Warning: Some mild language but nothing extremely vulgar.

A/N: I always loved the scene when Lexie overhears her fellow interns gossiping about their relationship and she just pulls Mark in for a kiss that even surprises him. His face afterwards was so adorable. Hope you like!

P.s. Shoutout to Dex87, Patsy, & emaribermudes0. So glad you are liking the story and thank you for your feedback. You made my day/night. :)

Chapter 3 – The Aftermath

The car ride back to Mark's hotel was more solemn to Lexie's liking. For them taking such a huge step in coming out with their relationship she had been hoping for a much better outcome to their evening then how it actually ended.

"Are you ok?" she asked unable to take the silence any longer.

"I'll be fine," he answered, his tone deadpan.

"He's your best friend, Mark. I know what he said tonight had to hurt you."

"What do you want me to say, Lex? That the man I grew up with, who I don't just consider my best friend—but like a brother to me, can only ever see the negative about me? That in his eyes no matter what I do or what I accomplish, I will never be good enough?"

The pain in his voice was agonizing. It was like someone had forced her to swallow glass and it was slowing cutting her from the inside. She reached out and placed her hand on his thigh and offered a gentle squeeze.

"I don't think that is how he really feels," she admitted.

He looked from the road to her for a brief second. "You're taking his side?"

"No, I am not taking his side. I'm just saying, I don't think he really believes that. I just think he is angry and said some things he didn't mean."

Mark shook his head in disbelief. "No, not good enough. You can't tell me someone truly doesn't believe that when they say it over and over again."

"So, what are you saying? Do you want to cut Derek out of your life? Will that make this any better?"

His palm hit the steering wheel in frustration. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about Derek or Mer, or anyone else but us tonight."

She offered a sad smile but put on a brave face, because she knew that was what he needed right now. Tonight, they could savage whatever was left of their night and tomorrow they could face the reality of their problems with their family and with going public with their relationship would be like when they got to work tomorrow.

Lexie woke refreshed and excited for the new day to begin. Today was going to be a lot of firsts. The first time they would walk into the hospital together as boyfriend and girlfriend. The first time they could show any sort of affection and not have to worry about hiding from anyone. The first time they could go on a real date and not have to worry about being caught by anyone from work.

"Dr. Grey," Mark said, holding the door open to the hospital so she could enter first.

"Dr. Sloan," she grinned walking through and headed to the elevator.

When the doors opened, Dr. Miranda Bailey was inside already on her way up.

"Good Morning, Dr. Bailey," Mark said.

She looked at him and then at Lexie before looking back to him shaking her head. It was clear she was already in receipt of the fact that they were an item.

"Mmm," came her only reply.

"Think there is any chance I will get assigned to plastics today?" Lexie asked.

"Ha!"

Mark and Lexie both turned to the source of the sound from Miranda. She looked at them and shrugged.

Mark shook his head. "Between the chief wanting rotation and now with the change in our relationship, I don't think you will get back on my rotation for the next couple of days," he whispered.

"You can say that again," Miranda muttered.

Mark turned. "Is there something on your mind, Dr. Bailey?"

Even though everyone revered and sometimes was a little scared of Dr. Bailey, Mark was still an attending and over her in ranking in the hospital.

Miranda put her palms up indicating as if she was not interested in whatever they were discussing. "Nope."

"Really? Because it seems like you've had a whole lot to say on the matter in this short elevator ride."

She shook her head again, and the doors on the elevator opened. "You Grey's will be the death of me," she mumbled walking past them.

Lexie laughed, as they got off the elevator and started walking towards the main floor. They immediately noticed that Callie and Arizona were huddled together laughing and talking.

"Looks like the date was promising," Lexie mused.

"It appears that way," he agreed.

The elevator doors behind them beeped again, both Derek and Meredith stepping off the elevator with Cristina and Owen right behind them.

"Good Morning," Lexie said trying to break the awkward tension in the room as everyone glanced at each other.

"Morning," Meredith answered.

Derek and Mark looked at each other but only nodded in passing. Things were definitely not settled between them despite their call for a truce last night.

