A/N ~ TW: sexual harassment sort of

"I'm looking for a Dr. Shepherd."

Before Meredith could react, Mark was on the floor. She yelped as Derek punched him right in the jaw, sending him down. Meredith and Cristina jumped back and Derek tried to shake off the pain in his hand.

"What the fuck, Derek?"

He sighed, and looked at Meredith. "Can I talk to you?"

Meredith stared at him, speechless. As did Cristina, and everyone else who was surrounding the commotion, whispering and murmuring. Meredith didn't notice Addison joining the crowd. Meredith's eyes shifted to Mark, who was now sitting on the floor holding his hand to his cheek. She knelt down to him and moved his hand away, revealing a laceration on his cheekbone. "Mark, holy shit, are you okay?" She ignored Derek's distressed voice asking if she knew Mark.

Mark groaned slightly and let Meredith help him up. "Ehh, I'll be fine." He looked toward Derek. "Nice to see you, Derek."

Derek just scoffed at this, and pointed between Mark and Meredith. "How do you two know each other?"

Meredith ignored him and started dragging Mark away, "Come on. I'll help you get cleaned up."

They started walking towards an exam room but Mark looked over his shoulder and smirked. "We met last night." Meredith rolled her eyes and pulled for Mark to walk faster.

The cotton bud she was using to clean his cut was frozen, held in the air as Mark finished speaking. "But, I mean, still. I can't believe he didn't tell you he had a wife. I mean, it makes sense when I think about their marriage, but it seems selfish. I don't know."

Meredith was reeling from the past 5 minutes. She explained to Mark the whole story after he had convinced her to tell him how she knew Derek. It was then his turn to explain his side of the story. He told her about his history with Derek, being his best friend, being by his side as he married Addison, then watching their marriage slowly fade away until he and Addison got caught in bed. He frowned at Meredith, who was staring at him. In her eyes, he could almost see her conflicted, trying to process all this information. He snapped a finger in front of her face. "Meredith?"

She blinked and opened her mouth to speak. "I… uh…" She shook her head and looked at the cotton bud in her hand, then resumed cleaning the wound.

"So what's the deal with Derek and Addie? Are they gonna," he paused to look at her, unsure if he should ask this. "You know, give it a go?"

Meredith's eyes met his and she let out a breath. "I don't know. All I knew up until 10 minutes ago was that he was married. A day ago I thought he was just a regular guy, a great surgeon, a guy who I lo-" she cut herself off by taking a deep breath and threw away the cotton bud. "I don't know." He raised his eyebrows and glanced over his shoulder as she moved to the bench to get a sterile sheet and supplies for suturing his cheek. She came back and got into position.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Meredith looked up at him and held up her hands. "You need stitches."

"I know. Hold the mirror."

Meredith left the room to join the 4 other interns in her group. She rested her head in her arms on the counter.

"So," started Alex. "How do you know Dr. Sloan?"

Meredith lifted her head to look at his grinning face. "You're enjoying this too much." She noticed Izzie dragging George with her, walking away. "Are they still mad at me?"

Cristina looked back and shrugged. "She was freaking out, didn't go to sleep until like 3 in the morning apparently." She turned back to Meredith and Alex. "She'll get over it. I'm surprised, it's like she forgot that you just found out your boyfriend has a secret wife"

Meredith put her head back down as she felt her eyes well with tears. She hadn't cried over any of this yet, and she sure as hell was not about to do it in the middle of the hospital. Her shift still had hours left and she didn't want to think about how she had to spend it with Addison Shepherd. She forced the tears back, and Alex said something about finishing charts as he walked away. She felt a small push on her back.

"So why did Derek punch him?" Cristina whispered. "And are you going to tell me what happened last night or am I going to have to force it out of you?" When she got no response, she pressed on. "At least tell me if you slept with him or not." Meredith stood up, shot her a dirty look, and walked away. "Really good talk!" Cristina yelled down the hall.

As Meredith turned the corner she was startled to almost run straight into the one person she was trying the hardest to avoid. She dipped her head down and tried to walk past, but he gripped both her arms and held her there in front of him.

"Meredith, can we talk? Please."

She didn't dare look up, scared of what might happen if she did. The desperation in his voice alone almost sent her over the edge. When she didn't reply, he brought his hand under her chin to lift it up, but she pulled away from the touch. He released a shaky breath. "Please, Meredith. Just let me explain."

The saliva felt thick as she swallowed. "You don't need to, Derek."

It wasn't the reply he wanted but he was happy to hear her speaking to him. "Meredith, I promise it's not as bad as it seems. Two minutes, please."

"You really don't need to. Mark told me everything." she spoke painfully slowly.

"Mark? What- Mer, why are you trusting Mark? He mentioned you met last night, what did you do with him-"

Meredith looked up and cut him off, "You haven't even apologised, you know?" Her eyes pierced into his, and his into hers. He could see so much pain, he just wanted to take it all away from her. He wanted to feel everything she was feeling if it meant she would be okay. But he couldn't do anything, for he was the reason her eyes flooded with unshed tears.

The guilt in his eyes felt physically painful to Meredith. She wanted nothing more than to collapse in his arms and stay there forever. He spoke again.

