Only four reviews last chapter. I am not pleased. Let's work on that, shall we?

Something else I am not pleased with? I have recently embraced the hilarity that is The Office, which NBC has decided to move to 9:00 on Thursday nights. I refuse to give up my beloved Grey's, and I do not own a TiVo because I am a poor college student, so this means I will have to tape The Office. And this will require a lot of remembering on my part, which may be hard. That's what she said. OH! Snap.

I do want to say thank you to the faithful four who did review on the last chapter. You all made me a happy girl. And I knew you guys would figure out who the mystery person was this time. No big surprise there. I promise he won't be around for long.

Song: "It Don't Matter to the Sun" by either Rosie Thomas or Garth Brooks. Both versions of the song are beautiful.

Chapter 11
It Don't Matter to the Sun

It don't matter to the sun
If you go or if you stay
No, the sun is gonna rise
Shine down on another day
There will be a tomorrow
Even if you choose to leave
It don't matter to the sun, no
But it matters to me

"Aren't you going to at least give me a hug?"

Addison was frozen in place, her eyes closed, not believing that this was actually happening. She slowly turned around to face her visitor.

"What are you doing here?" she asked evenly.

Mark just crossed his arms and smirked at her.

"What? You're not happy to see me?"

"Does it look like I'm happy?"

"Maybe you're just hiding it well."

She glared at him.

"Okay, very well."

"I told you on the phone yesterday that I didn't want to see or talk to you. In what world does that translate into, 'Come on out to Seattle?'"

"Well, you see… I had originally planned to leave you alone. Wait for you to realize that your marriage was over and that coming all the way out here was the biggest mistake of your life."

"No, that was you."

Mark ignored her and continued. "But then I got an interesting fax from a Dr. Morgan."

Addison stiffened.

"Okay, so the fax wasn't technically for me… but I'm the one who found it. Minor detail. Anyway, it was rather intriguing. Care to venture a guess as to what it might say?"

"What the hell are you doing reading my medical information? It's none of your damn business!"

"It was sent to the hospital," he said innocently. "I just thought I would browse through it before giving it to your doctor."

"It didn't concern you, Mark!"

"Like hell it didn't!"

It was at this moment that Addison decided that fate really did have it out for her. Derek walked out of an exam room down the hall and saw his wife talking to none other than his former best friend. Addison's back was toward Derek, so Mark was the one who saw him first.

"Derek! Glad you could join us," Mark said arrogantly as Derek began walking toward them.

"Addison, what the hell is he doing here?! Did you call him??"

"No!"

"Then why is he here?"

"I don't know why he's here."

"Uh, I was just about to tell you. Why don't you hang around, Derek? This could be fun."

"I doubt it," Derek responded.

"Mark, go home," Addison said coldly.

"Oh, I will. There's no way I would stay here longer than necessary." He paused briefly. "But I wanted to make sure you were feeling okay."

"Why would you come all the way out here just to see how she was feeling?" Derek demanded.

"Well, I hear that women can be in pain for a while after having an abortion. Not to mention the emotional side-effects that kind of thing can have on a woman."

All color drained from Addison's face right then and there. Her knees went weak, and she barely made it to the nearest chair before collapsing into it.

"Addison?" Derek asked.

"Oh… did you not know about that?" Mark asked innocently. "My bad."

"Addison?" Derek asked again.

She felt like all the air had been knocked out of her. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Derek stared at her in disbelief.

"Is that true? Did you really have an abortion?"

She couldn't talk. She met his eyes with a look of pain and sadness, and he knew.

He knew, yet he couldn't believe it was true. His wife had been pregnant and had aborted his child. Wait…

"Was it mine?" Derek asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Addison couldn't meet his eyes.

"Was. It. Mine?" he asked more firmly.

There was nothing she could say. Nothing would make this better.

"Doubtful, buddy," Mark chimed in. "She was only six weeks along. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but you haven't actually had sex with her in months. Which is where I came in"

"SHUT UP, MARK!" Derek yelled. He was livid. His wife had gotten pregnant with his ex-best friend's child. And she hadn't told him. All this talk about wanting to fix their relationship and needing to be honest with each other… it had all been a lie. Everything.

Addison finally made herself look at her husband. He was angry, sad, hurt, and confused, among many other feelings. She could see it etched in every feature of his face.

"Derek…" she whispered.

"No. I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Derek!"

