"I don't believe this," she mutters under her breath. "Derek. Obviously. Or at least… Derek before all this. Now I'm not so sure. Mark was… well, Mark. You've seen the man. He's… well we had a lot of chemistry. But Derek and I weren't exactly having a lot of sex at that point in time." She raised an eyebrow. "You know that Derek's pretty good."

"This is a totally inappropriate conversation," I say. I wonder if Derek likes having sex with her more than me.

"Completely. But so was your relationship with…McDreamy, isn't it?" her voice is light, almost teasing, and I wonder if maybe she's forgiven me for being with him.

I mean, it's not like I knew, you know.

"No, not inappropriate at all. It's done. Now he's nothing but…" I pause to think. "My boss. My married ex-boyfriend co-dog-owning boss."

"Oh, well, that's fine then," she laughs.

"Maybe I don't even need a man," I muse. "Now that George moved out, maybe I can get a new dog or something."

Addison groans. "So then when George moves back in, you can dump another dog on us?"

"I don't think he's moving in again anytime soon," I say honestly.

"Really?"

"It's… it's really bad. I did a horrible thing."

"Yeah, I guess you did." She nods.

"So maybe I'll get a new dog. Dogs are fabulous. They're way better than men. Dogs are always happy. Dogs cuddle with you in bed."

I add silently in my head, dogs don't turn out to be married to someone hotter than you.

"Why can't you just take back the old one?"

"You don't want Doc?"

She raises a perfect eyebrow – the Addison look, we all call it now. "I live in a trailer, Meredith. It's a little cramped. But…" she sighs. "Derek loves the damn thing."

Suddenly there's a lurch and we both fall sideways.

"It's moving!" I shout out.

"Very observant, Grey."

We both get to our feet and brush ourselves off automatically.

"Think we can throw a fit to the Chief and convince him to put more funding into fixing the elevators?" I ask.

"He probably won't buy it." She runs a hand through her smooth hair and straightens her lab coat and immediately she looks perfect again.

Wait, did she really just break down crying in front of me before or did I just imagine it?

I stare at her, dumbfounded. There's not a trace of the tears from before. How is there NOT even a LITTLE mascara dripping down her cheeks?

Maybe Addison Shepherd doesn't wear mascara. Maybe Addison Shepherd wakes up every day looking absolutely PERFECT without help.

The doors swing open to reveal several doctors standing in front of us, most of them looking relieved and slightly amused. Derek rushes over to us. I notice that he's not sure who to look at.

"Are you… are you both okay?" he asks finally.

"Of course," we answer at the same time.

"It was a nice break from a boring day," Addison says, giving me a small smile.

"Even though I hate elevators," I finish.

Derek nodded, and there's a confused smile creeping across his face. "I was… well, I was a little concerned."

"I have to go check on my patients. They've been waiting." Addison leans over to kiss him gently on the cheek. "I'll see you later."

"Okay." He watches her walk away and I think that maybe he really does love her.

At any rate, I have to give her props for walking away and leaving me to talk to him. The woman has guts.

Derek turns to me. "So you really didn't kill each other."

"No, we really didn't kill each other," I say. I glance at Addison across the room and we exchange an understanding look. "She's really not so bad, you know?"

"I'm glad you see that." He looks impressed.

"But next time I'm taking the stairs."

the end.