Chapter 25:

Author's Note: Hi, everyone, I'm back! I have a quick message to an anon reviewer from last chapter, Jill: Thank you so much for your review; it really made me smile. PS: Welcome to the land of ML shippers. Trust me, you'll fit right in :)

Okay, I have to ask…

Did you guys see the recent spoilers? Hopefully without giving anything away, I'd like to say that I am really, REALLY pleased with what we've heard from Shonda so far. She's back on my good list—for now.

Please enjoy…

. . .

Sunday, 10 PM

. . .

"So the Chief seems happy to have you back," Mark notes, breaking the silence in the small bedroom. "He practically hired you on the spot."

Lying beside him, Lexie nods. "Peds need more surgeons."

He glances over to her, but she's staring at the ceiling and avoiding his eye.

"Are you nervous?"

Lexie turns her head at the question, staring at him. She opens her mouth to speak, but after a few seconds, it falls closed and she looks away again.

"You can be nervous in front of me," Mark tells her. He nudges her shoulder with his. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

A small smile appears on Lexie's lips at this, and a moment later, she's shifting her head more comfortably atop her pillow and facing him. She takes a breath. "I'm not nervous," she begins quietly. "It's just that… After almost six years, I'll be back where I started." She rubs a hand over her face tiredly. "And I just know something bad is going to happen."

"So you're nervous," Mark concludes. When she removes her hand to glare at him, he's smiling back. "What?" He asks. "It's okay to be nervous. I'd be nervous."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Okay," he agrees, "I wouldn't. But still. It's not that big of a deal."

"Yes, it is. This is where I'll be working probably for the rest of my life, Mark." She sighs. "And I'm starting out like this." She scowls. "I'm sure everyone already knows all the juicy details."

"You don't know that," Mark replies automatically. He frowns a second later. In all the tense excitement of the past few weeks, he hadn't once paused in the hallway to hear what the nurses were gossiping about, nor paid attention to any of the quiet murmurs of those useless interns under his tutelage. He had no idea if everyone knew all the juicy details.

"Well, yeah, I don't know it," Lexie concedes, "but I'm sure it's true. Everyone, down to the night janitor, always knows everyone else's business here." She scrunches her nose in angrily. "It's annoying. I should have seen if Seattle Pres had any positions," she mutters.

"Oh, come on. Won't it be nice to work together again?"

Lexie groans, flopping back against the pillow and covering her face with her hands. "Tomorrow's going to be a mess," she moans beneath her fingers.

"It won't be so bad."

Lexie drops her hand, staring at him with ingratitude. "Right," she replies sarcastically.

"Oh, come on," he replies. "What's going to happen? And I mean really," he stresses, "what do you expect to happen that's going to be so awful?"

"I don't know," Lexie mutters. "I just have a bad feeling about all of this. I feel like people are going to start yelling at me the second I step on the premises."

"Not everyone is Meredith," Mark reminds her.

She cracks a smile. "True."

"And honestly, Lex…" He meets her eye. "I'm not sure anyone's going to care."

She looks at him blankly. "What are you talking about?"

Mark pushes himself up, propping his back against the headboard as he explains. "Okay, look," he beings. "What you're doing here is equating this situation with what happened ten years ago—when the interns practically treated you like a pariah just for dating me." He stares at her. "They aren't the same."

"Yes, I know that."

"And the only people who really cared, who really had it out for you—were the kids in your own class. But you're not an intern anymore, Lex. You're an attending. No one's going to push you around. And though they might say stuff behind your back, they won't say it to your face."

"And that's better?" Lexie asks skeptically.

"Well… Yeah."

Lexie frowns, begrudgingly accepting his point. "Still," she replies. "I'll be new."

Mark chuckles. "Oh, and what? You think Arizona's going to haze you?"

"We'll see…"

Mark rolls his eyes. "Come on. Ms. Sunshine-and-Rainbows is not going to do a thing to you. Just do your job and I'm sure she'll be happy."

"What about Callie?"

Mark's face darkens. "Well," he replies after a few seconds, "it's a good thing you won't have to deal with Callie."

"Hopefully."

. . .

The following morning

. . .

"I have to go prep for surgery, but you're good here, right?"

Lexie nods, standing in front of the Chief of Surgery's office door. "I have to speak with Richard and then hopefully I'll manage to find Arizona and get all my patients."

Mark nods. "Okay."

She smiles, tilting her head towards the catwalk, knowing he has to get to the OR. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Sure." He bends down, kissing her quickly. "Have a good day," he whispers in her ear as he squeezes her hand briefly before heading towards the ORs.

