Seattle Grace Hospital
Psychiatric floor
Couples therapy
Week 1
"Good morning," the therapist greeted the married couple sitting down on opposite sides of her couch, "I'm Dr. Carter, and you are?"
"Addison Montgomery-Shepherd," the woman said, reaching out to shake the therapist's hand.
"Dr. Shepherd," the man said, well he seemed to be grunt the words, "Shouldn't you at least know our names. I knew we should have picked the other shrink."
"Derek, I barely got you to agree to this and she's just being polite," the woman was very good at hiding her frustration, "Excuse him."
"It's fine," said, "Now, why are you here today?"
"We have problems, why else would we be here?" the male Dr. Shepherd stated.
"I meant more specifically, Drs. Shepherd."
"Please call us by our first names," Addison said.
"Of course. Now can either of you tell me why you are here?" the therapist asked them.
"Well," the woman started, "we're in Seattle because Derek left me in New York and won't move back."
"Addison, would you like to fill Dr. Carter in on why I left?" The angry husband's tone was rising.
"If you want her to know tell her yourself."
"I will. You slept with my best friend on my favorite sheets."
"They were not your favorite sheets!"
"They were!"
"How would I know, you hadn't been home to sleep on them with me in at least two months!"
"I was working."
"I was working too, I still managed to come home sometimes!"
"And I managed to keep my marriage vows."
"What about the intern?"
"What intern?"
"You know what intern I'm talking about, the one who ran like hell when I said I was your wife!"
"You didn't say you were my wife."
"I basically did!"
"You said, and I quote, 'And you must be the woman who's been screwing my husband.'"
"Neither of you denied it! I cut it off the Mark when you asked!"
"But you didn't wait the whole six weeks, if you had we wouldn't even have to be here!"
"Your whole six weeks thing is a loud of shit! And we wouldn't be talking to each other, what a healthy marriage! And even if I did wait we would still be sleeping in trailers!"
"I told you I'm going to build a house!"
"Derek, we're both perfectionists, it will take at least a year to build a house!"
"If you could stop for a moment," the therapist interjected, "Maybe you could try to compromise, you both give up one thing, or do one thing in order to help your marriage."
"Okay," Addison paused, thinking for a moment, "I'll stay in the trailers, try to stop complaining, I'll even sleep on the couch if you still want me to." The red head had turned to face her husband.
"Okay," he answered.
"And you stop seeing the intern."
She could see anger flash in his eyes before disappointment took over. "Okay," he said, sighing.
Week 2
"Good morning," Dr. Carter greeted the couple walking into her office, "Let's just cut to the chase, how are things?"
"Well, I'm still sleeping on the couch but I think things are getting better, Derek looks at me as well as the ground when we talk and he gave up the twelve-year-old," Addison Shepherd responded. "I think," she added.
"The twelve-year-old?" their therapist questioned.
"His intern," Addison said.
"Addison, she has a name," Derek said. "Meredith Grey," he directed at the therapist.
"I don't need to know her name personally, just professionally," Addison muttered.
"Is there anything else going on?" the therapist asked the male Dr. Shepherd.
"Well the whole hospital is gossiping about us, thanks to Addison," he answered.
"That is not all my fault, and why should I give a shit about what the Neuro ICU nurses think of my personal life?" she spat back, "And you're the one that made all the interns hate us."
"I was planning on dumping her in a nice way not a here's my wife way," he argued back."
"And how is your daughter?" Dr. Carter questioned them on the subject she thought they were most likely to agree.
"She's handling all the changes really well," Derek answered, for one of the first times, in a positive way.
"She doesn't really like the idea of a new school and new friends though," his wife countered, "She wants to live in New York and go to school there but she also wants to keep our family together. She knows that you won't come to New York and she wants family more than she wants friends. So she's not great but she's getting there. She's handling the changes."
"And you're sure of all this because…" her husband questioned skeptically.
"We've had a lot of time to bond this summer, just the two of us."
Week 3
A phone rang as a couple sat down on Dr. Carter's couch. "Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd," the female answered.
