I'm like… 5 kinds of excited about this section. I LOVE IT. EEEEEEEEE!!!!

Sidenote: My boobs look FANTASTIC in this shirt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The ER was crowded and loud and yet Derek felt he could hear every step he took echo on the tile floor. He stared uneasily at the curtained off area where he knew Meredith was waiting.

He couldn't face her yet.

He stepped into the small bathroom and closed the door. He leaned heavily on the sink and stared at the silver drain surrounded by white porcelain.

He felt guilty.

Very guilty.

His girlfriend was in a car accident.

Meredith was being hurt, God only knows how bad, and she was scared and alone, meanwhile he had his ex-wife pressed up against the wall of a jazz club.

He hit the cold water tap and watched the basin fill up with water. 5 minutes later his face had frostbite, but he was more or less ready to face Meredith.

He gripped the curtain tightly for a moment in an attempt to hold the nausea in check, then he swung back the curtain and stared.

"Hey," she gave him a relieved smile.

He stared at her in disbelief. She was sitting on the edge of the bed. A little bruised but otherwise looking ok, "You're okay?" he questioned breathlessly.

She smiled, "Sore. Whiplash. But I'm okay. I think the painkillers are helping."

He gave her a weary smile.

"They were concerned about a concussion, but I have a neurosurgeon for a boyfriend so I think they'll let me go home. I just want to check on the others."

"Others?"

She looked at him oddly, "Alex and Izzie? Izzie broke her collarbone and Alex smashed his knee up pretty bad. The back end of my car is totaled."

"Okay," he nodded absently, still gripping the curtain tightly.

"Derek," she smiled touched by his obvious distress, "You're really shook up aren't you."

Derek shrugged, "You had me worried."

"Aww," Meredith held out her arms and Derek reluctantly hugged her.

"I'm glad you're okay."

Meredith smiled and ran her fingers through his hair, "Hey. What happened to your neck?"

"What?"

"Your neck. Did you cut yourself?" Meredith carefully touched each of the four small cuts lining the back of his neck.

Derek reached back and touched them, remembering as he did Addison clinging to him, her nails digging into his skin. He wondered briefly if it would scar. "Yeah, I guess I did."

Meredith simply nodded, she had too much on her mind to really put too much thought into it.

XXXXX

The car was completely silent. Awkwardly silent.

"I'm sorry," Addison said finally, she was sick of the silence.

"Don't apologizes to me," Callie clenched her jaw, "You're not my girlfriend."

Addison bowed her head and played with her fingers.

"I thought you were better then this."

"I'm…"

"I wanted you to be with him. I thought that you would be good for each other," Callie said through clenched teeth as she took a turn sharply, "I thought that with your pasts..."

"I…"

"Did you even think Addison? Do you ever just think? His wife left him for their attorney who she had been sleeping with for months."

"I know," Addison said quietly.

"She left him with 2 little girls. Daisy wasn't even a year old. He just woke up one morning and she had left divorce and custody papers on the kitchen table and moved to Boca. God Addison. He was devastated. It took over a year before he even told me about it. And now…"

"I know Callie." Addison exclaimed, "I know, okay. Do you think I feel good about this? Do you think I'm happy? I screwed up," she took a deep breath, "I screwed up."

"Ya, you did."

"I just," she sighed, "I don't know."

Callie was silent and switched lanes to take her towards Addison's condo.

"Could you take me to Geoff's?" Addison asked quietly.

"Oh, you are kidding me right?"

"Callie. Please." She closed her eyes and bit down on her lip, "I'll tell him, I swear to god, I will tell him. Okay?"

Callie was silent.

"I'm crazy about him. I screwed up, but I'm crazy about him."

Callie contemplated this and glanced at her quickly, "It won't happen again?"

"No! God Callie! I…"

"Don't tell him," Callie pulled out of the lane that led to Addison's place and continued along the road in the direction of Geoffrey's house, "God, I am going to regret this. Don't you dare tell him. Learn this time. And don't do it again."

"Callie…" Addison's eye's started to water.

"Oh don't even," Callie didn't even look at her, just reached for a box of tissues, "Fix yourself up. You're a mess."

XXXXX

Derek leaned heavily against the counter.

"Where is she?" Cristina demanded, planting herself in front of him.

Derek barely acknowledged her presence, "She's signing discharge papers."

"What were you thinking?" Cristina hissed in a low voice.

Derek swallowed hard. How did she know?

"You let her drive?"

Derek almost sighed with relief, "She only had the one drink. She was fine."

"One drink of hard liquor. Meredith is a twig."

"She was fine."

"People who are fine don't end up in the ER," Cristina spat, she was standing uncomfortably close to him, "And where the hell were you?"

"I was… " he stuttered, "She said… and I…" Derek rubbed his hand over his face and caught sight of Callie arriving through the automatic doors of the ER, "Hey," he pushed Cristina out of the way and jogged towards Callie, "Where have you been? Meredith waited almost an hour for someone in ortho to come down and clear her."

"Where was I?" Callie was more then a little annoyed with Derek's accusations, "For the record, I wasn't even paged for this, I'm just picking up my husband who came to be with his friends. As for why I'm just getting here, I stayed at the club to 'look' for you, because I am the only one that knew that you were screwing Addison backstage and I was trying to save your ass. You're welcome for that by the way. And then I had to drive Addison home to her boyfriends. So, I'm sorry if I'm a little late."

XXXXX

The sound of glass breaking in the kitchen masked the sound of Addison's almost silent entry into the house. She remained motionless in the doorway for a moment, unsure of how to proceed.

