An Entirely Separate Story

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

Hope those in the U.S. are having a happy Independence Day! For today, my Livejournal is declaring independence from Cracks & Foundations, and instead I'm reposting another story that is whole and complete. Feedback is as always more than welcome.

The End of a Very Bad Day

A Very Long Post-Episode for Blues for Sister Someone

By Lilybeth

Disclaimer: I don’t own Grey’s Anatomy. I do this for fun and imagination and because the characters have taken over my fingers and don’t permit me to type other things. There is no profit involved. Indeed, you might say this keeps me from the real work I should be doing.

Chapter 1

“Addie?”

Derek said his wife’s name softly as the two lay intertwined on the bed in their trailer in the midst of the woods. Addison was lying with her head on the chest, and he could feel one hand still stroking his chest. For his part, Derek had one hand stroking his wife’s back, exploring the smooth skin there, and the other lying comfortably on her hip.

It had been a long time since they lay together like this, comfortably and affectionately in the warm glow of post-coital bliss. After their initial bout of hot, lusty, frantic sex in the shower, they had moved to the bed for round two, which was slower but no less intense, and now they were just basking in the aftermath.

“Mmmhmmm?”

“So you had a bad day?”

Addison dropped her head and kissed Derek’s chest softly before answering.

“I have to say it has improved dramatically in the last couple of hours, since you came home. . . . It feels like, like we’re really connected for the first time in a long time, like you really want me. . . . And that’s way more important to me than all the crap at work.”

“How about we make some dinner, and you tell me about it anyway?”

“I’m not sure I want to move . . . ever.”

Derek began to sit up, bringing his wife with him. When he was upright enough, he leaned forward and claimed her mouth in a soul-searing kiss, their tongues intertwining and exploring. When they parted to breathe, Derek smiled.

“A man cannot live on hot sex alone. . . . Let’s check out the kitchen.”

When she leaned as if to lay down again, Derek playfully pulled Addison out of bed with him, and she stole one of his flannel shirts to wear, while he grabbed a pair of pants on his way to raid the refrigerator. They scoped out the provisions, and Derek decided that he should cook, since they had the fixings for omelets.

“How do you feel about breakfast for dinner?”

“After that, we can have anything you like for dinner.”

Addie smiled, as she leaned against the counter and watched her man go to work. He started by opening a bottle of Shiraz and pouring them each a glass.

“So talk to me while I work. . . . Tell me what happened.”

Addison gave Derek an abbreviated account of her day, starting with Karev’s backtalk, how he was rude to her patient, injecting his own personal beliefs into her treatment and refusing to follow orders both inside and outside of the operating room.

She continued with an explanation of how she had followed the patient’s wishes, but that the patient refused to confirm that with her husband who was threatening suit.

She wished she could be confident it would all end up fine in the end, because she had nothing wrong -- other than failing to document her patient's wishes in an effort to help her out. Her obligation was to her patient, not to her husband, and Karev had been present and would no doubt under oath support her account of what happened. Plus, she didn’t think when push comes to shove the patient would lie under oath, given everything.

But this was the real world, not Disney World.

The reality was that there would be a settlement and a black mark on her reputation, unless she could convince the hospital and the lawyers to fight it out. But if they did that, then her patient would be hurt and it still might not come out Addison's way.

“You’re really between a rock and a hard place,” Derek observed, refilling her wine glass while the eggs cooked. “But while your patient's wrong to not come clean, she is right about one thing. You are too good a surgeon and too well-respected for this to have any long term impact on your career. . . . Nevertheless, you definitely need another glass of shiraz.”

She looked at her glass as Derek refilled it. “Are you trying to get me drunk, Dr. Shepherd?”

He leaned it for a quick kiss and let his hands creep under the flannel shirt to feel the softness of Addison’s skin.

“While I plan to seduce you again tonight, Dr. Shepherd, I think I’ve already proven that I don’t need alcohol to get you in the right frame of mind.”

Addison pulled Derek to her and hugged him tightly before kissing him.

“That is the truth.”

