Doomsday or Not?
A Dinner should be a fun affair. Meredith loved eating with her second family. This was not going to be fun. Her Step-Dad was there in serious mode, "So what are you two going to do? You need to make a choice?"
He was saying this not to be mean but not wanting Merry to live in limbo. It wasn't healthy for her, not if it continued. Meredith deserved to live a full life, a happy one. Richard had been the cause of so much strife for her in her early life he couldn't help but feel guilty. At first, he'd built up a relationship trying to get in good with Ellis. After the affair had imploded, it was a duty and a desire not to see the girl's life destroyed. He was so fortunate that Adelle was an awesome woman. He'd explained his fears to Adelle and rather than resent the child. She had made sure the girl had come to visit. It was the best thing for Meredith. She got to see what a loving couple looked like. Ellis hadn't liked it but despite her many faults, the woman recognised she was not cut out to be a mother. So she allowed it not that she had much choice. Meredith could be just as stubborn as a child.
Adelle touched Meredith's hand and let her feel her support. "Baby girl you deserve to be happy with whoever make you happy."
Meredith sighed, "I know that I do, my heart feels it too."
Richard knew the problem. Merry was never accepted defeat and failure with any type of grace. "You know it is okay to divorce him."
He said it. He gave voice to what all were thinking. Derek shot him a grateful look. He'd wanted to say it but he was not a neutral person in this whole situation. He was having to consider his own position.
Meredith knew what she wanted to do. She just hadn't admitted it to herself. "I want a divorce. A mistake is once. He kept sleeping with her ... I caught him when I went back to New York."
There she said it. Derek wanted to cry out because he realised that she just vocalised what he was thinking. He hadn't wanted to admit defeat or close the book on New York. It had always been home. Addison had soured it and he realised this was home for him now.
He might not have his marriage but he had medicine and Meredith and making a new place a home. It would be a good challenge. "Yeah, I agree."
Mark and Addison had met for a coffee. It was a public place and they were less likely to be stupid with witnesses. It was tense and so wrong for them. They could be good together and Mark knew it. They had something in New York whilst they waited in limbo. Well, until Addy got scared and ran to Derek. It wasn't her best plan and Mark was aware that Addison liked to get her own way. Mark got it, he did but he was smarter in some ways. This limbo would be the status-quo unless all four of them talked.
Addison sipped her latte, not believing Mark. "Are you serious?"
Mark snorted, "Addy we slept with each other, and we kept doing it." He wasn't going to let her rewrite history because it was convenient. He wouldn't let her cheapen what they felt even if it wasn't too moral right now.
Addison hated when Mark called her on her crap. Derek never did it. She knew Mark was right but admitting it was more difficult. She looked vulnerable as she said, "We were alone all the time."
It was a pitiful excuse. It was the only one she had. She hated the fact she had reduced herself to the 'other' woman. She had it all and threw it away with her inability to voice her own feelings.
Mark shrugged as he couldn't deny it. "Yeah, we were but we weren't adults about it. We were unhappy we should have said so."
"Were we not enough?" Addison had to ask. Her failing marriage bothered her more than she was willing to admit. She didn't like feeling like she was somehow not enough.
Mark wished he knew the answers. "I don't know. I think if we are honest ... I think we let our jealousy get the better of us. We saw their happiness with their trials and thought they were cheating."
It wasn't an unfair assumption. There were the in-jokes, the long hours, the looks that neither Addison nor Mark called them on. They'd forgotten in their jealousy and suspicions that Meredith and Derek were loyal.
Addison groaned because that was what she thought at the time. That night they'd gotten home and found them on the stairs. She knew her assumption was so wrong. Derek's look of betrayal that night spoke volumes.
"What do we do?"
Mark snorted, "It was a dark, twisty affair. We have to be honest with ourselves."
"How?"
Mark knew she wasn't going to like the suggestion. "We give them a divorce. We start again."
As he said it, he knew he was saying goodbye to his marriage. It was the right thing to do. It was a cold comfort but the only one he was going to get right now.
Addison froze, knowing that the suggestion made sense. Her mind settled on one thought, "And if they chose each other?"
She wasn't blind to their chemistry.
Mark hated the idea, "Then it will have been our fault and that will be our burden."
Addison sighed, "Just like that?"
Mark snorted because there was no just like that. This was going to be hard and miserable, "How about we try happiness for once?"
"Do we know what that looks like?"
Mark had no clue, "Let's find out."
Authors Note: So there is going to be a flash-forward epilogue showing happiness and what that looks like.