Mark walked over with a second cup of coffee for Addison 'none of the half-fat, all foam, vegan alternative bullshit' as she called anything that was an espresso shot or black coffee even though she drank it all, she may act like a snob but at the end of the day if you place a cup of coffee in front of her whether it was a latte or even a mocha Addison would drink it.

"Go away."

"Come on now, is that any way to talk to the man who brought you coffee and took care of you last night," Mark mentioned feeling like she needed a reminder of what a complete gentleman he had been, he even got her a cab to go back to the stupid trailer.

"Coffee stays, you leave" Addison amended, her eyes were still glued onto the whiteboard, she only had two surgeries today which was a good thing it meant less sick an expectant mothers and foetuses, but she wanted more, she needed to do something more than just routine Caesarean surgery.

She should have fought harder for Kasey yesterday, argued the girl's case, made her parents see that forcing her to give birth to this child was the wrong thing to do especially for the mental well-being of their daughter, but that was yesterday's problem, today was a brand new day with new possibilities.

Today was the perfect day to implement her idea or at least start making some headway, today was a new day, clean slate and she hadn't messed up a kids life.

"How's the hand?" Mark continued placing the coffees down and taking her right hand into his turning it over and inspecting for any damage and such.

"It's fine, I won't be doing any surgeries if I thought otherwise."

"It's okay to be sad about the girl."

"Why are you here?" Addison asked side-stepping the comment and finally tearing her eyes away from the board to look at him, he looked the same, he looked like Mark, happy-go-lucky Mark who was always there for her and wanted to fix her and make everything better for her.

She appreciated that, but it was time for her to fix herself.

"I'm making sure you are okay," Mark confessed.

"I meant-" she meant why is he here in Seattle now why was he standing here giving her coffee.

"I know, it's the same answer, I came to make sure that you are okay."

"I'm fine."

"How can you be?" He asked his voice sounding incredulous, "He's still seeing her, Derek asked you to leave Boston, leave everything and everyone you know behind to move here, and he is still seeing her" Mark stated as if Addison needed a remainder.

"It's none of your business, it's our marriage even, and I don't-"

"Stop letting him get away with shit just because you feel bad for sleeping with me, he is the one in the wrong here."

"When have you ever known me to let anyone get away with anything?" She shot back snatching her hands away, people were watching, and they will be gossiping about this little interaction by lunchtime.

"We were friends before all this" Mark continued, "We have known each other nearly two decades, and I'm telling you that you are not fine Addison. This whole situation is draining you, you are walking around half-asleep, and people are worried about you, not just me, you even have the nurses on your side now, that's how bad it is. They are calling Grey the mistress and Derek the dick…. just thought you'd want to know."

Even though Addison was rolling her eyes at the statement, Mark still noticed the tiny twitch of her lips.

"Addison, you paged me?" Burke asked, striding up to the other two surgeons and cutting in as if it had always been a three-person conversation.

"Yes, you have the by-pass case this morning I want to scrub in."

"You want-"

"To scrub in, yes."

"No" Burke replied back turning and going back the same way he came.

Addison quickly grabbed the cup of coffee Mark had gotten her and started following him; unfortunately, Mark began to follow her as well, "Give me one reason why I can't."

"Other than the fact that I said so?" Burke questioned raising a single eyebrow, "First of all I don't need you there, and second of all you are the head of your department shouldn't you have other things to be doing."

"I don't, it's all done, all sorted. I trust my guys to deal with whatever issue comes up, and if they can't, they'll just page me."

"So I should just let you scrub in on my surgery even though you haven't done any cardiac surgery since residency just because you have nothing better to do?"

"No, you should let me scrub in because of that. Look it is a simple procedure, and unlike the interns or whoever you have scrubbing in I will at least know enough about the heart to be somewhat useful, an extra pair of hands or eyes won't exactly kill you." Addison could tell that he was on the fence she just needed to add one more thing, "Plus it's your operating room you could just have me stand there holding the scalpel the whole time."