"I will," she murmurs quietly, gripping his hand for a moment before he steps away.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," he calls over his shoulder a few seconds later, just before he turns the corner. "Text me when you're off for lunch; I don't have anything around noon, so we can eat together if you want."

She waves, smiling slightly. "Okay. I will." She watches him leave her line of sight before turning back to the heavy wooden door. She takes a breath, puts her hand on the knob, and opens it.

. . .

"So I hear Lexie's back at work."

Mark looks to his left, surprised to find Callie Torres walking beside him. He stares at his "best friend," unsure of what she is now and eve less sure of what to say. "Uh, yeah," he replies lamely. "She talking with the Chief right now."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Are we on speaking terms again?" Mark asks.

Callie turns her head to look at him. "What do you think?"

"I think that I don't know if that question means 'yes' or a 'no,'" Mark replies, studying her. When she turns off and heads into one of the exam rooms they're passing, he gets his answer. "Nice talking to you, too, Cal," he calls as the door closes behind her. When there's no immediate reply, he makes his way to the OR.

. . .

"Ah, Dr. Grey."

Lexie smiles politely, trying to calm her jumpy nerves as she takes a seat in front of him. "Hi, Chief Webber."

He waves a hand, still studying the paper in his hand. "Call me Richard."

"Hi, Richard."

She waits patiently as he finishes reading the document in his hands, and when he finally looks up, she straightens in her seat. He takes off his reading glasses, setting them on top of the scattered papers on his desk. "It says here," Richard begins, "that Chief Jenner from OHSU wasn't quite clear on why you chose to leave Portland."

"What?" Lexie replies, caught off-guard and confused. "She knows why I left."

Richard frowns, handing her the paper. "Not from this, as I see it."

Lexie glances down at the letter, her eyes passing over many glowing recommendations before her gaze lands on the lines the Chief was questioning. Keeping everything I just wrote in mind, I truly would love to keep Dr. Grey here on our hospital's staff. She's an extremely capable surgeon, does a phenomenal job connecting with her patients, and generally gets along well with her co-workers. Yet it seems like OHSU is no longer home for her, or so she told me when we had a brief phone conversation, during which she resigned. She did not offer any details for her departure, and I took that to mean that she is leaving for some personal matter or another. But I'm sure she will work just as hard back at Seattle Grace-Mercy West as she did here.

Lexie Grey stares at the paper long after she finishes reading it. She looks it over again, checking to make sure she didn't miss anything. She didn't. Lexie sits back in her chair. "How could she not have known?" She wonders out loud, completely mystified.

"Excuse me?"

Lexie snaps her head up, not realizing she'd spoken aloud. She hands the letter back to the Chief, avoiding his critical gaze, and thinks quickly. "Chi—Richard, may I speak candidly?" He nods. "If I'm being honest here, I have to say… I didn't think there was one person from OHSU or Seattle Grace who didn't know why I moved." She watches as his gaze tightens. "I would have bet my savings that everyone knew what was happening in my life, but I guess…" She gives him a weak half-smile. "There were a couple important people left out." She takes a quick breath. "I got divorced," she explains. "Now, I'm sure you already knew that, seeing as I told you Jackson was saying in Portland."

"But—"

"But I'm here," Lexie finishes for him. "And I'm here because—" She breaks off, shaking her head to clear her mind. "Richard, honestly, I thought you knew all this." She looks up at him, meeting his confused gaze. "I thought everyone…" She trails off, waving a hand. "It doesn't matter. What matters is, I'm here because I'm living with Mark," Lexie replies before he can ask. She watches the Chief's eyes widen. "And I'd really like my job back, if I can get it," she adds, almost as an afterthought.

"Sloan?" He asks after a moment. His incredulity is barely masked.

Lexie nods. "We're… Well, we're together now and he's the reason I moved back."

Richard regards her shrewdly. "If I'm correct, it stands to reason that he was also the impetus for your divorce, too?"

Lexie nods again. "Yes. He was."

"Well." The Chief pauses, sitting back in his chair. A minute later, he leans forward again. "I didn't quite expect to given that type of response," Richard replies, taking Jenner's letter and filing it away, "but the reason I pointed out that your Chief was ignorant of the situation concerning your departure is because I can't be ignorant when it comes to things like this." He stares at her. "I need honest and dependable people here, not ones who will run across state borders without so much as an explanation for their boss."

"I won't be going anywhere, Richard."

"Lexie," the Chief continues, ignoring her interruption, "I hired you because we've worked together before. I know how great your work ethic is, and I know how much care and time you put in with your patients. But right now, I need to make sure you won't hide things from me. This is a big hospital, and I can't keep track of everyone, but at the rate we seem to be losing Peds surgeons, I need to know that the ones I'm hiring are ones I can stick with and count on."

