Title: Light Years Away (taken from the song by Mozella) Originally was supposed to be a one-shot song fic but has exploded into a three part story. Yea no more song fics okay?
Pairing: Callie/Mark
Rating: R to be safe even though it isn't really R to middle or possibly end of the story
Summary: Kinda AU. The timeline is set in the future after Addison is slated to leave Seattle and Callie finds out the truth about her husband's infidelity.
Disclaimers & A/N: First of all, I don't own them if I did there would be the opposite of what it is on television. Second, Mark is a manwhore on television and while that works fine for some, I need to know why so I created a persona for him that kinda explains his actions and his behavior. It's not perfect and it doesn't excuse everything he's done but it makes it easier for me because otherwise I couldn't have him with my Callie who's been through enough anyway.

Also, this is my contribution to the requests (Juliana and others) that I have received requesting a Callie/Mark solo fic. I wasn't really sure if I could pull it off seeing as how I'm better at Addison/Derek but I think I did okay and hope you guys enjoy, thoughts please!

Callie had walked into Jake's bar hoping for a little peace and quiet to ponder over where she was going to go from this point on, in regards to her life and to her marriage. Realizing, that she had been married for less than two weeks and already infidelity was a problem had been a terrible blow to her ego and her heart. Normally, she would turn to her girlfriends, either Addison or Miranda but both were caught up in their own personal drama and she didn't want to impose on them when the newness of the relationship still existed.

She pulled a seat out and signaled to the bartender, "Double Scotch on the rocks."

"Dr. Torres, heavy drinker so soon into your marriage?"

Callie ignored the taunt that came from her on the other side of the bar as she graced the bartender with a thankful smile as he placed her drink in front of her. She picked up the shot glass and stared into the amber, color liquid as she tried to drown the images that were permanently embedded in her brain, that of her husband and his so called friend having sex.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she gripped the glass tightly in her hand so much so that she could feel the strain in her fingers as she opened her mouth and gulped down the liquid and opening her eyes as the burning, liquid slid down her throat and she realized that this pain wouldn't go away not even with the numbness of alcohol.

"Oh, did I offend you because I didn't call you by your married name, Dr. O'Malley?"

Callie squinted her eyes at the loud person sitting beside her and said, "What will it take to shut you up so I can drink myself into oblivion in peace?"

Mark flashed a grin as he motioned the bartender back over and said, "Refill, she's paying."

The bartender flashed Callie a glance trying to gauge, if she was really accepting that she would pay for her annoying guest drinks. Callie shrugged as she pulled her Platinum Gold Card and threw across the counter and said, "Just put it on there, there's no limit."

Mark raised an eyebrow at her easy acceptance of picking up his tab as his refill on the drink came in front of him and he sipped quietly while studying the face of the woman he had been at one time been intimate with before she turned into Addison's friend. When he had first slept with Callie Torres, he thought a one-night stand with her would satisfy his appetite for the pretty Latina, but he found himself thinking of her at different times during the day. And not without certain consequences, he almost had to cancel a surgery after memories of her rolling around in his bed stopped him from effectively finishing a surgery.

Mark sighed as he stared at her profile even as she did her best to ignore his presence, "You know, if you want I could enhance your breasts. I mean you have a pretty healthy chest to begin with but there's always room for improvement."

Mark hoped he had offered up a joke that would be good enough to light the spark in her eyes but when her eyes welled with tears he instantly cursed his stupid mouth, "I'm sorry Callie, I didn't mean to make you cry."

Callie cursed her weakness as she looked at Mark and said, "I had gone through all this week without shedding a single tear, I walked through the hospital with my head held high in the air even when I passed the cheating face of my husband and his 'friend'. But, why is it that you who asked an insane question that normally would cause me to laugh or slap you has the power to drive me to tears?"

Callie put down the shot glass as she started to rise from the stool and leave the bar and return to the quiet of her hotel room where she could drink in peace and not be forced to face her own fear that she had been to blame for her husband turning to Izzie Stevens.

Mark cursed under his breath as he put a staying hand on Callie's wrist. She stared at him with fire in her eyes and he looked up and felt the apology fall freely from his lips, "I'm sorry, don't go yet. I'll keep my mouth shut I promise."

