HER HEART

Maddison fic, a few years after Addison leaves Seattle Grace. She and Mark are at the same conference in Paris when a cruel coincidence brings them together. Can they fall back into place beside each other or is the past too much to overcome?

Disclaimer: I don't own Greys, Shonda owns it all, damn her.

SPOILER WARNING - spoilers for season three, but not big ones!

"Can I get you another drink, miss?" the cute French barman smiled at her. She grinned back at him flirtatiously, and then she realised she was probably old enough to be his mother, at the age girls were having kids these days.

"Miss?" he asked again, and she realised she was still caught up in her dream world.

"Oh, sorry. Yes, I'll have another vodka and tonic. Thank you."

She smiled weakly again.

"You still drink like a trooper then." Said an irritatingly familiar voice. She turned to see Mark in the seat next to her. She couldn't help smiling, but the smile disappeared within a second. She had to keep it in check.

"I think it's smoke like a trooper, drink like a drainpipe." She said, trying to look cold.

"Whatever." Mark grinned, "You still drink like a drainpipe."

She couldn't help laughing at that. She took the vodka from the barman and sipped it with a sophistication that made Mark smile and his palms begin to sweat.

She drank it virtually in silence, whilst Mark drawled on about a couple of surgeries he had done in the past four years and some of the people he had worked with. Then she put the glass down and spun on the chair a little so she was facing him more.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he said, still smiling his infuriatingly cute smile.

"Why?" she asked. He didn't blink at her strange choice of question.

"Because if I get you drunk you are far more likely to talk to me."

She couldn't help but nod shyly at him. She felt like a girl again, whisked away from her normal, boring life by her first ever boyfriend, a girl without experience of the world, without knowledge of adultery, passion and lust.

"Another vodka?" he asked.

"Please."

"You look lovely, by the way. Not that you ever don't."

Now that was why she always made herself up. "Thanks."

With the third vodka she became more relaxed around him. She had forgotten how well the two of them got on, just in plain conversation. She found herself laughing and smiling before she could stop herself, and gradually she eased into a friendliness with him like she had known all those years ago. He walked with her back up to the room. She was more than a little tipsy, and Mark had had a fair few beers as well. It was gone midnight, and her feet were agony as they stumbled down the corridor and into the lift. The doors of the lift slid gently shut.

"How are you?"

"Right now, I'm thinking about the hangover I'm going to have in the morning."

"I don't mean that. I mean, how's your life?"

"It's – ok, I suppose. A little boring. Work's hard, but nothing major. Quite a bit of pressure. Pretty much the same as Seattle Grace, really."

"Are you lonely, Addison?"

She giggled, "Is that a backwards way of asking me if I am seeing anyone?"

Mark grinned, "Probably."

"No. I'm not seeing anyone. But I'm not lonely. I'm just fine."

He looked her straight in the eyes, and she stared back. He knew in an instant she was lying about not being lonely. He knew her too well.

Her head was spinning now, and she could barely stand up. She was swaying on her feet. She could feel herself swaying towards him.

"Mark…" she said, and then she fell forward, laughing. He caught her deftly and easily, her head resting on his shoulder. She could feel him laughing too. Slowly he lifted her shoulders up so she was face to face with him. Then he grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her.

It took Addison a moment to react, and when she did it was to wrap her arms around his neck and push him hard against the wall of the lift, her tongue coming around his. His hands were snaking down around her waist. His mouth moved from hers to kiss her cheek, her neck, her shoulder, the point where the fabric of her dress curved down towards her cleavage in a V. She could feel every gasp of air she tried to take stop in her throat, and she ran her fingers wildly through his hair, tousling it and making him moan with delight.

Then she heard the dreaded 'ding' and the lift doors slid open. Luckily there was no one on the tenth floor landing, but Addison still pulled away violently from Mark, breathless and panting, but with a fierce determination in her eyes.

"Goodnight, Mark." She said quietly, and stepped through the doors of the lift. Then she started to walk away down the corridor.

"Addie!" he called after her. She spun round, and spoke almost viciously to him.

"I told you, it's Addison."

He dashed forward and caught her arm. "Addie, we are meant to be together. You are lonely, I know you are. I can read you. I know you. I love you and I want to spend forever with you, but you won't stop pushing me away. You won't stop locking me out!"

She raised her free arm and slapped him across the face. "I am not lonely! I am not!" she screamed at him, her eyes filling with angry tears.

Still shocked from the slap, Mark tightened his grip on her arm.

"Addie, you're drunk." He spoke softly, soothingly almost, her tears cutting him to the bone.

"So what if I am? Just let go of me and leave me alone."

He chuckled a little and let go of her wrist. "We're kind of sharing a room."

"Piss off." She said, and turned the key in the door. She stormed through the suite and into her own bedroom, where she locked the door. A few minutes later she came out; her make up half run down her face and her silk and lace nightdress half falling off one shoulder; dashed into the bathroom and remained there for twenty minutes.

Mark watched her until the door closed, marvelling at how beautiful she looked even when she was tired, drunk and angry. He sighed.

When Addison came out of the bathroom Mark was nowhere to be seen, his room dark and the door slightly open. She looked towards it for one slow, mournful second, and then she turned and went back into her own room, ignoring the tears rolling down her cheeks.