Is anyone else getting annoyed by the amount of updates on this site recently, I swear its screwing it up worse, I have to press everything twice to get it to work!

Anyways, on with the story...

He knew he shouldn't have said it, he knew that. He told her they could take it slow and then he said those three little words. But they weren't little to either of them. They were huge! He hadn't even realised that he still felt that way, he'd begun to have little inklings that something was there over the past couple of days but all of a sudden the feelings bombarded him and shoved him back into reality and forced those words out of his mouth. He saw the terrified look that appeared in her eyes and he turned and ran.

He had to get out of the hospital, he needed some fresh air and time to think. When he finally looked up he realised he was stood in front of Julia's apartment. He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Well he might as well get this over with.

"Mark?" A surprised Julia answered the door. The surprise soon turned to disgruntlement. "Where the hell have you been? I rang you 10 times yesterday, we were supposed to be going out!"

"Sorry Julia, I've just had a lot on my plate of late, I've had some stuff that I needed to work through." He replied, not quite looking her in the eyes.

"Oh, come in" She told him as she half accepted the excuse. As a doctor she knew work came first but she thought he'd have had time to get in touch. "That hospital works you way too hard you know"

Mark stepped into the apartment hesitantly, making sure he knew exactly where the exit was, she was going to throw him out, it was only a matter of time.

"It wasn't work stuff…it was…well, personal stuff. I've had a lot of stuff to think about."

Julia noticed the way that he was fidgeting, almost nervous, it wasn't like Mark at all and a few thoughts suddenly ran through her head, she was almost excited, what he was about to say next was going to be huge, she could tell. She took a seat on the couch and gestured for him to do the same.

"What's going on Mark?"

Mark remained standing. He wasn't allowing himself the luxury of comfort, this was anything but comfortable. He shoved his hand in the pockets of his leather jacket and stood there a moment, trying to get the words together in his head before he spoke.

"We've been going out for four months now and it's been going great. What we have is great, you're great. I just…relationships aren't easy for me, I'm not good at all the feelings and stuff, but I don't want to hurt you-"

"Mark…" She interrupted smiling, he was cute when trying to convey emotion.

He put his hand up to stop her. "No, let me finish. I don't want to hurt you but I can't lie to you, it's not fair, so I have to tell you…"

"Mark, what's going on?" Her face suddenly dropped. Whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be about them taking the next step she realised, too late.

"I slept with someone else."

The sentence hung in the air between them in the silence that followed. Guilt covered Mark's face as betrayal filled Julia's.

"W-Well, did it mean anything?" She finally asked.

"I didn't think it did." Mark replied diplomatically.

"Well what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Julia asked as the anger at his infidelity set in.

As much as he wished he could run, he knew that she deserved the truth. He looked anywhere but at her as he explained "I thought that it meant nothing, that it was just a stupid mistake. I didn't know why I'd done it so I spent a lot of time thinking about why. I talked to Callie and Derek about it, they raised questions for me that I didn't know needed answering. Then I saw her with someone else and…well this morning I told her I was in love with her."

"So you sleep with someone once and you're declaring your love for her, whereas you've been in a relationship with me for four months and that word scares the crap out of you ?" She asked incredulously.

"No, it's…I mean…"

"Oh so you've slept with her more than once?" She asked, finally getting to the bottom of things.

"Yes, I mean, no." Mark paused, trying to explain it properly but getting flustered. He sighed. "I slept with her yesterday morning, that's the only time I've cheated. But we've slept together before, she's my ex-girlfriend." He finally admitted, knowing Julia was only going to get more angry.

He wasn't wrong, she stood up, seething, for a moment he was sure she was about to hit him. "I can not believe you! You started a relationship with me knowing full well that you are still in love with someone else and now she wants you back, you're what? Just going to go running back to her ?"

"Julia…"

"No, I don't want to hear it Mark, just get the hell out."

He wasn't surprised, he'd been waiting for those words since he walked in there. He walked to the door and opened it before pausing on the threshold. This time he did meet her eyes, he wanted to make sure she believed the next words out of his mouth.

"I didn't know I was still in love with her. And no, she doesn't want me back, I told her how I felt and I saw the fear cross her eyes. I just though you deserved to know the truth. And the truth is that I can't do this anymore because I can't be in a relationship with you knowing how I feel about her."

As the door to the exam room flew open and Mark came flying out Tom was nearly knocked over. Mark turned round, about to apologise before he realised who it was. Instead he threw Tom a dirty look and carried on his way.

Tom shook his head and walked into the room. Lexie was now stood up, looking as if she wanted to follow Mark but at the same time couldn't make herself move.

"What the hell happened?" He asked confused, they seemed to be getting on fine before he left.

Lexie looked a little awestruck. "He told me he loved me and he wants us to try again"

"Well that's good isn't it?"

"I don't know" She replied in a whisper "He said that and then ran off before I could answer"

"Well is it what you want? Do you want another chance?"

"I-I…" The last two days had been far too crazy, she was so confused right now.

"Well you've got to work it out Lexie because Mark isn't going to wait around for you forever, he's giving you this one chance, the question is, are you brave enough to take it?" Tom asked

"We didn't work"

"Lexie Grey" He told her sternly. "You pull me into this situation, I give you my advice, you have to make up your mind. Look, something's just happen and you can't change the outcome, what happens, happens. But sometimes, things happens and if you're really lucky you have a chance to change it. You have a chance to learn from your mistakes and still get the happy ending. This is your decision to make Lexie, but make it without thinking about the past. Make it knowing that two, three years down the line you'll never regret making that decision."

