So - it seems it's been some time but here we go with a completely new chapter of Addie and Mark toeing the line, Derek being a royal pain in the a**, and Annie being plain adorable on Christmas Day.
Enjoy!
December 2004
The house smelled like a mixture of pine trees, cinnamon, apples, and oranges, or as she liked to call it, old-world Christmas. She'd never actually been to Europe over the holidays, but when she imagined strolling through the snowy streets of Paris on Christmas Eve, the lights of the City of Love sparkling around Derek and her, that was the smell she imagined with it.
Archer, of course, had to burst that little bubble. Paris on Christmas Eve, according to him, was rainy at best, with a ferocious cold wind that was just not quite cold enough to actually turn the precipitation into anything even close to snow as she was used to from their childhood holidays in Connecticut. So, she stuck with her northeastern Christmases, with the scent as the only thing that had survived from her fantasy.
This year, however, there was a new fantasy. Mark would bring Annie over in a little bit and they would all spend Christmas together – Derek, Mark, and her – spoiling the little girl for all they were worth. She had meant it when she told Derek last month that she wasn't ready for a child of her own – that she didn't think they or their relationship were really ready for a child – but that didn't stop her from wishing for a family to spend not only the holidays but every day of the year with.
Addison strolled into the kitchen, looking around with a smile on her face. She had asked Carolyn Shepherd for her easiest cookie recipe, and even though they were only sugar cookies, she felt immensely proud of her achievement. They hadn't been burned or even overly sweet when she'd tried them, and she'd enjoyed proving Nancy wrong who had bet a spa day against her baking skills. She went over everything around her with a critical eye. The cookies were laid out, the tree lit up with a mountain of presents underneath, soft jazzy Christmas music was lowly playing in the background, and the whole house was decorated to perfection.
"Derek?" she called upstairs. "Mark and Annie are going to get here in a couple of minutes. Are you about ready?"
He came down the stairs in formal black slacks and a light blue button-down shirt, drawing a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I'm ready, Addie," he replied brushing a kiss against the corner of her mouth as he went past her into the living room. "It looks great in here."
The redhead smiled happily. After Thanksgiving and the almost-ultimatum, as she had started to refer to it in her head, she'd almost thought their relationship had reached the point of no-return. However, over the last week Derek had thawed, and she had found the man beneath the neurosurgeon again. The sweet, passionate, caring man that she had fallen in love with more than ten years ago. Christmas was their season, and she was happy. Not happy enough not to worry about what would happen once the holidays were over, but she had decided to postpone that particular discussion. Why borrow trouble? For all she knew, he could have come to his senses and realized that something had to give, and that it couldn't always be her.
The ringing of the doorbell ripped her out of her thoughts. "I got it," she called out to Derek as she went to the front door, opening it wide to let Mark and Annie inside.
"Merry Christmas, Aunt Addie!" Annie cried excitedly, leaping into Addison's arms.
"Yeah, merry Christmas, Addie," Mark echoed with a smile, kissing her cheek as he put his coat on the coatrack before he pried his daughter's jacket off her.
"Merry Christmas, you two," she said, pressing kisses to Annie's face and enjoying the toddler's happy giggles as Derek stepped into the den behind her.
"Merry Christmas Sloan-Family," he greeted, clapping his friend on the back and ruffling Annie's blonde hair.
"Hi Uncle Derek," she gave back as she held tightly onto Addison, still a little shy around him.
"Come on into the living room everybody," Addison said as she led them into the adjoining room. "Look, Annie, it seems Santa didn't bring all your presents to your daddy's place this morning, he left some of them here for you."
The toddler's eyes lit up and she scrambled out of the redhead's arms to immerse herself in her gifts.
"You didn't have to do that," Mark said, a happy smile on his face as he watched his daughter.
Derek shook his head. "Nonsense. This was a good exercise for Addie to get rid of some of that pent-up Christmas energy," he joked.
