Here you go everyone! Another long chapter just for all my followers! Sorry it took so long. I was experiencing some writers block. Hope you all enjoy it btw sorry I didn't fit in the mark and Julia confrontation. Ive probably said this before but its for sure going to be in the next chapter! Which I will have out tomorrow!

Chapter 17: One Lucky Sonofabitch

As Mark's journey from Lexie's hospital room down to the ER neared its end he came to an abrupt halt. He stood in the distance and watched Cristina, and Richard and the guys that he'd apparently beat down interacting. He gulped down a lump in his throat and stood back to gather his wits and calm himself down. Finally after a few minutes of standing in the shadows and blending in with the rushing crowd to stay out of sight, Mark ventured out into the open and walked up to the group of people. As he approached all eyes shot towards him and everyone went quiet to let Mark make the first move. This completely destroyed Mark's calmness and made him even more uncomfortable. He could feel a surge of nervous heat shoot through his body, causing him to sweat. He wiped the sweat dripping on the back of his neck away as he came to a stop in front of them. Not knowing how to start the awkward conversation Mark chose the simplest word he could think of.

"Hello…" He said nervously, his voice cracking as he felt a wave of emotions ripping through him.

Richard's face looked generally unpleased but he pointed towards the two guards who were now positioned side by side in their hospital beds. "Mark, glad you could join us. The men here before us are 36 year old Melvin C. Brickman and 29 year old Ronald H. Burke."

"Alright let me just start off right away by saying how terribly sorry I am for what I did to you." Mark started immediately before either men could say anything. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I swear I never meant to hurt either of you. It was wrong of me to try and hurt Thatcher, the man you were escorting as well but I was just…Very very angry. I lost control. But I had a reason to. That man almost killed a woman. Not just any woman, his own daughter. And she just happens to be the woman that I am in love with. What would you have done if you were in my shoes?"

"No don't turn this on us. You did this man. Not us." Melvin yelled.

"I know I did. I'm just asking you to turn the situation around. If you were me would you have done the same? Or would you have just kept calm and put aside the fact that the man in front of you was the reason the love of your life might not make it through the night?" Mark questioned. "I'm not asking you to forgive me or for you to be sympathetic….Just try to give me a break. That's all I'm asking."

"Why should I?" The man fired back with crazy eyes. "I'm going to be out of work now. I got responsibilities man. I have a family to worry about. I can't waste my time worrying for some guy that I don't even know. Nothing I can do know. Police have already been called. This is outta my hands now brother."

"Then call them back and tell them not to come." Mark screamed at Melvin and got up in his face.

"Back up man! Where the hell do you get off telling me what to do? It's too late now…They already here," Melvin informed as he spotted uniformed men coming their way. Mark turned around with surprise as he spotted the police officers. It was happening now.

"Mark, they're just here to question. You won't even have to go down to the station. We could still resolve this." Webber whispered to him.

Mark nodded but he still felt tears pushing out. He did everything he could to hold them inside. His eyes became red and irritated as he violently rubbed at them.

"By the way…How's Thatcher? I didn't hurt him to bad, did I?" Mark questioned.

"No. He's alright. We figured we should keep him away from you momentarily though."

Cristina pushed her way through and leaned in close to Mark and then whispered to him. "I'm going to go sit with Meredith. I'll keep an eye on her Mark. I'm not going to let anything happen to Lexie while you're gone. Don't worry. Just keep your cool. You'll get through this."

Cristina's comforting words were surprising to Mark. She'd actually been nice to him. Which didn't happen very often. She was actually helping him. He felt like he could get through this now. As the police came closer Mark turned towards them and waited. He was ready now.

Cristina left to go upstairs and then Mark went with the police for their interrogation, or whatever they were going to do. Now it was just Richard left alone with the two guards. As soon as Mark was out of sight Richard stepped over to Melvin with his serious face on.

"You aid you have a family right?" He asked.

"….Yeah. A wife and a son. We've been married six years. My boy Jordan is 3 now." He answered reluctantly.

"You'd do anything for your family. Am I correct?"

"Sure,"

"Give him a second chance then. He's a good man. He's had a hard life too." Richard stared him down and then walked away.

Meredith sat at her sister's bedside watching over her as she slept when her best friend Cristina Yang entered the room.

"Hey," She said shyly.

Meredith turned her head towards her and greeted back, then faced her sister again.

"How…How's she doing?" Cristina asked, taking one awkward step closer.

"She's good. I think. She's still hanging on. Derek thinks she'll wake up within the hour which is really good. He went down to get Zola." Meredith informed Cristina.

"Alright, well I finished everything I needed to do tonight….If you don't mind I'm just going to stay here. I promised Mark that I would. He's really upset about having to be away from her. This way he knows she's safe."

"Yeah that's fine." Meredith answered, "I'm just waiting here until she wakes up. She's gonna wake up. I know it."

"Of course she is." Cristina assured, now stepping right up to her friend and resting a hand on her shoulder.

Meredith had started to tear up again, "It's just funny to me…You know, how when we first met…I hated her so much. And now…Now I can't bear the thought of losing her."

Cristina smiled and almost laughing a bit as she began rubbing Meredith's back, "You know I was almost jealous of her,"

Meredith turned towards Cristina with a 'say what' face, inquiring her to tell more.

"Yeah, it's true. Hardcore Cristina Yang was once jealous of her own intern. She was always so smart. Effortlessly smart. And everyone liked her. She was an easy, fun and light kind of person. I was never that. I thought it would help me be a better surgeon if I was."

"That's crazy," Meredith laughed through her tears now. They both joined each other's hearty laughter, but then it suddenly came to an awkward end.

