A/N ~ I'm sorry nothing is happening at the moment. Things will get dramatic soon.

Meredith was sitting on a barstool tipsy, once again. Cristina walked up to her and sat down.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"So, the clinic has a policy. They wouldn't let me confirm my appointment unless I designated an emergency contact person. Someone to be there, just in case. And to help me home, you know after. Anyway, I put your name down. You're my person."

"I am? I'm your person?"

"Yeah you are, whatever." Cristina smirked. "You owe me for last night anyway."

"Right," Meredith rolled her eyes. "So whose was it, anyway? You never told me."

Cristina took a moment to reply. "Doesn't matter. He dumped me."

Meredith frowned in concern. "Oh. I'm sorry." Cristina just nodded and picked up the glass of water in front of her, while Meredith sipped her margarita.

Meredith looked around the bar, and her eyes widened as she saw Derek and Addison enter. She snapped her head forward, ducking her head down quickly. Cristina looked at her disapprovingly, "Mer, what the fuck are doing?"

"Shh!" Meredith gestured for Cristina to duck down too.

Cristina looked around and sighed when she caught sight of the couple. "Mer… maybe we should-"

"Did he see me?" Meredith whispered, looking up at Cristina with pleading eyes.

"Uhh," Cristina glanced back at them as Derek pulled out a chair for Addison. "No, uh, I don't think so."

"Okay. Good." Meredith inhaled deeply.

Cristina sat awkwardly for a moment, waiting for Meredith to do something but she just sat there silently. She smacked her lips, "We should uh, let's go."

"No, no, no. Too early." Meredith shook her head dramatically. Cristina just sucked her lips in and frowned at her disapprovingly. "Tomorrow we both have the day off, why not have some fun tonight?"

"Have some fun..?"

Meredith nodded and smiled.

"Maybe because you've been 'having fun' every night recently?"

Meredith just narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Well. I'm going to have fun again. Because I want to have fun. I've been feeling in a fun mood recently. I can't help it. I'm just a fun person!"

"I think you and I have different definitions for fun."

"Yeah yeah. Just go home Cristina, I'll be fine."

Cristina looked around the bar. It wasn't too busy, it was mostly hospital staff and other regulars she recognised. She looked back at Meredith. "Fine. Call someone if you need to."

Meredith grinned at her and tilted her head. "Bye" she waved as Cristina briefly smiled and left the bar.

"Meredith."

Meredith turned and looked at Mark, standing behind her. "I.. uh I-" she stammered while her heart rate picked up.

"Relax, I'm not gonna-" he sighed, "I came to apologise. To you." he finished solemnly.

"Oh."

"Can we go somewhere maybe? Just to talk."

"Why can't we talk here?" she frowned.

"I don't know if you've noticed a certain couple.." he nodded over to Derek and Addison's area. Meredith glanced over at them, Addison was talking and Derek seemed to be politely nodding along.

She looked back at Mark, "And what do you think it'll look like, us walking out of here together?"

Mark gave a small chuckle and sat down, sighing. "Look, I just… I'm really sorry. I didn't realise that you, you know. I thought- I don't know. I wasn't thinking."

Meredith took a deep breath and looked at the shot glass of tequila in front of her. "I get it. It's fine."

"I'm sorry."

"Let's just forget about it, okay?"

Mark nodded and stayed silent. They both glanced over at the married couple, but Derek was already looking at them. Mark quickly looked away, but Meredith maintained eye contact with Derek. He looked hurt, almost disappointed. Meredith turned around and swallowed her shot. "This is ridiculous."

"What is?" Mark said softly.

"This whole-" she gestured. "In-between thing he's doing. I know she's his wife but like, I almost expected him to just not talk to her, you know? When you told me their story, about how she cheated with you, I was relieved. I kind of, I don't know, realised it's not as bad as I thought. And I really believed that eventually I would forgive him for lying to me, and we'd continue on as we were before she came. I mean, there's been moments, or, there was one moment a couple days ago where, well, and it was just before I remembered he's married. But… it felt like maybe we'd be okay. Anyway," she glanced back at Derek and Addison. He was smiling as he talked to her, and they looked like any regular couple. "I guess I was really wrong." she finished in a whisper.

Mark sighed and was silent for a moment. "They were married for eleven years. I guess it's hard to just let go of that."

"Well, it shouldn't be!" she exclaimed.

Mark raised an eyebrow at her.