"Addison. Not. Now. I… I can't even look at you."

With that, he stormed off, leaving Addison sitting alone in the chair as tears began streaming down her face.

It ain't gonna stop the world
If you walk out that door
This old world will just keep turnin' 'round
Like it did the day before
'Cause to them it makes no difference
It just keeps on keepin' time
'Cause it ain't gonna stop the world, no
But it'll be the end of mine

- - - - - - - - - -

Addison didn't know how long she sat in the chair. She hadn't even noticed when Dr. Burke had come by and asked Mark to leave and then threaten to call security if he wouldn't. She hadn't noticed the group of interns and nurses that were watching her from afar, in a way that had been subtle when there were only two or three of them but wasn't now that there were twelve. She hadn't noticed that Miranda Bailey had approached her and helped her to stand up.

The next thing she knew, she was being led from the chair into an empty exam room. Someone sat her down on a couch and tried to hand her a glass of water. She hadn't looked at it. She vaguely heard the door close and then re-open a few minutes later.

Miranda had gone to find Izzie. Besides Miranda, she was the next closest thing that Addison had to a friend in Seattle. Neither of them really knew what had happened. The last time they had seen her, Addison had been happy. Now… she was the complete opposite of happy. And her husband was nowhere to be found.

Izzie and Miranda sat on the couch, one on either side of Addison, and tried to get her to open up and tell them what had happened. Addison said nothing. So they sat quietly with her until she was ready to talk.

The sound of a pager filled the room a while later. Izzie and Miranda looked down at theirs. Addison didn't move.

"It's mine," Miranda said. "Izzie, stay with her. I'll make sure you don't get paged. Just don't leave her alone. Got it?"

"Yeah."

Miranda glanced back at Addison before closing the door quietly behind her.

Addison had stopped crying and was now sitting completely still, staring off at nothing, mascara still streaked down her cheeks. She took a deep, ragged breath. Izzie reached for her hand, and Addison turned to face her for the first time.

"What happened?" Izzie asked gently.

A few seconds later, Addison quietly responded, "Mark."

"Who's Mark?"

"He's… the man I cheated with."

"And he showed up here today?"

Addison nodded.

"I can see how that would make you upset. But something else happened, too… didn't it?"

She nodded again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I stayed with Mark after Derek left me," Addison blurted out abruptly. "Last night I finally told Derek about that. But there was more to the story… and I wanted to tell him. I tried to tell him… but he was tired, and I was tired, and we both agreed that we'd talk about it next time. And then Mark showed up here and told him what I was supposed to tell him. And he walked away. Just… just like that night in New York. He just… left. And now…" she choked back a sob before continuing. "Now… I'm afraid that it might be for good."

Izzie didn't know that there was anything she could say that would make her feel any better. So instead, she wrapped her arm around Addison and gave her a hug, simply letting her know that she was there, as Addison sobbed on her shoulder.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Ah, the other dirty mistress. We finally meet."

"How do you know who I am?" Meredith asked.

"I have my ways," Mark replied as he held out his hand to shake hers. "Mark Sloan."

She looked at his hand for a few seconds before actually reaching out and shaking it.

"Meredith Grey. Although I get the feeling that you already knew that."

Mark just grinned at her.

"So. You're the guy who slept with Addison?"

"And you're the girl who slept with Derek."

"Why are you here?"

"Why do you think I'm here?"

"I think you came out here to try and win Addison back," she said pointedly. She received a smug look in response. "Good luck with that. She seems pretty set on staying with Derek."

"Maybe so. But we'll see. Who knows… I could have just done us both a huge favor."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's just say I spilled the beans to Derek about a big secret that Addison has been keeping. And to say that he didn't take it well would be an understatement. He stormed off, maybe for good."

"You did what?"

"I thought you, of all people, would be happy to see the possible demise of the Shepherd marriage."

Yeah… me, too, she said to herself.

"You really aren't a nice person, are you?"

"My four-hundred-dollar-an-hour shrink says that behind this rugged and confident exterior, I'm self-destructive and self-loathing to an almost pathological degree. And apparently it's my mission to bring everyone else down with me."

"Maybe that's something you should work on. Back in New York."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Addison?"

"Mmm?"

"It's been two hours. How are you feeling?" Izzie asked in a concerned voice.

"Don't know."

"Can I do something?"

"No."

