A/N: Sorry for the delay! I wasn't really sure where I wanted this story to go, and I had to change it around a bit. But thanks to everybody who commented and sent me messages!
When Lexie woke up the next morning out of habit she reached her arm over to Mark's side of the bed, but all that met her hand was cold sheet. She sat up, trying to figure out why he was out of bed so early, since normally she was the one to wake up early in time to get to pre-rounds. She slipped out of bed and pulled on her robe. There wasn't even a faint smell of coffee brewing, or pancakes, which he would make for her from scratch on occasion. She walked out of their bedroom into the kitchen, but she couldn't find him in the apartment. She was getting increasingly worried, so she found her cell and flipped it open. She dialed his number on her speed dial and he picked up on the second ring.
She heard his voice smoothly on the other line. "Hey Lex."
"Where are you?" she questioned with worry apparent in her voice.
She heard Mark chuckle on the other end. "What? Worried I got kidnapped? Didn't you see the note I left you?"
Lexie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, she was sure she hadn't seen a note anywhere. "What note?"
"The note I left on your bedside table so you wouldn't call me at five at the morning freaking out, asking me where I went in the middle of the night. The one that mentioned I was paged into the hospital during the middle of the night and didn't want to wake you."
Lexie was almost certain she hadn't missed a detail in their bedroom when she woke up. The dark cherry sheets were ruffled and in disarray just as they had been for the past week every morning since they began sleeping in the apartment, the room pristinely clean, with the minor exception of a couple boxes stacked in the corner. She backtracked into the bedroom, anyway, and looked at her bedside table carefully. She found a piece of paper half sticking out from the base of her lamp, and pulled at it. There, in Mark's messy handwriting, was the explanation of where he was.
Lexie pulled the phone back to her face. "Found it. It was stuck underneath my lamp."
He chuckled. "Did you think I was lying?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, but I don't miss many details, and I wanted to make sure there was a good reason I didn't see the note. I'll see you at the hospital. Love you."
Lexie flipped her phone shut and got started on her morning routine; shower, clothes, and breakfast. Just as she was about to leave the apartment, she spotted the gift bag Sadie had given her last night before she had been 'distracted.' She was tempted to just pull whatever was inside of it out, but she reasoned with herself and decided it was something that she and Mark should probably do together, since it was their first mutual gift, so she shoved it in her bag; they could open it together in the hospital.
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After rounds Lexie was assigned to chart, so she grabbed a stack of charts and was headed to an on-call room to have some peace and quiet.
She was almost at her destination when Sadie stopped her. "So how'd you like that gift?"
Lexie was confused momentarily, trying to decipher what Sadie was talking about, but when she realized what Sadie was referring to she felt embarrassed for not opening it yet. "The gift! Right! We were going to open that last night, but then Mark was," she paused for a moment, trying to find the correct word to use, and then she settled for, "distracting. He left this morning before I could open it with him."
Sadie smiled. "He'll like it, I promise."
Lexi e returned her smile. "I'm sure we will both love it. I'll go grab it from my locker right now and page him so we can open it together."
Lexie then couldn't quite interpret what the look on Sadie's face was, but she ignored it and put the charts down in the on-call room, quickly running back to the intern's locker room to grab the gift bag, and paged Mark to the on-call room on her way back.
When he arrived in the on-call room his face quickly broke out into a smug smile when he saw Lexie sitting on one of the beds. "I thought we didn't do the hospital thing."
He leaned over her to kiss her but she pushed him away. "We aren't 'doing' anything. I can't get distracted, I have to work. I just paged you so we could open our housewarming gift from Sadie together." She shoved the black gift bag in front of his face, like it was evidence. She knew that if she didn't get right down to business being in an on-call room together could get dangerous and might jeopardize the pact they made not to have sex in the hospital.
He sat down next to her on the bed. "Fine. You do the honors then."
She reached into the bag and felt something lacy. She pulled it out, curious at what it could be, but when she saw what it was, her face automatically paled. "Oh. My. God."
When Mark realized what she was holding, he nearly doubled over in laughter. He grabbed the black lacy corset and thong from Lexie, who was staring at the set horrified, and held it in front of himself. Still laughing he said, "I don't even know why we should be surprised, what did we expect from Sadie?"
