A How To Know Guide for Derek Shepherd: Ways to know if your significant other and best friend are into each other. . . .
#4
There's a definite chance your wife and best friend are interested in each other if he is the one she asks to do husband-like things, such as picking her up from the airport.
After calling in sick to work for the first time since starting at New York Presbyterian as a resident, Derek directed the driver to take him to JFK airport. He was going to surprise Addison by picking her up after her two-week vacation in Provence to visit her ailing grandmother.
It's usually a Montgomery affair but this particular year, none has the time or ... well basically, interest of going through the hassle of visiting a fragile old lady on the other side of the planet.
But since the nurses in care of Florence Montgomery, had said that things weren't looking good at all and that it might be soon now, Addison didn't want for grandmother's - what last few weeks or months she had left to be a lonely one, ergo she opt to pay her a visit on her own and make sure she'd have a greet two weeks.
The decision to meet her at the airport was part of his resolution to re-commit himself to their marriage. He had wanted to make the most of her time away by using it to determine whether he really wanted to be with her, knowing he couldn't keep stringing her along while he was only pining after his career.
Because after all, Addison is a wonderful girl and she deserves a husband who'd give her his full attention.
No ... but he also realised he had really really missed her while she was away.
Maybe not as much as he suppose a husband should ... He cut that thought off in its tracks.
She's the perfect wife. And she's sweet and understanding and affectionate. She works hard to try to make him happy, to fit her needs around his, so they wouldn't have to compromise or settle or even argue.
She is the better spouse.
Though she's as busy as he is, she still manages to make time for him and their marriage, to keep their wadding spark alive. Unlike him, who has a one-track mind, and can't exactly multitask outside of the OR.
But, nevertheless, she is the perfect wife, made a point of doing all the things a wife was supposed to.
Like accompanying him to and from the airport.
She'd always done this, going with him or coming to meet him so that they could have a big Hollywood moment kiss at the terminal, a memory to take with him when he went away, or something to welcome him back again.
He'd never taken her to the airport. Or picked her up. Selfishly, the thought had never occurred to him.
It wasn't that it was really that necessary.
Addison's the kind of person who likes to be hands-on on what she does; she's organised, she's responsible, she's a lone wolf, so it's only evident that she'll handle all arrangements and plannings on her own on every trip and she is quite capable of getting herself around anyway.
Actually, she's a force to be reckoned with when it comes to cab drivers who would try to make a fool out of her and take a longer route than was strictly necessary, her sharp words quickly causing them to change direction and knock down the cost of the fare.
And Addison had never actually asked him to pick her up or drop her off any time she was going away.
But Derek knew she probably would have liked it if he had done it.
She shouldn't have to ask him.
He is her husband.
He smiled as he entered the airport.
Well, he is here now.
He checked the arrivals board and saw that he had fifteen minutes before Addison's plane would land. It would probably take him that long to walk to the arrival gate.
He set off, still grinning, thinking about Addison's surprised face when she sees him. It would definitely be a romantic moment, just the right thing to get their marriage back on track again. Even if he would rather be at the hospital, cutting, suturing and closing.
But as he arrived at the gate, he recognised a familiar figure. The back of the head was non-descript enough, but Derek knows of only one man in the city with the brovado to wear a vintage leather jacket like he does.
His best friend is here.
It is conceivable of course that Mark Sloan is here to greet another person arriving off the plane, but that possibility never even entered his head. The moment he saw him, Derek knew Mark had come to pick up his wife.
And though there was nothing ostensibly wrong with it, still he felt a slight swooping sensation in his stomach.
Perhaps Mark had decided to surprise her as well.
Derek walked over and tapped him on the shoulder, saluting him with an affable smile.
Mark turned around, his face betraying momentary complete and utter astonishment, as well as something else less easily defined. (Disappointment, maybe?) But his features were quickly rearranged into his customary carefully blank canvas, assessing expression by the time he spoke.
"Hey, man." he grinned, tone friendly.
"Derek." Mark responded pleasantly. "I'm surprised to see you here. You never pick Addison up."
Derek cringed.
So, other people had noticed his slacking and failing in this respect too. It made him feel even more guilty and conscious of his neglect of Addison.
Why hadn't Mark ever said anything to him?
His best friend wouldn't have been out of line telling him that it would be appropriate if he made the effort to meet his wife at the airport every once in a while.
