I know it has been a while since I last updated. I actually finished Harry Potter on Saturday, but this chapter took a while to get out. Once again, this is supposed to be a Season 3 fanfic, and the Addex relationship is at a lull right now, so I need to deal with Addison's other men. This is [in my mind the fourth to last episode of the season, and I think the rest of my chapters will be an episode each which means this will be a... 14 chapter story? Maybe? I may divide it up more than that.

This chapter deals with Derek, because he is, afterall, our heroin's ex-husband. I did add some Addex in for good measure, because next chapter... well, you'll have to review and find out, won't you!

-------------

"Mark is gone."

Addison looked up from her desk. She had been in a trance, absentmindedly staring at a chart, so out of it she didn't notice when a dreamy neurosurgeon, who happened to be her ex-husband, entered her office and mentioned the man who had ended said marriage.

She recomposed herself. "Yes. Relieved, are you?"

"Yeah. He had no right to be here."

Addison rolled her eyes. "You are absolutely right, Derek. He has no business making any decisions by himself. How dare he even consider doing anything that would upset the order of his Royal Highness McDreamy?" The words came out of her mouth like they had been there for months, lurking until she let her guard down.

Derek stared at her, and scoffed. "You aren't still upset about the divorce, Addison, are you?"

Addison looked incredulously at him. "Aren't you? It was a third of our life, Derek."

"But I've moved on."

"No really, I didn't notice, I thought that was your evil twin groping an intern every five seconds." Where was this coming from? Addison never was like this.

Now it was Derek's turn to be disgusted with the other. "You know, Addison, if you are so sentimental about us being married now, how come you didn't bother to think about it as you jumped into bed with Mark?"

"I thought we were over Mark!"

"I thought we were over Meredith!"

They glared at each other in silence. Finally Addison spoke.

"Why did you come here?"

Derek responded immediately. "You slept with Mark again."

Addison looked at him suspiciously. "Do you have proof?"

"Just that which my own two eyes provided me with as you walked out of the on call room yesterday."

"Why do you care, Derek?"

"Because he is bad for you!"

At this Addison just down right laughed. "Oh, do you want to know what's bad for me? Getting a divorce wasn't exactly supposed to be a huge psychological relief. Finding a woman 9 years young than me's panties in the pocket of my husband's tuxedo? That really shortened my therapy bill. And being neglected for years before that by the same husband, who always had a surgery neatly scheduled every time I tried to set aside time to try and rekindle our marriage? But have him think the demise of the marriage was entirely my fault, for seeking comfort in the one person that gave a sh1t about me? Mark is bad for me, Derek, I get that, but he is only a fraction of how bad you are for me, so if you really cared about me Derek, gave a dam.n about how I feel, you would get your as$ out of my office right now!"

And there it was. Everything that had been building up for more than four years was finally put out on the table, in that little office in Seattle Grace Hospital, so many miles from where most of the turmoil had occurred.

And yet, Seattle witnessed the site of its final downfall. The concluding termination of NeglectedAddisonandWonderfulDerek.

Derek looked like someone had just slapped him. His face was whiter than it had been the day he and Addison went skiing, and he had brainlessly forgotten to wear a hat. His hair gel froze in his hair, and he had had to soak it in a warm bath for an hour to get it all thawed out.

But now, the woman who had kept him company in that very bath tub was the one causing his complexion to go white.

He turned and left the office before Addison could see the effect her words had on him; the last in a long line of leaving before the going got rough, and she was once again in the dark that he actually cared.

--------------

Addison entered her patient's room 15 minutes later. She felt like she could have stayed in her office forever, but she had gotten paged. "What's wrong, Karev?"

"Virginia Harvard, 32, was in normal labor when her BP started to go up."

Addison groaned. She had been pulled from her sanctuary for this? "Don't you know how to lower a BP, Dr. Karev?"

He was taken aback by her harsh tone and words. With as much dislike and attitude and sarcasm he could muster, he responded, "I've already tried everything, Dr. Montgomery. I was wondering if you had any suggestions."

She so was not in the mood for cocky interns right now. "Nurse, please administer Mrs. Harvard 3 cc's of yobarapime, and page me if her BP doesn't lower." She left the room, rubbing her temples. She needed a couple shots of caffeine…or tequila, for that matter.

She was so out of it, Addison didn't even notice Alex was following her until they were in the stair case. And she couldn't very well go get drunk with him following her.

"What are you doing?" She demanded of him.

"What's your problem?" He shot back.

Addison clenched her fists. "What do you mean, what's my problem? I'm fine. You're the one who won't get off my back."

"What were you doing back there?"

"Nothing!" She turned and started to walk up the stairs, but he grabbed her arm.

"No, not nothing. You don't act like this. Something's wrong, but I can't tell what it is, and it's frustrating me because you're Addison, and I don't like the idea something could be wrong with you. And sometimes talking about it can help, and I hope it will because I forgot to tell you that you're supposed to be in surgery in 30 minutes."

Alex kept looking at her. He thought he had done a really good job, telling her he cares, that he would listen, but keeping it professional and keeping himself guarded. But Addison still couldn't come up with a response.

Finally, she spoke. "Mark left for New York this morning, I'm feeling guilty, Derek found out, blamed me, we got into a fight, he walked out, the coffee cart messed up and gave me a decaf, so I don't have any caffeine in my system, and next time tell me before you schedule a surgery or you won't scrub in for a month."

