A/n: I was intending to put this up a bit earlier, but the holidays steamrolled me, and I forgot all about it until today. Hope you are having (or have had) wonderful holidays and will have a wonderful New Year! And thanks to both The Office and inkspire for inspiring a little something in this chapter. ;)

Chapter 9

The following day as he got himself ready for work (downing orange juice, Gatorade and Advil to combat the hangover that was fast developing), he couldn't help but notice the dark colored sedan parked a few doors down. It looked like there were two people seated inside, and he remembered Kate's words from the night before:

"They're probably watching you. It's bad enough we're doing this."

After a few short moments of watching the vehicle sitting there, a tall woman came out of one of the nearby houses and climbed in. The car drove away a few seconds later and Jack felt very foolish for being so paranoid. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little fearful after his conversation with Kate, so he took special note of the various cars parked around and nearby his building before heading to the hospital.

"Wow, you must have had fun on your day off," Addison commented when Jack entered the elevator with her. "Rough night?"

You have no idea, he thought, then chuckled before saying aloud, "What gave me away? The deep dark circles under my eyes or the fact that I didn't shave this morning?"

"I was going to go with the slow, zombie-like walk that suggests a major hangover." She smiled. "I know that walk well."

As Jack regarded her and her pretty smile, he had the urge to tell her the truth. For a fleeting moment, he considering telling her why he'd drank himself to sleep last night. But to explain that he'd driven across town to make a brief phone call to a fugitive, which resulted in the drinking once he was back home, meant explaining a great deal of other things he was still trying hard to forget.

So instead he shoved away the impulse, laughed a little and shrugged sheepishly. "I met up with a friend for lunch." It wasn't a lie, but it had very little to do with the reason behind his drinking – but she didn't need to know that.

"And lunch went long, clearly. What's her name?"

"His name is Hurley, actually. He lives in LA but he was up here for a conference."

"Gee, Jack, when you said you were in love with someone else, I had assumed it was girl," Addison teased. "You never struck me as the type to swing the other way."

The pair laughed together and Jack felt his spirits lifting. He had noticed that often lately, in fact. The moments he shared with Addison between shifts, at Joe's, the cafeteria and so on almost never failed to cheer him and easily pull his mind away from the complications – or more properly, he supposed, the baggage – in his life.

A group of interns joined them in the elevator, talking in rushed voices.

"Leo just told me!" a young red-head gushed. "Dr. Torres and O'Malley are on the outs because he totally slept with Dr. Stevens! He said they're probably gonna get a divorce."

A dark-skinned girl shook her head. "It can't be true – Leo heard wrong. I mean seriously, it's O'Malley. He's like the nicest person I know. No way he cheated on his wife."

"Plus, it's Torres." The tallest intern, a guy with curly hair, shook his head. "She is smokin'. I still can't believe they're even married in the first place."

"Yeah, but it's Stevens." Another guy countered. "She's annoying as hell, but damn hot."

Jack stopped listening to the interns as he wasn't the type who was interested in gossip. He had noticed quite quickly after he started working at Seattle Grace, however, that it had a very active grapevine. Any bit of news, gossip or rumour spread like wildfire and it continually amazed and worried him. The thought of what would happen if anyone found out about what had happened to him, or about Oceanic 815 and Kate, made him shudder involuntarily. He knew the whole hospital would know everything in minutes and he deeply dreaded the day that might happen.

He glanced at Addison briefly and immediately noted the troubled look on her face. He knew she was good friends with Callie Torres, and wondered if the interns' gossip was true. The interns exited the elevator with Jack and Addison, turning the corner up ahead and still talking rapidly. As Jack and Addison passed a pair of nurses, also discussing the hot topic of the day, the worry etched across her features deepened.

"You ok?" he asked quietly as they approached the senior resident's locker room.

She sighed and ran her hand through her long red hair. "I have no idea how the whole hospital knows about it already. She just told me a couple days ago, in private."

Jack held the door to the locker room open for her. He wasn't sure what to say, but murmured, "I'm sorry. I know you two are close."

Addison sighed a second time, opening her locker and tossing her things in. "Yes, well, one of the curses of Seattle Grace I'm afraid. No secret is safe for long. Somebody always finds out and then five minutes later, the whole hospital knows." She smiled a sad, tight smile – the kind that spoke of first-hand experience – and turned her back on him to get ready.

He swallowed uncomfortably, his eyes lingering on her a moment too long, before going to the sinks to wash his face and ready himself for his shift.

"Good Morning, Mrs. Preston, how're you feeling?"

"Sore," the brunette winced.

Her husband, seated in a chair beside the bed, had a wild mop of dark curly hair streaked liberally with grey. He smiled and gave his wife's hand a squeeze.

Mrs. Preston added, "But it could be worse, I'm sure. How's our baby boy?"

"He's doing pretty well for his condition," Addison answered. "Though we do have some serious concerns." She looked to Izzie Stevens, the junior resident assigned to her for the day.

"Your son was born at 32 weeks, which means he's about 5 weeks premature." Izzie presented. "His lungs are weak, and normally we would wait to operate until he was stronger. However, in order to ensure no further damage occurs with the defect on his spinal cord and that his chances of paralysis later in life are minimized, Dr. Shephard will be performing a routine repair surgery this afternoon. Dr. Montgomery will be in the operating room as well to monitor your son's vitals and assist Dr. Shephard."

Mr. and Mrs. Preston exchanged worried glances.

