Warning: None. Rated T.

A/N: Thank you everyone for your comments.

moonxue5 – You just might…that is all I am going to say. Maybe sooner than you think ;) I do agree with you that the going back to Seattle was kind of sad (when he was holding her hand, my heart broke for him with the look on his face. Emmy worthy right there for both of them in that scene) …but I think they brought him back so we would be happy that he officially broke things off with Julia and confessed his love for Lexie. I guess to give us one more Mark moment before he too would leave the show.

Guest – Mark will indeed have some tough times ahead.

Mojotom – Thank you so much for the such KIND words. Every writer's dreams. Who knows…maybe one day I can get my work out there ;)

Leann Nickerson & aussieKayz – thanks for reading. More coming your way.

Special A/N: I will also say I was a little bummed with Slexie appearance in S17. I have been waiting for that ever since they left, and while I know Cheryl had to do her scenes through green screen...I had been hoping for something much better. More final about their time in the afterlife together. Not, "On your beach we seem to be." WHAT?! My inner mind is working on whether I might do a one shot story for this as well. **drums fingers** LOL.

This chapter's song title is "Survival" by NEEDTOBREATHE

Chapter 3 – Survival

Wednesday– 4:00pm (Somewhere between Boise and Seattle - 2 hours after the crash)

Mark's steps were slow and careful knowing that Lexie was having a hard time maneuvering with only one good arm over the tougher terrain. He stayed close in case she tripped—which she had already done three times—since they made the trek back to the main crash site.

"Do you think Cristina has found Meredith and Derek by now?" Lexie asked him, unable to take their walk-in silence any longer.

"I hope so," he replied, his hand on her elbow to help guide her over the next major downed tree in their way.

"How much longer until we are back at the…spot?" she asked, hesitating at not being sure what to call it.

"Not far."

He hated how awkward their conversation had become between them. There was an elephant in the room they were not addressing. He wanted to talk to her about it more than she could even know, but until he was sure that everyone was accounted for and ok, he didn't want their conversation to be rushed.

More of the planes debris was visible up ahead, telling Mark they were close to where he had left Arizona at the crash site. He was really hoping that Cristina was back and that she was able to locate Meredith and Derek relatively unharmed.

Lexie's figure blew past him, her paces quickening as he realized she too noticed the debris and figured they were close. Her foot caught on another branch, causing her good hand to snake out to the nearest tree to keep her from falling down. He was at her side in a second.

"Hey. Slow down," he stated, grabbing for her good arm. "It won't be good if you fall."

She shrugged out of his hold, and turned on him with impressive speed. "Stop. Just stop."

His forehead furrowed, the corners of his mouth turning downward. "Stop what?"

"This," she clarified by pointing between him and her. "Stop being nice to me. I'm fine." She exhaled. "I appreciate what you did for me back there. Coming for me, rescuing me, and tending to my wounds, but you need to stop now."

He gave her a once-over, his eyes squinting, agitation apparent in his features. "I'm just trying to help."

"Well, you can stop now," she bit back firmly. "I don't need you to be responsible for me or feel sorry for me."

"Feel sorry for you? What the hell are you talking about?

Her voice was tight with pain, and he could tell her shoulder was still bothering her. It had been a nasty dislocation, one he was hoping did not need surgery, but until Callie looked at it, he wasn't so sure. He had to fight to keep his hands at his side, since she was behaving irrationally at the moment and taking it out on him.

He tried to understand that with them being in the situation they were in, it could make anyone scared and afraid of what would happen to them. Knowing they had a rather complicated history intimately, it made it even easier for her to express those true feelings out on him directly.

"Because I am the pathetic ex that confessed, she is still in love with the guy that is in love with someone else," she answered. "You don't have to tiptoe around me and worry that I am going to breakdown and tell you something that you obviously hadn't wanted to hear." Her eyes flashed with a mixture of sadness, anger, and distress. This time he knew it was not due to her injuries. "Your message was loud and clear that you've moved on to Julia."

"Lexie."

"Just stop, Mark." Her gaze turned pleading, and it broke his heart. "Please, just stop making it anymore difficult then it needs to be."

"Le—"

"Lexie? Mark?"

His words were cut off at the sound of Cristina fast approaching in their direction.