"You seriously want to do this?"

"I seriously want to do this" Addison nodded standing firm in her request.

"Fine but if Webber asks..."

"My idea, my fault got it."

"If the lawyers okay it, I will see you at ten. Shepherd, Sloan" Burke nodded to each doctor before striding away.

"Keep talking about being fine when you've just volunteered yourself up to Burke as his new surgery slave." Mark scoffed before walking away, Addison didn't care that it was a strange request or that it would have even more people talking about her, it was a good idea, and she'd been thinking about it for nearly a month.

x.x.x.x

"How's Dr Shepherd?" O'Malley asked over breakfast Alex over breakfast for one reason or another the interns had decided that Tuesday should be the day they all tried to have breakfast together.

"Shouldn't you be asking the chick sleeping with him?" Alex questioned throwing his bowl in the sink and washing it with a lot more force than was needed. His statement brought an awkwardness to the morning because Alex had been the only person inside the hospital without a single response in regards to the whole Shepherd-Meredith affair he said he didn't care unless it affected him so this was the first statement he'd given in all these months to show any type of disapproval.

"No he- he means Montgomery-Shepherd, you are on her service for another week, right?" Izzie corrected.

Alex didn't know how to answer that or even if he should what with everyone staring at him, including Meredith, who try as she might to hide her interest was listening. "Like I said, asked Meredith. I'm sure she knows more about both Shepherds than anyone else seeing as how she's been kissing a married man anyway why do you care?"

"Nothing" George hurried to reassure as if it wasn't suspicious when he did that.

"What is it?" Alex asked again.

"It's nothing we were just wondering how she was that's all, we heard she punched some kid yesterday." Izzie brushed off, dropping her and O'Malleys plates in the sink and dragging him up with her so they could both go get dressed.

If she'd left George by himself, Alex would have him spilling everything within ten seconds.

"What" Alex snapped, feeling Grey's eyes boring into him.

"Nothing, I just- I didn't think you cared about -"

"The affair." Alex helpfully provided. "That's what it is an affair, he's married and is sleeping with you, so it's called an affair."

"We are not sleeping together," Meredith said lamely.

"Like that makes a difference, just because he's technically stopped having sex with you doesn't make this any less of an affair."

"It's not like that," Meredith denied because it really wasn't they had just been going for walks with Doc, last week's kiss was the first and last that the two of them had shared since Addison had arrived into town "He's my attending for the next two weeks just like she's-"

"Just a little heads up before you head in; everyone is talking about you and Derek kissing, one of the nurses overheard the Shepherds' fight yesterday so be prepared for a rough couple of days" Alex advised.

x.x.x.x

"You should be proud Shepherd" Preston reported out of know where being followed by Addison, "Your wife is one badass woman."

"Did you just say badass?"Addison questioned giggling, she was riding a high from surgery, she could practically feel the endorphins coursing through her system, "Never say that again."

"I was paying you a compliment."

"You can do that without saying badass, but that was AMAZING" Addison continued moving past Derek and Meredith to check the board she was cutting it close, but she still had time to grab a mid-morning snack and talk to the patients again before her surgery.

"You were good."

"No, you were" Addison replied back returning the compliment, "I get why you are the Cardio God, seriously you were fantastic in there, kinda feel bad for O'Malley though" Addison could admit that she was riding a high, she loved her job everything about it from delivering a child into this world to performing complex life-saving surgery on a foetus while they were still in the womb, but there was something about what she just witnessed, having a beating heart in her hand that had been an experience on its own.

"Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?" Derek interrupted, Burke was looking at Addison to say something, she looked over at him for a split second before turning back to Burke showing she wasn't going to deal with Derek.

"I need to go rescue my patients from Karev but feel free to scrub in on one of my surgeries" Addison offered to Burke before leaving.

