Yay! I finally have a chapter out early. Well, early for me anyway. Maybe I can finally go to sleep without visions of Mark and Lexie dancing in my head. On that note, I had hoped to have this story done by Thursday, but that has been shot to hell now. Oh well, this story will be AU after Thursday, I guess. Lol. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, I love to read them. This chapter is for Haydeertz and Drew, thanks for all the support guys!

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The hours ticked by slowly, feeling more like years to Mark and stretching on infinitely. Over disapproval from everyone on the floor, Mark had taken up residence at Lexie's bedside and was loathe to leave it. Most of the staff could've understood…if that was all he was doing. But instead of sitting quietly by Lexie's bedside, Mark had taken it upon himself to question everyone who came in the room. What were they doing? How much morphine were they giving her? Who was checking her stitches? All of the questions seemed designed to drive everyone nuts. And more than one doctor was tempted to snap at him until they saw the way that he looked at Lexie's still body. Then all protestations died away.

The only time Mark had left her bedside had been at Derek's insistence, when he had taken Mark to the cafeteria to get something to eat. While they were gone, Thatcher and Molly had visited with Lexie, just missing Mark. Derek and Meredith had done this by design when they discovered that Thatcher was drunk and sobbing about his daughter. They hadn't wanted a scene, and didn't know how Mark would react to that. It didn't matter, for they didn't stay long, but promised to come back later in the day when she was off the breathing tube. Other than that brief interruption, Mark was constantly by her side.

Soon, Yang and the anesthesiologist, declared her able to breathe on her own and she was extubated.

But she didn't wake up.

Mark knew this was perfectly normal, after all she had been through hell, but a part of him thought it would be like in the movies. That she would magically wake up and come back to him the moment she was off the machines.

But she didn't.

It didn't make a difference to him though; he kept his vigil. He sat quietly at her bedside, attuning his body and eyes to notice any slight changes in her breathing or color.

Meredith had come by a couple of times. She didn't try to talk, but rather just sat by his side as they whiled away the hours. Mark was grateful for this. As much as he valued Derek's support, at the end of the day, he did not need a pep talk. He just needed support, and he found a strange ally in Meredith. He had been dismissive of her in the past, once his attraction to her had ceased, both in the way that she treated Derek, but also in the way that she ignored Lexie, but Mark vowed to give her a chance from here on out. She seemed to really care about her sister; she just didn't know how to express it.

Mark got that.

Lexie had been out for eighteen hours when Mark needed a break. He couldn't take staring at her still form without some air. Counting the breaths she took was soothing, but it also made him a little stir crazy after a while. Mark stood, and left the room, flagging down a nurse as he left.

"Let me know if there are any changes," he said. "I can be here in an instant." Something about Mark's face must have impressed the seriousness upon the nurse for she nodded hastily. After leaving the ICU, Mark walked outside the front entrance. The smell of fresh air was heady to his lungs. Due to the rain, there was a clean smell that seemed to hang in the air. Mark tried to ignore the light drizzle which was falling on his head as he breathed in deep.

It was too bad really, the previous night's events had given him one more reason to hate the rain.

Once his scrubs, which he had been in for nearly a whole day, began to get damp, Mark slowly walked back into the hospital. His feet were fast but sure as he beat the path back to the ICU. His mouth quirked into a grin when he saw Derek leaning against the counter of the nurses' station just outside Lexie's room.

"You just couldn't stay away, could you?" Mark asked with a tired grin.

Derek shrugged, "Oh, you know me and the ICU."

Mark shook his head. "So are you on babysitting duty right now? Did Callie get reprieve?" Callie had been coming to see if he 'needed anything' once an hour, for the last ten hours straight.

"No, I just wanted to see my best friend," Derek said, shrugging his shoulders guiltily.

Mark rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You want to stay out here, or you want to come inside and sit with me?"

"I wouldn't do that," Derek said.

