a/n: i'm not going to say that i don't need another story, even though it's true.
summary: in the month before addison leaves for seattle she manages to sleep with derek, mark, and alex. six years later, addison returns to seattle, with a five, nearly six, year old daughter with no idea who the father is. i'm not going to tell you pairings, because that would kind of ruin the surprise. but i will tell you two things. there's going to be a little merder, even though i can't write them all that well. and the second thing is that DENNY IS ALIVE, that one's kind of important. the rest you'll just have to find out for yourself.
disclaimer: not mine, don't sue.
It was a mistake. A drunken mistake that would never happen again. That was the one thing they agreed on. They were divorced and divorced people didn't sleep together. They would go back to barely speaking to each other until Addison left Seattle in a month. Then they'd never have to see each other again and this could all be left behind and forgotten.
"Are you going to tell Meredith?" Addison asked, gritting her teeth as she tried to sit up and grab her clothes and the full effect of her hangover washed over her.
"I don't know, Addison, I don't know," he replied, burying his head in his hands.
"Well, good luck with that. Um, I'll see you at work," she said awkwardly as she buttoned the last button on her blouse and rushed out the door.
Alex Karev. The reason she had slept with her ex-husband. Well, not directly, but he was the reason she had been drinking, which in turn was the reason she had slept with her ex-husband.
She had fallen for her intern and she had fallen hard. It was a really bad thing. Probably one of the worst things she could possibly do. But it had happened. And now she couldn't get through an hour without thinking about him at least once.
She was fairly sure he didn't feel the same way. But finally Callie wore her down with all her pep talks and threats and she walked up and pulled him into an on call room and kissed him, which resulted in a locked door and some very messy hair among other things.
She avoided him for days after that. And when she finally did stop avoiding him, he acted like an ass. So there was never even a question of her staying for him. He had told her so.
Following Alex's rejection, she had found herself in Mark's arms once again. It was really a stupid thing to do and she knew that would probably hate herself for weeks afterwards, but she ended up there anyways. She always did. Well, at least if everything else in her life was falling apart, she could always have some hot sex. Because she knew she had Mark wrapped around her little finger as long as she resisted. The second she gave in, he got bored. So there was never any question of staying for him either. Not wanting to deal with him trying to talk her into staying, she snuck out while he was sleeping.
Two days later, and without another word to him, she left Seattle.
6 years later…
She stared up at the building. After seven years of zero contact with virtually no one in Seattle, she was back for a consult. Why had she agreed to come here? Why had she agreed to come and do this for her ex-husband? Because he had done that stupid whiny thing that he knew would make her do anything to get him to shut up.
She took a deep breath and tried to move. She couldn't do it. She could not move any closer to the hospital. A building should not have had this much power over her, but it did.
A small hand sliding into her got her attention. She smiled down at the little girl to whom the hand belonged. "Are we going in, Mommy?"
"Yeah, sweetie, Mommy just needs a second, okay?" Addison said and ruffled her daughter's auburn hair that was in two braids.
"Okay… Second's up! Let's go!" The five year old began to try to drag her mother in.
"Coming!" Addison laughed and allowed herself to be pulled along.
"Addison!" Derek, the new Chief, greeted her as they walked in. He looked surprised to see the little girl clinging to her arm. "And Co."
"Derek, this is Aiden, my daughter. Aiden, this is my friend Derek."
"Hey, pretty girl," Derek said, crouching down so his blue eyes were level with Aiden's hazel ones. "How old are you?"
"I'm five years old and eleven months," Aiden announced with authority. "So I'm almost six. Mommy says that for my birthday we can do anything I want. I want to go to Disneyland but Mommy says that Disneyland's too far away, so I have to pick something else."
"That's… that's nice." Derek had clearly been expecting an answer closer to four because his face blanched a little. He looked up at Addison who pretended not to notice his glance. Then he scanned her fingers, which were bare of rings. "Is she-?" he asked quietly.
Addison looked a little ashamed. "I-I don't know. I'm sorry, Derek. I didn't want to tell you, because I don't know and I didn't want you to get all riled up about it and I never knew if you ended up telling Meredith or not."
"I never did."
"Oh- okay."
They sat in silence for a moment until a very pregnant Meredith waddled up and exclaimed, "Addison!"
"You're pregnant," Addison blurted before she could censor herself. "I'm sorry. Hi, Meredith. How are you?"
