I don't believe in Santa anymore!

Addison woke up happy in the morning, although she didn't find Derek on her side. She sat on the bed pulling the sheet to cover her naked body craning her neck to make sure if Derek was in the bathroom, the door was opened, the room was small, so she could see if there's somebody there, but Derek wasn't there. He should probably have gone to the hospital, so she got out of bed to get dressed for another day at work, and wake up Katie to go to school. After what happened last night she felt a thread of hope in her marriage.

When she arrived at the hospital, she looked for Richard in his office and gave him the best news he could get that day: she would sign the contract with the hospital and assume the head of both neonatal and OB-GYN departments. At first, she thought it was the most insane job offer she had received. Head of two departments? She was not such a good surgeon for that, she was not Vivian Carlsmith. That's what she thought. But somehow, after the night she had with Derek, she was believing she can do anything. Even be the head of two departments in a hospital on the west coast.

It didn't take too long for Patricia, Richard's assistant, to show up in his office with the papers Addison was supposed to sign.

"Nice to have you on board." she said seeming as happy as Richard while Addison signed the contract.

"Thank you, Patricia." the redhead said giving the papers to her.

Then she looked at Richard, who was smiling.

"Your own service, state-of-the-art NICU, and a salary that'll make you one of the highest-paid surgeons in the northwest. You better be worth it."

"Quintuplets, Richard."

"That's a go?" he asked in surprise.

"The mother to be checked in this morning, she came from New York to have her daughters with me and I'm a doctor of this hospital now, so you may consider it a case of Seattle Grace."

"Nothing I like more than a high-profile case."

"Well, don't go calling the press yet. It's an extremely high-risk pregnancy. At least three of the babies are surgical. I'm gonna need to pull people from all departments."

"You're my star. Whatever you need."

She smiled.

"So, will you let me do my job?"

"Once again, welcome, dr. Montgomery-Shepherd."

"Dr. Webber..." she said leaving the office.

She walked to the patient's room, she was waiting for her. They already met because Addison was her doctor in New York but still she was surprised when a patient called and was able to fly to Seattle to deliver her daughters with her.

Izzie was the intern on the case and was standing next to the door. Apparently, she was one of the few interns that didn't feel that intimidating to work with the surgeon.

"Dr. Shepherd!" the patient cheered when she saw the doctor entering her room.

Addison walked over to her and hugged her.

"Dorie, it's nice you're here."

"Yeah. Wherever the bests are, I am."

Addison just laughed.

"Okay, so, this is dr. Stevens. She'll be working with us on this case."

"Hi." Dorie waved, "The more the merrier."

"Yeah." Addison replied opening the chart, "How long is a normal gestation period, dr. Stevens?"

"40 weeks, but with twins 36 is considered full term. So with quints 34 weeks is considered extremely successful."

"I plan on going 36 weeks." Dorie commented, "No one's leaving this uterus until I say so." She said pointing to her own belly.

"The power of positive thinking, huh?" Addison asked smiling.

"No. You know I'm following all your recommendations. Bed rest and all the medical care you can give."

"Triplets are fine. They are okay." Dorie's husband informed when he entered the room throwing his cellphone in his pocket.

Dorie seemed relieved.

"Triplets? You… You already have triplets?" Izzie asked in surprise.

"Dr. Stevens!" Addison scolded.

"It's okay. I'm used to it." Dorie said.

She was really used to people reacting like that. It was not like they always meet a woman who's carrying five children in her womb, even after carrying three.

"I just really wanted a girl."

"Yeah, we just didn't bank on five girls." her husband commented caressing her belly.

Izzie was still wondering.

"But think of all the clothes and all that pink cuteness."

Addison laughed.

"Dr. Stevens will take care of you. I'll be back soon."

She left the room and walked through the corridors without knowing where to go. It was still strange to her walking through that place, but she saw Derek talking with Burke at a nurse station and approached them.

"Hey." She said smiling.

"Dr. Montgomery…" Preston greeted.

She replied with a smile before look at her husband.

"Hey, do you remember Dorie Russell, the patient with quintuplets I had in New York?"

