(For my story's purposes, I'm going to say that Mark did say the part about feeling the way about Addison that Derek feels about Meredith in "Some Kind of Miracle," but there is no 60-day bet.
And yes, I know that it can be confusing juggling all of these men, and Addison is confused, too. She doesn't really know who or what she wants right now. Who will win her heart? I don't know at this point… Reviews may help shape that. ;) Which one do you guys want to see her with?)
It was lunchtime on the day after Addison had turned down the chief job. Addison carried a salad box and a bottle of water through the cafeteria, her eyes scanning the area for Miranda or Callie. She spotted Miranda at a corner table, but before she could make her way over, Mark Sloan blocked her path.
"So… You screwed my little gopher, Alex Karev." Mark smirked.
"What are you talking about?" Addison demanded.
"And in your office!" Mark crunched into an apple. "You know… You should really have a talk with Anita, your secretary. It's amazing what information I can get from her with a few well-placed compliments, grins, and bicep flexes."
Addison gritted her teeth. "Remind me to fire her."
"I always thought you were into men, not little boys."
Addison made a production out of looking around her, wanting to annoy Mark since she couldn't physically injure him there in the hospital. "Men? What men? I don't see any men here."
Mark cleared his throat. "That's not what I remember from a few weeks ago… In fact, that night after I caught you stumbling out of the O.R., you were singing… Well, moaning… A very different tune."
Addison rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Mark."
"Why don't you just admit it?"
"Admit WHAT?" Addison asked, exasperated.
"You still want me."
"I'm glad you still think as highly of yourself as ever, but, I'm actually not interested." Addison scoffed.
"Mark, don't you have some puppies to kick or something?
Addison was grateful to hear Callie's voice behind her.
"I didn't think you needed to be protected, Ads." Mark glared at Callie for intruding.
"I don't. It's called having a friend. You may want to try it sometime?"
The two women had left Mark standing there, shaking his head. They had just reached Miranda's table when Alex approached them.
"So, I heard you gave up chief." Alex stated matter-of-factly.
"Where'd you hear that?"
"Anita."
"Okay, that's it," Addison slammed her salad down on the table, startling Miranda. "I really AM going to fire her."
"But this is good news. This means that you and I…" Alex gestured between them and grinned. "We're on."
"I never said that."
"Karev! Stop hitting on her and go eat your damn lunch! You've got rounds to get to!" Miranda stared Alex down. He backed away, then headed back to his seat with the other interns.
"I'm seriously starting to see why Meredith took up knitting for a while. These men, they're just…" Addison tugged at the ends of her hair, as though she was trying to pull it out. "Maybe she can teach me…"
"If you'd just keep going out with the right man, and stop sleeping with the bad boys, you wouldn't have so damn many problems." Miranda pointed out.
"I am! I have another date with him tomorrow."
As much as she liked Finn, she was having trouble detaching herself from her "bad boys." There was something about them Fixing her own love life seemed too difficult to Addison. It would have to wait until later. Maybe she couldn't figure out her own romantic problems, but she had an idea as to how to solve someone else's.
"Derek, I need to talk to you."
Derek was casually leaning against the nurse's station when his ex-wife approached him, his eyes on a craniotomy patient's chart. "What?"
"It's about Richard. I turned down the chief job because he told me how miserable it made his life. And when he was telling me about everything, I just felt so bad for him… Losing Adele that way. So, I came up with a plan for the two of us to get them back together."
Derek didn't look up from his chart. "I don't want to meddle in his marriage."
"He meddled in ours." Addison pointed out, "When he brought me here."
"Yes, but I think we should just leave him alone."
"All you have to do is invite Richard to dinner. I'll invite Adele to dinner. Neither of us will show up, we'll set it up with the restaurant so that they have to sit together, and bam! They'll have to start talking. I think if they would just talk to each other, they could work things out."
"Addison…" Derek finally closed the chart and looked at her. "That's been done. It was a movie, and it was called 'The Parent Trap'… Not a bad movie. Then they re-made it with Lindsay Lohan and that was crap."
