So.

I'm still deciding if I am completely happy with this chapter. I normally do this for like 6 hours then finally post.

But Kayli is bribing me with an electric-yellow-panty-dance.

You don't say no to that.

Enjoy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You're mobile," Cristina observed as she swallowed the enormous mouthful of cereal she had shoveled in her mouth "And off the phone."

"Hey, you're off your back," he shot back, "Did Sloan finally leave?"

She smirked, "If I knew that sleeping with him would drive you this crazy I would have done it when I first moved in. Like a housewarming gift to myself."

'I hate that guy," Alex eased himself into a chair, "Sloan's an ass."

"But it's one that you just want to grab with both hands and…"

"Okay, what is with your species and…"

"My species?"

"There are no other words to explain…"

"Why do you think that women sleep with you?"

"Because under my dashing and tough exterior I'm a kind and caring…"

Cristina snorted, "I think you hit your head when you smashed your knee."

"Just because I am in no way interested in you…"

"Insult me," Cristina smiled, "That will keep Mark Sloan out of our apartment."

"My apartment."

"Yes. Your apartment. With the paper thin wall," she paused, "I hope that I am able to contain myself…"

"Cristina!"

Cristina smiled to herself and went back to her cereal.

"Has Meredith asked you for drugs?"

Cristina's head jerked up, "What?!?!"

Alex shrugged, "Has she?"

"Once or twice," Cristina's brow furrowed, "She was having trouble sleeping."

Alex was silent.

"You can't be serious."

"I'm just asking if you think there is a problem."

"There is no problem."

"Okay."

Cristina was silent for all of 10 seconds, "Why do you think there is a problem?"

"I just heard things and talked to some people."

"Who?"

"Just people."

"Montgomery?"

Alex didn't reply.

"I thought she came over to 'cheer you up'."

"She did. She bought me that Wii that you have been kicking my ass on for the last month."

"Ya. You suck at that," Cristina sighed and shook her head, "I don't think I believe anything that Addison Montgomery-used-to-be-Shepherd says about Meredith."

"I do."

Cristina stared hard at him.

"Meredith asked her for pills," Alex said slowly, "Addison says she's been getting them from Callie too."

"Okay," Cristina said slowly, "On the off-chance that the she-devil isn't completely insane, what do we do?"

Alex shrugged, "I don't know. You're her best friend."

"I've only know about this for a minute and a half!"

"I've been talking to this therapist who specializes in prescription drug addictions. She's willing to meet with us tomorrow if you want to do that."

"We don't even know if there is a problem."

"There's a problem."

"You don't know…"

"If it's not a problem now it will be soon."

Cristina groaned in frustration and slid off the counter, "I'm going over there to talk to Callie. Hopefully, when I get back I'll be going my 'told ya so' dance."

XXXXXXX

"I need to ask you a serious question and I need a serious answer."

"Is this about Mark and how his ya-know kinda curves and how it's kinda amaz…"

"No!"

"Is it about Mark at all?"

"No!" Cristina exclaimed, "It's about Meredith."

"Oh. Well. It's still amazing," she stepped aside, "Come on. Mark's upstairs. And there is pizza and beer."

"It's barely noon."

"It's a Sunday afternoon, we don't have to work and there is a baseball game on TV."

"As long as you have a reason," Cristina followed her upstairs, "How long have you known about Mark?"

"Since I walked into the ER that night and Mark said 'Guess who I just boned'."

"SO sorry I missed that."

"You were tearing Derek a new one for letting Meredith drive when alcohol fumes will get that girl drunk."

"Since then," Cristina said cautiously, grateful for the opportunity, "Have you given her anything for the pain or to help her sleep?"

"Just painkillers. Why?"

"I have too."

Callie paused and turned to look at her. Realization slowly dawned on her face, "Shit."

She started taking the stairs faster, "Mark? Have you been writing Meredith prescriptions?"

Mark didn't take his eyes from the TV, "A few days ago. Why."

"'Cause she's asked all of us."

"It's not just us," Cristina added, crossing her arms over her chest, "I've heard of others."

They all exchanged glances.

"How big of a problem do you think this is?" Mark questioned slowly.

"Alex thinks pretty big. I'm starting to agree" Cristina said, "I think we should go through her stuff."

They considered this silently.

Mark stood, "I'll be the look out."

Five minutes later Cristina and Callie were standing in front of the medicine cabinet.

"I'm going to kill her."

"These are George's," Cristina held up an almost empty bottle.

"I prescribed these for Izzie."

"The chief's been nice to her."

"Miranda should know better then to prescribe this much Vicodin at a time," Callie shook her head.

"This is just what she is leaving laying around."

