Chapter 6: Idiot and Help

"Callie? Callie? Calllieee? Cal-"

"What Mark?" Callie asked sleepily. She had been in the hospital for 12 weeks. There were only three things that made her happy: getting better, seeing her daughter, and sleeping. Since she had already done some laps and Sofia was fine, she had decided to take a nap. She was sleeping peacefully, until Mark came in.

"I was just checking on you." She peered up at him and frowned.

"This couldn't wait till after my nap because?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Sofia." She sighed and stretched before sitting up and looked at him.

"Go on." Mark smiled and sat next to her.

"She ate a lot and had a very poopy diaper-"

"Since when did you say poopy?"

"Since Arizona's 'There's my poopy little girl!'" Callie nodded in agreement.

"Only Arizona could come up with something so disgustingly cute."

"Yeah…" His eyes drifted to a random spot on the wall and he sighed.

"This isn't just about Sofia is it?" His eyes shot back up at her and he scoffed.

"Of course it is." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really?" He nodded a little and sighed before slowly shaking his head.

"It's Lexie. Well not all about her, but partially." She relaxed and stared at him.

"What about her?"

"After Sofia was born and Lexie left-"

"She didn't leave." And she hadn't left. A week after the accident Lexie left for early maternity leave, or as the rest of the hospital knew, she was out sick with the flu. For three months.

"After she got sick and stopped coming to work, I met someone." Callie's eyebrows raised and she looked at him confused.

"You met someone?"

"I was out getting coffee and I ran into someone. I mean literally ran into her. I apologized and then we started talking. Her name is Julia Canner. She's an attending ophthalmologist at Seattle Pres. I started seeing her every morning and we went out a couple times-"

"Oh God." He frowned and looked at her.

"What?"

"You like her. I mean you really like her."

"Not seeing Lexie everyday took my mind off her. That was until…"

"Until what?"

"She said she always wanted kids and she wanted to meet Sofia. Then I started to think if we got that serious and we had kids-"

"You have kids!" Mark raised an eyebrow and stared at her.

"Excuse me?"

"What I meant to was… You have kids. You have Sloan and Sofia. I mean do you really need-"

"If I want to someday get married and have more kids, then that's what I'm going to do!"

"Mark I didn't mean-"

"I thought since you were my best friend that you would at least support me."

"I do support you. It's just…"

"What?" She couldn't tell her about Lexie, especially after what she just told her. Lexie had gone to the doctor and what she told her made her smile, but Lexie still didn't know how she felt.

"I support you and I'm happy you know what you want."

"But…"

"But it sounds like you're going way to fast. Wait a couple months. Then you can start talking about babies." Mark sighed and nodded.

"You're right. I'm sorry." Callie took his hand and smiled.

"But I am happy for you."

"Really?"

"Really." They both looked up when someone knocked on the door.

"Sorry to interrupt," Jackson said as he came in. "But Dr. Sloan you have to be in surgery in ten minutes."

"Thanks Avery." Mark kissed Callie's forehead before getting up and leaving.

"Jackson." He turned and looked at her. "Lexie told me." He chuckled and gave her a small smile.

"I figured she would."

"How does it feel to be-"

"Great. It feels great."

"Jackson-"

"I'm fine, really."

"You're not her boyfriend." He stared at for a minute before laughing.

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't know that I'm just her substitute?"

"I didn't mean-"

"I had to get Alex and chase her down just so she wouldn't do something stupid! Something I knew she would regret for the rest of her life!"

"Jackson-"

"I have to go. Sloan will be looking for me." He turned and left for the elevator. Mark stared after him. He had come back to tell Callie something when he heard Jackson yelling.

Stop her from doing something stupid… What did they know that he didn't? Maybe he could get it out of Jackson during surgery.

"I promise I'm ok," Lexie said while stirring her soup. She was almost eight months along and was huge. She told the Chief that she hadn't been feeling well and asked to leave early. He eagerly complied, saying that he would have someone send her all her paper work. So there she was, in the kitchen making lunch while talking to April. Usually Derek or Meredith called, but both were in surgery so April said she would and would report back to them.

"Are you sure?" April asked for the hundredth time.

"I'm sure. I'm making some soup and I'm going to watch some TV before I take a nap."

