Everything's fine. Scratch that, everything's going great. The Montgomery-Reilly's welcomed their second child just a few months before – Nina Everett Montgomery-Reilly, a beautiful baby girl with her father's chocolate hair and her mother's eyes (and definitely mommy's eyes.) They're happy, they're deliriously happy. And Addison and Jake are sickeningly in love, there's just one thing…
Jake's been acting weird lately. Especially when Addison came home from dress shopping with Angela for a pre-med ball in Angela's university. He's not absent, but he's also definitely withdrawn with a lot of things lately.
"Amelia, thank God you answered." Addison immediately said as she heard her call being picked up.
"Addie, hey." Her heart immediately started raising as she heard the other voice on the line. She furrowed her eyebrows and immediately checked if she was calling the wrong Shepherd – she wasn't.
"Derek, uh, hi." She stammered as she thought of something to say to her ex-husband. "Is Amelia there?" She recovered, hoping that he doesn't sense the tension in her voice.
"Unfortunately, she isn't. She left her phone in my office and she's in surgery." Addison can't see his face but with the tone he's using, she's sure that he has that annoying "this-is-why-I'm-the-golden-child" expression in his face.
"Oh." She breathed, trying to hide her disappointment. Amelia was Addison's person (besides Violet, of course) and she needed her right now. "You know, I think I'm just gonna call back later when she's done with surgery."
"Really? You can wait that long?" He asks her with an amused tone.
"What does that mean?" She asks defensively.
"Well, with the tone of your voice it seems like you need to talk. You have something to say and you probably need someone to give you some sort of advice. That's why you called, right?" With that, she silently curses her ex-husband. Even after everything that had happened, he still knows her the way she still knows him.
"So, what if I did?" She asks him.
"Then, do you want to talk about it?" He asks her softly.
"Yes, I want to talk to Amelia about it." She retorts.
"Amelia's not here."
"Derek, it's just something stupid."
"More reason for us to talk about it." He smirks through the phone.
She sighs, "This isn't exactly something that I'm comfortable speaking to my ex-husband about." And that's the truth, talking to your ex-husband about your current husband? That's a recipe for disaster.
"I'm not just your ex-husband you know, we're best friends. Always have." (Always will) she smiles at this. They've always been best friends, well them and Mark. Speaking of…
"Of course, I am. My only competition to being your best friend is currently six feet under. And probably wanting in, in this conversation right now." She jokes and she hears Derek laugh from the other line.
"See? Now, are you gonna tell me about it or do I have to be squeezed in your schedule?" He teased and she hesitates. It's tempting, but she's not sure if she wants to talk about it. Especially with him. Especially because of their history.
But she bites on the temptation anyways…
"It's my husband…" She sighs, instantly regretting the words that came out of her mouth but Derek doesn't seem to mind so she continues, "he's just withdrawn lately. I mean, he's not absent but he's not here either. Don't get me wrong, Jake is amazing and I know that. I just, I guess. I need to, I, uh…"
"You need someone to assure you that he's not cheating on you." He assessed knowingly. And a part of Derek can't help but feel a pang of guilt, he caused that. He's the reason why she's afraid right now.
"Yeah." She breathed.
"Well, for a man to willingly take care of my sister, I know for a fact that he won't hurt you. I may not know your husband personally but you said it yourself. He's amazing, Addison. He won't hurt you. He loves you; he trusts you; he's committed to you. And there's no reason for him to not choose you, you guys have a beautiful life there in LA." She wants to say that he doesn't know that because they too had a beautiful life together but he didn't choose her. But she can't say that, he's being a good friend and opening the pandora's box to the past isn't exactly friendly.
"I hope so." She sighs.
"He's not me, Addison." She knows this, of course but she's already been slapped by so many surprises in her life. She doesn't want to take any chances.
xxx
A few days after her conversation with her ex-husband, Addison finds herself sitting in the living room of her beach house, watching over Henry and Nina as they play together. And she can't help but smile with the sight in front of her. Her children are reminding her of how she and Archer used to play together. Archer, being the man that he is, tries to teach his sister to play with his expensive play cars while she just looks at him. Fascinated by her older brother.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late." Jake cuts her thoughts as he enters the living room with an apologetic smile.
