A/N:
So this chapter took much longer than expected. I got stuck and had no idea how to explore the plot twist you're about to encounter. Hopefully it came out okay. Next chapter is already about half done so hopefully it won't take as long. I'm determined to finish this story in the foreseeable future lol.
Derek grabbed his coffee from the barista and took a seat at a corner table in the coffee shop before taking the latest issue of a medical journal out of his briefcase. He had just barely gotten through the abstract of the first study when he heard someone exclaim, he noticed a woman standing by his table. He looked up from the journal and gave her a smile, waiting for her to say something.
"I uh, think you grabbed my coffee," she told him with a chuckle. She turned the cup in her hand around for Derek to see his name on the side of it.
Derek turned his own cup to see "Der" written on the side. "Oh, sorry. I thought they just rushed out half my name."
"That's okay. My name is Dereana but no one ever gets that right so I just go by Der," she explained as she held his coffee out to him.
Derek held up the cup on his table for her to take. "Luckily, you caught me before I took the first sip."
"Thanks, Derek. Sorry about the mix up,"
"No, I'm sorry," he said kindly as she turned around. He wasn't expecting it when she suddenly turned back.
"Do you mind if I join you?"
Derek felt his heart speed up just a little bit. "No, not at all."
The woman pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. She glanced at the medical journal on the table. "What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a neurosurgeon."
"Oh. Wow," her brows went up in surprise. "You don't randomly meet neurosurgeons in coffee shops too often."
Derek chuckled. "What do you do?"
"I'm an accountant." she replied. "I work just a few blocks from here."
"Oh, me too. At Seattle Grace," Derek told the woman. "Where do you work?"
"I too am with Seattle Grace. I'm in the finance department, revenue cycle to be specific."
"Oh, I didn't even know our admin team was in the same building."
"Well, on the same property but it's the building across the parking lot. Though I think there is some admin staff in the basement too. It's a huge hospital, who can keep track?"
Derek chuckled and nodded, "You're right about that."
"Are you from around here?"
"No, I'm from New York. You?"
"Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Originally from Bothell but just the job prospects are better here."
Derek nodded, "Yeah, I haven't spent much time in Bothell but it seems quite small."
"Well, compared to New York everything out here must feel small."
New York, admittedly, is a huge city. He moved there for medical school and immediately met the woman who would become his wife. He built his life in New York with her. It became his home (with her). Then their relationship ended and New York went from feeling like a massive city, to a tiny town. He felt like he was suffocating and everywhere he looked only reminded him of his wife. He had to get out and he had to do it quickly. Of course, he wasn't about to admit this to woman he just met so he nodded his head and smile, "When you live there long enough, you start to realize New York is not as big as people think," he said in response.
Dereana cleared her throat nervously. "I'm usually not this forward but uh, you seem like a good guy. Would you like to have dinner sometime?"
Derek hesitated for just a split second before meeting her eyes and nodding his head. "I would like that."
"There is an Italian place on close to the hospital. I can't remember the name. It's the one that hand makes their pasta daily. Do you know it?"
He did know it. Addison had discovered it while she was living in Seattle with him. It was one of few place Christ would eat all of his food without giving them a hard time. He hadn't gone back since the last time he was there with his family. "I do know it. Something Osteria."
"Yeah, that's the one! Maybe we can meet there Friday night at 8:00?"
Derek scrunched his nose, "No, I can't Friday. Surgery at 5:00. I doubt I'll make it by 8:00. Can we do Saturday?"
"Sure. Saturday at 8:00?"
He nodded. "Sounds perfect."
"Dr. Montgomery?" a nurse popped her head into the kitchen with a chart in her hand. "You have a new patient in your office. I wanted to take her to an exam room but she said she wants to talk to you in your office first."
"Oh," Addison's brows came together. She reached for the chart the nurse was holding out to her and looked at the name on the tab. Allison Montgomery. She swallowed nervously before heading toward her office to see a woman just a few years older than her sitting in front of her desk. She took a breath and stepped in to greet the woman. "Hi, I'm Dr. Addison Montgomery," she introduced, holding out her hand to shake the other woman's.
"Hi. I'm Allison Montgomery. Interesting coincidence, I guess."
"My nurse said you wanted to speak to me?"
"Yes, I recently got some unsettling news so I wanted to get a second opinion."
"Okay," Addison nodded, taking a seat across the desk in her chair. So she's not here to confront me. Great. She thought to herself.
"I had fertility tests done a few months ago at a clinic close by and they told me the results were normal and that I can still conceive. My husband and I have been trying for months now and it hasn't happened but my gynecologist kept telling me to keep trying and the tests were fine. Now they say the lab mixed up my results with someone else and that I have no fertility potential."
