Come lie with me

Chapter 13

"It's so quiet," Lexie said as they lay there in the darkness. The rain continued to beat against their windows and the balcony, as it had for the past four hours. Lexie loved these moments the best. After her and Mark had satisfied each other, and they had no energy left, when they would just rest together. Mark would let his fingers drag up and down her spine, and she would rest her head on his chest and listen to the steady "thump thump" of his heart. Lexie felt more connected to Mark in these moments than she did in any other. He was his most vulnerable, and sometimes he would tell her what he was really thinking. In was in a moment like this that Mark had told her about his mother and father, and the loneliness that he had always felt. And it was in a moment like this that Mark had told her how he used to be afraid of the dark, and how he had only moved past that fear as an adult.

Lexie wondered if he felt as close to her.

"Yeah," Mark whispered. "Everyone is asleep." He kissed her head and yawned. "The whole city."

"Except for us," Lexie murmured.

"Except for us," Mark agreed.

Lexie snuggled even closer to him, if that was possible, and kissed his chest where she was resting her head. "I love you."

"I know," Mark said, smiling in the darkness.

"I like saying it," Lexie confessed. "There is something magical about those words, as if they can do anything."

Mark's chest rumbled in laughter. "What do you mean? You think that words have some sort of power?"

"All words have power, Mark," Lexie said matter of factly. "Don't you ever wonder why some words just crush us to our very souls?"

"No," Mark said.

"Well, I do," Lexie replied. "Why is it some words can rob us of all reason or happiness? They are just words, and yet we let them mean much more."

"What are you trying to say, Lexie?" Mark asked, brushing her hair away from her face.

"I guess I am just saying that I don't want to miss a chance to tell you how much I love you. I love you, Mark."

"I love you too," he whispered.

"As you should," Lexie said with a small smile. She was quiet for a while then, thinking about all the twists and turns that led her to this place. How much had happened for this very moment to occur? By all rights, Lexie shouldn't even be here in Seattle. If things had gone the way she planned, she would be at Mass General right now, in their intern program, not here apart of Seattle Grace. Instead, her mother died and she ended up back in her home town to be close to her father and sister. This idea was puzzling Lexie until she finally said, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we hadn't met?"

"What do you mean?" Mark asked.

"Like what if I hadn't come to Seattle?"

"Or what if I hadn't?" Mark added.

"Well, you would have come for Derek," Lexie said.

"But what if Derek hadn't been here in the first place?" Mark said, loving playing devil's advocate with her. "Derek is only in Seattle because I made it imperative for him to leave New York. If I hadn't slept with Addison…"

"We would have never met," Lexie finished for him. "I might have come back to Seattle no matter what. But you, if you hadn't…" Lexie trailed off, trying to imagine being at Seattle Grace without Mark there with her. She probably never would have stopped crushing on George. No, Lexie mentally stopped herself. She liked to think that she would have discovered that dead end with or without Mark. "Do you think…"