Chapter 12

Mark pulled his red, sporty rental car over to the side of the road. He looked out the window at the shabby building in front of him and then turned his attention back to the built-in GPS. The little black and white checkered flag on the GPS screen told him that he had arrived at his destination. Mark fished for the piece of paper Lexie had given to him with her address on it out of his pocket. He double checked the address against the one that he had plugged into the GPS. It was definitely the right address. Looking out the window once more, Mark shook his head in awe.

He got out of the car and walked across the street to the front door of the building. He took Lexie's key out of his pocket and was about to put it into the lock on the front door when he noticed that the door wasn't closed at all. It had fallen off one of its hinges and was hanging limply from just one hinge. Mark pushed on it and the door creaked open, barely staying on its one hinge. He stepped inside, looking down the dingy hallway. Two out of the four hallway lights were out. The bright orange flowered wallpaper in the hallway was peeling, not to mention ugly. Mark looked further down the hallway and saw six doors, three on each side. The numbers were painted on each door sloppily. The place gave Mark the creeps.

Although he didn't want to continue, Mark made his way down the hallway and found the stairwell at the end. As he entered the stairwell, an unpleasant scent filled his nostrils. He plugged his nose and looked around. The stairs looked even worse than the hallway. The carpet was so worn, you could barely tell there was a carpet at all. The dingy, white walls were covered in brown water stains. Being careful not to touch anything, especially the railings, Mark walked up the steps and found himself in yet another, dull corridor. He found Lexie's apartment number, number 22 about halfway down the hall.

Mark slid Lexie's key into the keyhole and pushed the door open. He was surprised to see the room was bright and cheerful unlike the rest of the apartment building. Mark stepped onto the old, orange, shag carpet and reached for the light switch. He flicked it, but nothing happened.

"Oh Lexie," he said out loud to himself.

As he walked further into her living room, he realized that Lexie had done her best to make the small apartment feel like a home, but it was far from it. She had picked out a bright, blue couch, which was almost too big for the tiny living room, and bright, colorful curtains. Even the walls were covered with prints of famous paintings that she had probably bought at some craft store. But despite her efforts, the apartment was still a dirty, ugly place. The walls were stained and not even all painted the same color. Two of the walls in the living room were off-white and two were white.

Shaking his head, Mark made his way to the kitchen. There was only one cabinet with an actual door on it and the stove was rusted. Mark absently turned on the tap, thankful that at least the water looked clean. Shutting the water off, he headed into Lexie's bedroom. She had attempted the same bright colors in the bedroom as she had the living room, but it still didn't cover the fact that the apartment was awful. Her bed wasn't even a bed. She just had two mattresses stacked on the floor. Her closet had no door and her one bureau was missing a drawer.

Curious, Mark sauntered over to the bureau and attempted to open one of the drawers. It was stuck. He used both hands and pulled. Finally the drawer opened. He was smiling when he saw it was her underwear drawer. He really enjoyed her underwear. Mark picked up a pair of sheer, light pink panties. The price tag was still on them. Mark smiled to himself, imagining what Lexie would look like wearing the underwear. Blushing slightly, he put the panties back in the drawer and was about to close it when he noticed something buried underneath her feminine underwear. Mark reached in and pulled out a pair of his green, plaid boxers.

"Someone's been sneaky," he said out loud. It made him feel good that she not only had left him her panties behind as a memento of her, but that she had taken a pair of underwear from him before she left. He shoved the boxers back into the drawer. Even though he loved those boxers, they were more useful right where they were. Not that Mark predicted Lexie would be spending much more time in that particular apartment. Mark didn't want to think about Lexie spending time in the apartment, never mind living there. No one, especially not the woman he loved, should be living in a place like that.

Leaving everything as he left it, Mark backed out of the apartment, closing the door. He quickly made his way out of there, not wanting to see the apartment again. If it were up to him, Lexie would never have to see it again either.