Addison followed the story as if she didn't already know it.
"So I did some research and read great things about you and wanted to see if you might be able to help."
Addison nodded, "Of course," she agreed easily. She could easily get through this appointment without identifying herself, right? There's not need to disclose to her patient that she's pregnant and on the other end of the unimaginable swap in test results.
"But, I have to warn you, after my last experience, I have trust issues with this kind of stuff. I just don't understand how a lab could mix up blood samples and how my doctor didn't notice before giving me the wrong results. It's just...it makes you question every test result you've ever gotten from a doctor."
Addison nodded her head, "I understand."
"You can't. You're a doctor. You automatically have a bias."
Don't do this, Addison. Don't overshare. You don't have to. Just promise her you won't let the same mistake happen twice and get through this without saying anything. She kept telling herself that but the words spill out regardless, "I understand because I've been where you are." Great, way to go. Do you want to tell her the results of your last urine analysis too?
"You have? So this is common?!"
"No, no. I uh, I'm the person they swapped your results with. I got your results and you got mine."
"Oh," the woman's face fell, a frown quickly appearing on her lips. "How do you know?"
"I was told it was someone with the same birthday and a similar name. You have the same birthday and a similar name. The lab got confused by it."
"Oh," the woman repeated. "How did you find out? This test was months ago. How did it come out now?"
Addison took a deep breath, "I found out I'm pregnant and I was shocked because I thought I was infertile. I asked my doctor how something like that could happen after she told me it would be impossible and she went back and noticed the mistake."
"You're pregnant." The woman repeated in shock.
Addison slowly nodded her head. "I am."
Allison glanced at Addison's left hand, noting the absence of a ring. "You're not even married."
"I'm recently divorced, but the baby is my ex-husband's so it's a little complicated."
"He left you when he thought you were infertile?"
"No. I was tested after the divorce. The pregnancy was just…" Addison paused, "It was just us falling back into old habits." Why are you sharing all of this personal information with your patient?! What's next, are you planning on giving her the details of how the conception happened?
"That one time?"
Addison shifted in her chair uncomfortably. "I-" she hesitated to continue, and luckily didn't have to when the woman across from her spoke up with another question.
"Is it your first?"
"No. Our second. We already have an 8 year old son."
The woman suddenly got up from her chair. "I can't do this," she muttered before leaving Addison's office as quickly as her legs could carry her away.
Addison jumped out of her seat and quickly followed the woman, "Look, I understand if you're upset with me. I'm upset with myself, if I'm being honest. But, if you're willing to look over that, I would really like to help you and I know that I can."
Allison shook her head, "I can't right now."
When she got home after work, she had hoped for a relatively calm evening so she could get some rest. After having a thankfully uneventful dinner with her son, she checked his homework and gave him some time to play or watch TV.
After an incredibly long, difficult week, Addison felt the exhaustion and loneliness consuming her. She found herself in bed early on a Saturday night calling her ex-husband just out of sheer need to speak to someone and express her emotions. Not knowing who else to turn to, she called her ex-husband.
"Is everything okay with Chris?" Derek asked as soon as he heard her voice.
"Yeah, he's fine. Why would you think something is up with him?"
"You just normally don't call me, that's all. I assumed it was an emergency," he admitted.
"It's not. I just had a rough week at work and I just wanted to talk to someone about it. I didn't know who else to call."
"Oh," Derek, who was on his first date with the woman he had met at the coffee shop, awkwardly cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, now's not actually a good time for me. Can I call you later?"
Addison wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Derek had accused her of never being the one to reach out to him, of not caring to keep in touch with him in matters unrelated to their son. Now, here she was, reaching out to him for support, and he didn't have the time for her. Just like when they were still married.
"No, that's okay. You don't have to call me later," she told him. "I'll let you get back to your night. Bye." she hung up before he could say anything else.
Meanwhile, Derek turned his attention back to his date. "Sorry about that, I thought it might be an emergency?"
"Oh, was that the classic first date emergency call?" the woman asked with a chuckle.
"No, no, it wasn't. I didn't plan that," he assured. "I'm a surgeon, I get emergency calls multiple times a day so I just assume most of my calls are emergencies. It's not a great habit."
"So you answer every call no matter what?" she wondered.
Derek thought back to the many, many phone calls from Addison that he ignored over the years. "No, there have been times I didn't answer," he replied vaguely. "I was too busy with something that I thought was more important."
"Oh. Do you still think it was more important?"
Derek considered the question for a second. If he could go back, would he still choose to ignore his wife's calls while he was working later than he had to? "No, now I think the calls would have been more important. Which is why I try to answer all of my calls now."
