The first Addison did when she got in the following morning was to ask Richard to assign Bailey onto her service for the next ten days. Ten days was coincidentally the number of days Meredith had left with Addison.

Richard had looked confused and curious, but chose to believe that Addison knew what she was doing and allowed the sudden request.

Since then Meredith hadn't been left alone with Addison, everywhere that Addison went the resident was sure to go, it was like that children song; Bailey was always a step behind Addison acting as a buffer and witness.

These last few weeks had taught her that some people were quick to believe the worst about her.

She never done this before doubted her teaching style, but there was more at stake now.

Addison just needed to survive the next couple of months without any more scandal or hints of impropriety to finally get what she's always dreamed off.

Her career was about to shoot off into the stratosphere in such a massive way that she would probably leave a hole on Seattle Grace once she took off.

"Dr Shepherd, are you okay?" Bailey asked, shaking Addison out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm great."

Addison felt a full swarm of butterflies butting up against her stomach in excitement, nervousness, hope and a lot of other emotions she couldn't control.

The first step was ensuring that she did everything in her power to win Doctor of the year in the OBGYN field, and that started by taking on more cases and proving once more that she was the best of the best.

x.x.x.x.x

While Derek got reacquainted with Meredith, Addison emerged herself in Seattle life. Derek kept hearing snippets of information about Addison, sometimes it was someone else talking about her, and sometimes it was Addison herself talking about her weekend plans or general plans for the future.

Like now Addison, Mark and Preston were a little ways off bickering about which intern to add to their paint-balling team.

It was a charity event organised by the new hospital president, each group had to have six people made of at least one attending, one resident, one nurse and one intern.

The chance to let loose and shoot each other with paintballs had turned the hospital into a madhouse with everyone scrambling to make their own team and win the hundred grand price money for their group's chosen charity.

"Hasn't anyone told you that it was rude to stare" Bailey commented sneaking up on Derek.

"I wasn't…. I was just looking." Derek answered casually.

"You weren't just looking, you were scowling because Addison is over there getting on with her life instead of being miserable like you wanted. I guess that you are starting to realise that your wife was the charming one, huh."

"I'm charming."

Miranda couldn't help but scoff at that statement, "Face it, the closest person you have to a friend right now is my intern and your boss. You lost all your charm screaming about Addison's reproductive choices at the top of your lungs."

"I apologised to her for that."

"Because the chief made you," Derek hadn't fooled anyone with a half-baked attempt at a public apology. The damage had been done, both to his reputation but unfortunately to Addison's as well, "Everyone saw a different side to you that day, McAss." Bailey said revealing the new nickname Derek had earned himself, the frequency in which people were using the new nickname was gaining traction.

"Miranda, I-"

"The only reason anyone is willing to give you a pass is cause it's obvious that you are hurting, and we just hoped that it was an isolated incident said in anger... But then again we all spent weeks listening to you calling her Satan so who knows maybe this is really who you are. Maybe, you are just the jackass who humiliates his wife in front of the entire hospital and see nothing wrong with that as long as you got what you wanted, right."

"I didn't-"

"Have you heard of the saying thoughts become actions, actions become habits."

"Sure." Derek nodded hesitantly wondering why she had just brought up something unrelated to the topic at hand.

"You have a nasty way of acting like you don't care about Addison, you may want to fix that before it turns into a habit that you can't break. Now if you would excuse me, my attending needs to be made aware of the results of some blood test."

Miranda turned, walking away and approaching the group to discuss the blood results for the patient upstairs.

x.x.x.x

"I'm telling you to just ignore it," Christina advised, eating as quickly as she could. Burke was letting her assist in surgery today, and she needed to be ready.

"I can't, the rings are just sitting there looking so sad."

"They are rings, inanimate object by their very definition they can't be sad."

"Did I tell you that it's engraved? And he's moved it at least three times today." For a man who was so happy to finally have the 'adulterous bitch' out of his life, he sure seemed miserable staring at his wife's wedding ring.

