The End of a Very Bad Day, continued


Chapter 4: Continuing Cloudy Skies

Bailey was staring at the surgery schedule, contemplating her next chance to get in the OR, when she saw Derek Shepherd sauntering toward her, a devilish grin on his face.

“So I heard you got your mojo back.”

Bailey leveled a glare at him.

“Do you mean to suggest that I ever lost it?”

“Yes, I mean you cried in surgery. . . .”

As Bailey’s glare intensified, suddenly Derek realized his mistake.

“I mean, no, of course, not. Nobody and nothing could ever take your mojo away. Your mojo is clearly indestructible and all powerful.”

Then he thought perhaps a diversionary tactic might be in order.

“I mean, the Chief. . . .”

“Don’t you talk to me about the Chief. . . . He’s a dead man walking. . . . And, for the record, my mojo is fully intact and fully capable of shoving your mojo where the sun don’t shine.”

“Yes, Dr. Bailey,” Derek decided a real change in subject in my order. “Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about a couple of things.”

“Yes?”

“First, I was wondering if you and Tucker have plans Friday night. The weather’s supposed to be good and Addie and I are both not on call, so I figured we could have a little barbecue with friends.”

“I’m not on call either. Let me talk to Tucker, but I think that’d be good. It’s hard to remember sometimes that normal people actually socialize with people outside the hospital.”

“Well, we’re surgeons. By definition, we’re not normal. But, yeah. Sometimes I miss New York just because we lived there so long we had real friends, not just colleagues. We actually knew people outside the hospital. And I know Addie misses that. I do, too. So I thought we should work harder at cultivating our friendships here.”

“Who else are you planning to invite?”

“I’m thinking Burke, but there’s sort of the odd matter of Christina, because I’m not sure if she’d be comfortable hanging out with all of us, but on the other hand I don’t know and I know after yesterday that we have no interest in inviting all your interns. . . . I’m going to have to talk to Addie about it. . . .”

********

Izzie had collected the newest round of test results for Beth Winters and tracked down Addison to an on-call room. She knocked, to be on the safe side, and when she heard Addison say to come in, she opened the door.

“It’s me, Dr. Shepherd. You wanted these results from the bloodwork and the other tests on Mrs. Winters?”

As Izzie came further into the room, she saw that Addison was – well, she didn’t look the happy Addison Shepherd with whom Izzie had started out the morning.

She wasn’t crying, but she had that look that one gets when she is doing everything she can to cover up that she might. Izzie knew that look.

Sometimes Izzie thought she was the poster child for that look.

“Dr. Shepherd, is everything OK?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s just, just been a long couple of days. . . . So what have you got for me?”

Izzie didn’t feel she could press. While she liked Addison Shepherd a lot, she was never entirely comfortable with her, as a result of the whole Meredith and Derek relationship.

They just don’t make Hallmark cards for relationships where your roommate is the ex-girlfriend/mistress of your boss’s husband. Although, Izzie realized with the exception of the one time Dr. Shepherd had called her on the use of the nickname “McDreamy,” generally she didn’t bring up their personal relationships, odd and twisted though they were, at the hospital.

As Addison perused the test results, Izzie let her mind wander back to her future in the program. She had gone from a few months ago being asked by Dr. Shepherd to specialize in neonatal to being almost threatened with expulsion for becoming romantically interested in Denny. This was a downward trajectory that needed to end.

More and more, Izzie had been wondering if she had made a mistake in not taking Addison Shepherd up on her offer.

She enjoyed neonatal, working with the mothers and their new babies. She thought she could be really good at it. And Dr. Shepherd was generally, notwithstanding her now extremely acrimonious relationship with Alex, a good boss and a good teacher.

But now clearly wasn’t the time to be asking about moving up in the world; first, Izzie knew she had to get back on Bailey’s good side.

She wondered if Bailey liked brownies? Or chocolate chip cookies?

**********

Derek was off on a quest to find his wife, when he instead ended up in an elevator with Meredith Grey.

He wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to say to Meredith, so he let her start the conversation. He was rather annoyed with her at the moment, and he thought it probably showed.

Meredith was no happier than Derek to be caught in the elevator with her ex. She remembered the look in his eyes the night before, when he had arrived at Finn’s place and found her there.

“You don’t get to do this, you know.”

“Do what?”

“Disapprove. . . . Not as my friend, and not as my not friend. It’s none of your business.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t give me that. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You don’t get to approve or disapprove about who I date.”

“I’m not.”

“I saw the look you gave me last night.”

“Last night . . . last night was the end of a very long day. . . . A day that included waiting around for an operation that I never performed. A day made much longer by the fact that neither you nor any of your friends know how to keep your mouth shut, whether around each other or around patients, whether personally or professionally. A day that ended with me rushing our nearly catatonic dog to the vet again. Where, though I knew you were going to date him, I didn’t really expect to see you half-naked. . . . So, whatever it is that you thought you saw, whatever inappropriate reaction you thought I had, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t get to pick your wife, have sex with your wife, bad or otherwise, and then be mad at me for moving on.”

“Look, will I admit to a flash of jealousy. We were involved; it's never easy to watch someone you care about move on. But I picked Addison. And I have realized that I made the right choice because I love Addison. . . .”

“And, for the record," Derek continued, "since you and the rest of the hospital, thanks to you, seems to be so concerned, last night I had amazingly hot sex with Addison."