And with that she walked up the remaining stairs and went through the door, her crimson hair swishing behind her, and Alex thanked his lucky stars once again he ever had the chance to be with her at all, even if it was just for 15 minutes in a room probably smaller than her walk-in closet.

-----------

Alex slumped down noisily at the intern's lunch table, and started to grumpily devour his sandwich. He didn't notice that everyone had stopped talking, until the silence was broken with Cristina's "What the hell is your problem?"

Alex was about to open his mouth and let all spill, but then remembered Addison had trusted him to keep her problem private, not to mention her problem's girlfriend was sitting at the table.

"Nothing, I'm just tired. The She-ExSheperd is working my as$ off." That answer seemed to satisfy three of his fellow interns, but one glance at Meredith showed she didn't buy a word of it. Alex painfully remembered the night at Joe's with her, and that she knew about his feelings for Addison. Except there weren't feelings. Alex himself was the one to set straight the fact that they were simply co workers.

Meredith purposely stuck around until the other interns were gone before confronting him. "Anything you want to tell me, Alex?"

"No, but I have a feeling that won't stop you from nagging me until I crack and just tell you."

Meredith rolled her eyes, but didn't deny the words. "Is it about Addison?"

"Yeah…" He really didn't want to betray her trust, but Meredith was putting on her face, so he couldn't really refuse. "She and Derek got in a big fight."

Meredith raised her eye brows. "And this bothers you because…?"

"Because it got her into a bad mood, and I'm around her 15 hours a day, so she's being annoying to me, and now I'm in a crappy mood!" There. That was pretty innocent. Maybe Meredith could drop it now.

But he had no such luck. "See, that actually sounds pretty plausible, except for the fact that I'm Derek's girlfriend and I don't know about it, but somehow you found out about the fight."

"That's probably because he didn't want to brag about it, considering what they were fighting about."

"Why, what were they fighting about?"

"Them! Their marriage! I think they haven't really talked since the divorce, and now they just finally let it all out. Also, the fact that Mark left probably didn't do much to help. Shepherd probably went in to gloat about it to Addison that she couldn't keep a relationship with him, and how she threw away their marriage, but he didn't care anymore because he already had moved on. I mean, God Forbid she be sad that the past 11 years all went to waste."

Alex didn't really realize the effect of his rant on Meredith and went back to eating his sandwich.

----------

"Derek!" Meredith stormed up to her boyfriend.

"Hey. You look annoyed. Want cheering up?"

"No! I need to speak with you."

She dragged Derek into an on call room. He looked confused, until Meredith finally said, "What happened with you and Addison this morning?"

Derek rolled his eyes, and sighed in relief. "I went in to have a perfectly civil conversation about Mark leaving—."

"Since when are you civil with anything that has to do with Mark?"

"And then she started talking about you, and getting all sentimental about our marriage. It was completely ridiculous. That was months ago! Why hasn't she just moved on already?"

Meredith looked at her boyfriend in disbelief. "Excuse me? She has every right to be sentimental! You were married for 11 years! One of the reasons I was going to pick Finn was because I didn't want to wait around a year or two for you to get over your marriage, but then all of a sudden—."

"I realized I couldn't sulk around in the past, and I needed to move forward with my life. I didn't want to waste even more time in a period of grief where Addison and I were fighting!"

"Derek, at least go apologize. Please. Please." She pulled out her face that she knew he couldn't resist.

He conceded. "Fine, I don't know what I'm apologizing for, though."

Derek went off to find Addison, but his last statement was a lie.

----------------------

He found her at Joe's. Derek quickly counted, and saw that she had only had one shot, so she was sober enough to have a civil conversation.

He walked up behind Addison. "Double scotch, single malt," he requested to Joe.

Addison looked up. "Being divorced means you can't pick me up at a bar anymore, Derek."

"I'm not picking you up. I have a girlfriend." This wasn't beginning how he wanted it to.

Addison responded to this by ordering another shot of vodka. Derek pushed it away from her. "I need to talk to you. And I want you to be able to remember it tomorrow."

"I thought we already said everything."

"No, we haven't." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I don't think I've apologized to you at all in the past year, but you've deserved it for a while now. I'm not sorry about what happened, and you sleeping with Mark, and all of that. Without that, I wouldn't have come here and gotten a fresh start." She noticed how he said "Fresh start" instead of "Meredith". "But I'm sorry that you got hurt in the process. I'm sorry I pushed you to the point where you thought the only way to get attention was to cheat on me. I'm sorry about being absent, and not seeing you, and I'm sorry about the panties, and prom, and… I'm sorry it took so long to say I'm sorry."

Addison looked up at him, and they looked each other in the eye for a minute or two. Addison finally broke the solemn silence with, "Are you sure I only had one shot of vodka?"

Derek laughed, and gave back Addison's drink. She downed it without flinching.

After she had the fresh alcohol in her veins, she said, "Thank you for that. I'm sorry I never bothered to talk to you about what was bothering me. I'm sorry about Mark. I'm sorry that I hurt you."

Derek smiled. "Thanks."

Addison downed another shot. "Alright, that's enough apologies for me for another decade or so."

"Why did I have a hunch you were going to say that, Satan?"

-------------

I know it took almost a week to get this chapter up after you got used to daily updates, but I am going camping tomorrow, which means I won't be able to update until at least Monday. And it may be much later than that. I am bringing this with me, so I may finish the whole fic while I'm away and come back with daily updates until I am done, or I may not write at all and the next chapter will take another week to get up like this one did. Who knows. But I expect to have a nice bunch of reviews to read when I get home!