*****

Lexie sat down with her salad and apple at the lunch table, unable to stop smiling. She hadn't stopped smiling all day.

"Surgery went well, I take it?" The woman beside Lexie said.

Lexie blinked a few times before looking over at Samantha, one of the other residents. Samantha was the only other person Lexie felt at all connected to. She had taken Lexie under her wing when she had first arrived. Instead of shunning her like most of the other residents, or forcing her to do the grunt work that no one else wanted to do, Samantha treated Lexie like a friend.

"Huh, what?"

"Are you drunk?" Samantha asked.

"No," Lexie said, stabbing her salad with a fork. "I am not drunk."

"Only drunk people are that happy."

"Why can't I be happy?" She asked with her mouth full of salad.

"You can be happy. Just not that happy. So either you're drunk, you've got a once in a lifetime surgery you're not telling me about, or you got laid last night."

Lexie blushed. "Well, I'm not drunk and there's no surgery."

"You got laid?" Samantha practically shrieked.

A few heads turned to stare at them.

"Shhh," Lexie shushed.

"Spill! Was it Dr. Ballas?"

"What?"

"Oh, come on, everyone knows he's been after you since the moment you stepped foot in this hospital."

"He has not."

"Yes, he has. But if it wasn't Dr. Ballas, who was it? That guy from cardio? Someone from a bar, perhaps?"

"It wasn't just someone from a bar. And it wasn't anyone in this hospital."

"Are you going to make me keep guessing?"

Lexie sighed secretly happy that was she was finally able to talk about her midnight rendezvous. She had been dying to talk about it all morning. "It was Mark."

"Mark?"

"You know…Mark."

"Mark," Samantha said the word quietly to herself, racking her brain for any Mark's she might no. "Not ringing a bell."

"Mark…the love of my life who I left in Seattle?"

"Ohhh…McSteamy. Why didn't you just say so? When do I get to meet him?"

"What?"

"If he's as steamy as you said he was, I want to see him."

"I'm not parading my boyfriend around here for you to ogle."

"Why? Are you worried he'll leave you and fall madly in love with me if he sees these thighs," Samantha said, smacking her thigh.

Lexie laughed. "He's just here for a few days. He…missed me."

"A man who surprises a girl by flying across the country more than misses her. The sex must be great."

Again, a few heads turned to look at them.

"Could we not talk so loudly about my sex life?"

Samantha shrugged. "Suit yourself, but let me ask you one thing."

"What's that?"

"Does he live up to his name? Is McSteamy…you know, McSteamy in bed?"

"Better," Lexie said, smirking, fixing her attention on her salad, unable to stop smiling.

*****

Mark walked down the corridor, knowing exactly where he was headed. He only hoped it wasn't too late. It had taken him longer than he thought it would to run the errands he needed to run, but he still had one last, very important errand to run.

He walked past the nurse's station and smiled when he saw Cindy sitting behind the desk. He made his way over to the desk and flashed a smile at her.

"Oh no," she said. "You don't get to smile at me."

"Thank you," he replied.

"For what?"

"For giving Lex…Dr. Grey my hotel address."

"How do you know she didn't just take it off my desk?"

"Because I can see it in your eyes."

"Does your doctor friend know that you're looking in my eyes?"

"I don't think she'd mind. Especially not after you helped put us back together."

Cindy sighed. "Yeah, well she came over to me with that puppy dog look on her face. Who can resist?"

"Not me."

"Obviously. From the looks of things, I'd say that I lost out on a good time."

"Maybe if you ran into me a year or two ago, I'd say yes. But since Lexie, I don't have eyes…or other body parts…for anybody else."

"She's a lucky girl."

"I'm the lucky one," he said, winking.

"Yeah, yeah, save your flirting for the doc."

He smiled and began to walk off. "Thanks again, Cindy."

She laughed before looking down at the magazine she was flipping through. She guessed he would have been worth it, but she didn't regret giving Lexie the name of his hotel.

