Guys, she updated! It's a miracle! Honestly, I'm sorry. I don't even have an excuse this time. I'm just really bad at updating, and I'm sorry because it's not like this even a particular good story or chapter anyway. I'm hoping I'll be able to update faster now that I've gotten past this chapter.
Unchained Melody
Chapter 5: Jolene
The idly chatting nurses at the front desk couldn't have looked more bored unless they were on sedative medication. A steady downpour of rain beat down outside, pattering against the window. Somewhere, a TV blared loudly.
Looking around at all this, fiddling nervously with the rings on her left finger, Lexie wondered why Mark would choose this hospital – out of the many which were perfectly willing to employ him – when it was so dull, so ordinary when compared to Mt. Sinai. Although she didn't work there yet herself (she'd been planning to do so one day, but she supposed she couldn't be sure about that now), Lexie had spent quite a lot of time at Mt. Sinai over the years, and she'd found the steady bustle of people, the constant influx of new emergencies every five minutes, and general demeanour of the hospital to be something enthralling.
In comparison to Mt. Sinai, Seattle Grace Hospital paled considerably.
Of course, Lexie had read up on Seattle Grace when she found out that was where Mark was. She knew that it was a Level 1 trauma center, and had recently made it into the top ten hospitals in North America. Several internationally ranked surgeons worked there, or had at some point.
But there were no bright, flashing lights. No sultry blondes with pouty pink lips and lots of eye makeup. This place wasn't fast-paced, or flashy, or exciting. It wasn't Mark.
This wasn't New York. Or Las Vegas. Or California, even.
The implications of that scared Lexie. Because they were all based off one of two possibilities:
1. Mark had somehow managed to settle down in a place like this without Lexie. He had become a better man without her – a different Mark to the one she'd known – and now he didn't need her.
2. Mark had turned into this man while she'd still been married to him, and she hadn't noticed. (And that scared Lexie. Because, most of all, what did that say about her?)
However, ultimately, Mark was here – in Seattle – whether Lexie found it surprising or not. And thinking and stressing about it wasn't going to benefit her, or the baby, in any way. So she walked right up to the front desk, and then came to a stop before the nurse stood at the front of it, who didn't look busy at all.
Lexie cleared her throat. The nurse continued filing her nails, showing Lexie not even the slightest acknowledgement.
"Um, hi," Lexie said, fake-smiling in a way that felt very forced and so probably looked it, too. "Excuse me?"
The nurse pursed her lips and gave Lexie a very judgemental look before deliberately looking away and ignoring her again.
"Sorry," said the only male nurse currently present, jumping in. "Becky just got back to work from leave and she's very sulky right now. It doesn't help that it's a quiet day at the hospital today, so something big is going to happen."
"Oh, eff you Tyler," Becky the nurse said. Tyler cracked a grin.
"Anyway," he continued. "How can I help you?"
"Uh, I'm looking for Dr. Sloan?" Lexie said. "As in, Mark Sloan. The plastic surgeon, ENT." She sensed the baby kick a little against her stomach, and felt the corners of her lips twitch into a small smile.
Tyler caught her smile, and a bit of a knowing look crossed his face; he probably thought Lexie was just some patient or something who'd gotten a crush on Mark. "Do you have an appointment with Dr. Sloan?" he asked. Becky the nurse rolled her eyes at him.
"Well," Lexie said. "I've been hoping I won't really need one. I'm his wife, you see. Lexie Sloan?"
Tyler choked on something. Becky the nurse fell off her chair. Somebody dropped something. "McSteamy has a wife?" Becky said in a hushed, gossipy kind of voice. "Seriously?"
"Uh, Dr. Sloan has finished his shift for today," Tyler informed her, a bit of a strange expression Lexie couldn't recognise on his face. "His last surgery was a few hours ago. But he hangs out at the NICU a lot, if you wanna check that out."
Lexie laughed. She felt the baby wriggling around inside her and imagined that she, too, was laughing. Mark was not one to hang out at the NICU. He never had been to begin with.
But Tyler wasn't laughing. And neither was Becky. THey were actually looking at her like she was a little crazy. "Wait," Lexie said. "You're serious?"
"Uh, yeah," Becky said in a very 'duh' kind of voice. "What's so funny about it?"
"Nothing," Lexie said, although it very much was something, because Mark didn't hang out at the NICU. He didn't go cuckoo over babies – or, at least, she didn't think he did, given she didn't think he'd actually interacted with any infants outside of surgery during the entirety of their relationship. "Could you point me in the right direction, please? To the NICU, that is."
"It's on the fifth floor," Tyler told her. "You turn left at the elevator and then left again at the turn by the private birthing suites. It's kind of hard to miss. There are signs and stuff, you know."
