Disclaimer: None of the Grey's Anatomy characters belong to me. This is a sequel to "When Do You Realise?"
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"You're awake." he smiled, leaning against the doorway with his arms folded in front of his chest. Addison stirred, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. "What?" she muttered, flipping over and reached out for the clock by the bedside. She bolted up immediately at the sight of the time. "Nine O'Clock!" she shrieked, turning to Derek. "What are you still doing here, Derek? What are we still doing here? Why didn't you wake me up!" she panicked, throwing the covers away and slotted her feet into the warm, fluffy bedroom slippers. She stood up, immediately feeling the room spin around her. She pressed a hand to her forehead and shut her eyes, letting out a frustrated groan. "I was waiting for this." Derek spoke, making his way into the room and laid his wife back down in bed. She frowned, opening her eyes again once she feel her head hit the pillow. "Don't gloat." she warned, rubbing her forehead gently.
"I've been waiting for this moment," he repeated. "Where your body tells you that you need rest and for me to tell you that the chief had given you a day off." he explained, pulling the covers over her body. "You told the chief to give me a day off!" she demanded. Unbelievable Derek placed a finger lightly on her lips before she could go on. "Yes, I did. You collapsed." he said, making his way towards the small kitchen of the trailer. "I'm fine, Derek. A shower, coffee, and I'm good to go." she said, ready to push herself up again. But Derek came back, a tray in his hands. "Bacon and eggs--sunny sideup. Your favourite. And I made you hot chocolate." he announced, flashing his wife a smile before settling the breakfast set onto her lap. "Thank you." she whispered, returning a genuine smile, then buried her head into her husband's shoulder as he slided into the bed right next to her.
"You know, you should really go. You're late. Very late. Richard will kill you." Addison said after a short moment of silence, inserting a piece of egg into her mouth. "Richard will understand. And Richard gave me the day off--to look after you." Derek said, wrapping his arm around her and stroked her red hair downwards. I never realise how much I miss doing this until now. he thought secretly. They used to wake up early and cuddle in bed in silence just for awhile before they go to work, or just before they both fall asleep in each other's arms. And he missed that. Addison looked up at him, pulling away from his embrace.
"Go to work, Derek." she said flatly. "Really, I'll be fine. If you're not going, then I'm going. I really really don't need the day off but you know what Richard will do if I show up at the hospital." At the sight of Doc pacing outside their room, Addison beckoned him to enter. He leaped up onto the bed, allowing his mistress to feed him a slice of bacon. "Besides, Doc can keep me company. Right, Doc?" she reassured Derek, rubbing her pet on the top of his head.
Derek sighed. "Alright. Only because you asked." he gave in, slipping out of bed. But before he headed into the bathroom, Derek turned around, leaned forward and gave his wife a deep kiss.
"Don't steal all her food, Doc." Derek warned his pet as he pulled away from the kiss, patting its head.
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Derek made his way as discretely as possible down the hallway, his hands behind the back of his head tying the knot to his bandana as he headed to the board.
"Derek!" a voice called out. Just what I need. Derek thought, then turned around with a smile on his face. "Chief! Good morning." he greeted, then turned and walked into the opposite direction.
"What are you doing here? Didn't I give you the day off to look after your wife?" he asked, falling into pace beside Derek. "Richard, you know how Addison is." he explained, stopping to face the chief of surgery. Richard drew in a deep breathe and placed his hands on his hips. "Fine. But only because she asked you to."
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"Meredith..." George started, barely keeping up with her as his crush pushed open the door to the locker room. "Meredith!" he tried again, making his way around her and stopping in front of her. She looked at him, but George just stared up at her. "What!" she demanded, opening her locker door. "Are you...are you ok?"
"George!" a voice hissed. He turned around, his eyes falling onto Izzie and Alex hiding behind the other row of lockers. "What?" he mouthed. They waved, beckoning him towards them. George took another look at non-responding Meredith before crossing over the bench, towards his fellow interns. As he neared, Izzie reached out and dragged him over. "Did Meredith say anything?" she asked, her eyes widened in curiosity. George frowned. "No. Why would she say anything to me? She never talks to me. You should ask Cristina instead." he said, shaking himself of Izzie's grip and headed straight out of the locker room. Alex and Izzie exchanged confused glances for a moment before heading out.
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"Yang." Dr. Burke instructed. Cristina flipped open the patient's chart and started introducing his medical condition, medical history and the procedures to locate the cause of problem. Preston nodded. "You're on this case, with..." Burke looked up, all the interns' hands shot up. "Grey. Where's Grey?" he asked, then from the room's entrance, Meredith walked in, apologetic. "You're late, Dr. Grey." Burke commented as a matter of factly. "Sorry." she muttered, falling in position with the rest of the interns.
