Should've Seen That Coming

Rating: PG

Pairing: Addek/Mark/Meredith

Summary: Addison does show up at the bar where Mark is waiting for her to go back to New York but she isn't alone.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The man sat at the bar next to the young woman and under other circumstances, it would have been a perfect set up for a night of fun, and meaningless passion that would be appreciated. Though, in the end it would be lumped together with the many other nights that each of those two had had that resembled it in form and substance.

Quick and dirty was how they both liked it.

But they weren't just there for drinks and a possibility.

She was drowning her sorrows per the usual. He was waiting on a woman.

They had been engrossed in a soft conversation of witty retorts, meaningful accusations, and a few hard hitting, personal questions that would go unanswered until one of them spoke aloud the worries that plagued their lives.

So connected but at the same time so separate.

"She's not gonna show, you know," Meredith said softly. "He's not the kind of guy you leave if you can help it."

A flicker of resignation raced across his eyes but denial seemed to be the man's best friend as he replied.

"What if you're wrong? What if, just this once, life comes down on the side of the dirty mistresses?"

Meredith looked wearily at the man next to her and she seemed to be lost in her own tumult of emotions. She seemed torn between wanting to laugh at this man's absurdity and wanting to join him in his delusions.

And as the minutes ticked by he was no longer the only one hoping against hope that this woman would show up and change their lives.

They ordered a few more drinks and became lost in the silence that seemed to cocoon them in their own world of anticipating the un-inevitable. The bar around them buzzed with the workers of the day from all over the city winding down.

But they were seated together in silence and they waited together as the minutes continued to tick by except that not very much time had passed at all.

That was when it happened.

It was what should be expected at the bar right across from Seattle Grace Hospital where the lives of the staff were always far more exciting than whatever cases they were working on and the lives they saved on any given day.

The ding of the doorbell indicated that new arrivals had entered the bar to let off some steam or enjoy a night out with buddies or as the man and woman would come to find out, turn their worlds upside down and not in a good way.

Both man and woman turned toward the latest additions to the bar and both wore similar expressions of disbelief and shock.

The elusive woman they had been waiting for had arrived but she was not alone.

"Derek?"

"Mark, we need to talk." The dark haired surgeon said in his usually melodic tone. Except there was a command, a demand, buried in his voice that made the air around him ten degrees cooler just by its icy edge.

"Sure, old buddy. What do you need," Mark asked in a very tight and controlled manner with a shrug of the shoulders, "You need to talk about the Knicks? You never could resist betting on the home team."

If it was possible the look on the Derek's face darkened even more and twisted into an ugly sneer. None of the nurses at SGH that called him McDreamy ever imagined his handsome features distorted in such a way that he looked almost deadly.

"I need you to wipe that condescending smirk off your face as a start and then I want you to listen to what I have to say." Derek said as he stepped forward and his wife reached forward to touch his arm. He shook her off just as soon as she laid her hand down on his forearm.

"Derek, please." Addison whispered as she looked desperately at her husband as he ignored her and stared daggers at the man before him.

"Come on man, not in front of all of these people. Let's go somewhere private," Mark tried to plead as he stood up but it only served to further enrage the other man.

"Why would I want to do that? It worked out so well for me the last time we were all in a room alone together, well I mean it was probably really great for you considering you were fucking my wife in my bed."

"Derek—"

"NO! I do not want to hear anything you say anymore, not another word. You wonder why I can't forgive you and yet you can't even grasp how awful that moment was for me. She is my wife! MY WIFE!" Derek's voice grew louder and louder as he stood practically nose to nose with Mark and gained the attention of the other patrons in the smoke filled bar.

"I loved you like a brother. I knew, I knew, you were a scumbag when it came to the ladies. You regaled me with all of the tales of your conquests and I almost felt bad for you. I had hoped that you could find a woman to spend your life with like I had when I met Addie. I never once considered that Addie would be on that list of possibilities! I thought, you know, that since she was MY WIFE that she was automatically off limits!"

"And once upon a time you two were happy and I was happy for you, "Mark tried to cut in but was rebuked.

Derek looked him up and down menacingly. "Shut up. I told you I don't want to hear it. This is not a two sided conversation. Not a friendly chat. It is just me telling you what is what. So here are the facts I want you to remember."