Callie glared at him for a second, not sure if she was ready to believe in his words or not. She sat on the edge of the stool and grumpily reached for her shot glass as she finished off her drink and ordered another.

As the minutes turned into hours, she noticed that Mark wasn't his regular McSteamy self and he looked troubled about something. She didn't want to ask because that would invite talking and that's wasn't what she was in the mood for, but curiosity got the best of her as she inquired, "So what's wrong with you?"

Mark was startled from his thoughts at the sound of her voice. He had stolen glances at her for the past two hours but as they sat in companionable silence drinking their sorrows away, he had to admit it was the best time he had in along time. A time when sex wasn't involved but the companionship was enough. He sighed as he looked down and said, "Addison is leaving Seattle. She doesn't think I'm marriage material or father material or that matter and she doesn't even want to try a serious relationship with me."

Callie looked into his eyes and he started to flinch as she read his inner thoughts. It was the thing that had always bothered him about her, she had the ability to look into his eyes and wade through all of the BS that he put up as a front and see what he was hiding, "Do you think you would have been a good husband and father to Addison?"

Mark looked up at her question and knew that with her, the lies couldn't fall from his lips not when she had the ability to see inside of him, "No. No, I wouldn't have. I'm infatuated with Addison and I want her but I don't think I would've been a good father and husband for her. She needs someone like Derek and I can't be him no matter how hard I try."

Mark threw his glass down on the bar as the train of his thoughts started to depress him as he looked down at her and said, "Do you want to go back to my hotel room?"

Callie smirked as she looked up at him, "So when in doubt, sex it out? How do you do that Mark? Make everything in your life about sex? I mean granted, you are definitely the walking definition of sex on a stick but you have to have more to you than superficial, I can't believe you went through all of those years of medical school and not have been touched by anything. You can't be that cold."

Mark flinched back from her real assessment of his personality as he started to scowl and said, "I didn't ask to be psychoanalyzed, I simply inquired if you would like to go back to my hotel room. A simple no would've sufficed."

Callie turned back around as she paid her tab and reached for her purse as she turned to Mark and said, "Okay, let's go."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
As the light flickered on in Mark's hotel room he waited for Callie to enter his room. He didn't know why he had brought her back here or even what he hoped to accomplish by the idea of her presence but for some reason it comforted him.

Callie threw her purse down as she sat on the edge of the sofa and put her head in her hands. Mark sat down next to her and said, "What is your excuse?"

Callie pulled her hands away from her face as she met his inquiring eyes with her own wary ones, "Why do you want to know? Are you itching to rub it in?"

Mark shrugged as he stood up and walked over to the wet bar and poured himself another drink and said, "Fine, don't tell me."

Callie scowled as she said, "Fix me another drink and I'll tell you."

Mark obliged her request as he sat down with his own in hand and waited for her explanation and the reason for her tears and dejected look, she sipped before saying, "My husband slept with Izzie, he apologized and he wants me back but I told him to go find Izzie because I wasn't hearing it. I signed the annulment papers that my father graciously arrived here with and told him to sign them as well because we were over."

Mark sighed as he listened to her pain and said, "Then O'Malley is not only an idiot, he's also a whore? Wow, he won points in my book."

Callie leaned back as she sipped the drink, "Why did you cheat on Addison? What caused you to believe that you would be happier without her and that risking it for the adventures of sex with a nurse was more important than the love you claimed to have for her?"

Mark stood up as he walked over to the bar and refilled his drink, "You know I asked myself that question a thousand times. Addison is gorgeous, she's smart, and she cares. She's the living embodiment of what every man hopes to have at one time but when she was with me all I did was screw it up and I don't even know why. Well, maybe I do know but I don't want to admit what it would mean, it would mean that I had never really wanted her."

Callie looked at him in confusion and said, "But then why Mark? Why did you give up your practice and move to Seattle if you knew that you didn't really want her or you couldn't be faithful to the image of you that she needed? Why did you make her priority in your life if you had no intention of being faithful?"

Mark scowled and said, "I am what I am Callie, I can't change who I am. I have tried to make myself over but it doesn't work, Addison wants a Derek and I'm not Derek damn it and I never will be."

