A/N As ChileSun92 so smartly suggested, I could have gone with the obvious Home for the title of the last chapter. I felt incredibly stupid.

Reviews doubled to the usual 10. That made me very happy and quite a few new people reviewing as well. I love y'all.

The Wicked Witch is back... but how wicked is she actually?

The doorbell rang.

"Can you open the door, Derek?"

"Sure." Derek walked out of the kitchen where he had been doing the dishes. He instantly wished he'd be somewhere else.

"Who is it, Derek?"

"I am not opening that door."

"Derek, I can see you, open the door." the woman outside yelled.

"Is that Addison?" Meredith walked down the stairs.

"Yes, and we're not opening the door."

"That might work if we had a solid door out of wood and could pretend we're not home, but this is a glass door and she can very clearly see us by the way she's rolling her eyes. You're being ridiculous." Meredith opened the door herself.

"Addison, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"To me?"

"Yes."

"Come on in then, I guess." Meredith eyed the other woman warily "Let's go sit in the living room."

Derek walked in behind them.

"Do you think you could leave me alone with Meredith for a moment?"

"I don't think so."

"I am not going to hurt her Derek, I just want to talk to her."

"I can handle myself Derek. Weren't you going out to the trailer to pick up Doc?"

"Are you sure, because Doc won't mind running around a little longer?"

"Go. I see you later." Derek hesitated before leaning down. Meredith turned her head and his kiss landed on her cheek instead of her mouth. "I love you." he whispered in her ear. Meredith hoped Addison hadn't overheard him. Both woman watched him walk away.

"Does he ever leave you alone."

Meredith laughed. "He's around a lot. Why are you here Addison. You wanted to talk, so talk."

"I wan to know if you slept with him while Derek and I were still together."

"I haven't slept with him since before I knew he was married."

"Really? From what they are saying at the hospital..."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. Addison, why are you doing this to yourself?"

"I just..."

"You lost him a long time ago. Let it go."

"Easy for you to say."

"Really Addison? Because I haven't watched him play house with you for months?"

"It's not the same."

"No it's not, you're right. You had him, he was yours and you let it slip away and then you slept with Mark. And you lied about it to Derek when things with Mark didn't work out. No matter what, Derek would have never left you. I met a man and fell in love and everything was great until suddenly his wife introduces herself to me."

"I know."

"Be honest with yourself, Addison. Do you even love him any more? Or do you just love the idea of him. Can't you admit that you failed at something?"

"I..."

"If you would truly still love him, you wouldn't have stayed with Mark. You wouldn't have told Mark that you loved him. Things with Mark didn't work out and you used Derek so you didn't have to be alone. I get it, Derek isn't the kind of man you want to loose if you can help it."

"No he isn't." the other woman agreed.

Meredith was silent. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things. He was your husband. He'd still be if I hadn't gotten cancer. And now it sounds like I am forcing him or he's pitying me and I hope to god he isn't but..."

"He's so in love with you." Addison interrupted. "I don't think he ever loved me like that. I always knew he loved you. I hoped it would go away, it didn't. It's... it's good that you didn't sleep with him while we were still married." Addison laughed. "Of course it makes me feel even dirtier that he was faithful until the end."

"Yeah." Meredith laughed weakly.

"Meredith..."

"I relied on him a lot more than a woman should rely on a married man. Not that he would have accepted anything else. From the second he knew he was everywhere, but that doesn't make it right, it took him away from you."

"Derek... when he puts his mind to something and thinks he needs to do something, that it's the right thing to do, he can loose focus of everything else."

"I figured that out already."

"The way he looks at you... don't ever loose that. And don't do what I did..."

"Sleep with Mark?"

"I was going to say let him go, but that's true too. Truce?"

"Truce." Meredith grabbed the offered hand. "Do you want something to drink? I am a terrible hostess."

"Is it to early for something alcoholic?"

"It must be 5pm somewhere in the world."

"Addison?" Why was his ex-wife sitting outside his girlfriends house in the rain.

"Oh?" the redhead gasped. "Sorry." she had been crying. "I am leaving now."

"Are you okay?" Derek winced, she obviously wasn't okay but that didn't mean she wanted to share with her ex-husband why she was crying.

"It's just something Meredith said."

"Oh."

"She asked me questions I should have probably asked myself." he was silent, what was he to answer.

"I am sorry I cheated and then lied to you about it." Derek looked up, Addison seemed sincere. "I am sorry I made us break. We had everything and then I cheated."

"You didn't make us break, Addie. We were broken long before you and Mark slept together."

"Maybe, but we could have fixed it. If we had tried, we could have fixed it."

"We probably could have" he agreed.

"We had everything."

"We didn't Addison. We had the careers and the house, but we didn't have each other. We were more like room-mates than a couple for the last few years."

"I guess so." Addison gasped through her tears. Derek sighed and wrapped her arms around her.

