Four months had passed since the shooting. Seattle Grace had been reopened for business and they were all slowly getting into the rhythm of being at work. Richard had replaced Derek as chief of staff and things seemed to be falling back into place. Except for Lexie Grey who had spent the last few months in the psych ward upstairs. Her paranoia had become overwhelming and the shooting had shattered her frail sanity.

"Lexie?" Mark pushed the door open to her apartment slowly. He'd left her alone for twenty minutes to go get food, hoping that Karev would've returned from physical therapy during his absence. They might still hold a lot of hostility towards each other, but the two men had learned to work in silence to protect the one girl that they both loved.

"There's too much blood!" Her blood curdling scream echoed from the bedroom, followed by a series of things hitting the walls. The food he'd just bought fell to the floor as he sprinted to the other side of the apartment. "Make the blood go away."

"Lex, I can't. There's no blood there." Alex murmured as he stepped closer to his live-in girlfriend. He held his arms out to her, praying that she would just come to him like she had before. "See? I'm not bleeding. I'm okay."

"You can't! You can never make it go away.' Lexie backed away from him, whimpering when her back hit the wall. She reached blindly for the alarm clock that sat beside the bed, flinging it in Alex's general direction. It was closely followed by a vase of white roses, red were no longer acceptable. "Don't die. Please don't die." She kept repeating her pleading mantra as she curled up into a ball in the corner, mashing herself between the wall and the dresser. Alex reached out to touch her and she screamed again. The sound made Mark's stomach churn as he flung the bedroom door open.

"Get out." Mark growled as he threw a disgusted look in Alex's direction. "You're making her worse. You always just make this worse." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and one beneath her knees, lifting her off the floor. Her tears burned into his shoulder as he moved her towards the bed. "It's alright, Alexandra. Everyone's fine and I've taken away all the blood."

"Help Alex. He's bleeding, Mark, so you have to help him." Lexie fisted a hand in his shirt so that she could pull his face closer to hers. "Save him, please. I can't be the reason he dies."

"I've saved him, Lex." He pressed a kiss to her hair as he pulled himself from her embrace. "I saved him for you." Mark waited into her eyes had fluttered shut before going out to confront Alex Karev. "You should know better than to try reasoning with her. She's beyond rational thought at that point."

"Don't come into my home and try telling me how to take care of her."

"Then do it right!" Mark screamed, pounding his fist into the wall beside Alex's head. "If anything happens to her, I will hold you personally responsible, Karev."

It was later that day that Alex had placed her into the psych ward against her will, with the help of Meredith and Cristina. Now she was no longer Alexandra Grey, surgical resident. She was Lexie Grey, the girl who went crazy after the Seattle Grace Mass Murder. That's what the headlines were calling that day. It had it's own title and people still wanted the insider's details. Lexie couldn't stand the photographers and reporters that seemed permanently posed outside the glass doors. They wanted a news story and she just wanted her life back. They had lost nothing that day while the doctors of Seattle Grace had damn near lost everything. She wanted to be more than a headline, more than just the girl who'd lost her mind, but society demanded to know what had happened and everyone needed to be labeled.

"Alexandra."

He used her first name a lot since the shooting. Sometimes it had been the only way for him to get through to her, even during his visits upstairs. He had been the only constant in her life other than Meredith. He listened to her when she'd told him that the medications were too much, when she couldn't stand to sleep anymore. He'd held her while she'd cried out all of her guilt and shame. Where had Alex been? Karev had only visited sporadically throughout her stay and she'd known that something was wrong. She'd been crazy, not stupid.

"How are you feeling?" Mark reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was a touch that took no thought for either of them. "You look well."

"That's what you said yesterday." Lexie reminded him with a soft smile. It felt good to smile and for it not to feel like a betrayal to those who had been shot. "You've come to pick me up."

Mark nodded, looping an arm around her shoulders as he lifted her suitcase off the floor. "I'm going to take you home."

"Where is that now?"

Mark stopped and set the bag back down as he turned to face her, placing both his hands upon her frail shoulders. "With me, Alexandra. We both know that."

She sighed, her gaze falling to the floor. "Alex took her back, didn't he?"

Mark could only nod once before the pain in her eyes would stab him in the heart. "They moved to California. Izzie got a job down there." His hand came up to caress her face. "We all thought that it was best."

"And I'm not to be left alone for another few weeks." Lexie licked her lips before sinking her top teeth into the lush flesh. She knew that she would have to be watched. She'd also known that Alex wouldn't be the one to comfort and heal her. She had saved his life and now he had his wife back. Lexie would probably be nothing more than an afterthought whenever the scar began to ache. "Meredith can't do it?"

"I won't hurt you, Lexie." Mark promised, hurt flashing through his eyes as he finally met her gaze once again."

"It's not me that I'm worried about." She admitted softly as she covered his hand with her own, leaning into his touch. "We were beautiful once and I'm not anymore. I could hurt you in so many ways now, Mark. Worse than I did before." She pulled his hand from her skin, dropping it to his side before wrapping her arms around her ridiculously thin frame. "You've done enough for me."

"It's never going to be enough." The words were a growl from his lips as he yanked her hand back into his.

"My sister…"

"Has a husband that was just shot. She's got plenty on her plate for one person." Mark decided as he picked up the suitcase once again, dragging Lexie behind him. "Just stop arguing, Alexandra, and we'll get along just fine this time around."