His mark was tingling. It had been tingling for the past two weeks. It was strange. Never had his mark tingled before. Not as a kid, not when he was with Rebecca, not when he married Izzie (who wasn't his soulmate but Denny died and Izzie no longer had a soulmate so he thought it could work). It didn't tingle with Lexie or Lucy or any of the various women he had slept with in the past month. But occasionally, while he was in the hospital, his mark would tingle.

His soulmate was nearby. He knew that much. She was around here somewhere, just out of reach. He never thought he would meet his soulmate. The phenomenon was so rare. The only people he had known that found their soulmates were Meredith and Derek, and Mark and Lexie. Everyone had a soul mark, but not everyone would get the chance to meet the person with the matching mark. Mainly because, people are impatient. Even though everyone had someone designed specifically for them, people were too impatient to wait for that person. Everyone wanted the love and the fun quickly. No one wanted to do the work. So, eventually many people ended up in committed relationships with life mates.

Having a life mate wasn't a bad thing. There were plenty of people that were perfectly happy living their lives with a life mate. It wasn't uncommon. In fact, nowadays, you were more likely to find that people were settling down with a life mate than a soulmate. That's why he married Izzie. Her soulmate died and he hadn't found his, so he thought he could make them both happy. He thought he could be a good, decent, honorable man. But that went out the window when she left him.

Since then, he hadn't really gotten into anything serious. He gave up searching for someone that might make him feel like a little bit less of a screw up. Sure he had a girlfriend or two, but he made it pretty clear that it wasn't anything serious. He filled his loneliness with a string of one night stands and hookups. He never slept with a girl more than twice. They're less likely to get attached that way. It worked for a while. He almost forgot about the constellation on the inside of his left wrist.

His mark was itching and burning like crazy. Not for the first time he cursed the fact that the mark was on his wrist and he was a surgeon who needed his hands to work. Resisting the urge to rub it, he hurried over to the pit where he was paged for an incoming trauma. He reached for a trauma gown and bumped into an intern he had never seen before. He pulled on the gown and gloves quickly without sparing a glance to the woman, "Do you mind?"

"Sorry."

The sound of her voice made his heart speed up a little and his mark tingled. He ignores it and kept walking to the ambulance bay, noticing that she was trailing him, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm your intern for the day."

"Hello intern. You have a name?"

"Jo Wilson."

"Nice. I like chicks with boys names." He glances at her and feels his heart pick up bit, but ignores it. Again. She was pretty. Beautiful even. He was sure if he looked into her eyes they'd be beautiful too.

"Karev." Callie interjects, pulling him out of his thought."

"What? I do it's hot," He smirks and finally locks eyes with the beautiful young woman in front of him and it's almost as if time stops. He feels it immediately. The burning sensation on his wrist as he clutches it tightly and gasps. He hears the intern exhale sharply and watches as she holds onto her side as if she just got the wind knocked out of her.

They stare at each other for a moment with equally terrified expressions when they hear a voice in the background, "Holy shit." They break eye contact and look for the source of the voice, Callie Torres, who's eyes are wide in shock. "You guys are... woah."

He takes a deep breath and looks back at his intern. Jo. Her name is Jo Wilson. She looks like she might run. You and me both. He was too damaged for her. She was a nice, normal looking girl and all he had ever known was crazy. He couldn't possibly be her soulmate. He was an asshole. He was the last person who deserved to meet their soulmate.

The sound of the ambulance arriving was enough to snap him out of his thoughts. Soon, he was so preoccupied with the sixteen year old girl's injuries that he had slipped into attending mode and focused on controlling what he could. He sent her to work on his pre and post ops and watched her leave as the elevator doors closed.

"You can't be serious," Callie shakes her head. "You could've let her scrub in. You two could've talked and gotten to know each other in surgery. It would've been like the least stressful first date ever. She's your soulmate for crying out loud."

"I can't right now Torres. I just can't," he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I know what they say about me. I know I'm an asshole and a manwhore. I'm so screwed up. She doesn't need that crap. She's a bright, wide-eyed intern that's got a lot going for her and she doesn't need me and my baggage messing it all up."

"Alex," Callie smiles softly and sighs. "Do you know how rare it is to find your soulmate? The one person who will put up with your crap no matter what? The person who was quite literally made for you? Now I don't know much about this Wilson girl but if she's your soulmate, I'm pretty sure she's tough enough to handle it."

