Lost and Found

Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks Everyone for all your support! Please enjoy this next installment!

Callie sat on a stool in the orthopedic lab, glaring at an X-Ray as she tinkered with the bone model in front of her, she had to get the sizes just right...

"Hey," Mark's familiar timbre greeted her through the doorway of the lab.

"Hey," she replied, though she was still focused on the model. What was Mark doing here? wasn't he supposed to be at his practice?

"I'm just letting you know I'm taking Sofia to the park." He said, answering half of her questions.

"Oh. Okay," she said, glancing up at him. He seemed tired, light bags under his eyes. And his cheeks and jaw were lined with a five o'clock shadow. He hadn't shaved. Which for Mark was...weird. He seemed... sad. She wasn't going to let him leave just yet. "What's going on?" she asked, "did Lexie break up with you?" Blunt and to the point.

Her best friend took a couple more steps into the room "Uhh... " he said, sounding uncertain. Mark exhaled loudly and ran a hand through his short hair. "I don't know Callie, she needs space or something. She's going to DC."

"Well I get that she's pissed at you," Callie picked up one of her hammers. While she wasn't very close to Lexie, she understood her feelings. Mark cheated on her. "I have half a mind to throw this at you, you know."

"Please do, I deserve it." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black sports jacket mopey-like. "It's like we're playing a friggin game of snakes and ladders. We go up a ladder, think we're getting somewhere, and then... we slide down the snake and we're farther back then we were before... It's so-"

"Stupid? Pointless? Repetitive?"

"What do I do?" he asked.

Callie arched an eyebrow. He was asking her for advice? Really? This was bad. "What did she say exactly?"

"I'm supposed to wait for her and stop being an ISCT, an immature sex crazed teenager."

"Oh no..." Callie started, her relationship gears started turning as she flipped the situation over in her mind.

"Well maybe I am... a little-" Mark interjected.

"Not that," Callie said. "She told you to wait for her?"

"Yeah, why?" Mark touched his lip with his forefinger in confusion.

Callie wanted to throttle Lexie. Seriously? She was pulling the 'I need to find myself' trick again? "Mark," Callie sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. "You don't really have time to wait for her. It's time to stop playing snakes and ladders and take a spin on the freakin game of life!"

Mark's head snapped up, and he looked at her, stunned.

"Look, you were gonna move your practice to D.C right?"

"Yeah."

"So you're not an ISCT. You're willing to sacrifice and..." She paused, thinking about her and Arizona's earlier discussion, about babies, about happiness and waffles and another kid. She swallowed. This is what love was. People made sacrifices, compromises. They encouraged each other. They were there for each other. Even when they messed up and did screwy things. They didn't run. Or hide, or make things difficult on purpose. "You should go to DC," she blurted.

"What?"

She gave herself a second to actually consider what she just said. Lexie was trying to be mature about this but... "Give her space, but not too much space, Mark. Otherwise, she'll fly away on you."

Mark frowned. "I don't quite get it."

"Go to DC. Rent your own place... and just be around."

"Oh."