Recovery

Part VI

Addison and Mark entered Seattle Grace walking arm and arm and laughing he had taken her to a little waterfront café he had discovered the last time he was in town. "Oh come on you can't be serious," she laughed.

"I swear to God I'm not lying," he grinned at her, he loved the sound of her laugh. "Call Shelia, she was there she will tell you exactly the same thing."

Derek was standing by the nurse's station and was attracted by Addison's laughter. It had been a longtime since he had heard her laugh, he tried to remember. He smiled when he did, it was the morning of their bad sex, and the smile was quickly erased from his face. He frowned as he continued to watch Addison and Mark's progression down the hall. He frowned even harder when Meredith walked up to Addison.

"Did you call Aubrey yet?" Mark asked.

"No, I know she will be disappointed I won't be able to make it for her graduation. Hopefully I can make it up to her some other way. I figured I'd wait until I looked at Mrs. Ryan's ultrasound before calling her so I'd have more time to talk to her."

"Dr. Montgomery?" Meredith said as she extended a file to Addison, "Here are the results of the Ryan ultrasound. Marsha is waiting on fifth in exam room two."

"Thank you Dr. Grey," she said taking the file from Meredith. She turned to Mark and said, "Thanks for lunch." She gave him a kiss on his cheek, "I'll get back to you later about dinner."

He smiled and said, "Okay let me know what you want, it's your turn to pick."

Addie turned and headed toward the elevators; she stopped and turned, "Grey are you coming?" Surprised that Addison wanted her to join her Meredith ran to catch up with Addison and then fell into step with her.

Mark smiled as he watched Addie walk away. He was so intent on watching Addie's departure, that he didn't notice Derek walk up to him; he got into Mark's face, "Are you sleeping with my wife again?" Derek asked angrily.

"She's not your wife anymore," Mark replied.

"Well?"

"What Addison and I do now is none of your damn business Derek," he started to walk away, but Derek grabbed his arm.

He stopped and turned and looked Derek in the eye and said in a low precise voice, "Let go of my arm right now," his eyes narrowed. Derek immediately let go, "Derek why the hell do you give a shit if Addison and I are sleeping together now? When you didn't give a damn when you were married to her?" Derek took a swing at Mark, but he was expecting it and he ducked the punch. Derek stood there without saying a word, "Do Addie a favor and leave her the hell alone. She's trying to move on, and it's not easy for her after the number you pulled on her." Mark grabbed him by the collar and pulled his fist back to punch Derek. But he stopped and said; "Addie was right. You aren't worth it," he let go, turned and walked away.

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Addison entered Beth Ryan's room, followed closely by Meredith. She had noticed this time; a man was in the room as well, most likely Mr. Ryan. "Good Afternoon Beth, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Grey. She will be assisting me on your case." Beth introduced them to her husband Nick, they all exchanged hellos. Addison briefly went over Beth's condition with Mr. Ryan after Beth asked her to explain what was going on to her husband, then she continued, "After reviewing your ultrasound, we now have a course of action to take. I would like to start you on the Corticosteroid treatment this evening. As I told you before, this will allow your baby's lungs to develop and give him a better chance of breathing on his own after he is born. After a twenty-four hour period has passed, then we will do another ultrasound and see how things have progressed." She smiled down at Beth and gave her a moment to take things in, then asked, "Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Beth replied timidly. "Will this treatment harm the baby or me?" Nick took his wife's hand and looked on with concern. Addison carefully went over the benefits and risks of this treatment, and answered all the concerns of both Mr. and Mrs. Ryan.

"Okay," Addie announced. "If you have no further concerns, we will get started."

Both Mr. and Mrs. Ryan nodded in agreement, "Okay then, its very simple we will give you the steroid via IV. Dr. Grey will get you set up and monitor your progress." Addison shook both Mr. and Mrs. Ryan's hands, "Very good, if you have any other questions or concerns feel free to ask Dr. Grey or have someone page me. I will see you in the morning," with that she exited the room.

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Addison stood outside the exam room; Mark was with a new patient. A young woman named Jane Moore and her son Billy. She waited at the door for him to finish with his patient.

"Ms. Moore typically we would have operated on Billy during his first year," Mark reached over and ruffled the three year old boy's hair. Billy looked up at him with bright eyes. The boy had a birth defect, a cleft lip and palate, the family was uninsured and that was why the boy hadn't had his defect fixed already. The child's case was brought to his attention by Amy Adams. Ms. Adams worked for the foundation Mark was affiliated with, the foundation helped pay the expenses of children in need of reconstructive surgery.

