A/N: Thanks so much for all of your nice feedback on this story so far! I really appreciate it! I hope you like this next section (I wanted to post it quickly to keep the momentum going). Thanks for reading!
Put your name on the line,
Along with place and time.
He'd signed. She'd signed. They were officially divorced.
It felt wrong on so many levels. Wrong – because she had effectively just signed away the last eleven years of her life. Wrong – because now her name (the name she'd gone by for the last eleven years) was one name shorter. Wrong – because she was still a little sore from last night…from what had probably been a few too many rounds between the sheets with her now ex-husband.
But wrong or right, she was divorced. The Addison-and-Derek chapter of her life was officially over. Or so she thought.
Wanna stay; not to go.
"So, are you working today?" Derek asked Addison, as they left their divorce lawyers' office.
"I'm supposed to," Addison nodded. "But I think I'm going to call Richard and tell him I'm not coming in. I...it doesn't feel right going in today."
Initially, she had thought going in to work would be the perfect way to keep herself busy – to distract herself – so she wouldn't think about her divorce. But, now, going to work felt wrong. Eleven years of marriage had ended. And that warranted a day off from work. She'd be the first one to admit that she hadn't been the perfect wife in her marriage to Derek (not even close). But their marriage – and those eleven-plus years they'd spent together – deserved to be remembered in some way; not brushed aside as some meaningless piece of her past.
Plus, she knew that as much as she wanted to use work as a distraction, it wouldn't be. She'd inevitably have some patient with some type of predicament that would make her think about herself, or Derek, or her-and-Derek. And if she was going to think about her-and-Derek, she'd rather do it with a drink in hand.
"Are you gonna go back to your hotel?" Derek asked his ex-wife, not entirely sure why he cared so much about Addison's post-divorce plans.
Addison shook her head. "No. I thought I'd go out for some breakfast. And then to a bar…to drink."
"Oh," Derek murmured. "I, uh, do you want company?"
"What?" Addison asked in confusion.
"Would you like some company?" Derek repeated, utterly shocked by the offer that had come out of his mouth not once, but twice now.
He'd pretty much assumed that he'd spend the minutes and hours following his divorce lusting over Meredith or celebrating his liberation from the Wicked Witch of the East…not having breakfast with said Wicked Witch. But now that the divorce was finalized, and things were real, he felt different. And he quickly learned that what he really wanted in the minutes and hours following his divorce was some food and some company. And breakfast with Addison could give him both of those things.
So, he asked a third time, this time more resolutely. "Would you like some company?"
Addison looked at her ex-husband skeptically. "I…you're not going in to work?"
Derek shook his head. "No. Not today."
"Really?" Addison asked in surprise. "You?"
Derek shrugged. "Originally, I was gonna go in. But I think you're right…going in today just doesn't feel right."
Addison nodded mutely.
"So, uh, is that a yes to us having breakfast together?" Derek asked again. "I'll treat."
Addison chuckled. The whole thing was wrong and she knew it. Divorced couples did not get breakfast together – especially not on the morning that their divorce went through. But Derek was giving her something he hadn't given her in years – he was giving her his full attention. He was choosing her over work. And that made right and wrong blurry.
"So…?" Derek trailed off, ripping Addison from her thoughts. "Would you like some company?"
"Yeah," Addison nodded, a small smile coming to he face. "I would."
Derek smiled and took his phone out of his pocket. "I'm going to call Richard," he told his ex-wife. "To tell him I'm not coming in today. Should I call for both of us?"
xxxxx
Forty-five minutes later, Addison and Derek were sharing a booth at a cute, little diner. She had a stack of blueberry pancakes in front of her. He had an egg-white omelet and some fruit in front of him.
"Are you at all curious about what we're missing today at work?" Addison asked her ex-husband, in between bites of pancake.
"Honestly, no," Derek admitted, shaking his head. And, to his surprise, he realized he actually meant it.
