A/N : Thank you for your reviews once again. New chapter! Enjoy.
The night without Addison next to him in bed felt different all of a sudden. Derek had been in that position before--when he left New York to accept the job offer from Richard. The whole time he didn't have Addison by him, and on some nights, he had Meredith. But it still felt different. The night before, Addison had laid in the same bed with him.
The ringing of the alarm clock pierced through the air, shocking Derek awake. His eyes were still closed as he reached out to the clock on the bedside stand and slapped it silent. The second alarm started with Doc paddling into the room and tugging at his sheets. Derek moaned, throwing a pillow over his head. "Addie..." he muttered. "Addie!" Still no response. "It's your turn today, Addie." he complained, turning around wanting to wake his wife up. But when he swung his arm over, it touched air before landing on the side empty side of the bed. "Addie?"
This time, Derek woke up for real, rubbing his eyes as he sat up in bed, his eyes scanning the trailer for his wife. The memory from the night before came back to him. Derek sighed, throwing the covers off him and walking around the bed into the bathroom lazily. "Alright Doc." he attempted to calm the dog's enthusiastic barkings. "I'll be out in a short while."
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The digits jumped again, it was nine in the morning. There wasn't any alarm set to wake any of them up, and it wasn't the works ofthe body alarm that caused the first one of the two to wake. It was the bright, hot morning sun that pierced through the hotel curtains. She stirred, flipping towards her left and felt the unusually cool surface of the pillow at the side of her face. She frowned, still half-asleep, her eyes then slowly opening to receive the bright light surrounding the room. Her head pounded as she attempted to pushed herself up. Addison drew in a deep breathe and shut her eyes, putting her head in her hands, now sitting up. "Oh god." she muttered under her breathe, memories of the night before came floating back to her. "Meredith." she whispered under her breathe, turning to her side to find the blonde intern sleeping peacefully, her body somehow found itself under the sheets. Addison squint her eyes under the bright light and looked to the digital clock, reading the time. Nine O'clock? she thought in horror, then forced herself out of bed.
The room spun around her when she stood up. Addison steadied herself by the edge of the bed and closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Meredith..." she called out, her throat dry. Drawing in another deep breathe, Addison made her way over to Meredith and shook her shoulders. "Meredith!" she tried again, her other hand shielding her eyes from the light that felt too bright for comfort.
"Go away, Izzie." Meredith mumbled, turning her head away from Addison. With a sigh, Addison forced herself around the bed and switched off the lights that had been left on through the night. It felt better, but only slightly.
"Meredith!" Addison yelled, slapping at the blonde's arm lightly.
"Lemme sleep!" she groaned.
"It's Addison, Meredith!" Addison hissed into her ear, causing Meredith to snap her eyes open a little too suddenly.
"Oww!" she groaned, shielding her own eyes with a hand. "What time is it?" Meredith asked, straining to look at the digital clock by the bedside.
"Nine in the morning. We're late." Addison explained, wishing for a second that she had the powers to move things with her mind so she could draw the binds together without having to walk towards it. Meredith buried her face into the white pillow and draw the covers over her head. Noticing that, Addison sent a hand flying what she thought to be Meredith's leg.
"Hey!" Meredith's muffled voice rung from under the sheets.
"Don't go back to sleep!"
"Why not?"
"Because you're suppose to be on-call last night, Meredith." Addison reminded her flatly. Meredith threw the covers over her head and sat up, the room spun around her as her head pounded.
"Oh god. Shit." she cursed, ignoring the horrible feeling of the hangover she's experiencing at the moment and stumbled out of bed.
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"O'Malley, you're with Shepherd, Izzie and Karev, pit, Yang, you're with Dr. Burke," Miranda assigned her interns, looking up briefly to each of them as she called them out, mentally taking their attendance. "And Grey." she said, looking up in search for Meredith. "Where's Grey?" she asked, shutting the file in her hands and folding it under her arm, another hand on her hip.
"Uhmm..she was on call last night." Izzie explained.
"I didn't put her on call." Miranda said
"Dr. Montgomery Shepherd did." George pitched in.
"Then where is she?" she demanded. The four of them looked to each other, neither of them able to come up with an answer.
"Alright, go." Miranda instructed. "And if you see Grey, tell her I'm looking for her!" she yelled after them. "She's in so much trouble right now."
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Addison pulled her car into the parking space and looked out of the window, spotting her husband's car already in the parking lot. Oh god. I hope he doesn't notice my car wasn't here. she prayed, then turned to Meredith as the intern drowned the aspirins in her hands with water in a bottled water.
"We should go in separately." Meredith said, only receiving a nod from Addison. She looked to the older woman, waiting for more to come.
"You should go first." Addison said.
"You sure?"
"Yea. Good luck with Dr. Bailey." Addison confirmed, then turned to Meredith with a smile.
