Author's Note : Thank you all for your reviews! Here is the next chapter!
No I'm not? Addison thought, surprised by her own answer. Meredith, pleasantly surprised, studied the older woman's face.
"You look surprised." she noted, now leaning against the wall, her voice clearly happy. Addison frowned, leaning against the wall herself.
"Yea," she admitted softly. "I am." Then, Addison straightened up suddenly, her green eyes widen slightly. Taking cue that someone was about to walk in on them again, Meredith did the same and turned around expectantly. Crap. she thought as her eyes fall onto the man walking towards them.
"Hey." Derek greeted the both of them, looking curiously to Addison and Meredith, his gaze lingering longer on Meredith unexpectedly. Meredith cleared her throat uncomfortably and looked away. "You two are friends already? I saw you leaning against the wall talking." he asked, pinning the pen in his hand to the pocket and folded his arms across his chest.
"I'm going." Meredith announced, flashing a brief smile to Derek before walking away, careful not to make eyecontact with Addison. If Derek is to know about it, Addison will have to be the one to tell him. Derek watched on, his curiosity grew as Meredith walked away briskly.
"What was that all about?" he asked, his gaze now turning to his wife.
"She's assigned to me for today." Addison said. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. Derek didn't need to know that Addison had requested for Meredith, and he definitely didn't need to know about what happened between them yesterday.
"Oh." he responded. Then, his pager beeped. He pulled out the black device, frowning at the message. "Alright, I have to take this." he announced before walking away from Addison without even looking up to her.
"Alright." she said, not even sure if he had heard it.
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It was an emergency surgery that had to be performed that morning. Addison struggled to see through all the blood and damage in the patient's body that lay motionless on the operating table in front of her. The surgical tools work themselves to part the tissues, her hands controlling them to try to fix the damage. And unexpectedly, blood squirted out, shocking Addison herself.
"Blood pressure's falling." the nurse announced. Addison dropped the surgical scissors in her right hand and picked up the pump, clearing the blood from the damage around the tissue. But even though working as fast as she could, the heartbeat line started beeping in an unsteady rhythm. "We're loosing her." the same nurse announced. Addison looked up to Meredith expectantly, giving a nod in acknowledge.
"Charged 150." the nurse said.
"Clear!" Meredith said, then pressed the irons onto the patient's body. The heartbeat line remained unstable. Receiving another nod from Addison, Meredith turned to the scrub nurse behind her. "Charge to 250." she instructed.
"Charged!" the nurse announce after pushing several buttons on the machine.
"Clear!" she said again. This time, the heart skipped a beat and stabilised itself.
After awhile, it happened again. The patient's blood pressure started dropping and her heart started giving way. Knowing that death for this patient was inevitable when the machine still shows a flatline after a second attempt to bring her back, Addison released the surgical tools in her hands and looked down with a mix of disappointment and anger. Finally, she let out a breathe and pulled down her surgical mask. She couldn't do it.
"Call it, Grey." she simply said, turning away from the body.
"Time of death, 9:47." Meredith announced.
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"Hey." a voice called out gently as a shadow casted onto the floor of the empty corridor of gurneys. The afternoon sun poured into the corridor, lightening it up, but it was still deserted.
Addison looked up expectedly with a smile. "Hey." she greeted back. She had her knees drawn up to her chest, her elbows resting on her knees with her back leaning against the wall. Just the position she was in when Meredith and her met yesterday.
"Looks like this could be our secret meeting place." Meredith joked, making her way slowly towards Addison and sat down beside her.
"Yea." Addison forced a laughed, her gaze shifted to the floor.
"It's not your fault, you know." Meredith said, as though reading her thoughts. It was all too familiar for Addison, and somehow, it hurts. It used to be Derek sitting beside her after the unsuccessful surgeries, comforting her. But right now, it was someone else. For awhile then, it had been someone else. Addison let out a heavy sigh, allowing the blonde intern to pull her close. As she felt Meredith's hands rubbing gently at her shoulders, Addison allow herself to gradually lean down on her shoulder. Slowly, Meredith lean her head down on top of Addison's, her other hand stroking Addison's hair comfortingly. They stayed in the position for a while, eyes closed, one giving comfort, the other taking it in.
A beeping sound then shot through the comforting silence, the both of them pulling away almost reluctantly, looking down to their pagers. "It's mine. Bailey." Meredith said, turning to Addison. "Are you going to be ok?"
Addison gave her a reassuring smile and a nod. "Go on," she instructed, waving her hand as though to shoo her away. "Before Bailey blames me for keeping her intern away from her."
Meredith laughed, then planted a soft kiss on Addison's forehead before jogging away.
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"So, how was your day with the She-Shepherd?" Cristina asked, her teeth sinking into the sandwich from her lunchbox. Meredith looked up at her, surprised.