"Yeah, me either," Addison agreed with a smile.
Had Addison gone to work that day, she would have worked with a patient who had gotten stuck to her ex-husband while they were having sex. And maybe Addison would have made the connection between that divorced couple and her and Derek. It would have been hard not to. The couple had been divorced for five years, but they both worked in the same field (real estate), so they kept running into each other; and old feelings and pent up emotions inevitably resurfaced (even though the woman had remarried). And if that wasn't enough, the woman had bright red hair; and the man had dark brown hair. It was a glaringly obvious metaphor. Had she gone to work that day, she would have seen it. And maybe she would have learned from the couple's mistakes, and would have had the good sense to stop things with Derek. But she didn't go in to work that day. She skipped work to spend the day with her ex-husband. So even though there was a lesson to be learned, she wasn't there to learn it.
I wanna ditch the logical
"That must be room service," Derek said, when a knock sounded at Addison's hotel room door.
"You ordered room service?" Addison asked in surprise.
Derek nodded. Drinking after breakfast had led them back to Addison's hotel room. And that had unsurprisingly led to sex.
"I'm hungry," Derek chuckled. "You wore me out."
Addison laughed heartily. "I hope you ordered hamburgers."
Derek winked at his ex-wife good-naturedly. "I ordered burgers."
He made his way towards the door, while Addison hid herself in the bathroom. She saw the room service staff on a regular basis, and didn't love the idea of them seeing her in a hotel bathrobe and nothing else.
Derek, of course, had no such qualms. But when he opened the door, he wished he would have had his ex-wife's reserve. Because it wasn't room service standing outside.
"Mark," Derek gasped in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Mark eyed Derek's robed form critically. "I could ask you the same thing," he quipped. "But based on your outfit, or lack thereof, I think it's pretty clear what you're doing here. Or should I say who you're doing."
"Mark!" Derek snapped, his hands involuntarily clenching into fists at his sides.
"This is a bad idea, Derek," Mark said rationally. "It's a bad idea, and you know it."
"It's no worse of an idea than you sleeping with her," Derek retorted, feeling himself growing angrier by the second. "Which is what you came over here to do, right?"
Mark sighed. "I came to check on her. I know your divorce was finalized this morning. I wanted to make sure she was okay."
"She's fine," Derek said quietly. "She's okay."
"No," Mark disagreed, shaking his head. "What you two are doing…that's not a sign of people who are okay. She's not okay. And you're not okay. But she's the one who's going to get hurt. Trust me, I know. It's tried and true with you guys."
"No one's going to get hurt, Mark," Derek insisted. "Addison and I are adults. We know what we're doing. So, for once, stay out of our marriage."
"But you're not married," Mark pointed out. "You're divorced. And what you guys are doing makes no sense."
"I don't care if it makes sense," Derek shot back. "I just…Addison and I are both okay with the arrangement. And I…I think you should leave, Mark."
Mark was tempted to fight back. He had half a mind to walk into Addison's hotel room, and talk Addison (who he was certain would be just as undressed as Derek) out of making what he knew would be a grave mistake. But he also knew it was pointless. He couldn't beat Derek. Not when it came to Addison.
"You're gonna hurt her," Mark said pointedly. "You always do." Sure, he couldn't beat Derek, but he wasn't above delivering a few low blows.
"You can drop the martyr act, Mark," Derek muttered. "You and I both know the real reason you're here."
"Do you want to be the pot or the kettle in this little scenario, Derek?" Mark asked smugly. "You're no saint either."
Derek sighed heavily. Mark was right, of course. He, Addison, and Mark were the unholy trinity.
"Look, Derek," Mark continued, his voice softening. "Regardless of what you think, I care about you, and I care about Addison. And this…whatever this is that you and Addison have going on…it's a bad idea. There's no way it's going to end well. It makes no sense."
