Grey's Anatomy 1. Chapter 1

SLEXIE FIC

Lexie was mortified. It was clear the young woman was not expecting Julia to show up.

"Well.. Um thankyou Mark, I'll umm, I'll see you.. Bye." Lexie stumbled over her words and as she turned to walk away she stumbled over her feet as well. As the woman gained her footing she jogged away, using all the fight she had left not to turn around and look at him. As the surgeon walked away it became apparent to her what she had just done. She could have hurt Mark, she could have broken up Mark and Julia or worse she might not have made any difference at all.

"Oh for the love of god." Lexie whispered under her breathe as it dawned upon her.. They would see each other, tomorrow. They had to work together no matter the outcome, and boy would that be uncomfortable. Although she had anxiety flowing through her body, there was also a light feeling, brought on from the fact that he knew. Even if she had to deal with the rejection, it wouldn't matter because he knew and there was closure from that. Walking home was such a mundane task and a long one to, but to Lexie it was nice. The constant one step at time, right foot, left foot. Walking was easy it was simple. But loving a man who might no longer love you back was harder.

The older surgeon stood there mouth slightly parted with shock and confusion reflecting from his face. He couldn't move. It was as though his shoes had melted to the pavement below him, almost as though the soles of his shoes were made of tar and had melded within the crevices of the ground he was currently standing on. Should he run after his ex-lover? Did he want to?

"Are you ready?" Julia questioned, clearly confused about the look on Mark's face.

"Uh, no I don't think I am." The man clearly could not comprehend the situation he was in and need time to think about everything that had happened in the past 6 minutes and 26 seconds thoroughly. A look of confusion flashed over Julia's face, "Mark? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Claimed the world renowned surgeon, pulling at strings in his head trying to find a reasonable excuse not to go out with his… girlfriend. Girlfriend, what a strange concept. Mark had only ever really had one. Well one that he was serious about and she had just confessed her love to him, god there was nothing like what he had with Lexie. It was pure. Beautiful. But also sexy and just generally right.. He had loved Addison back in the day but nothing had ever compared to Lexie not even Julia. To anyone else the option of who to pick would be clear but to him it wasn't. It was the woman he had been in love with for years or it was the woman who wanted everything that he did like kids and a marriage. Sophia needed siblings and it was highly doubtful that Lexie would be willing to make siblings anytime soon. It really was odd, even to Mark that he was looking for a girl to fit his criteria, he used to sleep with anything that walked for gods sake! But the surgeon was aware of the fact he was not getting any younger. It was now or never he just wasn't sure which he wanted and which he needed.

"Mark? Are we going or not?" Julia was clearly getting frustrated with her boyfriend's inability to give her an answer. The woman could tell that the man she had fallen in love with was under pressure but she was under the impression that he trusted her enough to let her in. Well he should be at that point by now, after all they had been in a monogamous relationship for almost a year now, and she loved him… He had never said he loved her in so many words but he had to.. Didn't he? They had been together for nearly a year. You couldn't be with someone for that long and not be invested 100%.. Could you? Well you could but Callie and Arizana had assured her he wanted to be with her.

Mark looked at her guilty, his expression giving his girlfriend the answer she needed. "Right, well I'm going to go home. Call me when you come up with a good excuse as to why we aren't going out." It was apparent the female surgeon was less than appeased and also extremely confused, but none-the-less she removed herself from the situation by storming off to her car to go home and spend the night alone.

"Well…" Mark muttered under his breath as the feeling of being stuck removed it's self from him as he began to walk away from the area behind the hospital. After a few steps it became apparent that he was unsure of where to go, but it had to be somewhere away from Lexie and away from Julia. The wind whipped his face as he continued to walk with no particular destination in mind.

It wasn't until the sun was peeking through the early morning sky that Mark made a decision . Whether it was the right one or not was a completely different question for the man, but only time would tell. He needed to do what was going to be best for him in the long run.. Even if the decision hurt him, it would pay off. It had to. As he finally reached his five-star apartment building he took a deep breath and entered the lobby. It was apparent that the surgeon needed to become slave to sleep after all it had been an insane 48 hours. It was necessary to rest before he confronted her, to give himself and hopefully her some peace of mind. This conversation would tear the both of them apart and he needed a few hours of not thinking before he would be ready to face the difficult task that lay ahead.

She was on the night shift again. With him… again. With only a few hour sleep the resident felt under prepared for the night ahead of her. She had spent all day trying to rest but all she could do was create scenarios within her head of all the possibilities that could come with her next shift within the building of Seattle Grace Mercy Death. Would the man she had tried not to love for so long whisk her up in is arms or would he tell her he loved the eye doctor, these thoughts had been on a constant loop all day. But the worst thought would always be what if he didn't care enough to say anything? What if after all this time he had moved on to a point where she didn't even register in his brain as anyone other than a student.

The few hours of sleep the young surgeon was granted were not as peaceful as she would have liked. In fact they weren't peaceful at all, due to the fact that not only did she toss and turn but she was also visited with dreams. Dreams. It sounds so beautiful and it was something she would usually welcome but it was a consequence of her mild PTSD from the shooting just a couple of years ago that her brain did not welcome the images in her head while rest was upon her. Apparently confronting Mark inspired a change in her brain and subsequently she was graced with vivid images. Images of none other than her and Mark. It was like she was watching a film, first there was the "Teach me." Scene running through her subconscious, then it was like the entire relationship flashed across a tv screen but in slow motion. Both quick and slow although that seemed impossible now she was in a lucid state. Every single touch; soft and ruff. Every breath ; deep and shallow.. Every look; lustful and loving. Each and every part ; good and bad, touched her brain while her defences were down. She had so much yet so little to lose at this point. If he rejected her it would mean she had lost her love and dignity. If he loved her back… well it was obvious to the girl that getting her hopes up was not a sound plan.

