a/n: guys i am soo sorry. they really ought to make you sign a waver when you enter junior year, signing away your right to all free time and sleep. grr... anyways, i hope you like this. in one of the rare moments when i had free time, i read back over this story and decided that addison was a little to damsel-in-distress-y for me, so i tried to make her a little bit stronger. which meant that i had to rewrite the original chapter i had for this. which is part of why this took so long. anyways, there's only a minimal amount of crying in this one. :D

disclaimer: i don't own grey's. but BIG NEWS!! i now own justin chambers, and therefore alex karev. however, i am willing to share him with kate walsh/addison. everyone else can back the hell off. geez, if only, right? on the plus side, i do own sophia. although i'm not so sure that's a plus...

Callie bangs on the door. "Addison, if you're going to lock yourself in, could you at least lock yourself into your room? People might actually need to use the bathroom and I have difficulties picking this lock."

Addison doesn't answer.

Callie sighs and tries again. "Addie, come on, open up."

No answer.

"This was easier yesterday," Callie grumbles. Then she calls through the bathroom door. "What's wrong? Is it Mark? Sophia?"

The door opens slowly and Callie almost falls, since she had been leaning on it. "No," Addison sniffs. Callie frowns, this is obviously not the answer she was expecting. "It's Alex."

"What?!" Callie screeches.

"I- I think we might have broken up."

"What?!" Callie screeches again. "When? Why?"

"On the plus side," Addison continues, ignoring the shocked expression on Callie's face. "He loves me. So that's good."

"What?! He told you that he loves you and you break up? I'm so confused."

Addison sighs. "I don't know that we broke up. But we fought. We definitely fought. I yelled at him, and he stormed off, and I just… what if he doesn't forgive me?"

Callie's silent for a moment. Then she shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to figure out where the whole "I love you" thing comes into play."

"He got really mad at me for not telling him that Sophia was here, and, after yelling at him and pulling out just about every hurtful thing I could think of, I told him that I couldn't figure out why he cared so much. And he yelled that he cares and that in case I haven't noticed, he loves me and if he can't protect me, he'll go crazy. And then he said if I didn't care, he'd go." Addison begins to cry again.

Callie hugs her supportively. "That doesn't sound like a break up to me," she says.

"You didn't hear me," Addison replies.

"What'd you say?"

Addison studies the hardwood of the hallway. It really is a pretty color wood, she notices. "I told him that I didn't have to tell him everything and that he wasn't my husband, because I already have one of them."

Callie winces. "Ow, Addie. You really know how to hit below the belt, don't you?"

"I didn't mean to!" Addison wails.

George comes out of the living room. "Everything okay?" he asks.

Callie shoots him a look. "Really?" she asks. He shrugs. "No," she replies. "It's not. But it will be soon. As soon as Addison gets to a telephone."

Both Addison and George look at her and say, "Huh?"

Callie looks at Addison. "You are going to get to a phone and you are going to call and apologize, because you were a bitch, but something like that shouldn't destroy your chances with him. He'll accept. He loves you, he'll accept."

Addison hesitates and George speaks up. "Addison, she's right. I can tell just from the way he talks about you. You should call him."

Addison swallows and smiles weakly. "Okay." She walks towards her room, where her cell phone is, then turns around. "You know, I'm going to have to keep you around. You keep fixing my mistakes. Thanks."

Callie laughs. "No problem. Go call him."

Addison nods and does as she's told. Longest time it has ever taken anyone to pick up. Ever. "Hello?" he says.

She can't bring herself to say anything. After he says hello a couple more times he hangs up and she listens to the dial tone.

0ooo0

She finds him the next day before rounds, but when he sees her, he walks away. She chases after him. "Alex, please, just listen. Please," she begs.

He turns around and snaps, "What?"

"I just… I wanted to apologize for what I said. And I understand if you're still mad, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry." He nods and doesn't say anything. "Alex? Please… just say something?"

"I'm still mad," he informs her.

She nods slowly. "Okay. That's… okay. I understand. I'm sorry. Um… I'll go now."

He waits until she's turned around and ready to walk away before he says, "I'm not done."

She takes a moment to gather her thoughts before she turns around. "What?"

"I'm still mad," he repeats. "But that doesn't mean I want to fight you."

A slow smile starts to appear on Addison's face. "Okay."

"Okay."

She crosses her arms. "So where do we go from here?"

"I don't know."

"Okay." After an awkward silence, she says, "So… you tried to sneak it by me last night, but… what you said last night? Do you… um, did you mean that?"

"I don't lie," he replies.

She smiles. "I've noticed. So I guess that gives us somewhere to start."

"I guess."

More awkward silence. Silently, she yells at herself for getting herself into this. "I…" she starts, but trails off. She tries again. "Alex, I…" More failure.

"Addison, it's-" he tries to say something, presumably so that she doesn't have to say anything, but she cuts him off.