Callie flinched at the anger in his tone as he sent his glass flying against the wall as it shattered in pieces with the remnants of his liquor coloring the walls of the beige hotel wall. Callie stalked over to him with anger in her eye and said, "Mark, I'm not Addison I don't fall for that copout crap. Give me the truth; I want to know because as much as Addison was my friend I don't think she ever really saw you and truthfully I don't know if she wanted to, she was always too hung up on her ex-husband. So I want to know why you use this persona of a manwhore who doesn't care to float through life seemingly unscathed."

Mark sneered at her as she tried to call him on his crap and he did what he always did when confronted with his own shortcomings, he lashed right back, "Why? Are you looking for a way to justify O'Malley's infidelity? Psychoanalyze the man-whore so you can understand your husband and possibly forgive him? Give me a break."

Callie reached up to slap him but stopped herself when she was inches from his face and said, "That's what you want isn't it? You want me to get mad at you and I'll stalk out of here and you will have safely deflected all attention off of my question. Nice try Sloan, tell me the truth why do you do it? What's in it for you?"

Mark walked to the hotel room door and flung it open and said, "If I wanted to discuss my problems, I would've called a therapist. I thought you wanted…."

Callie stood up as she cut him off, "What Mark what? You thought I was like every other woman that you sleep with that just walks away from you in the morning? Is that what you want from me? A one night stand?"

Callie started reaching for the buttons of her shirt as Mark closed the door in frustration, he sighed as he ran his hands through his hair even as he walked over and stilled Callie's hand from unbuttoning her shirt even more and said, "I'm sorry Callie."

Callie nodded once, she knew what it had cost him to admit, that he was close to the breaking point and she kept pushing because she didn't feel like dwelling on her own thoughts tonight. They were too depressing and she couldn't allow herself to wallow in any more self pity, "What is it Mark? Why do you hide who you are? I want to know the man that is behind those handsome looks, I want to know the man that has a heart."

Callie hesitantly placed her hand over where his heart lie as she looked up into his eyes and was shocked with the intensity that they were staring back at her, she started to pull her hand away when Mark cupped her hand where it was and held it there as he breathed deeply.

Callie didn't know whether to be aroused or afraid as she looked at the handsome man in front of her who was trying to break down his shields for her. She started to pull back, she was still married to George and even though she had signed the papers she knew that George wasn't going to give her up without a fight. And Mark, Mark was someone who would lead her down another path of pain and disappointment, something she wasn't sure if she could face. She looked into his eyes again as she struggled to remove his hand from hers and back away and break all contact.

Mark let his hand drop as he slumped into the sofa and looked up at her with a sad smile, "My mother was beautiful, you know."

Callie was thrown off by the sudden change in the atmosphere, moments before the atmosphere had been charged with sexual energy which had now dropped to a low hum as she realized that Mark was trying to let her in. She sat on the edge of the sofa near him but far enough away to make a hasty retreat should the moment arise, "Beautiful? What was her name?"

Mark looked up with a sigh and said, "Margaret, Margaret Sloan. She was everything that a boy could want in a mother, she loved me. She tried to raise me to be the polar opposite of my father who she despised and adored at the same time, and the sad part is that in the end I ended up disappointing her when I turned more into my father than she ever knew."

Callie looked at him at the haunting tone in his voice as he spoke about his childhood, she was curious but didn't want to press too much for fear that she might cause him to back away completely, "She was beautiful?"

Mark looked up and the haunted gaze that was in his eyes made her flinch back, "She was everything to me for the first 10 years of my life Callie. She did everything in her power to make my father love her the way she loved him. My father was a serial adulterer, so he was never faithful to my mother. I guess the adultery wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't cruel with it, he made her believe that the reason he wasn't faithful had to do with the fact that she wasn't pretty enough."

Callie struggled to compose her features to not let Mark know how hearing his childhood had affected her, "So your father was verbally abusive to your mother?"

Mark looked up as in shock, he had been so focused on his memories in the past that he hadn't realized that she was still there, "Yes, I guess that's what you would call it. Back then, there wasn't a fancy word for it but yea he was verbally abusive. My mom became obsessed with her looks, and back then it was when plastic surgery was just getting popular and she had money so she focused her life on making herself better in my father's eyes. She would get liposuction and it would keep my father faithful for six months, she would get her breasts done and it would keep him faithful for three months. Each affair brought on a new surgery, I begged her to stop, I told her she was beautiful in my eyes and that she didn't need all of those things done for me to love her, I loved her just the way she was. She didn't know how to believe in my words so she kept getting more and more surgeries."