"Grey, you're with Yang. Page me when the X-ray is out arrive." he instructed, shutting the chart and headed out of the room.
"He's not taking over Bailey, is he?" Izzie whispered, leaning towards Alex. "I sure hope not. Or it'd mean that Cristina will get all the good cases." Alex whispered back.
"Dr. Karev." Preston said, turning around, startling the three of them into a halt. "Room 5. The patient needs a checkup. O'Malley, you're with me today. Stevens, go look for Dr. Shepherd."
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"Dr. Shepherd?" Izzie called out, jogging towards Derek. "Yes?" he acknowledged, not looking up from his chart. "Uhm, have you seen the other Dr. Shepherd? I'm assigned to her." she explained. Derek looked up with a smile. "You're with me today, Stevens. The other Dr. Shepherd has a day off."
"Oh."
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Addison separated the pile of bacon into two, pushing one towards Doc as he laid there at the edge of the bed. "There you go." she coaxed. Doc lifted his head, dipped down and snatched the bacons. "Have all of the bacons if you want, but leave the eggs alone. They're my favourite." she warned, lifting up the cup of hot chocolate and took a sip. It scalded her. "Damn!" she cursed, returning the cup to the bedside table. She reached over, careful not to flip the tray still on the bed and pulled out a fashion magazine. An entire day in the trailer; the small, rather stuffy trailer. That has got to be the most boring day in Addison's life--ever.
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"Are you tired today, Dr. O'Malley?" Dr. Burke asked, George quickened his pace.
"Wha-? Oh, no. No, sir." he said, confused by the question. Do I look tired
"No, no sir. I'm not tired." he repeated. Preston stopped, turned around to face his intern. "Very well then. Prepare yourself to scrub in on the most unusual cardiatric surgery you'll ever see." Preston walked into the opposite direction before George could respond. "I'll see you at OR 1 in fifteen minutes, Dr. O'Malley!" he called out, without turning back.
"Uhh. Thanks, I appreciate the oppor-- Thank you Dr. Burke!"
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"What do you see, Stevens?" Derek asked, his eyes glued to the MRI scan results.
"I see... are those..?" she started, unsure, leaning nearer towards the screen to have a closer look. She looked up at Derek. He nodded.
"She has two brain stems."
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"What's wrong with you?" Cristina blurted out as she stood there, leaning against the wall while waiting for the X-ray results.
"Nothing." Meredith responded flatly, not meeting Cristina's gaze.
Cristina frowned, chewing on her nails as she studied Meredith's face. Then, it hit her.
"C'mon, Meredith. His wife collapsed! What did you expect him to do? You held a bomb, yes. But you didn't turn into Pink Mist. Besides, you two aren't together anymore." she shrugged. This time, Meredith turned to her best friend with a killer glare.
"What? I'm just saying."
"He looked for me. He was about to kiss me. I leaned in, he looked down, then his pager beeped and he went running off to his wife. He was about to kiss me!" Meredith ranted, but Cristina only raised an eyebrow in return.
"Uhh.. Ookay." she started. In frustration, Meredith turned away from her. With a sigh, Cristina made her way around to stand in front of her best friend again.
"Alright, look. He has a wife. He chose his wife. He chose, his wife, Meredith. Get over it already! It's pathetic, seriously."
Meredith drew in a deep breathe. She would have had a go at Cristina for saying what she just said, but Meredith knew she was right. And that was Cristina being Cristina, that's Cristina's way of being a real friend.
"Uhh, Dr. Yang, Dr. Grey?" the male behind the counter called out, handing out a transparency. Cristina reached over and took it from his hands, holding up against the light to have a better view. "We've gotta page Burke."
From the corner of her eye, Meredith caught sight of Derek walking pass the hallway with Izzie, she looked up, her gaze lingering on him, hoping he'd turn around and give her something, a smile, at least. But nothing, he walked straight pass her, head down focusing on the chart in his hands, ignoring her very existance. Derek had seen her before she had noticed his prescence nearing, and he didn't need any eye contact with her, he didn't want to talk to her.
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"The MRI scan results show that you have two brain stems. That may be the problem where you have constant headaches because messages are sent to your brain twice, and it may be too much for it to handle, hence, causing the pains." Izzie explained, her gaze switched briefly to Derek, waiting for him to take over. "We'll have to operate, take away the extra brain stem." Derek concluded. The patient bit the bottom of her lip, concerned. "Will there be any risks?" she asked softly.
