Addie and Callie , Mark and Derek.Some flashbacks and memories , a little backstory and hints about what's coming.

ADDISON'S POV

Stevens never turns up, but she didn't really expect her to, not after the stunt she'd pulled on her her last time , with the quints.

She had to learn, though and she knows from her own experience that this is the only way forward for the rare young surgeon who cares too much; you have to crush their bleeding hearts and break their trust in the power of medicine , dull their emotions and curb their spirit so that they can heal without bias and emotion in their way.

Richard did it to her, she did it to Stevens.

She can understand Izzie's pain firsthand ; sometimes she thinks it would be better to be like Yang, clinical, distant and cold.

She had an amazing surgery today that she'd wanted Stevens to watch, because she sees more than a little of her younger self the younger woman's eyes and because she shows enormous promise in her field. If only she could get her to talk to her again.

She signed Richard's contract that afternoon, hyperaware that she was now legally bound to stay in Seattle for the next three years until it expired, come what may.

She doesn't know what will happen in the next three hours , let alone the next three years , and she wonders when she became this scattered and this unfocused.

She's losing her edge; maybe it's the constant damp in the air, maybe Derek is wearing her down.

" Can I borrow Mark?" Callie asks, flopping down next to her on the gurney with a huff.

"You can keep him."

" No ,I just need him for a couple of hours."

" Wait. Why...exactly do you need Mark?"

" Because I need to forget that my cute intern boyfriend ditched me because his stupid blonde pseudo - mommy told him to."

"Oh. "

Mark is good at that , good at making people forget.

" I just wanted to make sure you didn't. ...you know, mind or anything."

" I don't. I have a husband."

I do, I do I really do.

Callie raises a critical eyebrow " You've had one for eleven years. You still slept with Mark and you got pr... sorry."

She falters under Addison's cool gaze.

"I know I slept with him and wrecked my marriage but it was just sex,

Honestly that's all it was; she loves Mark indulgently , out of gratitude , not possessively .If manwhoring makes him happy, she's all for it. But she looks out for him, all the same, doesn't want him getting hurt if he ever gets too involved with a girl who ends up in his bed.

and Mark is like a... a friendly, chatty, human...dildo. "

"Good. I really have to get laid."

" Callie, if you're that desperate to wake up tomorrow morning in a cloud of shame and regret , come with me to Joe's tonight instead and we'll get drunk."

" Can't. On call."

" We-elll then I guess you'll have to settle with Mark."

"Oh, Mark isn't exactly settling is he, I mean the last time he was here we -

" Callie."

"Oh. Okay. Sorry."

" Come with me. I've got to interview a new Peds surgeon for the new department, to be in charge of follow ups for my patients when they're bigger.

You can intimidate her, it'll make you feel better." she looks over at her friend, sometimes the only one she feels like she has here.

God she misses Savvy and Nae.

"So you're staying? " Callie asks softly, eyes bright and suddenly she flings her arms around Addison and hugs the air out of her lungs.

"Yeah, I'm staying ."

" Good , because I was just starting to like you. Come on...hey what's the difference between you and a Peds surgeon anyway, is it like you do teeny weeny tiny humans and they do tiny humans?"

" Yeah, something like that."

MARK'S POV

How hard can it be to get a decent cup of coffee in Seattle?

Maybe he should ask Addie, she always knows where the good stuff is. Coffee snob.

Richard used to laugh at her about it in intern year , said she had more caffeine than blood in her most of the time.

Nights spent on call in Mt .Sinai, studying in stairwells and rarely sleeping, competing for surgeries and Addie winning most of the time.

Crashing at Derek and Addison's place post call because it was closer to the hospital.

Having to watch them, watch their happiness and the dreams in their eyes, knowing that the one thing he really wants will always be Derek's.

He settles for a cup from the cafeteria and ducks into a stairwell to drink it, needing to be away from those pesky interns for a solitary minute.

He doesn't get much solitude though, because he finds a none- too -welcoming but familiar face in the gloomy corner, slumped against the floor.

