A/N: Update, let me know your thoughts! My favorite trio is back together again,
if only they could really be this close on the show (Call/Addi/Mira)!

Chapter 15

Mark walked up to the table and said, "Why the hell are we so screwed up?"

Derek looked up at him and said, "Why do you keep following me? I told you that our friendship was over and that you weren't my friend and yet you still follow after me."

Mark pulled out the chair and sat down, "You were my friend before you made the stupidest mistake of your life."

Derek leaned back, "Please enlighten me as to how you sleeping with my wife is the stupidest mistake of my life."

Mark smiled, "Gladly. If you had just cared even a little bit about what she could've been going through you would've been the one there and not me. I was tired of trying to fill your shoes, I'm not a patient man and I got tired of hearing her whine all about you so I helped myself to what was yours."

Derek rolled his eyes and started to get up when Mark looked at him and said, "Please sit down, I want to talk to you. Look I'm sorry for trying to provoke you, that was unfair especially since I still need your advice. Please sit down."

Derek sat down and crossed his arms, "What do you want?"

Mark laughed at the gesture, "You are not here to judge me, you are here to listen and I need you to hear the fact that we are screwed up. Man, how did we get like this?"

Derek looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean we are screwed up?"

Mark leaned forward, "I mean we because we are screwed up. You have a beautiful wife that you were moments away from losing because you were too self-involved or stupid one or the other."

Derek nodded and said, "Okay so I admit that you have a point, I'm screwed up. But that still doesn't explain you, how are you screwed up?"

Mark put his head in his hands, "I'm screwing things up with Callie."

Derek looked at him in confusion, "We were just talking about her and how when you came over you were stumbling drunk in my trailer. What could you have possibly done between now and then that could screw things up with her?"

Meredith chose this moment to walk by their table and without sparing a glance for Derek leaned down and brushed her lips over his, "I'm looking forward to our date tonight."

Mark nodded nonchalantly and as she walked away turned back to Derek's thunderous face, "I did that."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"So we have roasted chicken, vegetables, rolls and best of all Strawberry Shortcake for dessert." Addison opened her arms and demonstrated the spread of the table to her two friends. Callie and Miranda shuffled in and sat down at the table.

Addison walked in the room as she looked at a dejected Callie and a pissed Miranda. She sat down at the table and turned to her friends, "So was today not a good day for lunch?"

Miranda sat forward and motioned to Callie, "This idiot over here is busy playing games with Mark, games that she's too old to be playing and she's upset because Mark is calling her on the games."

Addison looked at Callie in confusion, "What's going on Callie? I thought things were going so well between you guys."

Callie burst out in anger, "I thought they were too but he proved to be just another guy. He tells me that he wants a no-strings sexual relationship but then he starts acting like he's interested in me and what I have to say and how I'm affected by things and then he turns cold on me."

Addison leaned back, "What happened today?"

Miranda waved her hand and said, "It doesn't matter what happened until I'm fed, I'm hungry. I want something to eat and while we are eating we can discuss what happened."

Addison directed Miranda to the food and then turned to Callie, "Do you want to tell me what happened now?"

Callie shrugged, "When I came into work today, I was happy and then everything went downhill after my hip replacement surgery. I was leaning against the counter telling Miranda about how happy I was and…."

Miranda sat down with a full plate and turned to Addison, "She heard Meredith say that she had a date with McDreamy."

Addison sat back in shock, "With Meredith Grey? After everything we've been through, what was he thinking?"

Callie nodded and said, "This is what I was trying to tell Miranda but she still thinks that it's my fault."

Addison turned to Miranda in disbelief, "How is Mark being an SOB Callie's fault?"

Miranda turned a disapproving look on Callie and said, "Tell Addison what you did in retaliation to Mark for his stupidity."

Addison looked back at Callie and said, "What did you do?"

Callie looked away in shame, "I accepted a date with George."

Addison stood up and walked towards the counter where the food was and started making a plate.

Callie came up beside her and said, "Are you mad at me too?"

Addison shrugged, "I'm not mad. After everything I've done, I don't get to have an opinion. I just think that playing Mark's game could be dangerous. What happens if it turns out Mark sleeps with Meredith while you're waiting for him. I just don't want you to get too caught up in the feelings for Mark. If he's showing that he can't be trusted now, breakaway."

Callie reached for her plate as she started munching on the food turned to Miranda, "What do you think my next move should be Nazi?"

Miranda glared at her but turned her attention back to her plate and resumed eating, "I think you should seriously consider what you want to happen tonight. Do you seriously want to spend time with George because he could be the one or is your pride kicking your butt? If its pride, I say let George go for no other reason then he doesn't deserve to have his feelings tied up in a woman who clearly wants to be in a relationship with another man."

Callie and Addison sat down and started eating when Addison turned to Miranda and said, "I agree with you on all but one point. Why shouldn't she go out with George? She's not obligated to sleep with him and they were friends once upon a time why can't this be a good time to renew that friendship. I think now's a perfect opportunity for her to see what life without Mark will be like."

Callie shrugged, "I don't know what I feel for Mark and whether it's only physical attraction or whether it could be love I don't want to deny myself the possibility of being loved just because I'm hurt over Mark."

