One last chapter before I go back to school. How sad. I'm not sure if I'm referring to the fact that I'm going to back to school or the chapter. Now that is sad.

I own nothing.

"Morning," Derek says, kissing his wife's cheek.

She frowns at him. "Aren't you working today?"

"Took the day off," he replies with a proud grin.

"I hope you don't think that one day off is going to fix everything," she comments.

He sighs. "I'm not promising anything, but you and the kids… I'd rather have you than, well, anything."

Meredith smiles slightly and nudges him. "Glad to hear you've finally got your priorities straight."

The baby monitor signals that Lisbeth has decided to awaken. He starts to get up, but she beats him to the punch, telling him to enjoy a rare day off. He agrees to let her go. She smiles, gets the baby, and has Vanna, Mason, and Lucy (who have all been up for ages by now) all go pile on top of their daddy.

She's still wary that this is only a temporary change, but a girl can hope right?

0ooo0

"Mommy?"

Addison raises her head to see her little girl standing over her. She sits up, stiff and cold from an uncomfortable night spent sleeping restlessly in front of the door.

"It's time for school," Emma explains.

"Oh. Sweetie, can you please go see if Auntie Meredith can take you? Mommy isn't feeling too well."

"Where's Daddy?"

Tears spring up in Addison's eyes as the night before replays in her mind unbidden. "Daddy had to go on a trip," she explains, thinking on her feet. "But he's going to call you later today, okay?"

"Like a vacation?"

"Something like that," she says quietly. She suddenly grips her daughter tightly. "Your daddy loves you very, very much, Emma. I want you to always remember that, okay?"

"If you don't let go of me, I'm going to be late for school."

Addison nods and releases. "I love you, Emma-belle."

"I love you too, Mommy."

The second Emma is out of the house, Addison starts crying again. She manages to drag herself upstairs into her bedroom and calls in sick. She sluggishly pulls on one of Alex's sweatshirts, crawls into bed, and falls into a fitful sleep.

She doesn't move when she wakes up. Instead, she studies a smudge on the wall. She doesn't know it, but that smudge holds her attention for an hour.

Someone clears their throat. Addison lifts her head slowly and sees Meredith standing with Lisbeth's carrier. "Emma said you weren't feeling well."

"So you brought Lisbeth with you?" Addison asks. She just wants to be left alone.

"I figured that was a lie. What's wrong?"

Addison shakes her head and collapses back down on the bed.

"Addison, what's going on?"

Don't make me say it, she begs silently.

"Addison?"

"Alex. He… he left."

"He what?!" Meredith shrieks. Addison flinches. Everything is loud. Too loud. "But that's not possible. Why would he?"

Instead of answering that question, her tears start flowing freely again.

"Oh, Addison," Meredith sighs. She sets down Lisbeth's carrier and climbs into bed with her friend.

"He left me, Meredith. He's gone," Addison sobs.

"Shh," Meredith whispers, stroking her hair. Addison imagines she's done the exact same thing for the thousand times her children have crawled into her bed with a nightmare. "Shh."

0ooo0

Callie stretches in her chair. She's stiff from hours of work. Her phone rings and she picks up. "Hello?"

"Ravioli or spaghetti?" Shay asks.

"Spaghetti," Callie answers

"Negatory, Torres, we're having ravioli!"

Callie laughs. "You're a nerd, Carson."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!"

There's a beep, signaling another call. "Shay, give me a sec, okay? I have another call."

"Okay," she agrees pleasantly.

Callie switches over to the other line. "Hello?"

"Callie? It's Meredith," Meredith says quietly.

"What's up?" Callie frowns. Meredith never calls her at work. Meredith rarely calls her at all.

"Do you think you can get away from work?" Meredith asks. "I hate to ask, but I really need to go home and I don't want to leave Addison alone and-"

"Wait, rewind," Callie demands. "Why are we not leaving Addison alone? Is she sick or something?"

Meredith hesitates, but then says simply, "Alex left."

"What?" Callie shrieks.

"He's gone and Addison won't get out of bed and I need to be home when my kids get there and it's Derek's first day off in weeks and I don't want to leave her alone. Can you get off work?"

Callie checks her schedule. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Thank you so much," Meredith exclaims. "I'll explain when you get here."

Callie hangs up on Meredith and returns to Shay. "I'm really sorry," she says. "I think I have to take a rain check on the ravioli."

"Why?" Shay whines.

"I'm really sorry, but Addison really needs me and-"

Shay sighs. "She needs you an awful lot, doesn't she?"

"Shay…"

"No, it's fine, really. I'm just tired of being jealous of your friends, I guess."

"Shay-"

"I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Callie nods, realizes Shay can't see that, and says, "Okay. I'll see you later."

"Bye."

0ooo0

He actually slept in his car. Not the most comfortable of places, but it's not like he has any place to go.

Izzie watches from the window.

"He was out there all night, Cricket," her mother points out.

"I don't care," she replies. Really convincing, especially since she refuses to look away from the window.

"Maybe you should hear him out."

"Maybe I should castrate him."

"Izzie-"

"He kissed my best friend, Mom! My married best friend!"

"Okay, so he made a mistake. You disappeared for three months, right before the wedding. I'm not saying that you should take him back. I'm not saying that he's right. I'm just saying that maybe you should hear every side of the story before condemning everyone. At least that way you'll never have to deal with the uncertainty of what could have happened."

Izzie sighs. She hates it when her mother is right.

Hope you enjoyed it!

-Juli-