"Tough day,Derek?"

He looks right at Mark "You have no idea."

"Oh yeah.I bet you had a real bad day didn't you. You're back with your gorgeous wife, you have a job most people dream of , and your best friend just moved here. It must be terrible."

" Shut up . You're not my friend."

" Addie says you're giving me another chance. That you promised her you would."

" I am. I just never told her that you're not my friend. And don't call her Addie."

" Why? "

" Don't mess us up again Mark."

" I cleaned up your messes for a good two years in New York before you fell apart Derek , and I didnt tell you to have an affair with Meredith ; your marriage going to the dogs wasn't all mine and Addison's fault ."

"You slept with my wife. "

"It was a mistake Derek , you were never there and she was lonely. She needed you but you were too busy being a hotshot so you were never there."

I was there. Being you.

You crossed a line Mark , I don't think I can ever look at you without seeing your hands all over her , I look at you and I want to punch your lights out. You were jealous of me , Mark, weren't you , you were jealous and so you ruined it for me."

He's right , the goddamn annoying perfect haired little bastard .He has always been jealous of him.

Jealous of his happy loud loving intruding family, of his two overprotective ever - present parents and his tangle of sisters.

Jealous of their jumbled messy crowded house , so different from his cold silent one .

Jealous of his hold on Addie, because by rights she should be his.

He'd seen her first, you know, in med school. But Derek asked her out first because he didn't know how to, didn't know how to have something real instead of drunken one night stands and shallow flirtations.

" You ruined it for you Derek. You were so distant those last two years even Amy noticed ."

" Don't bring her up to me."

" She's your sister , Derek, or you gonna run from her too?"

This is what he hates most about the man, he never really appreciates how good he has it.

What she did is unforgivable."

" She was a kid , Derek. You can't punish her forever. "

" She doesn't bother talking to me."

" So you call her! . You call her, Derek and

you call your mother , and you treat Addie the way she deserves to be treated after the way you've fucked her up and wasted her time ."

This is something he hates too; Derek is never the one to take the first step, to repair damage that more likely than not he inflicted in the first place.

He never sees anyone's pain except his own, never adjusts or gives an inch ; it's all about Derek.

But he's always there isn't he, good old Mark, to step up and take his place. To be Amy's brother and drag her ass to rehab, to be the son Derek stopped being a few years ago. To be Uncle Mark to Nancy and Liz and Kathleen 's kids.

To pick Addie up off the floor and put her together with tape and glue and pretend she was all his , until Derek comes home again and suddenly he can't even see his reflection in her eyes although he was right in front of her because Derek is all she can ever see.

If he hurts her again he'll be sorry.

" I've messed up haven't I. " soft and guilty.

" I'd say you have."

" What am I gonna do?"

" Fix it, asshat. "

He looks at him a long time and the sight of his sorry face brings a deluge of memories,

First grade at the school where Derek had won himself a scholarship and Mark had had his name down since birth, Carolyn packing him two brown bag lunches because Mark's mother usually forgot to give him one.

Sleeping at the Shepherds little house when his parents left him home alone in their Chelsea mansion.

Christmas and Easter , Thanksgiving and birthdays.

Riding bikes and playing tag with the girls, holding Amy when she was born.

Holding Mrs Shepherd's hand while she sobbed at the funeral, Derek holding the other .

High school, slightly awkward and gawky , first dates and first kisses and crushes and then college, Carolyn asking tongue in cheek if they're ever going to bring home girlfriends.

Med school and Addison , listening to Derek gush like a girl about Addison this and Addison that.

The beginning of his still uninterrupted string of conquests, keeping himself busy because no one else could compare .

Best man at the wedding because that's what you do when your best friend gets married.

I've missed you Sloan. "

" Awww. I love you too."

" Shut up, whore. "

"Jackass."

"Douche."

" Hey!"

Addek is eventual ; you need friends if you're gonna fall in love.

Pleeease reviewwww. If you hate it I wanna hear, if you love it I wanna hear.