--
She was on her way to Recovery to check on some patients, when the chief stopped her.
"Have you got a second?"
"I was on my way to Recovery," she said.
"Uh huh. Have you got a second?"
He pulled her into the on-call room, latching the door behind them.
"What's going on with Addison, Miranda?"
She had not been expecting that. "Sir?"
"She's my friend too," he said, eyes somber and unblinking as he watched her face for signs of a reaction. "And she was my friend, my family, long before she ever met you. But you're women, and women have bonds, and men aren't always privy…"
She let him trail off, and he took her silence as an admission.
"Sloan wanted Stevens to scrub in on a procedure," he said. His voice was measured, was gentle. He understood her conflict. He was giving her permission to share. "She told him she had to watch Addison for you."
"Yes, sir. We…Dr. Torres and myself…we are concerned. She's been a little sad."
"She's had reason."
"Reason like she has only gives you so much slack. She's heading for bottom, Chief. You know it too."
"She had a life," he said. The voice of experience, now. "She had a life, and she misses it. She's lost Derek, she's lost Mark, heck, even Adele and me…she would lean on Adele. That's part of her funk. If things were different, she'd lean on Adele."
"Oh, Chief…"
He collected himself. "Anyway…"
"Talk to her," Miranda suggested. "You're going through it too. Talk to her, Richard."
"I don't know what I would say."
That was the problem, none of them did. There was nothing they could say.
--
To her surprise, the intern who finally brought them something was Meredith Grey.
"Dr. Bailey?"
She was in the cafeteria, about to split a turkey sandwich and a chocolate cookie with Callie. Both of them looked up at the voice, and Meredith gave Callie a weak, awkward smile.
"Grey, sit down before you fidget a hole into that floor. Torres, stop glaring. What can I do for you, Grey?"
"Well, I heard…I mean, they were saying that Addison…Dr. Montgomery…well, that you wanted to…"
"What, Grey? Is she okay?"
"She…we have a case coming in. Transfer from Mercy West. Car crash. It's bad. We had neuro and plastics ready to go when we found out she's eight months pregnant…"
Neuro meant Shepherd. Plastics meant Sloan. Fabulous.
"So, anyway…"
"Yeah. Thanks, Grey."
"Dr. Bailey?" Meredith stood again, nervous fingers pulling on her scrubs. "Um, I'm not sure what this is all about. Izzie and George were a little vague…but I guess it's still a little weird for Addison, since she hasn't…well, like Derek has. But they've worked together on a lot of cases. They're professionals. So…"
"Thank you, Dr. Grey," she said, curtly dismissing her. Callie waited until the intern was out of earshot again before letting out a low whistle. "Whoah."
"Yeah."
Callie pushed over her half of the cookie. "You have it. I think you need it more right now."
--
By the time she finished up with Callie and made her way up to the ambulance bay to track down Addison, things were stickier. Izzie had scrubbed in with Burke on a transplant yesterday. The patient had coded, and they had to go back in. He had just pulled Stevens off of Addison's service so she could follow it through with him.
So, Addison was going into an emotionally difficult and highly complex trauma with Yang as her intern. Yang, who had done nothing but complain since hearing the news. Yang, who was a brutal Jack Frost to Steven's soothing Earth Mother. Yang. But it got worse still. When she caught up with the lot of them, waiting for their patient to arrive, she found Karev under Shepherd's watchful eye, and Sloan smirking possessively over Meredith Grey. It had been her idea to rotate the interns a little more evenly among the different specialties. This was what it was getting her.
"Dr. Sloan. Dr. Shepherd."
"Dr. Bailey! Trying to get in on our exciting patient?" Shepherd teased.
"I have my own exciting patients, thank you. I was looking for Dr. Montgomery."
They traded glances. She sensed they were only just now noticing that Addison wasn't yet there.
"All right. Dr. Torres, maybe?"
More blank stares. Men were hopeless sometimes.
"Well, if Dr. Montgomery doesn't show up before the patient does," whined Yang, "Can I be assigned to someone who is maybe actually working?"
She had no patience for this right now. "Zip it, Yang. Or you'll be assigned to me. And you won't like where I put you."
Yang looked like she was considering a smart remark. What was it with the mouth on this lot? But she must have sensed she had better not push it.
"Karev," Miranda said.
He looked up, and she motioned him over. "Just keep an eye on things?" Callie must have already briefed him, for he nodded smartly and did not ask her to elaborate further.
--
When she finally did track down Callie, her partner in crime was unexpectedly delighted by the recent developments.
"This is good," she told Miranda. "This'll work."
"How will it work, exactly? High-risk mother, baby in jeopardy, Sloan and Shepherd and Grey…"
"Exactly! Even if she wasn't all whacked out or whatever, that would be a lot. But in her present mindset…"
"In her present mindset, she's likely to have a nervous breakdown, Callie."
"Which means that we won't need to push her. Look, Miranda, I've been talking to some people. And the problem right now? It's actually not the stress thing."
"It's not?"
"No. The problem is the superwoman denial-girl holding it all in thing. If we can get her to just release some of those feelings, it'll be a lot easier to get her help dealing with them."
"Okay…"
"I was afraid we'd have to, like, have an intervention or something to get her to that point. God, can you picture us doing that? I mean, I'm pretty sure I'd be okay because I'm kind of awesome, but you're still a little inept on the girl-bondy stuff, no offense."
She bit back a wry smile. "None taken."
"But now? This? We don't even need to push. This is awesome, awesome news."
"Not for the high-risk pregnant woman."
"Okay, not for her. But who knows, we may get a happy ending there. And then…"
"Then we push?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Look, are you in the clinic this afternoon? You should talk to Sydney. She's a bit of a perk-monster, but she knows her psych stuff. Let her fill you in."
"And you, oh intrepid partner in crime?"
"I have a surgery. Then, I'm meeting George in the gallery. We want to see what happens with the uber-patient."
"Yeah," said Miranda. "I think we all want to see."
--