Disclaimer: I do not dare thinking I'm even close to being as good a storyteller as any writer of Grey's Anatomy is, but believe me, if I owned it, some particular things would be handled a LOT better! Nor do I own the characters, lyrics to the song Mine Again or any of the dialogues previously featured on Private Practice, which I used in this chapter.

A/N: Hey, so...here it is. My love for Maddison hasn't faded a bit :( (and it's not like I really tried to get rid of it) and since I realized I was really getting out of fics I could find about these two, I decided to write one myself again, to get my poor Maddison heart fixed.
Mark survives the days in the woods, but that doesn't mean anything. What happens when Addison has a phone call that he is actually on life support?
This is the way I believe it should have gone. It won't be too nice or fluffy and I think it may even be kinda cruel at first, though certainly not as cruel as killing Mark off, having Sofia lose her father etc.
I don't believe you really remember, but chapters of my other fic Feel Again (title of the song by OneRepublic) were also named by various songs. The title of this whole fic is very similar, Mine Again, because well...I got an idea for it while listening to Mine Again by Black Lab, I just couldn't get over the Maddison association with it, which appeared, and suddenly I had an idea of what I wanted to write. I'm gonna use various lyrics from this song (yeah, it's really beautiful ;)) for titles of the chapters or if I can't choose a fitting enough lyric from this particular song in some cases, I may also use some from other songs later...ok, enough talking, here you are:

There's a place I used to go

Your life isn't perfect. But one day you realize it's as good as it gets. You have virtually everything you always wanted. Your amazing boyfriend and even more amazing son make you believe you can overcome everything. Every drama with the people around you, every tragedy in the family, everything. And it's not like you have any other choice. Because life has a sick hobby of throwing struggles and disasters in your way. And it isn't any different when you have a phone call one day.
"Addison?" you haven't heard that voice for more than a year. It's strangely weak, but after all that time you would recognize it anywhere. You've been married to its owner for 11 years. And it sounds too vulnerable not to scare you.
"Derek?"
"I hate to call you within these circumstances," yeah, it's there. Something horrible happened. To your ex-husband or one of your former collegues. One of your friends. Hell – and that thought may be the most frightening – perhaps to Richard, the greatest mentor you've ever had, "There was...there was a plane crash. We were... well, some of us...we were flying to Boise to perform a surgery and the plane crashed."
Something in you screams in horror. Seriously?! What kind of curse is lying on that hospital that its doctors can never get a little peace? Will they ever find some sort of normalcy? Your voice is shaking when you ask:
"Who was on the plane?"
"Well, me, Meredith, Cristina, Callie's wife Arizona, Mark...and there was...Lexie died."
Lexie...wait, Lexie Grey? She's dead? Oh, God.
"And Mark...," his voice sounds like he's about to cry, "Addie, you may want to sit down."
You feel like he stabbed you in the chest with those words. But moments later you are glad he told you to sit down, because your head is spinning too much when you hear that fateful sentence: "He's on life support."

You don't really register a thing of what's he saying after. It's something about cardiac tamponade and four days in the woods. You only know you're crying for two days after the phone call and your amazing boyfriend is taking care of Henry the whole time and in the meantime he mentions that when you feel like talking, he's there. You think he might be a saint. Well, there's no other possibility with him being so understanding. And you get that he deserves to know. And there is also one other thing you want to do. That's why you dry your tears after those two days and tell Jake you'd like to talk to him. Jake nods and listens to you patiently.
"I loved Mark Sloan. And it happened when I was still married to Derek...his best friend. I cheated on my husband with Mark. He got me pregnant. The one time I ever was...or ever will be pregnant. But I didn't...I couldn't keep it, I just...at the time with him being the father I just...couldn't. It's just karma for this awful thing I did to my husband, who...trusted me. But it is...Mark could die. And I can't imagine that, I don't wanna imagine that. We...we haven't spoken in months, but there was a time when he was my best friend. He was always there for me...and I...I wanna be there for him. I need to go to Seattle, I need to see him. I wanna be a good friend," you tell Jake and maybe it is more about convincing yourself that what you just told him is completely true. In those exact words. You can't really pinpoint all the things you're feeling. You just know one thing. You tried to suppress the thought, because it's horrible and terryfying, but it's constantly on your mind since Derek called. Mark could die, hell, it's more than possible, and you can't even properly remember the last time you were talking to him. And it makes you feel horrible. Along with thousands of other things and with tears in your eyes again, you finish your speech:
"So if you don't think you can trust me anymore or you think I'm a horrible person, because I'm a cheater...if you wanna go, you should...go."
"I'm...I'm processing, so just give me a minute here...," and you can't believe what he says next: "Thank you for telling me the truth. I know that was hard. Then...you're not a cheater, you're a person, who once cheated...and...there's a difference. And...I wanna be there for you too. Let's go to Seattle," and that's how you find yourself with Henry on your hip and Jake holding your hand, standing in front of Mark's hospital room.

