Recovery

Part III

The rumor mills were running rampant through out the hospital ever since the memo was sent out that Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd was going to be referred to as Dr. Montgomery from now on. A group of nurses were gossiping about the memo in the cafeteria.

"I heard from her secretary that she was out of town for the next three days," one said.

"I heard she went to Santo Domingo to get a quickie divorce," another said.

"I heard she found Dr. McDreamy and Grey getting it on in the exam room," Said another.

"Yeah, I heard she found them and ran straight for Dr. McSteamy," another piped in.

"You think she and McSteamy have been together all along?" another asked curiously.

Unbeknownst to the group of gossips, Mark Sloan was leaning against the wall listening to their chatter. Mark had talked to Addie that morning, and she told him that she hated the idea that the hospital would be gossiping about Derek and Meredith and how pathetic she was. Mark told her she was in no way pathetic and no one would think that of her. He frowned; he hated the idea that Addie was going to come back to this. He had enough, he pushed off the wall and headed toward the gossiping nurses.

"Ladies," he interrupted.

They all looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Dr. Sloan," the group murmured.

"If you really want to know what's going on just ask."

"Well," one nurse asked.

"Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Shepherd are getting divorced. They are not blaming each other for the end of their marriage. They simply decided that they couldn't work things out after all, and decided it was for the best to end things." He added, "And for the record, Dr. Montgomery and I are only friends. I have too much respect for her to ever hurt her again," he started to walk away, but squat down next to the ladies, "But when Dr. Montgomery is ready to move on and have a relationship with me, you'll be the first to know," he winked and went on his way.

The women started to fan themselves one said, "Definitely Dr. McSteamy." They all agreed.

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Addison steeled herself; it was almost noon, time to go find her mother. She exited the elevator and saw her mother across the lobby; she was standing by the line of windows staring off into the distance.

Addison studied her mother for a moment, she was a good four inches shorter then her, her short hair was elegantly styled, and was now platinum blonde. She had started turning gray a number of years ago and decided to go blonde, instead of keeping her original red that she had shared with her daughter. Her mother looked amazing for her age; she had turned sixty-three earlier that year. She was still thin and very fit; she worked out with a personal trainer every morning. She was wearing a yellow floral sundress, and she smiled to herself when she noticed, a pair of four inch, strappy heals. Her mother turned and looked in her direction. She took a deep breath, exhaled, put a smile on her face and headed toward her mother.

She held her arms out as she approached gave her a big smile and said, "Mom." The women hugged tightly.

Madeline Montgomery hugged her daughter then held her back at arms length so she could get a better look at her daughter. She pursed her lips and shook her head, "I can see you have not been getting enough sleep." She frowned with concern, "You poor thing, look at the bags under yours eyes and you have gotten much too thin." She then smiled, "After lunch we will make an appointment with the spa and fix you right up. We are going to get the works," she beamed.

"Gee thanks mom," she shook her head at her mother, but was smiling. "I didn't realize I needed fixing up," she laughed.

"By the way, I took the liberty of changing your room," she smiled up at her daughter.

"You what?" she asked in surprised

"I change your room to a two bedroom suite; they should be moving your things as we speak."

"Mom," she complained.

"Hey, I thought it would be fun if we shared a suite," she smiled brighter.

"Okay," Addie relented. "It probably would be fun," she gave her mother another hug.

"Are ready for lunch? I made a reservation at Brasserie," Addie nodded. "Okay let's go then," Madeline linked her arm with her daughter's and guided her to the restaurant.

The hostess showed them to their table, they seated themselves. They only had to wait a moment for the waiter to arrive and ask if they would like anything to drink. They both order an iced tea.

Madeline paused for the waiter to leave before talking again. A look of concern crossed her face as she studied her daughter, "Okay now tell me what's going on." She reached across the table for her hand, "I thought things were getting better between you and Derek." She gave her hand a little squeeze.

Addie gave her mother a weak smile. "I thought so too," she hesitated and bit her lower lip. "I was wrong," she closed her eyes and tried to maintain her composure. She was frustrated she didn't know where to begin. She dropped her head back and let out a sigh, "God I am so stupid."

"Hey," her mom said gently as she gave her hand a squeeze. "You are not stupid," she looked intently at her daughter. "There is nothing wrong with trying to working things out with your husband, before tossing a marriage away," she gave her hand another squeeze. "Now if you don't want to tell me what happened, I will understand," she gave her a reassuring smile. "Just knowing you decided to end things is good enough for me. Just know I am here to listen," she tilted her head, "Sometimes it's good to get it all out."

The waiter arrived with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order, they both ordered seared Ahi Tuna with a Caribbean salsa. Addie hesitated until the waiter left.

"What do you say we table this discussion for now," she gave her mother a weak smile. "I promise I will go into more detail this evening, after dinner," she said with a nod. "Now tell me how Benton, Maura and the kids are. I need to hear something happy for a change."

Benton was Addison's older brother; he was a surgeon as well, cardiology was his specialty. His wife Maura was a pediatrician. They had two children, their son Morgan was twenty was pre-med. Their daughter Aubrey was thirteen, and she was getting ready to graduate the eighth grade.

"Did you talk to Maura about coming out for Aubrey's graduation?" her mother asked.

"I did, it's on my schedule I already it cleared it with Richard, so I will definitely be there."