"NOT," Lexie trailed off, and then softly added, "this."
Mark's eyes got a look of pure dirty in them. "You know what? This is not a bad thing. In fact, I think you should model these for me right now."
"I don't think so." She slapped him on the arm and made an attempt to grab the articles from him, but he quickly snatched them away.
"Mark, give them to me!"
He chuckled, "So you're going to model them for me?"
"Certainly not right now!" Her face flushed with embarrassment. She had never worn anything like he was holding, and especially not in front of a man. She was sure that plenty of woman had worn that type of lingerie for Mark in the past, but she was insecure enough being naked in front of him without the barely there lace.
She made another attempt to grab the set from Mark, but he jumped up, and opened the door.
"Mark!" she hissed.
She watched as he shoved the small amount of fabric into the pocket of his lab coat, and slid out the door of the on-call room. Lexie quickly jumped up to follow him out the door and tried to keep up with the fast pace he held as he walked down the hallway.
She made a grab for his pocket, but he was too fast for her. When she realized it was a lost cause she stopped. "Mark," she said indignantly, "You can keep the lingerie. I'm sure it'll look fabulous on you, because I'm sure as hell not wearing it for you at this rate." When she realized he was still walking, she added, "Or perhaps I'll show it to Alex Karev instead."
That comment made him pause momentarily, but then he continued walking. She rolled her eyes, trying to figure out why, at this point, she was still following him, until they both came to a nurses' station. There, at the nurses' station, was Dr. Bailey.
Mark turned to Bailey and said curtly, "Dr. Bailey, would you mind telling this intern to respect her attending and stop pestering me?"
Bailey rolled her eyes, aware of their relationship and replied, "Maybe you shouldn't have pestered this poor girl in the first place, and she wouldn't be pestering you now." Then she walked away grumbling about inappropriate relationships.
"Mark, please stop," Lexie pleaded. "It's not funny anymore." What was supposed to be a stupid joke almost had Lexie in tears. She was biting her lip, trying to hold the tears in. She had never cried in front of Mark before, and she really didn't want to cry in front of all the people milling around where they were standing. It wasn't really about what Mark was holding, but now he was just being mean.
When he heard her voice waver he looked into her eyes, and when he saw that she was genuinely upset he took her hand and led her to his office which was around the corner. At first Lexie wanted to resist him, and run away from him, but the grip he had on her hand was so firm that even if she wanted to, she couldn't make a break for it.
When they made it to his office she choked on a sob, unable to keep it in, and the look on Mark's face mirrored the look of a little boys face after he had broken his mother's favorite vase.
"Don't cry, please don't cry," He was now pleading with her, trying to wipe away each tear as it fell with the pad of his thumb.
She tried to stop crying, but the tears just came harder. "God, I'm being such a baby," she sobbed. She was now more humiliated than she had been in a long time.
He picked her up in a hug, and crushed her against him so her face was nuzzled into his neck. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to catch her breath. He supported her weight with one hand while he reached his other hand under her scrub top and rubbed small circles into her back. While they stood there together, her trying to catch her breath and stop the tears, he whispered soft soothing words into her ear. "I don't deserve you. I'm so sorry. Just stop crying. I love you." Mark was blind sighted on what he should be doing. Giving comfort wasn't really his thing, but Lexie was his girlfriend, and he made her cry, so he had to do something.
After about five minutes Lexie pulled away from him and he set her back on the ground. "I'm sorry for getting upset; I know you were just joking."
"I was being an ass," Mark answered honestly. He knew he had gone too far. He reached in his pocket and took out the lingerie, handing it to her.
She took it from him gratefully, and gave him a soft kiss. "I love you."
He kissed her back, just as tenderly, but let his lips linger on hers for longer. "I love you too."
They walked back to the on-call room together and he helped her with her charts, knowing he still had to make it up to her. He thought that in spite of being in her good graces again, there could still be some hard feelings there.
Little did he know that there was no loss of love in what she was planning to do with him tonight, with the help of a little gift from Sadie.