Two weeks later, Lexie had her last surgery, finally. Mark spent most of his time at the hospital for her, staying with her through her surgeries, watching over her while she slept, and amusing her while she was awake. He was cleared for surgery two days ago, but he wanted to practice on one or two other patients before operating on Lexie.
But today, he worked together with Callie to bring her leg back into shape and stabilise the bone so she would get full function back.
When she woke up afterwards, he was sitting right next to her bed, holding her hand like always.
"Hey," he smiled.
"How did it go?" she was nervous to know. This would determine if her life would drastically change, if she wouldn't be able to use her right leg ever again, or if she was going to go back to normal.
"Perfect. You're gonna be alright."
She let out a relieved breath. "Thank you."
He gave her a kiss on the forehead and stroked her hair.
"You can go home, you know. You look exhausted." she noticed. Of course she wanted him with her every second, but she also didn't want him to feel like crap because he had to sleep on hard hospital chairs.
"I'm on call anyway." he argued.
"Your apartment is five minutes away. I doubt that makes any difference."
"I'm staying." he insisted. She knew it was pointless to try and talk him out of it.
"You need to stop sleeping on those chairs. You're gonna hurt your back."
He wanted to deny it when he got an idea.
"Okay," he agreed, then climbed into bed with her, careful with her IV lines and not to hurt her.
A wide smile grew on her face that she couldn't contain. "I can get used to that."
The next morning, they were still sleeping in that exact position. Luckily, Mark wasn't needed during the night because he would've hated to leave his place.
April and Jackson were watching them again. April was supposed to check on Lexie, and Jackson had been searching for Mark so they could do rounds.
"Should we wake them?" he whispered.
"Nah. Let them be happy for a little longer. They look so peaceful." she was admiring them again.
"Yeah, but I need Sloan for rounds, and the interns are arriving today, so if I don't get to sleep, he doesn't either." he decided, and he let the clipboard in his hands fall to the ground.
The loud noise as the plastic hit the floor woke the couple up.
April decided to bother Lexie right away after rolling her eyes at Jackson. "Good morning. How are you feeling today? Any pain?"
The brunette rubbed her eyes. "April, can I wake up first before you start interrogating me?" she groaned.
Jackson cleared his throat. "Dr. Sloan, we have rounds to attend."
Mark sighed; he didn't want to go. "Just a second, Avery."
"And the new interns are coming today, remember? If we charm them enough, we might win one for plastics." Jackson added.
Mark sighed, then carefully got up from the bed and changed his shirt. He always brought one because he knew he would be spending the whole night with her.
"No, I told you that I don't want an intern. The plastics possee is just perfect as it is. Don't try to change what we have."
"I'm confused. I thought Lexie was your girlfriend, not Jackson?" April mocked.
Mark just ignored her comment and went on, "Besides, I hate teaching. I don't take the time to teach interns because they're mostly useless anyway."
"You taught me." Lexie cut in.
"That doesn't count. I was flirting with you." he excused it.
"And you taught me." Jackson added.
"That's different. You're unusually competent."
He gave Lexie a kiss and took off with his fellow.
"Be nice to the interns!" she shouted after him.
"I don't think he will be." April laughed.
"He's a good teacher, if he actually wants to be." the brunette told her.
"I believe that once I've seen it." her friend joked, then started checking her up.
"Your vitals are looking good. It seems like you're gonna be out of here soon." she informed her with a slight smile on her lips.
"Damn it, then you can run again when I vent to you about my problems." she realized.
"Nah, you'll be faster walking than me in a wheelchair." Lexie joked.
They both laughed. They have really gotten closer over the last few weeks.
Later in the day, Meredith came to visit her sister, with an intern following her every step.
"Hey! How are you?" the blonde asked.
"I'm good. I might be going home by the end of the week." Lexie told her happily.
"Really? That's great." she smiled.
Lexie noticed a brunette awkwardly standing behind Meredith. "Who's your shadow?"
"Oh, that's Dr. Wilson." She stepped aside, so she could see her.
"Hey," the girl said a little shyly.
Suddenly, Meredith's pager went off. She looked at it and started rushing out the door.
"I've got to go. There's an emergency in the ER." she informed them.
"Wilson, you stay here. I can't have you getting in my way." she added, then was gone before Dr. Wilson could talk back to her.
She sighed.
"I'm Lexie." Lexie said friendly.
"Jo."
"You know, you don't have to be afraid of Meredith. She's harmless. Most of the time." she told her, seeing how uncomfortable she was.
"She's intimidating."
Lexie chuckled. "Wait till you meet Dr. Yang."
"She's the head of cardio, right?"
"Yea."
"I hope that emergency takes all day." Jo sighed.
"Come on, it can't be that bad. Aren't you the least bit excited? My first day as an intern, I was fascinated by all the stuff in the hospital."
"I was! But this day went nothing like it was supposed to!" she whined.
Lexie shot her a questioning look, so she would elaborate.
"First, I was late because my car didn't work and I had to take the bus, then security didn't let me in for no apparent reason. And if that wasn't enough, the doctor that was supposed to supervise me today blew me off because he didn't like me, and now I'm stuck with Dr. Grey, who treats me like trash!" she explained, then sunk down in a chair that was standing against the wall.