Callie sighed as she placed a hand over his and said, "That must've been devastating for a young boy to see his mother spiral out of control and be helpless to do anything but watch."

Mark flinched as she put words to the emotions he had been suppressing his whole life, "I just wanted to love her but she told me that love was only as superficial as the person who was loving you. She told me that if you wanted to be loved, you had to make the person you loved see you how they wanted to love you. She drilled into me that love could never be beyond skin deep and that it had everything to do with looks."

Callie leaned forward and embraced him slowly wary of his reaction but sighed in relief when his arms came to circle around her waist as she laid her head gently on her shoulder giving him comfort and taking comfort from him as he held her in his arms, "I'm sorry you had to live through that Mark, but you can't let what your parents did to you shape who you are right now. You have to grow out of this stage because if you don't you will end up alone."

Callie pulled back as she spoke until she was at his eye level and their mouths were just a whisper away from each other. Mark groaned as he looked at the compassion in her eyes and pulled her into his mouth and kissed with all of the pent-up longing in his heart. Callie moaned from beneath him and that spurned him to pull her into his arms until she was straddling him on the sofa chair. She leaned back and rested her body on his thighs as she traced the lines on his face with her finger, before stopping at his lips. She placed her finger over his lips as if debating on whether she should take the next step.

Mark closed his eyes as he leaned back, "I've never told that to anyone."

Callie looked at him in disbelief and said, "Not even Derek or Addison? I don't know if I believe that."

Mark shook his head and said, "My mother was dead by the time that I met Derek. I always let him believe that my mother had cancer and died at an early age, I knew it was wrong and cruel to allow him to believe that lie but I was too ashamed to tell him the truth. That my mother had loved her beauty and what it did to my father more than me."

Callie started stroking his face again as she took his hand and held it gently in hers as she asked, "What happened to your mother?"

Mark leaned back against the chair and said, "She committed suicide. She had gone in for another surgery when she found out that my father was going on a two-week vacation with his latest conquest, she was so distraught that she took her own life. I never got to tell her that she didn't need to go through all of that because I would always love her no matter how she looked. After that, my heart became bitter at the thought of love, the thought of fidelity and I tried to shun any notions about that and my father was all for it. After all, why wouldn't Joseph Sloan's son be a manwhore like him?"

Callie leaned forward as she embraced him in her arms again and said, "Mark, you don't have to live like this. You can get better at this, it's not who you have to be, you can change if you want to."

Mark looked at her and said, "You know, I never wanted to change before. I'm still not sure if I want too but there's something in your eyes that tells me that if I do change, it will only be for the better."

Callie pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth as she stood up and held out her hand and said, "First lesson, we are going to bed."

Mark raised an eyebrow at this and said, "Are you saying that all I have to do is tell you my life story and then we fall into bed?"

Callie rolled her eyes as she tugged on his hand gently pulling him into the room as she motioned to the bed, "First lesson, we are going to get into a bed but we are going to sleep. I'm going to hold you tonight and you are going to hold me and that's all Mark. We are going to get better together."

Mark nodded as he looked at the bed and said, "I never had this with anyone, not even Addison who's the only one I can count as a true relationship."

Callie smiled softly as she laid on the bed and pulled him down gently next to her and said, "Then there's a first time for everything."

Mark sighed as Callie laid her head on his chest as her arms encircled his waist and he placed his arms around her and smiled when his eyes slid shut. He knew that this was just one night but for one night he felt whole, one night where he didn't feel like the whore he was.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Next Morning

As the light filtered into his hotel room, Mark's eyes flew wide open and he instantly regretted that motion as the drinking of last night started to play havoc on his brain. He closed his eyes quickly but then opened them moments later when he noticed that something was different, he had a woman draped across his chest. It wasn't just any woman, it was Callie O'Malley, no, Callie Torres. The woman he had opened his heart and soul to for the first time since childhood was now in his bed and he was just holding her. He was content with something that wasn't sexual and it scared him. He wasn't used to knowing this kind of feeling. He went to shake her awake but stopped as he started to stroke the black, curly locks away from her face as he looked down at the woman whose head was still lying on his chest.