The elevator doors opened to the OR floor and they hurried to scrub in. As he was prepping for surgery, he tested the waters to see if what he had heard was true. They say you could sense your soulmate. If you try hard enough you could feel them and sense what they were feeling. So he closes his eyes and reaches out in hopes of maybe finding the connection.

Within seconds, he feels confusion. Frustration. Nervousness. Excitement. Fear. Uncertainty. He chuckles to himself, yeah me too princess. He pushes all thoughts aside and begins to focus on the task at hand. About halfway through the surgery, he can feel her presence in the gallery. Sure enough, he looks up and sees her observing the procedure.

"You could tell her to come down here you know."

He ignores Callie's comment and proceeds to tell her to go check on his patients again. He knows he's being an ass, but maybe if he's enough of a jerk she'll forget about him and just move on to someone better. He knows it's futile though. Once you meet your soulmate, you can try as hard as you can to distance yourself and be with other people but it'll never be right. Because your soul has already found its missing piece. Take Meredith and Derek for example. Derek was married and tried to stay with Addison, while Meredith tried to date and forget about Derek. In the end, the connection was too strong. The bond was too deep. The pain was too much to stay apart. Mark and Lexie were a mess but when she died, she died loving him. A part of Mark died with her and eventually he succumbed to his injuries as a result of heartbreak.

Hours later when the surgery is over and it's time to check on his patient, he knows he's gonna have to see her again. He knows the minute they are in the same room together his heart will race. He knows the minute they lock eyes he will feel as if all the oxygen in the world won't be enough to restore his lungs after he forgets to breathe at the sight of her. But most of all, he knows he will feel like the worst person in the world for treating her badly.

He sees her talking to Torres outside the girl's room. He breathes in deeply and walks over to them.

"Oh Alex! Your... intern brought you coffee." Torres smiles and looks pointedly at the young woman in front of her.

"Cool."

They look at each other awkwardly for a moment when Callie clears her throat, "Wilson here was wondering if she could scrub in on your next surgery."

The young woman in question looks over to Callie and glares, shaking her head. "No... that's not... I mean, I would love to scrub in on your next surgery but um, you don't have to..."

"Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" Alex says.

The intern looks over at Torres again and who nods at her encouragingly, "Yeah... we can talk."

He turns around and has her follow him down to the tunnels, where hopefully he could find some privacy for the two of them to have a conversation. It felt right to bring her down here. So many significant things happened down there in the tunnels, so it seemed appropriate to have his first real talk with his soulmate in the same place. He stops and sits in a gurney. Just as he's about to open his mouth and say something, he's interrupted.

"Look. You obviously hate me. I don't know what I did to piss you off or what you might have heard about me that made you decide that I wasn't worth your time but I'm not a bad person. I am a kind person. I am smart. I was valedictorian of my high school, I went to Princeton, and Harvard Med. So what am I missing? What am I not getting? Please tell me so I can move on."

"I don't hate you. You haven't pissed me off," he insists

"I haven't?"

"No. I just... it may be possible that I've... dated other interns..."

"You mean Heather."

"Yeah..."

"And Leah."

"Uh huh," he nods sheepishly.

"And Susan, Stacy, Tina, Irene. Don't worry about lying to me or trying to spare my feelings. There isn't much that I haven't heard about you already since you've screwed every one of my friends. But I am willing to put all of that aside if you are."

He stares dumbly at her for a second, "Yeah. I'd like that."

"Okay."

He wasn't expecting her to know how big of a douche he was. He realized that he made a few mistakes but he hadn't noticed that his reputation was scarily similar to what it was his intern year. If that wasn't a slap in the face, then he didn't know what was. "How about we start over. I'm Alex."

One side of her mouth twitches as she reaches out to meet his outstretched hand, "I'm Jo."

"Well, Jo, I have a Nissen tomorrow morning at 8am if you'd like to join me."

Her smile grows wider and she nods enthusiastically, "Yes! I'd love to."

"But for now, how would you feel about joining me at Joe's bar for a drink tonight?" he asks, hoping she'll say yes.

"Yeah, what time should I meet you?"

"I'll come get you in the intern locker room at the end of your shift."

"Okay. Yes that sounds good." She gives him a bright grin and he decides that it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, and vows to make sure that as long as he's around, she's got something to smile about. "I'll see you in a few hours, Alex."

He takes a giant breath in and mirrors her grin, "See ya in a bit, Jo." He turns and walks toward the attendings lounge, hoping to run into Meredith in order to share the big news.