"Yes, Richard already said we were on standby." He said without letting her tell that the patient was in Seattle, "Which is no problem, really, 'cause it's not like I have a neurosurgery department to run or anything."

"Yes, apparently our departments are at her disposal." Burke said.

"Do you have time to talk to the mom now? I want her to meet all the surgeons on her team."

"Yes, no problem." Derek said.

"I'll come by after I get out of the OR." said Preston.

He walked away, Derek got up taking the chart his wife had left on the counter, and read in a few seconds.

"Let go." He said moving.

Addison hurried to follow him, feeling something was different. That was the first time they had spoken to each other after what they had last night, but he looked exactly like before. At least she was expecting him to feel more relaxed as she was.

"Hey, I didn't hear you leave the hotel room this morning." she said trying to bring the topic, "We missed you at breakfast."

"I had an early surgery."

"Why you didn't tell me?"

"You were sleeping."

"You sure that's all? Nothing wrong?"

"No. There's something wrong for you?"

"No... Last night was amazing." she said smiling.

"Yeah. It's like I said. I just had an early surgery."

Addison nodded and entered in room with him.

"Dorie, this is dr. Shepherd, our head of neurosurgery." She introduced him.

"Oh! Another dr. Shepherd?!

"He's my husband, actually."

"Seriously?!" the patient asked in surprise.

"Mm-hmm..." Derek replied forcing a smile to look nice.

"Wow! Look at you two! Everybody must hate you."

"Oh, you have no idea." They both said at the same time.

Izzie was silent.

"Children must be beautiful, right?"

"Yeah. She is." Addison commented pretending modesty.

"She? A girl?" Dorie asked excitedly, "Dr. Shepherd, you never told me you have a girl!"

"Right. I have a girl." Addison replied awkwardly.

"Why you never told me that?"

"You never asked me."

"What's her name? You'll show me some pictures, right?"

"Well, her name is Katherine and I'll try to show you something later, but now dr. Shepherd wants to talk to you about baby C."

"Lucy?" she asked, now seeming a bit worry.

"Yes. Lucy has a condition called hydrocephalus." Derek replied, "It's a buildup of cerebral spinal fluid on the brain."

"Okay, and that means...?"

"Excess fluid builds up and it puts pressure on the baby's brain. Which could result in brain damage. Here's the good news. Addison caught it early enough, so we can take care of it very quickly."

"How?"

"I'm going to install a shunt to drain the fluid, barring complications you're looking at a full recovery."

"No brain damage?" Dorie asked.

"No brain damage."

She felt relieved and breathed.

"Okay, really… Couldn't you have led with that?"

They laughed.

"Good point. Don't worry. The surgery will fix it." Derek said.

"I'm sure it will. God! You're both so gorgeous and smart. How can life be so unfair?"

Addison and Derek exchanged a quick look. It more an awkward one than an in love one.

"Well, we have to go. I'll be right back with other doctors, okay?"

"No. You'll show me photos of your daughter." the patient insisted.

"I'm not with my phone right now. I'll show you later. Promise."

They left the room.

"So, I hope you gave up on having a boy, because… Look at her. She always wanted to have a girl and now she has five girls in her womb. Five!" Addison told waking with her husband, "I don't wanna imagine myself with five mini Dereks kicking in my belly."

Derek laughed awkwardly. At other times he would have questioned that, but he had no more plans to have children with Addison.

"Katie is enough." he said.

"She is."

They stopped in front of the surgery board. Derek checking how much time was left for his next surgery and Addison pretending she was doing the same, but she didn't have any scheduled surgery this day, she just wanted a little time with her husband.

"So you've officially signed your contract." Derek commented.

"Time to move forward."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

His pager rang, so he quickly took to see what it was.

"E.R. I gotta go."

"Okay."

Derek walked away and went down to attend to an emergency case, which was far from routine. The case was about a guy who had arrived at the hospital with an erection that didn't relax. The CT scans showed there was a tumor causing the erection, but what made Derek uncomfortable was to find out that what caused the guy's erection was a sexual relationship he had with Meredith the last night. He kept his face closed during the whole consult, dropped some hints to Meredith, who was the intern on the case once the patient got at the hospital looking for her, and when he was finally able to direct them to another doctor, he walked away to give the chart to the nurse station.