When Derek pulled away to work on their breakfast-dinner, he took a good look at his wife and thought to himself how sexy she was.

She looked, despite all the work craziness, relaxed and well-loved. And damn hot, leaning there, her long legs bare, wearing only his partially-buttoned flannel shirt. Her red hair tousled and curly, falling over her shoulders and making him want to tangle his hands in it. No make-up.

Just one hundred percent, pure, unadulaterated Addison.

His wife had a thousand different looks for different occasions, but this was still the way he liked her best, the way no one else got to see her. Just relaxed and open and natural. He was sad to say he couldn’t remember the last time she had looked quite so comfortable in his presence.

“So what are you going to do about Karev?” Derek asked as he served up their eggs and they moved to the table to eat.

“Oh, I’m taking care of him. I already talked to Miranda. He’s my personal slave for the foreseeable future. . . . And I guarantee you that it’s not going to be a pleasant servitude.”

“Are you going to make him walk around the hospital scantily clad and feeding you grapes?” Derek laughed. “Because as your husband, I’m going to have to object to that.”

“No.” Addison grinned. “You are the only scantily clad man for me. . . . Besides, even if you weren’t, after today Karev makes my skin crawl. . . . I was thinking of slavery more like the Egyptians, than the Greeks, y’know lugging large bricks to build the Pyramids. Hard menial labor. . . .”

“Basically, he is going to be doing more scut work than he knows what to do with. If you can think of anything you need doing that’s highly unpleasant, let me know and I’ll have him take care of it. I’ve got Bailey and Burke on board as well, and Karev is going to be the surgical intern who does every menial, unpleasant task I – or any of you – can think of until I decide he’s learned his lesson. Given his attitude, he’ll be lucky if he ever sees the inside of an OR ever again.”

“Don’t get mad, get even? How very Satan of you!”

Addison smiled. “I’m the queen of all things evil, and don’t you forget it.” Addie grinned. “But this time it’s for a good cause. . . . So, anyway, enough about my terrible, no good day. How was yours?”

“I spent most of the day waiting for my patient to seize so I could operate, and then once she finally did seize, she decided she didn’t want the operation.”

“That must’ve been frustrating.”

“Actually, it was kind of good. She’s this high-powered divorce attorney. Stevens and O’Malley spent the whole day coming up with random ways to try to make her seize so we could map the brain, and apparently she had so much fun while she was not seizing that she realized that her job stress – listening to people argue constantly – was aggravating her condition. She’s going to try changing her lifestyle first; if that doesn’t work, she’ll come back for the procedure.”

“Interesting. . . . What did they have her doing?”

“I know they had her play some video game and drink a lot of coffee, but other than that I’m not even really sure. She made the connection to her career after O’Malley and Stevens had some big fight in front of her . . . extremely professional of them."

"But, before she had her change of heart and decided to give up the battles of divorce law, she offered me her services.”

Addison might have been truly scared had she not literally spent the last few hours exchanging intimacies in her husband’s arms, but the mention of divorce and her husband in the same sentence still made her nervous.

She raised an eyebrow: “And did you take her up on her offer?”

Derek went from grinning to serious in an instant.

He looked Addison in the eye and reached over and took her left hand in his and rubbed it with his thumb. He could feel her wedding rings, and the strength and the gentleness in her capable hands, in the hands that saved lives and loved him. And Derek felt the nerves and tension that she felt, even though they had been as physically intimate as a couple could be.

Derek knew it was time to put her fears to rest, to be emotionally as well as physically intimate with his wife.

“No. I told her I was definitely not interested.”

“I know we still have issues that we’re working through, but I picked you almost 12 years ago and I picked you a few months ago.”

“And I don’t regret it, Addie, about either time. I don’t have any doubt any more. . . . I love you. And I want to rebuild our life together.”

And Derek watched as tears came to her eyes, and she used her other hand to reach up and wipe them away.

“I love you, too, Derek.”

Chapter 2: Dawning of a New Day

This morning Addison Shepherd woke with a smile on her face.

