Sunglasses on, he walked inside Seattle Grace that morning. He hadn't had a hangover in years, all product of the liquor he had taken last night with Addison... his ex-wife. Ex. Past. And now they were each other's friends with benefits. Present. Now.

He took off his sunglasses as he kept walking, he didn't want to aim rude or anything like that.

The day went smoothly, he had seen her in hallways or just pieces of her red hair flashing by his eyes, but he did not have any kind of visual contact with the woman he slept with last night. He had snuck out a couple hours Addison woke up, and only did it because he wanted to be loyal to the 'just sex and occasional chatting' rule.

Addison had been the love of his life, so for him it was a little weird and confusing to remain friends and have a bonus added to their relationship: sex. The last he wanted was to hurt her or make her believe it was more than that, he also did not want to believe it could be more than just that, he didn't want to commit the same mistakes, why rewind? They were good like this, they had always been good in bed, why not just enjoy that?

Lunch break approached and his anxiety increased as time went by, he was going to have to see Addison again. Derek didn't know for certain how to feel about that: awkward, embarrassed or totally okay with seeing her. He did feel a little bad he hadn't been there for when she woke up, but still, he had to remain strong about his decision.

"Hey," she greeted nicely as she sat down at the table, in front of him. They were alone for now, "You left early last night."

"Yeah, uh, around four thirty. Hopefully I didn't wake you."

"No, you didn't."

"Good. So, how's your first day as a 38 old?" Derek teased her, making her smile a little and roll her eyes.

"Surprisingly good. My patients have been good to be and remain healthy. How is your ordinary day going?"

"I wish mine was as good as yours. I have surgery in about half hour, got a busy day and a pounding head," Derek shared before siping his water bottle. Addison nodded and took a bite of her salad. Before Derek would forget and their alone time would be over he dared to ask, "Did we use protection though?"

Addison's eyes widened, and she swallowed her salad, "I… I wasn't sure, really. But I did take a pill in case we weren't. I haven't been with anyone lately, so, I'm pretty sure I'm safe."

Derek ran a hand through his hair, "We drunk too much, I had to drink about four cups to sober up."

Addison scoffed, "That horrendous scotch you drunk got me spinning all morning."

"Oh don't exaggerate. You barely even took a sip," He narrowed his eyebrows at her.

"It was too strong, Derek."

"It was just a sip!" He argued.

Mark joined them and smirked as they kept arguing about that damned scotch, "It's lovely to hear the Shepherds fighting."

"Shepherd. Not plural anymore, Mark," Derek said.

Addison took another bite of her salad as Mark asked, "Whatcha doing tonight, red?"

"Paperwork," Derek replied for her.

Addison and Mark turned their heads questioningly at Derek, "You said you had paperwork, right Addison?"

"Right. Paperwork. Too much paperwork," the redhead said and used a napkin to clean the surface of her lips, "So no Mark, I'm not available for meaningless sex with you."

Derek looked up as he realized Addison added that 'with you' for a reason, he met her eyes but he immediately looked down because they just planned to see each other. Derek's cheeks flushed a bit, he could feel the hot in his skin. He felt like a teenager, finally hooking up with the hottest girl.

"I wasn't planning to get inside your pants," Mark said.

Addison and Derek chuckled, "Of course not," They said in unison.

"Ha ha, funny. Well, what are you doing Derek? We could go to Joe's tonight, have a couple drinks, bet on who's going home with me," Mark said with a smirk on his face.

Derek scoffed, "Mark, as much as that sounds entertaining, I'll have to pass this time."

"What?! Why?" Mark demanded.

"I have plans already," Derek said simply, taking a bite of his salad.

"With who? Grey?"

"No, alone," Derek clarified after swallowing.

"Where? Can I come?" Mark asked, sounding like a little kid.

Addison took Derek's bottle of water and took a sip, "You could go out alone, you know?"

"Alone? Come on guys! We should all go out together and party! Like the old times! Addison, drop paperwork and go out with me and you…" he pointed t Derek, "…whatever or whoever you're doing can wait, let's do it!"

Addison and Derek looked at each other in the eye. They both showed pity for Mark. The three of them hadn't found a way to socialize yet, they barely had any friends and they were all finally not trying to kill each other, so maybe going out the three of them wouldn't be such a bad idea.

