In A Faith Forgotten Land

5

Present Time

Meredith knocked on the door of Addison's hotel room, anxiously shifting on her feet while she waited for the redhead to answer. She felt the world flip on its axis when Addison pulled the door open with a soft smile. Meredith's stomach filled with butterflies as a blush crept up on her cheeks. She stepped into the hotel room and kissed Addison soundly as the door fell shut. "I've been thinking about this all day."

"Me too." Addison hummed, smiling into the kiss before pulling back and looking over Meredith's expression with a critical eye. "What's wrong?"

"Nothings wrong." Meredith forced a smile on her face and leaned back in to kiss Addison, but the redhead pulled away and sat down on the edge of the bed, tapping the spot next to her for the blonde to sit down. "Addie, I promise that I'm okay." She insisted as she sat down next to the redhead, anxiously picking at her fingers.

"You say that you're okay, but unless your fingers did something to you without my knowledge, there's no reason for you to be picking at them like that." Addison gently pulled Meredith's hands into her own, squeezing lightly as the blonde broke down crying. "It's okay, just let it out." The redhead pulled the blonde into her arms and rubbed soothing circles into her back. "I'm right here, you're safe."

"I'm sorry." Meredith sniffled against Addison's shoulder. "I didn't think I was going to break down like that."

"You never have to apologize for having feelings." Addison assured her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. "Do you want to tell me what got you so upset?"

"Derek." Meredith croaked and rolled her eyes. "He spent every free moment he had after you told him that you wanted a divorce asking me out. I keep saying no, but he just keeps asking. Honestly, he started getting kind of creepy about it. The things he was saying, he was making my skin crawl."

"What was he saying?" Addison cradled Meredith's face in her hands, looking intently into the blonde's tear filled blue eyes. "Talk to me, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on in that pretty little head."

"He said that one day I'll see that I belong with him, he said the lesson may be painful, but it's one that I'll be better off after learning." Meredith explained in a shaky voice, taking a deep breath once she finished in an attempt to calm her racing heartbeat. "Every time he asked me out, the way he did it was if he was asking but that it wasn't really optional. I'm starting to see why you were staying with him, I always thought you were over exaggerating when you talked about how obsessed with me Derek is."

"He was pretending to care about our marriage in one breath, but then in the next breath he would be talking about you and how you wouldn't talk to him anymore." Addison sighed. "His behavior has been slightly unhinged so yes, I was staying with him because I knew that once I used the word divorce he would immediately go after you. I just wanted to keep you safe."

"I appreciate that." Meredith flashed a small smile. "But I am happy that you're finally getting divorced because then I can do this." She pressed her lips against Addison's. "Whenever I want without caring about who may see us."

"You're really happy that once my divorce is finalized that we won't have to sneak around anymore, aren't you?" Addison laughed. "You've spent three months talking about how if I get divorced, then you'll be able to kiss me with no hesitation."

"I really like kissing you." Meredith shrugged. "Are you doing okay? It can't be easy to end a marriage after eleven years."

"We should have gotten divorced after our first year of marriage, we never should have let things get drawn out for another decade." Addison groaned and laid her head on Meredith's shoulder. "Although if we did get divorced all those years ago, I probably never would have met you so I guess there's a positive in everything."