A/n: Thank you for the reviews! It makes my day. :) Also, this story sort of integrates some things from season 4 of Grey's, but basically consider it AU from both Lost and Grey's season 3 finales.

Chapter 3

"Well," Chief exhaled heavily as he approached Bailey and Addison, who were surveying the surgery board. "I have one less vacancy to fill."

Bailey stepped forward with a couple charts in one hand and a dry erase pen in the other. "You find someone to replace Lacey?" she asked as she updated the surgical board.

"Not yet. And I'll be interviewing Dr. Hahn from Seattle Pres on the 15th next month for Burke's position. We do, however, have a new spinal surgeon."

"Anyone we know?" enquired Addison.

"Not personally. I made a few calls and Alan Reynolds over at Seattle Pres had me talk to Clive Burns down in LA. He had a surgeon recently quit because of personal reasons or some such – looking to get out of California, in any event."

Addison couldn't help the smirk that slid across her lips. Ironic that she was planning to soon leave Seattle for LA, while another surgeon was doing the opposite.

"His name is Jack Shephard. He comes with a list of references as long as my leg," Chief chuckled. "We're going to be one lucky hospital if we get stars like him and Hahn, and so quickly too."

"Well, timing is everything," Addison mused.

Bailey proceeded to ask the Chief if he'd yet made a decision about the position of Chief Resident. The Chief answered vaguely and in a non-committal fashion before smoothly changing the subject. He proceeded to talk over the surgeries of the day with Bailey, and Addison took that moment to go check on some of her patients.

Yes, timing was everything. Which was exactly why she was going to hold off on telling the Chief about LA just a little longer. He was clearly pleased about getting this Shephard guy for Jim's old job, but she could tell he was still stressing about the other two positions. They were top jobs, important ones, and though he was to be interviewing Hahn next month, there was no guarantee that she was right for the job nor that she even wanted it.

Still, Seattle Grace was a top hospital and he was bound to fill the open spots soon. She promised herself that she would do it then: call up Naomi and say she was coming for sure, then inform the Chief that she was leaving Seattle. Besides, this way she'd at least get to meet the new guy before she left for LA and maybe even laugh with him about how they were practically switching spots.

Jack wasted no time in getting things going once Webber offered him the job and he accepted. The job sounded good, and he knew Seattle Grace had a solid reputation as an excellent hospital with some of the top surgeons in the country. That, plus the generous salary, and most importantly the fact that Seattle was not California, made his decision easy.

He was packed within days, choosing to sell or give away most of his things. He kept some essentials and a few boxes of clothes, but he wanted to hold on to as little as possible from his old life. If he was going to have a fresh start, he was going to have a fresh start. With the hefty settlement from Oceanic Airlines, most of which he hadn't had a reason to spend yet, as well as the savings still in his bank account, it was going to be a fairly easy task to find a decent apartment in Seattle and furnish it with all new things.

Of course, if he was being truly honest with himself, the main reason behind getting rid of so much was that everywhere he looked, he was reminded of Kate or the life he'd had before the crash. Two things he very much wanted to forget.

He arranged to have the few things he was taking with him shipped to a storage facility in Seattle, then flew out the following day. He spent the week in a hotel with a travel bag, apartment hunting, and by the weekend, he'd found a decently sized if somewhat expensive loft apartment just half an hour or so from Seattle Grace. After another few days of shopping, putting furniture together and one trip to the storage facility for his things, he was officially moved in and ready to start over.

"Did you see?" Callie asked the moment she laid eyes on Addison.

"Did I see what?"

"The bulletin board – did you see it? The Chief made his pick for Chief Resident."

"And I'm guessing by the idiotic grin on your face right now, he didn't pick Bailey as we all assumed he would."

Callie clapped her hands together excitedly. "He didn't pick Bailey."

"Congratulations," Addison offered with a smile. "But good luck – the interns all come back from their holidays today, and now they are residents."

"God help us." Callie mumbled darkly.

"Look on the bright side," said the redhead. "You can torture them as much as you want now and they're going to each get their own set of petty, annoying interns."

The grin returned to Callie's face. "Mm, that's true. Hopefully the new interns are just as irritating as the old ones were so they can know how it feels. Payback's a bitch!"

Addison laughed in agreement before stating, "The new spinal guy starts today."

"Should be interesting. Every chance he gets the Chief goes on about how good this guy is supposed to be."

Addison nodded. "And with any luck, he's young, hot and available too."

Callie's pager went off about then and she bid her friend goodbye. Addison headed to the elevator and to the cafeteria to grab a quick snack. In the elevator on her way back up to the surgical floor, she couldn't help but note that the other occupant was very handsome, with dark hair and eyes. He was wearing a very nice suit and, she casually noted with a subtle sideways glance, no wedding ring. Then her thoughts turned to the first day she'd been in LA, and the horrifyingly awkward conversation she'd had with a different good-looking man in an elevator. He had later turned out to be one of Naomi's coworkers and she still hadn't decided if that was better or worse than him being a perfect stranger.

The memory made her laugh and she tried to stifle it, but not before a muffled giggle escaped. The man glanced her way with a small smile and though she mentally promised not to say a word, she couldn't just not explain her laughter. What if he thought she was laughing at him for some reason?