"There is a risk to every operation, Miss Cardneli. In this, you have a ninety seven percent chance of survival. We will do everything we can." Derek assured. The patient turned to Izzie, who leaned forward and gave her a soft pat on her forearm.
"Dr. Shepherd is the best neurosurgeon. He'll take good care of you." Izzie said.
"And he's cute." the patient said, shrugging, trying to ease the tension within her.
"And I'm cute." Derek said as a matter-of-factly, throwing a friendly smile to her.
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"Excuse me." a husky voice called out, stopping Izzie in her tracks and looked up from her chart. She blinked at the sight of the handsome, rugged image of the man. He wore a black, leather jacket and faded demin jeans. "Hi." she started. "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked, adjusting her composure to look as professional as possible.
"Do you know where I can find Dr. Montgomery Shepherd?" he asked. Izzie shook her head with a smile. He's attractive. Dr. Montgomery Shepherd has got an attractive man looking for her. I wonder why.
"She had a day off. She collapsed yesterday. Lucky her. She has the chance off work. I'd love that." she said with a light laugh. The stranger's expression turned to one that is concern, thanked her and went off.
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"C'mon, Doc. Let's get this to the kitchen for washing and I'll take you out for your evening walk." Addison said, closing her book with a bookmark wedged between its pages. The entire afternoon she had spent her day reading, listening to music, watching channels after channels. Or in otherwords, in her terms, she had been lazing around. It has been along time since she had lazed around the whole day, and it definitely felt good for a change. iDon't get too comfortable./i she used to warn herself. She had a fear that if she grew into enjoying the moment of laze so much she'd refuse to return to work. She loved her work at the hospital, just like her husband. And that was definitely part of the problem that caused their 11-year marriage to fall apart. She placed the book by the bedside stand and slipped out of bed, taking the breakfast tray to the kitchen and shoved the dirty utensils into the dishwasher. Good thing, in Addison's terms, is that she wasn't feeling hungry the whole day so she didn't need to get out of bed long enough to get something to eat.
She washed her hands in the sink before drying them onto the handtowel hanging on the wall. Looking down at Doc patting at her calf, she smiled. "Alright, Doc. Just a moment. Let me get my coat." she said, walking around the dog and towards the coat rack. Freehandedly, she reached out for the leash and hooked it around Doc's neck, giving his fur a light ruffle. "All ready, Doc. Let's go!" she grinned. Putting on her cap, she opened the door to the trailer, ready to let the dog out for a walk.
"Addison." The voice, so familiar. The voice that had to be the worse nightmare today, caught her attention. Addison looked up expectedly, but the face still stunned her.
"No." she whispered under her breathe. She was wrong. This is definitely not the most boring day in her life.
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"Dr. Burke." Meredith chased after him, out of breathe, with Cristina falling behind her the next second. "We paged you." Cristina said, annoyed by the fact that he wasn't answering to the page. Preston turned around and raised an eyebrow at them, his gaze shifting between them. "I know. The x-ray is out?" Meredith nodded. "Good. Tell me about it later. I have a surgeory I have to attend." he said, starting to walk towards the scrub room. "He has a tear in his aorta." Cristina blurted out. That caught his attention. He snatched the x-rayed transparency and held it against the light. "Well, I'll be damned." Burke muttered under his breathe. "Alright, book an OR. Both of you are scrubbing in with me." The interns nodded as they headed in opposite directions.
"Today is your lucky day, Shepherd." Preston whispered under his breathe as he paged Derek on his way to the patient's room. "Good morning Mr. Denis." Preston greeted, pulling his coat backwards and placing his hands on his hips. "The x-ray results are out." he started. The male patient nodded, anticipating the news. His wife stood up from the couch and reached out for his hand.
"It appears that you have a tear in your aorta, which is the main vein that leads to your heart." Preston explained.
"Can you...fix it?" the patient asked hopefully. Burke smiled, nodding his head.
"Yes, I can. Lucky for you, it is only a small tear. But we will need to operate on you straight away. The tear may widen with the pressure of blood that pumps through it and we are not going to take that risk."
With everything cleared and dealt with, Preston headed out of the room, bumping into Derek. "You paged me?" he asked. Burke took in a deep breathe and nodded. "I need you to cover for me in OR 3. I have an emergency surgeory to perform." he said.
"Seriously?" Derek asked, folding his arms in front of his chest, amused at the fact that Preston Burke is asking for his help.
"Yes, seriously." Preston said, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Now do you want it or not"
"Alright, I'll take it." Derek laughed. "And you owe me one."
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Once again, at the hallway, Derek saw Meredith. She turned around, clearly seeing that he saw her. She started to walk forward but he turned around, head buried in the charts again and started walking in the opposite direction.
