Author's Note: Hey guys, this is just a little fic based off the promo for the next Grey's ep, where there's a conversation between Mark and Lexie and he tells her that "I have everything I always wanted...Almost." So this fic is basically where I hope that conversation will go. Hope you like it!

"So surgery went well," Lexie comments, scrubbing her hands. Mark nods, inclining his head towards her without making eye contact.

"Yeah," Jackson replies, on her other side. "Congrats," Jackson tells Mark as he passes buy, grabbing a towel.

"Thanks," Mark mutters.

"Lexie, you coming?"

"Yeah," Lexie tell the resident, shaking the water from her hands. "I'll be out in a minute."
"Okay," Jackson says, letting the door fall closed behind him. Lexie stares at Mark for a moment, wondering why he's so quiet. Usually, he'd be bragging about his success, or in the very least, taking compliments graciously. Obviously, Lexie observes, he isn't doing either.

"You all right?" She asks as she moves to the door to grab a few paper towels to dry her hands. When she looks back up, he's staring at her, just a few feet away. "The surgery went well," Lexie repeats, looking for something, anything, to say as his eyes bore into hers. "You should be happy."

"I'm not." His voice is flat, detached. But his eyes are still on her.

"Okay," Lexie draws out the word questioningly. "Why not?"

Mark takes a deep breath, glancing down to the floor and letting it go as if he's getting ready to begin a lengthy story. When he speaks, though, it's short and leaves no room for interpretation. "I'm a world-class surgeon," he says without arrogance, as if he's just stating a fact. Which he is, Lexie notes after a moment. "I have a steady job, friends, a…family. I have everything I always wanted," he tells her, eyes flashing to hers. "Almost."

"Mark," Lexie sighs, pressing her lips together. It's moments like these that really do her in—the times when he's so obviously and uncharacteristically truthful and vulnerable…Times when he and she both know she can't do a damned thing to help him. Lexie's beginning to think he's torturing the both of them on purpose with these conversations.

"What?" Mark asks, his eyes on her even though she's looking away. "What is it? Him?" Mark jerks his head behind him, and without even making eye contact Lexie knows the hatred on his face is poorly masked.

"No," Lexie replies softly, meeting his eyes. "It's not him."

"They why…"

"I've told you before: we don't work. Not together, not apart…We just—we shouldn't be around each other in any capacity."

"Oh? So that's your solution to solving this problem? To move away and never see me again?"

"I didn't say that. I just said—"

"Lex, come on." He takes a step towards her. She stares him down, as if daring him to make another move. With his eyes never leaving hers, he does move forward again, stepping carefully until they're less than a foot apart.

"You can't tell me you don't feel anything for me." He raises his hand gently, just grazing her cheek. The breath exiting from her lungs catches slightly as his skin meets hers, and Mark manages to take pride in that bleak fact. It's if her own body is working against her to prove his point. "You just can't, Lex." His breath ghosts over her face and she takes the moment to revel in the warmth of it, and the closeness of him—hoping beyond hope that he won't take notice and call her out on it.

"I didn't say I didn't feel anything for you," Lexie replies after a moment. "I still feel betrayed," her eyes flash to his, the moment being broken and her anger returning. "I still feel mad and I still feel like you acted unfairly. I still feel upset."

"You're entitled to feel all those things," Mark replies easily, noting that her words don't quite line up with her actions. "But you should remember everything else you feel."

"Mark…"

"You should remember what you told me in January."

"Mark." Her wavering voice has transformed into a grave warning; a warning she's sure he won't heed. He never does do anything she asks of him.

"You should remember that you said you lov—"

"Don't," Lexie cuts in harshly. Mark stares at her, tilting his head closer to hers.

"Why not?" He half-whispers. "Is it because if I remind you how you felt back then, it'll change your mind? Is it because it'll make you realize that you still feel that way? Is it—"

Lexie shakes her head. "It's because it isn't the truth," she interrupts forcefully. "Not anymore."

"But it was once," Mark states automatically, knowing she has no way to refute his claim. Somehow, though, she finds a way to sidestep it.

"And I wish that were enough," Lexie tells him, staring into his eyes for a moment, making sure he gets the message, before stepping to her right, moving past him, and heading for the door.

"It is," Mark calls just as she's about to open the door. She half-turns towards him, wishing she could just let herself leave, but unfortunately finding herself unable to.

"What?"