"You can count on me, sir." She lifts her chin. "I can promise you that. I…" Lexie bites her lip for a moment, thinking back. "I can't figure out why she was so unclear about my reason for transferring." She must've known. Jackson must have told someone. He must have, and then it would filter down to her. She had to have known.

"Regardless," Richard replies, drawing Lexie out of her thoughts. "I need to know I can trust you."

Lexie replies immediately. "You can."

Richard stares at her with hard eyes for a moment before resting back in his chair. "Well, all right, then." He stands, and Lexie scrambles to her feet quickly. He holds out his hand, and she takes it, still half-nervous he's going to send her away. But he just smiles, and squeezes her hand within his firm handshake.

"Welcome back, Dr. Grey."

. . .

"Hey," Derek Shepherd calls, poking his head into the almost-deserted scrub room.

Mark glances up at the voice, peeling off his plastic gloves and turning the faucet on. "Hey," he replies.

"How, uh, how was surgery?"

"Good."

"And, um… How's Lexie?"

Mark puts his hands under the water, washing them methodically. "Fine, I think. She's talking with Richard right now."

"But she's got the job?"

"Unless she somehow bombs this little interview, yes, she has the job."

"That's good."

Mark finishes washing his hands, and steps towards the door to grab a handful of paper towels from the dispenser. He stares at Derek, noting that the neurosurgeon seems to be thinking hard about something. "Did you just come in here to ask if she got the job and see how the surgery went, or was there something you wanted to talk about, Shep?"

"Mark… What I said back at Christmas..." Derek trails off, obviously lost for words as he closes his eyes.

"Look, man, I don't have all day, so just say what you have to say. I have another surgery to get to," he adds, glancing at his watch. Derek nods, taking a breath and opening his eyes to face his childhood friend.

"Back at Christmas, when I saw you two together, and I told you I didn't think she'd ever leave him for you…" He smiles a moment later, and it lights up his eyes. "I just wanted you to know that I've never been so happy to be proven wrong."

Mark stares at his best friend, completely caught off-guard by his warmth. "What?" is all he manages to say.

"I just…" He shakes his head in disbelief, but there's a smile on his face. "Mark, she's here. She got divorced, left her home behind, quit her job… She moved almost two hundred miles just to be with you…" He grins. "If that isn't commitment, love… Then I don't know what is."

"I…" Mark's surprised to find that he'd been smiling without even having noticed. "Geez, Derek," he mutters half-jokingly, "I don't really know what to say to that."

The neurosurgeon smiles. "You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know, is all. And even though it might be hard right now, with Meredith… With Callie… I wanted you to realize that I've got your back here." He stares at his best friend seriously. "And I was wrong to doubt you guys before. I'm sorry about that."

"There's no need to apologize," Mark replies, slightly confused that his friend would even come to that conclusion. "I mean, who would have thought this would have ever worked out?"

Derek smiles, shaking his head in happy bafflement. Mark chuckles lightly before heading to the door.

"Well, I…" Mark makes his way across the room. "I've gotta go—"

"Right," Derek interrupts, holding the door open and following him out. "Don't want to keep your patient waiting."

"Yeah, but…" Mark stops outside the scrub room, staring at his best friend and trying desperately to find the words to express his gratitude for the other man's faith and acceptance, especially after everything that they've gone through together over the years. "Derek, you don't know what this means to me."

The neurosurgeon smiles, his expression gentle. "Of course I do."

"No, you…" Mark sighs, but he's still unable to find the words.

"Look," Derek says, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You don't need to give me some big speech about what my acceptance of your relationship with her means. I know what it means, okay? She's the love of your life." He smiles. "I kind of know what it's like to have one of those, and you can't always find the words to describe them."

Mark grins. "Yeah, I'd say so."

"…Which means she should be treated accordingly," Derek murmurs, as if finishing a previous thought left incomplete. Mark notices a determined look in the neurosurgeon's blue eyes when he stares at him. "I'm going to talk to Meredith," he announces a second later. "Maybe if I explain it, she'll understand you guys."

"I don't think she needs an explanation, Derek," Mark hedges. "What she needs is time," Mark tells him, "to see that we're real. Then she'll figure it out."

"She's had time," Derek replies, suddenly annoyed. "She's had two, six, eight, ten…" He ticks the numbers off on his fingers. "She's had a decade to see how real you two are. It's time for her to come to terms with it, to understand that it won't be changing anytime soon, and to accept it."

