I swear I will never again read a fic without reviewing now that I know how it hurts to write and have no one review.Basically, please review.
CALLIE 'S POV
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.
What had she just done? It was just supposed to be dinner for gods sake , dinner and then their own respective beds.
Oh god. Addison is going to know in about three seconds when she sees her face and she can't face her know , not after denying her suspicions last time.
Oh god.
"Hey Callie!"
Here we go. Act normal.
"Hee-ey Addison ! I missed you ."
Normal, Callie, normal.
She turns slowly to look at Callie over her shoulder , one perfectly arched eyebrow raised.
" Something I'm missing here?"
" No. Hehe.Why would you be missing anything, it's not like I'm , uh, hiding something, no way , why would I do that, nope. Nothing missing here."
" If you say so. " Addison snorts, turning back to her charting in the lounge.
She's wearing a long sleeved high necked black dress that looks fantastic against her pale skin and red hair but is kind of funereal.
Maybe she should ask about that , get Addie' s razor sharp mind working on something else.
"How'd it go anyway, at dinner last week? Did you scope her out, see if she's any good?"
" Wh-what?" she splutters into her scalding coffee.
This time Addison actually put down her pen , turns all the way around in her chair and stares at her friend over her glasses.
" The Peds surgeon , Callie? Dr . Robbins? We interviewed her before I left, I was supposed to take her to dinner, make her feel all welcome but then Richard all but forced us to leave and I asked you to go instead?"
" Oh. Oh yeah , she's , um yeah, she's really great. ...and a ...surgeon. ...and she saves kids and she's uh , great. She'll be great for you to work with. Perky, you know..."
Addison stares at the babbling resident for a while , and then it hits her.
Are you speaking the vagina monologues now?
" Calliope Iphegenia Torres , you like her don't you!." she crows , eyes lighting up in triumph.
" What? No , I. ..."
" Oh, come on, Callie ,you're blushing and glowing."
" Oh, okay, I like her. Get off my back now, you were right, I like girls .Vagina monologues and all that."
Addison scoots over to her on the wheeled chair, ocean eyes alight with excitement.
"What happened? "
" We ...went out to dinner, had a bit too much wine, then she kissed me - in a public bathroom no less - and before I knew it ee were in her hotel room and well. ..."
"Was it good?" Addison is like a sixteen year old , honestly, demanding details and squealing girlishly .
"Oh yeah, it was...it was amazing."
"Better than Dr.Hahn?"
"Addison . Get out of my sex life ! "
"Wait a minute, I thought were gonna sleep with Mark, you asked me before I left - "
"About that...I might be putting him on hold a while."
Addison giggles and then lets loose with "I kissed a girl and I liked it , the taste of her cherry chapstick. ..."
" Shut up Addie, someone will hear!"
" So?"
" My family doesn't. ...understand. We're Catholic."
" Oh. They'll come around.
And anyway, come here. I'm so happy for you, at least one of us is happy. "
What does she mean, one of us, she's the one who's married to the love of her life and giving him a second chance .Isn't she?
And when Addie pulls her close she sees it, the little red half circle under her lipstick and the faint bluish marks encircling her wrists where her sleeve rides up.
"Addie?"
"What ? Are you finally gonna tell me I was right all along , because it'd be pretty cool to hear that..."
She pushes the other woman's rich red tresses away from her neck , gapes at the red marks in her delicate skin - hickeys these are not - and unceremoniously yanks down the demure neckline of her dress, ignoring her protests to find the same across her collarbone and disappearing into the lacy black bra.
" What exactly happened in the last three days?"
" We went to New York,packed up our old lives , we're moving on, come on Callie you know that."
" Oh no no no no , don't you give me that shit , he did this to you didn't he ,the bastard?"
" We got a little. ...ahem , rough."
" Rough is your head hitting the headboard and creaking bedsprings , not looking like an assault victim !"
" Callie calm down, really its not what it looks like and believe me I know what this looks like - but it's not, we just get a little carried away sometimes..."
"This has happened before? "
"Callie , it's been a horrific year, for us both , and the house, seeing it again just brought back everything that made us leave New York and...it's not what it looks like, okay?"
She glares at her friend , but then smooths her dress back into place and tucks her silky hair behind her ear.
Butt out Callie, they've been married eleven years , they can handle their fights.
But she's going to keep an eye on Addie just the same; the woman is entirely too deluded when it comes to Derek Shepherd and his ways and Callie 's not entirely sure that the redheaded surgeon ever tells her half of what's on her mind anyway.
