I Won't Let Nobody Hurt You

28

"Good morning, this is Tabitha Watson's office. How can I help you?" The receptionist greeted in a cheery voice.

"Hi this is Addison Montgomery, one of Meredith Grey's caregivers." Addison started, her voice slightly nervous. "She has an appointment in a few days, but something happened yesterday and she was hoping she could see Tabitha to talk about it sooner."

"Let me look at her calendar." The receptionist hummed, clicking away on her keyboard as she brought up Tabitha's schedule. "She has an opening this evening at five. Do you want me to put you down in that slot?"

"That would be great, thank you." Addison said gratefully, ending the call and brushing Meredith's hair out of her face as she slept. Arizona looked at the two of them with a soft smile on her face.

"I take it she had an opening?" Arizona asked, reaching out to tuck a lock of red hair behind Addison's ear.

"Five tonight." Addison hummed. "I'm nervous about taking her out of the house two days after surgery, but if she's asking to see her therapist or we supposed to say no?"

"As long as we keep her sitting on the couch and don't let her incision site get irritated it should be okay. Bailey went in laparoscopically so it was a relatively minor procedure." Arizona assured her, pushing herself up to press a kiss to Addison's temple.

"I'm terrified of what we might find out." Addison confessed in a whisper. "I don't understand how so many people have hurt her. I can't imagine ever doing anything but showering her with love."

"That's because you're a good person. Unfortunately, she hasn't had a lot of good people in her life, but we're changing that." Arizona cupped Addison's cheek, looking into her eyes. "You saved her."

"All I did was show her compassion and not leave her alone in an oncall room." Addison shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal."

"You gave her a home." Arizona countered. "Have you listened to her? You bringing her home that day means the world to her. You gave her a home and a family. Don't discredit yourself because you are changing that girl's life."

"No, she's changing mine." Addison smiled.

"She's changing mine too." Arizona leaned down to kiss Meredith's forehead, laughing softly when she scrunched up her nose in her sleep. "Bunny is a very fitting nickname for her."

"Her first day here, I gave her carrots and when she ate one she crinkled her nose and very happily announced that she was a bunny. It just kind of stuck I guess." Addison explained with a laugh.

"What do you want to do for breakfast today? Do you want to cook or do you want me to cook?" Arizona asked.

"Can we just have something delivered? I just want to be with the two of you and that's hard to do if one of us is cooking while the other is keeping her occupied." Addison sighed.

"That's fine with me." Arizona smiled. "Are you okay?"

"No." Addison admitted weakly. "There's just so much going on and I feel like my head is pounding. Between everything with Thatcher, finding out what really happened at prom, Richard being an idiot, her surgery, and now Mark Sloan running the hospital I just feel like I can't breathe."

"I get that. It's been a lot for me too." Arizona confessed.

"My last little didn't have nearly this much trauma, this is new territory for me." Addison sighed, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm her mama and I love her more than anything in this world. I just want to keep her safe, but that seems nearly impossible. There are too many outside factors and I just want to stay in this bubble of the three of us where no one would even think of laying a hand on her."