Derek's first trip to Los Angeles had been a spur of the moment decision. He'd gotten home from work, pondering what he could do with two whole days off when he didn't have anyone to spend it with. Suddenly, he was buying plane tickets to and front Los Angeles. He flew out that night, and took a taxi to Addison's house.
The second he put own food out of the taxi and in her driveway, he felt out of place. The house was so different than what he's always expected from Addison. He forced himself to the front door and knocked. A few second later a man answered the door.
Derek stared at him. "I'm looking for Addison Montgomery-Shep...Montgomery. I must have the wrong house."
"No, this is her house. Well, Addison Montgomery's. Not Montgomery-Shep-Montgomery," he joked in response.
"And you are?" Derek asked curiously. Is she dating already? And he's already at home at her place?How'd she manage to move on so quickly?
"Shouldn't I be asked you that?"
"I'm the father of her child," he replied, staring at the man blankly.
"Oh! Derek, right? I'm Cooper. I work with Addison at the same practice. She is having a girl's night with other coworkers and I'm here babysitting. It was supposed to be Pete but Addison decided being a pediatrician makes me the ideal babysitter."
"You're not dating her?"
"Dating Addison?" He laughed. "I can't date real people. I stick to online dating."
"Oh," Derek replied still standing outside.
"Wanna come in? Chris is watching TV. If Addison calls, he's reading Tolstoy."
Derek laughed and stepped in. He took in the decor of the house, clean and modern. His son was glued to the TV with a bowl of popcorn near him. "Chris," he called out for his son's attention.
Chris looked back, didn't react and turned back to the screen. A second later he did a double take. "Dad?!" He exclaimed and jumped to his feet to run over.
"Surprise!" He exclaimed just in time to catch the little boy running toward him. He squeezed his son tightly and lifted him off the floor. "I miss you so much!" He exclaimed as he set him down again.
"I missed you more!"
"Impossible!" Derek exclaimed.
"How about you both agree that you miss one another equally and we can get back to Finding Dory? I wanna see how it ends."
Christopher looked up at his father.
"I guess we can agree on that," Derek nodded and scooped his son up again. "Right, Chris?"
"No, I miss you more."
Two hours later the front door opened and Addison stepped in in a cocktail dress and kicked off the nude pumps she was wearing. She took a few steps from the foyer to the living room and froze when she saw Derek asleep on her couch with Christopher sprawled out on top of him.
It took everything Addison had in her not to scream. She took a break to gather herself and then she poked his shoulder. He didn't move so she poked him again.
The second time Derek felt a poke on his shoulder, he opened his eyes to see her standing there.
"Hey," he whispered groggily.
"You're on my couch," she replied back quietly so she wouldn't wake their sleeping son.
"Surprise," he mumbled as he carefully shifted his son off of him so he could sit up.
"Surprise?" she repeated, staring at her non-husband with a quirked brow. "I don't understand, Derek," she said as she ventured into the kitchen, suddenly desperate for a glass of wine. She took an opened bottle from her wine fridge and filled a glass for herself.
"What about mine? Your hostess skills could use some work," he commented.
She looked up from the glass, giving him a deathly glare. "Excuse me? You show up at my house unannounced and I have to act like I'm thrilled to have you here? Why would I do that?"
"I thought we were being amicable."
"I move across the country- again- to get away from you. Why would that give you the impression that we are amicable?" she wondered as she took a sip. "Was it amicable when you left me to go across the country?"
"I didn't cheat on you, that's the difference."
Addison rolled her eyes, "I move away and I still can't escape this conversation."
"Relax, I came to see Christopher."
"And you invited yourself into my house, without my knowledge," she added. "I'm trying to start fresh here."
"You said I can come see him anytime I want."
"You can, of course you can, but you have to tell me first, Derek. What if I was planning to bring my date home?"
"Your date? He asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were out with Naomi and the shrink from your practice. I'd hardly call that a date and I doubt you'd be interested in them in that way. We may have grown apart but I know you well enough to know you men too much to swing for the other team."
Addison rolled her eyes.
"I came to see my son. That's it. I didn't come here to intrude on your life. I didn't come here to convince you to take me back. I just came to see my kid."
"Call next time. That's all I'm asking."
"Okay," he conceded. "This time it was a last second whim. Next time I'll plan ahead."
"Thank you. I'm should get him up to bed," she said softly.
"I'll get him," Derek offered, moving toward the couch to pick up the sleeping child.
"His room is the door at the end of the hall to your left," Addison told him as he made his way up the stairs. She started straightening out the door stairs without turning back to watch him.
He got to the top of the stairs and made a right instead of a left. He opened the closed door to find the master bedroom. The furniture was white, the walls were yellow. He looked around in confusion with the child growing heavier in his arms. The room was the exact opposite of their bedroom in New York. In New York she'd insisted on dark mahogany furniture and an earthy color for the walls. She kept the lighting dim, insisting it contributed to the ambience of the place.
