Reason Enough to Celebrate

Reason Enough to Celebrate

Addison comes to the hospital during Thanksgiving, and she and Meredith form an unlikely friendship.

"Alright Holden, I'll be back in just a second, I just have to-" Meredith is still talking to her patient when she bumps into Addison.

"Oh, sorry, I was just-" Meredith looks at the floor awkwardly as she runs into Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd, who appears not to be working given the black coat, and the grey hat.

"It's alright... Meredith... Have you seen Derek?" Addison asks softly.

"Oh, he's been consulting with me on this former PVS case, that's not a PVS case anymore because the patient could be waking up..." Meredith rambles. "Sorry, were you looking for him?"

"Did he... Did he ask about me at all?" Addison asks her. Her eyes are tired, and she looks tired, and she looks so vulnerable that Meredith hates to break the bad news to her.

"He hasn't, sorry," Meredith sighs. "Though, if he'd been asking about you, he might not have asked me about it," Meredith smiles.

"True," Addison laughs.

"I'll let him know you're here, if you want?" Meredith offers.

It's not anything close to even by any means, but it's something, and Meredith feels obliged to give Addison something.

"No, no that's alright," says Addison. "I'll just wait."

"You do that a lot, huh. Waiting for him," Meredith continues.

"Yeah," Addison sighs.

"Yeah," Meredith sighs.

It's not in a menacing way, it's in a way that's understanding. When their eyes meet again, Meredith and Addison both realize they have more in common than they both thought.

"We were supposed to have lunch together," says Addison.

"We- I mean my friends and I, and not Derek and I, by the way-" Meredith starts. "We were supposed to all have thanksgiving together. Izzie was going to cook, and we were going to help here. And I ran away here, because I don't want to infect the nice happy people," Meredith sighs.

"Once I literally infected the nice happy people," Addison blurts out.

"What?" Meredith quirks an eyebrow at her.

"Derek suggested that I cook Thanksgiving dinner for his mother and all of his sisters. All five of them. And I'd never cooked a turkey before, and I must not have cooked it long enough, because Nancy got sick, and Carolyn thought I'd poisoned her. And then Derek made hotdogs," Addison laughs.

"What did they say?" Meredith asks her, shocked at the story, but even more shocked that there's even the smallest thing that Addison isn't naturally good at.

"Well, his mother hated me after that," says Addison.

"It wasn't your fault if he talked you into it," Meredith offers.

"They think he's the hero," says Addison.

"Yeah well, he's like that. Or people are like that with him," Meredith sighs.

"And we do that more than anyone," Addison says. She looks up at Meredith, and lays a hand over the blonde's.

"We let him think he's the hero, when we're doing all the work, and we're waiting for him," Meredith realizes as soon as she says it.

"Yeah," says Addison.

"Yeah," says Meredith.

Addison looks like she wants to say something more to her, but then Meredith gets a page, and she promises that she'll check in with Addison later.