III – Part 14

The three baby girls were sound a sleep, the monitor sitting on the patio table so it would be known at once if one of them woke up. Beckett's backyard was filled with the noise of laughter as the four boys and Beckett chased each other around with their squirt guns. They were all clad in swimsuits on this warm June day and enjoying the outdoors.

Archer Sanders walked out the slider followed by none other then Addie's mother Madeline. Beck's father was a very distinguished looking gentleman with his hair almost snow white, he was very tall but still a good two inches shorter then Sully, even at the age of seventy he still remained fit and healthy. Madeline was a very elegant sixty-eight. Tall and thin like her daughter with her short styled silver hair, stylish summer dress and well manicured hand, she was their ace up the sleeve. Getting Madeline to agree to come to Seattle for the summer was sheer genius.

Archer and Madeline laughed as they looked on at the soaking wet crew before them. Beck seemed to be the only one to have remained dry. When Beck noticed her father and Madeline standing on her patio, she held up her hands in surrender ending their squirt gun battle. "Okay guys lets get dried off," she said walking up to the patio grabbing dry towels and handing one each boy.

The boys' excitement grew when they saw their grandparents and they wanted to converge on them but Beck held them up. "You can say hello, but get changed before hugs. I'm sure your grandparents don't want to get all wet," she said with a laugh. After exchanging quick hellos the boys all ran inside to put on their dry clothes. Her son considered Madeline his grandmother too. It was only natural since they spent all their holidays together and she came along quite often on Sully and Addie's visits. Her father was her children's only surviving grandparent, both of Tuck's parents had died shortly after he graduated high school. And Madeline only too happy to play the part of grandmother to her children as well, since Addie was her only child, she liked to consider Beck an honorary daughter.

She walked over to give her father a hug. "Hi Daddy, why didn't you tell you me were coming over today?" And then she turned to Madeline and gave her a hug. "I'm so happy you decided to come out for the summer Madeline. Did you let Addie in on your plan yet?"

"No," she smiled. "I wanted to surprise her," she said while returning the hug.

Beck shook her head and smiled, "You will definitely surprise her." Then she grinned, "Maybe I'll make Tuck take me out this evening while you break the news that you are staying for the summer."

"Actually," Madeline began with a sparkling look over at Archer. "I am moving here permanently."

Beck's mouth hung open as she stared in shock at the other woman. "Are you serious?"

Her father walked to Madeline's side and put his arm possessively around Madeline's shoulder and said, "She serious."

Beck narrowed her eyes as she looked back and forth between her father and Madeline and it began to add up. How the hell hadn't she caught on before? Her father had spent a tremendous amount of time in New York since the first of the year. It seems he wasn't really going there to visit her brother, she thought with a laugh.

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After exiting the elevator Derek walked right past Meredith and didn't even seem to notice that she was there. She tried to get his attention but he was in his own world. She knew her husband well enough to know when he was upset about something. She couldn't even begin to fathom what it could be since they had a really good afternoon.

She had been more then a little surprised when Addison had allowed Richie to spend the afternoon with them. Of course Meredith had been right about one of her assumptions, Derek had fallen in love with his son immediately. She really couldn't blame him, he was a beautiful boy and Addison should be proud. She had done an amazing job in raising him. She knew Derek was still upset about Mark having a prominent role in his son's life, but honestly how could he object now that he met the boy.

She smiled thinking about how Richie had played with Ellie. He played right along with Ellie's games even though she could tell he thought they were too girly. He seemed to be more interested in making her happy.

Meredith decided should go find Addison and thank her for allowing Richie to spend time with them. She entered the elevator. She guessed if Addison was still at the hospital, she would most likely be in the NICU. One of the interns entered after Meredith. It was Dr. Molly Phillips, she was a cute raven haired petite girl with skin the color of a mocha latte who all the interns loved and tried to protect her. She was a shy girl but a very gifted surgeon. Meredith hoped her shyness wouldn't hurt her career, being a surgeon could be very cutthroat. "Dr. Grey-Shepherd?" Molly tentatively asked.

" Yes Dr. Phillips?" Meredith replied waiting for the real question.

"Why do they call Dr. Sanders Satan?" she looked at her expectantly.

"Who is Dr. Sanders?" Meredith asked puzzled.

"Your husband's ex-wife," Molly replied.

Meredith was even more puzzled, " Addison goes by Sanders now?" What the hell, she had thought she married Mark, but his last name was Sloan. "You mean Sloan, right?" she asked figuring the young intern just misheard the name.

"No, it's Sanders," Molly said firmly.

Meredith shrugged. Okay whatever she thought.

"So why do people call her Satan?" Molly asked timidly.

Meredith winced. "Where did you hear that?" she groaned.

"Dr. Yang and Dr. Karev," she said shyly.

Meredith lowered her head, more then a bit embarrassed. "They shouldn't call her that." She looked over to the young intern. "Dr. Yang probably uses the name out of some sort of misguided loyalty to me, and Dr. Karev," she smiled a bit. "Probably uses it because she made his life hell when he crossed her," she grinned. "He totally deserved it too."

"So you don't think she is Satan then?" she seemed a bit more relaxed.

"God no not at all," Meredith replied firmly. She gave the young intern a sidelong glance, "You liked working with her didn't you?" She nodded. "Well you can tell the other interns she isn't Satan, but you probably don't really need me to tell you that do you, I'm guessing you figured that out on your own."

She nodded again. "Yeah, we were just curious why she got the nickname in the first place," she said with a shrug. She looked at Meredith thoughtfully and said, "I guess Dr. Shepherd called her that."

