What if? – Chapter 2

What if Addison had chosen to leave with Mark at the end of Yesterday 2x18?

Meredith stood in her room, staring at the rain and cursing herself for allowing herself to hope. Stupid Mark – when has her life ever been as simple as he made it seem? Meet perfect man, he produces perfect, impossible to hate, Isabella Rossellini look-a-like wife. Meet father for the first time in twenty years, he thinks you need money. Mark 'stupid' Sloan says what if life comes down on the side of the dirty mistresses and you actually wait and even worse, you hope. Even though you know that the last time you sat in Joe's waiting and hoping it all went to hell, there was even a damn train crash, if that's not a sign, what is?

She had left Mark in Joe's knowing that is she heard that little bell at the door ring one more time to see someone who wasn't Derek entering she was probably going to rip the bell off of the door and beat Mark with it for making her hope. Now here she was, in her room, alone, without hope.

Someone knocked softly on the door and, too tired to tell whoever it was to go away she called quietly for them to come in. Whoever it was stepped into the room and closed the door without saying anything. 'That rules out Izzie – she would be talking by now' though Meredith with a wry smile. She was like Derek in that respect – chatty. 'So it must be George' but before she could turn around she felt him move to stand behind her, close enough to feel them but not quite touching. She couldn't explain how she knew it was him – she just knew, which was stupid because she was not the sort of girl who believed in this lovey-dovey-I-can-feel-you-before-I-see-you crap. Meredith shivered slightly and resisted the urge to pinch herself to make sure this was happening. The last time someone had stood so close to her it was in an elevator and she has spoken first.

"I miss you". He spoke so softly that Meredith wasn't even sure she'd heard it. She began to turn around, closing her eyes, knowing that if she opened them it would turn out to be a dream because that's how things worked for her. "Meredith.." her said her name, in that way that only he could, his voice was soft and low and Meredith suddenly found herself wondering where he learned to do that...was there some kind of class? How to say a woman's name in a way that melts her into a big pile of goo -101?

"Meredith..." he said it again, more insistent this time. She waited, just for a second, holding on to the dream for a little bit longer and opened her eyes. She jumped slightly as her eyes met her piercing blue ones; she really had expected it to be George thinking that hearing and feeling Derek was just a side effect of excessive hope or that she has conjured him up to help her through, just as she had on the day of the bomb.

"This is real", she murmured. Derek chuckled softly.

"Yes"

"You're here"

"Yes"

"Mark was actually right, she's gone hasn't she?" she said, more to herself than to Derek because somehow she just knew that Addison had met Mark at Joe's and that they were currently making plans to return to New York.

"Meredith, I'm..." Derek began, uncharacteristically nervous but Meredith cut him off. "I don't want to make tapes on my death bed Derek, it's in the past". As she leaned in, putting her hand on his chest, she allowed herself a small smile, thanking whoever it was who controlled stuff like this for allowing, just this once, for life to come down on the side of the dirty mistresses.

A.N: So the super observant of you will have probably noticed that this chapter is the ending of my first attempt at a story 'Life on the side of the dirty mistresses' – I've included it as a chapter here with some minor changes because I feel it fits with the whole 'What if' theme so apologies to those who have read it before.

I would love to hear what you think so please review and also feel free to offer suggestions for 'What ifs' - I'm trying to think of some funny ones because a lot of what I love about Grey's is in the humour plus I've never really written comedy before so it would be a challenge. I'm probably going to avoid season 1/early season 2 what ifs such as what if Derek had picked Meredith or what if Derek had told Meredith about Addison mainly because it's been done before and far better than I could ever hope to write.