The Masquerade Ball

Freedom

The rest of the day was long and gruelling with little time for coffee or food breaks. my feet were sore from standing around in the OR all day and my neck was cramped from looking down.

Just like we had planned earlier Jaz was standing at the front of the hospital waiting with Amelia by her side.

"hey how was you day" they asked I approached them

"long and gruelling" I say with a sigh "everyone seemed to want to die"

"Well we better get home and relax then" Amelia chirped smiling as she gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze.

I look at her confused as she looks back at me and laughs "oh ya" she says "I'm staying at your house tonight"

"Okay" I say with a laugh let's go"

The car ride to Jaz's hotel is quiet. We are all tired from our long shift and nobody is in the mood for making conversation. When we arrived she jumped out quickly while me and Amelia tried to find parking and by the time we had found a space she was back, suitcase in tow.

*****************************

As we settled on the coach to watch a movie my phone started ringing. Amelia gave me a knowing look and paused the movie while I stepped outside the sliding door to answer the phone.

"Mer please, you can't leave me, I'm-I'm your McDreamy" he said as soon as I answered the phone. My features went cold. I probably should have checked the caller ID before getting my hopes up.

"I can't trust you anymore Derek" I said through gritted teeth. The harsh truth is that this wasn't the first time he has cheated on me. There were many, many women in the past. It always made me feel so damn inferior.

"Honey Bee don't say that you can trust me I promise" he used the nickname he thought I loved but whenever he said it I had to choke back the vomit.

"Derek, don't lie. I know about all those other women. The extended trips to DC and missed phone calls gave it away"

"I'm not cheating on you mer"

"Yes you are. Don't lie to me"

"Please honey bee give me another chance"

"I can't"

"Why?"

"Because"

"Because what?"

"Because I never loved you" I said as tears pricked my eyes. All those years ago I had a choice and I picked wrong. I went with what I thought was the safe option, the one that would never hurt me, the one that I knew for definite loved me back.

"W-what?" he mumbled

"I loved someone else but I was too scared to tell her" I admitted as tears pricked my eyes thinking about her in all her long legged, red headed glory. Addison Adrianne Forbes Montgomery.

"You disgusting bitch!. I let you sleep with me and you like women!" he exclaimed, slamming his fist on the hard wood table that must have been in the room with him. I knew that if I was in that room it would have been me.

He had done it before once because I dropped his favourite glass (by accident) causing it to shatter everywhere and once because I told him I was too tired for sex.

"I will send you the divorce papers to sign as soon as I have them," I said on the verge of tears. The sliding door opened and I quickly brushed them away.

"Hey are you okay" Jaz whispered

"He's being an ass isn't he" Amelia asked concern lacing her tone

"You stupid filthy whore" Derek yelled through the phone and I shut my eyes as he threw something glass at the wall causing it to shatter and me to flinch. Tears spilled down my cheeks and my breathing got heavier.

Amelia grabbed the phone off of me shouting all kinds of profanities at her brother "if you ever fucking call her that again you will have me to deal with Derek and I may be younger and smaller than you but I will kick your ass!" she shouted, gritting her teeth and her face growing red with anger.

Jaz then grabbed the phone off of Amelia in attempts to say her piece "listen here you mcbastard, I don't know you but I swear to god if you ever hurt her, harass her or be homophobic in any way towards her, your gonna have my raging lesbian ass to deal with. I grew up fighting with my cousins who were older than me and more muscular but yet I won every fight don't underestimate me or any of mers family. We aren't scared of you" she concluded, also going red in the face with anger.

"You're all a bunch of-" he got cut off as Jaz hung up the phone.

"There was no way in hell he was getting the last laugh" she said as she handed me back my phone.

Amelia wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug and was soon followed by Jaz. They didn't let go of me until they were sure I was done crying.

As the months passed me and Jaz grew closer getting to know each other more and more everyday. Turns out her childhood wasn't exactly pixies and unicorns but I admired how she came out the other side of it strong and independent.

As it turns out her favourite colour is purple (lavender to be specific), she loves horses, dogs and cats. Her favourite food is lasagna and drink is iced coffee. Considering she's Irish I was surprised to hear that she wasn't big on alcohol then again Jaz said that a lot of Ireland is stereotyped.

Her specialty is general like me and she is a great addition to the team. Shes a second year resident so shes still fresh and unseasoned but with time comes greatness.

Also her full name is Jasmine Griffith but she doesn't like Jasmine so she tells everyone it's Jaz.

Jaz, Amelia and all our hospital sisters host a ladys night once a week for a catch up and just general fun. Considering we are all surgeons its nice for us to have that time and its a weekly ritual I don't plan on dropping soon.

Derek and I met a couple of months ago to talk like he asked. Jaz and Amelia parked the car near us so they could keep an eye on me incase he pulled anything funny. Though the most he did was shout and call me a whore. He was homophobic which caused Jaz to run out throwing fists and Amelia pulled her off of him before taking a swing at him herself.

He agreed to sign the divorce papers saying how he didnt love me anymore anyway and he loved some rene woman from D.C. I started taking care of myself again and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders knowing that I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. I felt free for the first time in years.

Sorry this is kind off short but I'm excited to get to the meddison things.

I might be able to post twice next week and maybe again tomorrow but we'll see how it goes!

Love you guys ❤️