Back with a new chapter, picking up the morning after last chapter's events. Firmly Addek endgame. Definitely will not be canon-compliant in terms of the other storylines in the season later as well, unlike my other fic (which I hope you guys have read and like!). Read and review!

"So, when are we getting that drink?" called Callie as she walked up to Addison, a spring in her step. Nudging Addison's shoulder, she added, "Not Joe's though, there's just-"

"Callie. Shh."

Mildly offended, she peered at Addison's face, uncertain. "I thought-"

Addison shook her head, and then let out an audible groan. "I think I went just a tad bit overboard last night." Turning slowly to face Callie, she said, "I don't even want to think about drinking again right now. Give me till 10. Or actually, till lunch."

Callie scoffed disbelievingly. "If you think that hangover is going to be gone by then, you're sadly mistaken."

Addison waved her hand airily, though the strained look on her face belied her. "I'm a WASP; my body has more alcohol than water. I'll be fine by noon." As she began to walk away slowly, rubbing at her temples, Callie caught her elbow awkwardly.

"Since…since we're friends now and all that, can I ask why you drank so much on a weekday?" Callie seemed mildly embarrassed, but Addison found it somewhat sweet that the ortho resident actually cared to ask. God, she was pathetic.

Addison ran a hand through her hair as she stalled for time. Callie's sharp eyes trailed to the hand in her hair, as if searching for something, and then recognition dawned, with a hint of pity. She hated the pity; she was sick of it.

"Oh, Addison…"

"It's fine," she interrupted quickly before it could become some sort of girl bonding session – she liked Callie and knew she'd finally found a friend in this infernal hellhole but that didn't mean she was ready to bare her secrets and cry on her shoulder. There were boundaries. "It was time. Anyway, like I said, wait till noon. I found a nice bar off the freeway; I'll tell you at lunch." Never mind that she'd planned for her and Derek to head there. Callie was good. Callie was friendly. Callie liked her. And most importantly, Callie didn't judge her constantly.

Her pager beeped, and she motioned to it before walking away quickly, leaving Callie and her sympathy behind. She turned the corner and bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry," she began, bending down to pick up the fallen papers. Noticing the shoes directly in her eyeline, she tensed, her body becoming more rigid. She stood up evenly with the papers, handing it over to its owner.

"Thanks," said Derek, with a trace of awkwardness. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, and his skin clammy and pale in a very familiar post-night-out condition. He must have been with Meredith Grey. It would be Grey's job now to mix him a glass of herb-infused water in the morning – a surprisingly good hangover cure she'd picked up from Savvy (not that she ever needed it herself, but it worked wonders for Derek).

"Late night?" he asked her, breaking her reverie of memories of a New York bar.

She tilted her head, a little surprised. She'd forgotten that he could recognize her hangovers just as well as she could him. "You could call it that."

"With Mark, I suppose," he said, letting out a bitter laugh.

She straightened; in heels, she was almost his height. "Derek, not all of us jump into new, bright and shiny relationships the second we're out of a marriage," she said, smiling a little too sweetly at him.

"No, some of us jump into them and live together while we're still married."

Shaking her head slightly, she began to walk away. She turned back suddenly, where he still stood at the corner of the corridor. "Derek." Her eyes found his. "I never lead you on and let you think I was trying to fix things, while still pining over someone else. Whatever else I did, I never did that." She walked away before she could see his reaction, not sure if she'd be disappointed by whatever she'd see.

"Sorry we ended up at Joe's," said Addison, clinking her bottle against Callie's as they sat in a corner booth.

Callie shrugged, taking a large swig. "Not like I was keen on driving to that new place at this hour, either. Not after the day I've had."

"Oh?"

"Your ex-husband's a royal pain. Working with him takes all the fun out of a nice bone hammering session." Pausing to drink, the ortho resident continued. "I mean, I know he's the Chief of Neuro and obviously brilliant and all that, but I was almost wishing I was working with Gunther instead." Addison laughed.

"That's Derek for you," she said, still laughing. "We're always left wishing for his replacement." She bit her lip. "I shouldn't have said that." Setting her bottle down, she wrung her hands in a very un-Addison-esque manner, agitated. "I didn't mean that."

"It's okay," assured Callie smoothly, grabbing the woman's hands and covering them to still the movement. She smiled softly, not a trace of pity this time. "You're entitled to it, you know. You may have been the one to cause irreparable damage to your marriage, but he's the one who let it go that far and then moved on without another thought, leaving you stuck in a rut of memories and pain. You're allowed to be angry, to want something better for yourself, to stop holding everything against you. Lord knows he did enough of that." Slightly embarrassed by her speech, she quickly moved her hands off of Addison's and tucked her hair behind her ears.

After a few moments of silence, Addison spoke. "Thank you, Callie. That means…that means a lot to me." She smiled, eyes a little watery. Clearing her throat, she added. "More drinks?" Callie nodded in the affirmative, and she watched as Addison slid out of the booth more gracefully than she ever could – in spite of being two drinks in – and headed to the bar counter.

"Joe, two beers please," she called, wading through the cluster of people at the bar.

"Addison! My favourite baby doctor," said Joe genially as he attended to another customer.

"I'm the only baby doctor you know," she laughed.

"Doesn't mean you're not my favourite. Two beers coming right up." She nodded at his words, leaning slightly against the sticky counter. She wouldn't under normal circumstances, but the effects of alcohol were beginning to show as she felt slightly off-balance on her heels.

"Here you go, one scotch neat," Joe was saying to a man, and Addison quickly turned the other way, because she knew luck was never on her side.

