Author: PeppermintPatty09
Title: What Makes a Family
Rating: T for angry, hot Meredith
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice
Pairings/Characters: Addison/Meredith, Violet/Charlotte, Arizona/Callie, Naomi/Sam, Izzy/Dell, Alex/Lexie and George/April. Past mentions of: Meredith/Derek and Addison/Mark
Genre: Romance and Family
Summary: A/U; Single moms Addison Montgomery and Meredith Grey start a friendship through their young daughters, which develops into more. This is pretty much a fluffy, romantic, family centric story with slight angst and drama.
Disclaimer: The characters of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice are proudly owned by Shonda Rhimes, production company ShondaLand, and broadcast station ABC. No copyright infringement is intended. Alyssa Harper Grey, Ella Rose Forbes Montgomery is my own.
Authors Note: If the idea of two women or men loving each other and are in a romantic relationship is against your views, please look elsewhere. All mistakes are my own.
(2) Author's Note: Sorry for the huge delay. There is no excuse except that I have been a couch potato and too lazy to update. Forgive me. For here on out, I suspect the story to pick up and we'll start getting more into the Meredith/Addison romance. This chapter came out different than what I had originally planned, so I hope its okay.
Playlist: Starts With Goodbye – Carrie Underwood
The Letting Go – Melissa Etheridge
Chapter Eight
Starts with Goodbye
Meredith sat on her plush comforter, going through the last of her boxes. Her dear friends, Alex, Christina, Izzy and George all helped her move into her new house. Addison and Ella showed up in the afternoon, holding five boxes of pizza, soda and eagerly ready to help. It took them another three hours to finish and another two hours to set up the needed furniture. Ally and Ella had left with Christina and Izzy as they planned Saturday night of movies and junk food, George and Alex had left to the bar to meet other men from the bar and Addison, Addison had gotten called in on an emergency case.
Looking at the cardboard box, Meredith was suddenly grateful Ally was spending the night with Christina and Izzy as she opened the flaps of her final box that was labeled mementoes. Her hands shook as she opened the box and she tried to calm her breathing as she fingers deftly removed its contents.
"Oh," Meredith breathed out a long shaky breath when her hand came in contact of an old scrub cap. It was black and yellow with Batman's logo. She lifted the cap and held it to her nose, inhaling the breezy and woody scent of Acqua Di Gio by Giorgio Armani, baby powder and disinfectant. It was the welcoming scent of Derek. The cap was Derek's favorite and lucky scrub cap as he called it. Ally had given it to him on Father's day three years ago. The moment Derek unwrapped the present and saw the cap, he never wore another.
Meredith carefully placed the scrub cap on her pillow, imagining it was Derek laying there, staring and smiling at her. Maybe she'll sleep with it tonight, she thought, looking at the flimsy material. Next, Meredith pulled out one of Derek's old photo albums. There was nothing special about it – unlike Ally's baby album. She suspected that it held the rare photos of hers and Derek wedding, which was held in a court room with Christina and Alex as witnesses. It only took twenty minutes and they did it between surgeries, in their surgical scrubs, but, to Meredith, it was the best twenty minutes of her life.
Derek pulled off his Navy blue scrub cap, spotting Meredith talking to a couple of interns. He stood back, smiling as his girlfriend talked animated to her clueless minions. He laughed when Meredith finished her speech and the interns ran for their life. He looked closely at his girlfriend of three years and shuddered at the feelings of love overwhelming him. He closed his eyes, picturing his life with Meredith in five years. When he opened them, he walked over to her and dropped down to one knee.
"Derek?" Meredith exclaimed, looking at her boyfriend. "What are you doing, dork?" she laughed.
"I'm being spontaneous," Derek replied. "And I'm proposing. Proposing without a ring, by the way," he chuckled nervously.
Meredith exhaled sharply and everyone on the floor stopped and watched, holding their breath.
"Meredith Ellen Grey, will you marry me? I would have prepared a speech, but seeing as I'm being spontaneous and romantic, I don't have one thoughtfully memorized. What I can tell you, is that I love you and will always love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, loving you, making you happy, and giving you all that your heart desires. I want little Meredith's, a house in the suburbs and a dog named Spot. Hell, let's throw in a white picket fence, too." Meredith let out a watery chuckle.
"Will you marry me?" Derek asked, his eyes twinkling with love.
"Yes," Meredith nodded, her tears falling freely. Meredith laughed when everyone erupted in applause and let out a couple of cat-calls and whistles.