"Is she still on about this?" Karev asked, walking up to the table with Meredith.

Izzie had been talking and texting about Derek and the wedding ring non-stop for the last twenty-four hours, if Karev didn't know better, he would have thought that she was hinting at getting married.

"Yep" Christina responded, rolling her eyes. Unfortunately, she was part of the new group chat that Izzie had created, it was mostly used to talk about the McShepherd's-Meredith love triangle without hurting Mer's feelings.

"Look at this point there's nothing we can do about it. Anyways I say it's good for her, moving on."

"Whose's moving on?" Meredith asked.

"She-Shepherd" Yang answered, "She gave Derek her engagement and wedding rings back yesterday, now Izzie is reading too much into it."

Before Meredith could react to the new or wonder why Derek hadn't mentioned it last night Izzie came up with her another excuse not to stay.

"I've got to go, McAss is consulting on a blastoma this afternoon," Izzie stated, grabbing her plate and walking away. She wasn't storming off, but she wasn't sticking around either it's been like this for weeks on end. Anytime Meredith was in the same room as Izzie she would leave.

The table quietly tracked Izzy procession until she walked out."She hasn't even stayed at the house in the last few days."

"She's been staying at my place for a bit," Karev answered the unasked question even though it was obvious to everyone there.

"Doesn't she hates your place?"

"Not anymore, she's been dropping hints about moving in with me so whatever you did to her you're just going to have to apologise."

Christina was nearly at her wit's end with this petty feud and not knowing what caused it. "Seriously Mer, please tell me that you didn't accidentally kill her pet goldfish or something," she begged.

It showed just how far she'd come worrying about everyone else and their issues, old Christina would have not said a word hoping the issue would distract the others enough to give her an advantage.

"I haven't, I didn't do anything." Meredith protested. "I tried talking to her about it a few days ago, but she just ignored me and said she was going for a run."

"You know if this doesn't get sorted; it's just going to be you and me right. O'Malley has that weird bond with Izzie and will take her side and Karev will follow his dick and choose Izzie as well."

Alex shrugged at the assessment, it was partially true, he would choose Izzie over Meredith, and it wasn't all because of the sex either. "You're forgetting O'Malley's girl is definitely team Addison on everything, and she isn't exactly a huge fan of Mer because pip-squeak had that crush on her so that twice you'd lose him."

"I'm telling you guys, I haven't done anything to Izzie."

"Look I get that all chicks are a bit crazy, but Izzie isn't like that if she's pissed off at you, it's cause you did something. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go get some good boyfriend points by listening to her talk about MCShepherds and how he-Shepherd is fondling she-Shepherds rings and being a McAss about everything." Karev informed, taking his sandwich and running after Izzie.

Karev had also done some growing, he mainly learnt how to be a better boyfriend and learnt to never ever ever bring his personal problems into the work place again.

"Okay, now that everyone's gone what did you do to Izzie, but Nair in her shampoo, bring back the demonic dog, insult her cooking? What?"

"Nothing. I'm telling you I haven't done anything to Izzie."

Meredith had been thinking about it for weeks now, and she still didn't have a clue what was going on.

x.x.x.x

Weiss had achieved the unachievable and had managed to keep Derek and Addison's impending divorce away from Savvy for the last five weeks.

He hadn't seen the harm in leaving Sav to her own devices for a couple of hours so he could pop back into work pick up a couple of case files and thank the partners for the being so understanding.

Weiss knew that the fight had been a big deal once the news broke, but he hadn't banked on someone finding Savvy and tagging her on the video asking if she knew Addison.

"I can't believe that you kept this from me." Savvy fumed pacing up and down their front hallway, she'd been waiting by the door for him to come home and refused to let him past until she received a valid explanation.

"Sav, you were having surgery it was more important than Derek and Addison's drama."