Addison was hurrying down the hall at the time and seemed relieved to see her husband.

"Derek, the quints. I think we need to run. Who's your intern for today? We'll need a lot of hands."

Without her expected, Derek pulled her waist and kissed her mouth. Meredith was leaving the exam room at the same moment and stared at them uncomfortably. Addison had no idea what was going on, she just kissed her husband back, then she walked away, her lips red, looking at him with a confused eye. For a moment she forgot that she was hurrying.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's time for the quints, Addison."

"Derek…"

He walked away and she followed him, confused, but without wanting to think about it at that moment because she needed to perform the surgery she didn't expect to perform that day.

After the procedure, Addison had to spend the night at the hospital monitoring the babies. As she didn't know Seattle as she knew New York, she was afraid to go back to the hotel and something happens at the hospital and she wouldn't be able to return because she didn't know how to make the way from the hotel to the hospital. So she decided to stay on call and Derek went home with Katie.

That night they didn't sleep at the hotel. They took advantage that Addison was not with them and went to the trailer. Katie seemed to like that place as much as her father, maybe because there she had that feeling of adventure she hadn't when she lived in a city like New York.

"You bought a heater." she commented sitting on the bed.

"I did."

"So, do you think mommy will wanna live here, now?"

"I don't know. But we can try to convince her, right?" Derek asked lying next to his daughter.

"Mm-hmm..."

"You know what I wanna make here?"

"Huh?"

"I wanna build a house for us on this land."

"A huge house?"

"A huge house."

"Bigger than our brownstone in New York?"

"Ways bigger than the brownstone."

"I will love it!"

"I'm sure you will!"

"I think mommy will like it too."

"Do you think? Don't you think she'll miss New York, Manhattan, Central Park?"

"What? This's how we have our own Central Park!"

It was certain that Addison would disapprove when she knew they hadn't slept at the hospital like as she believed, that Derek had taken their daughter to sleep at the trailer and, mainly, that he had made promises to the girl. Promises she didn't agree with.

Derek was a little uncomfortable while he walked with her through corridors. He was always like that when he felt he had done something wrong. For a moment she regretted having commented while she was still in the hospital, after a shift, apparently stressed, but took the opportunity to tell him that she didn't plan to dispose of the trailer while they were entering the elevator.

"Derek... I'm not moving to that."

"Why should I be the one to move?"

"Because you live in a glorified campground."

It was just a floor, so the door opened.

"Addison, it's 40 acres of some of the most beautiful land in Seattle." he argued following his wife.

"And this is land for what? Cattle raising? Did you buy this land to build a farm?"

"No. To build a house."

"I'm not moving to that! Neither you nor Katie. I did not give up a Central Park brownstone to come to live in the forest."

"Our house in the Hamptons has trees. You didn't mind those trees, did you?"

"They were the Hamptons!" Addison said, "Why did you take her to sleep that? You should have done that. Now she's gonna piss me off, Derek!"

"Addison..."

She got ahead indicating that the topic had no point for her, so Derek stopped following her. He was thoughtful. He knew it wouldn't be easy to recover what he had with Addison if she didn't accept that new version of him.

He had to answer a call for E.R. and just met his wife again at lunch when he went to the cafeteria to eat something and found her eating a salad by herself. She seemed hurry and he was surprised because maybe the last time he saw her eating that way, in a hospital's cafeteria, they were residents and she didn't mind about people watch her in such an embarrassing moment. He actually didn't consider it an embarrassing moment, but Addison used to say that and he knew that about her. He didn't buy anything and walked to her.

"Any problem?" he asked making her raising her eyebrow to look at him.

"Five... Better. Six.

"What's the sixth?" he asked taking her fork to eat a piece of salad.

"You and Katie. I went to talk to her at daycare and she's just talking about trailer, trailer, trailer, trailer..."

"She likes the trailer." he said with his mouth full, "You'll like it too."

"You wanna drive me crazy. Give my salad back."

She took her fork back.

"Derek, do you remember what Richard did to me when I was an intern?"

"Yes. You didn't speak to him for almost a year."

"Yeah, well, I think I gotta do that to Izzie Stevens."

