A/N: I just want Alex happy. After two bouts of crazy with Jane Doe and Izzie, he deserves normal. And this fic contains spoilers from the season finale!
This was his big chance to get her back. The two of them, alone, in a crisis situation, where she was vulnerable and hysterical and he was going to save her. It happened exactly like how he pictured it in his head; his arms around her, her head cradled on his shoulder, strategically placing kisses on her forehead, and his soothing voice telling her promises of the future they could share together.
"Imagine a house with a white picket fence," he began, "and a dog that'll come and greet us when we go home."
But her body was still heaving with repressed sobs, and her mascara was running from all the tears she had shed for the expense of that someone.
"He could have shot someone we know, Mark; how can you be so calm about this?" she demanded angrily. "It could be, it could be—"
But she couldn't bear to finish that sentence, even in her head.
The minute they got out of the supply closet, he finally found out why she kept on crying about 'what if' the whole time they were inside.
The police came and opened the door, confirming the gunman's capture; she bolted out, her head looking around wildly, and then she saw him.
His lip was bleeding (because that's the type of guy he was, always the accidental hero) and there was a bruise above his left eye. There was a blood stain on his white coat which made her even more upset so she ran to him, crying, and he took her in his arms and buried his head on the crook of her shoulder.
"You're okay," she repeated, like a mantra, calming herself down, "you're okay."
He looked at her (kind of like how he looked at Stevens, he bitterly noted) and wiped away her tears with his thumb gently. She smiled in relief, and he leaned in and kissed her desperately, passionately, as if his life depended on it.
He noticed her body was still against his, marred only by her steady breathing. Despite the promises, and the white picket fences, her thoughts were only spared for him.
He wasn't surprised. He knew he'd lost her when she refused him the first time.