hey guys! i'm back, as i have been for awhile. sorry about the delay, i just wasn't inspired. i DID, however, write a oneshot that may or may not make an appearance later today. i have to decide if it's good enough and then type it up. but i haven't decided yet. anyways, enough of that, you can just go read now.

still not mine and i'm too tired to come up with some creative way to say so.

"Addie!" Sophia exclaims. Before Addison has a chance to respond, she's being pulled into a tight hug. "Oh my God! I was on a plane the second I heard you were here! What is it with you and this city? I mean, you'd think you'd have the sense to stay away from someplace that you nearly died in. I mean, come on, Addie. Really? What's so great about this city anyways?"

It takes all of Addison's will power not to slap the woman across the face. "What are you doing here, Sophia?" she asks in a monotone voice.

"I heard you were out here, and I came to convince you to come back home! Mark and I have been missing you! And everybody else too!"

"You want me to come home? Seriously?" Addison asks in the same tone.

"Well, yeah, of course I do! I mean what am I going to do in New York without my best friend?"

"Oh, I don't know," Addison replies, her voice back to its normal tone. "Maybe my husband?" she suggests nonchalantly.

Sophia blanches. "W-what? Why would you… What makes you say that?" she stutters.

Addison rolls her eyes. "Oh, give it up. I mean, did you really think that I wasn't going to remember? Seriously?"

Sophia tries to laugh it off. "What's with you and this new "seriously" thing? You never used to use that word like that and now you're all like seriously this, seriously that."

Once again, Addison struggles to not slap her. This time it's even harder, her right hand is just itching to jerk up and hit her. But she manages. Barely. "Anyways," Sophia continues. "Are you going to invite me in or something? Cuz this is kind of rude."

Addison stares for a second; trying to figure out if she really just heard that. "No!" she exclaims. "I'm not going to let a backstabbing, adulterous whore like you into my home. It's just plain not going to happen. I can't believe you!"

Sophia's eyes darken. "You want to know something, Addison? You and I, we're not that different. I know all about you and your intern or whatever. Yeah, Mark told me. Because you want to know something? Mark doesn't really love you. He wants you back for appearances. He really loves me. You want to know why it took him so long to come get you from the hospital? He was with me. And that night you walked in on us? Not the first time. I doubt any amount of couples' counseling's going to help fix that."

Addison tries not to laugh. "You know what, Soph?" she says, the old nickname slipping out before she can stop it. "I don't care. It doesn't matter how long you've been sleeping with him. Keep sleeping with him, see if I care. You can marry the freaking guy for all I care. In fact, if you could marry him, that'd be great, because then maybe he'd actually consider a divorce. Take him. He's all yours. I don't care anymore."

Sophia looks shocked. "But… I… he said…"

Addison shakes her head. "Get out," she orders quietly. "Just leave."

For once in her life, Sophia does as she's told.

0ooo0

Addison contemplates dragging Callie out of the shower to vent, but restrains herself. Callie deserves at least fifteen minutes of Addison-free time, since her life right now's kind of all Addison, all the time. She picks up the phone to call Alex, but the same thing applies to him. So she sits at the table in the kitchen and waits for Callie to enter back into the realm of Addison. As she does, tears start slipping down her face.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" Callie exclaims as she walks into the room, hurrying to her friend's side. "What's wrong? Did Mark call again or something?"

"No," Addison replies weakly. "Sophia showed up."

"Wait. Sophia Sophia? As in backstabbing whore of an ex-best friend Sophia?"

Addison chuckles quietly before answering, "That would be the one."

"Why?"

"You know, I'm not really sure. I mean, she didn't really seem to have a point. She just kind of showed up and was all gushy about how she missed me and stuff. That is, until I told her that I remembered. And then she wanted to come in, and I kind of just exploded."

"Did you slap her? Because that girl deserves a serious slapping."

"I wish. No, I just called her a backstabbing, adulterous whore, and shegot pissed at me. Apparently she and Mark have been talking, because she knows about Alex. Oh, and when I caught them in bed together? Yeah, not the first time."

"What?!"

Addison shrugs. "Yeah, who knew?"

"You're surprisingly calm about all of this. I mean, after finding all this out and her showing up and all."

Addison meets Callie's eyes for the first time since the conversation started. "I just… I don't care anymore. I just want them gone. I don't want anything to do with them. I just want to get divorced and they can go back to New York." She takes a shaky breath. "But that's not happening any time soon, so I guess I'll just… I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I don't know that there's much you can do," Callie replies honestly. "I think that you're just stuck trying to get rid of them."

