Traffic was picking up as the five o'clock hour approached and people were leaving their jobs to go had been one heck of a day all the way around and Lexie was really looking forward to going had already made plans that started with running herself a relaxing bubble bath and maybe even opening up the vintage Bordeaux.

Mark is waiting for Lexie in the parking lot. He watched Lexie as she walks over to her car. It looks like she still hasn't noticed him.

Looking up she met the piercing eyes of Sloan. "Why are you stalking me?"

"Me? Stalking you? No," a slow grin spread on his face.

"Then why are you here?" she asked him, sounding both tired and exasperated.

"We need to talk."

"About what?"

"About our kiss?" he said teasingly.

Lexie gasped in shock, not believing that he waited for her in the parking lot just to talk about the kiss. "You're unbelievable."

Seeing Lexie's reaction, Mark did what he did best; he baited her. "But you do think I'm hot," he replied teasingly. Lexie threw him a look that would have warned any normal minded person to keep their mouth shut.

"I bet you think I'm sexy too," he added moving closer to her now. This time Lexie completely ignored him and if he had any sense at all he would have stopped himself right there. Now, he was standing right behind her, so close that he caught her sweet scent when he leaned down to her ear and whispered huskily, "And judging the way that you responded to my kiss, I would bet my life Dr. Grey, that you want me too."

Not thinking, only reacting, Lexie reared back her elbow and jammed it with force it into his stomach. How dare him to say that?

Mark grabbed his stomach and tried his damnedest not to double over. For such a small thing, she sure had some kick to her punch. Sucking in a breath, he blew it back out through his teeth before straightening himself back up to his full height.

"So," he drawled out slowly, still rubbing out the soreness in his gut, "I would take that as an affirmative?" It was more of a statement than a question and the playful twinkle he held in his eyes set Lexie off again.

This time Lexie pasted on a sickly sweet smile."You know Dr. Sloan, maybe you're right. Maybe I do want you," she stated and closed the little distance that was between them.

Mark's eyes widened in surprise. This, he was not expecting."R-really?"

The two of them were now standing in front of each other, face to face when Lexie suddenly lifted her foot and brought it down with a vengeance on Sloan's toes."I want you about as much as I would want a case of freaking herpes."

Mark immediately hopped back and cursed."Damn it woman, you need some serious anger management courses!" Taking a step back. "That hurts," he grumbled like a little child and then sent her a cursory glance before returning his attention back to his throbbing toes.

"Good," she snapped."It was meant to hurt." Lexie then stepped away to walk to her car.

"Hey, wait. We need to talk." Catching up with her. "Don't you think a husband and wife should know a few things about each other before they were introduced to the family?"

Lexie let out a dramatic huff. "We have a week to iron out the details. Right now, I just want to go home, if you don't mind."

His toe was still a little sore but he would live. "Alright, whose home are we going to wifey, yours or mine?"

She was already shaking her head back and forth, "Oh, no, no, no you don't! I'm going to my home and you can go to yours, Mark. I have had quite enough of you today, thank you very much."

"No can do, Lex. See, we have a dinner date with my mother tomorrow and if either of us is going to pull off this shenanigan of ours, we both need a crash course on each other."

Mark's amusement was written all over his face, whereas Lexie felt like the proverbial bomb had just been dropped on her. This entire marriage charade had seemed perfect before in her mind's eye, but now, now that they would have their first performance tomorrow night? It wasn't looking like such a great idea after all.

"Tomorrow?" she croaked out, hoping - praying - that she had misheard him.

"Tomorrow," he repeated not missing a beat.

Lexie covered her face with her hands. This was it; she had to either jump in head first and swim for her life or just sink to the bottom altogether. What would it be?

Lexie had never been a quitter in the past and she wasn't about to start being one now. Both Mark and Lexie were reasonably smart adults. They could pull this off with a little effort and everyone would be happy in the end, his mom and her family.

Mark walked into his apartment and lightly tossed his keys on the table. Going through his mail, his thoughts flitted back to the highly amusing encounter he had with Lexie today. A slow grin spread on his face as he recalled the memory. There was just something about that woman that made him want to tease her. He liked seeing her when she was all hot and bothered and was actually looking forward to their little meeting later tonight. It was sure to be an experience of sorts.

Lexie was a feisty little thing and he could only imagine how that fiery temper of hers would transfer into the bedroom. He bet she was one of those that liked to take control there too and he was more than willing to hand the reins over to her and let her lead them to oblivion.

Woah, what am I thinking? He suddenly asked himself knowing that he needed to quickly derail this line of his mail back on the counter, he frowned at where his thoughts seemed to be so determined to take most definitely did not want to be going down that road, especially with Lexie. Sexual tension would not suit well for professionalism between the two of them.

They had made a deal. A deal that they both would surely benefit from if all went according to plan. It was a good deal and all he had to do was play a part. Once it was finished, then they would go back to just being plain old co-workers once again. They had to maintain a civility between them and that was it, nothing more.