"Oh, thank god, you're ok," Cristina exclaimed.

It was really the first time that Mark had seen the senior doctor show any legitimate concern towards the younger Grey sister. Cristina pulled Lexie into a hug, careful to not injure her bad arm any further. When Cristina pulled back, her gaze looked between the two, registering based on his expression that she had walked into a heated conversation.

"Thanks, I'm ok," Lexie said, pushing her hair out of her face, avoiding contact with him.

Mark tore his eyes from Lexie, his gut clenching at the way things were being left between them. He would have to fix that later, but for now, he needed to know about his brother and his friend.

He cleared his throat. "Did you find Meredith and Derek?"

"I found Meredith wandering in the woods. She was dazed and confused," Cristina responded. "I think I know where Derek could be, but I need your help."

"Of course," he replied.

He adjusted the trauma bag, and moved ahead, not sparing a glance at Lexie or Cristina hoping that Cristina would take over and keep a watchful eye. It was the hardest thing for him to do to relinquish that need to help and protect her, but for now, he would respect her wishes to ease off a bit.

"Looks like Mark patched you up good," Cristina observed taking in Lexie's injuries.

"Yeah," she muttered quietly behind him.

As soon as Mark rounded the corner of the plane debris, Meredith was up on her feet rushing over to them.

"Mark!"

She threw her arms around him. He clenched his teeth when the pain hit his chest as Meredith hugged him tightly.

"Lexie!"

She screamed a moment later, rushing to her sister, her greeting gentler and slower having taken in her sister's injuries.

"Are you ok?" Lexie asked, taking in her own sister's appearance.

Mark had already clocked Meredith's injuries. She had a smaller gash to her forehead that already had a medium size bandage covering it. She had gauze wrapped around her mid-thigh, blood covering her blue scrubs on her thigh. She was limping even through her excitement at seeing them both.

"I'm fine. We can't find Derek," she informed, her eyes glancing back at Mark.

He exhaled, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Ok, I'll go and search."

"I'll come with you," Meredith said immediately.

"No, you stay here. Yang is in better shape; she can come with me."

Meredith's eyes narrowed. "He's my husband, Mark."

"I know. But you are the only other senior doctor here, and someone needs to…" his voice trailed off, when Lexie arched her brow and hardened her stare in his direction. "Keep an eye on Arizona in case she gets worse. Plus, if someone is looking for us, it would be best if as many of us were together in one place as possible."

"He's right, Mer," Christina agreed. "I am in better shape then you."

"You don't even have both shoes," Meredith argued.

Everyone looked down to see that Cristina did in fact only have one sneaker on her foot. Cristina shrugged. "I can't find it. I thought trying to make sure all of you were alive was more important then trying to locate my freaking sneaker."

As tough as Mark knew Yang was, he could tell that she was starting to descend into hysterics. Considering her past breakdowns due to tragic events—like Derek being shot—the last thing her psyche needed was this plane crash.

"Yang and I will be fine," he said, looking back at Meredith trying to tell her with his eyes to let this drop.

"Fine," Meredith relented.

Mark crouched down back to Arizona. He was concerned about her, and knew his best friend back home would want to make sure that he was doing everything he could to ensure she got back to her wife safely.

"How you doing, Robbins?" he asked.

Her head was lauded to the side. She blinked at the sound of his voice, turning her head slowly. "Hey, Mark. Callie's not home right now," she said, her voice sounding sleepy.

"She was in a lot of pain," Cristina supplied. "We gave her a little more morphine. We only have enough for two more doses."

He did a quick check of her pulse and pulled back her bandages on her leg. It looked as good as it could for now, but he would have to change them as soon as he got back. Dirt was already covering the white of the bandage.

He looked over the horizon, the sun starting to set lower. He wasn't the outdoorsy kind of guy like Derek was, but by his guest estimate, they only had a couple of hours left before the sun was going to set. They still needed to find Derek and make sure they got him back before nightfall. There was no way he was confident that he would be able to find them back to this spot if the sun went down beforehand.

"Your doing good, Robbins." He squeezed her shoulder, and stood.

He grimaced at the pain in his own chest, but pushed it out of his thoughts, knowing that Derek still needed him.

"Come on, Yang. Let's go find my brother."