"Do you think she is hiding stuff too?"

"Probably."

"Is there only one from Derek?"

"Ya. That's weird right?"

"Not if she is hiding it from him."

"So what do we do next?" Cristina asked as they entered the hallway again.

"Sit down and talk to her. I don't know. You're her best friend."

Cristina sighed and put her hands on her hips, "Alex talked to someone that is willing to talk with her tomorrow."

"Alone?"

"I don't know. I don't know."

They heard the front door open and Mark great them loudly, "Derek, old man. How are you? Meredith! How was the grocery store?"

"Should we tell Derek?" Callie whispered, "Or George and Izzie? What about her Dad."

Cristina started to pace, "Definitely not George and Izzie. They would immediately ambush her."

"But Derek…"

"We should tell him right?"

"Probably."

Cristina considered this, her head was starting to hurt, "The person is coming sometime tomorrow, why don't we ask who we should tell and how, then we'll deal with it."

"Procrastination," Callie smiled wearily, "I love it."

XXXXXXX

"All set?" Alex asked Cristina in a low voice.

She nodded, "I just talked to Webber and Bailey. They are giving her the rest of the week off and will re-evaluate next Monday after they consult with her therapist. Right now she's in surgery with Mark, when she gets out I'm taking her back to her place and we'll sit down with the therapist."

"Have you told the others what's going on?"

"No," she shook her head, "You can do that after we leave. Callie's going to keep them away from the house until I give her the all clear."

"Shepherd?"

"I'm going to do that now."

"He's in surgery for another few hours at least," Alex unconsciously rubbed his bad knee, "I'll let him know when he gets out."

"Okay," Cristina sighed and leaned back against the counter, "She is going to hurt me."

"Who's going to hurt you?" Izzie asked, appearing from nowhere.

"Ya," Cristina straightened up, acknowledging Izzie while at the same time ignoring her question, "Where's Meredith?"

"She had to get something out of her locker."

Cristina and Alex exchanged significant looks.

"Wish me luck," Cristina murmured.

Izzie and Alex watched her walk away as George joined them.

"So," Alex began, "We need to talk."

XXXXXXX

Derek pressed his hands hard against his temples as he walked down the hall away from the OR's. His surgery had run over by a good 4 hours.

He wanted to shower, eat and sleep. Not necessarily in that order.

He paused at the nurse's station to make a few notes on the chart. Hearing footsteps approach he glanced up.

The mass of red hair was all he needed to see to encourage him to stare intently at his papers and not look up.

She stopped right beside him.

He didn't move.

"You're ignoring me? Well that's rude."

He looked up slowly.

"Surprised?"

XXXXXXX

Addison grinned and leaned against the counter, "Well look at you."

Alex smiled back, "Not everyone can pull off a cane like I can."

Addison chuckled, "You look good kid."

"What did I tell you about calling me kid?"

Addison flushed slightly, "It's my prerogative as the sexy older woman in your life."

Alex chuckled, but quickly became more serious, "About the… thing. I set up the meeting for Meredith and a specialist. She met with her and Cristina at Meredith's house this afternoon."

Addison nodded and stepped a bit closer.

"Cristina said it went as well as could be expected. Meredith is really upset and not talking to anyone. But the therapist seems to think that since you noticed early, that there was something going on, it will be easier to get to the root of the problem. She's going to owe you."

"No, she doesn't," Addison said quietly, "What about Derek? How is he taking this?"

"He doesn't know yet. He's been in surgery all day…" Alex trailed off.

Derek stormed down the hallway. He was furious.

He grabbed Addison by the arm and spun her to face him, "WHAT is your sister doing here?" he demanded.

"I… my…" Addison stuttered, "my sister…" realization dawned on her face, and she turned to face Alex, "Oh please tell me…"

Alex visibly confused, "I didn't…"

"You didn't know? You didn't know?"

"Well, she…"

"You didn't think that someone named Adrienne Montgomery could be RELATED to me?"

"She was in Miami!"

"People move!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Why is she here Addison?" Derek demanded grabbing her arm.

"Don't yell at my baby sister."

Addison paused as she sister appeared from behind Derek, "I'm not your baby sister. And right now I hate you so much I don't even want to be your sister-sister."

"Really?"

"What is she doing here?" Derek demanded again.

"I don't know!" she exclaimed.

"She just walked up to me and told me that she didn't think that Meredith was going to have to take Methadone for her drug addiction."

"Adrienne!"

"Therapy should be enough," Adrienne explained easily.

"Adrienne!"

"Addison! What the hell business is it of yours…"

"Excuse me?"

"We haven't even spoken in weeks, and suddenly you are accusing my girlfriend of being a drug addict!"

