*~*~*~*~*~

Hush, Hush why don't you want to talk about it

Bitch, Bitch you don't need to sugar coat it

I don't want us to ever get to the point where we can't recover

Break, Break we're allowed to have our moments

Go on spell it out there's nothing wrong with being honest

I can take it, go ahead let it out, lets get it over and done with

I don't want to fight anymore

Cause every minute that we fight is a moment that we could be loving

Lay down with me tonight

I don't want to fight

*~*~*~*~*~

Jack pushed open his parent's door and peered at their sleeping forms. His mom's head was on his dad's chest and he smiled, crawling up over the footboard to get a better look. They were like movie parents, he thought, always hugging, always kissing and it made him feel safe. It made him believe that families really did exist ... and not just in make believe. Creeping softly over the comforter, he lowered his face just a few inches in front of Callie's. Reaching up, he touched the freckles on her nose and whispered, "Mom, I didn't sleep in my pajamas. Does that mean I can go out and play before breakfast? Because Sprout wants me to and I think I should."

Mark had woken up the second the door opened and he smiled. Jack waited patiently for Callie to answer and when she didn't, he slowly put his mouth right next to her ear. "MOMMMMM!"

Callie almost jumped out of her skin. She sat up, clutching the sheet against her chest. "Jack, are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"Can I go outside?"

"You have to eat first."

Jack gazed at her bare shoulders over the sheet. "How come you're not wearing a shirt?"

Mark sat up beside Callie, who had been rendered speechless. "Good morning, buddy." Reaching forward, he scooped the little boy into his arms and said, "I missed you yesterday."

"It was mom only day," Jack chirped. "We went to ride horses and saw a movie and ate lunch with Chuck E. Cheese and had dinner with the roller skate people. They bring it to your car!"

Mark looked at Callie. "Mom only day, huh? And junk for lunch and dinner. No wonder you didn't bother calling me. All day."

"Don't start," she snapped. "I don't want to hear it."

"You don't want to hear a lot of things," he shot back.

Callie ignored him and addressed her son. "Cristina put your new movie in my purse. Why don't you go watch it while I cook breakfast?"

The expression on Jack's face made it very clear that he could feel the tension between them. "You didn't kiss me good morning."

Callie leaned forward and kissed him, hugging him close. He watched his mother for a few seconds, not moving. "You didn't kiss dad good morning either."

"I will," Callie assured him. "Now go watch your-"

"Do it now," Jack said.

"Jack-" she began.

Jack's chin trembled as he gazed from his mother to his father. "You don't never have mad voices to each other. Why are you mad?"

"I told you, kiddo, sometimes adults make each other mad." Callie rubbed her fingers over her forehead and frowned. "Plus, I have a really bad headache and -"

"Dads can kiss it better."

"Yeah, they can." Mark put his arm around Callie and pulled her closer, kissing her head. He tilted her chin next and kissed her lips, softly and quickly. "See, buddy? We're fine."

Jack looked skeptical, but he nodded. "Can you make toast for breakfast? That kind with the sugar, Dad?"

"Sure." Mark set him off the edge of the bed, ruffling his hair. "You go downstairs and start your movie."

"'Kay." Jack blew Callie and kiss and smiled when she caught it. He shut the door behind him on the way out.

Callie flopped back against the bed, rubbing her forehead again. "Would you mind watching him? I don't feel well."

"Were you serious about the headache?" He reached over and felt her head. It was cool to the touch.

She nodded, then rolled away from him and pulled the cover up over her shoulder. "I'll be down soon."

As far as dismissals, Mark thought, that was a pretty good one.

*~*~*~*~*~

After stuffing themselves with French toast, Mark and Jack headed into the backyard together. They tossed a football for a while and then Jack pulled him all the way to the back of the property where a copse of trees sat near the fence. With one hand on his hip, Jack pointed upward. "Do you think you can build me a tree house right there?"

"A tree house?" Mark scratched the side of his face as he gazed up at the trees. The limbs intersected, looking sturdy and strong enough to hold up a fort of some kind. Of course, what Mark built the very best were breasts ... perfect, round breasts, but Jack didn't need to know that. "I don't know, slick. I've never done that before."

"You've never been a dad either but you do it okay."

"I do?" Mark grinned down at him.

Jack happily nodded, patting Sprout's head. "You make me toast and you make sure there are no monsters in the closet. And you got real good arms for throwing me."