"I just feel like an idiot." Meredith looked at Mark. "What do you think he'll do?" she asked softly.

Mark shook his head. "I don't know. Although, I think my being here gives you an added advantage" he smirked, earning a soft smile from Meredith.

"Mmm. I think you just complicate things."

"Is that what I am? A complication?"

"No," she laughed, then looked at him. "Maybe."

"I'd be offended, but you're probably right." They both laughed and it was quiet for a moment, before he spoke again. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah." she nodded.

"Did you tell Derek what happened that night?" he asked quietly.

Meredith felt her smile fade. "No, why?"

"It's fine if you did, I just- he was my best friend and I already fucked up once. I don't think he'd forgive me if he found out about that."

"I'm pretty sure he knows something happened that night, but he doesn't know anything."

"Okay," he nodded. "You can tell him."

"I know. I'm definitely not going to." she said. "Hold on. You think you have a chance at forgiveness?" she raised her eyebrows.

"I'm hopeful. Stay positive, right? That's what people say."

"Yeah. Well," Meredith gathered her things and stood. "I think I'm gonna call a taxi. This was supposed to be fun, but I'm not really feeling it anymore." She looked at Mark, "no offence."

"None taken," he smiled. "I'll see you?"

"Sure," she nodded. She made a point to avoid looking in the direction of a certain couple as she left the bar.

From the small table where he sat with his wife, Derek intently watched Mark and Meredith talk at the bar. Addison was talking but he couldn't focus on that when he was trying to figure out the tone of the conversation he was watching. Suddenly he was making eye contact with Meredith. He felt a longing to be next to her, to be talking to her, to be touching her. And he could almost see the same desire in her eyes.

"So then she started haemorrhaging, and the husband was of course freaking out and- Derek!" Addison paused her story.

Derek looked back at Addison. "Sorry I uh," he closed his eyes and shook his head softly.

"What?" Addison frowned and tilted her head.

"Just…" he pointed with his eyes at Meredith and Mark.

Addison looked over. "Oh." She took a deep breath. "Look, Derek. Have you thought about what I said?"

"It's been a few hours," he said with slight annoyance.

"I know, I just thought that maybe you'd, you know. You might've made a decision."

"Addison..." he sighed. "I've been busy…"

"Yeah, busy. Of course."

He watched her stir her drink. "We were married for a long time, and it was good for a while. But then it went downhill. Say, we tried again. How does it not go back to how it's been?"

"Well, I won't sleep with your best friend again." Addison joked.

"Addie…" he shook his head and looked down, but he didn't hide a small smirk. He looked back up at her.

"I think being apart for a while gave us, or at least gave me a different perspective on our relationship. I'm confident that we won't let it get back to that. I mean, look at us right now, we're talking about… us. That didn't used to happen." she smiled.

"That's true," Derek smiled back. "I just, whatever happens, I have to be considerate about Meredith." Addison's smile dropped. "She's a person, we had a relationship, and right now she doesn't know what's going on. It's not fair to her."

"Right…" Addison hesitated. "But, I mean I don't really know what's going on either. Do you?"

"No, I guess not. I'm just saying she doesn't seem okay and I haven't really had the chance to talk to her. And Mark apparently knows her and he told her what happened between us. Mark, of all people."

Addison nodded slowly and swallowed.

"I'm not just going to forget about Meredith."

"Maybe you should try."

Derek frowned. He looked back at the bar, but Mark was now sitting there alone. "Addison, I need to know you'd be committed to really trying."

The smile returned to Addison's face. "I am. I came from the other side of the country to get you back, Derek. I… I promise. I love you."

Derek looked at her and nodded.

Addison took a deep breath. "So…"

"I'm… I," he smiled slightly. "I think I'm willing to try again."

Addison's mouth fell open in disbelief. With wide eyes, she spoke, "Are you serious? Because Derek, I swear to god if you're joking that's not even remotely funny."

"I'm not joking," he smiled. Addison beamed and released a shaky sigh of relief, as if dizzy with happiness.

"Okay!" she smiled. "That's, that's really good. This is going to be good Derek, I can feel it," she said with sincerity.

"Yeah," he smiled back, glancing over at the bar. Meredith was still not there. He swallowed, and looked back at his wife, who was still grinning. "Yeah," he whispered.

A/N ~ I can't even stress how much I hate reusing lines from the show but I've done it in the Meredith and Cristina scene because it just made sense. Although I altered it a bit because they didn't have their little squabble that they had in the show.