On one special night
The look on Sam's face as he left her standing in the chilly air outside her house, hunted Addison for many nights after that one. The worst part about having rejected him, was that Addison had to go through it all by herself. Sure, she occasionally had a tid-bit conversation with Sheldon but that's about it. She couldn't go to Naomi for obvious reasons. Sam is her ex-husband and she's her best friend. Naomi might have walked out on Sam, but she didn't walk out on Addison and it wouldn't be fair to do this to her.
So, Addison did what she knew best. She worked. She threw herself into as much work as she could find. She stayed at the office longer and she took extra surgeries at the hospital. Charlotte had granted her a few cases, having understood that the tall red-head needed something to keep busy with.
"Hey Charlotte," Addison said as she poked her head into the blonde's office.
"Yea, come in." Charlotte said, welcoming Addison into her office.
Addison walked into her office and sat on the patient chair as Charlotte finished the phone call she was on. The redhead examined her manicure and made a mental note to go get one as soon as she could. As Charlotte spoke, Addison stood up and walked to the fascinating display of books Charlotte had in her office. She'd heard of a few of the titles, but not of all of them. She was intrigued by the Southern woman's specialty.
Charlotte hung up the phone and looked at Addison. She had sat herself on the couch with one of her many books. "Interesting read?" She asked in her rich, southern accent.
"Actually, yes." Addison said, amazed that she found what she was reading interesting.
"Good to know. How can I help you, Montgomery?" She asked the redhead.
"I was wondering about Safe Surrender. It's been a while since we've done it in the office and I was wondering if maybe I could run the line for a night or two?" Addison asked.
She stood up and smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles in her green Gucci dress before placing the book back in the shelf.
"You want to run the line? By yourself or with someone else?" Charlotte asked.
"I can run it by myself. I mean, I did it before with Pete." Addison said.
At Charlotte's skeptical look, Addison sighed.
"Look, Naomi's too busy with Maya and so is Sam. Pete has Lucas so I can't ask him to leave the baby. Violet can't handle it because of what happened to her. Cooper won't do it because it's your project and you… well, you could do it with me." Addison said.
"Actually, I can't. I'm working at the hospital at night, so I can't." Charlotte said before sighing.
"Alright, you can run the line by yourself. But Addison, if you think you can't handle it, leave. Get the address and call 9-1-1. Got it?" Charlotte asked. She didn't joke around with these kinds of things.
"Got it. Thank you, Charlotte. I promise things will go smoothly." Addison said happily before walking out of the sexologist's office.
What Addison didn't know, is that this night would change her whole life forever.
That night, Addison went for a jog at the beach. On her sweatpants' pockets were the Safe Surrender phone along with her house keys and her personal phone. She'd toyed with the idea of taking her iPod, but she left it reasoning that if any of the two phones rang, she wouldn't be able to hear it.
So, Addison went off with a swift, steady pace. She was wearing white Puma sweatpants, her favorite hot pink, long-sleeved, Under Armour shirt and her Puma running sneakers. Her hair was up in a ponytail and on her ear hung her Bluetooth headset for her personal phone.
As she jogged down the beach, Addison's head was blank. It was one of the few moments when she wasn't thinking about Sam and all the drama around him and her. She just ran, as if she was running away from her problems. Though that was one thing Addison knew would never happen. You can't just run away from your problems. They'll eventually catch up with you.
Two hour later, Addison was just returning home from a very long and exhausting run. The Safe Surrender line had been quiet, too quiet for Addison's taste. It's not that she wanted babies being thrown away like disposable things, but usually she got at least one call on the line. And that's when the line went off.
"Safe Surrender Hotline" Addison answered the phone.
"I need to give her up." Came the voice of a very frightened girl.
"Ok sweetie, just tell me where you are and I'll go get her." Addison said. She was pissed that she couldn't even go inside to get a drink of water, but this baby needed her more than her body needed some re-hydration.
"I left her… I left her on someone's doorstep. I saw their house lit when I was walking on the beach and I left her on the front step." The girl said. "There was a car parked on the driveway. A black Lexus." The girl said and kept describing the place. Before Addison knew it, she gasped.
"Oh my God…" She said and walked to her front door.
"You dropped her off at my house. Please, I need you to come back for a minute. I need to give you something." Addison said and with the phone pinched between her ear and her shoulder, she bent down to pick up the sleeping baby girl.
The girl came from behind Addison's Lexus and walked over to her. "I wanted to make sure she was ok. I thought that if she was picked up by the owner of the house that she'd had a good life seeing as the owner probably has a good job to afford that car. But then I thought I should turn her in safely. So I called you. They gave us the number in school. I didn't know what to do." She said and began to cry.
Addison went inside and told the girl to follow her. She placed the baby safely between two pillows on the couch while she went through her briefcase to hand the girl a bracelet that matched her daughter's.
"Take this bracelet and my card. Your daughter has a matching one, so if you change your mind, you can call us." Addison said.
The girl took what she was offered and dried her tears. "I won't." She said and left Addison's house running.
Addison sighed and closed the door. She picked up the baby and took her upstairs to her room. She settled her in the middle of the bed between some pillows.
"Now I need to find something to do makeshift diapers with." Addison said to the baby who was fast asleep.
After pacing her room for a good twenty minutes, Addison called Pete.
"I need your help." She said when he picked up.
"You do realize it's almost midnight, right?" He said sarcastically.
"I'm so sorry, Pete. Trust me, if I had any other choice, I wouldn't have called." Addison apologized.
"What's up?" He asked.
