I'm not too happy with this chapter, to be honest, and I don't like the title, but it was the only one I could think of that really fit at all. I find the prospect of next chapter very promising though, from what I have so far. And, just to clarify, Mark isn't some kind of jerk or psychopath, he just has emotional shock, which isn't unusual and can result in some confusion and/or temporary memory loss. Also, the first scene is set before the rest of the chapter. Also, Sam will be making his appearance at a future… event occurring in Seattle in about two chapters or so.

Unchained Melody

Chapter 8: Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Throughout her life, Addison had always had a somewhat strange habit of hiding in closets – the literal, not metaphorical, kind. They were where she went when she needed to feel safe. As a child, Addison sought comfort amidst the familiar scent of fabric softener and the gentle rustle of expensive clothing as she ran her fingers across designer fabrics, whispering names like Prada or Versace as though they were magic spells.

As an adult, Addison did what was very much the same thing, except now closets seemed to extend to the kind found in a hospital as well as the kind found in a house.

It was very likely for this reason that Amelia, who'd known Addison since she was unicorn-loving twelve year old that really wanted to get her ears pierced, knew exactly where to locate Addison a few days before Meredith got her Feeling.

Addison was curled up in a corner of her walk-in closet with a cup of juju, Mark's t-shirt clutched tightly in her hand like a security blanket.

She wasn't crying. Her eyes were the kind of glassy which usually accompanied her WASPy, cold demeanour; the kind of eyes which didn't see anyone so much as look straight through them.

Callie had accompanied Amelia, and when the two of them saw their friend, Amelia reacted by hugging Addison's stiff, unresponsive body until she began to return the hug, whereas Callie added marshmallows to Addison's juju.

"Addie," Callie said.

"No," Addison said, stubbornly - she knew exactly what Callie was about to start talking about, because Callie was going to try and carry on the conversation they'd been having before Addison left to go hide in her closet under the pretence of needing to go do some charting.

"You're pregnant," Amelia told her bluntly. "You know it, and we know it. And it was your turn to buy tampons yesterday but you didn't, so thanks for that."

"I'm not pregnant," Addison insisted, already beginning to once more tense.

"Prove it then," Amelia dared her. "Pee on a goddamn stick. If it comes up negative then fine, you're not pregnant. But until then, you're guilty until proven innocent."

"I'm not preg-" "Yes you are!"

Addison raised her voice. "I'm not pregnant," she said, "because it isn't real until I've peed on the stick. I have an appointment with Dr. Mills for an ultrasound next week. Then it'll be real. But right now, it is not real, and I am not pregnant."

Shortly After Meredith Got Her Feeling

Mark was a light sleeper. If he were still seeing her, his therapist would probably accredit that to something to do with his childhood, but she did that with most things.

Mark was a light sleeper, so when he shifted in his sleep, seeking the warmth of the sheets Lexie had once again stolen, he quickly awoke after his body came into contact with something warm and sticky.

When he awoke, wiping sleep from his eyes and running a hand through his hair, he was annoyed. He thought Lexie must have wet the bed, or something. That was something pregnant women did sometimes, wasn't it?

But then he actually looked at the damp sheets in front of him.

And he realised they were red.

Very, very red.

And Lexie, too, was covered in red, blood trickling down her thighs.

Which couldn't be good.

And Mark's first thought, when he saw her and the smell of blood hit his nose, was that she was dead. She had to be dead. And that made him horribly, guiltily relieved.

However, Mark was a surgeon. Although his last obstetrics rotation was well over a decade ago, he was well-versed in how to respond to this kind of situation – an emergency situation – and so he quickly searched for Lexie's pulse, his clammy hands fumbling slightly out of tired panic.

There was a pulse. Weak and fluttery, but present. He'd have checked the baby's pulse, too, but had no idea how to do that, or whether it was possible without the appropriate equipment for that matter, so he instead pressed his hand against Lexie's stomach. It felt very foreign and… round. He felt the baby kicking easily, because it wasn't something weak and fluttery. They were the strong, healthy kicks of a strong, healthy baby.

He wondered what happened to the baby if Lexie died. Had Lexie thought of that, made arrangements just in case? Would he inherit the baby? Or would Sam? It was almost definitely Sam's baby, but Mark was – for all the broken vows and deep hatred – Lexie's husband. Perhaps the baby would go to Lexie's parents; that would probably be better for everybody.

Having determined both Lexie and the baby were alive, Mark quickly made his way downstairs. Meredith was in the kitchen making coffee, an uneasy look on her face as though the coffee machine may eat her.

He must have made quite a lot of noise as he thundered down the stairs, because she instantly whirled around to face him. "Lexie!" Mark choked out, wanting to say so many things at once that he couldn't say much at all. "She's bleeding! Call an ambulance! I'm going next door to go get Addison!"