"Do what?"

"Go in there. Not right now anyway."

"Why not?" Mark asked, his voice getting panicky.

"Calm down," Derek said. "She's fine. It is just that Thatcher, Meredith, and Molly are in there right now."

The tense pressure in Mark's chest eased and he let out a breath he had been holding. "Oh," he said. He then shrugged. "Whatever, I've got to meet her dad and the other sister some time."

Derek looked startled. "What? You are just going to go in there and introduce yourself to them and say what? 'Hi, I'm Mark Sloan. I am a famous Plastic Surgeon, I have a reputation which precedes me across the country, oh, and your daughter is cohabitating with me'." He shook his head.

Mark raised his eyebrows. "What? Do you think that will come on too strong?"

Derek rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to reply, when Thatcher came running out of Lexie's room. "Can I get a nurse in here? She's awake!"

Mark and Derek went racing into the room, stopping on the threshold. Derek nearly slammed into Mark when he stopped suddenly. His eyes were fixed on Lexie, but his body did not move.

Meredith was leaning over Lexie, checking her alertness with her flashlight. Lexie moved her head, looking away from her sister in protest. She saw her father and her sister beside her, but did not register that they were there. Her eyes were searching for the one person that she wanted to see.

"Lexie? Honey, can you hear me?" Her father asked.

Lexie wanted to respond, but all her energy and focus was on the man in her doorway. "Mark," she croaked.

Mark rushed forward then, moving past Thatcher to take a seat on the side of her bed. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at her, and her own eyes responded.

"Lexie," he murmured, lifting her hand and kissing it. The relief he felt was so urgent and consuming, that he could hardly speak at first. He just kept pressing kisses to her hand and staring at her with happy eyes. When he finally spoke, he struggled to keep his tone light. "So we need to redefine the meaning of 'see you later'."

Lexie laughed hoarsely, her throat unbelievably sore, as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she looked at him. "I'm sorry if I scared you." They looked at each other as if there was no one else in the room, easily shutting out everything else but the two of them.

"Scared me? Little Grey, you are now responsible for all the grey on my head." Mark's tone was tender, as he kept her hand in his.

"That bad, huh?" Lexie asked with a grin.

"Worse," Mark said, his voice so low that only she could hear.

Derek and Meredith watched their exchange with interest. Though they had seen how Mark felt about Lexie, they hadn't known what it would be like to see them together. The devotion that was shinning out of both sets of their eyes was rather startling. Derek and Meredith wondered how they could have missed this relationship blossoming right under their noses. Molly watched her sister with a gentle smile, and Thatcher just looked back and forth between Lexie and Mark like he was watching a tennis match.

"What happened?" Lexie asked, her eyes looking only to Mark.

"You were hit by a drunk driver," Mark said. "He didn't see you…and the rain…"

"Is everyone else okay?" Lexie asked, her eyes worried.

Mark shook his head with a grin. "Only you would be more worried about other people who nearly killed you rather than yourself. Aren't you curious about your own health?"

Lexie nodded. "Yes, of course."

"You lost a lot of blood, and a kidney," Mark said. "But Dr. Bailey said everything went well, and you weren't in surgery for too long."

Lexie put her hand over her abdomen in surprise and in reflex. She knew the incision was on her back, but she touched her stomach as if she could feel through all the muscle, bone, stomach and organs to feel the missing kidney and the spot it had vacated.

"Well, that sucks," she said, causing Mark to laugh.

"Well put," he commented, kissing her hand again. "I thought I had lost you," he murmured against her skin.

"You could never lose me," Lexie said, "We said forever, right?"

Mark nodded and smiled.

Molly cleared her throat, turning Mark and Lexie's attention to her. Lexie looked at her sister in surprise. "Molly? Dad? What are you guys doing here?"

Molly just grinned. "We are here to see you, of course."

Lexie blushed. "Of course you are."

