A/N: Here's the second chapter. I think this is going to go in a direction most of you weren't expecting, though you might not see the real changes for a few chapters. I hope you're all liking it, since I got a lot of hits but not many reviews. – M.

The Heinrich Maneuver

Get Out of This Town

July 20th, 2035

12:00 PM

It wasn't that Ellie had expected the outbursts to stop when she got to the hospital, though she had hoped they would slow down. Instead Miranda yells at her, George throws a suture kit at her and won't speak to her the rest of her visit, and Izzie cries so hard Alex has to give her oxygen.

When she arrives home from Seattle Grace, hours earlier than Mark had expected her to; he immediately knows something is wrong. Despite his discomfort with the fact that Ellie and George had remained close after their break-up, he'd been prepared to spend all day without her because she would be at the hospital with O'Malley and Stevens-Karev, and is shocked when she walks past him and up the stairs. He follows her up to their bedroom, standing in the doorway and watching her undress again.

"Is this how you're going to react to every outburst from someone?" He asks softly. She turns, frowning and he sighs. "You've been crying a lot. And you usually do it in the shower…"

"Meredith and Finn's granddaughter Anna spit-up all over me. I was just getting the baby smell off of me." She snaps. "But I can go cry in the shower if you'd like."

"El…"

"Mark, this is hard for me. All of the people I missed so much aren't even happy to see me."

"Well, it's been 22 years, El."

"There's really no need to remind me. I know."

"Well you don't act like you know."

"Excuse me?" She slips his 'UW Father' sweatshirt over her head and pulls a new pair of jeans on before sitting on the bed. "I hate that I was gone this long, Mark. I'm an isolated being, here. I'm the odd one out because everyone else has been to graduations, weddings and the births of children and grand-children. I'm just trying to get back in the loop, when all I really want to do is start over."

Marks face falls. "W-what?"

"With you," she says softly, standing and crossing the room. "I want to run away and start over with you. Why can't we do that?"

"Because we have three children, five grand-children, best friends; god-children…I can't just up and leave my life like you did, Ellie…"

"You think that was easy for me?"

"I think it was what you'd been waiting for." He says softly, crossing his arms over his chest. "I think that you loved me, and you loved the kids, but you needed something different and the FBI provided you with the perfect excuse."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it?" He sighs. "I love you, I've missed you, and I'm glad you're back, so I'm trying really hard not to be mad at you for leaving, but someone needs to be. So you know what? I can't comfort you when people yell at you anymore, because I'm glad they're yelling at you. Someone has to."

"Mark…"

He kisses her cheek and heads in to their bedroom, snagging his pillow. "I'm going to sleep in the guest room tonight."

"Please don't, Mark. I can't sleep without you."

"You slept without me for 22 years, Eliot. One night won't kill you."

2:00 PM

"How are you holding up with all of this?"

"As well as I can, I suppose." Addison mindlessly stirs her cup of tea with the spoon in one hand and pushes her salad around on her plate with the fork in the other. "It's weird having her back."

"It is." Meredith checks her phone when it beeps and responds to the text message from her youngest daughter before turning back to Addison. "And Derek?"

"He seems weirdly thrilled. He likes to pretend she hasn't been gone this whole time and I don't understand it." She sighs. "When Ellie died…or when we thought she died, he took it pretty hard. He wouldn't let go of me for days, afraid he would lose me to the birth of our son just like Mark lost Ellie. Now he seems perfectly okay with it and I can't…I can't be okay with it."

"I can't either." Meredith pushes her tray towards the center of the table and leans back in her chair. "I guess she was here this morning. George is raging mad."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Alex had to take Izzie home because she was so upset, Miranda has turned into the Nazi for the day, and Lexie is so confused it's barely worth attempting to explain. And the kids…they're all so confused, especially the little ones."

"Maggie said that Hannah doesn't really believe that Ellie is…Ellie. She thinks Maggie and David are trying to convince her that this random woman is her Grandma Ellie."

"She didn't really think through the fallout of this, did she?"

"She's Ellie. She barely thought about anything."

The two women sit silently at the table for a few minutes before a tray slams down between them and Lexie O'Malley sits down with a huff. "This is the worst day."

"How's George?"

"He's at home. He's having a fit, and I don't even understand what's going on."

"How much do you know about Eliot Grey?" Addison asks, taking a sip of her tea and grimacing when she realizes it's cold.

"I know she's Meredith's half-sister…and I know she was with Dr. Sloan before she died…or whatever." Lexie sighs. "That's all that I know about her though."

Addison nods. "I suppose we'll have to start from the beginning then."

7:00 PM

When Lexie arrives home, George is curled on the couch flipping channels, pausing only briefly when Thatcher, their youngest, screeches for him to stop on a baseball game for the scores or something equally uninteresting to his father.

Lexie greets them both and when George doesn't respond, she asks her son to head to the kitchen and call his favorite Chinese place for dinner. The 13-year-old grins and struts out of the living room, his lanky figure looking more like his late grandfather every day.