"Well, you're a great-"

"But you ain't a very good friend for my mom."

Mark watched the little boy sit down and run his hands over a lush patch of clover. He sat down across from him, mimicking his actions. "What do you mean, Jack?"

"She don't smile too much no more."

"She had a lot of fun with you at Disneyland. I bet she smiled there."

"She missed you. She said so." Jack plucked a clover and his eyes widened, then he tossed it aside. "Thought it was a four leaf one. Mom likes 'em."

The past week had been so stressful for Callie that she really had not smiled much. He hated that Jack had noticed or that he thought Mark had anything to do with that. Her unhappiness had been all about the child abuse scandal and the little boy was blissfully unaware. Mark took a deep breath. "I love your mom, kiddo. I really love her, but sometimes when you love somebody ... it's easier for you to hurt their feelings and that's what happened. I hurt her feelings and I'm very sorry that I did that but ... your mom and I ... we're okay."

"So you're not leaving us?"

"No."

"Sometimes at the frosted homes the parents would scream at each other. They had mad voices all the time and ... it doesn't feel too good."

"It doesn't feel good for us either, Jack."

"You gotta be a better friend, Dad. You gotta make her not upset because yesterday for mom only day ... she cried at the movie and it ain't even sad. She don't even laugh no more and you made her laugh before you got mad with her."

"I'll do better," Mark assured him, his voice thick with emotion. He looked away, back up at the trees in an attempt to keep from crying himself. "I do love your mom. And I love you, too."

"I know," Jack replied. "At school, they said that love can build a bridge. Can it also build a tree house?"

Mark laughed and pulled the child into his arms, tickling him and then ... simply hanging onto him. If someone had told Mark Sloan that he would be content to sit in the cool Autumn air with a dog licking his hand and a kid chattering in his ear he would have laughed.

Instead, he stretched out on his stomach to help Jack search for an elusive four leaf clover to give to Callie. They found it almost an hour later and Jack decided that Mark should be the one to give it to her and make the wish.

Mark's wish was simple.

He wanted Callie to laugh again. And for Jack to see that he could make her happy.

It was lunchtime when they returned to the house and Mark asked Jack to play in his room for a while. When he complied, Mark headed across the hallway and was shocked to see that Callie was still asleep. He walked around the bed and looked down at her, then frowned when he saw the pill bottle on the end table. He lifted it, shocked to see the label. It was one of the most powerful narcotic pain pills on the market and it had been prescribed by Cooper Freedman. The prescription had been for fifteen and Mark opened the bottle, pouring the pills in his hand. Thirteen remained and the fact that Callie was sleeping like the dead indicated that she had taken one. Or two.

He put the bottle back on the end table and started to turn, but she rolled onto her back and mumbled something that he couldn't understand. He sat beside her and pushed her hair off her cheek. It was wet and so was her face. She was crying in her sleep.

Mark leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

He didn't know how he would do it but he would somehow make it right.

*~*~*~*~*~

Callie didn't wake up until the following morning. She glanced at the clock and thought it was nine p.m.. Groggily, she got to her feet and shuffled into the bathroom where she brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back so she could wash her face. While she was drying her skin, she glanced out the window and saw that the sun was shining brightly. Stunned, she headed across the hallway and saw that Jack wasn't in his bed.

"He's at school," Mark said, stopping in the doorway beside her. "I took a the week off to be with you. I wanted to be there this afternoon at the psychologist's office and -"

"Did I sleep the entire day? And night?"

"Yeah." He reached up and rubbed her cheek. "I tried to wake you up for dinner or just to drink some water, but you were out of it. How's your headache?"

"It's fine." She waved his hand away. "I'm sorry that I left you with Jack all day."

"I didn't mind. I just - I missed you. We both did." He put his hands in his pockets. "That prescription you have, the pain med ... that dosage would be too strong for you even if you cut in half. Why do you have it?"

She sighed. "It started out as a couple of pills for the hangover and -"

"He prescribed *that* for a hangover. What kind of quacks work out there with Addison?"

"I *asked* for it. I get stress headaches. I always have and it takes a lot to handle the pain. This whole mess with Jack is ... well, I knew it was coming. The headaches."

"Well, it's too much. It knocked you out for twenty four hours, Callie. If you need something for the headaches then see Derek, but don't -"

"I have a medical degree too, Mark. I know what I'm doing."