"Ok, but remember to-"

"Remember to take my time while going up and down the stairs."

"Ok and don't forget to-"

"Make sure I'm not on my feet to much."

"Ok, ok. I'll leave you alone."

"Hey April, where's Jackson?"

"He's in surgery with Dr. Sloan."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, but Dr. Sloan seemed pretty upset about something."

"What?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's probably nothing."

"Alright."

"Oh! Don't forget that we all have the night shift and probably won't be home till tomorrow after noon."

"Ok, I got it."

"Ok, well, be careful."

"I will April."

"Ok. Bye Lexie."

"Bye." She hung up and laughed. April was always worried about her and made sure she was always alright. It was nice.

"So Avery," Mark said in the middle of surgery. "Did I tell you about Julia?"

"No sir."

"I didn't? Well she's my new girlfriend." Jackson glanced up at him nervously.

"That's- that's good."

"Yeah, it is. She's an attending ophthalmologist at Seattle Pres." Jackson nodded and tried to focus on his sutures. He had had a feeling that Lexie still had feeling for Mark. Anyone who knew Lexie and really knew what was going on knew she still had feelings for him, and this would crush her. "By the way, how's Lexie?"

"She uh… She's good."

"She getting any better?"

"Yeah, she is."

"She's got the flu right?" Jackson nodded nervously. "She's been out for a while. Sounds pretty serious."

"It was at first, but she's gotten a lot better. Now she's just being careful."

"Hmm… She might wanna come in anyways. Get some tests done."

"She's fine." Mark looked up to see Jackson looking at him.

"Is something that matter Avery?"

"Yeah, my boss has a new play thing." Mark stopped and glared at him.

"Excuse me?"

"You said you have a new girlfriend, but all you wanna talk about is your ex." Everyone else in the room glanced at each other nervously.

"I'm sorry that asking about YOUR girlfriend was such a crime. I'm sorry that since I was talking about my GIRLFRIEND that I felt like I should ask about YOUR SICK one."

"Well you keep going on about it likes it's supposed to mean something to you. You asked how she was. Fine. You asked if she was getting better. Fine. But I don't need you saying anything else besides that."

"Why? Because you don't want me to know your secret?"

"What-"

"I heard you yelling at Torrez. Whatever it was couldn't wait till I left the room."

"There's no secret. You had left the room and we started arguing about something."

"And why don't I believe you?"

"Fine! You wanna know what we were talking about?! We were talking about how I'm not her boyfriend! I wanna be, but she's-" Jackson looked away and sighed. Mark at him and frowned.

"Avery-"

"No." Jackson shook his head and went back to suturing.

"Avery-"

"I don't wanna-"

"Jackson!"

"What?!"

"I'm sorry. You're right it's none of my business, but Lexie was my friend. She still is whether she'll admit or not." Jackson nodded and stepped back.

"I'm done here. I'll check on your other patients. I know you wanna see if Sofia can go home or not." Before Mark could reply Jackson was already out the door, scrubbing out.

"Damn it," Mark whispered to himself. He was such an idiot.

"Stupid oven," Lexie said while coming down the stairs. "Can't even take nap without the damn thing-" Her foot slipped and she fell down the rest other the stairs. "Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Her leg hurt and when she looked at it her eyes widened. "Damn it!" She looked around for her phone. It had been in her hand when she fell. It was maybe three feet away. She slowly, and painful, crawled over to it and called the first number that popped up. She needed help and she needed it now.

"Can you get my phone?" Callie asked as she was wheeled out the hospital. She and Sofia had been discharged and Mark was outside waiting for them.

"Yeah," Arizona replied while digging it out her purse. "It's Lexie." Callie looked at her and frowned.

"Stop." The guy pushing her stopped and Callie took the phone. "Lexie?"

"Callie… I need help. I slipped down the stairs and my leg…"

"What's wrong with it?"

"The bone broke and it…it…"

"What?"

"It broke through the skin…"

"Lexie-"

"And my back hurts. I don't if I fractured my spine or not, but it really hurts." Callie looked up at Arizona who looked concerned.

"I'm sending Arizona."

"But-"

"I'll be here if you need me."

"Cal…Cal…Cal…"

"Lexie?"

"Help…"

So… what do you think?

Please R&R and let me know.