She thanked Tyler and nodded at Becky before leaving. Then, she got as far as the first left on the fifth floor before she got lost – she didn't know how it happened, given she remembered Tyler's instructions perfectly, but she found this hospital very confusing, and she was actually a little dizzy.
This was how, somewhat ironically, Lexie found herself behind the large plexiglass window of the hospital nursery, surveying row after row of rosy-cheeked, wide-eyed babies in Perspex cots.
She found her hands once more drifting to rest on her burgeoning stomach, where the thin fabric of her t-shirt stretched tightly against her prominent bump, and smiling as she rubbed that spot on her right side where the baby liked to kick so much.
In just one month, one of those rosy-cheeked, wide-eyes babies could be hers. Her and Mark's. She could imagine already the way that its eye-lashes would flutter against soft baby cheeks, the way it would poke a little pink tongue out from behind little pink lips, the way that little, laminated paper bracelet reading 'Baby Sloan' would fall against one of its hands.
Lexie Grey hadn't ever really wanted kids. Kids were loud and sticky and, oftentimes, kind of dumb. While some little girls, like Lexie's sister Molly, had always had that dream of playing mommy to two-point-five clingy little brats, Lexie had always wanted to be a doctor; a baby could only get in the way of that. When Mark had bought up the subject of kids maybe a year or so back, she had told him something along those lines, and it was never really mentioned again.
But Lexie, somehow, wanted a baby now that she had one developing inside her. She wanted this baby. She loved this baby.
And she was sure Mark would want it – love it – too, even if they didn't necessarily share the same genetic material. Because, deep down, that was who he was.
A little time had passed and Lexie was just about to leave in search of her husband again when she bumped into someone, managing to stay upright herself by grabbing a hold of the wall but sending the person she'd bumped into crashing onto the ground with the clatter of falling charts.
Peering over her stomach, Lexie managed to catch sight of the woman on the ground. She had red hair piled up on top of her head, and was wearing scrubs; presumably she was either a doctor or a nurse, although judging by the pager and her hospital ID, Lexie would have guessed she was a doctor. A closer glance, while the other woman rubbed the small bruise forming on her forehead and both of them apologised, confirmed this in informing Lexie of the fact that this was Dr. A. A. F. Montgomery and she was an OBGYN and neonatal surgeon.
"I am so sorry," Lexie said, offering Dr. Montgomery a hand she used to pull herself up. "I wasn't looking where I was going and-"
"It's fine, honestly," Dr. Montgomery said, smiling. "If anything, that was my fault. I should have been looking where I was going. My responsibility, as the one who works here."
She looked nice – or maybe Lexie was just in a good mood, because the baby was suddenly kicking up a huge storm inside her – so she smiled back and said, "Well, either way, it's nice to meet you, Dr. Montgomery. I'm Lexie."
"Call me Addison," Dr. Montgomery said. "It's a pleasure. How far along are you?"
"Seven months," Lexie announced proudly. God, that means six months now without Mark. "Just two more left to go."
"Do you know whether it's a boy or a girl?"
"Not really, but I'm getting girl vibes, you know? I'd probably be better with a girl. And I've got lots of name ideas, for one of those. Pearl is my favourite I think, but I also like Emma and Ellie a lot. Or maybe even Margaret. Or Susannah. That's pretty, and it would be a cute tribute to my mother."
"Those are lovely names."
"Do you have any kids?" Lexie asked curiously.
Addison laughed. "Uh, no, not me, I don't have any kids," she said. "I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a mother. Although, you know, I always thought Ella would be pretty, for a girl."
Ella.
Ella Grey.
Ella Sloan.
Ella Bennet.
She liked that. She liked that a lot. She could see Mark, see Mark with this adorable little girl called Ella. And it was amazing to imagine, because it looked – it felt – so right.
Mark and Ella.
Mark, Lexie, and Ella.
Mark and Ella.
"Oh, wow," Lexie breathed. "That, that is a nice name. I really like that name."
Addison laughed again. Lexie supposed she must have been acting in a way the other woman found quite amusing. "Well, it's not that far off from Emma and Ellie, really," Addison said. "We actually have an Ella in the nursery at the moment. She's adorable, but most of the babies are, really."
Lexie smiled, but it was a bit of a watery smile – at any rate, it felt like one – and then, next thing she knew, the walls were spinning and she was collapsing.
The diagnosis Addison eventually came up with was placenta previa. Not so serious that it required bedrest, in fact mild enough that with any luck it might go away completely in the remaining few weeks of the pregnancy.
Lexie was still unconscious by the time Addison had completed the evaluation – although now she was stable, she was mildly sedated because she woke up earlier from some horrible kind of nightmare and nearly hit a nurse in her fright – so she decided she had enough time to go grab a coffee and maybe meet up with Callie and Amelia.
