New York turned out to be exactly what the Shepherd family expected it to be. Adrianne was thriving in school, Dylan quickly found his place as well. Adaline, though too young to be affected by the move, was doing well. Derek quickly learned that he prefered to raise his child surrounded with family. It was easier to have someone to turn to in times of need and happiness. He missed having his sisters and friends being within driving distance. Addison and Derek were able to easily pick up where they had left off with their respective careers and, with some difficulty, they were able to build a schedule that worked for the patients and their family.

"Dr. Shepherd," Addison greeted, placing a chart on the counter of the nursing station beside where Derek was standing. She leaned closer to him and pecked his cheek before turning her attention to the chart. "Do you have a second?"

"For you? Yes. For a consult? Not at the moment," Derek replied as he shut the chart he was looking at and turned toward her.

"I just wanted to let you know that I might be working late tonight. I have a patient who came in this morning in premature labor. If we're not able to stop the contractions I'll have to deliver and be here for the baby."

Derek groand, "How late?"

"I don't know," Addison replied honestly. There were some things she could not predict. "Why is this a big deal, Derek? You came home at 2 am last week."

"Yeah, and I came home to find that you literally cried yourself to sleep in my closet," Derek reminded her. "It's just...Mark is on-call 24 hours today for his department. I don't like the idea of sex-crazed Mark roaming the halls at night while my wife is around."

Addison rolled her eyes. "He's not like a sex zombie, Derek," she muttered, annoyed. "And I thought I earned back your trust. You should know that I wouldn't allow myself to make that mistake again."

Derek looked down shamefully, "I do trust you. I don't trust Mark."

"Derek," Addison stepped closer to him to close the distance between them. "I understand that you don't trust him," she started softly, her hand moving up to the breast pocket of his scrubs to straighten his hospital ID. "You don't have to trust him until you're ready to, but Derek, you know that he would not lay a hand on me without my permission. If you trust me like you say you do, then know that there is nothing to worry about."

Derek slowly nodded his head, "Okay," he murmured. "I trust you," he repeated, more for himself than for her.

"Derek," she mumbled softly, taking a small step away from him to look into his eyes. "If you still don't fully trust me then that's something you need to tell me. That's something we need to work on."

"I trust you," he said surely.

Addison pulled back the curtain of the triage in the ER and sighed heavily when she saw her daughter and another teenage girl sitting on the gurney. "I'm getting really tired of being page to the ER and finding you behind the curtain," Addison sighed tiredly as she pulled the curtain shut behind her. "What happened, Adrianne?"

"I'm not here for me," Adrianne told her mother. "This is my friend Becky. Becky, this is my mom," she briefly introduced.

Addison held her hand out to her daughter's friend, "Hi, Becky. As much as I enjoy being introduced as 'Adrianne's mom,' I go by Addison."

"So funny, Mom," Adrianne rolled her eyes.

"What do you girls need?"

"Becky needs your help," Adrianne told her mother. "And she can't go to her own doctor because then her parents would know."

"Okay, so it's something medical? I didn't get a chart. Let me go see if I can find it and we can figure out how I can help you."

"There is no chart," Adrianne informed her mother before she could step out of the triage. "We couldn't make a chart because then they would ask for insurance and then they would charge it on her parents would see the charge."

"Okay..." Addison trailed off somewhat uncomfortably. "The insurance isn't really a problem. I will mark it as a pro-bono case and that won't matter. But, Becky, I need you to understand that there is only so much I can do without parental consent. What exactly is the problem?"

The teen looked up from the ground and met Addison's eyes. She didn't say anything.

"Becky?"

"Her dad's been hitting her, Mom," Adrianne answered.

"Oh..."

"He pushed me yesterday and I hit the wall and my rib is really hurting now so I think I may have fractured it or something. Like, it hurts when I inhale a little too much," Becky told her quietly.

"Adrianne, why don't you wait for us in the waiting room, sweetheart?" Addison asked softly. "I promise to call you back as soon as I'm done and you can wait with Becky while we wait on test results." Addison watched as her daughter left the room and waited for her to pulled the curtain shut before turning back to the girl in front of her. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly.

"Are you really Adrianne's mom?" the girl responded unexpectedly.

"Umm..." Addison raised her eyebrow at the strange question. Why would she or Adrianne lie about their relation to one another?

