Come lie with me

Chapter 25

Within a week, Lexie was home from the hospital and quickly driving Mark insane. He now believed that Lexie proved that old adage that doctors make the worst patients. She was grumpy and irritable, and rather than savoring the time she had off from the hospital, she moaned about not being able to work. Mark had taken time off to be with her, but Lexie didn't seem to appreciate that either.

"I'm bored," Lexie said one day, as they reclined on their bed. Mark was doing a crossword puzzle as she was thumbing through a book.

"So you've said," Mark replied, not looking up. "You said it fifteen minutes ago and fifteen minutes before that."

"Sni-ppy," Lexie said, emphasizing the syllables.

Mark looked at her with an exasperated look in his eyes. "What do you want me to say, Lex? You have obviously made it your mission to make us both miserable just because you are recovering. I see no reason to endure it silently."

Lexie rolled her eyes. "I am not that bad. You just aren't good at this nursing thing." She smirked. "Maybe you should pursue a career other than medicine."

"I am an excellent nurse," Mark replied, "But you are an impossible patient. 'Mark, I'm hot,' 'Close the window, I'm cold,' 'This soup tastes funny,' 'Where is the crusty bread, you know I cannot have soup without crusty bread'."

Lexie gaped at him. "My God, have I really been that bad?"

"Worse," Mark said, but his eyes were soft as he looked at her. "You better not get sick a lot once we are married. I don't think I could handle it."

"I hardly ever get sick," Lexie sniffed.

"Good," Mark said. "I can't wait until you are recovering from childbirth, that ought to be a blast."

Lexie's eyes grew dark as she turned away.

"What?" Mark asked, confused at her reaction. "What is it? Why do you look like that?"

"I don't look like anything," Lexie said, tears filling her eyes. "This is my face."

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying. I'm fine," Lexie said, beginning to bawl.

"Lexie, what is it?" Mark asked, gathering her into his arms. "What is all this?"

Lexie clutched the fabric of his grey t-shirt as she cried. "What if I can't?"

"Can't what?" Mark murmured into her hair, dragging his hand in a gentle and steady rhythm up and down her back.

"Can't have babies. What if we can't have kids now, Mark?"

Mark met her eyes, brushing the tears off of her cheeks. "Then I will love you all the more because you will be my family. Just you." He kissed her cheek, trailing his lips along her jaw. "I don't need to have kids, Lex, but I do need you. As long as we are together, I don't care about anything else."

"You mean it?" Lexie asked, her eyes shinning.

"Yep."

"And…if we do have kids? We haven't really talked about it too much. Could we maybe…start to try?"

Before she could even squeak, Mark had her pinned beneath him, holding her but not too tightly.

"Anytime, Little Grey," Mark whispered against her lips. "We can start now or in two years. I don't care."

"Mark, I…" Her words were silenced by his lips claiming hers. He pressed them against her gently, as if he was afraid of hurting her. His tongue soon came out to meet hers, and Lexie was thrown back into a flashback of that first night when he had kissed her. He had tasted like scotch and blackberries then, and Lexie could taste the same things now. That night, she had felt so insecure and vulnerable, but he had taken that all away. For that brief moment, when she had though he would refuse, Lexie had felt her heart drop to her stomach. But the look that came into his eyes that followed took all those fears and quashed them.