"Seriously?" she managed, chomping down the green leaves in her salad box.
"Yea, seriously. A day with your ex-boyfriend's wife should be interesting. Did she threaten you?" Alex added as he settled down with them. Izzie shot him an evil glare, then turned to the rest of her interns. "Addison isn't that bad, really." she defended her. Then Meredith smiled secretly to herself, hoping that it wasn't caught by her friends.
"It was alright." she said, then added on quickly. "Surprisingly." And before Cristina could say anything else, Izzie shot her a look. "C'mon Cristina, she practically saved your life."
"She's right." Alex said pointedly. Then Cristina started defending herself.
"I'm just saying! I mean, it would be interesting to spend a day with your ex-boyfriend's wife, right?" Everyone just looked at her. Cristina turned to Meredith, hoping that she would back her up. But instead, Meredith just shrugged, taking a sip from her soda can. At that, Cristina leaned back against her chair with a groan. "God, y'all are boring."
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"Meredith!" Derek called out, his eyes then shifted around subconsciously as though to check if any curious eyes were on him. None. He jog up to the blonde intern that stopped and turned to him.
"Hi!" Meredith greeted, almost surprise to see him. Derek smiled, guiding Meredith to a private space. "Are you...and Addison friends?" he asked, still unable to get that image of Meredith and his wife leaning against the same wall, talking. They seemed almost comfortable with each other. Meredith managed a surprise look, followed by a frown. "No." she laughed it off. "Why would you think that?"
Derek shrugged, shoving his hands into his lab coat's pockets. "No reason." he said, flashing her one of his McDreamy smiles.
"Ook then," Meredith nodded. "I should... get going." she said, walking away from Derek.
"Oh, uhm yea. Me too." Derek said, looking away as he scratched at his wavy hair uncomfortably, then walked into the opposite direction. She sure have moved on fast. Derek thought as he stole another glance at Meredith.
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"Hey, ready to go?" Derek approached his wife, already changed out of his scrubs and coat. Instead of sneakers, he wore a pair of black shoes. Addison pulled the clip off her pinned up hair and let the wavy curls fall down around her shoulders. She shook the mess off, combing a little at it with her fingers. "Yea." she said, picking up her briefcase from the table before heading to the elevator with her husband, arms linked.
"So, I called the contractor this afternoon." Derek said as they entered the elevator. Contractor? Addison thought, almost forgetting that they are getting rid of the trailer. "Uh-huh." she responded, looking to Derek for him to go on. How can I actually forget about that?
"He said he'll come look at the land as soon as we pick out the house we want." Derek said, now stepping out of the elevator with his wife as they reach the first floor.
"We?" Addison looked to him. "I thought I will be the one choosing the house?" she teased, absorbing all the attention Derek is giving her greedily, willing their conversation to go on.
"Hmm..." he said, pretending to consider then turned to his wife as they make their way to the parking lot. "Alright, only you get to choose the house, Queen of Passive Aggressiva." he said, a grin on his face. Addison smack him in the arm lightly.
"And you do realise that if I were the Queen, you will be the King, right?" she pointed out as they slided into Derek's car.
He pushed the key into the slot, twisting it to start up the car's engine then reached out to pull his seatbelt over his body. "Well I don't know about that. Maybe I could be the slave." he played along. Addison shifted her body and turned to Derek with an raised eyebrow. "You? Actually willing to be a slave?" she asked, not believing her ears. Derek laughed and gaze into his review mirror, backing his carout of the parking space. "Yea, me, actually willing to be a slave for you. Tape it up, Addie, you'll never hear that again."
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Meredith watched on as the couple drove off, the sound of their car's engine covering the chatter of her friends trailing behind her. Her gaze that used to linger on Derek before was now on Addison.
"Hey, Meredith?" Izzie called out after sharing a laugh with Cristina and Alex. "Could we watch some of your mom's tapes tonight?" she asked, walking up to Meredith.
"Yea, sure." Meredith agreed, a smile on her face as she watch the three of them lit up with joy like lights on a Christmas tree. "We could make some popcorn too." Cristina suggested. "And hot chocolate. Yea, definitely hot chocolate." Meredith allow her smile to spread wider then nodded.
"Alriiight!" the three of them cheered, slapping each other high-fives.
But even with her friends over and her mother's surgical tapes playing, there will only be one word in her mind tonight--"Addison".
Author's Note : Do you think I should go more indepth into each scene? Lengthen it, continue the happenings like for example, going on to what Meredith, Cristina, Izzie and Alex did (their conversations etc.) while watching the medical tapes? Or is it just right the way I wrote it? I'd love to hear what you guys think.
Hope you all like this chapter though!
- Jessica