I know it's been two years and two days since I last updated this story. I got a couple reviews for it a few weeks ago and I realized I'd hate to leave an unfinished story behind so I decided to continue and try to complete it. Hope you guys enjoy Chapter 8!

The next morning, Addison was in the kitchen waiting on her morning coffee to finish brewing while packing her son his lunch for school that day. She glanced up when she saw someone coming down the stairs and her heart started pounding in her chest when she realized it was Derek.

"Good Morning," he greeted her.

"Hey," she said more casually as she tossed a bag of sliced apples and a Nature Valley bar into her son's lunch bag.

Derek curiously glanced into the bag and saw the bag of pre-sliced apples, the granola bar, aand a bottle of water. "Since when does our son's school lunch look like he's a vegan hiker?"

"Isn't it too early in the morning to judge my parenting?" she asking with a tired glance in his direction. "There are mini pizza bagels in the oven, for your information."

"Pizza bagels?" he repeated, thinking back to the red box his mother bought from the frozen section of their local grocery store for when his nieces and nephews visited.

"Yes." She confirmed, before glancing over at him to see the judgement in his eyes. "They're not the real kind. It's an organic brand that specializes in frozen food for kids. It costs like ten times more at Whole Foods than kind you're thinking about." she said defensively.

"You could just make him a sandwich," Derek pointed out. "He liked when I packed him sandwiches while we were living in Seattle."

"I no longer try to do anything you did for him in Seattle," Addison explained. "The last time I tried that, I was making him chicken and he flipped the plate over and I spent hours scrubbing chicken piccata out of my white upholstered chairs."

"Chicken piccata? Why would you make him piccata? I would just make him plain chicken."

"Yeah, I know that now!" she said with an eye roll as she went to check on the contents of the oven.

"Be sure to give it time to cool before you wrap it up and put it in his lunch bag so it doesn't get soggy," he advised lightly.

Addison glanced up at him, clearly annoyed with culinary tips about the lunch she had prepared for their son for his school day. She was about to respond with a snappy retort that would indicate just how thin her patience was that morning when the coffee machine chimed to alert them that the coffee was ready. Instead she took a deep breath and let it go. "That's the coffee. I made extra for you."

Derek moved toward it, grabbing two mugs from the cabinet as he did. He filled both mugs and put one on the counter for Addison while she took Christopher's almost burned lunch out of the oven.

"Addison," Derek spoke up after a few minutes of silence passed as they both had their coffee on opposite ends of the kitchen. "About last night, I just want you to know that I do now realize the mistakes I made that cost us our marriage."

"We weren't married, remember?" She reminded him casually of the fact that haunted her every day since she discovered the news. "And I don't want to talk about it. Forget I asked. I shouldn't have. It was a moment of weakness on my part and it doesn't matter. I don't need the answer."

"Well, I don't have an answer. I don't know why I stopped. I guess I thought you'd heard it enough that you just knew or...I don't know. I really don't know what made me stop giving you that kind of attention."

"I don't want to talk about it," she repeated as she took another long sip of coffee. "I need to go wake Chris and get him ready for school."

"He's up. I told him to start getting ready. He was brushing his teeth when I came down here," Derek assured her.

"Oh."

"Hey, maybe today I can pick him up after school and he and I can just spend the rest of the day together. I'll help with homework, I'll take him to dinner, it'll be fun. And you'll get a break for one evening."

Addison looked at him gratefully. "You'd really do that?" It would be the first time since their separation that she'd have a night to herself. Well, there was that one girls' night when Cooper babysat Christopher but that could hardly count as a night to herself, especially considering she came home to find her ex in her house.

Derek nodded. "Consider it done," he smiled as she finished his coffee and put the mug in the sink. "You can leave the dishes. I'll do them after I take Chris to school. I'm gonna go check to make sure he didn't fall asleep on the toilet like he used to before kindergarten."

"Addie?" Naomi called out from all the way down the hall when had she got into the practice the next morning and found Addison to be the first one in with her office door wide open presumably enjoying the peace and quiet with all the lights still off and her blinds open for natural lighting and the ocean view. "You're here early."

