A/N: Thanks again for the reviews! Someone said they wanted more Addex, and let me tell you, you will be getting more of them together more often, I'm trying to form something. Meredith opening up to Derek more, well, that I'm trying to progress with. This chapter, trust me, you'll all get what you wanted, hopefully, at least partially. Oh! And every movie that is mentioned, I do not own! Please R & R..

Summary: Completely AU. One lawyer, one baker, one science professor, one real estate agent, one architect, and now one upcoming fashion designer. Drama is bound to catch up to them. (not all of the characters will be in it) McStizzie, Mer/Der, future Addex

X-x-x-X--Xx-x-x-x-x-x-xXXXXXXXx-x-x-x-x-x-xX--X-x-x-X

The next night, Meredith was standing in front of Derek's door. She was mentally trying to decide if she should knock or not. After a few moments, she finally got the courage to knock on the door.

Soon enough, Derek answered it. He was surprised to see her, but he was glad she was there, even though he had no idea why she was. "Hey."

Meredith smiled. "Hey. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said a little nervously.

Derek shook his head. "No, come in." He said stepping to the side and widening the door open.

Meredith stepped inside, it seemed cleaner then last time she was there.

Derek closed the door and turned to Meredith. "What's up?" He asked giving her a smile.

Meredith gave him a nervous smile. "I was hoping that maybe we could hang out or something." She said, hoping that he wasn't to busy with anything.

A smile spread across Derek's face. "Sure." He was glad that she came over. This could be a step to something more, but he wasn't getting his hopes up. "Do you want some coffee?"

Meredith nodded. "Okay." She watched him walk to his kitchen. She smiled to herself.

XXXXXXX

Mark and Izzie were sitting at a table at an Italian restaurant.

"What are you going to get?" Mark asked, looking up from his menu to look at her.

Izzie bit her bottom lip. "I'm not sure yet." She smiled a little. "So many choices." She looked up at him, smiling.

Mark smiled softly. "Yeah…" He couldn't take his eyes away from her. The way her eyes just seemed to sparkle. He was just fixated.

Izzie looked back up at him from where she was looking down at her menu. She felt his gaze on her for quite a few moments. "Do I have something in my hair or something?" She asked tring to figure out why he was staring.

Mark shook his head, refusing to take his eyes off her. "No." He said softly. "You look beautiful."

A soft smile grazed Izzie's features.

XXXXXXX

"My dad's in the hospital." Addison said staring at the beer in her hands. Her and Alex were sitting on his couch at his place.

Alex looked at her. He was wondering why she was being so quiet. "I thought you said he was getting better?" He asked.

Addison nodded. "He was, but then he got worse… Really worse." She said with a sigh, taking a sip of her beer.

Alex nudged her shoulder with his. "Hey, have some hope. You're dad's a strong guy, he'll make it through."

Addison looked up at him, letting a faint smile appear on her face. "Thanks Alex."

Alex gave a her a reassuring smile. "You don't have to thank me, it's true. Now…" He picked up two things. "TV guide or Connect Four?"

Addison couldn't help but let a small laugh escape her lips.

XXXXXXX

Meredith and Derek were now sitting on Derek's couch. A silence was filling the room.

"Izzie told me you had sisters. How many?" Meredith asked, trying to make conversation somehow, and she was a little curious to know about his life.

Derek drank some of his coffee, and then put it on his coffee table. "Four… There's Diane, Alison, Brianna, and Nancy." He told her.

Meredith nodded. "Do you have any brothers?" She asked curiously.

Derek shook his had. "No, I'm the only guy. Do you have any siblings?" He asked leaning back against the couch.

Meredith nodded. "Just a sister. Her name is Lexie." She said picking up her coffee.

"Is she younger or older?" Derek asked curiously.

"Younger." Meredith informed him. "We're two years apart."

XXXXXXX

"At work, they're having a Christmas party in a week, before we get off for it." Mark told her taking a bite of his food.

Izzie took a sip of her drink. "Really? Are you going?"

Mark shrugged. "Only if-" He smiled at her. "-you Ms. Stevens will come as my date."

Izzie looked at him, a smile forming on her face. "A Christmas party?" She pretended to think about it for a moment. "I would love to."

Mark reached his hand over to take hers in his.

Izzie smiled. "You've become such a romantic." She teased.

"And it's all your fault." Mark said with a smile, his thumb rubbing gently over hers.

Izzie nodded. "It is, and I'm willing to take the blame."

"Are you sure?" Mark asked with fake seriousness.

Izzie tried to keep a straight face. "Positive."

XXXXXXX

"You think your dad might be out of jail?" Addison asked, shocked.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know yet. I think I might have to talk to my mom."

Addison put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry Alex."

Alex shrugged. "Until I know he's out of jail, I'm not worrying." He told her.

Addison gave him a small smile. "Good for you Alex."

"I'm trying a new optimistic thing that's why." Alex said sipping his beer.

Addison gave him a curious look. "Seriously?"

Alex nodded. "Oh yeah. Seriously."

"Why?" Addison said turning her whole body to face him.

Alex shrugged. "Nobody else seems to be anymore. I mean, someone other than Izzie has to think good thoughts of the future."

Addison thought for a moment. "I never really thought about it."

Alex looked at her. "I have."

"There's a lot more to you than I thought." Addison said tilting her head to the side.