Meredith nodded, looking around frantically before grabbing the phone. Mark ran out the door, feeling only mildly embarrassed by the fact that he was only in his underwear and not really noticing the cold.

Would he have to make funeral arrangements if Lexie died?

No, Molly or Lexie's mother – Sarah? Sheila? – would probably do it.

He hammered on Addison's front door until a sleepy, moody Amelia wrapped in a blanket opened the door – from the looks of it, she'd spent the night on the couch (probably not alone) and was recovering from a hangover – and burst past her straight upstairs to Addison's room.

He wasn't entirely sure if this sense of urgency was about Lexie rather than the opportunity to see Addison again - she'd been avoiding him lately, and acting all courteous and professional and WASPy when she didn't.

Lexie may have deserved quite a lot of things, but she didn't deserve this, did she? She didn't deserve to die, not when their marriage was just as much his fault as hers. She hadn't been ready for marriage or adulthood or monogamy – Amelia was right, she was practically a preschooler – and honestly, Mark had pretty much forgiven her for cheating by now. It wasn't about that so much as the fact that she wasn't Addison, and she couldn't compare.

Having spent a majority of the 1:00am-to-3:00am portion of the night either nauseous or throwing up, Addison was very much enjoying her sleep upon being rudely awaken.

Being a heavy sleeper, Addison took a considerable while to wake. She clung to the last dregs of her sleep as much as she could, and when she saw Mark's face hovering above her own, she assumed she must still be dreaming and pulled an annoyed face, rolling over to get away from him.

Rolling away from him and off the bed, because she hadn't realised just how near she was to its edge.

Addison hit the floor with a thump and a shriek, probably drawing both her roommates' attention.

"You okay, Red?" Mark asked, hoisting her back up and onto the bed, and checking her head for damage with a worried look in his face.

His hands were sweaty, and a little wet. She pushed them away.

"What the hell, Mark?" she asked, annoyed.

She winced as she felt a small stab in her abdomen.

"You okay, Red?" Mark repeated. There was something strangely frantic about the way he was acting.

"Implantation cramps," she muttered in exasperation (just what she needed, at that moment in time), running a hand through her messy hair with a yawn and ignoring the pain, something she'd gotten kind of used to over the past few days. Twelve weeks was a little late for implantation cramps, really, but she didn't know that she was twelve weeks along for sure; her appointment with Dr. Mills was the next day, and today was her last of not being pregnant.

"What?"

"I said, cramps," she snapped. "Now what do you want, Sloan?"

He sat down on the bed beside her, looking almost shell-shocked. "I think Lexie's hurt," he said in a lost kind of voice which reminded her of what a much younger Mark Sloan may have been like. "She's bleeding. There's a lot of blood."

"What?" she said, already stumbling back up to her feet and hopping around on one foot as she tried to pull on a sneaker. "You couldn't have mentioned it sooner?" her face softened slightly when she noticed how confused part of him looked. "You didn't have to be so meandering," she continued as she pulled on her jacket and began to leave quickly – he followed her, slower. "Do you know her stats?"

"Uh, pulse is thready. The baby's kicking a lot." She probably could have gotten more from an intern, but he was a family member regardless of his current family status – she supposed it was perfectly normal that he was in shock.

By now, they were making their way up the stairs of the frat house and up to Mark's room. "There isn't much I'll be able to do until the ambulance arrives," Addison was telling him as they finally reached their destination, where Meredith was kneeling by Lexie with a worried look on her face and speaking on the phone – Addison joined her by Lexie's bedside, while Mark hung back. "I'll probably have to perform a C-Section. Lexie needs a transfusion – or, she will, by the time we get her to an OR. The baby's at 34 weeks – practically 35 – so she has a very good chance of survival, although she'll likely have a low birth weight and have to spend some time in the NICU."

There was the sound of ambulance already in the distance, which wasn't surprising since the Grey household was easily within ten minutes of the hospital by car.

Addison turned around to ask Mark about whether Lexie had any allergies – Addison didn't think she did, beyond being lactose intolerant, but Mark should have known better given he was her husband and Addison was her doctor for all of ten minutes – but found Mark gone.

Maybe he left to greet the paramedics and fill them in on everything. Maybe he left to go get a head start on the ambulance in getting to the hospital. Hell, maybe he left to head for a whole new state with a new hospital and new women. He was just, quite simply, gone.

A groan escaped Lexie's lips, and her eyes fluttered, making both Addison and Meredith to quickly once more turn their attention to her.