"Drama, DRAMA! They are getting a divorce."

"And you were having SURGERY!" Weiss shouted, raising his voice to her level instantly regretting it. They weren't the type of couple to shout at each other just to resolve their issues.

"A boob job, I had a fucking boob job, so don't use it as an excuse for not telling me that my best friend was going through hell."

"It's still a major surgery, and Addison didn't want you to know."

"She didn't or you didn't?" Sav accused knowing just how persuasive Weiss could be when he wanted to get his own way.

"We both didn't. Addie's called every day following the surgery, and she still hasn't told you."

It still took another forty minutes of defending his decision and explaining why before Sav let him through.

"Have you seen the video?" Sav asked, settling into the breakfast nook.

"Addison asked me not to… but yeah I had a look." Weiss had been tempted to find out just how bad the blow-up had been. "I've got some working on getting it taken down, I still can't believe that happened."

"I can't believe they are getting a divorce, they were getting there. What happened?"

"At this point is probably for the best, we both know Derek wouldn't be able to forgive the pregnancy like he had the one-night stand." Weiss reached over and pulled Sav closer, he needed that hug, that reassurance that she wasn't going anywhere.

"But he managed to forgive her, he said-"

"And look how long it took him to do that. Addie moved across the country, gave up her practice, spent months ignoring Mark and did everything to try to make it work, and he was still sneaking behind her back with Grey."

"But he stopped that, Derek said he loved her and that picture he sent." Weiss already knew she was talking about the picture Derek sent of Addison in the trailer surrounded by a disturbing amount of frying pans, flour and broken glass. "It was just like old times, they were Derek and Addie, Addie and Derek again."

Weiss got it, he understood why Sav was clinging onto hope, onto the idea that her Derek and Addie might still make it.

It was still raw for her, she was in shock whereas he had five weeks to come terms with what happened.

"What are we going to do?" Sav asked, sounding lost and scared. It hit Weiss just as hard when he found out, but time had dulled the shock.

"We can be there for her, and when Addie calls tonight, you can let her know that you know. And if Derek finally bothers to pick up his calls or reaches out, we can be there for him too... after you tell him off of course."

Weiss might not be happy with Derek or any of his most recent behaviour but he wasn't about to throw away close to two decades of friendship because of it.

"Do you think he's gone back to that intern?" Sav questioned.

"I have no idea, I just know that pregnancy has always been a hot button issue for them."

"Did you know that he had Nancy uninvite Addie to everything, told her not to come next month to the kids birthday party."

"Yeah, she told me. Wait, how do you know?" It wasn't something Sav could find out by googling, and he didn't think she'd talked to Addison yet.

"I reached out to the Shepherds and Amy took my call," Sav said far too casually triggering every single alarm bell Weiss had developed over the years.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing." Again, she was trying to keep her tone painfully neutral while avoiding all eye contact.

"Sav, this is serious. What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just helped Amy out told me, no one told her what was going on as well and by the time she found out Nancy had already talked to Addie and Addie had blocked all the Shepherds, so her calls weren't going through."

"I'm more interested in what you did."

"So you know how Addie gets when she thinks someone snubbed her, so she didn't answer any of Amy's emails and didn't give her a chance when she called her at work. Amy even tried calling Mark and Derek but apparently they've also blocked her, and her email was probably going to the spam box."

"Faster" Weiss prompted dreading where this was going.

"So Amy was already going to use her vacation days to fly to Seattle and let Addie know that she Addie was still her Amy's sister."

"Stop stalling."

"It's nothing too bad, but I knew you wouldn't let me go and Amy was already planning to go, so I kinda chipped in and bought her a ticket to Seattle... for this weekend."

"Tell me you didn't."

"Addie needs family, and a support system right now." Sav said unrepentant, "So if it can't be you and it can't be me then it's got to be Amy, bonus points it's going to piss off all the Shepherds and make Addie happy knowing she hasn't lost everyone."