Dempeo: The right kind of wrong

Tell Me

"I love you patty, thank you so much for doing this", Ellen said with a smile and looked into those beautiful eyes she spent years getting lost in. "I love you too" Patrick replied as Ellen turned off the microphone. The podcast had been an excuse for them to hang out and he thought about how easy it was hanging  out with Ellen. After all these years hearing her call him Patty, still gave him the goofiest grin. No one but Ellie called him that and he thought about how annoying the nickname would be from anyone else. But when she said it, it was just endearing.

Ellen looked across the table and saw him stare at her like he always did and she got lost in the many memories she had with this man. But before she could reflect and enjoy the present, being alone with Patrick, Jill walked in the room with a smile. "Hi Ellen, it's been so long" she said as she walked up to her and gave her a hug. Ellen had always enjoyed Jills company but sometimes she wondered if they became friends out of their own will or out of conveniance. Being close to Jill for her meant getting to hang out more with her best friend. And on some level she knew that Jill kept her close to make sure Ellen and Patrick was just friends. But over the years Jill showed that she was a good friend and she had let go of the jealousy more and more. Ellen also knew that this was because of Chris and her kids. "Yes Jillian it has" Ellen replied deep in her memories. "We have to get together when we get back from Maine, have a game night with Patrick and Chris like the old days" Jillian looked over at Patrick to make sure he was onboard with what she had just said and he gave a little supportive smile. Ellen saw the little exchange and knew she had to say yes. But all she could think about was that her memories of those game nights were probably not the same as Jillians as she taught about their first ever gamenight...

*flashback, spring 2005*

After the success of the first season of grey's Ellen had realised that she could be working with her new co-stars for years. She and Patrick had become close after filming the first season and now she knew that they were going to spend more and more time together on this show. This made her happy but she also knew it was time to get to know his wife and he should know Chris aswell. The thought of that made her a little scared. She and Patty was just friends and she knew that but they did get comments about their chemistry a lot from the people on set and after the first seasons popularity she knew that fans loved their on screen romance as Meredith and Derek. She was afraid that maybe Pattys wife wouldn't like her because of this. Ellen never had a man she was not romanticlly involved with be so close to her. She gave him his nickname Patty after only a week of shooting. He was goofing around with her like always and it just came out, and he smiled at the name so it stuck. But maybe she shouldn't call him that in front of Chris and Jillian. Because tonight she and Chris were going to Pattys house for dinner and she really wanted it to go well. Patty was her rock at work and she wanted Chris to like him.

Patrick was changing to a nicer shirt while JillIan did her hair. This was it he thought, Ellie was meeting his wife and he was meeting her boyfriend. He knew it had bothered Jill to see him be Derek when she watched grey's. She was used to seeing him kiss other actresses but when she saw him as Derek kissing Meredith she had a look he hadn't seen before and he thought it might be because of the way he talked about Ellie and what a good friend she was to him... Well Ellen he called her in front of Jill, it wasn't that it was wrong to call her Ellie but he also knew that telling Jill that he made up a nickname for his co-star wasn't the best idea. But after she started calling him Patty he just wanted to give her a sweet nickname too.
"This night has to go well" he mumbled to himself while brushing back his hair. It was just that he knew that getting along with Chris and Ellen as two couples was key to having Ellen as a close friend without any drama. And he needed Ellie at work, she made him better.

"Your dress is gorgeous" Jill had just told her and Ellen smiled and thanked her kindly. She and Chris arrived a few minutes ago and she greeted Patrick with a short hug, when she thought about it it was probably the shortest hug they ever shared. It was going good so far and Chris had started asking Patty about his racecars. That was a good opener for the guys and they had wondered off to garage to look at cars. As she started to talk to Jillian it felt good. They had a polite and sweet conversation about Jills career as a hairdresser. Jillian had showed Ellen around the house and everything was perfection. Jill really did have great taste in decor and she couldn't help but envy Jill a little and she didn't really know why. Patrick was just her friend so why did she feel this envy? And after the success of the show Ellen could get all the stuff Jillian had... well everything except Patty but she didn't really want to admit that back then.