Lexie had been working nonstop all morning. She surfaced through a total of five emergency cases due to the massive car crash. Lexie was rubbing at her temples in an effort to ward off an impending headache when the sound of her cell phone started to go off in her pocket. She reached for the phone and brought it to her ear.
"Lexie Grey," she quipped.
"Lex, how's it going?" her not so cheery sister, Meredith blurted out.
"Fine, Mer. How are you?" she answered back. Meredith was the oldest of the Grey siblings and was the first of them to get married. She was head over heels in love with a very handsome Derek Shepherd, a well-known neurosurgeon.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," she replied as she intently listened to the sound of children's laughter in the background. Meredith and Derek had three kids, they were Lexie's little bundles of sunshine. She loved her niece and nephew more than anything in the world. They are currently living in Boston and working at Mass Gen.
"I just want to check up on you. And I wanted to talk to you about Molly's wedding and some other details about the trip to Hawaii."
Really meaning, that you wanted to try and hook me up with another one of your friends, Lexie thought to herself. No thank you! Been there and done that. Her sister's efforts were just about as fruitless as the rest of the family's. The last blind date Meredith arranged, he chattered nonstop and not in a good way either.
Lexie knew of polite dinner conversation and on many occasions actually enjoyed it herself, but Justin Howard took that concept to a whole other level. He not only talked through the whole date, he monopolized the conversation by telling Lexie too much personal information about himself that she cared less to hear. He went so far as to tell her about 'Mr. Winkles'. That did it! That was the final straw that broke the camel's back. In the middle of dinner, Lexie considered their conversation immediately over. She didn't even respond to him, she just stood up and walked away, never once looking back. Any man who had the audacity to talk about his personal body parts on a first date, even going as far as naming them, was a no-go in her book.
"So Mer, I'm kind of busy today and there's something I need to catch up," Lexie answered her while thinking about her plan and Mark Sloan. She could probably catch him on a lunch break and make her proposal to him then. The sooner the better because if she didn't come up with something fast, there would be no way to deter her family and whatever cockamamie plan they were in the midst of cooking up.
"Okay, so I'll call you later then," Meredith affirmed.
"Alright, say hi to the kids for me," she said glancing at her watch.
Lexie hung up the phone and now, all she had to do was convince the very egotistical Mark Sloan just how perfect it really was.
Lexie walked up the steps of the hospital. Lexie had come here today on a mission; a mission that involved Mark Sloan, and she was poised to complete her mission.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Grey," Chief Webber said in passing.
"Good afternoon, Chief," she answered back with an award-winning smile.
The chief stopped and talked to her about a patient.
"That's good to hear," Lexie replied back honestly.
When she spotted Mark Sloan stepping out of the OR. Her mind shifted gears while she watched him.
"If you'll please excuse me, Chief, the person I came to see just appeared," she said to him not taking her eyes off of Mark. The Chief chuckled when he saw who Lexie Grey was looking at.
"Mark Sloan, huh? It's about time the two of you got together." Lexie turned around to look at the Chief with wide eyes.
"Oh no," she said too quickly. "It's not like that, I mean we're not together like that or anything. I just want to see him for a c-consult.. for my patient," she stumbled out. The Chief only gave her a knowing look.
"Run along Dr. Grey, I would hate to be the one to detain you".
Lexie started to protest once again. She didn't want the Chief to have the wrong impression but instead he turned and she was left watching his retreating back, feeling dumbstruck in what would make him think that Mark and I would ever fit together? That was just plain madness, she mused. Turning back around to where she had last seen Mark Sloan, she cursed aloud an unladylike explicate remark. He wasn't there.
"Where could that man have run off to so quickly?" she muttered, while briskly making her way through the hallway. She really needed to speak with him.
Lexie initiated her quest for Mark Sloan by looking in all of the rooms and that was now seemingly empty. Nothing. Not one sign of him. She scurried by several of the nurse's station in hopes he stopped by there to talk with someone, but nowhere was he found. She raced up and down every hall and concluded that he had just vanished. Somehow, Dr. Sloan had managed to disappear right from under her nose.
With only thirty minutes left of her break, Lexie started heading towards the deli, just a few blocks down the street, to grab a salad before heading back to the hospital. Mark would surely be heading back to there sometime today and when he did, she would sit him down and give him her proposition.
Feeling a little ragged from the first half of the day's events, Lexie deliberately took time walking down the street. She was entranced by soaking up the sun's warmth on her face and took pleasure, in drawing deep breaths of fresh air into her lungs. The outside atmosphere of harmony and pleasantry was simply contagious. Lexie was still looking upward when she, not so gracefully, rammed into something hard, or rather someone with a body that felt like a brick.
After stumbling and almost losing her balance she started to apologize profusely, "I'm so sorry, I should have been watching, I should have been looking out…"
A familiar laugh caught her by surprise. Straightening herself and brushing clumsily at her pants, Lexie looked up and found herself gazing into the bluest eyes that she had ever laid her sights on, eyes so blue that she could see herself in them.
"You okay there?" a deep voice spoke; when she realized that she was still staring into the face of Mark Sloan. He was still holding her elbow firmly to help steady her and they were so close that she could smell his aftershave; it was spicy and pretty damn appealing.
Lexie shook her head and took a step back. She needed some space in order to think. There was just something about this man that threw her off her game and that was unusual for the always confident Lexie Grey. It must be that she was tired and stressed that were too much for her, she gathered, because there was nothing, absolutely nothing that attracted her to the playboy known as Mark Sloan. That was why he was the perfect candidate for this idea of hers in the first place.
Mark stood back and eyed the very astute Lexie Grey. She was one creature that he had yet to figure out. She was very beautiful with her dark hair that she kept pinned up in a tight bun on her head. Then she had those eyes, those dark chocolate brown eyes that were always on guard. Not only beautiful, but Grey was smart and quick on the draw.
"I'm sorry," Lexie said again seemingly back on her game.
"No problem," Mark answered her with his head slightly tilted to the side. Lexie was still standing there with her brow furrowed and it crossed his mind that maybe there was something else that she wanted.
"Would you like to join me for lunch?" Lexie busted out quickly. She was slightly taken back by the way she just blurted out the question and from the shocked look on Mark's face, he was just as surprised.
"Hmm," he said stroking his chin as if in thought. "Did you just asked me out to lunch, Dr. Grey?" He stopped stroking his chin and crossed his hands over his chest, offering her a smile that would make any other woman go weak in the knees. "What do I owe this honor?" he finally asked after a long minute of silence.
This was why Lexie didn't associate with the likes of Mark Sloan. He could be a real ass when he wanted to. All she asked was for him to join her for lunch, not for extra commentary from the peanut gallery.
She did her best to paste a forced smile on her face and mumbled out between gritted teeth, "I have a proposition for you."
Mark took in the steely features of Lexie's face. He had riled her up and he liked the way that she was trying so hard not to show it. Whatever she wanted must be good because on any other given day, he would be watching her back as she stalked away from him after the comments that he had made.
"A proposition you say?" he calmly reiterated, keeping his eyes firmly locked on hers. When she didn't flinch, Mark casually shrugged his shoulders, "What the hell, I'm game for anything and this sounds like it could be interesting. Lead the way, Grey."
Let me know what you think..