Addison

"I know Everett's only one and won't remember but I'm glad you decided to throw him a birthday party anyway. I haven't been back here since the housewarming and your place is amazing."

"Oh, so you don't like my house Maggie?"

"Your house versus Addison's…? I'm going to have to go with the ladder," she grins, "I mean, have you seen the views of this place?"

"Yeah, you can see Lake Union over there, the Olympic Mountains over there and the freaking Puget Sound!" Amelia exclaims.

Meredith shakes her head at her, "You're lucky you've moved out already because I'd kick you out. As for you Maggie, you better start looking for somewhere to live."

"Addison, you heard that right?" she looks at me with a slight grin.

I shake my head at them, "Fine, if Meredith actually kicks you, which I doubt, you can move in here."

"Thank you," Maggie looks from me to Meredith, "Alright, Mer, I'm moving out."

Everyone erupts in laughter before Maggie speaks up again, "I mean, come on, who could resist a rooftop terrace."

"And there's a hot tub… on the roof," Amelia exclaims, "How much did you pay for this? You know what, if I have to ask it means I can't afford it so nevermind."

"You guys are hilarious," I laugh but she's right. She can't afford it… The property sold at fifteen million.

I shake my head at the younger woman before speaking up again, "I only bought it because it reminds me of my old brownstone in Manhattan…"

"Now that I think about it, this is very New York of you Addison," Amelia smirks.

I roll my eyes at her but before I can come back at her with something witty, Dr. Riggs walks out onto the terrace and over to Maggie giving her a long, deep kiss. It falls silent for a second as he whispers something in her ear and walks away. By the time Maggie turns back to us, we're all staring up at her confused.

"What the hell was that?" Amelia, the only one bold enough to say anything, asked.

Maggie just giggled, "Well, I wanted to be able to actually tell you guys but… as you can see… Nathan and I are dating."

"Wow, congrats. I didn't even know you were interested in him," I said.

Meredith rolls her eyes, "Oh, he's all she's had to talk about all summer."

"Mer…"

"What? It took all the way until the end of September for you to ask him out," she said, shaking her head.

Amelia scoffs, "Nobody tells me these things anymore… I shouldn't have moved out."

"Ladies!" Callie exclaims walking out on the terrace, "Okay, so, the guys are down in the theater and they have a special presentation for us…"

"Um… Er?" Amelia says confused.

Callie laughs, "Just know there was a lot of drinking involved and Double Trouble dared them to perform for everyone."

"Oh, gosh…" Meredith grins, "If Zola and Sofia are making them do this… I'm pretty sure there's going to be lots of glitter, tutus and tiaras."

We make our way into the house and downstairs to the theater where Miranda and Arizona are sitting with the kids. I notice Tuck sitting in the back row on his phone and that Sofia and Zola are missing. I'm assuming they're helping the guys get ready 'backstage'. Once we're all seated, Everett waddles up to me. I still can't fathom the fact that my little boy is walking… These kids are growing up way too fast for me… The lights dim and Callie obnoxiously clears her throat to get everyone's attention as Zola and Sofia walk out to the front of the room.

"Thank you all for coming out," Sofia starts.

Zola laughs, "They were already here…"

"Yeah, but they didn't have to come to the performance…"

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Okay, well, um, this is the story of The Dragon Princess," Sofia says.

Zola nods, "Our story begins a long time ago in a castle in this wonderful place called ZoSoLand."

Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll starts playing quietly through the speakers as Callie and Arizona walk out with a huge blanket to the middle of the room. Once revealed, we see Owen dressed up as a Princess… make up, tutu, tiara and all. Amelia immediately pulls out her phone to get pictures as the music fades to silence.

Sofia starts the narration, "This is the story of Millie. She is a magical princess who happens to keep turning into a… dragon!"

Owen opens up his arms and reveals his dragon wings then starts to flap around the room. Camera flashes go off around the room and I notice just about everyone is filming or taking pictures. I can't even keep my laughter together as the story continues on.

Zola speaks up this time, "Millie just wanted to be a regular princess and struggled with the fact that she is a dragon… so she tries in every way possible to rid herself of the curse."