"Speaking of which," Addison said, handing him a relatively flat square-shaped package wrapped in elegant silver paper. "This is for you."
"Addie –" Mark started.
She waved off his protests. "Just open it, Mark"
Inside the package he found a beautiful hard-bound photo album with some pictures already put into the first pages. "I might have borrowed the camera I got you from time to time to take pictures of Annie or the two of you together when I came over after work. There's plenty of space left, though, and feel free the rearrange the photos I already put in there, but –"
"Addie, it's perfect," Mark interrupted her, the emotion raw in his voice as he reached out to hug her again, burrowing his face in her hair for a second. "Thanks, man," he then said to Derek. "I'm sure you were an integral part of the photo arranging."
Derek laughed. "You know me too well."
"Daddy! Daddy, look!" Annie exclaimed, elation clear in her voice. "Santa got me colors!"
Addison had gotten her a multitude of different art supplies – watercolors, markers, crayons, finger paints, some sparkly things he couldn't quite name – along with what looked like drawing books as well as different sized drawing pads and even some canvases.
"No worries, they are all very kid-friendly, Nancy recommended them. She could probably eat the finger paints, and nothing would happen. There's also an adorable little painting overall somewhere and some brushes for the watercolors," the redhead explained.
"Wow, sweetheart, look at that," Mark answered, matching his tone to his daughter's. "Do you like them?"
Annie nodded vigorously, causing the adults to smile as she sent her blonde curls flying around her head.
"So, what did you two get each other?" he wanted to know as they watched Annie set up her colors and trying out her new crayons.
"Addie got me this ridiculously rare bottle of scotch. Macallan from 1937," Derek said appreciatively.
"Damn, Addie," Mark whistled impressed. "Who did you call to get that? Santa's elves?"
Addie smiled. "Almost. I called the Captain, he gets surprisingly sentimental around Christmas. And it was well worth my time, Derek got me these," she gestured to the pearl studs in her ear.
"Well, I'm not quite sure if this can keep up," Mark said as he handed her a rectangular box. "And don't look so left out, Shep, next time we go to a bar, your tab is going to be on me."
Derek laughed again. "Let's be real, we're a little beyond the mandatory gift-giving part of our friendship."
"Oh my God, do you remember when back in third grade, Miss Roberts made us give everybody some card or a little present?" Mark asked, cracking up with laughter with Derek joining in, until Addison gasped quietly beside them.
"Oh, Mark, this is amazing," she breathed overwhelmed. He had gotten her a small The Bridge bag she'd talked about but on top of the dust bag for the purse he'd placed a little framed photo of her and Annie asleep on the couch, their hair mingling in a waterfall of auburn and blonde. "Thank you so much," she whispered again as she hugged him tightly before she put the frame on the mantlepiece and went over to Annie, giving the toddler a similar embrace.
"Look Aunt Addie, I'm painting us at the park," the little girl showed her, pointing to different colored stick figures. She looked to Addison for approval who nodded and kissed her head before Annie went back to her picture. The redhead went back to the sofa, cuddling into Derek's side, her eyes never leaving the toddler.
"She's really precious, Mark," she ascertained again, sending him a big smile.
He nodded proudly. "Speaking of precious, though, Red, so is my stomach. What did you say is for dinner again?"
Derek hit his shoulder with his free arm. "You can't be hungry again, I bet you've just had brunch before you came here."
Mark shrugged, looking as innocently as possible. "Well…"
"Don't sweat it, Mark," Addie answered easily. "This is her first Christmas with you, and by extension with us, so I thought we'd keep it traditional: turkey, mashed potatoes, beans, apple pie, and ice cream."
Mark cleared his throat, paling a little. "About that turkey, Addie –"
"Oh, hush, Mark, I haven't attempted a turkey since that disastrous hotdog Thanksgiving when I gave Nancy food poisoning. So, I took a leaf out of my mother's book – oh God, I can't even believe I've just said that – anyways, I called the caterer Bizzy uses when she's in the city and he's bringing by the food around four, so we only have to reheat it whenever we want to eat," Addie explained with a chuckle.