"But I-"
"And I know," Mark interrupted, "I know, right now, you want to screw logical. But it's not a good idea. Trust me; this is going to end in disaster."
"You don't know-"
"Derek," Mark said gently. "Your marriage is over."
"I know that," Derek insisted.
"Do you?"
"Look, Mark, I'm not asking for your blessing. I'm not even asking for you to be supportive. I just…I need you to trust me when I tell you that Addison and I know what we're doing."
Mark sighed heavily, registering Derek's unwavering resolve. "I don't agree with this whole thing. And, truth be told, I don't think that you and Addison know what you're doing. And I definitely think that one or both of you is going to get hurt. But I'm your best man and your best friend-"
"You were my best friend," Derek amended.
"Be that as it may," Mark continued, "my point is I'm here to support you. So, um, if this makes sense to you and Addison, I guess it makes it makes sense to me too."
Derek nodded mutely. "Thank you," he said, swallowing thickly. Sure, his and Mark's relationship was still severely damaged. But maybe it wasn't beyond repair. Because in Mark's words, he could still hear traces of the old Mark – his best friend, Mark. The Mark who had surprised everyone by giving an incredibly touching best man speech at his and Addison's wedding.
Here's a toast to all those who hear me all too well
"I'd like to propose a toast," Mark smiled, lightly tapping his knife against his champagne flute. "To the bride and groom," he grinned, smiling warmly at Addison and Derek.
"Now, I know that in their speeches a lot of best men talk about how the bride and groom first met," Mark continued. "But I'm pretty sure everyone here knows that story because, let's face it, it's the greatest love song of all time. So, I'm going to tell a different story. I'm going to talk about the time when I first realized that Derek was serious about Addison.
We all know that Derek fell for Addison hard and fast," Mark went on. "In fact, the very first day that Derek met Addison…when they were cutting up a cadaver together, Derek told me that he knew Addison was the one. And that some day, he was going to marry her. Now, I'm not the hopeless romantic that my best friend, Derek, is," Mark smirked. "So I needed some more convincing. And that day came when Derek bailed on Yankees playoff tickets to take care of Addison, who was sick with the flu. Sam and I thought he was crazy. You don't pass up Yankees playoff tickets. You just don't. But Derek didn't care. It was no contest. He chose to spend the night with Addison, eating chicken soup and watching Sleepless in Seattle, over going to a Yankees playoff game. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.
When Sam and I teased him about it a couple days later, Derek played if off nonchalantly, like it wasn't a big deal. And when Sam and I got particularly merciless with our teasing, Derek fought back by saying that it was just a playoff game, and it wasn't like he'd missed the World Series." Mark smiled at his best friend widely. "I didn't say anything then, but I knew…I knew that even if it had been the World Series, you would have skipped it. Without hesitation, you would have skipped it, Derek. Because that's the kind of relationship that you two have. And I…I hope it's the type of relationship you always have. To Addison and Derek," Mark toasted, raising his champagne flute. "The most incredible couple you'll ever meet."
"Excuse me," a male voice said, cutting into Derek's thoughts. "I have your dinner."
"Oh," Derek stammered. "Uh, thank you." He fumbled for his credit card, but quickly realized he was wearing a robe, which meant he didn't have his wallet on him.
"I can charge it the room," the room service attendant offered.
"No, no, that's okay," Derek insisted. "If you give me a minute, I can-"
"Here," Mark cut in, handing the attendant his credit card. "I've got it."
"Mark," Derek breathed. "You don't have to-"
"Don't worry about it," Mark insisted. He turned to the confused-looking room service attendant. "Go ahead and swipe it."
"Thank you," Derek said quietly.
Mark nodded mutely, as the room service attendant handed him back his credit card. "Anyway…" Mark trailed off, turning to walk away.
Derek nodded, as he watched Mark's retreating form. "Hey, Mark?" he called out.
"Yeah?" Mark asked, turning to face Derek.
"I, uh, the Yankees are playing Boston later this week. Do you want to watch the game?"
