PICKING UP THE PIECES

Maddison fic. Thanks to Sparklepop777 for the title. Addison tries to set up a new life for herself but there is one man she really misses. Mark heads over to Chicago and he is in for a huge surprise.

Author: Emily

Rating: T

Summary: Addison leaves Seattle, and no one knows where she has gone. Mark sets out to find her, and eventually he does. They start a new relationship, but can their love hold out through everything they will go through?

The final chapter in the saga, then. A reunion. I hope no one feels I've stopped this too soon, I'm not giving up because of the lack of reviews, I felt that Addison and Mark in this story had pretty much come to the end of the road. So I used my number one favourite Maddison song (Hoobastank's the Reason) and went for the ending.

I'm not good with endings, as a rule. Hope it doesn't feel like too much of an anti-climax. I always love to know what everyone thinks.

Special thanks to Jody and McHobbit, who have provided me with lovely encouraging reviews when others seem to disappear... :(

It's been a hell of a journey, this one. Hope you like it.

Chapter Twenty One – The Reason (Mark's POV)

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do

I ran my hand through my hair, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. A deep sigh escaped from my chest and I raised myself out of my seat. My heart was thudding. I had no idea where I was going, not really. To Addison, yes, but I had no idea where from there. With or without her. My future was blurred.

I didn't need to wait in the baggage queue – I had brought nothing with me except my cell; the battery had died hours ago; and my wallet. I walked through the airport in an almost daze, wondering what crazy, Christmas-induced mental illness had thrown itself upon me.

But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

A flash of red, the clip-clopping of Jimmy Choos upon polished airport floor.

A familiar face, just the other side of the customs desk, looking the other way.

Well, that was it, I had finally cracked. Hallucinating. That really boded well for the mental health thing.

But it was… it was Addie.

My Addie.

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I paid no attention as they scanned me with the metal detector. I would not take my eyes off her for one minute, for fear she would disappear. Addison…

"Sir, did you have any bags?"

I turned to look at the customs officer. I frowned, and looked back up. She had gone. Heart thudding, I searched frantically with my eyes.

"Sir?"

"No… no, sorry… I don't have anything…"

She looked at me oddly. "Are you quite all right, sir?"

I nodded curtly. "Yes, thank you."

And I dashed through customs and ran out, head darting. She was there. Right there.

I wouldn't give up on her. She didn't deserve that. Derek was right. She deserved more.

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with every day
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
That's why I need you to hear

I spun round. She was somewhere here. I wasn't mad. I pulled my cell out of my pocket, desperately trying to get it to turn on. A single second of battery would be all I needed. Just to ring her.

"Mark?" I heard a voice.

I turned. She was standing across the floor from me, that black Gucci trench coat her mother had sent her for Christmas last year tucked around her tightly. She'd lost weight, and her eyes were slightly hollower than I'd ever seen them. She was wearing the shoes I bought her for her birthday, which made me smile. Her hair was unstraightened, wavy and as red as ever, framing her sad face.

We stared at each, eyes locking, waves of wild electricity flying between us in our gaze. Her knuckles were whitening where she clutched the strap of her bag, her eyes were wide and empty. I nearly dropped my cell in shock. Neither of us moved.

People passed us, moved around us, but we noticed nothing.

Just stared.

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

One step. Just one tiny step towards her, before I faltered. Was this some bizarre coincidence? Was she here for me?

The voice of reason in the back of my mind told me that there was no way she would have known where to find me. But there she was, stood in front of me, staring.

And she had been the one to speak my name. That was how it was.

Another small step.

And then she stumbled over to me burying her face in my chest and it was like a dream.

Like perfection, like heaven. Feeling her warm body in my arms, her real, wet tears on my shirt. Her shoulders shaking with sobs, almost sending me staggering backwards, my life had been so devoid of human contact these last few months. I buried my head in her hair, pressing kiss after to kiss to her head. I felt her arms snake around my waist, hold me tight, and I squeezed her to me. Harder.

She was here, and she was real.

and the reason is you
and the reason is you
and the reason is you
and the reason is you

I don't know how long we stood there. Joined, molded together, inseparable. Like the Addie and Mark as students, before the real world hit. People passed us, watched us, smiled.

