Author's Note: This story will most likely not follow "real" time. I will try to keep it somewhat in order but things happen. The basic premise of the story is that Addison and Derek had a daughter in their second year of medical school. Addison and their daughter, who is now sixteen, live in New York; while Derek is in Seattle. Hopefully the story will explain itself. If there are any questions just shoot me a comment and I'll do my best to answer it within the next chapter of the story.
Addison Montgomery walked briskly down the busy New York City street, two paper coffee cups in hand, rushing toward Mount Sinai hospital. She was due for rounds within the next half hour but needed caffeine to even be able to consider making it through the day.
Addison mindlessly walked into the hospital's entrance and into an elevator. She hit the button for floor 9 without much of a thought. She had been working here on this floor for the majority of her adult life. She went to medical school here in New York City at Columbia University. She then did her internship and seven year residency right here in these halls. She had since been working here as an attending for the last six years. It was comfortable here.
Her friends, particularly Sam and Naomi, had prodded multiple times over the years for Addison to move out West. It seemed as though every had eventually. The duo was now located in Los Angeles. Even further away was Derek, who was now in Seattle. She and Derek had dated the first year of medical school. That had been a big year for them. They both were on their way towards promising careers as surgeons when they discovered that they would also be on their way to becoming parents.
Their beautiful little girl was born during the middle of their second year at medical school and things crumbled from there. Addison's overbearing parents had come to town and did what they thought was best. They took charge of finding care for baby Sadie Leighton Montgomery Sheppard and had concluded that it only made sense for Derek and Addison to marry. Derek and his best friend Mark were still in their wild stages, though Derek had always been calmer. Though he were the father to their little girl, Addison wasn't ready to throw a wedding on top of their already immensely hectic life. Her mother would have gladly taken over and planned the entire thing but Addison wanted it to be hers so she took the option to wait.
Derek was young and didn't understand. They were both still young. They hadn't had much of a chance to become real people. Both had gone from high school, to university and then to med school without stopping to breathe. One thing led to another, ending with Derek taking off and Addison's parents leaving in sheer disappointment of their daughter's less than ideal life. Mark had stayed at Columbia with Addison and the two had formed a strong bond over the years. Both kept in touch with Derek, for the sake of Sadie, but things were different. Derek transferred to the University of Washington and was seen little of for the following years. He made the odd trip up to visit his daughter, but they came sparsely. Addison was grateful that Sadie was always an optimist with their relationship and didn't seem to get to down about not seeing her dad all too often, but Addison also knew what Serena was missing out on.
She liked to believe that things happened for a reason and there were many reasons why she and Derek had not worked out. Though she had moved on long ago, there would always be a spot for him in her heart and he would always be her one big love.
Addison walked up to the Nurses' station to grab the days files. She strolled down the hall towards the on call rooms, balancing charts and coffee cups like a pro. She tapped softly on the second on call room until Mark opened the door.
"Time to get up and at it! Here's some real coffee to help soften the blow," Addison smiled. Sometimes Mark was harder to wake up than her teenage daughter.
"You seem chipper for a Monday. How many cups have you had this morning?" Mark questioned coyly.
Addison smiled smugly, "Three plus this one."
Mark laughed, "You addict, what do you do? Just unhinge your jaw and pray to the caffeine lords for awakeness?"
"Something like that," Addison said before she turned around, heading towards her first patient of the day.
By mid afternoon, Addison was gearing towards her fifth cup of coffee as the hospital was bursting with cases.
"Want to grab a sandwich?" Angela, one of the main nurses Addison worked with, asked her during a brief lull.
"Actually, I'm meeting someone so I gotta run off," Addison smiled, "Tomorrow?"
Angela nodded yes in reply. Addison quickly took off to the third floor coffee shop.
"You again?" smiled the barista, who was used to Addison's frequent juju stops.
"I'm actually meeting someone this time so this one is justified," Addison smiled back.
"Hey mom! It is cooking out there. That August heat sure is sticking around longer than welcomed," Sadie said joining her mother at the cash register.
The two each ordered a coffee, a sandwich and pie, because why not, and sat at an empty table.
"Doctor Montgomery, I have the labs for Mrs. Klassen," one of Addison's interns jogged up. She swore they could sniff her out anywhere. She and Sadie should have headed up the street for lunch. Sadie smiled shyly. She knew her mother was busy so she rarely paid much attention to the constant interruptions their lunch dates faced.
"Okay, leave them with Angela upstairs, I'll be up there in a bit," Addison said with a strained smile. She did her best to remain pleasant with the interns, who had only been there for a week thus far, "So how was your first day of class Sadie?"
Sadie shrugged.
"That bad?" Addison asked, "The uniform looks stunning..."
"I hate it, I need a new skirt. This one makes me feel like I am trying out for a Britney Spears music video. Early Britney. Pigtails Britney," Sadie sighed. She wasn't one for trying to dress up to catch people's attention. She was a low key dresser.
"It really is a great school though, were the classes okay?"
"They seemed busy but nothing out of the ordinary, just another year," Sadie stated, "I still have Biology this afternoon."
"That should be fun," Addison said trying to pump her daughter up. She knew Sadie was not a huge fan of her all girls private school. She loved the courses, the library and her best friend Hazel but otherwise the halls were filled with socialite daughters and girls who already had more money than they knew what to do with.
"I want to just fast forward and start university already," Sadie stated.