It didn’t matter that she was alone in bed, Derek having been paged to the hospital for an emergency a few hours earlier.

It didn’t matter that she was in a trailer in the middle of the woods. After last night, she had some fond memories of the trailer. Not that she wouldn’t happily move into a house with real walls, real closet space, and a bathtub. But she wasn’t hating the trailer nearly as much as usual.

Even the fact that she had a potential malpractice lawsuit hanging over her head couldn’t take away from the way she felt after last night, when Derek first practically devoured her during hot shower sex, then treasured her in the same bed in which only hours earlier they had only been able to accomplish boring sex, then made her dinner and listened to her problems, and then told her about his day.

Most importantly, Derek told her he loved her.

And then, needless to say, they went back to bed. But sleep was not on the agenda.

Yesterday may have started out with boring sex, but it certainly didn’t end up that way.

Yes, this morning was good.

*******************

Bailey on the other hand was definitely not smiling when she came into the locker room.

The look on her face had all four of her present interns jumping to their feet as if they were brand new and terrified of her once again. The chief didn’t think she had her “A” game back, and Bailey was determined to show him just how wrong he was.

She could start by whipping her crazy, lazy, moronic interns back into shape.

“Yang’s in surgery with Derek Shepherd. Grey, you’re with Burke today.” Meredith didn’t wait for permission before taking off. She could read the writing on the wall and, while she felt for her friends, she had no desire to join them as an object of Bailey’s wrath.

“O’Malley, you’re with me. Get me pre-op labs on the patient in 516.” Like Meredith, George knew to get while the getting was good.

Then, Bailey stood there and gave Karev and Stevens the evil eye. They each waited, Izzie dropping her eyes to the floor and Alex glaring right back.

“If there is anything left of you when I am through with you, you are both with Addison Shepherd today. . . . Karev, I want a moment alone with Stevens first. You go wait in the hallway. When I’m done with her, I’ll deal with you.”

After the door to the locker room slammed shut behind Alex, Izzie waited nervously, twisting her hands.

“Y’know, Stevens, when the five of you first started, I knew you would make some mistakes. You’re interns. That’s what interns do. You screw up. You mess up procedures. You misdiagnose. You occasionally even kill a patient.”

“Who would have imagined that my biggest problem would be my interns’ sex lives? First, there was Grey. Sleeping with an attending. How stupid could an intern – and a female one at that – get? There is nothing that will undermine the other doctors’ respect for you more than trying to sleep your way into procedures. And then Yang followed her lead.”

“But you, you take the cake. What you are doing with Denny is crossing a line that absolutely cannot be crossed. A romantic or sexual relationship with a patient is grounds for possible disciplinary action by everyone from the AMA to the hospital board, and in some states is criminal. You could lose your spot in this internship program. You could lose your license.”

Izzie looked back at Bailey, willing back the tears.

“I realize that you did not do this intentionally, that you often lead with your heart with patients. Addison tried to teach you a lesson about that a few months ago, but it clearly didn’t take. You have to learn it. There is no alternative.”

“This is what we’re going to do about Denny. . . . You have five minutes supervised by me – as soon as I finish killing Karev and burying his body – in which to explain to him why you will not be coming around any more.”

“Period. No exceptions.”

“You will not be assigned to him as a doctor; you will not visit him as a friend or as anything else. And you will be a model intern for the foreseeable future to thank me for saving you from yourself.”

“Are we understood?”

Izzie nodded, blinking back the tears in her eyes.

“Repeat after me. ‘Yes, Dr. Bailey.’”

“Yes, Dr. Bailey.”

“Good, now go send Karev in here, then go get me and yourself a cup of coffee. I’ll meet you outside Denny’s room in 10.”

Izzie nodded and left, and Bailey took a deep breath as she waited for Karev.

Alex re-entered the locker room with his trademark swagger and smirk.

Bailey wanted to take a baseball bat to his head, particularly after what he had pulled with Addison yesterday. Not that Addison wasn’t more than capable of fighting her own battles. But it was going to take all of her skill to fix Karev before he got himself expelled from the program, or just murdered by any one of the attendings.