Sliding out of her hard bed and slipping into the communal bathroom of her sisters place, Lexie tried to rid her mind of the over analysing it was doing. But it became apparent that the steam from the shower was not enough for the cluttered mess within her head. Removing herself from the bathroom and heading back to the dusty attic where she lived, felt like a huge task for the tired woman. As she realized that she was running incredibly late her heart went into over drive as she sped around the house finding clean clothes, makeup and locating her pager, before running out of the house with the other surgical residents. Luckily that was enough to distract her from Mark for a few seconds. As the housemates clambered into a car together tension ensued.

Usually Lexie and Jackson went in separate cars.. Lexie with Meredith and Derek and Jackson with April and Alex but the rush this particular morning had left them together in Alex's dodgy car. As Lexie made eye contact with Jackson the fellow surgeon whipped his head around to stare out of the window. It became clear to Lexie that her actions last night may affect him also. If Mark chose her… The chances were slim but if he reciprocated the feelings she had then Jackson could be hurt. Yes, he broke up with her but he broke up with her because he knew.. Everyone knew Alexandria Grey's heart was owned my Mark Sloan and there were no refunds. Jackson had claimed the break up was so he could learn from Mark without any awkwardness but if Lexie had her way and Mark was with her, would Jackson be stuck within an awkward situation yet again? Or was she thinking to highly of herself? Did Jackson care? "Great." The woman sighed quietly as she recognized that she had just added more thoughts into the pool of them already swimming through her cranium.

Entering the hospital was essentially a habit at this point. But this time walking in felt different, he didn't know what the day would bring. Generally Mark entered his workplace knowing what was going to happen, entering the building 7 minutes early leaving himself time to get into scrubs and get charts ready for rounds with the students of the hospital. Then he would do a scheduled breast implants or a cleft lip and a palette on a baby and then most likely some insane trauma would enter the ER. He would sign charts, teach students, wink at nurses and laugh at the good old days. At some point the plastic surgeon would treat a burn and play with his daughter. It was expected at this point that Callie and Arizona would bug him about proclaiming his love to his current girlfriend and a resident would screw something up that he would have to fix. But today was different for him. "Here we go." The talented surgeon whispered as he crossed the threshold of Seattle Grace Mercy West.

She stumbled through the front doors of the building with 3 minuted to get her scrubs on and get to rounds. The young woman gave hurried smiles to the nurses and patients that she made eye contact with on her way towards the locker holding her precious scrubs. Placing them on along with her classic Nike's was strangely comforting. Proclaiming her love for an impressive surgeon wouldn't lead her to lose her job.. It might make her job harder but so long as she wasn't distracted, keeping the habit of placing scrubs on every day would remain a part of her life for a very long period of time. And there it was again. Mark glued to her every thought. Lexie continued to be completely absorbed by her mind as she stumbled into the hallway of the hospital. She was aware of people talking around her and of the sound IV's were making within the few rooms in the wing she was currently walking through, but that was all she could make out because there he was. The man she had been emotionally invested in for years. Standing in a doorway only a few footsteps away from where she stood. "Little Grey…" Was the only thing Lexie heard before a screeching sound met her ears. Her eyes flashed towards the man she was invested in, Mark Sloan. His eyes connected with hers immediately. Both sets of eyes were wide as their pagers continued to screech continuously. They broke eye contact after what felt like minutes but must only have been seconds. As if they were completely in sync both surgeons lifted their pages to see what the emergency was. "No…" was the only word to slip from their mouths before the pagers began to light up yet again.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N : This will be my first fan fiction to be longer than two chapters so please be kind! This is just a short chapter and I've included it to give myself an easy start with the next chapter. I would loooove to see some more reviews but hey it's your life so do as you want.

Disclaimer : I don't own any characters or Grey's Anatomy as a whole because it's pretty obvious if I did Mark and Lexie would never have been in the plane and they both would have moved to Paris and had many attractive children.

xo

Without so much as a greeting, Lexie Grey took off down the corridor, Mark trailing on her heels. Both heading straight for the stairs as elevators took too long to get to their desired destination. Running down three flights of stairs the pair somehow ended up beside each other as they squeezed through the doors leading them directly into the ER. The adrenaline in the room was high, the young surgeon was ready for action but as she look around the ER she became aware that it was empty. An empty ER was always the calm before the storm.

"We have moved the patients who were in her into separate wards, and those who needed immediate surgery have been transferred." The voice of Owen Hunt drifted through the empty ER. Lexie turned to look just outside the room, directly into the lobby and noticed that it was full to the brim with people and chaos. "What the hell is going on?" Lexie inquired completely unaware of what the situation was. "I don't have time to walk you through this Grey!" was only thing to hit the woman's ears. Her eyes scraped over the room and she saw that each and every one of her house mates were situated within the room as was Mark, Dr Webber, Christina Yang and numerous nurses. "Hunt, no one knows what is going on.. Grey and I both got pages says 911, off site code black. Honestly I don't know what that means and by the look of confusion on everyone else's faces I assume no one else does either." Taking a deep breath Mark looked over at Lexie to see shock still covering her face, although the plastic surgeon was unable to decipher wether the shock was registered from Hunt's out burst or his defending her. God he need to talk to her and tell her well, he wasn't sure what to tell her. Now that he could see her in person he was already second guessing the decision he had made.. "Well.. that is not what I asked to be paged to you people, but none-the-less.." Hunts brows were furrowed as he tried to find a way to explain the condition quickly, "Look essentially there was a bomb attack on a mall, it's an off site situation and half of you WILL be going to help find survivors and to assist with transportation to the correct wads and OR's. The rest of you will man the OR's and this very ER." Hunt paused, regret was etched upon his face. "From what I have been told this bomb was part of a terrorist attack and the news crews already swarming the site are claiming that the wreckage rivals that of the Twin Towers."