He was surprised.

"She's smart, hardworking…"

"But she gets a little too involved with her patients." she said.

"A lot like you."

"I know. It took me a long time to recover from that."

"I know. But it made you a better surgeon, right?"

"She's the best I've seen in years. I was hoping that we could…"

"You're not here to make friends, Addison. You're here to make better surgeons. And being a teacher can be a lonely business."

"Do you think?"

"I don't know, Addie. What you wanna do?"

He took the fork from her hand and ate more. Addison took the fork back and looked at her husband with her eyebrow raise.

"Why won't you go that and buy a salad for you?"

"Because you didn't buy this here."

"Huh?"

"You don't eat food that's not cooked at the time." He reminded.

"I don't." she replied with a proud smile on her face.

They stood silent and Addison realized that her husband was worried about something.

"Okay, tell me what's happening."

"Nothing is happening."

"Of course there is. You can talk. What's happened?"

"Alex Karev fried my patient's brain."

Addison frowned and touched his hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Derek stood silent, eating.

"So, that's all?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"I am…"

"Derek..."

"I'm jealous about Meredith and the E.R. case." He thought. That was the correct answer.

"That's all, Addie" that was what he replied.

Addison took the fork again and ate.

"Addie, I don't wanna give up the trailer..."

"Derek, you don't have to push it..."

"We'll live that just until we find a place."

"No. I'm not living in that trailer!"

"We're trying. Why everything must be on your way?"

"It's not like everything is on my way. Look, you ask me anything and I'll do, but living in a trailer is out of option."

"I'm asking you one thing."

"Derek..."

"One thing, Addison."

"One thing? Come one, you asked more the one thing. Move to Seattle, give up my job, leave everything in New York…"

He continued looking at her with a pleading look, as he knew she couldn't resist.

"We'll not have a sexual life. Did you think about it?" she asked surprising him.

"We'll not live there our whole life. It's just 'til we find a better place to live. I wanna build a house that."

She rolled her eyes. "A house? Really?"

"Okay, then you build a house. Meanwhile, we stay in the hotel 'til we find an apartment to rent."

"Katie loves that land."

"Come on. Don't push Katie on it."

"Please." He asked holding her hand.

Addison was silent, so he approached and kissed her cheek.

"Please... Please... Please..." asked kissing her.

So he looked at her exactly like Katie did and Addison looked away.

"Stop it!" she said.

Derek took her face and looked into her eyes.

"I hate you." Addison said.

"What does that mean?"

"A month. We'll have a month to find a place to leave that trailer."

Derek smiled and kissed her mouth. Addison just smiled. She knew they were being observed by people at the cafeteria, but Derek didn't care.

"Katie will love it!" Derek said excitedly.

At the end of the day, Addison dressed to went back home and she met Izzie at NICU to give her some instructions about the night with the baby. She was divided about doing it or not, but she did it and asked the intern to stay on call taking care of one of the premmies quints. That night wasn't the intern's on-call, but she took the mission to show her competence to the attendant, so Addison went away wonder she did the right thing because she knew the intern would be frustrated when she know she spent her whole night trying to keeping alive a child who was supposed to die anyway.

Derek went to take Katie to daycare and they would meet Addison at the park. They were leaving the hospital when they were stopped by Alex Karev, who was handed a folder.

"Dr. Shepherd, I found these studies where they used aggressive plasmapheresis. I think these could work on Mr. Martin."

"Those are all isolated cases." Derek replied holding his daughter's hand.

"But still, the studies resulted in improve clinical symptoms."

"No trial study's ever been done. There's nothing you can do."

"Okay, what about thyrotropin-releasing hormone?"

"No."

"There's European studies…"

"Karev, it's over. It's done. You screwed up. Mr. Martin fried. You fried his brain. If he wakes up, you put him in a wheelchair. If he dies, you killed him. Deal with it."

Katie was surprised by her father's behavior.

"Daddy, you're being rude."

"Let's gone home, sweetie."

"But you have to apologize to him…"

"Your mom's waiting for us."

"But, daddy..."

"Katherine!"

She shut up and followed her father to the park, looking behind to see Alex head down.