Lexie bit her lip feeling utterly guilty that this was all happening because of her. Because she decided that she had a stupid crush. Because she for once in her life wanted to go after something that should make absolutely no sense, but did. Like two puzzle pieces coming together. She wanted to take back the fact that she had ever gone to the hotel that night to beg Mark to teach her—more like throw herself at him—but she would be lying not only to herself but their relationship by saying she wished none of that happened. Because she wanted it too. Given the same choices now knowing the outcome she would still make them again.

It made her feel dirty, selfish, and angry. Derek is like a brother to Mark, and is really the only family he has since his parents died when he was young. If their relationship never recovered from this, she would never be able to forgive herself. Never.

Everyone gathered for the announcements and coverage of important surgeries scheduled for the day, followed by the calling of interns on rotation. Lexie had learned that instead of being with Owen again she had been assigned to Derek's rotation.

"I'll see you later," Mark whispered after the meeting was over.

Lexie smiled. "Yeah."

"Dr. Shepherd, looks like I am with you today," Lexie said approaching him.

"Dr. Grey, come along."

Derek turned and placed a quick kiss on Meredith's cheek before he and Lexie turned to go towards the opposite direction.

"I was hoping we could clear the air," Lexie said once they were in strides. "I know last night got a little heated, but I want you to know that I am not mad at you, and I respect you immensely as a doctor."

Derek stopped and turned towards her. "I'm not mad at you, Lexie. In fact, a lot of what you said last night was true. You are a grown adult and you have every right to make your own decisions. So, for that I apologize."

Lexie brightened. "Good. That's great. So, that means we can just squash everything and get back to normal. You and Mark can put this all behind you and we can move on," she said happily.

"Yeah, no," he corrected starting to walk again.

She raced after him. "Wait…wh-what do you mean no? You just said…"

"I said that I am not mad at you and agree with you making your own decisions. My issues with Mark are different from you and I," he explained.

"But…but…"

"Lexie, I can tell you care about Mark. I can see deep down you believe in your relationship and that everything is going to work out. You have to understand that we have a history that goes back a hell of a long longer than your month together. It's best to let us work out whatever our issues with each other are together."

"Listen, I know…"

"Dr. Grey," he cut in with more force. "I have a busy day in rotation, so I would appreciate if we can focus on work now and discuss this later. Let's start by reviewing our patients' files, shall we?"

"Of course, Dr. Shepherd," she answered, biting back her retort.

She wasn't going to give up on Mark, and she wasn't going to give up on fixing the rift in their relationship. She would find a way to make sure Mark Sloan and Derek Shepherd's friendship didn't end because of her.

Lexie rolled her neck to the left and right, as she left the last surgery on Derek's rotation. She dumped her scrubs making her way to finish up her notes and drop off the files before checking on the patient in post ops.

Lexie and Derek had spent the last four hours performing a brain tumor that required painstaking precision by having to keep her hands still for minutes and hours at a time while Derek went in to perform the cuts and remove the tumor. As taxing and tiring as the surgery had been, she was glad to have been a part of the case and able to scrub in and get her hands on the surgery.

She was standing at the desk, writing her notes, when she heard a few of her fellow interns around the corner talking about their day and their cases. She smiled to herself, excited to join them and talk about her own day when their change in conversation stopped her short.

"Did you hear that our very own Lexipedia, has been screwing McSteamy for the last month?" Steve said.

Dani huffed. "So, what was all that crap she was spewing to us yesterday about wanting to learn and not interested in a booty call," she replied.

Lexie frowned knowing that comment might come back to bite her in the butt. She wasn't surprised that her fellow peers would think that would be the first reason she would have entered into a relationship with an attending, but she had thought that they would know her a little better than that.

"It's a smart play if you think about it. Sleep with the attending and you can get on their service indefinitely and get all the good surgeries," Laura quipped.

"Damn. I am mad I didn't think of that first," Dani said. "I mean it's not like it would be a hardship to spend time in an on-call room with that hot man."

"Well, I think that ship has sailed for you," Steve said. "They came forward to say they are dating and are in a relationship."

Laura gasped. "A relationship? Dr. Sloan does not do relationships. Everyone knows he sleeps with a different nurse or doctor every day."

