Hey, y'all, thanks for taking the time to review! I feel much better knowing you're still with me.

Alex was getting caught up on charts in the NICU when Addison blew in like a hurricane, all flashing eyes and burning cheeks as she scanned the room for her daughter. He approached her from behind and snaked an arm around her waist. "Hey, you okay? I heard you passed out."

"I'm fine," she snapped as she pulled away before swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, then continued looking for Ella.

He pointed to an isolette in the far corner. "Addison-"

"I said I'm fine." She stomped over to Ella and reached into the isolette. "Hey little girl, mommy's here." She could feel Alex's gaze burning through her, so she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before looking over her shoulder at him.

"Look, if you're mad about this morning, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell-"

Her face softened as she interrupted him. "No, I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry. It's not you, Alex, it's Derek." She paused and stroked Ella's leg, the only part of her little body with no tubes or wires attached. "He thinks...he thinks I should sign a DNR. And take her off life support."

Anger flashed in his eyes. "He said that?"

"Okay, maybe not that exactly, but he said I should think about it. I don't want to. I'm not ready to give up. He doesn't think she'll pull through, but I'm not ready to give up on my miracle baby yet." She looked away, teeth tugging at her bottom lip. "He's right," she finally admitted. "If the tables were turned, I'd probably be saying the same thing right now. But I wanted her so bad, for so long, and I won't get another chance so I'm not ready to let her go. I can't."

He reached over and tucked a strand of frizzy, tangled hair behind her ear. "You don't have to, not yet. Yes, you will need to make some decisions eventually, but not right this minute. Give it a couple days, see how she is once we wean her off the sedatives. She's a fighter. Tough as nails. I'm not ready to count her out either, so we'll do whatever we have to do to get her through the next few days, and go from there. Sound like a plan?"

She managed a smile, though it didn't come close to reaching her eyes, and slipped her free hand into one of his. "Yeah. It's a plan."

Alex left her to check on his other patients and perform back-to-back surgeries. He sighed when he got back to the NICU and found Addison still standing guard over Ella. "Addison, come on. It's time to go."

"I'm not leaving."

"It's after nine o'clock-"

"Parents are allowed to visit twenty-four hours a day."

"- and I'm guessing you haven't eaten-"

"I ate lunch. You can ask Miranda."

"One meal a day isn't enough. If you really want to stay tonight - just tonight - I won't argue, but we're going to get something to eat and I'm not taking no for an answer," he asserted with crossed arms.

"I'm not leaving the hospital."

"The cafeteria is closed, and you're not eating crap out of a vending machine. How about that diner down the street?"

"How about no?"

"Addison." He wanted to argue but she fixed him with an icy stare. "Okay, fine. How about I go get you something? Will you take a break and eat?"

"You don't have to do that. You've been here all day, you should go home and get some sleep. I'm really not hungry anyways."

"Yeah, hi pot, I'm kettle. I'm going to get food, and you're going to meet me in the lounge in half an hour. Non-negotiable." Before she could protest he was out the door, and half an hour later he texted her saying he was back. She begrudgingly slipped out of the NICU - though only after making the on-duty nurse swear to call her if anything changed - and found Alex in the lounge with chicken soup and sandwiches from their favorite deli.

She had to admit it was a welcome change after a steady diet consisting mainly of coffee, barely-touched cafeteria meals, and the occasional vending machine junk, and it didn't take long for her to polish it off. He was halfway done with his sandwich when he caught her eyeballing his soup. He was tempted to make a snide comment about her not being hungry, but just nudged it towards her. "You want it?"

"Oh, no, I'm good."

"You're starving. I had a late lunch, I'm not that hungry," he lied. "Eat it or it's just gonna get thrown out." He didn't have to tell her twice; she had it gone before he finished his sandwich, and he held back an I told you so. "So, you're really staying here tonight?" he asked a few minutes later as he cleaned up their mess.

"Yeah, I just...if something happens...I don't want her to be alone, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. I could stay too, if you want."

She patted his leg and kissed his cheek. "You have to work in the morning, you should go get some sleep. But thank you. For everything."

"Okay. I'll see you in the morning."

oooooooo

When Alex arrived at six the next morning, he found Addison asleep in the rocking chair, her head drooping awkwardly to one side. She'll be sorry when she wakes up, he thought. He tried to be quiet as he examined Ella and checked the notes from overnight in her chart, but soon Addison stirred. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Have a nice nap?" She just groaned and winced as she attempted to right herself. "I knew this was a bad idea," he added as he moved behind her and started massaging her stiff, sore neck.

