DEREK'S POV

When he gets home that night,Addison is gone. Well, at least her things are gone, her blow dryer and cosmetics aren't in the tiny bathroom,her clothes and shoes aren't in the closet and even the fancy complicated coffee maker isn't in the kitchen where it's been occupying half the counter since she moved in.

It feels empty.

Her car (he still can't believe she hauled the Mercedes out here.) is gone too and with the way she's been behaving this past week she's hardly going to answer if he calls her.

So he gets back in his jeep,heads to Joe's to drown his sorrows . It seems fitting to end up there, to end his marriage at the place where the beginning of the end began.

" I don't have a story. I'm just a girl in a bar.""I'm just a guy in a bar."

ADDISON'S POV

She's sitting at the tiny corner table in Joe's between the blaring jukebox and the grimy toilets,nursing the hot buttered rum she'd bullied Joe into making her even though it's not the holidays anymore.

She needs the comfort tonight,Christmas has always been her season and she's determined to keep it that way,even after Derek.

She deserves this tonight because she's 38 ,single, alone and childless , sitting at a bar at 10 pm on a weeknight with a car full of clothes and boxes and no one to go home to.

Indeed, no home to go to.

She wonders briefly which hotel she should patronise now,having already run through several since she got here.

She gave up everything in New York, for this ,for the aching loneliness of having no friends in a strange city,the reality that the last third of her life was spent with a man who's turned her in for a wide eyed younger thing ,the shame of living out of suitcases and hotel rooms.

Maybe she should call Mark,let him make her forget , even it's just for tonight. He's never been averse to transcontinental booty calls; he'll come.

She reaches for her phone.

DEREK'S POV

He walks into Joe's and sees her sitting there, hair falling over her face ,bent over some weird seasonal Disney drink,phone to her ear.

He slides into the chair opposite her,ignoring the speculative stares of hospital staff dotted across the room.

He can hear a tinny little voice issuing from the phone,like it's gone to voicemail , but instead of leaving a message she just sighs and clicks the phone shut.

"Hey."

A long pause, then a tired "Hello , Derek ."

He reaches for her hand lying on the table

(She still has her rings on, he notices.)

But she's looking out of the rain fogged window and at the last minute she pulls her hand back to stir her drink ,leaving him with his hand caught awkwardly in the middle of the table.

They sit for some time in silence but it isn't the awkward kind,it seems more...relaxed,understanding somehow,like she has accepted it's over and she's moved on .

The thought makes his blood run cold.

"I've packed up,I've left the trailer. I'll stay for a month ,maybe more,until I'm done with all my patients here;I'll give Richard my notice tomorrow ,not that it really matters because I never really signed a contract but you know how he gets,he'll yell and try to get me to stay.

But I have to leave,I'm leaving,so...I won't be in your way ,anymore ,I guess."

she chuckles, a bitter defeated sound, swigs the last of her drink and gets up to leave ,reaching for her keys lying on the sticky tabletop.

He puts his hand over hers,trapping her.

"Addie .Wait."

(He hasn't called her Addie not for months ,the word just slips out naturally. Baby steps ,forgiveness. )

"What , Derek? I'll have my lawyer contact yours ,finalise the divorce. It shouldn't be a problem, we can just split up what we brought into this and walk right out of it. You'll be free to go ,...back to Grey or ...or whatever, Derek. I just want you to be happy."

" No that's not it , I ... I know I've been an ass since you got here. I was an ass in New York and you're right; I had checked out .I didn't give us a chance , even when you moved out here last year and there is absolutely no reason why you should be giving me this chance now,but Addie...please.

I want to make it work , I want to make us work and I know we won't be the same as before,not for a long time, I don't know how long it will take, but Addie I do know that I love you.

I always have ,always will.

I fell in love with Meredith and it wasn't just a fling,you fell in love with Mark - or as much as anyone can fall in love with him, anyway - we both did things we shouldn't ve but from now on...from now on I just want you to know that I'm in .

I'm in,I'm here,I want this and I'm asking you to give me a chance,one last chance, to make this right. "

His hand is still on hers,his thumb rubbing gently across her knuckles, caressing the rings that are still on her slim finger ,looking her in the eyes.

She looks up and away from him,standing beside the table so close to where he's sitting he can feel her warmth ,the faintest scent of the perfume she always wears.

"Derek, I ..."

"Please Addie. "

" I don't want to hold you back ,Derek. Not anymore. Go be happy." she whispers ,her eyes unusually bright and her voice hoarse.

"You make me happy, Addison Adrianne Forbes Montgomery . I thought that Meredith made me happy , and for a while she did ,but it was ...like a sugar high ,it wore off quick and left me feeling worse than before,but you , Addison, are the one whose always made me happy.

She's young and naive and needy and she thinks I walk on water and I'll admit for a while I needed that but she doesn't get me,not the way you do . No one gets me the way you do,no knows me like you do. And no one knows you the way I do ,so I can tell that right now you think it's a waste to throw away all that history.

So take me back ,Addie,and I promise we're going to make it work this time.Maybe not all at once,maybe not tomorrow or next week or next month or year ,even, but we will. " his vision is getting suspiciously blurry and his voice is shaky.

"We'll be Addison and Derek again ... and you can tack Shepherd onto the end of that tongue twister name of yours ." He cocks his head at her and gives her a smile.

She stares at him a long moment, eyebrows raised and lips slightly parted, her eyes bright with tears she won't let fall.

She lets out a long shuddering sigh and bows her head , then snaps back up and with that brilliant blinding smile of hers she says

"No trailer,though. "

" No trailer."