It's Not Over

20.

"May I help you Dr. Grey?"

Meredith looked at Addison Montgomery, who looked very amused.

Shit!

"Um...Hi." She said lamely, wishing the floor would swallow her whole.

"Hi." Addison said still amused at the situation. She leaned back in her chair.

Meredith looked around at her surroundings. It was a 12x12 office with taupe walls and esquiste paintings. The desk looked antique as well as the office chairs.

"So this is your office...that I just bust into...it's...nice." Meredith rambled.

"You running from someone...maybe, I don't know...Derek?" She asked.

"No...I am not...maybe...yes." Meredith stammered. Damn, she hated feeling inadequate.

Addison laughed, which startled Meredith.

"He chasing you?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Meredith asked confused.

"Why is he chasing you? Or rather, why are you making him chase you?"

"What? Why would you even ask me that?" Meredith hissed. Addison knew all too well the situation.

"You love him, right?"

"That is none of your business."

"Fair enough. But let me say one thing. He loves you. He always has...I knew it when he came back here with me that he wasn't the same man he was as when he left me. He had nightmares for months. He would call out your name. You haunted him...I knew it. He didn't remember the nightmares or if he did, he didn't admit it to me. I could have let him go...I should have let him go, but he was mine first. No matter what I did to him, I had him thirteen years before he met you. I couldn't let some one night stand come between us."

"You slept with Mark. He came between you two, not me." Meredith said.

"No Mark didn't really matter in the scheme of things...if you hadn't of happened, I believe we would have been fine. I didn't love Mark...I desired him. Derek had ignored me for so long and Mark wanted me."

"Mark wants everybody...hell he has hit on me."

"Everyone wants to hit on you. You are like the shiny new toy." Addison sighed. "I have resented you for so long. You took my husband from me."

"I did not. You drug him back here with you." Meredith denied.

"The man I brought back here wasn't my Derek. He was yours. He left his heart back there with you."

Meredith laughed bitterly.

"Well isn't that fitting, consider he took mine with him."

"Give him a chance to make things right. He has been miserable for the last three years."

"Yeah well that makes two of us. I just don't...I...damnit Addison...he left me! He lied to me and he used me. I told him I loved him. Do you know I have never said that to anyone...ever? You know what his response was?" Meredith asked.

Addison shook her head.

"He left with you not more than twenty-four hours later. So what does that tell you?"

"It tells me he was scared and he was trying to be honorable. He made vows to me, Meredith, before God and Derek doesn't take that lightly. But Meredith, all I was to him from that point on was an obligation. He made a mistake Meredith and he knows it." Addison insisted.

"I am...I haved moved on." Meredith said defiantly.

"Oh yes...Alex Karev." Addison laughed lightly.

"What's so funny?" Meredith asked bitterly.

"You...if you think that anyone buys that especially Derek. You and Alex are friends...close friends...but there is absolutely nothing sexual going on between you and Alex." Meredith made a sound of protest, but Addison put her hand up stopping her. "If there was, he wouldn't be such an ass."

"Alex is always an ass so that doesn't prove anything." Meredith said smugly.

"Maybe, maybe not. If you are sleeping with Alex, then he wouldn't be sneakily looking at every pretty woman that walks by. From what I have...experienced...for lack of a better word...you are unforgettable in bed. Men don't forget about you...I should know. Drop the act Grey and face your fears. Please?" Addison pleaded.

"Why do you care? What is in this for you?" Meredith demanded.

"I don't want to feel quilty anymore. I took Derek from the love of his life because I was selfish and I didn't want to be alone. I never took in consideration how I was affecting him or even you. I didn't realize or want to see how deep the feelings between you two really were. I just wrote you off as some little fling. I am so truly sorry Meredith. I didn't mean to hurt either of you. I really didn't." Addison stood up and gathered her files and grabbed her purse. "Hide out in here as long as you want...just don't hide out forever. He could really make you happy." Addison smiled softly. She left her office in a swirl of delicate perfume and expensive clothes.

"Ok Derek, I did my part...now you need to do yours." She told him softly as she passed him.

Derek nodded and smiled softly at her departing figure. He walked to the open office where Meredith stood there lost in thought.

"Penny for your thoughts." He said softly.

"Only a penny?" She joked weakly. She felt tears gather at her eyes.

'I will pay as much as you want, just please tell me what you are thinking." He pleaded with her.

"I am not with Alex...I lied."

"I know."

Meredith nodded.

"I don't trust you and I am leaving in two months. I don't think starting anything will be a good idea." She said, trying to keep her tears from falling.

"Okay. If that is how you feel...but maybe we can be friends. I just want to spend some time with you, get to know you again. I missed talking to you. I just missed you." He said.

"Okay." She said simply.

"Okay?" He asked incredulously. This was almost too easy.

"Yeah. I missed you too." She shrugged.

"Yeah...okay." He nodded.

"Dinner...sometime...out in public, preferably." She would try to be friends but being alone was really tempting fate.

"Whatever you feel comfortable with...I am easy." He remarked.

Meredith raised her eyebrow. Derek closed his eyes in mortification. Great Shepherd...way to make her feel comfortable...break the ice, trade an induendo or two...way to be friendly.

Meredith giggled and Derek breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes I know." She said simply.

"I am not as easy as you, Miss One-Night-Stand."

"Ass! And may I remind you, you picked me up and took me home for sex. That is the pot calling the kettle...whatever color that was."

Derek smiled tenderly.

"So friends?" He extended his hand to her.

Meredith took a deep breath.

"Friends." She nodded, taking his hand, both ignoring the electric current that ran up their arms. This had to work, it just had too.