Help is Around the Corner
Addison and Derek's trailer catches fire, and Meredith offers them a place to stay for a while.
Meredith rushes into the hospital, followed by George, Cristina, and Burke.
"Cardio trauma. Looks like a big one!" says Cristina.
"You're excited?" says Burke.
"Uh, yeah!" says Cristina.
"But we were about to-" says Burke.
"Oh this is even better than that," says Cristina.
"Right..." says Burke.
"What have we got?" says George, changing the subject.
"57 year old male with a penetrating chest wound," says the paramedic.
"Whoa," says Meredith. "Is that a tuba!?" she adds.
"It was a car crash," says the paramedic. "He got impaled."
"Let's bring him up," says Burke.
"Sounds good," says the paramedic, as she helps them bring the patient to the trauma bay.
"Alright, Grey, order labs. Yang, you can get the EEG, and O'Malley, can you see if there was anyone else in the crash?" says Burke.
"On it," says Cristina, and George runs off to check up on other potential patients.
Meredith runs to get labs, as she wonders inside her head what Addison was about to tell her before she had to leave for work.
She thinks about all the things she'd said to Addison, like sending her to have sex with Derek, and how she practically kicked her out of her bed.
She really has to get a handle on her emotions!
Meredith picks up the labs and runs them back to Burke, who sighs.
"It's going to be a long night," says Burke. " I hope you didn't have any other plans."
"Not really," Meredith shrugs, even though she'd much rather be at home, in her bed, along with Addison.
"Alright then," says Burke, as he offers for three of them to scrub in on the patient's surgery.
Throughout the procedure, Burke and George catch up on all of their own gossip, as they discuss the top ten Eugene Foote albums, along with jazz music topics, and running plans.
"Hey maybe sometime Callie's working you could stay at our place and we could go running there," says George.
"Sure, what's another," Meredith laughs.
"Okay, well then I guess I'll stay over too," says Cristina.
"You can always stay over," says Meredith.
"Sounds good, are you up for ten miles tomorrow, O'Malley?" says Burke.
"Yes sir," says George. "And then we can get cappuccinos!"
"Yes, cappuccinos," says Burke.
"Can you bring some to the house?' says Meredith.
"Sure," says George.
"Addison likes hers with extra whipped cream," says Meredith.
"You know her coffee order?" says Burke.
"We're roommates," says Meredith.
"Do you know my coffee order?" says George.
"Cappuccino," says Meredith.
"That's too easy, I just said that," says George.
"Okay, what's my coffee order?" says Cristina.
"Black," says Meredith.
"Also too easy," says Cristina. "What's Izzie's coffee order?" she adds.
"Whip cream with cinnamon and cocoa and a caramel drizzle," says Meredith.
"Derek?" says Cristina.
"Umm-" says Meredith, pausing to see if she remembers. "He usually just drinks his coffee at the house. I think it's the drip kind?" Meredith shrugs.
"So you don't know Derek's coffee order," says George.
"No-" says Meredith.
"But you know Addison's?" says Cristina.
"As I said, roommates," says Meredith.
"Derek's living at your house, he's your roommate too," says Cristina.
"I know Mark likes his cappucinos bone-dry, does that help?" says Meredith. "And Callie likes hers with chocolate syrup."
"But you don't know Derek's coffee order," says Burke.
"No I don't," says Meredith. "He can get his own coffee I guess," says Meredith. "Or probably Mark would know," she imagines.
"Sloan?" says Burke.
"They're best friends, Mark would totally know," says Meredith.
"Okay then," says Burke.
Burke offers that Cristina try part of the procedure, and George closes, while Meredith watches, which dhe doesn't actually mind too much.
Cristina has good handiwork, and George is Burke's guy.
"Well, thank you all," says Burke, as they scrub out.
"You're welcome," they say in chorus.
Speaking of coffee, Meredith is definitely craving some, so she heads off to the coffee cart in search of a cup, and she decides to text Addison, to see if she wants one.
Addison doesn't answer the message, but Meredith gets her a coffee anyway.
"Hey there-" says Addison, as she walks into the hospital.
"Oh, hey, I got you coffee!" says Meredith, handing it to her.
