A/N: This came to my mind just because it's summer and I had this summery feeling and was in need of Addek:) Please read and tell me what you think!
His finger was tracing a line from the hole between her collarbones, along the edges of her bikini top, down to her stomach, stopping at her navel, when she began to giggle and tried to catch his hand. He was quicker and held both her arms above her head, pinning them to the sand. She raised an eyebrow and he was just about to bend down for what was supposed to be the best kiss of the week so far, when they heard people coming down the dunes.
"They are early." He said it as if it was her fault and she shrugged. "They are doctors."
He pecked her lips quickly, helping her up before running up the beach to their visitors. She caught up with him quickly, because of her ridiculously long legs and because he stepped on a sharp stone. She shoved him into the sand, laughing.
"Loser."
Still smirking she pecked her best friend on the cheek before hugging her deeply.
"I've missed you so much, Nai."
Naomi and Sam had moved to L.A. about eight months ago, including little Maya, of course, who was already clumping on her own little feet through the sand now. After hugging Addison, too, Sam helped Derek on his feet.
"Nice to see you, man."
They were not as close as their wives, Mark was Derek's best friend and Sam had learned to deal with that a long time ago, but still medschool can bond people for life.
Addison knelt down to Maya, who hardly recognized her redheaded aunt, but whatever. All she cared about was putting one little foot in front of another, enjoying the attention she felt on herself.
"Hello Maya, sweetie, I can't believe how big you are!" Addison made an amazed face, triggering the toddler to laugh in a weird baby-manner. "Yes! And you can walk better than uncle Derek here, right?"
Derek smirked and nudged his wife in the side, so that she was out of balance for a moment and had to grab his shirt not to fall. They exchanged a teasing look and Derek helped Sam with the few bags they had brought along for the week.
"No, sweetie, don't put the sand in your mouth." Naomi picked up her daughter, who was not at all okay with that and started to shout angrily until she spotted her mother's necklace to fumble with.
Naomi took a wide look around and smiled. "So, the Hamptons after all, huh?" She knew that this had been a heatedly discussed topic among the Shepherds, but, clearly, Addison knew how to get what she wanted. She had always known. Now she winked at her friend victoriously, guessing what she was thinking of. "He will get used to it. I mean, can you believe this view? It was really hard to find a house directly at the beach...But anyway, you look amazing!"
Naomi just shrugged. "I know." Building a new practice was hard work, but this way she had finally managed to get rid of her remaining pregnancy pounds. They both smirked at each other and wandered up the beach to the big house Addison and Derek now called their own.
xxx
Mark and Nancy came when Maya had already been put to sleep and the candles Addison had generously bought were actually necessary to see each other on the wooden porch in front of the house.
Derek pecked his sister on the cheek and Mark went straight to Addison, who brought some blankets as it was slightly getting quite cool outside, and gave her a friendly but Markish spank. She rolled her eyes and threw a blanket after him, that had almost gotten into a candle had a careful Naomi not watched their silliness.
"So? Isn't that a great house Addison and I picked out here?" That was Mark again. It had indeed been him who had helped her searching and she was almost completely sure that exactly this and not the Hamptons themselves was the major reason for Derek's stubbornness on this topic. It nagged him that Mark had been on her side this time and that it was his fault that Mark got a say in this at all. Sometimes it really felt as if their marriage consisted of three people, but Mark was his best friend and if he didn't like it he was the one to stop it, not Addison.
Of course, everybody else agreed that the house was great and its location even greater and Addison softly drove her fingers through her husband's hair to stop him from pouting too much. "I'm gonna make you love it." She whispered only for him too hear and he pulled her on his lap and kissed her hair.
"Hey, where's Jeff?" Addison gave Derek a sharp look for asking so sheepishly. If Nancy had wanted to talk about it, she would have probably already started. Sometimes she really doubted that he knew his sisters at all.
"I don't wanna talk about it." Now Addison gave him the see?-look and Derek sighed. "All right."
At this moment the baby monitor went off and saved Derek from fixing the awkward silence he had created. Naomi sighed and gave Sam a controlling look, but he just successfully managed to ignore it, which made the others slightly grin.
Then Addison hopped off Derek's lap. "Can I go? I'm good with babies. Well naturally, but...can I?"
Naomi nodded in surprise and Addison hurried inside and to one of the guestrooms upstairs. Maya had just spit out her pacifier, but it was hard work to find it in the mess of blankets and stuffed animals she was lying in.
Downstairs Derek earned curious looks for his wife's behaviour. Naomi raised an eyebrow and smiled knowingly. "Something you guys wanna tell us?"
"No way, you would have told me first, right?" Mark seemed seriously disappointed and Nancy slapped him slightly. "Addison would've told me first, smarty pants, I'm an OBGYN, we share things like that."
Naomi raised both of her eyebrows at that remark. Of course, she had moved away and lived in another state now, but still...but she swallowed the comment that was lying on her tongue and Derek just smiled and shook his head. "Come on, guys, not behind her back. And we're not even trying, Addison has just sent out applications for a fellowship."