"There are risks to any surgery," Jack warned. "And I'm sure this all sounds pretty scary, but I assure you it's fairly routine. I'm also the best at what I do, so you know your son is in good hands."

"And that's all well and good, Dr. Shephard," said Mr. Preston. "But we've been trying to have children for eight years. We had tried literally everything, and had basically given up hope before Tamara finally got pregnant. It feels like a miracle and if we lose our son…"

"Let's just say we know lightning doesn't strike twice." Mrs. Preston smiled, but it was a sad, strained smile. "That being said, we want our son to have the best life possible, so we've decided to go through with the surgery, as you recommended yesterday."

"We will do everything we can," Addison assured the couple with her best everything-is-going-to-be-alright smile.

They went over some finer details with the Prestons before sending Izzie and her interns off to run labs. Addison instructed a nurse to bring the baby up so the Prestons could be with him for a few hours before the surgery. Then she and Jack gathered up charts from the nurses' station on the surgical floor and headed off to check on other patients.

"Ok Jack," Addison said as she and Jack seated themselves at a table by the window in the cafeteria. "I have told you several embarrassing stories about my residency, it's time I hear one of yours."

"Alright," He took a bite of his lunch and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. "Alright, I got one."

She nodded expectantly and began eating her own lunch.

"It was back when I was an intern…"

He then proceeded to tell Addison about a night during his internship when himself and several other interns went out for drinks. They drank extensively, ordered round upon round of shots, and then proceeded out into the night where typical drunken hijinks ensued.

"Truthfully, I don't remember a lot from that night," Jack said and chuckled sheepishly. "Just that it was probably the most drunk I have ever been. There was one point where I remember I was laying on the sidewalk laughing, while my buddy Garrett was streaking down the street. I have no idea how we weren't arrested."

"I'm still waiting for the embarrassing part," Addison said. "I think everyone has a streaking story from their internship."

"Oh really? And what's yours?"

"No way – finish your story first."

"Well," Jack leaned back in his chair. "Our intern test was the next day."

"Oh no." She covered her mouth in anticipation, smiling.

"As you can imagine, we were… extremely hungover."

"Oh God, you totally fell asleep, didn't you?"

"Worse." Jack winced.

"Worse?" She said incredulously.

"I may have thrown up. In the middle of the test."

Addison ooed and began laughing.

"All over my test, and myself, and the desk… it was not pretty." He shook his head and joined in her laughter.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's not funny, but…"

"No, you're right, that part wasn't funny. But then my buddy Garrett started throwing up too because I was throwing up."

Addison was holding her stomach by this point at the mental image. The story became even funnier to her when Jack continued, saying that four more people became sick as a result of the sights, smells, and sounds coming from Jack and his friend. The test was then cancelled and rescheduled as a result.

She was trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard when Derek approached the table.

"What?" he asked. "What'd I miss?"

"Oh, I was just telling Addison a story about when I was a young, stupid intern," said Jack with another chuckle. He scooped up his garbage onto his tray and stood. "I gotta go. I'll see you in surgery, Addison. Later, Derek."

Once Jack was out of earshot, Derek raised an eyebrow at his ex-wife. "What was that all about?"

"It wasn't really that funny, to be honest. Jack was just telling me this story about when he was an intern - it was him and a couple of his buddies, and they were so drunk the night before the intern test, that they…" She started giggling again but recovered quickly. "Ok, it's really not funny, because they threw up during their test."

"Mm, sounds hilarious." Derek said, then swallowed a mouthful of his late lunch before adding, "But I was actually referring to the fact that the whole time I was getting food, you two looked awfully happy and cozy over here. I thought you said nothing was going on?"

"There isn't," Addison shrugged. "It'd be nice if there was something, but sadly we are truly just friends."

He leaned back in his chair, chewing and regarding her skeptically.

"C'mon Derek, I would tell you if we were together."

"I'm just saying that the past few weeks, I see you two together a lot. It implies you're more than friends."

"We're not, for the thousandth time. Let's drop it."

Derek seemed quite amused but obeyed and changed the subject – slightly. "So what surgery are you scrubbing in on with Dr. Jack?"

"I had a preemie born yesterday with a spinal defect. We're scrubbing in together in a couple hours." Feeling like she needed to force the conversation in a new direction, she asked innocently, "Oh, I've been meaning to ask you: how's it going with Meredith these days?"

Instantly the amusement was wiped from Derek's handsome features. Addison knew full well that they'd recently broken up – again. She was also aware they (or more correctly, Meredith) had called it quits after Burke and Cristina's wedding-that-wasn't, though they had since gotten back together and broken up once more.

"Couldn't be better." Derek mumbled darkly, stabbing at his salad forcefully.

"Still on the outs then, I take it?"

"I told her I couldn't wait forever," he said. "And I don't intend to."

It was Addison's turn to be a bit amused. Derek and Meredith were constantly pushing and pulling, but they always returned to each other. She suspected this time would be no different, and in a few weeks, they'd be back together once again. At the same time, she did feel bad for Derek, as she knew he deserved more than someone he was perpetually chasing after and backing off from.

"She'll come around," she said encouragingly.

"Ya, well, I might not be there when she finally does."

After a few moments of quiet, Addison again forced a change of subject, and they chatted idly about their day so far, as well as the news about George, Callie and Izzie. Shortly, however, it was time for Addison to do rounds before heading to surgery with Jack (she resolutely ignored the miniature internal flutter when she thought of them in close quarters for several hours).

A/n: Thanks for reading! Happy New Year! :D