TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of sexual assault of a minor

Seeing Addison sitting in the cafeteria alone, Derek navigated over and put his tray down on her table, taking a seat without asking if she would mind. She looked up from her salad, seemingly confused by his decision to sit with her. They had run into one another briefly when she first arrived the previous night. There was a very brief, very hostile conversation and they had been avoiding one another since then.

"Derek?" she looked at him expectantly.

"What are you doing here, Addison?"

"I told you, I'm here for a case. Richard called and asked me to come out."

"And you just dropped everything and flew across the country for a case?"

"No, I didn't drop everything. I'm not you. I made arrangements for all my patients and I have someone staying with the kids. I just honestly needed to take a step back and gather myself so I took the case."

"What about Mark? Who is babysitting him for you while you're out here?"

"I'm not with Mark. It was one time," she told him tiredly, hoping to avoid having to rehash the topic. "I haven't really spoken to him since you left but I heard he's dating a peds nurse and she seems very taken with him so I guess it's going well. You're dating someone new too. I guess both of you have moved on and I'm the one stuck in a runt trying to pick up the pieces of my life. She seems sweet, by the way. Meredith Grey, right? You must have been going an Anti-Addison vibe."

"I don't want to talk to you about her."

"Fine," she shrugged. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to know what you're doing here."

"I already told you. I'm here for a case."

"When do you leave?"

"Tonight."

"Okay," he got up, reaching to pick up his tray.

Before she could stop herself, she asked, "Was that it?" before he could walk away.

He turned back, wondering how she could have the audacity to except more from him. "What more do you want?" he asked.

"You're not even going to ask me about the kids?"

"What's there to ask?"

"I don't know, Derek, they are your children and you haven't seen or spoken to them in two months. You do still care for them, at least on some level, I assume. Showing some interest in their wellbeing would be nice. Unless you're not interested, in which case, you could just tell me so I can break that news to them..." she rambled nervously. Maybe if she kept talking, she wouldn't have to hear his answer and face the consequences that came with it.

"Is there something you want to tell me about them?"

"There is a lot I could tell you about them," Addison retorted. "It just depends on how much of it you care to hear."

Derek sighed and sank back down into the chair, "You're right. They are my kids and I should have asked. How are the kids doing?"

"They're not doing well," Addison told him honestly. "Chris has stopped trying to bust out of school, but he's only become more angry and resentful. I don't know what's going on with him and he won't talk to me about it because he's angry with me about what happened with Mark." She went on to explain how their daughter had developed severe anxiety of abandonment. "She's clingy and whiny and she times me while I'm in the bathroom so that I'm not gone too long. She's started sleeping in my bed because she's afraid of being alone. She's just an anxious mess, that one."

"Perhaps you should have considered your children before you jumped into bed with Mark," Derek told her casually.

"Perhaps you should have considered your children before moving across the country," she shot back.

"This has nothing to do with me."

"Our daughter thinks you abandoned her and she's afraid that if I die, she'll be an orphan. How does that have nothing to do with you? A five year old spends her entire day thinking of ways her mother could unexpectedly die."

"Maybe if her mother didn't spread her legs for any man that asked, she would have a father around and she wouldn't have to battle those thoughts."

"First of all, I did not sleep with every man that asked. It was one time. Second, her anxiety has certainly gotten worse since you left, but it started while you were still at home but never around," she told him, keeping her voice calm even though her heart was pounding in her chest from the anger building up. "Third, I'm doing the best that I can. I am exhausted, Derek. I am tearing myself in half to try to keep up with work and the kids and it's only getting harder and harder because their mental health is rapidly declining. It's hard to watch as a mother and I'm honestly at my wit's end on how to help them."

"Have you tried therapy?"

She nodded, "Avery starts next week. Christopher refuses to talk to anyone about anything."

"I can't believe you did this, Addison," he sighed, leaning back in his hair, his hands moving to his face to rub his eyes tiredly. "You lit our lives on fire. If you were so lonely, you could have just filed for divorce. I can't even begin to explain how I feel."

"Look, I know you're mad at me and that's fine. I'm even okay with you hating me, I can learn to live with that. But these are your kids. You can't ignore them forever. Just call them and talk to them once in a while, show them you still care even if you're not around."

"I can't deal with their problems right now. I'm trying to get my own life figured out. I am trying to pick up the pieces."

"Derek, you're their father. Their needs always come before yours. Look, it's your call. Call them or don't, it's up to you. And when you have a chance to review and sign the papers, mail them over and I'll file them. The balls in your court, Derek. Let's just figure out how to move on without harming our kids anymore than we already have."

Standing in the back of an elevator, Derek was eagerly awaiting his day to be over. He had just about had enough of the glares and the questions about his wife and their marriage. He was overhearing whispers of gossip from every clique he passed by. He just needed his day to end so he could drown a couple of glasses of scotch and go to sleep.

"So, you're married?" Bailey mumbled and he looked at her, realizing they're alone. "I like her, she seems very put together and intelligent. She's also very kind, it's hard to dislike an attending that actually shows some damn matters."

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"The question is, why does a woman like her marry a moron like you."

"Excuse me? I'm a neurosurgeon."

"This has nothing to do with your education or your training. It has everything to do with the fact that you two just don't seem alike enough to have been married. How long were you together?"

"Together 16 years. Married for 13."

"That's a really long time to spend with someone as grumpy as you."

"I'm not grumpy."

Bailey laughed. "Yeah, that face is very convincing."

"I wasn't always like this. I used to be a good husband and a decent father. Then she lit our marriage on fire by sleeping with my best friend and now I'm constantly battling the pain from that stab wound they left when they shoved a knife into my back."

"Oh," Bailey frowned. "You're a father? You have children?"

"Yeah, two of them."