She was ignoring him, she came home drunk last night and still refused to say a word about where she'd been or why she was she was punching people, by the time he woke up that morning Addison had already left the trailer. While being ignored gave him some peace and quiet from her nagging it also irritated him, they were meant to be in a relationship they were meant to talk and yes he knew he was a hypocrite for even thinking this especially as he had refused to talked to her all last week but still, he was trying or he was trying to try.

"Bye Shepherd" Burke called out watching as the woman walked away.

"What surgery?" Derek asked, frustrated, having been left out of the conversation.

"Addison asked to scrub in on my by-pass surgery, it went well; she caught and cauterised an arterial bleed."

"Why was she scrubbing in on your surgery?" Derek asked, feeling like he was missing a part of the story.

"I don't know" Preston admitted, he'd only said yes because it seemed like Addison was desperate for something to do. "Don't worry I checked with the hospital lawyers, there's actually nothing stopping us from scrubbing into another surgery as long as we aren't taking over" as always Preston dotted his 'i' and crossed his 't'.

"So she just came up to you and asked to scrub in on the surgery."

"Pretty much" Burke shrugged which reminded Derek of the fact that Addison had shrugged yesterday and she had also punched a kid, by all accounts the boy deserved it but still, Addison didn't result to physical violence, what the hell was going on with her. "Maybe you should ask your wife that instead of me," Burke replied, shaking his head and walking off. Derek's little threesome he had going on was about to blow up in his face.

x.x.x.x

Alex hadn't been lying that morning. Everyone at the hospital knew about the kiss, the nurses, the porters, the lunch lady, they were all talking about her and the Shepherds.

Meredith even had someone cough-shout 'mistress' as she walked by and worse of all Bailey was judging her, not openly but she could tell.

"Grey, where are you here instead of with your attending?" Miranda asked, getting impatient at the sight.

"I was wondering if it was possible to swap attendant I've-"

"No, your attendant is your attendant." Bailey cut her off, the work she had put in to make sure everything matched she wasn't about to let Grey mess it up because of a few chatty Cathy.

"Please, George's already-"

"I said no, Grey and I don't care what you and O'Malley have agreed to. I have created a system in which each and every single one of you gets the opportunity to work in each department with each department head as their sole intern. I have a system you will not mess up my system, you will not ask for favours, or play swapsies or make a mess of my system in any way, am I clear."

"Yes, Dr Bailey," Meredith answered dispassionately.

"Good now I believe you and Dr Shepherd have a brain bleed to deal with and I don't think either he nor the patient would appreciate being kept waiting for you.

Callie Torres was standing behind Miranda, barely keeping a straight face, as she watched the intern leave. "I'm glad she's not my intern" Callie noted once Meredith moved, "That is a lot of drama for a few months of good sex."

"Callie."

"What I'm just saying." Callie shrugged, "She made her bed, and now everyone is making her live in it."

x.x.x.

"Addison, a word?" Richard asked, pulling her into his office, "So I heard that you helped Preston with his heart surgery today." Richard began as an interlude.

"Yep, it was great."

"Can I ask why it's not often that I have a department head asking to scrub in on someone's else's surgery especially when it's not in their 'wheelhouse' should we say."

Addison swallowed feeling nervous "I just…."

"Is this about yesterday with Kasey Keller?" Richard hazard a guess once he realised that Addison was stuck for words.

"No, no it's not, I just wanted to see something different in surgery, I'm not planning on specialising in cardiology or anything. I had a thought that it might be good to see what the other surgeries are like…"

"You did?"

"It came from Miranda Bailey's idea actually, she has all her interns working with each of the department heads on a rotating schedule so they all have the chance to experience each field, that just made me think that it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to do something like that."

"But you are a department head."

"I haven't forgotten, I still want to be the department head, I just wanted to be in the surgery to see what cardio is like."

"Is this going to be a regular occurrence, or were you satisfied with the surgery today."

