McMistress-Addison Montgomery

raindrops keep falling on my head...

"A fucking husband? Seriously, Addison, you're married?"

The perfect trip to Seattle Addison had intended was long since gone. To say Peyton was pissed was an understatement. If this were a cartoon, smoke would be coming out of her ears.

"Peyton, I know you're angry-" Addison was quickly cut off.

"Oh, trust me, I'm more than angry. I am fucking livid! When were you gonna tell me?" Addison stayed dead silent. "Oh my god. You weren't gonna tell me, were you?"

Addison hesitated to answer, but as she sat there, she knew she had to. "I promise I was just giving him our divorce papers." She held up the papers in her defense. "See? I already signed them."

Peyton took the papers out of her hand and threw them on the floor. "I don't care about the damn papers, Addison! You've lied to me ever since I met you!" Both women were in a fit of tears.

"I'm so-"

"I get it, you're so sorry." Peyton began to pace the floor of their shared hotel room. "I want to know everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything. If you want to have any chance of salvaging this, I need to know everything."

"Okay, everything, right." Addison wiped her tears away with a handkerchief lying next to her. "Uh, the night that we met, Derek and I got into a huge fight. Screaming, yelling, waterworks, all of it. I left to clear my head and ended up at that bar. I slept with you because I was drunk, and frustrated, a-and I really just wanted to get Derek out of my head. I didn't know where I was when I woke up in your apartment. When I realized that I cheated on Derek, I felt guilty and tried to sneak out. You woke up and then asked me out to dinner a-and I wanted to say no, but you were so sweet, and understanding, and good in bed, so I said yes. I thought it would be one date, but it wasn't. That night with you meant so much to me, so when you asked why we were always at your place, I lied. I panicked and I lied because I loved you, but I loved Derek too. Then, when you asked me to move in, I panicked again. Derek's best friend, Mark, got me drunk on chardonnay and we slept together. Derek walked in on us together. He left for Seattle and I knew it was over, so I agreed to move in. And then Richard called, he said a patient of mine was here, and I realized that I could get the divorce and you and Derek never had to know about each other. Obviously that didn't work out." As Addison finished her story, it was if Peyton was looking through her. Like the woman she knew, the woman she loved, had just disappeared. "Peyton, please, say something."

Each word that came out of her mouth just teased Addison. "I'm gonna go clear my head." Those were the same words Addison used a minute before to describe the night she had cheated on her husband.

"Peyton, please, please don't leave." The tears started to flow again, but it was too late. Peyton had already grabbed her jacket and was on her way out the door. The defiant slam of the door broke Addison.

Whether she wanted to admit or not, she loved Peyton now more than she had ever loved Derek in the past.

XXX

Peyton was quick to learn that Joe's Bar was the spot where hospital workers let themselves mourn...

Whether it was a patient, a partner, or a family member, this is where everyone came to mourn. Peyton was almost enjoying mourning the loss of her relationship unaccompanied, but she would never turn down a free drink.

"Hey, Peyton was it?" Peyton only nodded at the intern's question. "Can I buy you another one? We've both had a tough day."

Peyton looked to Joe, her lazy eyes full of pain. "Another whiskey, neat. On her tab." He nodded and went off to make the drink. "You know we're the dirty mistresses, right? We slept with the perfect married people. We could form a club or something." As Joe came back with her drink, Meredith raised hers up.

"Here's to the dirty mistress club."

"Here here." Peyton fiddled with her glass as a silence washed over the two women. "You waiting for your attending friends?"

"Uh, no, I'm an intern actually." She responded awkwardly.

"You screwed an attending?"

"Yeah."

"Respect." The comfortable silence came over them again.

"Joe, you all right?" A crash came from behind the two women. It was the bartender, Joe.

"This is what happens when I try to mourn." Peyton muttered as her and Meredith sprang into action, as did the other hospital employees around them.

"Joe, lie down, medics are on the way." One of Meredith's intern friends, George O'Malley, tried to assure the man who tried to get up.

"You called the gurney patrol?" He asked, clearly annoyed.

"Sit back and relax." Peyton commanded him sternly. "We have to take you to the hospital to run some tests."

That only made him resist more. "Tests? No. I don't need any tests. I'm fine."

"Dude, you collapsed on the floor. This is your bar. You know how filthy the floor is." Another intern, Cristina Yang said from a distance, trying to appeal to him.

"Radial pulse is strong."

"Minor skull contusion."

Joe wobbled, but still managed to fight the two smaller women and stand up. "Forget this. The hospital is right across the street. I can sure as hell walk across the street by myself."

"Yeah, but we're not taking any chances." Peyton told him, grabbing her bag and supporting him as the two left the bar and made their way towards the hospital.

XXX

For Peyton, it was one thing having to be stuck in the same city as Addison...

But it was another when she and her husband were being secretive in a secluded room. The two mistresses walked in on them together.

"Dr. Shepherd?"

Both attendings responded immediately. "Yes?"

Peyton's heart dropped. She only ever went by Addison Forbes Montgomery. Meredith ignored her lover and focused on the woman she pledged to hate. "Labs confirm what looks like abnormalities on the ultrasound. I think you should come see for yourself."

Addison shot a look at her husband and looked at Peyton longingly before answering. "Fine. Let's go."

"Meredith."

"Don't."

"Meredith." She ignored him and took off, leaving Derek and Peyton standing there. Derek bit his bottom lip, glaring at the "homewrecker."

"Don't look at me, I'm just here to read x-ray results." He didn't answer. "And for the record, I didn't know she had a husband. If I did, I would have tried harder not to fall in love with her." He nodded, not uttering a single word to her, and instead taking off.

XXX

The words resonated with Derek as his day went on...

If Peyton was telling the truth, if she didn't know Derek existed, he had no reason to be so angry at her. That decision was what drove him to Joe's Bar after work, where he secretly suspected that Peyton would be. He was right. As Derek sat down next to her, Peyton was definitely expecting to be yelled at. Instead, it was quite the opposite. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"You know that's the second time in 24 hours someone's asked me that?"

"I just wanted to apologize. I'm sorry, I have no right to be pissed at you. Neither of us had any idea the other one existed. Addison was the one who screwed us over."

Peyton smiled, taking Derek up on his friendly offer. "I'll take a whiskey, neat."

"I respect that drink." The two drank and laughed together, not noticing a certain redhead leering from a distance.