When they arrived at the car, Derek sat at the driver seat, Addison on his side and Katie behind, with a sad countenance.

"What's up?" Addison asked.

"Daddy was rude with a guy at the hospital door and he didn't apologize." The girl replied while her father turned on the car to start to drive.

"Who?" Addison asked.

"Alex Karev." Derek replied.

"Alex Karev?"

"What's wrong with this Alex Karev?" Katie wanted to know.

"He's an intern, honey." Addison replied.

"So daddy can be rude with him?"

"Princess, it's a work subject, okay? Don't worry." Derek said.

The girl rolled her eyes.

"Mommy, daddy told you he's gonna build a big house on his land?"

"Oh, god! You can stop it." Addison interrupts.

"But..."

"Your father has already convinced me. We'll live in that trailer for a few days 'till we find a better place to live." Addison said, "I don't know what I did to deserve you two."

Living in a trailer was never something Addison expected to experience someday. That was being the worst experience she had in her whole life. Sometimes she stopped and thought about what she was doing in that tiny place. So she watches Derek and Katie having some fun and wonder if that was a nightmare. A terrible nightmare that apparently was a nightmare just for her, because her husband and daughter seemed to be in heaven.

She didn't know if Derek really liked that trailer or if he was just making her living there to punish her for sleep with Mark. Maybe she believed she deserved the punishment, but it needed to be that punishment?

Some day they were sleeping, each one turned to one side with Katie between them like it used to be when they felt something heavy falling between them and the walls shaking. They immediately woke up, Addison screaming thinking she was in an earthquake, but it was just Katie jumping on the bed. They both breathed relief and Derek rubbed his eyes.

"Don't do that!" Addison exclaimed pointing to her daughter while she squeezed a hand on her chest.

Katie stopped to jump and looked at her parent, not understanding why they were scared. She used to wake them like that on this day.

"Merry Christmas." she said smiling at them.

Derek took a deep breath and kissed his daughter's cheek.

"Merry Christmas, princess."

Addison laid on the bed again and threw the blanket over her body.

"I'm sorry." Katie said lying on her mother's back, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, baby. We just have an hour of sleep." Addison replied in a sleepy voice.

Derek looked at the wristwatch she left on a small nightstand.

"Your mother's right. We have an hour." he said putting his daughter under the blanket too.

"But it's Christmas!" Katie exclaimed excitedly, "We love Christmas."

Addison turned on the bed, hugged her daughter, and kissed her cheek.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart. Come to sleep just an hour more."

She slept, Katie also closed her eyes, but Derek stayed looking at the ceiling until the hour pass and Addison awake to get dressed for another day.

In New York, on Christmas, they didn't go to the hospital at least they had to attend a serious case. They used to wake up excited in the morning to call to a lot of people, to chose the clothes they were dressed for the dinner at Carolyn's, which were the best place in the world to spend Christmas. Katies was always excited to know what people were going to say when they knew what is the gift she chose for them, and, just like Addison, she got excited to tell everybody what they were going to win because she didn't like surprises. Derek used to buy something special for their Christmas breakfast and they had fun wondering what Katie would win from Santa.

That Christmas was different. Even Addison was surprised when she noticed that Derek was getting dressed to go to the hospital and leave Katie and her by themselves in the trailer. She had no case at the hospital, so she didn't know what she could do that at Christmas. But once she realized that her husband was going to go there, she also got dressed to go with him, because she thought that maybe he wasn't staying there for so long, that they would come back home soo. So they dropped Katie up at daycare, Derek went to his department and Addison stood without know what to do.

The hospital was so busy that day. Derek answered a case in which the patient had fallen off the roof while he was hanging the Christmas lights and felt like he had returned to his internship time when he had to deal with cases like that.

Izzie Stevens, who didn't want to work with Addison since the quints' case, was his intern for that day. He was leaving the patient's room when he saw Addison walking towards him with a smile on her face. She approached with some print papers in her hand and followed him down the hall, showing the gifts Katie had chosen for everyone.

"Okay, for your mom, she got a lamb's wool blanket, handmade in Edinburgh. It's soft, comfortable and it says, Don't hate me for hurting your son except with fabric. What do you think?"

