"Whaaaat?"

Addison looked at him entirely thunderstruck and her voice seemed to bounce back from the high ceiling of their kitchen.

"It's gonna be okay, I..."

"It's not gonna be okay, Derek! I cannot believe you! How can you decide something like this without even considering to ask me before?"

"Look, I know it's not how we planned Thanksgiving, but everybody has to change their plans. Nobody made my mother break her wrist, it's just bad luck...So please calm down and do this... if not for me than at least for my mother" he added with a crooked smile, which made his eyes sparkle a little while he was taking her hands into his own.

"Please, Addie..."

She looked at him, annoyed, because they both knew that she would say yes. Partly, because she couldn't really refuse without disappointing Derek's family, her family, and partly - and that was the most annoying part - because the way he looked at her and pitched his voice didn't leave her a choice at all.

He had cornered her and he knew that.

"Fine..." she mumbled without looking at him. She hated to lose a fight especially when she knew that she was the one who was really right.

"Give me the phone, I'm gonna ask Nae for a recipe."

"I love you. You know that, right?" Derek winked at her to cheer her up. He knew that she was right and saving his ass from his family, his mother to be more accurate, but he would never admit that to her directly.

They were both quite stubborn and when they had a fight neither of them was likely to give in or admit that the other one had a point. Thank God that they were one soul most of the time.

"Yeah..." she looked up beginning to smile in a superior way, as she got the message in his eyes.

He kissed her on the lips, which started to soften again, one hand on her hip.

"Okay, stop it!" she laughed a few moments later, and tried to move herself out of his grip while he slowly went down to gently kiss her neck.

"Dr Shepherd!" she insisted with a smile in her voice, while at the same time adding more emphasis to it. He stopped, looking at her with a smirk on his lips.

"It's not gonna happen tonight..." she grinned, imitating a look full of sympathy before she cleared her throat to get more serious again.

"Now give me the phone, or Maya will be asleep and I can't call Nae anymore."

"Here you go" he handed her the phone and tried to spank her teasingly before going to the bathroom. He was sure that he could make her change her mind, but as Thanksgiving was already on the next day, he chose to leave it like this, before they'd run out of time. She squeaked at his attempt and pointed her index finger at him while shaking her head menacingly.

"You..."

At that moment Naomi aparrantly aswered the phone, because Addison hurried to gain back her normal voice as quickly as possible to ask her friend for the easiest turkey recipe she knew.

#

Derek woke up on the heavy futon-couch Addison had insisted to keep when they had moved in, because...well, probably just to win the fight over it, as there was no reason in the entire world for anyone to actually like it.

She was now tangled up in him, recipes laying all over them. They'd gone through most of them after Addison had made a few more calls, finding that it was completely incorrect to call Naomi's recipe easy.

He had kept her company, trying to be as much of a helping hand as possible, but, after a hard day at the hospital, they'd both fallen asleep almost immediately.

He lifted her up as carefully as the way they had positioned themselves during their sleep allowed, finding that he couldn't feel anything from his butt downwards. How he hated this damn couch!

"Addie?" he gently stroke the auburn hair out of her face and drew with one fingertip along her cheekbone.

She grinned with her eyes still closed.

"What time is it?"

"I would've checked if I could've moved anyone of us..." he answered slightly amused yet mostly annoyed by the couch.

"Oh God..." Addie groaned as she tried to get up. "I hate this couch!" Right, he knew it!

When they had finally finished streching their numb and aching limbs, Derek's pager started, as if it had just waited for them to get up.

"Damn it, Derek, I swear if you leave me alone with this...you are not even on call!"

But he had already grapped his coat. He had almost perfected the procedure of getting ready after being paged, so that, no matter what he was doing, he could be at the hospital most likely sooner than anyone else.

"I'm back as soon as possible, I promise. Love you!" He briefly kissed her on the cheek, leaving her standing beneath the couch, too furious to be desperate.

#

Desperation came later. And it took her over completely.

Derek was still operating or whatever - of course - and the turkey was two times as big as she had imagined, but not half as easy as Nae had promised.

There she was, all alone with this big beast in the oven, that would never be ready in time.

In the OR she could easily focus on what she was doing, she was incredibly quick and decisive; people already called her one of the best of her generation...but this right now was getting her to her limits.

Before she could burst into tears - what she hardly ever let happen - the doorbell rang and Mark stood in front of her.

"Need a hand?"

He grinned. Normally that cheered her up, but right now she wanted to slap him for being so obviously relaxed.