"Okay little miss thirteen going on thirty, you have a ton of time. You'll get there! I don't want you to rush through things and end up regretting missing out on being a teenager," Addison said.
"These girls aren't teenagers mom, they are evil girls, yes, very standard for a high school, but, alas, they are all rich. Therefore they are all the typical type a snotty rich kid. There's only supposed to be a clique of what, five, of those in a school that torture everyone else. Only five! Then you have at least a bit of a chance to hide from them. Here, no no, here they are all evil. They swarm. Hazel and I read, and they swarm," Sadie shuddered.
"It can't be that bad," Addison said tilting her head.
"No...it's not, but that's my exaggerated version of it alright," Sadie smiled. The two quickly finished up their respective lunches before Sadie had to run back to school, the only reason she ever ran, while Addison had to return to check out her incoming lab reports.
Sadie jogged towards school, which was luckily only two blocks away. As she ran up the front steps she bumped into Hazel who was sitting near the top step reading "The Tale of the Shrew," probably just for fun. Hazel was a quite girl but had a very loud personality. She sewed her own clothes, made her own jewelry and read everything she could get her hands on. She and Sadie became friends in Kindergarten and they had stuck together ever since. Hazel's mother was a fashion designer and travelled quite a bit, so Hazel often spent nights with Sadie and Addison at their brownstone. Hazel even had her own bed in Sadie's bedroom. The situation worked out well, due to Addison's late nights at the hospital. The two rarely had to be alone, even when they were alone.
Sadie was ever grateful for Hazel in that she was okay with just laying in bed, reading beside each other. They would occasionally come up from their stories to share plot lines and thoughts and that was enough for them. Neither was too interested in hair braiding and truth or dare games that seemed to run rampant with the other girls at school. Sadie earnestly tried, but she was just much happier living in other worlds within her books and even happier reading medical journals or watching surgical tapes from the hospital. Though it often left her with being labelled as odd or anti social Sadie never felt like she was missing out on anything.
"What are you up to tonight?" Hazel asked with her soft, cheerful voice.
"I think I'm hitting it up with good old Ernest Hemingway; I see you have big plans with Sir Shakespeare," Sadie nodded towards Hazel's copy of Shakespeare's play.
"I wish," Hazel pouted momentarily, "My ever loving mother has set me up with dinner plans. It's going to be me, her, her new junior designer and the junior designer's son. Could she be more obvious?"
"How old is he? Does he go to school near here?" Sadie asked skeptically. Hazel was not into the dating scene.
"He's seventeen and in eleventh grade at some school in Brooklyn. Brooklyn must be hip now," Hazel shrugged.
"I've always liked Brooklyn," Sadie defended.
"Me to actually, they have that really cute little used bookstore, tea shop thingie," Hazel stared off wistfully.
"Ooh, we should so go there this Saturday!" Sadie said excitedly.
Back at the hospital Addison was quickly moving through her afternoon. She was hoping to make it home for dinner so she could actually cook for her kid at least once this week. The chief of staff was walking down the hallway and did a double take once spotting her. Uh oh. This was never good.
"Dr Montgomery, just the woman I was looking for. Could I have a moment to speak with you please?" Chief Sullivan asked.
"Uh, yeah of course," Addison said, following the chief to her office, "Is everything okay?"
"Oh yes, quite well actually. Now, I need to discuss some options with you," the chief smiled weakly.
"Alright," Addison said nervously.
"The chief at Seattle Grace Hospital has asked for you to become the head surgeon in their neonatal/OBGYN unit. They are going through a large expansion as two of the hospital have united into one. He is hoping that you strongly consider the position," Chief Sullivan spoke.
"Why would I want to leave here?" Addison asked.
"Well, the pay is nearly double what you make here and we are facing some budget cuts, which means longer days," Chief Sullivan explained, "Listen, I wouldn't do this for anyone else, but you and I have been close since you began here and I feel like I need to look out for you. It would hurt immensely to lose you here in New York but..."
"So you're shipping me out?" Addison asked in disbelief.
"I'm hoping you will choose to go, for your own benefit," Chief Sullivan said earnestly.
"I have a kid though. She has school and friends and a life here," Addison started.
"I know and how often do you get to be part of her life here? How many times have you actually sat down to talk to her?" Chief Sullivan questioned, "Because you're looking at adding in a whole extra shift here weekly."
"But won't it be just as rough there?" Addison asked. Chief Sullivan was one of her closest friends here in New York but this was big. Really big.
"You will have a contract to only work eighty hours a week and the rest you are able to delegate. You may work more if you chose but it won't be required as it is here. I worked it out that, even if you had eight hours of sleep each night, you would still get 32 hours outside of work weekly to spend time with Sadie and what not. Maybe have a life? Plus it gives you great accreditation to eventually become a chief yourself one day," Chief Sullivan stated.
"You really looked this over didn't you," Addison stated.
"I've been staring at it for a week now," Chief Sullivan replied, "I really think you should take it."
"I need some time to process it," Addison said, "I'm just not sure.."
"Let me know by tomorrow evening if you can, they would want you to start next week," the Chief replied.
It sounded great. Something Addie had been working towards for ages now. But there was Sadie's life here in New York. She had a great school. She had Hazel; the best friend Addison could have ever hoped for her daughter. There was Mark, who had always looked out for Sadie, no matter what.
And in Seattle there was Derek.