"Meredith, I am sorry."

She swallowed again, before shaking her head and snaking out of his grip and walking away, leaving him standing there with a few bystanders, watching the scene unfold.

Joe's bar was dimly lit and crawling with hospital employees. She swam through the crowd to the bar, where she spotted Cristina drinking a soda and sat next to her.

"Hi Joe," she offered a tired smile, the fatigue noticeable in her voice. "Hi Chris."

Her best friend turned to look at her. "You look-"

"Like shit?"

"Sure. I was going to say, drained"

"Mmm." Meredith picked up the glass Joe had placed in front of her and downed it immediately. "Thanks. Keep 'em coming." Cristina frowned.

"Meredith-"

"I didn't sleep with him."

Cristina widened her eyes. "Mark?"

"Mhm" she nodded. "You wanted to know. I met him," she let out a dry laugh, "here, actually. We, uh," Meredith paused. She took the two shots that Joe had placed in front of her on the bar. "We kissed. I went back to his hotel with him, but I'm pretty sure we didn't have sex. I woke up and went to work, where I found out who he is. That's it."

She heard a scoff. "You're pretty sure? Mer I-"

"No I- I'm sure" she waved her hand dismissively. They sat in silence for a moment and Meredith took another shot.

"How was being on the wife's service?"

"It was surprisingly the easiest part of my day. She didn't say much, about anything. Very," she made a motion with her hand, "professional." Cristina just nodded, and continued sipping her soda. They both observed the bar, often glancing over to a certain group of boisterous twenty-somethings.

After some time, and more drinks, Cristina turned to Meredith again. "Have you spoken to McDreamy yet?"

Meredith took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Hmm, how'd that go?"

Meredith didn't respond. She just signalled for another shot. Cristina's hand lifted and met hers, bringing it down. "Maybe we should go."

Meredith tapped her shoulder with her palm. "You can go. I'm staying" she pointed at herself.

"Ha! You think I'm leaving you here again? What, so you can ruin everyone's night twice in a row?"

Meredith shot her a glare and huffed. "Fine. Just don't get all bitchy. I'm saying you can go."

"Alright."

After a moment, Meredith announced she needed to piss and climbed off the barstool. She smiled to herself and she took note of how she was walking, satisfied with how far she felt from sobriety. After peeing, she washed her hands and stared at herself in the mirror, her hands holding her up on the side of the sink. When a nurse from the hospital walked in, she composed herself and left the bathroom. Her footsteps came to a halt when she saw the person who was waiting for her by the bathroom doors.

"Meredith."

"Mark."

He observed her for a moment, the tired eyes and slightly furrowed eyebrows. "You look sad."

Meredith laughed. "I'm not sad. Why would I be sad?" she made big gestures with her arms, almost hitting the nurse leaving the bathroom. "Oops." She looked at the nurse and tried not to laugh. "Sorry!" She looked down to see Mark held her arms down in the same way Derek did earlier. When the woman had walked far enough, Meredith burst out laughing as Mark watched and smiled.

"You're hammered."

Meredith calmed down and sighed happily. "Nooo, nah" she waved her hand and shook her head.

"I was watching you drink, I'm surprised you're not on the floor."

She scrunched up her face. "That's creepy. I usually drink this much I, I'm fine."

"Yeah, well, how much have you eaten today?"

"Umm," Meredith looked up and pretended to think, but her mind couldn't focus enough, especially since she didn't care at all. She was still smirking and pretending to think when she was pushed against the wall. Her eyes snapped to Mark's, but before she could begin to question him, his lips crashed against hers. His hands were roaming her back, but hers remained still by her side. She tried to say his name, but it came out as an unintelligible sound against his mouth. She was frozen, she didn't know what to do. She brought her hands to his chest and made an attempt at pushing him away, but he didn't notice. Her head was against the wall, stuck in place. She tried moving to the side, but he caught her and continued making out with her. Again, her arms pushed against his chest and this time had enough force to shove him away. They caught their breath, Mark didn't notice the look in her eyes under the dim light until she yelled at him. "What the fuck?" She hastily wiped at her mouth, not noticing the tears streaming down her face.

"Meredith, you're crying- what's wrong?" He took a step back.

Air caught in her throat that felt swollen and she looked anywhere other than at Mark. She began wiping her face, failing to be faster than the fresh tears coming out.

"Shit shit shit. I'm sorry, I thought you wanted…" he trailed off, panicked.

Meredith hurried off, ran through the blurry bar and out the door, almost tripping up the stairs. Once on the sidewalk, she couldn't control the hysterical crying that began. She stumbled down the street, finding it hard to breathe, until she could turn into an alleyway, where she collapsed against the side of a building. She sat there, crying, and didn't see the man approaching. "Meredith…" She gasped at the familiar voice, and looked up at Derek.

A/N ~ I really want to say that I do love Mark, and he's not going to be a 'bad guy' in this. He just fucked up. Bad things have to happen for plot. I promise things will get resolved and this kissing storyline won't take up much of this fic. Thank you crazypotterhead11 for the review, I agree with you and hopefully you don't absolutely hate the end of this update. But it's fine if you do. Thanks everyone for reading :)