A/N: I am so sorry about the wait.

Disclaimer: The show belongs to Shonda, the title of the chapter comes from the song 'Shooting Stars' by Edwin McCain.

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Addison swayed a little. Derek noticed it, although the doctor didn't seem to care. They followed him up an elevator and down a hall and into a room. Addison was holding Derek's hand so tightly his skin was white.

"Addison, you finally came."

Addison let her breath catch before speaking. "Mom, you're fine."

"Of course I'm fine. What did you think, I would die? Honestly, I wouldn't leave you this soon."

Addison dropped Derek's hand and ran over to her mother. She gave her a hug and kissed her mother on the cheek. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Leslie Montgomery was often surprised by her daughter, this time was no exception. She took notice of Derek standing awkwardly behind her daughter.

"Dr. Shepherd."

"Mrs. Montgomery."

"What in the world are you doing here?"

Derek paused and glanced at his feet. "I'm here because…I'm courting Addison."

Addison smiled at the simplicity of his response.

"Courting Addison?"

"I'm made a mistake when I divorced her. I realized my stupidity and I'm trying to get her to love me again. Last night I flew out and found her upset, so I tried to figure out how to change that. I offered to come visit you with her."

Mrs. Montgomery considered this, and nodded. "That's very gentlemanlike of you."

"Thank you."

Mr. Montgomery walked into the room with a cup of water. He smiled when he saw Addison.

"Addie, you came."

Addison nodded.

"I called you just minutes ago but you didn't pick up…I figured you were at work."

"I came here."

Mr. Montgomery looked behind Addison at Derek. "Derek. What in the world are you doing here?"

"I'm here with Addison."

"Well, obviously. But last thing I heard you were out in Seattle. Hartford isn't Seattle."

"I've been trying to get Addison to stop hating me."

"How?"

"I come out every weekend and try to talk to her. Last night I came and she was upset about the news…I offered to come with her today."

"Really?"

Addison broke in. "He has done so much."
Mr. Montgomery looked at Addison and nodded. "Addie, dear, can we take a walk outside for a second?"

Addison nodded. She followed her father outside into a small courtyard with a path.

"You're still in love with Derek."

Addison nodded, knowing it would be useless to deny it.

"You trust him?"

"Not yet, no. But I'm starting to."

"Are you dating him yet?"

"No. I just stopped yelling at him last night. Every other week before we'd get into fights. Nasty fights."

"Are you going to marry him again?"

"I don't know. That's a long way ahead if it happens."

"But you might?"

"I might. Maybe one day."

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Derek stood near the door for a few minutes, not daring pull out his phone. He remembered the first time he had tried such a thing, with his pager, almost ten years ago. He and Addison had been married for about two years and were going to her parents' house for dinner one night. His pager had beeped during drinks and he had merely glanced at the number, and Mrs. Montgomery had berated him.

"Derek, what are you doing?"

"I have to check my pager, just quickly."

"Why?"

"It might be the hospital."

"Put it away."

Addison, he remembered, was beside herself at this point. She was smiling and trying not to laugh.

"But it might be my job."

"They'll live without you."

Mrs. Montgomery had glared at him until Derek slipped it back into his coat pocket.

"Derek." Leslie Montgomery just pulled him forward ten years.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Don't give me that fake politeness. What are your intentions?"

"My intentions?"

"Do you want to just sleep with Addison once, and then realize that you don't love her and that you made a mistake and you'll go back to your little girlfriend?"

"No. You know that's not true."

"Two years ago I did. Now I'm not so sure. Isn't that what happened with…Meredith? You wanted her while you were married and then as soon as you could have sex with her, it wasn't fun anymore?"

"No. That's not it."

"Did you or did you not sleep with Meredith and then as soon as you divorced Addison you were through with Meredith?"

"No."

"Then do tell your side of the story."

"I thought I loved Meredith because I was so angry with Addison but I didn't."

"And so?"

"And so I slept with Meredith because I thought I loved Meredith but I found out I didn't actually love her."