He glanced at Lexie for a second, her eyes betraying her earlier demand that he leave her alone. Her bottom lip fell open, but he turned away and grabbed the medical bag, before he and Cristina took off towards the woods.

"Are you ok?" Meredith asked her sister, once Mark and Cristina left to search for Derek

"I'm…I'm fine," she stammered.

"Here, come and take a seat," Meredith suggested. "I'm trying to set up a spot that we could set a fire and huddle together until help arrives."

"Do you really think help is coming?" she asked. The temperature was already starting to drop. Meredith didn't respond to her right away. "Mer?"

"I don't know, Lexie. I don't know. Right now, all I can focus on…is whether my husband is alive or dead."

Lexie's gaze drifted down, her head dipping to her chin, before she went over to her sister and placed her good arm over her shoulder. "Derek's strong. He's going to be just fine. Mark will make sure of it," she assured.

Lexie and Meredith worked hand in hand, going through the wreckage to pull anything they could to help set up for camp for the night. They had no idea how long they might be here until help—if help was coming—might arrive. She was able to scour two blankets and a couple of bottles of water, and only a fourth of their luggage from what was left of the plane in this area.

As Lexie and Meredith settled in next to Robbins, they both waited to know whether Derek was going to be alive or not.

"Take my mind off things," Meredith said looking out into the empty woods.

"I'm in love with Mark," Lexie said.

"That's something we already know," Arizona said groggily as she blinked herself awake.

Lexie could tell some of the morphine that Meredith and Cristina had given her was starting to wear off, her hands coming to her leg, her face grimacing as she attempted to stretch her leg, pain evident in her expression.

"Ok…did you know that I told him that I was still in love with him two days ago? That I wanted another chance with him."

Meredith and Arizona looked at her in disbelief. "You did what?" Meredith asked.

Lexie shrugged. "I took a chance. Failed miserably, but took a chance."

"Wha—what do you mean you failed?" Arizona asked, her words slurring a bit.

"Well, I'm here and he's still with Julia…so I would say that ship has sailed," she replied, looking down at her bandaged arm.

"Lexie, Mark loves you. Maybe it was just a shock hearing it from you after all this time. It's hard to really ever know what is going on between you two," Meredith noted.

Arizona shifted her position, to stretch her leg. "I agree with Big Grey. With Mark, it always seems to come back to you."

A look of anguish crossed her face. "Sometimes, it's too late. Sometimes, love just isn't enough anymore."

Monday – 1:00pm (Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital)

Lexie had watched from the gallery as Derek was just wrapping up his case with removing the worms from his patient. Ever since the elevator that morning, she couldn't help but want to know if Derek and Mark had talked about her and her epic speech from the night before. She convinced herself that he had to know something.

When she saw he was done with the surgery, she raced down from the gallery and met him in the sterilizer room.

"Dr. Grey."

"I need to talk to you," she panted.

"Do you have a consult you need?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. It's about Mark."

He sighed. "Lexie…"

"I know. I know. You're an incredible, amazing, and a busy Chief of Neurosurgery. Your happy, and you have an amazing wife and the cutest daughter, and the last thing you need is to be refereeing about my pathetic excuse of a love life," she paused, taking a deep breath. "I'm dying over here Derek. I... I just need to know. I promise I won't bother you anymore about it…I just need to know."

He leaned against the wash tub, folding his arms across his chest, turned towards her, and nodded. "Ok."

"Ok," she repeated. "Has…has Mark mentioned anything to you?"

"Yes."

"Did he give you any indication on if what I said to him might change anything?"

He searched her face, and then broke the contact and looked down. "I don't know," he said honestly.

Her eyes started to turn glassy, but she put a half-smile on her face anyway. "Do—do you know if he loves her?"

She could tell that he knew something, and he was weighing on whether he should tell her the truth of what he knew or continue to spare her feelings. Deep in her gut she figured that whatever it was that he was holding back was probably something that was going to shatter her heart into pieces.

"Julia wants to have a baby with Mark. She wants to give him everything he's ever wanted. I'm sorry, Lexie, but I really don't know what he is planning on doing." She bit her lip, as her eyes swelled with tears. He uncrossed his arms and moved towards her. "Are you ok?" he asked.

