15 weeks

Miranda Bailey walked around the corner at 3 am to find Lexie sat against the wall her eyes closed.

"Dr Grey this not the place to fall asleep."

"I'm not asleep Dr Bailey." Lexie opened her eyes.

"Then why are sat on my floor?"

"I started feeling really dizzy so I sat down to regain my equilibrium."

"Eat." Bailey stated.

"I ate an hour ago."

"You'd better not be coming down with something." Bailey warned,

"Dr Chang said I was in perfect health when I saw him yesterday."

"Chang?" Bailey tried to recall the name. "In OB? You're pregnant?"

"Three and a half months." Lexie confirmed. "I thought you knew."

"How would I know?"

"Everyone else does. I'm sorry I would have told you."

"I guess that explains Sloan's strange behaviour."

"I broke up with him the day I told I was pregnant because I thought he would run screaming." Lexie admitted. "He tells me he loves me five times a day, he makes sure I eat and stay hydrated. He baked for me. He made me egg free rockie road cookies because he knows I'm allergic to eggs and I was craving them. My heart wants to believe him but..."

"But?" Bailey prompted.

"My head is screaming that he's going to leave. How screwed up is that?"

"You are a Grey of course you are screwed up and given Sloan's previous dalliances that's understandable, but if a man wants to keep telling you he loves I say go ahead and let him. Now are you done being dizzy?"

"I think so." Lexie slowly got up and then braced herself against the walk. "Maybe not."

"Sit back down before you fall down while I get a wheelchair so I can run a few tests."

"I don't need tests." Lexie protested.

"You either let me take your damn blood pressure or I'll call Sloan to come and do it for me."

Meredith watched as one of nurses picked up a stack of charts and started to walk away with them.

"Where are you taking those charts?"

"Dr Grey's room."

Meredith followed the nurse to the room where Lexie was sat on a drip and a heart rate monitor surrounded by charts.

"I'm done with that thank you." Lexie smiled at the nurse.

"Lexie what are you doing?" Meredith asked from the doorway.

"Charting." Lexie replied.

"Lexie." Meredith said in a warning tone.

"My potassium and sodium levels are a little low. So we're fixing it."

"Did you call Mark?"

"I left him a voicemail asking to come and find me when he gets in."

"I'll call him." Meredith started to move towards the door.

"Don't." Lexie requested. "He'll be here in half hour; he has an adenoidectomy scheduled for 8. I know because I was supposed to be scrubbing in."

"Okay but you should have called him."

Meredith was waiting at the nurses' station when Mark arrived.

"You paged me Grey."

"I need you to promise me you'll remain calm and won't shout."

"Grey, you didn't kill one of my patients did you?"

"No." Meredith replied. "It's Lexie, she's in there." She pointed towards Lexie's room. "Her electrolytes are low so they are fixing them. Here is her chart."

Mark grabbed the chart and walked straight into Lexie's room

"I'm fine." Lexie stated seeing the look of concern on his face.

"You have an IV and you are on monitor."

"My sodium and potassium are low so they are fixing it and Dr Chang just wanted me on the monitor as a precaution. The baby is fine."

"You should have called me." Mark stared at her.

"I did."

"Leaving me a message asking me to come see you doesn't say you are in the hospital."

"I knew you would be in early today. Dr Chang says I can go home as soon as the IV has run through."

"You should have called me." Mark ran his hand through hair while thinking how innocent she looked. "Damn it Little Grey." He stepped over and kissed her taking Lexie's breath away. It was only when someone cleared their throat he pulled away.

"Dr Sloan please refrain activities which cause my patients heart to race." Bailey warned. Lexie and Mark looked monitor to see her pulse rate had doubled, Lexie blushed. "I came to see if you were experiencing any more dizziness."

"No dizziness." Lexie confirmed.

"You're dizzy? Bailey pass me an otoscope." Mark requested.

"You don't need to check my ears." Lexie told him.

"Who is the board certified ENT in the room?" Mark countered.

