"Are you going to let me in?" The brunette woman says. Charlie stands with her hand on the door handle, frozen in place.
"Charlie," Addison says, gently placing a hand on her arm, drawing her out of her frozen state.
"Yeah, come in." She swallows the lump in her throat and moves out of the way letting Morgan into their house. Charlie watches as the brunette steps into her home. Morgan steps in and takes a look around.
"Well, isn't this cute," Morgan says, taking off her coat. She looks at the pictures on the wall. "What, no pictures of me?"
"What are you doing here, Morgan?" Charlie asks her, crossing her arms.
"Can't I just stop by and say hello." She pouts her lips and cocks her head.
"You haven't stopped by to say hello in 8 years. I don't need you coming and interrupting my life now. Not when I have just grasped a sense of normality."
"Lottie--"
"Do not call me that."
"Come on, don't be like that," Morgan says as she settles on the couch.
"Would you just excuse us for a minute?" Addison smiles at the brunette on the couch. Morgan nods and Addison gently places a comforting hand on her wife's bicep, pulling her away from the situation and into the kitchen. "Please tell me Morgan isn't some secret wife of yours."
"Morgan? Jesus, Addison, no." Charlie looks over to the brunette sitting on her couch. "She's my sister."
Addison stands, her mouth agape. She takes in a breath and raises her eyebrows. "You never mentioned you had a sister?"
"She's my half-sister, from my Dad's first marriage, we were close but then after Dad not so much." Charlie crosses her arms and Addison leans against the kitchen island. She hangs her head and lets out a light laugh. "What's wrong." Charlie dips her head, trying to see what's wrong.
"Your sister, Charlie. God, there is still so much I don't know about you. During those, what, 9 months we dated, did we even talk?" Addison laughs and moves away from Charlie towards the large bay windows that look out in the garden.
"What do you mean?" Charlie says to her in confusion.
"Charlie, you have a whole other sibling you neglected to tell me about. What else are you hiding?" Addison says in a hushed whisper.
"Addie." Charlie laughs and reaches for her hand.
"I'm serious, Charlotte." She states, pulling her hand away. "There is so much more to you that I don't know about." Addison looks away, her eyes catching the candles burning down to nothing and the dinner laid out for them both on the dining table. She deep breath before squeezing her eyes shut. "I have a...er...a patient I need to go and check on." She says gathering herself and pushing past Charlie.
"Addie, come on. It's late." Charlie catches her arm and Addison turns to face her.
"Please, Charlotte." She says to her, gently pulling her arm out of Charlie's grip. "I've been called into work, but it was lovely to meet you." Addison lies and before Charlie can comprehend what's happened, Addison has grabbed her coat and walked out the door, leaving Charlie in the middle of the kitchen with the sibling she hasn't seen for 8 years.
Charlie wastes no time in interrogating her sister.
"Why are you here?"
"Can't I just drop by for a friendly chat?"
"Drop by?! Morgan, you live in Chicago. This isn't you dropping by, this is you coming here to ruin my life."
"You seem to be doing that fine on your own."
"Morgan I swear to god, you have three seconds before I-"
"I missed you, okay!"
That comment completely throws Charlie off balance.
"You turn up after 8 years because you missed me?"
"Yes, and I'm getting married and I want you at the wedding."
"Jesus fucking christ, Morgan. You couldn't have sent a text? 'Oh hey Charlie, I know it's been 8 years since we spoke but just a message to say I'm getting married and I would like you at the wedding'. My wife just walked out of here, on our anniversary, because she thought you were some secret lover of mine." Charlie takes a deep breath and evaluates the situation in her mind, she really can't deal with Morgan right now. She has bigger problems. "I can't deal with you right now, okay? So, I need you to get out of my house."
"Lottie--"
"Morgan, get the fuck out of my house. Please." Morgan just rolls her eyes and gathers her things, walking out of the house and leaving Charlie to deal with the fallout. Charlie sits on the couch and rests her head on her hands. "Fuck." she whispers.
*
Addison sits on the windowsill in the attending's lounge, staring out the window as the rain beats down on the window, It always rains in Seattle. She doesn't like the rain. The door opens and Doctor Bailey walks in, at first not noticing Addison, she just continues looking down at her clipboard, full of notes and checklists for her to do. It's only when Addison speaks up does Miranda notices. Addison lets out a sound, supposedly a hello.
"I thought you went home?" Bailey says, placing her clipboard on the table.
"I did," Addison says, leaning her head on the cool glass pane.
"Then why are you back here?" The short woman asks, taking a seat on the sofa and looking up at her.
"I'm here to check on a patient."
"Mmmhmm," Bailey says with a raise of an eyebrow. "Now, is this a real patient or a fake one made up so you could get out of a fight?" Addison looks down at her and closes her eyes.
"A woman turned up at our door and introduced herself as 'Morgan Beck', so immediately I thought the worse and that Charlie had some secret family that I didn't know about."
"Do you think that Beck could have hidden a family for that long? Have you met the girl? She can't keep a secret for more than 20 seconds." Addison laughs at Bailey's comment and smiles. "Now, I suggest that you go home and salvage what you can of your anniversary, but if you do plan on staying here, I have a patient I could use a consult on." Bailey stands and begins to walk out.
"Doctor Bailey." Addison stops her at the doorway, she turns to face her. "Where's your patient?"