"What makes you say that?" Meredith asked with a raised eyebrow. Of course it was true, but she was surprised the intern figured it out.

"Well when people get divorced they say nasty things about their ex," she said with another shrug. Meredith nodded. Phillips was a pretty smart woman.

The doors to the elevator slide open and both women exited the elevator heading in the same direction.

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Addie and Sully were standing in the corner of the NICU leaning against the wall chatting while they waited for Molly to return with the latest lab results and the interns to join them. After they confirmed Marley Swift's stats with the lab results they would schedule her surgery. She had a severe hole in her diaphragm and her organ displacement was very extreme. It was going to take a very long operation to move everything back into place. The main question was had she recovered enough from her birth to be put through the stress of a long operation.

Molly entered the NICU followed closely by Meredith. They paused at the entrance Molly nodded to the pair in the corner. "That is Dr. Sanders' husband Sullivan," she said with a smile. Molly walked over to the pair while Meredith hung back.

"I have the lab results," Molly said brightly as she handed the folder to Addie.

"Thank you Dr. Phillips," Addie said as she starting looking over the reports handing them to Sully as she went along. They began to quietly discuss their options.

Meredith took a moment to study the man Addison had married. Addison certainly didn't disappoint, she had once again managed to find a gorgeous man. She had to grin to herself. Then her smile softened, they looked like they were really happy together. No wonder Richie was such a happy little boy, he obviously lived in a very happy household. Seeing them together made it hard for her to imagine that Addison and Derek had ever been together. They just seemed so made for each other.

The rest of the interns filed in and excused themselves as they passed Meredith and headed over to the Drs. Sanders.

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With their meeting wrapped up, it was confirmed that Dr. Martin was the intern on call that evening. It would be his responsibility to keep an eye on their young charge and call the Drs. Sanders if any emergency arose.

The rest of the interns filed out chatting excitedly about the upcoming operation. Dr. Stiles was chosen to actually be in the operating room since she was there from the beginning. They were all excited about the impending operation, even if most would not actually be in the operating room. The operation was scheduled to take place in two days.

Meredith approached Addison and her husband after the interns had all left. " Addison," she said with a smile. "I just wanted to thank you again for letting Richie spend time with us today. Ellie really had a lot of fun with him," she continued smiling looking between the two of them.

Addie smiled back and said, "I think he enjoyed himself too." Then she turned to Sully, "This is Meredith." Of course he knew who Meredith was. Then she turned back to Meredith, "I'd like to introduce you to my husband Sullivan." Her smile grew as she introduced them and they shook each others' hand.

"It's very nice to meet you Sullivan."

"It's nice to meet you too Meredith."

Meredith bit her lower lip and said, "Well that's all I really wanted was to tell you thanks and now I'm going to get out of your hair, because I'm sure you want to get home."

Sully put his arm around Addie's waist and said, "Yeah our family is probably wondering what happened to us."

Addie nodded. "Yeah we really weren't supposed to be put to work," she shook her head.

"I was wondering about that," she shrugged. "Of course I can understand them calling you in on the Swift case, but the other cases seemed pretty routine."

"It's Richard," she said shaking her head.

"Richard? What did Richard do?" Meredith asked puzzled.

"He seems to have this diabolical plan set in motion to try to get us to move back to Seattle work here." Addie and Sully exchanged looks and laughed. "We are sorry to inform him, we like New York and are staying put." They both nodded.

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Derek unlocked the trailer door. He had kept the trailer even though they had built a house on his land. He had just moved it deeper into the woods to have it as his retreat. Meredith never came here, it was his sanctuary. The place he came when he needed to think, it seemed he came here more and more these days.

He reached into the cabinet pulled out a glass and a bottle of scotch, then walked over to the refrigerator and filled the glass with ice and poured himself a drink. He walked out of the trailer and took a seat on the deck.

He still couldn't get over the shock. Addison had been married for five years. It was just so mind blowing. That meant shemust have gottenmarried almost immediately after their divorce. The biggest problem he had with that was Addison was the type of woman who was cautious. She wouldn't just jump into marriage, hell they were engaged for three years before she would marry him. Beside that what kind of guy would knowingly marry a pregnant woman? No there was only one scenario that made sense to him.

She and the guy hooked up before she asked him for a divorce. They must have thought the baby was his. He bet her husband was pretty pissed off when he found out that the boy wasn't his. He knew he would have been pissed off if the only child he would ever have wasn't his. He wondered how long they knew and how long it took him to forgive her.

He also had to wonder how they met, maybe that consult she had been called in on in Vancouver, he was obviously some kind of neonatal specialist as well. That had to be it. He narrowed his eyes thinking how she must have been carrying on with him for months behind his back.

The more he thought about the affair she must have had, the angrier he got. God she was so full of shit, thanking him for freeing her. She was already free and moved on from their marriage. No wonder she was so calm about asking him for the divorce, he always wondered why she didn't freak out at him. Now it all made perfect sense to him. He drained his glass and poured himself another drink.

The idea of them keeping his son away from him only infuriated him more. He didn't think his son should live in a household like that. His son and daughter deserved to grow up together. He didn't care what Addison thought, he knew what it was like to have siblings and his son should be able to grow up with his sister. He had to wonder what it would take to get custody of the boy. He bet he could get it easy, since she lied to him all these years and kept the boy from him.

He needed to find out how Meredith would feel about having his son live with them. He got up from his seat drained his second drink, walked into the trailer put the glass in the sink and replace the bottle of scotch to the cabinet. He would call a lawyer first thing in the morning and find out what his rights were.

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I hope you all enjoyed the update. Please review and let me know what you think.