He slowly backed out and went to the door on the opposite side. Derek opened the door to find light blue walls with framed black and white photos of boats. He put the child down on the bed and his eyes caught a glimpse of the framed photo on the bedside table. It was a photo on a boat- god forbid it went against the theme of the room- but not just any boat, Addison's father's boat. Derek was sitting by the bow with a tiny Christopher on his lap, both of them holding onto a fishing pole, faces lit with excitement as they tried reeling in their catch.
When he looked up, he saw Addison standing quietly at the door. "I remember this," he said, turning the photo for her to see. "It was when you and Archer decided you knew enough to be able to sail the Captain's boat without him."
"We were able to sail it without him."
"We got lost."
"We did not! We just got delayed returning to shore," Addison defended.
"And why was that?"
She stared at him quietly.
"Perhaps because someone couldn't steer to pick up wind and we ended up in irons with a boat sick four year old for two hours."
"Hey, I got us back, didn't I?"
"I think that was the coast guard but I'll let you take credit for it," he replied with a smirk.
Addison rolled her eyes and came further into the room to tuck her son under the covers. She left his stuffed shark next to his pillow and then turned off the light, leaving a small fish shaped night light on. She headed back toward the door but stopped and turned when she noticed Derek wasn't following her.
"Derek?" she asked in confusion.
"You can go to bed, if you want. I'll show myself out. I just wanna watch him sleep for a while."
"Okay," Addison nodded and went down the hall to her room.
Derek ended up falling asleep on the full sized bed curled up next to his son. He woke up the next morning completely confused by his surroundings. He made his way out of bed and tip toed downstairs, hoping not to wake Addison only to find her already awake and making coffee in the kitchen.
"I fell asleep in his room," he admitted quietly as he came near the kitchen.
"I know. I saw when I went to check on him this morning," Addison sighed.
"I didn't mean to. I meant to leave. I know you wouldn't want me staying here."
She didn't. She wanted her space and her privacy. She wanted to keep her new home free of any memories with him or of him.
"You should stay for breakfast. Christopher would love that," Addison replied "Then I have to head into work for a few hours. You two can go out and do something."
"You want me to stay for breakfast?"
Addison looked at him, "Christopher would want you to stay," she replied, choosing her words carefully.
"And you'd be okay with it?"
Addison looked at him over the rim of her mug. "He's our son, Derek. No matter what happens between us, he's always going to be our son and we need to learn to co-parent. Now is as good a time as any to start, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Derek nodded, "It is."
A few hours later, Addison was sitting her office with a cup of coffee and a stack of charts in front of her. Her office door opened and Naomi and Voilet came in together. Naomi was holding a bottle of wine while Violet was holding a box of chocolates.
"You know this is a medical practice, right?" Addison told them as they got comfortable on her couch.
"It's Saturday. No one is seeing patients and paperwork can wait," Naomi replied. "Come, sit, drink."
"Cooper tells us your ex-husband showed up at your house while we were out last night." Voilet added. "And Sam says he was still there this morning."
"He's not my ex-husband. We were never married," Addison reminded them. "And he was still at my house this morning. He fell asleep while watching Christopher sleep. He misses him. They've got a very, very tight knit relationship and I don't want to do anything to get in the way of that. I even asked him to stay for breakfast so he could have time with Christopher. He was very excited to see his Dad around so I think it went well."
"I've been told that 'not ex-husband' of yours is very good looking," Voilet admitted. "I am eager to meet him."
"I'm not introducing him to anyone," Addison replied.
"If you scroll down far enough on Addison's Facebook, you'll find lots of pictures. She and Derek used to be active with sharing pictures back when Christopher was little. They have friends and family all over and everyone would gush over their little family." Naomi told Voilet.
"Oh, I forgot about those," Addison frowned. "God, I don't even remember my password to go delete all of that cheesiness."
"So why'd you break up if he made you so happy?" Voilet asked, refusing to allow Addison to change the subject.
"We uh, we grew apart after Christopher was born. We started working different schedules, we stopped making time for one. We grew apart," She explained simply.
"And then Addison slept with his best friend and Derek slept with a 12 year old intern so that was the straw that broke the camel's back," Naomi added, reaching for a chocolate out of the Godiva box and biting it in half. "And before you ask, Vi, yes, the best friend is very, very hot and no, she's not literally 12." She swallowed the bite of her truffle and brought the wine glass to her lips for a sip.
Addison glared at her best friend, "Thanks for the recap, Nai."
"You're welcome," Naomi replied with a smirk.
There was a few seconds of silence before Violet spoke up. "Is the hot best friend still single?
So this update took longer than I thought it would. I'm so so so sorry. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Let me know what you think.
P.S- Reviews are great encouragement to write faster. *insert winky emoji here*