"We just got home. I haven't even ordered dinner yet." She shrugs nonchalantly. Not daring to meet his eyes.
"Actually, I was planning on cooking dinner tonight." He says as he takes Nina in the crook of his arm. "Hey, princess. Daddy missed you today." He presses a kiss to his daughter's chubby cheeks before turning his wife. "We're still driving Angela to University tomorrow night, right?"
"Yeah," she breathes finally allowing herself to look up at her husband.
"Addison, is something wrong?" He asks as he sits down next to her on the couch, taking in the droopiness of his wife's eyes.
"No, I'm fine. Are we fine?" She asks in a hush tone as Henry climbs on her lap.
Jake burrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Of course, honey, we're fine. We're great, even." He looks at her intently. "Where did you get that question?"
She looks at him blankly, contemplating if she should just ask him what she's been wanting to ask him. They're good at talking, they understand each other and communicate but she's not sure if she wants to talk about how she feels in front of their children. So, she does what she does best.
"I'm just going to order Chinese food so we can eat dinner and go to bed. It'll be faster if we order." She adds at her husband's glance, "We don't want to be late to Angela's dorm tomorrow." She deflects, putting on her tightest smile as she gets up from her place on the couch.
"Mama!" Henry calls out as Addison walks toward the kitchen.
"Yeah?" She turns around.
"No Chinewe food!" He puts on his best toothy grin and Addison's heart melt at her son, "I want picha!"
She bites a laugh at that, "Pizza it is."
"Yay!"
xxx
Jake steals another glance at his wife as he drives away from Angela's dorm. Addison rambles. Especially in the car, especially when it's a long drive. She has a lot to talk about when she's forced to just sit down for a long time. From already planning the holidays (even if it's still a few months away – this was an overkill at first, but when Jake learned about that one Christmas that his wife wasn't merry at all, he let that one slide) to sharing her thoughts about her patients to well, them talking about something completely improper for the road.
But today, he's surprised. His wife is silent, but still, he can feel her literally vibrating next to him.
"Jake, where are we going?" Addison breaks the silence that she brought as she realized that her husband took a different turn.
He gave her a slight smile before looking back at the two children behind him, "Henry, we're going to aunt Vi's house so I need you to look after Nina for us okay? The two of you can play with Lucas or watch a movie."
"Play wif Wucas!" Henry exclaims happily, clapping his hands as his father gives him an amused smile.
"Jake…" Addison starts as her husband turns to look at her again.
"Just trust me with this one, sweetheart." He takes one of his hands off the steering wheel and takes his wife's hand in his. Addison nods, squeezing her husband's hand softly.
The whole drive back to their California beach house was quiet, Jake could see that Addison was withdrawn. And he feels her becoming tense every time he touches her knee. He doesn't ask her why; she'll tell him when she wants to. So, he continues to drive until they reach their driveway.
As soon as the engine stops, he gets out of his seat to open Addison's door for her. The two of them walking hand-in-hand towards the door of their house. Addison still feels like something is about to explode on her face. She doesn't know what it is and she certainly didn't expect that a very old memory of her past would be the one exploding.
"Jake…" She gasps as she takes in the decorations scattered around her house; the different colored tinsels on every corner, there were balloons on the floor, photos of her hanging on strings and a disco ball hanging in the middle of the living room (she thinks about how it got there because their ceiling is pretty high.)
But as she walks around, she realizes what the decorations reminded her of, "Are you trying to recreate prom?" She turns to look at her husband as she sees the sign close to their fireplace. Montgomery-Reilly's Batch 2014-2015.
"Yea, I guess I did," Jake chuckles as he walks towards where his wife was standing, wrapping his arms around her waist securely. "Do you like it?"
