A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I was hoping to get it up by Friday, but then Patricia (my computer) crashed and I had to reboot the system and the Geek Squad got involved, and so the long and short of it is that it took longer than expected to finish this. Anyway, much love to all the reviewers and I hope you enjoy it.

Addison didn't know how she felt about having someone else in her house, spending the night. She didn't know anything about how Preston behaved outside of the hospital. She thought that he would be an early riser and that he probably liked coffee in the morning. She didn't know a surgeon that didn't crave a hot cup of caffeine when they woke up. If she had to guess, she would say that he liked to read before he slept, and sometimes he even feel asleep with the light on. She was nervously thinking all these thoughts, sitting on the edge of the chair nearest the door, chewing on her lip, waiting for the doorbell to ring.

It was her cell phone that rang first and she heard Preston's frustrated voice from the other end. "Where the hell do you live, Addison?" he asked and she was thankful that he couldn't see her wide smile. Slowly, she guided him to her address, giving step by step instructions, and hung up when she heard the car pull into her driveway. She opened the door before he could knock and they stood awkwardly for a few moments until Addison moved in for a friendly hug. It ended as awkwardly as it had begun, each not sure how long it should last. Addison pulled away first, figuring that she had started it, so she should end it.

If Preston had had to guess how Addison's home looked, he would have been wrong. Judging merely on the way she dressed for work, he would have said that she valued form over function. But everything in the living room was picked for comfort. It looked nice too, of course, but comfort appeared to be the driving factor. She led him through the house to the guest room.

"You're the first person to use this room. I hope it suits your needs," she said, opening the door into a spacious room that had a door opening off to a bathroom on one side and a closet along the opposite wall. He assured her that it did. "I don't know how long you're planning to stay, but feel free to use anything and if you need anything more, just let me know. Did you want something to eat? You must be hungry after the long drive." Without waiting for an answer, she left the room, heading back towards the kitchen.

She was already tense and he hadn't been here for more than five minutes. She had begun pacing the kitchen when he walked in. "I'm actually not very hungry at all. I stopped for food along the way. You told me not to trust your cooking skills."

"Something to drink, then? I have water and…wine…assorted juices." Addison racked her brain for everything in her fridge.

"Wine sounds wonderful," he said.

Wine sounded wonderful to Addison as well. It was a mature and adult drink, something to remind her how to behave; remind her that she was not an awkward teenager on a first date. And this wasn't a date at all, anyway, that was for sure. She pulled out a bottle and filled two glasses, handing one to Preston. "This is from a winery here in Los Angeles. It's a family-owned company and they make wonderful wine. When I moved here, Naomi and Sam took it upon themselves to make sure I knew all the places to get good wine. We must have visited hundreds of wine shops and tried thousands of different types of wine. If I thought I had a refined palate before, it's ten times better than it was." She paused for breath and Preston took the opportunity to cut in.

"It's good wine, Addison. Really," he said as he took another sip from his glass. She smiled at him and took a drink from her own, thinking that this could be a long night. "So Naomi and Sam are fine?" he prompted her.

She nodded in response. "They all want to meet you, too. You'll probably have to come in to work tomorrow and be introduced to everyone."

"That sounds fine. I'd be interested to see how things are done in Los Angeles and what was enough to get you to leave Seattle Grace." It was true. He knew that there were other factors in her decision to leave, but he also knew that she wouldn't have left if there weren't things for her to do here.

Addison avoided Preston's gaze at that comment. She knew that he knew some of the reasons why she left, but she thought that she would avoid telling him long stories about her barrenness and Alex Karev. Tonight, anyway. "Well, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. There's always something happening there."

"So have you had any interesting cases? I know you told me about the kid who had about a hundred parents, but have you had anything to rival the quintuplets or separating fetal blood vessels?"

"First of all, it was six parents. And secondly, I live, breathe, and sleep vaginas. We have to have other things to talk about. Like the interns? How are they? And Bailey and Callie?"

"You haven't talked to anyone? Did you completely sever ties with everyone?" He looked at her with disbelief and Addison felt a rush of embarrassment. She didn't talk to anyone from Seattle and sometimes she did feel badly about that, but for the most part she put it out of her mind. She looked away and took another sip of wine. Preston cleared his throat. "They are quite well. Bailey is still recovering from the surprise of not being made Chief Resident. Callie is doing her best to be tactful about the situation. And the interns are…what you'd expect them to be. Some of them are adjusting to residency better than others. And George is being a leader of the new group of interns. He's a good man, good at showing them the way things work in Seattle. Izzie is a lesser version of Sydney, but people seem to respond to it." Preston stopped there, not sure if he should talk about Alex or Meredith and he knew he wasn't going to talk about Cristina.

Addison didn't press him for any more details and looked around for anything to change the topic. She coughed nervously. "So…how was your drive?"

"Long. It was a long drive."

"Yeah, that's what I remember from it, too. But it gives you a chance to clear your head, get your thoughts straight. Mmm….hmmm," Addison sighed. The drive had actually not been the most pleasant one of her life. On the way there, she had thought about Alex Karev and Mark Sloan. On the way back, she had thought about how she would never have children. Sometimes being alone with your thoughts was not the best thing.

"Well, yes. I did do a lot of thinking," he trailed off, thinking of Cristina. They were heading into territory that neither really wanted to cover.

Silence reigned, punctuated with the occasional sound of drinking. Eventually, Addison excused herself to go to bed, leaving Preston alone in the living room.

---

The next morning, Addison awoke to Preston making breakfast.

"I didn't know what kind of eggs you liked, so I just put in what I like," he said, flipping over the omelets.