Callie turned and headed down the stairs. She grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat down in the breakfast area, her head in her palms. Every nerve in her body felt frayed and she was so close to crying that her eyes burned. Every aspect of her life had fallen into a tailspin and she was convinced that it would never be the same again.

Mark sat down beside her, watching her closely. Her body language prevented him from touching her, something he wanted to do more than anything. "Are you hungry?"

"No." She leaned back in the chair and opened her water, taking a few sips. She nervously played with the bottle lid as she stared at a spot of discoloration on the wood table.

The tension finally got to Mark. He put his hand on hers, forcing her to drop the lid. "Are you going to look at me at some point?"

"I need to go take a shower and -"

When she started to push her chair back, he hooked his foot around the leg and pulled her toward him instead. "We can't live this way, Callie."

"I know." She looked down at her lap, where he had put his hands on hers. "Maybe we're trying to hold onto something that -"

"No! No, don't do that. Look at me." Mark waited patiently for her gaze to meet his. She had the most expressive eyes he had ever seen and the pain he saw in them now cut him to the bone. "What we're trying to hold onto is forever. That's why it's so hard to do."

"Nothing lasts forever."

"We can. We will." He reached up and traced her jaw with his thumb. "I'm not mad anymore, baby. I just want to forget that anything happened and go back to how it was. I want you to be happy and I think I can help with that."

Tears spilled down her cheeks and she looked away again. "Why would you want to? Don't you get what I did?"

"Callie, nothing happened. You didn't do anything with those men and I know that. I know that -"

"I hit you," she replied softly. "That's worse than anything else I could have done. And I'm not looking at you because it kills me to look at you and think about what I did. I had-"

"Stop." Mark was stunned. He turned her face back to his and said, "I'm bigger than you and I was in your face calling you a slut. I'm surprised you didn't crush my windpipe and my dick. You're not the first woman to hit me and -"

"I don't want to be like your other women."

"Well, you already have one distinction that none of them had." He smiled at her. "You have my heart."

Callie opened her mouth to reply, but Mark kissed her words away. He also kissed her tears away and pulled her into his lap. She wrapped her arms around him, her face against his neck. He rubbed her hip and said, "It's okay. We're learning this thing as we go and we're bound to make mistakes. So, let's call this a lesson learned and move on."

"I love you, Mark."

"Oh god, baby. I love you, too. And I didn't think you would ever say that to me again."

"I'm always going to feel it and I have a tendency of saying exactly what I feel." She kissed him, then got to her feet. "I'm gonna go take a shower and - do you want to go out for lunch?"

"Sure." He hugged her again, holding her tightly against him. "We need to go to Home Depot, too."

"Why?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Well, our son roped me into agreeing to build him a tree house and he's not very patient so he may kill me if he comes home and doesn't see that I've done *something*." Mark's smile faded when he saw the look on her face. It was an expression he had never seen before and he didn't know what to make of it. "Uh ... but if you don't want me to do that then -"

"You called him *our* son." She wondered if she was looking at Mark with the same awe and reverence that Jack had looked at Disneyland with. Because she knew that's what she had to be feeling. "I mean ... I know he calls you dad, but ... you're really in this now. You're really in our lives. All the way."

She gave him the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen in his life and he nodded at her. "I think I may have mentioned that once or twice."

"Do you want to take a shower with me?"

"Absolutely, but I'm not going to watch this time."

"No?"

"No."

Grinning, she headed into the bathroom and pulled off the robe she wore. She was naked beneath it and before she could get the water adjusted comfortably and step inside, his hands were skimming her waist and his breath was hot against her back. She reached up to take the clip from her hair, but he beat her to it and removed it himself, burying his hand in her curls as he kissed her neck.

A moment later, she felt his erection against her backside and turned, glancing down at him. "Did you yank your clothes off as you came up the stairs, Sloan?"

"Duh." He rubbed his palms over her breasts. "Did you not hear me almost fall. There's something to be said for trying to climb with your pants around your ankles."

She laughed and stepped under the spray of water, pulling him with her. When she leaned her head back to wet her hair, it was his hands, not hers, that smoothed it away from her face. Their eyes met and she licked her lips. His eyes were drawn to her mouth and he lowered his head, kissing her slow and deep. When he pulled away, she frowned until she realized that he was soaping his hands. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I told you ... I'm not watching this time. It's hands on."

