatever the reason, he was now regretting it. Interns were the bane of his existence. "Seems to me they should be weeded out before they're thrown into the thick of it with people's lives in their hands, don't ya think?"

"Yeah, that's kind of our entire job." He agreed, shooting Donovan an amused look. He always appeared to want nothing to do with the teaching part of the job, which was one of the most essential pieces to the hospital. It was something that most of the doctors in the hospital took pride in and there was a reason that so many hopeful doctors wanted to come here. "Sometimes the people we worry about the most become the best doctors." He simply replied. It was odd, but it was something he'd noticed in his years as a physician.

Shifting closer to him, mostly to hide her face, the blonde tried to suck it up. She really hated this, her stupid emotions being all over the place, she'd wanted to split from Callie, but she still felt like absolute shit most of the time because of it. "Another fight with Callie, what else is new?" Years ago she could never imagine vent to Mark of all people, but here she was.

He let out a heavy breath when she said that she'd had another fight with Callie. It seemed like he was always hearing about some sort of fight between Arizona and Callie from one or the other. A lifetime ago, Mark never would have imagined being in a position where he wanted to comfort Arizona. But raising a kid with someone was a difference maker; and she'd become one of his favorite people. He slipped an arm around her. "About anything specific this time or is it just everything?" No judgement, just an opportunity for her to talk.

Elaine didn't know Mark too terribly well, but she knew that look on his face. The guy was easy enough to read most of the time. Reflecting his smirk, she raised her eyebrows, waiting to hear what it was that he had to say. And once those words left her mouth, words she expected to hear eventually, Elaine gave one simple nod. "As it should've, Dr. Sloan." It wasn't a particularly easy case, not in the slightlest. It was a challenge, even for someone like Mark. "I didn't steal it from Seattle Pres for you to screw it up." She wasn't subtle about how she managed to get cases moved to the hospital, not anymore at least. Mostly because those case-hungry surgeons that words at SGMW didn't care about how they got their cases, they only cared about the work.

He nearly belly laughed at her response, but he managed to hold it together in front of the Chief. She had never been necessarily secretive about the ways in which she had gotten certain high profile cases over to SGMW. But if he, and most other physicians, were being honest they didn't care. SGMW deserved those cases more than most hospitals, especially Seattle Pres. The case had been a difficult one, made more difficult by the patient's spouse; but it had accomplished and would bring a lot of good publicity to the hospital. "Surprising that Seattle Pres even starts to bring in these types of cases."

"they aren't all hopeless." elena reminded her brother and laughed a little bit. maybe he was right and most of them were, but some of them really had potential and elena could see it. "we all we're in their shoes once upon a time. don't be so hard on them at first, give them a chance to prove themselves and then be hard on them."

"Elena, they all start of hopeless." He argued, shaking his head. "They start out confused, way too eager to please, making mistakes left and right. They're hopeless but they don't have to stay that way and most of them won't." He explained further, shrugging his shoulders. "I think it's important to be hard on them, just not by taking away opportunities for them to learn."

"The only good thing about interns is being able to boss them around and make them do the grunt work we don't wanna do." Okay, maybe not the best attitude to have, but Donovan had grown tired of dealing with interns over the years. The only intern he'd never had an issue with had been Elaine, and now she was his superior. "It amazes me how many of them are here. How the hell did half of them even make it through medical school?"

If there was one thing that Mark had learned about the guy next to him, it was that he was perpetually grumpy. And nothing Mark said or did was going to change that; and nothing that the interns did would change his opinion either. "I mean eventually they get better. And to be fair, they're still technically in some form of medical school right now. Some people end up being better in the books than they are in practice. This is how we weed them out."

"Don't mean to alarm you," Amelia started, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. "But a little bird of yours happens to be on my service at the moment, and those are her interns. She sent them on a scavenger hunt, or something maniacal. I haven't seen her all day, but they keep acting really casual about the fact that they have no idea where their little mother duck is." Cracking a smile, Amelia chuckled, "can't blame her, though. This might be some of the most entertaining interns we've had in a minute."

His eyebrow raised at Amelia's words before he laughed softly, shaking his head. "See but this just shows the hopelessness. None of them are taking the initiative to just ask. And really if they're not going to ask a question like this, it makes me worried about what else they won't ask about." Though it was a bit mean, if not a bit funny, that Sofia had just left them to their whims. "I will hope Sof has some sort of lesson in this."

Charlotte turned her head and chuckled. Sloan was right, the hopeless group of young people were currently arguing about which direction they were supposed to go in. She swore she had seen one of them transport a patient in the wrong direction earlier that day and it had definitely given her something to chuckle at. "They're babies. They're still trying to figure out how to walk much less navigate."

"They're babies who should at least know how to crawl." He retorted, watching the group turn in another direction. "There are signs...everywhere." He said with a heavy sigh and a shake of his head. "Look up and read." He muttered to himself. "We might have to shake up the groups of interns if this entire collection of them is absolutely lost."