"Oh, you missed it we had them over last weekend, we were serving fondue and Aubrey starting telling about how she had watched a program about fondue and they were using very weird items to dip in the sauce, and she said they even dipped a pickled. Then Maura pipes in I wouldn't want to dip a pickle. And Aubrey gave Maura a sheepish look and said Mom, that kind of sounds dirty."

Addie burst out into laughter. Leave it to her niece; she always had a way of saying something to make her laugh.

Madeline smiled at her daughter; it was good to see her laugh. "And Maura was so flustered, she said I wasn't even going there, but oh my god you are right. It does sound a little dirty, now that I think about it, but I certainly wasn't expecting my thirteen year old daughter to point it out to me." They both laughed again, "Aubrey then proceeded to tell her mother that she was in junior high, their mind always goes there." The women continued with their laughter.

Their waiter approached with there food, he smiled at the laughing women as he placed a plate in front of each then asked if they needed anything else. "Enjoy," he said and he was off.

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Mark and Miranda where having lunch together, she had been concerned about Addie and wanted to ask Mark how she was doing. She was sure he had talked to her since she left to file for the divorce.

"So, have you heard from Addie yet?" she inquired.

He nodded, "I talked to her just a little while ago; she had just finished at the courthouse and was getting ready to have lunch with her mother."

"Lunch with her mother?" she looked surprised. "I didn't realized she was going down there with her mother."

"She didn't either," he grinned. "It seems Madeline called her office and her secretary told her Addie was in Santo Domingo. Once she found that out, she was on the next plane."

They laughed.

Mark noticed out of the corner of his eye Derek chasing Meredith Grey; he shook his head with a frown and Miranda followed where his gaze lead, she frowned shook her head as well.

Derek chased Meredith into the elevator. She sighed and ignored him. He stood next to her silently staring at her, giving her his puppy dog eyes, trying to get her to break and say something to him. She continued to ignore him. The doors to the elevator slid open once more and Meredith quickly exited the elevator without a word. Derek slumped against the back of the elevator, he looked completely dejected.

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Madeline and Addison had spent the day at the spa getting as Madeline put it the works, which included a pedicure, manicure, facial and massage. Madeline continued to entertain her daughter with the antics of her niece. It had made her miss her niece even more, she was so glad she would be heading to Denver in two weeks.

They decided on room service instead of going out. They sat on the balcony with a light tropical breeze blowing on them. They had just finished up with their meal and chatted over their wine. "What do you say we move inside and I will tell you more about Derek and my split?"

Madeline nodded to her daughter and picked up the bottle of Shiraz and said, "Shall we?" They returned to the suite. Madeline set the bottle of wine on the coffee table and settled herself on the couch next to her daughter, they both got comfortable.

"Ok," she gave her daughter a comforting smile, "Tell me all about it."

Addie closed her eyes and swallowed. "I couldn't compete," she simply stated.

Madeline kept a neutral look on her face and allowed her to continue. She didn't want to show Addie her true feelings, she was furious, what the hell does she mean she couldn't compete?

"Before I arrived in Seattle," she winced, "Derek met someone else." She paused again, this was harder then she expected. She gave her mother another weak smile, "As you already know I went to Seattle fully intending to divorce Derek." Her mother gave her a slight nod, "I only told you that after talking with Derek, we decided to try and work things out." She sighed. "What I didn't tell you," she paused again. "I didn't tell you Derek had started a new relationship. I gave him a chance to get out. I told him that I didn't want him if he did want me," she shrugged. "I gave him a choice and he chose to stay with me and try to get to where we were before." She looked down and shook her head. "The only problem was, he still wanted to be with her. I allowed him to treat me like crap for the last six months because I thought I deserved it." She could feel the tears burn the back of her eyes.

"Honey," Madeline started, but she raised her hand to stop her.

She shrugged again, "I thought if I just continued to take what he dished out, he would finally feel I had enough and forgive me." She closed her eyes and swallowed, "I was wrong, he never had any plans to forgiving me." She gave her a slight smile and a shrug the tears glistened in her eyes. "He wants to be with her, not me. All this time he didn't end it because he didn't want to be the bad guy. It was all about him making himself look like the good guy, so people would say what a guy, his wife cheats on him with his best friend and he tries to work it out. He was waiting all this time for me to end it, so he could say at least I tried." She shook her head again, "God I am such an idiot."

"Hey," she said softly, giving her daughter's hand a little shake, "It takes two to make a marriage work and it takes two to destroy one." She gave her a little smile, "You tried. It's not your fault he didn't really want to try. You can't blame yourself for that." She said a little sterner, "Yes, you were wrong to have an affair with Mark." She shot a hurt look at her mother, "But that being said, Derek was no saint either. I was there remember? I saw how he was never there. All those holidays you spent with us, with Derek nowhere to be seen? Derek would always be working, but Mark was there. I saw how much it hurt him to see you being hurt by Derek. The affair definitely shouldn't have happened, but I understand how badly you were hurting. We all did except for Derek." She continued more sympathetic, "Derek never should have said he was going to try, if he had no intention in putting an effort into your relationship and moving on. He should have given you your freedom and let you start rebuilding." She gave her a closed mouth smile, her eyes sparkled. "So its six months later its time to move on," she said with a nod.

She looked up at her mom gave her a weak smile, "Right, time to move on."

They clink glasses and her mother said, "To moving on."

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