"Because she told me her mom had three kids and is some sort of super recognized doctor and I automatically pictured a chubby short woman in her early 50s with super short hair that's got grey streaks here and there. You are not a short chubby 50 something with grey hair. You look like you stepped out of a Vogue cover page photoshoot."

"Thanks," Addison responded awkwardly.

"It's just that I wasn't expecting to meet Adrianne's parents and find out she literally comes from the most perfect family ever," Becky admitted. "My dad beats me and my mom knows and does nothing but Adrianne's fricken parents are gorgeous, brilliant doctors who actually like their kids and put time and effort into them. That's kind of unfair. I don't want to be jealous. Adrianne is my friend so I'm happy that she's got a perfect life but it's just not fair that there are kids like her and then kids like me..."

"We're not perfect, Becky," Addison told the teen softly. "Adrianne hated me for years. There was a time not too long ago where she actually refused to associate with me. And that was completely her right because I was a terrible mother. I didn't make time for her. I walked away and let my mother-in-law raise her so I could focus on my career. It took us a lot of time and effort to move passed that. It's something that still hangs over our relationship. Everyone has skeletons in the closet. I know what you're going is different but you're not a hopeless case. Let's see what's going on with your rib and then, if you want, I can help you figure out how to talk to your mom about it."

"Thanks, Addison."

Addison gave the girl a small, reassuring smile,"You're welcome."

Later that night Addison was seated at a bar chair at the kitchen island with a mug of tea in front of her. She had her laptop and a chart open in front of her as she researched a surgery that she had coming up. All of her kids were in bed, sound asleep, and Derek was on the other side of the wall in the living room watching a sporting event of some sort that Addison had not interest in. She looked up unexpectedly when she heard footsteps approaching the kitchen and saw her daughter hesitantly standing in the doorway.

"You okay, sweetheart?" she asked softly.

Adrianne nodded her head, taking a few steps toward her mother but stopping less than halfway.

"Adrianne?" Addison asked, one brow quirked up due to her daughter's strange behavior. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Adrianne nodded again. She walked toward the island and leaned against it, across from where her mother was seated with her work. "Is Becky going to be okay?"

"She will be fine. It was just some bruising. I gave her pills to help with the pain," Addison told her daughter. She knew that it must have been difficult for Adrianne to see what her friend was going through. If it had been an average case that came in to the ER with a chart, Addison would have called child protective services. However, given the personal tie to the case and the absence of a chart to document the case, Addison was willing to bend the rules to go along with the girl's wishes. "She didn't want me to call DCFS. I should have, but she begged me not to. She says she's trying to build up the courage to talk to her mother about the problem."

"Did you parents ever hit you?" Adrianne suddenly asked her.

Addison shook her head, "No, they didn't. My parents were far from ideal but they never physically abused me. Bizzy was somewhat emotionally abusive at times but I learned to get used it. The Captain was neither. He would support anything and everything I wanted to do. I've never hit you, either. But I think I have been emotionally abusive, like Bizzy was with me. Not in the same way but emotionally abusive nonetheless. I was absent and I can see that translating into neglect or disinterest and I know that that hurts. I never intended that but it happened anyway and I'm really sorry, Adrianne. I would never knowingly hurt you."

"I know," Adrianne mumbled, looking up from her hands to meet her mother's eyes.

"Dylan!" Derek called for his son who was playing with his toy doctor set, except over the months he had replaced some of the toy pieces with the actual thing. When his mother ordered herself a new neonatal stethoscope, he demoted the old one to his play stethoscope (after disinfecting, of course). He'd also found an old at his father's practice in the storage closet and decided it would be perfect for his kit.

"Daddy, my bear says he's feeling sick but I can't find anything wrong with him," Dylan told him seriously, walking toward his father with the bear cradled in his arm and Addison's old, pink stethoscope around his neck.

Derek, who was busy feeding his baby girl, chuckled at his son's comment. "Buddy, I need your help. Someone's knocking on the door. I need your help turning the knob since Adaline has taken over my hands."

"What if my bear dies while we're getting the door, Daddy?"

"Your bear won't die," Derek promised. "Why don't you put him back in his bed and have him transferred to the ICU over there? The nurses will page you if he crashes while you're getting the door with me," he suggested as he rose from his seat and watched his son run over to the corner of the living room to put the bear on an overpriced throw pillow that Addison never let her son play with while she was home. Once the child had his bear situated, he ran over to the front door ahead of his father and reached for the knob.