"Dr. Sloan I know Billy should have had the operation already, but since we are uninsured. We were never able to afford the surgery," Jane explained.

Mark looked at the young boy and smiled, "And that is why you are here, Ms. Adams sent me your son's file. Please relax; the foundation will cover all your son's expenses." Mark continued with an explanation of what would be involved for the operation. He rose when he finished, shook Jane's hand and said, "We will get Billy admitted this evening. I'll have his surgery scheduled for first thing in the morning."

"Thank you Dr. Sloan."

"You're welcome Ms. Moore." And to Billy, "I'll see you in the morning," he said with a smile.

He exited the room and found Addison standing there. "Hey there, did you decide on what you wanted for dinner?"

"I was thinking Chinese." She hesitated, "I was hoping for an early evening."

"Sounds good to me, I have an early surgery tomorrow," he said with a smile.

"Great," she smiled at him, and then she became more serious, "Time to go find Derek and update him on Mrs. Ryan."

"Good luck," she leaned over to kiss him on the lips without thinking, but as she pulled away and they locked eyes, she felt something she couldn't quite explain. She broke eye contact first, and took a step back.

"I'll . . . see you later," she managed to get out. She turned and left to find Derek, that didn't take very long, since he was down the hall at the nurse's station.

Derek watched Addison and Mark's exchange down the hall from him. When he noticed Addison coming his way, he quickly looked back down at the chart.

Addison approached Derek at the nurse's station. She was all business as she spoke to Derek, "I just wanted you to know that I've started Mrs. Ryan on a steroid protocol. We will be monitoring her through the night and will do another ultrasound tomorrow afternoon, if everything goes as planned. I will schedule her for a c-section the morning after the second ultrasound."

"Thank you Addison," he looked up at her expectantly.

"Do you need anything else?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"Are you and Mark sleeping together?" he evenly asked.

She was stunned; she reached out and slapped him across the face. "How dare you ask me that?"

Derek rubbed his cheek and looked down, "I'm sorry, I had no right to ask you that."

She gave him a curt nod and turned and stormed away from him.

Addison couldn't believe his nerve, how dare he ask her such a question? It was none of damn his business. She saw Miranda approaching her, "You look like you are ready strangle someone."

"I am, my ex," she sounded exasperated. "I can't believe his nerve."

She stood back with raised eyebrows, "What did the rat bastard do now?"

"He had the nerve to ask me if I am sleeping with Mark."

"I hope you told him it was none of his damn business."

"Damn straight I did," she said with a nod.

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"It's okay Aunt Addie," she heard her niece say on the other end of the phone. Addison sat back in her chair as she listened to her niece, "I totally understand. After all both my parents are doctors, so I know sometimes you can't get away because of a patient."

They chatted awhile about all the activities going on with her up coming graduation. Then she brought up something that happened with her friends, "They were making fun of me, because I never really kissed a boy."

"Well you're thirteen; lots of people haven't kissed yet at that age. I know I didn't kiss a boy when I was thirteen," She reassured her niece.

"Well Ritchie, the boy all the girls think is hot, made it a little better though; he told me that he only ever kissed a girl once, so he thought it was cool that I never kissed a boy."

"That was a really nice thing to say."

"Aunt Addie can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"How old were you the first time you really kissed a boy?"

"Sixteen."

"Really?" she sounded shocked.

"Really and it was awful," she laughed.

"Who did you kiss and why was it so awful?

"Well his name was Skippy Gold; he was my lab partner for chemistry. I thought he was really cute and my girl friends thought he was kind of nerdy. He played the trombone in band and unfortunately, he had braces just like me."

"Unfortunately?" asked curiously, "Why what happened?"

"Yeah he kissed me outside chemistry class, and well, our braces locked. It was pretty embarrassing. The custodian used a pair of pliers to get us apart." She could hear her niece laughing across the line.

"Hey!" she yelled with mock hurt, "It wasn't funny, I was mortified."

"I'm . . . I'm . . . sorry," Aubrey got out in between fits of laughter.

Aubrey sobered and asked, "Aunt Addie I know I wasn't supposed to come for my two week visit this summer, but since you can't come for my graduation . . ."

"Oh the guilt," she laughed. "Of course Aubrey, things have changed. So absolutely, I'll talk to your mom and dad and find out what will be a good time."

"Seriously?" she said excitedly.

"Seriously," Addison's pager went off. "Okay squirt, I just got paged, so I have to go now. I love you."

"I love you too, Aunt Addie and thanks for the laugh," she giggled.

"You're welcome I'm glad the horrors of my youth could cheer you up," she could hear the laughter through the phone line again, "Bye sweetie."

"Bye" with that she hung up.

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