It Rains It Pours
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Addison/Derek
Summary: When you begin your life with someone, you imagine forever. Your love is so deep, and so strong, it can withstand anything. Forever never ends. You have all the time in the world. Until one day your time is cut short.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related or has anything to do with Grey's Anatomy. And I also do not own the song On the Side of Angels by LeAnn Rimes. I do not own anything.
Author's note: The only thing that you need to know is that this is set a few years in the future.
Addison rushed through the doors of Seattle Grace Hospital with Naomi following behind her. Addison ran into the middle of the lobby looking for any familiar face but the one she wanted to see was the one she wouldn't find. A panic raced through her veins.
"Addison—"
She spun around to find Richard Webber standing in front of her. He looked so worn with dark circles under his eyes and he had aged considerably since the last time they had seen one another. But that wasn't what Addison was looking at, looking for.
She was looking for that spark of happiness, a slight glow of wonder. What Addison was looking for was hope. That was what she wanted to find on her former mentor and dear friend's face.
Hope.
But her search was in vain. It did not take her long to know that and then she felt something in her chest tighten severely before she found only a tiny amount of relief in a heart-wrenching sob.
Addison dropped to her knees, slowly as all of her meaning left her body, and she became a crumpled mess upon the hard tile. Her life drained from her as the pain became an intense ache.
This wasn't happening. There was just no way this was happening.
Not now… not ever.
This was never supposed to happen. It was just not possible. Things like this did not happen, period.
It was too painful.
"Addison—I—I don't know—He—" Richard stumbled, "It's bad."
The words barely registered. She did not want to hear this. She could not hear this. These words were not real.
Addison felt Naomi put a hand on her back but she flinched at the contact. She did not want to be touched unless it was the feel of his strong, warm hands upon her.
The tears were hot against her skin as they poured out of her eyes. She convulsed back and forth as the sobs wracked her body.
The unbelievable pain, in the center of her heart, hurt.
God, it hurt so badly.
"How did it happen?" Addison whispered out.
Richard swallowed before he answered.
"As far as the police can tell—a semi-truck driver fell asleep— uh… at the wheel—and he drifted across the lanes—somehow… uh… sending his jeep up—over the cement divider."
"He—"
"No more." Addison couldn't listen to any more of those horrifying words that had a horrendous impact on her future. They were describing a nightmare. It was an impossible event that only happened in your worst dreams.
Addison felt someone kneel down beside her and to her utter shock it was Meredith Grey.
However, the young woman was the polar opposite of how Addison appeared at the moment. No tears or shock, just a calm look on her face with an understanding in her pale blue eyes. For a brief moment, Addison thought that the blonde could be in denial of some sort.
But really it made not matter to Addison.
Meredith took a deep breath before she opened her hand. Addison looked down and the pain in her chest tightened again at what she saw.
"I know now that he was never mine, not really. This was in his wallet." Meredith whispered and Addison felt more tears spill over her cheeks burning their way down her skin once more.
"In his heart he was and always will be your husband." She finished quietly as she softly took Addison's left hand in hers and gently placed the ring on her thumb.
Addison did not need to see it to know what it looked like. How it had looked on his finger or what it said on the inside. We're on the side of angels.
Addison looked up at Richard with determination in her eyes; "Take me to him."
~x~
She stepped forward but then took another step back. Her feet felt like lead. It was like they knew what each step meant, and they did not her to face that. But she had to. So she forced her feet to move until she was seated on the bed.
Fresh tears sprang to life as she stared at Derek. He looked sort of peaceful but she knew better. His face was covered in cuts and scrapes. His hair was matted with dry blood. His beautiful, silky brown locks had blood in the, his blood.
She let out another sob.
She knew that if she looked at his body, his perfect, smooth, muscular body, it would be covered in black, blue and purple bruises. He was her Adonis come to life and now, he was reduced to a haunting beauty broken by tragedy.
She opened her mouth but couldn't speak. How could this happen? Derek was in a coma and not expected to make it through the night.
Addison looked around at the room for a second before she got up and readjusted herself.
Addison lay down next to her husband on the bed. Addison placed her head on his chest directly over his heart, to hear it beat. The sound was barely there but at least it was there.
Addison began to sob again as she remembered his ring and the inscription.