"Right, thanks." Meredith responded lazily and unbuckled the seatbelt over her body and slided out of the car.
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"Meredith!" a voice called out from behind. Meredith froze, turning around before she had a chance to enter the locker room to get changed.
"Good morning, George." she greeted, then turned around and rushed into the locker room. George followed closely behind, attempting to confront her.
"Why...why are you not in scrubs?" George asked, leaning against the locker doors with a frown. Meredith ignored him, pulling her scrubs top over her body.
"I'm talking to you, Meredith." he tried again. But this time, Meredith only turned to him with a smile. She pulled out her scrub pants from her locker and dangled it in front of George. Taking the cue, the man turned his back against Meredith and allowed her to change.
"Weren't you on-call last night?" he pushed on. But there was no response. Then, the slamming of the locker door told George that Meredith was now fully dressed. He turned around to face her again as she whipped her hair up into a ponytail. Before he could go on, Meredith throw him another smile.
"I'm late. Very late." she told him, then started out of the locker room.
"Dr. Bailey's looking for you!" George called after her.
Crap.
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"Good morning, Dr. Montgomery Shepherd." Miranda greeted as she walked by the attending while she was leaving her signature on the piece of paper. Addison handed the file back to the nurse and flashed a smile at the resident.
"Good morning." she greeted her, then started walking towards her own locker room to change her coats and leave her bags.
"You put Grey on-call last night?" Miranda asked, following Addison. "Yea." she said. "Yea, I did. Why?"
Then before Miranda could say anything, Addison's pager beeped. Thank god. She thought and pulled it out from her bag with a gesture to it. "I'll have to get this." she said, then headed off quickly.
A distance away from Miranda now, Addison looked down at the name that popped up on the small screen. Derek. she thought. Not another confrontation, I hope.
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"Dr. Bailey?" Meredith called out, picking up her speed as she walked briskly towards her resident. Miranda slowed down, but did not turn around, only waiting for the young intern to catch up with her.
"I'm sorry I'm late." Meredith apologised, now standing beside her. Miranda lifted her eyes to Meredith.
"You were on call last night. Where were you this morning?" she asked.
"Uhh.. I. I went out for breakfast and forgot about the time." she covered, trying to look as truthful as possible when Miranda stopped and turned to face her fully.
"Do you know what time your shift starts today?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip demandingly. Meredith bit her lower lip and slumped her shoulers.
"I'm sorry. It wouldn't happen again." she promised, keeping her fingers crossed that her mentor wouldn't punish her too harshly. Miranda looked Meredith up and down.
"Fine. It better not." she said, then dumped a stack of files in Meredith's hands.
"Labs." she instructed, then walked away without another word.
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Addison rubbed her temples gently with her fingers as she made her way towards the front desk, her head down as she focus on the rhythmic tapping of her heels on the hospital floor. To her, it was better than hearing the buzz in the surroundings.
"Addie!" a voice called out, then footsteps thumped on the floor. She recognised that voice, recognising his scent, sensing his prescence as her husband neared her.
"Hey!" he called out to her, his voice seemingly extra loud. She winced, smiling forcefully at the nurse that handed her the files to her cases. "Are you ok?" he asked, leaning against the counter. Addison bit back the pain and nodded, flipping open the charts. He's going to find out, oh god. He's going to find out. she thought as Derek went on.
"Addie. I'm sorry about last night... I should have--" he stopped, looking around to check if anyone was eavesdropping. Addison looked up at him expectantly, willing him to go on. Derek sighed, looking down.
"I..I shouldn't have lied." he said softly, then placing a hand onto his wife's hand. On contact, he felt the unusual heat transfered to his hand. Derek looked up to Addison with a frown.
"Have you been drinking?" he demanded, straightening himself up to study her face. Addison ignored the question, her eyes scanning back and forth on the chart in front of her.
"Addison," his eyes searched hers. When she refuse to meet his gaze, Derek reached out and tilted her head towards him. Her skin felt hot under his touch. And then he knew. "You weren't at the hospital last night, were you?" he pushed on, his blue eyes now firm. Addison shut the folder and picked up the pile in her hands and started away from the counter, but her husband followed.
"Where were you last night?" he asked.
"Stop yelling, Derek." was her only response. It came out tired, weaker than she had expected it to be.
"I'm not yelling. I'm talking in the normal volume that I usually do." he said, then stepped in front of his wife and stop her in her tracks. She looked away again, refusing to meet his gaze.
"You're having a hangover. How much did you drink?" he asked, reaching out to touch her cheek. It always happened when Addison had too much to drink, her skin will burn up the next day. She leaned against the wall, pressing the side of her head against the cool surface.
"What do you want, Derek." she sighed, letting her eyes close.
"I want to know where you were last night, why you were drinking and why you lied to me about staying in the hospital." he said, folding his arms across his chest.