He took a calming breathe in and took a step backward as if trying to create a false sense of peace as he regarded the man before him once more.

"You are not my friend so you can stop claiming you are or ever have been. Friends do not do what you did. Second thing I want you to remember is that this was an uninvited visit and you are not welcome here. Not by me. Not around me. Not now and not ever, you got that?"

Then he took another calming breathe and tossed the first gentle look that had passed over his features since entering the bar at the redheaded beauty behind him.

She had been rooted to her spot, watching in horror at every phrase exchanged but as their eyes connected a flicker of intense love could be clearly seen among the myriad of emotions in both gazes.

It was a spark that anyone that was watching the exchange could see clearly.

Derek turned back to Mark who wore a look of defeat on his face having witnessed that exchange many times in the past.

"She's my wife. I love her and while I may not have forgiven her yet I know I will love her no matter what. I couldn't sign the papers and she stayed with me when I asked her to. We chose our marriage and it is rocky but it's ours. Respect that for once."

The young man turned toward the woman he had been speaking about but the other was not going down easily and as the husband and wife shared a tender moment as they became enclosed in their own cocoon of silence and hope his desperation leaked through.

"We stayed together after you left!" Mark cried out in futility.

Derek turned to look at him over his shoulder and regarded him dispassionately.

"So what? Do you think that I never suspected that? I'm not stupid. And even if I hadn't, she told me and it doesn't change anything."

Mark glanced around the room and a sick smile graced his face as he spoke again.

"You claim to love her but you are making her live and work with your girlfriend while you have banished me to the other side of the country! What about that, huh?"

Meredith let out a small gasp as she was dragged into the middle of the display she had been watching with keen interest and subtle heartbreak the entire time.

Her eyes glanced to her former boyfriend and it was easy to see that she hoped that maybe this was the moment he would be confronted about the true nature of their weird relationship and pick her over his wife.

But instead Derek scoffed and dismissed the matter out of hand. "Banished? You're going home and you were not going to stay anyway. It is not banishment by any definition so don't get melodramatic, it's pathetic although I guess you just can't help that, huh? And I don't have a girlfriend. I have a wife or haven't you been paying attention?"

Mark advanced on the couple and tried to break into their cocoon that remained intact despite the verbal assault that he was unleashing to disrupt its perfect shell.

"Bull. She's right there and when you saw me talking to her this morning your punched me in the face! I can't believe you didn't jump me from behind when you walked in tonight simply for sitting next to your precious little girlfriend."

And then the most surprising thing happened. Derek laughed. And it was not a bitter, sardonic laugh one may expect but a genuine, joyous laugh like he had been told a funny joke.

"You think that I punched you this morning because you were talking to Meredith? God, if that's what you really believe then you're a bigger idiot than I would have ever guessed. And I don't have time for you anymore. Goodbye Mark."

The couple left the bar slowly and wrapped in a slightly awkward but encouraging embrace given all of the other interactions he had witnessed between the two of them since his wife had joined Derek in Seattle.

It was a tender moment, the first he had seen exchanged between the two doctors that had notoriously become known among the interns as McDreamy and the She-Shepherd.

Of course being as they were petty and immature the last was not the only nickname tossed about in reference to Addison Shepherd simply for showing up in Seattle and showcasing than Derek was not so dreamy after all.

And Joe stood at the other end of the bar as he watched the man named Mark stare at the door as the two left and disappeared into the deep, dark night. He stood beside Meredith with that ever present heartbroken look plastered on her face as she watched too.

When would that girl ever learn? She showed up here time and again hoping to forget the guy that had turned out ultimately to be her married boss and when confronted with the choice between the two, the man had always chosen his spouse. Joe had hoped eventually the girl would get a clue and that part still hoped that after the little display here moments ago that she may finally wizen up.

Joe walked toward them and picked up a bottle as he went already anticipating that both would be in need of a drink after that whether or not they had learned a lesson. He could not help but smile at the craziness of working at this bar and all of the people that ventured inside.

And he also could not help thinking that Meredith and this Mark guy… should've seen that coming.

"Who's in need of a refill?" He bellowed as he finally reached them.

Neither turned from their spots watching the door as if waiting for confirmation that what had happened had been real, they both answered. "Me."

Yep, they definitely should've seen that coming or as the interns would say…

Seriously?

End.

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