Sorry for the delay. Real life stranded me in a place with no Internet for three days and then I had trouble getting my groove back. But I think I have it back now and remain committed to this story. So, I hope you will like it and let me know any thoughts you have. Thank you.

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Chapter 9

And so they went back to work. It was actually good for them because both of them were enough alike to need to work. Their careers were both very important to them. There was nothing innately wrong with that.

The problem was when career became the only thing. In truth though, that was more Derek's thing than Addison's. She had never lost sight of the importance of having other things to balance things out. He had.

Not that that was a justification for what she had done. In all honesty, the more healthy way to handle things would have been to actually say something to Derek. Or at least try to.

That wouldn't have been a guarantee that he would have listened and responded but it would have maybe been something. But Addison's dysfunctional background had never prepared her for coping with things in a healthy way. In many ways, she had overcome her background with remarkable adaptability. But as what had happened with Mark showed, she had still been damaged by it.

But she was doing her best. Unfortunately, it seemed the universe wasn't quite done with her yet.

"Are you all right?"

Addison looked up from the toilet where she was puking her guts out. "I'm good."

"Somehow it's really hard to believe you when you're currently praying to the porcelain gods."

She sighed. "I know but trust me. I'll be fine."

"Do you have the flu or something? Maybe you should stay home from work."

Addison shook her head. "No. Not when I've just gotten back after taking time off. "

"All right. It's up to you. But if you are sick you don't want to infect patients."

"I'm not sick. It was probably something I ate. You know we went to the buffet place last night."

Derek chuckled. "Yes, it was quite amusing to see you put all that food away. You normally average about two trips but last night you went up five times. You even beat me and that's no mean feat."

"Trust me. I wasn't trying to. I was just hungry. I don't know why. I'm not anorexic or anything like that but I'm not normally a pig either."

"Well, a healthy appetite is hardly pig like. And you'd be beautiful even if you started eating like that all the time and ballooned to 300 pounds."

"All right, honey, I know you're trying to be sweet and I do appreciate the compliment but can we not talk about me getting fat. No woman likes to even acknowledge the possibility."

Derek laughed again. "All right. So, you're going in"

"I'm going in."

Which was fine. She made it through work. But the next morning it was a repeat of that morning.

"This time you can't blame it on overeating. Or any restaurant food. We ate at home last night'

"I know. I don't understand. I've never been sick two days in a row."

"You barely even get sick."

"This is true."

He felt her forehead. "You don't feel warm."

"That's because I'm not. "

"Well something is the matter. It's not normal to get sick in the mornings…."

The realization hit them both at the same time.

"No, I couldn't be."

"Well, when was the last time you got your period?"

"I don't know. Awhile I guess. But stress can cause things to go out of whack and we both know there has been much stress in our life lately."

"That's very true. But the fact is that there is the possibility that you are. We should find out for sure. I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?"

"To pick up a home pregnancy test. I'll be right back." And he was gone.

'This can't be happening. This is the last thing we need. It can't be true. But what if it is? What are we going to do?

It wasn't as if the subject of children hadn't come up in their eleven year marriage. Both of them did want kids. But they agreed that the timing had to be right.

Right now the timing was clearly not right. In fact it couldn't be more wrong. They weren't even together. Well, they were but they weren't. It was true that they were working on it. Working on it was taking up all of their energy. There wasn't anything left over for a baby.

A baby. Babies were totally dependent. They needed you, all of you. And right now, Addison wasn't sure that she had anything left to give a baby. Derek was taking it all. Which was right and her choice. But it was something that had to be considered. Because she had no idea how she felt about this, let alone how Derek felt.

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Derek patrolled the drugstore aisles until he got to the one he wanted and then he quickly plucked up the first one that he saw.

It seemed to him that he was doing everything by rote. If there were feelings involved he couldn't begin to say what they were.

All he knew was that another shockwave had happened and he was no more prepared for it than he had been before opening up the door to his bedroom and seeing what he saw.

He was seeing it again now. He didn't want to and he had honestly tried to forget. Dwelling on it would do him no good and he knew it wasn't going to help the work on the marriage. Of course, it never really went away and now it seemed it never would.

But he was at the cashier now and paying. Then he drove home where Addison was waiting.

"I've got it." He tossed it at her.

She just sat and stared at it in her lap.

"Aren't you going to take it?" Her just sitting there was really getting on his nerves, for some reason.

"I-I will. I guess."

"What do you mean you guess? You have to take it. We need to know."

"Do we? I don't think I want to. I'm scared to know."

"Well, I wasn't exactly thrilled to go and buy the test. I did it, though. You can do this. You know we have to know and deal with it, whatever the result turns out to be."

"All right. You're right. I know." With trembling hands, she picked up the test and got herself to the bathroom.

The next few minutes as they were waiting for the results seemed to go on for an eternity. Finally Addison came out of the bathroom. "Well?"

"Yes, it was positive. I'm definitely pregnant."

Shit! What in the hell were they going to do now?

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Yep, I went there. It was my plan from the start because I wanted to explore them dealing with this. Yes, I am aware that Addison got pregnant in the months she lived with Mark but since that didn't happen in this universe well… I am afraid some of you will hate this twist but I've got to stay true to the story I want to write. If you do bail on me, no hard feelings and thank you for reading as far as you did.