A/n: Big thanks to inkspire, who spit-balled and brainstormed with me way back when I was beating my head against a wall for this story, a particular plot point and much of this chapter. ;D

Chapter 7

The next afternoon, Addison was working late and had time for a short nap before her next surgery. She went to an on-call room and tested the knob to see if it was open. It yielded and she was grateful to find an empty one so quickly. As soon as she crossed the threshold, however, she realized it wasn't empty after all.

"Oh – " she started, seeing Jack asleep on the bottom bunk. She quieted, and was about to back out, when she noticed he was clearly distressed.

Addison was unsure of how to proceed but also felt like she couldn't just leave him. She closed the door behind her, and carefully approached him. He was mostly mumbling incoherently, but she was fairly certain she heard him say "No" at one point.

"Jack?" she said quietly and gently touched his shoulder.

He jumped awake and nearly knocked Addison in the face. He was sweaty and panting as he looked up at her, slightly disoriented.

"Addison?" His eyes darted around the room briefly before landing back on her. He sat up, avoiding her gaze. "Sorry, I didn't realize I'd missed a page."

"No, it's fine, there wasn't a page," she hastily explained. "I was just coming to grab a quick nap and you were… well, I just thought I should… Jack, are you ok?"

Jack rubbed his hand over his face. "It was just a bad dream."

"I know. But are you… ok?"

He looked at her then, and she felt heat rise in her cheeks against her will under his unexpected intense gaze. He asked suddenly, "Do I look familiar to you?"

Addison though the question was odd, especially at this moment, and wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Was he asking because she looked familiar to him?

"I don't think so," she answered after a moment. "Why do you ask?"

She didn't know him well enough to discern his reaction, but he sort of nodded and seemed disappointed by her answer.

"You're sure?"

She studied his features for a moment but couldn't understand what Jack meant. Why would he look familiar to her?

"No." She replied.

As if this wasn't confusing enough, Jack stood abruptly and cleared his throat. He didn't spare her a glance as he snatched up his pager and turned towards the door.

"I should get back to work." He said briskly.

"Jack – " She tried to stop him, wanting to know where the strange question had come from.

"Thanks for waking me. See you later." He hurried out of the on-call room, letting the door close behind him.

Addison wondered what that had all been about. She didn't have time to wonder long, however, as her pager went off just a moment later.

So much for that nap. She thought with a shake of her head and rushed out of the room.

When Addison stopped in the break room for coffee, she found Callie knee-deep in paperwork.

"Don't talk to me," she said, holding up her hand as soon as Addison entered. "If you talk, I won't be able to focus, and I have to get this done. I'm having enough trouble focusing on it as is."

Addison chuckled then said, "I won't say a word. I'm just caffeine-ing up."

She turned her back to Callie as she poured herself a not-terribly-fresh coffee and added an ample amount of cream to make up for it. She was still thinking about the incident in the on-call room with Jack a couple hours ago, and despite her promise only moments earlier that she would be quiet, Addison couldn't help herself.

"Does Jack look familiar to you?"

"Addison…"

"One thing. Just one thing and then I'll leave and you can get back to your focusing."

Callie huffed a sigh that moved her bangs out of her eyes and said, "Fine. I need a break anyways." Tossing down her pen, Callie rose from her chair and joined Addison.

"So, does Jack look familiar?" Addison asked again.

Callie shrugged and grabbed herself a cup of coffee as well. "Should he?"

"I don't know. It's just that I went to one of the on-call rooms earlier, and he was in there sleeping – well, he was having some sort of nightmare. So I woke him up, and then he asked me if I thought he looked familiar." Addison explained. "When I said no, he left right away and now he's pretending like it never happened. I mean, that's weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I'd say so. Maybe he's a child star and he was pissed you hadn't see one of his movies." Callie joked. "You should Google him."

Addison laughed. "I'm not going to Google him."

"Why not? I've done it to all my exes."

"Really?"

Callie nodded and gulped down some coffee. She winced. "This is terrible."

"It's better with cream," said Addison. "A lot of cream."

"I think I'll pass after all." Her friend made a face and dumped her half-full cup in the garbage. With a sigh, Callie headed back to the chair she'd previously vacated and grabbed her pen again.

