Derek had had an excellent evening. Meredith had been in awe of his land. She hadn't found him weird for wanting to live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere when he could afford a big house. Even her friends had liked the land. He had fished for them and cooked trout and they had loved it. It looked like it had nearly killed Cristina but she had actually said something nice. And Karev was interested in fishing so Derek had told him that he wouldn't mind inviting me over one day. It was at that time that he had briefly thought about Mark because they have used to fish together. But then he had been busied looking at Meredith who was admiring the view.

He had his life back on track. He was even happier than he had ever felt before when he woke up. That was really him, not the guy he had been in New York to please Addison. He drove to work and thought of the work he would have to do, it wouldn't be a too long day. He walked into the lobby to his office when he noticed her. There were people all around him but he somewhat always managed to see her. He approached her but noticed she wasn't alone. She was talking to a man who had his back to him and she was smiling at him. The sight of her flirting with another man made him sick to the stomach but he didn't understand why. They were just friends, it shouldn't bother him but it did.

He had no right to interfere in her love life. He was about to turn around but the jacket of them man looked oddly familiar. He took some steps towards them and the more he approached them, the sicker he felt.

Meredith had been writing on a chart when a hot guy had begun to flirt with her. He was definitely hot and knew it. She wasn't really in the mood to flirt wit him but he was funny and direct so she just played the game. And maybe it wasn't that bad, she needed to get Derek out of her mind. Speaking of the devil, she saw him out of the corner of her eyes while she was talking to the stranger. He stood still looking at them and she felt uneasy. She was flirting with another man in front of him but it wasn't as if he cared any way. She put her attention back on the stranger who was still not so subtly asking her to have sex with him. She then saw that Derek was coming their way and she wondered what he was going to do. Maybe he would get all jealous and then they would have hot, angry sex. Right, keep dreaming Grey. The more she looked at Derek while ignoring a little the stranger in front of her, the more she noticed how tensed he seemed to be. And the look in his eyes was kind of frightening, she had never seemed him look so angry.

The stranger looked at the woman in front of him and frowned when she wasn't looking back. No woman had ever ignored or resisted him so he turned around to see what was so interesting behind him. That's when a fist solidly connected with his jaw. So unprepared for the immediacy of the attack, it threw him off balance and sent him tumbling onto the floor. He landed with a loud thud, bringing the attention of most of those present.

"Derek, what the hell was that?" He heard the woman he had flirted with, shout at the man who had hit him and maybe broke his jaw.

"That was Mark" Derek bitterly said while shaking his hurt hand.

"Oh" was all the woman uttered and looked back at the not so stranger man who was still on the floor but in a sitting position, and who was intently staring at Derek with regret while the other completely ignored him.

It seemed as if, everyone had stopped moving around them. They were all wondering what had happened and already gossiping about it when a loud, forceful voice rang through the lobby. "Shepherd, in my office now" The Chief didn't seem pleased at all "And Dr Grey, take care of Dr Sloan"

Derek turned around without making eye contact with any of them and took the stairs to follow the Chief. Meredith instructed Mark to follow her so she could suture his face. She was cleaning the wound when he engaged the conversation.

"So you're the intern, huh?" his voice had lost the flirty edge she thought was natural and he just looked like someone had killed his dog.

"The intern?" she repeated not clearly understanding.

"Derek and I always did have the same taste in women" Mark said and Meredith just looked perplexed at him.

"Excuse me?"

"You're Derek's lusty intern, right? Heard about you all the way back in New York. You're famous"

"What?" she shrieked. "Derek and I are just friends"

"Friends?" he laughed.

"What's so funny about that?"

"Nothing" he sighed "How is Derek?"

"You had sex with his wife, how do you think he is?"

"He told you. But he is not miserable, right?"

"He is better and yes he told me since we're friend, he can trust me" Meredith said her tone accusing.