Feeling a little better about the situation, he started to strip off his clothing as he headed off to take a shower. They would put on their little show and that would be it. Lexie would finally get her family off of her back and his mom would get the asinine notion of him marrying some high maintenance woman out of her mind too. Simple, right?

Lexie walked into her apartment thinking that she must have lost her damn mind for agreeing to meet with Sloan tonight, she mused, in her apartment no less. How can one man have the capacity to irritate her so easily on every level that he always seems to do?

He also had an ego, the size of the Titanic and she had just the thing to sink that ship before it ever even began to sail. She felt pretty good about the few pot shots she had gotten off him earlier today. His toes were still probably feeling the wrath of her foot.

Mark stood in front of Lexie's door and hesitated for a minute before he finally rung the doorbell. He was holding two piping hot pizzas in his hands and had resigned himself to make this meeting as business-like as possible.

This was an informative meeting so that when they had dinner with his mother tomorrow night, they would truly seem like a perfect married couple, an odd couple that is.

Lexie opened the door and there stood Sloan in a nicely fitted pair of denim blue jeans, a polo shirt, and black leather jacket. With his perfect hair framing his face. She quickly turned away from him when she realized that she looks like she's totally checking him out.

More irritated with herself than anything else, she spoke to him in a short tone. "Come on, let's hurry up and get this over with."

Mark smirked but wisely kept his mouth shut and followed her in. Her apartment was nice; everything was neatly placed and tidy, unlike his place. He followed her into the kitchen and sat the pizza down the table.

Turning around he faced her and lean against the counter to studied her for a moment or rather drooled over her.

"So, where do you want to start?"

Mark blinked looking a little confused. "Start?" he asked.

Rolling her eyes, she added, "Yeah, start. You know family history, how we actually got hitched in the first place, and our story. What are we going to tell everyone?"

He then realized what she meant and walked over to the fridge to pulled out some beers. He handed her one before taking a seat.

Diving into the box, she pulled out a slice of pizza and looked at it appreciatively. "So, what now?" she asked and then looked back up at Mark while simultaneously taking a bite out of the pizza; letting the cheese stretch between her mouth and the pizza that she still held in her hand.

Mark stilled with the beer poised at his mouth as he watched Lexie bite into the pizza. The way that the cheese stretched and hung off of her lips was mesmerizing. It was the most seductive sight he had ever experienced and that innocent sight made him want her more.

Throwing his head back, he closed his eyes tightly to try and rid himself of the heated image and guzzled the beer. No! He told himself. Get your mind out of the gutter and focus on the plan. Plan. That was why they were there for.

Plopping his now empty can on the table with a thud, Lexie quit chewing her pizza and lifted a questioning brow in his direction."Thirsty?" she asked curiously.

Mark reached over and grabbed another beer, pulling back the tab and opening it up. Yeah, he was thirsty alright but not in the way she was thinking and he wasn't about to tell her that either. "A little," he said smiling tightly and then reached over the box reaching for a slice of pizza.

Determined to get through this in a professional manner, he started, "Okay, let's start with the family members."

They exchanged pieces of information about their families.

"Hmm..." Mark thought to himself as he chewed the last bit of his pizza. "What about how we met, how we suddenly got hitched?"

Lexie looked in the other direction and for a moment thought about what would be truly believable, not that anything really would be. It was going to take a lot of convincing to pull this one off, especially with her navy seal father. Earlier, she envisioned they could cop up a story about one of those quickie Vegas Weddings but the 'when' and the 'how' of it was the hard part.

"Well, we could just say we got married in Vegas..." she started and then scratched at her temple leaving the rest of the statement open.

"Alright," Mark agreed. "Now the question that they are all going to be asking; why?"

Lexie shrugged her slim shoulders and looked directly into his eyes. For a moment, Mark felt like he was a deer caught in headlights, he couldn't look away; he didn't even want to look away.

Finally, Lexie broke the connection and glanced down at the table."Well..."

Sloan mulled it over for a minute while taking another swig of his beer. Then it hit him. He placed the now empty can on the table and smiled back at Lexie. "I got it," he told her.

Lexie's head snapped up. "You do?" she asked, trying to mask her excitement.

"Yep," he said cheerfully. "Pregnant."

Lexie's mouth dropped. "What?"

He laughed out loud. "You're pregnant. Why else would two serious career minded people such as ourselves rush out and do a quickie wedding? It's believable, even for a guy like me."

She was already shaking her head back and forth. "I can't lie about being pregnant. That's stupid. We can fake a marriage but we can't fake a baby."

He let out a sigh. "Okay fine. How about you love me too much that you couldn't bear the idea of waiting any longer to be my wife. So you dragged me to Vegas and got hitched. Believable, right?"

All Lexie thinking about is how she really wanted to smack Mark Sloan right now. Oh God, what did I get myself into?

...