Took forever, I know. I'm sorry! Anyway, to recap: Meredith and Addison had a sort of bonding ish moment in which Mer invited Addie over for a party...where of course things go wrong.

"Dr. Bailey, Seattle Grace Hospital."

"Miranda."

"Oh, hey, Addison," said Bailey warmly.

"So, I heard you're going to the Izzie Stevens party tomorrow…is there any way I can back out this late?" Addison groaned, flopping down on the hotel bed and putting the phone on speaker.

Bailey snorted. "You're the chief of neonatal and OB/GYN, I think you can pull off a fake emergency page pretty easily."

"True…"

"But for what it's worth, I don't think you need to," added Bailey. Her tone grew more serious. "I get that you're used to people not liking you around here, but now that you live here, you need to start socializing. And its interns, it's a piece of cake. They're dumb."

"They're Derek's girlfriend's friends," muttered Addison darkly. "Not really a piece of cake for me." She hesitated. "God, Derek has a girlfriend. That sounds so weird, I mean, he hasn't had a girlfriend for twelve years now. It's weird."

"Ad-"

"See, this is why I shouldn't go. Because even if they don't make it weird, I will. I'm a guaranteed mess. The last thing Izzie Stevens needs at a feel-better party is the ex-wife/mean doctor being weird."

"Addison, would you stop with the pity?" Bailey cut across. She paused. "You say you don't want pity from the rest of us, you say you hate it when I have 'that look' in my eyes, and yet you're going on about the same thing now." Addison sighed. "Just come to the party – hell, it's barely a party. It's sleep-deprived interns and residents with takeout and booze, trying to class it up by inviting attendings. Just come, get together with people, talk, have a good time, and move past that damn ex-husband of yours."

There was a long silence, and Bailey grew apprehensive. "Look, I didn't mean to overstep-"

"Thank you, Miranda," said Addison at last, softly. "I needed to hear that." Clearing her throat, she continued. "Okay, so I'm coming, it's settled."

"Good. Torres asked me to swing by the hotel at seven to pick her up, so be ready." She hung up.

She'd spent almost an entire hour at Grey's house when she began to subtly hint to Callie about leaving. Not that it had been a bad hour, of course – the interns were pleasant enough outside of the hospital, and Karev wasn't as much of an insolent ass when he was sufficiently inebriated. With loud music that made Addison feel extremely old, and good Italian takeout with plenty of beer and tequila, it was a fairly entertaining party.

Izzie hadn't known about it, and was pleasantly surprised when she returned home to find fifteen people drinking in the living room. As she made her way around the room, greeting the residents and attendings, Addison noticed George whisper something to Izzie, who glanced at her sharply, her face hardening. Addison had hurriedly joined Bailey in her conversation with two other attendings, and soon, Izzie approached the four of them.

"Hi, thank you so much for coming," she said, smiling at them all, her face imperceptibly changing as she looked at Addison. "I hope you all have a good time!" With that, she hurried away, and Addison breathed a sigh of relief.

The rest of the hour passed smoothly, with Torres and Grey getting the most drunk, leaving Derek and Yang to handle them. Meanwhile, Addison had a good time talking to a couple of attendings and residents she'd observed in surgery but never worked with, and it turned out that one of the attendings had met Vivian at a medical conference a few years ago, and had heard all about Vivian's protégé, the talented, double-board certified, starting-a-new-fellowship Dr. Shepherd.

Finally, when Bailey announced that she was leaving – she had a little boy to go tuck into bed – Addison had approached Callie, who was busy listening to Burke and Yang's cardio stories (was stuff like this foreplay for them, she briefly wondered).

"-and so, I had to pretty much throw a Hail Mary," Burke was saying. "It worked out, though, she came in for a follow-up a week ago and it'd healed well." Ever the polite man, he noticed Addison joining them and turned to her slightly. "How did it go with Chief Webber that day after Shepherd's surgery? How's the girl doing?"

"The Chief was very displeased, but he let it slide, thankfully, because the girl had a full recovery. She'll be needing another surgery in a few years, of course, but this went really well."

"Thanks to you," quipped Callie, holding up her glass. "Addison Montgomery, ladies and gentlemen; saving people from both inside and outside the OR."

Addison almost choked on her drink. "Hardly."

Burke looked thoughtful. "It was highly irresponsible of Shepherd to freeze like that, you must agree."

"Yes, but sometimes it happens to all of us-"

"Oh, quit defending your pig of an ex-husband, Addie!" called Callie loudly, laying an arm on Addison's shoulder. From the corner of her eye, Addison saw a couple people glance their way.

"Callie-"

"You should have dumped his ass way back and just gone with Mark; hot Mark and his hot body," continued Callie loudly, gesturing wildly. Yang deftly took the glass out of her hand while Addison hissed at Callie to shut up.

"Okay, Dr. Torres, why don't we go sit down there," began Burke in his deep and low calming voice. He helped Addison half-drag the ortho resident out the front door to the bench on the porch. They sat her down, Addison maintaining a strong grip with her arm around her shoulders.

"You've got her?" asked Burke quietly. Addison nodded. "I'll get her a glass of water." He headed back inside.

"Addisonnnn," drawled Callie. Addison murmured a reply. "I'm right, you know it and I know it and you know it and I know it and you-"

"Yes, Callie, of course," said Addison mindlessly. "Now-"

"You should have just dumped Derek and kept Mark's baby and stayed in New York and had a cute hot redhead baby," said Callie, half incoherent, "oh but then we wouldn't have met if you didn't come to Seattle! Oh nooooo-"

There was a crash. "Addie?"

Addison spun around, heart thudding. Derek Christopher Shepherd stood at the open front door, a slice of pizza and a broken plate at his feet.

"You…you were pregnant with Mark's baby?"

A flash of pain crossed her face, and she dropped the arm around Callie's shoulders and quickly stood up, walking over to him. She hesitated. "Yes."

"You had an abortion? Or…miscarriage?"

Addison glanced down at her feet before answering. "I told you I stayed with him after you left. I got pregnant, and you know I wanted a baby, but Derek, I wanted your baby. I just couldn't have his baby. I…I had an abortion the day after I caught him with someone else, I knew he was sleeping around but that was the only one I'd actually walked in on." She drew a sharp breath. "A week later, Richard called, and I hopped on the first flight to Seattle."

She chanced a glance at her ex-husband. Mutinous didn't begin to describe his expression. Met with silence, she added, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He shook his head. "Don't. Don't bother. I don't know where to begin with you. You…you disgust me, Addison." His voice was cold and hard.

She felt tears begin to well up. "Derek, I-"

"You made me waste a year of my life in Seattle trying to fix things with you."

Her heart dropped like a stone. "I didn't tell you because I knew you'd not even want to try if I did-"

"And obviously that would have been the right decision."

"No, Derek, we were married, that has to mean something, we had to try."

"Oh, so now marriage means something? Funny, that wasn't the impression I got when I found you and Mark in our bed." As she began to speak, he held up a hand. "Addison, just don't. There is nothing you can say to make this better." He strode back into Meredith's house, leaving her staring after him.

So the good news is that the next part is almost done, it'll be up in a day or two, I think. Review please! I worry incessantly that everyone is very OOC, especially people like Derek and Bailey who have such distinct mannerisms. Also, I'm reaching a point where I'm a little confused about the multiple ways I see this story moving forward, so any and all suggestions are welcome!