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4. Life Is Full Of Surprises

The doctors of the Oceanside Wellness Group gathered in the small kitchen, drinking coffee, seemingly deep in thought. After a few moments, Cooper broke the silence. "I say they're doing it." "Cooper!" Naomi sounded almost offended. "What? It's the only logical answer." She took another sip of her coffee before she replied. "Maybe they really are doing the friends thing." After a moment of consideration, both doctors shook their heads. "Nah." They were still trying to come up with a satisfactory theory when Sam walked into the room. "What are we doing?" Naomi was the one who answered his question. "Pondering the complexities of human relationships." At Sam's confused expression, Cooper decided to clarify. "Pete and Addison: Are they or are they not doing it?"

Sam laughed at his friend as he grabbed a cup of coffee. "They are not, Pete would have told us." Cooper shook his head. "You haven't seen what we have seen." Sam looked questioningly from his friend to Naomi. "Well, it's definitely not normal, Sam." He took a sip of his coffee as he waited for one of them to elaborate. "They've been doing that thing for a week, coming here and being... cheerful. And friendly." Sam arched his eyebrow. "You'd understand if you'd seen it." He'd been having house calls early in the morning for the past week, and apparently he'd been missing pretty important events.

After letting out an exasperated sigh, Naomi looked around as if looking for answers, and spotted a silent Violet. "You know something and you're not telling us!" Violet was slightly startled at Naomi's voice. "I know nothing." It was Cooper's turn to look at her now. "Ohh she really does know. You have to share. We're a co-op, that's how we roll." Violet shook her head. "Doctor-patient confidentiality. Ever heard of it?" "They aren't your patients!" Everyone looked at Sam after he spoke. "What? I wanna know too." Trying to divert their attention, Violet spoke again. "They're both insane, I'm a psychiatrist, they qualify as my patients." Naomi was about to reply, but Cooper didn't let her. "Shh! Here he comes!"

Pete stepped out of the elevator with a smile on his face. Walking into the kitchen, he placed a cup of coffee on the counter and leaned his back against it, looking curiously at the four people who seemed to be determined to look nonchalant. "Morning." It was as if he'd broken some kind of spell. "Oh, hey, Pete!" "Morning." "Good morning, Pete!" "Pete, hey!" His expression was even more curious now, but he shrugged it off. They'd been acting weird for a week, and he didn't have the time to give it a second thought. He was too busy thinking about the only doctor who hadn't arrived yet.

Everyone turned to look at the door as they heard the sound of high heels getting closer. Pete's smile grew wider and was instantly replaced with a smirk as he saw Addison walk into the kitchen, a cup of tea in her hand. After sending a smile his way, Addison's eyes looked questioningly at the rest of her co-workers, who were acting weirder than usual. "Good... morning?" Pete had a feeling of deja vu as they came back down to earth for the second time that day. "Morning, Addison!" "Oh, hey, Addie!" "Addison." "Morning." She laughed to herself as she took her usual spot against the counter, in front of Pete.

Pete's smirk was back in place, and he folded his arms over his chest as he shoot her a playful look. Cooper saw it, and silently pointed Sam towards them, with a face that clearly said "you'll see what we mean in a second." After a moment of silence, Pete leaned slightly forward towards Addison. "All right, Montgomery. Double play." She smiled at him and thought for a moment before answering with a teacher's pet air that would have made Cristina Yang hide in embarrassment. "Making two outs during the same play action." He smiled and handed her the cup of coffee. She held it in one of her hands as she used the other to point at her feet. "Wilder?"

Pete's eyes followed the direction of her hand, stopping to look at her legs for a split second before giving her feet his undivided attention. After a moment, he looked back up and mimicked her tone from before. "Prada." She rewarded him with a beaming smile and the cup of tea that had been resting on the counter behind her. "Nicely done." He touched his cup to hers and replied with a nod. "Right back at you." With that, they left for their offices to get ready for the morning meeting, leaving three very confused doctors (and a not-so-confused Violet) in the kitchen.

"They really are doing it!" Sam was the first to speak after they'd left. "See? I told you." Naomi was about to say something, but Violet didn't let her start. "Will you drop it already? They're friends, they talk about things they like. Like baseball, and shoes. Everything doesn't revolve around sex!" After a moment of shocked silence, Cooper opened his mouth to talk, but Violet shoot him a killer glare. "Don't even think about it, Cooper." As soon as she walked out, Cooper spoke again. "Definitely doing it." Having nothing else to add, Sam and Naomi followed him to the meeting room, ready to get to work.

Addison's day was being far from relaxed. Apparently all her patients had agreed to have their babies on the same day, and Dell kept telling her he'd heard her cell phone ring, but she couldn't steal a moment to go answer it. After he'd popped his head into her office to let her know her phone was ringing for the sixth time, she sighed in frustration. "Listen, Dell, just answer it the next time someone calls. If they're not in labor or almost dead, tell them I'll call them back and throw the damn thing away!" Dell did what she said, slightly scared of the redhead's temper. She could be intimidating sometimes.

Pete walked into her office after lunch to help her with her next patient, who was interested in an alternative birthing experience. It was her third patient that day, and she was slightly stressed out. "Wow, Montgomery, I thought you used to be the queen of the vagina squad. Charlotte's right, we've made you soft." She tried to look as infuriated as possible when she looked at him, but his charming smile was making it very hard. "I used to have a staff. A staff of nurses and doctors. And now it's just me, with a holistic quack who makes special appearances." He laughed at her pretend bad mood. "Who is very loved by the pregnant women, if I may say so myself."

