To when I return

8. Our new normal

Lexie was getting used to the new week rhythm. From Monday to Saturday she woke up at 6.30, she would work from 8 am till 5 pm, doing the chief duties and yelling at the workers. On Mondays and Thursdays she had physical therapy right after work, on Wednesdays she went to talk with her therapist. Every night the kids would call her around 9 pm. Usually Mark was there with them, but sometimes he was at work. On days like that Mark called whenever he happened to find free time between patients. If he didn't have time for that he would always find time to text her and ask how she was and how her day had gone. Then Lexie would send him over 10-minute rant voice mail about how she was, how work was and how much she wished not to be where she was, but with him and the kids in Seattle. Meredith usually called on Mondays around 10 pm. They'd talk for 20 minutes, usually how Meredith was doing, because Lexie avoided talking about herself. She usually found way to turn the conversation back to Meredith before she would say something she didn't need her sister to worry about. Around 11 pm she would head to bed and that's it. On Sundays her day rhythm was pretty much same, except she would have two-hour video chat with the kids in middle of the day.

Mark needed time to learn how to do it all alone. Even when Lexie had been hospitalized Mark had her to helping him. He needed to just bring the kids to hospital, and she knew how to help him. Now he couldn't just go and see her because she was three thousand miles away. They talked every day, but it wasn't the same as going to sleep in same bed every night. When he needed help with the kids, he called to one of his wife's best friends. After all they had been there when Elliot and Adriana had been younger. They knew how this worked better than he did. Then there were his parents. He had called them. Told them about being a plastic surgeon, getting married, having kids, and they were proud. They were, but... They were mad that they'd missed these big milestones in their son's life. The day they met their three grandsons, because Elliot and Adriana were at school, they melted a little because they didn't miss too much about their lives. 'Wait till you learn about E and A' Mark thought to himself, as he watched her mother and father play with their three youngest grandchildren. 

Elliot and Adriana were used to be with their mom. Since day one, it had always been the three of them. If everyone else left, they had their mom. Now they didn't. It's not like they didn't talk to her every day. They did. It just was weird that they had spent almost 15 years with that one person and then she decided that they would move across the country with their dad, while she stayed behind. At first they didn't talk to their mom nor their dad. They were told they would leave everything they'd ever known behind, and they were supposed to be okay with that. (Not that Lexie or Mark had expected them to be) But they agreed. Maybe this could be the one-way Elliot would get rid of the bullies. He had been bullied since forever. He was bullied because he couldn't talk properly when he was six. He had been bullied for that till this day, even if he spoke better than most of the bullies did. That is why he finally let in. Adriana was whole other story. She didn't look forward to living alone with five guys without her mother. She loved her brothers and dad with out a doubt, and she enjoyed spending time with her three youngest brothers. Her dad and Elliot were the problem. Only thing she had in common with them was the love for baseball. And for the record that came from her mother too. At the end of the day she agreed to leave Boston and start life at Seattle, after Lexie promised that she would follow them as soon as she could. The fact that she didn't have to watch her little brother being hurt was just gigantic bonus.

What comes to Easton, Elian and Asher, they really didn't understand why mommy wasn't coming with them. They managed fast to their new lives with daddy but still every now and then they would ask if mommy could tug them to sleep. That was the conversation Mark hated. To tell the kids that mommy couldn't because she wasn't home. Then Easton would say how mommy was never home and how much he didn't like dad. It hurt him more than he would admit. The next day Easton would wake him up like nothing ever happened. Mark would leave the kids with their nanny Elena and go to work. He comes home sees Elliot and Adriana doing homework and the trio doing whatever they did. He'd thank Elena and she would leave. Mark would eat dinner with the kids. Then call Lexie and after that get the kids eat something little, help them wash their teeth, every other night bath, then PJs and then he would read them bedtime story. They were usually fast asleep at 8.30. After that, Mark sent Lexie a good night text before he would go help Elliot or Adriana with their homework. He would clean the house a little before going to shower, after washing his teeth, he tells the twins good night, argues about putting their phones away and then getting a sleep around 10.30. That is of course if he didn't have late night sift. Then he would just go to bed, after checking that all the kids were fine.

At work Mark's life was normal. He did surgeries, he usually worked with Jackson and with Derek things were... better. They were polite but not super close. And Mark was okay with that. He didn't need him if he couldn't spare to look at him without wanting him to go away. That is why he made friends with Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins. An ortho and peds surgeons, married, expecting baby. Then there was Link, Jackson and Jo of course. Obviously they weren't as close as Lexie was with them, but they could eat lunch together talk about stuff like how Link and Jackson would come and watch the Yankees against Mariners baseball game. The war that would be born between Mark and Jackson who were rooting for Yankees and Link, Elliot and Adriana who were rooting for Mariners, were something that happen every time those two teams were against each other. That's when Jo would be taking Easton, Elian and Asher with her for the night, so they wouldn't have to be there in middle.

That all lasted till the one night, between Friday and Saturday, on June 1st, around 3 am, when Lexie arrived at Seattle. For the first time in 16 years, she was back. She walked all the rooms through and checked every kid she had, then she would find bed where her husband was fast asleep and join him there. For the first time in months, she felt safe. She felt home.  

Hope you enjoyed. See you next time. Tack och hejdå.