"CHIEF THE AMBULANCE'S ARE READY TO GO!" Callie Torres's voice screeched as she slid through the ER, with Arizona Robbins following behind. Looking around the room Lexie's eyes were welcomed with stony faces reflecting from her colleagues, but as she looked closer it became obvious that their eyes were glistening terror. It was almost guaranteed that every person in this room had somehow been touched by the devastation of 9/11, whether they had lost somebody or had held their friends as they cried over the loss of a loved one. Terrorist attacks always left hospitals in a flurried mess.

"Okay let's go, Avery, Yang, Big Grey, Webber, Robbins. You guys get ready for the mass trauma. And that leaves Little Grey, Sloan, Kepner, Karev, Sheppard and Torres." You guys are coming with me. We'll go over procedure in the ambulance." The group of talented surgeons jogged in a group towards the large ambulance ready to hold all of them, sort of like a cage waiting to take them off to a zoo. They all stumbled into the vehicle and grabbed the first seats they could, before placing of trauma gear and grabbing their medical bags filled with endless amounts of bandages and medical tape. As they all took a collective breath, Hunt began speaking again, his mouth moving so quickly that his words were essentially just a slur.

Looking at the chief of surgery who was clearly a wreck right now, the only words he could make out were, "You know proper protocol. Use your coloured tags, it they are gone, tag them and move on to someone you can save.. You know how this works and most of you have experienced off site catastrophes before but let me assure you. This. Will. Be. Different." Mark watched as Hunt tried to pull himself together, it was obvious the speech was over and now the group was silent as they cracked their necks and warmed themselves up for the disaster they were about to walk straight into. It was at this exact moment that Sloan decided to look around at the seating positions within the cold Ambulance. In the haste to get to the site somehow he had ended up next to her. What were the chances, that he would end up sitting next to the only woman he had ever fully devoted himself to. The day he had to break her heart. And His own. He observed her as she bit her lip because of the anticipation and nerves in relation to what was about to happen.. That was habit she had adopted long before he entered her life, or so she had told him. Her leg was shaking and goosebumps covered her body. Mark knew Lexie Grey well enough to know that those were tell tale signs of her adrenaline being at its max. He was pulled from his thoughts ass he received a quick, sharp kick to his calves. "Stop staring at her Mark!" Calliope Torres hissed under her breath, towards her daughters father. All Mark could do was give her a look that screamed turmoil. Callie's face twisted into shock as she realized that he still loved Lexie completely.

As the orthopaedic surgeon turned to face the doors of the Ambulance, the machine came to a halt. "Here we go.." Hunt mumbled as the surgeons stood ready to pounce as soon as the doors were open. Stepping outside Lexie Grey's mouth slid open in astonishment, she had seen devastation before but the chief of surgery was right.. She had never seen anything like this before.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N sorry for the wait for this! I hope you enjoy it. I still own nothing from Grey's Anatomy, only the plot of this story.

xo

"_These buildings have been blown up and the devastation rivals that of the 9/11 twin towers. The body count is still rising and it seems the further in that search teams delve the higher it gets. The chances of finding many more living victims are already getting lower. This news is being reported to you only 35 minutes after this tragedy struck."_

That voice. Clipped. Efficient. The voice was that of a news reported of whom was not wrong in her statement. Lexie peered into the mess that was once a shopping complex and gave herself no longer than 6 seconds to come to terms with what she was staring at. "Grey and Karev, I want you straight on the tarp with critical patients! Keep them alive until an ambulances come to take them. Do not under any circumstance, come into this building. I am trusting you to keep these people safe." The young surgeon had years of training under her belt and her photographic memory was useful, so she was not the least bit offended by being told to stay in the safe zone with the patients who were not being treated but needed to be. Badly. It was apparent that Alex Karev did not share that same thought process as he tried to sneak in with the other group of surgeons. "Karev! Help Grey or go back to the hospital and give sutures!" The chiefs voice shot Alex straight back to his area of patients. After what felt like 10 minutes Lexie and Alex had stabilized only 5 of their 20 patients, who were immediately placed onto stretchers and were rushed straight to nearby hospitals. "WE'VE FOUND ANOTHER 10 OR SO ALIVE! THEY ARE TRAPPED UNDER THE RUBBLE! WE NEED ASSISTANCE ASAP!" It was Mark's voice, and she couldn't bear to go near him just yet. She didn't know if he wanted her. And now wasn't the time to find out. "Alex, go help I've got this." The woman's ex looked at her with a thankful look before running to the mall to assist their colleagues.

Smoke was everywhere so locating any person's within the rubble was a difficult task, but it was one Mark Sloan was not afraid to take on. If they could locate survivors now, then some family, somewhere, would not have to feel the pain of having someone torn from them. Trying to lead the people who had come to assist in extracting the 10 or so survivors, back into the building was not as simple as one would think. There were dangerous chunks of wood, metal and every other possible material hanging from rafters and sticking out of what use to be high scale shops. Eventually after 15 minutes, give or take a few, the plastic surgeon had gotten all the volunteers safely to the section of the complex holding what was likely the last of the living people within the building. After all anyone who was stuck within this building for much longer would probably die with a lack of oxygen making it to their lungs. It was sad but it was a fact. Every doctor on the sight of this catastrophe knew. They all knew that this was it, anyone else stuck in the rubble would die and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. "Help, please help us.." the strangled cry came from the burnt building, snapping Mark out of his thoughts. "He can't breathe; this man is going to die! Please help, please." The begs were painful to hear. "Ma'am we are going to remove some of this debris but we need you to stand back. The man who isn't breathing, can you please turn his head to the left." April Kepner's trauma training kicked in as the rest of the team began to dispose of the boards that were covering the group of people just below. As the trauma surgeon in training continued to give the scared woman instructions on CPR, Sloan removed the last board from the hole that was keeping the people captive. This gave him first opportunity to run through the small gap and get to the man. The man who wasn't breathing. The man, who Mark realized as he saw his face, was someone he knew. This man was Thatcher. Thatcher Grey. Meredith's father. Lexie's father.