"Yeah, well, it's not like there was really any other option," she croaked as she blinked in the unforgiving fluorescent lights.

"So, she did okay overnight?"

She sighed. "She's no better than she was last night, but she hasn't gotten any worse so I guess she did okay."

"Give it time. She's sedated, and still working the anesthesia out of her system."

"Yeah, I guess. Oh, crap. It's too early to deal with him." Alex followed her gaze to the door, where Derek was making his entrance, and sneered.

"Karev. Addison."

Before he could get another word out she spoke up. "I'm still not ready to talk about it. Not right now, not later today, probably not tomorrow. So don't start," she warned with an emphatic jab of her finger. "I'll let you know when."

He threw his hands up in surrender. "Not a word. Just here to check on my patient," he insisted before beginning his exam. "I'll admit she did better than I expected." Of course when you expect death anything is an improvement, so that's not saying much.

Once Alex was satisfied Derek meant no harm he moved on to his other patients. A little later, Callie and Arizona appeared. "Last I checked, she didn't need an orthopedic surgeon or a peds surgeon," Addison quipped in a lame attempt at humor.

"I'm here for you. I know you don't want to leave Ella alone so Arizona is going to stay here with her, and you are coming with me."

"Why?"

"Because apparently you don't eat unless someone forces you to. Today it's my job, so get a move on, Montgomery."

"Okay, wait. You guys actually have assigned days to basically babysit me?"

"Mmm, no, not really. But don't think we won't, because we will if we have to. Nobody wants a repeat of yesterday."

"Okay, you win. Breakfast it is." She stood up slowly and stretched, grimacing as her aching back snapped and cracked. "Ugh, I'm one pop short of a rice crispie treat. Mmm, rice crispie treats...those are breakfast, right? I mean, they are cereal," she mused as they made their way to the cafeteria.

Callie shook her head slowly. "Don't test my patience, woman."

Much to Callie's relief Addison chose oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit for breakfast and are most of it with little prodding. "There. Was that so hard?"

Addison rolled her eyes. "Look, yesterday was just a freak thing, okay? I was just getting out of the shower when Alex called, I didn't have time for breakfast, and then Ella was in surgery and I was too nervous to eat. No big deal. You don't have to...hover. I'm fine. You all have more important things to worry about than me."

"Addison, you don't pass out from missing one meal. I see you. We all do. You're with Ella all day, every day. And that's great, I'm glad you can be there for her. But you live on coffee, maybe a few bites of food here and there but mostly coffee. Yeah, she's recovering from surgery, but you seem to forget that you had major surgery two weeks ago, too. We all love Ella, but we love you, too, and we worry about you so start taking better care of yourself. Please?"

"Okay, I will."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Now, I'm sure Arizona has patients to see, so can I go back upstairs now?"

"Go ahead. But remember, we're watching you, Montgomery. You skip lunch and we'll know…"

More eye rolling. "Okay! I get it!" She feigned annoyance, but truthfully it was nice to know she had people who cared about her.

Up in the NICU she thanked Arizona profusely for staying with Ella before pulling up a stool. For hours nothing changed, and then suddenly, with no warning, alarms were going off. Cardiac arrest. Alex materialized seemingly out of thin air and shoved her aside. "Okay, let's push one point five milligrams of epi," he ordered the nurses as he readied the defibrillator; fortunately he didn't need it, as the screeching of the alarm quickly changed back to the steady beat of a heart. "That's not nice, little girl," he scolded gently as everyone returned to their previous activities. "No more of that. It scares mommy."

The rest of the day passed uneventfully; there were no major improvements, but there was also no more cardiac arrest, no more seizures than usual. As promised, Addison dragged herself away long enough to eat lunch and dinner; she even let Alex talk her into going home for the night. When she arrived at the hospital the following morning to discover there had been no crises, major or minor, overnight, she dared to think that maybe things were going to be okay.

For those of you that were following my other two stories, I'm sorry. I do intend to pick them back up eventually, but I've really gotten sucked into this one. I'm also trying to choose between continuing my other fic After All (under the name Addisex-Owns-My-Life) and just starting from scratch with something (Addex, of course) ridiculously happy and fluffy and non-angsty. Thoughts?