"No, Alex. I just… I need you, okay? I know I can be a complete bitch and I say things that I know will hurt, but I need you. But in order for this to work, I need you to understand that I'm going to get mad and I'm going to say things like I did last night. And I need to know that you're not going to storm away every time I bring up Mark. I need to know that you're not going to get mad because I don't tell you things that really aren't that important. I just… I need you, but I don't need that."

He doesn't say anything, but slowly starts to nod. "Okay," he agrees. "But Addie, I'm going to get mad."

"I know. And I will too. But if we could just not sort of break up every time, I think that we'd be fine."

He laughs. "Okay."

She smiles back. "Okay."

"You know, there's still one thing I'm trying to figure out," he tells her.

"What's that?"

"Why you're still over there."

With a grin, she practically flies into his arms, into a temporary happily ever after.

0ooo0

A couple of days go by with no incident. Addison figures that Mark and Sophia are regrouping, trying to figure out the best move. Friday night Callie and George leave for the weekend on a vacation that they've been planning for months. Callie didn't want to leave, but Addison insisted that she'd be fine. Callie consented after Alex offered to stay with Addison.

The whole of Saturday is rather blissful for Addison and Alex, both of whom arranged to have the day off. It's Saturday night when chaos comes rolling back into their lives.

It's around seven when the doorbell rings. Addison drags herself out of bed and Alex's arms, still sweaty from the day's activities. She pulls on her underwear and Alex's shirt and goes to answer the door. She opens it to find a rather wobbly Sophia. "Hey Adds!" she greets.

"What the hell, Sophia?"

"I just… I wanted to say… God, you're pretty Addie, d'ya know that? So pretty."

"You're drunk."

"I never used to get it. I mean, why Mark chose you. Because I was always like, she's kind of a bitch, you know? But I get it now. You're really pretty. And from what Mark said, really good in bed."

Although Addison wants nothing more than to slam the door in her ex-friend's face, her mothering instinct kicks in. "How'd you get here, Sophia?"

Sophia doesn't answer, but seems to take in Addison's appearance for the first time. "Ooh, what have you been doing, missy?" She feels Addison's chest, which Addison promptly steps away from. "You're not wearing a bra! Addie, you skank! Are you even wearing panties under there? Who's shirt is that anyways? Is that your hotshot doctor's? Is he here? Can I meet him?"

"No, you can not meet him. How'd you get here, Sophia?"

"Addie, are you okay?" Alex walks into the living room.

"Is this him?" Sophia screeches, and stumbles past Addison into the house. "He's hot Addie!"

Mark come running up the walkway. "Mark, what the hell are you doing here?" Addison asks, annoyed.

"Sorry, Addie. I put her in a taxi, but she must have given this address instead."

"Then why are you here?"

"I was following the taxi," he says as if it was normal procedure.

"You could have just driven her home, you know."

"Didn't think about it."

Addison sighs. "Just get her out of here."

She looks back into the living room, where Alex is trying to get away from Sophia.

"Hey, baby, come here!" Sophia slurs. "Aren't you the least bit curious about what Mark left her for? I mean, I have to be better, right?"

Alex looks scared and Addison wants to cry. Or laugh at the absurdity of the situation. But mostly cry. "Mark, get her out of here."

"Addie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this…"

A light-bulb goes off in Addison's head. "Yes, you did. I don't know why, but you did."

There's silence for a moment, until Sophia says, "Come here, baby." Addison turns around to see Sophia attempting to sloppily make-out with Alex, who promptly shoves her away.

"Okay, that's it! Get out! Get out now! I tried to be nice, I really did. But that is the last straw. Get out before I call the police. Just leave and take her with you. I don't want to see either of you ever. Leave! Get out of here, get out of Seattle, go back to New York! Go wherever, I don't care, just leave me alone!"

"Addie," Mark starts.

"Don't think I won't call the police on you. I will," she tells him. "I can probably press charges on harassment, as well as trespassing, so get the hell out of here."

Sophia looks at Addison. "God, Addie, why are you such a bitch all of the time? You think you're so much better than us, but who's the one having the affair now, huh? You can't judge us, you're doing the exact same thing to Mark. God, you're such a bitch!"

"Get her out of here!" Addison snaps at Mark. He, for once, does as he's told, leaving Addison and Alex alone.

"That was…" Alex starts.

Addison interrupts him. "I am so sorry about that. God. I hate her. I really hate her. And then Mark!"

"Addison. Stop. It's over now."

Addison stops for a moment. "You're right. You're right."

Alex hugs her. "You did good."

She smiles. "I did, didn't I?" She kisses him. "You know," she smirks against his lips, "I don't recall saying I was finished with you yet." And they stumble back towards Addison's room.

soooooo... reviews? they might tempt me away from that homework to write...

-Juli-