"Yeah, I know." Derek acknowledged shame-facedly. "I thought I'd surprise her."
Mark nodded, eyes narrowed. "Oh, you will definitely do that. She asked for me to give her a ride home before she left."
Derek felt even more mortified, then.
He'd always assumed Addison would just get a cab home. That she had felt so insecure in his affections that she had organised a lift from Mark rather than relying on her husband - it was appalling.
"Oh, I didn't know." Derek said awkwardly.
"Well, you must be eager to see her again, after all this time apart," Mark tested shrewdly. "Even though you obviously don't spend the time you are together to good use, seeing that you're always at the hospital." he teased.
One more evidence to be listed in the reasons why he'd the worst spouse in the planet.
"Of course I missed her, that's why I'm here." Derek agreed. "She is, in fact, my wife." he said, rolling his eyes.
Mark's lips quirked in a half-smile. "Actually Shepherd, I can understand your feelings perfectly. It will be good to have Red back. The city isn't the same without its queen."
Their conversation was interrupted as the passengers began disembarking off the plane. Derek and Mark both spotted Addison who, as she was riding in first class, was one of the first to descend the gangway.
She began walking towards them, elegantly attired for travel in a red knee length skirt that hugged her thighs and a white and red blouse that betrayed just the slightest hint of cleavage.
The effect was only marred by the slight crease in her forehead as her eyes searched the airport. However, when they finally settled on Mark, her face broke into a delighted smile.
"Punctual as ever, Mark." she smirked as she approached him. "I'll have to give you a very good tip this time. I had to buy two extra suitcases to carry all the new clothes and books my grandmother bought me."
She had not even noticed Derek, who was standing off to the side.
"Well, the vacation obviously suited you, Addie. You look even more ravishing than when you left." Mark drawled suavely.
"That might be because when you dropped me off, it was five o'clock in the morning and I was sleep deprived." she answered, rolling her eyes.
Startled by the news Mark had also dropped Addison at the airport, Derek moved forward to attract her attention.
"Derek!" she cried in shock. For a moment she merely looked baffled, but then she threw her arms around him.
After a couple of seconds, he cautiously returned her embrace, although he did not quite match her enthusiasm.
"I can't believe you came to pick me up." she said as she eventually let go.
He gave a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. "I didn't know that you had already arranged a lift from Mark."
For a second Addison looked almost embarrassed.
"Oh, well, I always ask Mark." she explained, a little flustered. "Cabs and normal cars can't always hold all my luggage. But of course Mark has the stretch."
"Plus, I do love to be the first to hear all the scandalous details of Addison's trips away." Mark contributed with a knowing smirk.
She shot him a warning glance. "They're never that scandalous, given that I have a husband." she answered glibly.
"Yes, a husband who's missed you and is very glad to have you home." Derek picked her up and kissed her once more, to Addison's delighted laughter.
When he put her down, he saw that Mark had edged off to the side, his eyes carefully averted. With his face turned away, Derek couldn't see the slightly jealous expression suffusing Mark's countenance at the public display.
"Well, as you two love birds obviously have all sorts of catching up to do, I'll leave you to it. Addison's excess luggage can of course ride home with me." Mark informed them with an agreeability he did not completely feel.
"Thanks man." Derek answered, hugging Addison to his side.
Derek very much enjoyed the ride back into town with Addison. The only moment of disquiet he experienced came after they had arrived back at their brownstone, and Mark had removed her baggage from his car.
Addison had suddenly left his side to blithely trot over to the car, tapping on Mark's window.
He obligingly rolled it down.
"You want me to check out your holiday pictures or something, Red?" Mark queried, his sarcasm downplayed by his smile.
"No, I just want to thank you for coming to pick me up." she responded coyly.
"I'll always pick you up. But I'll be collecting on that tip you promised next week." Mark murmured suggestively.
He cast a quick look in Derek's direction before whispering so only Addison could hear, "Some time when your husband's not around." He winked before rolling up his window.
Addison ran back to her husband, trying to ignore the fluttery feeling in her stomach and the momentary, unexpected wish that Mark wasn't kidding.
Another little silly Maddek madness.
Do you guys think Derek is the kind of guy who wouldn't pick his wife (as in when Addison was his wife, not Meredith) up from the airport?
Let me know your thoughts.
Oh and please check out my other stories, they're called - Karma and Find Your Voice