The other occupants could hear a muffled version of the voice on the other line.
"When are you coming back?"the man on the line asked.
"I'm going to hang up now," the woman he was talking to announced.
"Come on, Red, please tell me," the man continued to nag the now frustrated red-head, "Addison, when are you coming back?"
"I'm not telling you," she emphasized that word, "anything. Bye, Mark." Her husband was livid now.
"Addison," Derek said, his calm but not deceiving, "Why is Mark calling you, and why," he paused for effect, "does he think that you're are coming back? You claimed to have cut off all contact."
"I can't help it if he calls me, Derek! And I haven't told him anything about if I'm coming back or not! And who are you to get mad at me for that, I see the way you look at the intern!" Addison retaliated and not in the calm, passive aggressive way he had spoken to her, she was near the breaking point and you could hear it in her voice.
"Addison," he paused for a second as if carefully choosing his words. The therapist started to say something when she saw him beginning to talk. "I can't make the feelings I had for her disappear just by choosing my family over her."
"What feelings?" Addison asked, hoping he would not say what she feared he would.
"Addison—I, Meredith. I- I fell in love with Meredith. While you were in New York and I was in Seattle I fell in love with her," Derek said slowly and cautiously. The therapist could see the guilt in Derek's eyes, in the eyes that Addison was avoiding.
"Addison, how does this make you feel?" the therapist prompted.
Addison sat in silence with her shrink and her husband staring at her for what felt like hours but was only a few mere seconds in reality before a tear slipped down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away only for another to fall. She opened her mouth as if to say something then closed it and stood up, walking towards the door. "I—I'm going to sleep on the couch tonight," she said before shutting the door behind her.
Week 4
"I thought we could start where we ended last week," Dr. Carter started her session right on time, "Addison, how do Derek's feelings about Meredith make you feel?"
"Do you still love her?" Addison turned to her husband as soon as the therapist was done talking.
"I told you I'm not going to answer that," her husband countered.
"Why? Is it because you do?" This argument was different than the rest of the arguments that had taken place on the couch. This argument was about a thirst for knowledge of actions, of feelings, rather than anger towards the actions coming forward. This argument was countered with protection and guilt rather than denial.
"No."
"Can you say that while looking at me and not the ground?" Derek's eyes shot up to Addison's when she finished speaking.
"Addison," he said, "I love you and I know that know. I want to go back to being Addison-and-Derek." A smile crept onto Addison's lips as Derek began to speak. "I just needed some time to figure out who Derek was again. And I strayed from that path. I fell in love. And I am so, so sorry. I'm not in love with Meredith anymore. But I still love her. But each day I spend with you, I spend with our family, my love for you and Adaline grows stronger and my love for Meredith fades. So please, Addison, please, just stick with me. I'm sorry for not sticking with you."
Tears, happy tears, slid down Addison's face as she began to speak, "Derek. I love you. And I'm so sorry for Mark. I felt like you weren't noticing me and I wanted you to and he was there. I'm sorry. But I'm happy that you want to be Addison-and-Derek again, and that you want to heal us and heal our family because I don't know what I would do without you. You saw me blonde." She paused and laughed here before continuing her monologue. "I love you. And thank you for accepting me back." She smiled before accepting her husband's lips.
"Wonderful progress!" Dr. Carter interjected, "I still hope to see you next week but if you keep this up it won't be to long till I won't consider you my patients. I think we're good for this week."
The couple of married surgeons stood took each other's hands and walked out of their therapist's office towards the elevator waiting to push the button before affectionately kissing each other once again, still on the high of the words said on the couch. "I'm gonna stay in the bed from now on," Addison spoke, almost seductively, but still eliciting a laugh from her husband.
After a shrill ding they turned to the doors sliding open revealing a rather handsome plastics surgeon from New York, who happened to have a great deal of history with the both of them. "Mark," Derek growled before lunging towards him.
A/N: Sorry for the wait! I had a little bit of writer's block and life is busy. :| Please review, I love to hear your opinions and I honestly can't wait to get the next chapter posted for all of you to read! :)