The following morning, Mark rang Addison and asked her to meet him at the cafeteria for coffee rather than at the day care. He thought it would be better to discuss their daughter as far away from Zoey as possible. He spent most of last night thinking about his situation with Addison and Cammie. There were so many unanswered questions: why did she start crying up when she saw him and their daughter together? Why did she spring this on him now? He used the time wisely and thought about his life and if he was ready to become "daddy". As fond as he was of Cammie, deep down, he knew he couldn't be a father to her, it just wouldn't be right. Goodness knows what Zoey would say if she knew he had fathered a baby with Addison just after they had split up. He knew it was Zoey he wanted to ultimately end up with and she was a young, gorgeous woman who just wanted to have fun and he was pretty sure she wouldn't want to be with a man with more baggage than terminal one at JFK. Lexie, however, being slightly older and possibly slightly more mature, would probably accept it and support him in whatever choices he would make where Cammie's concerned. So, why was he more inclined to choose Zoey over Lexie? Surely Lexie would be the better woman to go for, right? Mark sat at the nearest table to wait for Addison. He rested his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together and leant his head against his fists. He forgot his girl dilemma for a moment and went back to Cammie. He thought about what fatherhood would bring and the responsibility that came with it. If he were to be honest with himself, he wouldn't mind having that extra responsibility. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to prove that he could be a better father than his own. He wanted to prove to everyone else that he could be a better person. So why didn't he want to be a father to Cammie? That's when it hit him; he wanted to be a father, just not to a little girl that had half of Addison's DNA. But it was too late – Cammie had met him and knew he was her dad. He had no choice in the matter. At that thought, he couldn't help but resent the little girl and he hated himself for it. It wasn't her fault, if anything it was Addison's fault. Well, technically it was his fault as well as he clearly wasn't careful enough but he wasn't going to admit that. No, he was more than happy to place the blame entirely on Addison. After all, he didn't ask for Addison to come to Seattle to drop this five-year-old bomb on him, he didn't ask to meet said bomb and he definitely didn't ask that said bomb called him daddy. He thought back to Zoey and knew there was no way she would accept this child in his life and knew that would be the end of the two of them and that thought just killed him. He cared more about Zoey than anyone else and knew he was hurting her and Lexie by staying with both of them. That's when he had his epiphany; he had to break up with Lexie today if it was the last thing he did. He knew he was going to hurt her but it had to be done. He also hated how he was going to ignore the fact that he has a daughter and probably shatter the little girl's heart but he felt it was the right thing to do. Damn it! Why didn't Addison talk to him first? Why couldn't she have given him enough time to think about being a father? The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he got. He banged his fists down on the table and ran off in the direction of the intern's locker room in search of Lexie, sending Addison a rain check, knowing the child could wait and Zoey couldn't.
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Zoey found it very difficult to look after Cammie knowing whom her father is. She looked over at the little redhead and felt sick at the thought that while she was being conceived, Zoey was still crying her eyes out because she had lost the man she loved and it was her own fault. She considered telling Cammie that her mother is an adulterous whore but thought it may not be the best idea she ever had – she didn't want to be the one responsible for teaching her nasty words. "Maybe if I sugar coat it a little bit …" she quietly said to herself. She was about to go over to Cammie when Lexie bounded down the hall and over to her.
"You didn't text me! What happened last night?" Lexie asked her, clearly in a rush.
"Lexie, you can't be here. We don't want anyone to be suspicious."
"Zoey, no' one's here and anyway, don't change the subject. What happened last night with Mark?"
"Erm, nothing really."
"Liar."
"I'm not lying."
"You are! I can tell when people are lying. Everyone has their tells and you always say erm, or uh, or some sort of filler before you tell a lie."
Damn it! "Alright, something happened … actually a lot happened."
"Zoey, please tell me you didn't have sex with him?" Lexie pleaded.
"…Okay…"
"Zoey, you know that was not the plan! The plan was that neither of us have sex with him so it makes him think we're not interested, making him work harder for it."
"Really? Cause I thought we came up with the "no sex" rule to stop any jealousy."
"Yeah, and you broke that rule. How could you sleep with him?"
"Okay, listen, I wasn't going to but we were in his hotel room eating dinner and I was thinking about our plan of action and I had a thought. What if we did sleep with him? What if we have sex with him, say one more time… and then stop altogether?"
"What good would that do?"
"Well … okay say I had slept with him last night-"
"But you did sleep with him last night." Lexie interrupted.
"Yes I know, I was there. Okay, say you sleep with him the next time you see him and then neither of us do it whenever we spend the night with him."
"What will that do?"
