The next morning when Addison woke up, she felt a pang in her stomach, remembering her conversation (argument, really) with Mark. She was exhausted, having gotten no sleep, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She dragged herself into work anyway, and went immediately to the 5th floor to see Andrea. On her way there, she noticed Izzie at the nurse's station.

"Have you seen Mark?" Addison tried to ask the blonde intern nonchalantly, but she was sure that the question sounded anything but casual.

"Umm…" Izzie looked nervously from side to side. "Yeah… But I wasn't supposed to tell you…"

Addison felt her heart pound against her ribcage. It reminded her too much of when they were back in New York, when Mark had started cheating on her. Her co-workers had avoided her, and if she had directly asked them about his whereabouts, they got nervous… The way that Izzie was in front of her.

"Oh…" Addison swallowed hard to fight the lump in her throat and stared at her feet. "Oh, I see."

"He's in the NICU." Izzie mumbled.

"The NICU." Addison repeated, raising her eyes to look at Izzie.

"Yeah, he was in there with Andrea last night… I caught him talking to her about the Yankees and he threatened me within an inch of my life if I told anyone." Izzie explained.

"With Andrea." Addison hated herself for sounding like a parrot, repeating everything the intern said, but she was too shocked to say anything else.

Izzie nodded. "When I went back in there about ten minutes ago, and he was passed out in the chair by her incubator. I don't think he left her side all night."

"Oh." Addison said, dumbfounded and feeling guilty for assuming that he was cheating on her. "Well, I guess I'll go wake him… His shift starts soon. Thanks, Izzie."


Sure enough, when Addison reached the NICU, she found Mark asleep in a contorted position in a chair that looked rather uncomfortable. Though she was still upset about the way that things ended between them the previous night, she had to smile. She approached him and gave him a small shake to wake him.

"Hey." Mark responded sleepily, stretching his neck out as he roused.

"How's she doing?" Addison asked, picking up her niece's chart.

"She's improving, actually…" Mark yawned. "She's a fighter… She's a Montgomery girl, so she must be feisty."

Addison smiled slightly, but didn't look up from the chart.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come home last night…" Mark said softly. "Andi here and I were… Talking."

Addison chewed at her lip, not sure of how to read him. "I see…" She put the chart back in its place.

"She's been telling me that she likes the Red Sox…" Mark shook his head at the incubator and the tiny sleeping preemie. "Can you believe that?" Mark met Addison's eyes, then looked back down at Andrea. "We'll have to fix that. No daughter of mine is going to like the Red Sox."

"What?" Addison blinked several times.

Mark gave her his trademark grin and pulled her into his arms. "You heard me."

Addison couldn't hide the smile that stretched across her face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a deep kiss against his lips.

"You're sure that you want to do this?" Addison asked, resting her head against the chest and looking at Andrea.

"She's beautiful and amazing and I want to be her dad." Mark said confidently.

"You know that this is completely going to change our lives." Addison cautioned.

"I know, and I do. I'm excited, but I'm a little nervous about it. I don't really know anything about babies…" Mark looked down at the incubator.

"Lucky for us, I know a tiny bit." Addison winked and gave him a squeeze.

"We'll figure all of it out together." Mark promised.

"We will?" Addison looked into his eyes and saw that he was serious about it.

"Definitely. The late feedings, the diapers, the ballet classes, the boys…" Mark paused. "Who will not be coming in contact with her until she's 45…"

"Thank you." Addison could feel the tears stinging her already swollen eyes.

"No crying." Mark ordered, holding her tightly against. "And no thanking me, either. I want this too."

"You do?" Addison bit her lip.

"I do. We're going to make a life together." Mark kissed her eyelids. "We're going to be a family. I love you, baby."

Addison smiled up at him, happy tears streaming down her face. "I love you too."

"Maybe we should go mention this whole thing to your sister though, before we get too excited?" Mark suggested.

Addison nodded and withdrew from his embrace, instead taking his hand. "Let's do it now."


"Addison!" Cadence looked up from her book and greeted her sister. "Great to see you. When in the hell are you going to let me out of this bed?"

Addison rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you too, Cady."

"The painkillers are great, but this catheter is humiliating." Cadence informed her.

"We should be able to get rid of that now." Addison said. "I'll have a nurse do it for you and we'll see if we can get you up and walking around."

