MerAdd Oneshots

Give me a chance

Oneshot based on the sentence 'Give me a chance'. Takes place after Addison and Derek get divorced. No smut.

Addison's POV:

Broken.

That was the only word I could possibly conjure up to describe how I felt. The divorce was gruelling and rough, Derek was harsh on me and I tried to take it the best I could. And even though in the end I was glad we were over, there's always something sad about a ten year marriage ending.

I was angry at Derek for screwing around, angry at Meredith for loving him back, angry at myself for sleeping with Mark. But most of all, I was angry that I wasn't happy with Derek. We didn't have the perfect life with a happy marriage and kids running around. We had stale interactions, cold conversations, meaningless sex and the ever growing need to avoid one another.

What made it worse was knowing he was with her, knowing she loved him despite all of his fuck ups. Despite everything he'd done to her, she still loved him. And I wasn't sure if that made her an idiot or truly, fully, deeply in love.

I was leaning towards idiot. Any man who treats a woman the way Derek treated her isn't worth the struggle. If he'd do it with you, then he'd do it to you. I almost wanted to walk up to Meredith and shake some sense into her; I didn't like her, but it really wasn't fair for her to stick around and wait for Derek to screw her over too.

Then again, if she was naive enough to think he'd be a good husband after everything she had to bear witness to, then maybe they deserved each other.

For the most part, I avoided both Meredith and Derek like the plague. If we were thrown together for work, then fine I was polite and responsible and I didn't let any of my personal opinions or feelings get in the way of my job. But if I saw them in the cafeteria, I sat as far away as possible (or I just left to sit with Callie somewhere else), if I saw them talking in the hall I did my best to reroute and go another way, if I needed to get on an elevator but I saw them both waiting for it then you bet your ass I took the stairs.

All in all, I didn't see much of either of them and that made my life much easier in the long run. But one specific morning, that changed.

I don't remember what morning it was or what was really happening that day. I just remember that I did the same thing I'd been doing since I got to Seattle Grace; I got coffee at the cart in the lobby (it always tasted better, but it was a longer trip than just going to the cafeteria) and I waited for elevator at exactly 5:45. Most attendings didn't need to show up that early, but I knew for a fact Derek got to work around 6:15 and Meredith (as an intern) was always there before 5:30. This was my window of opportunity to avoid them both and get upstairs and to the attendings lounge before I was stuck in an awkward elevator ride.

The work day didn't officially start until 7, so I always had extra time to brush up on my charts and check on the babies in the NICU.

This one specific day, I just remember I was fucking tired. I'd had a long night, and the day was already proving to be even longer. I barely rolled out of bed on time to get to work at 5:45, but by some chance I made it, and I was sipping my coffee outside the elevator when Meredith Grey walked up beside me.

She looked disheveled; her hair was thrown back in a messy ponytail, her eyes looked dry and red, she was looking through her bag as if she'd forgotten something and she was so out of sorts she didn't even notice me standing there until the elevator dinged to announce its arrival and I got on the same time as she did.

"Good morning, Dr. Montgomery" she greeted me, sipping her own coffee.

"Good morning, Dr. Grey" I politely answer. And, because I'm slightly curious "are you running late?"