Taking her cue to leave her friend to work, Addison bid her good luck and exited the break room.

Jack had no problem burying his nightmare while he was at work. However, once he'd arrived to the quiet emptiness of his apartment, he felt overwhelmed by images and memories. He made himself a stiff drink and began searching headlines for Kate's name.

After discerning Kate was still free somewhere, Jack leaned back in his chair and rubbed his tired eyes.

This wasn't the fresh start he'd imagined. He was in a new city, with mostly new possessions, a new job, new friends, everything. Except everything he was trying to forget seemed to be clinging to him like a layer of clothing he couldn't remove. He was supposed to be moving forward, moving past everything that happened.

He felt as though every time he shut his eyes, something would pop up to torment him. Things that had happened, things that never had but could have, things his imagination invented. He couldn't seem to shut it off and didn't have a solution to make it stop. He supposed he would just have to hope that eventually it would all go away.

Jack made himself another drink, downed it fast and went to bed.

After Addison arrived home from her shift, she gratefully took a shower and then booted up her computer to check her email. When her homepage, Google, loaded, Addison remembered what Callie had said about Jack being a former child movie star. She snickered at the idea and thought she should Google Jack for pure amusement's sake.

She began typing his name, felt silly and deleted it at once. It was stupid. There was no reason to Google him. Except then she thought of the way Jack had asked her if he looked familiar to her, and her curiosity was piqued again. Maybe she would just check the first page of results or something…

A second time she started typing his name into the search engine, but she only made it about halfway when she changed her mind again and deleted it.

Shaking her head, she instead opened her email and forced herself not to think about Google. It really was ridiculous. She didn't need to Google him. They were friends now, and she would find out whatever she needed to know about him the old fashioned way.

A couple days later, Addison was crossing the catwalk when she found Mark and Derek leaning against the railing with deceptively innocent looks on their handsome faces.

"What's up with you two?" she asked when she reached them. "You look like you're trying hard to look casual."

"What?" Mark shrugged. "We're just… taking a break."

"I'm taking a break," said Derek. "Mark is spying on the new doctor that the Chief is interviewing."

"And trying to read lips. I've never been able to do that."

Addison glanced over her shoulder to the Chief's office and could see a blonde woman sitting before him. "That's Dr. Erica Hahn, isn't it?"

Derek nodded.

"I hope she gets the job – she is hot." Mark put in with a grin.

She rolled her eyes. "Keep it in your pants, Mark."

"Oh, I think you should take your own advice, Addison."

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Please. I saw how cozy you were getting with Jack the other night at Joe's."

"It's true," added Derek. "I saw you kiss him."

"Well, did you also see him reject me?"

Derek winced and hissed sympathetically, while Mark let out a bark of laughter.

"It's not funny! It was humiliating. He's – look, not that it is any of your business, but he's attached, so, we're just friends now."

"'Attached'? As in married? That hasn't stopped you before." Her ex-husband smirked.

"Ha, ha," she said humorlessly, then added, "No, he's not married. And I'm not discussing this with you two anymore. So you can get back to your ridiculously obvious spying. I have patients to check on."

"You're going to the on-call room with Jack, aren't you?" Mark grinned suggestively.

"No! God – he's not even working today."

"And you would know, wouldn't you?"

She ignored the pair's laughter as she rolled her eyes and walked away. She tried in vain not to think about the idea of her and Jack in an on-call room together.

Despite Jack's teasing that he would have to avoid Joe's because of her "evil twin", Addison again found herself in his company at the familiar bar, two weeks after "the incident" (as she silently referred to it). This time, however, she was not openly hitting on him or so drunk she couldn't think straight. She felt she was doing quite well, in fact, keeping her drinking to a minimum. Besides, though others had no qualms playing darts while drinking heavily, she preferred not to for fear of impaling someone.

"You're up, Shephard," she said. "Let's see your best shot."

Jack took a quick swig of his beer and rolled his shoulders. "I'll have you know I came in second place to a record high score at a bar beside the college I went to."

"And what college would that be?" Addison asked.

"Columbia."

"Hey!" Mark, seated with Callie nearby, raised his glass. "That makes two of us."

