Saturday mornings were Christopher's favorite time of the week. He jumped out of bed early in the morning and found her mother already away and sitting out on their oceanfront deck. She normally tried to sleep in over the weekends, which meant he got to sneak in a few hours of TV shows she normally would not allow him to watch.

"Mom?" he called, hoping she may have fallen asleep on the lounge chair outside so that he could at least sneak in one episode of Married With Children. But when she turned at the sound of his voice, he had to do everything he can to hide his disappointment.

"Good morning, sweetheart," she greeted her son before taking a sip of her coffee. "You're up early."

"I thought I heard someone down here." he lied.

"And you came to check by yourself?" Addison asked, impressed with how brave that sounded for an eight year old.

Does her face mean she bought that excuse, Chris asked himself. "How come you're awake? You sleep til 9 on weekends. You said that's the rule."

"I had an emergency call this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep afterward. You wanna come watch the waves with me for a while?" she asked, holding up the blanket so he could join her under it.

"No. I'm too big for that now, Mom," her son told her.

"Oh," Addison frowned. When did he stop being her little boy?

"Daddy said I'm the man of the house now."

"Oh," Addison mumbled again, trying not to roll her eyes at her ex for planting thoughts like that in their young son's head.

"Is he going to visit this weekend?"

"No, he's not. He couldn't take time off of work this weekend."

Christopher frowned. "That's not fair."

"I know, buddy, I'm sorry. I'll talk to him and see if we can go visit him next weekend, okay?"

"He hasn't been here in weeks and he promised we'd go to Disneyland next time he visits."

"I'm sure he will still take you to Disneyland. He just couldn't get time off to visit this month so we are going to go to him so you can still spend time with him."

Christopher looked away unhappily, "I hate this!"

"Do you want me to take you to Disneyland?" she asked. "We can go today, right now. Let's go get dressed. It'll be fun," she said, willing herself to sit up and look convinced that a day in a crowded theme was exactly what she hoped to do on her day off after an exhausting week.

"No! I'm supposed to go with Dad. It'll make him sad if we go without him. But all three of us can go when he visits next time."

Seeing the excitement on her son's face, Addison didn't have the heart to tell him that separated parents meant no longer doing things as a family of three. Instead she nodded, "We'll go with your dad the next time he visits," she agreed.

"I'm gonna go call him and tell him."

"Honey, it's 7:30 am. I'm sure he's in surgery at this hour. Maybe wait until closer to lunchtime to call him about that."

"Daddy said I could call him anytime."

Addison shrugged, "Okay, go ahead," she said, turning back over and wrapping herself in her favorite grey blanket. As her son ran back inside in excitement, Addison closed her eyes and focused on the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. She took a few deep breaths to remind herself that she could do this, she could raise a child on her own. After giving herself a few minutes of peace and quiet and got up and headed inside to figure out breakfast. When she walked in, she caught her son on the couch with the TV turned on to an episode of Married With Children that she vividly remembered watching in the early 90s with her then boyfriend, Derek.

"Christopher, what the hell are you watching?"

Chris jumped, startled by his mother's voice. He quickly changed the channel on the TV, clever enough to have cartoons on the previous channel. "Nothing! Accidently changed it," he told her with an innocent smile in her direction.

"Christopher, I wasn't born yesterday."

Christopher stared blankly at his mother, the expression clearly going over his head. "I know. Your birthday is in August."

After breakfast, and figuring out how to activate the parental controls on her cable, Addison refilled her coffee mug and went back out on the deck with her cell phone while her son stayed in the living room to watch censored TV.

She went to her recent calls and called Derek. "You will not believe what I caught your son watching at 7:30 am this morning," she said before he could say anything.

"Was it porn? Please tell me it wasn't porn," Derek replied as he sat down at his desk after a long morning in surgery.

"No, he's eight," she replied. "Wait, do eight year old boys watch porn? I've never been an eight year old boy so I wouldn't know."

"I wouldn't know either. Internet wasn't really a thing when I was eight." Derek replied. "Mark and I bought magazines when we were like 12 or 13."

"Ew," Addison murmured as she took a sip of her coffee. "You can have physical custody of him when he gets to that phase," she added, only half joking. How does a single woman raise a horney, puberty plagued son without being too overbearing to make him a mama's boy, but attentive enough to teach him to be respectful?

"Or I could move there and we could share custody and figure it out together," he reminded her rationally.

"No, I prefer my idea. For the millionth time, you can't move here just to help me parent our child."

