Shades of Grey
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.

Part Ten: Changes

Addison corned Mark. "Tell me it's not true." She begged him. "Tell me you're not staying in Seattle."

She was hearing the rumour all of over the hospital and she'd gone searching to determine the truth and found Mark standing by the nurses station.

"Sorry, no can do." He told her, then sighed. "Is it really that bad?"

"Depends." Addison told him. "DId you stay for me, to give me a chance to tell you how sorry I am that I didn't choose you or did you stay to be with Meredith?"

There was a long moment of silence where Mark seemed to have a hard time looking at her. "I'm sorry Addie." He said finally.

"Why her?" Addison asked, forgetting her pride. "What is it about her?"

"I don't know." Mark said quietly. "She's just... Extraordinary."

Addison laughed bitterly. "Of course." She looked at Mark. "You're fooling yourself. You don't care about her, just like you didn't care about me, you care about beating Derek."

It had to be that, this had to be more competition with Derek. Mark couldn't care about Meredith, he couldn't.

"Addie, I'm sorry." With that, he turned and walked away from her.

Addison watched him go with bitter eyes, thinking about how easy every man found to walk away from her... Straight to Meredith Grey.



"Hey gorgeous." Mark said, coming up behind Meredith. "So I need help finding an apartment. Want to help me look for one?"

Meredith put down her charts and smiled at him. "I could do that."

She couldn't believe Mark was moving to Seattle and she especially couldn't believe that it was for her.

She shook her head. That was a crazy thought, it wasn't for her. They had just met. It was to get back at Derek, to try and find who he was without Derek and Addison, and maybe it was even a secret ploy to end up with Addison.

"Good." Mark told her, then he paused, almost as if he could read her thoughts. "This, this is a fresh start for us both Meredith. This isn't about them, its about us, who we are without them and who we could be together."

Meredith was quiet, thinking about his words. "I like that idea." She said softly, almost shyly.

Mark grinned at her. "Me too. No more being the dirty mistresses, we're going beyond that. And this is just the beginning."

Meredith grinned, excited by that idea. Maybe, just maybe it might actually work and for once she might actually get a happy ending.



"You hired him?" Derek demanded of Richard, as soon as he got a chance to corner the other man.

"I hired him." Richard said flatly. "Mark Sloane might be a wife-stealing jackass, but he's also one of the top plastic surgeons in the country and he was asking to be on my staff. I'd be a fool to turn him down."

"He stayed for Meredith!" Derek exclaimed, using the only weapon he could think of. He knew Richard cared about Meredith and that he didn't want to see her hurt and Mark Sloane would hurt her.

"That's their business." Richard said cooly.

"But attending and interns!" Derek protested.

"That rule's been broken so many times." Richard pointed out. "By you and well, Mark Sloane can't hurt Meredith anymore than you did, so I'm not going to interfere."

Derek felt chagrinned and realized that Richard had yet to truly forgive him for what had happened, for hurting Meredith.

Without another word, Richard walked away from Derek, leaving him standing there, feeling like the world was falling in on him and wondering what he was going to do.

He'd come to Seattle for an escape, for peace and quiet and got everything but.