New York, 1993

"Morning, birthday girl", Mark lifts his head from the papers and gives her a big smile.

"Hi", she smiles back. "Hey, have you seen Derek, by the way? The last time I saw him was like three hours ago and he's not in surgery, I checked the board."

"Uh- No, I don't know where he is", Mark stutters. "He's definitely not... I don't know where he is right now", he shrugs.

She furrows her brow. "Okay, what are you guys up to?"

"Nothing."

"You're hiding something."

"I'm not", he guarantees. "But, uh, he did came here earlier and he told me to give you this."

He hands her an Anatomy book.

"That's one of the books we used in med school", she recognizes.

"Yeah."

"Why did he tell you to give me this?", she asks, confused.

"He didn't say", he shrugs again. "You're going to have to ask him."

"Except I don't know where he is. And neither do you, right?", she adds in a suspicious tone, raising one eyebrow.

"Right", he smiles.

"I'm just going to leave this in my locker until I find him", she shakes her head, smiling as she gives him one more suspicious look, and heads to the locker room.

"Hey, Addie", Sam smiles when she enters the locker room. "I was just going to look for you to wish you a happy birthday, but since you're already here... happy birthday!"

"Thank you, Sam. I just came here to put this book in my locker. Don't ask me why I'm carrying it, I don't know either."

She opens her locker just to find something that makes her even more confused.

"What the hell?", she grabs the pamphlet, analyzing it. "I don't remember putting this here. Did you see someone put this in my locker?", she asks Sam, showing him the pamphlet.

"No. What is this? It's from an... italian restaurant?"

"Yeah, actually, I know that restaurant. Derek and I used to go there when we were in med school. But what-", she pauses. "Wait. Do you think he put this here? Do you think he's trying to hint that we're going there tonight?"

"Maybe", Sam shrugs.

"Hmm. Weird. We haven't been there in years", she puts the pamphlet back in the locker.

"You know, this just reminded me that I'm going to meet Nai in the cafeteria later for lunch, do you want to come?" Sam invites her.

"Sure."

She bumped into Sam another time, just before lunch time.

"Oh, hi, Sam, I'll be there in a second, I just want to ask Dr. Webber if I could-"

"No, don't talk to Dr. Webber right now", he says quickly.

"Why not?"

"Because... Nai is not staying here for long."

"I'm just going to-"

"She brought Maya", Sam says almost desperately.

"Okay", she finds his tone weird, but she agrees. "I guess I should go say hello to that cute little baby."

"Addie!", Naomi hugs her in the cafeteria. "Happy birthday! Maya, how about you wish Addie a happy birthday?", she turns to the three-weeks-old baby in her arms.

"Hello, Maya", Addison smiles at the baby. "You look beautiful. Did you come visit your daddy today?"

"I did", Naomi imitates a baby voice. "Alright, can we sit somewhere?", she asks with her normal voice.

When they're done with lunch, Naomi searches for something in Maya's bag. "I almost forgot", she tells Addison. "I was unpacking the rest of the boxes in our new house this morning and I found this", she hands Addison a photo. "I thought you'd like to see it."

In the photo, her four best friends and her are smiling, wearing lab coats.

"Aww, I remember this day. Second year, right?"

"Right."

"It's a nice photo. Look at us, we were so excited."

"Yeah. Two of those people were more excited than the others though, I know because I found them making out instead of cleaning the lab", Naomi teases.

Addison blushes. "It was one time! And we cleaned it right after you left. You know Derek and I always left that lab impeccably cleaned."

"Do you want to keep that photo?"

"Yeah", she smiles. "I do."

"Speaking of lab", Sam begins, "weren't you going to talk to Dr. Webber?"

She frowns. "Now you want me to go talk to him? Okay, what is going on here?" She crosses her arms. "Spit it out. Why is everyone acting weird? And why is everyone giving me weird objects and bringing back memories-", and then she figures it out. "It's some kind of treasure hunt, isn't it? And it's leading me to my birthday present. Derek organized this and he convinced everyone to participate."

"Yes!" Naomi exclaims.

"That's it", Sam says at the same time. "Congratulations, you've figured it out. Now go find Dr. Webber."

She smirks and gets up from the table.

She checks the O.R. board again, just to make sure the surgery was still scheduled. She checks the other surgeries too, expecting to find Derek's name, and this time she does. There you are, she thinks. What the hell are you trying to do?

Dr. Webber's patient is being prepared for surgery when Addison finds him. "Dr. Webber, I saw you're performing a Whipple today, I was hoping you could use a resident?"