"When Millie can't seem to get rid of her curse with her own magic, she and three friends…" Sofia pauses as Nathan, dressed as what I'm assuming is a troll with little green ears and hairs, Ben, dressed as, maybe, a vampire wrapped in a black sheet and face caked in baby powder, and Alex, dressed as a prince with a crown on his head and a sword in his sleeve, walk into the room, "one vampire, one troll and her cousin, the prince, set off for Pointe North to seek out the Blue Witch for help."

"During their journey to Pointe North, the group of friends battle some really scary bears and one-eyed monsters," Zola continues on as the men start to act out her words, "They had to fight their way through dungeons and save imprisoned dragons… And the biggest threat of all happened right outside the gates of Pointe North."

"There was a giant gremlin guarding the gates! But together as a group, they were able to sneak past the gremlin guard and make their way into the kingdom of Pointe North where, finally, they meet the Blue Witch!" Sofia exclaims as Richard runs into the room.

It makes all the kids and adults giggle but I think we were laughing more at the fact that Richard Webber was dressed as basically a blue fairy… He had on a blue tutu, a witch's hat and blue fairy wings that I'm pretty sure was Peggy's halloween costume last year…

"The Blue Witch, despite all of her magic powers, couldn't rid the princess of her curse," Zola says sadly, "instead she told Millie this: think of your powers not as a curse but as a gift."

"With that, Millie realized that she loved herself just the way she was," says Sofia.

Zola nods, "And having gained control of her dragon magic, Millie flew her friends home and they all lived happily ever after."

"The End," they both say together as the audience stands up in applause.

By the end of the night my kids were so wiped out, which I should probably thank Sofia and Zola for keeping them entertained the entire night, that they went to bed easy. Everyone had already left except Meredith and her kids… they would've been gone thirty minutes ago if Zola hadn't insisted that she'd stay and help me get the girls and Everett tucked into bed.

The two of us make our way back downstairs after saying goodnight to Henry and we meet Meredith at the door. I smile and hug the little girl, "Thanks for all your help tonight, ZoZo. You were amazing, as always."

"I don't want to go…" she pouts reaching up to me, "Can I stay here with you, Mommy?"

"Zola…" Meredith starts but I cave and pick her up anyway.

I smile softly over to Meredith letting her know it's okay before turning back to the little girl in my arms, "Zo… sweetie, you don't have any clean clothes for tomorrow nor do you have any pjs…"

"But you promised that we'd have a tea party…" she pouts crossing her arms.

I smile shaking my head at how adamant the little girl is before speaking up again, "Okay, how about this? You go home with your mama tonight and then maybe tomorrow morning, we can have tea and biscuits, you know like the Queen of England… I'll even let you do my make-up."

"Okay!" she says as her eyes light up in excitement, "Can we dress up like princesses? And maybe we can invite Sofia and the twins?"

"Well, you have to ask your and Sofia's mommies first but that doesn't sound like a bad idea to me," I smile.

She claps then hugs me before I let her down on the floor, "Thanks, Mommy. See you at the Royal Tea!"

"See you tomorrow, ZoZo," I say then I look up to Meredith who's holding a sleeping Ellis and I smile, "Well, uh, I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"So sorry about that, Addison…"

"No, it's fine… I mean, I did promise her a tea party for all the help today," I shrug.

Meredith grins for a second then it quickly disappears, "Well, um, see you guys in the morning."

"Yeah," I nod as they finally make their way out the door.

Saturday morning came a little too fast for me… By the time I woke up, it was already nine a.m. and Everett was fussy. I knew it would be another hour before we made it out of the house and that was without breakfast… Scooping up Everett and making my way downstairs to the kitchen, I pull out my cell phone dialing Meredith's number.

"Hello," her voice calls out from the other end of the phone.

I clear my throat, "Hey, Meredith… It's Addison… I was calling because, well, we are having a late start to the morning and uh… okay, I can't even lie. I woke up late and I haven't even made the kids breakfast and…"

"Addison," she cuts me off, "Breathe…"

"Sorry," I sigh as I grab a bottle out of the fridge and stick it into the microwave.

Meredith laughs, "Look, I'm making breakfast right now. If it'll make your life any easier, I could cook for everyone."