Mark sighs. "Great," he mutters, half-hiding a smile. "Now if you accomplish this, I'll be even more in your debt."

Derek chuckles, moving to walk away. "When we need a babysitter for those late nights out, I'll call you."

Mark grins, calling after him, "You know that isn't a punishment, right?"

. . .

"Hi," Lexie greets the charge nurse in the Peds ward. "I'm looking for Dr. Robbins. Do you happen to know—"

"Dr. Grey?"

Lexie turns around, coming face-to-face with a small, blonde-haired woman. She's holding a stack of charts in her hands, her eyes flitting around the room. The nervous energy and fear that emanates from he body is unmistakable. Lexie almost smirks. Intern.

"Yes?" She asks instead, looking pointedly at the girl.

"You're Dr. Grey?" She clarifies.

Lexie smile's thinning. "I can check my coat here, but I believe that's the name sewn above the pocket."

"Right," the girl replies quickly, fumbling as she tries to pass some of the charts to the older doctor. Lexie doesn't miss how the girl's eyes flick to the monogram on her lab coat. Tell me I wasn't this bumbling as an intern, she thinks to herself, already annoyed.

"Dr. Robbins," the girl begins, "told me to give you these when you showed up." She passes Lexie eight binders of various shapes, some large, some small—all of them turning into one heavy pile in Lexie's arms.

"Is she in surgery?" Lexie questions.

The intern nods. "She said when I saw you I should give you these."

"You said that."

"She said you could start with anyone of them, but that Paul Kopla and…" She pauses, trying to remember. "Macy Heller," she announces a moment later. "She said those two needed to be visited today, but other than that, whichever ones you can get done."

"Great." Lexie smiles politely, hefting the charts in her arms. "Thank you…" She trails off, waiting for a name.

"Kelly," the girl replies, thrusting out her hand. "Kelly Miller."

"Great," Lexie replies. "I'd shake your hand, but…" She trails off, nodding to the charts.

"Oh, right," Miller replies. "Of course. Here, let me…" She grabs a couple of the binders from the top of the stack.

"Thanks," Lexie replies. She glances at the girl. "Are you supposed to be in surgery?" The girl shakes her head; Lexie isn't surprised. "Great. If you don't have anything else to do, come with me and we can try and see to Mr. Kopla and Ms. Heller and anyone else we can fit in before lunch."

. . .

"Hey," Lexie says a few hours later, dropping her lunch tray on the small table.

Mark looks up when she sits down; he folds the newspaper he'd been reading, sets it aside, and smiles across the table at her. "Hey."

"How were your surgeries?"

"Good." He stares at her, studying for any signs of anger. He finds none. "How was your morning?"

Lexie meets his eyes, and a smile stretches over her face. "It went surprisingly well, actually."

"You haven't been accosted in the halls, then, I take it?"

She shakes her head, picking at her salad with a plastic fork. "No, I haven't. What about you?"

"No," Mark answers, remembering how Callie had barely said ten words to him earlier in the day. His conversation with Derek crosses his mind, as well, just as it had been doing multiple times since it happened. But he decides that this isn't the best place to talk about it what Derek said to him. "My morning was fine."

"What time do you get off?" Lexie asks curiously around a mouthful of lettuce.

"Six," Mark replies. "You?"

Lexie frowns. "I don't know. I haven't seen Arizona. She just left me with a load of charts and this perky little intern…"

"Perky?" Mark repeats with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah," Lexie mutters. "She like Arizona's bubbly but bumbling double. It took her fifteen minutes to draw this kid's blood; I thought I was going to have to do it for her. Or call a nurse, at the very least," she adds. "How hard is it to draw blood?"

Mark shrugs.

"I really don't want to see her in an OR." Lexie sighs. "But she's good with the kids, at least, I'll give her that." Lexie shakes her head, remembering. "I swear, every time we went to a new patient, the kid would light up the second they saw her. It was like she spoke a different language with each of them; you wouldn't believe the amount of inside jokes she has filed away in her brain. Even when she was pricking that kid's arm for a quarter of an hour, she had him laughing and smiling."

"You're being upstaged by a perky intern," Mark notes with a wry grin.

"I am not being upstaged," Lexie mutters, her eyes flicking to his. "She just has the advantage of being here longer, of having relationships with these kids."

"What did you say her name was again?"

"Kelly," Lexie replies, watching as a wide smile spreads over his face. "Kelly Miller," she repeats slowly, watching him. "Why?"

Mark chuckles, attempting to chew and swallow before he answers her. "She's the one who reminded me of you."

Lexie's eyes widen. "Excuse me?"

