Okay, this took longer than usual to update. But it still only took two days. Which is very good compared to other fics.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU READ THE CHAPTER: This is an Addex fic. I am 100 Addex. But I needed to deal with this. And I like how I did it. So please read through the entire chapter keeping in mind that this is an Addex fic. And ALSO remember, this is suppose to be what COULD HAVE HAPPENED in Season 3, and Addison and Alex are at a lull right now. I think in my mind, this is about episode 3x20. If you request it, I will try to think out a plausible time line for the rest of the fic.

On with the chapter:

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Kathleen sighed. "Whatev. I tried." She looked over at Addison's shoulder, and whispered, "Well, what's keeping you from going with him? He's been checking you out this entire time."

Addison turned around to see none other than Mark Sloane at the doorway, and she could tell from the look on his face he had heard all.

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Addison exited Kathleen's room. She raised her eyebrows at Mark. He follows her to the other end of the hospital to find an empty on call room. When they are inside and the door is closed, she turns around and faces him. They are staring at each other, each refusing to break eye contact. Finally Mark can't hold it in anymore. "You and Karev? Seriously, Addison? You told me we couldn't be together because you needed some time to be alone! Now all of a sudden you're going after your intern?"

Addison was ready for this. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about. Karev and I are co-workers. I like him, he's a nice guy."

Mark scoffed. "Karev? He's just a miniature man whore. What the hell does he have that I don't?"

"Well, for one thing, he's just an intern, and already has better bedside manner than you. And he is on my service. I spend days with him at a time. Obviously I need to form some sort of friendship with him, otherwise we'd probably murder each other."

"You seriously think he joined neonatal because he all of a sudden didn't want to do Plastics and fell in love with a bunch of runny-nosed babies? He obviously has some sort of silly crush on you. And from your behavior back there, it looks like you return the feelings."

"Mark, listen to you. You know me. Can you picture me with an intern? I'm not someone who gets feelings for an intern, Mark. You know me better than that. What's this all about?"

Mark sighed. "I miss you, Addison. I sacrificed my best friend for you. And I left New York to come and fight for you. You can't just throw away all that history, can you?"

Addison knew it was wrong. She knew he had already worked his way through the nursing staff already, that he was just milking it because she was there, and she was hot, but he was also there, and he was also hot, and she was sad, because the guy she had feelings for wasn't there, and was her intern, and Mark was her own age. She could screw him all she wanted. And it wouldn't be complicated. So before she knew it they were going at it right there in the on call room. And the whole time, she knew it was wrong.

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"Callie, what the hell am I going to do?" Addison wept to her friend. "He probably thinks we're in a relationship again or something."

Callie tried to say something to comfort Addison, but her reasoning skills had diminished considerably since the last shot of tequila. "Weeelllll…. You could pretend you were in a relationship with him, so you could have lots of sex with him…and then call it off when you find a real man. Win-win situation, huh?"

Even in her drunken state, Addison knew this was a bad idea. "No, that wouldn't be fair to him. Of course, it wasn't fair to seduce his married friend when she was obviously lonely and drunk, but that didn't stop him, did it? Ha, I'm funny."

Callie moaned. "Is it possible for your hangover to start before you stop drinking?"

Addison burped. "How long have we been at it? Holy sh1t, it's already 1 AM. I have a surgery tomorrow at…seleven…no, I mean seven. Actually, eleven, no…"

"Well, in that case, I think we should call it a night."

"Nooo," Addison whined, "I haven't decided what to do about Mark! You're supposed to be helping me, not telling me to sober up!"

Callie grunted. "Fine. Just tell him the truth. That it was a mistake, you are definitely not sleeping with him again, or starting a relationship with him, and he can go back to New York."

"Like he'll even listen to me," Addison noted.

"Make him. Tell him…heck, if you have to, get all gushy, tell him that if he really loved you, he would let you go, and let you start over, let you be with Alex…"

Addison mumbled her agreement. All of a sudden, she sat bolt upright. "WHAT did you say about Alex?"

Callie sighed. "Dammit. I hoped that had just been in my head."

"Never mind, I'll forgive you this time. I have a plan of action, and I will act on it, I will go to Mark, and I will tell him…wait, what's our plan again?" Confused, Addison looked over to Callie.

