Come lie with me

Chapter 14

The hospital loomed large in the morning hours. The façade, which Lexie had always associated with a welcoming feeling, looked as forbidden to her as Meredith's house. While Lexie sat in Mark's car outside the building, she bit her lip as she thought about her options. They were currently parked in the far back corner of the parking lot, with the windows up, and the car facing a way which made detection from the outside impossible.

"This is ridiculous," Mark muttered, as her looked over at Lexie who still appeared to be thinking. "You are my girlfriend, and I want to walk in with you without worrying who will see me. We should not be afraid of telling people about us."

"But then they will know," Lexie said, her voice tinted with a hint of a whine.

"Yes," Mark said slowly. "That is the point of telling people. They will know, and then we can be a real couple in front of everyone. Random doctors, interns, and unsuspecting nurses will stop hitting on me, and the stupid intern with the funny name will stop looking at you with longing in his eyes."

"Who looks at me with—" Lexie stopped mid-sentence, and changed direction. "You are missing the point. If everyone knows, then everyone knows. I won't be able to scrub in on another Plastics case without people thinking that I am getting special favors. Not to mention the massive and judgmental freak-out we will get from Meredith and Derek, as if they weren't together when she was an intern. And furthermore, where do they get off—"

"Lexie," Mark cut in.

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling."

"Sorry," Lexie muttered. "I am just so sick of this Mark. I want to be your girlfriend in the daytime too."

"You are my girlfriend in the daytime," Mark said, not understanding the thought processes of the human female.

"Of course I am," She said, "What I mean is that I want it to not be a secret thing. We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Mark nodded. "But I thought you wanted to keep this secret?"

"I do."

"Wow, I am utterly confused."

"I do, but I wish we didn't have to." Lexie looked at him, and took his right hand in her left one. "I wish there was an easier way to do this. I wish we didn't feel like people would be judging us no matter what we do."

Mark listened and tried to decipher her circumlocution. "So are we telling people or not?"

"Not," Lexie sighed. "Damn it! This sucks!"

"Cause you want to be my girlfriend in the daytime?" Mark asked with a smirk.

"I am your girlfriend in the daytime," Lexie growled.

"Right, sorry. Not a good time to joke," Mark muttered.

Lexie bit her lip. Damn, that was sexy, Mark thought. Her face conveyed many different emotions, and every time that Mark thought she was about to say something, she closed her mouth and bit her lip again. He loved to watch her, anytime, day or night. Sometimes when Mark woke in the middle of the night disoriented, he looked over and saw her resting next to him. Watching her sleep gave him a sense of contentment that he had never known before.

"Okay," Lexie said.

"You've made a decision," Mark said. It wasn't a question.

"Yep."

"Well?"

"I am going to tell Meredith today," Lexie said.

"You are?"