Nicholas kept a tight grip of his grandfather's hand while they stood in an elevator to get up to the surgical floor. He looked up curiously at the man and asked, "You is Mommy's daddy?" just needing to make sure he actually had some relation to the person caring for him at the moment.

The Captain nodded with a small smile. "You have the same hair color your mom did when she was little." he informed the child.

"She's gots wed haiw." Nick told his grandfather as if it should be obvious.

"I know she does..." he paused thinking of a simple way to explain the concept of genetics and hair color variations to a child. After a few seconds he realized there was no easy way of explaining it. "Never mind. We need to find your dad."

As if on cue, Derek walked out of the scrub room, pulled his scrub cap off and ran his hand tiredly through his hair. He instantly perked up when he heard his son screach and run toward his open arms. Derek picked up his son and held on to him tightly for a few seconds. "Me missed you, Daddy."

"I know. I'm sorry. I had to leave very early in the morning and I've been in surgery ever since. I couldn't stay with you and Mommy and in the morning and I couldn't have lunch with you guys." he told his son softly while giving him a kiss on his cheek. Then he turned to The Captain and said, "Where is Addison? Is she okay?"

"She is uh..." he stopped talking, partially because he had no idea how to tell Derek that his wife had left.

"She's been pretty emotional. I shouldn't have agreed to take this case. I should have been there today. I'm sure she didn't react well when she saw you, I should not have just told you show up without giving her a heads up."

"Well, if it's any consolation, she didn't seem upset with me being here. I actually managed to speak to her for a little while. She told me about...her secret, I guess. I wish I had known sooner. I wouldn't have allowed it to get this far. But at least she spoke to me, maybe we can even fix our relationship. But I right now I just want her to stop seeking affection and approval from her mother because at this point it's impossible for her to get it."

"She's the strongest woman I've ever met. I know how hard it is to lose a parent but she's gonna be fine. I know she is." Derek told his father in law surely.

"I think she's taking it worse than you think." The Captain told him with slight disappointment. "Look, Derek, there is no easy way to say this but you need to know...Addison left."

"Left? What do you mean by left? She got a page and left? Please tell me she got a page and left."

The Captain slowly and regretfully shook his head. "You know what I mean. I'm sorry."

Derek had no idea how to handle the news that his wife had actually left him and their son. He was tempted to call her to ask her what was going on but he didn't. He knew Addison well enough to know she wouldn't bother answering her phone. He knew she didn't want to talk to him and he respected that. Derek just hoped that she'd come back to her senses before she managed to do something they'd all end up regretting for decades.

Like any good father, Derek did his best to shield his son from what was going on. He got Nicholas down to bed before drowning his own sorrows in half a bottle of scotch. After a while he stopped expecting her to show up at home that night and he went up to bed. The next morning he woke up and went straight to the kitchen to make himself coffee. He hoped it would help with the pounding headache. What he didn't expect to see was his wife sitting on a bar stool by the island with two cappuccinos from Starbucks in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" Derek asked in confusion, rubbing his groggy eyes to make sure he wasn't just seeing things.

"I live here, in case you forgot." she replied sarcastically. "I got you a cappuccino on my way in this morning. I know you can't function until you've got some form of caffeine in you every morning."

"You live here? Strange considering that yesterday you took off yesterday without telling me where you're going. I had to hear from your father that you left me and our son. And you spend all night god knows where and now you're here with coffee as if nothing ever happened."

"I wasn't leaving you." Addison raised her voice defensively. "I just needed to get away for a little while to think. It had nothing to do with you or Nicholas or my father. It was about me. For once I needed time for me, to take care of myself."

"It's my job to take care of you. You should feel a need to run away from me." Derek yelled back.

"I wasn't running away from you! I didn't even go anywhere. I checked into the Archfield, ordered everything on the room service menu and I had a breakdown. And now that I'm passed it, I'm back. I didn't want to breakdown and leave you to take care of me again. There is only so many times you could put up with me and my mental breakdowns."

"I'm your husband. I'm supposed to be there for you when you need me. There is no limit to how many times I could be there for you." he reminded her.

"You say that now." Addison scoffed. "You won't be saying thing that in a few years, you'll just check me into a psych ward across the country so you don't have to put up with me and my bipolar emotions anymore."

Derek rolled his eyes and grabbed the cappacino away from her to take a sip. "You know what I am getting tired of? You not giving yourself enough credit." he said loudly. "Your mother is dead, you can't disappoint her anymore. You can't get her approval. She can't influence your life anymore. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

Addison looked into her husbands eyes and responded, "See, you are tired of me and all the drama that comes along with me." she whispered in a soft, obviously broken tone. "My mother did this to me, she made me this way. When I was younger she always made me believe I was worthless. She made me think that no one could ever love me. She told me straight out that if she had a choice I wouldn't even exist."