Mark finally reached his destination. He glanced in the window, thankful that he wasn't too late. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," a voice said.

Mark opened the door, walked in, and closed it behind him. Dr. Ballas looked up from behind his desk. He took off his glasses and put them on his desk.

"Dr. Sloan, is it?" Dr. Ballas asked, extending his hand out to shake Mark's hand. Mark didn't take it.

"We can forget the niceties," Mark stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm here for one reason."

"I thought you were here for a consult," Dr. Ballas said, putting his glasses back on. He looked back at his computer, ignoring Mark. He didn't need any interruptions in his day.

"Let's just say the consult is over, but I'm not here to talk about medicine."

"Then why are you barging into my office, Dr. Sloan?"

"Stay away from Lexie."

Dr. Ballas looked up. Mark was bent over, staring Dr. Ballas in the face.

"Excuse me?"

"Stay away from Lexie," he stated again through gritted teeth.

"Dr. Grey is her own person. She can make decisions about whom she decides to spend time with by herself."

Mark grabbed his collar, practically dragging him over the desk.

"Stay aware from her," he warned. "She is mine. And I swear to God, if you touch her…if you so much as put one finger on her or even stand too close to her during surgery, I'll break your hand so bad you'll never be able to perform surgery again."

"I can have security here in less than thirty seconds," Dr. Ballas said with his hand on the telephone receiver.

"No need," Mark replied, letting him go. Dr. Ballas sank back into his seat, fixing his collar. "I think we're done here."

Mark headed for the door, but Dr. Ballas stood up.

"You think you're something special, Dr. Sloan, because you're a plastic surgeon?"

"No, I think I'm something special because I have a woman who loves me and who I love." He was halfway through the door when he turned back around. "And I am one, damn good surgeon." He slammed the door behind him, smiling. Telling Dr. Ballas off was only the cherry on the top of his very good day.

Whistling as he walked, he took out his cell phone out of his pocket and paged Lexie 911. Sure, it wasn't exactly a medical emergency, but they hadn't seen each other in over twelve hours, which was an emergency enough for him. Less than a minute later, he saw her run off the elevator, that look of determination on her face that he loved. She almost raced past him until he hooked her around the waist and pulled her towards him.

"Hey…I…Mark?"

He wrapped his arms around her waist and planted a big, wet kiss on her lips.

"Were you expecting someone else?"

She tried to wrestle away from him. All the way, he continued to smile, but he wouldn't let her go.

"I can't…I was paged 911…someone could be dying and you want to stand here kissing me. And why are you here? I thought we decided to meet at my apartment after my shift."

"I thought there was an emergency," he said as she stopped struggling.

This time when she pushed against him, he let her go. "You tell me," she said, finally realizing that it was he who paged her.

"Not seeing each other for twelve hours is an emergency," Mark stated, leaning in to kiss her again. She pulled away.

"I'm at work," she said.

"So? It never stopped us before."

"We're not at Seattle Grace."

"What do you think people in Connecticut don't have sex in on call rooms?"

"Oh no, they do."

He raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know?"

"I don't know from experience. I've just…heard." Her face was flushed and she as beginning to stutter. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Errands."

"Errands? In the hospital?"

"Among others, yes. Now, get dressed, we're leaving."

Lexie looked at her watch. "I still have…"

"Your shift ended a half hour ago. Now get dressed. You have ten minutes."

"Mark, I can't just leave."

"Why not? Is there anyone dying?"

"What? No."

"Is there anyone bleeding or broken or lying on a table with their chest cavity open?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Then now you have nine minutes and…" he looked at his watch. "Fifteen seconds. Go." Lexie was about to open her mouth to protest, when Mark leaned in to kiss her. "Go."

"You really know how to be charming, don't you?" Lexie asked as she made her way down the hallway back towards the elevators.

"Eight minutes and forty seconds," he said, tapping his watch.

"Meet you outside," she said as she disappeared into the elevator.