They decided to meet at a different bar than Joe's, a fancy place called 'Club Contour', they were supposed to meet up a couple hours after their shifts ended, so they could go home and change their clothes. They hadn't done this in a while, actually going out. The last time they did it it was Derek's birthday in 1997, which now felt like an eternity ago.

The place was not heaven, and it was quite juvenile, it had some sort of vintage vibe and it was crowded. Addison wore a simple black dress, it was knee length and it had a little opening on the left leg, sexy and fancy enough. Derek wore a white flannel and jeans, but at least it was his best pair of jeans. And Mark, as always, wore his signature leather jacket and regularly just casual clothes, just like Derek.

Both men had to stifle a laugh when Addison appeared all dressed up, her hair up in a bun, pearl earrings and a naked chest, she looked magnificent for a New York night club in the Upper East Side, but not like she belonged in the club they were standing in at the moment. They ordered their drinks and sat down in a turquoise sofa in the middle of the crowd, Addison in the middle of both boys.

"This is nice," Derek commented, sipping his scotch, this time a not so strong kind.

"It is," Addison agreed.

"It sucks," Mark said.

Addison and Derek looked at Mark, "This isn't our lifestyle anymore… I mean maybe yours Addie, but let's face it, I became antisocial and more like a city rat, and Derek is a…"

"Fisherman wood chopping dude," Addison finished his sentence.

Mark nodded, "We used to like this, going out to expensive places. What happened to us?"

"Maybe we should try our best to enjoy this night. It's true, we never go out anymore, we should make the best out of it," Derek said, placing his drink down onto the glass table in front of them, "Tonight we're in med school again, and we enjoy dancing and flirting with random strangers. You in?"

"I'm in," Addison announced and took a large sip of her martini before standing up from her seat to disappear into the crowd.

Derek stood up, "There's plenty of women here, Mark. Go get yourself a treat," Derek said, punching Mark's shoulder playfully and then disappearing into the crowd as well, the same direction as Addison before.

As he walked in between the people, he saw her, dancing to an 80's pop-rock song by herself, just twirling around and smiling to herself. He had forgotten how beautiful she looked like when she was herself, when she was able to just shine and move like no one else was watching. She looked like a goddess, her skin shinning with the low lights and her beautiful teeth would mesmerize to every spectator.

He walked closely and joined her, twirling her around and smiling when she smiled at him, "Look," she pointed to the bar, where Mark was talking to a brunette woman, using his typical smirk on the girl in front of him. Derek chuckled at the image of his best friend already getting a conquest.

Addison grabbed his arm and pushed him farther into the noisy crowd, "Dance!" She exclaimed, moving energetically as he stood there, staring at her, "Come on! Dance!"

Derek laughed, "No thank you!" He exclaimed.

Addison grabbed his wrists and tried to obligate him to dance, although he looked like a lego figure moving around, she was pleased with the result and kept annoying him by doing so.

The redhead got closer to him and talked near his ear, so he would hear her, "Let's go get our drinks refilled," Addison said.

They went back to their spot in the couch, and realized it was now being occupied by different people, and the table they had left their drinks at was now saturated with lots of glasses. They looked at each other and shrugged, each grabbed as many glasses as possible and took them to the bar. Both looked like dorks doing so, but at least they were doing a small help.

"Here," Derek said to the bartender as both Addison and Derek delivered the glasses on the bar table, "The table at the turquoise couch is filled with glasses, so… here you go."

"This is nothing compared to what's left over there though," Addison added.

Addison looked both sides of the bar and notices the brunette was not longer there, nor was Mark.

"I think Mark left," Addison said to Derek as the bartender took the glasses to a sink nearby and then prepared Addison and Derek their drinks, "Wanna stay… or do you wanna go already?"

"I think it would be nice to stay a while," Derek said, accepting the drinks from the bartender, handing Addison her dry martini.

"If you want to, we can stay. I don't mind," She sipped her martini, "I thought we were going to… you know… use our privileges as friends with benefits."

He nodded, cringing a little, "Right. Um, we could just dance a while, and order a few appetizers as well."

"Sure, I'd like that," Addison nodded.

"Then we can go back to your hotel or to another place."

"My hotel is fine, I think," Addison said, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen off her bun behind her ear, looking at Derek in the eye as she sipped her martini again.

"I don't mention my trailer because I know you dislike the woods," Derek said, making her giggle slightly.

He took a sip of his scotch and watched her open a menu, going through all kinds of appetizers. They ended up ordering some fries to share, just like when they were in their twenties.