Wordlessly, she let him take her arm and soap it. Her skin tingled and it had nothing to do with the exfoliating beads or the warm water. It had everything to do with the way his flesh slid against hers and the way his hands kneaded every inch of skin that he came in contact with. Her eyes were hooded by the time he dropped to his knees and, still using just his hands, washed her legs ... and mostly tickled her feet. She gasped when he parted her thighs and his slippery fingers washed the highly sensitive bundle of nerves at their apex.

Standing, he took the shower head down and changed the setting, letting it thump against her back and shoulders and he massaged the soap away. He grinned devilishly a moment later and lifted one of her legs, holding it over his hip as he positioned the stream of water just right. Callie's mouth fell open as the water pulsated against her clit. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders and she narrowed her eyes at him when he chuckled.

A second later, he leaned down and told her, in explicit and amazingly vivid detail, what he was going to do to her. His voice was low, rumbling and sexy and that, coupled with the water, was enough to send her over the edge. She got off hard, shocking both of them and then she lowered her leg and took the shower head. "Last time we were in here ... I thought about throwing you on the floor and ... well, I'm not going to throw you, Mark, but I'm telling you to -"

She didn't have to get the words out. He lowered himself to the floor and leaned back against the tiled bench that ran the length of one wall. She put her feet on either side of his legs and started to sit down, but he stopped her and leaned forward, kissing her still quivering cleft of Venus. He ran his tongue the length of her and slipped a finger inside ... just to make sure she was ready. When he felt how slick with need she was, he gripped her hips and pulled her down, lifting his own hips to meet hers as she straddled him.

Callie definitely had strong, muscular thighs and she put them to good use as she rocked against him, slow, then fast, then slow again. She moved her hips in a circle and smiled when he groaned her name against her neck. The position they were in allowed her nipples, rock hard and sensitive to the slightest stimulation, to rub against his chest. She didn't know what felt better ... the friction of his chest or his fingers digging into her flesh, but all of it felt *right*.

Shifting slightly, she moved off her knees and wrapped her legs around him. Leaning back, she braced her palms on his legs and when his head fell back, she knew that she had him. Clenching her vaginal muscles, she used her legs to pull back against him and her hands to pull away. He apparently liked it as much as she did. He met her eyes and lowered his thumb to her clit, rubbing in a fast and furious circle.

Just before she got off, she picked up the pace as the orgasm rocked through her ... she reached behind her and cupped his balls, massaging, rolling. He came so hard that her scratched *her* hips and back and she made a mental note to leave the clippers on his end table. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around his neck and listened to his heavy breathing. His heart thumped against her breasts and she said, "You're either getting old and out of shape or you liked that. A lot."

"I am never ... ever ... just watching you again."

"Showers. It's the new contact sport, but you didn't just watch me last time either." Callie kissed his cheek, then his ear. "By the way, have you ever built a tree house?"

"No." Mark ran his hands over her legs. "But I'm a man and these things are just ingrained in our DNA. Who do think built the caves for the cave women?"

"Uh ... God?"

"Hmm." He looked thoughtful. "Okay, who do think built the pyramids?"

"Those aren't made of wood. And this thing you build has to be sturdy enough to not collapse with *our* kid in it."

"Trust me." Mark kissed her. "I've got this one. I'll get Derek and maybe even Webber to come over and work on it with me."

"Three heads are better than one."

"Do you doubt my skills."

"You have many, many skills, Mark, and I've enjoyed several of them, but you are not Bob the Builder ... no matter how many times you sing the theme song."

"Jack loves that damn show."

"He didn't like it at all until you moved in so I think you're to blame." She studied him closely and when he looked away, she gasped. "Did you watch that shit before you moved here!? Alone!?"

"Porn got old."

She threw her head back and laughed.

Mark couldn't wait for Jack to hear it, too.

He had kept his word.

*~*~*~*~*~

The child psychologist was named Rita Monroe. Callie had done her best to prepare Jack for meeting a new person, but the little boy hated the doctor on sight and resolutely crossed his arms over his chest to glare at her. The first thirty minutes of the meeting passed without Jack saying one word at all. Every time Dr. Monroe asked him a question about the group home, he would put his fingers in his ears and sing something from Veggie Tales.

