It has been three months since the plane crash. Mark and I lived at Meredith and Derek's house for almost a month before we moved back to Mark's apartment, and Mark got to go back to work two weeks later. I still couldn't walk and stand well enough to go back to work at the time, so I had to continue physical therapy. It's been over a month since then, and I'm finally ready to go back to work.
I wake up at 5 to Mark's alarm clock.
"Go back to sleep," he whispers. Every day for the past month and a half, I woke up because of Mark's alarm clock and went back to sleep because I didn't have work.
"I was cleared to go to work, remember?" I ask Mark.
"Yeah, but I don't think you should jump into the action so quickly. Maybe you should work in the clinic for a while," Mark says.
"Mark, I'm fine. The physical therapist said I could go back to work. I don't understand why you're so worried. I know my limits, and I won't push myself," I reply.
Mark sighs. "I guess you're right."
I smile.
"But you have to tell me if anything is wrong," he says.
"I will."
"Promise me Lexie."
"Fine, I promise!" I say and laugh.
Mark sweeps me into a hug. He pulls away from me for a moment.
"You're going back to work today," he says. I can tell it's just sinking now.
"I'm going back to work today," I smile and kiss Mark.
Thirty minutes later, Mark and I are walking through the front doors of the hospital, my hand in his.
Suddenly, my pager goes off.
"Derek is paging me, I have to go," I say.
"Be careful!" Mark yells after me as I run to my patient's room.
"Welcome back Lexie," Derek says as I walk into the patient's room.
"Thank you, Doctor Shepherd," I say, unable to keep the smile off of my face.
"Doctor Grey, this is Ava Miller. She's 20 years old, and she was brought in yesterday after she was in a car crash. She had bleeding in her abdomen and a broken leg, but she had a surgery yesterday which took care of her abdomen and her leg is okay. Our concern is her brain bleed," Derek explains.
We walk over to the patient bed. A young woman, Ava, is laying in the bed. She's pretty, with hair the same color as mine and bright blue eyes. She's smiling, even though she was just in a car crash.
"Doctor Shepherd, I can introduce myself," she says.
Derek laughs. "Go ahead."
"Well, there's no point now, she already knows my name," Ava says playfully.
I smile at her. "Well, then I'll introduce myself. I'm Doctor Grey, but you can call me Lexie if you want. And, I'm sorry Doctor Shepherd stole your moment. Don't take it personally," I say and turn to Derek.
Derek is laughing at my comment, and I'm glad he understood it was a joke.
"Nice to meet you Lexie," Ava says.
"We'll be back in a few minutes to take you for a CT," Derek says, and we exit the room.