Addison makes her way up the stairs and turns the key in the lock and pushes the door of the brownstone open for the first time in so long. She walks into the hallway and Derek follows behind her placing their luggage down.
Addison could see that there was a lot of dust building up everywhere and she guessed she would need to call their old cleaner and ask for her to come or find a new one to come and help them. It was sad to think of a home she had loved so much - that they had loved so much - which now seemed so big and empty.
"So where shall we start? I guess we could do with a coffee or something. I'll uh go and put the kettle on I'm sure I'll find some coffee somewhere in the kitchen. Though we won't anything else to go with it."
"Yeah I'll have a coffee if you can find it. Or just water it's fine. I guess we'll have to go out and get a few things or just order take out."
"At least everything is within walking distance from here. That's what I always loved about this house. Now it just feels so big and empty. I'm sorry that I ruined everything when I did what I did."
"It wasn't just you, like we said on the plane. It was me too and I'm sorry that I was indifferent and that I took you for granted. Look we could keep saying sorry but I think now what's done is done and in order to move on we have to decide that this is the last time we are going to bring it up."
"Yeah you're right. It's just so strange being back here in this house with you. Especially now we're divorced. It's just different you know?"
"Yeah I know. I never thought I'd come back to this house ever again but when you brought it up and said you were selling it, I knew that if I didn't see it one last time that I'd always regret it."
"I'm glad you wanted to see it, Derek. It shows me that you cared about me and loved me once. I'd have been more sad if you couldn't have cared less about it. It hurt me when you said all you wanted was Seattle, and never to see me again. But at the same time I know you were dealing with finding out what happened with Mark. I'm so sorry that I kept that from you. I did want to tell you, I just knew that I would lose you. I knew that if I told you, you wouldn't have given me a chance."
"No I guess I wouldn't have. Not that I really gave you a fair chance anyway. I'm sorry for that, Addison. It wasn't to punish you, I really did want to try but at the same time I couldn't get over what I had with Meredith and I couldn't get over the thought of you and Mark, then prom happened and I... it's for the best isn't it. You can move on with your life and find a great guy someone who will put you first like you deserve. I think I can deal with that Addie, I just hope that guy isn't Mark Sloan, but I guess I could get over it in time if that's really what you wanted."
"No it isn't. Everything that happened with Mark just spun out of control. He was there for me when I had no one else. He was there to comfort me and tell me that you were an idiot. That I deserved to be loved and that he loved me. After you left he convinced me that you didn't love me anymore and that you wouldn't be coming back and I let him as I didn't want to believe that I'd thrown my life away on something so wrong. So I tried to convince myself that we could make it work. But of course it wasn't right and he cheated on me multiple times. I knew then that it would never work and I still loved you. I still wanted you back. Then Richard called and I came out to Seattle. I know that I called Mark after prom and I know that I slept with him again, but it was a moment of weakness and I won't be letting it happen again. I don't see any future with Mark."
"Thanks for telling me the truth Addison. I think that I needed to know that and it really helps. So let's go and get those drinks."
"Ok." Addison heads into the kitchen and grabs the kettle and fills it up with water then she makes sure to turn the switch on and leaves it to boil.
A while later Addison hands Derek a cup and then takes a sip of her own drink.
"Thanks this was just what I needed."
"No problem. It's probably the only thing we had in this kitchen that we could use. Good job I had the fridge cleared out before I left or we'd have come back to a disgusting mess in it."
"Well we don't really need to use it anyway as we can go out for food and we're not going to be here for long."
"No you're right and I was always hopeless with cooking anyway. Speaking of food I'm starving so do you want to order something or we could go out."
"I'm pretty exhausted from the flight let's just order a Chinese takeout and stay here."
"Ok I'll call Lau's and get us our usual order?"
"Yeah that sounds good."
Addison calls to order food from their favourite takeaway place and they go into the living room. Addison spots a picture of them together and gets lost in her thoughts for a moment before shaking her head softly and walking over to the picture and picking it up. It was a photograph that someone had taken on their wedding day but it was a lovely natural candid shot of them together and Addison had always loved it.
Derek comes up behind her and says. "We were so happy when this was taken."
"Yeah it was one of the best days of my life."
"Mine too, Addie. Even after everything that's happened. I'll never regret marrying you or the many years we had together."
A while later and the food had arrived and Addison and Derek sat and ate it out of the cartons like they had done so many times in the past. Everything felt so familiar to them both but different at the same time.
After eating Addison says. "Well I'm pretty exhausted so we should get some rest. At least we have plenty of spare rooms we can make up a bed in. Unless you want to go and get a hotel somewhere?"
"No it's fine. We can just stay here. I'll come and help you with the sheets."
Derek follows Addison up the stairs and he helps her get some clean sheets out of a cupboard and they both choose a room to use for the night. Both avoiding the room they had once shared for now but knowing it couldn't be put off forever.