When Thatcher has left the room Lexie sits down next to George, taking the remote from him and muting the television. "Meredith and Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd told me more about Ellie today."

"Her name is Addison, Lexie. Stop acting like an intern."

She lets out a breath. "I know you're upset, but insulting me isn't necessary, George."

"Lex…"

"They told me everything. They told me that you fell in love with her, that you two almost adopted a child together, that she lost her memory and you stood by her the whole time; they told me that she left you for Sloan and that you were still in love with her when she left for New York and barely over her when she died a few years later." She runs her fingers through his thinning hair and he rests his head on her shoulder. "They told me that she tries to think of others but usually doesn't succeed, that Addison is her best friend but they hurt each other more than Meredith and I have hurt each other; that Addison slept with Mark and Ellie slept with Derek and it's still the one thing they can't talk about, but it all came out when you were with her and you still stayed with her. Meredith told me that Ellie's high school sweetheart came on to her when she first started dating you but that Ellie was so sure she was in love with you that she turned him down. Addison told me that Ellie had nightmares, and probably still does, but you would stay up all night on her bad nights because you hated seeing her toss and turn." He sobs into her shoulder and she hugs him tighter, running her fingers over his back. "George, I understand now. You were devastated when she died, you rebounded on Callie Torres, then Izzie, and when I finally got you, you were over Ellie, but she's always been hanging around in your heart, hasn't she?"

"I guess so," he says softly, turning red when she wipes the tears from his cheeks. "Even when she picked Sloan over me, we stayed friends. We talked all the time, I'd call her and she'd pick up, even if it was three in the morning over there, and she would do the same with me. For weeks after her death I would call her phone just to hear her voice on the voicemail and when it was finally shut off I pushed myself into my work."

"It hurts to lose someone."

"I didn't know how to deal with it. She was there for me when I lost my Dad…I didn't know who to turn to when I lost her."

"Are you mad at her?"

"I want to hug her and invite her over for dinner and let her sleep on the couch so we can talk for hours." He sighs. "I want her to be your best friend too, and I want her to meet our children and be their favorite Aunt, but…I can't. It's not real yet, and I…I don't know what to do."

"I think you should do exactly what you want, George." Lexie smiles softly. "I think you should hug her and invite her over for dinner and talk to her for hours and let her meet the kids and let her become my best friend." He grins and she swallows hard, taking a deep breath. "I need to ask you something first though."

"Okay."

"Are you still in love with her?"

He shakes his head. "I love her. I will always love her. But Alexandra Caroline Grey-O'Malley, you are the only woman I am truly, madly in love with."

She laughs softly. "Good answer."

Addison hears the laughter as soon as she walks in to the house. The giggle of her best friend (former best friend?) makes her whole body heavy, and when she sees Ellie and Derek sitting on the couch laughing, she grits her teeth.

"What are you doing here?"

Ellie looks up, smiling. "Oh, hey Addie."

"Why are you here?" She snaps, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ellie frowns. "I, uh…Derek and I were just talking. He was telling me about the letters the two of you wrote to me…I wrote some too."

"You showed her the letters?" Addison's voice cracks and she can feel the tears building in her eyes. She feels horribly betrayed.

"I thought you'd want her to see them."

"No. I don't want her to see them."

"Oh," Derek looks shocked and confused. "Addison, I don't really understand…"

"Get out."

"What?"

"Eliot, get out of my house."

"Addie," Ellie stands, walking towards her. "I know you're upset."

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE." She snaps, stepping backwards. "And stay the hell away from my husband."

"He's my friend!"

"I don't care! Get out!" Ellie nods slowly and leaves, the stack of letters she'd brought to Derek still sitting on the coffee table.

"Addison, what the hell is going on?" Derek asks, watching out of the corner of his eye as Ellie gets into her car and pulls away from the house.

"How can you just…be friends with her?"

"Because she's our friend…" He frowns. "What do you mean?"

"She is not our friend, Derek. She betrayed us."

"She needed to protect herself, and us."

"That's bull-shit. She did it to get a new life."

He sighs. "Maybe she did, but you missed her."

"I missed Ellie. That woman, the one that was just here, she is not Ellie."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"How can you pretend that this isn't a huge deal?"

"She's never really been gone, Addie." He presses his hand to the left side of his chest. "She was here the whole time." He presses his hand just above Addison's left breast and she smacks at his arm, glaring at him. "She was there too. She was never really gone." He picks up the letters. "She was here, in these. She was in the videotapes you would watch at two in the morning when you didn't think anyone was awake, she was in the water guns you still have, and in all of the pictures that you would spend your birthday staring at." He reached for her hand but she pulled away, stepping further into the foyer. "Addison, I don't understand how you can't be happy to see her."

"She lied to me. She left me alone, that's how." She crosses her arms over her chest. "How can you act like she hasn't been gone for twenty-two years?"

"Because she hasn't been gone for me. She's been standing next to me through everything, and having her back makes everything okay again."

"You're delusional."

