Three

Mark was walking down the hallway of the hospital at a rapid speed and anyone who came in his way moved away faster than lightning. When he walked by one of the unoccupied patient rooms Mark caught his reflection in the window. The scowl on his face was even more pronounced than yesterday and the day before yesterday. It had been a week since the night Lexie showed up at his hotel room and his mood only got worse with every passing day. He was a nightmare to work with and he knew it. He was snapping at innocent nurses and residents who were only doing their job.

People was starting to talk. The staff at Seattle Grace loved to gossip and the latest topic was who had pissed of their Head of Plastic. Everyone wanted to know and they were doing their very best to find out. There was even a betting pool of whom it might be.

Derek was waiting for him when he arrived in the lobby. It was the end of their shift and they were going over to Joe´s for a couple of drinks. Mark really wasn't in the mood. He didn't want to listen to Derek's stories about his perfect life with Meredith today. Normally he didn't have a problem with it, he would nod and hum at the right places because he was just glad that Derek was starting to open up to him again. But tonight all he wanted to do was go home. He was exhausted from the lack of sleep the past week. It turned out that Lexie had been wrong when she said that she was the only one who wouldn't be able to forget their night together. Every night this past week that night has played over and over again in his mind. It was so vivid and so real that he could still sense her scent on the sheets even though the maid had changed them. He lay awake for hours every night before he finally fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.

"Good day? Yelled at any nurses?" Derek asked. Mark only grunted in response. "Do you even have any more nurses to piss off?" he laughed.

The both of them stayed quiet as they walked across the road and into Joe's, but Mark could feel Derek's eyes on him all the way. As usual the place was packed with people that had a night of from the hospital, all scattered over the tables and the bar, and the volume was almost unbearable to Mark. He spotted an empty table in the corner and ploughed his way through the crowd.

Mark was impressed by his friend. He managed to stay quiet until after Joe had bought their drinks over to speak when Mark was less likely to punch him, because Derek's face clearly said that Mark wouldn't like it.

"Are you going to tell me what has gotten you into such a dick mood lately?"

"Dick mood?" Mark drawled, amused at Derek's poorly choice of words.

"Aren´t you getting any, is that it? You do know that pissing off all of the women in the hospital is not the way to change that right?"

"Who has gotten more girls, you or me?" Mark dumbfounded. It was no secret that while they were both very handsome, Mark had more luck with the ladies than Derek. "And that´s not it."

"Then what is?"

"You" Mark thought. "If you hadn't told me to stay away from Little Grey I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would be in bed with her and not have a care in the world."

Everyone has always expected the worst from him. He has never felt good enough when it came to any kind of relationship because no one ever chose him. He chose Addison, but she chose Derek, it had always been Derek to her and Mark had just been a pawn in the scheme. It was a shitty thing of him to do, to sleep with his best friend's wife, but Mark honestly thought that for once someone had put him first. When things later didn't work out with Addison he gave everyone what they expected, because that was all he was good for in their eyes. No one saw what hid behind his mask. Until Lexie Grey. She came after him despite his reputation, not because of it. To her he wasn't the easy way to get a quick and good lay. She actualy wanted to be with him because of him. And that is why it pained him so much to stay away from her. But Derek was right, he would end up hurting her because that is what he did. No one expected any better from him and therefor neither did he.

Like she knew Mark was thinking about her, Lexie walked into the bar. She headed towards some of the other interns who were gathered around the dartboard. She looked tiered, he could see that dark circles around her eyes from across the room.

The new training program Hunt was putting them through was brutal. Mark had more than once fought the urge to yell at the good doctor when he saw how wrecked Lexie was. He knew he shouldn't care and it bothered him that he did, but Lexie Grey was special and nobody could deny that.

Unable to take his eyes off of her, Mark stared at Lexie for a good of five minutes before Derek waved his hand in front of Mark's face. She was beautiful in spite of the circles around her eyes and Mark wasn't the only one who noticed. Some of her fellow mate interns were gathered around her and tried to engage her in conversations. His temper that had calmed down with the first sip of the scotch in his hand was starting to rise up to the surface again. It was one thing to think of the possibility of Lexie being with another man, but it was a whole other thing to actually see it happening.

"Mark?!" Derek snapped and Mark reluctantly dragged his eyes away from the hand Lexie had just shrugged of her arm. "You have that look in your eyes again. Like you want to kill someone. What the hell is going on with you?"

"Leave it alone Derek!"

For the rest of the night he tried to pretend to be interested in the latest event in the Derek and Meredith romance saga, but every few seconds he would look over at Lexie. He noticed everything she did. Every time she laughed or talked, his eyes were in her direction. Lexie slipping off to the restroom was no different. When Mark noticed her walk towards the more secluded section of the bar, he made his excuse to Derek and got up to follow her.

Mark grabbed her arm before she could enter the stall and pushed her up against it. A gasp of surprise escaped Lexie's lips but Mark drowned her protest with a punishing kiss. He wasn't gentle and he pulled out all the tricks he had to show her what she was missing out on, to show her how good he was. If she was going to be with someone else he wanted to be damn sure that she was ruined for whoever it was by him. He wanted her to think of Mark Sloan every time she kissed, every time she let someone touch her body the way he had touched it. Mark Sloan was making sure that Lexie Grey would never forget him for the rest of her life.

When air became necessary they broke apart but Mark didn't stop his assault, he moved down to her neck and smirked when he could hear Lexie's breathy moan. How he had come to love that sound.

"Stop." she whispered. "Mark, you have to stop."

"Why? You really want that boy outside?" Mark growled.

"What? No." Lexie sounded startled. "You said that it was a mistake. No one can know. That still hasn't changed, has it?"

He could hear Lexie struggle to get out the words and he stopped his assault on her neck. She was right. Nothing has changed. Derek was still an issue that Mark didn't want to face just yet. He was jealous and he wanted to be with Lexie, he had known that for a long time, but things were still the same. He was still a bad person who would only end up hurting her.

They were interrupted by the buzzing sound of a pager. Mark looked down but it wasn't his. Lexie sighed and put her pager back on the belt loop of her jeans.

"I have to get back to the hospital." she extracted herself from Mark's arms and he didn't put up much of a fight. He watched her leave before slamming his fist in the bathroom stall.