Come lie with me

Chapter 5

Here is the next chapter...

The next three weeks were the best of Lexie's life. She could never have imagined that it could be like this. That happiness was a real and tangible thing that she could hold onto. Passionate nights were followed by happy mornings when she woke up in Mark's arms and savored the feeling of being wrapped up in him.

At the hospital, Mark strived to be professional, but Lexie knew he was thinking about her from the heated glances he aimed in her direction. They hadn't had sex in the hospital again, they saved that for his hotel room, but Lexie didn't mind. Because they weren't allowed to be physical in the hospital for fear of being caught, Mark had started doing other things to show her that he was thinking of her.

It had started small. A cappuccino here, or a kind word there, but then Mark seemed to like doing things for her. He started dog-earing articles in medical journals that he thought she would like, or teaching her a complicated stitch once she was allowed back in the OR.

He still acted like a jerk in front of others, but he used small ways of showing her he cared.

Lexie thought that he just like taking care of her, since he had never had anyone to care for before her.

Her theory was proved correct when she woke up in the on call room to find Mark pulling the rough blanket up over her shoulders. When he saw that she had opened her eyes, he shrugged and said, "You looked cold."

She had smiled and said, "You don't have to go."

"I really do," he responded. "Or I'll never leave."

She laughed. "So never leave."

Mark had then locked the door and laid down next to her. But instead of reaching for her clothing, he had pulled her close to him, and whispered, "Sleep, Lexie."

Small things like that had convinced Lexie that she was seeing a side of Mark Sloan that few people ever did.

And sometimes, late in the night as he held her close, Mark would talk about his childhood, and the loneliness that had consumed his entire existence back then. He spoke about Derek, and the guilt he still felt. And he spoke about Carolyn Shepherd who had taken him in when no one else had cared.

In turn, Lexie had told him how powerless she felt when it came to her father, and how much she missed her mother. She told him how her sister had always been the favorite, and how Lexie had desperately wanted Meredith to like her. To have a member of her family that wanted her around.

And it was in these moments that the loneliness that had been apart of them all their lives had slowly disappeared. They had started healing, and Lexie could feel herself fall for Mark more and more each day.

It did worry her sometimes. The idea that maybe he wouldn't feel the same way back, that maybe he would leave her if he met someone else, that his fidelity was only temporary. But there was this much bigger concern that she had, that she would miss out on the best thing of her life simply because she was scared. So she forced her doubts to the back of her mind, and focused on him. On how he was now, cause that was all that really mattered.

When Christmas came, Lexie shyly asked him if he wanted to come to her house for the holidays. Mark had looked visibly upset when he told her that he was going to Meredith's.

"Derek asked me," Mark said. "I thought you would want to be with your family."

"I do…" Lexie trailed off. "It's just that you could be there too. They don't know you and they don't talk to Meredith or Dr. Shepherd. We could be a real couple for a night."