A/N: Next update, let me know your thoughts...
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Next Morning

Miranda gently shook her awake as she was coming into her room with Tyler on her hip. She grinned as she sat across from her.

Addison shook her head and reached for the baby. She kissed him on the cheek and said, "You do know that your ability to grin like that is actually becoming unnerving. Stop that. So what do you want to know?"

Miranda rolled her eyes, "I'm taking my child away if you don't tell me how your talk with McDodo went."

Addison grinned shyly, "We went to dinner. It went really well and I'm just disconcerted now. The man I had dinner with last night was the man I married, the loving, caring, and generous guy. I just don't want him to disappear."

Miranda nodded in agreement, "Do you have a reason to believe that he will? Has he acted stupid anymore or is he now McRomantic?"

Addison laughed as Tucker tugged on a piece of her hair. She patted his back and said "After our talk of a couple of weeks ago about how no man could define me I find myself at a loss. Derek wants me to define myself through him again and I don't know if I'm ready to do that…I did it once and when the chips were down he left me and I was so devastated that I looked to Mark, Derek's best friend to define me….I need to learn who Addison Forbes Montgomery is without a guy telling her who she is."

Miranda got up clapping, "Now that sounds more like it….Listen, I'll just take Tucker and we will be…."

Addison put up a hand, "I'm not finished, you've been more than a friend to me and I just want you to know that I'll never forget it. If you need me for anything, delivering your next child or just a girl's night out I'm here…"

Miranda crossed her arms and looked at her distrustfully, "Why do I get the feeling you are about to ask me for another favor?"

Addison nodded happily, "I just wanted to know if I could borrow Tucker for the day…Callie and I are going apartment shopping and I thought I should get used to being around a child since I have one on the way."

Miranda leaned over and brushed a gentle kiss on her son's head, "Sure, Tucker can break you into the wonders of motherhood but I should warn you he's an angel and that's not the mother in me talking. Have fun and try to cheer Callie up, I know she's still feeling down about the breakup with O'Malley. He has a ways to go before he can be good for anyone."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Next Morning

Derek was careful as he walked into Seattle Grace. On one hand he was ecstatic that he had another shot of righting the wrongs of his marriage and his wife was pregnant and the other hand he would inevitably come face to face with the woman he pursued weeks before she finally gave him and chose him and he broke her heart.

"It doesn't get any easier, does it?"

Derek spun around on his feet and met Richard's face. He nodded and said, "How do I approach this? I don't want to hurt Meredith anymore than I already have. She didn't deserve how I treated her and I don't have anything to say in my defense, I was wrong and I hurt a lot of people along the way."

Richard shrugged his shoulders, "But at least you are trying to rectify all your mistakes. It's never easier to admit you were walking down the wrong path but now that you know that it was the wrong path, you've made a conscious choice to clear up all your errors. I think that's a step in the right direction."

Derek smiled softly, "Addison is pregnant and Meredith's heart is broken. How can I be so happy about one thing and so devastated about the other thing?"

Richard smiled, "Let's focus on the good thing you and Addison are getting back on track and to seal the deal she's going to make you a father. You need to watch her and don't let her do too much too soon. I was reading up on her disease last night…"

Derek rolled his eyes, "You are ever the proud father/grandfather aren't you? You love Addison and that means a lot to me because she needs people who will protect her, even from me when I get out of hand. I promise you, I won't hurt her."

Richard put his hand on his shoulder, "You better not, I'm watching you and don't worry about Meredith. This whole experience will help her grow up to be a better person."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"You brought a kid to girl's day out?"

Addison nodded gleefully as she shuffled Tucker on her hip who was still fascinated with her red hair as that was the only thing that she could keep him focused on for long periods of time. Addison sat down at the table and pulled the chair close to her and placed the baby and the baby seat in the chair across from her.

"I need the practice. As I'm sure Mark told you, I'm pregnant and I…."

Addison stopped what she was saying when she noticed the shadow that fell over Callie eyes at the mention of Mark, "I'm sorry did you and Mark have a fight?"

Callie shrugged, "Don't worry, Mark and I don't even have a relationship, so how can we have a fight? I just called him on some stuff and he didn't like it."

Addison leaned forward in disbelief, "You called Mark on his stuff already and you've only known him for three days? Wow, you move fast. He won't know what hit him when he finally realizes that you might be the one."

Callie laughed, "Addison your good people. I'm glad we are spending this time together, as the outcasts of the interns it's about time that you and I forged a friendship."