"Not anymore apparently," Steven responded.

"What does he even see if her anyway?" Dani asked. "I mean outside of the fact that she has an eidetic memory, she's kind of a dork and not that pretty."

Dork. Not pretty. The back of her eyes started to sting with the harshness in her words about her—what she thought—was supposed to be a friend. It was one thing to misunderstand that her entering into a relationship with an attending, was for anything other than because they cared for each other, but the conversation now was just mean.

"Dani!" Laura scolded.

"What? I mean, come on, it's Dr. Mark Sloan. The man is practically a sex god. There is no way someone like her will keep his attention for very long if at all."

Liquid started to pool at the back of Lexie's eyes. She tried to tell herself this was coming on because they were jealous that Mark was with her and not them, but rationale thoughts were hard to understand when her feelings were getting more and more hurt by the second. She wanted to turn and leave, but it was like approaching a car accident—you wanted to look away, but you wanted to also see what happened.

"I don't know, he seems pretty smitten with her," Steve added.

"It's probably why she hasn't been on his service the last few days. Wasn't she with Dr. Shepherd today anyway?" Laura asked.

Dani snickered. "Might as well keep in the family. Why just sleep with the best friend when you can get the soon to be brother-in-law too. I mean, don't sister's share everything," she exclaimed in a snarky tone.

Lexie couldn't take a moment longer, especially when it was taking everything in her to not let the water in her eyes threatened to fall. She turned her head down and ran right into none other than Derek Shepherd.

He reached out to steady her his hands on her arms until she was able to get upright on her feet. She refused to look up and meet his eyes.

"Dr. Grey, are you ok?" He asked, his voice low and tender.

She didn't have to look up to know that he had been standing right behind her, which means that he must've heard the exact same thing she had heard. The only thing was she didn't know how long or how much he had been privy too.

"I'm fine," she sniffed, her voice betraying her by cracking.

"Dr. Grey—"

"Excuse me," she said, shuffling past him before he saw her cry.

Mark was just closing up his patient and handing things over to his intern for the day—Jackson Avery—and other nurses when Derek walked into the prep room outside of the surgery room. Mark disposed of his gloves and scrubs, before turning to him.

"How did the surgery go?" Derek asked.

He wondered why he was here and attempting to make small talk. Unless, he was here to actually issue an apology for things he had said, his best friend wasn't the person he wanted to see right now.

"Fine. Did you need a consult on a case?" he asked briskly.

Ever since Lexie had been taken off his service, he didn't see her as much as he would've had liked, and between her schedule today on Derek's service and his schedule, he barely even got a glimpse of her in passing between cases.

"No. I came because of Lexie," he answered.

Mark froze, his body instantly coiling and bracing for something bad based on his friend's tone and demeanor. "What? What happened? Is she ok?"

Derek tilted his head to the side studying his friend before he replied, "Yes, but she overhead some not so flattering things said about your relationship from her peers. She seemed upset."

He let an exasperated sigh, and slammed his hand against the table. "Dammit."

"Mark—"

"Thanks, I'll handle it," he said shuffling past him and out the door.

Derek followed right behind catching up to him and walking in strides. "This is exactly what I was worried about last night. The look on her face…"

Mark gritted his teeth. "I said I would take care of it."

Derek grabbed his arm to pull him to a stop, but Mark shrugged him off. "You don't understand. I know your intentions are good, but the things they were saying, Lexie—"

"Don't!" Mark snapped cutting him off. "You made your feelings on the matter pretty clear last night. I don't need a second scolding of how our decision is a huge mistake and I am a selfish lying bastard. Just leave it alone, and leave us alone."

He turned and stormed away, rushing to find Lexie. He checked his pager and confirmed she hadn't paged him. He didn't think she would, because she usually wasn't good when it came to talking about her feelings, and after she made such a large speech that she was in this and ready to handle anything— the last thing she would do is come and tell him this happened. That made his heart squeeze painfully.

He checked his office next, followed by the locker room both of them coming up empty. His worry for her increased when he checked their on-call room they frequented and that was also empty. It was where they usually met when they needed to talk about something. This was something she didn't want to talk about.