"You absolutely have the right to move on, to date anyone you want, and Dr. Dandridge seems like a great guy from the little I know. Or at least a great vet. And I honestly do hope you’ll be very happy together.”

With that, the elevator doors opened and Derek rushed out to continue his quest.

******

Having been tipped off by Izzie – at least this time her gossip was for good – about the decline in his wife’s mood and her decision to leave the hospital for lunch, Derek was pretty sure that he knew where to find her.

When Addison needed to think, she headed for the nearest viewfinder.

On his way to the viewfinder, he stopped and bought a batch of pretty mixed floral bouquet. He wasn’t sure what had prompted the decline in her mood, though he figured it was probably the professional aftermath of yesterday’s surgery, and he figured the flowers couldn’t help but me a good pick-me-up. He just wanted to make Addie smile.

Sure enough, as he neared the viewfinder, he could see Addison.

She was facing away from him, staring out at the view, but he would know the legs coming out of that skirt and the flaming red hair anywhere.

“I heard a rumor that the most beautiful, smart, amazing woman was hanging out here and I just had to come see if she might let me buy her lunch.”

Addison jumped when she heard Derek come up behind her. When she turned, she knew he was going to be able to tell that there was something really wrong. There was no way to wipe away her tears – and no escape. So she turned.

When Derek saw Addison’s tears, he instantly knew that Addison’s mood wasn’t about Alex Karev. Addison cared about her work, but things like that made her angry. And he knew she hadn’t lost a patient, because he would have heard.

Derek simply had no idea what was wrong.

But he knew what he had to do.

Before he even said anything, he pulled her tightly into his embrace.

“Whatever it is, Addie, I promise it’s going to be OK,” Derek whispered, holding her even tighter as she began to sob harder. “I love you, and whatever it is, we’ll make it better.”





Chapter 5: The Eye of the Storm

Derek Shepherd was a very, very confused man.

As he held his wife in his arms as she sobbed, he could do nothing more than hold her and stroke her and give her platitudes.

Because he had no idea what was wrong.

And, thus, no idea how to fix it.

He hated to see Addie cry, especially like this. Like she was heartbroken. Like her world was coming to an end.

But it made no sense to him, because when he had left his slumbering wife in their bed very, very, very early this morning, everything had been good. Better than good. It had been great, fantastic, stupendous, for the first time in so long. They had really come together as a couple the night before, first physically and then just by talking, by sharing their lives the way they used to.

So what the hell had happened?

When he finally heard Addison’s tears slow, her breath become more steady, he finally loosened his grip enough to be able to look his wife in the eyes.

“Do you want to tell me what this is all about?”

As she had sobbed, Addison had thought about the irony. Here, she was sure Derek was about to break her heart and yet he had found her, had brought her flowers, and now was holding her while she cried.

And, yet, when she thought back to what she now knew, that he had come to her the night before only after seeing Meredith with another, her heart broke anew.

She knew she had to figure out the truth.

Addison or Meredith – whom did Derek really want? Whom did he really love?

Although how she was going to handle things if the answer was Meredith, she had no idea.

But she had to know.

When her tears finally slowed and Derek pulled away a little bit to ask the obvious question, she knew she had to respond with a question of her own.

“Derek, tell me, what made you decide to come home to me last night?”

“What?”

“I just, I need you to be honest with me. 100 percent honest. Don’t hold back anything, even if you think it might hurt me. I just . . . I just need to know what was in your head, what changed, what made you come back to the trailer wanting to jump me in the shower?”

“What? Why does this matter? I don’t understand, Addie.”

“Please. Humor me. Just tell me everything, what you were thinking yesterday, what you were feeling. Everything that happened. And don’t leave anything . . . or anyone . . . out.”

All of the sudden the picture in Derek’s head went from complete static to at least the fuzzy outlines of a picture. He didn’t know exactly what Addie knew, or thought she knew, but he knew that what, or more properly, who, had her upset was Meredith Grey.

He led Addison to the nearest bench and they sat down together. Derek kept Addison’s hand in his own, not letting her pull it away when she initially tried to separate herself from him.

“OK. But for the record, I love you. I picked you. I want you. And, whatever I did to make you this upset, we’re going to find a way to fix it.”

Addie knew that if the reality was there Derek wanted Meredith – still – there was no way to fix it, but she nodded anyway to encourage him to start.

“Well, I think it started yesterday morning. I promised you that we were going to have non-boring, hot sex, but then the phone rang. And I told you it was about the dog – which, it was."

"But you grabbed the phone and started talking about how we were trying to have decent sex. . . . What you didn’t know was that it was Meredith, and not Finn Dandridge, on the other end of the line.”

“Why didn’t you tell me it was Meredith in the first place? I never would have said that. . . .”

“I know you wouldn't have. When she first called, I didn’t tell you it was Meredith because I didn’t want her in bed with us, metaphorically speaking, of course. Especially just then, when, we weren’t exactly making love the way we used to. . . . I didn’t want a fight, or to make the situation uncomfortable. . . . And, once you had grabbed the phone, I just laughed. I figured Mere would say something, but when she didn’t, I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want to upset you. I’m only telling you now because it ended up substantially affecting my day.”

“So, anyway, when I got to work, like I told you last night, my patient was this crazy divorce lawyer. And Stevens and O’Malley, in the course of spending their day with her, kept essentially suggesting to her that we were headed for a divorce."

