A/N: Okay, I think this is the second to last chapter before Meredith's next surgery. In earlier chapters, we got the basics of what happened during her breakup with Derek. In this chapter, I wanted to have a little fun with Addison and Mark, but at the same time show you Meredith's memories of the most difficult part of the breakup. I think it should give you all a good idea of what she was thinking both right after the breakup, and at the point when she sees Derek and Rose with the house plans.

"Addison, really, do you have to take pictures of everything? Meredith's in a coma…I'm not sure it's a memory she's going to look back on with fondness," Mark teased as Addison pulled out her digital camera a few days later.

"Mark, does it look like Meredith is in this hallway? I'm just taking pictures," Addison laughed as she snapped one of Mark leaning on the nurses' station.

"Okay, pictures of me are understandable. But yesterday you were taking pictures of the nurses and orderlies. It's a little creepy...even Molly agrees, and as a mother, she's genetically programmed to want pictures of everything. It's not normal to take this many pictures," Mark added.

"Oh, but it's also oh-so-cute," a male voice interjected from being Addison. "She takes pictures when she's nervous. You should have seen her before our first date…I thought it was high school prom all over again."

Whipping around, Addison smiled when her gaze settled on the LAPD officer a few feet behind her. "Kevin," she smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Would you believe I was just in the neighborhood?" Kevin asked as he pulled Addison into a hug and planted a kiss on her cheek. Addison shook her head and laughed.

"Not a chance, but I'm glad to see you anyway," Addison replied before turning to Mark. "Mark, this is my boyfriend, Kevin Nelson. Kevin, this is Mark Sloan, an old friend from Seattle. He's the plastic surgeon I told you about, the one on Meredith's case."

Kevin smiled. "Of course, it's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Sloan. Addison's told me a lot about you," he added, extending a hand to Mark.

"Only good things, I hope. She's told me a lot about you as well," Mark smiled and shook Kevin's hand. "How'd you get past the security guards?"

"You'd be surprised what you can get past when you wear this uniform," Kevin said. Addison gave him a look, and he quickly added. "Not that I needed to or anything…I'm actually here on some official business," he held up a stack of medical files as proof.

"The plane crash?" Addison asked, suddenly concerned.

Kevin nodded. "How's your friend doing? Has she been awake at all?"

"Meredith's a fighter," Mark informed him. "It's been rough, but I think she'll pull through. We're keeping her sedated for now because of the pain. You working the case?"

"Yeah. Well, me and about twenty others…it's become sort of high priority," Kevin said, looking none too pleased about that fact.

"How so?" Mark asked curiously.

"You know who Ryan Sullivan is?" Kevin asked.

"He's the guy who owned the plane. Died in the crash," Addison stated.

"Any guesses as to how a thirty year old has the money for a private plane and a full-time on call pilot?" Kevin asked.

"Daddy's money," Addison replied quietly.

"More like Mommy's money, but essentially, yes," Kevin answered.

"Wait just a minute…Sullivan? As in Veronica Sullivan?" Mark asked, the pieces finally fitting together in his mind. "Veronica Sullivan, who owns half of freaking Los Angeles?"

Addison gave Mark a look, questioning how he knew the woman. He shrugged his shoulders. "What? I did her nose a few years ago. Nice lady, but not really my type."

"Female. That' s your type, Mark. Female with money? You so slept with her," Addison teased. Mark just threw up his hands in protest.

Smiling awkwardly as he observed this exchange, Kevin steered the conversation back on course. "Ryan was her only child, so she's been laying heavily on the department to give her some sort of reason for the crash. I was just going over the pathology reports with the M.E.; we were sort of hoping something would come up that would help give us a reason, but no such luck," Kevin informed them.

"A reason? You mean, like human error? You hoping the pilot was drunk or something?" Mark asked.

"We have to look at everything. Unfortunately, Ryan and your friend in there were the only ones with elevated BACs, and tox screens came back clean on everyone. At this point, we're really hoping that Meredith will remember something when she wakes up. She didn't remember much when my partner tried to talk to her last week."

"Well, her vitals have been improving, so we're hoping to be able to bring her out of the coma at some point after her next surgery, which is tomorrow morning," Mark said. "It may be a few days, though, depending on how she reacts tomorrow."

"You'll let me know?" Kevin asked Addison, who nodded and smiled. "Alright, then, I'd better go before my partner gets stir-crazy waiting in the car. I'll call you later, Addie."

Mark and Addison couldn't help but smile when they finally entered Meredith's room and found Molly and Lexie sitting on either side of the bed, heads resting on the railing, both soundly asleep.