"Sure. Scrub in."

"And, uh, apparently my boyfriend is making a treasure hunt for my birthday, I suppose you're involved?", she raises one eyebrow.

"Of course I'm involved", he smiles.

Halfway through the surgery, Dr. Webber asks her if she remembers the first time she and Derek went in on a surgery together.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're wearing the same scrub cap you wore that day, did you notice that?"

"Yeah", she smiles.

It's almost dark when she leaves the O.R.

"Dr. Montgomery?", Dr. Webber calls before she leaves. "You know that fountain outside the hospital?"

"Yeah?"

He smiles. "You might want to go there."

She goes back to her locker and changes to street clothes before she does what he suggested. Derek is standing near the fountain, his hands on his pockets.

He smiles when he sees her.

"Alright, I don't know why you decided to do this crazy treasure hunt thing this time, and I love it already, but I just have to say that this better be one hell of a present because it's my birthday and I haven't seen you all day."

"I was in surgery for half of the day", he shrugs, still smiling. "And the other half, I thought I'd bring you some memories back before tonight. You know, memories are something that's been on my mind these past few months."

"You mean since the accident?"

"Yes. Because the accident really scared me. And while we were in the car, waiting for the ambulance, I tried to imagine my life without you and I couldn't. And a lot of moments from this past five years have been on my mind ever since. So, today, I hoped I'd bring some of them to your mind as well. The day we met, in Anatomy class, the restaurant we went on one of our first dates, that day in the lab", he pauses when she laughs, "the first surgery we performed together. And I want more. More moments with you. More memories, whether they're good or bad. I want that for the rest of my life. And I hope you feel the same about all of this because... you see, your birthday present is only part of the reason I did this - and it is great, I got reservations for your favorite restaurant and there's something else very special waiting for you at home. The other reason is this", he takes a ring box out of his pocket.

"Oh my God", she whispers.

"Addison", he grins and opens the box, revealing a ring inside. "Will you marry me?"

"I- ", her brain swirls, a million thoughts in a matter of seconds. But all of her doubts and trust issues vanish when she looks at him again. There's no way to be sure that someone is the one, but she knows she's safe, because he won't hurt her. And as the last five years dance inside of her head, she knows that if he's not the one, then he's pretty close. "Yes", she lets the word escape her lips. "Yes!", she says more confident now, laughing.

He puts the ring on her finger and she kisses him, throwing her arms around his neck, while she hears a whistle behind her and Mark's voice exclaiming 'Finally!'

She turns around and sees the whole treasure hunt crew is standing there. "How long have you guys been there?"

"Pretty much the whole time", Naomi smiles.

"We had been expecting for this all day, and we did all those things, we wanted to see the result", Mark says.

"So you knew about the proposal? All of you?"

"Of course", Sam reveals.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"It was a surprise", Dr. Webber explains.

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything", Naomi laughs. "You said 'yes', I guess that's enough".

"Yeah," Mark agrees, "but, you know, if you and Derek want to cover for me on rounds as a 'thank you', that'd be-"

Naomi elbows him and he stops talking.

"I said yes", she turns to Derek, grinning.

"You said yes", he grins back at her.

Seattle, 2005

After all the crazy events of that night, she wasn't expecting that one more unpleasant surprise that were those panties - someone else's panties - in the pocket of her husband's tuxedo.

And she wasn't expecting the weight of her next realization: it's over. There's nothing left to do. She did everything she could, but now it's over.

In about a year, things had started to go down between them and she screwed up. Then, she tried everything to make up for it - hell, she picked up her whole life in New York and moved to Seattle to live in a goddamn trailer in the woods with him - and it wasn't enough. She fought and she lost. The battle is over, and she lost.

At first, all she feels is disappointment and the sadness and anger that comes from losing someone that had been with you for such a long time; it's like they're throwing away a big part of their lives. And if she wants to be honest, yes, she's kind of mad at him for choosing someone else instead of her. But days go by, and as bad as it hurts, she figures it's time. She has to let him go. She can't hold on to the past when it's so much different from the present. In that year, all they did was hurt each other. They weren't happy, and they deserve to be happy.

So she lets go. And for a second, somehow, among all those feelings there's a new one. Something that she can't really explain. Something that feels like freedom.

Note: Y'all didn't think I'd skip the proposal, right? ;) This chapter sounded so much better in my head though. I hope you guys didn't hate it, 'cause I kind of did.