Lexie looked up at Tom "You've always been too smart for your own good"

Lexie spent the rest of the day in the skills lab. She wasn't in the right state or mood to be dealing with patients. Plus her attending was nowhere to be found after he had run away from her this morning. When her shift finished she walked out of the hospital and stood there taking in the cool Seattle air. She was meant to be meeting Tom for a drink but as she looked up she caught sight of a light on in the buildings across from the hospital. It was Mark's apartment. Before she knew what she was doing she was across the road, had ridden the elevator and was stood rather nervously as she had just knocked on the door.

A rather inebriated Mark opened the door, He had been drinking since he had got home after his conversation with Julia. He looked between Lexie and the half empty bottle of scotch, silently wondering if this was a hallucination or not.

Before Lexie had a chance to think about it she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss, almost knocking him over in the process.

"Wh-" Mark finally managed as he pulled away to catch his breath.

"Th-that's a yes. To trying again. To us. But I want to start from the start because I'm still not convinced that we're going to work out. So I'm saying yes, to dating, but no to sex, absolutely no sex, because as mind-blowingly fantastic as you are, I can't get wrapped up in this. I can't get serious with you until I feel comfortable enough with this to commit to something longer. But I love you too much to let this opportunity pass us by so yes…yes…I will give us another chance."

Mark stood there stunned. After all that had happened, he couldn't believe she was here, he couldn't believe she was agreeing to this. "What about Tom?" He sneered the name.

"Tom's a friend, well he was, I don't know what he is now, but you don't have to worry about him, it's purely platonic. Oh God! What about Julia?" She asked, suddenly remembering the red-head dating Mark.

"We broke up. I told her I couldn't be with her knowing how I felt about you"

"Even though you didn't know if I'd give this another go?" Lexie asked shocked.

"It didn't matter, it wasn't fair to her and I didn't want to be with her, I just want you, it's all I ever wanted."

Lexie, feeling the topic getting too heavy after declaring a fresh start began to feel a little trapped. "Well, I'd better get going, I'll see you tomorrow I guess, I'm on your service after all."

"Wait, Lex" He stopped her. "Stay"

"Mark" she chided "That's not what we-"

He cut her off. "And I'm not suggesting that. We can just watch a film and eat pizza, you've got to be hungry right?"

She thought about it "Yeah, the last thing I ate was a ham, banana and hot sauce sandwich at about midnight last night" she told him chuckling to herself.

"Ugh" Mark exclaimed, "I don't think I want to ask."

"No, probably not. So what film is on?" She asked, taking her coat off.

"I'm not sure, have a look" he told her. "Chicken, pepper and mushroom I presume?" He asked referring to the pizza.

"Good guess" She replied as she took a seat, quickly texting Tom that her plans had changed "Seeing as this is our first date"

He came back holding a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee, as he sat next to her he passed her the wine.

"Another good guess" She told him teasingly.

"Lex, I know we're starting from the beginning but you're going to have to accept there are things I know about you, and there are probably things you know about me"

"Like the fact you're drinking coffee to sober you up to stop yourself from trying to get in my pants later?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about" He told her, feigning ignorance.

"Mm hmm, sure you don't" She chuckled.

"So what the film?" Mark asked, changing track, because thinking about not getting into Lexie's pants made him think about getting into Lexie's pants.

"Made of Honour" She told him straight faced, already knowing his reaction before it came out.

"Seriously? Such a goofy chick flick. And the dude totally reminds me of Derek with his perfect hair" He began slagging it off.

Lexie couldn't help the giggle that escaped. "So, it's such a cute movie, besides, I'm more freaked out by the other guy looking like a clone of Hunt."

"OMG, you're right, we totally have to watch it now so we can mock them later!" It was purely out of character for him to get so excited over watching a chick flick, but he was so euphoric with the mixture of alcohol and the fact that Lexie was in his apartment that he just didn't care.

"What's with the over excitement, it's only a film" She told him, slightly worried by his odd behaviour.

"No, it's a film with you" He corrected as he settled back in his seat and put his arm subtly behind her. She noticed but she didn't say anything, she just leaned into him slightly and let a small smile grace her lips.

The beginning is always a good place to start.

That had been five weeks ago. They had been taking it slow, extremely slow. They had spent a lot of that time together but there relationship had stayed almost completely platonic so far. They had kissed, on a few occasions, but as soon as it had got heated Lexie has pulled away and started up a new conversation. So instead they spent their time watching films, had meals out, taking long walks at night. They'd even acted as tourists and visited places such as the space needle and the aquarium. It was all very neutral ground, allowing them to get reacquainted with one another and talk about things.

She could tell that Mark was struggling with keeping his distance, but he never pushed her and she was grateful for that. It wasn't that she didn't want to take that step, she did, she really did. In fact, most nights she had to hold on to the last bit of restraint she had, like her life depended on it, so as not to jump his bones. But this was their last chance, they both knew that. So this time they were doing it right, she was making sure. There would be no hiding their relationship, no skipping steps, no making decisions without talking it through with one another, and no babies appearing when least expected…

…Oh Crap.

So I think the next chapter is the one you're all waiting for. There shall be Mark/Tom interaction and some back story, had to put this in first though because it felt right.