Her head bobbled up and down, her lips pressed together to keep them from wobbling or crying out. "Yeah, no…that's…that's great," she choked, her tone trembling. Her face crumbled a second later, the tears streaming down her eyes. "That's…that's perfect," she cried, his arms coming around her, as her hands covered her face, crying into his chest.

"It's going to be ok, Lexie," he soothed, rubbing circles on her back.

Wednesday – 4:30pm (Somewhere between Boise and Seattle – 2 1/2 hour after the crash)

Mark and Cristina had been walking for the last thirty minutes, feeling like they were going in circles. At one point, Mark had even recalled passing through a similar area of debris they had already passed before.

"This is feeling hopeless," Cristina said.

"We have to push forward," he replied, a note of determination in his voice.

"Derek!" Mark shouted.

"We're losing daylight," Cristina pointed out.

"I know that," Mark snapped. "You don't think I know that. He's my brother and we aren't going to leave him behind. Even if I have to search all damn night."

Her eyes bugged out as she stopped walking. "Ok. Jeez."

Mark sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just, between Derek still missing and Lexie..."

"What about Lexie? She seemed to be in ok shape when we left," she observed.

"Nothing. She's just pushing me away again."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "Are you two at it again? I mean, really, you're on again off again thing is a little exhausting."

"Noted," he replied sarcastically.

"Maybe it's time you both move on. Sometimes, people are just best apart, no matter if they love each other or not."

He turned; giving her a long appraising stare. "Are we talking about Lexie and I, or you and Owen?" he countered.

Her mouth opened, but then she closed it not offering a response to his question. He figured he had hit too close to home for her comfort.

"Help!"

Mark's eyes scanned the open terrain. "Did you hear that?"

Cristina looked around. "No. Hear what?"

"Help!"

"Ok, that time I heard it," she said.

"Derek!" Mark called. "Keep yelling. Try banging something so we can find you."

There was silence for a couple of minutes, before Mark heard the familiar noise of something banging against metal. Cristina and him moved quickly in the direction as the sound got louder.

"Derek!"

"Mark!"

Mark's eyes caught a flash of light up ahead in the trees and started rushing to it, Cristina following closely behind. Once he was upon Derek, he could see that Derek was sitting upright, his face and arms layered in scratches and cuts. His right hand was currently pinned under what looked like one of the propellers of the plane.

Derek laughed. "Boy, am I glad to see your pretty face."

"Thank god, we never thought we would find you," Mark said happily.

Derek winced when he moved his hand. "You have no idea." He looked towards the propeller. "My hand is trapped. Most likely broken. Any movement at all is excruciating."

"Sure, pick a fine time for everyone to get broken bones without our orthopedic surgeon being around," Mark muttered.

"Mark. Before you move it," Derek said, his face pensive, "Meredith?"

"Is fine," he assured. "Back with the rest and waiting for us to drag your McDreamy ass back to her."

Derek sighed in relief. "Everyone else?"

"Some injuries, but for now, all stable and alive."

Derek closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "Ok. I'm ready to get the hell out of here."

"Yang, come help me lift," Mark ordered.

Cristina looked at the part of the engine and then back at him. "Are you crazy. There is no way we can both lift it."

"We just need to lift or shift it enough until he can move his hand out from underneath."

Her face told him, she wasn't confident with the plan, but moved forward anyway, crouching until her hands were underneath the engine mirroring his stance.

"Ok, on the count of three," Mark said.

They both grunted, but between the two of them, they were able to shift the metal enough so Derek could remove his hand. He clutched it to his chest, his knuckles protruding, blood running down his wrist.

"Here," Cristina said, moving to take a closer look at his injury. "Let me take a look."

"How did you end up all the way out here?" Mark asked through gritted teeth trying to block out his own pain.

Derek hissed, at Christina's movements and placement of his hand. "I don't know. All I remember before the crash, is that once it happened it was as if I was sucked out, like some kind of vortex." He looked down at Cristina. "Where's your shoe?"

Considering the circumstances and everything that had happened to them in the last couple of hours, the three of them broke out into laughter at his question.

"There, that will do for now," Cristina announced, once she finished wrapping his hand as best as she could.

"We need to get moving if we have any chance of making it back before nightfall," Mark warned.

