A/N: Sorry bout it. Xoxo

The cool air whipped at her face almost as if it was trying to cause an emotion but the constant feeling was barely noticeable anymore. Leaning with both her arms lightly draped over a small wooden fence, Lexie Grey stared into the distance as far as she could but the darkness stumped her efforts. Thatcher Grey had been lowered into the ground earlier, Meredith said a warming eulogy and everyone who knew and cared for her once drunken father had gathered for a reception in his honour. That was where she finally escaped.

Sitting in a room lit with florescent lights that was decorated with memories and filled with cheap wine and dodgy canapé was not what Lexie had in mind for remembering her father, rising from the seat she had cemented herself to for the past hour she prepared to sneak out of the room. Zeroing her eyes on her escape zone she slithered carefully, weaving her body through an imperfect mixture of people she knew and people she had never met until she had crossed the short distance where, at last, she reached the heavy wooden door holding her freedom. Stepping outside she pushed her stiff legs to move faster so no one could stop her escaping, stepping outside the building relief overwhelmed her body as an arm slipped quickly around her waist leaving a burning line where each of their individual finger brushed from one of her sides, and over the small of her back before coming to rest on her other side. "Little Grey, where are you running off to?" A shudder stemmed through her body, effecting one limb at a time.

"Mark, I can't be here, this is not how he should be remembered. He was more than a recovered drunk he was my dad and he should be remembered as the man he was before he fell of the wagon. Not just after. God, even Molly was focused on all the bad. This isn't right and I can't do it anymore! I can't cry, I can't eat and I certainly can't pretend that sitting in that room is helping me let go."

His fierce blue eyes held her hazel ones in a head on stare for what could have been hours, and if it hadn't been hours than the amorous surgeons would have chosen to stay there until it had been. But eventually his husky, whispered words broke the beautiful silence, "Let's go."

His steady hand applied enough pressure to the youngest Grey's back to lead her back to his car before opening her door for her before pushing himself to circle the car until he ended up at the cold black handle of his door. Hesitation rocked through him as he sized himself up, preparing to take his favourite person on a journey that he could only hope would stitch her back together. Just seconds after he clicked his seat belt into its buckle a musical tone of voice touched his ears, "Where exactly are we going to go?" there was obvious curiosity shadowing the question. "Do you trust me?" The silence after his question was crushing, after everything did she trust him? She loved him, that much was certain but did he have her trust? Eventually her melodic voice once again broke the sound barriers in the cold, dark car. "Yes." That was all that Marcus Sloan needed to gain enough confidence and enough belief in what he was doing, and with that the car came to life.

His palms sweated as the glossy vehicle sailed smoothly onto the road, he had memorised each and every turn he had to make, where and when to switch lanes as well. He learned the twists and turns of Seattle in preparation for this night just as he would a new surgery. He started with research learning all the different way to get places and the most effective. This was followed by choosing a route as he would a stitch for surgery and then practising by following the curves in every street. The experienced surgeon spent hours working out the quickest and safest routes before choosing the perfect one, and here he was. Executing his plan. The same way he would in a operating room only what he had in his care was more fragile than any flap of skin he could make and she was certainly most important than the most difficult face transplant. His heart was beating overtime as he slipped into a specific gravel driveway before shutting of the engine and turning towards the surgeon in training with a speed that wouldn't startle mice.

Her eyes were squinted in confusion as she attempted to decipher the meaning behind what she was looking at. Lexie Grey's memory had never failed her and this instance was not any different. Slowly her memories trickled back into her brain as she took in her surrounding, with the dim sunset lighting the building directly in front of her everything she couldn't remember flooded back. She could see it clearly, her father dragged her here when she was 6 and he changed her perspective on life completely. Six year old Alexandra Grey was irrationally afraid of the dark. It was still extraordinary to her that at one point she could have been so terrified, but her Father helped her past her blinding fear by bringing her to the same building she was in front of now. This building wall tall and spherical much like a light house only it was situated no where near the ocean and instead of classic red and white this building was purely grey brick. The buildings use was still unknown to the youthful woman but she knew it was filled to the brim with sets of stairs and that was where the lesson was learned. As a small and very afraid girl she had slipped her hand into her Father's and set off to the door of the building before entering on entry the torch being gripped by the man lead the short path to the set of stairs Lexie was soon the ascend. The Grey pair carefully began climbing the stairs 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. On the sixth stair the torch and only source of light shut of leaving a young child in hysterics upon the sixth of what must have been hundreds of stairs. "Lex take a deep breath.." The calming tone of her Father's voice made her feel somewhat safer. "Honey, I need you to put your hands out and feel for the next stair, I want you to climb a little further up and then we can turn the torch back on." With tears caressing her face she wanted nothing more than to shrink into a ball and cry but that would not get the light turned back on. With fear causing every part of her body to quiver the youngest Grey family member placed a hand on the uninviting cement, followed by another had and eventually both her knees as she crawled in darkness. Her breath was shallow as she attempted to keep a panic attack at bay, by the 12th step the girl was already breathing easier and stepping on her feet with hands glued to the rain attached to the wall. With her body completely focused on the steps rather than the blackness surrounding her the girl who was very small in stature barely noticed the dim yellow light of her Dad's torch. "Lexie I'm very proud of you.. Are you ready to come back down?" Without hesitation she began to defend the stairs taking care to count them as she went without uttering a single sound. 22. 23. 24. She counted until she reached her father ending on 44 steps, she grabbed his hand as the due ended up back in the family car. From there her father made a speech explaining to her a life lesson that would forever effect her, "Focusing on that one fear will surround your life and make movement difficult but focusing on what you can do and working on those aspects will assist you in doing everything you can." As a young child it was not something she full understood but eventually it clicked and it was that lesson that ha d gotten her through not only high school, college and med school but also her intern ship and the training she was still receiving from Seattle Grace. Learning that lesson pushed her through the rest of her life and she couldn't have been more thankful.