Where would she go? Would she have gone home? Would she have gone back to his hotel? He had added her to the guest list and even gave her a key to his room a couple of days back. Could it be that she might be there?

A voice in the back of his head whispered the stairwell. He turned and raced towards the opposite end of the hospital. Very rarely did anyone use the stairwell unless they wanted complete anonymity in a discussion.

The last time they had been in the stairwell was the day after they had slept together and he was telling her that she was great, but sleeping together couldn't happen again. That they would never happen again.

He shoved open the door, and felt a huge sigh of relief when he found Lexie there sitting on the steps of the bottom stairwell, her face in her hands, and elbows resting on her thighs.

Her head lifted, the back of her hand wiping at her nose before she wiped at her eyes. She tried to turn and hide herself from his view, but he was at her side in moments, sitting down next to her, and pulling her to him. His arm moved around her shoulders pulling her to his chest, his right hand coming to rest on the side of her face, stroking her hair for comfort.

He didn't say anything at first, allowing her heaves to slowly quiet and for the tears to stop falling from her eyes. After a couple of minutes when she quieted down, he slowly spoke to her.

"Lex, talk to me."

She sniffled and let out a breath. "It's nothing. Really, I'm fine," she assured.

She tried to pull away, and he let her pull back enough so that he could see her face, but not pull out of his embrace. Her cheeks were red and splotchy, her eyes red from crying and shedding tears. Based on what Derek and told him, he wanted to go and find every intern that had said anything upsetting to her and make their life a living hell. He just might do it anyway.

"Little Grey, I'm your boyfriend. We are in a relationship. That means we talk and tell each other things," he reasoned lowering his hand so he could rub small comforting circles on her back. "What happened?"

She wiped at her eyes again and looked back to his face. He could see that it pained her to want to tell him, and it was killing him each second, she was keeping it all bottled up and not share some of the burden with him.

"Some of the other interns were…were talking about us and our relationship. They…they were saying awful things about us and me specifically."

Mark fought to keep his breathing and temper at bay. This wasn't about him, it was about her, and even though he wanted to tear the hospital apart to hunt these interns down, it wasn't what Lexie needed. And the fact that Derek still couldn't understand or believe that when it came to Lexie, everything he did or wanted to do was different when it came to her.

"Lex, you know whatever they said about us isn't true. They don't know anything about who we are or what we mean together."

She rubbed at her eyes and hiccupped. "I know. I just hate anyone saying anything about something they don't know. It's not right."

He had to fight the smile seeing her anger and pout. It made her look so vulnerable and innocent. She was willing to run head first into a situation or fight with those that were in some cases emotionally and physically stronger than she might be without even sparing a second thought.

"Does it make you want to change your mind?" he asked.

He hated himself that he needed to ask the question, and hold his breath until he got her response. If she said she wanted to end things, that it was too difficult for her to be in this relationship, it will hurt like hell, but he thought he could let her go if it was what she needed or wanted. It was the first time in his life, he would be willing to put his own wants and needs aside for someone else, and that thought alone did something funny in his chest.

"No. Never," she whispered.

She clutched at the lapel of his lab coat and he pulled her back to his side, his arm around her shoulder.

"Honey, I wish I could tell you this will most likely be the worst of it. That whatever you heard today was the worst it could get…but it could get worse before it gets better," he noted.

She nodded. "I know. I realized that when I came out here." She paused and pulled away a little so she could look in his eyes. Fully look into them for the first time since he had found her here in the stairwell. "I'm not even crying because of the words. I am crying because they think were taking advantage of each other. That I am using you just to further my medical career. They don't know anything about us or our relationship. Everyone thinks that you and I being together is wrong, but I know we are right together. Together, were amazing and do exquisite things because we are together."

Mark felt like his chest was expanding to new heights and lengths that even he thought wasn't possible. He relapsed his grip on her, turned his body so they were facing each other and gripped the sides of her face with his hands.

"You're an amazing woman, Little Grey," he breathed, before placing a tender kiss on her lips.

She smiled before kissing him again. When she pulled back, she rested her head on his shoulder, and he was comfortable just holding her there in his arms—right where she belonged.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed chapter 3. Reviews/feedback welcomed