Previously on Tear Your Love Apart: Addison and Poppy had a verbal bitch fight, and Addiison decided that she is never sleeping with Derek again... again.
XXXXXXXXXX
Derek Shepherd was in need of a good nights rest.
He hadn't slept in Vegas, at least not real sleep, restful sleep. Just alcohol induced sleep, which wasn't restful at all. The flight back to Seattle was bumpy at best, so no sleep there, and within 10 minutes of landing he was paged to the hospital.
Derek Shepherd was a man that needed his sleep
As things stood, he was annoyed with anyone who crossed his path.
Right now that was Mark. Derek and Mark had perfected staying out of each others way in the last few months. When they ran into each other in the halls, which happened frequently since Mark decided to spend a month on a "working-vacation" in Seattle, they pretended to be strangers.
"Morning," Addison greeted absently, vague as to who she was talking to, just helping herself to the nurses coffee.
"Morning Addy," Derek greeted her, his first attempt of civility that day.
"Addison," Mark grinned at her in welcome, "How was the trip?"'
"You don't know?" Derek asked smugly, "You two are so close I thought she would have told you everything by now."
"We didn't really take much time to talk," Mark shot back.
Addison rolled her eyes. Mark was deliberately letting Derek get the wrong idea. But Derek was surly, and Addison hated surly Derek.
"Our speech was canceled at the last minute, " Addison informed in, then smiled slyly, "But Poppy was there."
Mark grinned and turned to Derek, "Good old Poppy Cunningham. How is she these days. Still lovesick?"
Derek ignored him, Addison watched with amusement.
"She must have been having a field day," Mark continued, "Did she try to get you drunk? Into bed? Into one of those Wedding Chapels?"
Derek turned, and walked away.
"That was mean," Addison informed Mark.
"That was fun."
"Your such an ass sometimes," she teased.
"It part of my charm," He grinned, "Come on I want to show you something."
XXXX
Derek stared out over the glassed in portion of the cafeteria. He was watching Meredith eat lunch with Alex. He fleetingly considered going down and joining her, but things had been slightly awkward between them, and he didn't want to make things worse by accidentally snapping at her.
He reconsidered when he saw Alex getting up to leave. He had been through allot with Meredith, it was just an off day, there was no reason to hide that from her.
But she was getting up, finished with her meal. He expected her to dump everything in the garbage and leave, but instead she left everything on the table and move across the room to talk to someone. A fake tree was blocking his view of who.
He watched her face. When she walked over she looked mildly please, maybe somewhat interested. But within the minute her face had broken into a grin, and she had covered her mouth with her hands to cover her excitement.
Derek frowned.
Meredith glanced around her, then put her hands on the other persons arms, grinning and talking excitedly. With one last, well Derek assumed it was a squeal, Meredith left and went back to her lunch.
Derek watched as Mark appeared from behind the tree and crossed the caf, smiling slyly at Meredith as he passed in front of her.
Derek glared.
XXXX
"Addison."
It was late afternoon when Derek ran into Addison in the hall way.
"We need to talk."
"No," she insisted, "We don't"
"God Addy," Derek exclaimed, "Why do you do this?"
"Do what?" she asked impatiently.
"Dr. Shepherd," both Addison and Derek turned to see Meredith standing at the door. "Dr. Shepherd," she repeated, addressing Addison, "Dr. Sloan wants to talk to you if you have a chance."
"I'm speaking with her right now, if you could excuse us for a moment," Derek cut in.
Addison pointedly ignored Derek and glanced at Meredith, the two women always looked rather off put when they had to converse with each other. "Does he?" Her eyes drifted over Meredith's shoulder to Mark.
Mark grinned at her and held up a huge bouquet of purple flowers, everything from purple daisies to exotic lilies.
Addison smiled, "Tell him it's perfect, and I love it."
Meredith nodded and returned to Mark.
"That was so rude Derek." Addison spat.
"What?"
"What you said to her. It was rude and selfish and immature."
Derek ignored her, "I needed to talk to you," he insisted, "We need to talk about this."
"No we don't Derek. There is nothing to talk about."
"I don't get you Addy?" Out of the corner of his eye Derek watched Mark hand Meredith a small gift bag.
"You never got me Derek."
"Why are you so willing to forget how happy we are together? In Vegas we were happy. It was us, the good us. And now you want to forget that it ever happened." Meredith peeked inside the bag and smiled delightedly at Mark.
"I am not forgetting, but we are so rarely happy like that that it hardly seems worth it to..."
Derek suddenly reached out and pushed Addison gently to the side. He crossed the hall quickly, pulled back his arm, and punched Mark squarely on the jaw.
Mark stumbled back, hit the wall, and sank slowly to the floor, clutching his face.
"Son of a Bitch," Derek raged, "What the hell are you thinking? Giving gifts to Meredith when Addison is standing 10 feet away."
"What?" Mark asked through his quickly swelling lower lip.
"Derek!" Addison exclaimed.
