Thank you all for your reviews! They are the best thing about this fic. Sorry I took so long to update. I had a lot to work to do at uni and I was really lazy to type the chapters. I actually think I have this chap written for over weeks but I was tired and not in the mood to type. Good thing is it gave me time to start working on the others. I've written up until chapter 17 by now. I'm gonna continue typing them now that the lazinees is gone for a while.

And finally! Grey's is coming back. I can't wait for these last episodes. I think great things awaits us. YAY. OK here it goes then...

During the following weeks, eyes and whispers surrounded Mark and Lexie wherever they went. If they were together for some hospital business, people around them would either face away from them awkwardly or deliberately gossip about it with partners right to their face.

Lexie told Sadie the last time they were together that she would physically harm the next person she caught staring at her. Sadie had actually stopped her from doing that several times. "Don't sweat, Lex. People are just idiot and disrespectful" she said. "It's just fresh news and people here need something to keep them occupied since they have no such thing as a life. You'll see…the buzz will be over soon"

And it was. Lexie was glad she could at least do her job in walking through the hospital's corridors without dragging all attention and every eye to her. However, there were still some people who simply wouldn't let it go and Lexie saw herself having to deal with three nurses when she was writing down some charts.

"Look at her" the blonde nurse said from behind the counter the three of them sat.

Lexie could've sworn she heard the tall one say the word pathetic.

"Don't say that" the redhead reprehended. "You bitched about it for about a week when he never called you and you knew he wouldn't"

"That's exactly the point" she explained. "This whole hospital knows the man's reputation"

Lexie couldn't help but notice the hostile tone.

"Why think this time it would be any different, you know? She should've known. Once a manwhore, always a manwhore"

Lexie felt her blood heat to that. Yes, she was hurt and maybe even a little mad at Mark but hearing those nurses insult him like that just made her want to jump in their necks. In the time they had spent together Mark had been nothing like that. He had been kind and caring, careful and gentle, he had done things for her people wouldn't think possible. The word manwhore just made her feel uncomfortable and betrayed.

As the nurses continued talking she found herself at the verge of bursting into tears. Stop talking about him. She thought as the memories and perspectives she had when they were together emerged to her head. She noticed then that the nurses signed to each other and parted their ways when she heard his deep voice right next to her.

"Dr. Grey? I would like for you to scrub in on my…" but he immediately stopped as her eyes looked up to him.

"Lexie? Are you crying?"

"No" she said quickly pressing her eyes together.

"You were"

"Was not"

"Your eyes are red"

"Yeah, I was rubbing them. You were saying?"

He did not believe her but he assumed he was in no position to insist. "My face reconstruction, I would appreciate it if you scrubbed in"

"Sure, Dr. Sloan"

The initial awkwardness was gone but their interaction wasn't ideal. They were acting strictly professional and were both a little bothered by that.

"Lexie" he began. "I was hoping we could, maybe…" Don't say 'be friends', Mark. "You know, coexist"

"We are coexisting"

"I mean not in this weird and professional way" Mark said nervously.

Lexie tried her best to not involve her emotions whenever Mark was around, specially when he brought up issues like that.

"We are acting professional because we're in a place where that's required" she said. "We haven't been out this hospital which would be the place to do that. Act not professionally, I mean" Damn it, I'm rambling.

"But if we were…" Mark started.

Lexie simply nodded.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why haven't we been to a place where we don't have to act like this? Why haven't we been outside the hospital?"

Lexie sighed. "Why would we?" she asked him but it was more like she was asking herself. "There's just no reason"

Mark started speaking but she cut him off.

"Look, it's OK. We're past that, OK? But I just think there's no use. When it's supposed to happen, it will happen and you'll see that what I'm telling you is the truth"

The real truth was Lexie wanted as much as Mark did to be friends with him but she thought that was beyond her capacity. How would she act around him? How would she not remember everything? How could she keep strayed?

"I'll see you at the OR soon" and with that she walked slowly to the elevators.

*

"You did an awesome job in there" Mark said while they were scrubbing out from surgery.

Lexie smiled shyly.

"I was serious when I said you're the best intern we've got"

"Thank you" she said quietly.

Mark just wanted to have a reason to keep talking to her, but he couldn't find any.

Lexie nodded towards him and left the room once she was done scrubbing out. In the corridor, walking in her direction, she found her sister.

"Did you just come out of Sloan's surgery?"

"Yes" Lexie answered.

"Cristina is looking for you"

"Oh, OK. Thank you for letting me know" Lexie started making her way to the stairs but was startled when Meredith called.

"Lexie?"

She turned around.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine" Lexie didn't understand where that question was coming from.

"You've been acting strange these past few weeks"

"Define strange"

"I don't know, you're different. There's not that, um, let's say, that light and bubbly atmosphere about you anymore"

Lexie asked herself what did her sister care but instead of saying that out loud she just exhaled and said. "I think you're imagining things" she started walking backwards. "I have to find Dr. Yang now, excuse me"

*

Meredith couldn't keep that off her mind as she seated next to Derek at lunchtime.