Bailey glared at him.

“Do you just not want to be a surgeon?” she started, her voice even. “Because if that’s what you want, we can just let you go right now. There are other people who would kill for your spot, for the opportunity to learn from Burke and the Shepherds and the Chief. . . . I want an answer. Do you want to be here, or don’t you?”

“I want to be here.”

“Then act like it. At the moment, you’ve managed to piss off at least two of the three star attendings and, quite frankly given who Derek Shepherd is married to, I wouldn’t count on impressing him any time soon. And in so doing, you have made quite the impression on me and the Chief as well. Just to be crystal clear, this is not the impression that you want us to have of you.”

“Burke had told me that he would prefer not to work with you. Lucky for you, Addison Shepherd had requested your services indefinitely.”

Alex’s scowl became even more pronounced.

“This is how it’s going to go. First, you apologize for your behavior yesterday. Dr. Shepherd’s duty was to her patient, not her patient’s husband. If and when you are questioned about this situation by anyone, you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that includes what the patient told Dr. Shepherd in your presence.”

“I realize that you may disagree morally or religiously with the situation, but medically and legally Dr. Shepherd was correct. If in the future you have a moral issue and would prefer not to be part of a particular treatment for that reason, come to me and I’ll see what I can do. But you do not ever undermine the attending in front of a patient. You keep your mouth shut and opt out.”

“After you apologize, you are going to work on getting yourself into Addison Shepherd’s good graces.”

“It’s going to be a long, hard climb. . . . If Dr. Shepherd says to wash her car, you say, ‘would you like me to wax it, too, Dr. Shepherd?’ If she tells you to get her coffee, you splurge and bring her a muffin. You do not speak unless spoken to. You do not do anything except be helpful, polite, and respectful.”

“I realize you interns don’t always think things through, so let me spell out for you that you are on thin ice as far as this program is concerned. If Dr. Burke and the Drs. Shepherd decide they want you out, you are gone. And if you are gone from this program because they want you out, where exactly do you think you are going? What kind of recommendation do you think they’ll give you when their buddies at other hospitals call them up to ask about you? Your career as a surgeon will be over. Do you understand me?”

Alex looked at her and nodded.

“Repeat after me. ‘Yes, Dr. Bailey.’”

“Yes, Dr. Bailey.”

“Good, now go. And don’t let me ever hear another bad word about you from an attending. . . . Ever.”

**********

Izzie’s morning had been tough.

First, there had been Bailey’s lecture. She knew with her head that Bailey was right, but it’s not always possible to make your heart listen to your head.

And then there was actually explaining the situation to Denny.

Denny had listened, but no matter how she tried to explain it she didn’t think he understood that this painful five minutes under Bailey’s watchful eye was really the end. She was sure he believed she’d be back, sneaking in when no one was looking.

Izzie simply couldn’t afford to risk her career.

She’d worked too hard, sacrificed too much, to get from the trailer park to Seattle Grace. To be a surgeon. And Bailey had made abundantly clear exactly what she had to lose. Everything.

At least she didn’t mind working for Addison, especially since Addison was in a great mood after Alex’s groveling apology, which Izzie sadly had missed.

It might’ve put Addison in a great mood for Izzie, but it wasn’t enough to save Alex. While Izzie was working with Addison on an interesting case involving the likely delivery of a preemie so that the mother could be treated for a neurological disorder, Addison had given Alex a case that basically involved running back and forth to the lab once an hour. Nothing was expected to change, so it basically was just monitoring test results for the foreseeable future. Good exercise. No surgery.

“You OK?”

“Yeah,” Izzie turned and saw Meredith there. “Thanks for asking though.”

“Was Bailey really tough?”

“She called it like she saw it. She told me what I already knew – what you had warned me about, what Alex had said in his less than charming manner – that I couldn’t fall for a patient. She put it in starker terms, made the risks real. I can’t risk my internship or my license. And then she gave me five minutes under her watch to say goodbye.”

“Can you do it?”

