Chapter 1

I was standing at the nurse's station filling out a chart for a patient with non-small cell with a history of COPD, when I felt a presence behind me. As soon as he started to speak I knew who it was. I decided to play his game. He began to flirt with me talking about staying in bed all day and asking me if I went out with co-workers. I asked his if he was hitting on me in a hospital and his reply was "would that be wrong?" I went to go give him a hug to end the charade when a fist came out of nowhere and hit him in the jaw. "What the hell was that?!" I asked Derek the owner of the fist. His reply shocked me "That's Mark."

It was then when the Chief appeared "Shephard my office now!" Derek turned and headed towards the chiefs office but not before turning back to glare in my direction. I wasn't sure if he was glaring at me or at Mark. Addison took one last look at Mark and me before following Derek to the chief's office. "Grey, take the man to get an ex-ray and get him patched up then bring him to my office." Said the chief before turning towards his office mumbling under his breath 'punching out people on the surgical floor'.

I turned back to Mark who was just getting up off the floor. I was aware that everyone around us was staring and beginning to talk. "Come on Mark, let's go get you looked at." I said grabbing his arm and pulling him towards an exam room to begin his work up. Once the door was closed Mark looked at me with a smirk and said "Hi death long time no see" "Don't hi death me Mark Sloan! What the hell are you doing here? And what the hell you sleep with your best friends wife?!"

"Oh death…Derek and I always did have the same taste in women." "Excuse me?" "Your Derek's lusty intern right? I heard about you all the way back in New York, your famous." "Well I heard about you all the way here in Seattle, so I guess we have a lot in common" "Were the dirty mistresses." Said Mark grinning. "I suppose we are" I agreed. "My four hundred dollar an hour shrink says it's because behind this rugged and confident exterior I'm self-destructive and self-loathing to an almost pathological degree." "Hey we do have a lot in common." I smiled and laughed. It felt good to laugh again. "You know it's funny Derek walks in on me naked with his wife actually in the throes and he just turns around and walks away, but he sees me so much as talking to you and I'm on the ground bleeding, interesting don't you think?"

I just stared at him then I began to get back to work. I was just getting ready to sow him back up when he stopped me. "What do you think you're doing?" Mark asked stopping me before I could start on his face. "You need stitches." I said trying to give him my best glare. "I know hold the mirror." Said Mark taking the needle from my hand. I just gave him a dirty look. I know that he was a hot shot plastic surgeon but that didn't mean that I can't sow him up. I just grabbed the mirror from his hands and held it as he began to sow himself up. "You know that last time I saw you, you were going through security to get on your flight to go back home." Said Mark. "I know I had to get back I had a –"then Mark interrupted me "I know a family emergency, but you know you never did tell me what the family emergency was." Said Mark. I knew that he was fishing for answers and since the rest of the hospital knew I guess I should give him answers. "I had to go back to Boston, my mother called she had been to the doctor's and received some bad news, I didn't find out till I got to Boston that she had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's." I said looking down not wanting to see the pity on Mark's face. Mark stopped stitching himself up and he just looked at me. "Oh Meredith, how bad has it gotten?" "It's not too bad most days she recalls her residency and me being five years old. She lives in a nursing home and I go visit her as much as I can get. She had a scare a few weeks ago where she was admitted to the hospital and everyone found out that she was sick." I admitted looking at him and noticing that he didn't have the same 'I'm sorry' look that everyone had had around her lately.

Mark just looked at me and said "It's ok to be overwhelmed, you had to go to Med school and now you're trying to complete your internship all while taking care of your mom. So it's ok for you to be overwhelmed Death, then on top of that everything with Derek, I don't know how you do it." After he finished his speech he went right back to completing his stitches like he hadn't said anything at all, all while I just stood there holding the mirror.

As he was finishing up I went out to my fellow interns who were just staring at the two of us. "Mark wants an x-ray to check for fractures." I said staring at him through the window. "Hmm McSexy wants an x-ray I'll do it" said Izzy jumping a little to excitedly for my liking. "McSexy? No McYummy?" said Christina in deep thought. "No…McSteamy…definitely McSteamy if you knew the things that man can do-oh never mind I said that" I quickly backtracked and then rushed back into the room to take Mark to x-rays my face still red when I entered the room. Mark had just finished when I made it back. I grabbed a wheelchair that was in the corner and I began to set it up when he looked at me and just said "I don't think so lead the way to the machine and while we walk you can catch me up and everything that's happened since our last meeting." Said Mark. I rolled my eyes and led him to the CT.

After his x-rays were cleared and I had told him how I went to Dartmouth for med school before moving my mom and I out here to Seattle for my internship and how I was living in my childhood home with other interns, and he told me about he spent two more days in Sweden before he left to go back to New York and continued his practice and his life until he slept with Addison. We had made it to the chief's office before I could get more details on how he had slept with his supposed best friend's wife. "Well here we are, I'll leave you to the meeting. Good Luck Marky" I said grinning. Just as I was getting ready to leave him there the chief came out "Ahh good you're both here step into my office."

As I stepped into the office I saw Derek and Addison on one end of the room, I stayed as close to the door as I could. The chief took a seat behind his desk. "Now does anyone want to explain why my head of neurosurgery punched out a man on my surgical floor, and how do you play into all of this Dr. Grey?" I just looked at the chief like a deer in headlights. I was about to answer when Mark spoke up. "Dr. Webber, I was out here for personal reasons when I ran into Death here and I was just talking to her and trying to catch up when Derek came out of nowhere and hit me. Now I know he and I share a rocky past but…" Mark was interrupted by Derek. "Rocky past! You slept with my wife Mark! What did you expect me to do when you showed up here?" Shouted Derek getting ready to get up but Addison put a hand on his shoulder. "And another thing how do you even know Meredith and what is with the nickname?" "Oh Death and I go way back to her pre-med school days. We met in Europe with Die and we went traipsing around Europe. We had a blast drinking throughout Europe. We had lots of fun in Sweden didn't we Death?" said Mark smiling at me which caused everyone in the room to look at me.

I just grinned at him, I knew what he was talking about in Sweden we had gotten so drunk we had gotten married. We had filed the paperwork to divorce after we had sobered up. Die (my best friend in undergrad) thought that it was hilarious. "We did I'll agree to that." I said smiling at him, I looked over at Derek and he was glaring at me. Addison looked at me then gasped "Oh my goodness you're the girl that he took off for all those years ago. Is this the same girl that you-Oh my god Mark!" Addison just stared at us then she just started laughing. We all just looked at her and Derek finally asked "What is so funny Addison?" "Oh…Oh…First Mark sleeps with her then years later you end up sleeping with her. Hahahaha" She continued to laugh and I'll admit even I started to laugh a little.

The chief just looked at all of us then turned to Mark and said "On behalf of the hospital I apologize but on a personal level I agree with Derek. So Dr. Sloan you are free to go. Dr. Grey you can get back to work now." I left as quickly as I could but Mark stopped me before I could make it down the hall. "Meredith when do you get off shift? I would love to catch up with you?" "I get off in two hours meet me in the bar across the street? Joes?" He nodded and left down the hall towards the exit.

I couldn't believe it after four years I finally saw Mark Sloan again. I can't believe it. This was the man that I had had a whirlwind romance with in Europe, to the point where I had married him. I couldn't believe that he was here but the question was why was he here? I would just have to wait till after my shift to find out. I spent the rest of my shift working on my patient and avoiding Derek, Addison, and the rest of the interns.