If Addison and Derek are going to make it work , they need to come clean about everything.Thank you thank you thank youu to the lovely people who review .Rest of you take note.Also I'm really sorry for the screwy punctuation in the first few chapters , I've seen a couple complaints about it and I've fixed it , it's just that I'm writing this on my phone. MEREDITH ' S POV

As she emerges from the locker room that morning she sees a familiar tall figure loping down the corridor.

If it's who she thinks it is, things have officially gotten out of hand.

First she found out that the man she loved and was planning to spend the rest of her life with had a wife, a stunning intelligent kind and funny and impossible-to-hate-wife .

Then he told her he was going to stay with his wife , going to do the right thing.

Then they had sex at the prom while Addison was twirling around not two floors beneath their feet.

And now the Shepherds seem to be putting on some sort of half-assed parody of their marriage; it's pathetic really, and kind of hard to watch them.

And now McSteamy is here , to complete the McTriangle.

McDreamy, McHottie , and McSteamy.

When did this hospital get so incestuous?

"O ' Malley you're with Addison Shepherd, Karev with Sloan -

"Sloan 's back?"

seeing as I assigned you to him , he is .Now go.

Grey you're with Derek Shepherd, Yang go with Burke and Stevens - pit. No ,Yang you cannot switch with Grey you're with Burke so go on, get outta my hair."

She shoots Cristina a thankful look as they all shoot off in different directions - she tried - and hangs back a little in the conference room, hoping Bailey will notice her before she has to call attention to herself.

Bailey stares around, hands on her hips, after she's done barking orders , as if to make sure none of her interns are heading in the wrong direction or hiding under tables.

"Grey why are you still here?"

"I ...I saw you had a really cool procedure on the board today, Dr.Bailey and I was really hoping to scrub in, I could learn so much and I was ...Uhm , I was just thinking I'd choose General. As my specialty , you know, like my mother!"

"No."

" What ?!"

"No , Grey, I don't care about your specialty because you're only trying to escape Dr.Shepherd and I ...sympathise with you , Grey because you're right, he will be a whiny annoying self- righteous bore today but I don't care. And the interesting procedure you are rambling about is actually a bowel resection on a man who swallowed his own hair so unless you really want to sit through several feet of stinking necrotic bowel with me I suggest you get a move on."

" I'll come with you."

Between the awkwardness of spending all day with your married ex boyfriend while his cheating wife and the man she cheated on him with wander the same halls and exploding pus filled abcesses she chooses the abcesses so what does that say about her?

Bailey draws herself up to her full height and opens her mouth in preparation for what she is so sure is going to be a rant of epic proportions that she takes off down the corridor to find Derek anyway.

She finds him outside a patients room , foot tapping impatiently.

"Good morning, Derek. "

Here we go.

A short pause, then " Morning , Dr. Grey. "

He turns abruptly and heads into the patient's room ; she has no idea about this case and he's got the chart so she lingers in the doorway for a second, unsure -

People who hover in doorways are coming from nowhere and going nowhere.

then follows him inside.

Almost an hour later they're done with rounds and she has been berated over the littlest of things , acquiesced to the most inane of demands and is just about ready to whack Derek over the head with a chart when he says

" We're done here Dr .Grey . Go start on my pre- ops , I want all the labs and scans for each patient on my desk at least a half hour before their surgeries " and stalks away , nose buried in his phone.

She hesitates for a moment and then chases him down , looking round to make sure no one is watching.

Thankfully the Neuro ICU is pretty quiet.

" Derek. Derek ."

"What is it , Dr . Grey?"

"Oh so I'm Dr. Grey now?"

"Ye-es?"

" Come on Derek. We can be friends. I'm with Finn now; you left me and we had sex at the prom , you asked me what does this mean , Meredith and I didn't say anything , so I'm with Finn now. And you're with Addison. At least I think you are. So please, Derek , I think that we can be friends. "

DEREK'S POV

But they can't , they can't be just friends . He loves Addison, he does , she's the other half of his soul , she completes him and he's never going to leave her again.So why the hell is he so terrified of letting this skinny blonde intern get too close? She wasn't a fling , she was more than that but he never loved her in the fiery all - consuming way he loves Addison .Why can't they just be friends?

"Meredith . I guess I should tell you this myself, before you hear it in the hallways ... Addison and I , we're together. We're together and we're giving it a real shot, so -

A bland smile that doesn't reach her eyes ; "Oh. She doesn't want you talking to me does she ? Not outside work?

It's okay Derek. I understand. I...I'm with Finn now. I understand, but if you ever want to just , um , talk or whatever...you can talk to me.

So I'll just...yeah . I'll just go now."

She walks away from him just a little faster than normal , her shoulders hunched just a little.

It's like I was drowning and you saved me. You're like coming up for a breath of fresh air.Innocent blue eyes looking into his , silky blonde hair running through his fingers, angry desperate resigned tears falling against his cheek that long-ago night at the prom.Drinking beer on the deck outside his trailer, tequila shots at Joe's, a whole bottle of it in her unsteady hand outside her mother's house - take me for a ride, Derek-and the close warm car with his shirt draped over her shoulders.Maybe she made him feel young. Wanted, needed ; maybe it was her sheer clingy needy naivety that pulled him in , nothing more .

Maybe.

"Meredith !"

What Addie doesn't know won't hurt her. And anyway , if Mark gets to be here , I can talk to Meredith.

" Yes, Derek? "

" I still walk most mornings , on the trails in the woods. Behind the trailer where we used to take Doc .If you need to talk..."

" I'll keep that in mind." she says with that childlike grin , and jogs away.

Getting there, slowly.

Clearly I write small chapters. So that I can change the direction this us going whenever I feel like it. Sorry.

Pleeease review.