Leaning over one of the patients left on the tarp that had not yet been fully examined, Lexie saw that the woman had internal bleeding, "Shit," the surgeon said under her breath. "WHERE IS THE NEXT AMBULANCE?! WE NEED ONE IN HERE IMMEDIATELY." The panic in her voice pierced the ears of those emerging from the smouldering building causing Mark's eye to go straight towards her. Their eye contact lasted less than a second as the attending shot his head back to his patient in attempts to block Lexie's view from seeing the man on the gurney. He knew she would hate him when she found out, but maybe that would make the situation easier. In attempts to make himself feel better about what he was doing, he told himself Lexie would save lives by staying here and working with critical patients and she would be thankful for the opportunity. That is until she found out about her father anyway. The younger surgeon who was trying to keep the last critical patient alive was heavy as the man she loved took the last ambulance in sight. This patient wasn't going to last much longer, she needed a sterile room to begin any kind of procedure and even the ambulance wouldn't have the machinery. "I NEED JUST ONE MORE AMBULANCE! THE FIRST YEARS CAN HANDLE WHAT'S LEFT BUT THIS PATIENT NEEDS AN OR NOW!" She knew screaming would get anything done but god did it feel good. But apparently screaming wasn't completely useless as just seconds later she heard the sound of a siren. The siren sounded like a beautiful symphony to her, because that sound meant their ride to Seattle Grace Mercy West was nearly here. Which meant that this last patient had a chance. She had kept the rest alive until an ambulance got to them but now it was Lexie Grey's responsibility to keep this patient breathing until they got to her second home. To her workplace. To an operating room. "Out of the way, clear some room." It was a phrase that had been repeated all day, this time it came from the mouth of a paramedic whom Lexie had met plenty of times before. Before she knew it, the young women was within the medical vehicle prepping her patient for the surgery they were about to go through.

"Come on!" Get him into surgery... please god, don't let him die. Mark Sloan's brain was on overdrive. Thatcher Grey was alive. Barely. But he was unconscious and breathing, that was all that was needed to save him. Assisting the gurney into the OR where the patient was switched onto the operating bed was as much as Sloan could do before scrubbing in. Scrubbing in. It was a slow process but today it felt a million times slower, as the rest of the surgeons on this case filed in to begin scrubbing, Sloan became more and more agitated to begin the operation. Stepping into the sterile room holding Thatcher Grey was one of the most stressful experiences of the older surgeon's life and he wasn't even the head surgeon on this case.

"Okay, it's a beautiful day to save lives everybody." The voice of Derek Shepard, one of the best neurosurgeons in the world broke Mark out of his thoughts yet again. "Yes it is," the voice of Callie Torres added a contrast to the room. Two amazing surgeon and Sloan as the helping hand, this man had to survive and if the mans, daughters exboyfriend had anything to do with it. Then he would live.

1 hour.

2 hours.

3 hours.

4, 5 ,6 ,7 hours.

8 hours.

Fixing a broken spine, ankle and arm, along with various brain bleeds was going to be a long process but this was excruciating. Lexie and Meredith didn't even know that their father was lying on a surgical table within a hospital they had worked in for years, but that was for the best wasn't it? "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that Sloan." Great. Today was not the day for the man's conscience to come out of hibernation.

"Nobody move." The voice of the plastic surgeon, who had been silent for the past 8 hours, broke the quiet in the room. "Don't let him die, she needs him, she won't be able to handle this… She is going to break and I won't be there to check her back into Psych.. SAVE HIM DERECK!." Break downs were not something Mark was used to having but the stress of the decisions he had been forced to make over the past few hours was too much for the man.

"Leave my OR immediately Dr Sloan." The Neurosurgeons voice came out in a deadly whisper.

"I'm so sorry." Was the only reply Mark Sloan could utter as he dragged his body from the room with Callie's eyes following him as he did so. Slumping against the wall of the scrub room, the world spun around him. 1 breath. 2 breaths, 3, 4, 5. The room eventually halted and the nausea left his body. He had only a few blissful seconds of silence and calm before his pager lit up for the hundredth time that day. This time the beeper displayed the numbers 911 yet again, which was far from a relief to the exhausted man. Slowly standing he left the room without glancing back to the open patient on the table only meters away from him.

"Someone pass me some more bandages!" Lexie Grey was becoming increasingly more frustrated as the day continued. Her patient with internal bleeding who, against all odds, had been kept alive by the woman all the way to the hospital, was in surgery. Why wasn't she in the surgery? Because Alex Karev had poached the patient. Leaving her in the pit with the few lucky survivors who weren't blown up or grievously hurt. That surgery was hers. She had worked her ass off to get that John Doe to Seattle Grace Mercy Death. And she was in the pit. She needed to be in a surgery, she needed something to suck up all her focus. Sutures weren't enough to keep her mind from wandering off to Mark and honestly that was the last thing she should be thinking about today. She knew that and her patients deserved her undivided attention. But after 7 hours the constant task of placing sutures was ridiculous. It was a job for first years yet here she was. "Photographic memory has to give me brownie points does it Dad? It'll help me get into surgery's will it?" muttering under her breath with frustration present on her face, her Father was wrong and after a day like today he was the only person she could gloat to. Granted he would have to drag him away from his tatted up whore but it was a task she would be up to. The thought of seeing her dad again for the first time in 2 months excited her, she was so overworked and stressed and she had been planning this for 2 weeks. She was going to go to his house and they were going to have dinner. Just the two of them. She needed to sit with her Dad and forget about Mark and the hospital and Jackson and all the other crap that was happening around her. Thinking about the night she was going to have was enough to lift her spirits long enough to finish the last of the facial sutures she was working on, although they would have been finished earlier if the woman sitting on the hospital bed would stop bugging her about a scar. Lexie knew what she was doing, she had worked under Mark Sloan for Christ's sake! "Mrs York, I understand you are stressed right now but there are people in this hospital who are dying or will be losing limbs after this accident. Having a tiny scar is a small price to pay don't you think?" Mrs York's jaw dropped and she was clearly fighting with herself, trying to decide what to retort back to the surgeon sewing her face, it took about 10 seconds for her to slowly close her mouth in surrender.