"This better not happen again or neurosurgeon or not, I'll smash his knuckles with my hammer."
" I believe you." Addison says. " I should get going , I have a transfer coming in from Mercy West. Have you seen Stevens?"
" Oh jeez that girl is weird. She's been extra sunny and bright since you left , so might wanna bring a barf bag."
" Thanks for the warning. " Addison says drily , and pages Stevens to the ER herself as she walks down to wait by the double doors of the ambulance bay.
This is a rare once in a lifetime case , and even though Stevens currently hates her she wants her to be in on it.
She finds the statesque blonde waiting by the bay already , shifting her weight impatiently.
"You paged, Dr. Montgomery - Shepherd? "
" Yup .You need to see this- it's double the fun .Literally. "
" Well, as long as the patient isn't dying or anything, I am at your service."
" Good." Addison deadpans, laughing to herself at how eerily similar this intern is to herself when she was an intern.
She just hopes that all the things that came after intern year and turned her into the person she is today don't happen to Izzie as well.
The ambulance rolls in and as they roll their patient off Izzie reads the chart.
" Uterus didelphys, pregnant with twins...holy crap Dr. Montgomery!
She has two uteruses? Uteri? "
" Uhm...uteruses."
" Two uteruses! " Izzie grins, sulk forgotten.
" Welcome back, Stevens."
DEREK'S POV
He's been having a good day. He woke up with his wife this morning, made her breakfast in bed (well, cereal, but for a change there was no snarking. ) ,they drove to work together and he did a perfect craniotomy this morning , and now he is standing on the walkway with Meredith explaining post - op care for his patient in professional teacherly manner. It's even a clear sunny day today, and he and Addie are going to go look at rentals today so they can start work on the house.
So yes, he was having a perfect day, up until the point where he sees a familiar tall , short haired woman saunter up Izzie Stevens , who is talking to a jealous looking Alex Karev, at the main desk.
"Did I hear you say two uteruses?"
" Nancy pants? "
Hey Loser."
He watches Mark hug his sister and say something in her ear. She steps back, puts her hands on his shoulders and looks at him, smiling.
Derek can't help but smile; Mark was always the girls surrogate brother.
"Nancy! "
"Oh my god Addison how are you?" .
He notices that hishis oldest sister clings to his wife a little longer than she normally would have, brushes back her hair and rests a hand on her cheek.
" Where is my idiot little brother anyway?"
" Here." he's at the foot of the stairs now, having dismissed Meredith.
He suffers through the mandatory hug and jibes about how old he's looking , asks about her kids and her husband and her practice.
He can see she's bursting with questions and is momentarily grateful for the crowded hospital lobby they're in.
"Did I hear you say two uteruses ?" she asks Addie , eyes gleaming.
" What? Yeah, two uteruses, double pregnancy. "
" I wanna see the two uteruses! "
Derek and Mark chuckle. Nancy has
always been curious to the point of nosy and interfering.
" Why don't you join me, I'll just go check on a patient upstairs - I don't think she'll deliver anytime soon - meet me in ten minutes?"
" Definitely. That'll give me some time to straighten things out won't it brother dear ?"
And with that , she seized his sleeve and dragged him into the elevator with her.
Shit.
NANCY'S POV
It was great to see Mark again , she reflects , as her brother gets her a cup of coffee in the empty attendings lounge.
He's taking his sweet time with it, she notices , avoiding her inevitable questions as long as possible - a defense mechanism picked up after a lifetime with four overinquisitive sisters and their eerily prescient mother.
Mark is still his philandering immature gloriously hot self, and if the events of the past year have affected him at all ( how could they not ?) , he's not letting on.
Derek is as obstinate and secretive as usual, she'll grill him for all the details, but she doesn't understand what possessed the fool to leave Addie in the first place - that last year in New York he'd been so distant, missing family dinners and treating Addison so horribly their mother had confessed she wanted to slap him upside the head like she would when he was little , bring him to his senses.
She knows that Addie slept with Mark and obviously he has a right to be angry, but come on , it's Mark. Sleeping with Mark is practically a stage in everyone's life.
Actually she's not sure Derek knows about Mark and his sisters, but she won't bust that one out right now. Best save it for later.
It's what happened before that she's interested in - what made him move across the continent, take a new job in Seattle of all places and above all, what gave him the right to have an affair, a full blown affair with an intern and not a midlife crisis , thats what she's here to find out .
Her little brother is having a midlife crisis , so what does that make her? Ugh.