You know it's impossible to really prepare yourself for what you'll be faced with, but what you see when you actually come inside beats all the worst nightmares. Mark is lying in the bed motionless, with his eyes closed. He looks anything but peaceful. There's a tube down his throat, wires everywhere and he's hooked to a thousand machines. Every attempt to keep your composture goes to waste and you sit next to him sobbing uncontrollably. He looks like he aged overnight. Yeah, if you were able to think rationally right now, you'd know you can't really say, because you haven't seen him for more than a year, but it feels that way. You can see the pain written all over his features and you feel like clutching his hand so hard that you'd be afraid his blood stopped circulating. But you clutch Jake's hand instead, lean into his chest still looking at Mark's motionless figure and at first you don't notice Callie has just come into the room.
"Addie, hello! I saw your son at daycare. Henry, right? Gosh, I hope to get to know him a little better," she is smiling, but her voice is sad. You tear your gaze from motionless Mark, really one of the saddest thing you've ever seen and you stand up to hug your friend in greeting.
"Oh, this is Jake, my boyfriend. And well, Jake, I told you about Callie," you introduce them and Jake smiles at your friend.
"Nice to meet you."
Callie smiles, but then she says: "I wish I could say the same thing, but..." you can't imagine worse circumstances for their meeting either. She talks some more and when she utters the words:
"He wishes to be unplugged after fifty days," you feel something died inside you. Sobbing once again you try to tell yourself that it's only day five and everything can still change. You're just not sure you believe it.

You later sit side by side with Callie, you supportively clutch each other's hands, your head is placed on her shoulder and hers is on top of yours. There are times when you're both silent, left with your own thoughts and there are times when you somehow try to catch up on each other's lives. You mostly talk about Henry and Sofia and it makes you both feel a little better. It isn't till many hours later when you realize it's gotten dark and you should go. Henry and Jake went to the hotel you booked before and you can't imagine how this will continue or how long you will stay in Seattle, you just don't believe you'll be able to leave till you know Mark's gonna be ok...or well – and that brings more tears to your eyes – till you know what's gonna happen to him, at least. Your incredible boyfriend somehow understands that. And when you're leaving the room, it's the first time you really touch Mark's sleeping figure. Sleeping – yeah, that's the least painful expression you can think of. Hell, you can even bear with the word comatose. But somewhere deep down you feel that he's actually in vegetative state and that's just too much. You brush his cheek and whisper:
"Don't you dare give up on us, Mark. Don't you dare."

When you come to the hotel room later that evening (you don't cry anymore because you've gotten numb...or maybe you don't have any more tears left), Jake pulls you into his warm embrance, whispers soothing words about not losing hope and it makes you think that there's no doubt he's actually a saint. And that's how it goes everyday after that. You don't think about your work or life in LA at all. You go to the hospital in the morning, you sit by Mark's side, you also go to see Derek and you feel sorry for him because of his hand. But you assure him everything's gonna be alright, though you make yourself sick by saying that, cos it feels like such empty words. It's your third day in Seattle when Derek brings up the topic you knew was unavoidable and you knew you would have to talk about it sooner or later. Lexie. He talks about a resident with incredible talent for neuro, about Meredith's great younger sister and amazing aunt for Zola, about such a young and promising life that has been taken away under the plane wing. And you have no idea, how to react, but despite everything Lexie Grey symbolizes to you, you think it's truly horrible and you even shed a few tears. And then one thought crosses your mind and it makes you feel even more horrible – even if Mark wakes up, he wouldn't want to live. Not now, not without Lexie.

And that's how life comes up with its irony once again, cos around day fifteen of Mark being on life support, his vitals start looking better. On day eighteen Richard extubates him and he's breathing on his own. And on day twenty six he starts looking like he's slowly gaining consciousness. His eyelids flutter, he starts whimpering and muttering something and when someone comes to his bedside and grasps his hand, he weekly grasps it back. He even opens his eyes – even though what you see in them is mostly just blank stare and he rarely fixes his gaze at the person who's talking to him. On day forty he starts looking like he understands what people around him are saying and he starts moving his head as in 'yes' or 'no'. Nourishment is coming to him via tube in his nose and fluids via IVs, but on day forty eight he licks an icechip for the first time and he starts pronouncing a few words. They aren't very understandable, but one evening he points at Callie and utters:
"...ooofffia."
She quickly goes to get their daughter from the daycare and when she comes back, a part of the bed under Mark's back is moved up, so he's in the sitting position. He is smiling when he sees his daughter, you're standing in the hallway watching the scene through the glass wall of his room and you're also smiling happily.

A/N: Yeah, this was "just" a setting, but I feel it was really needed! I hope you feel this story is worth continuing with and I'd love to hear your opinions, some suggestions or whatever you want to say! I'm not a proffesional writer, nor I'm a doctor, so maybe you feel something in this story is (or eventually will be) out of place, but will try to be at least as medically accurate as I can. For example, in this chapter you can see Mark waking up and maybe there are some things interpreted wrongly, but believe me, I know from a personal experience that waking up from coma really doesn't look like it does in cheesy movies, where character opens their eyes and suddenly they know and they are able to do everything like before. And this fact certainly applies to vegetative state too.
Btw, I really recommend listening to Mine Again by Black Lab, and please review!