Snippets || EN ||

III

CW: drowning, implied/referenced suicide, depression, implied/referenced eating disorder, starving, implied/mentioned vomiting

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Addison is in the bathroom cleaning a bucket when she hears persistent knocking coming from downstairs.

She sighs and focuses her attention back on the thing at hand.

Meredith puked after eating toast and a bowl of chicken soup. Seeing all her hard work ending up on the bottom of a bucket, smelling horribly, makes Addison feel a bit bad about her cooking skills.

Putting the bucket back inside the bathtub and letting the water soak the remaining vomit away, Addison stands up with a groan and goes downstairs to see what all the fuss is about.

It's Cristina.

She's standing on the front porch, scowling, her fist raised. Addison quickly opens, not wanting her to break through the glass. Cristina shoves past her, bumping her shoulder. She's not bothering with greetings or offering any kind of explanation.

Addison catches up with her in the middle of the stairway, grabbing her wrist.

"Where do you think you're going?" Addison asks, her heart beating fast. She can't see Meredith, not right now.

Cristina glares at her and frees herself from her grip, but she keeps standing in place, looking at Addison with evident fury. "I'm going to see Meredith."

"No!"

Cristina raises her eyebrow, smiling mockingly. "Are you her parent or something?"

"You won't go inside!"

Cristina scoffs, and when she speaks again, her voice is low with anger. "Right now, you're not my attending, Montgomery. I won't let you order me around, especially when it comes to Meredith."

Addison doesn't let the intern intimidate her. She straightens her back to her full height and speaks with the most authority she can muster. "You won't go in there, Yang!"

"Or what?" Cristina asks, raising her eyebrow in anticipation. "Are you going to kick me down the stairs?"

Addison blinks in surprise at the suggestion. She doesn't know how to answer that, so she stands in place, looking at Cristina with a lost expression, feeling helpless.

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

Cristina runs up the stairs and takes a sharp turn to the left. A few moments later, Addison can hear the loud thud of the bedroom door.

Addison briefly plays with the idea of following her, but then she thinks better of it. It wouldn't do any good.

Instead, she returns to the bucket. She takes a sponge and starts methodically cleaning the bottom, breathing through her mouth. She doesn't want to make more work for herself.

No matter how often she's done this, it's always hard.

While cleaning, she thinks about what just happened and Cristina's comment at the end. Would she push her down the stairs if it meant she wouldn't have the chance to see Meredith? No. But it scares her that Cristina would think that, even if it was just a joke.

She knows she's overprotective and overbearing, but she can't help it. She needs to make amends with Meredith for her to stop punishing her for her blindness.

How could she not see the signs?

Finding Meredith underwater in the bathtub was one of the scariest moments of Addison's life. She pulled her out as quickly as possible, her heart almost jumping out of her chest.