Title : Baskets
OTP Prompt : Easter
Fandom : Grey's Anatomy
Couple : Mark Sloan / Meredith Grey
- Baskets -
"So, you spent most of your Easters with Derek and his family?" She questions her boyfriend, Mark Sloan.
He nods, spoon in his mouth filled with ice cream. He swallows the flavored ice cream before speaking. "I did. It wasn't really a holiday unless i was spending it with the Shepherds. It was having a egg hunt in the backyard, ham and potato salad and seeing who could find their basket first." He laughed at the memories that flooded him. "It was a lot of fun." He missed his family. The Shepherds might not be family by blood, but they were still family. They were always going to be his family...but now it was time to make his own family with Meredith. "How about you? How was your Easters growing up?"
She moves her feet a little, her feet that were sitting on her boyfriend's lap. She laid her spoon into the ice cream bowl before looking to her boyfriend, her love. "I didn't do anything for Easter. Maybe in the years before my...Thatcher left...we did Easter things. But I can't recall any of that. My mother would be working for Easter, I would be drinking, I would be by myself." She lets a sigh. "It's fine though. I didn't want anything but to be by myself. It was easier to be alone then to pretend to be a family."
She didn't see the pain look on Mark's face. Her words hurt him, and Mark wanted to make sure that she felt like he was her family now.
"But not anymore." Mark reaches out, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving a small squeeze.
She gives a small smile. "I know. Either of us, we are not alone anymore."
Mark laughs, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the other's lips. "Never again, Meredith." The words are a promise, he would not hurt her and he would not leave her alone again.
That conversation they had on the couch a few weeks ago after work, with pizza and ice cream on the table, was the set up for today. Mark had the day planned.
She first felt his lips on her forehead, then her cheek before finally reaching her lips. "Time to wake up." He tells her, his voice very cheery which feels like an odd thing to Meredith Grey. She shakes her head no, pulling the covers over her head a little more. "Nope. Today is going to be a good day, because I have something up my sleeve for you." She slowly opens her eyes. "And it's good. So, get your butt up and coffee is waiting downstairs."
"Fine." She playfully pushes him away. Then she giggles as he sneaks a kiss and leaves the bedroom. SHe slips out of bed, reaching down to grab one of Mark's t-shirts and slipping it on her body. She opens her underwear drawer, grabbing a black pair slipping that along with PJ shorts. She slowly follows the smell of coffee down the stairs to the kitchen. "Okay. I am up now." She takes the lime green coffee cup off the counter and brings to her lips. "WHat is the big deal?"
"Do you know what today is?" He asks.
Meredith shakes her head no. "But I have a feeling that you are going to tell me."
He shakes his head yes. "Today is Easter." And he begged Richard for a week straight for both Meredith and him to have the holiday off. "And today we are going to do Easter things. So, what are you in the mood for a bloody Mary or a Mimosa?"
"Do I get to shower in this doing Easter thing?" She lets out a little laugh as he leans forward grabbing the unopened bottle of Champagne. The moment makes her laugh because he planned this out and that thought made her heart swell up with happiness.
He shakes his head. "First, you have to have your Easter basket."
Her eyes go wide. "Excuse me?" She sets down her cup of coffee she took from Mark.
"You heard me, you have to find your Easter basket. And, the Easter bunny was nice this year and put your basket somewhere on the bottom floor."
"Mark…" She feels the tears in her eyes, happy tears. "Thank you."
He quickly moves in front of her, putting both of his hands on her cheeks and letting out a soft laugh. "You have no reason to thank me. I am happy to do this for you…"
"I love you."
"And I love you, Big Grey." She lets out a little laugh as the nickname slips out of his mouth. A nickname that has come weeks after her intern year when Lexie Grey became a intern at the hospital, and Meredith became a resident.
"I told you to stop calling me that." She laughs, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. It was time to find this Easter Basket."
He quickly wiped the tears from his face, trying to stop them but the door opened and she stood still for a second. She moved quickly, shutting the door to the bedroom that they both shared. "Hey." She drops her shoes on the floor, along with her bag that she brings from home to work. She climbs on the bed, wrapping an arm around Mark. "Are you okay?"
He nods. "I'm…" The words that he was fine was on his lips, but he stopped. "I called them. There was no answer. I just wanted to call, wish a happy Easter…." To his family, even if they didn't think of him as family anymore.
She didn't have to ask who he was talking about, she knew. It was the Shepherd family, the family he called his own for so many years. "I'm so sorry, Mark." Her arms squeezed a little tighter. She didn't know what to say to him, to make him smile, to make him laugh, because there was no words that could fix this. "I'm sorry that I can't fix this for you, but just keeping trying. Just be there for them, and maybe...maybe one day." She gave the same advice to him about Derek Shepherd, his brother and his best friend. Mark was trying to fix the mistake he made, and he wanted his family back. "Just know that I am here for you...that I love you."
He slips his hand over hers. "I love I love that you are here for me. Thank you."
She lets out a laugh, as Mark snaps a picture with a camera of Meredith pulling the Easter basket out of the downstairs closet. Meredith was all smiles, bringing the basket to the living room. "I didn't get you anything…" She states for the fifth time in the two hours it has taken to find the basket.
"It's fine, Meredith. You didn't have too. This, this moment is for you." Mark says softly.
She quickly presses her lips to his cheek, before sitting on the couch with her Easter basket in hand. She takes a look, laughing as she pulls out a bottle of Rose wine. "You are sharing this with me." He laughs with her as he watched her look through the Easter basket and he might of taken a few more pictures of this moment. The Easter basket was filled with small Easter eggs filled with candy, a gift card from PINK, wine glasses filled with jelly beans, small chocolate bunny.
She got off the couch, moving to where he was before climbing onto his lap. "Happy Easter, my love. Thank you for my first Easter basket."
"Happy Easter…" He says softly, moving his hands down her back. "I am so glad that I am here spending this day with the woman I love."