Mark nodded, as a genuine smile spread across his face. "Yeah," he said. "I'd like that."
xxxxx
Derek walked back into Addison's hotel room, and began setting up his and Addison's room service dinner.
"That took a while," Addison commented, as she emerged from the bathroom.
"I, uh, I ran into Mark in the hallway," Derek admitted.
"Oh," Addison said in surprise. "What'd he want?"
Derek shot Addison a pointed look, and Addison got the message loud and clear.
"Oh," she said quietly. "I, uh…" she trailed off uncomfortably, half expecting her ex-husband to do what he did best, and walk away.
But, apparently, Derek had other things on his mind.
"Do you remember our wedding day?" he asked quietly.
"What?" Addison asked in confusion. They had just signed their divorce papers that morning; now seemed like possibly the worst time to reminisce about their wedding. "Is that supposed to be some type of cruel joke?" she asked, the hurt clear in her voice.
"No," Derek insisted quickly. "No. I just…I was thinking about it."
Here's to the nights we felt alive
"Addison," Derek called out, knocking on the door to the bride's room. "Addison."
"Derek," Addison called back, from the other side of the door, "you can't see me yet. It's bad luck."
"Do you really believe that?" Derek smirked.
"Yes," Addison insisted.
Derek chuckled. Addison was superstitious; there was no denying it. And come to think of it, maybe he was too. They both had their rituals in surgery – juju for her when she lost a patient; him saying, "It's a beautiful day to save lives" before operating. But this was different. They weren't going to jinx their marriage.
"Come on, Addie," he pleaded. "This isn't bad juju, I promise. Besides, I have a wedding present for you."
"Really?" Addison asked in surprise, as the door opened slightly.
"Yeah, I…" he trailed off as he took in her appearance. "Wow."
"Wow, yourself," Addison smiled, as she looked at her almost-husband appreciatively.
"Thanks," Derek grinned. "But you…seriously…wow."
Addison smiled before leaning in and kissing Derek deeply; and he immediately responded in kind.
"So, uh, you said something about a gift," Addison breathed, when they broke apart.
"Yeah," Derek nodded, handing her the shiny, silver gift bag in his hand. "It's nothing big, it's just…"
"It's perfect," Addison filled in with a smile, as she removed a blue and white swirl scrub cap from the gift bag. "I love it."
"I figured it's something new and blue," Derek explained. "And I have four sisters," he added quickly, "so it's okay for me to know that type of stuff."
Addison laughed heartily at that. "I love it," she smiled, kissing Derek softly. "And you."
Here's to the tears you knew you'd cry
"Derek," Addison said gently, ripping her ex-husband from his thoughts. "You've hardly touched your hamburger."
"Oh. Uh, yeah," Derek mumbled. "I'm actually not that hungry anymore."
"Really?" Addison asked in concern. "Are you okay?"
Derek shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know," he admitted vulnerably. "How about you? Are you okay?"
"I…" Addison trailed off. "I'm trying to be okay."
"Yeah," Derek sighed. "Me too."
He couldn't remember which one of them suggested he sleep over. But as he laid there in the darkness, his body entwined with hers, he's glad he's there.
"Hey, Addie," he whispered.
"Yeah."
"If I had to do it all over again…even knowing that things would end the way they did, I'd still pick you. I still would have married you."
It's the truth. There were a lot of things in his life he wished he could undo, but his marriage to Addison wasn't one of them. He regretted prom…the panties (easily two of the most heartless and classless things he'd done in his life); but he never regretted marrying Addison. Addison had played a huge part in making him the person he was today. And even though things were bad – even downright awful – towards the end of their marriage, he still counted the majority of their marriage among the happiest times of his life.
"Hey Derek," Addison whispered back, snuggling closer to him.
"Yeah?"
"I still would have picked you too."
Here's to goodbye.
Tomorrow's gonna come too soon.