Addison shifted her weight, her eyes still closed. Her chest moved up and down calmly, like she was taking deep breathes. "I'm waiting for an answer, Addie. Don't you walk away." Derek demanded. This time, Addison's eyes snapped open as she glared at her husband. Ignoring the surge of pain that shot through her head at that moment, she pushed herself off the wall, now eye-to-eye with the man in front of her.
"Walk away?" she laughed, folding her arms in front of her chest. "I'm not the one who walks away, Derek. You are. And you lied to me last night." she pointed out.
"So did you." he reminded her. Addison was about to say something to counter it but thought better of it.
"Yes, I did." she said firmly. "I was out last night, drinking." she admitted. "But since when do you start caring, Derek? Since when did you start noticing that I'm here?" she asked, shaking her head. "When I slept with Mark? When you realise I had too much to drink the night before and I didn't tell you about it? When, I don't know, things go bad in our marriage? Like now, that I lied to you, and I'm so betting that you'll put all the blame on me, Derek Shepherd. Because that's always how it happens. But don't you ever stop to think; why? Why have I cheated? Nights ago you took part of the blame of the marriage, you told me you're going to try and work on it. But what are you doing now? You couldn't even tell me that you needed time alone to think!" she cried, and when Derek started to interupt, she held out a hand in front of him. "I'm not finished."
"Everyone needs their own privacy." Derek said coldly, ignoring her hand sign.
"I'm not done talking." she reminded him. And before he could continue, she cut him off with her own voice. "I'm not saying that you need to tell me what you need to think about. I don't need to know. That is your problem, unless you want to talk to me about it--" she said, but before she could go on, Derek interupted.
"Who were you with last night?" he asked.
"What?" she demanded, looking to him with disbelief.
"Who were you with last night?" he repeated, his eyes searching hers for an answer.
"Whatever happened to 'Everyone needs their own privacy'." she said with a dry laugh and shook her head, starting to walk away.
"Fine." Derek retorted, then turned and headed off first.
"Make up your mind, Derek." Addison called out, but Derek continued on instead of stopping. "And you know very well what I'm talking about." she added, looking as he walk away for a brief moment before she turned her back against him.
This time, Derek stopped, turning back to face Addison, ready to say something right back. But instead, he was only greeted by the view of her walking away.
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"He knows." Addison muttered as she felt a shadow casted over the ground of the empty hallway. Their secret meeting place, as Meredith had named it.
"What?" Meredith asked, making her way towards the attending and settled down on the gurney beside her. It was the interns' lunch break. Addison looked up and leaned her head against the wall behind her.
"He knows." she repeated with a sigh. Meredith couldn't help but smile.
"He does? How?"
"Well, he doesn't know as in, that you and I, you know. He knows I'm not in the hospital last night. And he knows I've been drinking." she explained.
Meredith shifted and place her head down on Addison's lap with a sigh.
"Do you think he'll find out, on his own?" Meredith asked. Addison only gave a shrug in response.
"Do you want him to find out on his own?" she asked again. This time, Addison buried her head in her hands. This empty hallway was the only place dimmed enough to give her a sense of comfort. The rest of the hospital are too bright and she had tried to escape as many surgeries as possible. She didn't think she could function as well with the light blazing right above her in the operating rooms.
"I don't know." she finally said. Then Meredith nodded against Addison's lap and closed her eyes. They were silent for a brief moment before Addison spoke up.
"What's your punishment?" she couldn't help but ask. Meredith let out a dramatic sigh.
"Labs--all day." she complained.
"Well, at least you don't have to tell patients or your colleges that you can't perform surgery today because you're having a hangover and you feel like someone just hit you in the head a thousand times with a hammer." Addison grumbled. At that, Meredith let out a small laugh. "Oh zip it." Addison warned, wriggling herself out from under Meredith's head and made her way to the vending machine.
Walking back with a can of coke in her hands, Addison opened it and took a gulp from it, then handing it to the blonde intern, who sat up reluctantly to take a sip from the drink.
"Can we just stay here all day?" Meredith whined.
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Addison was already laying in bed before Derek came home, her head against the pillow as she looked blankly out of the window. Derek changed and slided into his side of the bed, looking over to his wife briefly before slipping under the covers.
"The contractorwill coming tomorrow to look at the piece of land." Derek informed, only receiving a slightly nod from Addison. "Do you want to be there?" he asked. Then, there was a short moment of silence.
"Ok." she said finally. Derek reached over and laida hand on Addison's forehead.
"I'm fine, Derek." she mumbled, starting to drift off to sleep. With a sigh, he leaned in to plant a kiss her cheek and turned the lights off.
"Good night, Addie." he said softly.
"Good night."
A/N : Don't shoot me. I need to start working to break the both of them up because this is not an AdDek story. :(