"If the man wants to check your ears let him." Bailey handed him the otoscope.

"All clear." Mark declared a minute later.

"You should go and check on your patient, you have surgery in 45 minutes and as the person who supposed to be preparing him you need to find someone else."

"I'll push it back." Mark shrugged.

"You aren't screwing up the board this early in the day Dr Sloan." Lexie stated stubbornly, when Mark started to open his mouth to protest she continued. "I already have two doctors I don't need another one. Dr Bailey."

"Out now." Bailey ordered.

"Technically I'm your boss." Mark reminded her.

"Out there yes, but in here you are my patient's whatever." Bailey waved her hand vaguely in the air. "And if you are upsetting her I have right to kick you. Go cut someone."

"I'll still be here when you are done." Lexie added.

"Fine. Behave." Mark kissed her temple, Lexie's heart rate blipped.

"Does it always do that?" Bailey asked once he was gone.

"My heart racing when he kisses me? Yes."

"No wonder you got pregnant."

"Hey Lexie." Derek walked in her room with her chart twenty minutes later. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." It then dawned on her why he was there. "No!"

"No you aren't feeling ok?"

"No I don't need a neurological consult. I get dizzy because I'm pregnant and the blood doesn't quite get to my brain as fast as it should and my electrolytes are low because Mark insists I drink what feels like six gallons of water a day so I have to pee a lot which is washing the potassium and sodium out my body."

"Okay." Derek conceded. "Just let me do one quick test and I'll tell him you're fine." He pulled out a penlight out of his pocket.

"Fine." Lexie sighed.

"Look at my finger."

"You think I'm a reasonably good doctor right?"

"Yes." Derek wasn't sure where was going with her question.

"And you think Dr Bailey and Dr Chang are good doctors?"

"I don't know Chang that well but yes."

"Then why if the three of us agree to the reason I get dizzy does Mark think I need an ENT to check my ears and the head of neurosurgery to check my eyes?" Lexie inquired. "It's not like I passed out and bumped my head."

"He loves you he's just worried that you are overdoing it."

"I am an intern I work hundred hour weeks, I have plenty of people look over my shoulder to make sure I don't overdo it."

"I'm sending you some fruit." Derek said throwing her train of thought. "And a suture kit, you might as well get some practice in."

"Thank you."

A few hours later Lexie heard what sounded like someone was gasping for breath whilst trying to call for help. She switched off the monitor so when she disconnected the leads it wouldn't sound; grabbing the IV bag she left her room. She heard a crash to her right and through the blinds saw a man gasping, clutching his throat his lips starting to turn blue.

"Mr Brown." Lexie rushed in hitting the code button the wall to get some help.

By the time the nurses arrived Lexie had him flat on his back.

"Hold this." She thrust the IV bag into one of their hands as she found what she needed. "Someone charge the paddles he's about to code." She quickly removed the object blocking his throat as his heart stopped. "Got it. Shock him."

"Clear." Someone called, but still no heartbeat.

"Again." Lexie prompted.

Mr Brown's heart started beating again, and he gasped for air.

"What do we have?" Christina ran in her interns behind her.

"Mr Brown was choking on a grape, I removed the obstruction, but his heart stopped so we shocked him." Lexie explained.

"Three, you are supposed to be on a heart monitor. 4.2 get 3 back to her room now." Cristina ordered.

"Thanks." Lexie took back her IV bag back.

Forty minutes later the door opened Mark entered looking for want of a better word sad.

"You didn't kill Mr Kielty did you?" Lexie asked.

"No. There was five year old girl brought into the pit, her father covered her in hydrochloric acid, she died before we could do anything to help her."

"Come here." Lexie moved over so Mark could lie on the bed. She moved carefully to half lay on top of him, her head on his chest her hand over his heart. "I saved a guy from choking on a grape."

"I heard. Yang won't tell you but she thinks you did a good job." He kissed the top of her head and her heart rose. "Does it always do that?"