Meredith laid her head down near Lexie's lap. The anxiety and exhaustion was getting the best of her. All she wanted to do was close her eyes for five minutes, but at the same time the paranoia kept her awake, which just made her even more tired. Both Cristina and Meredith were very quiet now. Neither one said a further word to each other. They just sat next to each other in silence. Meredith continued to restlessly lay her head down on the hospital bed whereas Cristina stared aimlessly out the window.

"Meredith…" Both girls heard. At first Meredith assumed that it was Cristina but after a few seconds she realized that it wasn't the voice of her best friend….It was Lexie. Meredith whipped her head up from the bed to see if it was true. That's when Meredith saw her sister's eyelashes flutter and then her eyes slowly part. She let out a gasp of excitement and then moved her chair closer to Lexie. She picked up her hand and said, "Yeah,"

Lexie's eyes were open now, but they still wandered aimlessly. Cristina stood at the foot of the bed watching over the two but not stepping in because she wanted Meredith to have this time alone with Lexie.

"Oh my God you're awake. I thought I was gonna lose you," Meredith cried as she hugged her sister.

Lexie smiled and joked, "I think I'll stick around for awhile….I didn't know you hated me that much."

Meredith gave a chuckle and then pushed, "My guess was that you could hear us….But can you see?"

"No…Still blind." She frowned.

"So you heard what…What I aid too?" Cristina asked from the foot of the bed.

Lexie gave a large laugh and then winced from pain, "Yeah…Maybe,"

"Cristina! Go find Mark and page Derek." Meredith yelled wildly as she remembered what she promised to do.

Cristina nodded her head and then ran out of the room.

Mark was being escorted by the police to say his final words to Melvin and Ronald. As he walked back to the familiar section of the hospital and saw the faces of the two men and Richard. His face was fixed into a frown of disappointment. He was disappointed in himself. He couldn't keep his promise to Lexie. That's all he wanted to do. To be by her side until she was better, but now that was being torn apart. Odds were he was going to jail.

"Say what you want," One of the officers said.

"Again…I'm really sorry. All of this was a huge mistake. I feel awful and I wish I could make it up to you somehow…" Mark began but was interrupted mid-sentence when Cristina ran up to them. She was out of breath as she shouted Mark's name. He whirled around rapidly to see who it was. Cristina jogged up to him and whispered into his ear, "Lexie's awake,"

Mark looked at her with an incredible amount of shock. He just stared at Cristina, their gazes connecting. Cristina looked around at the police standing there and then mouthed one word. Go. Mark's eyes widened. How could he do that? He'd get caught and stopped before making it there.

"I got you covered," Cristina then said and nodded her head.

Mark gave a quick glance behind him and then, with all of his energy, turned towards the stairs at a full-out sprint. The police tried to grab him quickly but Cristina posed as a distraction and body-blocked them until they threw her out of the way and ran after him. Richard tried to scream at them to let him go, but they wouldn't listen. They were already chasing after him.

Mark came to a sloppy halt at Lexie's room. He peered in and saw Meredith still there, as well as Derek. Derek was standing marking up his clipboard. Meredith was still sitting at Lexie's bedside. Mark walked in. Both Derek and Meredith turned to look at him. He looked like a mess. A big sweaty and exhausted mess. Derek walked up to Mark and gave him a toothless grin then slapped his shoulder and walked out of the room.

"Sorry Mark. You just missed her. She dozed off again." Meredith sighed as she stood up. She had Zola in her arms. "Me and Zo-Zo are gonna step out for a minute,"

Mark watched her leave and then turned towards Lexie. She was asleep again. Dammit. If he'd been here all this time he wouldn't have missed his chance to see her awake again.

Mark stood next to her for a moment, just remembering their better times. The times when they were happily together. Those times seemed so far away now. He wondered if he could ever get them back. He didn't know of anything right now, except one thing. He didn't have much time before the police would show up. He kicked off his shoes and shimmied his way into the bed, carefully so he wouldn't hurt her bad arm.

Lexie gave a sharp inhale and then slowly began to wake up. She sounded drowsy as she said, "Mark. What're you doing?"

"A long time ago when you'd hurt me you did this exact same thing. You climbed into my hospital bed and stroked my hair because you said that's what you'd like to have done for you if you were hurt. And now you are hurt, so I'm doing it for you." Mark informed.

Lexie smiled as he snuggled closely to her and began pushing his fingers gently through her luscious brown hair. As Lexie folded into his warm embraced and laid her head down on his chest she began to smile. Mark joined in with her. He wanted to stay here forever. He knew soon it would end though. The police were bound to arrive at any moment.

Little did he know something amazing would happen right outside the doorway. As he was comforting Lexie the police came rushing after finding out where Mark was. But what they were greeted by was Richard and Melvin, who'd been standing outside for a few minutes already.

"Wait gentlemen!" Richard called to them.

"What is it?" One asked.

"Mel has something he'd like to tell you,"

Melvin stepped away from the window and towards the men. "I've decided not to follow through with the charges I filed against Mark Sloan. I realized that it was all an accident. He's a good man. He didn't mean what he did. And I can't bear to tear him away from that woman in there. He looks very happy. I don't want to take that happiness away from him,"

The policemen nodded and then walked away without any further conversation.

"Thank you," Richard thanked the man.

"No problem. Besides, my boss says I get paid vacation for a whole month. That's a lot of time that I get to spend with my family. So he kind of did me a favor then. This is my way of thanking him for that. And it's my way of showing sympathy for that poor girl in there. I couldn't imagine being beaten half to death by my own father. I could never do that to my son. Give them my regards,"

Richard nodded with a smile and then shook the man's hand. Melvin was wheeled back down to the ER. Richard stayed behind and watched Mark cuddling Lexie. He gave a laugh and then whispered, "Mark Sloan you are one lucky Sonofabitch,"