"Time of death, 12 :00 o'clock ." Mark Sloan's voice was solemn as he announced that the man on the table was gone. It was as no surprise to those standing in room after all this patient had crawled from the burnt shopping complex hours after the search party gave up on the rest of the person's within the building. The third degree burn covering every inch of the man's body was enough of an indicator for Sloan to presume the man would die, but he still used every trick he knew to try to save the John Doe. It wasn't enough. The unclaimed man's lungs couldn't withstand the surgery and now another family was going to go home with a brochure for caskets rather than their family member. It took the plastic surgeon only a minute to remember where he was before this 3 hour surgery. He was in another surgery. The surgery in which Thatcher Grey was the patient. "Shit.." He breathed again before running from the OR to the one directly across from him. Pushing the doors open of the scrub room the older man's eye searched for Mr Grey, but he saw nothing through the window. The OR was deserted.. Seeing nobody within the room left Mark thinking of a different four lettered word. He took off again this time down to intensive care, if Thatcher was anywhere it was ICU or the morgue. ICU was the better bet. With fingers crossed Mark Sloan opened the glass doors to the ICU and walked straight to the reception desk. "Please, please tell me Thatcher Grey has been transferred here." Mark's words were so fast it came as a surprise to him when the nurse behind the desk understood him and began tapping the keyboard behind the desk immediately. "He is in bed 8." A look of shock and surprise washed over his face but the look was short lived as he made eye contact with the nurse. Her facial expression did not match his at all, hers was grim and apologetic. "No…" His voice barely a whisper. The nurse's face turned into a look of regret, "As soon as we can get his next of kin here we are going to recommend unplugging him. There was just too much damage and Dr Sheppard said the brain activity is non-existent." Without another word Mark turned to leave. He was too much of a coward to tell Lexie and his shift was coming to an end. Today was not the day to talk to his ex, today was the day to ensure Julia didn't end up an ex also. Thatcher didn't deserve what happened to him but Lexie had to be strong enough to deal with this. "Like I said, you keep telling yourself that, but you know it's not true" the voice inside Mark's head wasn't wrong and he knew without a doubt he was going to make sure someone close to Lexie gave her the news before she stumbled upon her father.

After another hour Lexie and Mark were both preparing to leave on different floors of the hospital. "Dr Bailey, can I please go home now?" Lexie's voice was cheerful as she thought of the home cooked meal her father would be preparing right now. Bailey's face was remorseful as she turned around. "Dr Bailey.. are you okay?"

"Lexie…" The tone that her mentor used on her sent shivers down her spin, let alone the fact that her mentor used her first name. Her body was shaking already as scenarios sped through her head. Was she going to be fired? Did she kill a patient? Did something happen to Meredith? What was happening? It was clear to the general surgeon standing in front of her that the resident's brain was working on over drive. "Lexie I need you to sit down." Her voice was shaky, Lexie felt the warm hand of the surgeon touching her hand. "No! Tell me what is going on!" Bailey took a deep breath before opening her mouth. Lexie heard Bailey's words and for the second time that day the world around her became a blur as she was filled with adrenaline. The woman bolted to the nearest staircase sprinting to the ICU with perfect focus. She ran without a care about those who were around her, knocking into machinery, garbage bins and people. She didn't care. Her father was in this hospital. As a patient. Again. He wasn't going to make it. She needed him, the woman needed to see the accusations about her father for herself. She needed proof.

Stumbling across the floor holding the ICU the middle Grey child halted at the desk s she impatiently waited for the bed holding her father. With the nurse taking too long she decided to take matters into her own hand opening each and every door until she reached bed 8. In bed 8 he lay, the familiar face of the man who raised her. The world spun as the woman ran over to the closest bin and threw up all the food she had ingested in the past two days. She continued to throw up until bile burnt her throat but the nausea didn't stop. She pushed her way back through the glass door of the ICU before making eye contact with him.

"Come on." Mark threw his arm around the shoulders of his.. Girlfriend. Julia. She giggled at the dorky gesture, completely unaware it was a habit the surgeon had picked up when leaving the hospital with Lexie. They cruised through the hospital, as Mark tried to ignore the fact they were about to pass the ICU. Although he tried he didn't succeed due to the fact that as soon as its doors came into view the woman he was in love with fell back through the doors. Her eyes were dry until they met his. The look in her eyes was pure pain and his was guilt. From where he was standing he heard her utter one word. His name. He looked at her as she sunk to the floor only centimetres from the door she had just exited, tears spilled from her eyes as she curled herself into a ball. That's all it took for Mark to realize that he was making a huge mistake.

"I'm so sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry .. Julia I'm so sorry."

The words clicked and Julia looked at him. Pure hate in her eyes as she quickly came to terms with why her… Ex, was apologizing.