"How can you say that you care about her? If you are with her you are with her. You don't bring gifts to the interns and..."
"Derek!" Addison interrupted.
"I will not let you treat her like that..."
"Derek!" Addison exclaimed again, unable to get a word in, "I'm not with Mark."
"And Meredith" Derek continued, "You just want everything I have. What? Get tired of waiting around for Addison? She's to good for you anyway. And if you were interested in Meredith, you should have been a man about it. But no your sneaking around, bring her gifts, making her jealous by getting Addison flowers, and..."
"Oh. My. GOD. Derek you are such an egotistical self-centered jackass." Addison exclaimed, loud enough that everyone stared, "He is with IZZIE. God. Not EVERYTHING is about YOU."
Derek and Addison glared at each other until Addison looked pointedly at Mark, still down on the ground.
Izzie had appeared, seemingly from nowhere and was kneeling on the ground beside him, gently examining his face.
"He was surprising her with tickets to a concert she wanted to go to," Meredith informed him, arms crossed, "You ruined it."
Addison turned away, "You should get some ice on his hand," she suggested to Meredith, ignoring Derek completely.
XXXX
"This is the best patch job I have gotten yet, Isobel," Mark remarked elongating the syllables of her name. He watched Izzie's face as she dabbed disinfectant on his lip.
Izzies lips twitched, "At least you don't need stitches this time."
"True," he moved his head slightly out of the way, Izzie immediately moved it back, "Derek is loosing his touch. The first time I was out cold for thirty seconds."
"So this happens often?" Izzie teased, leaning against the low counter of the nurses station, "Should I be getting you self-defense classes for Christmas?"
Mark grinned then winced, rolling his chair over to sit directly in front of her, "Only if I keep being right."
"He hits you cause you are right;" Izzie was not buying this.
"He hates to be wrong."
"So what where you right about the first time?"
Mark locked eyes with her and rested his hands on the outside of her thighs right above her knees, "I told him if he didn't smarten up, Addison was going to leave him."
"No!"
Izzie and Mark looked up to see Bailey standing there, hands on her hips.
"No. NO, no, no." She shook her head, and turned abruptly away, "Foolish. All of them. My interns, my interns need to stop sleeping with the higher ups, is what my interns need to do. In my day we worked hard, we didn't..." her voice trailed of down the hall.
"Does anyone care that neither of us even work at this hospital?"
Izzie sighed, "No."
XXXX
When someone said count your blessings now
For they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong
They knew better
Still you said forever
And ever
Who knew
If someone said three years from now
You'd be long gone
I'd stand up and punch them out
Cause they're all wrong and
That last kiss
I'll cherish
Until we meet again
And time makes
It harder
I wish I could remember
But I keep
Your memory
You visit me in my sleep
My darling
Who knew
XXXX
"What did he do?"
"Hrmmm?" Mark and Izzie had been watching a movie at Izzie's place and Mark had been about to doze off.
"When you said that Addison would leave him. What did he do?"
"Isobel that was 3 years ago and I was unconscious."
Izzie just tilted her head to the side.
Mark sighed, "He threw himself into his work, more then he already had, and bought her a brownstone."
"I'm guessing she didn't want a house," Izzie stated softly.
"No she didn't."
Izzie reached across the middle of the couch where their feet where resting and took his hand, "You tried to help them though. You were a good friend," she paused, "With the exception of the affair."
Mark brushed his thumb over her fingers, "Or maybe it's all my fault."
XXXXXXXXXX
So basically, what you are seeing there is Mark thinking that he is responsible for Derek and Addison failing at the whole marital thing. Which is sad. I feel bad that he thinks that.
Now about the thing.
You know what thing I am talking about.
The Mark and Izzie thing.
So here is the deal. Mark and Izzie were always going to be together. I decided that right around the time that I decided that I would right this. I never really considered putting Mark with anyone else. Here is why. Mark and Izzie make sense. To me. Izzie is kinda like Addison, she is smart, she is beautiful, and right now she kinda needs to be taken care of (kinda like Addison did, but with the added bonus that Izzie is not married). Now Mark is kinda like Alex in a way. He is smart and ambitius, cocky arrogent. But he is also kind and good and has basically just matured more then Alex and has the softnss that Alex is missing (and that Denny had.) God I am good sometimes.
So Izzie and Mark are together.
And for all those who wanted Mark with Meredith, there are tons of stories about Mark and Meredith. But this story is about Derek and Addison, and in this story Mark happens to be with Izzie and they are rather pleased with that arrangement.
And really. Would Addison have really tried that hard to get Mark with Meredith. I doubt it.
Next time on Tear Your Love Apart: Derek and Meredith go to the beach.
So here is the thing about the next few chapters. I am going to be more or less without my computer for like... 2 weeks. But I want to have this fic like more or less done by the time the new season starts. SO, I have been writing like a mad woman on crack and I have the next 2 chapters done. I think what I will do is try to write another by Monday night, upload them all to and then when ever I get a chance during those 2 weeks I will post one.
Sound good?
Review.