*
"Alex, your phone." Someone says to him. A hand slaps his chest a couple of times. "Alex, your phone." They say again. He wakes up and checks his phone.
Charlie 9 missed calls
Charlie 5 new voicemails
Charlie 6 new messages
He yawns and rubs his face and then sits up, placing the phone to his ear to hear the messages
"Hey please call me back."
"Alex, I need you to call me back. Please."
"Alex, seriously pick up the fucking phone, I need to talk to you."
"Get your ass over to my house Alex, now."
"Fucking hell, you're useless. Morgan turned up at my house and Addison ran out, I just need you to call me back or come over here or something."
Alex lets out a sigh. "Nat, wake up." He shoves the body next to him. "Natalie." He shoves again. The body groans.
"I'm sleeping," Natalie says and rolls over towards Alex. Alex jabs his little sister again and her eyes open. "Fine. I'm awake, what do you want?"
"Charlie needs me to go over. Do you want to come?"
"A chance to see my sister!? Hell yeah." Natalie throws the covers off and stands, stumbling over the discarded clothes that sit by the bed, landing flat on her face. "Alex, tidy your room, I beg you."
They get a cab over to Charlie's and she's waiting on the doorstep, head in her hands
"Hey," Alex says, Charlie's head immediately pops up. She hastily wipes away the tears.
"Hi." She whispers.
"I bought a guest, hope you don't mind. She showed up on my doorstep this evening." Alex steps to the side and Natalie appears from out behind him.
"Hi." She waves awkwardly.
"Nat," Charlie whispers. She stands and opens her arms for Natalie runs into her arms. "Hi," Charlie whispers into her hair. "God, I've missed you." Natalie pulls away and smiles up at the woman she considers her family.
"So, explain. What happened?" Alex asks, handing over a cup of coffee to Charlie.
"Morgan turns up at my door. after 8 years of no contact then Addison thought she was some secret lover of mine so she left and went to the hospital." Charlie rests her head on her fist and watches as Natalie sits on the floor playing with Klaus and Pablo.
"Why did she come here?"
"She's getting married and she wants me at the wedding. Like, could have she not have sent a text?" Charlie laughs for a second but then sighs and takes a sip of her coffee. "There's another thing," Charlie speaks up after a few seconds of silence between them. "Addie said that there was so much to me that she didn't know about, like...is that a bad thing? Then she bought up us getting married really quick and I thought we moved past that." Alex huffs and sits back on the couch. "I'm a screw-up, Alex. Everything I touch turns to shit. Maybe I don't deserve good things."
Alex sets down his coffee mug and pulls Charlie into his arms. "You do, Charlie. You deserve the best." Charlie pulls away and wipes away the tears from her eyes.
"Enough of me crying." She laughs. "It's great that you're here because I saw Chris today." Alex stares at her cluelessly. "Chris! Chris Stanton? We all spent a night in jail together?"
"Oh! Stanton, yes! God that was a good night." He smiles.
"Mom wasn't happy with you at all," Natalie mentions from the floor. "I remember when she got the call. She told the officer to make you all three of stay there as punishment."
"He wants to grab a drink this week, I told him you would be down?"
"Oh hell yeah, I'm down."
*
"Do you want to grab a drink at Joe's?" Callie asks her as they exit the attending's lounge. Addison checks her watch, really she should go home, she should go and talk to Charlie and try and sort out this mess between them, but fuck it. She could use a drink. Addison nods her head and Callie loops her arm with Addison's as they head to Joe's Bar.
They settle in a booth as Callie listens to Addison ramble on about Morgan and the drama that followed. "I mean, we didn't even date for that long before we got married and I've been thinking about it and I just...did I rush into this? Did I make a mistake marrying Charlie?" Callie just takes a sip from her drink, her eyebrows raised. "I mean me and Derek were together for 11 years, maybe I just missed being married to someone so I jumped at her proposal but I...I don't know if we're going to work." Addison holds her head in her hands and Callie reaches to place a hand on her arm. Addison looks up but Callie's eyes are preoccupied. She's looking over towards the bar. "What?" Addison follows her eyes and Charlie stands in front of the bar, out of breath.
"Hi." Charlie mumbles.
Callie slides out the booth, "I'll give you two a minute." She adds before going over to the bar.
Charlie hesitantly sits opposite Addison. "I ran all the way here. I ran here because I don't want to lose you."
"Charlotte--"
"I don't want to lose you, Addison. You are my future, you are what I see and I don't want my secrets or my past stopping that from happening. Let's go from the very beginning; let me take you on dates and let's talk. Please." Charlie asks her. Addison takes a look at her wife, the beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, the shakiness of her hands; indicating the nerves. Addison seeing her now takes her back to that very first night at the bar. Charlie holds out her hand for Addison to take and as the older woman slips her hand into her wife's, the beginning violin notes of 'Don't Want To Miss A Thing' play over the jukebox. Maybe they would be okay. Maybe.
-/-/-
hey everyone!
I'm mainly here to give credit to Axisonal
They allowed me the use of some of their OC's and I'm so excited for you to meet them, a few characters you may already know but a few are new, so keep an eye out in future chapters!
The baby gremlin that is Natalie Karev is theirs and her FC is Anna Kendrick!
thanks for sticking with it
beck x