Addison tore off the mask obscuring her angular face and chucked it in the trash can on her way out of the OR. She was not a loser. She never lost anything. Well, there was that one potato sack race, but it wasn't her fault her partner didn't take the potatoes out. Needless to say, she was not a loser. She hardly ever lost any patient in the OR, and when she did, it wasn't her fault. But today she had lost two. A mother and a child. And she just wasn't ready to handle it. She wasn't ready to face the father. She wasn't ready to face Callie and maybe even Alex asking if she was ok. Because she wasn't. And she didn't have the patience and the strength to lie to their faces today.

"Addison." A deep voice, a male voice, called her name. She whirled around, praying it wasn't an ex. Or Alex. Or some freaky transvestite.

But no. It was Pete. Pete Wilder. Addison glanced around the dismal waiting area, making sure that yes, she was still in rainy Seattle and not on the sunny beach in LA. But no, no she was still here. She blinked, still unsure if Pete Wilder was an incredibly good looking apparition. But he just laughed. He was really here. So, time to take care of that.

"What are you doing here?" Addison asked, rather rudely. She immediately felt like hitting herself, so she counter-acted her rudeness and pulled Pete into an almost awkward hug. He laced his solid arms around her waist and pulled away, grinning a little wider than before.

"I'm here to bring you back to LA," he said simply. Addison's smile fell. And splattered on the floor. Take her back to LA? What was Naomi thinking?

"Oh, and apparently, I come with a note. I was told to swear on my life not to open it. So…" He pulled a creased piece of paper and handed it to Addison. "I swear on my life I didn't read it." Addison opened the note, grinned, then laughed, and closed it.

"What does it say?" Pete asked timidly. Addison grinned and swatted his hand away.

"None of your business," She squeezed his bicep and pointed the way down the hall. "I want you to meet someone."

"That still doesn't change things," Pete said, sounding determined. Addison turned and looked for the first time, into his hazel colored eyes. Almost like Alex's but greener. They reminded her of her childhood garden outside her window on Seventy-seventh and Fifth. God, how she missed that garden.

"Who said it changed anything?" she countered evenly. Pete blinked. She turned away again and led Pete to the cafeteria, where Callie was already eating her food. "Pete, Callie. Callie, Pete." Addison took a seat and motioned for Pete to do the same. Callie grinned goofily.

"This is the Pete I've heard so much about?" she said, still grinning like the Cheshire cat.



Pete looked up from the cell phone he was checking. "What have you heard?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing," Addison said in alarm. "Absolutely nothing, right Callie?" she growled in Callie's direction. Pete did not need to know that she had been debating going back to LA since she came from sunny California. He also didn't need to know he was a deciding factor.

Callie snorted into her salad. "Sure." She turned to Pete, who was still trying unsuccessfully to decode Addison's body language. "So, Pete. Do you know anyone other than Addison here in Seattle?"

Pete looked up, dazed, as though he had finally acknowledged that Callie existed. He was too wrapped up in all the hotness that was Addison. Typical man. "Uh, no I don't think so."

"Pete?" Someone called. "Pete Wilder?" Pete turned around, surprised.

"Alex Karev?"

"You know him?" Addison asked, her face a little whiter than before.

"You know her?" Alex asked Pete, glaring at Addison. Addison rolled her eyes. It was so hard to tell when Alex was mad at her nowadays. He was either mad at her for ignoring her, or mad at her for not staying in LA, or mad at her for some unspeakable reason that she didn't even know. Either way, being with Alex and being friends with Alex was just plain exhausting. So Addison didn't even try to fathom why he was angry at her now. She was just praying that Pete wasn't a frat boy.

Pete turned to Addison. "Yeah, we know each other," he said, to both of them. Infuriatingly enough, he didn't offer any kind of explanation as to why he knew Alex. They were definitely not classmates, and hopefully Pete wasn't in the same fraternity. Addison said a quick prayer.

"I was his tutor in med school." Pete answered, his greenish eyes smiling at Addison's confusion. "Take a seat, Karev." Addison sighed inwardly at the way he said Karev. It sounded almost authoritative. That's hot.

Callie glanced at Addison. "Excuse me, boys, but I need to talk to Addison. Stay here," she stood and practically yanked Addison out of the cafeteria. Addison followed a little unsteadily in her heels.

"Dude, Pete is here!" Callie seemed ready to clap and jump up and down. "Pete Wilder is in Seattle. To take you back to LA." Addison could feel herself beginning to smile. "Seriously. Why aren't you packed and ready to go to California?"

"What if I don't wanna go?" Addison asked coyly, rocking back and forth on her heels, something she didn't quite see as dangerous, until she started falling backwards. Callie reached 

out to grab her arm, but Addison missed and kept slowly tilting backwards, until chivalrous Pete grabber her by the waist and put her right side up again. He winked and kept walking down the hallway.

"Ok, I am sooo ready to go to California," Addison said to Callie, watching Pete walk away. "I wonder what he looks like in swim trunks."

"Or without them," Callie quipped. Addison laughed.

A/N: don't we love Pete/Addison? I do. You know what else I love? Reviews. Do it! Peer Pressure!! 