"First, they just implied it when she asked if any of us needed her services – she said they had a look. And, then, apparently they shared with her gossip they’d learned from Meredith about our morning and the fact that we apparently had lousy sex. ”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. . . . I wonder how George would feel if we went around talking to patients about the last time his sex wasn’t so hot. But anyway, so I ended spending most of the day thinking about us, about our marriage, about where we had been, and where we were going. I never for one nano-second considered the attorny’s offer. I had no doubt that I did not want a divorce. . . . ”

“And, the divorce attorney said something about how some people come to her saying the conversation’s great, but the sex isn’t, or sometimes the bad sex is a result of our issues, and all I kept thinking was about how hard we’ve both been working to overcome our issues.”

“I came to this conclusion: sometimes bad sex is just bad sex. When you’ve been together 12 years, every once in a while you have to have an off morning or an off night. And I kept thinking that I just wanted to make it up to you – and maybe to prove to us that we are as hot together now as we ever were.”

”And that’s why you came home like a man on a mission?” Addie’s heart was breaking. If Derek couldn’t even tell her about seeing Meredith and Finn Dandridge together, then they were both in denial about the future of their marriage.

“That’s most of it, but there’s one more thing I have to tell you. I don’t know quite how to say this, because I know it is going to sound bad, so I need you to promise to wait until I say everything I have to say before you respond. You have to hear me out.”

Derek reached up and wiped a few more tears from Addie’s cheek before she nodded.

“So last night I took Doc, because he was totally out of it when I got home, to the vet and when I got there, Meredith was there.”

Addie’s heart started beating faster. She knew that whatever Derek said about seeing Meredith was going to make or break her.

“She was wearing just one of his shirts and I guess he lives above his clinic, because she was coming down the stairs. And I was surprised to see her there. Especially when it was clear from her attire that they were intimately involved, and though she had said something about telling Dandridge that she and I were merely friendly co-owners of the dog, I just hadn’t figured things would progress that quickly. Though I don’t know why not, since Meredith is always jumping into bed with men. After all, that's how we started.”

“Anyway, I will admit to still caring about Meredith, and seeing her like that with someone else was a shock and maybe I was a little bit jealous, Addie, but that was not the reason I came home to you. I was not using you as a replacement for Meredith, or to get revenge on Meredith, or for anything else.”

“Maybe seeing Meredith fueled one small part of my urgency last night, but it was nothing compared to the thoughts I had already been thinking all day, and it was nothing compared to the sight of you when I walked through the door of the trailer.”

“The sight of me?” Addie whispered.

“You should have seen yourself, Addison. You were all fiery and frustrated and angry, the drink in your hand. You were taking off your nylons and your legs were all long and sexy, and all I could think about was that I wanted them wrapped around me. Right that minute. All I could think about was how much I wanted you, how much I needed you.”

Addison looked at him.

“Was I just a substitute for Meredith?”

“No. 100 percent, no. A long time ago, I could have chosen Meredith. When I was deliberating over the divorce papers you had handed me, Meredith asked me to. She actually said, ‘pick me.’ But I couldn’t do it. Because she wasn’t you."

"And since the day I met you, Addie, you’ve been my other half. We’ve made mistakes and we’ve hurt each other, but even when things were at the worst, it hurt because that was still true. You are my other half.”

“You were never a substitute for Meredith. Not last night. Not ever. . . . If anything, she was a substitute for you.”

“When we fell apart, when I saw you with Mark, it was like there was this whole big piece of me that was just gone. I was like a man missing several crucial internal organs. And, Meredith, though I wasn’t really looking for it, she was like a life support system to me. She worked for a while, but honestly even if you had never come back after me, I’m not sure if we would have worked for long. Because eventually, even on life support, the patient dies if you can’t fix what is wrong. Meredith couldn’t begin to fix what was wrong, because she didn’t have any information with which to even begin a diagnosis. She didn’t know about you. She doesn’t know anything about my family, our past.”

“She would have learned.” Addison interjected. “And then maybe she could fix you better than I can. Because she doesn’t have wounds of her own.”

“Maybe this is egotistical, but I have no doubt that if I really wanted Meredith, if I really loved her, I could still go after her, woo her away Dandridge or whomever, convince her to forgive me, to give me another chance. . . . While I cared about her and still care about her, and while I may have had a flash of jealousy last night when I saw her with Dandridge, I have no desire to do that because I love you."

"Seeing Meredith with someone else doesn't make me move across the country to flee the pain, because she is not the love of my life. The twinge I felt when I saw her yesterday was not even in the same universe with the anger and rage and jealousy and pain I felt when I found you with Mark. I am slowly getting over losing Meredith; I'm not sure I could ever have gotten over losing you.”

“The reason it was hard for me to pick you when you came to Seattle was that I was afraid that if I let you back in my heart, if I started depending on you again, that you would break me again, and there wouldn’t be anything left. But you’ve proven to me that I can trust you again, that I can be with you again. So I cannot regret my choice.”

“You are my missing organs, Addie. Without you, I was only half-functioning. And maybe we’re still healing, but we’re getting better every day."

"One of the things that I was thinking about all day with that divorce attorney was how we reacted to our boring sex. I actually felt closer to you then then I had in a long time. Because we were laughing. We were enjoying each other’s company. We wanted each other, the same goal, even if we had momentary problems getting there.”