"Hey" he smiled.

"Hi" she said not responding the enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing" she managed to say as she stared at Mark and Callie who were sitting in the table right next to theirs.

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to her" Mark was telling Callie. "I just don't know how"

"You guys still aren't talking?" Callie asked sympathetically.

"She says everything is OK but it just doesn't feel like it, you know? It's still there" he said.

"What's still there?"

"The awkwardness"

"Oh, I could've sworn you were talking about something else"

Mark sighed.

"Mark, what happened? Please tell me. Don't you trust me?"

"I trust you" he assured.

"So?"

"I already told you. She's better off. I was just going to hold her back in life"

"That's the worst piece of bull I have ever heard"

"What?"

"Mark, you've both been sleepwalking ever since. Why put yourselves through that? Why not try again?"

"No, Callie! I'm not going to put her through that again. She's getting over it. I can't just take it back when she's finally healing and make her go through it all over again"

"Oh, for God's sake, who put that in your mind?"

"Huh?"

"That. That crap that you won't be able to give her what she wants, that she's too good for you"

"It's the truth, Callie"

"Yeah, I'm starting to agree with you"

"What?" Mark couldn't hide the hint of hurt.

"As long as you keep telling yourself that that's exactly what's going to happen"

"You think this is easy for me? Don't you see I'm doing this for her?"

"If you took just a moment of your time and observed her, no, just looked at her you would see you're not doing anything for her"

Callie got up from the table. "I have a patient to get to now. See you in a bit"

Although she couldn't listen, Meredith observed the whole thing. She was still looking at Mark's table when a woman she had never seen before approached him. She was blonde and had blue eyes. Meredith watched with curiosity as the woman clearly mouthed the words "Dr Sloan".

She continued watching as Mark looked up to the woman.

"May I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Anna! Are you the plastic surgeon?" she asked with a somewhat sensual tone.

"Yes"

The woman giggled. "My friends were so right about you" she was no longer looking him in the eye.

Meredith could tell from where she was sitting that the woman was throwing herself at him.

"I just heard you got out of a bad…"

"Is there something you need?" Mark asked impatiently.

"Is there something you want to give me?"

Mark rolled his eyes and got up from his table. "Excuse me" the blonde woman just stood there with embarrassment on her face. She slowly walked away trying to make sure no one was watching her after being left talking to an empty chair.

Meredith almost opened her mouth to comment it with Derek but stopped as she knew he wouldn't be fond of what she had to say.

Did Mark Sloan just walk away on that gorgeous woman? The thoughts that crossed her mind a few days before rushed back and she did not like when that happened.

One Week Earlier

"Why are you so grumpy?" Meredith asked Derek.

"Nothing" she knew he was lying.

"Tell me, Derek" she sat next to him.

"I love you, Mer. You know that right? And I was larger than life when you said yes but…"

"Oh" Meredith sighed.

"See?" Derek crossed his arms against his chest.

"See what?"

"I shouldn't have told you"

"That's not what I meant"

"I just don't want to do this without them, you know?"

"You won't have to do this without them. They'll be there"

"It's not the same"

"What do you want to do? You want to postpone the wedding?"

"No" Derek's mind was in conflict.

"Have you talked to Sloan?"

"I've talked to both of them" Derek said. "I hate how the universe works, you know? Mark was finally starting to settle when that freaking button started going on inside him telling him he's not worth it"

"Yeah" the guilt was rising to her throat.

"He's had this issue since he was a little boy. Always self destructive. Always thinking low on himself. All because of his so called parents. How can someone be so low? How can you make a human being think he's not worth a thing? Let alone your child."

Meredith wished she could pull those feelings aside but they were stronger than her. When Sadie first told her about the break up she wasn't sure what had happened. She knew she had recently talked to Mark before it happened but she wasn't sure if he had done something or if it was just a coincidence. But when Derek came to her and said they had broken up because 'Mark as always having little expectations on himself' the question remained on her mind.

Had Mark done something she, Meredith, asked him to for the sake of Lexie? And the break up being a week behind them at that point, with Meredith watching now how they were acting throughout those days, just made her question herself even more.

*

Present Day

That was exactly what Meredith was feeling right now. Lexie had lost that glow about her. She was just coming home, going to work and back home again. And there was the thing she had just witnessed. Mark Sloan had turned down a gorgeous blue-eyed bonde. She absolutely loathed the fact that that would even threat to go through her mind but she couldn't help but wonder if she had indeed helped anyone with what she had done recently. She kept telling herself that that was the intention.

*

Sadie and Lexie were in the locker room finally enjoying their break. Lexie got up to fix something from her locker when her expression suddenly changed. Sadie knew what it was about.

"Still haven't found it?"

Lexie shook her head.

"I looked at home. Everywhere I could. I'm sorry, Lex"

"He's gonna think I'm holding on to it"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't have it to return it"

"You were going to return it?" Sadie asked startled.