"Lexie? Lexie?" Meredith asked – somewhere in the background she registered a still half-asleep Derek, who must have been the one to actually let the paramedics inside – and Lexie's eyes fluttered some more as she became alarmed and tried to sit up.

Her pulse was still far too high – practically preeclamptic – and she wasn't looking too good, which was when Addison realised she probably was preeclamptic. She didn't know whether Lexie knew that – any abnormalities found in Lexie's twenty four hour urine test when she was admitted at the hospital would have been taken to Dr. Blythe, given Addison wouldn't have been her doctor anymore.

But it wasn't looking good.

"Lexie, you and your baby are in danger," Addison informed Lexie as the paramedics lifted her onto the stretcher and she struggled weakly against the oxygen mask placed on her face. "You're bleeding heavily, and the ambulance is going to take you to the hospital, where Dr. Blythe will perform a-"

Lexie was shaking her head from side to side, and tugging at her oxygen mask. Meredith lifted it up for her so she could convey whatever it was she wanted to say.

"No… no, Dr. Blythe…" Lexie managed to gasp out, looking increasingly weaker. "Want… best… you…"

When all of it became too much – the noise, the chaos, how bright everything was and, over it all, how relief at that this could all be over so quickly was sparring within him with the guilt at feeling this way – Mark left the room. He walked down the stairs and made to grab a coffee but then changed his mind, and left the house.

He found his way to Addison's house, instead.

He knocked on the door again until Amelia answered it once more, this time wearing a dressing gown, and then walked right past her and into the hallway, where he just stood.

And he didn't listen to Amy talking, or asking questions, and only caught the tail-end of, "Mark, he-llo?"

Then Callie, probably awoken by all the chaos which had so curiously bought such distress to Mark, wandered down the stairs, yawning widely.

"What's wrong?" Callie asked, stretching. "Why's Mark here? Who's the ambulance for?"

"I think it's something to do with his baby," Amelia said. She'd always been intuitive, good at guessing – although it was not his goddamn baby!

"What baby?" Mark asked, dazed.

"He's in shock," Amelia stated, flicking him in the face.

And Callie must not have woken up properly yet, or maybe she was just disorientated, but she asked, "The baby? Are Addie and the kiddo okay? What happened?"

"Lexie!" Amelia corrected her quickly, and loudly. "Lexie, his wife? Their baby? Addison went over next-door to help."

Mark didn't notice anything strange about this until a few minutes later, when it'd been echoing around his head for a while and he finally shook out of whatever shock he was in and asked, "Who's the kiddo?"

"What kiddo?" Callie replied, all wide eyes and crap crap crap face.

"You asked if Addie was okay, and then you mentioned a kiddo…" Mark began to say, when it was suddenly as though a lightbulb went off in his head and he finally made the connection, asking, "Is Addison pregnant with a baby? With my baby?"

The surgical team was already in the OR, Lexie on the table ready to deliver her baby.

Addison and Karev were in the process of scrubbing in when Karev asked, "You okay, Dr. Montgomery?" She was all pale, eerily so in the bright glow of the surgical lights, and she looked like if you were to touch her alabaster skin, it would be clammy.

"Fine," Dr. Montgomery said in a voice that was a little higher than normal, the kind someone would speak in if they were suppressing the urge to cry out in pain.

"You look like you're in pain," Karev told her. "You shouldn't be operating if you're in pain."

"Careful there, Karev," Addison said. "I might actually think you like me enough to want to stay on my service for longer. Mrs. Sloan asked me to operate; operate is what I shall do. Besides… it's- it's just my shoulder. I'll be fine."

Thanks to all those who reviewed, and once again, apologies if I somehow missed yours out.

Well done Kae, who was the first to guess that Addison was pregnant.

Hushedgreylily – thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Addison is indeed, as you can obviously see, pregnant, although I'm not exactly happy with the way I portrayed it in the beginning of this chapter.

ProudToBeAmerican27/The Radley/Christyanna/Chrissy – wow, you change your name a lot! Thanks for reading this, enjoying it, and reviewing. I've always been of the opinion that the world needs more Maddison babies, and I quite honestly can't help myself from creating them so… voila! Thanks!

Scrittoreitaliano – thanks!

Irony-FLD – Addison is indeed pregnant with Mark's baby, although I've not quite figured out Lexie's reaction yet (even I'm not exactly sure what it'll be) as she's going to be pretty much knocked out for at least the next chapter. Thanks! I'm glad you like this!

Patsy - I'm glad you're glad I'm back! Don't worry, Lexie thinks of Derek as a purely mentor/brother-in-law kind of figure. Lexie is sorta sick right now, although whether or not she dies is the kind of issue which won't really be explored until quite a lot further down the line. The real baby daddy is certainly coming soon! Thanks!