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.
Mark pulled back. "Maybe we shouldn't. You are still recovering, and I…"
"I know you didn't just start something you aren't going to finish," Lexie said, her eyes dark with desire. She wrapped her pajama clad legs around him, cradling him against her. "Please, now."
He cupped her face with his hands, kissing her again, putting all his feeling into that one kiss. There was a brief moment where Mark felt some panic. It happened every now and then since the accident. For the past week, whenever he would be happy or whenever they would be just together he would suddenly get hit with what felt like a panic attack and the full weight of what he had almost lost would hit him. Mark felt that panic now, but he wouldn't let it control him. He had to put it in that corner of his mind, like Derek had said. Looking into her eyes, Mark whispered, "I almost lost you."
"Yes," Lexie responded, meeting his eyes with steady conviction.
"I don't know what I would have done," Mark whispered. "Without you, I mean. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"You won't have to find out," Lexie said. "I'll be around for a long time yet. I promise."
"You can't promise that," Mark whispered, touching his forehead to hers.
"I can," Lexie replied. "I do. We'll be alright, I promise."
"Lexie…" Mark warned.
"I love you, Mark," She said. "I'll love you forever. We have forever."
"Don't—"
"Stop talking," She said, stopping his mouth with a kiss. "Now, Mark."
"I don't want to hurt you," he said, moving his lips down to the tops of her breasts.
"You won't. You couldn't," Lexie said, arching her back. She pressed her hand over the bulge of his pants and his breath hissed through his teeth.
"Now you asked for it," Mark said.
***
As she draped naked across his body, Mark gently ran his fingers up and down her spine, occasionally running them around the puckered, stitched-up wound on the left side of her back. "We shouldn't have done that," he said quietly. "You shouldn't have strenuous activity right now."
"It wasn't strenuous," Lexie said. "It was perfect. I feel much better now…endorphins released and all that."
"Dr. Bailey is going to kill me if this sets back your recovery."
Lexie giggled. "Sex should be apart of any recovery of mine."
"Oh, really?"
"Sex with you," Lexie clarified.
"That's better," Mark said.
"So I have been thinking…" Lexie began.
"Good for you. I approve, very industrious of you," Mark said with a grin.
"Alright, smart ass," Lexie said, grinning as he repeated her words. "Do you want to hear it or not?"
"Could I stop you?"
"Probably not," Lexie said pertly.
"Then by all means, continue."
"Fine, I will," Lexie said with a grin. "I have been thinking about our wedding."
"Oh?"
"Our yet to be defined and unplanned wedding."
"Continue," Mark said.
"I was wondering if we could do it sooner rather than later," she said.
"You were?" Mark asked, his eyebrows arching. "I thought all women wanted months to plan and to make it perfect."
"Mark Sloan," Lexie said with mock severity. "When have I ever done what you expected?"
"Never," Mark admitted.
"So why would I start now?" She asked.
Mark grinned. "So when do you want to get married?"
"A week? Maybe two?" Her eyes met his and Mark knew then that he would give her anything she wanted as long as she would keep looking at him like that for the rest of their lives.
"Okay, two weeks," Mark conceded. "What do I need to do?"
"Just show up," Lexie said, kissing his rough cheek.
"Believe me, there is no danger of me failing to do that," Mark said. "I can't wait to marry you."
"You could get the rings too."
"Rings," Mark said. "I can do that."
Lexie smiled. "Who do you want to be there?"
"Derek, and Callie, I guess," Mark said. "I suppose that means that Meredith and Sadie will be there too."
"I think it is only fair that Sadie is," Lexie said. "Without her encouragement I never would have gone to your hotel that first night."
Mark grinned. "Remind me to thank her one day."
"Who else?" Lexie asked.
"I guess the Chief…and Bailey," Mark added, wanting the woman who had saved Lexie's life to be there. "What about you?"
"Just my dad and my sister," Lexie said. "That's it."
"What about O'Malley?" Mark asked.
"What about him?"
"Do you want him there?"
"I think some things are best left in the past, don't you?"
Mark kissed her. "I can't wait to marry you."
Lexie smiled. "What about Mrs. Shepherd?"
"Yeah," Mark said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "We should invite her too."
"I'll make the calls," Lexie said, starting to get up.
Mark then tugged her close. "Later. Make them later. Right now, I want you all to myself."
Lexie smiled. "What happened to not doing this and not wanting to face Bailey's wrath?"
Mark laughed. "Well that has gone to hell now. Might as well release more endorphins."
"I knew there was a reason I was marrying you," Lexie said with a laugh. "Mark?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"Not as much as I love you."