Addie nodded and held her hand across the table, "We'll be friends together and as soon as we can get Miranda to join us then we'll be a complete unit."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"You look like hell." Derek looked up into the eyes of his former best friend and rolled his eyes and focused back on the chart he was looking at as he was enjoying his morning coffee in the cafeteria.

Mark took the chair across from him and said, "Where's Addison? I didn't see her name on the chart for surgeries today."

Derek dropped the chart he was looking at and instead focused on the man in front of him, "We are still married in case you hadn't noticed; she's pregnant with my child. She doesn't need you hovering around waiting to pounce on my first mistake."

Mark grinned slyly, "It won't be long, a leopard can't change his spots overnight and you eventually will go back to ignoring Addison and I'll be waiting."

Derek laughed, "In the whole time you were with Addison, did she once ever tell you that she loved you? In all the times that you were comforting her because I acted like a jerk did she ever say I love you Mark."

Derek had the pleasure of watching Mark's face flush red with anger. "I didn't think so, you see Addison and I are committed to each other and whatever the mistakes of our past were, they are our mistakes to learn from and not my best friend who just wants her to be another bed buddy in his list on the nightstand because with whatever else happened she always, always loved me. Leave my wife alone."

Derek watch as Mark sat back in his chair, "Before this whole thing started, I wanted you to act like this for her. I wanted you to be so jealous of the time that we spent together you would rip her out of my arms and take her back into yours. You never did and now all I want is for you to mean every word you just spat out at me because Addison is the kind of woman that doesn't come along everyday. She deserves so much more than she got in her life with you."

Mark stood up and started to walk out when Derek called him back, "I'm sorry you thought you had a chance with her."

Mark laughed to himself, "That's just the thing; I never thought I had a chance with her. She always told me that her husband was the love of her life."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"What do you think of this one?"

Addison leaned against the doorjamb with her head on her chest, "Can we take a break?"

Callie smiled at her exhaustion, "Come on we've only looked at two apartments today. Look, I'll even watch Tyler while you survey this one…I'm looking at this one though seriously it's called Arbor Courts, our next stop is Shangri-La Apartments and for some reason I don't think that will be the cheapest one."

Addison smiled softly at her as she sat in the chair and started to breathe heavily. "Whoa Addison you ok?"

Addison nodded as Callie came up behind her and started to rub her shoulders. Addison flinched at the touch and said, "I'm sorry, it's just my joints are aching. I guess I thought I could handle a day out on the town."

Callie smiled, "You are only a couple of weeks pregnant and already your life is changing. Don't worry if this is just the first step in a lot of concessions you have to make."

Addison smiled at her grateful for her words of encouragement as she looked upon a sleeping Tucker snuggled safely in the carriage. "How am I supposed to keep up with a child when a little change in my schedule debilitates me like this?"

Callie placed an arm around her shoulder as her cell phone went off again for the third time since they started out their journey. Addison turned to Callie in question, "Who is that?"

Callie pressed ignore, "No one, don't worry about it."

Addison laughed, "It must be Mark…What's going on with you two?"

Callie pushed her out of the chair, "If you go check out this apartment, I'll tell you what's going on with Mark."

Addison pushed herself up and started to take the stairs.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"So did she say what time she was going to be back? Should I look for her at your house or should I just wait until she calls me?"

Miranda leaned against the counter with an exasperated sigh, "Look McDodo, because you are still McDodo in my book…"

Derek looked affronted and Miranda rolled her eyes, "Just because you've made my friend's eyes light up like they haven't in a long time doesn't absolve you of all guilt where this whole mess is concerned. She's having fun for the first time in awhile and the last thing she needs is an overprotective husband act you suddenly want to adapt here now shoo!"

Derek didn't move and Miranda turned to him in disbelief, "Having a child must've made me soft because I could just swear I gave you an order that you directly disobeyed."

Derek crossed his arms, "It's just that this is my wife we are talking about here, she's pregnant and has an auto-immune disease and I just got her to even admit she wants to try again and I'm afraid if I let her alone for to long she will remember why she's apart from me and by the time the day is over she will still want a divorce."

Miranda laughed at his rationalization, "Don't you think you're overanalyzing the situation just a bit? Addison is not wishy-washy if she says that she's going to give your marriage a try, she's going to give your marriage a try. Just don't expect miracles overnight, I saw one too many nights were she was broken because you always turned to Meredith instead of her, Meredith had always been your priority and it seems like overnight that it's changed. She's still scary and afraid to believe that you could possibly be the guy she fell in love with and now that I'm done breaking a promise by telling you how my friend really feels about the situation, excuse me I have interns to scare."