Addison looked amused. "You… Saw the re-make?"
"Um. No. Anyway, the point is that stuff only works in movies."
"Come on, Derek. Please? Do it for Richard. Think of everything he's done for us… In our careers, personal lives, everything. Shouldn't we try to help him when he needs it?"
"Are you going to leave me alone about this?" Derek sighed. He knew Addison well enough to know that she was stubborn, and that she would put up a fight with him if he refused to give in to her way.
"Nope."
"Fine. Tell me what I need to do."
Richard entered one of the most expensive restaurants in Seattle later that evening. He was scanning the room for Derek when his eyes met his wife's. Was she on a date? He didn't really want to know, but he slowly walked over to her. He was glad that his hair was dyed and that he had worn his best suit.
"Adele?"
"Richard?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Addison called me this afternoon and invited me out to dinner. She said that she wanted to catch up on things."
Richard looked confused. "But Addison is at the hospital all night tonight."
"What? Then… Why would she invite me here?" Adele looked annoyed.
"I have no idea. I'm supposed to be meeting Derek."
"Really?"
"Wait a minute… Come to think of it… He's working tonight, too."
Their eyes met, and they suddenly realized they'd been set up.
"Oh, man…" Richard shook his head and took a seat across from Adele.
"They obviously wanted us to talk to each other." Adele laughed softly.
"Those knuckleheads are in trouble when I get a hold of them tomorrow."
The waiter, a college-aged kid dressed in a tuxedo shirt and bow tie, approached the table. "Sir, I'm supposed to tell you that tonight's tab has been taken care of. Do you know what you would like to order?"
"Yes." Richard winked at Adele, then back at the waiter with a smile. "What's the most expensive thing you have on the menu?"
"That was the sneakiest, most underhanded thing that the two of you have ever done!" Richard stared the two down in his office the next day, trying to put as much anger as possible into his voice while Addison and Derek hung their heads. They were used to Richard scolding them. They both knew that the best thing to do was not look at him.
"Richard, we were just trying to help… You've been so sad and lonely lately…" Addison trailed off.
"…And it was all her idea, by the way." Derek confessed. Addison kicked his shin with the toe of her high heel, and he let out a yelp.
"Really? Then I guess I'll have to thank her alone for it." Richard said.
Addison and Derek looked up with him in surprise.
"Adele and I were able to talk, and I went home last night. We're going to give things another try."
"That's wonderful!" Addison grinned, then turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Derek. "See!"
"Well, you know, Richard… I did help a lot. I mean, it may have been her idea, but without me…"
"Get back to work, both of you."
The two had barely made it out of his office before they doubled over in laughter. "Seriously? He thinks THAT'S the sneakiest thing we've ever done? Is he forgetting about when we were interns?" Addison said, thinking of the antics that she and her ex-husband had participated in when they were younger.
"Like the time we stole IV bags and filled them with vodka so we could sneak alcohol into a football game?" Derek smirked at the memory.
"Or the time when you pretended to be a cadaver and when Mark pulled the sheet back, you jumped up and scared the crap out of him."
"Or the time we had sex in an OR?"
"Oh, damn, yeah… We got yelled at for an hour for contaminating a sterile environment. Oh, there was sex in his office… And in the elevator… And in a comatose patient's room… And in the helicopter..."
Derek laughed. "Those were good times."
"It's a wonder that we ever got to where we are today!"
Derek glanced over at his ex-wife as they walked down the hall together. She was as beautiful as ever, with her hair neatly styled and her makeup perfectly applied. He would never deny that she was gorgeous. Though he wasn't in love with her anymore, he still cared deeply about her, and he had felt his respect for her gradually building again. He wanted them to be friends.
"We still make a good team, in some ways. It seems like we're becoming friends again. I hope it continues that way." Derek commented.
"Me too." Addison smiled.
Next up, more time with Finn. :)