"Okay, that you need a picture of, Addison," Mark laughed, watching as Addison pulled out the camera and snapped a shot. The flash was just enough to pull Lexie out of her sleep.

"Hey! No fair, taking pictures without warning!" she protested, waking Molly. "What time is it?"

"Around eleven. Time for you two to head back to the hotel, get some lunch and maybe take a nap. Something tells me if can fall asleep in that position, neither of you are getting enough sleep," Addison observed.

"I'm an intern. I'm not supposed to sleep," Lexie defended herself.

"I've got a six month old. I'm not expecting to sleep for another seventeen years," Molly added, earning a laugh from everyone present.

"Still, you both should go relax for a while. I think Cristina said she'd be by this afternoon…Dr. Hartley got her into the gallery for a transplant she was doing this morning, so she'll be here later to sit with Meredith. Mark and I will stay until she gets here," Addison offered.

Lexie and Molly reluctantly agreed, and soon Mark and Addison were sitting in the chairs on either side of Meredith.

"So, I talked to Miranda again this morning," Addison said, trying to make conversation. "They seem pretty overworked up there in Seattle."

"Yeah, they are. I talked to Richard last night and he said Lexie and Yang may have to go back as soon as Meredith is awake and making her own decisions again. They're not going to be happy about that, but I guess being down four surgeons slows a hospital down a bit."

"I'd say so. I'm sure it hasn't slowed down the gossip mill any, though," Addison smiled wryly.

"Oh, I don't think there's anything that could slow that down. Stevens said they're having a field day with Derek right now," Mark laughed.

"What for? I mean, besides the whole ex-girlfriend in the hospital thing or the intern breaking his nose thing?" Addison asked.

"Apparently they're running a pool on when he'll dump Rose," Mark smiled. "It seems he's had some very emotional reactions to news about Meredith over the past few days, and now they're all convinced that he wants to win her back."

"But he hasn't dumped the nurse yet?" Addison questioned.

"Not yet, but everyone seems to think it's only a matter of time. Can't say I'll be sorry to see her go, she really isn't much fun," Mark answered.

"Hmm," Addison muttered, somewhat perplexed by Derek's conflicting actions. "I'm surprised the nurses are okay with this betting pool. Shouldn't they be more loyal to Rose?"

"Well, I've always gotten the feeling that Rose was that girl in school – the one that you didn't really hate, but you also didn't really want to be friends with either. The one who sort of just blends in until one day she does something really spectacular or really stupid – or both – just to get noticed. So she's not the most popular nurse. Plus, apparently the nurses took up a collection for those flowers," Mark waved his hand at the windowsill, where the collection of flowers for Meredith had grown steadily, "and Rose was the only one who wouldn't contribute. A lot of the nurses, even Debbie, really like Meredith, so they weren't too please. You know Debbie runs a pretty tight ship with her nurses, and when she decided she'd side with Meredith over Rose, that pretty much sealed it."

As Mark and Addison continued their analysis of Derek and Rose's future, Meredith's mind flashed back to an evening a few weeks earlier.

"Come on, Meredith, you haven't been out with us in weeks! What else are you going to do, go home? Come to Joe's with us, we'll have fun!" Izzie pleaded with Meredith as they finished their charts in the lounge.

"Iz, I'm not in the mood to drink tonight. I'm tired and I need to sleep. I'm just going to go drop these charts at the nurses' station and head home for the night. You guys have fun, though. Maybe next time," Meredith replied, although Izzie suspected that every next time would get the same response. Izzie sighed and walked off to the locker room alone.

Meredith knew her friends were concerned, but she was determined that this time, she wasn't going to fall into the same patterns she always did. She was working hard and that was her focus right now. She may not have been as ready as Derek wanted, but she had matured, and she wanted him to see that. She needed him to see that she wasn't the same insecure person that she'd been after he had chosen Addison. There would be no drinking binges, no string of one-night stands. Things were going to be different this time. Part of her wanted to prove to him that she was stronger than he gave her credit for; another part just didn't want to give him anything else to hold against her if they ever got back together.

As Meredith walked in the direction of the nurses' station, her heart skipped ever so slightly when she saw Derek Shepherd leaning on his elbows, talking softly to Rose as they poured over what Meredith assumed from afar was a patient's chart. They seemed to be deep in conversation, not even looking up as Meredith approached the other side of the station.

It was only when she reached the counter that Meredith saw what they were actually looking at, and she felt her heart breaking all over again. Looking over the edge of the counter, she could see that those weren't charts. No, Derek and Rose were pouring over blueprints. House plans.

