Derek stood at the nurse's station looking over the chart of his car crash patient who was brought in that morning. While his eyes scanned the page he couldn't help but yawn; he was tired. His pager had gone off only a few hours after him and Meredith finally managed to keep their hands off each other long enough to fall asleep, and when he got to the hospital everything had been a blur of excitement as one by one, victims were brought in after a four car pile up on the highway plus he had no caffeine in his system because his favourite coffee cart had a line to the doors of the hospital (okay, not really, but practically) full of holier-than-thou attendings and delusional interns on the tail end of a gruelling 24 or 36 hour shift.

He was just finishing his chart when the deliciously bitter smell of coffee consumed the air around him. Derek looked slightly to his left and noticed a large to-go cup from Starbucks filled with steaming hot coffee. Looking past the cup he saw Addison who was leaning against the nurse's station sipping her own cup of coffee. Noticing him notice her, Addison offered up a small smile and pushed the coffee on the counter closer to Derek.

"Seriously?" Derek asked with a laugh.

"What?" Addison asked innocently, "You looked like you could use some." She took another sip of her coffee to avoid his playful gaze.

"You do remember that you broke up with me, right?"

"It's just coffee." Addison shrugged

"Okay."

"Okay." She smiled once more, before walking around the corner, leaving Derek with his coffee.

Addison peeked back around to see Derek's reaction,

Derek chuckled to himself as he handed the chart over to the nurse with his corrections before walking away sipping his coffee. His pager went off and Addison watched as he stopped to check it, he slipped it back on his waistband and quickened his pace.

A smile played across Addison's lips while she continued down the hall,

"Dr. Montgomery?" Dr. Mistry called

"Yep?" Addison turned around to see her resident behind her.

"Kennedy needs you up in OR 2 to keep an eye on a fetal heart rate while he and his intern clip an aneurysm. You in?"

"Definitely."

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"Dr. Montgomery, thank you for joining us on such short notice." Dr. Kennedy said from the sink where he was finishing washing his hands when Addison slipped into the scrub room.

"It's my pleasure." Addison said, she turned to Derek, who, as fate would have it, was also scrubbing in, "Dr. Shepherd." She addressed him with a nod. This was a game they frequently played while they were dating called: be as professional as you can be and pretend like you aren't screwing each other.

Derek smiled and turned his head to face her from his spot at the sink, "Dr. Montgomery." He nodded too, but also added a warm smile which she returned and they held each others gaze.

"When you're ready." Dr. Kennedy, who had his back to the two interns, said as he shook his hands into the sink to get off some of the water. He finally turned around and when he did, Derek quickly turned back to his own hands. Kennedy backed through the door and into the OR, leaving Addison and Derek alone in the scrub room.

"You know, Derek, I was wondering if maybe we could talk after? There are a few things we need to discuss." Addison told him as she began washing her hands beside him.

"Uh, yeah, okay," Derek shook out his hands like Dr. Kennedy before making his way to the door, "just page me." Addison nodded and went back to washing her hands.

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Addison, who had gotten out of the surgery before Derek because she was paged to run labs, was pacing back and forth in a tiny on call room. She had just paged Derek and was waiting for him.

"Hey." Derek said as he came into the cramped room. He locked the door behind him, knowing that this was too important to have someone walk in on.

"Hey." Addison smiled. She stopped pacing and took a deep breath before she began. "Okay, so I know that this will be uncomfortable or awkward, but we need to have this conversation... to figure out where we are or what we are."

"Are we even anything?" Derek asked, "I mean the last time we spoke I was down on one knee and you were rejecting me, so I think that that makes us nothing, wouldn't you say?"

"Okay, that's one way to put it. But if we're nothing than I want more."

"But, this is what I don't get. I want more too, and when I offer you more than suddenly you don't want it? I mean, Addi, what the hell is going on?" Derek looked at her with pure confusion. And thats when it dawned on her: Derek had know idea what happened between the time he left to go get the ring and now.

"Okay Derek, the reason I said no was because..." she needed to think and fast. There was no way in hell that she was telling Derek that the reason she declined his proposed was because she had drunken sex with his best friend. That would kill him. "... I was nervous." What a crap answer, nervous? Where did that come from?