"I remember you told me about this place, so I tracked it down."

She whipped her head around to face the tragically gorgeous Mark Sloan, with appreciation shining from her eyes. It was only seconds later that he offered to take her inside p only to be met with an apologetic decline, "this place shaped me and that's all the closure I need, but thank you." A delicate smile traced her lips as the plastic surgeon in the drivers seat mimicked her expression with his own small smile. With the job of the first checkpoint of the relationship between Thatcher Grey and his youngest daughter completed the experienced surgeon started his car and pulled out of the driveway and began the process of finding the next building all over again.

Lexie felt a sense of disbelief when she felt the car shock back into life , how could one man care this much about a woman who come in and out of his life constantly for years? She didn't feel deserving of the effort he was gifting her. Attempting to turn in a way that would not draw attention to her, the resident scraped her eyes over the profile of the man in the drivers seat. Starting from his visible hair line she soaked in the sight of his salt and pepper hair that she knew was artistically styled over the course of 10 minutes. Through watching the process of styling she was fairly certain she could recreate the look upon his head herself, from the combing to the expensive gel. Her eyes continued to graze this face as they trailed past his hair and onto his eyes. Until she met him her favourite colour was purple but now she couldn't help but think the colour was dull and it left her wondering how it could have ever compared the icy blue colour that had her completely memorised. His eyes were framed with lashes both dark and dense while remaining incredibly long. They were the lashes every girl wanted but they were also the lashes that only Mark Sloan could have, she knew that she would be lying completely if she claimed to have never felt a slight envy over the hair outlining his eyes. Just above his eyes his perfectly shaped eyebrows were knitted together in concentration much like when her was performing an intense surgery. The next area subject to her analysing was his nose. It was a nose that had never been subject to rhinoplasty but yet was the straightest most well proportioned thing she had ever seen. But it was a part of Mark so it was no surprise that it was perfect, with all biased views aside she new that he had little about him that was not perfect and the things that weren't she still found completely endearing. Right near his nose was the colours yellow, blue and a trace of green lightly shadowing his cheek bone as a reminder that sometimes Lexie Grey could slip and become unstable. She knew she was in a dangerous territory when she felt her eyes trace the curves above his mouth as her eyes eventually rested on his lips. There were no words to describe his lips. It was almost certain that they were her kryptonite even now as they were shut together in concentration they had her completely distracted.

"Lex, please stop staring you are quite distracting."

The words shocked her as she though she had been so discrete, but Mark had felt her lingering eyes for the past 10 minutes and didn't find it fair that she could analyse his every feature when he had not yet had ample duty to do so to her. Although Marcus Sloan was fully aware that Lexie Grey was a fire cracker that never stopped, constantly moving or talking or rendering completely breathless. Even in his mind he knew that was cheesy but it was true, that was the most beautiful part of her, the fact that it didn't matter what happened she was always going, no matter what the situation. However out of the corner of his eye he saw the silk rose ribbons of her lips dragged smoothly upwards behind the veil of her slender finger tips as she attempted to hid her embarrassed smile and that was enough to get him through this car drive.

Soon after Lexie over came her embarrassment the driver smoothly pulled over to the curb parallel to a nearly empty beach, which made sense seeing as it nearing 11pm. The sand was clearly pearl white even with the darkness casting shadows over the surface of the ground and the opaque navy sky sprinkled with hopeful lights was enough to draw both the surgeons within the expensive car onto the shore in perfect synchronisation. As she slipped her feet out from within her shoes the feeling of the sand made her feel grounded, and the flutter of wind through her flowing river of brunette hair caused a shutter to break down her delicate spine.

"This beach has nothing to do with your father Lexie, which I'm sure you know but I wanted to take you somewhere that you could express everything you are feeling without judgement.. or fear. because those are two things you should never have to feel around me."

He raised his intoxicating eyes from the sand they had been observing and pushed them up his ex-lovers body until he saw her entrancing face. "It's perfect, plus we live in Seattle it's not very often I get to go to the beach. I feel like I want to scream, I want to run, I was to throw myself on the ground and lash out and even though the option is here what's the point? It won't bring him back, and come on I'm old enough to not need to do that.. But Mark I need to let go of him and I don't know how to do that. I need closure." breathless from her shirt rant the tired woman lightly gasped for air as if she was not only trying to gain oxygen but also trying to get back some of the dignity she had lost. Taking a cautious step forward his thoughts in a whir, Mark reached his hand out to touch her arm before changing his mind and placing his hand back in his pocket. Forcing his mouth to open he quickly spluttered out what he had to say before his brain caught up to his emotions. "Little Grey, there is nothing I can say to fix this but I want to help you remember your Dad the best I can." Taking another quick breath he continued before the woman could interrupt him, " Thatcher Grey raised you to be the woman you are today, the woman I am completely in love with. And I couldn't be more grateful. This is me telling you that to us he will always be remembered as the dedicated father he was and not as the mistakes he made." The silence after he stopped talking was deafening, the stubborn lovers made their eyes meet as he opened his mouth to state one last thing, "I love you, and I should have told you that not only the night you said it to me but I should have told you month ago... I lov.." The sentence was cut off as he felt her hands clamp behind his neck. The energy between the two pulsed as they made a fateful connection with their eyes. At speed that felt both as quick as the speed of light and as slow as an old clock, they leaned in at the exact same time with not a single movement out of place and touched velvet to silk.