She's here to welcome him home, they thought, and they weren't wrong. Cliché as it sounded, I was finally home.

It took us eons to speak. She went first.

"Davy died." She said, looking straight into my eyes. "Davy died and I loved him so much and I didn't think I was allowed to love anymore, but I do, Mark, I love you and I was wrong and I shouldn't have sent you away and I lo-"

I put a finger gently to her lips, forcing her silent. Angry tears dashed from her eyes onto my hand, but I remained still.

"You shouldn't have pushed me away, Addison. I was mad at you."

Her eyes – a mixture of apprehension and regret.

"But I shouldn't have given up, Addison. I should have come running after you. I was wrong, too."

She shook her head, miserable eyes brightening a little, with some of the fierce anger and spirit I knew from the old Addie.

"I'm sorry, Mark."

A silence. "I'm sorry, Addison."

"For everything."

"For everything."

I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

And when our lips touched, we clutched each other so tightly I thought both of us would starve of oxygen. Her lips under mine… Her face under my hands…

Deep, hungry breaths, foreheads leant together.

"I missed you." She said, "I read your letter and then I phoned Derek and I came straight away… I'm so sorry, Mark, I love you…"

"Shhhhh. I love you too. It's ok. A good friend told me not to give up on you. He told me you deserved more."

She smiled, knowing who I meant.

"Addison, Davy died. You don't have to be all right. You don't have to be perfect. You don't even have to love me. But I have to hold onto you."

"I do love you, Mark." She sobbed, clutching at my shirt, "I do. Davy… Davy… I want him here so much!"

And I did nothing but hold her close and cry.

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I don't know how long we stood in that airport for. I don't know how long we cried. Then I drove us back to Tammy Jacobs' apartment in Addison's car and we spent another five minutes sat in the car outside, just holding on to what we thought we had lost, so long ago. What we thought we had lost along with our son.

Then Evie came running out, full of revelations and shocks and I was furious, devastated and proud all at the same time. And then I held her close to me and her baby between us and everything made sense. We would muddle through, because we could. And then Addison and Evie hugged and Addison reached out and took my hand shyly. And we walked back into the Christmas festivities.

I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you

Anyone watching that day would have seen the heart-wrenching scene outside the apartment block. The man, his daughter and the only woman he ever really loved. They would have seen the look of love in his eyes as he held both of them close, the turmoil of emotions running behind his eyes. They would have watched the three of them silhouetted as they walked inside, three broken pieces of the same puzzle.

There would be things they wouldn't know, too. They wouldn't know that Addison would deliver Evie's baby, with Mark, Becki and Karen watching, and that Evie would name him Samuel David Firth. How Addison would tease Mark about being a grandfather at the age of forty. They wouldn't know how three years later Mark and Addison would adopt a little Ethiopian girl called Elene and the next month Mark would finally ask Addison to marry him. They wouldn't know that they would get married in a small service, with Derek as best man and Tammy as Maid of Honour, and Meredith, sporting her own wedding ring, Izzie, Kayleigh and Callie as bridesmaids. They wouldn't know how Elene Montgomery-Sloan would run through the hallways of Seattle Grace with Meredith and Derek's son Kyle and Evie's Sam. They wouldn't know how Evie would complete her art degree and meet and fall l in love with Jason Biggs, a sensible History major who would marry her and give her a daughter, a girl she would call Addison. They wouldn't imagine how Derek would be one of the best Chiefs of Surgery Seattle Grace had ever had, and how later Addison would accept her own Chief position at Seattle Presbyterian. They wouldn't think so far into the future as to how Elene would become one of the best paediatric surgeons in the USA, and how eventually she would marry her childhood sweetheart and best friend Kyle Shepherd, and how Addison and Mark would laugh that a Sloan girl had married a Shepherd boy, and how their family tree would be one of the most complicated ones around. They wouldn't know how although no marriage is ever perfect, Addie and Mark's would be close to it.

Because after everything that had happened, they had never given up.

She had always followed her heart, never been afraid to be wrong.

He had always run after her, always wiped away her tears.

They had love on their side, after all, and whenever one of them was broken, the other was always there, picking up the pieces.

Fin

Elene is an Ethiopian name meaning light.