"A baby was dropped off at my doorstep before the Safe Surrender line went off. Turns out, the mom dropped the baby off at my house. And I don't have anything for the baby. I was wondering if maybe I could persuade you into giving me a few of Lucas' diapers, a bit of formula and some small onesies that don't fit anymore? I'm calling Social Services in the morning." Addison said.
"Sure. I'll go over now." Pete said and then hung up.
"Oh Pete, you're incredible." Addison said as she opened the door to him.
In her arms was a jet black haired baby who was wiggling happily. Addison had been carrying her around her bedroom with as little light as possible. Pete looked at her and smiled. She looked adorable with a baby in her arms. It suited her actually. Pete always knew that Addison was the mommy-type of woman. She was just so warm and kind and loving.
"You interrupted a sure thing." He said as he offered her the bag with formula, bottles, pacifiers, a few blankets, neutral colored onesies. And a few other things.
"I'm so sorry. Oh God, now I feel horrible." Addison said.
"She's babysitting Lucas." Pete informed her with a sly smile on his face.
Addison smiled at him. "Then you better go before she falls for him harder than for you." Addison teased him. They said their goodnights and Pete went back home.
"Ok, pretty girl, let's get you dressed and fed." Addison said and headed to the kitchen with her.
Pete had even brought the smaller car seat for Addison to use. In the bag, there were big and small bottles, formula, a few bibs, pacifiers, a few toys, blankets, three pairs of new-born baby socks, and neutral color onesies.
An hour later, Addison was laying in bed with the sleeping infant on her chest. Her heartbeat had lulled the baby back to sleep. The baby should be waking up in an hour or so, screaming her head off to be fed or changed.
Addison sighed and rubbed the baby's back. "I could've had a baby, you know? I could've been a happy mother by now. I don't know if I'd be with the father of my child, but I would've had a child." Addison whispered.
The baby shifted a little and grabbed Addison's finger that laid close by. Addison looked at the little girl on her chest and smiled. "I'm sorry. I won't talk about that baby anymore." Addison said with a soft smile and kissed the top of her head.
The next morning, Addison took the baby girl to the office. It was a Saturday so Addison figured that Social Services wouldn't be working until Monday, so she decided to keep the baby until then. She called Cooper and asked him to give her a check up and while they waited on him, Addison had the baby with her in her office. Soft music played on the stereo, but nothing too instrumental, it kind of annoyed Addison. It was a light jazz and the baby seemed to enjoy it. Her little fists were waiving in the air and her legs were being kicked. Instead of doing the tower of paperwork she had to do, Addison just sat on her chair looking at the small human being.
Cooper came into her office and watched Addison watching the baby. There was a look in her eyes, longing, sadness or something like it. The Pediatrician couldn't pin point it.
"Hey Addison." He said softly, jerking the redhead back to reality.
"Oh hey, let's go into your office." She said and picked the baby up in her arms.
After the check up was complete, Addison told Cooper that she'd call Social Services on Monday morning. He left the practice and she went back to her office.
"So, how about if I do at least half this tower of work, we go home and cuddle in bed? I could ask Pete to lend me some movies to watch with you." Addison said and the baby sighed.
"Well, it's not as if you're old enough yet to be taken to the beach. At night is too cold and during the day is too hot and you could get sunburned easily. So no beach for you until you're older." Addison told the little girl.
"Ok, how about a warm bath and warm bottle of milk and a story. Better?" Addison asked and the baby cooed.
"I'll take that as a yes." Addison said.
She set to work, occasionally stealing a look at the baby who had fallen asleep. The baby woke up screaming with hunger two hours into Addison's work and she went to feed her. She kept that routine for a few more hours until Addison declared her whole work complete.
"Let's go home baby." Addison announced.
She changed her diaper before settling in the car seat for the drive home. Before getting home though, she decided to stop at a baby boutique and decided to buy the girl a few girly outfits because all she ha were boy hand-me-downs. Next stop was the grocery store where she bought diapers and an extra box of formula. Last stop was home.
Addison took the baby inside and then went to unload the things from the car. After taking everything inside, and settling everything in it's place, Addison went to her room. She had left the baby in her bed with some music on. She'd rather the child listen to music than to turn the TV on.
The weekend went by in a haze. Addison stayed in most of the time with the baby. She took her out around sunset, when it wasn't too cold yet, but it wasn't entirely hot either. She played some music and danced around with the baby in her arms. All in all it was a very good weekend.
Monday morning rolled around and Addison knew that she had to hand in the child that she'd taken care of for the last three days. She was in love with this child. She couldn't bare to part ways with her.
Social services came and took the child that was clad in a designer dress. Addison kissed her goodbye and hugged her gently for a minute before she had to part ways with her. Immediately, tears sprung to her eyes and she tried anything to keep them at bay, but they freely flowed down her cheeks.
The baby had a similar reaction. They say babies can sense what's going on around them, so as soon as Addison shed her first tear, the child began wailing. She screamed her head off wanting to be held by the only mother she's ever known.
A month later…
Addison had thrown herself deeper into her work. She'd do anything to keep from thinking about the little girl that had her heart. Just then, the phone rang.
"Dr. Montgomery" She answered dejectedly.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Montgomery. My name is Carl, and I'm from social services." He introduced himself.
"How can I help you Carl?" Addison asked.
"It's regarding the child that you rescued about a month ago." Carl said.
Red flags went off in her head and all color drained from her face. "Is she alright?" Addison asked, alarmed.
"She's not taking well to any family we try to place her with. We were wondering if you'd be able to foster her for a while?" Carl said.
"Actually…" A small smile crept to her face. 'Now or never, Addie. One shot, that's all you get.' She thought to herself. "I'd like to adopt her." Addison said.