"It's true," he replies, laughing at her outraged expression.

"You did not just say that," Lexie says heatedly. "She can't be me. She's so—"

"—annoying?" Mark offers with raised, mocking eyebrows.

Lexie narrows her eyes, reaching across the table and swatting his hand. "Stop it. I wasn't that bad."

"Sure you weren't."

"I wasn't!"

He grins. "I never said you were, did I?"

Lexie stares at him for a few seconds more before turning back to her lunch. "I don't want to talk about her anymore. Change the subject."

"Fine, fine," he smiles. He falls silent for a moment, staring across the table at her. She doesn't notice him staring, and once again, his conversation with Derek reverberates through his brain. He's about to bring it up when she speaks.

"So what are you up to this afternoon?" She asks, lifting her head from her food. There's a faint smile on her open face, and as he stares back at her, Mark finds that he has trouble remembering the rest of his schedule for today. Back at Christmas, when I saw you two together, and I told you I didn't think she'd ever leave him for you… Mark, she's here. I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.

. . .

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully, to Lexie's great relief. While Mark was in surgery almost the entire day, Lexie was in patient's rooms, checking other surgeon's pre- and post-ops and getting to know her soon-to-be patients. She didn't see Arizona at all, but that didn't bother her too much. She'd be back tomorrow, as would Dr. Robbins, and they'd talk it all out then. Besides, after admitting everything she had to the Chief, Lexie didn't quite feel like hashing it out all over again with the pediatrics attending whose wife would barely acknowledge her or Mark's existence, let alone their relationship.

So when six o'clock came, and she was finished visiting her patients for the day and Dr. Robbins was nowhere in sight, Lexie said goodbye to Kelly for the day, visited each of her patients one last time and wished them a good night, found Mark, and then headed home. They had a small dinner, which he made, and their surprisingly normal day was coming to an equally surprising normal end. They ate, cleaned up the dishes, and were in bed by ten.

. . .

"So I had a nice talk with Derek today," Mark tells her finally as they lie side by side in bed.

"Oh, yeah?" Lexie murmurs. "What about?"

"You."

She opens her eyes, turning her head to look up at him from her pillow. "Me?"

Mark nods, watching her face. "He said he was happy for me, happy that we were together." He shifts towards her so their faces are level, and just a few inches apart. "He called you the love of my life," Mark smiles. "And I didn't even have to prompt him," he adds a second later. A loving smile breaks out across Lexie's face, and she doesn't hesitate to move forward and kiss him deeply.

"You must've been so happy," she whispers when she pulls back He can see her own happiness for him shining in her eyes. "I know how important his opinion is to you."

Mark nods, staring right at her. She gets it, he thinks, feeling his heart swell. "He accepted us," Mark replies, still feeling awe-struck from the morning. "And he—he did more than that." Mark smiles, moving closer. "He said he'd try to talk to Meredith for us."

The happiness drops off of Lexie's face in a tenth of a second. "What?" She asks, shocked.

"He said he'd—"

"Why?" She whispers. Her eyes widen. "Did you—"

"No," Mark mutters immediately. "Of course I didn't suggest it."

"Then why—"

"I think he's sick of how Meredith's been acting about you. When I told him to give her time, he replied that she's already had ten years to figure us out in her head." He looks pointedly at his girlfriend. "See?" He points out. "He's on your side."

Lexie frowns, but he can see she's reluctantly grasping this as good news. "I don't want to talk to Meredith," she tells him a moment later.

"And you won't have to," Mark replies. "All Derek wants to do is make her understand us—not you."

"I don't think she'll understand either," Lexie mutters. She closes her eyes, calming herself. A second later, the smile is back in place on her face. "But I'm so happy for you," she tells him. "I know what it's like to long for approval from someone like that."

Mark bites his tongue at her words, forcing himself not to mention the fact that she's currently shutting out the one person she so desperately wants approval from more than anyone else. "Thank you," he replies instead. She smiles happily, lifting her head from the pillow to press a kiss against his lips.

"This was a good day," she whispers a few seconds later when they settle beside each other for the night. Mark glances over to her, searching her face for any sorrow or fear. There is none. He presses his face against her shoulder, kissing her skin gently.

"Let's hope tomorrow's good, too."

. . .

Author's Note: Please review!

Also: If you guys are interested, I posted two new fics since the last time I updated; one of them is the New Year's fic I mentioned in the last chapter. The other, called "All For You," is a songfic that's tied pretty closely to this story. I'd love it if you guys would check those two out and tell me what you think.

Thank you all for reading. I hope Shonda doesn't hold out on us for too long :)