"It is enough," Mark reiterates, staring at her back. "I don't care you if you say you don't love me anymore or think you don't. I know you do. I know you want me back. And you can keep lying to yourself and telling everyone it doesn't matter—but I know it does."

"So?"

"So, I'm willing…" He exhales, and she can hear his feet move across the floor, getting closer. She still doesn't turn, even though she can sense his head hovering somewhere above her left shoulder. "I'm willing to deal with that, to work through it, if you'll give usa chance—a real chance."

"I did," Lexie replies defiantly, whipping around so quickly that he has to jerk back so they don't slam into each other. "I did give you a chance, I gave you plenty of chances, and you blew every last one!"

"I didn't ask for you to give me a chance," Mark replies patiently. "I asked for you to give us a chance."

Lexie crosses her arms. "How is that any different?"

"Because I'm not asking you to trust me, I'm asking you to trust us. I'm asking you to try—not only for me, but for you too. You're unhappy. I can see that. And I am too." His hand twitches at his side; he wants desperately, so desperately, to reach out and touch her…

"You don't know if I'm happy or sad," Lexie tells him, jutting her chin in defiance to his assertions. "You don't know a thing about me," Lexie states, eyes narrowed in his direction. Mark stares at her for a second, waiting for the punch line. When it doesn't come, he just blinks at her.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said, you don't know a thing about me," Lexie repeats, spitting the words this time. "You haven't, not for months. You haven't known anything about me since you decided that having a baby without me was more important than having me." She points at him. "And that is why we aren't together!"

"I know everything about you," Mark argues softly while Lexie rolls her eyes. "I know that you miss seeing your sister, Molly. I know that you miss your mother, too. I know that you take your coffee black because you think that its badass." He smirks slightly. "I know that you hate dogs because one bit you when you were nine and you had to get stitches. I know that that's when you started getting interested in medicine. I know that you went to Harvard med, but always cheered for Yale because that's where Susan went to school. I know that you've only slept with seven or eight people and I, luckily, am one of them. I know that you look better as a brunette than a blonde, for more reasons that the fact that you can't pull it off." He sighs softly, his warm blue eyes staring into hers. "And most importantly, I know that you love me…even when you're afraid to admit it."

"I'm not afraid."

"Then why won't you tell me the truth?"

"Because it isn't the truth. Not—"

"—anymore, right? It's not the truth anymore?" Mark steps closer to her. "If it's not the truth anymore and you don't care about me or us, then why are you still standing here, debating it with me? Why don't you let it go, and leave it hanging like its something that doesn't matter to you? It would be easy, wouldn't it, if you didn't care?" He stares at her, his pupils boring into hers. "So go," he challenges her. "Go, and try to act like you don't care."

Lexie presses her lips together, wishing a hundred things at once—that this would be over, that he'd leave, that Jackson would burst in, that she could find the words to answer him, that he would stop talking, and that she could make her escape. But one wish, one that flies high above the rest, is that she could do as he asks, and stop lying to herself. She wishes they could just go back to when things were simple. Back when the biggest thing she worried about was how to tell Meredith and the one thing she could count on was Mark.

But that time's long gone.

And no matter how hard she wishes, it won't come back. No matter how many times she closes her eyes and taps her heels together, she's never home. She's never with him.

"You can't," Mark concludes, drawing Lexie out of her thoughts and her eyes back to him. "You can't act like you don't care because it's too hard, isn't it?"

"Stop, please," Lexie mutters. But Mark refuses, moving forward nonetheless.

"I'm right, aren't I? It's hard and it hurts. It eats at you and it bugs and pecks. It's like an annoying little reminder, every day, of what you're missing."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Lexie manages, staring at the floor so she can avoid staring at him. So she can avoid letting him see the truth written all over her face.

"I do know what I'm talking about," Mark replies, his voice injected with the authority of experience as he takes a minuscule step closer. "I know exactly what I'm talking about because I go through it every day, like you. We're in this together, whether you like it or not. There's no one else undergoing this except you and me. Just you and me." He lifts her chin, raising her eyes to his, with a solitary finger. "And I think we should make the most of the time we have together, heartbreak or not," he whispers, eyes attached to hers. "Don't you?"

Author's Note: I know I left the ending kind of open there and I did that on purpose because I'm not sure where I want to take it yet. I might add another chapter, or I might leave it like this, depending on when/how inspiration strikes me.

Please leave your thoughts in a review!