Title: Midnight On-Call Room Therapy
Pairing(s): Mark/Addison, implied Derek/Meredith and George/Callie
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Mark's had a bad day. Addison decides to help.
Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy is not mine; I am making no profit.

It was a relatively normal morning at Seattle Grace…at least, as normal as Seattle Grace could get. As Addison walked down the hallway quickly to get to her next surgery, she found herself thinking about how surprisingly nice it was. Everyone seemed to be on good terms. The interns were efficient, the nurses were in a good mood, and the gossip mill was unusually quiet (Nurse Debbie regretfully informed Addison of this fact).

Addison nodded at her fellow redhead and walked toward the hospital doors. About halfway down the hallway, Mark joined her. Neither slowed down, and they matched each other stride for stride for a while before she finally spoke. "Hey."

"Hey," he responded, looking at her. "Good day?"

It was then she became aware that she was smiling. "Yes, actually…it was refreshing. What about you?"

"Same."

"Are you heading out?"

He snapped into defence mode. "Yeah."

She stopped. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Addison could be just as defensive. "Because you're claiming to have had a good day, and yet you're answering me in single syllables," she shot back.

"Maybe I just don't want to talk to you."

"Fine." She quickened her pace so she'd get to the door first.

She was literally at the door when he came running up behind her. "I'm sorry," he said, placing a hand briefly on her shoulder. "I didn't mean it to come out like that."

"And how was it supposed to come out?" she asked. "You know what? I'm sorry. I was having a good day and I was trying to be nice...I should not be apologizing for that." She put her hands up in the air. "Don't worry. I won't do it again." She pushed open the door.

Even with her back turned, she could see him roll his eyes. " Addison."

"What?"

"I had a crappy day."

She didn't turn around. "What happened?"

"Nothing really…there's no reason. Just a crappy day."

It was her turn to roll her eyes. "Well, you could have just told me. I'd have left you alone."

"Fine."

She inhaled, nodding. "Alright, I'll go. You sure you don't want me to stay? I'm not in the best position to give advice, but I can make a pretty good drinking buddy…if you want one, that is."

He sniggered, but stopped when she glared at him. "Um…no," he managed to get out with a straight face. "You go. I'm fine, really.
"

Two hours later, she left Joe's feeling pretty good. Callie had been there with George, so she'd talked to her for a while before having a few drinks (not too many, hence the feeling good part). Besides the other interns playing a rather loud drinking game in the corner (she was pretty sure it was based on George and Callie), there were no interruptions.

"Hey! Addison!" She turned around to see Derek running toward her.

"Hi, Derek," she greeted. She hit a nice balance, making her greeting sound like a statement and a question at the same time.

"Could you tell Mark to stop parking so close to my side of the space? This morning I almost broke a mirror trying to get between him and Dr. Hansen, and I don't know how long I can convince that guy that the scratches on his car are being made by a very angry, sharp-clawed pigeon."

Addison bit her lip to stop from laughing. Dr. Hansen was exactly the type of person who would believe in vicious pigeons. "Why don't you tell him yourself?"

"Well…he just didn't seem very…you know, today. And it's nighttime and late and you guys live at the same place…on the same floor, right? So you could tell him and…yeah. Besides, he's still at the hospital. And you're so much closer than me."

Addison looked down at the four feet of space separating them and raised an eyebrow. Closer. Right. "He's still there?"

"Why else do you think I took so long to get here? It took me fifteen minutes to back out. And by then, the eleven to seven people were coming in…it was a nightmare."

Addison rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll do it. I was just leaving anyway. You're going in?"

"Yeah. Anything I should know about?"

"…besides the drinking game that's making college frat parties look like preschool snack time? No."

Derek laughed. "Um…thanks, I think."

"Don't let her drive!" was Addison's reply. She got in her car and drove back over to Seattle Grace. Sure enough, his car was still there." Addison pulled into Derek's parking space (easy to do now that Hansen was gone) and went back inside. She found him in on-call room #3, sleeping.

"God, Addison!" he groaned when she turned on the light. "You're a decent person. Why don't you give some fair warning before you blind a guy?"

"You didn't go home? Are you kidding me?"

"I got called into emergency surgery about an hour and a half ago. I just finished, and I figured that there was no point in going back to the hotel when I had to be up here in a few hours anyway. I'm exhausted. Go away."

"I'm not leaving." she said, putting her coat and bag on the top bunk and coming over to sit on the side of his bed, holding out her hands to the sides. "Let's see…" She wiggled her right hand. "We have a five star hotel with room service, a freshly made bed, and those little mints they put on your pillows…" She wiggled her left hand. "…and then we have a Seattle Grace on-call room, which is made up what, once a week? Do you know what's been in that bed? Don't answer that question."

Mark grinned underneath the pillow he'd thrown over his head.

Addison pushed her right hand up by her head. "I think the hotel wins. And you don't work for another seven hours. So come on, spit it out."

"Go away."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me. Derek can have my parking space. He'll probably like that. It's further away, but I park next to a couple of PRN's who don't need stories about attack pigeons."

"Wait…what?"

"Derek says that you park too…oh, whatever. I'll tell you later. What's wrong?"

"Nothing except the fact that you're taking away the sleep that I so desperately need." He tried to remove the pillow from his eyes but winced. "Addi, it's too bright."

Addison whacked the pillow. "Stop whining. If I turn off the lights, do you promise to just talk to me? Because honestly, emo Mark is kind of scaring me. And it's not good for your rep."

"What rep?" asked Mark. "What are we, in high school? Besides, I think my impression here has been made. And I am not emo. You're paranoid."

