He had been in Seattle for three hours. It had been nearly two since he had seen his wife. Not knowing the hospitals lay-out had been as much of a problem as any. He had no clue where she would hide or who she would go to. So he found himself walking aimlessly until he stumbled upon the OR board. His eyes quickly picked up her name. Meredith Grey. It hurt to find she was using her maiden name again. He knew it was his fault. But still, she had been Sloan for the last two years. Pushing the thoughts into the back of his head, he headed to the elevator in hopes to figure our where the OR was.

--

She had been in surgery for an hour and a half trying to reduce a bleed in her patient's brain so he would be stable enough for spinal surgery the next day. She had successfully let the thoughts of Mark out of her head long enough to concentrate on the surgery. She knew that at least her stepfather didn't know about his arrival or he wouldn't have allowed her to scrub in. But when she looked up into the gallery, she saw her mother watching her movements carefully.

"Can I get some suction over here?" She asked turning her eyes back to her patient's brain. "What do we need to do now, Dr. Turner?"

"Move into the temporal lobe." He answered standing on his tip toes to get a better look.

"Good." Meredith nodded. She couldn't help but let her eyes wonder up to the gallery. This time she saw Mark leaning against the back wall. Their eyes locked for a second before she tore them away and continued with the surgery.

--

She worked through the surgery flawlessly. He didn't take his eyes off of her for a second. Even though he had seen her perform and preformed surgeries with her, he always was mesmerized by how precisely her hands worked through the human brain. She tried her best not to look up at the gallery which he could tell was hard for her. It hurt him deeply to see her so hurt. Ever since they met, he devoted himself to keeping a smile on her face. And he always succeeded until now. Their relationship had never been anything but blissful. It killed him to see it otherwise.

"Ugh, interns." Mark complained to another plastic surgeon.

"I know what you mean. Babysitting whiney interns who don't know the difference between an anus and a rectum is not how I want to spend my years as an attending." The other doctor replied rolling his eyes.

"You'd think that, that stage of being a doctor would end after our residencies."

"Did you guys hear?" Another doctor asked hurrying up.

"Hear what?" Mark asked not looking up from his phone.

"Ellis Grey is here."

"Here? As in… here?" The doctor standing beside Mark asked.

"Yeah. Her daughter is an intern here."

"Oh great, an intern who thinks she knows everything and can get anything because of her mommy." Mark complained.

"She's seriously hot."

"So are a lot of chicks. Trust me; it's not worth the hassle of a selfish, stuck-up, know-it-all intern, who probably wouldn't go for the one-night stand thing." Mark said.

"That's her."

He lifted his head from the phone as a big group of doctors came around the corner. In the back was a petite doctor with her dirty blonde hair pulled back into a pony tail. She wore the usual light blue scrubs and crisp white lab coat. Her eyes scanned the hospital and locked with his. Though his pride kept him from admitting it because it sounded too girly, she took his breath away.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed people filing out of the room. Glancing down in the OR, he noticed she was gone and the patient was being prepared for transport.

--

She knew that Richard would soon be showing up to badger her about her emotional state then send her home where she would sit alone without any choice but to remember the pain. She quickly finished scrubbing out and dried her hands with a handful of paper towels. Just as she moved to leave, the door opened. She knew who it was before she saw him.

"Meredith…" He started.

"I can't deal with this now." She said trying to sound as stern as she could. She tried to push past him, but he grabbed her arm causing her to turn to face him. "Mark…" When he saw the tears coming, his grip softened, and she slipped her arm out through his hands. Quickly, she turned and hurried away but not before he notice the rings still perched on her finger. She was still wearing the rings. That had to count for something, right?

--

Just as to be suspected Richard had her go home. He offered to come with her, but she told him she wanted to be alone. It wasn't entirely true, but it would have to do. She snuck out of the hospital without running into Mark again.

Once again, he was left to wonder around the hospital with no destination except wherever Meredith was. As he made his way up a set of stairs that led from the nurses' station area to the overpass, he noticed an office with "Richard Webber MD, chief of surgery' on the door. He hadn't seen either of his in-laws since he showed up in Seattle. He wasn't sure if he wanted to. They probably had a few things to say about him that he wasn't sure he could handle. With the look of hurt in Meredith's eyes still haunting his thoughts, he wasn't sure he could take yelling and disapproving, hateful words. But knowing that now Meredith was close to her parents, he figured they might know where she had gone to, so slowly he gained courage to knock. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on his father in-law's door.

"Come in." Richard's voice boomed from the other side of the door.

When Richard saw who it was, he quickly stood and anger rushed through his veins. "You've got some nerve showing up here, Sloan." He growled. Mark's head fell to look at the ground.

"Richard." Ellis hissed as she got to her feet too. She was fond of her son in-law as she always had been. And she knew Mark would never hurt Meredith. She knew there had to be something going on they didn't know about. "I'm glad you finally showed up."

"I know right now you think I hurt Mer, but I would never hurt her. I need to see her. Do you know where she is?"

"Why would we tell you?" Richard asked. Ellis glared at her husband.

"Mark, will you wait outside for a second?" Mark nodded and walked into the hall. "Richard, this is uncalled for."

"He cheated on Meredith."

"Call me crazy, but I don't think he did."

"Do you see how hurt Meredith is right now?"

"Of course I do. She's my daughter. But Mark worships the ground she walks on. He wouldn't do this." Richard sighed knowing that his wife was right. "They need to work this out. She loves him and obviously he loves her."

"She's not going to like it if we tell him where she lives."

"They need to talk. And did you even look at him, he's completely miserable." Ellis walked to the door and allowed Mark to come back in. "She's at home. This is her address." She wrote the address on the piece of paper. "Don't hurt her, Mark. And… give her time to cool off."

He nodded. "Thank you." He looked at Richard only to receive a stern look. Ellis gave him a quick hug as Mark kissed her cheek. "I'm not going to let her go."

"You better not." She whispered.