A/N: Another chapter, again... lolz xD I hope you like the story up to now... because well, we do... ;) But I must kinda admit, this is rather like the introduction to the main story... and the introduction will be going on for a few more chapters (though I can't say how many since we haven't written the rest yet). So please, keep reading and reviewing the story... you should all like/love what'll come later ;) I think I'm gonna save you from all the usual rambling about how great the last episode was and everything else I could say... so I'm just gonna shut up, let you read the chapter, and go back to the episode of Private Practice I'm just watching... ;) And btw... thank you all for your beautiful and wonderful reviews :)

Disclaimer: Sadly, we do not own Grey's Anatomy. Otherwise Patrick Dempsey wouldn't be holding a pillow in the next episode. But again, Shonda owns it... and we can't erase this stupid pillow from the script... stupid stupid pillow...

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"McSexy wants an x-ray of his face." Meredith stated as she walked up to the nurses station that Christina, Izzie, Alex and George had been standing at, watching Mark and Meredith's interaction.

"McSexy?" Christina questioned.

"No?" Meredith asked.

"McYummy?" Izzie suggested.

"No." Meredith and Christina said in unison.

"McSteamy." Meredith nodded, proud of herself.

"Yep, there it is." Christina commented.

"McSteamy." Izzie sighed.

"Excuse me…I'm just choking back some…McVomit." George said as he left the group to continue on with his work.

/

"Tequila, Joe." Meredith called over the bar.

"Coming right up." Joe said as he reached down and grabbed a clean shot glass. "You're all alone tonight."

"I'm meeting someone." She said as she knocked back her first shot.

"As in a date?"

"No, definitely not a date. Unless the man who is your ex-boyfriend's ex-best friend who screwed you're ex-boyfriend's wife is counted as a date." Meredith sighed, allowing the tequila to get to her already.

"Well, you lost me somewhere about an ex-boyfriend's ex-best friend. But good luck. Oh, and this one, it's on the house." He sighed as he poured Meredith's 4th shot glass.

"Thanks, Joe." She smiled.

A few minutes later, the bell above the door rang, and there he was. McSteamy.

"Meredith." He greeted her with his McSteamy smile.

"Dr. Sloan." She nodded.

"Please, it's Mark." He insisted. "What do you have to do to get a drink around here?" he asked her.

"Joe." Meredith called. "Mark wants a drink."

"What can I get for you?"

"Double Scotch, Single Malt." Mark said with an arrogant smirk.

"You're very arrogant." Meredith pointed out as his scotch was placed in front of him.

"Just hiding my secret pain." He smirked again.

"I'm sure you are." He smiled at her again. "Okay. We need rules." Meredith pointed at him with her finger.

"Rules?"

"Well. We're the Dirty Mistresses club. There are only two members. Me and you."

"The Dirty Mistresses club, huh?" Mark asked, entertained by her rambling. Meredith shrugged as she gulped back yet another shot. "I don't really get it, but I like it."

"Well, we're both mistresses; and mistresses are supposed to be... dirty." she said trying to get a logical sentence to make sense, which wasn't that easy.

"I'm a member of the dirty mistresses club." He laughed.

"We both are." He looked at her, again pulling a McSteamy face. "Okay. We need rules."

"Rules? You'd think a bunch of dirty mistresses would be a little less uptight about something like rules." He chuckled.

"Rule number one: no pulling the McSteamy face."

"McSteamy face?" he interrupted.

"Yes. You know the one. The one that makes beautiful women collapse at your feet. Well…in your bed anyway. I'm immune. It doesn't work on me." she said triumphantly.

"Then why can't I do it?" he asked her, yet again the look etched into his features.

"Because I said so."

"That's not a good reason."

"Yes it is. Rule number two. No talking about Derek and me. And rule number three: no more reckless flirting." She said as she sipped her next shot. He winked at her.

"Yes, ma'am." He laughed.

"What?"

"I'm just seeing how easy it must have been for Derek to fall for you." he said as the look again etched onto his features.

"Dr Sloan. You are breaking rules one, two and three."

"I have been a bad boy. I think I need a spanking." He chuckled.

"No." she said, finally fed up with him. "Would you please get your mind out of the gutter? Please? I just don't have the energy." She sighed, letting her exhaustion overtake her.