"Addie, you know my mom loves you."

"She never did. I've got a lot of ground to make up for with these gifts. For Lizzie, she asked to buy this sweater and choose the texture." she said showing the image to him, "What do you think about the plaid?"

"I don't know. Whatever you think." he replied impatiently.

"Derek, every year she chooses the gift and we love to buy. We love Christmas shopping, right?"

"I'm just really not in the mood for it right now, okay?"

"Okay, well, how about French food and Scottish catalogs at lunch?" Addison asked approaching him with a seductive smile.

"Addison... I guess that depends."

"Come on, Derek. You know how long time we haven't had an intimate moment?"

"Dr. Shepherd." Izzie called.

They both turned at the same time.

"Yes?" Derek asked knowing it was him.

"I have Tim Epstein's CT scans back."

"Ah! Okay."

He walked away from his wife and over the intern. Addison just watched. For many reasons, she was hopeful that Christmas day would break Derek's ice about their relationship problems.

"Addie!"

Adele was at the hospital. It had been a while since the last time they met.

"I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Yeah… Derek and I have to do Christmas shopping. But I didn't expect to see you here."

"I came to pick up Richard. You shouldn't be here. What about Katie?"

"She's at daycare."

"Urg! Did you drop your daughter off at daycare on Christmas?" Adele asked.

"Yeah, I know, I didn't plan that. Actually, I wanna go out at lunchtime, but I don't know if Derek will be able, so…"

"Where are you gonna spend Christmas?"

"We didn't think about it..." Addison replied noticing that she hadn't thought about that detail.

Actually, they hadn't talked about Christmas until this day. Every time Katie spoke about Christmas, Derek spoke about work and they totally forget about the subject.

"With luck, we'll get a table in a restaurant."

"Oh, gosh. It's Christmas. Can I pick Katie at daycare and take her to my house?" Adele asked, "My nieces are there and I'm sure they'll love her."

Addison thought for a few seconds. She knew Katie was missing the Christmas they had in New York, so she nodded to say yes to Adele.

"Okay. Of course… Thanks, Adele."

"You and Derek will spend Christmas with us."

"Okay. We'll o that."

"I'm gonna pick up Richard and Katie, right?"

"Thank you." Addison said smiling.

"See you tonight."

Addison was called for a case at E.R., which she treated in some minutes and was back to look for Derek. She found him in an exam room, studying some MRI with Izzie, who least at the moment she noticed the doctor's wife at the door.

"She's not talking to me since the quints."

Derek stood concentrated like he didn't hear his wife.

"So, will we have lunch together?"

He didn't reply.

"Derek, am I invisible? I'm feeling strangely invisible."

Once again Addison waited for an answer but Derek stood silent.

"Also inaudible."

"Huh? What?" he asked taking his eyes off the computer screen for a quick.

He went back to the screen and Addison took a deep breath.

"So I guess lunch-shopping is out?"

"Yeah, it's not gonna happen today. Sorry."

"No, you're not. I'm just trying to figure out why you're not. What's happening to you?" she asked putting her hand on her waist, "It's Christmas, Derek."

"Yeah. I know."

"It's our season! What's going on?"

Derek stood up, taking the exams.

"Are you mad? Are you depressed, what? You can talk to me about everything."

"I've gotta go, Addie. I'll talk to you about shopping."

"But it is Christmas, Derek!"

"We'll already deliver these gifts late, right?" he said walking away.

"Derek..."

It was a stressful day. Derek spent his whole day trying to forget it was Christmas eve, but it was impossible. All the hospital corridors were decorated with garlands and lights. The Ped's floor was like and shopping center, so he occupied in the only department that didn't remember about Christmas: the E.R.

There he had a surgical case, Meredith was his intern and they spend the afternoon together at the OR. They didn't realize the time passing. When they left the OR was night, so he chose his clothes and went to the daycare to look for Katie but a nanny told him she wasn't there anymore. He imagined Addison had gone home with her, so he left the hospital and was surprised to see that Meredith was leaving at that moment too.

"Hey!" he called.

"Hi." she said looking at him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." she said, "You know. Holidays."

He remembered again about what he was waiting to forget.

