Addison walked into the kitchen of the practice and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. "I am exhausted." She declared. "The first year I worked here I barely had one patient a day. I've seen eight patients so far today and all of them were trying to test my patience." She turned around to see her co-workers staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"You are very snappy lately." Sheldon commented.

Violet nodded. "Defiantly. You're like a rubber-band that's been wound up a little too tight."

"I'm just tired. I've got a lot going on." She replied in her defense. "My case load has been heavy lately, and the Medical Board is torturing me about the practice and I've got a six year old at home who is like the energizer bunny."

"Speaking of Ella, doesn't she get out of school in like 10 minutes?" Amelia asked, double checking the time on her phone to make sure she wasn't wrong. "8 minutes. Why aren't you on your way? You're going to be late."

"Fuck." Addison cursed and quickly left the kitchen to find her car keys.

She drove as fast as she could without getting herself killed, she ran two red lights and she was still ten minutes late. She quickly parked her car, not caring that the curb was painted red and she ran in the school gate toward the benches where the little girl usually waited for her.

As she came closer, she noticed the dirty blonde six year old wiping tears away from her eyes, usually a unique shade of green but at that second they were bloodshot and sore. "You're late." The first grader told her with a little bit of edge in her voice. She has undoubtedly inherited her mother's temper.

"I know, I'm sorry. But I'm only a few minutes late. I thought you wouldn't even notice. You always say that you wanna be like everyone else and play after school." Addison replied as wiped away a few tears from Ella's cheek. "Why are you crying?"

"I don't have friends." Ella confided in her mother, who was now sitting on the old school bench beside her. "The kidses in my class always make fun of me cuz I don't have a daddy. Today Jenna said 'Your mom forgot you? Why don't you call your dad to get you? Oh yeah, I forgot. You don't have one.' Then everyones laughed and they started playing tag and wouldn't let me play with them."

"You do have a daddy, Ella. And you know that he loves you very much. It's just that Mark lives far away so your relationship with your dad if different compared most other kids." Addison explained softly. "Don't let anyone bring you down. They are just too ignorant to understand that every family is different."

"You do you always have to use words I don't understand?" Ella asked with an annoyed tone.

"I didn't know that there are words you don't understand." Addison replied with sarcastically and saw her daughter smile. She could swear that every time she saw that little girl smile her day would get a little brighter. "You ready to go?" she asked, getting up from the bench to straighten out her knee length pencil skirt.

Addison was undoubtedly different from almost all the other mothers at the overpriced, exclusive private school. Most of them were housewives and came to pick up their children in 500 dollar sweatpants or high waisted, designer jeans that screamed "SOCCER MOM!" as soon anyone saw them. They would all wear earthy flats or worn in sneakers and she would show up in four inch Louboutins. They had juice boxes and ziplock bags full of goldfish crackers in their purse, Addison on the other hand refused to let anything edible enter her purse because she didn't want to risk crumbs and spills. She was different, she stuck out and she knew her daughter hated it. The only advantage she had was that most of the other working mothers sent nannies in their place, she opted to keep things personal with her daughter and always found time to do what was needed to care for her daughter.

"Are we going home?" the little girl asked as soon as she was buckled into the booster seat custom made for the back seat of Addison's hardtop convertible Maserati. Most other kids went home in a mini-van complete with a fridge and TVs on the back of every seat.

"No, honey, not yet. I have two more patients I have to see, then we have to stop by at the hospital so I can check on the babies I operated on yesterday then we can grab take-out and go home."

Ella groaned but didn't complain. "I want orange chicken …and curly fries." She decides and announced to her mother once they drove away from the curb.

"I highly doubt that there is anywhere, at least not anywhere decent, that has both Chinese food and curly fries." Addison answered, glancing at her daughter through the rearview mirror.

Ella shrugged. "So we'll get it from two different places." She answered, looking at her with an arched brow wondering why that solution was not obvious to her mother from the beginning. "I thought doctors are supposed to be smart…especially if they cut people open."

"Yeah, well…apparently we are not as smart as the wise-ass six year old in my back seat."

"Ass is a bad word, Mommy." Ella replied sternly, her brows knitted together. "You don't get desert tonight."

Hours later Ella was fed, she'd had her nightly bath, Addison even let her choose out any pajamas she wanted. She was tucked and left alone in the room with her night light to drift off into sleep but Ella never made anything that easy.

Somewhere around three in the morning Addison woke up to see her standing right by her bed. She rubbed her eyes and propped herself up on her elbows and looked at her daughter groggily. "What's wrong, Ella?" she asked softly, reaching up to tuck Ella's loose hair behind her ear.

"My tummy hurts." She whispered. "I think you were right, orange chicken and curly fries don't mix."

Addison held up her blanket, wordlessly telling her daughter to get in the bed. Ella quickly got in, seeking warmth and comfort. Addison rubbed slow circle on over her abdomen until her breathing became heavy and even. Addison watched her sleep for a few minutes then just as she was about to fall back to sleep herself Ella moved closer, a little too close to allow Addison any comfort. She nuzzled her head against Addison's chest and curled up her legs, jabbing her knee into her mother's stomach.

Addison winced but didn't make a sound so she wouldn't wake her daughter. She didn't even bother to move away her daughter's leg. She just placed a kiss on the crown of her little girl's head and held her tighter.

Her eyes opened only to discover that there was no child nestled against her chest. There was no tiny leg pressed into her stomach, no one snoring softly right beneath her ear. There was no Ella to occupy 75 percent of her schedule and there never would be because she had passed up on the one chance she had at motherhood.

So after seeing that scene from last night's PP I knew I had to write a story. I wrote like three different versions but this one is my favorite so I posted this and deleted the rest. Hope you like it :) Let me know what you think.

And just for the record, I totally agree with Addison. Getting that abortion was the best thing she could have done for everyone involved at the time but now that she's barren and ready for a child the "what if she would have had the baby" thoughts are like a kick while you're down.