"Okay. Sorry." He said genuinely.

"So. You gonna tell me what happened?" she asked, trying to break the awkward moment.

"I suppose so." He shrugged and knocked his shot back. "One evening, after I finished my shift, I wanted to go to a bar with Addison. We used to do this quite often actually, all three of us, but Derek was off later; we were ranting about our schedules, and talking about our patients." he paused thinking back to the old times, a little smile playing on his lips. "Anyway, this day wasn't the same as usual. I thought it was because she lost a patient, so we went to their place and we were talking... and one thing led to the other, we started kissing, and then headed upstairs. And somehow, we ended up in their bed." he paused again, not really knowing how to feel about this... and even though he wasn't showing any sign of it, Meredith could tell it hurt him. "And then Derek walked in, he got mad but didn't really do anything. I decided to leave…let them talk, you know?...Though I don't think they ever talked about it... The next day, he was gone... and well, the rest you know better than me." he sighed glancing at Meredith, a slight smile playing on his lips. "He loves you, he really does."

"Stop breaking rule number two..." she warned, leaning in slightly closer to his ear to be heard over the loud music. At that moment Derek walked in, and his eyes fell right on her the second he entered...whispering in Mark's ear. He stood and watched them for a few moments and before he realized it he was standing next to Meredith trying hard not to punch Mark out, again.

"Derek?" Mark said, startled. Meredith whirled around from her seat and met Derek's cold glare that appeared to be fixed on her.

"Dr. Shepherd." Meredith nodded professionally, before turning back to face Mark.

"Where's Addison?" Mark asked casually, trying desperately to break the awkward tension that had fallen upon them.

"You don't get to talk about her." Derek said, anger lacing his voice.

"Derek. Just, go home. To your wife." Meredith sighed, the exhaustion she was feeling obvious. He sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair, his eyes fixed on hers for a long moment, before turning and leaving as suddenly as he had entered.

"Whoa. I've never seen him like this before." Mark sighed, pain in his eyes.

"You still love him?" Meredith asked.

"He's my brother. It was an honest mistake."

"Honest?" Meredith raised her eyebrow.

"Okay, well, maybe not…honest…but it was a once off thing…you know? Derek's so different since he's been here."

"What do you mean 'different'?" she asked curiously.

"He was always distant with Addison. He never spent any time with her, apart from at the hospital. But even then, he seemed to avoid her as much as possible, and, well, it wasn't that hard because they were on different floors. Addison eventually gave up on waiting for him, trying to understand the new, work-orientated, hospital-living Derek, but he didn't want himself known. Derek and I grew apart and Addison and I grew closer. It was strange, you know?"

"What are you saying?

"That things have been getting worse for them for a few years."

"Do you know why?" Meredith asked, again, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"There was one major thing…" Mark trailed off.

"And?" she waited impatiently.

"I can't say." He said, somewhat reluctant.

"Oh. Okay. Buy me another drink?" she asked him with a smile.

"Sure. Same?"

"Oh, yes." She sighed, the smile finding it's way to her voice. Mark Sloan was a pretty great guy. Most of the time. Meredith was growing to like him. As a friend.

"Shot of tequila and another scotch, Joe." Mark called down the bar toward the friendly barman.

"Coming up." He replied.

/

"Want to tell me what you were doing flirting with the man I hate?" Derek said angrily as he held Meredith's arm firmly in a deserted hallway.

"Why should it bother you?" Meredith offered in defense.

"Meredith. Just…spare me."

"Derek. You have a wife. You chose her. I'm over it. I've moved on. Why does it bother you so much that I have a drink with Mark?" she told him firmly. His grip on her arm loosened, and his hand finally fell to his side again.

"Can we talk?" Derek asked, his voice laced with a hint of hope.

"Go for it." Meredith said signaling with her hands for him to say what he wanted to say.

"No. I mean…later…like…at your house…?" he trailed off, his mood suddenly changing.

"I finish at 6. So I'll be home any time after then." She told him before striding confidently down the hall to deliver patients' results. His eyes followed her the whole way, and it took all her strength to keep walking.

"I love you." He murmured, almost silently, long after she was out of sight, before heading in the opposite direction to prepare for his next surgery.