To when I return

6. The return of the prodigal

He arrived at the hospital in the morning after dropping Elliot and Adriana to school. Walking towards the chief's office his heart raced. This was bad idea. This was really bad idea. Why did he agree to leave Lexie alone back at Boston? She'll be okay. He knows that. He just wasn't sure if he was going to be okay. 'Mark Sloan afraid of failing' he laughs at himself. As he knocks the door and steps in. "Chief."

"Dr. Sloan." Webber stands up from behind his desk.

"I just came to tell that I've arrived and ask if my lab coat was ready." Mark says.

"Yes. The coat is right here. You know where to ask for scrubs. It's good to see you Sloan. You are the perfect fill in for our plastics department." Richard answers.

"Yeah. It's great to be back."

"Dr. Avery will be your resident today. He told that he'd wait you at second floor nurses' station."

"Thank you chief." he says and walks away.

Mark walked into attendings lounge. He never thought this day would happen but here he was. In place they had dreamed about with Derek as they were interns. Now he couldn't care less. He was an attending, but it didn't matter. Not anymore. All that mattered was that he proved them wrong. He wasn't the guy he was when he had left Seattle last time. He was older, wiser and most importantly, he didn't have his old habits he used to have when people here had known him. "The return of the prodigal. I can't believe my eyes." Someone distracted his thoughts.

"Derek." Mark sighs.

"I didn't think you would show your face here anymore."

"Yeah, well, neither did I, but here I am and now I'm out. Avery is waiting me." Mark tells his former best friend and leaves the room.

"Mark, wait." Derek runs after him.

"If you want to start about me not going all man whore with this whole hospital, don't worry. I won't." Mark says while keeps walking towards the elevator.

"I was going to say don't sleep with my new wife." Derek tells.

Mark runs his hand over his face as he stops to wait for elevator. "I promised to my parents that I wouldn't come back if I didn't change. I'm not who I used to be Derek. I have bigger things in my mind than sex."

"I believe when I see." Derek tells as they part.

Mark sees group of residents around the nurse's station. 'Jackson must be there.' he thinks. "Avery. Let's go." He says as he sees him.

"You? Oh come on!" Jackson jokes as he sees Mark.

"Don't act like you didn't know." Mark tells.

"Mark?"

"Mer, Cris. Nice to see you." Mark says. "Let's go, Avery." And with that they left.

"He's hot." Izzie says.

"Nope." George says.

"Mc... What? Yummy, Steamy?" Izzie thinks out loud.

"McSteamy. That's it." Reed agrees.

"I'm going to McVomit." George says.

"What is he doing here." Cristina asks Meredith. "I thought that after fall out with Derek he wouldn't come back."

"I didn't think we'd see him anymore ether."

Around lunch time Jackson and Mark walked to cafeteria. They sat together because they needed to talk about the case that was basically thrown to Mark after the former surgeon. They talked about that for a while till Jackson's friends sat down there too. Mark was saved by the bell when his phone started to ring. He shows Jackson Jo's ID, and he laughs at him as he picks the call. "What did they do?" Mark asks and walks away.

"Am I dreaming, or did he show you Jo's number?" Alex asks, jealousy in his voice.

"Your girlfriend was stupid enough to agree to look after chipmunk trio." Jackson answered. After getting only confused faces he adds "Sloan's kids."

"So you are saying Mark Sloan has kids? I don't believe you. Also... How to you even know him?" Cristina asks.

"He was our neighbor back in Boston." Link says as he sits to the table with Amelia.

"Yeah." Jackson says. He did not have respond without exposing Lexie, so Link saved his life. Lexie might have had actually kill him.

"So he went to Boston? I thought he would've gone back to New York." Meredith days.

"No he came to Boston. New city with no emotional connections to his past." Link says before thinking 'Well that's what he thought.'

"How did you get to know each other? I most certainly don't know my neighbors." Cristina says.

"Unlike many, he recognized me from school." Link says.

"It's not like we saw each other lot." Cristina says and Meredith nods.

"We were on same grade since kindergarten!"

"We were?"

"Yeah. We were." Link sighs.

That is when Mark sits back at the table. "So... What did she want?" Alex asks.

"Dino nuggets. She wanted to know if I'd promised Easton Dino nuggets." Mark says.

"Chipmunk trio?" Meredith asks.

"Easton, 3, Elian and Asher, 14 months."

"Does your parents know?"

"Haven't gotten that far yet." He sighs as his pager goes off. He leaves with Jackson.

At 14.30 Mark's sift ends. "See you tomorrow." Jackson says as he goes to continue his sift and he leaves to change his clothes.

He enters the empty lounge and sighs in relief. He checks his phone and sees Adriana's message that reminded him to pick her and Elliot from school. He laughs and then he calls his wife.

"Hey." he can hear Lexie softly sigh at the other end of the call.

"I didn't disturb anything right?" Mark asks.

"No. I was at PT but just got into the car. I'm guessing your first sift ended. How was it?" she answers.

"I'm surprised that I didn't get punch to my face." He laughs.

"Did you even see Derek?" Lexie sounds bit concerned.

"Yeah. He just told me not to sleep with his new wife. I just told him not to worry. Speaking of the devil." He says when suddenly he's not alone in the room anymore.

"Derek or the wife?" she asks.

"Derek. Maybe I get the punch now."

"Don't joke about that. Sorry I have to go. I'll call you tonight. I love you." Lexie says.

"Okay. Love you too. Bye." Mark says and waits for Lexie to cut the call.

"Love you too?" Derek asks as Mark is pulling the jacket on.

"Yes."

"Mark Sloan is in love with someone else than himself. The end of a world is here." Derek says sounding bitter.

"How will I tell you that I was talking to my wife and the mother of my children? How do I tell you that I'm single parenting because my wife had to stay behind in Boston because she couldn't drop everything and move across the country? How to tell you all that, without you laugh me to the ground as like it's a joke? I'm sorry. I really am sorry for what I did but I've changed. Now if you excuse me I got to go." Mark says leaving his ex-best friend to the room alone.

So here we are, chapter 6, hope you liked and like usual see ya when I feel like it.