"Oh I don't know, confuse him maybe?" Zoey said sarcastically. "It will make him crazy if he doesn't get any. So crazy that he just might tell us everything, however accidental it might be."
"I still don't get it."
"Just trust me, sleep with him one more time and then nothing – at all!"
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Mark was running all over the hospital looking for the brunette. In his head he was going over what he was going to say to her. He figured he would just tell her the truth and then pray she doesn't fertilize him or worse – cry. He was going mad, kicking open doors, peering in through windows of patients' rooms (slightly scary them) and even sent many interns and patients' family members in to the girls' restroom in search for her. He bounded up to Derek who was checking out the surgery board.
"You haven't seen Lexie have you?"
"Not for a while, no."
"Man, I've been going mad trying to find her."
"Have you tried the on-call room?"
"What do you think?"
"The OR?"
"Cafeteria, patients' rooms, the girls' bathroom, I've even tried the fucking roof! She's gone completely AWOL."
"Well if you can't find Lexie, I'm sure Zoey will be happy to have you." Derek smiled wickedly.
"Derek, can't you be serious for just one minute?" Mark asked sternly.
"Okay, chill out. Why do you want Lexie so badly?"
Mark sighed. "I'm ending it with her."
"Yeah, I've heard that before and look what happened."
"This is different Derek. I want to be with Zoey. I made the mistake of hurting her before and I ended up losing her. I could lose her all over again if I don't end it with Lexie."
Derek looked at him to try to get some confirmation. "You're serious aren't you? You're seriously going to break up with Lexie so you can be with Zoey."
"That's what I said."
Derek raised his eyebrows with surprise. "Wow."
"What's wow?"
"I never thought I'd see the day where you would actually make a decision and choose one of the girls."
"First time for everything. Sometimes, even I can surprise people."
Derek smirked. "By the way, have you got any plans for your birthday?"
"Nope."
"Do you want to do something for your birthday?"
"Nope."
"Mark!"
"Derek!"
"How about I talk to Meredith and she can organise something for you."
"Whatever." Mark shrugged and made a beeline for the pit, in hope or catching Lexie. Instead he bumped in to Addison.
"I've been looking for you. Where were you this morning?" Addison asked him in an accusatory tone.
"Please tell me you weren't waiting for me? I sent you a text asking to talk at a later date."
"Yeah, I know, I got it. I'm just curious why, that's all."
"I had to sort something out."
"Do you think you could be a little more vague?" she asked sarcastically.
"I just had stuff to do."
"Yep, you did it, that was more vague."
"Oh shut up Addison."
"Oh I'm sorry, has someone not been getting any recently and that's what's put you in this mood?"
"No. As a matter of fact I did get some last night but that's beside the point. In fact I don't know why I told you that, it's got nothing to do with you."
"Alright. I'm just trying to come up with an explanation for the cranky mood you're in."
Mark sighed. "It really doesn't matter. Call it stress related."
"Would seeing a five-year-old girl be any help to you?"
"Not really, no. In fact, it would probably add to the stress." Mark snapped.
"I don't understand. Yesterday you were all for seeing Cammie and spending time with her, taking her for ice cream. And now … what's going on? Are you having second thoughts?"
"Addi, it's not-" Mark started before getting interrupted by his pager that went off calling him to scrub in on a case that was meant to be scheduled for later that day. Mark groaned. "I'm sorry, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." He said, before running off.
Addison nodded her head, knowing fully well that this would probably be the end of their chat.
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"Does he seriously not want to do anything for his birthday? It's next month isn't it?"
"Try next week."
"What?! I was sure his birthday was in June."
"Nope. More like May."
"But there was so much more I had planned!"
"Planned for what?"
Zoey's eyes widened. She didn't mean to say that out loud. "Erm, for his birthday present. I had planned something special for him that would take a bit longer than a week to sort out." She said, recovering.
Derek nodded but looked at her disbelieving. "Sure."
"Anyway, are you planning something?"
"No, I was going to leave that up to Meredith."
"Well, why don't I organise something?"
"I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Why not? I'm his girlfriend, I should be the one who organises his birthday surprises."
Derek sighed. He hated lying to her and he really wanted to tell her that he was still with Lexie but he knew that it would only cause her more pain. Besides, Mark seemed pretty determined he was going to end it with Lexie so there would be no point in telling Zoey anything. "I guess you're right."
Zoey grinned as she walked away from Derek. "You won't regret this." she called out to him. She grabbed her cell phone and started typing out a text. Last step sprung in to action. Birthday next week. She sent it to Lexie and slipped it back in her pocket grinning manically to herself. She could not wait for next week.
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