Why me? ~ mark sloan

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Derek, Cristina and Lexie were walking through the beach, one of Vanessa's favourite places, it was relatively empty due to the fact that it was the middle of the day on a work day. They looked everywhere and in every hotel they passed, looking for a Vanessa Hunt - but they always came up empty handed.

Cristina took her phone out again and called Vanessa. It rung a few times and then ended meaning Vanessa had ended it herself. Cristina let out a sigh of relief; at least she wasn't dead. She started typing a text to her instead, hoping she would get a response.

Cristina
Where are you? We're all worried
and the twins need their mom.
Come home.

***

Alex and Jackson were wondering around the city - they had taken the biggest area - and checking every single place they could for Vanessa to no avail. 

"Do you think she'll come back?" Jackson asked, turning his head toward Alex as they continued to walk down the street.

"She'll come back." Alex wasn't sure who he was trying to convince but he had to believe that she would come back at some point. 

He sighed and pulled his phone out from his pocket again and dialled her number. It went straight to voicemail and he sighed. He decided to text her instead - knowing she would atleast see that he was worried.

Alex
V, come on. Come home
and we can work on it - 
we'll all help you. Come home
for Charlie and Amelia, please.

***

Owen and Mark were going to the houses of literally anyone they could think of that Vanessa would stay with. She had to have been staying somewhere as travelling out of Seattle without a car would have been tricky.

They arrived at Jake's house and they both looked at each-other and nodded. They weren't certain why they didn't come here first seeing as it was obvious Vanessa would come here. Obviously she would - it was Jake.

Owen knocked on the door and Jake answered a few seconds later. He pulled the door open slightly only to reveal his face and parts of his body and he didn't open it any wider.

"I think you know why we're here." Owen started and Jake sighed.  

Of course she had come to his house at almost three in the morning last night, covered in scratches from walking through the woods and tears from crying. He had taken her in and let her cry it out. He didn't ask what was wrong - he didn't need to. He recognised her cries and he sympathised with her. He knew what it felt like to think you were the cause of someone's pain.

Mark looked up to the second floor of the house and saw a flash of orange hair come away from the curtain. He looked at Jake and Jake sighed again, trying to decide what to do.

"Look, guys she...she's not well," Jake breathed and Mark's concern only grew, "She's going through a lot of stuff at the moment. She's not herself."

"I know who she is, and if she's going through her worst right now, I want to go through it with her. She makes me happier than anything I've ever known, and if I can have a part in making her happy again that's all I want to do. That's all I want to do for the rest of my life." Mark spoke strongly but his voice was close to breaking multiple times.

Vanessa was listening to the whole thing from the other side of the wall and the tears brought to her eyes were the only good ones she had cried in a long time. Jake gave away her position when he looked over at her to see if she was okay. Mark followed his gaze as much as he could before it was cut off by the door.

"V?" He called and the amount of emotion in that one letter made Vanessa regret everything that had happened in the past twelve hours. She slowly nodded her head to Jake and he followed her lead, opening the door wider to reveal her there.