Callie had to admit that the psychologist's approach left a lot to be desired. Monroe didn't attempt to reassure or comfort Jack in the least. Mark's rigid posture as he sat next to Callie implied that he did not care for the tactics being utilized either. When Monroe stated that Jack was not being a very good boy, Mark said, "That's enough!" before Callie could.

Rita glanced at Mark. "Perhaps you should wait outside."

"Perhaps we should go," Callie interjected. "Because we're not going to sit her and let you berate him for being scared."

"I'm not scared," Jack said, gazing out the window. "But the bosses said that telling the secrets to strangers would let the devil out of the closet and I don't want to get dead or make them other kids get dead."

"Nothing can hurt you," Dr. Monroe told Jack. "And you already told Dr. Freedman about it. In California."

"Who is that?" Jack asked.

"Cooper," Callie told him. "Remember? You talked to Cooper and Violet about the group home."

"They ain't strangers!" Jack cried. "Violet gave me ice cream and Cooper played with me for a real long time. The bosses said we can't talk about it to *strangers*. Stranger danger!"

"I'm not a stranger, Jack," Dr. Monroe told him, leaning forward and patting his leg in the first outward sign of affection she had shown thus far. "You've known me for forty five minutes now. And I'd really like to know what happened to you."

"I don't care what you like," Jack replied haughtily. "You're old and ugly and you smell funny."

"My physical attributes aside," Monroe said, smiling a little. "Who were the bosses, Jack?"

"Mac and Jane."

"Jane?" Monroe flipped through her notes and said, "Mr. McDeaver's wife?"

"She wasn't no wife." Jack shook his head. "Mac's wife was Stella because she wore a ring like his and called him 'dear'."

"Who was Jane?"

"She was the naked girl that Mac brought to live there and it made Stella cry and leave. Stella was real nice to us and when she left Jane was a boss and then it got real bad."

"I don't have any paperwork on Jane." Rita looked at Callie and Mark for guidance, but they were in the dark as well. "I'll make a few phone calls when we're done today and find out where she is."

"She's gone." Jack put his foot in the chair, untying and retying his shoe the way Mark had taught him. "Me and Emily seen her bleedin' in the devil closet. She didn't scream no more after a real long time."

"Was Jane a little girl?" Rita asked. "Was she a child?"

"No. She was a growed up lady, but when her belly got too fat Mac would hit her more in it. He called her a bastard when he hit her there." Jack turned in his seat and looked at Callie. "Sorry, Mom. Bastard ain't got a better word like ass. Ass has butt."

"You're okay." Callie smiled at him. Mark tightened his grip on her hand and she laced their fingers and took a deep breath.

They'd get through it.

Together.

After sending Jack into a playroom that had a two way mirror for them to observe him, Rita announced that she would not recommend Jack meeting with the prosecutor yet. She didn't think that talking so much about his past at once was good for Jack and would make that very clear to the police involved. Callie agreed and scheduled another appointment for the following week.

She made sure that it was a day that Mark was off early as well.

*~*~*~*~*~

A few days later, Meredith, Cristina and Callie sat side by side on a blanket, watching The Three Stooges plus child try to erect a tree house. They sat several feet away from the action and were taking it in turns to complain about their stomach aches as they tried to hold their laughter in. Mark had fallen off the ladder. Twice. Webber had only gotten halfway up it before he decided that it was too high and Derek was alternating between measuring the wood and studying the crude drawing he had put together on a piece of paper. Watching him being dragged across the yard by the chain saw was like watching Jason from Friday the Thirteenth do a macabre ballet.

The men had set two wooden beams vertically the day before into concrete that would anchor the floor and they had dried perfectly straight. What they had failed to do in the two hours they had been working, however, was anything else. Derek and Webber began to argue about the measurements for the first cut and after another ten minutes, Derek picked up the tape measure and meticulously drew a straight line across the wood.

Callie crossed her ankles when Mark fell for the third time. She belly laughed and he shot her a look, but she couldn't hold it in another second. "I am seriously going to piss my pants."

"I'm sure I just did," Meredith gasped, flopping onto her back while she clutched her sides. "Oh my god! I built my first fort when I was *ten*. It had nails and everything!"

"I was about that age," Cristina replied. "I lost my virginity in that damn tree house when I was sixteen."

"Shit." Callie stopped laughing and glared at Yang. "You just turned Jack's happy place into a den of debauchery for me!"

"Did you have a tree house?" Meredith asked her.

