Hey everyone! I hope you had a happy holiday, and that everyone is safe and sound. Here is the latest chapter. I hope you enjoy!

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The hospital loomed large in the morning hours. The façade, which Lexie had always associated with a welcoming feeling, looked as forbidden to her as Meredith's house. While Lexie sat in Mark's car outside the building, she bit her lip as she thought about her options. They were currently parked in the far back corner of the parking lot, with the windows up, and the car facing a way which made detection from the outside impossible.

"This is ridiculous," Mark muttered, as her looked over at Lexie who still appeared to be thinking. "You are my girlfriend, and I want to walk in with you without worrying who will see me. We should not be afraid of telling people about us."

"But then they will know," Lexie said, her voice tinted with a hint of a whine.

"Yes," Mark said slowly. "That is the point of telling people. They will know, and then we can be a real couple in front of everyone. Random doctors, interns, and unsuspecting nurses will stop hitting on me, and the stupid intern with the funny name will stop looking at you with longing in his eyes."

"Who looks at me with—" Lexie stopped mid-sentence, and changed direction. "You are missing the point. If everyone knows, then everyone knows. I won't be able to scrub in on another Plastics case without people thinking that I am getting special favors. Not to mention the massive and judgmental freak-out we will get from Meredith and Derek, as if they weren't together when she was an intern. And furthermore, where do they get off—"

"Lexie," Mark cut in.

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling."

"Sorry," Lexie muttered. "I am just so sick of this Mark. I want to be your girlfriend in the daytime too."

"You are my girlfriend in the daytime," Mark said, not understanding the thought processes of the human female.

"Of course I am," She said, "What I mean is that I want it to not be a secret thing. We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Mark nodded. "But I thought you wanted to keep this secret?"

"I do."

"Wow, I am utterly confused."

"I do, but I wish we didn't have to." Lexie looked at him, and took his right hand in her left one. "I wish there was an easier way to do this. I wish we didn't feel like people would be judging us no matter what we do."

Mark listened and tried to decipher her circumlocution. "So are we telling people or not?"

"Not," Lexie sighed. "Damn it! This sucks!"

"Cause you want to be my girlfriend in the daytime?" Mark asked with a smirk.

"I am your girlfriend in the daytime," Lexie growled.

"Right, sorry. Not a good time to joke," Mark muttered.

Lexie bit her lip. Damn, that was sexy, Mark thought. Her face conveyed many different emotions, and every time that Mark thought she was about to say something, she closed her mouth and bit her lip again. He loved to watch her, anytime, day or night. Sometimes when Mark woke in the middle of the night disoriented, he looked over and saw her resting next to him. Watching her sleep gave him a sense of contentment that he had never known before.

"Okay," Lexie said.

"You've made a decision," Mark said. It wasn't a question.

"Yep."

"Well?"

"I am going to tell Meredith today," Lexie said.

"You are?"

"Uh-huh. I can't live like this anymore. I will tell her, and then once I have, I will page you and you can tell Derek. That way, we get them both out of the way and they can gossip to each other all they want, but no one else in the hospital has to know." Lexie looked pleased with her decision.

"Wow, that is radically naive."

"It is," Lexie agreed with a nod, knowing the holes in her plan.

"Okay, you want to know the likely scenario of what will really happen?"

"No."

Mark continued as if he hadn't heard her. "When you tell Meredith, she is going to have a massive melt down on the surgical floor in front of the nurses' station. She is going to scream, really loudly, 'You are sleeping with Mark Sloan?' And just like that the entire hospital will know. And before you can page me to tell Derek, one of the nurses will tell him, cause it will be all over the hospital by that point, and he will find me, deck me, and I will end up bleeding on the floor where Derek will tell me that the current ceasefire arrangement that is our friendship is over and that I am dead to him." Mark smiled wryly. "That is being optimistic, of course."

"Of course," Lexie repeated with a smile.

"Well," Mark said, kissing her on the cheek. "Ready?"

"Ready," Lexie said, opening her car door.

***

Meredith Grey was standing at the surgical board as Lexie watched her in the hallway. You can do this, Lexie told herself, all you have to do is walk up to her and tell her that you are sleeping and living with her boyfriend's best friend. Simple, right? Lexie's fear grew the longer that she stood watching Meredith. What was the worst that could happen?

Gathering her courage, Lexie walked over to her sister. "Hey," she said.

Meredith nodded and said nothing.

"Nice day, isn't it? A good day to be forgiving, right? Like if someone told you that they had done something, on a day like today we should be forgiving. I don't know about you, but I really feel like being totally open to things on days like this. Especially sister stuff. So if you have anything that you want to tell me that you have done recently, I would be totally forgiving—"

"Lexie?" Meredith said. "What are you talking about?" She looked utterly confused as to what she was trying to say.

"I was just wondering if you had anything that you—"

"Wanted to tell you?" Meredith finished. "Yeah, I got that part. Why are you asking me about this?"

