I'm Always Running (Into You)

Chapter 3 - Two

She grabbed the rest of the wine from the night before, pouring herself plentiful, leaving enough for Meredith if she wanted any when she came down, before lighting the fireplace in the living room to warm up the place now that the sun was down.

It didn't take long for Meredith to come back downstairs, already gratefully taking a glass of wine from the redhead.

"I hope you like Chinese, I've got some on the way if you're hungry." She offered to break the awkward silence that had fallen over them.

"Oh. I ate with the kids, but thanks. That was thoughtful."

"Not a problem, I could eat enough for the both of us anyways." Addison smiled, trying to get the blonde to do the same. But Meredith wasn't herself – at least the way that Addison had known her to be all those years ago. There was a fire in her that had lost it's spark. She was dulled, barely functioning. It seemed to Addison that Meredith was simply going through the motions, with Addison and her children.

"How was your day?" Meredith asked, leaning back on the sofa as she nurtured her wine.

"Well, I paid a visit to St. Ambrose Hospital, I had a C-section on twin boys who are doing well and should be able to go home within a few days. Then I went back to work – Oceanside Wellness Group. It's a collaborative practice, but most days we just handle our regular patients with the odd assist from one of the other doctors. Honestly, it was a pretty quiet day for me. I had a consult over at the hospital in the evening, but it turned out I wasn't needed – which was good." Addison elaborated, happy to be able to finally have someone to talk to about this kind of thing who didn't already know the details. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had the chance to tell someone about her day who didn't already know what had happened.

Meredith nodded along absently to the story. She was listening, but it was hard to pay attention these days.

"I actually talked to one of my co-workers, Sheldon, about you today." Addison admitted.

Meredith's head snapped up, her face incredulous. Addison hadn't realised that it would strike so much fear into Meredith.

"He's a therapist at my office. Last time I ranted at him in an elevator he sent me a bill for his time." Addison chuckled, trying to make it more light-hearted. She didn't want there to be secrets here. If they weren't going to talk about Derek, there wasn't much left in terms of common ground for them. But still, she decided that she was going to be honest. "I just – I needed to talk to someone about all this. And I meant what I said – you and Bailey and Zola are welcome here for as long as you need."

"I'm sorry I showed up out of the blue." Meredith offered, an understanding of sorts flitting between them. They still weren't openly talking about him, or the real reason she was here. But they were being open, and for now that was more than enough. Addison smiled. Maybe it was a baby step but it still felt like progress. "Tell me about him. What's he like?"

"Sheldon?" Addison was incredulous. She didn't think that her work life would be that interesting.

The doorbell ringing interrupted them, and Addison quickly jogged up to the door to grab her food, tipping the delivery boy and thanking him before plopping back down on the couch before unleashing her spread. "I know you said you already ate, but do you want anything?"

"I'm not hungry. But I do want to know about the people you work with."

"I guess I promised you that last night." Addison began to eat before she spoke once more "Well... Sheldon's smart. Everyone there is but he notices little things about people that most people don't. And he's incredibly kind. He'll call you out when he thinks you need it. He's a great therapist and friend. He's one of two therapists we have. Sheldon's all about talk therapy. Violet – that's our other psychiatrist – she gets a lot more personally invested with her patients. She just wrote a book about her life, and now she's thinking of taking a year off to write another." Addison poured more wine into her now empty glass, offering the blonde some more with a tilt of the bottle. She ate small bites in-between as she continued.

"Let's see... There's Pete Wilder, he's married to Violet. I thought he was a quack at first. He works with natural medicine at the practice and picks up shifts when he can in the ER at St. Ambrose. I know us surgeons like to think that Western Medicine is the only practical solution, but you should see what he can do for some of our patients – his pain management work is incredible." She insisted. Meredith cocked a brow, as if to say, 'if you say so'. Addison knew that most doctors – including herself – needed some convincing before they could come around to the kind of holistic medicine that Pete works with.

"He has a son, Lucas, with Vi. He had a health scare recently, so he's been acting a bit... off." She pondered going into more detail but quickly decided that talking about the relationships and children of her co-workers wasn't the safest zone to venture into. "Who else.... There's Naomi, she's a fertility doctor. She runs the William White foundation so she's in and out of the country all the time, like I told you before."

"She used to be your best friend, right?" Meredith asked softly.

"We said that we were over it. We promised to stay close, but she's got a lot going on all the time and we just – we aren't on the same page anymore." Addison sighed. "When I started dating Sam was around the same time that they found out their 16-year-old daughter was pregnant, and it really messed Nai up for a while. Things just haven't been the same with us since – even after I ended things with Sam." Meredith nodded, though she looked a little flushed. Addison figured she shouldn't mention it and barrelled on regardless.

"Sam works with us, too. As well as pitching in his fair share of hours at the hospital as cardiothoracic surgeon, he was one of our original founders and mainly works in internal medicine when at the practice. He's world-class, like me and he even saved Pete's life. Then there's Cooper, he's our paediatrician. He cares so deeply about his patients, he would walk to the ends of the Earth for them, it's something I really admire about him. He's married to Charlotte – she's our sexologist as well as Chief of staff at the hospital. Some people think she's cold but really, she just knows what she wants and isn't afraid to get it. She was close to Amelia before she left." Addison trailed off, not sure if talking about Derek's sister would be another bad road to go down. Looking at Meredith, who's eyes had gone glassy, she froze. Had she upset the other woman?

"You okay, Meredith?" She gently touched the blonde's knee.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." The blonde cleared her throat, placing her empty wine glass back on the coffee table. "It sounds nice, your practice." She offered, though they both could tell her heart wasn't really in it.

"We should get to bed; I have work in the morning." Addison offered the out.

Meredith took it, nodding slowly as she stood, swaying on her feet.

"Woah! I got you." Addison grabbed her by the arm before the woman could blow over. "Come on, you must be tired. Let's get you upstairs." She murmured, her hand hovering over Meredith's lower back as she led the blonde upstairs to her room. "Are you alright? Can I get you anything? A glass of water, maybe?" Addison asked as they reached the top of the stairs.

"I'm alright. Just tired, I guess." Meredith ran a hand through her hair, turning to open the door to the bedroom, her hand hesitating over the door handle. Addison waited patiently, unable to leave until the blonde did. "I liked hearing about your day." Meredith smiled a little. "Goodnight, Addison."

"Goodnight Meredith." Addison smiled brightly. The door clicked shut behind the blonde, and Addison breathed out a sigh. She still had to clean up the food from downstairs. She snapped the take-out containers shut, placing them in the fridge to have another day. She rinsed out the now-empty wine bottle before placing it in the recycling, locking the back door while she was there. Finally, she grabbed the wine glasses, quickly cleaning them in the sink before placing them in the rack to dry, alongside some of the kiddie dishes she assumed Meredith had brought with her. Frowning, she noticed there were only two sets. She decided to leave it be – it was most likely that Meredith had just borrowed some of her own dishes that morning and put them back where they came from. Addison did one last check of the windows and doors on the ground floor before heading back upstairs for bed.