Addison normally wore enough makeup that her faint freckles couldn't be seen, but in the hospital, under the unforgiving fluorescent lights, Mark was able to see them – he noticed that she even had a small freckle directly in the center of her top lip. Mark marveled at the freckle while she slept. He'd never seen anyone with a freckle on her lip. Addison stirred slightly. Mark sat back quickly and grabbed the magazine he bought for her, pretending to be reading.

Addison rolled her head to the side and looked at him. "Upside down."

"What?" Mark looked up at her in confusion.

"You're not really reading that. It's upside down." Addison's voice sounded tired, but not as weak as Mark expected.

"Right."

"Why?"

Mark cleared his throat in an attempt to keep the tears out of his eyes. Why in the hell was he on the verge of tears again? He chalked it up to the relief he felt at hearing her voice again. "Because you… Scared the crap out of me."

"I scared the crap out of me too, if it makes you feel any better."

"A little." Mark suddenly remembered the flowers and the bear. He retrieved them from the chair beside him and thrust them awkwardly at Addison. "These… Are for you."

"Thank you." Addison smiled a little, sniffing the flowers (which certainly smelled better than the hospital). She set them on her nightstand and cuddled the teddy bear close to her chest. It was so large that it left little room in the bed for her.

"I brought you some things from your apartment…" Mark said quietly, gesturing to the duffel bag. "I figured you'd be here a few days."

"Thank you." Addison said quietly, wondering how he could be so nice to her. "I appreciate it... Did you happen to bring a hairbrush? I hate my hair right now..."

Her red locks were in tangles from being under the surgical cap. Mark nodded and dug through the bag of her things until he found the hairbrush, which he handed to Addison.

Addison attempted to raise the brush to her head, but winced as pain went through her hand from moving the IV. She looked to her other hand, which was tethered to an oximeter.

"Ugh... Never mind. I have more wires than a robot."

Mark stood up from his chair and took the brush from her hand. "I'll do it."

Addison braced herself. It had been her experience that when men attempted to brush women's hair, it resulted in ripping and tearing at the scalp. She was surprised when Mark's touch was gentle, and that he knew to start at the ends of her hair to work out the knots.

"You're good at that..." Addison said softly.

"I've had practice."

"How's that?"

Mark flushed. "Derek has four sisters... They used to make me play 'Salon' with them."

Addison bit her lip to keep from laughing. "You let them get away with that?"

"You've never met Kathleen." Mark set a section of Addison's hair down and picked up another. "She could have sat on me and crushed me to death."

Addison laughed softly. "Don't make me laugh... It hurts."

"Sorry."

"So when are you going to yell at me or start asking questions?"

"I'm not going to ask you anything. I assume you thought you had good reasons for what you did, so I'm just waiting to hear what they are."

Mark worked carefully at a particularly difficult knot in Addison's hair. "Have you called your parents? You're still on their insurance. You don't want them to find out when they get the bill…"

"I'll call them later. They're in Connecticut visiting my grandmother."

Mark finished brushing her hair and sat back down. They were silent for a few minutes, Addison picking at the bear's brown, curly fur as a way to distract herself from the awkwardness of the situation, and Mark staring down at "8 Ways to Please Your Man" in the magazine.

"I was going to tell you." Addison finally said. "Today, actually… I thought it would be good, with Hallie and Derek out of town. I was cleaning the apartment when… It happened. I was going to invite you over and tell you."

Mark didn't look up. "I see. Were you going to keep it?"

"I was going to have it… I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it or give it up for adoption." Addison sighed.

"But why did you wait so long to tell me?" Mark asked.

"I didn't want to be the one to ruin your life." Addison whispered.

Mark finally looked up. "It wouldn't have ruined my life."

"You would have had to have changed your life completely."

"And I would have done it."

"I didn't want you to feel like you had to do that." Addison rested her chin on the teddy bear. "It was just a one night stand, it was…"

"You're my best friend, Addison." Mark interrupted. "It wasn't just a one night stand."

"I feel so weird right now…" Addison said, changing the subject. "In one way, I feel relieved. I was going to delay medical school to have him… Or her… I don't have to do that now. In another way, I'm disappointed… I was sort of getting used to the idea, you know? I thought about dressing him up in little Columbia shirts and taking him to Central Park. I thought that maybe I could be a good mother, and that maybe giving up medical school for him would be okay."

"I feel the same way…" Mark studied the stitching of his jeans. "Relieved and disappointed… Of course, I've only known for a few hours, but still..."

"You don't have to say that for my benefit, Mark." Addison said softly. "It's more than okay if you're only relieved and not at all disappointed."