"Excellent," Addison sighs. "And you know the thing about both of them?"

"What?"

"Neither quits until they get what they want."

0ooo0

The next day, Addison has a bad feeling. Not just a bad feeling, an apocalyptic, horrible feeling. She's tempted to just climb back in bed and never come out, but then there's a strong, more curious part, that wants to know why she has the feeling. So she gets dressed and goes into the hospital as per usual. She eats lunch with Alex as per usual. Everything goes as per usual. Which is just horrible, since she's still got that feeling lurking behind all the work thoughts that pretty much consume her mind. It's not until the end of the day that the reason becomes apparent. She exits the hospital to find Mark waiting. With a roll of her eyes, she walks over. "What are you doing here?" she asks, trying and failing to unclench her jaw.

He looks at her with earnest eyes. "I heard Sophia visited you," he says.

She tries not to sigh. She really does not want to deal with this. Not now, not ever. "Yes." She regrets not denying it the second the affirmative is out of her mouth.

"What she told you, about her and me, everything, she's lying. Addie, you know that I'd never do something like that to you."

Addison's eyes are sad as she says, "That's the thing, Mark, I don't."

"Why do you believe her over me?" Mark practically yells.

"Because she's not a desperate man trying to win me back!" Addison yells back. The action startles her, she can't remember yelling at Mark. Ever. It obviously startles him too, because he's speechless. "Mark," she sighs. "Don't you get it? I don't trust you, I can't, and I don't really want to. We're just not going to work. Maybe we did. I mean, we had to, because I loved you. But I loved you. Loved. As in I don't anymore. And I don't think you really love me either. The fact that you know Sophia's here and visited me proves it. Because you won't cut ties with the one person, aside from you, that hurt me."

"Addie, I love you," he interrupts. "I'll do anything. I'll stop talking to Sophia, I won't even-"

"No, you won't," she interrupts his interruption. "Please, Mark, just give up."

Obviously the wrong thing to say because his face hardens. "No."

"Mark," she groans.

"I love you, and I'm not letting go. Not yet." And then he storms off.

She barely has time to sigh before Alex is beside her. "What was that all about?" he asks.

"I… I don't know," she answers.

"You don't know?" he repeats, sounding annoyed. "You were just talking to him, and you don't know? Addie, I've had a really long day, I don't want to deal with cryptic answers right now."

She swallows and turns to face him. "Fine. If you must know, Sophia."

"Huh?"

"Sophia came to see me yesterday. She told me some things that Mark didn't want me hearing. He was here to do damage control."

"Wait, Sophia's here?" Alex asks.

"Yeah."

"And she came to see you? And you didn't tell me?" Now he's about a step away from yelling.

"Why are you getting angry with me?" she asks, matching his tone.

"Because you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't tell you what? I mean, what was I supposed to say, Alex?! "Oh, by the way, on top of all this other crap you have to deal with, the woman my ex cheated with is here"?! And when was I supposed to say that, I've hardly seen you all day!"

"At lunch time," he replies as if it's obvious.

"Oh yeah, because that would have gone over so well. "Here's your sandwich, Sophia's here, don't forget your chips". You would have gone ballistic in the cafeteria!" Even though he's not truly yelling, she is. "Believe or not, I don't have to tell you everything!" She knows she's blowing this entirely out of proportion, but she's tried to stay positive throughout this entire thing, and that just made her pent up her anger. Now that anger makes her pull out the lowest blow she can think of. "In case you've forgotten, you're not my husband! I already have one of those!"

He's shocked into speechlessness.

"I just don't get why you care so much," she says, much quieter, her rage slowing dying.

But now he's angry and yelling. "Because I care, damn it! In case you haven't noticed, I love you and if I can't protect you, I'm going to go crazy. And I can't protect you when you don't tell me things like that! But you obviously don't care, so I'll just… I'll go then." He turns around and practically runs away.

That tirade shocks Addison into speechlessness. It even causes paralysis, so she can't run after him. Because she's an incredibly difficult person to slip words by, and even though it was surrounded by a bunch of other words, she heard that "I love you" and it scares her. Because those three words may have been exactly what she had been thinking, but wouldn't admit to herself. And that means she's got something real, not just some fling. It means that she isn't giving up a home with one of the country's foremost plastic surgeons, with designer clothes and a home in the Hamptons, for nothing. She has something to not only fall back on, but to run to. And she's never been the running type of gal. At least with a fling, she wouldn't have had to deal with all of these complicated feelings.

A fling would have been better. She would have preferred a fling.

so, despite the delay, did you like it?

-Juli-