"Yeah, Derek is taking Christopher to school so I could actually come in early enough to get paperwork done before I have patients scheduled."

"Derek's here? Again?" Violet asked from beside Naomi.

"Yes, Christopher had a Dads thing at school so Derek came out for it."

"Why doesn't he just move here? He's already here like two or three times a month."

"He's got a contract in Seattle," Addison explained. "And I moved to LA to get away from him and our past."

"Considering that this is his second visit in a month and stays at your house while he's here, how's that going for ya?" Violet asked bluntly, earning a nudge from Naomi.

"I have patients back to back all day so I really should get this done now while I can," Addison told them politely.

Naomi nodded, grabbed Violet's arm. They went to the kitchen to give Addison some privacy, but really it was to distract Violet long enough for Naomi to sneak back. Once Violet was sufficiently occupied with lecturing Cooper on his latest online dating mishap, Naomi snuck back into Addison's office and sat across her desk.

"So Derek is here again?" she asked as she sat back comfortable in the chair and crossed her legs.

"We already covered that part," Addison replied while dividing her attention between Naomi and her emails.

"Addie, I'm worried about you. I don't think this is healthy for you. Your ex-husband can't just show up this often and stay with you."

"You see your ex-husband every day at work. And mine has only been here twice since I moved. ...or is it three times?"

"It really makes it harder to move on. I'm just trying to spare you of what I go through. You need to set some boundaries. You need to put your own needs ahead."

"Naomi, we have a son together. He needs his father."

"He can still have his father, just with better boundaries."

"Nai, I didn't get involved in your divorce. Please don't get involved in mine. Derek and I are doing the best we can for our son. We're co-parenting and it's working great for us right now."

"You're not co-parenting. He shows up here a few times and acts like a caring husband and father, like nothing changed and he's still the same New York Derek who showered you with love and attention and cared for your son, and then he disappears and you're left with a confused son who wants his father back." Naomi pointed out to her. "I'm worried about you."

"Don't be. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

Christopher shoved passed some of the older kids at the gate after school to get through and then ran excitedly into his father's arms. "You're really still here! I thought you had to leave today." he exclaimed happily as Derek lifted him off the ground in a tight hug.

"I leave late tonight and I wanted to spend some time with you before that," Derek explained. "Let's go finish your homework while your mom is still at work. Then we can go get dinner and maybe we can go to the pier and go on some rides."

"The Pier?"

"Yeah, the Santa Monica Pier. You can see the lights of Ferris Wheel when you go out on your deck at night."

"I know what it is. Mommy and Auntie Nai say only tourists go there." He told his father as if it was an obvious fact that everyone should know.

"Well, I'm a tourist."

"No you're not!" Chris explained, apparently having taken offense. "You're my dad!"

"Yeah, but I don't live here. I just come to visit you, so I'm a tourist."

"What about Mom?"

"What about her?"

"Don't you come to visit her too?"

He'd been backed into a metaphorical corner. Was there even a right answer to that question, Derek asked himself. If he said yes, Christopher might go and tell his mother and then she'd know that Derek did have just as much interest in her as he did in their son. If he said no, Christopher might go tell his mother and then she'd think he only came for their son and that he was long over her. Was one option better than the other? He took a second to think before deciding one was a better option. "Of course, I come to visit her too."

Christopher gave a satisfactory nodd before climbing into the backseat of Derek's rental car.

Derek got Christopher back home right before his bedtime to find the house empty. He used the hidden key under Addison's doormat to let himself in. "Addie?" he called out as he helped their son into his room.

"You've gotta shower and get ready for bed, bud," Derek reminded his son. "And I've gotta pack up my stuff and rush to the airport. My flight leaves in two hours."

"You're leaving again?!" Christopher exclaimed in disappointment. "You keep leaving me!"

"I spent all day with you. I've gotta get back to Seattle. I have work."

"It's not fair!" Christopher yelled and slammed his bathroom door shut before his father could respond. As he left his son's room to go to the guest room to finish packing, he saw Addison coming out of the master bedroom in a robe and her hair wrapped in a towel.