"I…" She trails off, thinking about what to answer. Prom never had good memories for her. And though she loved that her husband surprised her with this, her stomach still turns as memories of prom rushes through her head. The dancing, the tux, the panties and the demise of her first marriage. Admittedly, ever since Angela had told her about the ball for their college, Addison has been bothered by the same thoughts.
Her first prom was disastrous; with the braces and the lisps, being a band-geek and then spending the whole night talking to Skippy Gold about Star Wars (don't get her wrong, she's a big fan of Star Wars, she's just never going to admit that). But what she really considered a traumatic memory was the Hospital Prom. She'll be the first one to admit that she already saw that one coming, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. Derek made her feel like a princess; asking her to prom and dancing with her under the dimmed lights and she loved that feeling, her and Derek's love story started out as a fairytale to her. But still, that night, made her think that Skippy Gold was the real Prince Charming.
"Sweetheart?" Jake ran his hand up and down her back, cutting through her thoughts.
"Do you, uh, want me to take this off? Because if you want me too…" But she cuts him off by kissing him softly.
"I don't like the idea of prom, but I love you. And I love you for doing this for me," She gives him a soft smile and he responds with a grin, "so who put all these here? You know, I should've suspected something when Angela told me to wear something formal when we're not even invited to their ball."
He chuckles at that before growing serious, "Sam, Cooper, Sheldon and James put up the decorations while we were gone. I wasn't here because we spent the whole day in Angela's dorm but I'm pretty sure Naomi yelled at them while decorating. And you're right, you should've suspected something. I asked Angela to say that so we could do this."
Her smile grows bigger, urging him to go on.
"You, uh, you told me about your horrible experiences at prom. And I'm sorry I didn't come to your life earlier to save you from them. But, I'm here now and I saw the look on your face when Angela told you about the ball so I thought about doing this for you." He sighs as he removes his arms around her waist to hold her hands. "I know I'm probably not the man who should do this again with you. I wasn't the one who held you that night and we had no history. But you deserve another shot at this, I want you to have another shot at this. And this time, I'm with you. So, Addison, will you go to prom with me?"
"We're already at prom, honey." She retorts, laughing as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"We are," He concedes, "but you know that I'm old school, so I want to ask you first. Do you want to go the prom with me?"
"I…" She cuts her self off as she notices a photo of herself that she hasn't seen in years hanging on one of the golden strings. "I haven't seen that photo since 1998."
Jake burrows his brows in confusion before following his wife's gaze – a photo of her smiling on the staircase of the Montgomery Manner, wearing what could be called her pink prom dress. The photo of his wife makes him smile but one look at Addison, makes his face turn serious.
"Where did you get that?" She asks him, that was a rare photo of her. She and only two people had a copy of that photo. And one of those two people is dead.
"Someone sent me a copy of it." He smirked down at her.
Her brows burrow in confusion, "Who? My copy of that photo is in Manhattan, it's in the office of the brownstone. And the only two people who had a copy of that photo are Mark and…"
"Derek printed another copy and sent it to me." Her eyes widen at that. Her ex-husband who threw her out of their brownstone, who threw her out of his life kept a very old photo of her and gave it to her husband? As far as she knew, Jake only knew Derek through old tales about her life (and maybe Amelia's too).
"He called me, he said he wanted to talk to me about something…" She winces at that as she remembers what she told Derek the last time they spoke over the phone. "So, I told him about my plan, hanging photos of you and recreating prom. And then he mentioned something about that photo so I asked him to send me a copy of it."
"You and Derek talked?" He nods. "Did he, uh, did he tell you about…" She cuts herself off, smiling guiltily at his amused nod.
"Yes, and he and Amelia threatened to perform brain surgery on me if I ever dare to hurt you. Not that Amelia would ever do that to me and I would never hurt you, not intentionally." He backpedals. This is true, his relationship with Amelia will never reach that point of being physical. But he also knows that Amelia would in fact hurt him if he hurts her favorite sister.
