Hi, everyone! I've got a new two-shot for you :)

I visited New York for the first time this summer and I can honestly say that visiting the 9/11 museum and memorial changed my life. If you've read my other 9/11 story, you may remember that I was a little kid in 2001 and heard the news through my school principal. Even though I was across the country, the attacks affected me and I never really understood or dealt with those memories and emotions from that day. Visiting the memorial exactly 15 years after the attacks finally gave me that opportunity.

It also made me realize how absolutely shitty my last 9/11 one-shot was. I really wanted to delete that and replace it with a new story that honors the details and feelings a little better. I have been asked not to delete that story so it's still up but let's consider this a replacement.


Derek groaned loudly when his alarm clock went off on Tuesday morning. He reached his arm out to turn off the alarm clock and then he rolled over to face his wife. Instead he discovered her side of the bed was empty and there was no note in sight.

"Addie?" Derek called out. That's when he heard retching coming from the en suite bathroom. He quickly got out of bed and went toward the bathroom. Luckily, she had left the door unlocked so he was able to let himself in to hold her hair back. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Addison leaned back against the wall and tried to catch her breath, "You got home late and you're working again today. I wanted you to catch some sleep."

"Addie, you're more important than sleep. I stay up all night to take care of people I don't even know. I'd wake up to take care of you."

"I'm okay," Addison assured her husband. "It's just morning sickness. I mean, this is your child so he or she obviously has to make this difficult for me as early as possible."

"I don't make things difficult for you," Derek protested. "Not on purpose, anyway."

Addison dropped her head on his shoulder, "I know," she mumbled.

"I haven't even accidently told my mother or my sisters," he reminded her. He always prematurely leaked news to his family and it always drove Addison crazy.

"You can tell everyone in a week or two. We're two weeks away from the end of the first trimester, at least according to my calculations. And I've got my first appointment with my ob/gyn next week. If the appointment goes well, maybe we can tell your family early."

Derek grinned happily. He was going to be a father in just over six months. It was all coming together, his dreams and goals were all slowly becoming his reality. He'd graduated from the medical school he'd had his heart set on, he'd gotten the residency opportunity of a lifetime. He'd married the woman of his dreams and together they'd built a life together in a Brownstone he could only fantasize about as a child. "I'm thinking of getting creative with the announcement."

"Yeah?" Addison asked, prompting him to elaborate as she pushed herself up off the ground to continue getting ready. Her hair was already blowdried but twenty minutes retching over the toilet meant she needed to touch up her running eyeliner.

"If you want to make the announcement to both of our parents, we can mail them a box of packing peanuts and at the bottom of the box would be a framed sonogram with the caption 'Our peanut is coming! March 2002.'"

Addison smiled at the thought of that announcement, "That is really cute, Derek. But I don't know that my parents are into cutesy announcements like that. I may just avoid telling them until I'm showing and they ask. And I may get lucky and not see them until after the baby is born."

"That's unlikely, the holidays are coming up and we will probably see them once or twice, at least. And you'll probably be showing by then," Derek told her. "Hey, alternatively, the next time we go to my mom's for dinner, I'll just fill your plate with food and when people look at me I'll casually mention that you're eating for two."

"We've got some time, we'll figure it out," Addison promised, reaching for her toothbrush for the third time that morning. "You're gonna be late if you don't shower right now, honey."

"I showered before bed," Derek mumbled, reaching for his own toothbrush, resting in the holder between their his and hers sinks. "I'm gonna go start brewing the coffee. We'll skip any normal breakfast choices for just a piece of toast to settle your stomach, okay?"

"You can still have your cereal, Derek. You don't have to give up food just because of my morning sickness."

Derek shook his head dismissively, "That's not an option," he told her.

After getting the coffee brewing, Derek went back to the en suite bathroom to work on his hair while Addison got dressed. He denied it every time it came up, but in all reality, it took him just as long to do his hair as it took Addison to choose an outfit.

When he stepped out of the bathroom with his hair looking perfectly in place, Addison was half dressed. He came toward her, setting one hand on her hip as zipped her dress with the other. She turned in his arms and pecked his lips, "I love your private practice mornings," she admitted.

"What?"

"You just look so sexy on the mornings you head to the practice. You spend all that time on your hair and you wear the perfect suits. It's just so sexy. And not just because I'm hormonal and pregnant. I loved it before the pregnancy. Not that the hospital mornings aren't sexy. Sometimes I love when you just roll out of bed, pull on a pair of jeans and barely brush your hair."

"I'm just gonna spend all day in scrubs and a surgical cap," he reasoned.

"Which is also so sexy," she finished with a smirk as they made their way downstairs for coffee.

Derek dropped two pieces of toast in the toaster- one for each of them. He knew she wouldn't be able to hold down any more than that. "Addie, you need to remember to drink water. You're vomiting a lot and we don't want you to get dehydrated," he reminded her. "It's not good for the baby."

"I know," she mumbled.

"Actually, I'll hunt down your intern while I'm at the hospital and make sure he follows you around with a bottle of water all day. And cool it on the coffee- you know that it's a diuretic. What's the use of drinking water when the coffee is just canceling it out?"

"Derek," Addison smirked in his direction. "Can we skip the lecture, please?"

"Sorry. If I'm this annoying and overprotective of a fetus, can you imagine what I'll be like when she's born? She can never leave my sight."

"She?"

Derek shrugged, "Just a feeling."

"Based on what?"

"I don't know. I've been surrounded by women for my entire life. I assume it's just going to stay that way. Besides, I want a girl because a mini-Addie would be adorable."

"Well, it's the wrong feeling. It's going to be a boy," Addison replied surely. "Mother's intuition."