"Everything okay? I heard him yelling."

"He's just upset I'm leaving again."

"Oh," Addison nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure that's always going to be hard on him."

"I don't know how we're gonna keep doing this, Addison. Richard is already annoyed with me for taking two weekend off this month to come here and see him. I don't think I'll be able to get another one off for a while."

"That's okay. I have weekends off. Maybe I can bring him to Seattle and you can see him after work."

"Two days for a few hours after work hardly seems like enough time with my child," Derek replied unhappily. "I have to go pack, my flight is in two hours. I'm barely going to make it."

Addison nodded. "Okay, thanks for taking care of him tonight and giving me some alone time today. I really needed it. This whole single mother thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be."

"Yeah, I don't know how you do it. He threw a small tantrum over when I told him I was leaving tonight and I could barely hold it together. I don't know how you deal with it every day."

"Well, to be honest, I can't complain too much. He's a pretty easy going kid for the most part. But those occasional tantrums are exhausting. And there are some times that are worse than others... like the time he threw a plate full of piccata on my white chairs."

Derek chuckled, "Given how often you mention that incident, I imagine that you didn't take it well."

"I almost had a nervous breakdown," she openly admitted. "Anyway, I should go get dressed and let you get to packing."

Derek nodded. "Kay, thanks for letting me stay here again, Add."

Addison froze for a second, thinking of what Naomi had told her. She considered telling him that he'd have to get a hotel for his next visit but she just couldn't bring herself to. Instead she gave him a small smile and turned back toward her room.

"You're back," Richard said as he approached Derek who was standing in front of the OR board.

"I am."

"How was your trip?"

"It was good, but it was short. It's always hard to leave Christopher and come back but we got to spend a lot of quality time together this trip."

"That's good. When are you thinking of visiting next?"

"I don't know. Maybe two or three weeks from now? I haven't really thought about it. Maybe Addie will bring him here so I don't have to make the trip. She offered last night so that's an option too."

"How long do you two plan to keep this up, Derek?"

"What? What are you talking about? We're just trying to figure out how to make this arrangement work for our son's sake."

"You've taken five days off just this month. And it's only been a month that they've been gone. At this rate, you're on track to take four times your allotted PTO time. The board is worried that this is becoming a pattern and so am I. You can't keep doing this. Los Angeles is not Bothell or Everett. It's not even Portland. It's not a commutable distance. You can't keep doing this."

"I don't live there so it's not a commute. I've just gone a few times to visit my son. What exactly is the problem, Richard?"

"I'm saying that the Board is not okay with the head of neurosurgery establishing this pattern. Fix it before they do."

"Are you saying they'd fire me?"

"I'm saying they will demote you. I'd hate to let you waste your talent like that, Derek."

"Choosing to spend time with my son is not wasting talent."

"You certainly thought spending time with your wife was wasting your talent," Richard reminded him. "That's why the board hired you as department head. In what world would a 38 year old, married father of a young child get a head of department position?"

"You told them about my personal life?"

"Of course I did! I knew you had the talent to succeed in the position and all they needed to know was that the job would be your priority so I told them that you had just split from your wife and that you were moving to Seattle and that meant you'd be distraction free and ready to dedicate every second you had to this hospital."

"Richard," Derek sighed, rubbing his face in frustration. "You're putting me in an impossible position." He would have never even considered accepting the position as Head of Neuro if he had known his contract all but included fine print that he'd have to neglect his son to please the board.

"If you think this is bad, you definitely don't want to be demoted and have a department head as your boss to approve your time off requests for every trip to see your son."

Derek met his former mentor's eyes in shock. "Is that a threat?"

"It's a warning. If this becomes a pattern, the board will take action. I don't want that to happen to you. It's time to focus on your career."

Derek paced back and forth in his office as Richard's words played over and over in his head. He took a deep breath and sat down at his desk to reach for his phone. He quickly dialed a number and hoped for an answer. Once he heard her voice, he took a breath of relief.

"Addie, do you have a minute to talk?"

"I have a patient in the waiting room so I guess that gives me a few minutes. Is everything okay?"

