So here is another chapter. This one is named after Begin Again by Gratitude.

Also, I apologize if you guys aren't liking how this is going. Basically I wanted to explore Addison and Derek's relationship, which in many ways is easier to do if they are together trying to put things back together. Anyway, for now Addison and Derek are happy, but they aren't going to stay that way, there are still a lot of things to know about them, so I am thinking that March is going to be another turning point for them. I have at least two major complications in store for them. And as for Meredith, I know she is miserable right now but she is going to cheer up, I am not sure how or when but she will.

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January

January 1st

NEW YEARS DAY!

Addison

2:37am

"As you all may have noticed, "Richard began standing in front of a large white screen address the very small staff that he had managed to round up, New Years was a busy night on the surgical floor, "We have all gotten busy and forgotten to ring in the New Year. So we are going to ring it in..." Richard's pager, along with a dozen others, went off "as soon as I get back. In the mean time I am going to show this slide show that I have been working on all week, so unless your patient is coding, you better be watching this."

"This won't be to bad, we have only been here a few months." Derek sighed with relief, as he sat down next to Addison on a gurney and passed her a bowl of reheated spaghetti and meatballs.

"Except that he has known us for 15 years. And he wouldn't put up anything mean of me, but the 90's was a bad decade for your hair." Addison whispered back, "And he has our wedding pictures."

"Damn." Derek's eyes went briefly to Meredith who was joking with Tyler and the other interns as they left the nurse station, answering their pages.

"She's already seen them." Addison informed him. "Adele was showing her pictures of her mother. I apologized but..."

A long series pictures of staff long since gone flashed on the screen.

"I didn't know we were doing anything special today," Addison said, taking a bite of her spaghetti.

"We still have to eat," Derek said with a smile,

Addison smiled back, "So do you recognize any of these people?"

"No," Derek replied, "Wanna go find some coffee?" he asked as he stood up.

"Sit back down," Webber ordered, returning to the nurses station, "I went through a lot of trouble making this and you haven't even seen the best part."

"But there is no one here." Derek pointed out, motioning around them, 4 or 5 nurses remained but they weren't playing the least bit of attention.

"I don't care. You are going to watch it and you are going to like it."

"Well then I say we skip ahead," Derek jumped up, as Webber crossed the room to talk to the nurses, and grabbed the remote, flipping through the pictures, pausing as people walked by and made comments. Eventually the pictures seemed to be centering more and more on Derek and Addison as interns.

"Is it just me," Derek blushed as a picture of him and Addison flashed on the screen. Addison as an intern, dressed as Cleopatra, was being wheeled through the hall, in a wheelchair, by Derek who was dressed as a Roman slave, "But are there a lot of picture of us?"

"Nice costume Dr. Shepherd!" Someone called out.

"I lost a bet." Derek replied as another picture appeared of the same day but now Derek was fanning Addison with a giant fan made of medical supplies.

Addison started to laughed, "I think that Richard is trying to tell us something," Addison whispered to Derek, before raising her voice to call across the room, "Richard, are there other people in this slide show?"

"It's not my fault that you two were always doing something stupid," Richard retorted, "and I cut a lot of the truly insane stuff. These poor people will have to experience that for themselves." The few remaining staff laughed.

"We were not that bad." Derek protested.

"Really? Because I have already booked off Valentines day and both your birthdays. I can't handle another year of that insanity. I almost didn't come in today."

More pictures flashed on the screen.

"Wow. My hair really was bad," Derek laughed.

"I looked good." Addison said smiling, "But I always look good."

"Your so vain," Derek teased her.

"Or truthful, however you want to look at it."

"Dr. Shepherd?" Izzie approached with a chart, "I need you to sign this."

"No problem." Addison smiled, "Everything's going all right?"

"Ya," Izzie replied, "Actually everyone in neonatal is pretty much asleep. It's like a New Years miracle."

A picture of Addison stitching up a large gash on Derek's forehead appeared on the screen.

"That looks really painful," Izzie commented.

"Yes, it was." Derek commented looking at Addison pointedly.

"It was an accident," Addison protested.

"You hit him?" Izzie asked, "How?"

Addison raised her eyebrow. "You really want to hear this?" She was slightly uncomfortable talking about her past with Derek, especially to one of Meredith's best friends.

