A/n: This is probably one of my favorite chapters for some reason - well, one scene in particular. The Grey's characters very often came very easily to me, especially Mark. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 5

The rest of his first week at Seattle Grace went similarly. Because he had an extensive and broad medical background, as well as his speciality in spinal surgery, there was no shortage of work for him. His shifts were full of procedures, surgeries, check-ups, sutures and so on, while the time he spent in between shifts at his apartment were quiet, spent searching for any news on Kate before falling asleep on the couch.

The following Saturday, Addison was seated in the cafeteria idly flipping through an old magazine. She glanced up when Jack walked past, and flashed him a smile which he returned before he exited the cafeteria. Mark, arriving with a tray of his own food, noticed the way her eyes followed Jack out of the room. Once seated, he faced her, grinning like mad.

"What?" Addison scooped up the last of her salad, a bit unnerved by the look Mark was giving her.

"You have the hots for the new doctor."

"Why, because I invited him to Joe's earlier or because I just smiled at him? I'm going to invite the Chief to Joe's – you think I got it for him too?"

"I heard you before: you said a bunch of people were going to Joe's tonight. Now after that you're finding people to make up this afore mentioned bunch." Mark shook his head slightly.

Addison rolled her eyes. "Just because I haven't asked one person – "

"Who else have you actually asked?" He leaned forward on the table.

She didn't meet his eyes as she answered rather unconvincingly, "Lots of people. Enough to make a bunch."

"Uh-huh. How about some names?"

Her cheeks flushed slightly and he started laughing.

"I do not have the hots for him." She hissed and hastened away from the table, tray in hand. And of course, her actions and tone only served to make it abundantly clear to Mark that she did in fact have "the hots" for one Dr. Jack Shephard.

"Hey," Mark called after her. "What about me? Aren't you going to ask me to be a part of your bunch?"

She ignored him.

Addison cleared off her tray and left the cafeteria, finding it irritating and amusing that this was the second Dr. Shephard in her life she found herself strongly attracted to. Of course, Derek's last name was spelt differently, but that hardly mattered.

Derek! She thought. I can invite Derek too…

When Jack finished his shift that day and headed home, the last thing he felt like doing was going out and being social. He didn't know how the others did it: it seemed every other night a group of them were at a local bar near the hospital called Joe's. He knew he should be used to the long hours, having dealt with them for many years, but somehow he still felt too tired to do anything lately. Admittedly, it was probably just the stress of the past year taking its toll on him.

He shut his eyes briefly…

"Do you really think all this is an accident? That we, a group of strangers, survived? Many of us just with superficial injuries?" Locke gestured as he spoke, the torchlight flickering across his lined features. "Do you think we crashed on this place by coincidence? Especially this place? We were brought here, for a purpose, for a reason – all of us. Each… one of us… was brought here for a reason."

"Brought here." Jack studied Locke, trying to determine if he was really serious, before adding, "And who brought us here, John?"

"The island."

He shook his head, clearing his mind. Months later, memories of everything continued to plague him. Out of habit, he looked for an immediate distraction.

Jack went to the kitchen and fixed himself a drink. With a sigh he settled at his desk and opened his laptop, absently checking the same news websites all over again. Still no news. He checked his email next and sent off a reply to an e-mail from Sun, in which she had updated him on the progress of her pregnancy and asked how things were going in Seattle.

As he re-entered the kitchen to have another drink, he stopped with the bottle hovering over his cup. He'd been invited out for drinks with his new coworkers, and here he was drinking alone. It wasn't like he had plans, had to be somewhere else...

But you never said you'd come, either, he silently reminded himself.

Still, he thought it was a good idea to get to know his coworkers a bit better, even if he was feeling a bit anti-social.

Besides, he thought. I need the distraction.

He put the glass in the sink, scooped up his jacket and keys and headed out.

Addison told herself not to expect him. She told herself she didn't care whether or not he showed up, told herself that just because she'd been in a few of his surgeries, spent a handful of lunch breaks with him, and chatted briefly in the halls from time to time, did not make them friends and mean she could count on him showing up. She reminded herself sternly that though she'd certainly shown interest the past couple of days when she happened to be alone with Jack (contrary to what she told Mark of course), and he seemed to be flirting back a little bit, it didn't mean he was as eager to see her as she was to see him. And then she told herself she wasn't eager to see him, reminding herself that she knew hardly anything about him, including whether the growing feelings of attraction were truly mutual.