Mark lifted an eyebrow before he bumped his shoulder against Derek's. "So, I won't be able to watch football with my man Derek all afternoon while you are in the kitchen and prepare a lovely Christmas dinner for us?" he asked sarcastically, catching a glare from Derek that spelled, 'don't pull me into this,' with some variation of 'because I still hope to get lucky tonight.'
Addie just smiled as she stuck her tongue out at him before she sent a guilty glance in Annie's direction, causing the men to laugh. "Hahaha," she then said sarcastically. "How very –"
"Don't say mid-century," Mark interrupted her, "there probably weren't too many TVs around in the fifties."
The redhead snorted a little. "Well played," she acknowledged. "Anyways, I don't want to take your manly Christmas Day activities away from you, so I might just steal your daughter and do something girly with her instead," she said.
"Aunt Addie, look what I drawed for you," Annie came running up to them, climbing on the couch next to Addison and holding the drawing she had been working on out to her.
"Would you look at that? You're a regular Picasso," she said, tickling the girl a little and kissing her cheek. She pulled her onto her lap, hugging her tightly as she pointed to the red stick figure. "So that is me," she said as Annie nodded, "and that is you," she pointed to a smaller figure which the toddler confirmed again. "And that is?" she asked, pointing to the other two children in the picture.
"Kyle and Rach, from daycare," Annie explained. "Do you like it?" she asked then.
The redhead nodded enthusiastically. "It's beautiful, baby, I love it. In fact, I love it so much that I think everybody should see it. What do you say, we pin it to the fridge?"
She held her hand out to the little girl and led her to the kitchen where she handed two magnets to her, letting her attach the picture to the shiny metallic surface.
"What do we do now?" Annie asked, looking at her with big eyes.
Addison thought for a second until she had the perfect idea. "What do you say, we paint your nails? I have sparkly nail polish?" She thought back to when Liz's youngest daughter had been here in the summer and they had painted the toddler's nails.
"Yes, yes, yes," Annie begged. "Can we go now?"
"Sure, come on," she swung the little girl up and settled her on her hip as she went into the living room again. "Okay, boys, watch your game, Annie and I are going to have some girl time now," she announced causing the toddler to giggle. Mark gave her a thumbs up as he grabbed the remote, turning on the TV and flipping through the channels until he found the football game.
"See you later, ladies," he said with a wink which she returned before she went up the stairs to her bedroom with Annie. She sat the girl down on the little bench in front of her vanity, letting her admire the bottles, brushes, and make-up tubs for a few moments before she opened a drawer and picked up the sparkly kids nail polish out of her own colors.
"Fingers or toes?" Addison asked.
"Both, please," the toddler answered politely, giving Addie a toothy grin.
The redhead nodded seriously. "Always a good choice," she said. "Alright, baby, we'll start with your fingers so that your feet don't get cold yet, alright?"
Annie nodded, holding her hands out to Addison who unscrewed the small bottle of nail polish and painted the little girl's nails with practiced strokes of the miniature brush. "Alright, move your hands like this a couple of times so that the paint can dry a little," she instructed, showing her the motion.
"Great. Now, you have to keep your little feet super still so that I don't paint all over your toes, got it?" Addison told her.
Annie giggled excitedly, wriggling her toes a little until Addison's words sunk in and she stopped her movements. The redhead painted her nails quickly and then put little buffers between her toes so that she didn't accidentally brush the nail polish off again.
"So, what do you want to do now?" she asked as she was finished with the toddler's nails. Annie shrugged her shoulders, yawning a little. "Do we want to lie down for a while?" Addison asked. "I am so tired because Santa came so early," she continued.