"Now I understand your mood." Lexie told her emphatically.
"Who was originally going to supervise you?" she added curiously.
"Dr. Sloan. He took one look at me and told me I didn't have what it takes, then he passed me over to Dr. Grey." Jo explained.
Lexie thought for a moment, then decided to help her. She liked the girl; she kind of reminded her of herself.
"Go and tell a nurse to page Dr. Sloan to my room." she instructed.
Jo looked at her, confused. "Why?"
"Because I'm gonna help you. You gotta experience the magic of your first intern day." she explained with a grin on her face.
Jo shot her a smile, then went to do what she was told.
"What now?" she asked as she came back.
"Now we wait."
It took one minute until Mark came rushing into the room.
"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked, worried.
"I'm fine" she told him.
Then he noticed Jo standing in the corner.
"What is the intern doing here? Don't tell me Meredith had the great idea to let her touch you." he feared.
"No. But since you asked, Meredith parked her here because she didn't want two interns getting in her way, because you passed Dr. Wilson over to her." she said, a slight angry look on her face.
"You said you'd try taking care of an intern today!" she added, frustrated.
"A, I never said that, and B, I did. She just didn't fit in the plastics possee." he argued.
"Not everybody has to be a part of your weird relationship with Jackson. And you just need to let her follow you around. It's not that difficult!"
He groaned, making her shoot him a warning look.
"Mark."
"Fine," he finally agreed.
"Just don't talk." he instructed Jo, and she nodded.
"Thank you." his girlfriend smiled.
"Just for today, tomorrow I'm not playing teacher again."
"You'll see, you're a good teacher. You just need to give people a chance." Lexie told him.
He gave her a quick kiss, then went away to get back to work. Jo hurried to catch up with him.
"You'll do great! Both of you!" Lexie shouted after them.
"So, you and Dr. Grey are together?" Jo asked Mark as she was trying to keep up his walking pace.
"I am not talking about my private life with you, Wilson." he brushed her off. He hated interns, always chasing after gossip.
He hated Lexie's class the most. They were all stupid except for her, and they treated her badly just because they were together.
"So, what are we going to do?" Jo questioned, ripping him out of his thoughts.
He sighed, annoyed, then went into the next room they passed. The patient was a male who didn't look like something was wrong with him at first glance.
There was also another doctor and an intern standing in the room.
"Present." Mark demanded as he handed Wilson the chart.
"Uh... Austin Winters, 17 years old, has a fourth-degree burn on the left thigh. He's scheduled for a skin graft at three." she tried.
"Alright, Austin, do you have any questions for Dr. Sloan or me?" the other doctor in the dark blue scrubs asked the boy. 'He was kinda cute.' Jo thought.
"Will it hurt?" he questioned.
"You won't feel a thing, I promise. You're gonna be under general anaesthesia, and when you wake up afterwards, you'll be fixed up." the brown-haired doctor explained.
The boy nodded.
"We'll have your thigh fixed in no time. It's an easy procedure; even she could do it, and it's her first day." Mark calmed him down.
Austin smiled.
"Alright, I'll see you later, in the OR." with that, Mark went out the door, Jo hurrying after him.
"That chick's hot." she heard the boy say, and then the hot doctor agreed.
"Who was that other attending?" she asked Mark.
"Doctor Karev, he's a paediatric surgeon. He's needed because Austin's under eighteen." he explained.
Then he stopped. "You know what? Go back and ask Dr. Karev if you can help with the preparation for the surgery. I have something to do anyway, something I don't need you for."
"I- O-Okay." Jo said, a little overwhelmed.
Mark had a break since it was only 1.30 p.m. and he didn't have any more patients before the surgery. So he made his way up to daycare, took his daughter, and went to Lexie.
As soon as they entered the room, a big smile grew on the brunette's face. Since he was back at work, Mark always took Sofia with him to Lexie, so he could see both of them when he had a break.
"Hey," she said excitedly, her eyes on the toddler.
"I can leave Sophia here and go for lunch, if you want." Mark said sarcastically.
"Hey, to you too." she greeted her boyfriend, and he gave her a kiss.
Then he sat down on his chair.
"How did it go with Jo?" Lexie wanted to know.
"I don't know yet. She's scrubbing in on my skin graft later and then we'll see how competent she is. I sent her to help Karev prep the patient for surgery so I would have time to be with you two." he told her.
"Well, I think she'll do great." She was optimistic.
"You don't even know the girl; you met her today."
"But she seemed promising."
He shook his head, laughing.
"Tell me about the surgery. I'm work-deprived." she demanded.
He chuckled.
"Austin Winters, right? That seventeen-year-old boy who burned his thigh when he was messing around in chemistry class? Are you going to take the skin from his other thigh? Because I've read that," she started questioning, but he cut her off.
"Lex."
She stopped and looked at him, confused.
"Take a breath."
She took a quick breath, which made him chuckle.
"I'm just desperate for surgical information! My brain needs something to think about." she whined.
"I'm gonna send Amelia over to you. Maybe she has some neuro cases she needs help with." he offered.
"I love you." Lexie told him, excited.