"But Mommy makes better breakfast!" I hear Zola scream in the background.

I laugh and Meredith laughs too, "Okay, never mind…"

"That would be great, Meredith," I smile relieved grabbing his bottle from the microwave, "Well, um, we'll be there hopefully within the hour."

"No rush, Sofia is already here so she'll keep Zola entertained," she says.

In the background I can hear Zola protest and I just smile to myself. Quickly, I thank Meredith and hang up the phone before heading back upstairs to wake the kids. When I walk into Henry's room, I see that he's already awake. He's sitting in his bed reading yet another Magic Treehouse book. He's been reading them all summer. So far there are fifty-five books and he is on number twenty-six.

I put Everett down on the ground and he runs off out of the room as I make my way over to Henry, "Hey, sweetie. What are Jack and Annie up to this time?"

"Good morning, Mommy. Jack and Annie are in Africa and they met some giant gorillas! They're trying to teach Jack some special magic," he says with a huge grin.

I hope he never loses his love for reading. I give him a kiss on the forehead before getting up again, "That sounds awesome. You have to let me know how it ends… but in the meantime, baby, do you think you could give yourself a bath this morning while I help your brother and sisters get ready?"

"Yeah!" he says closing his book and jumping up from the bed, "Where are we going?"

"To Meredith's for breakfast," I say as he walks into the joint bathroom, "Do you need help running the bath water?"

"Nah, I got it Mommy."

"Okay, big guy. Thank you for helping me out this morning."

"No problem," he grins and I walk out of the room content.

I sigh before entering the twins bedroom because if I know one thing for sure is that my girls are not morning people… Much to my surprise, they woke up easily this morning without any fuss. I'm not sure if it was because they were excited to go to the tea party or what but somehow we ended up out of the house and on the way to Meredith's still within the hour.

"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!" Zola yells as we walk through the door.

Henry grins, "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!"

"What's rabbit, rabbit, rabbit?" I ask confused looking up to an equally confused Meredith.

She shrugs as Zola laughs and starts to explain, "It means 'good luck'! You're supposed to say it on the first of every month!"

"Oh, well, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit to you too," I said with a small smile before looking over to Meredith in the kitchen, "Can you believe it's October already? This year just flew by."

"Right?" she agreed as she pulls some biscuits out of the oven, "Zola's already picked out her Halloween costume. Apparently, she and Sofia wanted to be the pink and yellow power rangers this year. I didn't even know they knew what the power rangers were! They came out when I was nineteen!"

"There's a bunch of remakes… Henry used to watch it all the time," I say walking into the kitchen.

Henry comes running in after me, "Mommy, I wanna be the red ranger for Halloween! Zola is going to be the pink ranger, Sofia's gonna be the yellow one and Bailey said he wanted to be the black one!"

"Oh wow! That's just about the whole team!" I smile down at him ruffling his hair before he makes his way back to the kids. I turn to Meredith with a shrug, "So I guess Henry is going to be a power ranger this year too."

"You know, I could've probably told you that was going to happen… Zola has this super power of persuasion… A couple of times, she got Derek to dress up in a tutu and tights," she chuckles.

I just smile and nod. I know Derek has been gone for a while but still the dead husbands thing is still quite new for me. I guess Meredith noticed my uncomfortableness because she quickly changes the subject.

"So, breakfast is ready. I'll start setting the table. Could you get the kids washed up?"

"Yeah, no problem," I say making my way out of the kitchen.

Within a couple of minutes, we're all seated at Meredith's kitchen table eating breakfast. It only took a few minutes after we finished eating for Zola and Sofia to set up for the tea party. I didn't even see it happen but by the time the twins and I sat down, we were all dressed up in boas, tiaras and tutus. Zola and Sofia both did our makeup and I don't even look in the mirror but I'm almost positive I look like a clown. It's cute when kids do it but not grown women…

Meredith insisted that we take a photo and she couldn't hold back her laughter the whole time taking it. She lucked out by offering to play Dungeons and Dragons with the boys. Some kids at Henry's school played it with him once and he asked me to get it for him. I'm not into all that stuff but I tried to play along with him however he said I was boring… Meredith seemed a lot more enthusiastic about it so maybe she'll have better luck.