He looked at the track of dried tears on her face and cursed himself for not realizing that she needed comfort as well and then he cursed George O'Malley for ever thinking he had the right to cheat on a wonderful woman like this. He knew that if someone like Callie was in his life, he stopped at the thought. He couldn't and wouldn't allow himself to feel anything for the woman lying on top of him because she belonged to another even if she was in the process of a divorce she belonged to another.

He would have to just be content to watch her from afar, he was jerked out of his thoughts by the sound of her groaning, he looked down as she raised her head slightly and opened her bloodshot eyes and stared at him for a second, as she recognized her surroundings then smiled brightly and closed her eyes as her head fell back onto his chest.

He felt the pounding of his heart in his ears and knew that her simple smile in the morning had made his day if not his week and he knew that he was getting in too deep and he wanted out before his heart became involved and that was something he couldn't allow.

Callie groaned again as her eyes met the light in his room as she reached for his pillow to place over her head as she spoke, "Where's the coffee Sloan?"

Mark felt momentarily uncertain at the realization that she was staring at him openly with expectation in her eyes, "I'll call room service."

Callie nodded as she buried her face back into the pillow and muffled her voice but not before saying, "Order me some breakfast, if I don't eat something I'm going to be sick."

Mark nodded as he slipped out of the bed and reached for the phone and started to order a breakfast fit for two.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Later that Morning

Callie closed her eyes as she closed the door to her patient's room and walked out into the hallway, "Callie!"

Callie stopped in the hallway and flinched at the sight of her ex-husband and then shook her head. He had made the choice to be unfaithful, she didn't have any reason to feel anything other than loathing at the very sight of him, "What do you want George?"

George reached out to touch her face when she flinched back and said, "Don't George, just don't."

George let his hand fall away as he looked into the eyes of the woman he had pledged himself to and didn't know how to even speak the words that would allow forgiveness to soften her heart even just a little towards him, "Callie, what I did was inexcusable and you have every right to be angry at me but please don't throw away what we have, what we could still have for a stupid mistake I made while I was too drink to do anything. I was too upset about finding out you lied to me about the money and I got plastered and I fell into bed with Izzie."

Callie crossed her arms in front of her and said, "George, alcohol doesn't give you a blanket reason to be unfaithful. You slept with another woman, a woman your wife, had just told you had feelings for you. I told you that Izize had feelings for you George and what do you do? Talk about it with your wife or Izzie, no you go sleep with her. George, this is getting us nowhere, just sign the annulment papers and you can go be with Izzie, it's who you want in the first place."

Callie started walking away when George touched her shoulder and said, "Callie, it's not like that. I don't love Izzie, I love you."

Callie turned around and decided to test his resolve to work on their 'marriage', by asking, "If I told you that I wanted us to leave Seattle and we would move to another state where it's just the two of us, would you do it? Could you really walk away from Meredith, Izzie, Christina and even Alex and start again away from them?"

George faltered before he spoke and Callie had her answer, she shook her head and started walking off, "Yes Callie I would."

Callie turned around as felt the tears welling in her eyes, "You waited George. You had to think about it, you had to wonder for a moment if you would still be George O'Malley even if you were far away from these people who are the reason for our separation in the first place. You don't get it do you? I can't be married to a man who has to wonder if being with me is the right decision, just sign the papers and make it easier on everyone."

Callie walked off even as she heard George calling after her but she couldn't focus on his voice, only the ache that had suddenly become central in her heart.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Mark was currently absorbed in his charts and eating a solitary lunch .Ever since Addison had told him that she was leaving Seattle, he had realized that he didn't have any ties to this town with the exception of Derek. Derek, his one-time best friend who believed him to be nothing more than an arrogant jerk, but had no idea that inside he was torn apart that he had ruined the only healthy male relationship that he had in his life.

He shook his head at the direction of his thoughts as he refocused on the charts in front of him; he had become so engrossed in them that he didn't notice that a shadow had fallen over the table. He looked up at the shadow and felt a smile crease his lips at the sight of Callie Torres tapping her foot impatiently as she awaited him to acknowledge his existence.

"Please sit down, Dr. Torres."

Callie smiled as she pulled out her chair and said, "With Addison leaving, I have to find a new lunch buddy and each time that I try to coordinate lunch with Bailey she always has to run off to clean up some intern's mess."

