Chapter 11

Although Derek attempted to carry on after his fight with Addison, he could not stop thinking about her. This was not exactly the type of feeling he was used to, and he wasn't even sure how to handle it. As much as he tried to stay angry with this wife (and he really did try), he still wound up outside of her door within about an hour. He didn't want to apologize to her, but didn't want to stay angry. As soon as he entered her room, however, his instincts kicked in.

To his surprise, Addison was actually back in bed. But what caught his attention were the few tears which were trailing down her cheeks. Derek kneeled down next to the bed, not saying a word.

"I just wanted to prove you wrong, Derek." Her words were shaky.

"What?"

"Before, when you were in here saying how I wasn't okay…how I needed to get back in bed or I wouldn't be able to function. I was furious. I don't even know why, but I just wanted to prove you wrong. So I put on my lab coat, pinned my hair back…I was all set." she took a moment to gather her thoughts. "…but before I could even get to the door I started feeling dizzy. So dizzy that I couldn't even get out of the room. I thought I was going to faint again."

"Did you?" Derek was geminately concerned.

"No-" her voice cracked, as a few fresh tears escaped.

Derek sighed, focusing on the floor. He knew that for Addison, admitting her own weaknesses was hurting her more than anything else.

"I'm not…" Addison was not about to break down again, but she could not cover up her tears. "I'm not okay." She whispered, desperately attempting to dry her own tears. "I'm not…"

Derek wiped her tears with his thumb and forefinger, "No." he spoke softly, "But you will be." He tried to reassure his wife. "Here, come on." He gently slid Addison over to make room for himself on the bed, holding her close. "You just need to let yourself heal, that's all."

Addison's tears were soothed within a few minutes, but she still clung to her husband, taking comfort in the fact that for the first time in a while she did not feel completely alone.

"I love you." Derek whispered.

The two remained intertwined on the twin hospital bed for quite some time. After a while Derek truly believed that Addison had fallen asleep, and so he proceeded to carefully get off the bed.

"Wait." she sounded a bit agitated. "Can you get Bailey?"

"Why? What's wrong?" Derek couldn't imagine why Addison would want to see a doctor at this point.

"I need something for my nerves…" she seemed to be a bit embarrassed.

"Are you sure? You seem pretty relaxed."

"Derek, please."

"Okay." he nodded. "I'll get her." Derek said, heading out of the room. He wandered around aimlessly for a while until he could find Dr. Bailey. He didn't want to page her because this was far from an emergency, but he did want Addison to get to sleep soon.

"Let me guess," Bailey spotted Derek peaking into one of her patient's rooms. "…you're looking for me."

"Dr. Bailey." Derek attempted to sound professional.

"What does she need?" By 'she' Bailey was obviously referring to Addison.

"Apparently she wants the sedative you gave her yesterday."

"Okay." The idea didn't seem to phase Bailey very much. "I'll go over there in a little while."

"Do you think it's a good idea to sedate her again? I mean, she shouldn't be relying on this stuff."

"Nope." Bailey wasn't exactly paying attention to Derek as she flipped through another patient's chart. "But for now we can't afford another sleepless night. So I'm going to keep administering a sedative, but I'll 'water it down' a bit each night until she's just taking in extra fluids." she put the chart down. "Then we'll take her off of everything completely."

Derek was impressed with how much effort his coworker seemed to be putting into his wife's case. "Good plan…" he responded.

"I thought so." she paused, "Anything else?"

"I could take her on as my patient you know…" he commented.

"Oh, hell no."

"What? I can take care of her."

"You just listen to everything she tells you without actually listening to her. Once she's out of here, she's all yours. But for now Addison is my patient."

Derek wondered why it seemed as if everyone knew more about his relationship with his wife than he did. "Alright, be that way." he joked. "Wait, one more thing."

Bailey rolled her eyes.

"Why are you doing this? Why do you care so much? I mean, I know you two are friendly but you've got your hands full already…why aren't you just passing her off to an intern?"

"One, I hate my interns." She blatantly stated, though there was hardly any truth to the matter. "Two, Addison is my friend. I don't have many of those because I never seem to leave this place. I've got to value the little I've got. And three, you saved my husband. So even though this isn't brain surgery, I think we're even."

"Oh-"

"Nuh uh, no more questions. I'm walking away."