"And you're telling me you're absolutely positive this won't happen to Addison?"

"I was married to Addison for twelve years. I love her, and I know that. This wasn't three months of some whirlwind romance, this is twelve years!"

"You didn't see her after you ran away with Meredith, Derek. You didn't come visit her and see her fall apart and cry. She was devastated, and you can't understand that. She sent her wedding rings to her father because she couldn't bear to have them at all. This divorce may have been easy for you but it was one of the hardest things Addison's ever done!"

The heart monitors off to the side of her bed had started beating more wildly and Derek watched the fury in Leslie Montgomery's eyes.

"Mrs. Montgomery, you might want to settle down, the heart-"

"Derek, I don't give a damn about the heart monitor."

"It's not going to happen again. I know how hard the divorce was for her, it was hard for me too."

"Oh yes, I'm sure it was."

"I found out that my wife stayed with my best friend after I left."

"You were gone Derek. You fled the town, city, everything. Maybe I don't fully approve of her actions but she did what she had to do. You were just looking for an excuse to bolt; Addison's affair was just a concrete reason to hate her."

"I don't hate her."

"Anymore. Now you 'love' her."

"I'm not going to explain this to you. I don't have to. Addison's a big girl now; she can make her own decisions. She knows how she feels about me. Are you objected to me dating her again?"

"Unless you're going to hurt her again, no. If you do, I swear to God, I'll rip you in half with my bare hands."

Derek nodded and felt they had both reached an understanding. She smiled and sat back on her pillows.

"One more thing, Derek."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I know it's in style and modern and whatever else, but don't just live with her. Marry her."

"What?"

"Marry her."

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Addison and Derek left the hospital in the late afternoon and were back in the city by evening. It was just coming abuzz on a Saturday night and everything was lit up and alive. Compared to the relative stillness of the hospital and Hartford in general, this was a shock.

"Are you hungry?"

Addison looked over at Derek. She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. I haven't really thought about it, to be honest."

"Do you want to grab something quickly?"

"Yeah. I would, actually."

"Do you mind where?"

"No."

Derek navigated the streets of Manhattan easily, even if they were crowded. He slipped down a side street and found parking. He fed a few coins into the meter and helped Addison out of the car. It was the beginning of October and a bit chilly, but not enough to wear a coat. Derek walked next to Addison and they both knew exactly where they were headed. They turned into a Chinese place and the petite woman smiled when they entered.

"Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd. It has been so long." However, she quickly noticed the absence of Addison's rings. "Ah. You are not Mrs. Shepherd anymore."

Addison nodded quickly

"Two?"

"Two."

She nodded and led them over to a table, setting the menus in front of them. "Have a great meal."

Addison studied the menu closely even though she knew exactly what she was getting.

"Addie. This isn't a date."

"Oh." She said. "Oh. It's not."

"I mean, it doesn't have to be. I don't want to pressure you into anything…I've already screwed up once…I don't want to make the wrong move and mess everything up again. A fine balance."

"Derek, you've got your chance."

Derek didn't dare believe her. "You mean…"

"I mean that here it is. Your chance was here the second you scooped me in your arms and held me last night…watched me fall asleep. But this is it. If you mess it up again, I don't care how much I love you or you love me. We're over."

Derek nodded, smiling broadly as the waitress came to take their order.

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He drove her back to her apartment. They had talked at dinner easily and paid the check and left. He walked her upstairs, stopping to flash a smile at the receptionist who had been so kind to him these past weeks, and stopped at her door.

"Thanks Derek…for everything."

Derek nodded and hugged Addison gently and quickly. "I'll see you next week."

Addison turned around and went inside. She sighed and fell back against the door. Her hair tumbled all over her face and she smiled, blushing red.

Addison heard a buzz minutes later and pressed okay without looking. Her mind instantly flashed to a thousand X-rated scenarios of Derek coming back to see her. She pondered whether she would let him until she heard a tap on the door and she opened it.

"Parker." Addison couldn't have been more shocked.

"Addison. Hey."

"What in the world are you doing here in New York?"