Mark was aware of what he was giving up. But he also knew what he was gaining and he would take the consequences any day. At an insane speed the former womaniser ran, before he sunk to the floor next to the love of his life, enveloping her into a hug as her tears stained his shirt.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N : Sorry about the wait! I'm thinking about putting this story of hiatus due to the fact that I hate my writing style and as a consequence I don't think I'm doing my storyline justice.

xo

One week. That's all it took for her entire life to change, right now she should be doing rounds or performing surgery on a patient but instead she was pacing the halls of an apartment. His apartment. Lexie Grey never thought that she would be in his – Mark Sloan's, apartment ever again but alas, here she was. Pacing. Sorting through the words in her head, the words for her Father. Writing eulogies wasn't a strong suit for most people, especially not her. Click, click, click, click, click. The silence of the apartment was deafening, the sound of the clock was distracting and the surgeon was tempted to climb a chair, remove it from the wall and smash it on the floor. But she had already passed the destructive stage of grief, god had she passed that stage. Mark's stupidly gorgeous face still had a faint bruise as living proof of that she was completely out of control of the whirlpool of emotions flood her entirely, he wall next to the apartment door also reflected that fact. After all it was the last thing the woman was able to hit before she sunk to floor in absolute horror, not only had she broken a wall with her fist but she could have broken his face. "Lex, you'll get through this, we'll get through this." It was impossible for Lexie to miss the hesitant sound shadowing his stunning voice, as he walked over to her and brought her weak body into his safe embrace, it felt like home and it was all she needed to send herself into another puddle of salty tears. This is why she was here, even Meredith and Derrick had agreed that she would be better off with Mark even if they weren't together right now, he would keep her safe while she mourned. Just like he always kept her safe. Although she had stayed in his home for the entire week, nothing had happened. They shared a bed and he held when she needed it but that was it, now wasn't the time to work out what they were going to do and both of them knew it. For her time was running out, in two hours the funeral would be over and in two days she would return to the hospital. Back to her life, back to reality, it would be time to move on and Lexie Grey wasn't sure if she'd ever be ready for that. So here she was, pacing the halls of her .. something's… apartment writing a eulogy and preparing to say goodbye to Thatcher Grey. One last mournful time as his body.. his shell would be lowered into the ground in front of her. The image forming in her head was terrifying and caused a shudder to quake her body.

1 and a half hours.

1 hour.

Half an hour.

In just over half an hour, the family that was left, her work colleges who pitied her and her Dad's tatted slut's family would circle a coffin that's pillowing interior was holding HER father's body, and together they would whisper final goodbyes. It was a shame that she hadn't even begun to get ready. But what was the point? The makeup would surely run from her face and why find the perfect black dress, when he would never know that she wore it? In half an hour, Mark Sloan would be home from the hospital, ready to take her to the cemetery. She had to be ready, but her motivation was non-existent. After pacing herself out Lexie had ended, perched on the side of the bed looking directly at the suitcase of clothes that had somehow ended up in the apartment. Her guess what that her sister had brought it over for her while she remained preoccupied. As the clock continued to tick in the background, the inexperienced surgeon dragged her body over the case of clothes and began to slowly lift different garments and place them in piles around her, her mind began to float off again. Instead of concentrating on the task at hand she thought of the things Molly would say, and Meredith. Wait, was Meredith speaking? She gave him a chunk of liver, she should speak. "Concentrate Alexandra Grey," great now she was scolding herself. There were a selection of black clothes to choose from, but one specific dress stood out to the woman. The idea of wearing the usual black lacy dress that was expected of her, she decided to switch up her funeral attire, she had been to far to many funerals and honestly she didn't care to try anymore. Standing and pulling on the light, feathery dress was harder than she had ever expected it to be. Not bothering with make up, the woman ran a brush through her hair before giving up on that as well. Slowly turning to the full length mirror that stood in the corner of the room she looked herself up and down. Deep bags under her eyes making her look as though she had been crying tequila for a week rather than tears. Her skin was more pale than usual, which before that moment Lexie had believed was impossible after all in rainy Seattle how could you possibly get a tan. The dress did a good job at hiding how skinny she had gotten over the course of 7 days, with its nude cut outs creating a contrast with the weightless black skirt of the ensemble. She looked like crap and she knew it.

"Lexie?"

His voice was everything to her, gruff but soothing but she would have given almost anything to have just a few more minutes to sit in the funeral attire. A few more minutes to come to terms with the insanity she was about to walk into, the whole day had involved organising the emotions that were swimming within her head into little boxes within her usually unscattered mind, filed away but not a second of the day had involved the painful activity of remembering her dad for everything he was. Lexie Grey wasn't ready to say goodbye. She didn't even know where to begin.

"Lex, I know you well enough to know you aren't ready, but we need to leave." The older surgeons voice was firm with the sound of worry as an undertone.

Lexie watched as Mark walked into the bedroom and placed a bag on peanut butter cups next to her, confusion knitting her brows together. But as he stepped away and his eye pierced her and she knew that he loved her regardless of the insanity she had been spilling through the week. He loved her and she knew. He was perfectly aware of her 'quirks' as he liked to call them. They had been together for long enough for him to know that she was a stress eater. Alexandra Grey knew with absolute certainty that Mark Sloan knew her better than she knew herself. But as usual, the timing was off and she had places to be. How utterly selfish was it for thoughts of a love life to enter her brain at a time like this.

A murmured thank you was exchanged as the young woman lifted the bag of peanut buttery goodness along with her nude clutch that was once her Mother's. Her Dad would be back with Mum now.

...

"I'm not ready…." A cracked whisper left her perfect lips as they wavered.

What were you supposed to say in this situation? How could you possibly comfort a woman who had suffered nothing but heartbreak for months? When would it be appropriate to tell her it would get better, especially after you were part of the reason she was broken.. Mark Sloan made the wise decision to say nothing to the immaculateness that was Alexandra Grey, instead he placed a steady hand on her back and lead her to his car.

...

