Chapter 2 - We're Mark and Meredith

He waited in the lobby for at least half an hour before he saw her come out of the elevator dressed up in the black dress he bought that afternoon. He was dressed in black pants and a crimson red polo.

They arrived at the restaurant a few minutes later and Mark led her by the hand inside.

"Reservation for Sloan," Mark informs the receptionist. The receptionist looks at his list and leads them to their table. They existed in a few minutes of silence as the waiter took their orders.

"How was work?" Mark asked.

"Tiring as usual."

"Missed me?" he cockily grinned.

"You're so full of yourself," she rolled her eyes lightly.

"Did people miss me at the hospital?"

"I think Alex did the most," she giggled lightly.

"That Karev is like a lost puppy, you know," Mark told her with a grimace. "I think he'd be my sex slave if I asked him to."

She shot him a look.

"Kidding," he grinned widely, flashing her his McSteamy face. "What about the nurses?"

"Well, I think they miss seeing you around… But they all wish they could put you on mute or something, they all say you're an ass and that you're one cranky doctor."

"They didn't expect me to be kissing and hugging them, right?" he scoffed.

"Did you really shout at Olivia?"

"Olivia?" Mark asked, clueless.

"The one who was trying to flirt with you the other day?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"The one who slept with O'Malley and gave him the syph?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, that one…" Meredith nodded her head slowly. "You really have a gift of making everything be about sex, don't you?"

"It's a gift," he grinned and winked.

"What did you do all day?"

"I bummed around and then I went to the mall to buy you the dress and this," he pointed to the crimson red polo he was wearing. "Then I bummed around some more… And then…"

He paused.

"We're avoiding the unavoidable, aren't we?"

"Yeah," she nodded. They really were.

"No kicking me in the head this time around, okay?" he gave her a teasing smile. "Just talking."

"Just talking," she agreed.

"I know you deserve to get into the Seattle Grace program, Mer. And I'm proud of you, I really am."

She kept quiet, willing him to go on.

"And I know you want to stay here…"

"And I want you to stay here too," she told him.

"But I can't," he finished. "We both know I can't leave my job hanging in New York."

"And I can't leave my job here too…"

"That's why we need to meet halfway, Mer."

"What? Move to Iowa?"

Mark gave out a small laugh. "Mer… We're being serious here."

"Fine," she lightly rolled her eyes.

"So here's what I'm thinking…"

She held her breathe, waiting for his idea.

"I go back to New York and you stay here."

"But…" she started to speak but he cut her off.

"We'll work this out, Mer. I'll come visit every other weekend. I promise. And we'll call each other everyday."

He suddenly motioned to someone from behind the counter and Meredith watched as a waiter dragged in a big paper bag. Mark reached inside the bag and handed her a cell phone and brought out another one and placed it in front of him. He reached inside the bag once again and this time brought out a laptop.

"I got this earlier," he showed her the cell phone. "We can see each other when we talk. And the laptops come with a built in webcam, it'll make it easier for us to talk with each other when we're online."

"I didn't know you were such a technology geek," she teased him.

"I'm not," he told her sternly. "The salesman was already irritated with my never ending questions. I thought he was going to hit me with one of those big contraptions they had…"

He stopped and he took her hand into his.

"We can do this, Mer. It wouldn't be like the last time where you had to hide me and that I had to be frustrated that you're hiding me. We're done with the hiding."

"We're definitely done with the hiding," she nodded in agreement. "How do we know this time it won't be different?"

"What? That Addison's in New York and that Derek's here?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Cos' we're not known to make the same mistakes again, Mer. We're Mark and Meredith."

"We were Mark and Meredith... Now we're just…" she trailed off..

"We're still Mark and Meredith, baby. We always have been. We always will be."

I KNOW. It's been more than a month now. You guys probably forgot there was a story about MerMark lying around in somewhere... LOL.

I'll try to type up the next chapter soonish. Just do your thing, guys.