"Oh thank you!" says Addison, as she leans in for a hug before she accepts the coffee from Meredith.
"How was your night?" says Meredith.
"Alright, Callie came over for a bit," says Addison.
"Yeah?" says Meredith.
"Yeah, and she brought cookies, and we talked," Addison smiles. "And you?"
"We had this wild surgery. It was a motor vehicle accident," says Meredith. "Hey, what were you about to tell me earlier?" says Meredith.
"Oh-" says Addison. "Well..." she takes a deep breath.
Addison is nervous to tell Meredith she's broken up with Derek, because she doesn't know for sure if Callie was sure when she said that Meredith likes her. What if Meredith just thinks of her as a friend, and she just left her husband to be alone forever... Well, Addison realizes that it's okay if she's alone because she wasn't enjoying her marriage with Derek.
But she would much prefer if she spent the rest of her life with a certain blonde.
This blonde who happens to be still standing next to her, and repeating her question.
"I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if you do..." says Meredith with big blue eyes.
Blue eyes that Addison knows she'll have a lot of trouble resisting if she and Meredith were to-
"IbrokeupwithDerek-" says Addison.
"What?" says Meredith, tilting her head sideways.
"I broke up with Derek..." says Addison. "Last night..." she adds, even though it's redundant.
"Oh-" says Meredith. "Oh!" says Meredith. "Wait what?"
"I told him I was breaking up with him, and we're getting divorced," says Addison.
"Oh!" says Meredith, and a rush of emotions flows into her.
On the one hand, she knows it's probably painful for Addison, but on the other hand, she's thrilled, and she's imagining the possibilities of asking Addison out on dates, and going for walks together, and it's making her a little bit giddy.
"Do you want to talk about it?" says Meredith reassuringly, once she regains her composure.
"Not really," says Addison.
"Okay-" says Meredith.
"Thanks for the coffee," says Addison.
"Oh, no problem," Meredith smiles.
"I'm glad Callie was there last night," says Addison.
"Oh-" says Meredith, a pang of jealousy suddenly hitting her when she thinks of Addison and Callie sharing cookies, because Callie's like, dirty hot, and maybe not as hot as Addison in her mind, but she's looked at her once or twice, and maybe that's Addison's thing, and-
"Yeah, we talked. She and George are happy, it's great," says Addison.
Meredith softens when Addison talks about Callie being with George.
"Right-" says Meredith.
"So listen, I haven't told a lot of people about this, but gossip spreads like wildfire around here, so I thought I'd tell you so you don't have to find out through somebody else," says Addison.
"Thank you," says Meredith. "Really, it means a lot. And I'm still here, if you ever wanna talk or something," says Addison.
"Thanks," says Addison. "I actually talked to Doc about it. I find that helps a lot," says Addison.
"Doc is an excellent listener," says Meredith. "I talk to him a lot too."
"I wonder what he's thinking..." says Addison.
"Who knows," says Meredith. "Anyway, I'm glad you're doing okay," says Meredith.
"Yeah, you too," says Addison. "I missed you last night," she blurts out.
"Yeah?" says Meredith.
"Yeah," says Addison, her eyes crinkling at the sides while she's talking to Meredith.
Meredith wraps her arms around Addison like it's the most natural thing in the world, and they head into the hospital together.
When they get there, they see Derek and Richard Webber talking animately in Richard's office, before Richard leaves, and Derek follows him, still apparently yelling.
The Chief says, "What do you want me to do, Derek?"
And Derek replies:
"I want her to care. She slept with my best friend and I walked away. He comes here from New York and rubs it in my face, and still she gets a good night's sleep. What do I have to do? Oh, I know. Maybe I should talk about getting a bath with Mark Sloan, because that's what it seems to take to send Addison into a blind rage. But wait, that won't work either because I'm not Meredith Grey!"
Derek continues waving his arms around, until he sees Addison and Meredith still holding each other walking under the bridge together, and he scoffs, and Richard tries to lead Derek back into his office to cool down for a moment.
Meredith and Addison stand there wide-eyed and shocked at the sudden outburst, and they watch as the scene continues to unfold before them.
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***** END OF CHAPTER 25