"Umm," Lexie's cheeks began to heat. "Cause guilt is bad, and you shouldn't carry it around?"

"Okay," Meredith said, as if she was talking to a small child. "No, I don't think there is anything that I want to tell you. Definitely nothing that I feel guilty about."

"Nothing that weighs on your mind? Nothing that stresses you?"

Meredith looked confused again, but then her face softened. "Is this about the solo surgery?"

"The what-now?" Lexie asked, confused.

"You heard that I have my first solo surgery today and you didn't want me to be stressed," Meredith concluded.

"Of course," Lexie said. "That is exactly what I was talking about. But you're too sneaky for me."

Meredith smiled.

Lexie bit her lip again, wanting to hit something. Damn it! She couldn't tell her now, not when Meredith had her first solo surgery today. There was no way Lexie wanted to be responsible for the loss of someone's vital organs because her sister was distracted. This would have to wait. "Well, since you found me out…um, good luck."

"Thanks," Meredith said, already looking away from Lexie and concentrating on the surgical board.

Lexie started muttering to herself as she walked away. Pulling out her phone, she texted Mark and said: Mission aborted.

***

Mark stepped into the elevator to head up to the floor of the hospital which housed his patients in recovery. He should have been thinking about his coming liposuction surgery, but instead he was thinking about Lexie. He knew that she had wanted to tell Meredith right away, and he vaguely wondered if they should evacuated the hospital and wait for the bomb squad to come and diffuse big Grey.

"Mark! Wait!" Mark peaked around the closing doors to see Callie running for the elevator.

She caught it in time, and stepped on, "Hey."

Mark nodded, and said nothing.

"Are you still mad about last night?"

No response.

"Oh come on Mark, you just took me by surprise is all. You can't blame me for that, can you? I mean, when have you ever been faithful to a woman and have it mean something? I was completely unprepared for that even being a possibility." Callie sighed. "Do you want me to beg? Cause I am not above begging. Please," She said, her voice dragging out the word. She held her hands up in a penitent manner, "I really need my friend right now."

"Fine," Mark said in a magnanimous tone. "You are forgiven."

"Thank you," Callie said in a rush. "Now! I have to tell you about what happened with me and Sadie."

Mark sighed. "What?"

"We kissed!" Callie said it with such enthusiasm that Mark cracked a smile.

"You kissed," He repeated. "That's it?"

"It was hot!"

"It was a kiss," Mark said. "How hot could it have been?"

"You weren't there," Callie said. "You don't know what a really hot kiss is like."

Mark chuckled. "You haven't kissed Lexie."

Callie looked contemplative.

"That wasn't a suggestion!" Mark said suddenly.

"Whatever," Callie said. "I had a really hot kiss with a really hot intern—"

"—Crazy intern," Mark interjected.

"—crazy hot intern," Callie continued, "And you went home with the same woman last night who you probably watched TV and fell asleep with the lights on with."

Mark laughed.

"What?" Callie asked. "Am I warm?" Callie laughed at his expression. "You probably miss the single life, don't you?"

Mark laughed even harder. "You are so not even close. Let me give you a little taste, since you obviously cannot begin to understand what this is like. Last night, I came to the hospital and had Lexie tell me that she loves me. Then, we went home and Lexie and I spent all night having sex. She made my back bend in ways that even I didn't know about. Then we ended the evening with her telling me that she wants to have my kids one day, followed by another round of sweaty sex." Mark paused for dramatic effect. "So yeah, I really miss the single life. All this happiness is exhausting," Mark said with a hint of humor and sarcasm.

Callie sighed. "I hate you. Why can't you be suffering through the trials of dating like the rest of us?"

The elevator stopped on Mark's floor. "Just lucky, I guess." Mark smiled to himself, thinking about how true that was.

His phone went off then, and Mark saw Lexie's message. He sighed. "Guess I am in the closet for one more day," Mark muttered to himself, continuing down the hall.

"Dr. Sloan!"

He turned at the sound of his name, to see Derek coming out of the stairwell. Derek walked over to him, and said, "Did you get my page?"

Mark looked down at his pager and saw that he had missed one from Derek. "Now, I did," he said. "Sorry. What's up?"

"I need a consult," Derek said.

Mark nodded, thinking to himself that he could do his rounds later. "Sure."

"Can we get a drink later?" Derek asked, his voice casual, but his tone hopeful.

Mark paused. He really didn't want to continue lying to Derek, but at the same time he missed his friend. A part of him was still resentful of the fact that he was being forced to lie about his relationship with Lexie, but he also knew that it was worth it to be with her.

He was working late tonight, and Lexie was headed home around eight. He could be quick with Derek and then be home to see Lexie around eleven. She would understand.

"Okay," he said. "One drink, but then I've got…stuff."

"Fine," Derek replied with a smile. "I wouldn't want to keep you from your…stuff."

Mark just grunted.

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