Annie looked skeptically but let her carry her to the big bed in the center of the room where she spread a soft throw blanket over the both of them and let the toddler snuggle into her. She hadn't planned to fall asleep herself but after some time of listening to Annie's even breathing, she could feel the exhaustion of the last weeks catch up to her, and she closed her eyes to follow the little girl into sleep.
**\\*/ *** \\*/**
When she woke up, feeling better rested than she had in months, and looked at the little clock on her nightstand, she was honestly surprised to find that she had slept for almost two and a half hours. She lay back into the pillows, smiling softly as she caressed Annie's blonde tresses until the toddler started stirring.
"Hey baby, did you have a good nap?"
Annie nodded, pressing her little fists to her eyes before she stretched her arms and legs away from her. "Daddy?" she asked sleepily.
"Daddy is downstairs with Uncle Derek. Do you want to go show him your sparkly nails?" she asked as she pulled the buffers out from between Annie's toes and put her socks back on.
As soon as she was finished, Annie crawled off the bed, tugging on Addie's hand to get her to hurry up. "Daddy!" she called excitedly as she scrambled down the stairs as fast as she could with Addison holding on to her hand to make sure she didn't fall. "Daddy, look at my nails! It's glitter!"
"Let me see, princess," Mark said, pulling her little hands to him and making a great show of inspecting her fingers. "Sparkly. And very beautiful, just like you, angel."
Annie giggled, hugging her father and climbing up into his lap.
"I'm surprised you even got her to sit still for however long it took to paint her nails," Mark commented dryly as Addison sat down next to Derek again.
The redhead smirked. "I painted her toenails, too, I'm just that good – at calming little kids and painting nails," she joked.
"Damn, Red," Mark said under his breath, catching a dirty look from her as he swore in front of his daughter. Her admonishment was stopped in its tracks, though, as Derek's pager beeped. Addison's expression rapidly changed to somewhere between genuinely surprised and plainly annoyed as her husband got up to look for his phone.
"It's something at the hospital. The page just says urgent, so I'm quickly going to call my intern to see what's going on," he explained distractedly. Mark and Addison half listened to his side of the conversation, but he saw her tuning out as it became clear two sentences into the call that Derek would have to go to the hospital.
"Did they forget that you have the day off today and that they already called you back in for Thanksgiving?" she asked, her tone disappointed. "Cannot Dr. Hofstetter do whatever they need you to do?"
Derek sighed tiredly, his face a stony façade. "I'm the best they have, Addison, and they need me at the hospital."
Addison bit her lip. "Well, I'm they best, too, and I managed to tell them not to call me on Christmas," she said as Mark looked from one to the other.
Derek rolled his eyes. His voice had a patronizing edge to it as he answered, "You're a baby doctor, Addison. Any doctor can deliver a baby when it comes down to it, so they don't really need you to be there, but I –"
Addison gasped, hurt clear on her features as she pressed a hand to her mouth, whether to stop herself from screaming or sobbing, Mark couldn't tell.
"Derek!" he hissed as Annie questioningly asked, "Daddy?" clearly surprised by the turn the situation had taken, even if she didn't understand everything that was going on around her.
"Jesus, Derek, think before you open your mouth," Mark said as he caressed his daughter's hair soothingly.
Addison swallowed heavily. "No, Mark, let him finish," she choked out. "It's good that Derek finally admits that he has no respect for me personally, or for my specialty as a whole."
"Addison, you save babies, we both know how –" Mark started but Derek interrupted him.
"You are being unreasonable, Addison, you need to calm down," he said loudly. "We can talk about this when I come home and you're less emotional." He turned around, going into the den and pulling on his shoes and coat before he opened the front door. "Oh, look, Addie, your food is here. Don't wait for me with dinner, this could take a while."
She didn't answer him as she stared after him whilst he left for the hospital. It was only when one of the caterers cleared his throat that she came back to her surroundings. "I am very sorry," she apologized, directing them to the kitchen where they spread out the food she had ordered. "Thank you so much," she said as everything was inside, tipping them generously. "Merry Christmas," she forced a smile.