“Meredith, maybe she’s another kind of cure. Maybe in the long run, had you and I not decided to fix things, we could have built some kind of prosthetic me, to replace the missing organs. But she has flaws of her own. And it wouldn’t have been the same.”

“Maybe it would have been better.”

“No,” Derek assured her. “It wouldn’t have been. Because I know, Addie, that you and I at our best are the best. And we are getting back there.”

“You really love me?” Addie asked, and Derek’s heart broke a little at the tone. The doubt, the nerves, they were understandable given the way he had been acting. And he resolved to do better, so that Addie would have the confidence in him that he had slowly been building in her.

“I really love you, Addison” he said, pulling her into his arms and fusing his mouth to hers. “I love only you."





Chapter 6: A Ray of Light

Addison Shepherd felt like she had been riding an emotional roller coaster.

First the high last night of real intimacy with Derek – physical, emotional, genuine intimacy. Then, the low this morning of attributing Derek’s actions not to his desire for and love for her but to a reaction to seeing Meredith with another.

And now Derek had turned her world upside down again.

She felt like Sally Field.

He loved her. He really loved her.

And now she was back in his arms.

After telling Addison that he loved her, Derek set out to prove it to her. His mouth had fused to hers, his tongue tasting and exploring and dueling with hers in the age-old dance of tongues everywhere. His talented hands had slipped underneath her shirt and were exploring the bare skin of her back. As he broke the kiss, his mouth traveled down to the side her neck, nibbling everywhere it touched, making her skin tingle with excitement and exhilaration.

No wallflower, Addison was just as active a participant in the game of love. She let her mouth travel to Derek’s pulse point, and she could feel his reaction when she hit the one spot that she knew drove him crazy. One leg skimmed Derek’s calf, and she felt him tense beneath her in order to remain standing. And she had her hands skimming his chest, feeling the definition of the muscles beneath his shirt.

She could feel her love, her desire for her husband grow and build.

Even more intoxicating then what his hands and his tongue was doing to her body, or what she was doing to his, was the feeling that he really was with her again.

He wasn’t distracted. It wasn’t just physical.

Derek was with her.

It was such a shame they were in public, Addie thought to herself, and she was going to have to stop this before the flames reached the point of no return. She wanted to be able to return to her viewfinder when she needed it, and a charge of public indecency wouldn’t do anything for their reputations. She needed to stop things before they spiraled out of control.

Or at least move them to a more secluded location.

Then their pagers saved her the trouble.

******

“So who paged us?”

Meredith walked into the surgical conference room noted on her pager and found George and Izzie as well as Burke.

“Beats us,” said Izzie, who had already conferred with George and Burke on that exact question. “All of our pagers just said to be here.”

“What’s going on?” Alex came in and joined the crowd, two of the surgical nurses right behind him.

“I don’t know,” Izzie said. “Are you supposed to be this far from your patient? Dr. Shepherd might have you fired.”

“The page said she had approved me being here. But I have no clue what for.”

“Really, the page said I approved you being here?” Both Shepherds had entered the room behind Alex, and Addison’s voice was skeptical. Alex handed over his pager as evidence, and Addison raised an eyebrow.

“OK, so who paged us?” Derek asked.

The interns all shrugged their lack of knowledge, as Burke stood there impassively.

The Shepherds grabbed chairs on one side of the conference table. Derek dropped on the table a bag from an Italian deli across town. He pulled out napkins for himself and Addie, and then two sandwiches. He handed his wife half of each. Meredith watched the Shepherds interact, Addison stealing Derek’s pickle as they each began to eat.

“You stopped for lunch on the way back?” Burke asked.

“The page didn’t say it was urgent; it said to be here in 15 minutes. . . . And we were hungry,” Derek stated the obvious.

As he had ordered the sandwiches, Addie had borrowed the deli’s bathroom and repaired her face, and now it would have been a total shock to anyone who saw her that she had recently dissolved into tears. It was their little secret. There was no more need for tears, and no need for anyone else to know they had ever occurred.

A horde more people came through the door, including Christina, Olivia, and finally Bailey.

“Good, you’re all here.”

“You paged us?” Addison queried.

“Some of you, actually given the way gossip flows in the hospital, all of you are aware of the Chief’s efforts to mommytrack me," Bailey stated impassively. "You are all now going to play a part in ending those efforts.”

Bailey explained her plan.

“What if we don’t want to cooperate?” Derek asked.

Addison smacked him, only somewhat playfully, as Bailey glared.

“Never mind.”

********

“Richard.” The He-Shepherd caught up to the chief and handed him a piece of paper.

“Derek,” the Chief took the paper and looked at it puzzled for a moment. “What is this?”

“Orders for your MRI.”

“I don’t need an MRI.”

“It’s been six months since your surgery. Either you get an MRI and I get the results to make sure my brilliant work is holding up in a man of your age, or I see to it that you don’t operate. . . . Your choice.”

The Chief stared speechlessly after him as the He-Shepherd peeled away into a patient's room.

*******

“Chief.”

“Dr. O’Malley.” The Chief stared at the intern, as George shifted his weight antsily from foot to foot.

“Y’know how you asked me to keep you informed about hospital gossip?”

“Yes, Dr. O’Malley. What is it?”

George remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“People are wondering who you're going to pick as your successor. . . . After all a man of your distinguished carriage should have time to enjoy his retirement? . . . . What do you plan to do with it? Golf? Or fishing? Maybe some travel? . . . An addiction to the history channel?”

“Are you suggesting that I’m old and in need of retirement?”

“No, sir, I would never do that, sir. . . . I’m just saying that people are wondering, sir.”

George's pager went off, and as the intern took off running, once again the Chief was left speechless.

*******

“Chief.” Burke handed the Chief a file folder.

“Preston.” The Chief opened the folder and began to examine the contents.

“I was reading this article and I thought of you. . . . I assume you are taking B vitamins.”

“What?”

“The article talks about how important the B vitamins are for a man of your . . . stature, to keep your heart healthy. . . . You wouldn’t want to add me to your list of doctors, would you?"

As Preston walked off, the Chief examined the article more closely.

“Why Elderly Hearts Need B Vitamins.”

As Bailey impassively observed the expression on the Chief's face -- a cross between dismay and confusion -- from just inside a patient's room, she muttered to herself, "The best things in life are priceless. . . . I guess I don't need Mastercard."

And the Nazi smiled.





Chapter 7: A Blindingly Beautiful Sunset

Derek Shepherd smiled at the view in front of him.

The smooth plains of his wife’s beautiful back, marred only by the back of a black satin bra. He allowed his imagination to invoke what she would look like if she turned around.

Then, he said to himself, to heck with imagination. Reality is so much better.

“You are so beautiful.”

Addie had felt, rather than heard, Derek join her in the lockerroom as she was changing into her scrubs for Beth Winters’s surgery. She always could feel her husband, and her soul mate, when he was looking at her. She could feel his gaze – warm, interested, affectionate, a little bit aroused.

But she waited.

When Derek spoke, Addison turned, and the sight of the front of that black satin bra with the little lace trim designed to drive him crazy in all the right ways, contrasting against the pure white of her skin, had him crossing to her and pulling her into his arms before she could even speak.

His lips attacked.

Derek only had one pair, so Addie was uncertain how it could feel like they were everywhere at once. On her mouth. At the base of her neck. Lower, worrying the strap of that bra he found so intriguing.

And where his lips weren’t, his hands were. Tracing the sides of her ribcage, one dipping down her back to feel the edge of her panties.

She gave as good as she got, her hands feeling the muscles of his back as his hands moved. Running up through the hair that she found so intriguing because it never looked the same way twice. Her mouth open, wet, wanting him.

But when Addie felt Derek reach for the clasp of her bra, she pulled away.

“What?” he ground out frustrated.

“This is the lockerroom. Anyone could walk in at any minute. . . . Plus, we have a patient, two interns, and a bunch of nurses waiting for us.”

“I don’t care,” Derek growled, and he pulled her close again.

Addison leaned in for one last kiss before she shoved him away.

“Yes. You do,” she reached for the top of her scrubs and had it on in a nanosecond. “But I will take a raincheck.”

******

“Dr. Webber.”

“Hello, Meredith. How are you?”

“I’m good, sir. How are you?”

“I’m fine. . . . Is there a reason you ask?”

“I just. . . . well, there’s no easy way to say this. . . . I was wondering if you were getting enough fiber?”

“Excuse me.”

“It’s just, I was reading, and they say fiber is the key to long life. And well, you’re very dear to me, a mentor, a friend of my mother’s . . . and I just wanted to make sure you were getting enough fiber.”

Meredith handed the Chief a bag. It was fairly heavy.

“I have to go check on a patient now for Dr. Burke.”

As Meredith left, the Chief looked inside the bag.

Inside were two extra large canisters of Metamucil.

*******

“All, right, Dr. Satan, let’s get this party started.”

Addison grinned at Derek as he finally joined the party in the OR.

Having left him alone in the lockerroom as soon as she donned her scrubs, she wondered if he needed to take a cold shower on his way to scrub in. After all, that was twice they hadn’t finished what they started.

If she didn’t want to get jumped in the hospital, she was going to have to be careful to avoid closets and on call rooms.

As Addie pondered Derek’s state of attraction, George and Izzie exchanged puzzled glances.

They were uncertain of the significance of Satan as a nickname, particularly when it was paired with a teasing tone and smile. They were both a bit nervous about sharing an operating room with the volatile Shepherds.

George was still pondering his earlier conclusions, about how Derek and Addison had actually managed to put their marriage together, how they had forgiven each other terrible sins and managed to build something new -- or at least repair what once must have been. Just because they had always been nasty and sniping to each other in Seattle didn't mean that it had always been that way. After all, they had chosen each other a second time.

And Izzie was still thinking about her own future, and whether she could manage after all to convince Bailey and Addison Shepherd to permit her to specialize. She vowed to make extra effort to impress Addison during this surgery.

“Why, Dr. Shepherd, how nice of you to join us -- finally? Did you get held up? Forget where the OR is?”

“My apologies. . . . I was busy attempting to make out with my outrageously beautiful wife, and then as a result got unavoidably delayed.”

At that Addison smiled, and George and Izzie both stifled giggles.

“Well, since you have a good excuse.”

Addison gestured to Izzie to touch the scalpel to her patient’s body, making the first cut to deliver a healthy baby who would hopefully by the time surgery was done also have a healthy mother. Since the C-section part of the surgery was routine, Addison was having Stevens start the procedure for experience. However, she would deal with the preemie once they reached that point.