"You know… Archer called me this morning, around seven, because he 'wanted to make sure he was the first to tell me happy birthday'."

"Nice. I imagine how was the arguing after you told him it was yesterday," Derek commented, eating a fry.

"I actually didn't. It was sweet of him, the intention is what it counts, you know?"

"Sure," Derek nodded.

He did know, sadly. She would always mention how Addison and Archer would say Happy birthday to each other first when they were kids, they would wake each other up in the middle of the night for their first hug a year older, and she would always cherish those nice memories, although it kind of made Derek feel sad for Addison, sad that she had to seek for those small dosis of happiness, like she couldn't find any more happiness anymore now that she was not a child.

"Thank you for last night, Derek," she said, squeezing his upper arm gently, "It was nice to feel wanted, specially in my birthday."

"You don't have to thank me," Derek said, smiling at Addison.

Addison turned around suddenly, a man was behind her and he smiled at her and said, "I'm sorry, uh, I saw you dancing a while back and I was hoping I could buy you a drink, of course if I'm not interrupting anything," The man said nicely, now looking over at Derek.

Derek smiled friendly at the man and Addison looked at him, she wanted to accept the drink, just for fun, "I'll go see if Mark's still around, don't worry."

"You sure?" Addison asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Have fun," Derek insisted.

Derek left Addison with that man, who looked like he was in his forties. He was well dressed and he was handsome, Derek wouldn't blame Addison if she desired to share a drink with the man. Derek watched from far away as Addison giggled at whatever the unknown dude said, and she drank her drink and even flirted back.

He felt sort of… jealous. But managed to stay calm somehow. Addison got her pager off her purse, which meant she had gotten a call. She quickly wrote something on a napkin and gave it to the man, then she approached Derek as fast as she could in those pointy heels and said "Hey, uh, I just got a page. A 911 on a patient, I've gotta go, sorry."

"No problem. Do you want me to drive you?"

Addison shook her head no and took off her heels, "No, I've got my rental car here. Thank you for not leaving me alone with Elliot."

Elliot. The man had a name.

"Gotta go, see you tomorrow!" She said.

"Bye!" Derek said before she kissed his cheek goodbye, and then watched her practically gallop out of that bar/night club.

He went home (trailer) and went to bed after a hot shower, he laid in the sheets wondering if the napkin had her number written on. It probably did, and he knew there was no reason to be jealous about it or even give it a thought, but deep down he still cared about her, and the thought that if 'Elliot' hadn't appeared maybe now he would be underneath her fresh sheets, with her by his side.

"I swear I slept ten minutes," Addison said the next morning, sipping her cup of coffee, surprised she hadn't passed out yet.

Derek had run into her when he got to the attendings lounge that morning, she had slept in her office and was changing into new scrubs, when he realized how tired she was, he invited her downstairs for some coffee.

Derek sipped his own cup, "You should take some sleep, Addie. I'm sure Richard will understand," he said nicely.

She rolled her eyes, "This is not whether I want to sleep or not, it's just that I need to keep an eye on Arielle. She's my favorite patient and lately i'm not feeling like failing."

"You never feel like failing."

"That's true, anyways, I'm fine. I'll get my sleep when I have time to do so," Addison said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and sipping her coffee again.

"You're the department head, you can get your best attending, resident or even intern to watch that woman and her kid."

Addison swallowed the hot liquid and stared at Derek's blue eyes, "Don't even get me started on the interns," Addison groaned.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help," Derek said, shrugging his shoulders.

Addison sighed, defeated, "OB/GYN and neonatal are busy fields, Derek. My people are busy. I am busy. Sickening busy."

"Just take a break," he insisted.

She shook her head no, "I can't sleep with all of this in my head. You know I can't."

Derek sighed and took a sip of his coffee before finishing it and tossing it in a trash can, "Sometimes I really hate you, Addison. I'm trying to help you, it's for your own good."

"Uh huh, sometimes I wish you had kept the whole 'I want Seattle and I want never to see you again' promise," She said in an angry tone before walking away.

Derek stood there stunned by what she had said and decided to not argue with her. They weren't married anymore, they were exes and also friends, and even a little more, but now he wasn't in the mood to fight her. She was stubborn and moody from her lack of sleep, plus Derek didn't know exactly if he had meant that.

Maybe he did mean it back then, when he was angry and pissed at both Addison and Mark, but maybe now it wouldn't be his choice of words. After all, things weren't as they were a couple months ago.