Derek stood and pulled Meredith into a passionate kiss. He broke the kiss, smiling at his fiancée. "I have another hour before I need to go back into the OR," Derek explained. "I want to marry you now, Meredith. I don't want to wait another minute."
"Derek, we can't get married! I'm smell, I have my scrubs on and I haven't changed my underwear in thirty-six hours."
"You're perfect," Derek whispered. "Come on, let's get married. You don't have any surgeries until this afternoon. Marry me, Meredith. Marry me today."
"Okay," Meredith smiled.
Meredith blinked, leaving the memory and turning back to the photo album she held in her hands. She opened the cover, smiling when the first picture she saw was of Derek and Ally. She continued to flip through the album, laughing or letting out a few tears when a photo brought back a cherished memory. Turning the last page, Meredith let out a startled gasp at what she saw. She pulled back the protective film, gently execrating the photo. There in the background wearing Columbia's University signature baby blue gradation gowns was Derek, a man she know remembers as Mark Sloan and…Addison.
Meredith blindly reached for her cell; she pressed two and automatically called Addison.
"Come over," Meredith said, tightly, and then hanging up before Addison could get another word in.
As Meredith waited for Addison to arrive she paced back and forth in her living room, fuming. She couldn't believe Addison had played her all this time. Though she was livid, she was more hurt than anything. She had started to care for Addison and her love for Ella was deep and now, she comes to find out, it's all been nothing but a game to Addison.
When Meredith hears the timidly knock, she angrily stalks to the door, throwing it opened and pulling a nervous Addison into the house.
"You fucking liar," Meredith fumed, thrusting the tattered photo into Addison shocked face. "Why didn't you tell me you knew my husband?"
"Meredith, honey, you need to calm down," Addison said, soothingly. She had never saw Meredith this angry, this…hurt before. She had to fix this."The only thing I know about Derek is that he's your husband, Ally's father and one of the best neurosurgeons, until he died. And even still, no one can hold up his reputation." Addison pointed to the photo. "That photo was taken on graduation and by then, Mark and I were just friends, friends that separated but reunited years later. I didn't even want to be in that photo but Mark begged me, so I did it. If that's Derek in the photo, that's the only time I saw him. I didn't even know his name when that photo was taken. Some other graduate took that photo and then we all parted ways when it was taken. You have to believe me, Meredith," Addison pleaded.
"You-you didn't know Derek?" Meredith asked trying to wrap her mind around the information Addison just gave her.
"No, Meredith, I didn't. I swear. I'm guess you now realized where you heard the name Mark Sloan from?"
Meredith dropped bonelessly on her couch, all the fight draining out of her. "Yeah, he was one of Derek's friends. I met him twice since I started dating Derek; both times were when Mark was called in on a special case down in Boston." Meredith looked at Addison with glistening eyes. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."
Addison walked over to Meredith, pulling her into her arms. "Hey, shhh, it's okay. You didn't know, okay. If I was in your shoes, I would have done the same thing. There's nothing to be sorry about. I care about you a lot, Meredith. I would never do anything to hurt you or Ally. You're safe with me."
"I care about you, too," Meredith murmured against Addison's neck, inhaling the scent of Chance by Chanel.
"Come on, since I'm here we can have a night to ourselves. We can order Chinese, pig out on junk food and watch crappy movies, okay."
"Okay," Meredith said softly. She pulled back. She looked deeply into Addison's azure crystal orbs, she felt herself being pulled in by their intense look. Swallowing, Meredith leaned in and kissed Addison on the cheek, softly. "Thank you," she whispered before she jumped off the couch and ran into the bedroom to clean herself up.
Addison ran a shaking hand through her red locks, "Shit," she murmured, standing and grabbing the Chinese take-out menu.
Later on that night, Meredith returned back to her bedroom, leaving a snoozing Addison on her couch. She walked to her bed, sitting gingerly on it. She slowly put each item into back in the box, including Derek's lucky scrub cap. She closed the flaps of the box.
Meredith pressed her fingers to her lips, kissing them before she tapped the box with the same fingers.
"I will always love you, Derek, but I need to let you go and move on," Meredith said just as a flash of Addison's smiling face came to mind. "Goodbye."
Meredith put the box in the back of her closet before she returned to Addison.
More to come.
A/N: Okay, so, whose glad Grey's and Private is back on today? I know I am. Who thinks Amelia should give the baby to Addison? And boo to Jake and Addison. Me don't like that. Lol.
Also, if you guys would like to me add any scenes or have song suggestions please tell me and I'll try to fit them into the storyline.
Thanks for reading.
Patty