Chapter 8

A/N: Here's another short-ish chapter while I plan the next one. I'm hoping to wrap this up soon.

It was the wind that woke Addison not long after she fell asleep. It rattled loudly against the windows, howling in the freezing air. For some reason, she found the sound soothing. It was nearly as loud as it had been the night they'd been at the cabin, but Meredith was still sound asleep, not that she could blame her. Between her utter exhaustion and snoring, she was sure that the intern couldn't even hear it. Still, Meredith was curled up against her, and at some point during her brief sleep, she'd somehow managed to pull the slumbering intern closer; Meredith's breath was warm against her neck, as she mumbled something in her sleep.

She shifted just slightly so she could grab the blankets that had started to fall off the bed and wrapped them more securely around herself and Meredith. If it had been a week since Meredith had gotten more than a few hours of sleep at a time, she was determined to make sure the blonde could sleep undisturbed. And that meant making sure she was warm and fed, and making sure their phones were charging on silent. Even if it was Meredith's day off, she had no doubt her intern friends would try to call, or at the very least text. And Meredith didn't need the distractions. It wasn't like they didn't see her every day, after all.

As she started to fall back asleep, she couldn't help but imagine how Derek would feel if he found out that it was her, and not him, that helped Meredith Grey sleep at night. The thought made her smile. His loss was her gain. Besides, he'd had his chance to let her sleep and blew it by blowing up her pager last night.

Meredith blinked herself awake. The sun coming in through the window was off-putting, and she rolled over so that it wasn't in her face. She was having the best dream, and of course the sun had to be the one to bring her back to reality. She was tempted to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but she knew that it was too late. Her body may be exhausted, but her mind was already awake. She stretched as she sat up and caught a glimpse at the clock. It was just after ten a.m., which she was actually impressed by. It had been a long time since she'd slept in this late, always at the hospital by five o'clock or being dragged out of bed on her day off by her friends for one reason or another.

Speaking of being dragged out of bed…

She looked around the hotel room, confusion dancing in her eyes. Where the hell was Addison? The spot beside her was still warm, a sign that Addison hadn't been gone long, but where the hell did she go?

"Addison?" she called out as she hopped off the bed. There was no response. She even checked the en-suite, but the redhead was nowhere to be found. She saw her phone plugged in next to their pagers, but Addison's was gone. Okay, what the hell?

Deciding not to think about it too much (it wasn't like Addison had any obligation to tell her where she was going), she pulled her phone off of charge and brought up her unread messages. But just as she opened the first message, one from Cristina asking where she was, the hotel room door was pushed open, and Addison entered the room, looking very much like Satan.

She had an angry look in her eyes, downright terrifying, honestly, and her hair had fallen from its neat bun from last night, fanning around her face and down her back, and she just wanted to kiss the frown on her face away. Wait, what?

"Was that the hospital?" She asked, and Addison's eyes snapped to where she reclined on the bed; her gaze instantly softened and melted her in the process. Please don't look at me like that, please, please…

"No, it wasn't," Addison crossed the room, sighing, annoyed, "it was Derek."

"Oh," she replied.

"Who, I guess, is at the hospital, so you weren't wrong," Addison settled onto the bed beside her with that same frown, "Mark saw us leaving together last night and jumped to conclusions."

"What?" She couldn't help the way the question came out with a laugh, "And he told Derek? What? Did he say that we hooked up?"

"Something like that, I'm sure," Addison confirmed, "I woke up to 5 missed calls and four texts from Derek, asking me to call him."

"So, you did?" She guessed, and Addison nodded, "Well, what did you tell him?"

"I told him that he was lucky I had my phone on silent so his constant badgering didn't wake you up, that you were sleeping."

She blushed, though hoped it wasn't too visible, "Is that why you were outside the room?"

Addison smiled softly, turning to face her, "Of course it was. I was trying to be quiet, and he started yelling, and you were sleeping. I didn't want him to wake you up. So I stepped outside the room while he finished yelling."

"I appreciate that," she replied with a smile, because really that may have been the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. She wasn't sure if anyone else would've been as thoughtful, at least not at first. Izzy and George always realized too late that they were too loud, and sometimes when Alex or Cristina barged in, they forgot that she'd been having trouble sleeping. So yeah, it was kinda nice to be thought of as more than a quick afterthought. Not that they didn't care because they did. They just also forgot that this week was hell; she did the same thing before, but the life of interns was a rough one.

"He asked where we were," Addison said, bringing her back to the conversation, "and I told him that it didn't matter, that we were both single."

She tried not to blush. Addison had basically given Derek the allusion that they'd slept together.

"You uh," she started, licked her lips and tried again, "You told him that? And you're not worried that he's going to think we slept together?"

Addison smirked at her, a playful glint in her eyes, "Are you worried he's going to think we slept together?"

"No, of course not," she rolled her eyes. What Derek Shepherd thought of her hadn't crossed her mind in weeks.

"Honestly though," Addison began, "Did you sleep okay? The wind was crazy last night."

"Yeah," she nodded, "I don't even think I heard it."

Addison hummed in reply. Honestly, she was surprised that she hadn't heard the wind. Each and every little thing had been waking her up this week, so to actually get more than a few hours at a time was refreshing. And yet, despite her desire for even more sleep, she was wanting to leave soon. Being cooped up with the woman in a cabin was one thing, and she enjoyed spending the night in the hotel room, but her mind kept going back to last night. And it may have been freaking her out just a bit.

When I kiss you, Meredith Grey, you are going to be completely sober, got it?

It wasn't even if. It was when. When Addison kissed her. And she said it stone-cold sober too. Which meant that the attraction was more than just one-sided, was more than just her wishful thinking.

"How about you turn on the TV, and I'll order us some breakfast," Addison said, breaking her out of her thoughts as she handed her the remote.

And now she had a choice to make. A super hard choice. Because she enjoyed Addison's company. She'd had fun last night. And she'd actually slept. But she hadn't meant to sleep so long, had planned to be out before Addison had woken up, and her body had betrayed her. So really, this was just…

"It's just breakfast, Grey," Addison says with a laugh, "No need to look so tense."

She couldn't help but smile back at Addison, turning on the TV and flipping to a random channel, "Pancakes with blueberries and whipped cream on top and a side of bacon, drenched with syrup. Ooh, and coffee."

"Blueberries and syrup, of course, you would," Addison muttered to herself as she grabbed the hotel phone and dialed.

"That's like 4 of the 5 food groups," she protested with a smile.

Addison laughed softly. Maybe staying for an hour or so more wasn't going to be a bad thing after all. She picked up her phone and opened her texts, sending her worried friends the same message.

Went home with Addison last night. I'm alive.

A/N: So, I'm thinking of swapping up the POVs for the next chapter, but I'll see as I start writing it. Please review!