A week passed and they hadn't had intercourse, mostly because Addison was confused as to why Derek was worried about her, and Derek was still thinking about what she had said. They hadn't had a conversation in a while and Addison had plans to go out with Elliot.

"Addison," Mark said, walking behind her in the corridor.

"Hm?" She said stopping and turning around to look at Mark.

He smirked, "What's going on between you and Derek," he asked, not adding a question mark to his question.

"Nothing, we're divorced now, we're civilized adults, nothing's going on," Addison said simply and started walking where she was heading.

Mark walked quicker, trying to adjust to her pace, "Come on, Red. You were all friendly and now you have each other," He said.

She rolled her eyes, her hands inside her lab coat pockets, "I've been busy with Arielle Kennedy's case and my personal life, so, yeah, I haven't had time for a drink at Joe's."

"It's not only that, I know you. Something's bothering you," He walked along her inside an elevator.

"Not really," she looked straight, not wanting to get any eye contact with the man, the elevator doors closing.

Mark chuckled, "Yeah sure."

Addison groaned and made eye contact with him, "Fine, I said something hurtful and now I'm afraid he hates me, again. And really, I've been busy, Mark. That's all."

"You better make things right then, I miss hanging out with you guys," Mark said, sounding actually truthful, which sort of scared Addison.

"Sure you do," she nodded.

"I wanted to repeat that night at the club, you know? I had a lotta fun."

"So you did go back home with the brunette," Addison raised an eyebrow at him.

"I did, indeed. Derek mentioned you met someone as well."

"Elliot," Addison nodded.

"Elliot, huh?"

She smirked, "He's an english teacher at a university."

"Such a turn on."

Addison scoffed, "See? This is why you're an annoying friend," Addison said, hitting his arm playfully, "He's nice, we're meeting up again, actually."

"Wow… He's not repelled by your former marriage and why it ended?" Mark asked, a smirk forming on his lips.

"He doesn't know about that yet."

"Damn. So you're gonna fuck him or…?"

"No! It's our first official date, I'm waiting for the third," Addison said annoyed.

"If there is a third," Mark challenged.

"There will be a third," Addison said.

The elevator doors opened and they both walked different ways. She was going out with Elliot, she was going to meet a new man, someone that she had the idea of trusting and caring for, maybe even getting to love him in the future, which meant she was going to have to talk about… the incident, satan and the trailer. It was too much emotional baggage, it made her sick.

"I know! It's so good. I don't read much unless it's medically related, but it is such a good book. I really liked the ending," Addison said, sipping her red wine, her eyes shinny as a smile reached her eyes.

"I haven't gotten to the ending yet," Elliot shared.

"Me neither. I do this thing… uh, I tend to read the end before I start it."

Elliot's eyes widened a bit, "You do? Why do you do that?" He giggled, finding it amusing.

"I guess because it's somehow comfortable to not stress about 'what's going to happen?' or 'what's going on?', you know?"

"Like… you need reassurance it's going to be okay?"

"Something like that, yes," Addison nodded.

He nodded along, "You should stick to medical reading, then."

"What, why?!" She giggled.

"It's better that way, you're dangerous."

"I am?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Writers write so their readers experience the development of the story and the characters along them as they write, it's no fair you spoil that experience by reading the end first," Elliot explained.

She shrugged, "Well, I like spoilers."

"You're so bizarre," Elliot laughed and sipped his own red wine glass, staring at Addison's blue-greenish eyes.

Suddenly Addison's phone started buzzing, she quickly grabbed it and read the caller ID, 'Derek'. She cursed under her breath and looked up at Elliot.

"Hospital?"

Addison nodded, "I'm sorry, really."

"It's alright, duty calls," Elliot said, watching her stand up in that beautiful burgundy dress and heading outside to answer the call.

"Derek, what's going on?" She asked on the phone.

"I expected a 'hi' first…" He said on the phone.

Addison rolled her eyes, "Hi, what's going on?" She repeated.

"Hey, we're at Joe's, Mark and I. I wondered if you wanted to join us," he said, in a too nice tone it sort of hurt her.

"I'm busy right now," she said, doing her best not to hang up.

"Come over here. Please. I hate being like this with you," he said in that tone she knew too well, the tone that said he was truly sorry.

"Derek it's not what you think."

He sighed, "I'm sorry. Okay? I am. Just… will you come?"

"Derek…"

"I did mean what I said, but now's different," he insisted, "just thought you should come, that's all."