"Unless the hospital has a problem with it, I was thinking of asking the other departments to scrub in on the surgery…. This is a teaching hospital, after all."

"that is certainly an interesting idea that you've thought of, the lawyers have told me that there is nothing wrong or illegal with your request and as so long as you scrubbing in doesn't take you away from your patients or ward I don't see why not."

"Thank you Richard."

"I did tell you that I was here for you, now having said that if anyone denies your request to scrub in, I expect you to accept that and move on." Richard was mostly thinking about Derek when saying this but he could just as easily imagine the other department heads also refusing Addison and her unusual request.

"Of course."

"If you want I have a couple of surgeries next week, while they aren't particularly interesting they should satisfy your request." Richard proposed he wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with Addison but she was listless, she had moved to Seattle to save her marriage and it didn't seem to be going all that well.

"Much appreciated, if you don't mind I was just on my way out for the day."

"Of course, good luck in therapy."

x.x.x.x

"Sorry I'm late" Addison made her apologise going to sit on the other only chair that was left unoccupied.

"Where were you?" Derek asked as Addison removed her jacket placing it neatly across her knees just like she'd been taught to do, it looked very neat and tidy, very 'lady-like'

"Talking to Richard."

"About?"

"Surgeries."

"Why?" Derek asked, it was like pulling teeth with her, she was determined to ignore him because of a measly little kiss.

"Because

"Okay, so how has it been going with you two?" Dr Snedal asked, putting a stop to the stilted question and answer going on.

"He been seeing Grey and I caught them kissing each other" Addison helpfully informed Dr Snedal.

"It's not like that" Derek denied, "Meredith, and I are friends, you know we are. We were just walking Doc, and I've kissed her just that once I think that I am allowed that given everything that you've done, I am allowed one mistake."

"So the kiss was a mistake?" Dr Snedal asked.

"It wasn't just a kiss, they were making out. Derek was making out with her, he had her up against a tree, and he was making out with her."

"Say making out one more time, I'm not sure he gets the picture," Derek said snidely, "Anyways shouldn't you be all accepting of the fact that we all make mistakes and do things we regret."

"Oh please" Addison scoffed, "Don't expect me to think that this was a mistake you don't even think it was, to you what happened was justified, you couldn't help it, she's your lifeline it's okay because big bad Addison isn't like Meredith."

"I didn't say that, did you hear me say that?"

"Mistakes are something people generally try not to do again, you seeing her behind my back was a mistake; it was you cheating." Addison declared, why was she the one explaining this to him, you would think with all his issues about her and Mark that Derek would know exactly what cheating was.

"Then what do you call sleeping with Mark, being in a relationship with him. You repeated that mistake multiple times I imagine."

"We aren't talking about me and Mark we are talking about you and Meredith. I have stopped seeing Mark, when are you going to stop seeing her. Why ask me to move to Seattle to work on us when you have one foot out the door, no matter what I did with Mark that is in the past, you are still seeing her now, in the present. This is cheating you are a cheater."

"Of course you know what cheating looks like, after all, you are the expert at it."

"Fine Derek keep bringing up Mark in every conversation we have, see if that will make you feel any better. Addison threw her hands up, resigning herself to the fact. "You blame me for sleeping with Mark and ruining our marriage well I blame you for ruining this relationship, you seeing her has ruined the relationship, it destroyed any chance of us making this work."

"Don't be melodramatic it was one kiss."

"I wonder if you have the same energy about me and Mark drinking together last night" Addison causally threw out, watching Derek's face cloud over in anger and disgust. "No? You seem to have a problem with it, but I don't understand why it's just a drink." Addison mocked taking the same tone Derek had used when stating 'it was just one kiss'.

"This is not the same!" Derek roared he looked like he was seconds away from killing her which while disturbing was an actual improvement on the state of their whatever this was; at least this fury was an emotion instead of the passivity he general displayed when it came to them.