Thatcher patted her calf. "We are just glad you are okay, kiddo."

"You must be Mark," Molly said with a smile, meeting Mark's eyes for the first time.

"Um, yeah," Mark said. "Nice to meet you, you must be Molly."

She grinned. "You are even cuter than my sister described."

Mark arched his eyebrow at Lexie. "Oh, really?"

"Hush, Molly," Lexie said.

Molly seemed to grin wider.

"Mark Sloan," Mark said to Thatcher, holding out his hand.

Thatcher shook it, but seemed at a loss for words. If Thatcher Grey had an antithesis, it was Mark Sloan. Where Thatcher was small, he was large. Where Thatcher was plain, Mark was handsome. It had never occurred to him that his daughter could end up with a man like this. "Er…nice to meet you," Thatcher said.

Mark disliked him on sight, mostly because of the things Lexie had told him, but he strived to remain civil though he longed to throw Thatcher against the wall. "And you," he said.

"So how…when…did you two…" Thatcher's voice trailed off.

"We met here at the hospital," Mark said. "I am a surgeon here as well." Mark looked to Derek for help, and his friend gladly stepped forward.

"Mark and I grew up in New York together," Derek said, keeping calm despite the dislike for Thatcher that he shared with Mark. "We have been best friends our whole lives."

"Huh," Thatcher grunted. "So the two of you ended up with two of my daughters."

Mark and Derek looked at each other in surprise. "Yeah, I guess that is true," Derek said.

"Do you have a third friend?" Molly asked suddenly.

Mark and Derek laughed.

"Molly," Lexie said. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"

"Nope," Molly grinned. "I don't think so."

"What about Eric?"

"Who now?"

"Your husband?" Lexie laughed.

"Oh, yeah," Molly said, her shoulders falling.

Mark grinned; he definitely liked Lexie's little sister. Looking over at Lexie, he smiled as her eyes met his. Utter gratitude, which he had not allowed himself to feel before, flooded his body as he looked at the woman that he loved. Her eyes were shining as if she too was grateful for the second chance that they were getting.

Mark went back to sit with her, and he took her hand. Molly once again proved her usefulness as she shooed everyone out of the room to give them a moment to themselves.

Tears fell freely from Mark's face as he looked at Lexie. "I was so worried. Like I have never been worried before. You died. You were on the table and you were dead."

Lexie raised her arm which felt incredibly heavy to stroke his cheek. "It's okay, now. I'm alive and I'm here."

"But you weren't," he said. "I almost lost you."

"But you didn't," Lexie said, her tears flowing too.

"I don't know what I would have done if I had," Mark confessed. "I have been a wreck for the last day." His eyes met hers with tender desperation. "Please, don't ever leave me again."

Tears fell down Lexie's face. "I won't, I promise." She then kissed his forehead, and wrapped her arms around him as he cried into the crook of her neck. She held him like that for a while, ignoring the pain in her side and her fatigue. Anything was worth it to be wrapped up in Mark again. They just held each other, heedless of the small group of people who stood awkwardly outside her room watching their reunion unfold.

When Mark finally pulled away, he wiped away his tears with the back of his hand and grinned at her with his cocky smile. "So you told your sister about me?"

Lexie smiled. "Yes, at Christmas. And I had to give someone my correct address."

"So what did you tell her?" Mark asked. "Sexy stuff?"

Lexie smiled. "I told her that I was in love with you."

Mark's eyes grew tender. "Oh, that."

"Yes, that," Lexie replied. "I told her how special you were to me." Her eyelids grew heavy, and Mark smiled at her.

Arranging their bodies so that she was resting against his chest, Mark kissed her forehead and said, "Sleep, love. I'll be here when you wake-up."

Not long after she drifted off, Mark closed his own eyes as he was finally able to rest. The exhaustion which had been creeping up on him finally hit his entire body, and Mark gave into it now. He could now sleep; the one he loved was beside him.

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