Izzie sighed and leaned her head back against the wall. She had been sitting with Addison for two hours, and aside from her little speech before her breakdown, she hadn't said anything at all. After the sobbing had stopped, she sat silently, starting absently at the ground.

The door swung open suddenly, and Meredith walked into the room.

"Meredith, now's not a good time," Izzie said.

"No, it is. I need to talk to Addison."

Meredith stood in front of the attending until she focused her attention on her. "I want you to know that I'm done. I'm done chasing your husband and trying to make your life miserable. I'm sorry."

Both Addison and Izzie looked at her with baffled looks plastered on their faces, wondering what caused this change of behavior in Meredith.

"Thank you," Addison managed to whisper after a few moments.

"Where is he?" Izzie asked.

"I don't know. He used to go up on the roof a lot when he needed time to himself. I would try looking there first."

"Thank you. Stay here with her. I'll be back in a little while."

- - - - - - - - - -

Izzie found the stairs leading to the roof and quickly made her way up there, but Derek was nowhere to be found. She asked around, but no one had seen him in hours.

She figured her last option would be to check with the front desk and see if he told them anything before disappearing.

"Hey, Terri, has Dr. Shepherd been by here at all today?"

"No, sorry. You want me to have him paged?"

"No… that's okay." Izzie figured he wouldn't answer a page unless it was a real emergency. And she figured that paging him for a fake emergency wouldn't help the mood he was in or make him more likely to listen to her.

She sighed dejectedly, thinking of what to do next, when she heard a voice off to the side.

"Are you another one of Derek's lusty interns? You seem more like my type than his."

She turned to face Mark. "If you're who I think you are, you better back away from me as fast as humanly possible before I do something that will cause you a great deal of pain."

"You must be a friend of Addison's."

"What you did today… it was mean. And spiteful. And cowardly."

"I love her. I just want her to come home."

"You have a funny way of showing it. If you really love her, let her go. She loves him."

"He doesn't deserve her."

"Yeah, well… neither do you."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Do you think he's gone?"

Meredith turned at the sound of Addison's voice. She hadn't spoken in a good half-hour, and since Meredith had been avoiding all eye-contact with her, she had assumed that Addison had fallen asleep.

"I don't know," Meredith replied honestly.

"God, I hope he isn't gone. I lost him once, and it broke me. I don't know that I can recover from that again."

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere. He probably just needs some time to cool off."

"Yeah…" Addison mumbled, not really believing what Meredith had just said.

"You need to get some rest. I'm going to page Izzie, and we'll take you home, okay?"

"Okay."

Meredith got up to use the phone at the desk outside, and Addison remained on the couch, not moving from the spot she had occupied for the majority of the afternoon.

What if Derek had packed up and left again? They had been doing better. Just a few hours ago, she was happy and optimistic. Now she felt like her world was crumbling around her again.

Bastard. How could Mark have done that to her? What person in their right mind would do that to someone they claimed to care about? Why would he bring up something that he had to know would be a horribly painful topic for her? And in front of Derek?

She was so afraid that Derek had taken off again. For all she knew, he could have gone straight back to his trailer, packed it up, and was on his way to somewhere else by now.

She had to find him before he could leave her again. But how?

"Addison? Are you ready to go?" she heard Izzie's voice call from the door.

"Derek. Did you find him?"

"No. I didn't."

Addison hung her head.

Meredith piped in. "But… we're going to take you home with us, get you something to eat and a warm bath, and Izzie's going to keep looking for him." She looked at Izzie. "Right?"

"Right."

"Okay."

"Addison. I will find him. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Okay, let's go."

It don't matter to the moon
If you're not in my life
No, the mood will just keep hangin' 'round
Like it's just another night
Find another place to shine down
On some over lovers' dreams
'Cause it don't matter to the moon
But it matters to me

So, I think Meredith may have redeemed herself in this chapter. What do you think? And also, I want to say the same thing for Mark that I did for Meredith – I don't hate him. I actually like him a lot. But for the purpose of this story, he had to be a jackass. So…

Okay… I do not have the next chapter written… except for in my head. And I am moving back to school on Sunday, which means I will be pretty busy over the next few days. Usually I try to write a few chapters ahead, but that has not been working out so well for me lately. So I will try to get the new chapter up as soon as I possibly can.

Review. And I'll give you a Dwight Schrute bobble-head. I mean, who wouldn't want one of those?!