But that didn't stop her from casually glancing at the door nearly every time it opened and feeling a bit disappointed when she didn't see his handsome figure come through it.

So in order to continue pretending she didn't care, she did shots with Mark, and ignored the noisy interns – residents, she thought, still finding it hard to think of them as residents – seated at the bar. By the time Jack did in fact show up, she was past very tipsy and on her way to sufficiently drunk.

"Dr. Shephard, you made it," greeted Mark.

"Just Jack is fine," said Jack as he took the empty chair at the small round table.

"Good, because I don't need Derek over here getting confused every time I say Shephard."

"You better order something - you need to catch up with these two." Derek gestured to the various empty glasses and shot glasses scattered about the table, then at Mark who was a little bleary eyed and Addison who was smiling widely.

"Not having a drink yourself?"

Derek chuckled. "I have to be the sober one to make sure these two get home."

Jack nodded and then headed to the bar to order a beer. While he was gone, Derek shook his head and laughed at his ex-wife.

"God, it's so obvious."

"What?"

"Mark was right – you are so into him."

"Not!" she protested fruitlessly and was rendered even more unconvincing as her eyes tracked Jack's progress through the crowds of people back to their table. "Not…"

"It's the name, isn't it?" Mark slurred. "If I was Mark Shepherd – or maybe Shephard with an A, you'd – "

Addison hastily shushed him as Jack was in ear shot and settled back at their table.

They proceeded to talk about their days and cases for quite some time, and when the subject inevitably shifted to cars and mechanical things as a result of there being three guys and one girl at the table, Addison decided it was time for another drink. She made her way to the bar.

"Two more," she ordered.

Joe eyed her. "You look like you're about three drinks away from being cut off ."

Addison smirked. "Well then after these two, I'll still have one more." When Joe raised his eyebrow, she added, "Alright, fine, a water too then."

"Coming right up."

As Addison waited, she realized that Meredith Grey and her friends were a few seats away at the bar, talking about the new Dr. Shephard.

"I feel like he's got a secret – like a wonderful, dark secret and he just needs someone to listen. Look at him over there, smiling, but his eyes aren't, are they?" Stevens was saying.

Yang snorted and Stevens glared.

"Not everyone has a tortured past they're hiding, you know."

"He needs a McName," Grey said and sipped her drink thoughtfully, stopping Stevens from retorting to Yang's remark.

"How about Mc-Tall-Dark-And-Handsome?" Stevens suggested, accepting the slight subject change.

"Too long," Grey shook her head.

"Just McHandsome?"

Grey wrinkled her nose. "Not untrue, but..."

"Mc… Spinal Surgeon." O'Malley put in unenthusiastically.

"Lame, George," said Yang.

"I didn't hear you suggesting anything. McAngry."

"Mc-Shut-Up."

"Mc-Make-Me."

"Mc-Stop-Using-the-Mc." Grey snapped. She turned her gaze back to Jack, as did Stevens.

"We'll get it. We'll figure it out eventually…"

Addison laughed to herself as she collected her drinks from Joe and returned to the table with the boys.

As the night wore on, Addison eased back on the drinks a bit so she wasn't quite so drunk. She spent time chatting with Chief and Callie, and couldn't help noting that her friend seemed worried about something.

"Don't worry about it," Callie smiled tightly.

"Callie, come on," Addison wheedled when they were alone by the jukebox.

"Maybe tomorrow, alright? I really don't feel like talking about it."

Addison wanted to pry, but Callie dropped her gaze and her tone was the type of tired, defeated tone that left no room for the red-head's tactics to get the truth out. She reluctantly changed the subject and after a few minutes of Addison regaling her with a humiliating story from her residency, her friend looked cheered. Jack had come up beside them at some point and listened, and laughed loudly when she was finished.

"You really wore it all day?"

"All day," Addison confirmed, swaying slightly on the spot. "And it was really that pink."

Jack laughed and she tried not to stare at his smile. "I just have a hard time picturing you in a neon pink feathered bikini, scrubbing floors."

