Whoa, Baby!

A Grey's Anatomy fic by Gigi

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Chapter 9: I'm Just a Wedge

A/N: It's so hard to believe that a) it's already December and b) it's already Chapter 9. It sucks that it's been a good 3 and a half months since I've had the chance to update this story, and for that, I am sorry. It's been a crazy year, senior year and such—well, I'm pretty sure I've already bitched about it in previous author's notes so I'll end the rant here for today.

A/N2: On another note: in a world where there are never enough Addison and Alex fics, there is hope yet! Juli, "Darling Pretty," is one of my favorite Addison/Alex authors, and she's got like 55 fics, if I'm not mistaken. Take your time reading them. Maybe they'll tide you over until I finally update again :P.

A/N3: This chapter is dedicated to Juli, and she will have two other chapters dedicated to her (maybe not in this story but in other ones) for the two days late I am in posting this. My server was down, and I had no internet access to upload the chapter! Sorry, Juli!

Derek had been standing outside Addison's office for a good ten minutes, staring at her door. Six months. It had been six months since his outburst in the cafeteria had announced to the entire hospital that not only Addison seeing an intern, but that she was also pregnant with his baby. Six months since his jealousy and latent protectiveness of Addison had resurfaced for the first time in years.

The door to her office opened, snapping Derek out of his reverie in time to see Addison's annoyed gaze fix on him. Without her heels, Addison actually had to look up in order to do this, something her neck wasn't accustomed to. She hated being shorter than people; there was confidence and security in being able to look someone directly in the eye, especially when he was a cocky neurosurgeon who happened to be her ex-husband.

Addison put her hands as best she could on her hips—she was unable to reach her waist due to the swollen, eight-and-a-half-months-pregnant belly—and sighed. "Are you planning on actually talking to me, or should I just leave you to contemplate the complexities of my office door?"

A little embarrassed at having been caught, Derek looked down at his feet to hide the faint pink that tinged his cheeks. "Can we talk?" he asked the floor.

The redhead cocked her head to the side in concerned curiosity. He was never nervous. The last time Derek Christopher Shepherd had ever talked to his feet was when he'd asked her out for the first time. "Uh, sure," she agreed, all irritability gone from her voice. "Come on in."

She stepped to the side of the doorway to let him in, but she didn't give him a wide enough berth. When he stepped forward, he ended up wedged between the doorjamb and Addison's stomach. While Addison turned adequately red, Derek had an aerial view of her cleavage—Addison had always been rather well endowed, but pregnancy had definitely tripled what she already had—and started stuttering. He wasn't supposed to stutter at the view of his ex-wife's body! Especially not since she became pregnant!

"Well, this is sufficiently awkward," Addison laughed, pressing herself as far back against the doorframe as possible and sliding her way inside the office. "You wanted to talk?" she called over her shoulder as she half-walked, half-waddled back to her comfortably padded swivel chair behind her desk.

"Yeah," Derek shook off his trance long enough to answer. Walking into the office, he closed the door behind him and crossed the room to the chair opposite her. "About that scene I caused earlier…"

"What scene?" Addison interrupted.

Derek scratched the back of his head shamefully. "You know…the one where I blew up at you in the cafeteria for having Karev's baby," he muttered just loudly enough for her to hear him, to which she huffed just loudly enough for him to hear.

"What about it?"

"You asked me why I cared so much, and I didn't know what to tell you," Derek began.

Addison cut him off once again, "Because it was so obvious you couldn't see it, Derek."

"What?" There was no way she could have already known what he was feeling.

"We were married for almost twelve years," Addison answered softly. "That's hard to forget. No matter how much stuff we divide up between us, that love never went anywhere. Love takes longer to fade than it takes for the ink to dry on our divorce papers." She started rubbing her stomach absentmindedly, looking at her ex-husband with pitiful eyes. "I know it took me the better part of a year to get over…" Saying "you" didn't seem appropriate anymore, "…it."