"Why not?" Addison hissed back, "Why the hell not. You get to see her and go behind my back kissing her -for all I know you've probably slept with her again, you may have been sleeping with her all this time- so why is me going drinking with Mark so much worse than you kissing Meredith…. I asked you for one thing I asked you to stop seeing her and you broke your promise"

Addison hated when her voice broke in public, she hated breaking down in public and she hated showing her emotions so openly especially to this man who looked like the man she married but wasn't, the old Derek wouldn't have let them get to this point neither would the old Addison, she wouldn't have ever slept with Mark or thrown the fact that Mark and her were drinking buddies in Derek's face, the old them wouldn't have done so many things so why were they doing this now; why were they doing this to each other.

"And you broke our vows, so I say we are about even now, except for the fact that I didn't actually sleep with Meredith on Saturday, but if I had done, I would have at least respected us enough not to do it on our marital bed." Derek returned.

After twenty minutes of bickering and shouting at each other, they both had nothing else to say, all their hate-filled grievance had been aired, and right now he refused to look at him and him at her, so the sat in silence until their therapist started laughing. "Are you- what's so funny?" Addison asked she shared a look with Derek, and he seemed to be just as surprised and annoyed by their therapist bursting out into this fit of laughter as she was.

"It's not funny, I shouldn't be laughing."

"And yet, here you are."

"Can I be candid with the two of you," Adam asked the couple putting down his notepad on the coffee table next to his chair.

"Sure, you are already laughing at us." Derek nodded, finally speaking up.

"The problem with your marriage it's the fact that both of you are doing little petty and somethings massive things to ruin it because it can't be the way it was before, so you just don't want it." Dr Snedal stated and kept on going seeing both Shepherd about to offer up their protest. "You, Derek seriously talking to Meredith, Really? The one thing your wife asked of you was to not talk to Meredith unless it was work-related, you asked her to move to Seattle, and she asked you for this, and here we are with you breaking your promises and sabotaging your relationship."

"Thank you I-"

"And as for you Addison what did you think would happen when you tell your husband that Mark the man you had a relationship went drinking with you last night, sure I believe nothing happened. I bet even Derek believes nothing happened, but you are just as culpable as he is in the state of your marriage. You had a bad day at work, then you should have gone home to talk to your husband about it" Dr Snedal chastised. "Even if you wanted to drink your sorrow away but did it really have to be with Mark, did you really have to go with him."

"Well the thing is-"

"Stop punishing each other and doing things to ruin your marriage and start repairing it, don't just come here saying you want to work it out and leave doing stupid shit like seeing the ex-girlfriend and drinking with your ex-lover. Now your task Addison is that for the next week whatever your problem, however big or small it is you go to Derek and talk about it, you run out of toothpaste that morning, tell Derek. You couldn't find your shoes, tell Derek. Your patient came in with three wombs four babies and a set of conjoined twins, Tell Derek. Don't go looking for comfort at the bottom of a bottle and don't expect him to come to you" Dr Snedal continued.

"I don't-"

"And Derek your tasks is the easiest one, listen to Addison, stop brushing her off or saying you will talk later, stay and talk and actually listen also STOP TALKING TO MEREDITH GREY. She's on your service for the next two weeks fine you have to deal with her but after that stop approaching her, if she needs a consult ask her to find another neurosurgeon, if she trips down the stairs and you walk around her. WORK ON YOUR MARRIAGE, stop worrying about whether Meredith Grey has friends or if she's eaten and start worrying about the state of your marriage I've been doing this for over twenty years and I can tell you unless the BOTH of you actually change your behaviour and patterns that you are just going to swap my office for a divorce lawyers. That will be all, our hour is up feel free to leave, oh and learn to compromise but if you can't do that make some rules for your marriage and stick to them." Dr Snedal said effectively dismissing them.

It was the most effective and politest 'fuck you' Addison had heard in a while.