"Merry Christmas, ma'am," they answered, giving her a genuine smile before they went back to their car.
"Aunt Addie," she suddenly heard Annie's small voice behind her, "is this all for us?" she asked in wonderment.
Despite everything she had to laugh a little as she picked the toddler up and settled her on her hip. "Yes," she nodded, "this is all for us, but we don't have to eat all of it today. You and your daddy can take some of it home with you, and you can make turkey sandwiches tomorrow."
Annie nodded, resting her head on Addison's shoulder.
"I love you, baby," she whispered, her voice a little choked as tears pooled in her eyes again.
"I love you, too, Aunt Addie," Annie answered, pressing a slightly sloppy kiss to the redhead's cheek as they heard Mark cough softly behind them. He slowly put his arms around the both of them, trying to comfort Addison at least a little.
"I know this sucks, Addie, but you love Christmas. Derek was a royal –" he stopped himself with a glance at his daughter before he could swear again. "Anyways, I just want to say don't let him ruin your day, alright?"
She nodded but he could see it lacked conviction.
"Should I open a bottle of wine for you? Or better yet, this ridiculously old Scotch you got him?" he offered.
Addie shook her head, nodding her head at Annie. "No, I don't want to drink in front of her."
"Why?" Mark asked, trying to think back if he had ever seen her drink in front of Annie. Sure, they had shared the occasional glass of wine when she had taken Annie home from the hospital's daycare center, but only ever after his daughter went to bed. He didn't even think she'd had anything on Thanksgiving.
"My parents tried to drown their sorrows in alcohol, right in front of Archie and me," she said bitterly. "Did you know that I could mix a perfect Gin Tonic to the Captain's specifications when I was eight? I don't want that for her." She paused a little, watching Mark watch her as a blush took over her cheeks when she realized the implication of her words. "I know that I'm not her mother or anything, but I love Annie, so I won't drink in front of her."
Mark reached out to set Annie to the ground, giving the little girl permission to run off to her new art supplies again before he reached out and tenderly embraced Addison. "Come here, Red," he whispered in her ear. "You're probably the closest thing she'll ever have to a mom again. Let's be real, I wouldn't want any of the women I normally pick up in bars to be her main female role model." He pulled back a little, pressing a kiss to her temple as the redhead still looked at him skeptically. "So, thank you for loving her, and thank you for not drinking in front of her."
She nodded a little, reaching out for his hand and squeezing it strongly. "Thank you, Mark. And I'd be honored to be the quote-unquote female role model in her life. I mean, even if you find someone at some point, I'll still love you and Annie, and I'll still be there fore you."
He nodded, watching her as she went back into the living room to sit down on the floor next to his daughter. He wasn't sure if he'd ever find someone like her, hell, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to look for someone who wasn't her.
Mark startled a little at his thought. He'd been very successful at suppressing any such ideas since the notion had first crossed his mind during one of their early lunches of three back in October. It was getting harder and harder to ignore, though, that he was feeling something for Addie – his best friend's wife – even if it was just indignation at how said friend was treating her. And gratefulness for everything she did for Annie. And, of course, the generally happy feeling he got when he spotted her around the hospital, or even more when he found her in his apartment after a long day at work, playing with his daughter.
He sat down on the floor next to her, hesitantly putting his arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. There was something – longing? – in her eyes as she looked up at him before she averted her eyes to Annie instead.
They continued watching Annie color, the soft Christmas atmosphere weaving a spell around them. All throughout dinner, a brief stroll around the neighborhood to watch the Christmas lights, and a late-night viewing of Little Lord Fauntleroy which Addie apparently had once watched with a British nanny, he could almost imagine they were a real family. And by the time he had Annie hug her and he kissed her goodbye on the cheek, he was almost sure Addison hated seeing them go as much as he hated leaving.
Please let me know what you think!