“Y’know, Dr. Shepherd," Addison observed aloud, as she watched Izzie work. "Flattery really does get you almost anywhere with me.”

****

“Dr. Webber.”

“Dr. Karev. Dr. Yang.”

Alex and Christina had come up with what they figured was a surefire way to deliver the coup d’etat to the Chief and hopefully thereby secure themselves spots on Bailey’s honor roll.

But it definitely took two for courage.

“We were just having this discussion. . . ,” Yang started.

“And we were having a hard time figuring out who we could ask for advice . . . ,” Karev continued.

“For guidance. . . . After all, being so young, we don’t have a lot of experience with . . . this . . . particular,” Yang added, her tone as deferential and obsequious as it could get.

“Treatment,” Karev inserted. “And we just realized when we saw you. . . .”

“That you would be the perfect person.”

“What exactly are you attempting to ask me?” The Chief asked, grinding his teeth, a bit scared after his last few encounters with members of his surgical staff.

“Have you ever experienced side effects from taking Viagra?” the two asked the question in unison, their voices blending as one.

As the Chief once again was rendered speechless, both interns’ pagers went off.

“Sorry, Chief, gotta go.” Karev said.

“We’ll have to continue this conversation later,” Yang added.

As they both raced into the stairwell and down the stairs, they waited until they hit the second landing where Meredith was waiting for them.

“You have perfect timing,” Karev told her, as he and Yang both started laughing so hard they couldn’t catch their breath.

“Glad to be of service. . . . How did he take it?”

“Bailey was right,” Christina grinned. “Priceless.”

*****

“So how weird was that?” Izzie asked George as they sat down at a table in the cafeteria with their post-surgery snacks.

“Weird.”

“What’s weird?” Meredith asked, as she sat down to join them with a cup of coffee and the chocolate chip cookie she had been coveting all day.

“The Shepherds,” Izzie said. “All during surgery, they were acting like a couple in love.”

“Good.”

“Good?” Both Izzie and George couldn’t keep the question from exiting their lips in unison.

“Yes,” Meredith responded emphatically. “Good. . . . Against my better judgment and my will, somehwere I ended up friends with both of them, which is weird in itself. It's sometimes an odd and awkward friendship, but then. . . what relationship of mine isn't odd and awkward. Anyway. . . . So good.”

“I think you mean that,” Izzie said. “I’m so proud.”

“So why was it weird?”

“Maybe because I’ve never seen them actually act happy. Like they were in love. ”

*****

“Richard.”

“Addison.”

The Chief waited for the other shoe to drop.

Addison just kept smiling at him. And it made him nervous. After what the others had pulled, he had a feeling Addie had something special up her sleeve. As his favorite and most creative surgeon, she always had something special up her sleeve. Only this time he was the target; he had no doubt that she was part of the conspiracy.

And the silence was making him nervous.

“I realize I’m not your doctor, Richard, but your friend.”

“You know you’re like a daughter to me, Addie,” the Chief replied, hoping that he could preempt the evilness with love and kindness.

He should have known better.

“Well, as your surrogate daughter, I made it business to touch base with your proctologist. He says you’re overdue, and he’s managed to fit you in for an appointment tomorrow morning. 9 a.m.”

“Addison.” The Chief’s tone spoke for itself.

“I spoke with Adele and she’s very concerned about you not taking care of yourself, and I promised her that I would step in and ensure that you were being properly monitored. . . ."

"Addison."

She ignored the tone of voice and the warning.

"So, in addition to your proctologist, you are going to have your colonoscopy – which you are long overdue for, according to your internist – the day after. Again 9 a.m. Here are the orders,” she said, handing them over. “Remember, it’s a liquid diet 36 hours beforehand.”

“Addison.”

“Yes,” she replied, her tone innocent as a choirgirl.

“What do I need to do to make this stop?”

“Make what stop?”

“You know. Bailey’s behind this. . . . She has to be.”

“Well, if you were being . . . grandpa-tracked . . . it might help if you were to be a man, take responsibility, and apologize to the wounded party.”

“It might?” the Chief echoed, his tone one of hope.

“But for the record, both the proctologist and the colonoscopy are non-negotiable. I’ve already informed Adele, and she’ll be ensuring that you are where you supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. . . . After all, I only love you and want to make sure you live to actually be a grandpa.”

****

Two hours later, Addison finally drove up to the trailer. She pondered the fact that she was actually happy to see it, Derek’s SUV already parked outside.

He had gotten to leave the hospital a full 90 minutes before she did, since one of her patients on bed rest had been drenched when her water suddenly broke. The patient in question had the bed next to the one Karev had been monitoring all day, and after Addison heard about Yang’s and Karev’s grandpa-tracking effort, she had let him assist her on the C-section. Mother and baby were fine. All in all, it had been a good day for Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd.

When she entered the trailer, she almost went back outside to make sure she hadn’t stepped into the wrong trailer by accident.

The table was covered with a beautiful tablecloth Addison had never seen in her favorite shade of green. There were romantic tapered candles burning. A vase of fresh flowers – irises, to be exact. A bottle of wine was chilling.

And the smells emanating from their closet of a kitchen testified to the fact that someone had made her favorite dinner.

She dropped her briefcase on the couch and walked up behind Derek, who was busy putting the finishing touches on the chicken pamagiana.