Mark looked up. "I would have loved our baby."

He took a deep breath, remembering Alfie's words to him. "I would have loved our baby because he would have been part of us. I would have loved our baby like I love you."

Addison blinked a few times, trying to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks. "Mark, I…"

"I know this probably isn't the best time, or the best place, but I don't care. Maybe a romantic candlelight dinner would have made for nicer scenery, but it wouldn't have made the feelings any different. I love you, Addison."

Mark watched as Addison's jaw fell open slightly. He couldn't gauge her reaction. He took another deep breath.

"I've never felt this way about anyone before, and it scares the hell out of me, but I love you. I would go out on dates with women, and I would be bored out of my mind because they were so mind numbingly stupid. Then, the next day, I'd hang out with you, and we'd laugh and we'd joke, and it got to the point where I never wanted you to go home. I never realized that was the beginning of falling in love with you, until now, until I thought I was going to lose you. When we didn't speak to each other for 6 weeks? I was miserable. I'd lost the only person, other than Derek, who ever meant anything to me. You're the only person who can call me on my bullshit and get away with it. You're the only person who makes me feel like I'm worth something, who can see through my arrogant asshole routine. You… Addie, you're the only person I can actually see myself spending the next 64 years of my life with… The rest of my life with."

Addison was silent, overwhelmed by the emotion in his voice and the lone tear running down his cheek. She took a deep breath and finally found the words to describe how she felt. "I didn't speak to you after that night because I was afraid I'd lost you as a friend. I was afraid I was just another conquest."

"You could never be a conquest." Mark interjected.

"But the ironic thing is, I didn't have you as a friend all that time, and I hated it. I felt like part of me was missing, like I was just half a person walking around."

Mark sucked in a hopeful breath while Addison tried to gather her thoughts.

"Skippy didn't know me. He didn't know me all. That's why I refused to marry him. But you? You know me better than anyone else in the world, and that's scary and wonderful at the same time. You don't expect me to be anything other than what I really am, and I appreciate that so much, because my family has these ridiculous expectations for me, but you don't. You love me for who I am, and that's a relief."

Addison paused, and Mark could feel his heart pounding hard against his ribcage. He anxiously wondered whether she was going to say she felt the same way about him, or whether his heart was about to be broken.

"You're pompous and stubborn and a bit of a chauvinist, but I love you anyway. I wouldn't have you any other way. I missed you, and I don't ever want to have to miss you again. I love you too, Mark."

"R-really?" Mark stammered.

Addison giggled a little. "Yes. Are you going to kiss me or not?"

"Yes… Yes, I am." Mark said. He jumped out of his chair, wrapped Addison into his arms (carefully avoiding the wires), and pressed his lips against hers. He felt a surge of energy go through him, and after six weeks, he was finally complete again.

"Come on in. The sheets are awesome." Addison said sarcastically after they finally broke apart.

Mark set the teddy bear on his chair (so that there would be room for him) and carefully crawled into the bed beside her. He wrapped his arms around her body and buried his

face in her hair. They lay like that for several minutes, silently enjoying each other, before the door to Addison's room opened.

"How's my favorite patient?" Richard asked.

Addison looked up at Mark. "Much better…"

Richard looked at his watch. "You know, visiting hours are ending soon…"

"Do you think you could, um… Maybe bend the visitor rules?" Addison asked hopefully, with a sweet smile. "You know, for your favorite patient…"

Neither of them knew it at the time, but it was the first of many times that her sweet smile would win Richard over and convince him to do something that he probably shouldn't.

"All right…" Richard said, with a shake of his head. "But no funny business."

"You think I'd be interested in any 'funny business' after everything that went on down there today?" Addison laughed.

Richard nodded. "Point taken." He checked her stats, scribbled a few notes on his clipboard and headed for the door. "Take care of her."

"I will." Mark assured him. He looked back down at Addison, who had already fallen asleep. "Forever."

All right, which one of you put a voodoo curse on me? Much like Addison, I ended up in the hospital tethered to various wires and pumped full of pain drugs. I apparently still haven't managed to convince the doctors that I should get to keep my gallbladder, because they're still trying to find something wrong with it. Oh, and my doctors were neither McDreamy nor McSteamy. More like McFat Bald Guys (but nice). Anyway, yeah, that's the last Maddison baby I'm ever going to kill!

So, here's where we stand. I have one chapter left. However, I have this idea constructed in my head of how their life could have been if they had been together back then. If you guys are interested, I will write a series of one-shots about how it would have been. What do you think? Just let me know. :)