CHAPTER ONE

Hidden in the corner booth of a bar she picked out solely due to its anonymity, Addison Montgomery downs a scotch, orders a refill, and focuses very intently on not screaming. There had been the wake, then the funeral, then the burial, and then she had hid out in New York for a few weeks under the guise of cleaning up Archer's affairs and now she's back at Oceanside spending most of her days trying to convince herself not to run again. It's proving to be a daunting task.

Luckily there are a few distractions. Work and patients, of course, plus Violet's pregnancy drama is in full swing and watching Cooper scramble to try and ease her frequent hormone surges is secretly incredibly entertaining. But all those other moments, those non-distracting moments, like cleaning out his fourth floor office and seeing the picture of the two of them taped to the computer screen, or listening to Dell's awkwardly offered condolences her first day back, or hearing soft crying as she walked by Naomi's office but not having the energy or guts to knock and go in, all those moments pretty much just make her want to hurl or break something or quit. So she made a new little box and shoved all those moments and feelings into it, and now she intends to pour some alcohol on it. Screw mental health; talking is overrated and pity sucks. Stay shut little box.

"Well, fancy seeing you here." Addison starts at the voice and then glances over to find Wyatt Lockhart leaning against the top of the booth, looking relaxed and very tall.

"You," she cocks an eyebrow. "I thought you left, chasing some ridiculous amount of pharmaceutical cash." The words sting as they leave her mouth; it's not her own voice she's hearing.

Lockhart shrugs. "There are pharmaceutical companies in L.A. Mind if I sit?"

"Care if I mind?"

"Not really," he replies cheekily before sliding into the seat next to her and flagging down the waiter. "So, have you missed me?"

"Shockingly, not even a little bit."

"Really? I missed you."

Addison has to laugh at that. "Oh, please."

"What?" Wyatt doesn't smile a lot, she's noticed; his eyebrows seem to do most of the work for him. Right now, they're grinning at her. "I did."

"And I'm supposed to find that… flattering? Remotely believable? After you just vanished into thin air?"

"I'm not the only who did," he leans towards her a bit, his eyebrows grinning away and he's very annoying but damn it, she did have a bit of a crush on him before, didn't she. "When I turned back around that night, you were gone. How's your cop, by the way?"

Bastard. "Oh, mostly likely fine. I… wouldn't know."

"Sorry to hear that."

"No you're not."

"I'm really not. Have dinner with me."

"Absolutely not," she says loftily, reaching for her drink.

"Because it's me?"

"Because it's been two months. What makes you think I'd still be interested?"

"Oh, so you were interested," he teases. "When you walked out of my office after kissing me, that was you interested."

She considers him for a second; Wyatt Lockhart is still an ass and obviously completely full of it, but this is fun and simple and he's not looking at her like she's quietly deteriorating. What the hell, it's not like he works downstairs anymore. She moves a bit closer and crosses her legs towards him, resting one elbow on her knee so her fingers lightly graze his thigh.

"When I walked out of your office after you told me to take my clothes off?" she asks, lowering her voice to a purr. "Yeah, that was me interested."

"Monty –"

"It's Addison."

His eyes drop briefly down to her lips. "How drunk are you?"

"Does it matter?"

He kisses her.

-o-

"She's not home."

"What?" Naomi glances over at the clock resting on her bedside table. "Sam, it's three in the morning." She wasn't exactly sleeping, hadn't been doing that so well lately; but still, you know, manners.

"Exactly, It's three in the morning, the lights haven't been on once all night, her car's not in the driveway… Should we be worried?"

"I don't… No. I mean maybe, but no. She's a big girl, Sam; she can take care of herself. If anything else, that's been made perfectly clear in the past couple of weeks."

Sam sighs at the tone of his ex-wife's voice over the phone line and peers out his window at the still dark house next door. There was a time when he truly believed things like death and pregnancy brought people together. But apparently when it came to his practice, they also turned people into walking time bombs of denial and resentment.

"Nai, you don't think she really has it all together yet, do you?"

"I think she's a Forbes Montgomery. I think she's bred to keep it together on the outside while slowly going completely insane on the inside. I also think if you're suggesting we orchestrate a citywide manhunt in the middle of the night because Addison didn't turn her lights on, that she's not the only one with problems. Good night Sam."

After Naomi hangs up, he tosses the phone on couch and bangs his head against the window a few times. It's probably wrong to blame Archer for all this, but he's probably going to anyway.

-o-

The two of them stumble into his apartment, and seconds later her back slams against the wall and his mouth lands hot behind her ear. Her fingers are trembling so badly that they struggle unsuccessfully with the knot of his tie as he runs his hands down her sides to her hips. She groans in frustration and he laughs softly against the skin of her neck before guiding her wrist away and undoing it himself as he kisses her deeply.

But it's getting too personal, the kiss and the laugh; it's all a little too real. This isn't supposed to be about them, it's supposed to be about sex, so she tugs him closer and whispers dirty, insistent things in his ear that would make her cheeks burn with shame if she wasn't so sure this was the last time she would be seeing him.

For a reckless son-of-a-bitch he takes directions well because within seconds she's kicking away her underwear and gripping his shoulders as he lifts her higher against the wall. And then his mouth is back on her and his fingers are in her and she's gasping and wet and ready and biting her lip to keep from begging as she feels him growing hard against her. When he finally pushes in, her mouth tears away from his to moan into the crook of his neck, and then he fucks her right there in his hallway, her head dropping back as his thrusts get stronger and deeper and fuck she had forgotten how good sex could be when you didn't give a damn. The whole time as her fingers rake through his hair and her nails dig into his back, his arm is around her waist, holding her up, holding her together and he doesn't even know it, until at last she comes, hot and hard, his hand holding hers, his breath on her neck.

TBC…