Derek signed on his head of the line, not wanting to have that conversation again. "You never told me what you caught him watching."

"Oh, yeah. He was watching Married With Children."

"Is that still on?!" Derek asked with a chuckle. "We used to watch that in the background when we'd pull all nighters to study for exams, remember? Then the theme song would be stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. Wow, I didn't realize that was still on. It's funny that he likes it too."

"He was watching the episode where Al was super horney and constantly guilting Peggy to have sex with him."

"Sounds like a funny episode."
"Sounds like something our eight year old should not be watching," Addison firmly stated. "Derek, you're not supposed to be on his side. We're supposed to agree that it is not appropriate television for our eight year old to be watching."

"I don't think it's that bad. It was 90s primetime, they couldn't say or show anything too explicit. It's all just implied."

Addison groaned, "Yeah but he gets the gist of it and he's too young to be exposed to the kinds of assholes like the characters on that show. I don't want my son to have Bud Bundy as a role model."

"Okay, maybe you're right. I'll talk to him and tell him not to watch it anymore."

"I already put a parental block on all non-PG programs."

"Oh, good. That's a good start, but I'll talk to him away. Hey, while I have you on the phone, I uh, I miss," he paused awkwardly and cleared his throat to buy himself time on how to finish that sentence. "I miss Christopher. You offered to bring him here, are you still willing to do that?"

"Of course I can do that," Addison replied. "When do you have in mind?"

"I worked out my schedule to be on-call next Saturday. Would you be able to fly in on Friday night? I can buy you both tickets and get you a hotel."
"It's okay, Derek, I'll make the arrangements. We will see you next weekend."

"Thank, Addie," he said in relief, glad that he wouldn't have to go a second weekend without seeing his family- son, he meant to think son. "I've gotta get back to work now but I can't wait to see you both next weekend."

"Both?"

Derek froze. Did he just say that out loud? "What?" he asked nervously.

"You said you can't wait to see us both. As in me and Christopher?"

"Yeah, I guess that is what I said. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just let it slip. But uh, if I'm being honest, I do find myself missing you too."

Addison stayed silent on the other end of the line.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he repeated nervously.

Another few seconds of silence went by before he heard Addison take a breath. "You said you had to get back to work," she reminded him. "I'll text you our trip info after I book everything."

"Okay. Bye, Addie."

"Bye," she hung up quickly, setting her phone down on the wooden table on her patio. She turned when she heard the sliding door open and saw her son poke his through the small opening. "Everything okay, sweetheart?"

"Why is there a passcode on all of our good channels?" he called out curiously.

After a long shift, Derek walked to his car in exhaustion. As soon as his phone connected to the Bluetooth, he called his son hoping to catch him before bedtime. He smiled when he heard his son answer his mother's phone.

"Hey, bud."

"Dad!"

"Getting ready for bed?"

"No, Coop is gonna babysit me. Mom is going out."

"With Aunt Nai?"

"No. With one of Violet's patients, I heard her telling Aunt Nai about it. They're in her room picking clothes. Don't tell her I told you. She doesn't know."

"Your mom's going on a date?"

"I guess," Chris sounded uninterested in the topic, not fully understanding what that meant for his father. "Guess what?! Mom said we are going to visit you next weekend. I can't wait to see you! Are we going to do anything fun?"

Derek was quiet for a few seconds, trying to imagine this man that Addison was preparing to go out with. Violet's patient- did that mean he has a condition that requires him to be medicated for a psychiatric condition or was he just seeing her for therapy? Is he a safe person to have around their son? Would they get married eventually?

"Dad?" Christopher asked.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"Are we going to do anything fun when I come visit you?"

"Yeah, we'll do lots of fun things when you come to visit. We can do whatever you want," Derek answered. "Have you met the guy your mom is going to go out with?"

"No," Christopher shrugged. "But Coop lets me watch TV and stay up late. He's the best babysitter. Don't tell Mom."

The week dragged on slowly, the days blurring together with the same routines over and over. Derek spent most of his free time trying to picture the man that would possibly take his place by Addison's side; meanwhile for Addison, she'd spend her free time explaining to her why he couldn't watch episodes of Botched when though Uncle Mark says it's a good show.

When Friday night came, Christopher was ecstatic to get to the airport. He didn't complain about the traffic that plagued the drive there, or the longer than usual TSA line to get into the terminal. He was as well behaved and happy as ever during the flight until they landed in Seattle, came out toward the luggage claim and he realized his father wasn't anywhere to be seen. Instead there was a man in a suit holding a sign with his mother's name on it.