It was a blur. But that was to be expected although it was insanity that an entire hour was blurred into what felt like only 10 minutes. It was no surprise that the youthful surgeon only got out 4 sentences of her eulogy before her throat become so clogged she couldn't speak. As Mark Sloan stood next to her an arm around her waist, reading her prepared speech to those in the room, tears ran freely down her face almost as though every memory that was spoken to the crowd was a rain dance and her eyes were the clouds giving everything they could.

...


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry bout it. Xoxo

The cool air whipped at her face almost as if it was trying to cause an emotion but the constant feeling was barely noticeable anymore. Leaning with both her arms lightly draped over a small wooden fence, Lexie Grey stared into the distance as far as she could but the darkness stumped her efforts. Thatcher Grey had been lowered into the ground earlier, Meredith said a warming eulogy and everyone who knew and cared for her once drunken father had gathered for a reception in his honour. That was where she finally escaped.

Sitting in a room lit with florescent lights that was decorated with memories and filled with cheap wine and dodgy canapé was not what Lexie had in mind for remembering her father, rising from the seat she had cemented herself to for the past hour she prepared to sneak out of the room. Zeroing her eyes on her escape zone she slithered carefully, weaving her body through an imperfect mixture of people she knew and people she had never met until she had crossed the short distance where, at last, she reached the heavy wooden door holding her freedom. Stepping outside she pushed her stiff legs to move faster so no one could stop her escaping, stepping outside the building relief overwhelmed her body as an arm slipped quickly around her waist leaving a burning line where each of their individual finger brushed from one of her sides, and over the small of her back before coming to rest on her other side. "Little Grey, where are you running off to?" A shudder stemmed through her body, effecting one limb at a time.

"Mark, I can't be here, this is not how he should be remembered. He was more than a recovered drunk he was my dad and he should be remembered as the man he was before he fell of the wagon. Not just after. God, even Molly was focused on all the bad. This isn't right and I can't do it anymore! I can't cry, I can't eat and I certainly can't pretend that sitting in that room is helping me let go."

His fierce blue eyes held her hazel ones in a head on stare for what could have been hours, and if it hadn't been hours than the amorous surgeons would have chosen to stay there until it had been. But eventually his husky, whispered words broke the beautiful silence, "Let's go."

His steady hand applied enough pressure to the youngest Grey's back to lead her back to his car before opening her door for her before pushing himself to circle the car until he ended up at the cold black handle of his door. Hesitation rocked through him as he sized himself up, preparing to take his favourite person on a journey that he could only hope would stitch her back together. Just seconds after he clicked his seat belt into its buckle a musical tone of voice touched his ears, "Where exactly are we going to go?" there was obvious curiosity shadowing the question. "Do you trust me?" The silence after his question was crushing, after everything did she trust him? She loved him, that much was certain but did he have her trust? Eventually her melodic voice once again broke the sound barriers in the cold, dark car. "Yes." That was all that Marcus Sloan needed to gain enough confidence and enough belief in what he was doing, and with that the car came to life.

His palms sweated as the glossy vehicle sailed smoothly onto the road, he had memorised each and every turn he had to make, where and when to switch lanes as well. He learned the twists and turns of Seattle in preparation for this night just as he would a new surgery. He started with research learning all the different way to get places and the most effective. This was followed by choosing a route as he would a stitch for surgery and then practising by following the curves in every street. The experienced surgeon spent hours working out the quickest and safest routes before choosing the perfect one, and here he was. Executing his plan. The same way he would in a operating room only what he had in his care was more fragile than any flap of skin he could make and she was certainly most important than the most difficult face transplant. His heart was beating overtime as he slipped into a specific gravel driveway before shutting of the engine and turning towards the surgeon in training with a speed that wouldn't startle mice.

Her eyes were squinted in confusion as she attempted to decipher the meaning behind what she was looking at. Lexie Grey's memory had never failed her and this instance was not any different. Slowly her memories trickled back into her brain as she took in her surrounding, with the dim sunset lighting the building directly in front of her everything she couldn't remember flooded back. She could see it clearly, her father dragged her here when she was 6 and he changed her perspective on life completely. Six year old Alexandra Grey was irrationally afraid of the dark. It was still extraordinary to her that at one point she could have been so terrified, but her Father helped her past her blinding fear by bringing her to the same building she was in front of now. This building wall tall and spherical much like a light house only it was situated no where near the ocean and instead of classic red and white this building was purely grey brick. The buildings use was still unknown to the youthful woman but she knew it was filled to the brim with sets of stairs and that was where the lesson was learned. As a small and very afraid girl she had slipped her hand into her Father's and set off to the door of the building before entering on entry the torch being gripped by the man lead the short path to the set of stairs Lexie was soon the ascend. The Grey pair carefully began climbing the stairs 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. On the sixth stair the torch and only source of light shut of leaving a young child in hysterics upon the sixth of what must have been hundreds of stairs. "Lex take a deep breath.." The calming tone of her Father's voice made her feel somewhat safer. "Honey, I need you to put your hands out and feel for the next stair, I want you to climb a little further up and then we can turn the torch back on." With tears caressing her face she wanted nothing more than to shrink into a ball and cry but that would not get the light turned back on. With fear causing every part of her body to quiver the youngest Grey family member placed a hand on the uninviting cement, followed by another had and eventually both her knees as she crawled in darkness. Her breath was shallow as she attempted to keep a panic attack at bay, by the 12th step the girl was already breathing easier and stepping on her feet with hands glued to the rain attached to the wall. With her body completely focused on the steps rather than the blackness surrounding her the girl who was very small in stature barely noticed the dim yellow light of her Dad's torch. "Lexie I'm very proud of you.. Are you ready to come back down?" Without hesitation she began to defend the stairs taking care to count them as she went without uttering a single sound. 22. 23. 24. She counted until she reached her father ending on 44 steps, she grabbed his hand as the due ended up back in the family car. From there her father made a speech explaining to her a life lesson that would forever effect her, "Focusing on that one fear will surround your life and make movement difficult but focusing on what you can do and working on those aspects will assist you in doing everything you can." As a young child it was not something she full understood but eventually it clicked and it was that lesson that ha d gotten her through not only high school, college and med school but also her intern ship and the training she was still receiving from Seattle Grace. Learning that lesson pushed her through the rest of her life and she couldn't have been more thankful.