Derek felt a grin come across his face and said, "For the record Miranda, she is my priority for now and always."

As he watched her walk away Mark came up behind him, "I just hope your promise lasts longer than it did the last time."

Derek turned around and saw Mark leaning against the counter a look of triumph spread across his face. Derek ignored his presence and walked away.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Addison felt the lead in her legs as she slowly made her way over to a chair in the leasing office of the last place of apartments they looked at. She and Callie had decided to review all of their options after looking at all of the apartments and then make a decision. So far it was a toss-up between the Harbor Steps, Shangri-La and the Inn Apartments. Addison was leaning towards Shangri-La while Callie was stuck on the Inn apartments.

"Callie, do you think we could wrap it up early?"

Callie turned around ready to protest ending their girl's day out when she looked into Addison's eyes and felt the first stirrings of fear. "Addison, you don't look so good, what's going on is it the baby?"

Addison shook her head, "No, peanut feels fine. It's my joints and my muscle pain; they are just stronger than usual and I'm just having a hard time dealing with my joints without the assistance of my medications."

Callie looked at her in confusion, "Than usual? This is a normal occurrence for you?"

Addison nodded and said, "It was ever since I was diagnosed with SLE Lupus almost a year ago."

Callie swore and got Tyler and helped Addison to the car all the while calling Addison every sort of name.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had this disease? You are supposed to be taking it easy."

Addison nodded, "Well the doctor wanted me to see how far I could go without my regular anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxants and this is the first day that I guess the medicine has really been out of my system and I'm feeling the effects."

Callie rolled her eyes, "Who's your doctor?"

Addison looked at her and said, "Revelle but you don't need to call him. He told me that the moment the pain got unbearable that I could start taking my medication in small doses and give him a call. Look, just take me back to Miranda's house, I have all my drugs there and I can doctor on myself. If I get a couple of hours' rest I'll be good as new."

Callie ignored her as she started dialing the phone, "Yes, I need you to page Dr. Mark Sloan."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Meredith leaned against the counter as she was finishing up with the patient in the room and started focusing on writing the notes on her chart.

"Dirty mistress?"

Meredith turned around in disbelief, "McSteamy? What are you doing on my side of the hospital?"

Mark leaned against the counter, "I just finished up a surgery and wanted to see how you were doing plus I'm more likely to run into Derek this way and I get to mess with his mind a little more."

Meredith leaned forward intrigued, "So you are going to mess with his mind, can I get in on that?"

Mark laughed and said, "So tell me really how you are really holding up?"

Meredith turned her attention back to writing on the chart, "Can't you see I'm holding up famously? I'm in the mouth of every gossip-monger in this hospital and all because McDreamy dumped me for his pregnant wife. Then only thing I'm upset about is that once again I'm in the middle of the gossip mill, this time without asking to be."

Mark laughed, "Can you imagine what I went through? I was the one who broke up the couple that was Derek and Addison. I couldn't get a place to sit a lunch for weeks and I still swear to this day that the nurse lady put something in my mashed potatoes, I had diarrhea for two weeks afterwards."

Meredith laughed loudly at this and picked up her chart and scurried away as Derek came up behind him.

Mark turned around, "You hurt that girl a lot you know and that's no easy to overcome so if she runs from you for now don't be surprised."

Derek rolled his eyes, "Don't you think I know that? It tears me up inside but better her than Addison and as selfish as that sounds its how I feel. Listen, I need to consult with you about…"

Mark shut down the sentimental part of him and was so engrossed in listening to Derek's case that he didn't realize he was being paged until Derek turned to him, "Aren't you going to get the phone?"

Mark shook his head as he woke up and reached for the phone, "Sloan."

He leaned against the counter as a smile came across his face, "So you finally decided to return my calls."

Derek rolled his eyes and turned to walk away when Mark put a hand on his shoulder. "What did you say? Are you sure, yea he's right here. Listen, we're on our way. Don't do anything until we get there."

Mark hung up the phone and put his hands over his mouth and then breathed deeply as if he were cold, "Look we need to go to Miranda's house."

Derek started to retort that he wouldn't go anywhere with him and then changed his mind, "Is it Addison?"

Mark nodded, "Callie just told me that when her and Addison were apartment shopping they had to go because Addison took a turn for the worse something to do with the lupus."

Derek and Mark started to run to his car while Derek pulled out his cell phone, "Why didn't she just bring Addi to the hospital?"

Mark shrugged, "I don't know but we can ask her when we get there."

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