Really, I just don't own Grey's Anatomy.
This could be seen as a companion to Life in Boxes, I suppose, but it stands on it's own, too. It's Addison-centric.
A new, unfamiliar place could be just as depressing as an old, unforgiving place. Addison tried to look at her new apartment as a place to rebuild. Not a place where she would fall apart. Because falling apart seemed like a viable option at this moment in time. She couldn't help but replay all of her farewells to Seattle, thinking about all the people who were no longer a part of her life, and how there would be a lack of familiar faces when she reported to work.
Addison sat against the wall, arms crossed over her knees. It was just last night that she had said her final good-byes to Seattle Grace. Callie and Miranda had come over to her hotel room and they had ordered extravagant room service and spent the night reminiscing over the days before everything became complicated and their lives had turned into a soap opera.
Her good-bye to Derek had been bittersweet. They were friends, really and truly, but they most likely were not going to stay in touch now that they didn't work together. She had gotten a little teary-eyed about thinking that this man who had been such a stable part of her life for so long might not be a part of it anymore. There wouldn't be any reminders of him in her new home the way there had been back in Manhattan. There were no Addison-and-Derek places in Los Angeles that she could visit fondly to remember the happy days of their marriage. She was really starting over fresh, but she had always thought that a fresh start would include Derek somehow. Maybe it was good that she was getting a chance to start over without using her friendship with Derek as a crutch.
Saying good-bye to Callie had been painful. Callie desperately needed a friend, and Addison was more than sorry that she couldn't be that friend. Their friendship was relatively new, but it was one that had started off with the sharing of a deeply personal emotion, and that was something that made it become a strong closeness quickly. When Callie had left her apartment, they had hugged fiercely and refused to actually say "Good-bye". Callie had detached herself and said, "I'll see you soon," and then departed quickly, which was maybe for the best as Addison didn't want to break down in front of Callie when they were both trying their hardest to not get weepy.
The good-byes to the interns had been formal. She wasn't sure she'd even said good-bye to Cristina, not that she really needed to. They didn't know each other, and the only real reason Addison knew about Cristina's existence was because of her relationship with Burke. Addison had given Izzie a hug, wishing her the best. It was a slight betrayal to Callie, but Addison had always harbored a soft spot for the emotional blonde. Meredith and Addison had clumsily shaken hands, and cut off the good-bye before it reached an even more uncomfortable awkwardness. George's good-bye had been brief as well, because Addison couldn't quite forgive him for doing what he did to Callie.
Her good-bye to Alex had been heartbreakingly professional. He had barely looked at her when she had told him that she was glad he had become attached to the "gynie squad", and that she knew he would make a great obstetrician. His face had been buried in a chart as though he couldn't be bothered to say good-bye to the woman who mentored him. She had stood next to him a few seconds longer than necessary, making it sufficiently painful for both of them before clearing her throat and walking away as quickly as she could.
Mark had joked around, masking both his hurt at Addison's unfaithfulness and his dismay that she was leaving. He had enveloped her in a bear hug, wishing her the best in her ear, then distancing himself from her so that she didn't have a chance to respond with a thank you or even a chaste kiss good-bye.
The Chief and Miranda had been appropriately sad and appropriately unsentimental. There was no trying to convince her to stay, but they both had an air of disapproving of her decision. She knew there was no chance of bringing them around to her mindset. She wasn't even sure that she understood her mindset.
She was so overcome with emotion after Miranda and Callie had left her hotel room that she wasn't entirely sure that she could bear it. She had sat in bed, unable to fall asleep, alternating between thinking about her future and thinking about her past, thinking about going to Los Angeles and leaving Seattle.
Waking up that morning hadn't been a problem as she hadn't even fallen asleep. It was one of those days where everything kept going wrong, and it was hard for Addison to not take it as a sign against her leaving Seattle. She had decided to fly to Los Angeles so that she could be absolutely sure to arrive before her belongings. Her plane had been delayed because of the weather in Seattle. Not for the first time did Addison curse the stormy, rainy weather.
Once she had gotten on the plane, she realized that she had forgotten any sort of reading material and was stuck leafing through SkyMall and trying to complete the crossword puzzle in the WorldPerks magazine, despite all the wrong answers the previous flier had filled in.
Picking up her rental car had been more than a little bit of a hassle, and Addison couldn't wait for the weekend, when she was flying back to Seattle so that she could drive her car to Los Angeles. The whole thing was on the ridiculous and complicated side, but Addison had made the flight plans before thinking anything out, and so she was making due with what she had.
Once she had started driving in Los Angeles, she had gotten hopelessly lost and it took her an absurd amount of time to find the apartment building. And it was at that point that she started to feel as though all of the powers in the universe were conspiring to make this move into a horrible, scarring one.
It wasn't even that these things were all that life-shattering or important. It's just that she was already hesitant and that they all happened relatively close to each other. Addison figured that it was bad juju.
After fumbling with the key and finally opening the door, Addison had let herself into her new apartment and taken in the bare walls, spotless floor, cobweb-free ceiling, and the sunlight filtering in through the windows. All in all, there were worse places to end up.
Not that she had "ended up" anywhere. This is what Callie had told her. She still was on her way to wherever she was going to end up. Maybe this was just a stopping point, but it wasn't a bad stopping point.
Addison tried to imagine the way the apartment would look once all of her things were placed inside of it. It would be homier than her hotel room; she would be able to put out all of the things that identified it as truly her place. She enjoyed unpacking infinitely more than packing. It was the one time when her place would be absolutely clean, where everything would be exactly where she wanted it to be, untouched by other people. For about ten minutes, her apartment would be perfection. And then she would have to get up and do something, spoiling the flawlessness.
But she was all right with that. It wasn't a home if it had to be perfect all of the time. And this was supposed to be her home. So she would enjoy that ten minutes, and then she would set about turning this apartment into her home.
Yes. It was time to stop reminiscing. Time to take her thoughts from Seattle Grace and firmly plant them in Los Angeles. It was time to take control, to move on to bigger and better things. This transition was for the best. It was a good thing, and she should take advantage of the opportunity it provided her.
When her things arrived, she would unpack and start her new life.
So there it is. Let me know what you thought. I'm really trying to avoid doing any homework tonight and while I was in the libs this afternoon, and I kept thinking about writing Addison's good-byes and more about her move to Los Angeles. So there you have it.