She softened at what he had just said, "I don't know."

"I'm not calling as a friend with benefits, just as a friend," he said.

Addison groaned, "Fine. I'll be there in less than twenty, wait for me with a dry martini…"

"... single olive. Done." Derek said, ending her sentence.

Addison chuckled and hung up, then turned around, realizing what she had just done. She took a deep breath and walked inside, fast. As she approached their table she tried her best apologetic expression and said "I'm so sorry, Elliot. It's my patient again," she rambled a few medical terms quickly and headed to her rental car, which she hated.

As she drove she couldn't help but wonder: Why the fuck would she escape a date with an amazing, intelligent man to go over a crowded bar to chat with her ex husband? There was no answer, not yet.

For some reason she didn't want to let Derek know she had dropped out of a date for him, and she had assumed Mark hadn't told him about her date, so she put on her coat and walked inside that bar, spotting the best friends.

"Hey!" Mark greeted.

"You came," Derek said as Addison approached.

She smiled, "I did," Addison said, sitting down.

"Want me to take your coat?" Mark asked nicely.

She shook her head no, "Not really I'm okay like this."

"Dry martini, single olive," Derek said, grabbing the drink from Joe's and handing it to Addison.

"Thank you very much, sir," she thanked and sipped her drink.

That night she had genuine fun, and remembered how nice it used to be to spend time with them. She even danced, she had fun, she even forgot about her previous date, and eventually came back to her hotel room, of course, not alone.

"When you said that you wanted Seattle and to never see me again… before all that, before I told you… you were going to say something, right?" Addison asked, the covers covering just above her breasts, she looked to her right to see him staring at the ceiling, his chest up and down as he breathed, "Do you remember what you wanted to say?"

He looked at her and then up to the ceiling again, he inhaled before speaking, "Yeah. I wanted to give us a try."

Addison's eyes widened, she propped herself in an elbow and looked down at Derek's face, "excuse me?"

"I was going to ask if you would go out with me for a drink, and if you said yes, that night I'd ask for a second chance. A clean slate," He said, looking up to her eyes.

"Are you kidding?" She asked, feeling pathetic.

"No."

"Derek, are you for real?"

He had a sad smile on his lips, "I am. I was."

She flopped back on bed and sighed, "I can't believe I ruined that by telling you."

He sighed too, "it would have been a terrible idea to say yes, Addison. I had just finished things with Grey, we had just divorced… it was a hard time."

"Right," Addison said, "Derek I have to ask, are we exclusive? I mean… this… us… whatever… our sex and occasional chatter."

"Yeah. I mean, at least for me."

"Good," Addison said, "Uh, I'm going to say something I shouldn't, but… When you called tonight… I was in the middle of a date with the guy I met at the club."

"Elliot?"

She looked at him in the eye, "Yeah."

"I figured."

"How?"

"Burgundy dress I just took off you," he winked at her.

She chuckled but quickly remembered what she was about to say, "...I felt bad for saying that. I'm sorry my stupid ass had to bring that up. I should have kept quiet."

"It's fine, I shouldn't have said it in the first place."

"I'm not sleeping with him though," Addison had to clarify.

"Alright."

"And about you saying that," Addison said, grabbing his hand, "It's better that you said something and walked away than just walking away."

"Still, it was wrong of me."

"I don't wanna keep talking about this, can we go to sleep thinking we had mind blowing sex and enjoy that for a moment?" She asked, a small smile on her lips. He reciprocated the smile and Addison squeezed his hand gently before getting comfortable to sleep.

"Goodnight then."

"Night," she said softly, turning off the lamp on her nightstand.

Derek got comfortable under the covers and closed his eyes, "Night," he muttered.

Suddenly he felt Addison behind him, resting an arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her

chest, "Are we supposed to cuddle?" He asked.

She giggled, "I have no idea, but you're warm, so I'm not letting go," she said in a sleepy voice.

He brought his hand up to hers resting on his upper belly, "Good night."

"Sweet dreams. Oh, and thank you," Addison said softly, squeezing his hand gently.

"For the sex?" He giggled, turning around, allowing her to dig her face on his chest and feel his arms around her.

"It was good sex, stop judging my thank yous." She muttered against his warm skin.

"Thank you too, then."

Addison kissed his collar bone, "Sleep well."

"You too," he said before they both drifted off to sleep.

/

Hopefully you enjoyed! Pls review and let me know what you think.