“I don’t have a choice. . . . Do me a favor and try to explain it again to him, because I don’t think he got it when I said it. I think he still expects me to sneak back in his room. But I worked too hard to get here. I can’t risk everything I’ve accomplished for a flirtation, or even something more, with a patient.”

Meredith nodded. “I’ll try.”

“On another subject, where were you last night?”

“I was home.”

“But very late. . . . after I was asleep. How was McVet?”

Meredith smiled. “He was really nice. We delivered a horse.”

“Really?”

“Yep. And then we went back to his place and he was making me dinner. And Derek showed up with Doc.”

“What? Is Doc OK?”

“It’s touch and go. Doc took a turn for the worse again and Derek rushed him in. And there I am, having just showered off horse birthing goop, standing there in one of McVet’s shirts.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. There was this contempt in his eyes. . . .”

“Ouch. I’m sorry.”

Just then Izzie’s pager went off. “Gotta go. My labs are in.”

As Izzie and Meredith raced off in opposite directions, neither of them saw Addison who had been just around the corner.

One unintentionally overheard conversation had changed everything.

Chapter 3: A Gray Seattle Afternoon

Bailey felt like herself again.

This morning she had reclaimed her title. Her proper position as chief disciplinarian and all around no-bullshit queen of the surgical staff.

No more disrespect. No more undermining her. No more mommy-tracking her.

She was Miranda Bailey. She was the Nazi.

Respect her. Fear her.

Or pay the price.

She had set her interns straight.

Izzie Stevens knew that she would no longer be flirting with patients. And Alex Karev, well, his apology to Addison Shepherd had been a sight to behold. Miranda was sorry she hadn’t witnessed it herself, but she had heard tales. Addison had left her quite the amusing phone message about Alex’s groveling, as well as his menial assignment of the day. That boy was going to be lucky if he saw an operating room in the next month.

Most importantly, people were once again respecting her. Fearing her. Fleeing from her wrath.

This was the way it was supposed to be.

She was paged to an emergency, and she performed a surgery. Nothing big – just wiping up the various non-life-threatening internal injuries from a moderately bad car accident. She had claimed the patient, had Yang take care of the necessary pre-op tests, and booked the OR before anyone could tell her otherwise.

She, with Yang’s assistance, had performed the surgery flawlessly.

Was there any doubt?

Now that she had whipped her interns back into shape, now that she had reclaimed her spot in the OR, now it was time to take care of the Chief.

Like her interns, Richard Webber apparently needed to be whipped into shape. Reminded who really was boss.

She was just the woman for the job.

******

“Mr. and Mrs. Winters, I’m your friendly neighborhood neurosurgeon, Derek Shepherd, and this is Dr. George O’Malley, the surgical intern working with me today,” Derek introduced himself and his intern to Beth Winters, the pregnant patient whose treatment he would be handling while Addison took care of delivering and caring for her premature baby, and her husband, Scott.

Addie has left him a message about the case, a referral from an old med school friend who had called Addison, and Bailey had assigned O’Malley to work with him on the case.

As his introduction might indicate, Derek was having a good day.

Though he had not gotten much sleep last night, it had been a very good night. A great night. A fabulous night. He and Addison had spent some quality time together and connected both physically and emotionally in a way they hadn’t been able to achieve since she came to Seattle.

Derek wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to look at that tiny shower in the trailer in the same way. Indeed, future showers might all need to be cold. Every single one. That’s how hot the mere memory of the night before was.

And though Derek was paged in the wee hours, the emergency surgery had been successful and the victim of a drunk driver likely would walk again because of his efforts.

Now Derek was going to be working with his wife.

They always had fun working together when they were getting along, back in the good old days, before everything had blown up. After last night, he figured that working with Addie today would be a blast.

“I’m Beth and this is Scott. And I’m confused, Dr. Shepherd. Are you related to my new OBGYN or is the last name thing just coincidence?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. Almost 12 years ago, I was smart enough to con Addison into becoming my wife.”

“Lucky man.” Scott Winters grinned.