"I don't think yours would be much help, Mark..." she said indifferently and went on quickly, since she was definitely not in the mood for his inapropriate jokes.

"Did Derek tell you to come help me? You shouldn't let him do this too often..."

"I wouldn't do anything for him I didn't want myself. And yes, I have never cooked a turkey before either, but I brought some stuff that goes with it...at least I think it does..."

He looked down on the packages in his hand, somehow thoughtful, which made Addison almost smile, because he looked incredibly clueless.

"Alright, come in. You can decorate the table." She smiled teasingly and got the same face right back from him.

He wouldn't be any help, but at least he was there for moral support (if one could use this expression while speaking of Mark...).

Sometimes she wondered, how people – including her - who were saving lifes everyday, could be such failures outside the OR.

#

Derek came back when Nancy was already hanging over the toilet seat.

The good thing was that the other 33 people were probably alright, the bad thing that Mrs Shepherd didn't care about these statistics. At all.

All she could do was shaking her head over and over again in disbelieve and whenever her head changed its direction Addison felt herself sinking more and more into her chair.

She liked Derek's mother, but had always had the feeling that this was rather one-sided, although Derek always told her otherwise.

"There he is!"

Mrs Shepherd seemed relieved that her "golden boy" had finally appeared.

"Your wife tried to get rid of us all on one day..." She raised one eyebrow glancing at Addie, who stood up to take Derek's coat.

"Nancy is in the bathroom..." Addie whispered quickly with a sharp undertone, infering that she was everything but pleased about his late arrival. "Might be salmonella..."

Derek first looked at her then at the table where everyone was sitting in silence in front of the fateful turkey, almost excited about what would happen next.

Only Katherine's son was climbing around his mother's chair, whining that he was bored and still hungry.

"I wanna have a hotdog, mummy...please, can we go now? Pleaaase...I'm starving..."

"Honey, just eat the vegetables Aunt Addie made, alright?"

"But I don't like them..."

At this point Mrs Shepherd coughed in a slightly provoking way and Derek had an idea.

"You know what, I would like to eat a hotdog, too. Are there any seconds?"

#

Derek closed the door behind Mark, who was always the last one to go, only this time he was somewhat thankful that Mark had stayed so much longer, because he could feel that Addison was just waiting for them to be alone to explode over what had happened today.

He went upstairs to their bedroom, where she was indeed already waiting...to kill him, obviously.

"I hate you for this, Derek, I truly hate you for this! There is nothing else I have to say."

Her tone was even sharper than before and full of anger.

"Oh c'mon, Addie, wasn't it nice after all?" he responded rather amused.

The way her eyes were sparkling with fury now told him, that she did not quite share his opinion.

He rolled his eyes, sighed and opened his mouth to respond something, but she did't let him.

"No, don't. It's my fault, I should've seen this coming...It's just the typical thing for you to do...You didn't even leave me a choice here, damn it! No matter what, there is nothing I could have done differently to not ruin the whole evening! And you have to pull the hero instead of helping me or admitting that it was your crappy idea in the first place!"

She stopped as she noticed that she was talking herself even more into rage again, if that was still possible, and he decided not to try to defend himself again or he would eventually end up on the futon and he was sure, that his body would not survive two nights in a row on this monster.

Luckily in this exact moment the phone in the kitchen started to ring, which gave him a reason to escape from the strained situation upstairs and Addison a reason to mumble "typical" once again, as if it was his fault, that somebody was calling just now.

He hurried downstairs only to hear, that his mother was already talking to the answering machine and to take a look at the mess, they had once called their kitchen. However, he was too tired to call his mother back or to clean anything up now and the smell of the hotdogs mixed with the leftovers, nobody had been willing to take home, almost made him vomit. Alright, he got Addie's point.

He went back upstairs, finding his wife in the shower. She was turning her back on him, her shoulders tense.

"Can I come in?" he asked softly and as she ignored him, he took off his clothes and slipped through the glass door.

"Hey Adds, I'm sorry. Okay? I mean that." he whispered, putting his hands on her shoulders. She still hadn't said anything, yet her shoulders relaxed under his stroking. He laid her long wet hair over one shoulder to get access to her neck and started to kiss her, his hands wandering down her spine. Even with the hot water falling down on them she shivered and then slowly turned around to look at him. He couldn't tell if she was only exhausted or really sad, but he went with both, not only due to this disastrous thanksgiving. They hadn't had much time for each other during the past weeks and he knew that it killed her as much as him. All the success, their big carreers, required sacrifices and they definitely had to stop their marriage from becoming one. Well, luckily they were Derek and Addison. If anyone could manage that, it was them.