"We'll see in a few weeks," Derek replied. "I'd be happy either way. Hey- what were your plans today. You're going to the lower east side, right?"

"I've got a meeting with an attorney in the World Trade Center. I'm an expert witness in a malpractice case," she told him with a cocky smirk. "Expert," she repeated for emphasis. "And Savvy recently started working in WTC 6 so I'll probably meet her for lunch."

"If you two go to Windows without me…" Derek threatened.

"I'd never dream of going there without you. Besides, I'll be in the other tower. I'll be in the South Tower," Addison informed him. Windows on the World was a restaurant in the North Tower. Derek had proposed to her on the anniversary of their first date at the restaurant with incomparable views to New York city in the background. After the proposal, he took her up the viewing deck afterhours- an arrangement that had cost him a fortune- to give her uninterrupted use of any viewfinder she wanted.

"We'll probably do brunch. She's been raving about some place with the greatest mimosa she's ever had."

"You can't drink," Derek reminded her, earning a glare in response. "Sorry," he murmured.

"I know you're just trying to be protective, Derek, but I know what to do to and what not to do," she assured her husband. She leaned closer to im and pecked his lips, "Now I have to get going or else I'm going to miss my meeting. Leave the dishes in the sink, after meeting with Savvy I'm just going to go into work to round and just check in but then I'm coming home."

"Okay," he replied as he placed two plate in the sink. "I would do the dishes but I should get going too or else I'm gonna be late. I assume you're taking the subway and not driving all the way down there. Want me to drive you to the station?" he asked as they both stepped out of the house.

"No, I could use a little walk. It's only a few blocks, Derek. I've factored that into my time and some fresh air may help the nausea. Plus, I've never seen a sky this blue. And I happens to be on a rare day off. I wanna enjoy it." They both walked out the front door and Addison waited and watched as Derek locked the door behind them. Just as they were about to step off the last steps of their brownstone down onto the sidewalk, Addison gasped excitedly, "I'm off today and you're at the practice. That means you'll be home before 6:00. We can actually do something tonight without having to be rush to get home early to get sleep. We can do dinner and a movie. I wanna see Rock Star, it came out last week. Jennifer Aniston is in it. You know I love all things Jen Aniston. But I'm willing to compromise and see The Musketeer. That came out last week too and you mentioned wanting to see it a while ago."

"We can see anything you want," Derek agreed, leaning forward to kiss her goodbye, "Love you. Have a good day. I'll call you when I have a chance."


At 9:00 am, almost two hours later, Derek stepped into his private practice. His partner, Gary Hanson, and most of their staff were already at work and here were a few patients already there. But rather than focusing on work, everyone was gathered around the TV in the waiting room watching a breaking news story.

"What is going on?" he asked.

"Fire at the World Trade Center," his partner answered.

"Oh," Derek frowned. "A big fire?"

"Looks like it." the receptionist replied. "They say a plane crashed into the tower."

"A plane?!" Derek exclaimed. "This is why we shouldn't let every amatur idiot get a flying license. All of these small planes are crashing left and right. My brother-in-law got his pilot license recently. People like my brother-in-law should not be allowed to control planes."

"Your brother-in-law is a brilliant neurologist with more money than he knows what to do with. People like your brother are exactly the type that should explore that hobby."

Derek rolled his eyes at his partner. "You're obsessed with Archer," he mumbled only half-jokingly. "Sometimes I think you only took me as a partner to have a connection to my brother-in-law."

"That's exactly what it was Derek," the older man confirmed teasingly.

"It's in the North Tower," Derek observed. "Addie's got a meeting at the World Trade Center today."

"In the towers or one of the other buildings?"

"In the South tower."

"Oh," his partner casually waved, "They're not even talking about the South Tower. But getting home in that mess will take a while."

The conversation was interrupted when the live footage showed a second plane, a 747- not a small cessna, crashing into the second tower. The plane did not come out the other end, instead a large cloud of black smoke erupted from the building.

"My wife is in that building," Derek said under his breath. His face went pale and he felt his knees give out. He knew his partner was holding him up and then realized he was eased down into a chair as his eyes remained glue to the screen.

"Can someone try to get Dr. Addison Shepherd on the phone?" he heard his partner call out to the staff. "Her personal cell phone number is the first on our list of emergency contacts."

A few minutes passed and he vaguely heard a newly hired nurse whisper, "No answer, Dr. Hanson. Goes right to voice mail."

"Okay, keep trying. I'm sure the phone lines are jammed right now with thousands of people calling loved ones. Maybe your call just didn't go through to ring." He told her middle aged woman at the desk. He turned back to Derek who was staring intently at the TV screen, listening to all the information the reports were supplying him with.

"My wife is pregnant. 10 weeks. Our first," he said under his breath as he watched the replying footage of the plane hitting the building. The reports were announcing that the acts were now considered terrorist attacks, that another plane had hit the pentagon. Based on the time on the bottom right of the TV screen, it was after 9:30. He had come in just minutes after 9:00 and first heard the news. It had been over 20 minutes but time felt frozen, he still couldn't speak coherent, full sentences. He couldn't process the news.

There were people speaking to him, trying to offer words of comfort but he wasn't responding. What those people didn't realize is that Derek was so lost in his own world that he didn't even hear anything they had said to him.

Gary sat down on the chair across Derek, "Derek, she'll be fine. Your baby will be fine. Did you hear the reporter? They are evacuating the building. She'll get out and I'm sure you'll hear from her soon."

It was almost 10:00 am when Derek and everyone else watched in horror as the South Tower, the tower his wife was in, collapse down on itself and transform from a skyscraper to a large cloud of dust and smoke.