She put her hands around him and felt his body react to the proximity of hers.

“Good evening, Satan.”

“Good evening, McDreamy. . . . Have I fallen through the looking glass?”

“I certainly hope not.”

“What is all this?”

“Can’t a man treat his wife to a special night?”

“It’s not my birthday. Not our anniversary.”

“Nope,” Derek agreed as he dislodged himself from Addison long enough to turn and take her in his arms. He pulled her close and attached his mouth to hers. Her lips parted, granting him entrance, and they exchanged silent expressions of love, longing, and lust, before he pulled back. “There is no occasion, except that I wanted you to know that I love you.”

Tears sprang to Addison’s eyes, and Derek saw them threatening at the corners.

“I love you, too, Derek.”

“And perhaps, just perhaps, I wanted to put you in the right frame of mind to finish what we started,” Derek grinned evilly and leered playfully at Addison. "After all, that was mighty nice lingerie you were wearing. . . . I feel the need to try to take it off of you."

“I think, Dr. Shepherd, that that sort of consultation just might be arranged. . . . Depending on the quality of the chicken pamagiana.”

“I know, I know,” Derek chuckled. “You only love me for my cooking skills.”

“Oh no. I'd love you even if you couldn't cook,” Addison assured him with a smile. “The cooking skills are just bonus. . . . You have other . . . skills . . . that are far more integral to my happiness.”





Epilogue: The Stars Shined Brightly

Addison woke slowly.

She could feel her husband's gaze upon her, and feel his hands up her, tracing random patterns in her skin. She could feel one of Derek's strong, capable hands dancing along the skin of her arm, then her back, then dropping lower, before coming back up and repeating the pattern. The other hand was massaging her scalp, moving gently through her red curls that had no doubt been made even more wild and tangled than usual by the ravages of sleep and, before that, extremely hot sex.

She kept her eyes closed and basked in the feeling of being cherished, of being treasured, of being loved.

It had been so long, and she just needed to soak in the feeling.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Derek said, shifting so his mouth could claim hers. "I know you're awake."

"Mmmmhmmm," Addie smiled. "Well, if I wasn't before, that kiss would have done the trick."

"We have to go to work. . . . But before we get up, I wanted to talk with you about something?"

"OK."

Addie's voice was still sleepy, but Derek could detect a hint of nerves. He vowed to find a way to eradicate that, to make his wife believe in them again, believe in him again.

"We're not on call so we're having a barbecue tonight." Addie looked at him confused. "I already invited Bailey and Tucker. And I thought we'd invite Burke and Christina. I know there's bound to be a little awkwardness there, since she's an intern and we're her bosses, and she's Meredith's best friend, but that's the price she has to pay for being with Burke. . . . Burke is our friend, or at least your friend. She can always not come if she doesn't want to. What do you think?"

Derek could see her confusion and he leaned forward to attempt to kiss it -- and the doubt -- away.

"We've moved to Seattle. We live here; we work here. But we've been so busy with all the trauma of trying to put us back together that we haven't made lives here. We need to build our life together, and I thought this would be a good way to start."

****

"Dr. Bailey."

Miranda counted silently to three before she turned around.

"Chief. . . . I understand you're quite busy this morning."

"Make it stop."

"I have no idea what you are talking about, sir."

The Chief and the Nazi had a staring contest.

There was silence between them as they just kept looking at each other.

The medical personnel who surrounded them couldn't keep themselves from being drawn to the staring contest, the contest of wills. At the same time, they knew if they were caught staring at the starers, the penalty could be very stiff.

The Chief finally conceded defeat, remembering Addison's advice.

"Dr. Bailey, I sincerely apologize for any suggestion that I might have made that you were not performing at the peak of your ability. . . . Clearly, I was mistaken."

The smile came slowly to Miranda's face.

"Apology accepted, sir."

And the Nazi turned and walked away.

She had reclaimed her throne.

*****

"Explain to me again why we're going to this barbecue."

"Because these are my friends." Only traces of Burke's exasperation with his difficult girlfriend showed in the tone of his voice. "We're going for the same reason that we go over to Meredith, George, and Izzie's place when they invite us. Because that's what couples do; they socialize with each other's friends."

"Since when are you friends with the Shepherds? And can the Nazi even have friends?"

"Look, we are a lot like your friends. We're bonded by medicine, by shared experiences. I play basketball with Tucker. I mentor Miranda. As for the Shepherds, they're good people, even if they managed to royally screw up their personal life for a while. . . . But they seem to be back on track. . . ."

"Look, I never flaunted the fact that Derek and I were friends because I was peeved at the way he was handling his personal life, and because I thought it was better if I just stayed out of the whole Meredith-Derek-Addison triangle. Especially since you were so clearly on Meredith's side, and I thought . . . ." Burke decided he was better off not finishing that thought.

"Anyway, Addison and I have always been friends, although actually I probably haven't been a good enough friend to her since she came to Seattle. She's smart, she's dedicated, and she's funny, and if you would give her half a chance, you would like her. Heck, if you weren't so busy badmouthing her when she first arrived, she would have been a pretty good mentor for you interns. Because she loves to teach. . . . If you don't want to come to the barbecue, that's fine. . . . But I'm going."

******

Hours later, Christina was marvelling at the company.