About an hour later, the twins are asleep upstairs in Bailey's room along with Ellis and Everett. The doorbell rings and Meredith asks if I can get it. It's her move in the game. Making my way to the door, I almost forgot how ridiculous I looked until I see my best friend staring back at me clearly amused.

"I take it you let Zola and Sofia do your make-up today," she grins at me.

I start to take off my tiara when I realized I didn't really care. I just shrug, "I'm a sucker for tea parties…"

"Don't let me interrupt," she chuckles making her way through the door.

I close the door behind her and follow her into the living room, "Actually, our royal tea has has come to an end and now we're watching The Princess Diaries."

"Nice…" she says with a shake of her head, "I actually came by because a friend of mine is taking her kids to Enchanted Village and I wanted to know if the little ones wanted to go."

"Did you say Enchanted Village?" Zola squeals.

Sofia starts to jump up and down with Zola and I turn back to Callie shaking my head, "Well, that looks like a yes to me. I'll go see if Henry and Bailey want to go. I'm sure it'll be okay with Meredith."

"You guys might want to go change. You're overdressed for an amusement park. Other kids will be jealous of how fancy you look," Callie tells the girls.

Zola nods to Sofia, "She's right! Come on, let's go to my room!"

"Hey, Meredith," I say walking into the kitchen. It's quiet and the air is intense, "Oh, sorry."

"The two of you begin to move north slowly, the mud sucking at your boots from below the waterline. The water is about one to two feet deep; Bailey, you try to determine the quality of the house from where you are. Make a perception check," Meredith says before turning to me, "Hey, what's up?"

"Um, well, Callie's here and she was wondering if the boys wanted to go the Enchanted Village."

"Yeah, for sure," Bailey says.

Henry nods, "Yeah, we can go. We'll finish the campaign later."

"Okay," Meredith nods, "Go get on your shoes, Bailey."

"Okay," he says running off with Henry following closely behind.

Meredith turns around to me with an awkward smile, "Sorry for that."

"For what?" I ask confused and she pulls out her phone showing me a picture of how ridiculous I look. I can't help but laugh then I shrug, "You know, it's okay. Henry doesn't really care for tea parties and the twins aren't really old enough to be into that stuff on her their own. So I don't really get to do this… and I love it. I mean, I'm happy to be invited over for imaginary tea… anytime, really."

"Zola would love that… she loves spending time with you Addison," she smiles but it disappears as quickly as it came.

The boys come running down the stairs and Bailey shouts, "We're ready!"

"Awesome, let's go see if the girls are ready," I say as they follow me back into the foyer where the girls are waiting with Callie.

Meredith and Callie exchange greetings before she heads out with the kids. I turn back to Meredith and I feel an awkward silence coming on. We always have our kids as a buffer between us and except for the sleeping kids upstairs, we were pretty much alone.

Breaking the silence, Meredith speaks up, "Well, uh, did you want to wait here for the kids to get back? Or at least until the little ones wake up? I know how grumpy Ellis gets when I wake her prematurely… And I could make mimosas?"

"You had me at mimosas," I say in response.

We're about four mimosas and forty minutes deep into The Princess Diaries 2 when Meredith looks over to me, "Addison, I just wanted to apologize…"

"You do a lot of apologizing, Meredith Grey."

"I'm serious this time…"

"Okay," I say sitting up a little and looking towards her, "What's up?"

"That night… at Amelia's wedding," she said hesitantly, "I'm sorry. My recollection of that night has very vivid images of me getting you drunk and taking advantage of you."

"Oh," I start to chuckle, "Wow."

"This is so not funny. I'm serious," she says losing her straight face as she starts to giggle.

I shake my head, "I remember that night too and… you didn't take advantage of me. We were both drunk and if anyone is to blame, it's the bartender."

This makes her laugh as she finally starts to relax a little. I shake my head turning back to the movie… When I first met Meredith eleven years ago, I would've laughed in their face if anyone told me that Meredith and I would become anything more than coworkers… but today, I would even go as far as sort of calling Meredith my friend. I don't know when it happened or how but it did. And you know what? I'm not mad about it.