"Yeah, right, friends" He smirked, choosing to ignore her remark about trust. "You know it's funny. Derek walks in on me naked with his wife actually in the throes. And he just turns around and walks away, but he sees me so much as talking to you and I'm on the ground bleeding. Interesting, don't you think? "

Meredith didn't respond instead she moved to start suturing his face.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"You need stitches"

"I know, hold the mirror" he told her and start suturing in own face then asked her for an x-ray.

Meredith comes behind her friends who were also gossiping about what had happened. "McSexy wants an x-ray to check for fractures and I think it's a bad idea if I take him"

"I'm on it" Alex leapt off.

"McSexy?" Cristina asked.

"No" Meredith replied.

"McYummy?" Izzie tried.

"No" Both Cristina and Meredith replied.

"McSteamy" Meredith offered.

"Oh, there it is" Cristina agreed.

"I'm going to see Derek" Meredith said.

"McDreamy punched McSteamy because you were flirting with him and probably going to have dirty hot sex. Interesting, don't you think?" Cristina chuckled.

Meredith blushed "What? No, it had nothing to do with me, he punched him because…he is Mark, that's it, not because we were flirting, and we were not going to have sex anyway, we were just talking about…"

"Oh God, don't you ever stop?" Cristina snorted

"Cristina" Izzie scowled. "But she is right, you know" she told Meredith "McDreamy did punch him"

"You can't really blame his wife for screwing McSteamy, can you?" Cristina stated, staring appreciatively at Mark.

"No" Izzie agreed.

"What? Of course you can. She was married when she had sex with him…That's just unacceptable and why would she cheat on a man like Derek?"

"You have it bad, Mer, it's pathetic" Cristina rolled her eyes.

"I'm going now" Meredith said to escape from the talk that was making her uncomfortable. Of course she had thought about that, maybe Derek was jealous but he had a better reason to have punched Mark such as he had sex with his wife. She didn't want to have false hopes and Derek had made it pretty clear that they were just friends.

She seemed to come a lot to his office. She softly knocked and entered when she was invited. He seemed lost in his thoughts but slightly turned to her when she came in.

"Maybe I should just give you a key" He joked and she smiled back, well he seemed to be taking it better than she thought.

"Bu then I would barge in unannounced, who knows what you'd be doing?"

"I never had sex in this office, you want to christen it?" He smirked.

"Are you okay?" she sat on the chair in front of his office.

"Yes, I think I am but my hand is a little sore but it's okay" he smiled lightly at her.

"The meeting with the Chief?"

"It was okay" He shrugged, "Well not really okay because he had told me before not to do something stupid but well" He shrugged again.

Meredith took the ice pack he had put on his office and put it on his hand, "Do you feel better?"

"Better? No, not really. I don't know why I punched him, well I have a slight idea but I didn't mean too. I could have punched him when I found him in bed with my wife but I didn't."

"Yeah, he told me that"

"You talked to him?" He frowned telling himself that it was a simple question, not jealousy.

"Well, you made a pretty good job on him" she chuckled. "The chief asked me to take care of him"

"Yeah"

"Why did you punch him?" Meredith needed to know.

"I don't know" Derek looked at her uncomfortable.

"Derek"

"I really don't know, Mer. I saw him and he was talking to you and I don't know, I just punched him"

"Was it because of what happened with your wife?" Meredith knew she was insisting but she needed to know.

"Yes, no, I mean… I don't know" He looked at her sheepishly.

"Derek, being incoherent is my thing" She giggled.

"Right" he smiled "Why I punched him is not important, Mer" He told her and she wanted to scream that yes, actually it was for her but she kept quiet. "I shouldn't have" he added.

"Are you going to talk to him?" She asked him, maybe it was his chance to really let go of the past.

"We have nothing to say to each other" He shook his head.

"But if he talked to you, would you listen to him?"

"He won't talk to me"

"How do you know?" Meredith frowned.

"Mark has never been sorry for anything in his life, he doesn't even know what it means. And excuses are the only thing I want to hear from him"

"Maybe this time is different. He seemed genuinely concerned about you and sorry for what he did"

"Maybe" Derek nodded but because he didn't have the talk to go on, he didn't want to argue with her about that. She didn't know Mark Sloan like he did.