"I don't know, actually." Izzie responded, "I'll stop you if I find myself liking you too much."

"That's fair," Addison chuckled.

"I wouldn't worry about liking her, she attacked me." Derek began, "I was just talking to her..."

"He was stalking me,"Addison corrected "he was always following me around."

"Not true," Derek protested to Izzie, "We just happened to get assigned to all the same cases."

"I saw you trading cases almost everyday!"

"Ok the point is I was trying to ask her out to dinner,"

"For the millionth time."

"You are exaggerating, I asked you out twice."

"Twice a day for months," Addison argued, "Long story short, he was asking me out again, and I was turning him down again..."

"Why did you keep turning me down?"

"Because you were awkward, nervous, terrified of a scalpel and it took you at least 3 months to be able to speak in complete sentences around me." Addison responded sweetly.

"Right." Derek grinned, "But the moral of the story is that she viciously attacked me for no reason."

"I turned around and accidentally hit him with my chart."

"But you went out with him." Izzie clarified.

"And he managed to screw up almost every detail of his carefully planned date."

"Maybe my plan was to screw everything up. Maybe everything went perfectly." Derek stood up, "Coffee?" he asked Izzie before crossing the room.

"That is quite possibly the sweetest story I have ever heard," Izzie declared with a frown, "I am disgusted with myself." she looked back to the screen. "Why are they showing your wedding pictures?"

Addison looked slightly uncomfortable, and busied herself by transferring her meatballs to Derek's bowl. "It's our anniversary," She explained finally.

"Oh," now Izzie was the uncomfortable one, "Ok. I get it. The spaghetti, the meatballs. It's that movie things. Gottcha."

"What?" How does she know about that?

"Meredith told me," Izzie explained, "And by the way, it's really weird."

To Izzie's surprise Addison laughed, "I know." If I don't explain this she is going to think I am insane, "On our first date Derek took me to the movies. But the one he had planned on, the perfect first date movie was sold out, so we ended up seeing Lady and the Tramp with a hundred 6 year olds. Then the French restaurant Derek choose lost our reservation, although personally I don't think that he had one to begin with. So we ended up at this run-down Italian place that seemed to only serve spaghetti, and not very well. I ended up with meatballs, and I am a vegetarian."

"So... you gave them to him." Izzie nodded, "Like in the movie."

"Like in the movie." Addison smiled.

Izzie stared hard at her, "He broke her heart," she said finally, "Because of you."

Addison looked away, "It is impossible not to love him."

"Coffee," Derek smiled and handed Izzie a steaming mug, "4 sugars no cream, and tea with honey," he added passing Addison her drink.

"I should go," Izzie said finally, "Congratulations," she added sincerely.

"You told her?" Derek asked as Izzie walked away.

"I told her."

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Meredith

2:59 am

Meredith stood out of sight watching Izzie talking to Addison. Traitor she thought.

"You talked to her for along time." Meredith stated as Izzie finally came around the corner.

"She's my boss."

"So your telling me that you talked about medicine the entire time you were over there."

"Yes."

"Izzie. Your lying."

"Look Meredith I don't know what you want me to say." Izzie said, frustration entering her voice, "Yes I was talking to her. I know you don't want to hear this but she is a good person. She is not evil, she is not satan, she is so much like you and me that it's scary."

"She stole him from me."

"Meredith, did you ever really have him?"

Meredith remained silent.

"Meredith look at them," Izzie motioned to the Shepherds who were still watching the slide show, talking and laughing, "They are happy. They have their problems, but who doesn't."

"It won't last," Meredith replied stubbornly.

Izzie sighed, "It's their anniversary today. He made her spaghetti, because that is what they had on their first date. He is not leaving her."

"But..."

"It's time to move one. Start the new year fresh." Izzie touched Meredith's arm sympathetically as she walked away.

"So we have broken our New Years resolutions already. How about you?" Tyler asked as he and Cristina approached Meredith.

Meredith ignored Tylers question,"Derek's wearing his wedding ring. It's their anniversary. He made her supper." Meredith sighed.

Tyler and Cristina glanced at each other.

"Hey but look on the bright side. In 12 hours we are off duty and can spend the first full evening of the new year getting sloshed."

"Ya," Cristina added, "You love liquor."