"Nervous?"

"Yeah, truth is I was super pissed at you for spending the first weekend that we both had off in a long time at your mom's house. And you didn't even invite me!"

"Yeah, that was supposed to be the whole element of surprise." Derek said with a laugh

"So I was worried that if I got that mad at you for just spending a weekend without me, that we would never have a good marriage because I'd get mad at you over everything!" Addison explained, "I was afraid that I would be a bad wife." She admitted, which wasn't a complete lie because judging on the fact that it only took a weekend without him and a few scotches to jump in the sack with his best friend.

Derek smiled and was about to tell her that she would make the perfect wife when his pager went off. He sighed heavily, but figured that it was for the best. "Look Addi, I think that the best thing that we can do right now is just take some time to think about what we both want." Addison nodded as Derek gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before leaving.

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"Honey, I'm home" Derek said as he swung his front door open.

"Oh, Sweetheart, how was your day" Mark called unenthusiastically from behind his newspaper

Derek laughed as he dropped his backpack on the floor, "it was amazing... I think me and Addison might make it after all." He said with a smile as he grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

"What?" Mark asked, a little too loudly, he smacked the paper down on the kitchen table, "What do you mean 'make it after all' she rejected you! How can you forgive her for that?"

"Well we had a mature talk and she explained to me exactly what happened."

"She told you everything?" Mark swallowed nervously,

"yeah, she told me how she was just nervous that she would be a bad wife because she got mad at me for leaving for my moms house without her." Derek explained

"Really?" Mark said, suddenly he wasn't so nervous, "so that was it? She was nervous?"

"Yep. So we're taking some time to think about what we really want."

"So I think that the second shower washed off the bird poop." Meredith began, walking out of the bathroom. Her hair was wet and slightly curling and she had a fluffy towel wrapped around her neck, "Oh, Derek, your finally home!" she said, noticing that Derek was sitting with Mark, "long day huh?" she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek before getting herself a beer and sitting down with them.

"You have no idea." Derek said, silently telling mark not to tell Meredith about Addison. "So what have you two been up to?"

"Oh nothing much just out and about. We went on a carriage ride in Central Park, Mark told the guy we were newlyweds so it was free." Meredith explained

"You pretended to be newlyweds with my girlfriend?" Derek turned to Mark, who just shrugged.

"Why are you jealous?" Meredith asked with a smirk on her face,

"No. I don't get jealous." Meredith rolled her eyes at Derek's lame excuse.

"It was harmless." Mark interjected, "No touching. I swear."

"Promise." Meredith agreed.

"Good. Thats what I like to hear." Derek said with a smile.

"Yeah, and then I was going to take her to SoHo, but someone just had to go home." Mark said with a sneer

"A bird pooped on me!" Meredith said in defence.

"Whatever." Mark went back to his newspaper. A comfortable silence fell over the three until Derek notice Meredith awkwardly trying to scratch her back.

"Mer, what are you doing?" he asked

"Ugh, it's this tag. It itches like hell!" she complained about her new Dartmouth shirt

"Here let me." Derek pulled the tag off of the shirt with a loud RIP, "Oops." He said with a laugh

"What do you mean 'oops'?"

"Well, the tag is out, but now theres kinda a hole where the tag used to be."

"That's okay. At least it's more comfortable." She smiled and leaned in to give him a thank you kiss.

Okay... so I'm not even going to take about my lacking skills in updating but this chapter kinda resolved a few things and that whole part at the end with the tag, I just had to put it in there ever since I remembered that in the bomb episode when Derek was explaining their last kiss, he mentioned that her Dartmouth shirt had a hole at the back of the neck... so I just had to put that in there.

So yeah there was alot of Derek/Addison in this chapter because it needed to be there and also I'm totally not a MerDer believer anymore after the crappy season finale... buut all the MerDer shipper, don't worry because this fanfic will go on as planned... despite my liking of the pairings... p.s. who else thinks that Meredith and Alex would make a hot couple in season four?