"My brothers and I built a huge one in the woods behind our house. My parents never found out where we were hiding when they were pissed at us." Callie grinned. "I was the designated tree climber."

Derek started the chain saw again and got dangerously close to Chief Webber before he got the saw under control and split a piece of wood completely down the middle instead of on the line he had taken five minutes to draw. Shaking her head Cristina got to her feet. "I can't watch this any more. I like carnage as much as the next person, but we have to learn medicine from these idiots. How much can they teach us if they're in traction or decapitated?"

Callie stood and pulled Meredith to her feet. "Let's go show these guys a thing or two."

"I call chain saw," Cristina announced.

"I call the climbing," Callie replied.

"I will be the wood carrier," Meredith said with a grin. "I can swing the hell out of the hammer, too."

Thirty minutes later, Cristina had a stack of wood cut evenly for the floor and Callie was dangling over the limb, screwing a bolt into what would be the frame. Meredith climbed the ladder behind her and swung out like an agile monkey, plopping down on the crevice across from Callie. "They have wounded pride," she told her.

Callie glanced at the blanket where the three men were sitting, looking like dejected little boys. "Even Jack is avoiding them."

"Yep," Meredith grinned when Jack leaped up below her, trying to grab her foot. "He's decided that Cristina is god."

"She is freakishly scary with a chain saw. Okay, let's put the floor in." Callie sat up, straddling the limb. "Maybe we can let them do the walls."

"You want this thing done before Jack graduates, right?"

"Oh, right."

The floor was in place within the hour and it was Mark who carried up the last wall that Cristina and Meredith had framed. He slid it across the floor to Callie, who was on her knees putting the final screws in place on the third piece. She grinned at him and held out the power drill. "You want the honors?"

"How in the hell do you know how to do this?" he asked her.

"Because while you were busy watching Bob the Builder ... I was busy watching actual home improvement shows." She crawled into his arms and kissed him. "Plus ... I have four brothers and I'm the oldest so to maintain my cool big sister credo I helped them build the fort to end all forts."

"It's impressive."

"And a little bit emasculating?"

He sneered at her. "I was leaving that part out for a reason."

"You're not the only one with mad skills, Mark. I have a few of my own."

"Mmmm. And I can't wait to let you show me every one."

"We do have to christen this place."

His mouth dropped open. "Are you suggesting that we defile a child's clubhouse with -"

"We have to make sure that it's strong enough to withstand ... oh, you know, jumping and leaping and ... we can achieve that by thrusting and grinding."

"I'm in."

"Thought you would be."

*~*~*~*~*~

The following week, Callie returned to work wearing a heavy sweater and grumbling the entire time about the cold. Halloween was only two days away and she knew that she'd have to dress Jack in thermal underwear under his costume which would not be easy to do. He had taken to wearing his Superman ensemble everywhere. She had even gotten a call from the school to say that he had changed in the boy's bathroom, climbed on top of the book shelf, and jumped onto the janitor's back while screaming 'Die, Lex Luther' at the top of his lungs.

She was still smiling at the memory when she opened her locker and pulled off her scarf. There was a folded note stuck in one of the slats and for the briefest moment she was back in high school and the note was a reminder that she would never fit in. She took a deep breath and pulled it free, gazing down at it before she unfolded it.

It was worse than the notes in high school.

There was a photo inside.

A photo of Mark kissing one of the nurses and her heart stopped beating entirely for a moment.

His locker was right behind hers so she turned and tapped him on the shoulder. The smile on his face faded when she thrust the paper in his hands. "Callie -"

"I can't wait to hear you explain this."

Mark knew exactly when it had happened though he had no memory of it, but his mouth refused to let him confess. "That was before you."

"Oh," Callie replied as if that cleared it all up. "So, you picked out a shirt just like the one Jack gave you? I don't know which is worse. Your taste in women or your taste in clothes."

"Okay, it's a funny story and one that you'll really - Callie? Callie, where are you going? Wait."

*~

Derek was in the elevator when Callie stormed inside. She took one look at him and punched him, hard, on the arm. He rubbed it, mouth agape, and said, "Did Meredith tell you about the snoring video? She wouldn't believe me. I had to document it. It's not my fault if Alex Karev found it and showed it after rounds this morning."

"No," Callie snapped. "How could you just sit there and let him kiss Elise?"

"Ohhhh," Derek took a step back, out of her range. "He told you about the drunken bar kiss, huh?"