"It's our song, Derek. You remember our song right?" She asked him quietly and her heart clenched in pain again when he did not reply even though she knew he wouldn't say anything.
"I've never been so certain. I've never been so sure." Addison began to whisper as she tried to choke back her violent sobs before continuing. She continued to whisper the words of their song to him.
"We're on the side of angels, if we believe this love is pure. Is it so hard to trust?" Addison whispered out as a tear ran down her cheek, "'Cause we've been wrong before. There comes a time in every life…"
She closed her eyes as the words floated through her mind, "We find the heart we're waiting for, after all the might have beens', the close and distant calls, after all the try agains."
She choked out another sob and opened her eyes as one of his monitors made a sound.
Addison turned her eyes to look up at it and saw no change which made relief flood through her body hoping that perhaps his condition would stabilize.
"Don't be afraid to fall, we're on the side of angels after all."
~x~
"Don't you want to be in there? I mean you two had a relationship, too." Christina asked quietly.
Meredith, Christina, and Izzie were all sitting in a vacant hallway not far from Derek's room.
They had been sitting there for a while in the quiet of the hospital as the gravity of the situation settled down upon its occupants.
One of their own was in harm's way and nothing could be done to bring him back from the edge. The helpless had settled over the hospital as their star surgeon's life hung in the balance making the entire place rather eerie.
Meredith sighed. Christina was referring to the fact that Addison was at Derek's side right now and she was sitting in the hallway.
"I mean, yeah, you guys broke up like forever ago but they did too." Christina added.
Christina had a point but not one that really meant anything because it was just the technicalities of who had been with Derek last and not who had mattered more to him; it had taken her a while to admit it but she knew now that love of Derek's life was not her.
Not to say she didn't love Derek.
She did.
It was not a romantic love, not anymore. Christina might not be able to understand it but she was content sitting in the hallway because Derek deserved to have his wife by his side during a time like this.
"No, I think Derek would have wanted it this way."
"How do you know?" Christina pushed.
Meredith gave the other two women a look in which she tried to convey the point that she felt was not coming across in her words.
"I just know." She replied sadly.
Christina sighed.
Izzie just smiled a sad little smile.
Addison and Derek will still married in their hearts and that was all that counted.
~x~
"Do you remember what you told me once?" Addison asked quietly.
As she heard the words out loud, she could almost hear him say, 'I don't know babe, I have told you a lot of things over the years.'
A soft grin grace her lips, Derek would say something like that. She knew he would.
"Remember you told me, "Addison sighed, her tears had subsided a little, "That you married me because—"
She breathed in and was met only with the stench of hospital.
That was not how Derek smells.
Even if he worked in hospitals, he never smells like them. Derek smells like fresh cut grass, vanilla and soap. She love how he smells.
"You said that you did not marry me because you could live with me but because you couldn't live without me." She whispered.
"I admit, in the moment you said that, I thought you were be so cliché." Addison laughed in spite of herself, "But it was still cute. You always had a way of making a cheesy one liner seem irresistibly romantic."
Addison understood it now, though. She had always known that she could not live without Derek but she never thought about it because she never thought that it would happen. He was larger than life and nothing like this was supposed to happen to someone like him.
"Derek, I can't live without you. I—"Addison choked on a sob as her body began to convulse again.
She was being crushed beneath the weight of what was happening and how badly she wanted the chance to correct the mistake fate had made tonight. It was a mistake and of that she was certain.
"I can't live without you. Derek. Please, don't make me try. I know I will fail and you know how much I hate to fail. Derek—"Addison pleaded as she grabbed onto his hospital gown balling her hand into a fist.
"I don't know how to live in a world, where you don't breathe, where your heart, your beautiful heart, doesn't beat. I don't know how."
"I'm in love with you Derek," Addison choked back another sob and closed her eyes.
A few moments later she heard the door open and shut as someone entered.
They shuffled their feet around some before they walked around the bed. Addison knew that when she opened her eyes she would see someone standing there. She knew what they would say.
"Addison—"Miranda Bailey began her voice shaky.
Addison opened her eyes slowly to see Miranda. With tears spilling down her face, "the Nazi" began to speak again.
"Addison, he's gone."
The tears spilled from her eyes, never ending. She knew her tears would never end and the sobs would continue to wrack her body. The pain was unimaginable, that weight was still crushing her as she managed to speak.
"I know."
End.
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