Mark smiled as she plopped down in the seat across from him while staring at the sandwich in front of her without speaking. He peered over his charts at her face and put down what he was working on and said, "So I guess that just leaves me I'm flattered. So do you want to tell me, why you are upset?"

Callie looked up at him and said, "George said that he only slept with Izzie because he was upset that he found out I was rich. I don't think I've ever heard that as an excuse to cheat on your wife have you?"

Mark opened his mouth to comment when Callie shook her head and said, "You know what? On second thought, you really aren't the right person I should be asking this too. You probably have more excuses than this whole hospital put together."

Mark shrugged and said, "I do have my share of excuses but I think in this case it comes to down if he's really repentant and does he want to be with you and why do I sound like Derek?"

Callie started to laugh as she heard him start to whine at the realization that he might actually be growing up, "Mark, welcome to the adult world. Where you will give and get valuable advice, how does it feel?"

Mark pouted and Callie started laughing again and said, "So one night with me and Mark Sloan is a reformed whore? Who would've thought I had so much power?"

Mark felt the pout fall from his lips as he looked into the eyes of the woman who had helped him realize that his current course was self-destructive and said, "Callie you have the power within you to make or break a man. I only wished that I had been smart enough to turn our one night stand into a relationship. Maybe I wouldn't be so miserable."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Torres, its quitting time." Callie looked up from her chart and nodded at Miranda who was leaning against the doorjamb with a smile on her face.

Miranda walked in the room and said, "O'Malley had to go home early, is there a problem?"

Callie shook her head and said, "Nothing a little annulment didn't cure."

Miranda opened her mouth in shock as she spoke, "Damn girl, you move fast. What did he do?"

Callie looked up at her friend and realized that she didn't want to have to admit to another person what her husband had done but knew that Miranda wouldn't judge and she had proven herself to be a good friend so she told her the truth, "George cheated on me with Izzie Stevens. He's begging for my forgiveness but I don't know if I can give it to him, I'm too hurt and too angry right now to even think straightly but what I do know is that our marriage was a mistake."

Miranda reached over and pulled Callie into a hug as she comforted her friend and spoke softly the imparting advice that only Miranda Bailey was known for, "Callie, you can't second guess yourself. You went into this marriage with your eyes open and even if O'Malley was stupid enough to not cherish your vows doesn't mean you don't have to. If you still love the little fool, make him grovel, make him beg but give him another chance but if you are truly over him and are under the realization that you can't live together than walk away but don't do it while you're angry."

Callie nodded as she pulled back and sighed with a heavy heart, "I did, I do love George Miranda but in this case love isn't enough. Even if I could, and that is a big if I don't know how I could ever trust him again Miranda. I'm not the type of woman who is liberal with her heart, when I gave it to George it was forever and it was with fidelity as a prerequisite and the fact that within the first couple of weeks of our marriage he slept with his friend doesn't sit well for the status of our marriage."

Miranda tugged on her hand as she sat her down and said, "Then what do you want Callie? Do you want to be single Callie again whose out there looking for the love of her life or do you want to practice forgiveness and work on your marriage?"

Callie rolled her eyes and said, "What I want is to not see images of my husband and his friend in bed running through my head, what I want is to erase the past couple of weeks and go back to when I knew that my husband was with me and I was with him. I'm single again Miranda and that's the way it has to be."

Miranda looked at Callie with a sympathetic glance and said, "And then there were two?"

Callie looked up at him in question and said, "Two? What are you talking about?"

Miranda smiled softly as she touched her hand softly and said, "There are only two of us, it's just you and me Addison isn't here and we have to stick together so whatever you need I'm here. I know that it's not easy to face the fact that the man you love isn't who you thought he was but you can do this because I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Addison."

Callie leaned forward eager to grasp on the nugget of knowledge that Miranda was sure to impart and waited expectantly as Miranda said, "No man not George O'Malley, defines Callie Torres. Find out who you are with or without him but you are always defined by yourself."

Callie leaned back as she took the words to heart and smiled at her friend and said, "Miranda, I think I'm going to take your advice and on that note I think I'm going to go home now."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The knock on her hotel room at ten in the evening took her by shock. She walked to the door and flung it open as she stood waiting for an explanation as to her visitor.

"Sloan, what are you doing here?"