"No, that's fine." Addison tried to remember the last time she'd had breakfast that didn't entirely consist of cereal. She sleepily poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the kitchen table, blearily watching him cook. It was probably polite to offer to help, but she didn't think she would have anything to do. When she had warned him about her cooking, she had been serious.

Preston set a plate in front of her and sat down with his own plate across from her. Addison cut a piece with the side of her fork and ate slowly. "This is really good, Preston. I think you should just move in here and make eggs every morning for me. In exchange for housing, of course."

"You are very forward in your proposals. You've already asked me to marry you, and now you're asking me to move in?"

Addison blushed and busied herself with eating some more of her eggs. "I'm leaving in about an hour for work, I just need to shower. I think everything you'll need is in your bathroom, but if there's something missing, let me know."

She washed the dishes after breakfast, figuring that she should do something to help out. She made polite conversation about the weather while she scrubbed the plates and Preston volunteered information about Mark and Derek.

---

"I thought you might not even want to get in a car after the eighteen hour drive you went through," Addison said as she put the keys in the ignition.

"Well, I'm not driving this time, so I thought it would be safe. If I need a break, I'll let you know." He smiled at her as she backed out of the driveway.

Their conversation became easier as she drove to work. Addison felt herself becoming more comfortable with him in person, instead of with him just over the phone. She reminded herself that she and Preston were friends and that he was a good person who understood where she was coming from.

She saw Pete pull into the parking lot in front of her, and gave a little wave. "That's Pete Finch," she said, "the alternative medicine specialist."

"Oh, the quack?" he asked with a grin and Addison laughed and parked in her space.

Addison and Preston walked in together, and Addison pointed out various features and punched the button for the elevator.

As the doors opened, Addison heard Tillie's voice. "Who's the new fellow, Addison?" she asked. Preston looked around and Addison remembered that she had forgotten to warn him about her.

"Tillie, this is Preston Burke, a friend from Seattle. Preston, Tillie monitors security and occasionally holds conversations with elevator riders. She's better than the nurse's station."

"Well, it's nice to…meet you?" Preston wasn't sure if this actually counted as meeting someone.

"Always a pleasure to meet an attractive man," Tillie answered and Addison's face flushed for the second time that day. She wasn't sure exactly why she felt embarrassed, maybe it was just for Preston's sake. Addison felt that the doors couldn't open soon enough. One downside of Tillie was that there was rarely a moment to have a private conversation in the elevator.

Once the doors did open, Addison led Preston to her office. Violet almost sprinted out of hers as they walked by.

"Addison, hello! Is this Preston Burke?" She looked him up and down admiringly, not bothering to hide it. Preston cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Yes, yes it is. And as complimented as he is by your attention, perhaps you have something in your office that you need to take care of," Addison said, nudging Preston forward. Violet only nodded and proceeded to watch him walk away.

"Sorry about that," she whispered and he only smiled.

"It's fine."

"I feel like you might get similar treatment from Naomi, although Dell is taking a surf break today, so she might be otherwise distracted."

The words had barely left her mouth when there was an enthusiastic knock on her door and Addison saw Naomi peering through blinds. "Come in," she called and Naomi hurried in.

"Preston Burke, I presume?" she asked, holding her hand out and Preston shook it firmly.

"Correct. And you are Naomi?" he answered, and she nodded with a smile.

"You tell him about us, Addison?" she inquired, tearing her gaze from him.

"Yes, yes I do. Friends tell each other about their other friends."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you but I should probably get back to my office. Work, you know."

"And tell Violet to get back to work. I can practically see her salivating from here," Addison said as Naomi closed the door.

"I'm betting that you're really glad you came."

"It's definitely an ego-boosting exercise." He leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on his knees.

The day went by smoothly enough. The introductions to Pete and Sam were not too painful and whenever Addison had a meeting with a patient, he excused himself to the breakroom where he made awkward conversation with the two women who were always sure to need refills whenever he was sitting at the break table.

As they drove home, he regaled her with stories of Violet's excuses, ranging from lunch preparation to 'checking on the status of the utensil cleanliness.'

"She is just appreciative of attractive males," was Addison's response and she immediately mentally kicked herself. Preston looked surprised at her comment, but tactfully moved on to the topic of alternative medicine.

"Is it a useful practice? I mean, does it really help people?"

"No, Preston. We just like to scam people out of money and refer them to our alternative medicine specialist so that they spend their savings. Actually, Pete is quite good. When I first came here, he was really helpful. It was a good…good way to release emotion."

They drove the rest of the way in relative silence. It was broken only when Addison asked what he would like for dinner so that she could stop at the grocery store.

"Why don't we go out?" he offered. "It'd be a nice way to spend the evening."

"Dinner sounds great. I know a good place we can go. That's a good…great idea," she said, pulling into her driveway.

They entered her house and Addison excused herself to get ready to go out. Preston watched her walk up the stairs and then sat on the couch, looking around. It might look homey, but when examined closely, there were no personal touches, no photos on the shelves. He couldn't decide if she was resisting making a home for herself here, or if she hadn't found time yet.

He still couldn't figure out why he had come down to Los Angeles. For vacation, he usually liked to seclude himself, getting the alone time he never got at work. He told himself that he had never been to Los Angeles. He tried to reason that Addison was not his only grounds for coming here. But, in reality, that was the basis for his visit. He had missed her.

A/N Again: All right…so, again, this took longer than expected. I hit lots of stalls with conversations. The idea of Izzie as the new Sydney is one of Great Gomerel's in False Optimism. Anyway, thanks for reading.