"I have six million extra hormones running around my body right you have an effect on a few of them."

"I love you." He whispered.

"I know I love you too."

"Then why?" He prompted.

"Because I'm screwed up. I need a lifetime of therapy because you are perfect and I don't trust it."

"Then I'll have to stick around for the next fifty years and prove it to you."

"I wish I believed that."

"Get some sleep." He kissed her temple.

When a nurse came in a few minutes later she apologised to Mark and changed out the IV bag after giving him the results of Lexie's tests. It was another fifteen minutes before Cristina entered.

"There you are Dr Sloan."

Mark signalled for her to keep her voice down.

"What the matter Yang?"

"We have a patient, a forty-two schizophrenic who slashed himself numerous times head to toe. We lost count at a hundred." She handed him the x-ray film. "We've sedated him and stopped most of the bleeding but he needs stitching."

"Are those razor blades?" Mark looked at the x-ray.

"Yes, when the tips broke off he just grabbed another blade. The cuts on his face and arms are deep."

"Get him in the OR he's going to be susceptible to infection with that many wounds and it's your lucky day Yang you get to practice your suture skills. Get Big Grey to scrub in too, I'll be there in a few minutes." He waited until Cristina had gone before running a hand down Lexie's back. "Little Grey I have to go."

"Ok." She mumbled still asleep rolling over to allow him to get up and then rolled back into the warm spot he had vacated.

"I'll be back later." He kissed her temple.

It was gone seven before Mark made it back to Lexie's room only to find Meredith and Cristina were sat on chairs either side of the bed their feet up, Alex was sat on a chair in the corner.

"What's going on?"

"We're trying to decide which game show we're sending Lexipedia on." Cristina replied.

"Come on you're telling me you know who the wife of Henry II was?" Alex asked.

"Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine?" Lexie answered when she proved right she stuck her tongue at Alex.

"How do you know that?"

"My boyfriend the second year of college was a European History major I used to help him study." She looked at Mark. "I know I'm pathetic but we have pizza."

Mark opened the box.

"Spinach?"

"They thought I might need iron too." Lexie explained.

Mark took a slice and took a bite before he threw it back in box. "That is just wrong. The best pizza in the world is from Larry's which was a block from my apartment in New York."

"I think we're out of their delivery area." Meredith pointed out.

"Then I'll have to eat this." He pulled a candy bar from his pocket.

"Thank god." Lexie snatched it from him, tore it open and took a bite. "Hospital food is horrible other than Jell-o and they ate all the good pizza."

"I'll get the Chief right on that."

"You won't get this one." Alex was still watching the quiz show. "Who scored the first home run of the first baseball world series?"

"Jimmy Sebring." Lexie and Mark said at the same time, Mark let Lexie continue. "It was the 7th innings of the first game of the first World Series in 1903; he was the first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cy Young was pitching."

"How do you know that you don't even like sport?"

"He has a book of useless facts that are now stuck in my head." Lexie explained.

"It was a Christmas gift from Derek's sister."

"I don't know if it still counts as a gift when she threw it at you because you said she looked fat."

"How was I supposed to know she was pregnant I hadn't seen her in six months?" Mark protested. "And I'm not telling you any more stories about my childhood."

"You were 27." Lexie reminded him.

"You need a chair." Cristina decided before yelling out the door. "Two?"

"Yes Dr Yang?" He appeared in the doorway.

"Get Dr Sloan a chair."

Lexie leant over and switched off the monitor and started to disconnect the leads.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mark asked.

"Going to the bathroom." Lexie grabbed the IV bag.

"That's fourth time in the last hour." Alex commented. Mark looked concerned.

"Her kidney function is normal, her sodium and potassium levels are almost normal, the rest of her blood work is fine and the only issue with her heart seems to be when you are around. Bailey and Chang agree she can go when the IV is done in a couple hours time." Cristina read from Lexie's chart.

Mark looked up when Lexie re-entered.

"You have that look again." She commented.

"What look?"