Addison tried to read his thoughts, while she was staring into his apologetic and now very serious eyes and her lips slowly formed a smile. He smiled back and kissed her. She closed her eyes and started to lean into his kisses, both of them trying to concentrate only on the feelings they brought up in each other and on the hot water pouring down their naked bodies.

Soon her tounge was running along his upper lip, asking for entrance, and he opened his mouth lighlty to massage it with his own before he softly sucked on her bottom lip.

He loved her lips. There was no expression good enough to honour them appropriately, nothing like the feeling of kissing Addison...

"What the heee..." he gasped as the shower suddenly went cold, earning a nasty smirk from his wife.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself" she laughed and got out the shower quickly, while he was still avoiding the icy waterjets and trying to catch his breath.

"That was just...mean!"

"I know. You should stay in there for a bit longer though, honey, you still smell like the hotdog-guy from across the street."

She winked at him and left for their bedroom.

Well, he guessed he deserved this and suddenly he couldn't help but laugh and shake his head in disbelief while waiting for the water to get warm again.

Damn, she was hot, when she was angry!

#

After Derek had finished his shower and made sure that the hotdog smell had been washed away and replaced by someone's favourite aftershave, he slipped under the sheets next to Addison, who was not yet asleep.

He put his arms around her and kissed the soft skin behind her ear.

"Oh, come on..." she laughed.

"What?"

"The aftershave? You're being mean, not me..."

She turned around in his arms, kissed his smiling lips and he could feel that she was smiling, too. Their kissing quickly became more passionate and he had to pause for a moment to avoid getting too excited too soon. He looked into her big blue eyes, which always gave him the impression of drowning a little, losing himself in her. One of the many effects other women never had on him.

Now her sexy look sucked him in and turned him on. She bit on her bottom lip, still looking into his eyes, which was reason enough for him to roll on top of her and slip one hand under her velvet shirt while starting to kiss her again. She parted her lips to let his tounge in and moaned into his mouth, as his hand reached one nipple. He took off her shirt and was now massaging both her breasts with his hands, his mouth wandering along her jaw, down her neck, along her collarbone and over her perfect stomach, placing kisses everywhere. He could feel her blood rushing faster through her veins, her nipples hardened under his in many ways gifted hands. She moaned, ran her fingers through his hair, that felt better than ever, and smiled, as she felt his arousal against the inside of her thy. Already breathing heavily he took off her damp panties, beginnig to rub her softly, which caused her to moan even louder. Her hips were meeting his movements and her lips found his again.

Then he paused again, allowing her to pull down his boxers and she smirked at the sight. He rolled over to let her slowly slide on top of him. They began to move slowly but perfectly insync, relishing the sensations of the moment. Of course they had done this like a thousand times and knew how to get the other one over the edge, but it felt still special and precious every single time even after all these years. Addison seemed so strong and yet her soft skin on his thies told him how fragile she really was. He forgot that sometimes.

Their pace became faster, her hips were meeting his thrusts harder now and both of them were relieved not to have to think about muffling the noise they made.

Derek could feel her muscles clenching around him, which was his luck, because he was as close as she was, and he rolled on top of her once again.

"Addison" he moaned, but she could not quite concentrate on forming words anymore, already panting too hard, so she tried to let her body speak instead. He slid into her again and she wrapped her legs around him to pull him closer and allow him to go deeper.

"Oh God!"

With the next few thrusts he brought her over the edge and could finally let himself go, both of them panting loudly as the waves of ecstasy washed over them one after another.

#

Here she is, standing next to him in the O.R. of Seattle Grace, her auburn hair sneaking out under the famous scrub cap. He did it again, cornered her, forced her to do a surgery she would have never agreed to if he hadn't just saved her brother's life.

A few seconds ago she was ranting about all this and how it reminded her of the Hotdog Thanksgiving back then...but now she was the hero. She did it, the surgery, and he knew she would, because she is Addison Forbes Montgomery, by now maybe an even better surgeon than him, although he will never tell her that. Instead he is nudging her proudly with a hint of nostalgia. They have always brought out the best in each other except for the time when they didn't, plus all this talk about the Hotdog Thanksgiving really reminds him of the great night that followed it...and he can tell from her look that she's thinking exactly the same.