It just so happened that she bumped into that intern Derek had being seeing lately – Meredith, maybe, or Millicent (she forgets) – as she exited the room. "Grey," she said, quite pleasantly in her opinion. "Have you got those medical files for Alexandra Sloan from New York?"
"Yes, Dr. Montgomery," Grey said. "A Dr. Anderson from Beth Israel Hospital is having them faxed over right now. Nurse Debbie said she'd page you once they were entirely faxed. It doesn't look like Miss Sloan has any underlying conditions, though, and what we've heard from her OB indicates that her pregnancy has been pretty textbook so far."
"I see," Addison replied, glancing down at the lab results she was carrying, which indicated pretty much the same except maybe a slight level of dehydration (and they were administering fluids, so that wasn't going to be a problem for much longer). "Have you been in touch with her emergency contact, then?"
Grey looked confused, for a moment there. "Oh," she said making those big, doe eyes. "I thought he'd know by now. It says on her documents that Dr. Mark Sloan is her emergency contact – the one who works here, which makes sense because they have the same surname and all… I thought he'd already know by now. Would you like for me to go tell him now?"
"It's…fine, Grey," Addison said. "I'll do it myself, I was heading over to plastics anyway."
She wondered if Mark had a sister he didn't tell her about. There didn't seem to be much of a family resemblance between him and this woman. Maybe a sister in-law then. Or a half-sister. Or a stepsister. Maybe even a daughter – Lexie certainly seemed young enough for that to be possible.
She found Mark easily, talking with one of the oncology attendings about a case. He spotted her over the attending's shoulder, and smiled. She waited for the two of them to finish talking.
For some reason, she found herself tapping her foot nervously. She trusted Mark - they'd known each other for a good six months, of course she did – but there was a part of her which didn't like all this; she had a bad feeling.
"Hey, Red," Mark greeted her as he finished talking and he and the oncology attending exchanged goodbyes. "You wanna go get coffee or something? I have an hour until my rhinoplasty, and you're free until six, right?"
"Actually, I have a case now," she told him vaguely. "Mark, do you have a sister or something? Because, I have this patient – an Alexandra Sloan, seven months pregnant – and you're listed as her emergency contact."
He was silent for what felt like a very long time. His jaw was clenched, and he turned a little pale. He looked a little sick, a little angry.
Finally, he cleared his throat and quietly stated, "That's my wife, Addie."
She didn't register much, after that. How can you react to something like that? How does somebody keep their wife a secret from the woman who loves him for six months?
Addison, however, was raised a WASP. She knew how to be cold and apathetic until she found someplace private she was allowed to cry.
"I see," she replied, voice frosty. "Well, I'm sure Dr. Grey will update you on your wife's condition if you'll just page her, Dr. Sloan. Excuse me."
She left, ignoring Mark's sharp cry of Addison! because he didn't deserve to explain. He didn't need to explain. You don't keep that kind of secret for so long – you just don't.
He watched her go, eyes red and brimming with unshed tears which threatened to spill onto his reddened face, knowing better than to follow her but being unable to focus on anything more than how this hurt far more than losing Lexie – or anything else, for that matter – ever did.
How did I do? Was it okay? I thought it was kind of okay, although there may be quite a few grammar/spelling mistakes, etc. There wasn't much medicine in this chapter. Actually, there wasn't much in this chapter in general. I wanted to focus on Lexie and the baby and how that may change everything. Also, help with Lexie? At first I was certain she'd be Pearl, because of reasons I can't reveal correlating to future chapters, or maybe eventually Margaret. But now I really like the idea of her using the name Ella, because of the irony and the tiny bit of pain it could cause Addison for a little extra drama… so, yeah, feedback on that could be a little useful, I guess.
Also, because I'm not sure if I made it clear, the baby is definitely Sam's and not Mark's.
GreysAnatomyPrettyLittleLiars - I'm glad you're excited to see more! Although, again, I'm sorry it took so long. :)
Irony-FLD – thank you, I'm flattered! The only thing worse than how we got so little Maddison on the show when they were clearly so amazing is that they didn't end up living happily ever after together! I'm hoping to fix that.
Patsy – I think your reviews are showing up and you just aren't seeing it on your own device? If not, I think there may be another reviewer who goes by Patsy, although that seems less likely. Thank you, and I'm glad you liked the idea of jumping ahead! Sorry I kept you waiting so long for more. :)
Patsy (2?) – I didn't even realise that I last updated in like, January until I saw your review; oh my god, I'm a horrible person and I'm even worse at reviewing than I thought. Thanks, and I hope you had Happy New Year too. :)
SadlyOutWittedUnicorn – thank you! I'm glad you like it.