Chapter 2

"Here's to Dr. Koroski!" Richard Webber toasted and everyone followed suit. They all knocked back their punch in unison before calling for Jim Koroski to make a speech.

"Alright, alright," he patted the air with his hands to have the people gathered at the retirement party quiet down. "Working at Seattle Grace for the past sixteen years has been a wonderful honor, and I consider many of you to be good friends. Except Sloan, who steals all the good nurses."

Koroski winked at Mark Sloan as everyone shared a laugh.

He continued, "I'm hardly going to know what to do with myself now that I'm retiring, but Bev promises she has sixteen years worth of things for me to do!" When the laughter had died down again, he raised his punch glass. "To the doctors and nurses of Seattle Grace, my home away from home. May you find another spinal surgeon who is almost as good as I am."

Addison chuckled as she finished her punch. She'd be sad to see Jim Koroski go. He was almost in his seventies and his wife had been trying to get him to retire for years, so she supposed it was time. He was a good friend however, and a very skilled surgeon, so it was bittersweet to be attending his retirement party. As she moved through the chattering crowd to refill her punch glass, Mark intercepted her.

"How about something stronger than punch?" he grinned.

She smirked. "Not all of us have the rest of the afternoon off, Mark," she said. "Some of us are doing this thing called work, which you would know about if you ever did any."

"Oh!" he slapped his hand to his chest, pretending to be offended. "Two days off in a row does not a slacker make. When was the last time you had a day off, brown-noser?"

Now it was her turn to play mock offended. "I'll have you know I took an afternoon off last week!"

"That doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"You took it off for your great aunt's funeral. That doesn't count."

"But I wasn't working."

"But you weren't off having fun, either."

"Fine, you win."

"I always win." He grinned again and turned his attention to the front where people were shaking hands with Koroski. "I'll never understand the man."

"Why?" asked Addison.

"He's old but chicks still dig him. He has a top job and he's retiring."

Addison raised her eyebrow. "Which part don't you understand? He's just moving on, is all. Sometimes change is good."

"Change is never good. And moving on is overrated." He sent a suggestive look her way but she simply rolled her eyes.

"No, I admire him. He loves it here, but he realized it was just time for a change. Time to do something different, time to…"

"This doesn't have anything to do with LA, does it?" Mark cut-in. "Because it kind of sounds like you're just leading up to the moment where you slip in something like, 'change is so good in fact, that I'm leaving tomorrow for Sam and Naomi's place in LA.'"

She didn't answer right away and the smile dropped off his handsome features at once. "You're not. Tell me you're not. Addison – "

"I've just been thinking about it! God, don't make it sound like it'd be the worst thing in the universe."

"It pretty much would be."

She sighed and glanced idly at her watch. "I've just been thinking about it, not deciding anything. Don't panic."

"Thinking all too often leads to doing. Which is why I avoid thinking – "

"That's obvious – "

"Unless that thinking leads to a certain kind of doing, like – "

"Oh God, don't finish that sentence." She drank the rest of her punch while he laughed. "I have to get back to the hospital. See you later, Mark."

When Jack handed in his two weeks notice, many of the staff members at St. Sebastian's were sad that he was leaving them. Irene wanted to throw him a going away party and Gary wanted to take him out for drinks, while Simon promised to call in favors to find him a job at any hospital Jack wanted, as did Clive. Erica, one of the neurosurgeons and a good friend, pulled him into her office the day she found out.

"You're leaving?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, I… it's time for a change."

She studied his features for a moment critically. "You know Jack, I never asked. When you got back and there was the media frenzy and everyone was constantly going at you… I'm just saying, I never asked."

He remembered. She'd been one of the few people he could tolerate being around from his old life because she was content to let him be and didn't badger him with questions about what happened on the island. He wasn't sure where she was going with this, but he waited patiently.

"You've been different. Sad and distant. And I never asked." Erica took a few steps towards him. "I understand if you don't want to tell me, and I'm not about to pry. But… I just want to know if you're okay."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot and swallowed a sudden lump of emotion in his throat. "I will be." He said, with an optimism he wasn't sure he really felt.

She nodded slowly. "If you ever need anything, I'm always around." Erica smiled and came forward to give him a friendly hug. "Good luck, wherever you're going."

Jack hugged her back and thanked her again. He promised to get together for coffee or drinks before he departed LA and then he left to get back to his patients of the day.

That night he started his job search. He searched dozens of job boards online and the websites of hospitals all over the country, from New York to Portland, Chicago to Austin. He didn't have much of a preference, just that it was a fairly large city and not in California.

He applied for general surgery positions, Chief of Surgery openings and of course, postings for experienced spinal surgeons. He hoped to have a job in his specialty, but he knew he was more than capable to handle general surgery too if it came to it. He'd been close to getting the Chief of Surgery job before he'd gone after his father in Australia.