"We all love liquor."

"Do you ever think that maybe we drink to much?" Cristina reflected.

"Maybe I should give up drinking for the new year," Meredith suggested.

"Now you've just gone crazy," Cristina stated, "Think of something practical. Like me, I resolved to care more about other people. It's not working but, whatever."

"I'm going to move on," Meredith said finally.

"I said practical."

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Derek

6:17am

Derek sat in an old battered armchair in an empty on-call room. He needed to think. The last 6 months had been crazy. Addison. Meredith. Addison and Meredith. Half the time he didn't know which way was up. And he would be lying if he said that he never questioned wether or not he had made the right decision, taking Addison back. Things had been so much simpler with Meredith. She was so understanding. She saw things that no one else saw. She could look at someone, anyone, and see right into their soul. She could open herself up to him. She was strong. She wouldn't have hurt him. Everything was complicated with Addison, but he couldn't turn his back on her. He couldn't forget her. He couldn't get her out of his head, she was ingrained in every part of him. When he pictured his future, it was still Addison that he saw standing beside him. Sometimes he found himself watching Addison and he couldn't believe how amazing she was. They could have entire conversations with out saying a word. But they could also close themselves off and not let the other in. They could hurt each other.

"I am exhausted," Addison muttered to no one in-particular as she stretched and walked into the on-call room.

Derek watched his wife, the biggest lie would be if he said that he didn't love her, "If you sleep now you will never be able to sleep tonight." he advised.

"I know," Addison sighed as she crossed the room and sat on the edge of a table in the middle of the room, "So..."

"So..." Derek smiled at his wife, "We should talk."

"About?"

"Us."

"Us?" she repeated, "Us good or us bad?"

"Us good." Derek said standing up, "We are doing good. Well better, lately."

"Yeah, we are."

"We just seem to know..."

"How the other is feeling." Addison finished.

"We haven't been like that in a long time."

"No. We haven't."

"I just wanted you to know that..." Derek stood in front of his wife, not touching her.

"That...?"

"I'm glad you came to Seattle, Addison. I may not show it, but I love you."

"I love you too." Addison smiled, "And I am starting to like Seattle, despite the cold."

"Anyway, I just wanted you to know that," Derek said softly as he brushed some hair out of her face.

"Now what?" she whispered.

"How about we play it by ear." Derek suggested decisively capturing her lips with his and pulling her closer to him.

"Derek..." she sighed as he moved to gently caress her jawbone and neck with his lips.

"Shhhhh..." he murmured covering her lips with his again, refusing to break contact with her.

"Derek," she protested again, with a laugh. Backing away slightly, she grinned as Derek pulled her back to him.

"I can't believe you are chickening out," Derek teased as he nibbled on her neck, running his hands over the skin just under the hemline of her shirt.

"I am not chickening out," Addison said pushing him away, "I'd just prefer to lock the door first."

Derek grinned as he crossed the room to lock the door then returned to where she was perched on the table and kissed her again, "You were always the smart one," he whispered as his fingers found the hem of her shirt and swiftly pulled it over her head.

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Addison murmured distractedly as Derek roamed her skin with his lips and hands.

"Positive." Derek raised his arms as Addison slid the top of his scrubs over his head. As he brought his hands back down he ran his fingers through her hair, then trailed them down her bare back to rest at her waist, urging her closer to him so that their chests touched. "Addison I chose you. For better or worse."

"Which means?" Addison asked slowly moving her hands up over his shoulders, down the bare skin of his chest, to rest on his stomach.

"We got married 12 years ago today so that we could start the new year together." Derek slowly kissed her, his hands moving down to her hips which fit perfectly against his,"I want us to start this year together too."

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So how do you guys feel about that? I really want your feedback. Also if there is something that you want to know about the characters, like what there motivation for something is, just let me know and I will try to work it into future chapters. This story is mostly about character development so I would hate for you guys to feel that there is something missing.

For further motivation, I got a review yesterday, for my other story What Happens Next, and the reviewer hated the end (which in my opinion is the the worst part to hate) so in order for that not to happen in this story you need to review and tell me how you feel. I want billions of reviews fighting for room in my inbox.

So, I have exams and then am going home for 3 weeks so it maybe awhile before a new chapter goes up, but MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!