Mark tapped on his foot as he waited for the allowance to enter her apartment. He held up a box of pizza and a liter of soda, he graced her with what he hoped was a charming smile, "Come on Torres, you know you want too."

Callie opened the door completely and allowed him entry and closed the door behind him and said, "I don't even know why I'm doing this."

Mark walked in and dumped their dinner on the table as he slumped down on her sofa chair and said, "You know it actually helps that you live right in this hotel, you know if I want to scratch an itch…"

Callie groaned as she launched herself forward reaching for her slice and said, "Is this what I have to look forward too from our evening? Your sexual innuendos because I can tell you right now, that I'm not in the mood."

Mark rolled his eyes as he said, "Sorry bad habit, I just meant that it was convenient having you so close, nothing sexual in that statement I promise."

Callie scowled at him and spoke, "You mean except for the word sexual?"

Mark opened the box of pizza as he handed her a slice of sausage pizza and disappeared into the kitchen for cups, returning instantly with two plastic cups that he used to pour some name brand soda as he handed it to her he leaned back as he ate his slice of pizza and said, "This is nice, isn't it?"

Callie looked at him over her cup of soda and said, "What's wrong?"

Mark took a bite from his pizza and as he ate he tired to focus on anything but her words as he took a sip of soda and tried to look at anything but her. He had taken another bite of pizza and was effectively ignoring her when Callie gasped and looked at him in shock.

Callie leaned forward and said, "You are scared to be alone aren't you?"

Mark scowled as he stood up and started towards the door, "I knew this was a bad idea but no Sloan, you had to come over here. You should've stayed in your own room."

Callie jumped up as she placed a hand on his shoulder, "Mark, I didn't say you had to go, I just wanted to know why you decided to grace me with your presence."

Mark leaned against the edge of her couch and said, "Before Addison left she asked me if I could go ninety days without having sex with anyone and if I made it she would seriously consider being in a serious relationship with me."

Callie groaned as she looked at him and said, "Let me guess you didn't make it two weeks?"

Mark crossed his arms, "I'm actually at day ninety-two and I'm going stir-crazy in my hotel room. I was moments away from going to Jake's and picking up the first girl who looked interested but you stopped me, I just heard your voice in my head and it was coaxing me to not follow in my father's footsteps and leave everything superficial."

Callie felt her mouth slid open in shock as she looked at the man in front of her who was staring at her seriously with a look of hesitation in his tone, "Mark, I really stopped you? I stopped you from going to a bar and picking up any woman who would've been panting to be with you?"

Mark rolled his eyes as he walked away from and headed back to the open pizza box and closed it down with a slam as he reached for the bottle of soda and started to leave when Callie's voice stopped him from behind, "I'm proud of you."

Mark felt the grip that he had on the box of pizza and the soda start to falter as he turned to her and asked again, "What did you say?"

Callie walked over to him and touched his hand softly and said,"I said I'm proud of you Mark. You could've taken the easy way out, the one you've used your whole life but you didn't do that, you chose to come over here and have me for company and right now being told by McSteamy that you rate higher than picking up a no-strings night of sex means everything."

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his softly, Mark groaned as his arms came around her shoulders and he cradled her face in his hands as he pressed his lips against hers more insistently before pulling away and leaning his head against her forehead and speaking, "I have never been told by anyone since my mother that they were proud of me." He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead which she met by pulling his head down to meet her lips, after a breathless kiss, he spoke, "I have ninety-two days of sobriety and you are tempting me, you witch."

Callie smiled against his lips as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and said, "I guess that means you'll have to start all over tomorrow." She pressed her lips to his again and held her face in his hands as she deepened the kiss allowing her tongue to press insistently against his mouth and then gasped in shock when she was lifted off the floor and into his arms.

Callie wrapped her legs around his waist as Mark pressed kisses against her lips insistently and said, "Where the hell is your bedroom?" Callie groaned at the motion ad rubbed against him sensuously like a cat and kissed him again before whispering against his lips, "Why do we need a bed?"

Mark felt his eyes roll back in his head as her hand started reaching from beneath him as she reached for the zipper on his pants and stuck her hand in pant searching for the object of her desire. Mark grabbed her hand and said, "Callie, we need a bed, now!"

Continued in Part 2, how cool is that I finished a story and you don't have to wait for anything!