He sent out a number of resumes, and the following morning, placed several calls. Then he waited. As luck would have it, he didn't have to wait long.

Addison took a breath before she opened the door to the Chief's office. After a very long night where she laid awake tossing and turning, she had come to the conclusion that she was going to move to LA after all. There were a good many reasons to, though she'd be lying if she said her decision was more based on getting away from Seattle Grace than anything else. The people there were good and she missed Sam and Naomi. Working with them would be nice, and California was sunny and there would be no Mark or Karev clouding up her emotions…

Still, even as she walked down the halls to Richard's office to tell him the news, she could feel herself wavering. She loved it here. She'd come initially on a favour, she'd stayed only to try and win Derek back, and then she'd somehow found herself laying down permanent roots. Leaving was going to be very hard indeed.

"Chief?" she said tentatively as she entered his office.

He made an angry growling noise and gestured for her to come in and shut the door.

Addison winced. She probably should wait and try to catch him in a better mood.

"I can't believe this," he grumbled. "I'm already down a spinal surgeon because Jim's retiring, and Lacey is going on mat leave and I just received Burke's resignation." Richard rubbed his temples with his fingers while Addison stood frozen before him.

"Burke… quit?"

Richard sighed. "No Head of Cardiology, no Head of Geriatrics and no Spinal Specialist. I swear Addy, if you're here to tell me you're leaving too – "

"I'm not," she said quickly and hitched a hasty smile on her face.

She could wait a few weeks, she thought. She was in no hurry to get to LA, and anyway, she didn't need to pile more strain on the Chief before she absolutely had to. She hadn't even officially talked to Sam or Naomi yet either and figured she probably should have done that first to make sure they actually had a spot for her.

"So Burke's gone? Did he get another job?"

Richard heaved another sigh. "I don't know. I can only assume it has to do with the wedding between him and Yang – what ever happened, or didn't happen, I suppose, was enough to make him leave the hospital and probably Seattle. The letter's very formal, it doesn't say much of anything."

He held it out to Addison and she skimmed it, catching wordy sentences about "pursuing other opportunities", "provided with a great deal of inimitable experience", "graciously acknowledging skills and practices of a celebrated medical institution" and "regretfully submit my resignation from Seattle Grace".

Her heart sunk. Even though the wedding had been called off, she hadn't thought he'd quit. Taken some time off, sure, maybe even an extended absence. It had been almost three weeks, after all. Yang was off with Grey on the pre-paid honeymoon, and Addison had just assumed that he'd be back. She, and everyone else, still had no clue why the wedding had been called off in the first place. The rumor mill circulated violently of course, but she had been counting on asking Burke for the truth when she next saw him.

"I see," she finally said.

"You don't happen to know any excellent cardiologists or spinal specialists, do you, Addy?" Richard asked, only half-kidding.

She shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. Did you try Erica Hahn? Last I heard she was attending at Seattle Presbyterian. Burke told me she was top of the class with him at John Hopkins." Addison shrugged and handed Burke's letter back to Richard. "Maybe she'd be available."

"It's worth a try." He returned his gaze to the papers strewn about his desk for a moment then looked back up at Addison. "Sorry, Addy, did you need something?"

"Oh, uh, no, I… was just coming to see if you'd found anyone to take Jim's job yet is all," she said quickly and not terribly convincingly, but Richard didn't seem to notice.

"Mm," he nodded. "Well I'll let you know when I do."

She exited his office and exhaled in a rush when she shut the door behind her. So much for standing her ground and telling the Chief that she was going to quit too and move to LA. She rolled her eyes at herself and decided to give it a week or two and hopefully he'd have found someone to take over for Koroski, Lacey or Burke and adding her name to the mix wouldn't end up being so bad.

Jack had just come in the door, his armful of essential groceries, when the phone rang. Hoping it was someone returning his calls or better yet, a job offer, he dumped the various bags on the counter and hastily scooped up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Jack Shephard?" The voice on the other end was fairly deep and authoritative.

"Yes, it is."

"My name is Richard Webber and I'm Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital. I got your number from Clive Burns over at St. Sebastian's," the man said. "I've recently had some openings in my staff, one of them a Spinal Specialist position. Clive tells me you're one of the best he's seen."

Jack chuckled. "I don't know if that's true, sir, but I am very good at what I do."

"Said you once performed a successful surgery on a woman with a crushed spinal column a few years back. That she walked out of hospital instead of being paralyzed for life." Webber was asking for confirmation that it was true, but Jack could tell by the tone in his voice that whatever Clive had said had deeply impressed him.

Jack swallowed, memories of Sarah and their brief marriage flashing through his mind before he answered. "That is true, yes."

"Clive also told me that you recently left St. Sebastian's to look for new opportunities."

"I did."

"Ever look as far as Seattle?"

A/n: Thanks for reading! Any and all feedback appreciated. :D