Addison opened her eyes in the middle of the night to the sound of sobbing. She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed, giving herself a minute to get her wits about her before getting out of bed. She followed the sound to her daughter's room where she found the little girl sitting up in bed sobbing.

"Honey, what's wrong? Did you see a bad dream?" she whispered as she sat at the edge of her daughter's bed and reached out to take her into her arms.

"Daddy's gone," she cried.

"He's not gone gone. He's just not here right now."

"He's not coming back."

"We don't know that, Aves. We'll see what happens, okay?" she told the little girl, trying to sound hopeful and optimistic for the child's sake. In reality she was anything but hopeful and optimistic. She was sure that her husband would never speak to her again and his lack of interest in checking in on their children had caught her completely off guard. The last year aside, he had been a very present and attentive parent. She'd never thought there'd come a time that he'd purposely avoid his children.

"But he's been gone a really long time."

"I know, honey. I know you miss him. I miss him too. You can try to call him tomorrow, if you want. He doesn't usually answer but you can leave him a message to tell him you miss him, okay?" Maybe he'll call back if he hears that it's his daughter looking for him and not Addison.

Avery nodded, looking up at her mother with tears glistening in her eyes. "If you leave too then we gots no one."

"I'm not leaving," Addison assured her daughter.

"What if you die?"

Inhaling tired, Addison asked, "Where did you even get this idea into your bed, sweetheart?"

"That's what happens in Cinderella. The mom dies and then the dad dies and then Cinderella has to live with that mean lady cause her parents aren't there to take care of her." Se had just watched the movie with her nanny. Cindy had promised her that it was a fairytale and that it wouldn't be scare, but the only part of the whole movie that stuck with Avery was the fact that Cinderella had become an orphan once both her parents were gone. She cried for an hour then watched a kid open boxes of toys on youtube for hours to make herself feel better.

"Honey, I am fine. I'm not dying." she promised her daughter.

"You can't plan dying, Mommy," her daughter told her seriously. "Daddy's dad died cuz a bad guy did something bad to him. Did you know about that?"

"Who told you that?"

"Grandma," she told her mother.

Addison rolled her eyes, "Of course she did," she muttered under her breath. Her mother-in-law was a big fan of telling all the children about their grandfather; and she did not believe in censoring out the gruesome details. "Honey, things like that do happen but it is very rare."

"What does that mean?"

"It means it does not happen often."

"Are you sure?"

Addison nodded, "I am sure, honey. I'm a doctor, it's my job to know these things."

"It is?" Avery asked skeptically.

She gave her daughter a convincing nod.

Avery sniffled. "Okay," she mumbled. "Will you sleep with me?"

Addison nodded, getting under the covers of the full sized bed with her little girl. She kissed her temple and cuddled her close. "I love you, sweetpea," she whispered.

As time went on, Avery became more clingy and Christopher continued to detach from her and spiral into his own world. She has been thrilled to learn that her son had stopped trying to escape school, but with that change came distance, avoidance, and resent.

"I don't know what to do anymore, Sav. These kids are consuming my life." Addison whispered into the phone from the privacy of the en suite bathroom of her bedroom.

"Isn't that what being a mother is?" Savvy asked.

"No, not like this. I was never this overwhelmed before. They were never this difficult before Derek left."

"Well, yeah, they are having a rough time adjusting."

"It's more than that," Addison sighed. "I think Christopher is going through something and I can't figure out what it is? I think he has a girlfriend that might be expecting too much of him or maybe a new group of friends he's trying to fit in with. I don't know but he's not acting like himself. He flinches every time I touch him. Yesterday he screamed at his sister for jumping into his arms. It's weird. That's weird, right?"

"I guess, I don't really know. Aren't all teenage boys weird?" she paused, "Actually, aren't all teenagers weird?"

"And you're the only person still talking to me. I tried to talk to Nancy about this but she's not too thrilled with me at the moment. Mark tries to help but I can't look at him without feeling guilty. I just don't know what to do."

"Have you tried talking to Derek about this? These are his kids, he should know if they are struggling."

"I've called. He won't answer. I have left a few voicemails. Sent him a few emails. Haven't heard back," she sighed. Avery had even called a few days earlier; she had left a long, rambling message about how much she misses him, she caught him up on how things were going with her friends at school and went on and on about how she was excited to hear back from him soon. She never heard back and asked constantly if he had heard her message. She never knew what to say. "I destroyed my life, Sav."

Anyone looking in from the outside would have assumed she had it all. She was married to an attractive neurosurgeon, she had two seemingly perfect children, a girl and a boy, who had somehow turned out to be a perfect blend of both her and Derek. She had a great job, an ideal home, a close knit family, she had it all. No one saw the loneliness and the neglect she felt. She understood why people blamed her for ruining it all, but was having one person in her corner too much to ask for?

"Mommy? You said 5 minutes and the timer went off!" Her daughter called out from the hall, so loudly that she could clearly hear her through two sets of doors.

"I've gotta go. Avery becomes a nervous wreck if I'm gone longer than I said I would be."

She came out of the room to see her daughter waiting outside her bedroom door with the small kitchen timer in her hand. "Honey, I was just in my room."

"But you said five minutes and I put 5 on this thingy and it rang so five minutes is done."

"Avery, honey, I'm just in my room. You don't have to worry if I stay in there a little longer. I'm still home with you."

The little girl shook her head. "But you're not with me," she said in a whiney voice as she clung to her mother.

Chris sat on after school with his cell phone in his hand, eagerly awaiting to be picked up. He was so distracted by watching the cars in the pick up lane that he didn't notice his best friend sit down beside him.

"Who's picking you up today?" he asked.