"Sshh, it's okay."

"When we got married I thought we'd last forever."

"Me too."

"Yes?"

"I wouldn't have married you otherwise. We know better now, but back then, yeah I thought we'd grow old together."

"Are you happy now?"

"As happy as I can be, considering the circumstances."

"Because of the divorce?"

"Because she has cancer. It's..." Derek shrugged. "Being with her makes me incredibly happy, even with everything that comes with it."

"Aren't you even a little bit sad about our divorce?"

"I am, of course I am, it's been eleven years of my life, the better part of my adult life actually. Meredith makes it okay though. Us ending led me to Meredith and be with her and I can't regret that."

"You really love her."

"With all I have."

"If you love her so much though, why did you gave us another try?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"I need to."

"Everything about Mer and me screamed rebound, maybe even mid-life crisis. The way we started, the all consuming passion, the age difference, the way I fell hard and fast for her before even realising what was happening, everything. When you came out here, I thought I owed it to what I promised you, to our vows to forgive you and give you a second chance."

"But she isn't a rebound."

"No, she's... everything, that's the only way I know how to describe it."

"Don't hurt her again, Derek, she deserves better than that."
"She deserves the world." Derek simply said.

"I wish someone would love me like that."

"You'll find that someone. Maybe Mark..."

"I don't think so. He cheated on me."

"Maybe that means he's not that person for you, maybe he is it despite everything. Weren't you two happy together?"

"Sometimes, when we weren't feeling guilty or ashamed... then we were happy."

"Well you won't have to feel guilty or ashamed any more. It might just change things."

"It might. He still doesn't look at me though the way you look at Meredith."

"How do I look at Meredith?"

"Like she is the centre of the whole Universe or some goddess. Everyone can see it. They call it the Look."

Derek laughed. "I should have known they have a name for it. Meredith calls it our look. I'm not even doing it on purpose."

"No, I believe that, but you change when she's around. You become.. alive."

"I'm sorry you had to watch me being like that in the past few months."

"You said you can't help it."

"Doesn't make it better. After I decided to be with you, I should have..."

"You don't even know what you should have done different. How can you change what you don't do on purpose?"

"It still wasn't fair to you."

"See it as my punishment for sleeping with Mark."

"This is the absolution, then?"

"Making peace with each other. Do you regret us?"

"No." Derek shook his head. "I am not even sure I regret the last few months. I think I had to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were beyond saving before I could move on guilt free."

"Did you ever feel guilty when you were with Meredith?" Derek was silent. He did feel guilty in the beginning, but not for the reasons Addison wanted him to. He had felt guilty because he had kept secrets from Meredith and he had seen her falling for him, believing him, knowing it could never last.

"I was mostly pretending you and Mark never existed."

"So you didn't."

"Not in that aspect."

"I guess I deserved that."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, we both made mistakes."

He watched his always put-together ex-wife wipe her nose in her sleeve.

"Tissue?"

"Thank you."

"He's out there for you too, Addison. The man who'll look at you like you're the centre of the universe. You'll just wait and when you least expect it, he'll be there."

"I am going home now. Can't come across him on my ex-husbands girlfriends porch."

"I don't know, with the amount of people living here, you might just get lucky."

"Don't even joke about it. Richard will have a coronary if another of his department heads will start a thing with one of the Interns."

"At least you wouldn't be having Bailey riding your ass. I think she has given up on trying to keep her interns away from us attendings. I mean there's me and Mer, Cristina and Burke, and George is involved with a resident from Bailey's year."

"It's a wonder anyone ever gets any work done with all the relationship drama and the gossip around it."

"What, you don't enjoy being part of the Seattle Grace Show?"

"Not particularly. Meredith is probably wondering where you are."

"Probably."

"Addison?"

"Yeah."

"Doc is at the Vet. It's probably just something because a tick bite, but if you want to visit him... He was your dog too." Addison shook her head.

"He was always your and Meredith's baby." Derek couldn't help himself, his mouth twisted into a grin at what Addison said. His and Meredith's baby, something they created together with their love, that sounded great. Addison frowned at him.

"Derek, Meredith has breast cancer, with chemo therapy and everything, there is a not so small chance that she won't be able to conceive even when the doctor gives the go-ahead healthwise in a few years."

"I know."

"Does she even want children or has she taken any precautions to try to ensure fertility?"

"Not that I know of."

"I thought you went to all doctors appointments with her?"

"I did, but it never came up."

"Hmmm, I would have expected better of Dr. Cox. You should talk to her about it."

"We just got back together."

"Once she starts chemo, it's up to fate. If she wants to actively influence the outcome, she has to be open to the possibility of children now. Already it might be even to late or even too dangerous to harvest her eggs, but there are other possibilities. There is a quite successful trial of ovarian tissue to be removed and frozen and once the woman is ready for pregnancy after treatment, it gets implanted again." He had thought briefly about it when Meredith first had gotten the diagnosis but he had no idea if she had thought about children. He wasn't sure how to bring it up without freaking Meredith out. She still wasn't able to tell him she loved him.