"And you just left them and came here?"

"I needed to get away."

"Are you in touch with them?" Bailey asked. "How old are they?"

"They are 13 and 5. A boy and a girl. And no, I haven't spoken to them since I left. I couldn't bring myself to make contact."

"You are even stupider than I thought you were."

"What?" Derek asked, looking highly offended.

"You have two kids who need love and attention from their father and you avoid them?"

"I didn't want to deal with their mother and they are so much like their mother that it was just easier to avoid the trigger," Derek admitted.

Bailey shook her head disapprovingly. "They're your children. They are half their mother, but they are also half you and there is no excuse in the world for you to avoid them because you are not a strong enough person to face your wife. You're here chasing an intern for attention, meanwhile you're ignoring the fact that you've got an entire white picket fence life that you deserted."

"I left because Addison cheated. Why are you conveniently leaving that part out?"

Bailey looked at him, no sympathy or tolerance visible in her demeanor. "I don't know Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd's side of the story, but I'm sure she has one. It's wrong of her to cheat, there is no excuse for that, but it seems like she's taking ownership for her actions and providing stability for her children while you're here chasing Meredith Grey. You dragged that poor girl into this mess with you and you didn't even have the decency to tell her you were married."

"I was going to…"

"You're weak, Dr. Shepherd. You can't face your wife, you can't face your girlfriend, and you can't face your children."

"I'm an attending, you are a resident. Why are we having this conversation?"

"Because you got my intern involved in your mess and I can't have her distracted. If I see you so much as looking at her, I will take you down myself. Is that clear?" Bailey told him firmly. "And for god sakes, call your kids! Stop making yourself the victim."

Derek walked out of the main entrance of the hospital to head to his car. Just ask he walked out, he spotted his estranged wife sitting on a bench outside with a briefcase beside her and her cell phone in her hands. He stopped beside the bench on his way to his car and said, "I thought you said you would be leaving tonight."

"I am. I'm just waiting on a cab to take me to the airport. I was going to try to find you to say bye but I decided against it. Didn't think you'd care, and I half expected you to have left to spend time with your girlfriend," she told him honestly. It was hard not to feel a sense of jealously over the idea that her husband of 13 years made time and an effort to spend time with someone barely knew after he had stopped doing the same for her and their children. She shoved the thought aside, determined to be amicable and asked, "Did you have a chance to sign those papers?"

"No, I've been busy."

She nodded, "Of course you have."

He was about to retort when he saw Mark's name flash onto the screen of his wife's phone and he felt his blood boil. "Oh, so your one night stand calls you now?"

"He is also a friend and he was going to spend the day with Chris to keep him busy," Addison replied as she answered the call.

Derek couldn't hear what was being said on the other line but he did watch the color drain from Addison's face as seconds ticked by. His brows came together questioningly, "What's wrong?" he asked, not even waiting for her to hang up to pose the question.

"I'm headed over to the airport, I will see if I can get an earlier flight and I'll meet you at the hospital as soon as I can," she said into the phone with her voice barely loud enough for anyone to hear.

"The hospital?" Derek asked, half to himself and half to Addison who was occupied with ending her call. Once she hung up he looked at her in complete confusion. "What was that about?"

"It was about Chris," she whispered.

"What about Chris?"

She struggled to take a breath and form coherent thoughts. The only word that came out of her mouth was, "Can't..."

"You can't what, Addison?!" he snapped impatiently.

"I can't believe I didn't see it. It was right in front of my face the whole time."

"What are you talking about?"

She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his as she struggled to form the words to explain the news she had just learned. She could see his impatience brewing with every second she took to process the thoughts rushing through her brain.

"Addison," he prompted impatiently when she said nothing.

After a few more seconds to compose her thought, Addison said, "That was Mark. He uh, picked Chris up from school today and Chris was really grumpy and upset. Mark wanted to cheer him up so he took him bowling and at some point Chris told him that he had been having penile discharge. He was scared that it might be an STD because he's been…"

Derek looked at her, urging her to go on when she stopped mid sentence. When she didn't, he tried to finish her statement, "Because he's been having sex?"

She nodded her head. "With his teacher," she added.

Derek's jaw dropped and he took up the empty space on the bench beside Addison. He imagined that the rush of thoughts navigating his brain were the same ones that Addison had been struggling to process while he was impatiently prodding her for answers.

"It was so obvious. I don't know how I missed this. He's been trying to jump the fence during recess, that's when she was supposed to be supervising him. And her class is the period right after recess. His grade in math went from an A to a D- and he's been trying to avoid school for months. He jumps or cringes anytime I touch him and he hasn't been able to look me in the eyes lately. I found lipstick on his collar and assumed it was a girlfriend. Mark told me he smells like a woman's perfume and I didn't think anything of it. A few days ago he described what I thought must be a UTI but he refused to see a doctor and I just let it slide. But it clearly got worse given the discharge now…" she took a deep breath and looked up at Derek. "He's been so angry with me and I thought it was because of the affair but now I realize it's because I was supposed to protect him and I wasn't. I was missing all the signs."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, both of them trying to process the news they had just received about their son. After a while, Derek cleared his throat and said, "Let me drive you to the airport. Let's not waste any time out here waiting on a cab."

He ended up driving her to the airport. Instead of driving into the arrival and departure parking structure, he drove into the overnight structure and parked his car. He bought them two tickets on the next flight, leaving just one hour from that moment. They barely had time to pass TSA and get to the terminal. They were the last two to boarded the plane. Neither of them spoke a word to one another during the whole process as the chaos provided momentary distraction from their reality.

It wasn't until the plane was pulling away from the gate that Addison looked at him and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Where else would I be?"

That hiatus was a lot longer than I intended. Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Be sure to review to keep the momentum going!