"I don't think that was entirely why I freaked out," Derek corrected uncertainly. Addison cocked her head to the side in surprise and confusion, making her red hair to flutter off her shoulder and hang like a cherry curtain just begging for a hand to part the folds. Derek schooled his hands to stillness and instead focused on her belly, and he spoke while he watched her hands trace light circles on the fabric covering her stomach. "I don't know where I got this idea from, but I always thought that, in the back of my mind, if Meredith and I didn't work out and I realized I made a mistake, that you would still be there, that I could have you then." Addison straightened her head and opened her mouth, indignation written all over her face, so Derek rushed to speak again. "It was selfish, I know that. But finding out you were pregnant and in a committed relationship with Karev just threw me, because it took away that option, that sense of security I always had with you." Derek looked down at his lap and whispered, "I don't want to lose you, Addie."

There was silence from across the desk. Derek raised his head to find tears filling Addison's pale blue eyes. "Sorry, hormones," she squeaked, reaching for the tissue box on her desk. "Honestly, I should be more upset with you since you really just wanted me there as a last resort," she started once she gathered herself, "but I'm actually sort of relieved."

"What?"

"Well, you moved on before our divorce was even finalized," Addison explained. She dropped her eyes to her stomach and resumed tracing small, circular patterns on it. "You never gave me any hint that you even loved me at all anymore. No offense, but you were awful to me, smiling at the thought of our divorce and then getting upset at me for having a relationship when you did the exact same thing." Addison took a deep breath and looked up at her ex-husband, pale blue eyes meeting cerulean ones. "You freaking out at Alex and me in the cafeteria…and what you said just now…let me know that you do remember what we had together. I'm not saying I'm still in love with you. I still love you, and it killed me that you didn't seem to love me anymore."

Now Derek's eyes pricked with moisture, and Addison sympathetically passed him the box of tissues. "Sorry—I don't really have an excuse for crying," he laughed pathetically. When he heard her soft chuckle, a small smile came to his lips but slowly melted away as he said the seven words he'd needed to say for a while. "I'm sorry for treating you so badly."

Warmth emanated from the soon-to-be mother's smile, and had she been able to stand up with any sort of grace or speed, she would have hugged him for all her worth. So she settled for leaning forward and taking his hand in hers. "It's really okay, now," she assured him with a squeeze. "I would say I'm sorry for sleeping with Mark, but I can't say that I am. I mean, I'm sorry for hurting you to get your attention instead of talking to you, but I'm not sorry that it made us both end up here."

"I get it, don't worry," he chortled.

Alex walked in at that moment, watching as his girlfriend held hands and gazed into the eyes of the man who used to be her husband. "Oh, am I interrupting?" he asked, trying to stomp down the jealousy that threatened to choke him.

Addison whipped her head around at the sound of Alex's voice, and she did her best not to retract her hand from Derek's as it had burned her. Instead, she smiled and leant back in her chair, letting her hand casually pull away from Derek's as she struggled to get out of her chair. "Not…at all," she insisted in between attempts wiggle her stomach free of the swivel chair's grasp. "Could you help me, please?"

Alex stopped scrutinizing her movements in relation to Shepherd long enough to help pull her out of the chair. "You were pretty firmly wedged in there," he joked as lightly as he could.

"You should have seen it when I was trying to let Derek into my office," Addison responded with amusement. "My stomach was too big for us both to fit through the doorframe and we got stuck." She felt Alex stiffen up, but suddenly that became the least of her problems.

Both Addison and Alex looked down at the sound of a washrag being wringed of all its moisture. Amniotic fluid drenched both pairs of shoes and even the bottom of Alex's scrubs.

"Damn it," she whispered.

A/N: You can't see me right now, but I'm wiggling my eyebrows, going, "Huh? Huh? Huh? Do you like it?" Anyway, in case you can see me (and even if you can't) you should totally REVIEW and answer my question. And THEN go read Juli's stuff, because she is hands down on of the best writers I've encountered on here. (Again, blame my Internet thingy for not posting this after your finals. I hope you did well in them!) Okay. REVIEW.