"She did have a choice, Addison." Derek answered.

"No she didn't. My dad wanted another child, she couldn't abort. And this is 1970 we're talking about, getting an abortion would not be that easy. Besides, even if she could have easily aborted she wouldn't have because her trust fund did pay out until she had two children to pass down the Forbes genes to. I was like a business transaction to her." Addison paused and looked into her husband's eyes. "She told me that if I wasn't a 'Forbes-Mongtomery' then I wouldn't even have a high school diploma. She claims my dad literally bought me my M.D. If my family didn't have hundreds of millions than I not be the person that I am."

"This is America, Addison, no one can buy a diploma. Especially a doctorate in medicine. I know it happens in other countries, very small, very poor countries but it does not happen in America, especially not at Columbia University." he told him wife rationally. "They are not the reason you made have that M.D. That was all you."

"Apparently not." Addison murmured. She hopped off the tall bar stool and walked away without even giving him a chance to respond. Addison went up to their bedroom and grabbed Derek's gym back from his closet. Their suit cases were in the basement of the house and she wasn't in the mood to go get them so the duffle bag would have to do for the time being. She had barely managed to get his clean gym clothes out of the bag to make room for her own when Derek came into the room with her half-asleep son in his arms.

Derek tucked Nicholas beneath the covers of the unmade bed, then crossed his arms and stared at Addison. "What exactly would you say you're doing right now?"

"Packing."

"Why?"

"Because you are furious with me and I don't want you to have to force yourself to put up with me. So I'll go back to the hotel for a few days until we get passed this." she explained. And sadly, she honestly thought her reasoning was logical. She didn't even consider that her husband wouldn't want her gone no matter what she does to bother him.

"No." he stated firmly, taking the bag away from her and tossing it back into his walk-in closet. He shut the door behind him to keep Addison from going back in there to get it. "I know you're going through a hard time. Its hard to put things in perspective with your mom gone. You have to figure out how much of her memory you're willing to honor and remember. And she's been so horrible that you may wanna forget her all together. No one can blame you for being a little emotional unstable right now."

"I need that bag, Derek." Addison replied, trying to get past him to get to the closet.

"You do not need the bag because you are not going anywhere." Derek answered his wife, stepping closer to her. He put his hands on her upper arms and looked directly into her eyes before bringing his lips to her. After a two or three seconds he pulled away, reminding himself that they have a child in the room. "I don't want you to go anywhere. You could be a mentally unstable freak of nature and I wouldn't let you go."

"Why?"

"Because I love you. And if you haven't realized it by now, nothing you can ever do will change that fact." Derek answered her.

"When I was eight my mother told me I'm unlovable." Addison whispered.

"Addie, if you haven't notice, nothing your mother said was right." her husband pointed out logically. "You are the best neonatal surgeon in this country, ranked top three in the world. If that other guy died, which he may have because he was ancient, than you'd be number one in the world. You wouldn't be able to achieve that status is you didn't work hard for your degree. Your family did not buy you your amazing reputation. So you mother was clearly wrong about you not being able to achieve anything on your own."

Addison sniffled and nodded her head. "I never thought about it that way."

"And you clearly as lovable because I love you so much that it actually physically hurts sometimes. And our son worships the ground you walk on. He loves you more than you'll ever be able to understand and the scary thing is you love him even more. You are an amazing mother and your mother would never be able to compare herself to the woman you've become...no thanks to her might I add."

"With my mother gone, I won't have someone judging and criticizing my every move."

Derek nodded his head. "Exactly." he agreed. "She is in your past, Addison, and that part of your life is over. Nothing that happened back then determines who you are or who you will be. Yes, your past may influence your future but it doesn't determine it, you determine it. You decide how you want to live. If you let him, your father will support you no matter what you do and so will Nicholas. And you need to understand that I'll support you through your best and worst days. This is the beginning of our future and we've got no secrets or fears. We are ready to move on with our lives, right?"

Addison nodded her head slowly. "Right."

Nick sat up in his parents' bed and looked to the other end of the room to see them standing there nauseatingly close to one another. "Mama?" Nicholas called out then patiently waited until he had his parents' attention. Once his mother was looking at him he gave her a sly grin and very seriously said, "Me is wants peeza."

The End :)
I know the ending is a bit sudden but I wasn't sure how to end it. And what better than ending it with Addek making up and cute little Nicholas demanding pizza to feed his pizza addiction?
What did you think? Leave a review and let me know.