She took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the kitchen, it was through sheer will power that her head was not hung in shame. Her head was pounding and her throat was dry and she was not completely sure that when she saw him she wasn't going to throw up, then confess everything.

But it wasn't Geoffrey in the kitchen.

It was Ali.

Addison stood motionless taking in the situation. Ali was sitting on the floor in the corner one hand gently wrapped around the other as she stared at the ceiling. There was a ceramic mug a few feet away, broken neatly into 3 pieces, and water boiling on the stove.

Addison bent to pick up the broken pieces of the mug and without a word tossed them into the trash. Turning the burner off she carefully lifted the lid on the kettle and peered inside. Hot chocolate. Taking 2 more mugs out of the cabinet she tossed a handful of marshmallows into each; reflecting on the day she had had, and the night Ali seemed to be having, she tossed in another.

"Does it still hurt?" Addison asked, setting one mug on the tile next to Ali then seating herself on the floor a few feet away.

Ali shook her head, barely glancing at the small burn on her finger that had caused her to drop the mug.

Addison sipped her hot chocolate and silently took in Ali's appearance. Her face was red and splotchy from crying and all the dark eye make up that she liked to wear was completely gone. Her dark brown hair was staticy, probably from hiding under the covers of her bed, and the black nail polish on her toes and fingernails was a stark contrast to her soft pink and white pajamas.

"What his name?" Addison asked, vividly remembering being 13 with braces and stick straight orange hair still waiting to loose her baby fat and grow boobs.

Ali didn't reply right away, she was to busy trying to blink away tears. "Jeremy."

Addison nodded but didn't press the issue. She had had her suspicions confirmed.

"He's in the 8th grade," Ali said quietly, "and last week I told Amanda that I liked him and I wanted him to ask me to the dance next week, and she told Rebecca who told her sister Jillian who's in his class, and Jillian said that he doesn't go out with 7th graders. But then Jillian told her boyfriend Josh who is friends with Jeremy and Josh told Jeremy that I liked him and Jeremy said that I was cool and he'd go out with me even if I was in the 7th grade."

Addison cautiously sipped her hot chocolate.

"But then tonight Amanda and Cleo and Marcy went to the movies and they said that they saw Jeremy there holding hands with Emma," a few tears leaked out the corner of Ali's eye, "Emma's in grade 6."

Addison pretended to contemplate this as Ali composed herself, "Well," she said finally, "Do you really want to be with someone that would rather hang out with a lowly 6th grader?"

Ali looked over at Addison as if she was the dumbest person on the planet, "That doesn't make me like him any less."

"Oh," Addison took another sip, "What about the 9th grade boys?"

XXXXX

"Do you need anything?"

Meredith shook her head and leaned pack tentatively against the pillows of her bed, "You know, except for Callie and George who are locked away in their own little apartment, we are the only ones here."

Derek was very still for a moment.

Meredith raised an eyebrow, "No? Just remember that the next time you want to complain that we never have time alone."

"Meredith," Derek sat down on the bed beside her.

"Derek I'm kidding," she blinked then opened her eyes very wide, "I think those pain killers went straight to my head. I'm wired."

"Meredith," he said again, taking her hand in his.

"They should have prescribed sleeping pills. My mind is just racing," she laughed, "I'm going to be up all night."

"Meredith," he said earnestly, gripping her hand tightly until she looked at him, "Meredith, I am so sorry."

The smile stayed fixed on her face, "Sorry for what?"

"I… Meredith…" he sighed and looked down at their hands, "I should have been with you. I shouldn't have stayed at the club, I shouldn't…"

"Derek. Don't be ridiculous," she continued to grin, her eyes thin slits from the medication, "It wouldn't have made a difference. It was an accident."

"But I…"

"If you were there you could have been hurt too."

"But I should have been with you."

"Derek," Meredith sighed, and then chuckled, "I think that these pills are to strong. There are practically 2 of you."

Derek nodded, "I'll get you something to help you sleep," leaning forward he kissed her gently on the forehead before standing.

She continued to smile, "I'm so lucky to have you."

He smiled wearily at her, then turned away and closed his eyes in shame.

"I love you."

He turned again and forced a smile onto his face, "I love you too."

XXXXX

"Hey," Addison said quietly as she opened the bedroom door. Her stomach clenched nervously. She thought that talking with Ali had given her confidence; if anything, talking to Ali had brought them closer together and now she felt even worse.

"Addison," in an instant Geoffrey was out of his chair and had wrapped his arms around her.

Addison stood stalk still.

"Mark called," Geoffrey gripped her a little tighter, "He said that there had been an accident, and he wanted to make sure that you got home alright. He said a few of the interns had been rear-ended a few blocks from the club."

Addison nodded, "Yeah. I was still at the club when we found out," she shook her head trying to clear it, "I'm sorry, I should have called you."

"No, no," Geoffrey tenderly brushed her hair out of her face, "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm fine," she forced a laugh and took a step back towards the adjoining bathroom, "I smell like a humidor. I'm going to go shower."

"Did they find Derek?"

Addison froze, "What?"

"When Mark called. He wanted to know if you had any idea where Derek was. No one could track him down."

Addison stared at the ground for a moment, collecting herself, "Yeah. They found him."

Geoffrey smiled at her and closed the distance between them to wrap her in his arms again, "I'm so glad you're safe. I just don't know what I'd do without you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Review.

See I know that people read these stories cause now I get these emails when you add them to alerts and stuff.

So I'm begging for reviews.

Cause I am currently unemployed and I have nothing better to so then check my inbox every 3 and a half minutes.

PLUS if it's an entertaining review or has a question or something, I send back witty replies.

So

REVIEW!