While Cristina packed up the supplies, as Mark did a quick turn of the area to see if there was anything they could take back with them. Outside of the part of the engine that trapped Derek's hand and some smaller debris, there was nothing that would be useful to aid them through the night.

The three of them carefully started making the trek back towards the main camp site.

Monday – 3:00pm (Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital)

Lexie had just finished cleaning herself up in the bathroom after falling apart in her brother-in-law's arms—again. Her eyes were still a bit red and puffy from all the crying. She released her hair from her ponytail to help hide the redness to her cheeks.

She was back at the nurse's station working on the last of her charts for the day so she could escape and get out of the hospital and away from everyone's questioning stares. She was tired of everyone looking at her like she was the basket case that she was feeling. The Lexie Grey that after all these years still couldn't seem to get her emotions in check.

"Dr. Grey?"

Lexie stilled. Of course, her day could get worse. Why not? That was her luck these days. Why wouldn't the universe not want to throw her a bone just this once. It made sense that it would rather want to throw salt to the wound.

"Julia." She greeted her expression woeful.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine," she snapped a little more harshly than she intended.

She wished that she could hate Julia. She wished that Julia was an awful person or even a crappy doctor. Anything that would make it easier to not like the woman that seemed to capture the heart of the man that she loved. But that wasn't the case when it came to Julia.

Even after Lexie had threw a baseball right at her boob out of jealousy, the woman still didn't have a mean bone in her body towards her. Even knowing her history with Mark, she never uttered a mean word towards Lexie or treated her with any contempt. She understood that in some way, Lexie had been important to Mark; therefore, making it known to her that if they were going to have any sort of relationship that Lexie had to be important to her too.

Why can't I hate you?

"Tough day?" Julia guessed.

Lexie's eyes remained flat and unmoving, even though she forced the corners of her mouth upwards into a smile. "The worst."

"I hear you. I had a patient today, where I just couldn't save his eye. He now only has vision in one eye. I hated having to break the news to him," she stated.

She closed the chart she had been writing in. "Is there something I can do for you?" she asked.

She knew she was being mean and catty. It wasn't Julia's fault that she was still in love with Mark. It wasn't Julia's fault that she realized a good thing she had when she had it, while Lexie was miserable that she lost it. It didn't mean standing here and trying to bond with his girlfriend—soon to be wife or baby mama—was something she wanted to do either.

"Oh," she replied, her face falling. "I was just looking for Mark."

Lexie sighed, and tried to clamp back her crappy mood. It was difficult, because now that Julia was standing here before her—looking for Mark—it dawned on her that even after she had told him she was still in love with him, it hadn't changed things between him and Julia. He was choosing Julia over her.

"Last I knew, he was just wrapping up a surgery. Do you want me to have him paged?"

Julia waved her off. "No. Don't worry about it. I can just wait around until he's done."

Lexie grabbed the chart and hugged it to her chest. "Ok."

"Hey, Lexie," Julia called when she attempted to turn away. Lexie turned back. "Can I just ask you a quick question before you go?"

"Sure."

"I know that Mark respects you immensely and he always goes on about how talented and wonderful you are, so I need some advice from you," she said.

God…help me.

"I'm flattered, but I am not really sure if I am the person you want to ask. Callie or Derek would probably be better," she divulged, mostly trying to get out of this as quickly as possible.

"Please. I promise it will only take a second." Lexie found herself nodding. "I really, really like Mark. More than anyone I have ever been with before. I know that settling down and having a family is something that is really important to him, and I am afraid of messing that up. What should I do?"

She could feel the water wanting to fill the back of her eyes, but she somehow managed to hold it back. She looked back at Julia and even though everything in her wanted to hate her and sabotage her chance with him, she knew she couldn't do that to Mark. Because if Mark really loved Julia, if he really wanted things to work with her—if Lexie really loved him—then she had to be happy for him, even if that meant being miserable herself.

She cleared her throat, and when she met Julia's eyes it had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do. "Just love him. Mark's a good man, and loving him is the easiest thing to do. If you do that, everything will work out in the end," she offered.

Julia's face lit up. "Thank you, Dr. Grey."

"Julia?"

Lexie's eyes snapped up to see Mark coming down the hallway. For a second, his gaze traveled to hers, and she wondered if he could see her heart breaking all the same.

She turned and walked away.

A/N: Welcome your comments and thoughts :)