Easy Company
It was someone else behind the shower door that evening.
"I thought you were room service," Addison Montgomery says to her ex-husband, Derek Shepherd, as he appears at her hotel room door.
She turns and lets him in though, as she sits on the edge of the bed with her hair still wet, drying slowly on the white fluffy bathrobe.
Derek sighs as he closes the door, facing her, before he begins speaking "I feel terrible," Derek says, his voice soft and his eyes gentle like a puppy's. "I'm not proud of what I did."
Addison looks at the floor as he continues.
"You deserve better."
The words echo in Addison's ears, and she feels redeemed a little, having waited for so long for him to say those words to her.
"And I'm sorry about that."
She meets his eyes again.
"And I'm sorry about the panties. And the prom."
Addison nearly laughs at this. Of all things that Derek could apologize for, it would definitely be about his ex-mistress' underwear.
Addison takes a long sip of her drink.
"I'm sorry I did that."
Addison lets him continue as she considers her own sins. Should she apologize again? Or has she already had enough of that.
Derek joins her on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah," Addison says quietly.
We tried.
"I'm sorry I did that, too."
She is, and they've both paid for, and learned from it.
"Our marriage is over," Derek says next, and Addison says "yeah, I guess it is," in a more shake voice than she might have liked to.
"It's all my fault," Derek mopes, and Addison does her best not to interrupt him. "God, this is incredibly sad."
Addison nods, as Derek repeats 'incredibly sad,' to himself, and Addison gulps as she hears the door to the washroom open behind them.
"Uh-" a voice stammers, shocked at Addison's unexpected guest.
Derek makes a 'whoa,' gesture as he looks back at Addison, and then at the person coming out of the washroom, also wrapped in a towel, hair also still wet from the shower.
"Hello?" Calls the voice, confused because this hadn't been a part of the plan earlier.
"You have a guest," says Derek, eyebrows raised at exactly who it is who had already apparently been spending time in his ex-wife's hotel room.
"I do," Addison says to him, with a look that spoke gallons of 'and it's absolutely none of your business anymore.'
"And your guest just happens to be-" Derek goes to continue, but they're all interrupted by another person bursting into the room, the door never having been locked when Derek had left himself in minutes earlier.
"Oh. Well, this is awkward," says another voice, as the person walks into the room taking in the sight of the three of them.
"I never invited him?" Addison says, rather confused at the sudden presence of her former lover who is currently standing in her doorstep half-naked, having somehow arrived here all the way from New York.
"I was looking for Derek, actually," Mark shrugs, and Derek facepalms at his lack of subtlety.
"Wait, is this- is this the guy that-" the voice emerging from the washroom calls out to all of them.
"Yes. This is Mark. Mark, meet Meredith. Meredith, meet Mark," Addison gestures, as she motions for Mark to come into the room so at least he's not standing in the hallway in his underwear anymore.
"Oh, and you must be Derek's lusty intern. Hello there, I've heard a lot about you," Mark grins widely.
"Oh, wipe that smirk off your face," Addison laughs.
"Yeah, and it appears that said lusty intern has now been hanging out with my ex-wife," Derek says slightly bitterly.
"Hey, at least I waited until we were divorced," Addison reports back to him.
"Yeah, she got you on that one," Mark chimes in.
"Wait, if you were waiting for Derek in that state of undress, were you two-" Merek points between Derek and Mark, as she quints at them, and then looks at Addison.
Derek looks at the floor, and Addison slaps him teasingly on the wrist, calling him a bit of a hypocrite.
"So, are we all going to just stay here and celebrate, or what?" Mark suggests with a smirk, and all of them just laugh at the absurdity of it.
"Goodnight McSteamy," Meredith says as she finally steps out of the washroom and ushers Mark and Derek out of Addison's room.
"Okay, well if you two are up for an orgy, we'll be in Derek's room," Mark calls out behind him as Derek tells him that his room is on the twenty-fourth floor, and that he'd gotten the number wrong.
"I think they think we're a 'thing,' now," Meredith giggles as she sits on the bed beside Addison, taking the spot where Derek had just been sitting.
"Yup, and Mark is definitely ranting about it to Derek," Addison laughs as she wraps her arm around the blonde woman.
"And to think, we havn't even kissed or anything. We took separate showers!" Meredith laughs.
"Yup, perception is everything. Thanks for keeping me company by the way. It's been a wild ride today, and this probably takes the cake of it all," says Addison.
"No problem, thanks for having me over. I was looking forward to this snuggles and champagne party all day," Meredith smiles.
"Y'know…" Addison says nervously. "If you wanted to fix the part about the 'no kissing', we could... But only if you're interested in that, I mean, I don't want to impose anything," Addison offers.
"I think I'm interested," Meredith teases as she sets Addison's glass of champagne on the table.
"Well alright then," Addison grins as she pulls Meredith gently into her lap.
"Gotta live up to those expectations, right?" Meredith jokes lightly as she settles her hands on either side of Addison's face.
"Right," Addison smiles as she leans in halfway.
Meredith leans in the other half of the way, and the rest after the kissing is history.
They kiss for a little while, their hands comforting each other before it gets heated, and Meredith pulls away before they end up going too far, and too fast.
"Do you still want to stay?" Addison asks her, unsure of whether or not this changes things between them, or their plans, for that matter.
"Yeah, I'll stay. And I'll give you a cuddle, just like we talked about," Meredith says as she hands Addison her champagne glass back.
"Cheers," says Addison.
"Cheers," says Meredith.
They enjoy their bubbly drinks before Addison tucks herself into Meredith's arms, and Meredith curls herself around the redhead and turns the light off.
"I'll help you take the rings off tomorrow if you want. I think they just might need a little soap on them," says Meredith, as she runs her hands soothingly through Addison's hair.
"Thanks," says Addison, as she fidgets with them. "I couldn't get them to loosen up just by tugging."
Meredith nods, and then sighs happily into Addison's form as she starts drifting to sleep under the white fluffy covers and many pillows the Archfield hotel has provided.
And they're both glad that for the first time in a long while, that having company could just be this easy.
***** END OF CHAPTER 1
Author's note:
Hey folks, hope you enjoyed this short ficlet adaptation of a scene in the show that was also iconic. As for a roadmap, this one is scheduled to remain t-rated, and to actually progress backward in time to this moment. Let me know what you think of it :).
bobbiejelly