"Thanks, Joe," she heard Derek's familiar voice. Just as she figured it was safe to turn back, Joe plonked two bottles of beer in front of her. Cold beads of condensation splashed onto her arm on the counter, and she took a step back involuntarily and stumbled on her heels. She grabbed wildly at the counter slab in front of her, but her ankle snapped and she fell with a thud, knocking her head against the leg of a chair behind her.

Joe gasped, and a few people around her quickly bent down to help her up. She took the first hand in front of her and sat up, reaching for her ankle and checking it gingerly. As she grimaced inwardly at the size of the swelling, she heard Callie run over from their booth at the back.

"Addison!" she cried, swiftly kneeling down beside her. She frowned sympathetically. "That looks bad. Let's get you up and out of here and wrap that ankle soon."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," muttered Addison. Taking Callie's outstretched hand, she stood up. Waving Callie away, she let go, and tested her weight on the ankle, and stumbled almost immediately. She cried out, and Callie instantly wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her up.

"Yes, you're fine," she said dryly. "Come on, the hospital's just down the road. I'll just get our stuff-" Joe hurried up to the two of them, holding two purses and scarves left at the booth. "Oh, thanks!"

"No problem. Sorry, Addison, hope that ankle gets better soon."

"Thanks, Joe."

The two women trudged out of the bar slowly, with Callie holding up most of Addison's weight. As soon as they neared the bench right outside, Addison sat down.

"Sorry, just need a moment," she said as Callie stood over her concernedly.

"If it's that bad you probably shouldn't walk any more on it," said Callie decisively. "I'll go grab bandages and my car, and we'll just go to your hotel room and get you set up."

"My car is at the hospital; I can't just leave-"

The younger woman rolled her eyes. "It'll still be there tomorrow morning. It's not like you can drive with that ankle anyway." Before Addison could come up with another feeble excuse, the woman set off at a jog toward the hospital.

Leaning back against the bench, Addison looked at the perpetually gloomy street in front of her, fairly deserted at this hour – then again, it wasn't like it was teeming with people at other times. She hated to admit it, but she'd begun to get used to the lack of bustling traffic and noise in the city – look at that, she even called it a city and not a town! Take that, Derek, with your comments about high-and-mighty attitude.

Speaking of Derek.

"What are you doing out here?"

He stood outside the bar entrance, hands in his pockets, the flannel collar upturned slightly and flapping in the wind. He looked at her questioningly, and she was so taken aback by the lack of malice and anger in his eyes that she almost forgot to respond.

"Oh, Callie's bringing her car from the hospital, I'm just waiting." At his confused look, she added, "I sprained my ankle, so she made me sit here and wait."

"You're the woman who fell down inside?" He motioned to the bar. "Someone was talking about it."

"Great." A few moments later, she awkwardly added. "So, how are you?"

He seemed to ponder over her question. "I'm…I've been better, I suppose." Looking closer at him, she saw his eyes still tinged with red; the remnants of a bad hangover.

"Must have been a really rough night," she observed. He cocked his head to the side, shrugging. "Things not okay with Grey?"

At this, his eyes narrowed. "I know you'd love it if they weren't; but no, everything's just fine."

She laughed a short, bitter laugh. "Derek, if you actually think that I'd love for you to be unhappy with her, then you really don't know me. Maybe you never knew me, maybe that was the problem."

"Maybe the problem was you sleeping with my best friend."

Still smiling, she tilted her head. "I know that's supposed to hurt me a lot, but that thick skin I special-ordered finally arrived. I'm done taking all the blame, Derek. And I'm happy for you, really, that things are going well with her."

"Sure, you are-"

"I might not be happy. But I'm happy for you. One of us found what they wanted." She smiled sadly and looked down at her bare ring finger. "It's just too bad it came at the cost of everything I'd ever loved."

Derek swallowed a lump, feeling unexpectedly empathetic. "Listen, Addison, I am sorry – about my part in everything."

She shrugged. "Water under the bridge." At his disbelieving look, she amended. "Okay, not really, but – there's no point in hearing this now. It doesn't change things."

"No, it doesn't," he agreed softly, "but it helps get closure."

"Is that what we are now? That ex-couple, those ex-best friends who pretend to get some form of closure and stop talking to each other under the guise of moving on? Is that…pretense… all that's left of us?" she whispered. She was suddenly aware of the fact that he'd moved closer to her, and stood directly beside the bench, looking down at her with surprising tenderness.

"Addie, you were the love of my life; how can that be all that's left?" He leaned down as if to drop a friendly kiss on the top of her head, but then he was kissing her lips, and all she could do was respond the way your body responds to the man you've loved for a third of your life, to the familiar feel of his lips on yours, the intoxicating smell of booze on both of you, coupled with newness and oldness and –

A car horn sounded, and the two broke apart, breathing heavily.

Callie sat in the car, face impassive. "Addison. Let's go."

Addison hurriedly stood up, forgetting about her ankle and stumbling. Derek caught her arm clumsily, and helped her over to the car. As he shut the door after she got in, she chanced a glance at him, and was shocked to find him looking back at her intently.

"Der-"

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd, bye." With a curt nod, Callie pressed the accelerator a little too fast, and the car sped ahead with a jerk, leaving the man behind in the rear-view mirror.

And there you have it - the ex-McMarrieds kissed. Next up: more stupid things and dealing with the consequences of all the stupid things. Review, please, they keep me going and its so so heartwarming to know there are other Addek fans still out there today enjoying these little tidbits! Speaking of, Grey's S17 is filming - any thoughts on it? I hope we get to see Addison appear for at least an episode if not more for (spoiler alert) Amelia's baby. Okay, enough of me ranting. Stay safe, you guys.