Falling Apart, Barely Breathing

Chapter 4: Let It Be

Chapter 4: Let It Be

When the pair of them finally emerge from the washroom again they see the bar has been vacated and that the only people that are still there are Joe and his boyfriend Walter. Joe has just called Addison and Meredith a cab as he signals to Addison as he explains to her that the taxi company said it was "15 minutes out" that was approximately ten minutes ago.

When Meredith asks him why he's called just the one cab he says simply that "they're all backed up". He says to her simply as Joe looks and nods only at Addison over the top of Meredith's shoulder and he gives the older woman what can only be described as a pleading and significant look as he's glancing his eyes back from Addison down to Meredith then back up to her again.

Nodding at him Addison asserts to her that the cab can drop Meredith off first at her house because it's on the way to her's anyhow and Meredith goes along with it all anyway.

And Addison is relieved to realize that Meredith is far too out of her mind right now to realize that Addison has no real idea where Meredith's house even is as related to "her place" and why the hell on earth would she.

And that Addison has never had any place in Seattle to call hers much more less now than ever before.

And that the hotel that she'd planned on staying at after the evening's events is over the overpass in the opposite direction to Meredith's house so it wasn't at all a shortcut much less a simplicity which she would soon find out as she rode there alone.

But Meredith takes it all in at face value anyways and she tugs up at Addison's sleeve when she sees the cab finally appear so she's leading the other woman to the taxi where they both tumble into the backseat together and Meredith needs help buckling her seatbelt before Addison supports her neck next to her so she doesn't get whiplash at ever streetlight that they stop at on the drive over.

"Keys" ' Addison asks for as she unbuckles Meredith from the car after she's left her seat and Meredith fumbles through her purse until she's slipped out the right ones into the Attending's hand.

Addison half-stumbles-with-half-carries the younger woman to her doorstep where she inserts three keys before she figures out which one is for the main door and not the back door or the basement and she's holding the door open so Meredith can drag her feet in behind her up over the awning.

"Help me" Meredith glances with her eyes as she struggles to take a single step without the support of Addison's hands around her waist so Addison enters the into the house even more along with her and she holds Meredith's hands to her shoulders so she won't fall as she unties Meredith's shoes and slips them off of her feet before shrugging off own her heels onto the doormat with a thump.

Before Addison enters the house fully and she shuts the door behind her silently she glances her eyes around to see if she can sense any traces of Meredith's roommates roaming about the hallways or between their rooms or around with one another.

But all they can hear is dead silence and the birds that chirp slowly outside of Meredith's kitchen window on occasion as they tiptoe through the ten-tonne mass of movie boxes and kitchen sets that Meredith has never moved inches since the day she signed over the house to herself.

When Addison steps too fast into her and Meredith knocks over a potted plant by the kitchen with her elbow accidentally she just shrugs it all off and says "let it be, let it be" to Addison simply before she beckons for her please to ignore the potted plant where it fell and to keep helping her through the kitchen so that she can be back into bed before morning comes again.

"And where exactly is your bedroom, Meredith?" Addison asks her as Meredith drunkenly realizes that Addison would never have any reason on earth to know that from her automatically as she answers "upstairs" before bringing her purse to the table in the entranceway.