"Richard cornered me this morning," Derek began telling her. "He basically told me that the board is not okay with how much time I've taken off and that they will demote me from department head if the behavior continues. I am so angry I don't even know how to begin processing the things he said."

Addison was silent on the other end as Derek rambled on.

"He said that I'm wasting my talent by chasing back and forth between my son and my career! Can you believe that?! Richard! The guy was my mentor and now he says being a father is a waste of my talent?! Do you think that's discriminatory? Like parental discrimination? Or is just that a thing for women in medicine? How can my former mentor tell me that my son is a waste of my talent?! Just because he doesn't have kids doesn't mean that everyone else should have been like him."

"He's chief of surgery, Derek. He may be your mentor but he answers to the board so it's always going to come down to the bottom line… which is the profit margin."

"He said if they demote me and hire another chief that I'll just to answer to yet another person above me."

"Yeah, that's generally what a demotion means."

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice and asked, "You think I should quit?"

"You can't quit. You have a contract," Addison reminded him. "And uh, I think this is the kind of decision you need to make for yourself. I don't really get an opinion on such things anymore."

"But I'm asking for your opinion."

Addison sighed, "I don't have one."

"Just help me, please. I need someone to talk me off this ledge because I don't know what I'm doing and I didn't know who else to call."

"How long do you have left on your contract?"

"I don't know. Five months, or uh, maybe seven. Maybe. I don't know. Something like that."

"Double check your contract. Check for an at-will employment clause, if it's there you can quit at your will. And if it's not there, have Weiss read through the contract and advise you of your options. He helped me when I needed to term my contract with Seattle Grace."

"How'd you term your contract?"

"I basically bought it out with a donation, but that's not how the board worded it so don't tell them I said that. I am technically still on staff and on-call for high profiled, highly publicized emergencies only- which are rare in Seattle and I'm a substantial donor."

"How substantial?"

"Renaming the entire wing where L&D and the NICU are to call it The Addison Montgomery Tower kind of substantial."

"Are they really going to call it that?" he asked, actually sounding enthused by that possibility.

Addison chuckled lightly on the other end of their call. "No. I was against it. I thought it might be a bit too narcissistic. Maybe I'll reconsider it after I retire."

"Oh. Too bad, that would have been great publicity for you," he paused. "And for me cuz I'd get to tell people I was married to you."

"You weren't married to me, Derek," she reminded him. "Why do you even want to quit? What would you do with all your time?"

"I'd move to LA to be with you and Chris. I'd find a new job there. Hey, is your practice hiring?"

"You can't move to LA, Derek," she told him tiredly.

"Why not?"

"Because I moved to LA to get space from you so I can move on with my life. It's hard enough to remind myself not to get too dependent when you're visiting. I can't have you move here permanently. Chris and I are just learning how to function as a two-person family."

"It's not like I'd come live with you. You could still have space. We'd just be a normal divorced couple instead of a cross continental divorced couple."

"We're not a divorced couple because we were never a married couple," Addison reminded him again.

"Why do you keep saying that?!" Derek exclaimed in frustration. "Does that one piece of paper really get to tell us whether or not we were married?"

"Considering that being married means having a valid marriage license, yes, it does get to tell us. Derek, for over a decade I had this identity as your wife. It's who I was. And then I was a mother to this child that we created and he was supposed to be a product of our marriage and our commitment. And then one more I found out that whole identity I had was a lie because we were never really married. It's like having the rug pulled out from under you."

"Addison, we thought we had a valid marriage license for twelve years. That's what counts."

"It wasn't 12 years. It was actually 11 years and ten and a half months."

"What is with all of these technicalities," Derek groaned in frustration at her response. "I called you because I needed comfort and reassurance that I'm doing the right thing by choosing my son. I thought his mother would give that to me."

A few seconds went by before Addison said anything. Then he heard her take a breath and say, "I need to get to my patient. She's been waiting."

"Addison, tell me what to do," Derek begged, but the line had already gone dead.

Thanks for reading! I know it probably wasn't worth a two year wait but I hope you enjoyed it regardless.

Reviews are greatly appeciated.