"Only because you are to pompous and arrogant to notice for yourself."

"MEREDITH IS NOT ADDICTED TO DRUGS!"

Adrienne cut in calmly, "Actually…"

"Adrienne, shut up or I will beat you with my shoe!"

They fell silent for a moment.

Derek shook his head in bewilderment, "Of all the people in world that you could have called, you called Adrienne."

"I didn't call anyone."

"You know I can't stand her."

"This isn't about you Derek."

"If you wanted attention Addison…"

"Attention? Attention! You are accusing me of wanting YOUR ATTENTION when MEREDITH has been asking everyone with a prescription pad and a pen to give her VICODIN!"

"SHE WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT!"

"I know that Derek! But I didn't ask Riena to come!" Addison exclaimed.

"It's true. She didn't," Adrienne supplied, "I didn't even know that Meredith was the young beautiful intern until she started talking about you. Addison is annoyingly evasive sometimes."

"When were you…"

"I like her Derek," she continued, "She's bitter and cynical, but has way more common sense then Addison."

"When did you talk to Meredith?"

"This afternoon. I was at her house. Your house? She mentioned that you lived there now."

"Why?"

"I called her," Alex said awkwardly.

"What!" Derek exclaimed. He turned on Addison again, "You asked some guy you screwed to call your psycho sister to help MY GIRLFRIEND with some bogus ADDICTION!?"

"Psycho yet older and wiser sister," Adrienne corrected.

"Shut up Adrienne," Addison shot back, "I didn't know she was coming. I knew something was wrong and asked Alex, as a friend to both me and Meredith, to help. I had nothing to do with this."

Alex inched forward, "I was actually referred to her. She said she was going to be in Seattle for a week anyway."

Addison looked at her wearily, "Why were you going to be in Seattle."

"It's our birthday on Tuesday," Adrienne rolled her eyes, "I'm clearly the smart one."

"You're twins?" Alex asked weakly, suddenly thinking that Meredith was right for overdoing it on the happy pills.

"Fraternal twins," they said simultaneously.

"Adrienne's the evil twin," Derek murmured under his breath shooting her a very unfriendly look. He suddenly felt exhausted and overwhelmed, "If you thought that Meredith had a problem you should have come to me."

Addison looked at him, just her expression telling him why that wasn't really an option.

"I need to go home," he said finally, "Meredith…"

"I'm glad you haven't lost your charm Derek," Adrienne spoke with a straight face; she rarely smiled but often smirked.

Derek just glared at her halfheartedly - and left.

The sisters stared at each other.

Addison slowly grinned, "It's about time you visited," she said as she hugged her sister tightly.

Adrienne squeezed her back, "Sorry. The terms of my parole said I couldn't leave the state of Florida until today."

XXXXXXX

The first thing that Derek saw when he walked in the house was a broken lamp in the middle of the floor.

The second thing was Cristina laying on the couch staring unseeing at the ceiling.

"Hey," he said softly, "You can go home now."

She nodded silently and stood.

"Is Meredith really…"

Cristina nodded, "We found all that just in her bedroom and purse," she nodded to the coffee table that was littered with pill bottles and a few cosmetics from when they had clearly dumped out the contents of her purse.

Derek shook his head, "How did I miss this?"

"We all missed it."

"Cristina?" he paused at the bottom of the steps as she opened the front door, "Thanks."

He could hear Meredith sobbing from the hall.

His stomach clenched painfully as he stood in the doorway and watched her huddled figure convulse with sobs. He swallowed the lump in his throat and crawled onto the bed beside her.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her warm forehead as she curled her fists into his sweater, "Shhhh," he soothed her, pushing her damp sweaty hair off her face.

She was gasping more then breathing and her whole body was trembling, "Don't leave me," she choked out.

"I'm not leaving you," he assured her, kissing her cheeks and brushing away her tears.

She started sobbing with renewed vigor. This time when she spoke he could barely make out the words, "I… hurt… work… sore…you… sleep…"

"Shhhh. Just breath."

"I'm… love me… mess… hurt… everything."

"We can talk about it tomorrow," he told her gently, "Go to sleep. I'm right here."

"Derek…"

"Shhh. It's okay," he paused and held her tighter, "I love you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sigh.

SIGH.

In case you are wondering, 'cause I always to this, in my head, Adrienne is Joely Fisher ya know from Ellen (the sitcom) and… other stuff probably. I based her character on my sister who is… interesting. And also she's a twin, so the relationship between her and Addison I am kinda drawing on my twin sisters.

But with less hitting.

And better hair.

Reviewers get a Poppy Cunningham action figure!