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[lexiepedia]

The two weeks since New Year's have seemed in turns interminably long and like they've been racing by far too quickly. While the same could be said of time in general on the island, it's nothing compared to how Lexie has felt since Mark showed up kissing her, since they had very good but very ill-advised sex in an empty Compound room, since she

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[erstwhore]

He doesn't have it in him to walk away. It figures, he thinks, that the first time in two weeks he and Lexie cross paths would be under such circumstances. Expecting anything less was foolish on this part, even without any firsthand experience as to how this island tends to dish out its' particular brand of cruelty. Just taking into consideration the circumstances of his arrival and he's already hand enough for a lifetime, and certainly more than he ever cared for. Still, he can't leave her there, no matter the situation, not matter what fogs up the muddled air between them

[lexiepedia]

She doesn't need to look up to know who's spoken. Two weeks - and three months, before that - of not seeing each other doesn't change the fact that Lexie knows Mark well, and the sound of his voice is, to her, a distinctive one. Despite that not needing to, though, she swallows heavily and lifts her head, cheeks flushed and streaked with tears, red eyes just barely managing to keep their gaze fixed on him. The guilt she feels looking at him now far outweighs any she's felt in the days since she last saw him, but somehow, she finds that she doesn't care quite so much. Something like this, someone dying, puts things like that in perspective

[erstwhore]

Some time ago, there existed a man who would have held against her the fact that she left him once more, whatever the circumstances, whatever the cause. A man who, despite all of his many flaws, expected more from her than she was prepared to give. That man, however, had yet to live through some of the most defining moments of Mark Sloan's life. That man had never come so close to losing everything as the man that stands before Lexie today, who knows all too well the pain of losing her once and again. That man might have held it against her, but this man won't, because for all the troubles he knows may line the path ahead of them, he is tired of the constant give and take. Perilous path though it may be, it's a journey he only cares to share one person, and right now, that person looks like she could use a shoulder to cry on.

He offers her just that, lowering himself down on the log beside her, on arm wrapping itself around her, pulling her close so that her head can find a convenient, comfortable place to rest. "What happened?"

[lexiepedia]

He wraps his arm around her, and curling against him is so natural, so instinctive, that Lexie doesn't have time to consider doing anything else, or any potential implication in it. Neither the position nor the log itself is especially comfortable, but she doesn't care; she shifts closer, face pressed to his shoulder, one hand balling into a fist around the fabric of his shirt as if to tell him to stay, that, despite all appearances to the contrary, she needs him. Maybe it won't last or maybe it will, but in that moment, there's nothing she's so convinced of as that fact. He shouldn't even be here, he shouldn't want to be here, after she left like she did, but he is, and she isn't going to disregard that