"Yeah… I do know."

They both were silent for a few minutes.

"Merry Christmas, Meredith."

"Merry Christmas."

They took different paths, Meredith walked towards the parking lot while Derek crossed to the street to enter the bar in front of the hospital.

"Merry Christmas, Joe."

"Merry Christmas, double scotch single malt." Joe said greeting him with the name of his favorite drink, "You're a godman, dr. Shepherd!" he concluded fulling his glass.

Derek smiled, took the scotch glass, and took a sip.

"Hey, dr. Shepherd!"

He turned and was surprised to see Addison sat by herself at a table, handing the same printed pages she had in the morning. He smiled and raised the glass for her.

"Dr. Shepherd."

He walked away from the counter and sat in front of his wife.

"So, how's Mr. Epstein's frontal lobe?" she asked.

"He woke up smiling." Derek said wiping a small white spot on the edge of her lips.

"Congratulations." she said smiling.

"Thank you. What are you drinking?"

"It's hot buttered rum. It's delicious. Wanna prove?"

"It's Dickensian." he asked proving her drink.

"Oh, well, yeah. It's Christmas." she said.

Derek was embarrassed.

"Christmas, Derek! We love Christmas! At least we used to."

He was silent for a few seconds.

"Will you tell me what's going on? Please."

"Christmas makes you want to be with people you love."

Addison felt a shiver.

"I'm not saying this to hurt you or because I want to leave you because I don't." he said realizing he had hurt her, "Meredith wasn't a fling. She wasn't revenge, she wasn't the anti-Addison..." confessed, "I fell in love with her. That doesn't go away because I decided to stay with you."

Addison felt like cry, but she just took a deep breath and took another sip of her drink. She was silent, without knowing what to say, so Derek also silent, embarrassed.

"We have to meet her at Richard and Adele's."

"Who?"

"Katie... She... Adele asked to pick her and I agreed because… It's not because we're having a terrible Christmas that she can't have some fun."

Derek felt guilty.

"She's missing New York, Derek."

"She loves Seattle." He said before drinking another sip of his scotch.

"She does, but at a moment like this. She has no family here."

"She has you and me…"

"But she doesn't use to have just you and me."

He was silent until finish his scotch.

"We've gotta go there."

He nodded.

"We didn't buy a gift for her." Derek remembered.

Addison narrowed her eyes and put a hand on her head.

"I think we'll find some stores open if we hurry..." he suggested.

But Addison lowered her head and let the tears roll down her face.

"Addie..."

"I didn't want it to be like this for her, Derek." she said crying, "You know, it might be like this for us, I get it, I deserve it, but she doesn't. I want the best for her."

Derek approached his wife and hugged her.

"I'm so sorry. We'll fix it."

"Do you think?"

"Yeah."

Addison wiped her tears and followed her husband outside. They drove around the city looking for an open store to buy something for Katie, but the only store they found was a small one when they couldn't found anything good enough to be Katie's Christmas gift. The employee was announcing every time that he would close the store in five minutes, so the only visible solution for the couple was to fill a large basket of sweets and chocolates and expect to Katie like that gift.

They went to Richard and Adele's, the lights were still on and they rang the bell. It was Richard who answered and he was happy to see him. At this moment, they both felt under-dressed for the occasion, because everybody was so well-dressed and they had just left the hospital. Richard introduced them to his family as his surgical stars who came from New York and had fun with them. Addison soon looked for his daughter and found her sat in an armchair, with her legs crossed, watching TV with some children and teenagers. She was wearing the dress Addison had put in her backpack for the case they had dinner at a restaurant, she smiled when she saw her mother and hugged her neck.

"Katie…"

"I wanna go home."

"We'll go home soon."

"I wanna our home in New York."

Addison tried not to cry, but Adele showed smiling in front of them.

"How're things going on here?" she asked.

"It's fine. Your dinner is amazing, Adele." Addison replied.

"Why don't you eat something? Katie didn't want to eat anything. I thought she was waiting for you, right young lady?"

"Do you wanna eat something?" Addison asked her daughter, but she just shook her head, still hugging her mother's neck.

"What's going on, sweetie?" Adele asked caressing the girl's back, "She was sad today. Do you think it could be the flu?"