Their house. Derek had told Meredith that he wanted to build that house with her. Yes, she had freaked out when he showed her the plans. After all, they'd only just begun to rebuild a steady, exclusive relationship. That didn't mean that she didn't want the house, though. She did. She wanted it all – the house, the marriage, the happily ever after. She wanted it with Derek. And now he was giving it to Rose.

Meredith couldn't help the tears she felt welling up in her eyes. A few weeks ago, those had been plans for her future. Now, Derek was handing that future to Rose. Was it really possible to fall out of love that quickly? To fall in love with someone else that quickly?

In that moment, Meredith took a sharp breath as she felt a rush of realization come over her. She'd been wrong…horribly, terribly wrong. Seriously, devastatingly mistaken. In that one simple act, Meredith saw clearly that Derek Shepherd had lied. There was no way that she had been the love of his life. She must not have been 'it' for him after all. She'd believed him when he had told her those things. Maybe he'd believed them too. The fact that he could move on like this, though, proved to her that even if he had loved her, he wasn't truly in love with her. She wasn't his 'one'.

As Meredith quickly deposited her charts and fled from the station, she knew that wasn't even the most painful part. No, the part that hurt the most was that, even if she hadn't been 'it' for him, she was still fairly certain that he was 'it' for her. He could move on; he could find happiness with Rose. Meredith knew that she could find other guys. She would find men to fill that space in her heart one night at a time. At that particular moment, though, she couldn't bring herself to believe that she'd ever love like that again.

For the first time in their relationship, she truly felt that it was over. She'd said it before, many times, but she'd never actually felt it before that moment. This was it, though. They were really and truly over. For the first time, Meredith felt her heart break, really break, as she realized that the Derek she'd fallen in love with that night in the bar was never coming back to her. Even if Derek Shepherd himself walked up to her the next day, asking her to take him back, her McDreamy was gone and couldn't come back.

As she burst into the locker room, Meredith felt her self-control slip as the tears began streaming down her face. She looked around desperately for Izzie, but found herself alone in the room. Slumping to the ground in front of her locker, she buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

"Meredith! You came!" Izzie waved a beer bottle in the air and shouted when Meredith finally walked into Joe's an hour later. Meredith walked over, but found herself unable to match Izzie's enthusiasm or return her smile as she silently slipped onto the barstool between Alex and George.

Joe quickly walked over, a bottle of tequila in one hand and a shot glass in the other. "It's good to see you, Meredith. You haven't been around for a while," he observed, smiling as he poured her a shot.

"Been busy being stupid," she said sullenly. "You may as well just leave the bottle tonight, Joe."

Joe shot a questioning glance at her friends, which irked Meredith, who resented the fact that her friends seemed to feel as though they needed to babysit her.

"Might as well, Joe. She's got a couple bad weeks to catch up on," Alex said. "We'll take care of her." Joe shrugged, leaving the bottle as he hurried off to take care of some other customers.

Meredith was extremely grateful that no one asked her any questions until she was at least four shots in. If she was going to have to relieve her pain and humiliation, she was glad that she could at least be partially numb when it happened. Eventually, the questions did come. Meredith knew she was answering them, but found herself so detached from the situation, she couldn't even remember what exactly she had said.

"You really think he's going to stay with nurse that long, Addie?" Mark asked, incredulous at Addison's suggestion that Derek would stay with Rose for several more weeks.

"You know him as well as I do, Mark. Look at how he treated me. He has this delusion that if he waits long enough, his feelings will pass. I think he's bought into that again. He's torn, sure, because of Meredith's accident, but it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't think she's going to have changed."

Mark was about to respond, but a sudden alarm from Meredith's monitors interrupted him. In an instant, both Mark and Addison were at the machines, trying to find the problem. A nurse rushed into the room and pushed them out of the way.

"Heart rate's rising, BP is through the roof," she called out as Dr. Hartley hurried into the room.

"Something's upsetting her," Dr. Hartley explained. "Chances are, she's just experiencing a memory flash, but we need to calm her down before her BP gets any higher."

"Meredith?" Mark started calling to her. "Meredith, it's alright. Everything is going to be just fine, Meredith. Meredith, you just need to calm down, okay?"

Slowly, Meredith's heart rate returned to normal and her blood pressure began to stabilize. Everyone in the room let out a breath they hadn't realized they'd all been holding.

"What do you suppose she was remembering?" Addison asked.

"Well, that's not hard to say…my guess is it had something to do a certain ex-husband of yours, Addie," Mark sighed, still holding tightly to Meredith's hand. "He really did a number on her this time."