"Isn't that the right thing to do?"

"You've been looking for it all this time like crazy to RETURN it?"

"It's not like that's my wildest desire but we're not together anymore, so…"

"Lexie, it was a gift"

"So?"

"So?! Lex, it's not like he gave you an engagement ring. Do you return gifts from people who were friends with you if you for some reason lose touch with them?"

"Well, no…"

"Exactly. You don't. That's yours, Lex"

"Was"

"We'll find it" tears started forming in Lexie's eyes when Sadie said that.

"The truth is I didn't want to return it but I feel like I have to. Like it doesn't belong to me anymore"

"It will always belong to you" Sadie assured. "And stop talking about it in the past. We WILL find it"

Sadie had been so good to her throughout the whole situation and even before that. It all started when she covered for her on the penis incident thing. She never thought they would wind up like that. Lexie felt she had to do something for Sadie. She had to thank her for all she had done. And she was determined to do so.

*

"Oh my God, there is so much to do and not enough time" Meredith said as she walked to Izzie and Cristina.

"There is plenty of time" Izzie said. "We still have five weeks"

"Exactly. No time" Mer said with a freaked expression.

"We'll get everything done before that. You've got us to help" Izzie smiled pointing at herself.

"I'm not good at this"

"Meredith! Snap out of it. Breathe" Izzie ordered.

Cristina was just laughing in amusement.

"What have you done already?"

"Nothing?" Meredith whispered.

Izzie smirked. "Calm down. We'll get to it tonight at the house OK? I'll help you make lists. Maybe Sadie and Lexie could help us and if you like Cristina…"

"I'm out of this" Cristina said immediately. "You guys have fun though"

"It's OK Mer, she's probably just going out with Hunt. I promise you we'll have most of those lists done by tonight and we can start working on everything tomorrow"

"OK" Meredith nodded.

"Tell Derek to start working on his guest list"

"When?"

"Right away" Izzie said. "I know it won't be ready for tonight, that takes time. But I would like to at least have an estimative"

"Right"

"And start working on yours too"

"Mine?"

"Yes"

"But who would I invite? There's you, Cristina, Alex, George…"

"Meredith" Izzie snapped.

"OK. List. Got it." Meredith tried to search for people to invite to the wedding on the back of her mind.

*

Mark was sitting behind his desk when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in"

When he looked at the door his heart jumped, nervosism took over him as he unsteadily stood up. It was her.

"Lexie?"

"Hi" she managed to say. "Can I come in?"

"Sure" Mark didn't know whether he should stand right where he was or walk over to her. "Is everything OK?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something"

"OK" he felt his heart was going to rip off his chest.

"Well, I don't know where to begin" She was making him more nervous by the minute. "The thing is I promised Sadie I would talk to you about something but I never really got the chance since…" she trailed off.

Mark tried to make it easier on her. "I know. Go on"

"The thing is, she asked me to talk to you about…Callie"

Mark's face immediately lit up with a smile.

"What?" she asked uneasily.

"Sadie asked you to talk to me about Callie?"

"That's what I said"

"Well, Callie asked me to talk to you about Sadie"

Lexie understood the irony of the situation as her own face wasn't able to hold the forming smile.

"Really?"

"True thing"

They stared at each other for a couple of minutes. Lexie suddenly started speaking as she broke off from the momentarily spell.

"Sadie likes Callie and she was afraid to talk to her directly. She was afraid she wouldn't be corresponded." Lexie immediately regretted her choice of words.

Mark spoke with that comforting tone he only used with her. "Callie likes Sadie and was herself afraid it was all in her head."

Lexie felt happy. At least things were going right for her friend. No, for both of her friends. If only life were always that simple.

"So" Mark started talking. "What do we do?"

"Sould we tell them?"

"We should. But how?"

"Well you tell Callie you talked to me and there was a green light on the Sadie thing and I'll do the same thing only the other way around"

"Do you think they'll have the courage to come up to one another once they know?"

"I hope they do"

Mark realized the subject had come to an end and that Lexie would slip from him anytime soon now. But he didn't want that. He wanted to prolong what little time they had together now. He wanted to be near her, he needed that.

"I should go and tell Sadie" Lexie suddenly spoke. "She's been wanting this for weeks and she probably thinks by now she wouldn't get any answers."

"Right" Mark tried to hide his disappointment. "And I should tell Callie for the exact same reason"

"OK then"

When she turned around it was like slow motion to him. Her beautiful, silky, brown hair flipping in the air and slowly hitting the side of her neck. Her gorgeous, glassy, dark eyes no longer in the field of his sight. Her delicate, red, warm lips he hadn't tasted in two weeks.

"Lexie?" he called as she made her way to the door.

She turned around. "Yes?"

"Thank you" he said.

"For what?"

"For making that moment come sooner than I expected"

She smiled sweetly and nodded before closing the door behind her.

Working on the typing of chap 15 as you read this :D