Addison nodded, "Well now that, that's settled. Can we move on to my problem please?"
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"You haven't said anything."

Derek looked up into the face of his former best friend and leaned forward smirking, "What do you want me to say? That once again you're after my leftovers?"

Mark scowled and said, "If Addison wasn't pregnant I would kill you. How many times do I have to tell you I didn't set out to get your wife? I don't have this burning desire to be all things Derek Shepherd. I saw my best friend's wife struggling with some heavy drama and all she needed was the assurance that her husband loved and supported her as she dealt with her illness. You didn't give her that and so I did and we just happened to end up in bed. That's it; there was no grand scheme to steal her away from you."

Derek rolled his eyes, "Okay suppose I let that explanation for Addison go. What do you say about Meredith? Why would you ask her out if you were just whining to me about Callie yesterday?"

Mark swore under his breath, "Because I'm an ass. I was worried that I was becoming too attached to Callie and I needed to pull back. I had been worrying about that all night when your ex came up to me and asked if I wanted to go out to eat. The only thing running through my brain was can I forget Callie with her? Can I show that I'm not completely involved with Callie by going out with her? I said yes before I knew what I was doing and now Callie is pissed at me."

Derek laughed, "It's the least you deserve. If you had feelings for her, why not be a man and explore them?"

Mark smirked, "Oh? Like you did with Meredith? Please, I'm not that advanced, I want sex and I want a good time and I didn't think I was hurting anyone's feelings but mine got hurt right back."

Derek looked at him in confusion, "You asked Meredith out and got hurt back in return, I don't understand that."

Mark laughed, "I wish I could explain to you what I did but even I don't understand. I was walking down the hall pleased with myself, I had made a date with Meredith Grey and I was in the first step to proving to myself that I wasn't emotionally involved with Callie. Well along comes Callie who unbeknownst to me has find out about my date with Grey. She's talking to her ex who's asking her out and she accepts right in front of me then stalks off with no explanation."

Derek flinched, "That had to hurt."

Mark nodded, "That's not the worst part the SOB has the balls to kiss her in front of me. Like showing me he was staking his claim."

Derek shrugged, "Well why wouldn't he? It's not like you claimed yours on her when you had a chance."

Mark rolled his eyes, "You are supposed to be helping me feel better not reminding me of my mistake."

Derek stood up and looked down at him, "What do you want me to say? I warned you that we aren't friends and that we will never be friends again and I'm not going to offer you advice that you want simply because it's advantageous to you, I'm going to tell you the truth. You just don't seem to want to understand that and not when it's not to your liking."

Mark stood up and stared him down, "I just wanted a friend and a listening ear. What I always was to you these 11 years before I made a mistake and ruined our friendship. I'm sorry Derek and even though you don't want me as a friend, I can't imagine anyone else being able to fill those shoes."

Derek shook his head and walked away.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Miranda dipped into her dessert with a spoon and said, "Okay we've managed to solve global warming, the war in Iraq and the shoes for Callie's date but we still haven't talked about your problem. Addison, what happened?"

Addison looked up at Miranda and Callie and said, "Derek wants us to live together. He thinks that if we have fights we should be in the same house so we can work them out together."

Miranda stopped mid spoon lift and said, "He wants you to just move in with him?"

Callie rolled her eyes as she ate the last of her dessert and pushed her plate forward, "I don't get it…Just a couple of days ago, you two were a stones throw away from a divorce now he wants to live with you again?"

Addison leaned back in her chair and nodded, "See so I'm not the only one who thinks it's weird?"

Miranda put down her spoon and said, "Answer me this, the love that you have for Derek has it wavered in anyway? Even through all the diagnosis of the lupus, the pregnancy and the affair with Mark and his with Meredith has you love for the man ever wavered?"

Addison shook her head, "I never doubted that he was the love of my life but I learned to doubt very soon that I was the love of his."

Miranda nodded, "Do you want to be with him again in that sense? To know where he is every hour of the day, know his moods, have fights together and make up together in the same house?"

Addison shrugged, "I don't know. I'm still broken in two over my feelings, the only thing I do know? I love him, I love him a lot and I'm scared that if I say no to this I'll lose him."

Callie snorted, "I'm getting tired of hearing you say that you are afraid you are going to lose him at every turn. If you are that insecure about this relationship, should you even be in a relationship? Does it make any better if you were to try it on your own?"

Addison leaned back against the chair and put her hands over her face. She exhaled a couple of deep breaths and then looked at her two girlfriends who were sitting at the table on bated breath, "I love Derek with all I am and I want to be his wife again in every sense of the word, I just don't want to hurt anymore. I'm pregnant you guys, and this is something that I've wanted for the whole time since I've been married to him and now I don't know what to do to trust him again. Derek thinks if I don't want to move in with him it's because I still need an out."

Miranda shrugged, "Do you still need an out or are you in for the long run? I think you are the only one who can define the answer to that question. You told us that he is the love of your life, he is the father of your child and he's repentant. Do you really want to give him another chance or just keep him at bay until either one of your fails so you can feel you've proved your point by staying apart or do you really want to fight for your marriage by jumping in with your heart first?"

Addison nodded as the truth of her friends words washed over her.

Thoughts please. Thanks EP