Everyone was okay with this answer, very rationally, and Mark wanted to hear about L.A. Only Nancy was still staring at her brother, thinking that she had noticed something in the way he had said it. She squeezed his hand. "You know, Derek, you're gonna be a great daddy someday. Just give it a bit time."
"Thank you, Nance." Yeah, he really disliked his sisters most of the time, but then there were moments like these, when he was just glad to have someone saying things like that.
Addison came downstairs again, her hair quite messy, as if tiny little fingers had just had a lot of fun with it. Also her enthusiasm seemed to be saturated for now. "You know, Nai, you should really get some of these chains to clip the pacifier to. Was not easy to find..."
Naomi chuckled. "I know..." And Sam quickly put some wine gums in his mouth to hide his grin.
Addison sat down on Derek's lap again and he folded his hands across her stomach. "I love you." He whispered. "I love you, too." She whispered back playfully, knowing that everyone could hear them.
xxx
Sam and Naomi went to bed first, with Maya they never knew how long they would actually be able to sleep and Nancy followed soon, she was still bugged by the whole Jeff thing, whatever it was.
"So that makes the three of us." Mark raised his eyebrows and Derek had to chuckle because of the disturbed look this remark placed on his wife's face. Addison then rolled her eyes at both of them, crossed her arms on her chest and turned her head to the dark shimmering waves of the ocean.
"Let's go swim." That was Derek.
"What?" Addison's head popped in his direction again.
"I said, let's go swim." Derek smiled weirdly at her and Mark grinned. Of course, he did, he loved it when Derek got adventurous.
"Honey, do you have any idea how cold the water might possibly be?" She anxiously watched how the two men in front of her quickly undressed right down to their boxer shorts.
"It's the ocean, Addie, and it's summer. It won't be that cold. Probably even warmer than the air so late at night." Derek pulled of her sweater and the loose pants, revealing her bikini again. She already shivered and wanted to turn around and go inside the warm house as quickly as possible, but Mark stopped her. She gave him a glance that was obviously determined to send him straight to hell, yet it didn't help her at all. Mark grabbed her shoulders and Derek her ankles and she couldn't quite believe what was happening until they were halfway on the beach and she had to laugh really hard as Derek again stepped onto a sharp piece of stone and yelped.
Mark let her down, because he had to laugh equally hard and Derek threw a handful of sand after them, laughing and cursing at the same time.
Then they laced hands, Addison in the middle, and ran into the water together, all three of them shrieking, because no matter what Derek had rambled about the water not being cold, they all expected it to be icy. But it was actually quite mild.
"See, I said it would be warmer than the air." Derek raised an eyebrow and Addison just snorted, stroking long wet auburn strands out of her face.
"But you didn't know it." She put her arms around his neck and kissed his smirking lips that tasted salty from the water. He let his hands slide down her back and into her bikinipanties, where she slapped them away quickly. "Swimming with Mark or making out with me, you can't have both." She whispered, raising an eyebrow teasingly and he brought his hands to her face and kissed her again.
After a race in which Mark had thrown Addison several times under water and they all had spotted a lonely jellyfish just waiting for someone it could sting, they got out. Addison was so tired that she felt the urge to just drop herself into the sand for a moment, but one should never ever do that just coming out of the water and being all wet, so she didn't.
Coming back to the house they made sure to take every piece of clothes, every blanket and every candle from the porch inside with them and had a hard time to orient themselves in the darkness, but making light would have possibly woken up Maya and by proxy everyone else, so they didn't really have a choice.
Mark slept in a guest room downstairs, where he had already put his middle sized designer bag as Addison had noticed approvingly. She and Derek wandered upstairs, his hands on her hips in case she missed a step in the dark. They took a quick shower to wash the salty water away and standing behind her Derek let his hands slide over her shoulders, her breasts and down her sides to finally stop at her stomach again and pulling her close. Feeling his lips on her neck, Addison shivered a little, but all she could really think about were his hands on her stomach again.
They had talked about it. In general before they had gotten married, but that was just always some wildly abstract rambling about their future plans, when even the 30th birthday seemed like centuries away. It had become more concrete a few month ago when she had told him about her fellowship plans. She knew that he understood and that they could wait, but at the same time she got the feeling that if Derek had been able to get pregnant he would have started trying right away and that made her feel slightly miserable. But then again, he had no idea how hard it was at times to be a female surgeon and a good one at that even without being mommytracked. Things were changing, of course, yet most of the more famous surgeons were still arrogant males.
She turned around in his arms, not sure whether she could cope with his eyes right now. He smiled warmly and kissed her like he had intended to do this afternoon before Sam and Naomi had arrived. Then he got out of the shower leaving his surprised wife behind. Maybe it was just her who was so sensitive since the talk and he really didn't notice that his hands were lately almost glued to her stomach.
However, she knew it was a hard week for him for several reasons. That's why they were here.
Minutes later she slipped into bed next to him and fell asleep with her head on his chest, listening to his thumping heart.