She was sitting with Addison and Miranda -- all of the doctors had told her that when they gathered as friends to use their first names -- on the porch of the trailer as the men conferred with seriousness over whether the meat on the grill was sufficiently charred.

The picnic table the Shepherds had set up was heaping with food and the cooler was full of beer, and the conversation over appetizers had ranged from music to books to the best place to go in Seattle for a truly great omelette. Then the men had fired up the grill, with typical macho boasting.

Doc just ran in circles looking for whom he could persuade to either throw the next stick or slip him some food on the side. Doc quickly had realized that the softhearted Baileys were actually his best bet.

Christina was slowly realizing that what Preston had said was true; his friends -- her bosses -- were people, too. She had sort of figured that out about him, but all of the attendings and Bailey had still had that teacherly glow about them. They weren't real people; they were surgeons. The best of the best.

It was only now listening to Addison and Miranda talk about their mutual addiction to mysteries and how they thought, like everyone else on the planet, that both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had lost their minds if not their souls, that Christina was truly comprehending that they were just people, too.

They were Burke's friends. So in the same way that Burke had adopted her friends, she had to adopt his. They were just three couples relaxing together, having a good time.

Adopting Burke's friends as well as her own would mean they would walk a fine line for a while perhaps between the Shepherds and Meredith, and while she wasn't too good with fine lines in the personal context, Christina realized that she would just have to deal.

******

After dinner with full stomachs, the three couples decided to engage in a game of charades -- despite Preston's warning that Christina was extremely competitive.

"Preston," Addison pointed out. "With the exception of poor Tucker, we're all surgeons. We're all extremely competitive. . . . And Tucker has learned to hold his own."

As they began playing, it quickly became clear that Preston's warning was in part for his own sake, because he and Christina just weren't very good at charades. The Baileys were pretty good, managing to get most of their answers.

But the Shepherds were dominating; it was almost like they were reading each other's minds. And Derek realized that he was having a great time watching Addison just be Addison, connecting with her, competing as her partner instead of her adversary.

"Our turn again?" Derek asked after watching Christina frantically but unsuccessfully try to act out the words to "Cheaper by the Dozen." Derek grinned mischieviously as she sat down, and he glanced at Addie as he picked his next clue. It said, "Spiderman."

But that wasn't what Derek was planning to act out.

He started by making quote marks in the air.

"Phrase." Addie called out. He nodded. He held up seven fingers. "Seven words." He nodded again. He held up the first finger. "First word." Derek nodded again and smiled at his wife's enthusiasm.

He pointed to Addie and then to himself. "Couple." She called out and he shook his head. "Marriage. Man. Woman." He shook it again and made the universal symbol for a little world. "Us. We." Derek nodded. "We," she confirmed, and he nodded again.

He held up four fingers. "Fourth word." He nodded. Then he held up the little word symbol again. "The," she called out, and he shook his head. "A." He nodded.

"We blank blank a blank blank blank." Derek nodded confirmation.

The other couples watched as Derek held up five fingers, trying to figure out which one of their clues he was acting out.

"Fifth word." In the air, Derek drew a box. "Box. Square." Derek shook his head. Then he drew a triangle on the top for the roof. Thankfully, they were on the same wavelength, and Addie called out, "House."

"We blank blank a house blank blank. . . . Derek, I have no idea what saying this is."

Derek held up two fingers. "Second word." Derek pointed down at this foot. "Foot." He shook his head. He knelt down and pretended to tie his shoe. "Tie. Shoe." Derek nodded. "Shoe." Derek pulled his hands apart in the charades gesture for making a word longer. "Shooooo." Addison tried to draw it out, but she wasn't sure where he was going.

Derek made the sign for second word again and then for second syllable. He leaned over and pretended he had a cane and that he had a long beard. "Old." He nodded. "Shoe. Old," Addie thought for a few seconds. "Should. We should blank a house blank blank."

Derek nodded. He held up six fingers.

"Sixth word. You better hurry," Addie called as she looked at the timer running down. He pointed down. "Down." Derek made the "sounds like" symbol, cupping his hand to his ear. And then he pointed to his ear. "Sounds like ear?" Derek nodded. "Bear? Hear?" Derek nodded, and waived his hands to keep trying, and then Addie got it. "Here. . . . We should blank a house here blank."

The others had picked up on what Derek was doing and they were all smiling, wondering when Addison was going to get it.

But Addie was too far into the game.

Derek held up three fingers. Then he indicated one syllable. Then he pretended to hammer something. "Hammer." Derek shook his head, but waved for her to keep trying and made the one syllable signal again. "Nail. Build." Derek indicated that she got it.

"Build. . . . We should build a house here blank," Addie's tone was frustrated as she watched the time run out. "Derek, I'm sorry, I don't know what the last word should be."

Derek approached her with a smile. "The last word was Addison."

"Huh?"

"We should build a house here, Addison." Derek put the pieces together.

She was silent for a moment.

"I'm going to assume that that's not actually what it said on that little slip of paper you picked."

Derek shook his head. "Nope. It said Spiderman."

"I would have gotten that," she assured him. "Do you mean it?"

"Yes. I love you and I think we need to build a new home here. . . with a bathtub and enough closetspace for all of your shoes."

Addison practically leaped into his arms and fused her lips to his.

"I think that's a fabulous idea," she said when they finally broke for air, to the applause of their friends. "You do realize that that's going to be a lot of closet space."

"I know. But it'll be worth it."