"See you later Derek."

"Bye Addison." Derek was deep in thought. Meredith needed him to make baby steps in their relationship, but there were big things they had to talk about now because she had cancer and it influenced everything they did. Baby steps, there was the word again. He had no idea how to bring it up with Meredith.

She stood in front of the mirror hesitating, her robe wrapped around her. Sooner or later she had to look at her breast, scars and all. Meredith closed her eyes tightly and dropped her robe. Like ripping of a band aid, she opened her eyes. The skin was red and swollen, the scars clearly visible in the bright pink of fresh surgical scars. Mark had done a great job, Mer could already tell. Once the swelling would go down and the scar aged it would be invisible to the casual eye. Izzie was right, Mark had done a great job. Her hand rose to touch her breast. The door to her bed room opened.

"Meredith, are you in here?" Meredith whirled around. Their eyes met, she was frozen in shock. His eyes dropped down to her chest.

"Meredith." He stepped into the room.

"Don't look please." Meredith grabbed her robe. "It's hideous."

"No it's not."

"So you looked? You weren't supposed to see it before it's properly healed."

"I am sorry. I should have knocked but I was in a hurry to talk to you. I had to take Doc to the Vet."

"The Vet? Why?" Meredith almost forgot about that Derek had seen her naked.

"He was just lying there on the porch."
"What did the Vet say?"

"Probably a tick bite. He's keeping Doc there for a few days just in case."

"Poor guy. He could have been lying there for hours."

"He was fine yesterday when I stopped by before lunch."

"You should have brought him home yesterday."

"It wouldn't have changed a thing."

"But we could have taken him to the Vet right away, poor guy probably was lying there for hours thinking no one loves him."

"Doc knows how much he means to us. Meredith." He stepped closer to her, pulling her into his arms.

"We have to visit Doc. I haven't seen him in so long. He will think we've abandoned him."

"Meredith." Derek's hand were rubbing her back in soothing motions. "We have to talk about this."

"You're right. It was irresponsible to leave Doc alone."

"He wasn't alone for longer than he would have been had I had a 48 hours shift. And that's not what I meant, you know it."

"There's nothing else to talk about." He pulled her closer still, until she was pressed against his chest. He nuzzled his face into her neck.

"I love you."

Meredith wrapped her arms around his waist. "I look like Frankenstein's Monster." she mumbled into his chest. She felt his chest vibrate in suppressed laughter. "It's not funny, you ass."

"I am sorry." He kissed the top of her head. "Look at me."

"Uh oh." Meredith shook her head.

"Mer, look at me. Look at me!" He pulled back, forcing her to look him in the eye. "I love you. You do not look like Frankenstein's Monster. You have a few scars, whatever, they will fade. I love you, scars and all. You're my Meredith."

"Your Meredith?" Meredith raised her eyebrow. "I do not belong to anyone."

"You belong to me, I belong to you."

"You belong to me?"

"Yes."

"You're mine."

"Yes, Meredith, that's what belonging to someone actually means" He laughed slightly. "I am yours, just like you are mine." He was hers. He had outright said it. She once before had thought of him as hers and a few hours later his wife had shown up, but this time he had said it himself. He thought of her as his. It was a nice feeling to know that he thought that. Soon, she would tell him soon that she loved him still. He pulled her close in his arms again, his lips moving along her neck in tiny kisses.

"I am sorry I saw you naked before you were ready for me to see you."

"It's allright, probably better this way. Who knows how long it would have taken me to let you see me."

"Doesn't matter, Mer. Whatever you need."

"What about what you need?"

"I've got you." He murmured into her skin.

"That's enough?"

"More than enough." He pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. Meredith stepped closer in his embrace.

"Hmmm." he hummed in her mouth.

"We're not having sex." she murmured as her fingers twisted into his hair.

"No sex." he agreed, pulling her down with him onto the bed. Their bodies were stretched out next to each other, his hands resting on her hips. He deepened the kiss.

"'m serious, no sex." she whispered breathlessly as he peppered her face with kisses.

"I know." he replied finding her lips again, his tongue exploring her mouth.

"Derek..." she moaned, half in protest.

"Just kissing you." he broke the kiss, looking at her. "Haven't you ever done this, just kissing someone for hours."

"No. When did you do this? In High School?" She looked at him, in cheeks a faint pink. "You did! Derek we aren't in High School."

"It's nice, though, isn't it?" A quick peck on the tip of her nose was followed by two on her cheeks.

Meredith sighed. "It is." their lips met again, moving gently against each other in a soft kiss. She really should take a nap because healing was exhausting, but kissing Derek like this was so much better than sleep.

If you liked the chapter (and even if you didn't) please leave a review. I look forward to reading your opinion on the chapter :)