"Fabulous." Cadence set the book on her side table. "I've decided what to do."

"You have?" Addison could feel herself getting nervous. Mark snaked an arm around her waist and gave her a supportive squeeze.

Cadence sighed. "Yeah. I want to finish high school. I want to go to college. Is that selfish?"

"No." Mark assured her. "Not at all."

"In order to do that… I can't keep her." Cadence said sadly. "And I want Andrea to be with good people who will take care of her the way I can't… She deserves better than a stupid teenager."

Addison sat down on the side of Cadence's bed. "You're not stupid. You're very mature for making this decision. I know it's a hard one to make."

Cadence shook her head. "It wasn't really as hard as I thought it'd be… It's what I knew was right all along."

Addison covered Cadence's hand with her own. "If you're doing what you know is right, don't worry about anything else."

"I need your help, Addie." Cadence said. "I need your help finding parents for her."

Mark cleared his throat. "Actually… We wanted to talk to you about that."

"You did?" Cadence's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"Yes." Mark looked at Addison, prompting her to be the one to speak.

"We would like to adopt Andrea." Addison said softly.

At the admission, Cadence immediately burst into tears.

Addison and Mark exchanged shocked glances at her outburst, unsure of how to react. Cadence noticed the worried looking on their faces, and quickly began talking to reassure them.

"No, no…" Cadence desperately wiped the tears from her face. "You don't understand. That was my wish."

"What wish?" Mark asked, confused.

"The cake, the candles, all of that." Cadence said. "On my birthday… That's what I wished for.

"For us to take Andrea?" Mark raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Cadence sighed, and accepted the tissue that her sister handed her. "You guys were being so good to me… I thought you would be good to her, too."

"We will." Addison assured her. "I'll call my lawyer and we'll see what we need to do… If you're sure."

Cadenced nodded. "I'm positive. I want to see her now. I want to be the one to tell her."

Addison nodded. "Okay. Do you want us to come with you?"

"No… I need to do it alone." Cadence decided.

"Okay." Addison stood up. "She's hooked up to a lot of tubes and wires, Cady… And she's very, very tiny. She may look scary, but you have to remember that under all of that… She's still a baby. She's your baby."

"No… She's our baby." Cadence smiled a little.


Izzie helped Cadence to the NICU in a wheelchair (at Addison's insistence). At first, Cadence was scared of all of the machines surrounding her daughter. But, she tried to take Addison's advice, and focused on the baby beneath all of the equipment. She soon felt comfortable enough to talk to the baby and to touch her.

"Hi, Andrea…" Cadence pressed her index finger into the preemie's palm, and smiled a little as the tiny fingers curled around it slightly. "I'm your mother…"

Cadence's breath hitched in sudden realization that Andrea was her child. She couldn't believe that she had a baby.

"But you're going to live with a different mommy… And you're going to have a daddy too. You wouldn't have a daddy if you came with me." Cadence sighed. "You see, Andrea, I'm not ready to take care of you… Not by myself."

Tears formed in Cadence's eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't be the one to take care of you… But I found you really great parents, my sister and her fiancé. You've met them. If you go with them, I'll get to see you sometimes. They already love you and they're going to take such good care of you. You're going to be really spoiled, Andrea. You'll be wearing designer clothes before you know how to walk…"

Cadence laughed slightly through her tears at the image of her sister dressing Andrea in baby Prada. If it existed, Addison would find it.

"I hope that someday, you'll realize why I had to do it… Your new mommy and daddy not perfect. Really, they're pretty far from it. But that means they won't expect you to be. Not like my parents expect me to be." Cadence closed her eyes and let her tears roll down her face.

"Please don't hate me, Andrea…" Cadence stroked Andrea's arm lightly with one finger. "Because I love you very much… And that's why I'm giving you to the best parents I know."

Cadence sat there for several minutes, just watching Andrea breathe. She knew she was making the right decision, but it still hurt. She sobbed as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb the other babies in the unit.

"Cady."

A voice broke Cadence's concentration on her daughter. Cadence tensed at the sound of the familiar feminine voice and turned her head to see an apologetic-looking Addison flanked by Nadine and Edmund. Cadence sighed and wiped her eyes.

"Hi mom… Hi dad."


Seeeeeee, and you guys thought I made Mark do something bad. ;) He was really being a sweetie all along!