A few days later, Addison called Melinda again.
"Hey. It's Dr. Mont-"
"What do you still want, Dr. Montgomery?" her voice was harsh and sharp. "I'm not your patient."
Addison guessed it was the effect of the drugs. She remembered that Amelia got often nervous when she was high.
"I'm calling to give you both my cellphone and house number for Betsy. Give it to her please. Or give me hers."
"Fine, I'll tell her. What is the number?"
She wanted to do so much for those girls. She just didn't know what.
x
It was a Saturday afternoon, and Addison was in one of her favorite shops looking at bags.
"Hey you! Get back here! Stop!" she heard a man shouting, and glanced in the direction the voice came from. She saw the shop assistant looking nervously at who probably was her boss and, to her horror, Betsy. She was holding a red leathered bag and seemed very pissed off.
She closed her eyes for a moment, guessing what had just happened. Betsy had tried to steal that bag. Betsy. The social worker was right, she wasn't a little girl anymore. She probably was also into that drugs stuff, as Melinda was.
She walked by slowly, holding her breath without even realizing it. This was the first time she would be near the girl since their last awkward encounter, and she bit her lip as she approached them.
"Excuse me? Hello." she said when the man turned towards her. Betsy saw her and rolled her eyes snorting, but she ignored it. "My name is Addison Montgomery... what, what happened?"
"Do you know this girl?"
"She's with me. What happened?" she repeated quickly.
"She was stealing."
Addison turned towards Betsy. "If you wanted that bag, why didn't you tell me? I have no problem with buying you things. I would've bought it, really. I'm not sure I should now though."
Betsy raised an eyebrow, staring at her amused. She shook her head slightly, holding back an acid laughter.
"It's either you buy the bag or I call the police, ma'am."
"Fine." she kept acting, agreeing. "I'll buy that one as well." she pointed to the blue bag she was looking at before, and went to the shelf to take it.
When they went out, the teenager walked to their right towards a bus stop, but the woman stopped her by wrapping her hand around her wrist. "Did Melinda give you my number?"
She nodded, without turning her face.
"Good. And I'd rather not catch you stealing again. Be careful." with that, she allowed her to go.
x
"Kevin?" she peered in the kitchen. "Hey."
"Hey." he answered, kissing her softly and rubbing her shoulders. "How was your day?"
She sighed, motioning to her fiancé to sit at the table. "Kev, do you remember when I told you about my friend Dell and his daughter?"
"Of course." he squeezed her hand, knowing how much his death still hurt her.
"Well, last week I met his daughter Betsy. She was at the practice with a friend and they asked me something that I really, really couldn't do. Then they left and you know... she hated me. I could see it in her eyes when they met mine."
"Oh honey, is that the reason you've been so on the rack these days?"
Addison nodded sadly. "Today I was bag shopping and suddenly a man was threatening her to call the police for stealing."
"She stole a bag?"
"She tried to steal a bag." she corrected.
"And what did you do?"
She hesitated. "I pretended she was with me and I bought her the bag. Then I made sure she had my phone number just in case..." her voice trailed off, because she knew Kevin wasn't going to approve it.
"You lied about stealing! Addison!"
"Come on Kevin..."
"And what if the man had called the cops? Would you have lied?"
She looked him in his eyes firmly. "Yes, Kevin, I would have. I'm sorry, but I did what I thought was right for Betsy."
He sighed heavily, but calmed down. "You want to get to know her, don't you?"
"I do." she admitted, as she sat in his lap. "I want it so much."
A/N: I'm sorry it was short, and I am very sorry I didn't update as soon as you wanted me to. I hope you liked it, though. And yeah, she's with Kevin. Pete is off limits, I don't really like Sam and I didn't want her to be alone.