"No. There was a picture of it in my locker. Like, who does that? Who puts a picture in someone's locker like it's tenth grade all over again!?"

"I'm going to go with Jealous Bitches for two hundred. Come with me." The doors opened and Derek caught her arm, pulling her toward the stairwell.

Callie didn't protest, but she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him as he launched into the tale of what transpired at the Emerald City Bar the night she flew to Los Angeles. Five full minutes after Derek finished the story, she took a deep breath. "He really shoved her?"

"Richard caught her. You can ask him. Hahn saw it, too." Derek smiled at her. "And before you can ask ... yes, he spent the entire night talking about you and how he missed and how much he loves you."

"He did?"

"Callie, he has told me that you're 'the one'. While completely drunk *and* sober so I think he's telling the truth."

"Did he go home alone?"

"Yep. Richard drove him to your place. I think that the nurses are just ... angry that he isn't around to ... service them anymore. They're going to take it out on you."

"Well, unlike my high school days ... now I fight back."

"Don't do anything stupid."

"Stupid? Try evil and sinister and blood curdling."

Derek watched her stalk down the hall.

Things were going to get very interesting at Seattle Grace.

*~

Mark sat in the darkened conference room trying in vain to reign in his emotions, but it was no use. He blew his nose and rubbed at his eyes with the tissue. He was losing his family ... the first family he had even truly been a part of. Derek's had been close, but what he had with Callie ... that was the dream. And the image in his mind of her face when she had handed him the photo ... that was a nightmare.

She was probably hiring movers at that very moment to get his things out of the house. He blew his nose again and realized that the tissue was gone. The box was empty and so was his heart. He had blown it, obliterated it and she was ... peering in at him from the hallway.

A second later she opened the door and crossed the room. "Are you crying?"

"Yeah, Callie, I'm crying."

"Mark Sloan has tear ducts?" As soon as the words were out and she saw his eyes well again, she dropped the charade. Sort of. "I'm not like you. *I* am going to give you the benefit of the doubt. What happened?"

Mark babbled for close to twenty minutes, assuring her that he didn't know exactly what transpired and had only heard about it from Richard and Derek. He gave her a litany of reasons why he didn't tell her that ranged from it slipping his mind to him not being able to hurt her. He cried the entire time and finished his speech by begging her not to leave him over something out of his control.

Callie took a deep breath. "This is the part where I call you a hypocrite. You broke up with me for something very similar and -"

"I didn't break up with you. I was mad, but I came back." His eyes implored her. "I know that you would be perfectly justified in kicking me out or making me go back to the downstairs bedroom, but I promise you that I didn't cause this."

"Yes, you did." Callie ran a hand through her hair. "People can't outrun their past. Look at me. I lived in the *basement* to hide from my parent's money. And Jack ... Jack's being forced to relive his past and -"

"I don't want my past to cost me my future. You're out of the basement now and Jack may be reliving his past, but he doesn't have to stay there." Mark tentatively reached out and took her hand. "I love you. For the first time in my life I know what I want. Who I want. And I -"

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I can learn from my past, too, and I would never make you feel the way you made me feel over that stupid video. So, I believe you."

"I can get Derek to tell you what happened, too. Or ... Richard."

"No. No, that's not neccessary. You're enough. It's fine. I trust you."

He pulled her into his arms and held onto her. "You're twice the person I am."

"No shit."

The lights came on and Derek peered in at them. Mark hastily dried his face and looked at his friend. "She found out about that fucking nurse who kissed me and -"

"I know," Derek assured him. "And I just explained everything to her so you owe me. I need you to go manhandle Karev until he gives up the tape of Meredith snoring. He plans on showing it at lunch and she'll kill me."

Mark looked at Callie. "I'm enough, huh?"

She shrugged innocently. "Oops."

He actually smiled at her, something he thought was impossible mere moments ago. "You are officially the most evil person I've ever known."

"We have that in common." She leaned forward and kissed him, then got to her feet. "Oh, it's going to be a lovely, lovely day."

He watched her leave the room and looked at Derek. "She going to kill the nurses ... one at a time."

"Nah, she's too smart for that. She'll just put them in traction."

"Why do you need me to manhandle Karev? What's wrong with your hands?"

"Meredith will put *me* in traction if I beat up her roommate. Callie won't let her damage you."

"Fine."

"Thanks, man."

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