"I know you'd never do that to me," Her eyes soften as she brushes his cheek with the back of her fingers, "You're a good man, Jake. I guess I was just scared."
"I know." He nods, cupping her cheek with one hand. "And I'm sorry that you were. I just wanted to surprise you so I had to get you off my back, I didn't know that you'd feel that way."
"And I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about it."
"You don't need to say sorry, Addison. It's not your fault." He presses a kiss on her temple, "But I promise that the next time I think about doing something like this again, I'll tell you first."
She smiles softly at him, "I love you, Jake."
"And I'm so in love with you. Even if you with the fluffy hair for your first prom." Bubbles of laughter escapes her throat as he molds his lips with hers. She has to admit it though, her husband doing this for her made her more in love with him. If that's possible.
For the past weeks, planning Angela's dress and makeup for the ball took all the energy out of Addison but now, she's glad. Because if that didn't happen, this moment with her husband probably wouldn't either. And even if the idea of prom is already tainted in her mind, it doesn't bother her anymore. With Jake holding her, kissing her and just being with her, the idea of making new memories of prom became so appealing.
"Jake?" She breathes as they pull apart.
"Yeah?"
"Ask me again."
"What?" He looks at her at confusion.
"If you still want to spend the rest of the night dancing with me at prom," She smiles softly as her arms return around his neck, "Ask me again."
He grins wildly before asking, "Do you want to dance with me? Here? At prom?"
"I'd love to." Love to, that's what Derek told her that night. And with that he reaches for his phone and plays some music before wrapping his arms around Addison.
All through the night
I'll be awake and I'll be with you
All through the night
This precious time when time is new
And as Addison rests her head on the crook of Jake's neck, she marvels at how dancing with her husband feels so new and yet so familiar. Her and Jake had danced together before at many occasions but they'd never done it before with just the two of them. And it feels amazing, considering that they're the only people in the room, it felt like the world didn't matter anymore. It was just Addison and Jake.
They'd proven time and time again that they're strong to conquer anything. Even with the scare earlier that week, Addison is sure that Jake would really be the last man that she will ever love. The last man that she'd ever dance with.
All through the night today
Knowin' that we feel the same without sayin'
We have no past; we won't reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night
And it's true, they didn't have a past. They're only moving forward, but for them, it's a good thing. They're moving forward, they're evolving to be better. Because at the end of the day, nobody's perfect, but they could get better. And the best thing about that is that they're doing it together – with their children.
Jake holds Addison tighter as they sway together to the song and he smiles as he feels her heart beating. It still amazes him how he can make his wife's heart beat like that. He knows that she loves him, that she's committed to him but something about just feeling Addison makes him soft. It makes him fall in love with her even more than he already does.
And once we start, the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends, there is no end
"Jake?" Addison lifts her head to look at her husband.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you." She smiles softly at him.
"For what?"
"For dancing with me."
It's his turn to smile at that, "I can't imagine myself dancing with anyone else. All I see is you for the rest of my life."
The night is eventually going to end. And if they know any better, they probably would end the night with sex or just holding each other. But that doesn't matter as much, because they still have to go through all the events at prom with just the two of them. And besides that, they're not in a rush, they have the whole night to be together.
And as their foreheads rest against each other, they gaze at each other's eyes and smile. The two of them didn't just have all through the night to be together. They have the rest of their lives to spend together.
All through the night
xxx
A/N: So this is the end, but I have a few explanations:
1. I wanted to somewhat try to make a story about Addison post-prom trauma, at first I wanted to make an Addek one, but my favorite writer xxlittle black dressxx already made one so I decided to go with a Jaddison one.
2. I don't believe that Derek through every memory about Addison and I certainly don't believe that he doesn't care about her anymore so I made sure that he was incorporated in this story.
3. The name of the Jaddison baby is dedicated to two people; Nina was the name of the first patient that Jake and Addison had together; Everett was Mark's middle name and I believe that Addison would really push to somehow make Uncle Mark a part of her children's life so I made Nina's middle name the same as Mark's.