Once the door was open Derek saw his mother-in-law standing on the doorstep. "Dylan, open the door all the way so Bizzy can come in," he instructed his son as he gave his mother-in-law a welcoming smile. The little boy opened the door slightly wider before running toward Bizzy and wrapping his arms around her legs. She warmly placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair.

"You're looking more and more like your dad every time I see you," she told her grandson as she bent over to kiss his forehead. "But I suppose that's only fair considering that your sister looks like your mother's clone. Speaking of Addison, where is she? I spoke to her last night to let her know I would be in the city and she said to meet her here at 4:00. She said she had theater tickets and early dinner reservations."

"She was called in to the ER and Adrianne wanted to go with her. I actually just spoke to Addison about thirty minutes ago. She said she was going to go sign a discharge slip in the ER and head out. I'm sure they will be home any minute now."

"Adrianne willingly went with Addison?" Bizzy asked as she ventured into the living room where her grandson and son-in-law had apparently made a mess. She moved the baby's burp cloth off the arm chair and sat down.

"Yeah, it is a little surprising considering their history but Adrianne is trying very hard to spend time with her and get to know her. And Addison obviously loves it," Derek told Bizzy as he slowly removed the bottle from the baby's mouth and adjusted the baby upright. "Do you want to burp her?"

"Isn't that the part where they spit up all over your shoulder?"

"We have burp clothes," he assured. "There is that one you moved aside and Dylan's got like four of them with him pretending they are surgical drapes."

Bizzy reached out to take the baby from Derek. She looked into the infant's blue-green eyes and was momentarily taken back in time to the days when her daughter was that little. "She's got Addie's eyes," Bizzy commented as she adjusted the baby on her shoulder and started rubbing her back.

"Yeah, she does."

"And she's got your dimples and your hair," she went on. "I think this is the only child you have that looks like a combination of you two. Quite a relief too because I'll bet people were starting to think you're asexual considering how much the other two look like carbon copies of you or her."

"Speaking of Addie," Derek started, "I've been meaning to ask for a while. When you and the Captain named Addison, did you realize that her first name and middle name both shorten to Addie? So you named your daughter Addie Addie Forbes-Montgomery."

Adrianne glanced in through the window of the NICU and saw her mother standing beside an incubator discussing something with a somber looking mother and father. Adrianne stepped in through the door and stood back to wait until her mother finished what she was doing. From her position beside the door, Adrianne watched Addison crouch down in front of the rocking chair her patient's mother was sitting on. She heard her mother say, "I know this is hard.

"You don't. You can't. I'm sure you see parents going through it all the time but it's different when it's actually happening to you,"

"I know," Addison agreed. "I had a baby almost four months ago. She was born at 32 and she was in the NICU for about 4 weeks, a little more actually. My husband and I couldn't hold her until three weeks after she was born. There were days that we were sure that we'd never be able take her home. We didn't know if she would make it. So I do know how difficult this is on a mother."

"Is she okay now?"

"She is. She is a little smaller than most four month olds, but she is developing normally, hitting all the milestones as expected for a normal baby. She should catch up in size in about a year but that doesn't concern me at all. As long as she's healthy, it doesn't really matter to me. Your baby was born at 33 weeks and 3 days. Every additional day, every additional hour of gestational development helds improve survival chances. If a 32 weeker was able to make it through, it is more likely for the 33 weeker to push through."

"Why was she in the NICU?"

"Same reasons, believe it or not. She was diagnosed with RDS, like your son. She was on a ventilator too. So trust me, I've been where you are very recently. I know that you are willing to do anything in your power to help your child and that it is physically hurting you to know you can't do anything. I know that some days you feel like the grief and the guilt are eating you alive, and I'm here for you on those days. If you want to talk or if you have questions, I'm happy to help, not just as your doctor and your son's doctor, but as a mother who has been through this. And I promise you, I am doing everything I can. This is personal for me."

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd."

Addison smiled as she stood upright. "You're welcome." As she turned to leave the room she saw her daughter standing by the door watching her. She walked toward the girl and pulled off the protective gown as she did. "What are you doing here? Is it about Becky?"

"No," Adrianne replied.