"I still have it. It's my favourite floor scrubbing outfit," she dead-panned.

Callie brought over a round of shots, and the three of them threw them back, though Jack needed a little bit of coaxing. Addison caught Jack's eye and smiled her best smile before losing her balance slightly and sitting down hastily to cover the fact. Callie laughed and went to join Mark and Derek who were playing darts. Or, more properly, Derek was playing darts and Mark was struggling to just hit the target and not the wall.

Wow, Addison thought, her head swirling a little. I am really drunk.

"Careful," Jack grabbed another chair and pulled it around so he sat directly in front of her. "You okay? I think you've probably had a few too many tonight." He smiled kindly and reached for the hand she had holding the table edge to steady her.

No wedding ring, she noted with an air of triumph.

"Addison? Are you alright?"

Then all at once, the attraction she felt for Jack bubbled up in one big rush of affection and she leaned forward to kiss him soundly on the lips. For one shining moment, she was kissing Jack and his lips moved beneath hers…

But then he pulled away. "Addison…"

"Yes Jack?"

"Look, Addison," he shifted uneasily. "I feel like you've been flirting with me all week, and maybe I've been reading the signals wrong – "

"You haven't," she said with her best seductive smile. God, she was drunk.

He cleared his throat. "I'm really flattered but – "

Her shoulders slumped disappointedly and the familiar feel of embarrassment was already making her face warm. "You have a girlfriend?"

"No," he said hesitantly. "Not exactly."

"Oh God, you're married, aren't you?" she recoiled in horror, suddenly much more sober. "And you're one of those guys, those doctors who doesn't wear their wedding ring at work because they're always putting it on and taking it off for surgeries so why bother and oh God I'm so sorry, I would've never - !"

Jack laughed and held up his hands. "Addison, calm down, I'm not married either."

She stared for a moment. He's just not interested, she thought. That wasn't so bad. There were plenty of guys who'd liked her and she hadn't been interested…

Except somehow it felt worse. In that small moment after he said he wasn't married and before he spoke again, it hurt to know he simply wasn't interested. That maybe she wasn't pretty enough (like hell she wasn't) or funny enough (so she wasn't a comedian, but come on! She had sense of humor!) or slutty enough (maybe he was interested in Grey – everybody else was at some point, it seemed).

But then he continued, "I'm… in love with someone else."

She sat back in her chair. "Oh."

He cleared his throat uncomfortably again. "Besides, aren't you and Mark…?" He trailed off but gestured helplessly with his hand to where Mark was pulling his darts out of the wall around the target.

"What? Together? Oh no, no – been there done that," she laughed much too hard, somehow trying to ease the awkward conversation but only making it worse. "Several times actually. I mean we got together when I was married to Derek, which was awful I know, and then I came to Seattle to get Derek back and then he came to Seattle – Mark did. Then Derek left me for some skanky intern – okay, she's actually not that bad, but I kind of hated her for a while, especially since everybody acts like she's a damn goddess most of the time and she can't do anything wrong…"

Jack was staring and she realized she was rambling. She stopped immediately and it was her turn to clear her throat uneasily.

"No. Mark and I are not together."

"I'm sorry, I – "

"No! Don't worry about it, please," Addison insisted. "I am just incredibly drunk off my ass and doing stupid things – it's just what I do these days. Especially around you, apparently." She hadn't meant the last bit to sound quite so cold.

"Addison…"

She stood none too steadily. "It's fine, Jack, really. It's late anyways, and I have a shift tomorrow afternoon, so I really should get going home. I uh," she glanced at Derek who looked like he was having a great time with Chief, Mark and Callie. She wasn't going to bother him to drive her home, especially if it meant being here for another minute. "I'll just go call myself a cab."

He stood too, wanting to say more, but she wasn't about to let him. She'd already humiliated herself beyond belief with him several times over, what was one more? What was one more crushing moment of horrifying embarrassment? Maybe with any luck she would wake up tomorrow and not remember any of this, and neither would he.

"Addison – " he tried again, but she waved her hand at him.

"Good night Jack, see you later."

A/n: Thanks for reading! And feedback of any form would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to know if anyone is reading this!