“And I know it,” Derek grinned right back. “But don’t let her know. I have to try to keep her guessing. It’s tough having a beautiful and brilliant wife. I have to work hard to keep up. I’m sure you understand my problem, Scott.”

As Shepherd bantered with their patient and her husband, George observed Derek, a little bit confused and bewildered.

Granted he hadn’t really been around the man as much since “McDreamy” and Meredith split and the Drs. Shepherd reunited, particularly since George had been working with Burke, Bailey, and even Addison a fair amount, but he had never seen Derek quite so happy or effusive about his wife.

It was quite a difference from the days when he walked around Seattle Grace calling her Satan to anyone who would listen. Back then, Derek Shepherd might have admitted that Addison was a good doctor, but George would have been stunned to hear Derek call Addison beautiful or brilliant or to characterize himself as lucky for being married to her.

And just the day before there had been the whole thing with the divorce attorney and the bad sex.

Although, when George thought about it, Derek himself had never appeared to be interested in the patient’s offer of representation.

Derek also had not been the one discussing the rumored bad sex. That was something Izzie had been talking about, something she had shared with him in front of their patient – which was more than a little bit inappropriate now that he thought about it in hindsight – something she probably got from Meredith. All of the attorney’s pro-divorce cues had come from George or Izzie, not from Derek.

Regardless of the quality of their sex life that particular morning, George suddenly realized that the Shepherds really had put their marriage back together. While everyone else was watching them bicker and battle, they had apparently more quietly fixed things under the surface.

George could respect that, even if he still harbored some resentment toward Derek for his treatment of Meredith. But certainly pots couldn’t afford to hold grudges against kettles, and he had made more than his own fair share of mistakes with and about Meredith Grey.

“Perhaps we should get down to business,” Derek said, handing George the patient’s chart. “Dr. O’Malley, why don’t you tell me how you think we should handle Mrs. Winters’s condition?”

As George outlined the necessary tests to assess Mrs. Winters’s neurological condition – a tumor growing in between two vertebrae in her back and affecting her spine, with additional pressure placed upon it by her pregnancy – Addison was sitting alone in one of the on-call rooms.

She had appropriated the on call-room for privacy and seclusion.

Sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, she had her knees pulled up to her chest and was hugging them.

She was willing back the tears in her eyes.

She had been so happy when she woke that morning, so thrilled that she and Derek had reconnected physically and emotionally.

She had felt married again.

The Doctors Shepherd had come together in a wild frenzy of hot sex followed by the real intimacy that comes from sharing lives, from communicating their thoughts and feelings, supporting one another, and commiserating over problems.

It was as if all of their slow, slow, slow, really slow, progress had culminated in this great moment where Addie found faith in their future. In their marriage. In their love.

And now?

After overhearing how Derek had seen Meredith with Finn Dandridge immediately before he came home and instigated sex with her, now Addison simply didn’t know what to think or believe.

Was the night before a lie?

Was that moment of passion, of hope, of love, at least on her part, really instigated on Derek’s part as a result of jealousy?

Did Derek come home seeking refuge in her body solely because he saw that Meredith was involved with another man?

Was last night’s iintimacy more about his feelings for Meredith than his feelings for her?

Did he really love her, Addison, as he had said the night before?

Or was he still in love with Meredith?

The doubts and the questions kept coming and coming.

Addison didn’t know how many more times she could handle getting her hopes up only to have her dreams of rebuilding her marriage, her life with her husband, shattered once again.

She had picked Derek, but had he picked her?

She loved Derek, but did he love her?

Hadn’t she paid the price for her mistakes? Wasn’t she entitled to forgiveness? To a new beginning?

She had told him once months ago that if he was going to keep hurting her, she was going to have to special order a new skin.

If things imploded now, if what she thought she saw and felt in Derek the night before was a lie, a facade, a mirage, Burke was going to have to perform a heart transplant.

Because no surgeon at Seattle Grace would be skilled enough to put back together the pieces of the one Derek destroyed.

lilybeth0529

An Entirely Separate Story