He sat beside his former best friend, obviously chasing his sorrows away by overdosing his body with scotch.

"She's not yours anymore," Mark said, after ordering his usual.

"Unless you want another set of stitches, Mark—"

"And she's not mine either. Hell, she was never anyone's, anyway. She's too… strong-willed for that whole possession thing." Mark took a sip of his scotch. "Was that why you liked her?"

He didn't get an answer.

"Apparently, we're fighting over your intern. Didn't see that coming. I probably would be sporting much more stitches had we been fighting over Grey, huh?"

Silence.

"Grey's all yours, Shep. Addison's now free for me to—"

"Fucking finish that sentence, I dare you." His childhood best friend's bleary eyes stared at him with so much hatred. In all the years they spent growing up together, he never imagined they would be this distant towards each other, all because of a girl.

Well, not just any other girl, it's Addison.

And when she thought she caught Derek's attention, she did not know that she caught Mark's too. It was the first time Derek got the girl instead of him. A girl worth marrying, and he desperately wanted to turn back the clock and lose all the girls he dated if it meant ending up with Addison Montgomery.

Yet he can't turn back the clock. So he watched from the sidelines. Tagged along with them because being just near her was enough for him.

And his feelings paled through the years and Mark was glad he was finally moving on, especially when he took up residency from a different hospital.

Then he noticed Derek slipping away without any reason, and it's as if he didn't even start moving on. Mark wanted to wipe away the sadness that permanently clouded Addison's eyes.

In his hazy mind, it was his time to sweep Addison off her feet, to prove her that she chose wrong, that before she went with Derek, she had another choice—Mark.

Well, and Sam. But he wasn't really a formidable contender.

"Heard someone asking her to go on a date. Though, I didn't stay long enough in the lobby to find out her answer."

He watched as Derek slammed the glass on the table upon hearing the news. The man paid for his drinks and got off the stool, muttering how he was going home.

Mark knew he should at least warn Derek against driving drunk, but he, too, had his spirits down as he played in his head how someone from Trauma asked Addison out.

He sat there for a while, nursing his now empty drink. He ordered another, staring at nowhere as he rehashed everything that happened today.

Even with all the fighting and stitches, neither still got Addison back.

Bailey's famous group of interns was just a few chairs away from him, and they were loud enough for Mark to catch what they were talking about.

Either they haven't noticed him, or they're already drunk enough to not care.

He noticed that Yang, Karev, and O'Malley walked away, heading to the billiards table. Stevens was nowhere in sight, leaving Grey alone picking apart the nuts.

He moved to sit beside her.

"You just missed him. Left half an hour ago," He started looking intently as she turned to him.

"I know. He sent me a voicemail," She said shortly, downing one of the shots in front of her.

Derek seemed so serious about getting Addison back. Mark grimaced as he realized he should have not believed the guy, given how fast he turned to Meredith the moment he found out Addison could probably be going out on a date with another guy.

Petty.

"The voicemail wasn't actually for me. It was for Addison. He was probably too drunk to notice he called me instead of her."

Oh.

"Is he really that…"

"—much of an asshole? Yes," Mark said in a beat, making the girl laugh. That sound fluttered his heart a bit.

He was slowly seeing the similarities between Addison and Meredith, somehow forfeiting Addison's claim of the intern being the Anti-Addison. While they do have differences as they are two completely different people, they have glaring similarities that can only be seen if a person was close to either of them.

"I was gonna say 'indecisive' but I guess that works too."

"When it comes to Addison, yeah." Another glass. "So I suggest you back away and save yourself from Derek while you still can."

"You're saying I should let him go?" He looked at the woman straight in the eyes, immediately seeing the disbelief.

He should be pushing her to keep fighting for Derek. But, with the brief conversation he had so far with Meredith, he understood Addison's amicable treatment to the girl. As much as Meredith fighting for Derek would greatly help him, there are other ways to win Addison without trapping a young intern in their web of messes.

"You'll never understand them unless you've spent years with them. Even then, you wouldn't get half of what they're thinking," He said simply, emptying the newly handed glass of scotch.

"Derek will always want Addison. And now that he knows he can't, because they're already divorced, and now that he knows anyone can, he would pine after her. You don't want to find yourself in the middle of that."

"But she wouldn't take him back." Mark wanted to chase away the hope he sensed from Meredith, because as much as he doesn't care about strangers, he seems to have this need of protecting the woman from being a collateral damage of Addison-and-Derek.

Like him.

"She would. As much as Addison claims she doesn't have any weaknesses, she actually does have one. And it's him." That left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"And you?" That surprised Mark, making him turn once again to look at Meredith. Those blue eyes stared intensely at him, making him want to run away and stay at the same time.

"Who cares? I'll be fine. Like usual. It'll pass."