a/n: Thanks for the reviews. Each and every single one of them seriously made me smile like an idiot on drugs. Forget crack, pot and heroine... reviews are a whole new kinda high. (not that I would know)
"El, I need to talk to you." Derek said as he slowly walked into his daughter's room. She was sitting on the carpet and it looked like she was having a tea party with her doll but had gotten too caught up with the cartoon she was watching to remember.
"Wanna play with me, Daddy?" Ella asked pushing all her dolls aside so Derek could sit down beside her.
"Not right now, El. Right now we need to talk, okay baby? There are some really important things I have to discuss with you." he answered as he took a seat next to her. He crossed his legs over one another and assumed the position that Ella insisted on calling 'cris-cross' because that's what he teacher said when she needed the class to sit on a rug for story time. She would yell at Derek for calling it 'Indian style' because that's what his teachers called it back when he was a little kid.
"About what?" Ella wondered curiously. She looked up at him with her blue eyes and batted her lashed innocently.
"Remember Addison?" he asked, diving right into the conversation head first without even bothering to test the waters.
"The lady that looks like Ariel from the Little Mermaid?" Ella asked in response.
"She looks like the Little Mermaid?" Derek laughed. "Why would you say that?"
"Cause she's got the same long red hair." Ella answered obviously. "Duh!"
"Of course. How could I not notice that? Anyway, I wanted to tell you that she and I got engaged last night. That means we're gonna get married sometime soon. We're gonna move out of this apartment and move into a house with her. She's gonna be your mother."
"She's my mother?" Ella responded with wide eyes. "I always wondered who my mommy is! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I uh..." he was stuck at a dead end. He didn't know how to explain it to the child. He couldn't break her heart by telling her that her real mother left and Addison would only be filling in the position. "I didn't know if you liked her or not so I didn't know how to tell you."
"Oh." she nodded, pretending that it was a decent enough answer although it wasn't the answer she was looking for. Ella didn't trust people easily, she didn't get attached easily. She didn't even accept the company of Derek's sisters. And Addison couldn't win her over that easily. She'd never been there for her and now Ella was suppose to consider her as her mother.
By the time the wedding came around Ella had learned to deal with her and accept her presence in her life. It wasn't until the day she broke her leg that she trusted Addison or considered her to actually be her mother. After that day they became inseparable. Addison became the one person in the world, aside from her father that Ella trusted. Until she found out that it was all a lie and Addison wasn't her mother.
By the next night, Addison had officially moved back in to the trailer. None of her protests worked. Derek refused to pretend that she lived there while she was actually in a hotel moving on with her life. He wanted to try to make it work this time. And you can't do that when your wife is living in a hotel room a good 15 miles away from you.
Derek was genuinely convinced that this was his chance to make it work with the love of his life. If it wasn't meant to be than the judge would have just signed off and the divorce and they would both be able to move on. The fact that they were still forced to be together meant something to him. It meant he had to try to take up the second second chance that he had in his marriage because he's failed his first second chance.
"I was thinking we could go out to dinner tonight." he suggest, breaking the awkward silence between the three of them. "Ya' know...like we used to it New York. Dinner, Starbucks and walk around the city for a while."
Addison looked up from the magazine she was reading. "I don't feel like going out." she answered softly, not wanting to discourage him for his idea. It was a nice sentiment but she wasn't there for nice sentiments, she was there because she'd be arrested for going against court order if she wasn't. "You guys can go ahead. I'll be fine here alone for a few hours. I'll just finish unpacking my crap or catch up on my sleeping."
"We're not going to leave you here alone on your first night back." Ella fought back. "Not even we are that cruel and heartless." she added joking only to discover that she was the only one who found that the slightest bit funny.
"It's fine, Ella. I don't think you're cruel or heartless." Addison assured. "In fact, I'd love to have some time to myself, so if anything you'd be taking my wishes into consideration."
"You always do that... take a situation you're against and work it in your favor to make people let you have your way. It's like this unrecognized talent of yours." Derek commented bitterly.
"Is there anything that you like about me anymore?" she asked, much like she did the first week she had arrived in Seattle. "Because the only thing you do is complain, and yet I'm expected to sit here for the next 6 months and go with the flow."
"There you go again! Twisting the scenario!" he took a deep breath and let it out. "You know what, you want to be alone? Fine. I'm taking my daughter out. We'll see you later."
"Yeah... and that's your talent, walking away from a fight." she whispered to herself after he had managed to slam the door shut. She was right for what she had told him when she first came out, they weren't even willing to fight anymore. When they first got together there was more passion in fighting than there was in making love and but know they weren't willing to put effort into either one.
Ella got into the front seat of her car and stared at her father as he drove away from the trailer on the deserted roads that she had never seen another car on. For a while there was nothing but silence, with the exception of the radio. One which barely had any signal in the area so the song would cut in and out and it would make it impossible to understand the words and get into the rhythm. Ella easily noticed that her father wasn't in the best of moods. It looked like he was willing to wrestle a tiger just to calm his nerves.
"Never mind. This isn't going to be funny. She's going to make these next six months hell."
A few awkward days had gone by. There was no arguing like Derek thought there would be. If fact, there was barely any conversation between them at all. They spend minimal time together, only the last few minutes before everyone went to sleep. Addison would spend as much time as she could in the hospital. She would come home as infrequently as possible, considering herself lucky on the nights she got home during ungodly hours when everyone else was asleep. She left father and daughter to do things as they please.
They had not had one meal together, they had not have one actual conversation. There was no eye contact made while every occupant of the trailer was home. Every night was spend in awkward silence. When Addison wasn't home, Ella and Derek usually brought home take out and ignored one another until one of them fell asleep. It had become a habit. It's what that they did.
Richard Webber was the first to notice the behavior between the once happy family. He decided that Addison had been working too much and told her that she needed to go home at that instant. He didn't take no for an answer. So at 6 pm she arrived home, her heart sinking when she saw Derek's car. She walked into the trailer wordlessly and went into the bedroom to strip for her a shower.
"Addison, it's still light out. Are you sure that you didn't get lost on your way to the lab?" he asked sarcastically. The remark was ignored, the only response of the bedroom door sliding shut with a slam at the end. He got up from his spot on the couch and went into their room, shutting the door behind himself.
She instantly pulled her shirt back on and looked at him. "What?" she asked.
"How much longer?"
"Five months and two weeks." she answered with a smile, a fake smile of course. It was the perfect way to match his sarcasm.
"I meant how much longer are you going to continue ignoring your family? " Derek clarified. "How much longer are you going to act like this?"
"You're not my family, Derek." she answered. "I have no family. It's sad and pathetic but it's true. There is nothing I can do about it."
"Yes there is! We are your family, we care about you, Addie. We want to..."
Addison cut him off before she could go on any further. "Derek, let's not pretend to be something we're not. We just need to get through the next five and a half months. After that...its over."
Question: How often do you you guys want updates? a) Every two or three days (which I may be able to manage) b) once every 5 days. c) once a week or later.
And I beg of you, the second you feel like this story is starting to suck...tell me! I want it to be perfect and I'll fix whatever I have to so I can accomplish that.
Review :)