Seeing Addie was the most shocking of all three - she remembers New York Addison, all shiny haired and confident, looking like she fell off a runway at fashion week, but most of all the mischievous sparkle in her eyes, like the ocean under bright midday sun.
She's still gorgeous and hasn't lost the heels but she's different somehow, seems beaten down, thinner and paler and her eyes, it was like looking at a whole different person, so faraway and distant.
And what was with that dress, she's never known Addie to dress like a nun before.
Quite the opposite actually.
He finally gets her the coffee - only so much you can stir it and fiddle with cream and sugar - and sits down resignedly next to her.
"Mom sent you out didn't she. "
" Duh."
" Shoot. " He says , leaning back into the couch.
" Why, Derek?
" She slept with my best friend, Nancy."
" I know, but I'm asking why we're you such a ...jerk, back in New York, that last year? You were always at the hospital even though another surgeon could have taken some of your shifts, you're not the only neurosurgeon.
I mean, you never came to dinners ,it was always just Addie and Mark, whenever one of us turned up at your house you were either both gone or it was Addison there all alone or with Mark , I mean what we're you expecting to happen when you practically abandon your none -too -ugly wife with your manwhore best friend?
I'm not saying what they did was right - it's incredibly sick and screwed up- but Derek she had a one night stand.
You on the other hand came out here and practically proposed to that anemic little girl."
He takes his arm off his eyes, and the look in them is almost too much to bear. The last time he looked so hollow was when Amelia almost killed her stupid self. And when Dad died.
She wants to hug him then , hold him close like she did when he was small enough to get her arms around but that would just get her kicked out so she resists the urge.
" It...was all just top much. The..."
" Miscarriage? " she's the only one in the family who knows, because as an OB she's the one who tested Addie's blood and it was still so early they hadn't told anyone.
They didn't tell anyone after either , Addison ' s WASP stiff upper lip kicked in and she decided she couldn't face the sympathy.
" The miscarriage, and I just felt so useless because Addie was hurting so much but you know how she is, wouldn't show it at all, pretending it was all okay, but I was ...I was falling apart too but she couldn't stand it when I let it show.
She'd cry , in her sleep , in the shower, in her office late at night when she thought I was asleep and I couldn't face putting the weight of my misery on top of hers, so I ...worked.
I worked all the time so I could feel like someone needed me , like could help someone if not my wife, and I abandoned her, and we both wanted to try again for a baby but it was like we only had one chance and we'd blown it already.
That made it even worse, she just ...stopped hoping.
You know how badly she wanted a baby, and overnight she just went cold and indifferent.
It's her coping thing, I think ; when she was little Bizzy used to tell her that tears are for the bedroom and so when Addie can't have something she wants and it's killing her she just blocks it out, shuts herself in and doesn't let anyone get near her, doesn't let anyone help. She'll help you get over your shit but she never faces up to her crap , just buries it and glosses over it like it never happened.
And when I walked in on her and Mark...she never let me comfort her and here she was, all over my best friend, and you know what the worst thing was, I knew.
I always knew this would happen because I saw it even if Mark thinks I never noticed"
his voice cracks and Nancy's heart breaks for him.
" He loves her Nancy, always has. She doesn't know , for some reason she never notices anyone else but me - he smiles disbelievingly- but he's loved her since he met her. Since we met her.
But I asked her out first, and he was like ...her brother or something, like Archer, she joked around with him, she could tell him stuff and she listened to what he had to say and they were great friends, he was like Sav and Naomi to her.
So he kept his distance and he was really good about it but sometimes I'd catch him looking at her like he's watching the sun rise, hold her hand a bit too long, spend a little too much time with her.And I ...I thought that what if he's better for her anyway , what if I don't deserve this gorgeous amazing intelligent woman; it's like mom always says, she's different from us , grew up with houses and boats and trust funds. I couldn't ever believe she chose me, not even at our wedding, but Mark's not different.
He might have been an honorary Shepherd but he's from that world too, he had a childhood just as fucked up as Addie ' s and he gets her on a level that I never have.
So I've always been scared of losing her, and when I walked in on them that day, I thought...I thought I finally had."
Oh Derek, why didn't you tell anyone . Why didn't you tell Addie?
She rubs his arm soothingly, her heart is aching to see him like this, coming undone, so vulnerable
"Why didn't you stay, though? Why didn't you fight?"
" I did fight. I fought for eleven years of our marriage and four years before that but I thought if I couldn't make Addie happy then she deserves to be happy with someone else.