"The one that got me a neuro exam I didn't need this morning. Meredith do you think I need another doctor?"

"No." Meredith replied.

"Good because legally you have more say than he does." Lexie rehung her IV bag.

"Explain." Mark prompted.

"She's my next of kin." Lexie straighten out the line before getting back in bed.

"I am?"

"It says so here," Cristina had found the page on the chart.

"You are my sister, if something happens to me I don't think Dad would cope with making a decision and I couldn't ask Molly to do it, I thought at least you would make an informed decision. It's okay right?"

"Sure." Meredith agreed.

"It says here if it involves the kid you get a say and custody if she is incapacitated." Cristina informed Mark.

"Isn't this a little morbid?" Alex asked.

"I thought you would understand better than anyone how you have to plan for the worst and hope for the best." Lexie had finished reattaching the monitor.

"A chair Dr Sloan." Two carried the chair in and set in it on the ground.

"Thank you."

"Go and check on all the post-op patients and take 4.2 with you. NOW!" Cristina ordered.

"That wasn't up your usual standards." Alex told her.

"Just because your interns don't listen to you and you don't get the right tone. They are just interns."

"I'm an intern, your intern." Lexie remind her.

"You're a patient right now, and tomorrow I'm banishing you to the clinic for skiving off today." Cristina advised her. Sending Lexie to the clinic was Mark's idea as it was generally a lighter duty.

Lexie glanced at Mark guessing he needed a change in topic.

"Your friend is an idiot."

"What?"

"Your friend is an idiot." She repeated. It took him a second to realise who she was talking about.

"He's not an idiot." Mark protested.

"I'm an intern and I know he's an idiot."

"Who are we talking about?" Meredith inquired.

"The head of plastic surgery at the hospital I did my internship at." Mark explained.

"He wrote this article in Plastics Today which reads like a 101 reasons not to become a plastic surgeon. Here." Lexie handed Cristina the journal.

"He's an idiot." Cristina agreed after reading the first few paragraphs.

"Wait until you get to the part about the benefits of toe tucks."

"I don't understand that. Getting your toes fixed just so you can squeeze them into ridiculously overpriced uncomfortable shoes." Meredith commented.

"It's just rich women who have more money than sense, like most of that cosmetic crap." Cristina agreed.

Lexie placed a hand over Mark's mouth before he could start defending his specialty.

"Yes we know that the cosmetic crap earns the hospital a lot of money and it is why you get paid the big bucks, and why you did fifteen elective procedures in the last two weeks. We also get that you just don't do tummy tucks that plastic surgery is more complicated than that and you spent the best part of the afternoon putting 2500 sutures in a guy who slashed himself with a razor blade."

"2,356." Cristina corrected.

"You're a great surgeon but your friend is an idiot." Mark sighed and kissed her palm.

"You've had this conversation before." Meredith guessed.

"Every other Thursday."

"What is every other Thursday?"

"The day he gets the people who want elective surgery into his office for a consult." Alex answered flicking channels.

"And the day he tries to convince me I want to be a plastic surgeon." Lexie added.

"You have an office?" Cristina questioned.

"I'm the Head of Plastic Surgery of course I have an office, I just don't use it very often."

Lexie yawned.

"We should go and see if they any more fruity drinks." Cristina suggested.

"Maybe Dr Daisy Pepman will be there to serve them,"

"Why are you going to Dermatology?" Mark inquired.

"The better question is how you know she works in Dermatology."

"They call me for a consult." He shrugged.

"It reminds us we are dark and twisty and makes us better surgeons." Meredith explained.

"They are trying to figure out how to steal the masseuse." Alex clarified.

"They have a masseuse?" Lexie asked.

"Two, one for the attending and one for the residents. They get to leave in the middle of the day for facials." Cristina stated.

"Is it too late to switch specialty?"

When they were all gone Mark crawled into bed with her and the both fell asleep. Lexie was the first to wake up; she forced Mark to sign her discharge papers so she wasn't late for pre-rounds.

TBC