In Which Addison's Shit Hits The Fan

I wake up to a half-clothed Meredith Grey on the couch with a melted bucket of ice cream. It looks as though we fell asleep over a movie last night that we weren't even watching. We stayed up talking about our childhoods mostly. I've learned that we have a lot in common… like the fact that both of our families are WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), which basically means a rich, snooty family who didn't communicate, stressed about the way the looked to other people and only went to church on Christmas. It also turns out that Ellis, along with my parents, is also a cheater and we were both allowed to do whatever we wanted growing up as long as it didn't embarrass the family name which also meant showing no emotions in public whatsoever.

She even told me about her father… how he left when she was five and that time I took her over to his house was the first time she saw him in twenty years. After overhearing him talk to me at the hospital the other day, she hadn't realized that he actually tried to be apart of her life but her mother wouldn't have it. She's also come to the conclusion that her mother and the Chief really were having an affair. She said that there's no doubt about it… she found her mother's diary.

I get up to whip up something quick in the kitchen. To my luck, Meredith doesn't wake up until I'm actually finished. She walks into the kitchen kissing me on the lips before sitting down at the counter. I place a mug in front of her before pouring fresh coffee into her cup. We don't have much time to get before her pager goes off.

"Crap," she frowns in the middle of eating her eggs, "I'm so taking this to-go."

She starts getting dressed, grabbing her coat, bag and plate before kissing me goodbye. She calls out, "I'll see you at the hospital."

"Okay," I smile to myself.

I finish up my breakfast then I hop in the shower. I'm dressed and in the car on my way to the hospital in no time. My phone rings and I realize it's in my purse. I'm trying to focus on the road while also scrambling through my purse.

"Hello?" I say almost dropping my phone trying to answer it.

There's a pause but then a voice speaks up, "Hello, Red"

"What do you want Mark?" I say rolling my eyes. I really should've looked at the caller ID before answering.

"Oh, come on. Don't act like you aren't happy to hear from me."

"Mark, I thought you went back to New York."

"I did…" he trails off.

I sigh, "Then what is it that you want?"

"I want you, Addison. Look, I've been thinking…," he pauses, "We have something… and you just left… right in the middle of our relationship…"

"We didn't have a relationship, Mark. We slept together…"

"Weekly… Sometimes twice a week…" he adds.

I stop at a red light. I hate Seattle traffic. I've barely moved an inch, "That doesn't mean we were a couple. Plus, you gave me the idea of leaving…"

"Derek for me; not us for Seattle… Addison, what we have… it isn't over. We're not finished."

"It is for me."

"Come on, Red, you can't act like you don't have feelings for me."

"Those feelings are long gone, Mark," I say finally making the light when it turns green, "I'm with Meredith"

"Oh, yeah. That intern."

"Stop that, Mark. I love her."

"But I love you, Addison."

"I love you too, Mark but not in the same way I love Meredith. I love you like a really good friend." There's a long pause and I sigh, "I'm sorry, Mark."

"I just don't understand."

"I moved to Seattle to start fresh. If I would've stayed with you after I left Derek, he would've found out about us and you would no longer have a best friend. And I would be labeled as a cheater. I would've been the talk of the hospital… And don't act like we were exclusive, Mark. I was one of the many women you're sleeping with," I finish pulling into the hospital parking lot.

He scoffs, "Red, I would've left them for you."

"Mark, I can't do this right now," I pull into my space parking the car, "I have to go to work."

"Fine, but this conversation isn't over."

"Goodbye, Mark."

"Red."

I walk into the hospital a little on edge… Frankly, I'm annoyed with how Mark could just disregard my feelings… how can he act like Meredith and I aren't serious. We're actually dating and not screwing around. That's all that Mark and I were… just sex; nothing more… I mean, there was a time I thought for a second that I actually had feelings for him but then I remembered he was just a manwhore by finding out about yet another nurse he slept with.

God… Sex… "I need sex… Hot sex…" I say under my breath walking up to some of Dr. Bailey's interns, "I need an intern. Now."

"I'm with Bailey," Meredith say kissing me on the cheek and walking away.

I look to Cristina and she shrugs, "I'm with Burke."

"Karev," I say rolling my eyes. Although he's not that bad of a doctor, I still hate working with him.

He shakes his head, "I don't do vagina; not as a doctor anyway."

"Oh. Back talk. You know what? You just bought yourself a case," I say handing him the chart, "Go get the labs."

My patient has six kids and is working on kid number seven so you can image the zoo that is happening in her room as I enter. I smile nodding at Mr. and Mrs. Ward, "Hello, Wards."

"Hi," all the kids scream.

