Ella woke up before the crack of dawn. There was barely any light to allow her to see. She gathered all her courage to travel through the dark halls in search of her parents' bedroom. She got to the door and harshly turned the knob to open the door. She ran in and jumped up on the bed. Derek groaned loudly when he felt a body crash down on him. His eyes opened and he pushed himself up on his elbows. Addison was still deep asleep. As a newlywed, her maternal instinct of light sleep had not kicked in yet.

Ella curled up into her father's side in search of both comfort and warmth.

"What happen, El?" Derek asked as he placed a soft soothing kiss over he hair.

The sound of Derek's groggy voice was what managed to wake Addison from her coma like sleep. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned on her side toward Derek and Ella.

"Monsters." Ella explained. All her fear and panic was summed up by that one word. She was afraid of the monsters threatening her peaceful slumber.

"There are no monsters, Ella." Derek assured tiredly, his words were followed by a yawn to confirm his sleep deprivation.

"Yes there are!" Ella argued. "I heard them! They're trying to break my window and come into my room."

Addison swung her legs over the side of the bed. She held out her arms to the shivering child. Whether she was shaking from fear or the cold was unknown. Ella looked up unsurely. She was still skeptical about trusting Addison. But in that second she didn't care. She needed to feel safe enough to go to sleep and she didn't care how that would happen.

Ella allowed for Addison to pick her up and carry her back into her room. She set her down on the bed only have heard a shriek escape the child. "Do you hear it?" she whispered in fear, jumping back into Addison's arms when the sound got louder.

"Yeah, honey, I hear it." Addison answered softly. She went closer to the window and pointed to a tree just beside the window. "It's the tree. The wind makes the branches hit your window and that's what makes the sound."

"No monsters?"

"No. No monsters, no ghosts, no Chucky like dolls that come to life and kill people while you sleep...nothing. Okay?"

"Ghosts? Killer Dolls?" Ella's eyes widened in fear, she wrapped her arms around Addison's neck tightly. "Can I sleep with you and Daddy tonight?"

Addison nodded reluctantly, retreating from the child's room back to the master bedroom. Both she and Derek stayed up until Ella fell asleep. "She's finally asleep." Derek whispered.

"I was suppose to comfort her...instead I made things worse. I planted ghosts and serial killer dolls into her head. What the hell was I thinking?"

Derek chuckled. "You'll get the hang of it." he assured. "I promise, it'll get easier. It's hard enough being a first time mom. And you didn't even have a chance to grow with your kid. It's like a toddler magically appeared in your arms. You need time to adjust."

"We've been married for two months, Derek. And I've been in her life for months before that..."

"It hasn't even been a year yet, Addie." he answered. "You're doing great for someone who's never done this."

"Great at what? Scaring kids to the point that they wanna shit on themselves?"

"Addison..." Derek sighed. "I promise you, Once you get a hang of this you'll be fine. You're going to be an amazing mother. Just give yourself a chance and don't doubt yourself."

"Says Mr. Perfect Dad." Addison replied half-heartedly. "Besides, how would you know?"

"You're going to be an amazing mother. I just know it. Don't question me." Derek answered firmly before giving her a kiss and turning onto his side to go to sleep.

Dell couldn't keep the grin off his face as he saw Addison coming toward him. He stared at her in amusement as she placed the chart back where it belonged.

"What's with the smirk on your face?" she asked.

"I was right." he beamed. "You have a kid. So you were running from something...I was right." he said, adding the last three words just because he couldn't help but repeat himself. It sounded too good to give up.

"Dell..." they both heard Naomi call out in warning. She threw him a scolding look as she walked past them with a patient.

Addison turned back to Dell with a grin of her own. "Watch out, I think you're on Nai's shit list." She backed away from the reception desk toward her own office.

"She wanted to leave, FYI. I stopped her." he called after her proudly.

Addison walked into her office to see Ella still patiently sitting there doing nothing. She approached her direction and sat back down where she was before being interrupted by an obsessive patient.

"Sorry about the interruption." she apologized. "Dell told me you wanted to leave. Why come all the way here if you're not even going to talk to me?"

Ella shrugged her shoulders. "I don't even know why I came!" she answered. "This is really awkward and I feel stupid for thinking this would be a good idea."

"I'm actually glad you're here." Addison replied. "I've been lonely without you. Nothing is the same without you there to nag me all the way through it."

"Is that your way of saying that you miss me?" Ella asked with a hopeful smile growing across her lips.

"I guess it is." Addison answered. "Ella, no matter what happens, you're my daughter. I love you more than anything else in life. I'm sorry I couldn't see that sooner."

Ella's eyes bulged out, her jaw dropped. That was the last thing she expected to hear. "You're not high on something, are you?" she asked, her voice lacking the sarcasm that one would expect. "Or is that a serious confession?"

"I'm not high...or drunk." Addison assured. "I'm serious."

"It's just that I've been waiting to hear you say that for nine months. It feels impossible, like I can't believe that you actually said that." Ella answered. "After being reject by you and that other lady...it seems too unreal to be loved all of sudden."

"You've always been loved, Ella. I just...I came to Seattle for you. I tried..but you didn't care. You had lost respect for me. You hated me. Your father was falling in love with another woman. He didn't care about me anymore, he didn't want to be married to me. I couldn't stay and face that."

"I thought it was all cause I called you a stranger that one time." Ella admitted.

Addison shook her head. "You've said worse. It's just that I went over the edge that day. I realized that I really had no place in your life, in your father's life. That's why I left, not because you called me a stranger."

"That's why you distanced yourself? Because you felt like you had no place in my life?" Ella asked in shock.

"I'm not entirely sure what I've been thinking for the past nine months, six of which you were desperate for my attention...but I got defensive and carried away. I never expected to hurt you. That was never my intention."

"So what now?" Ella asked, looking up from the ground and into her mother's eyes.

Addison hesitated with the response. It was something she didn't want to say and something that Ella wouldn't want to hear. She had spoken to Derek about the matter when she called to let him know that Ella was with her. The result of the conversation was less than pleasing.

"Your father wants you to go back to Seattle." Addison answered in a mere whisper.

"What if I don't want to go?"

"It's not up to you, El. It's not up to me. He's got sole custody of you. He has the power over every single decision." Addison explained. "But I'll always be here when you need me. All you have to do is call."

"It's not the same!" Ella whined in an annoying high pitched tone, a tone which her parents had grown immune to while she was a child.

"It's know it's not, honey, but sometimes we need to make the best of what we're given. And we don't always get what we want."

Ella nodded, having learned the lesson early in life. No matter how much she whined and nagged, she'd never be able to get her way. "What about you?" she asked. "What is it that you want?"

"I'm not sure anymore." came the honest response.

"Do you want Dad? Do you want for everything to go back to the way it was? Or do you want to move on and start over?"

The question was met with silence. But the answer was clear. All Ella had to do was look into her mother's eyes and she'd know. She didn't have to say it to say it. Ella understood her well enough to know exactly what the look meant. Although she wasn't too sure if the answer she got was the one that she wanted.

At the end of the last chapter when Addison was talking to Ella...that was suppose to be the first step of her coming around. I guess no one caught on to that because a whole bunch of people thought that Addison is still anti-Ella.
The end of this chapter is suppose to be a cliff hanger...I'm not sure how well that worked out. Point is: You don't know the answer to that question. :)

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