Country Kind Of Love

LoveLastsForever: I'm sorry, really! i was sad too, but something just didn't feel right if they had immediately made up...

Jennifer: I'm so glad everyone's on Addie's side :D and he really is an absolute idiot.

Addison-fan: Yep, maybe he's just a jerk, like the rest of them...

luvaddek: In my first version he went over there and told her not to go blabla but it didn't seem right, didn't seem like something that really would happen, at least not in a decent drama :D So I'm sorry

Em: So you would've liked about five pages more all in one chapter? :D

Chapter 14

A week after their talk in the stairwell Addison was back at work and wished she had just taken that plane back to New York when Jason had given her the ticket. But instead she had decided to stay without really knowing why. Of course a small part of her was still hoping that things between her and Derek would eventually go back to normal but mostly she had no energy to do anything anymore. The only reason she had even come back to work was because Miranda had been in front of her apartment every day and had told her she would feel better, that things would start looking up again when she was back at work. But right now Addison just wanted to go back to bed, watch An Affair To Remember and cry her eyes out. She dreaded seeing Derek, she dreaded seeing anybody, for that matter, but most of all she really didn't want to see the man who had caused her all of this heartache. She knew that he wasn't to blame, that she had screwed up, that she should have told him about Jason but just when she had thought it hadn't been able to get any worse it had. Life was just funny that way, apparently.

"Addison?" She turned her head to see Richard Webber standing next to her with a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She told him without even bothering to force a smile. It had already taken enough effort to hide the circles under her eyes and everything else that made her look about as pathetic as she felt.

"I know that's not the truth. Listen, Addie, if you need some more time off work, just talk to me, alright?" Richard wasn't one for gossip, not one for personal matters as soon as work started but he had heard about what had happened between Addison and Derek and he felt terrible.

"I'm fine." She just repeated and walked down the hall. This was already promising to be a great day, really.

xxx

Over the next month nothing had gotten any better. Addison still came home after work and started crying uncontrollably, not to mention the first time she had been forced to work with Derek on a case. He had avoided to make eye contact with her, had avoided even talking to her and had sent his intern to do that. After the consultation she had excused herself and had locked herself into an on call room until she had finally been able to stop crying. She had been sure that things would get better, that, eventually, the heartache would go away but she had been wrong. Of course she had been hurt before, she had been through breakups that had seemed painful before but this was different. Addison felt like she was walking around with half of her soul, like her heart was permanently damaged.

She shook her head and sighed as she checked her watch. Miranda had wanted to meet her for lunch, like she had the past month. Addison thought her friend's concern was sweet but she really hated that Miranda could see right through her act of 'oh, everything's fine, don't you worry about it'. Because if anything, Addison had always been independent, always taken pride in not relying on anyone else to make her happy and now that had just all gone to hell.

"Sorry, I'm late. I really just hate interns." Miranda mumbled as she sat down opposite of Addison. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Miranda, please just stop asking me that because you know that I'm fi—" Addison stopped mid sentence and just stared at who had entered the cafeteria. She just sat there, quietly watching Derek pull up a chair for Meredith Grey before he got her a cup of coffee. All Addison could do was stare at the scene in front of her as she felt like someone had rammed a knife straight into her heart. The intern was laughing at something he had sat and he looked happier than he had the last few weeks.

"Addison, what's…" Miranda turned around, following her friend's gaze, when she suddenly saw what the redhead had seen.

"I have to go." Addison whispered and got up before she quickly made her way out of the cafeteria. Just when she had thought things couldn't possibly get even worse.

xxx

"Man, I'm so glad you're finally getting out there again!" Mark patted Derek's shoulder because he really was glad that his friend was finally dating again, Even though Derek really never dated…

"But don't you think that this is a little fast? I mean—" Preston started but was rudely interrupted.

"Fast? Come on, Burke, what are you, a girl?!"

"All I'm saying is that he clearly isn't over Addison and I think you guys just need to talk about everything that's happened because—"

"I slept with her," Derek interrupted, leaving his friends gaping at him, "when Bailey told me that she was going back to New York. I went over there to tell her not to go, ended up sleeping with her and then told her we had made a mistake. All that woman has ever done is make me feel like I'm the biggest idiot on the planet for trusting her, for believing that I was actually in love with her."

"You told her it was a mistake?" Preston asked, his eyebrows raised. "Great influence there, Mark. Turned him into a jerk…" He mumbled the last part because he really did feel bad for Derek but he had seen how heartbroken she had been about everything that had happened.

"Excuse me?" Derek looked up from his file.

"You heard me. If you've been paying any attention to your surroundings that past month you could've seen that she looks about as hurt as you did when her fiancé had introduced himself to you. I get that she's screwed up by not telling you but you're dating someone else now and that's—"

"We aren't dating. We had coffee, nothing else." Derek shook his head and decided to ignore the rest his friend had said because, deep down, he knew that Preston was right.

xxx

"Are you really sure that this is what you want, Addison?" Richard sighed and leaned back in his big office chair as he looked at the woman in front of him.

"I'm sure." She nodded her head and looked at the ground again. After almost hyperventilating after seeing Derek and his coffee date she had decided that this was it; that she had to get away. There was no use in holding onto something that was clearly gone and she was just tired of crying all the time. She missed Derek so much that it actually, physically hurt her and she was determined to stop feeling that way.

"Addie, if this is about Shepherd," Richard noticed the way that she flinched before continuing, "I'll just fire him, you can stay, problem solved." He tried to lighten the mood and actually got a small smile from her. "But if you're sure, then I'll let you out of the contract. But please, use your vacation time before making a definite decision, okay? Because it's been great to have you here, and not just for the hospital." Richard had never seen her quite this happy as she had been before everything between her and Derek had gone so very wrong.

"Thank you, Richard, I'll take my vacation time but I'll definitely be leaving."

"Back to New York?"

"Probably, at least for now." She took a deep breath and tried to blink her tears back. Despite her initial skepticism she really had grown to love Kansas and the people she worked with but if she had thought that she just needed to get away from New York it was now that she realized how badly she just needed to get away from Kansas. Away from Derek, away from everything that would remind her of how things had been between them. She had wanted to talk to him before leaving but she hadn't been able to get herself to actually walk up to him. A part of her just dreaded talking to him but mostly she wanted him to be happy and not to make things even more complicated. If Derek was happy, even if it was with someone else, Addison was happy for him, or at least trying her best to be.

xxx

"So," Mark sat down on an abandoned gurney next to Derek, "you're still in love with her, aren't you?" He looked at his best friend and immediately knew the answer to that question. "Then why are you still sitting here?"

"Because I told her that it was a mistake. Because I've treated her so terrible because I was hurt and disappointed and I cant make that right again." Derek sighed and just stared at the white floor in front of them.

"Der, if there's one thing we've learned from those sappy movies your sisters forced on us it's that it's never too late to do the right thing."

So, what do you think? Is it ever too late to do the right thing?

Reviews are love :-*