I smile turning back to Rose, "We're just waiting on your labs. How you feeling?"

"I'm feeling large," she says rubbing her belly, "Large and cow-like."

"Cow?" one of her little girls speak up.

Rose shakes her head laughing a little, "Mommy is a cow who needs a quiet talk with the doctor."

"Hey, guys," Mr. Ward chimes in, "Who wants ice cream?"

"Me! Me!" the kids all scream.

Mr. Ward and the kids leave as Dr. Karev walks into the room, "CBC and CHEM-7 look fine."

"Rose?" I ask when I notice her eyes close.

I was a little nervous for a second but she sits back up fine, "I'm sorry. I'm so tired."

"Oh, Rose, well, you know, six kids, 38 weeks pregnant. A saint would be tired," I say with a slight smile.

Rose shakes her head, "Well… I'm no saint. This baby, Joseph… Dr. Montgomery, I need him to be my last. And I really seem to be the most fertile woman on the planet."

"Well," I nod, "if you're interested in alternative forms of birth control…"

"No," she says cutting me off, "What I mean is… today, during the C-section, I need you to tie my tubes and I need you to do it without my husband ever knowing."

"Rose, you're an adult. He's your husband, not your legal guardian. Telling him would be entirely up to you," I say.

She pleads, "No, if you charged my insurance he would see it. Any bill you send, he would see it. I've been saving for this and I can pay you privately."

"So you're saying you want me to do the surgery and leave no record of it?" I question.

Alex butts in the conversation, "Mrs. Ward, if you're being abused, there are people you can talk to."

"Oh, Chris is…" she starts, "He's the opposite of abusive."

He speaks up again after a short pause, "So, if we pull up your medical records we're not gonna find a bunch of old broken bones or…"

"If you pull up my medical records, you'll find three natural childbirths, three C-sections, two hospital stays for exhaustion, and one for dehydration because I was so busy chasing my kids around I forgot to take a sip of water for three days. I think God understands what I'm going through. And I think God will forgive me. But Chris…" she pauses, "For him, religion isn't like a buffet table where you get to choose what you want to take and leave the rest. And the Pope says no to birth control, so… I need your help."

"You don't need our help. Your husband's not abusing you. You don't get to lie to him and blame it on the Pope," he says.

I pull him outside of Rose's room before chastising him, "Dr. Karev."

"No offense, but I have no interest in obstetrics or gynecology, Dr. Montgomery," he says with a roll of his eyes, "So if you want to throw me off the case, feel free."

"Dr. Karev, I may be a board certified OB/GYN but I also have fellowships in maternal-fetal medicine and medical genetics and I'm one of the foremost neonatal surgeons in this country. When you can top that, you can mouth off. Until then, you will do your job and you will do it right, which at this point in time means you keep your mouth shut unless I give you permission to open it. Understood?" I say and when he doesn't respond I repeat, "Understood?"

"Oh, are you giving me permission now?" he retorts.

To avoid slapping him, I just have him follow me back in the room. I try a different approach on the woman, "Rose… Seven kids… it's a lot. Are you sure that Chris isn't feeling the same way?"

"When we were first married, we were so broke that I went on the pill, for a while. And Chris stopped taking Communion," she pauses, "When he does that, he thinks he's…"

"Thinks he's going to hell," Dr. Karev adds in then pauses, "He thinks you're both going to hell."

"The reason we haven't had a baby in four years is because we abstained for three. Now can you imagine not being able to make love to your husband?" she asks me.

This caught me off guard, "Um… the, uh… pill…"

"I can't hide the pill. He would find out," she says.

Dr. Karev butts in again, "If he found out, what? I mean, he won't divorce you. He doesn't believe in that."

"Do you see the way he's looking at me, right now?" she says in reference to my incompetent intern.

I look from him back to her, "Dr. Karev was just leaving."

"No, no, no. Just… just look at him for a minute," she says and I turn to face him, "That look he has on his face, that's how my husband would look at me if he knew about any of this. And I can't have my husband look at me like that. And I can't have any more babies."

I just nod and I walk out of the room as the prep team walks in. I don't know what to do… I mean, it isn't wrong… like it isn't a bad thing and it's what she wants. We're supposed to do by the patient right? I only have a little time to make a decision because they're taking her up to surgery after they finish prepping her. I have to make this call and really, I think I'm okay with it. It's her body; this is what she wants and she's my patient. I'm obligated only to her.

I go into to the surgery with a clear mind… After delivering baby Joseph and handing him off, I turn to my intern, "How's the sponge count, Dr. Karev?"

"They're all accounted for, but I see a bleeder here," he says.

I nod seeing it, "It's small. Get the Bovie and cauterize it."