Someone who wouldn't abandon her because they're too scared to get her to face her feelings and pick her up after she's done . I wasn't good enough Nancy,I wasn't good enough, and she deserved better."
" Oh Der.She loves you,so much.
I can see it in her eyes every time she looks at you, we've all seen it since you brought her home for Christmas fifteen years ago - you were in your first year of med school , and oh my god we were sooo excited to finally meet your girl, and in walks this supermodel gorgeous girl in sky high heels and a posh accent and I swear Mom just about died, she thought she'd break your heart for sure .
But then we saw how sweet and warm and funny and genuine she was- remember how she was the only one who could get Amy into her dress and into church that year? - and just a little bit awkward -she was so terrified of Mom she was practically stuttering - and we knew she really loved you when Mom found her upstairs holding you at night on Christmas Eve instead of getting drunk with us downstairs because that's when you miss Dad the most.
That's why she gave you that ring four years later when you told us you were proposing.
She could have gone anywhere in the world that year , Derek, but she chose to come to Queens with you and spend that and every other Christmas with your crazy family.
She could have married a filthy rich thoroughbred and been a trophy wife, but no Derek she chose to be your wife instead.
She could have cheated on you at any time in that year with any number of men but when it happened it was Mark, he was always just there - and everyone sleeps with Mark, its like a requirement or something - Derek when you flew here she followed you , she fought for your marriage while you did your best to push her away and hurt her.
She watched you with that girl but she stayed.
What does that tell you Derek?"
" I'm...an ass?"
"And an idiot too. And a loser and a jerk and and a..."
"Okay enough."
" Fix it Derek. Don't let her go, because of some wrinkle in the fabric of the universe she loves your sorry ass, and I'll never understand why.
Forgive her , and forgive Mark - what the three of you had was rare, friendship and love like that is so rare and life is short and all that jazz, so please Derek stop hurting yourself and Addie, and just start over.
She's the real deal...and also she's my sister so if you hurt her I'll hurt you.
And you're my little brother so I'll have to hurt her too, and you know I won't like that!"
she squeals, ruffling his enviably perfect hair and pulling him into a crushing hug.
" Umpf. Get off, Nancy pants. "
" All good?"
" Better. Thanks , Nance. You're a better shrink than Kathleen. "
" Don't let her hear that please. " she laughs, imagining her sister's shrieking if that ever happened.
"I should call more often, you make me feel better ." he teases tickling her stomach and head butting her like they're kids again.
"Sooo...what will you report back to Mom?"
" I'll tell her you're your old dumb insensitive self who can't see when his wife loves him and that the era of the intern is over. She'll be so relieved, secretly she likes Addie more than us."
Derek snorts "Yeah I can believe that. She called Addie a million times after I left but only now does she dispatch you like a evil little spy to see if still alive."
"Hey."
They sit in companiable silence for a while until Nancy leaps up , remembering the two pregnant uteruses and Addie's promise to meet her.
"I should get going or you wife won't show me her two uteruses"
"That sounds a little weird Nance, try not to say it in public." He hugs her tight and lifts her off her feet a little.
"I wish you'd told me we were coming, we could've planned something."
" That's exactly what Mark said you know, you two are more like each other than you'll ever know."
" Speaking of Mark, what do you mean everyone sleeps with him...oh god Nancy tell me you didn't -"
At the sight of her guilty face his jaw drops open .
"Come on Derek, he's like a really interactive stress buster, and when we came home from med school on breaks we didn't have the luxury of loyal boyfriends following us like Addie came with you - whenever you came home anyway- so you gotta, you know, scratch the itch, and Mark's a really good scratcher. "
" What do you mean , we...Kathleen ? And oh jesus, Lizzie too? I'm going to kill him, if he got anywhere near Amy too I'll torture him first-"
" Oh no ,no , Amy's like his baby sister too, they wouldn't -"
" Shut up Nancy pants, that's what you said about you three and look at you now, using my friend as a dildo."
" Shut up. I'm you big sister , you don't get to butt into my sex life."
"You butt in mine all the time!"
She smirks "You're my baby brother, I get to butt all I want. Anyway I don't think I'll be butting anytime soon, Addie can take care of you, she's grownup ."
And she walks out and leaves him spluttering indignantly to go in search of her sister in law and the two uteruses that are such a great addition to her trip - coming out here just to knock some sense into her little brothers head seemed like a bit of a waste anyway.
Reviewwwwwww plsssssssssss.