Alex started to grin. "Of course there is. There are many sides to this face."

Addison rolled her eyes. "Well, if you put it that way…"

XXXXXXX

"My dad died when I was in seventh grade." Derek told Meredith.

Meredith nodded. "My parents are both alive… My dad might. He left us when Lexie was two."

"That must have been hard." Derek said.

Meredith shrugged. "I was four, I didn't know what was going on, but how about you. Were you close to your dad?" She asked.

Derek nodded. "Yeah, he got me into my love of the outdoors. He took me fishing and we camped every chance we get." He smiled a little at the memory. "My sisters never wanted to go. Nancy was never sure if she did, but in the end she never did want to, so it always ended up being him and me."

Meredith smiled softly at him. "It must have been nice."

Derek smiled as he nodded. "It was." He brought his eyes to her. "How about you and your mom?"

Meredith sighed. "My sister and me never had a good relationship with her. She was either at work, or out doing stuff. When she was home, all she did was put us down. If I didn't have Lexie there, I don't know what I would of done." She told him honestly.

"But you did, and you both made it through." Derek said with a smile.

Meredith nodded. "We did. It's like we didn't even have a parent at all though, but I wouldn't of changed it." She told him. "It got me here, and Lexie's doing really well."

"I'm glad." Derek said softly, keeping his eyes on her.

XXXXXXX

Mark took out his wallet, getting out money to pay for the check. "How much should I give him for the tip?"

Izzie shrugged. "Fifteen percent, it seems fair."

Mark looked at the check and did some mental math to figure out the tip total, when he finished doing that, he put the money on the check. "Ready?" He gave her a smile.

Izzie nodded, watching as he got out of his chair and walked to her. She smiled and took his hand and stood up herself. "You're such a gentleman."

"I try." Mark said putting that hand on her back.

Izzie and Mark started to walk out of the restaurant.

"It shows." Izzie said as they walked out.

Mark smiled. "I'm glad."

Izzie leaned into him as they walked to his car.

XXXXXXX

"So you're saying your boss might get fired for something he didn't even do?" Alex asked with a chuckle.

Addison nodded. "Yes, thank god." She started to smile. "A dream come true."

"Sick dream." Alex joked.

Addison rolled her eyes. "It's not that sick Alex. Actually, you know what? It's not sick at all."

"You believe that now." Alex said with a smile as he sipped his beer.

Addison playfully shoved his shoulder. "I do believe that now."

"I know that." Alex said sipping his beer again.

Addison smirked. "Don't get drunk now."

Alex rolled his eyes. "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Addison nodded with the same smirk on her face. "Partly."

"Sure." Alex said not believing her and sipping his beer once again.

Addison just shook her head and sipped her own beer.

XXXXXXX

"So, what made you want to become a science professor?" Meredith asked, finishing her cup of coffee.

Derek shrugged. "I'm not sure, but ever since I was a young kid, I was always interested in how this world was. How it was formed, what makes things move. I just really wanted to learn and teach others about it."

Meredith nodded. "And you are."

Derek smiled. "I am. How about you, what made you want to get into fashion designing?"

Meredith sighed. "Honestly? At first it was to get my mother's attention. I thought she would like me being ambitious about something, but she didn't care much, and she told me that it was a useless dream."

"And yet you kept with it?" Derek inquired, he said it in a form of a question.

Meredith nodded. "I did, but it wasn't because of her. I didn't like the idea from the start, but when I was trying to get her attention, I look things up and learned about it, and I got into it. Then I started sketching designs, and it turned out to be something I really wanted to do." She told him honestly.

Derek nodded in understanding. "Something's just end up being right."

Meredith glanced up at him. "Yeah, they do…" She looked down at the empty mug of coffee in her hands.

XXXXXXX

Mark and Izzie walked hand in hand into Izzie's place.

"Meredith's not here?" Mark asked as he close the door behind them.

Izzie shook her head, putting her arms around his neck. "Nope." She leaned up and kissed him.

Mark grinned and put his hands on her waist. "That good isn't it?"

Izzie nodded and kissed him again. "Oh yeah." She dropped her purse from her hands.

Mark leaned down and kissed her deeply, letting his hands go to the thin jacket that she had on her.

Izzie smiled against his mouth as she helped him take it off her shoulders.

They walked their way upstairs, kissing and getting rid of clothes along the away.

Mark kicked the door closed with his foot as they entered her bedroom.

XXXXXXX

"Want to watch a movie?" Alex asked putting his beer down.

Addison shrugged. "Sure. It's not like we have anything else to do."

Alex got off the couch and walked over to where he and Mark kept the DVD's and videos. "What do you want to watch?"

"What do you have?" Addison asked turning to look at him.

Alex glanced through the DVD's. "We have Scary Movie, Storm of the Century, don't know how we got that one, Saw, The-" His eyes widened. "-The Notebook! How the hell do we have that here?"

Addison started to laugh. "The Notebook? Seriously?"

"Maybe Izzie left it here when she was hanging out with Mark or something." Alex said looking through the rest of the DVD's.

Addison kept laughing. "The Notebook?"

Alex turned around to look at her. "It's not ours."

Addison bit her bottom lip to stop laughing for a moment. "Sure." She then started laughing again.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Do you want to watch a movie or not?"

Addison stopped herself from laughing any further. She nodded. "Definitely."

Alex turned around, only to hear Addison's laughter once again.