"You know, if I didn't know any better I might think that you come here after school because you enjoy spending time here," Addison told her daughter with a smirk as she signed off on a lab order at the nurses' station outside the NICU.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Addison met her daughter's eyes curiously. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

"Can we go to your office?"

Addison nodded, "Is everything okay?" she asked as she led the teen down the hall toward her office, located on the pediatric floor in the surgical wing. She opened the locked door and held it open for her daughter to walk in ahead of her.

Adrianne walked in and took a seat on the small couch in the well decorated office. Addison took a seat on the matching arm chair adjacent to her. She crossed her legs and looked at her daughter in anticipation.

"I was uh," Adrianne paused and met her mother's eyes, "I was wondering if it would be okay for me to kind of shadow you."

"Shadow me?"

"Yeah. At work..." Adrianne confirmed. "I um, I want to be you when I grow up."

Addison's eyes widened slightly in surprise. She hadn't expected to ever hear that from her daughter.

"Don't look so surprised. I've spent enough time with you to be familiar with your ego. You're amazing and you know it."

Addison chuckled, "I am pretty good and I do know that," she admitted. "But I am very, very surprised to hear you say it. With everything that has gone on between us, I always thought you'd want to be as unlike me as possible. More importantly, I'm surprised to hear that you're considering to go into medicine or that you have an interest in neonatal or obstetrics."

"Not obstetrics," Adrianne nose scrunched up in disgust. "Not planning to spend any time in that area. Just neonatology. And I'm not really sure yet, I just know that I really like coming here and watching you work. You're insanely good. Your bedside manner is impeccable, your make even the most gruesome procedure look delicate. And if I were to go into medicine, I want that. I'd want to maybe shadow you after school so I can get a better understanding."

Addison nodded her head, "I can arrange that. I'm not sure if I can get you into the OR but I can definitely get you a front row seat in the gallery. It is a really good idea to get some first hand experience in a field before making the decision to commit to it. The Captain used to take me to his Gross Anatomy class with him when I was ten. While his students were working on their cadavers, I was sitting in the back cutting up a hot dog with a scalpel. Learned to remove the casing in one piece. It made the Captain very proud and I couldn't really understand why at that time."

"I know. He used to take me when I lived in Connecticut. He said I reminded him of you."

Addison smiled at her daughter, "Well, that's not surprising. You're basically my mini-me, no matter how much you used to try to deny it," turning serious she added, "But, Adrianne, it's okay if you do this and realize that this is not for you. Don't let anyone pressure you into choosing something that is not right for you."

Adrianne met her mother's eyes and nodded her head, "Thanks, Mom."

Derek Shepherd's eyes fluttered open when the sunlight shined through the crack in the curtains in the room. He turned over on to his other side to find his wife awake and leaning against the headboard right beside him, giving their baby her morning bottle. On the other side of the bed was their teenage daughter, still deep asleep. At the foot of the bed was their son, lying on top of the covers in his warm footsie pajamas.

"Why is everyone in our bed?" Derek asked with a yawn.

"Well, Dylan showed up sometime around midnight when the thunderstorm started. He was sleeping between us. I honestly don't know how he ended up on top of the covers at the foot of the bed. Adrianne showed up sometime around 3 in the morning. She stayed up to watch a horror movie or something along those lines. It terrified her and she didn't want to be alone in her room. As for Adaline, she woke up for breakfast and I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet so here we are."

"And you wanted to get a King instead of Cal King," Derek scoffed playfully as he sat up in bed and leaned against the headboard. He stretched his arms over his head with another yawn and then glanced over at the baby in Addison's arms. Even though she was almost six and a half months old, Derek was still in complete awe over his youngest daughter. "Hey, Ad," he started softly.

"Yeah?"

"Have you realized that we basically have it all?"

Addison turned her head and looked at her husband with her brows coming together, "What?"

"We have it all," he repeated. "A year and a half ago we were miserable. Our marriage was falling apart in front of our eyes, our daughter hated us and wanted nothing to do with us... Fast forward to now and we have a solid marriage, three amazing kids, a good relationship with those kids, great careers, the houses, the cars, and anything else we could ever want. We have it all."

I know it took forever but it's done! On a random note, this story turned out to be 16 chapters which is kind of cool because 16 is my favorite number. It's the little things, folks, it's the little things.

Anyway, thanks for reading, everyone. Hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don't forget to leave a review, please! :)