"Urgent trip out here…I have to prep for the conference in five months but apparently everything's fallen apart…head of the corporation quit, and we're trying to make deals to make this still happen."

"God, that sucks."

"We'll make it work."

"How do you like the city?"

"I can't believe it. It's absolutely huge. I never imagined it to be quite this big…and it's late and everything's so…alive!"

Addison nodded. "That's why I love it." She opened the door. "Do you want to come in for a bit?"

"I would absolutely love to, but I'm on my dinner break, so I just stopped by to say hello and see how you're doing. I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it if you ever found out that I was here and didn't stop by."

"Are you free at all tomorrow?"

Parker shook his head and shrugged. "I wish. But no, I have to work my ass off tomorrow and then I leave at 4. I'll be back in March though."

"Okay."

"How's Derek doing?"

"Really, really well, actually." Addison would've sworn a look of disgust flew across Parker's face.

"You're…dating?"

"I don't know yet. My mother was in an accident yesterday and she was in a coma and Derek came as per usual and he didn't think for a second before he was holding me and assuring me it would be okay."

"That's good, Addison."

"Yeah, it's really good. How's Jane doing?"

"I haven't really spoken with her since the night we all went out to dinner, but I'm pretty sure she's doing great. You know, just being Jane."

"I got the pictures she sent me a few weeks ago…they're great. She's really a good photographer."

"She'll love to hear that." Parker glanced at his watch. "I'm sorry, I've got to go. You live somewhere that would be considered 'out of the way' for a 30 minute dinner break."

"I'm sorry. Do you need something to eat?"

"I'm good, thanks." Parker leaned in and kissed Addison quickly on the cheek, and then took off in the other direction.

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Derek came back to work Sunday afternoon whistling. He walked into Richard's office and Richard raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you slept with her?"

Derek stopped mid-whistle. "What do you take me to be? Someone who would sacrifice the honor of a woman I love so soon?" Derek grinned after that.

"Meredith Grey…a bar…about 14 months ago…"

"Different. I was an idiot then and not in clear thought."

"And you are now?"

"Extremely."

"So what happened?"

"Her mom was in a coma on Friday night…she was distraught…so I held her and watched her cry herself to sleep in my arms…and yesterday we drove out to Hartford to visit her. She's better now. Her mother, I mean. And Addie's doing great too."

"So you're still going?"

"I couldn't stop now. Not if you paid me double to stay. It wouldn't matter."

Richard sighed and shook his head. "Here's what you missed over the weekend. Major surgery tomorrow morning. Other than that, normal week."

"Great. I'll go check on patients right now."

Derek whistled down the hallway and ran right into Alex and Izzie. They gawked after him.

"Did McDreamy get laid?"

"Logical explanation for his behavior."

"By Addison?"

Alex turned to stare at Izzie. "What do you mean? Addison's been gone for months."

Now it was Izzie's turn to stare at Alex. "McDreamy's been going to visit Addison in New York every weekend for the past eight weeks…how did you miss that?"

"I figured we just were in different places at different times."

"My god. Dense, anyone?"

"So he got laid by Addison?"

"I don't know. I heard Addison's kind of hated him these past two months-"

"Can't blame her, Derek was a bastard."

"And maybe they broke through this weekend."

"And had sex immediately? I know McDreamy would like that, but I don't think Addison would allow it."

"Addison wouldn't allow what?"

"Oh, Meredith. Hey. Addison wouldn't just jump in bed with McDreamy the first time she didn't throw something at him. No matter what he did."

"It's true," Meredith confirmed. "Derek told me it took six months of dating her before she slept with him way back when."

"When did he tell you this?"

"Our walks, a few months ago."

"Oh," Alex and Izzie said in unison.

"I know you don't approve. You don't have to. We're done and over, and look who he picked. Look who he really loved."

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A/N: Honestly, I don't know how many times I can say I'm sorry about the wait. This chapter just took forever to write, what with school starting again and moving and all that. But hopefully the next chapters will have a much, much shorter break.