"I am not."

"Be friends with her, spend time with her; sleep with her for all I care." He rolls his eyes and she clenches her fist. "Do not roll your eyes at me."

"You're being ridiculous."

"I am not. You want to be friends with her? Fine. You can sleep in the guest room."

"Addison…" She shakes her head and storms up the stairs. "Addie!" She doesn't say anything else the rest of the day, and when he finally ventures upstairs his clothes are piled outside of the master bedroom and the door to their room is locked.

August 1st, 2035

2:00 PM

"Remind me again why we're going to this?"

"Austin is turning one, Mark. As his mother's god-parents, we are obligated to attend."

"He's just going to shove his face in the cake, which no one will pay attention to because of all the drama going on around here."

The unintentional dig hurts more than she thought it would, and Ellie sighs as she pulls up in front of Alix and Matthew's house in Bellevue. "I know you and I aren't very happy right now, but could you at least pretend to like me?"

"Jesus Christ, El, I wasn't talking about you."

"Bull shit, you weren't, Mark. The only drama around here is me and the fact that the only people talking to me are Lexie, George and Derek, which pisses Meredith, Izzie and Addison off on top of them already being angry."

"Maybe if you didn't spend so much time at the O'Malley's people wouldn't be so upset."

"Maybe if I had a boyfriend that actually cared what I did with my time then I wouldn't have to."

"Maybe he cares; he's just trying to process."

"Maybe he's had twenty-two years to process since he's known from the beginning and he's just using that as an excuse."

"I am not just using it as an excuse!"

"You knew I was coming back, Mark. You knew I was alive; that I was in hiding. I thought you would be the one person I'd have on my side in this whole thing."

"Well I guess you were wrong."

"I guess I was." Ellie snags her purse from the console between their seats and gets out of the car, slamming the door with force. Mark watches through the living room window as Alix hugs Ellie and takes the gift he didn't even know she'd picked out for Austin. Matthew and Alix's little girl Sheena comes running across the room and Mark smiles when the four-year-old launches herself into Ellie's arms and wraps her chubby arms around Ellie's neck.

"Hey!" Mark jumps when he hears the voice come through the window and lets out a breath when he sees Addison standing next to their car, her arms crossed over her stomach. "What are you doing?" She asks as he gets out of the car.

"Weighing the pros and cons of spending time at this thing."

She laughs. "Oh come on, it won't be so bad."

"Maybe not for you. Casey is mad at me because I'm sleeping in the guest room instead of the master bedroom with Ellie, the O'Malley clan is so in love with my girlfriend or whatever that it makes me want to throw up, and Ellie's mad at me because I keep making digs at her."

"You have the right to make digs at her."

"I know that," he says, tucking his hands in his pockets and shaking his head as they watch Derek kiss Ellie on the cheek and take Sheena from her, tossing his granddaughter up in the air. "And I think she knows that too, but that doesn't mean she enjoys it."

"Well no one enjoys stuff like that, Mark."

"Thank you, Addison." She laughs and he sighs as he watches Ellie talk animatedly with Derek. "Maybe we should sever ties with our significant others and run away together."

"Oh right, because that's an excellent plan."

"Well they love each other so much, I'm sure they'll be fine."

Addison rolls her eyes. "I'm going inside before you say anything incriminating."

He sighs and follows her inside, putting a grin on his face as Maggie and David's oldest, Hannah, comes running at him to tell him about new things going on at school. Spending time with Hannah reminds him of how much he loves his grandchildren and that even with all the drama, the little ones make it all worth it.

9:00 PM

"So I was thinking…" He starts, laughing when she wrinkles her nose.

"That's never a good sign."

"I think it might be this time." She nods slowly and he crosses over to the master bed, perching on the end. "What if we date each other?"

"Pretty sure we're already doing that, Mark."

"No, I mean…you asked me, a few weeks ago, to marry you."

"I did."

"And I never responded, because…because I'm scared."

"Scared?"

"I don't want you to leave again."

"I'm not going to."

He nods. "I know…at least, I think I know that, but I'm still a little scared."

"Okay…"

"So I think we should date. Get to know each other again; you know?"

"I guess."

"I want to know what you've been doing for the last twenty-two years, and I want to fuck you so bad…" she squirms a little and he laughs. "But those things don't really go well together, so maybe we should just start over."

"Start over, huh?"

"Yeah."

She smiles. "Okay. I can do that."

"I can move out too…"

"No." She shakes her head. "I don't want you to do that. You shouldn't even be the one that has to sleep in the guest room; I can do that."

"I don't mind, Ellie, really." He smiles. "I'll stay in the guest room, you stay in here, and we'll go on our first date this weekend." She nods and he smiles, getting up to leave.

"Hey." She stands, crossing the room and stopping in front of him, sticking her hand out. "I'm Eliot Grey. You can call me Ellie."

"Mark Sloan." He shakes her hand, smiling. "I used to know someone named Eliot."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. She was a little crazy."

She laughs. "Most of us are."