Chris seemed a little startled by the voice until he noticed it was his friend. "I'm not sure. My mom hasn't texted me anything and my nanny won't answer her phone."

"What about your dad?" Andrew asked him.

Chris shrugged, "Last week my aunt accidently told me that my dad moved away. He's in Seattle. My mom doesn't know. So yeah, long story short, I doubt my dad is picking me up today." His phone buzzed in his hand and he saw a text message from his mom.

Sorry, just got out of surgery. Running late. Need to talk to the family then I'll come get you. It'll be about half an hour.

"Who's that?"

"It's my mom, she said she'll be here in half an hour."

Andrew nodded, "Great! I'm here about that long too. My mom's facial appointment got pushed back so she told me she's gonna be late. Glad neither of us has to be alone."

Facial got pushed back. Sometimes he wished it was trivial things like that that kept his mother so occupied so he could actually be mad at her for not giving him more attention. But it's hard to be mad at your mom for being late for school pick up when her delay was caused by saving an ill infant or woman from possible death.

Regardless, Christopher was certainly glad that his best friend's mother was also running late, he did not want to be caught on campus alone.

"Though I'm sure that Ms. Jenkins would keep you company until your mom picked you up," Andrew said teasingly, unknowingly sending a shiver down Chris' spine. "Did she spend lunch with you?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh come one! I wish she wanted to spend that much time with me. Did you see how low cut her shirt was today? I caught myself drooling twice during her class."

"I'm not feeling well so I didn't pay attention," Chris replied, hoping to end the conversation.

"Oh, what's wrong?"

"You can't tell anyone, okay?" Chris waited until his friend agreed before continuing, "It burns when I pee."

Andrew quirked his brows. "That's gross, Dude."

"I know."

"Maybe you can just google it and then seal a prescription from your mom's briefcase and write one for yourself. You're pretty good with forging her signature, might as well put that skill to use."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, that's a good idea because I really don't want to tell her. If she asks me questions I wouldn't even know how to explain or what to say."

Andrew cringed. "I'd rather have burning pee for the rest of my life over talking to my mom about how my dick burns."

Chris looked down at his phone, a feeling of shame coursing through his body, "Yeah, same," he agreed quietly.

Come Thursday morning, Addison felt like her head was going to implode. She stood in the hallway, expecting commotion from two uniformed children but the house was dead silent.

"Avery, Christopher, let's go! We're gonna be late!"

When neither made a sound, Addison knocked on her son's door and went in to find him in bed.

"Are you kidding me, Christopher?! Get up! I can't be late for work!"

"I don't feel good," he told his mother.

Addison sighed tiredly. She could not take a day off to stay home with a sick child. She placed the back of her hand against his forehead, then turned her hand to cup his cheek. "You have a fever," she said softly. "What do you feel?"

"My belly kind of hurts."

"Anything else? Nausea? Pain while urinating or defecating?"

Her son stared blankly at her. "I'm not answering that."

"Okay, I can make an appointment with your pediatrician if you'd prefer to tell her," Addison replied, trying to muster every ounce of patience within her to appear sympathetic and concerned instead of annoyed and exhausted.

"No, I don't want to tell anyone. I want to stay home and sleep it off."

"It could be appendicitis or a kidney infection or a UTI. You can't sleep that off. You need to see a doctor."

Christopher shook his head, "No, Mom, please. I don't want to see anyone. I don't want anyone to know."

"Know what?" His mother asked, looking at him confused. "Chris, honey, if something is going on, you can tell me. Please, tell me, I'm going crazy trying to figure it out. I have enough on my plate without the added stress of constantly worrying about what's going on with you," she all but begged.

Chris stared at his mother. For a split second it seemed like he was actually willing to confide in his mother. His mouth opened but the words that came out were, "It's nothing, I just need to sleep it off."

Addison sighed and left the room to check on her daughter, who was wide awake but still in her pajamas playing with Barbie dolls. "Avery, what are you doing? You need to be dressed for school."

"I wanna stay with you."

"No, we can't do that, Aves. You have school and I have work. I will see you when I get home from work."

"No! You can't leave me!"

"I'm not leaving you. I will be at work and then I'll come straight home to have dinner with you, okay? Nothing is going to happen."

"No!"

"Avery, seriously, I have a very busy day today. I don't have time for this. Get dressed."

Avery ran toward her mother and clung to her legs. "Please don't leave me," she begged her mother, looking up at her with wide eyes.

"Honey, I have two scheduled c sections, two inductions, a surgical biopsy, three in active labor, a hysterectomy and a bowel resection on a premie. I have to go to work today."

Avery continued staring up at her, not knowing what anything her mother listed meant. "You can't leave me," she told her seriously, making it clear that it was not an option.

She ended up calling into work, transferring her cases and staying home with her children.

At the end of the day, Addison climbed into bed in exhaustion, her five year old was already sound asleep on what used to be Derek's side. She glanced down at her phone to see a voice message waiting for her. She held the phone to her ear to hear a voice she hadn't heard from in well over a year. Richard Webber.

"Hi Addison, it's Richard Webber. I've got a case I just admitted that I think might interest you. I'd love to have you fly out and consult. I'll take care of all the arrangements, just give me a call back and we can discuss details. But before you decide, I just want to let you know that Derek has accepted a staff position at the same facility so you will see him if you decide to come out. I don't know what's going on between you two but I don't want to add fuel to the fire. Anyway, let me know what you decide."

She set her phone down on the nightstand and leaned back into her pillow. Her husband had left her and their children and had moved clear across the country. He had accepted a full time position at another hospital. At that moment it became clear to Addison that her husband had no intention to come back.

Happy 2022! Please review! (You have to because that rhymes)