Chapter 9

Addison met Derek outside the elevators when stepping out onto the surgical floor.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Why don't you take you broom and fly back to New York Addie?" he whines seeing her again.

"If you sign, I'll sign" she says and hands him an envelope.

"What is this?"

"Divorce papers Derek. If you sign them I'll be on the next plane out."

He stares at her before taking the papers.

"You had papers drawn up?"

"Yeah, the lawyers accept them. You just have to sign."

He stares at her before leaving for his office in a daze.

Meredith and Izzy are sitting in the gallery watching open heart-surgery preformed by Burke. Cristina is in the OR together with the rest of Burkes residents.

"Did you hear the rumor that McCandy left the hospital crying yesterday?"

"Yeah, Nurse Debbie said that she got fired after the stabbing. Dr Burke was just going to suspend her for some days but when Dr Webber heard he fired her on the spot."

"Bad timing for her, I overheard McWife give McBastard divorce papers this morning"

Meredith whispers back just as they can see Cristina fall to the floor.

"Cristina!"

A lot of commotion in the OR with Burke ordering a gurney and Bailey following it close behind. Meredith and Izzy met them out in the hallway.

"Not now, we need to bring her into an exam room.

"Page Dr Montgomery-Shepherd" Meredith says quietly to Dr Bailey.

"Why?"

"She is pregnant"

Addison arrives within a couple of minutes and sends Meredith to wait outside.

"I'm her person. She needs me."

"Go wait in the waiting area. You can't be of any help."

Meredith stares at her and gives Dr Bailey a long look but has to leave anyhow.

Derek is sitting in his office staring at the divorce papers. He has read every line and now only has to sign. The eleven years together flashes past him. How beautiful she was walking towards him in church... The opening of his private practice... When they moved into the brownstone... How he came home one night finding her and Mark in his bed... The walk upstairs and his feeling of knowing what he would see… He sank back into his chair taking deep breath clutching a pen in his hand… Their last kiss up in the NICU when she asked him for forgiveness. He throws the pen across the room. Their vows, his vows in front of hundreds of their best friends and family meant something. He will have to try and make it right. He walks off in search of his adulterous wife. In the waiting area he finds Meredith sitting with a worried face. She is so very beautiful. He leans at the wall looking at her for a while. Suddenly his wife walks past him towards Meredith.

"Dr Grey" Meredith snaps out of her thoughts.

"Yes"

"She is in recovery. It was an ectopic pregnancy. A fallopian tube was damaged and I had to remove it as well as doing a complete D and C. She will be in a room in a couple of hours."

"Thank you Dr Montgomery-Shepherd" Meredith whispers with tears in her eyes.

Derek is wondering why Meredith is having a discussion with Addison while looking so sad. He walks up to them when Addison turns to leave,

"Addie, can we have talk?"

"Have you signed?"

"Please Addie, can we talk?"

"Sure, the bar across the street in an hour."

"See you there Addie."

Meredith met her friends at Joe's. They are all worried about Cristina. Derek is sitting at a table nursing his scotch waiting for Addison. His eyes follow Meredith and her friends. They are all sitting by the bar and no one can see that Meredith is paralyzed. A look around the bar reveals that more then one guy has their eyes at the two girls sitting there. They are alone since both Alex and George are playing dart. Two guys step up beside the girls and start hitting on them. Derek can't understand why he gets this gut wrenching feeling looking at Meredith with a guy.

Meredith and Izzy are looking at each other before the new drinks the two guys offer them arrive. The guys sit down and are pretty straight forward on wanting them to join them at their hotel room. Meredith signals to Izzy that she will play along for a while. A couple of shots of tequila later both of them are kissing a guy each. When Meredith's guy tries to pull her down her stool she stops him.

"Stop, I can't stand."

"Oh, I'll hold you" he wraps his arm tighter around her waist slowly pulling her forward.

"Watch it" she pushes him away and scoots back on the chair.

"Oh let's dance" he makes a new go for her seeing Izzy is up dancing with his friend.

"No, I can't" she says and can see Joe step up ready to interfere.

"Do you need anything, Meredith?" he asks.

"No I'm fine Joe."

"Just holler and I'll be here in a second" he says as warning to the guy.

The guy has let go but tries a new approach.

"Want to go for a walk?"

Now Meredith just laughs at him.

"You don't want to take me for walk."

"Oh, sure I do. I want to take you for a walk back to my hotel."

Izzy and her guy are returning to the bar, followed shortly by a pissed Alex and George in tow.

Derek has been watching the interns by the bar until Addison showed up. He orders a Cosmo for her and a new scotch for himself. They sit there in silent for a while looking at each other.

"Have you signed?" Addie finally asks.

"Not yet" he answers.

"Why not?"

"I can't get past the vows we made to each other in church. They meant something and I'm not sure if they meant enough for me to want to try and fix us."

Addison looks at him. She can see that he is still very hurt and don't know how to handle her infidelity.

"Derek, I came here for two reasons. The first is the simplest one, to fix my patient but my more important reason was to get you back."

"You hurt me so much."

"I know and I want to spend the rest of my life making up for that."

"How do we do this?"

"We can start by taking help from a marriage counselor."

"Ok… sure… we can do that."

They sit there for a while in silence contemplating their lives. Derek's eyes are once more resting on Meredith. The guy is trying to pull her off her chair and he is almost standing before he sees Joe stepping up behind the bar. He sits back again as Alex and George finishes their game of dart and steps up to Meredith and Izzy who is back from the dance-floor. He can see how George stands behind Meredith and leans forward asking her something.

George leans forward whispering in Meredith's ear.

"Do you want to go home?"

"Yeah, let's just have some fun first" she replies with a smirk.

She looks back at the guy hitting on her.

"Do you still want to take that walk?"

"Yeah" he looks at her surprised even more surprised when she leans into him kissing him deeply. He grabs hold of her shirt while kissing her back. Coming up for air he whispers. "Wanna go now?"

"Yeah, but you have to carry me."

"Carry why. Are you drunk?"

"I'm lame"

"You're joking… right?"

"No"

She is looking at him with a knowing smirk and can see how he processes the information before taking a step back looking frantically after his friend.

"I'll be right back… I'll just need to…" he grabs his friend by the arm and drags him towards the rest-rooms.

Alex, George and Izzy are laughing at them as Meredith leans once again back to George.

"I could need some help getting up the stairs."

George sweeps her into his arms. The guys are looking at them leaving and Meredith gives them a wave and a smirk.

Derek has trouble concentrating on his wife. The kiss Meredith shared with the guy was the hottest thing he seen a long while and he wished he was at the recipient side of it.

I'm against easy divorces and I want them to work on their marriage for the time being. It suits a purpose in the intrigue.