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"What are you doing here, Mark." Addison asked flatly, not moving an inch forward to him, but Mark took a step forward. "No." Addison demanded, holding a hand out to stop him from inching forward.
"I went to the hospital and heard that you collapsed." he started.
"I'm fine!" she cut him off. "What are you doing here, Mark?" she repeated, demanding an answer. Doc lay down beside her feet quietly.
"I'm here to bring you home, Addison." he said.
"This is home." she insisted. But Mark only laughed.
"A trailer? You call this your home? You are worth better than this, Addison. You deserve better than what Derek is giving you."
Addison closed her eyes and pressed a hand against her forehead as she felt a wave of dizziness sweep by. Mark, concerned, made his way up and held Addison by her shoulders as she wavered on the spot. She jerk free at his touch, pushing him away from her.
"I'm with my husband now, Mark. Which part of that don't you understand!"
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"Have you seen him?" Meredith asked Cristina, the tone of disbelief coated her words.
"Who?" Cristina frowned, pulling her hair out from the back of the coat, slamming her locker door shut.
"Who else? He didn't even bother to pretend he didn't see me." Meredith sighed, leaning back against the closed lockers. Then, the door to the locker room opened, an excited Izzie walked in.
"You'll never believe what I know." she said, pulling out her coat from her locker.
"You'll never believe my day." Meredith muttered, but Izzie went on.
"A handsome man just walked in today, looking for Addison Shepherd." she said, then turned to her friends. George poke his head out from behind the lockers. "Who?"
"I don't know. But I know he's yummy." she shrugged.
The interns gathered their things and started out towards the exit when Meredith saw Derek exiting the elevator. In just a few more steps, they will meet, face to face. Meredith looked to him hopefully, but Derek stopped in his tracks and turned away. Drawing in a deep breathe, Meredith nodded to herself, as though understanding the message sent, tore her gaze away from him and fall into steps behind her friends. Derek sighed, taking a moment before jogging after Meredith.
"Meredith." he started, unsure of his decision at first. Everyone heard it, however, all but Meredith turned around. "Oh." Izzie exclaimed. "We'll... we'll see you at home, Meredith." she started, then shooed everyone else out of the hospital with her. At the look on her friend's face, she understood what had been on her friend's mind the entire day. Meredith merely nodded, forcing a smile as she watched her friends exit the hospital. "Meredith." Derek said again, this time standing directly behind her. Meredith lowreed her head and shook it forcefully, taking a moment before finally turning around. Tears brimmed her eyes. "What do you want, Derek. What, do you want? You have a wife. You chose your wife, I get it. But I have feelings Derek. I cannot take it that one moment you're giving me our looks, and the next you pretend I'm not there. So really, I get it. You chose your wife. Go home to her, let me move on." Meredith looked away, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Derek shoved his hands into his coat pockets and nodded grimly. "Alright. Ok." he said softly, not looking up to her. "I'm sorry, Meredith. For... everything. See you tomorrow, Dr. Grey." Then he looked up to Meredith with a smile before walking out of the hospital.
That was easier than I thought.
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Derek turned his car into the corner and parked it, shutting off the engine. He had plans tonight, plans to take his wife out to dinner, if she's feeling better. He smiled at the thought. Addison was always feeling fine, whether she is or she is not. She'll never admit that she is sick unless her body breaks down. Shutting his car door, Derek gave the control a click as the headlights snapped off, leaving him standing in the dimmed light of the setting sun. He turned around, frowning at the sight of his wife by the trailer door. She was all ready to take Doc out for a walk, by the look of the red leash in her hands. But there was something else about the image that disturbed him. He moved forward, his eyes never left the man that stood in front of his wife. The moment he saw his face and got a confirmation of his identity, he felt his anger rise. But he stopped, standing there by his car, watching. It was until when Mark reached out and held his wife by her shoulders that he lost it. He started towards them, almost ready to punch the lights out of his ex-best friend, but stopped himself when Addison jerked herself free from his touch. As he neared, his wife turned towards him with relief.
"Derek!" she called out, running down the steps of the trailer and met him halfway, falling into his embrace. "Thank god you're home." she whispered into his hair.
"What are you doing here, Mark?" Derek asked, keeping his voice as calm as he can. Mark faced Derek squarely, folding his arms in front of his chest. "She doesn't love you, Derek." Mark said. "She loves me!" he insisted, pointing a finger to his chest as he spoke. Derek shook his head with a laugh. "You're in denial, Mark." he said, starting to lead Addison and himself back into the trailer.
"No, I'm not." Mark said. "She stayed with me after you left."