Callie just took Addison's bottle of alcohol and dumped it down the near by sink. "It's definitely time to go to bed."

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Addison got to work the next day with a huge hangover. I'm never drinking again, ever again, no matter what the circumstances. Even as she thought it, she knew she'd need to after her upcoming conversation. She took out her pager and paged Mark.

"Dr. Montgomery," Alex sidled up to her, handing her a chart. She dropped it as a wave of nausea came over her. "Whoa, what did you do this time?" Alex asked, before he had time to register what was coming out of his mouth.

Addison looked up. "Excuse me, Dr. Karev? What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Well, it looks like you have a hangover, which means you were drinking, and you usually don't drink unless something bad happened…" Alex mumbled sheepishly.

Addison looked over at him fondly. He noticed that I wasn't feeling well—

No, Addison. You already have boy problems. Only one at a time.

"I'm fine, long day yesterday. Check up on the patient in room 1620," she replied curtly. She didn't have time for anything except the job and Mark today.

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"You paged me?" Mark sidled up to the nurse's station.

Addison put down the chart she was holding and took a deep breath. "Yeah. I need to talk to you about…things. Are you free right now?"

"I don't have a surgery for about 3 hours."

Addison sighed. "Good. Wanna go for a quick walk?"

Mark looked at her dubiously and raised an eyebrow. "Why don't we just skip the formalities? There's an empty on call room on the 2nd floor."

"No, Mark. I actually need to talk. It's something you do where you apply your brain to communicate with another human being."

"Fine, fine, let's 'talk'."

They went outside, and started walking around the hospital. It wasn't raining for once, but it was July. The air was comfortable, but Addison felt like it was suffocating her. It was easier when they were walking though, so she didn't have to look at him.

Addison opened her mouth, and let out an almost inaudible sound as she was about to say something, but closed her mouth at the last second. She wasn't sure how to word it. Mark was her best friend. Forget about the fact that he had ruined her marriage and they had had sex. He was her friend, and she knew she was about to break the heart of her friend, but she was the one in the driver's seat. She was the one who was about to make him miserable.

She opened her mouth again, but couldn't find the words. She didn't make a sound this time, because she had lost her voice.

Mark glanced at her, and realization dawned over his face like a brick had just been hurtled into his gut. With a strained voice, he said, "You aren't going to do anything with me. There is too much bad history, I missed my chance with you, if I really loved you I would move on and let you move on, too."

Addison stopped in her tracks. Her eyes filled with tears.

"How close was I?"

Addison mumbled, "You know me too well."

Mark forced a chuckle at Addison's feeble joke, but when it turned into the start of a sob, he closed his mouth.

She turned to face him. They looked at each other for a good, long time, before she finally took him in her arms and held him tight. Both of them stopped fighting the tears, as they wept for their friendship, their relationship, everything that had been sacrificed and thrown away because of their poor choices.

"Why did it have to get to this?" Mark mumbled into her hair, smelling her shampoo.

"I'm so sorry…we're idiots. I'm just so sorry." The shoulder of his shirt was soaking wet from her tears. "Oh, that night…if that night I hadn't had that extra shot of tequila, if you got paged into a surgery and didn't come over…"

"No," Mark said, his voice still breaking, but firm and believing in his words. "It was supposed to be like this. "Things happen for a reason. Why it had to ruin the unstoppable trio…I haven't got a fucking clue what God had his mind, cuz it seems like a lot of shit right now, but…Addie, you have to believe it happened for a reason. It happened so the three of us could get a fresh start."

The words did little to console Addison. "Remember the first day of our internship? When that baby Violet Beutler died? That's what Richard said. I remember you, and me, and Derek, were all so sad, and Richard came up to us and told us that if we were going to be surgeons, we needed to know that things happened for a reason."

Mark laughed a little. "Of course I remember. You didn't think I actually made up that load of crap myself, did you?"

She hugged him tighter. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too. But it really is time for a fresh start."

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Yes, that was incredibly Maddison. But I needed to get Mark out of the picture, because in my mind, I never pictured him staying as a season regular. And also, I will try and write A LOT today, because once Harry Potter is out, I won't be back until I'm done. However, if I do write alot today, I will come back for daily updates. Happy Harry Day!