"Dad's not picking us up?" he asked as his mother approached the man to identify herself.

"No, he said he had an emergency case come up. He will come see you as soon as he can," the driver told them, much to the child's dismay.

The suited man helped them take their bags to the car and drove them to their hotel. Christopher spent the whole drive staring out the window, slowly dozing off as they got closer to the hotel.

Addison softly caressed his cheek to wake him, "Christopher, honey, don't fall asleep we are almost at the hotel and you've gotten too big for me to carry you."

She ended up having to carry him anyway, relying on a bellhop to bring their bags to their room. She got her son settled in the bedroom of their suite before changing out of her clothes and into a ridiculously soft robe. She ordered herself room service, then jumped into the shower while she waited. As soon as she stepped a dripping wet foot outside the shower, she heard a knock on the door. She quickly towel dried her hair, wrapped the robe around herself and went to open the door.

To her surprise, standing on the other side was Derek. "I thought you were room service."

"Well, I know how much you like room service so I'll take that as a compliment."

Addison stepped out of the way so he could come into the room.

"I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up at the airport, I came as soon as I got out of work." he explained. "Where's Chris?"

"He's asleep. The excitement probably drained him out. He's in the room if you'd like to go see him."

Derek nodded, slowly tip-toeing into the bedroom to find his son asleep in the middle of the large bed. He carefully maneuvered to reach his son and placed a kiss on his forehead.

Christopher's eyes blinked open to see his dad over him.

"Go back to sleep, I'll be back tomorrow morning so we can spend the day together."

"Promise?" Christopher whispered sleepily.

"I promise."

Chris contently closed his eyes again and drifted off. Derek left the room to find Addison sitting on a couch flipping through channels in her robe with her room service order spread out on the coffee table in front of her.

"It's only been two weeks since I saw him but I feel like he's gotten bigger."

Addison laughed, "I doubt he's changed much in two weeks. Hey, I may have ordered too much. Do you want to stay and have a glass of wine and dinner?"

Derek looked at the three appetizers and the bottle of wine on the table. "No entree?"

"I just wanted something to munch on but I couldn't pick just one," she explained.

Derek nodded, taking a seat on the couch, but far enough to leave a respectable amount of space between them. "Is there a second wine glass?"

"I'll check the minibar. You find something good to watch," she told him as she went to check the mini-bar. She returned a minute later with a water glass. "This will have to do. Sorry, I didn't think you'd come by today or I would have told them to bring the bottle with two glasses."

"It's okay," he said, accepting the glass from her hand to pour himself wine.

"Did you find anything good?"

"Does Married With Children count as good TV?" Derek asked playfully.

"No."

Derek scrolled through the guide to find something to watch as they got settled on the couch in front of the TV with their dinner and shared the bottle of wine between them. She reached for a french fry and dipped it in ketchup before biting it in half, then dipping her second half in more ketchup to take another bite.

Derek reached over to her, wiping a crumb from the corner of her mouth. His eyes focused in on her lips and his head started pounding in his chest as he leaned closer. He wanted to stop himself, he knew he should stop himself and he froze halfway as his mind started racing. Then he felt her lips on his, she must have closed the distance left between them. His hand moved to her cheek, his heart still pounding away in his chest as he closed his eyes and tried to absorb the moment before it ended. He didn't even remember their last kiss before she left, he was hellbent on remembering this one.

As if guided by instinct, Addison's hands moved to the bottom of his t-shirt and she slowly hauled it upward. Once she had taken off his shirt, she opened her eyes to look at him, only to find him looking back at her.

She gave him a small smile, her hands moving down to his belt buckle to undo the clasp and pull it off. He took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest in the familiarity of the whole situation. Slowly, his hands moved to the terry cloth belt holding her robe closed. He tugged just slightly before it fell loose, exposing silky skin and a black bra. His breath caught in his throat as he looked up at her face.

"Addie," he breathed out nervously. Why are you nervous? You've done this before. You've seen her in less before. You know her body better than she does. "Addie, are you sure?"

"Take your jeans off," she whispered back, moving her attention to leave a trail of kisses on his neck.

He wasn't sure what had come over her and if she would regret her choices in the morning, he just knew that it felt right in the moment so he kicked off his jeans as she discarded the robe and he savored every second, he might not remember their last time before she left, but he was going to remember every detail of this time, just in case it would become their last.

Thanks for reading! Now give me a chance to do some reading with a nice, long review.