"I remember you told me about this place, so I tracked it down."

She whipped her head around to face the tragically gorgeous Mark Sloan, with appreciation shining from her eyes. It was only seconds later that he offered to take her inside p only to be met with an apologetic decline, "this place shaped me and that's all the closure I need, but thank you." A delicate smile traced her lips as the plastic surgeon in the drivers seat mimicked her expression with his own small smile. With the job of the first checkpoint of the relationship between Thatcher Grey and his youngest daughter completed the experienced surgeon started his car and pulled out of the driveway and began the process of finding the next building all over again.

Lexie felt a sense of disbelief when she felt the car shock back into life , how could one man care this much about a woman who come in and out of his life constantly for years? She didn't feel deserving of the effort he was gifting her. Attempting to turn in a way that would not draw attention to her, the resident scraped her eyes over the profile of the man in the drivers seat. Starting from his visible hair line she soaked in the sight of his salt and pepper hair that she knew was artistically styled over the course of 10 minutes. Through watching the process of styling she was fairly certain she could recreate the look upon his head herself, from the combing to the expensive gel. Her eyes continued to graze this face as they trailed past his hair and onto his eyes. Until she met him her favourite colour was purple but now she couldn't help but think the colour was dull and it left her wondering how it could have ever compared the icy blue colour that had her completely memorised. His eyes were framed with lashes both dark and dense while remaining incredibly long. They were the lashes every girl wanted but they were also the lashes that only Mark Sloan could have, she knew that she would be lying completely if she claimed to have never felt a slight envy over the hair outlining his eyes. Just above his eyes his perfectly shaped eyebrows were knitted together in concentration much like when her was performing an intense surgery. The next area subject to her analysing was his nose. It was a nose that had never been subject to rhinoplasty but yet was the straightest most well proportioned thing she had ever seen. But it was a part of Mark so it was no surprise that it was perfect, with all biased views aside she new that he had little about him that was not perfect and the things that weren't she still found completely endearing. Right near his nose was the colours yellow, blue and a trace of green lightly shadowing his cheek bone as a reminder that sometimes Lexie Grey could slip and become unstable. She knew she was in a dangerous territory when she felt her eyes trace the curves above his mouth as her eyes eventually rested on his lips. There were no words to describe his lips. It was almost certain that they were her kryptonite even now as they were shut together in concentration they had her completely distracted.

"Lex, please stop staring you are quite distracting."

The words shocked her as she though she had been so discrete, but Mark had felt her lingering eyes for the past 10 minutes and didn't find it fair that she could analyse his every feature when he had not yet had ample duty to do so to her. Although Marcus Sloan was fully aware that Lexie Grey was a fire cracker that never stopped, constantly moving or talking or rendering completely breathless. Even in his mind he knew that was cheesy but it was true, that was the most beautiful part of her, the fact that it didn't matter what happened she was always going, no matter what the situation. However out of the corner of his eye he saw the silk rose ribbons of her lips dragged smoothly upwards behind the veil of her slender finger tips as she attempted to hid her embarrassed smile and that was enough to get him through this car drive.

Soon after Lexie over came her embarrassment the driver smoothly pulled over to the curb parallel to a nearly empty beach, which made sense seeing as it nearing 11pm. The sand was clearly pearl white even with the darkness casting shadows over the surface of the ground and the opaque navy sky sprinkled with hopeful lights was enough to draw both the surgeons within the expensive car onto the shore in perfect synchronisation. As she slipped her feet out from within her shoes the feeling of the sand made her feel grounded, and the flutter of wind through her flowing river of brunette hair caused a shutter to break down her delicate spine.

"This beach has nothing to do with your father Lexie, which I'm sure you know but I wanted to take you somewhere that you could express everything you are feeling without judgement.. or fear. because those are two things you should never have to feel around me."

He raised his intoxicating eyes from the sand they had been observing and pushed them up his ex-lovers body until he saw her entrancing face. "It's perfect, plus we live in Seattle it's not very often I get to go to the beach. I feel like I want to scream, I want to run, I was to throw myself on the ground and lash out and even though the option is here what's the point? It won't bring him back, and come on I'm old enough to not need to do that.. But Mark I need to let go of him and I don't know how to do that. I need closure." breathless from her shirt rant the tired woman lightly gasped for air as if she was not only trying to gain oxygen but also trying to get back some of the dignity she had lost. Taking a cautious step forward his thoughts in a whir, Mark reached his hand out to touch her arm before changing his mind and placing his hand back in his pocket. Forcing his mouth to open he quickly spluttered out what he had to say before his brain caught up to his emotions. "Little Grey, there is nothing I can say to fix this but I want to help you remember your Dad the best I can." Taking another quick breath he continued before the woman could interrupt him, " Thatcher Grey raised you to be the woman you are today, the woman I am completely in love with. And I couldn't be more grateful. This is me telling you that to us he will always be remembered as the dedicated father he was and not as the mistakes he made." The silence after he stopped talking was deafening, the stubborn lovers made their eyes meet as he opened his mouth to state one last thing, "I love you, and I should have told you that not only the night you said it to me but I should have told you month ago... I lov.." The sentence was cut off as he felt her hands clamp behind his neck. The energy between the two pulsed as they made a fateful connection with their eyes. At speed that felt both as quick as the speed of light and as slow as an old clock, they leaned in at the exact same time with not a single movement out of place and touched velvet to silk.


End file.
