A/N: I accidentally deleted the sequel to this story, so I decided to just re-upload it as part of this story instead, and do away with the epilogue to this. I hope you're all okay with that! Thanks for having patience with all the technical difficulties.


Room Service (Six Months Later)

The shrill ringing of a cell phone filled the quiet New York apartment. Mark poked his head out of the refrigerator and snatched the phone off the clean white countertop, glancing briefly at the number that stood out in bold black letters against the backlit touch screen. His eyebrows furrowed as his brain registered a number that he hadn't seen in a year - yet one that he knew by heart. He straightened up, letting the door to the fridge swing shut behind him, the carton of orange juice in his hand forgotten. He held the phone up to his ear and answered in a dazed voice, "Addie?"

"Mark," the voice sounded faint, strangled, and then there was a pause, punctuated only by the sound of soft breathing on the other end of the line. Her voice clung to the sound of his name as though it were a lifeline.

"That you, Addison?"

More silence, and then, "Mark, I need you to come out here now."

"To Seattle?"

"Yes. Today, if you can."

"What happened? Did something happen to Derek?" A creeping concern edged its way into Mark's voice. The hatred Derek harbored towards Mark was only one-way.

"Yes. Well, no!" Addison sighed heavily. "He's fine. Derek's fine, except for the slight detail that he came home today with Meredith Grey's panties in his pocket."

"And you want me to come to Seattle because of that."

"Yes."

"Because Derek has Grey's panties," Mark clarified, bemused at the odd request.

"I know I was… less than hospitable the last time you showed up, but just… just come, okay?" Mark caught the tone of desperation in her voice. He rubbed the back of his head impatiently.

"But Derek-"

"Derek and I won't be married for much longer," Addison said resignedly. "And I moved into a hotel today, so he won't be a concern anymore."

Part of Mark thought that now would be a convenient time to repay the cold shoulder she'd maintained towards him when he'd come to Seattle a few months earlier to win her back, but then he pictured her, alone in a hotel room in a city he knew she disliked as much as he did, reeling from having lost a family of eleven years because of a pair of panties. "I'll be on the next plane out."


The door to Addison's suite opened before Mark had had time to lower his hand from knocking. "Mark," she half gasped, before falling into his body in a hug that put them in closer proximity than they'd been since she left New York a year ago. She pressed her face against his chest, not seeming to care about how his leather jacket was slick and wet from the rain, or about how the last time she'd seen him she'd flinched from his mere touch.

Mark wrapped his arms around her loosely but drew his head back far enough to see her face, looking down at her with unveiled surprise. She was clad in a fluffy white robe, with bare feet and no makeup, her hair straggling down her back in damp tangled strands.

"You look like a mess, Addie," he murmured quietly, his hand rubbing slow circles across the small of her back.

"I'm just tired," she said. She plastered a smile across her face, but it didn't touch her eyes until she added, "Not too tired," and pressed her hands firmly against the sides of Mark's face and pulled it down to hers for a kiss. Mark sighed against her mouth. This, at least, was familiar territory.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" he asked in a mock offended tone once they'd pulled apart, raising his eyebrows at her.

Addison stepped back to let him pass into the luxurious hotel room. He ran his eyes over the bottle of champagne on a table by the huge bed and the wine glasses rimmed with gold.

"You came prepared," he observed.

"Go clean up, you just got here. I'll call down to room service for something to eat," Addison encouraged, nodding at the bathroom.


Mark shut off the hot water that streamed over his bare back and rubbed a towel over the short curls of hair that lay against his forehead as he stepped out of the shower into the steam that filled the room and misted over the mirror. He heard bedsprings squeak faintly a couple of times in the adjacent room and imagined Addison waiting for him on the king sized mattress. Mark swung open the bathroom door and began to wrap the towel he still carried around his waist. When he looked up, Derek was seated on the bed with Addison, looking at Mark with a mixture of disbelief and amusement in his expressive blue eyes. Derek turned back to stare for a moment at Addison, who was looking straight ahead, her jaw set as if she were clenching her teeth, the expression in her eyes closed off, shuttered. Derek spun back around to gaze incredulously at Mark again.

"Oh." Mark stared back, at a loss for what he could say. He looked down at his partially exposed body, suddenly self aware, and tucked in the ends of the loosely hanging towel before raising his head again. "Well this is awkward." Mark couldn't help grinning mischievously.

For an instant Mark thought Derek would shout, but instead a smile broke across his face and he leaned over to Addison and plucked the glass of champagne from between her limp fingers. He took a sip and then looked at the sunshine colored liquid pensively for a brief moment. "Ah," Derek sighed calmly. "I feel much better now." He handed the glass back to Addison, who accepted it as though in a daze, and walked out of the suite, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Mark ran his fingers through his rapidly drying hair. "What happened to Derek not being a concern anymore?" he asked casually, hoping that teasing would pull Addison out from behind the wall she'd built around herself and diffuse the tension that was almost palpable in the air. The effort was in vain; she didn't move.

"Aw, c'mon," Mark tried again. "It was inevitable. You knew he'd go back to his intern eventually."

A muscle in Addison's cheek twitched.

Taking that as a good sign, Mark stepped closer to her. "And now you're free to see me."

Her eyes flickered to him and back.

"And who wouldn't want that?" Mark concluded, moving closer. "You know I'm a catch."

"Mark, you're not helping," Addison snapped, her fiery passion returning with a vengeance, her eyes blazing with annoyance.

"There you are!" Mark exclaimed, triumphant that he'd pestered her into some sort of reaction. "I thought I'd lost you there for a minute."

" Stop. Just stop." Addison pressed her fingers to her temples and shut her eyes. When her eyelids flew open again it was to order imperiously, "Stop talking, Mark, and come here. You're terrible at talking."

Mark didn't need to be told twice. He took the last long stride to the bed, and then she was in his arms, and he could smell and touch and taste her, and even though Mark knew that nothing was resolved, Addison was so solidly there, and at the moment, that was enough.


A/N: Did you like it? Hate it? Please review!