"Sorry," she said a moment later. "It's not you, I was just thinking about this time I was in LA, and in an elevator. I just started saying things and didn't stop. Something about how elevators are kind of aphrodisiac where I come from."

He seemed to be trying not laugh himself as he asked politely, "Where do you come from?"

"Here. Seattle, I mean. I work here, actually."

Shut up Addison, shut up, shut up – God, it's Pete all over again. Although, that didn't end so badly now that I think about it…

"I see."

"Not that elevators are an aphrodisiac, but just at this hospital, it seems. People tend to make out in them. Not all the time, of course – clearly we're not making out." She forced a laugh that sounded very much unlike her own and the man turned to face the elevator doors.

God, shut up, shut up…

"Please stop me anytime. Because for some reason lately, I find myself rambling incoherently in front of handsome strangers, and unable to stop. It's apparently a new habit." She winced and he chuckled.

Mercifully the doors opened to the surgical floor and she rushed ahead to climb out. She didn't look back and hurried around the nearest corner where she slapped her hand to her forehead, cheeks burning. When the hell did she become such a school girl around any decent-looking man? And since when was she unable to stop herself from rambling like a complete moron? She thought of that elevator ride with Pete again and shut her eyes for a moment, internally calling herself names.

Just because she hadn't sex in weeks did not mean…

She was so busy silently scolding herself all the way to the nurses' station, where she planned to pick up her charts, that it wasn't until she was standing right there that she realized the Chief was talking to the man from the elevator.

"That's pretty well everything. I'll take you around to meet some of the staff, and on the way I'll show you to the locker room for Attendings where you can change into some scrubs." Chief was saying and then held out his hand to shake the hand of the man in the suit. "Welcome to Seattle Grace, Dr. Shephard."

Addison's heart sunk. Oh God. She would have to go and make a fool of herself in front of the hot new doctor. Of course, of course she would. She snatched up some charts at random and hastened away, her face feeling quite hot. She decided she would do her best to avoid the new doctor for the rest of the day and hopefully by tomorrow, she'd be more in control of her tongue and he'd forget that she was the idiot in the elevator.

Her luck only got worse from there. A mere ten minutes later, she was passing a nurse who was hurrying a young man, with a decidedly green tinge to his pale face, to the nearest bathroom. Addison jumped out of the way when he retched, but not far enough, and ended up with much of the contents of the man's stomach on her scrubs. Both the nurse and the young man apologized profusely, but Addison waved them off.

"Occupational hazard," she smiled reassuringly and grabbed a handful of paper towels before heading straight to the Attending locker rooms to change.

Thankfully she made sure to keep a couple spare sets of scrubs on hand just in case, because every once in a while, she'd end up with someone's body fluids down her front. With a heavy sigh, she opened the door to the locker room and went in, where, of course, the new doctor was at that moment.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, caught off guard by the sight of Dr. Jack Shephard, changing into a set of navy blue scrubs. "Sorry, I – "

"No, it's fine – " Jack yanked up his pants over his boxers hastily.

"I just, uh – sorry, I - "

"Not a problem." Jack slipped his top on and Addison furiously tried to forget the sight of him in boxer shorts. And without a shirt. And what she'd said to him in the elevator.

"Are you sure? I can come back."

He surveyed her with a chuckle. "Don't bother. Looks like you really need to change."

She glanced down at the mess on her front and quipped, "Oh, I don't know, I'm trying out a new look. I heard that Covered-In-Puke was all the rage."

"I don't know what fashion magazine you're reading, but I think you better start buying a different one." He joked back.

"Probably good advice. Can't imagine I'm very attractive right now." She said it without thinking and immediately wished she could take it back. Before he had the chance to reply, she hastily continued, "Oh God, sorry, I'm not looking for a compliment or anything, or you know, some cheesy movie line where the guy is all 'You're beautiful to me no matter what' because obviously we just met. I'm just saying, being covered in puke in general is unattractive, not just me specifically."

Addison could feel her face growing hot again and wished she could disappear.

"And now that you're probably fairly certain I am in fact from the psych ward and not really a doctor, I am going to finally stop talking." There was that forced laugh again.

Jack chuckled. "No, it's fine," he said which somehow made her feel worse. He surely thought she was a complete whack job by now, she just knew it. He added, "I wouldn't look good in puke either."

He scooped up one of the folded hand towels on the bench and disappeared around the last row of large, dark wood lockers to wash his face at the sinks there. She mimed her fingers as a gun shooting herself for her ridiculousness then retrieved a pair of fresh scrubs from her locker. Addison hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not to go change in a bathroom, wait for Jack to leave, or to just be really, really fast. Seeing as how the smell was starting to get to her, she opted for really, really fast.

Although, she thought. If he does happen to catch me changing, I luckily wore cute underwear today.

For a small moment, she considered changing slowly so that he would "accidentally" catch her changing. Her own impulse made her blush, however, and she decided she'd already made things awkward enough between her and the new doctor, she didn't need to make it worse. She also decided to speak in minimal sentences from now on to avoid more idiotic rambling.

Addison had just finished pulling on her fresh scrubs when her pager went off, as did Jack's shiny new one. She tossed her things in the laundry bin and yanked her long red hair into a messy bun as she hurried for the door. Jack reached it first, opened it to let her through, and they hastened down to the ER together.

A/n: Thanks for reading, and all feedback is greatly appreciated. :)