Jack took his shot. His dart hit just a shave off the bull's-eye and he grinned as he threw his second dart, which stuck in the next ring outside the bull's-eye. Mark whistled, impressed, and Jack tossed his third dart, hitting inside the bull's-eye ring.

"How's that?" he smirked and gathered his darts.

"Not bad, not bad." Addison nodded approvingly before lining up to take her shots. "But now it's my turn, and you're going to see how this is done."

Jack crossed his arms over his chest. "Think you can beat my score?"

She looked over her shoulder at him, head tilted down slightly. "Oh, I know I can."

Mark and Callie ooed and Jack's grin widened. "Since you're so confident, Montgomery, why don't we make this a little more interesting?"

"What do you propose?"

"You buy the next round if you can't beat my score."

"And when I do?" She raised her eyebrow, a smile growing on her lips.

"If you can, then I'll buy."

She pretended to think about it for a moment before shaking his hand. "Deal."

He stepped back and gestured for her to take her turn.

Addison threw her first dart which was a little too far away from the bull's-eye for her taste. Jack hissed disapprovingly beside her and Mark laughed.

"Bad start," Jack shook his head.

She ignored him and threw her second dart, which hit dead center. Callie whooped and high-fived Mark and Jack chuckled.

"Still one more to go – you have to hit center again or – "

Her third dart stuck directly beside her second, tight inside the center of the bull's-eye. She turned to face him, trying not to look too smug.

"Didn't you say you were second or something at Columbia?" She eyed him. "Well, I used to be first when I was there." She smirked and scooped up her darts. "So I believe the next round is on you."

Mark and Callie clinked glasses.

"Thanks Jack!" said Callie.

Jack laughed. "One of you might have mentioned she was a champion dart player before I made the wager."

"And what fun would that be?" Addison smiled.

As Jack left to get the new round of drinks, Callie and Mark exchanged amused and knowing glances before turning to Addison. She saw immediately what they were thinking and shook her head.

"Don't – we're friends."

"We didn't say anything," Callie said and the pair of them smiled wide. Addison rolled her eyes and left to help Jack with the drinks.

"Just friends, my ass," Mark mumbled. "She repeats that like a broken record. Shall we place bets on how long that lasts?"

"Absolutely." Callie agreed.

The pair broke off their wagering as Jack and Addison approached.

"What were you two talking about that was so interesting?" She questioned.

"Nothing in particular." Callie shrugged and accepted her fresh drink from Jack, thanking him.

"Just that I'd like to see Addison hand Jack his ass again." Mark joked.

"And I'd like to see you try to play darts sober, but we don't all get what we want." Addison teased.

Mark pretended to be offended and immediately challenged Jack and Addison to a dart duel while Callie sat back, highly entertained.

After several more rounds of drinks and darts, they finally parted ways shortly after midnight. Jack and Addison were easily the most sober of the group, but Jack offered to drive them all home so they wouldn't have to pay for a cab.

"Thanks for driving tonight," said Addison when they arrived outside her apartment building.

"No problem at all." Jack smiled.

As Addison grabbed her purse from beside her feet, she noticed a small picture laying on the floormat. She scooped it up; it was of Jack and a pretty brunette woman with hazel eyes. It was close up and the background blurry, but they were indoors somewhere and judging by the way they were hugging in the picture, it was clear they were a couple. She wanted to ask if this was the "complicated" "someone" he'd mentioned, but then he cleared his throat uncomfortably and she handed him the picture.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to… you know, stare."

"It's fine. Must've fallen." He looked suddenly closed off and distant which was a sharp contrast to the hours of fun they'd just had together.

"Is that…?" She couldn't help asking, though it was obvious he didn't want to talk about it.

"Yeah." He said after a long moment. His brow furrowed briefly as he stuffed the picture into his pocket, not meeting her inquiring gaze.

She was dying to ask more but already felt she may have over stepped with him, so she smartly bid him goodnight, thanked him again for the ride and climbed out. As he drove away, her curiosity about him seemed to increase tenfold.

Damn it, Addison, she thought. What is your fascination with broken men?

With a heavy sigh, she headed inside.

A/n: Thanks for reading! :D