"I don't know." Addison said kissing her daughter's forehead.

"I think she's tired." Adele said, "Children are never awake 'till midnight."

"Katie is ever awake until midnight," Addison thought. She talked to Adele for some hours, with Katie on her chest. When Richard finally called his wife, Derek approached and kissed her daughter's face before sitting in front of his wife.

"She's sleeping." he informed.

Addison was surprised.

"What? What time is it?"

"00:50."

"It's Christmas." Addison said.

"It's Christmas." Derek repeated.

"Katie shouldn't be sleeping."

"Yeah... But she must be tired. She must be playing a lot during the day."

"Katie doesn't sleep on Christmas night. She loves Christmas."

Derek nodded and brushed the hair out of his daughter's face.

"Let's go home, Derek."

"You sure?"

"Mm-hmm."

They said goodbye to the hosts and, despite requests to stay and sleep there, they didn't and left the dinner. While Derek was driving with the sweet and chocolate basket to his side, Addison was in the backseat with Katie sleeping in his lap. When they arrived at the trailer, Derek woke up the girl to put on pajamas and see the gift Santa has to give to her, but she just threw the blanket over her body, indicating she just want to sleep. Addison and Derek exchanged a look.

"Honey, won't you wake up to see what Santa brought you?" Addison asked lying on her side, speaking at her ear.

"No."

"Come on, princess. Come to see what Santa brought..." Derek insisted, sitting next to his wife.

"I don't want to. Leave me alone."

"Honey, but Santa was here! Your mother and I caught him brought your gift."

"I don't believe in Santa anymore. This was the worst Christmas of my whole life!"

Addison felt struck with that statement. She glanced at her husband and took a deep breath.

"Come on. It wasn't that bad." Derek said trying to make her happy, "The dinner at Richard and Adele was great."

"But you left me alone all day."

At that moment, Addison couldn't hold her tears, so she kissed her daughter's face and told Derek to leave alone. After changing their clothes, they laid in the bed and slept.

The next day, Addison woke up with her daughter sleeping next to her, but without Derek in the bed. She thought he would be in the bathroom, so she pulled the girl closer and hugged her. Some hours later she felt Katie moving and moaning while Derek was trying to wake her up.

"Katie, wake up to see what Santa brought you."

"Mmmmm!" the girl complained.

"Come on! You'll love it!"

"I don't believe in Santa anymore!" Katie said burying her face even more in her mother's chest.

"Okay, you don't believe but he exists, but he did. Come on."

"I don't want to."

"Katie..."

"Leave her sleep, Derek." Addison said without open her eyes.

Derek pulled his wife's hand and she didn't complain until feel something sliding in her finger. She opened her eyes, still sleepy, and was surprised.

"So, look what Santa brought you."

She blinked to wake up, then put her hand in front of her face to see the white gold ring with some shiny stones on her thin finger. Smiled.

"Thanks."

Derek approached and kissed her forehead.

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, babe."

He pointed to the tiny corridor, Addison craned her neck to look down and smile when she saw the pink bicycle Derek bought.

"Oh my God, Katie! You must wake up right now." she said, "You'll love what Santa brought you."

"But Santa doesn't exist." The girl said.

"Oh, really? I wanna hear you say it after see what he brought you this year."

"Daddy bought."

"What?" Derek asked in surprise

So Katie finally opened her eyes and looked at her father.

"You bought every year and then you say it's Santa."

"No. Where did you get that?"

"You don't need to lie to me anymore."

Addison and Derek exchange a quick look.

"Since when you know this?" Derek asked.

"Since yesterday. I saw uncle Richard putting his niece's gift under the Christmas tree."

Derek took a deep breath.

"Okay, so, come to see the gift daddy bought for you. I'm sure you'll love it." Derek said.

Katie sat on the bed and rubbed her eyes. When she looked at her father's point, she immediately fot up on the bed and smiled to her parents.

"A bike!" she exclaimed, "Mommy, I may have a bike!"

Addison nodded smiling. So the girl hugged her father tightly.

"Thank you, daddy. I love you."

Katie pulled her mother and hugged her too.

"I love you both."