"I got it," he says grabbing the Bovie and cauterizing the tear.

I give a nod of approval, "That's good. Uh, there's a little bleeding near the tube here. Can you hand me the Bovie, Dr. Karev?"

"I don't see any abnormal bleeding," he says looking over the patient.

I look at him slightly shocked, "Are you the surgeon here?"

"No."

"Then give me the Bovie," I pause with my hand out waiting, "Give me the Bovie, Dr. Karev."

He finally hands it to me and I make a mental note to talk to the Chief when we get out of here. No one undermines me in my OR… no one. I refuse to have some young intern who thinks he is hot shit parading around this hospital. I refuse to work like this. He needs a serious attitude check.

After little Joseph got all cleaned up, weighed and had his initial check up, Dr. Karev and I deliver him to his mother. I push the incubator all the way to them and once we're there, I pick him up handing him over to his mom.

"Hey there, Joseph. Welcome to the world," I look from him to her, "Rose, before we bring your family in to see you, I wanted to let you know that there was a complication with your surgery. We had some unexpected bleeding that caused damage to both fallopian tubes."

"So you're saying…?" she looks up at me with some much hope in her eyes.

I nod, "You won't be able to have any more children."

"Thank you, Dr. Montgomery," she smiles genuinely.

I shake my head, "As I said, it was… a complication."

"I understand," she nods as my intern and I leave the room.

We barely make it out into the hallway before Dr. Karev bursts, "A complication? That's what you're calling it?"

"That's what it was," I say with a slight shrug.

He shakes his head, "Really? Cause in that case, it's one of the most bizarre obstetric complications in history."

"She is our patient. Our obligation is to her and her only," I say to him as he walks off.

I can't deal with his attitude much longer. So after I stopped for a snack, I go to find Richard. He's at the main nurse's station in the ER when I finally run into him. I walk up to where he is standing before I say, "Richard, we have to talk about Alex Karev. I know he's talented, but his attitude, in my opinion, has reached an unacceptable low."

"Addison. You've got a bigger problem today than Alex Karev," he says moving me in the direction of a room with blinds open. I see Mr. Ward talking to some man in a suit, "Mr. Ward has been speaking with our attorney regarding his wife's surgery. Now I read your chart. I read the nurse's notes. Now, can you explain to me what kind of complication from a C-section leads to the severing of both fallopian tubes?"

I sigh running my hand through my hair. I try to explain to Richard what happened but by the end of it, he just looks at me and says 'fix this'. I make a U-Turn heading back towards Rose's room. I notice her family isn't back yet when I enter the room. I still don't really know what to say but I have to fix this, "How're you feeling?"

"A little sore," she says.

I nod with a smile, "Oh, that's to be expected."

"I'm sorry I told Chris about the complication. I just…" she pauses, "I just thought he should know that Joseph would be our last. So he could savor it. I didn't know he was going to do this."

"Rose, I need you to tell him that you asked me to tie your tubes," I say sitting down on the edge of her bed.

She shakes her head, "For you, it's just insurance. And you don't even have to pay. For me, it's my marriage. It's my family."

"It's my career, Rose. It's my reputation," I say

She looks down and then back up to me, "You're the best. People come from all over the country to see you. That won't change. I can't tell him. Dr. Montgomery… I'm so sorry because I am so grateful to you. But I can't tell him."

This just angers me. I know she's adamant about this and she isn't going to change her mind. I'm so upset right now that I don't even notice that I passed Dr. Karev in the hallway… until he speaks up.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," he says.

That when I realize he's the one who told the husband the details about the 'complication.' I'm furious now. I can feel the heat rising in my body as I turn around to him, "Dr. Karev. You did such a good job today that I'm going to talk to Dr. Bailey and have you assigned to my service."

"What?" he says turning to face me, "For how long?"

"For as long as I want. Your ass is mine until I say otherwise. Congratulations," I say with a devious smile before turning on my heels making my way to my office. I grab my things and I head for home. I can't believe this crazy day… My nerves are shot.

I'm only at my house for a few minutes before I hear a knock. I go to answer it and it's Meredith. I let her inside while I begin to rant going towards the fridge, "You would not believe the day I had. I went out of my way to give a patient exactly what she wants, only to have it explode in my face. I mean, lawsuit, threats, Richard's pissed. Don't even get me started about Alex Karev."

"Get in the shower," she says simply.

Did she even hear anything I just said? I stand up from where I was looking in the refrigerator, "What?"

"Get in the shower with me," she says again.

I shake my head, "Bear, it's a very small shower."

"You want to have hot sex?" She says and I turn around to her realizing she is naked.

I start taking my clothes off quickly, "Thank you."