Chapter 4

Lexie didn't know exactly how long they had stood there while she cried. She did know that Mark deserved to be trusted. He'd told her about the nurses club and she could really do with a friend and someone who knew the full story. As she was calming down, Mark was also thinking wondering what was bad enough to make the lovely woman in his arms so upset. He wondered if it had something to do with her story. The one which she couldn't tell him about just yet and if it was bad enough that she was crying well then it definitely would be some story. Maybe an abusive boyfriend, one night stand. What Mark didn't know was that his ideas about what her story was would shake everything he thought he knew about Lexie Grey.

Lexie moved away from Mark. "Maybe, we should sit down. I'll just order food if you don't mind Mark. I really need to talk and before you get any further involved with me you need to know the story. I am only going to ask one thing. If you can't handle what I'm about to tell you after you hear this. You can walk out the door and not come back but please just don't tell anyone."

Mark moved over to sit at the table and once Lexie sat down he moved the chair closer to her. "I don't run from things easily. You just told me you wouldn't judge me and I told you I wouldn't judge you. I also won't leave you've become a friend to me and I don't leave my friends."

"Well, just so you know. The option is there for you to leave and I won't think any less of you." she replied.

"Right, I almost don't know where to start other than the twins aren't mine not biologically anyway. But there birth certificate has my name on it and the other records which state there parentage as another woman are sealed under the jurisdiction of the FBI and no one can access them." At this Lexie stopped and looked at Mark who looked shocked. Sure he didn't see any resemblance with Lexie and the babies but he thought that was just because they were young. "Why would you take on someone else's children?" he asked.

"Well that's the rest of the story. There mom was my best friend all though med school. We were both going to be interning at Mass General. We did pretty much everything together. Last year she went out for the night with some other friends. I didn't go because I wasn't feeling well. While she was out she was raped. It was violent and she came straight home. Didn't go to the police or anything. I tried to get her to go to the Police but she told me that her rapist had said that if she went to the Police he'd kill her and everyone she had come into contact with. She said it was one of our Lecturer's so she knew that he knew all about me and our other friends. She didn't want to be the reason for me getting hurt. To be honest we didn't even think she might be pregnant. She'd been on the pill and she hadn't missed any of them as far as she could remember. So I kept an eye on her. I never let him near her or anyone for that matter. I was always with her. But one day when she'd been sick I saw the Lecturer talking to some guys. I stayed and listened to what they were saying then all of a sudden someone came up behind me and put there hand over my mouth and dragged me off in the opposite direction. Naturally I was quite scared and even though I tried to fight I couldn't get free. When we were far away from those guys I realised it was one of the guys who went to college with us." Lexie stopped speaking, and looked at Mark trying to gauge his reaction but she couldn't read his face. "Mark, do you want me to keep going? Cause I can stop now and you can go if you want."

"No. Keep going. I'm not going anywhere I told you that before." he replied.

"Ok. Well give me a few minutes will you?" Lexie stood up and got a glass of water. "Do you want anything?"

"Another beer if you have it. I think I might need it." he answered.

Lexie grabbed the beer and her water and sat down at the table again. "Right so, he told me that he was an undercover agent for the FBI and they would have to put me in Witness Protection. I wasn't very happy with that. But apparently he was working for the mob. I told him that I wasn't going into Witness Protection and that I hadn't heard anything much they were just discussing class scheduling. So he told me about him, what he had done, people he'd killed. I told him about Jess about her rape. Then he got worried and asked me to take him to her. So I did. When we got back he said that we'd both have to go into Witness Protection but Jess then told me that she'd just found out she was Pregnant. She didn't believe in abortion but she wouldn't be able to raise them. The agent Adam came up with an idea that would keep Jess and her babies safe and me out of his sight. After all a pregnant woman wasn't going to be much of a threat. So Jess left school went to a safehouse and I started pretending I was pregnant. Some guy I'd met. Yada Yada. Then once I'd had the 'babies'. I'd move to my family in Seattle and Jess would come and live with me and raise her babies. We had it all worked out.I spent nine months pretending to be pregnant while Jess really was pregnant. Then I went to stay with friends in Washington and had the babies while I was there. It was a private clinic covered by Witness Protection. Jess had the babies and was wheeled out and down to another ward while I was left in Maternity with my new babies. We covered every angle. Or so we thought. I went back to Boston with my babies and Jess came up to visit two weeks later. While she was back there we had a security detail until we could be sure that everything would work out. The lecturer in question had gotten sloppy raped a girl and killed her. So they were even more worried for me and the babies but with Jess back they thought that they could pose as a couple of her brothers and stay near to us both. I was in class, Jess and her 'brothers' were at the flat looking after the babies when Jess went downstairs to the basement to pick up some laundry. And when after half an hour she hadn't come back they started to get worried. They sent someone over to my class to check that I was ok, put more security on the babies and went to try and find Jess. They found her in the basement with her throat slashed. She was dead had been for at least 20 minutes by that point but when they checked the security cameras that were now all over the building they saw that Lecturer come in with another man. They even had audio feed. So when he told the other man that that was her and pointed at Jess. The other man came up behind her with the knife to her throat. The man who had raped her said that he couldn't believe that she had had the nerve to come back here and put me and my babies in danger so we knew he hadn't managed to figure out our little scheme. Then he said that he couldn't take the chance that she might have a change of heart and go to the Police and report him. Then he went out the door while the other man slit her throat and watched her die." Lexie started crying again.

Mark was silent, he put his arms around her picked her up placed her in his lap to hold her and sat down in her seat but he didn't know what to say. He'd never heard anything like it at all. Not in all his life, had he heard of anything so dangerous and scary and she'd gone through this all of this pretty much alone. What the hell? There were so many questions going around in his head but now wasn't the time to ask them. Now was the time to comfort her and let her cry the questions could come later. He didn't know how long he'd sat there with her but he wasn't about to start getting greedy now. None of Mark's imaginings of what Lexie's story was had had any of this in it. Not even in his wildest dreams. As she calmed down she started to talk again.

"After that the FBI moved me out of that building and into a house to be a housemate to some people all of whom were FBI agents working to put him in jail and to protect me. Adam said that if he had known that Jess had been pregnant he'd probably have killed her sooner as there DNA could link him to a lot of other crimes. I only had a month left of Med School at this point so I started to make the plans to return home. I got into Seattle Grace and returned home. I don't really have a security detail anymore. They don't think there's anything to tie me to either Jess's murder or that bastard and it's my name on there birth certs so that's how it's going to some point they'll arrest him for mob goings on but they won't be able to charge him with Jess's murder without letting everything out about me and the babies and they don't want to do that. So her murder was by some hobo's she tried to throw out of the gets away with that but I get to live with the babies and in relative obscurity. So that's the story in it's entirety." Lexie finishes off and stops just looking at Mark.

He doesn't know what to say. He wanted her to tell him he wanted to know but now that he does he doesn't know what to say. Do you say sorry? Do you ask questions? Mark chose the latter and started to ask questions. "Do your dad and sister know the full truth?" was his first question. She shook her head. "No one knows except you and the FBI. How's that for a secret?" Lexie laughed almost hysterically. "So, now you know the rest of the decision is up to you. So what do you want Chinese or Indian?"

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm still not going anywhere Lexie. I'm still your friend and I won't tell anyone this at all. I don't want to see you get hurt." he replied.

"Chinese it is then."Lexie answered him. She looked brighter as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. When this had started she'd thought she'd be able to talk to Jess about everything but now there was no Jess not anymore and it felt good to have someone in her corner again.