Like My Father

A/N If anyone wants an edit of all the stress eating references there's one on YouTube called 'Lexie Grey/Chyler Leigh CRACK! Stress eating compilation' did I make it? Yes, I did. Was it my birthday this week and did I get an Alex Danvers mug? Also yes. I will be sipping from it in appreciation.

Seattle Grace Hospital, Seattle, WA 2009 - S5E20

Thank God for chocolate. All the chocolate in the entire world. That's how I'm getting through this week anyway. Chocolate, candy, fries, whatever I can get is what's keeping me going through Derek and Mark's little boy's fight. Lexie stood at the nurses' station looking through her charts. There was half a candy bar in her nimble fingers and a nervous expression on her face. It was an anxious tick of hers, she'd just start eating. So now that Derek and Mark were fighting over her she couldn't stop the urge to shove whatever food was nearest into her mouth.

Meredith had definitely noticed something was off because she kept asking what was wrong. But Mark just thought she was PMSing again. With each piece of chocolate she ate, the worse that empty stomach feeling felt. It was the awkward tension between them, that silence that drilled through her forcing out random statements she had no control over. They had to make up soon, they just had to. That was it, she decided, she was going to talk to Derek.

"Hey," he said kindly, not anticipating the angry look on her face.

"Derek please start talking to Mark again. I can't handle it, I can't handle the two of you fighting. What's the problem anyway? He's not hurting me, he's proven to me that he's commited to me. He's not a bad guy Derek please." She sounded a little desperate but the urge was rising in her stomach, that overwhelming ache of emptiness. So she succumbed, sticking a peanut buttercup between her lips.

"You know he hit on Meredith once, I punched him." He said pointedly, but she wasn't relenting.

"So what? I hit on you once. It doesn't mean anything." She stood with her hands on her hips and glared at him. The confrontation was too much, he backed down.

"I have to go." He said, taking off down the hallway towards the scrub room.

"Derek!" She called after him, but he ignored her.

Seattle Grace Hospital, Seattle, WA 2009 - S5E21

"My dad's here." That's what she'd said to him earlier. She looked upset and emotional and like this really meant something to her. Mark couldn't let her down. It would be like ripping out her heart. And yet he was still sitting in the attendings' lounge by himself sighing loudly and avoiding the door. She was probably sitting there in the restaurant waiting for him, or worse, knowing he wasn't going to show up. He couldn't just sit there and disappoint her, so he picked his sorry ass up and went home to get a suit.

The look on her face when she saw him was worth a thousand wallows. She introduced him and he sat down, and suddenly he remembered the first time he'd said he was her boyfriend. The word rolling around his mind like a gumball, he was someone's boyfriend. This was a big step for him, being someone's boyfriend and meeting someone's parents. And yet it didn't feel like this was just someone, this was Lexie.

He felt her hand in his, the tender pulsing of her heart through her skin as they talked and ate and he listened to her dad's stories about when she was kid. Sometimes her face flushed when the story was embarrassing, and other times she just beamed with pride. Overall it was a successful dinner. At the end of it, Mr Grey shook Mark's hand and told him he was a decent guy. He was proud of his daughter, you could see the lines in his face when he smiled. This meant so much to her that they got on. And after all the nonsense with Derek he was determined to show just how much she meant to him too. He was crazy about her.

On the walk back to his place she took his hand. "Thank you for coming," she said quietly. The air around them stilling to a warm glow. "You didn't have to, you know. But I'm glad you did. I think my dad-"

"Hey Lex?"

"Yeah?" She mumbled.

"I wanted to come. For you, I'm crazy about you too, I'll try to be a better boyfriend. I guess it's a been a long time since I had someone I really cared about."

Lexie turned around and looked up at him. Without realising they were outside his building, but she didn't notice. "Mark," she said softly, it wasn't often that he talked like this. There was always some ulterior motive behind his words, whether he was joking or flirting. But this felt entirely genuine. She put her hand on his chest, "thank you." She looked into his eyes before gripping the edges of his lapels and pulling him in close.

She always held his cheek and breathed him in when she kissed him. Fiddling with the hairs on the back of his neck, she nudged his lips with her own and watched his face light up into a smile. "Hey, you're not supposed to laugh." She said teasing, but before he could question her he pulled her back in for another smooching of lips.

*Internal cringe* she had been narrating the events in her head all evening and that was just a step too far. Even so, he looked so inviting and she was invested now. Slowly they backed into the lobby of the building, Mark hitting the button for the elevator whilst continuing to hold her. Her head nestling into his shoulder to avoid making a scene.