Addison got up, turned off the lights, and felt her way back to the bottom bunk, knowing that under any other circumstances this would be a very bad thing to do. "Move over." He scooted towards the wall and she eased herself into the newly made space.

"You do realize that if someone comes in here, this is not going to look very good for your rep."

"I locked the door. What do you think I am, stupid? No one's going to come in here, and as far as I know, we're both at home sleeping…" She shifted uncomfortably. "…in the nice, clean hotel beds…with the mints on the pillows."

"The hotel isn't home."

"It's a hell of a lot more comfortable than this."

"It isn't home."

"Is that why you're upset?"

He didn't answer her.

"Mark, I can't see anything in here. You're going to have to talk if you want me to understand you."

"It's stupid."

"Then who better than me to understand?" she asked dryly. "Mark…" She turned to him even though she knew he couldn't see her. More silence. "Let me be your someone for once."

She heard him sigh. "I left New York because I wasn't moving forward. I come here, and it's the exact same thing."

"So that's what this is all about."

"It's not that big of a deal."

Addison didn't say anything right then, just raised her hand and reached until she could touch the bottom of the bunk in front of her, before bringing it back to her face. It was a game she used to play when she was little. Besides the tiny strip of light coming from the bottom of the door, she really couldn't see a thing. "So here we are," she said, and kept going before he had a chance to open his mouth.

"Here we are, the both of us, grown adults, lying at the bottom of a bunk bed at a hospital. Neither of us has seen our bed or home in months. We live in a city that we totally hate and don't understand because we decided to come after a guy who barely speaks to either one of us anymore. We work at a hospital with its own gossip blog. And the bartender across the street doesn't charge us for our drinks half the time because he knows us so well. What does that tell you?"

There was a pause. "It tells us…that we're pathetic," Mark replied slowly. More silence. Then they burst out laughing.

"But isn't it true?" Addison gasped, holding onto her stomach. "It's all true, isn't it?"

Mark kept trying to speak, but a new fit of laughter would overtake him. "No, no, no. We're not completely hopeless."

"What?"

"We have jobs. Good jobs."

"Oh my God, you're right," said Addison. They burst out laughing again. "We are horrible people…horrible, horrible people."

"And we're talking like we're drunk," said Mark. "You're not, right?"

"Right. Though I could have been…they were playing the PDA game at Joe's."

Mark stopped laughing (with some effort). "Who was?"

"Who do you think? Those interns. Did you ever play that game?"

"Five dollars for holding hands, ten dollars for an actual kiss, fifty if they made out in front of you? That game?"

"That's the one. Seven-fifty for eyesex. Twenty if someone does the stupid laugh."

"The what?"

Addison let out a very high-pitched laugh. "Oh my God, you are so funny." She dissolved into giggles.

"Oh, I know that one," said Mark. "They still play that game?"

"Apparently," said Addison, "except they were playing with drinks. A shot for this...two for that…I think the person who saw it first got the drinks. At first, I thought they were watching football, the way they were randomly standing up and screaming, 'Touchdown!'"

It was Mark's turn to hold his stomach laughing. "You know, the worst part is that I have no problem believing that. Interns…"

After a long silence (Addison had no idea why the laughing was hurting him, who somehow managed to get in workout time despite his schedule), Addison rolled over for the first time since she lay down. "So, are you okay?"

The bed shook slightly because of Mark's nodding head. "Yeah, I'm okay...you make a good someone."

"Thanks. You know, I almost went into psychiatry."

"Dr. Montgomery, shrink…yeah, that scares me."

"Shut up. I really did. I thought it would be interesting, to help people from that angle."

"So what happened?"

"I think I would have gone crazy. Like I said, I'm in no position to give good advice. And besides, babies don't talk."

"It all comes back to the babies. You are such a girl."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. You think you'd have midnight on-call room therapy with anyone else?"

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Mark rolled over on his side. "Definitely not."

Addison marveled at the fact that even though he couldn't see her, he still managed to find her lips. Their kiss deepened, and she rolled over a little more so he could shift her on top of him. When they pulled away, Addison was laughing. "What?"

"We can't do this. Not right here, not right now."

"It's dark. The door is locked. And there's no one here. I'm not saying that we're going to, but for the record, why couldn't we?"

"Because…" Addison reached out to tap Mark's nose and ended up getting him in the eye instead. "…sorry…because this is midnight on-call room therapy. Therefore, I am your doctor and you are my patient. So we can't." She rolled off him and crossed her arms, as if to say "So there."

Mark chuckled. "Okay. I'll go with that. But what happens if the session is over?"

Addison thought a minute. "We should sleep. Weren't you the one complaining about me waking you up?"

"That was before the therapy."

Addison had one leg slung over the side of the bed. "Do you want me to stay?"

"You don't have to."

"You didn't answer my question. Do you want me to stay?"

"Like I said, you don't have to. I'd feel better if you did."

That was enough for her. Addison got up, kicked off her heels, reached up to the top bunk, and grabbed a pillow before settling back down beside him. "Okay then. Good session."

"We should do it again sometime."

Addison was already half-asleep. "That we should…" she muttered sleepily.

" Addison?"

"I like that dress."

The good thing about the darkness was that Addison could smile all she wanted. "You don't think it's too…"

"No. I love it. It looks great on you. I was going to tell you earlier, but…"

"…yeah, I know. Thanks."

Thanks for reading! I'd love if you'd review...that would just make my week. I know a lot of you are waiting for updates on my other fics...I just went back to school, but it's definitely on my mind and I'm going to do my best to post. So hang tight! Lucky Bear sends her love to all. :)