She was ready to reply when Dell knocked on the door and stepped inside. "I'm sorry, Addison, but they say it's important." If looks could kill, he would have been more than dead after Addison's glare. "Is someone in labor, Dell?" He shook his head. "Is someone dead?" "No, but..." Addison crossed her arms over her chest as Pete looked amused at the scene in front of him. "Well, then, tell them I'll call them back!" Dell sighed in frustration before leaving the room. "Well, well, aren't we cheerful today." Addison's glare told Pete it would be better to get to work if he didn't want to get hurt.

They delivered a healthy baby boy after an easy and uneventful birth, and Addison's mood had visibly improved in the last two hours. As Pete went back to his office to meet a patient, Addison walked into the kitchen to drink a glass of juice and was greeted by Violet and Naomi. After a few minutes of silence, Naomi finally asked what had been bothering her for days. "What's going on between you and Pete?" Addison looked slightly startled by the direct question, but that didn't stop a smile appearing on her face as soon as she heard his name. "We're being friends."

"Come on, we saw you today. And yesterday. And every day since the day after you canceled your date with Kevin. Something's going on." Addison chuckled at her friend's curiosity. "Nai, we're friends. He's teaching me things about sports and I'm teaching him things about shoes. Because, as friends, we like sharing our interests with each other." Her friend still didn't look convinced. "Are you sure that's all?" Addison smiled and nodded. "We're being friends, getting to know each other." Naomi had to smile when she saw her friend's beaming grin. "So you've talked about it." Addison nodded again. "And you're happy." The redhead's face lit up as she answered. "I am." It was Naomi's turn to nod. "That's all that matters. By the way, Dell was looking for you."

Addison groaned in exasperation as she went over to the front desk to talk to Dell. "What is it, Dell?" He looked up at her. "Someone's here to see you." Addison looked around, but she didn't recognize anyone in the waiting room. "They said they'd wait in your office." She looked at him with curiosity in her eyes. "Who is it?" Dell shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. They told me to tell you, and I quote" he picked up a post-it and read it out loud "that they just arrived from Seattle, that they can't wait to see you and that you would know who they were if you'd bothered to return their calls."

Addison stood there in shock. Seattle. Someone from Seattle was here. Well, of course, five minutes ago she was telling Naomi how happy she was, of course the universe had to play a cruel trick on her and send someone from that rainy hellhole into her life. "Okay..." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and he slowly started walking towards her office, trying to guess who could be here.

It couldn't be Richard, Miranda or Callie, because she spoke to them fairly often and she was sure they would have told her if they were planning to visit. Yang was out of the question too, because it just made no sense. O'Malley and Stevens wouldn't dare coming here after what they'd done to Callie. They probably knew she'd kill them with her bare hands. Burke was an option, they were friends after all, but he was far too polite to come here uninvited, and they hadn't really kept in touch after the non-wedding. After discarding those options, it was time to start thinking the worst.

Karev. Mark. Derek. The non-boyfriend, the ex-mistress, the ex-husband. Derek and Grey. The ex-husband and his girlfriend. Karev and Ava. The non-boyfriend and his girlfriend. No, that would be stupid. Definitely not Karev and Ava. Derek and Grey. The ex-husband and his fiancee? The ex-husband and his wife? She was going slightly insane. The ex-husband and his girlfriend and their future baby? She shivered at the thought. It would make sense, but not even her had such bad luck. Or at least she hoped she didn't.

She was about to open the door to her office when she was startled by Pete's voice. "What's wrong?" She was thankful for the excuse to postpone the moment to face whoever it was. "I have a visitor. From Seattle." Pete looked worried. "Oh." She nodded without enthusiasm. "Yeah." He shifted nervously. He hoped it wasn't her ex-husband. Or her best friend turned lover. Or her intern turned fling. He wanted to say he knew they wouldn't be able to ruin their "thing", whatever that thing was, but he wasn't so sure. True, they were getting there, but he didn't think their friendship, as special as it was becoming, was competition for a marriage, a relationship or the beginning of a fling. A gladiator could take a pretty boy, but he wasn't so sure about those three.

He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze and half-smiled at her. "They're probably ugly and pasty white. Blow their mind with your gorgeous Los Angeles tan." She smiled warmly at him, feeling slightly better, and turned the knob on the door to her office. Her face lit up as she looked at her visitor, and Pete looked down, hoping it wasn't Derek. Or Mark. Or Karev.

Thank you so much for reviewing, AddielovesMen, jb916, ADMM FANATICC; Chloe, hopelessromantic28, Carolina1986, raes, melanie, agentaddek, and Ciaobella06! I'm really glad you're still reading and enjoying this, you guys make me want to update as often as I can :)

I'm trying to keep them as much in character as possible, but the Pete who lives in my head is very cute and I'm afraid he's starting to take over. Feel free to e-slap me if you don't recognize him anymore :P Oh, and also, very sorry about the cliffhanger, but I couldn't resist. I think the spirit of Shonda and her two-hour specials is in my head or something :P And don't worry about the visitor, I love Addie, I'd never mess with her happiness :D