"Fat. Me and Derek's second," Meredith said proudly, waving her left hand to show her rings. "Little girl. Theresa. Her older brother, Matt, is two."
Addison tried to look interested as Meredith babbled on, not noticing the little girl that was holding fast to Addison's hand. She finally managed to tear herself away from whatever she was talking about and ask who the girl was. "This is my daughter Aiden," Addison said. "She's five."
"Almost six!" Aiden protested.
"Hi, sweetie, I'm Meredith."
Aiden giggled. "You're fat."
Addison looked mortified. "I am so sorry, we're still trying to work on that. She says whatever comes into her head. I'm so sorry. Aiden, say you're sorry."
"It's not a problem. The kid speaks the truth."
"Sorry," Aiden mumbled.
Derek had been watching the entire scene in amusement but he saw Meredith scan Addison's fingers for rings and knowing that would bring up the topic of Aiden's father, he quickly said something about needing to get Addison up to meet a patient or something. Then he dragged mother and daughter away towards his office. On the way they ran into Mark.
He looked shocked and stopped dead in his tracks. "You didn't tell me she was coming back," he accused Derek the second he stopped staring.
"And have you raising hell? No thanks."
"What, Mark, not happy to see me?" Addison deadpanned. It didn't surprise her that he was mad, he was no doubt remembering that she had snuck out and then ignored him. It was six years ago, but Mark Sloane could hold a grudge longer than anyone she knew. What did surprise her was the way Mark and Derek were standing in the same room and not tearing each other apart.
"Who's the mini-me?" Mark deftly avoided the question. The observation was true; Aiden did look a lot like Addison. Her auburn hair was closer to brown than Addison's and her eyes were hazel, but she had the same strong facial features, even if they were covered in baby fat. She was obviously going to look almost exactly like her mother.
"Aiden, this is Mark, Mark, the mini-me's my daughter Aiden. She's five."
"I'm actually five years old and eleven months," Aiden informed him. "So I'm almost six."
Mark stopped at that and seemed to be doing some calculation in his head, coming to the conclusion that Derek had reached. "Holy sh-"
"Shh!" Addison cut him off before he could say the dreaded "s word" around her daughter.
"Is she-?" Mark said, exactly as Derek had said before him. Addison could tell that she was going to get tired of this question very quickly.
"I don't know, Mark, I just don't know."
"You mean you and he…" Derek deliberately trailed off, letting his meaning be known by the adults in the conversation but leaving Aiden in the dark.
"Yes," Addison sighed. "Almost six years ago, obviously, and never again. Please just leave it alone?"
"You should go meet the neonatal staff," Derek suggested. Addison smiled gratefully.
"Okay. You know, I don't need an escort, I think I remember my way around." With another smile she grabbed her daughter's hand and they walked off.
"Alex Karev," Addison smiled tersely as she met her ex-fling. "Neonatal, huh? Guess I did something right after all."
"Shut up. It's good to see you again, Dr. Montgomery. Is it still Montgomery?"
"It's still Montgomery. You know, you're much politer than the last time we talked. Then again, the last time we talked, you were yelling at me. I suppose that we're about equals now. You can call me Addison." She didn't really want to give him permission to call her by her first name, but it just slipped out.
"I'm really sorry about that, by the way. It was stupid. And I'd say you can call me Alex, but you've had that right and you're probably going to call me Karev anyways." He noticed Aiden trying to hide behind her mother, so he knelt down and pulled a lollipop out from behind her ear, a trick he had learned to calm kids down and keep them occupied, and handed it to her. Aiden stared at him adoringly. "I'm Alex, what's your name?"
"Aiden Alexandra Forbes Montgomery."
If Alex noticed how close Aiden's middle name was to his first, he didn't show it, he just whistled appreciatively, "Long name." He looked up at her mother. "How old's she?"
"She's going to be six in three weeks." Addison saw the look that showed Alex had figured out that Aiden was the right age to be his daughter and decided to cut him off at the pass. "Before you say anything, I know what you're thinking and I don't know. I'd tell you if I knew, but I don't."
"Who else did you sleep with?" Alex asked, not spitefully or jealously, just genuinely curious.
"Mark and… this other guy."
"Nice going, Addison. I've got to say, you've certainly dug yourself in deep."
"I know! I know."
so there's the first chapter. want to tell me what you think?