His date nodded in understanding. "Luckily CPAs don't really have that issue. At least I don't, I suppose I can't speak on behalf of all CPAs."
Derek nodded, "I'm sure plenty get middle of the night phone calls about tax deductions," he joked then immediately felt stupid. What else do CPAs do, he wondered to himself.
At the end of the night, he walked the woman to her car and opened the door for her. When she leaned closer, he froze and reached in for a hug.
"I was actually going for a kiss," she told him with an awkward chuckle. She planted a kiss on his lips and Derek felt his heart starting to pound in his chest. "Do you want to come back to my place?"
"Your place?" Derek repeated nervously.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "Look, Derek, we're not kids anymore. I'm in my early forties. You're probably right around there with me. I don't have time to waste. I feel like this date went well and I'd like to see where it goes from it. And I think it would be great if it went to my place."
Derek nodded, "Okay." Is now a good time to mention my ex-wife is pregnant with my child? He wondered to himself.
The next morning, after getting home from his night with Dereana, Derek started brewing himself coffee and sat down with his phone in his hand as he waited. He called his ex-wife and as soon as she answered, he said, "Hey, sorry I couldn't talk yesterday. I was busy."
"Daddy?" Christopher spoke up excitedly from the other end. "It's me, not Mommy. I saw your name on her phone so I picked it up."
A part of him felt relief to hear his son on the other end of the line instead of his mother. "Hey, bud. How's your weekend?"
"Good! Yesterday Mom bought me a new video game! I got to stay up and play as much as I wanted cuz she was tired and wanted to go to bed. I stayed up until midnight!"
"Wow. That's late."
"Yeah, it was. Mom fell asleep before me! I had fun. And it's a weekend so Mom said it was okay just this one time."
"She's right. You can't make staying up so late a habit."
"Don't worry. I won't."
"Speaking of your mom, where is she?" Derek asked his son.
"She's throwing up."
Derek frowned. "Can you please ask her to call me when she can?"
Christopher agreed and quickly hung up to get back to his new video game. When his mother was no longer locked in the bathroom, the message was long forgotten and the only thing on Christopher's mind when he saw his mother was, "What's for breakfast?"
Derek stood in line at the cafeteria when he noticed the familiar person in front of him in line. "Richard," he spoke up for the older man's attention. "Hey, just noticed that's you."
"Derek," Richard replied in response.
"I'm seeing someone."
"Okay..." Richard trailed off, raising a brow. "I wasn't going to ask you out," he assured.
"I'm just...nervous about it. I haven't told anyone," Derek admitted. "We've just been on one date. I met her at a coffee shop but she works here," Derek rambled.
"Well, good. I think it's important for you to try to move on. I thought you were still stuck on Addison, but clearly, you're ready to move forward."
"Addison is pregnant." Derek blurted out again.
Richard gave Derek a curious look, "Okay, I was not expecting that either. Are you two in competition to see who can move on the fastest?"
"No, we're not. It's my baby."
"You're baby..." Richard repeated. "And now you're seeing someone else and Addison is carrying your baby and mothering your child..."
"Yes."
"Does she know about this woman you're seeing?"
"No."
"Do you see that ending well?"
"She told me she doesn't want me to become any more involved in her life than I already am. I kept telling her I want to move and be there for her and that I want a real chance and she kept brushing me off. I can't just spend the rest of my life chasing after her."
"So you started dating someone to prove that point to Addison?" Richard asked.
Derek shook his head, "No, of course not. Dereana just happened."
"Dereana?"
"You know her? She works for our Finance department."
"No, I don't know her. But Derek and Dereana? You can't be serious. It sounds like you're making her up. You must be making this whole thing up," Richard told him surely before stepping up to the register to order his coffee.
Derek took a step forward with him. "I'm not making her up!"
"Okay, Derek, why are you so adamant on telling me?" Richard asked, then turned to the barista to double his order for Derek.
"Because I need help. I need someone to tell me I'm doing the right thing by letting myself move on with someone while Addison has tiny reminders of me in her house and in her body. It's not fair, right? I mean, it's not like dating while pregnant is a desirable quality so she's probably stuck for a while and here I am getting laid on the first date."
"Okay, that was more than I needed to know," Richard muttered, grabbing the two coffees from the bar and handing one to Derek. "On the first date though? Really? Good for you."
"Addison's going to hate me more than she already does."
"She will probably be annoyed to hear the news. But, Derek, you're divorced and it's time to move on so she doesn't get a say," he shrugged. "Stop worrying and just enjoy things as they come."
Plot twist! (insert upside down smiley face emoji here)