Derek's indecisiveness about why he had punched Mark was all Meredith could think about. Maybe she should just tell him what she feels to get rid of it; she was tired of not knowing.

"Derek, I have something to tell you" She said gravely while her heart rate sped up and her hands got sweaty. He looked up, indicating her that he was listening.

"Derek ,I didn't mean for this to happen. I don't even know what I'm really feeling but I need to tell you because you're… you. I'm sorry because it may changes things between us and I don't want it to happen but I have to tell you" she took a deep breath, there, she was going to say it.

He panicked a little "Is it about Mark? Please, don't tell me you're interested in him"

"What? No" She exclaimed and Derek released a deep breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Okay then you can tell me anything, Mer" he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"I think I'm falling in love with you" She whispered staring at a pen on his desk.

"I..you.. Mer" He stuttered.

"Okay, now I feel like an idiot. I'm sorry I just needed to tell you" She furiously blushed and felt tears threaten to fall without reason. Or yes, there was a reason, he looked totally shocked and he was staring at her and she felt embarrassed.

"Mer, I don't know what to tell you" And he really was at a loss for words.

"You don't need to say anything. I just wanted to tell you because I couldn't keep it to myself any more"

"Okay" he nodded, not knowing what else he was supposed to say. He felt like an idiot because he couldn't tell her the same thing but he couldn't tell her that he didn't feel the same way because he had no fucking idea what he felt for her. He knew he should be saying something because she had mustered all her courage to open up to him but he didn't know what so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Thank you for telling me"

She looked at him visibly disappointed by his answer because it offered no indication to what he was feeling. "I'm going to go" She said but didn't move.

He knew that she wanted him to say something and he wanted too but he just had no idea what so he just kept staring at her.

"I'll go" she said another time but this time she actually went.

He wanted to stop her but to tell her what? He watched as she left her office and cursed himself. He punched his desk with his already hurt hand and bit back a scream of pain. He had messed up and it felt like there was nothing he could do about it.

He didn't know how long he had stayed like that until he heard a knock on his door. Maybe Meredith had come back and this time he wouldn't act like a jerk, he would say something.

But when the person who had knocked came in his office, it was not Meredith at all and he sighed soundly.

"Derek, I know you don't want to talk to me but just listen to me please and then I'll be out of your life if you want" Mark said and Derek just looked at him. "That's it? You're going to listen to me?" Mark couldn't hide his surprise, he had already prepared himself for a shouting match before he could speak but that was better.

"Mark, if you have something to say, just say it" Derek said.

"I'm sorry"

"You are?"

"You can't imagine how sorry I am, man."

"Thanks" Derek replied.

"What?" if Mark had found Derek strange at the beginning, now he felt like he was in another universe.

"I had time to think about what happened and even if it is not an excuse, I'm partly to blame for what happened. I was absent and you two grew closer" He shrugged, recognising that he was to blame was hard but he needed to do it.

"I know it's not an excuse either but Derek, I didn't have sex with her to hurt you or because I could, I was in love with her"

"No you're right. It doesn't make it better" But Derek couldn't hide his surprise at Mark's statement. Mark had never been in love before.

"I know." He paused "You have quite an impressive right punch" Mark said while massaging his jaw.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked him.

"I thought that maybe... I'm not asking you to be my friend right away but maybe we could try"

"Why does it matter? You're going back to New York anyway" He had never seen Mark unsure of something before.

"Well about that, I may stay here. Richard offered me a job and I… I didn't come to Seattle for that job, I didn't come to Seattle for the weather, I came here to get you back"

"To get me back?" Derek lightly chuckled and Mark laughed.

"I know, I want to take it back now, but I already said it, so..." Mark said sheepishly.

"Okay, we could try" Derek said and Mark nodded hopeful.

"Now, I'm definitely staying" Mark said.

"If I didn't know you better, I'd think you want in my pants" Derek chuckled.

"In your dreams, McDreamy. By the way, your nickname is pretty gay" Mark smirked.

"Oh God, you've heard about that and you've been here for what? An hour?"

"Pretty much"