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Addison arrived in Seattle in the middle of a rainstorm. The last time she had seen her estranged husband had been when he caught her in bed with his best friend and then threw her and her clothes outside in the middle of a rainstorm. Now their reunion would be during yet another rainstorm, it was almost poetic. She walked through the automatic doors of Seattle Grace Hospital rainwater dripping from her coat, heels clicking against the linoleum floors, mascara smudged just slightly at the corners of her eyes, and blood red painted on her lips, twisted into a smirk. On the outside she fit the part of a scorned woman, a hurricane of fury in Jimmy Choos, but on the inside Addison was tired right down to the bone, as if something inside of her had cracked and left her hollow. She had rehearsed what she was going to say when she first saw him, something cutting and witty, something that would remind him what he left behind. Addison wasn’t sure what she was expecting to come from her first meeting with Derek since he left New York, but she certainly wasn’t expecting her.
She was standing beside him, all wide eyes and uncertainty. Young, but not naive. She had the look of someone who had earned her pain the hard way, someone who’s monsters weren’t solely imaginary. Derek was smiling at her as he fixed the collar of her coat with a tenderness that Addison hadn’t seen in years. He cared about her, that much was certain, and that was enough to fill Addison with an unbridled rage. She pushed away the ache in her chest and marched over to them. Derek wasn’t happy to see her, but she didn’t need him to be happy. She didn’t want him to be happy. Addison wanted him to hurt the same way she had hurt for the past two years that he neglected her and made her feel so unwanted. And she had wanted the woman with him to hurt too, that was until she saw the way the blonde’s face changed when she introduced herself.
“You must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband.” Addison regretted the words mere moments after they left her mouth. It was the perfect way to introduce herself to husband’s mistress, at least it would have been had the young woman actually known that Derek was married. The blonde stared at Addison blankly, tears gathering in her eyes as she absorbed the meaning of the words. She looked between Derek and Addison, turmoil in her eyes, and then ran out of the hospital. Addison stared at the doors that Meredith had disappeared through and as much as she wanted to hate the blonde, she couldn’t.
Over the next few weeks, Addison and Meredith orbited each other. Addison chose to stay in Seattle until the divorce was settled and the longer she stuck around, the worse the hospital staff treated Meredith. She was branded a dirty mistress, and while she tried to blend in and stay under the radar, whispers followed her everywhere she went.
Meredith stood in the back of the elevator, trying to make herself as small as possible, when Addison stepped on. As much as Meredith wanted to hate her, she couldn’t. She hated Derek and to a less extent she hated herself, but she didn’t hate Addison. In fact, she was fascinated by her. When the redhead first showed up in Seattle, Meredith felt sick to her stomach. She thought that she was destroying an innocent person the way her mother’s affair destroyed her childhood, but in reality Addison wasn’t a victim and despite everything, she defended Meredith and treated her the same way she treated every other intern. Derek had hope that when the divorce was final and Addison left, that Meredith would take him back, but she could never look at him the same way she did before the wife he was keeping secret showed up. He blamed Addison, but he had no one to blame but himself. He was the one who lied and made her the laughingstock of Seattle Grace.
“You haven’t taken him back yet.” Addison said softly one day as she and Meredith were scrubbing out after a complicated fetal surgery. It wasn’t a question, but an observation.
“I’m not taking him back. Ever.” Meredith answered shortly as she angrily turned the sink off. She turned to face Addison fully, her nostrils flaring with anger, frustrated tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t know that he was married.”
“I know.” Addison sighed as she dried her hands and turned to face Meredith. “I could tell the first night I met you. When I… when I saw you in the lobby and I saw how gentle and tender Derek was with you, I got angry. I thought I knew the man that I married, I never thought he would hide a secret that big from someone that he was interested in, but I was wrong. I’m sorry for what I said to you in the lobby. I shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me like that. You did nothing wrong.” Meredith stared at her without saying anything for several minutes before turning and fleeing the scrub room. Addison shut her eyes and took a deep breath to collect herself. Maybe staying in Seattle was a mistake. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Meredith more than she already had.
She went to Richard and told him she was leaving Seattle, then she went to Derek and said that she would come back when it was time to meet with their lawyers, but until then she would be in New York. Word traveled fast that Addison was leaving and when it reached Meredith she knew that it was because of what had happened in the scrub room earlier that afternoon. The intern refused to be the reason that she left, so that night she showed up to her hotel room. She knocked on the door softly, and after a few long moments where Meredith questioned if she was making a mistake by showing up, Addison answered the door in jeans and a soft blue sweater, her hair thrown up in a messy ponytail. “I heard that you were leaving…” Meredith hesitated for a moment. “Because of me.”
“Do you want to come inside?” Addison asked softly. Meredith nodded and crossed her arms across her chest as she stepped into the spacious hotel suite. Addison gestured towards the couch at the far side of the suite, but Meredith stayed where she was, refusing to move until she got answers. “I’m not leaving because of you Meredith, not because of anything that you did anyway.”
“Then why? Everyone is talking about it and Alex said that he heard you talking to the chief, and that my name came up.” Meredith looked Addison in the eye and for the first time she didn’t see the ice queen that she was used to within the walls of Seattle Grace, instead she saw someone broken and tired, much like herself.
“You’re innocent in this Meredith. Derek never should have gotten involved with you without telling you the truth, not when he knew that eventually Richard would call me. The hospital doesn’t know the truth and they are dragging you through the mud because they see me as a victim. I have only been here for a few weeks and I have seen how badly the rumors are hurting you. The longer I stay here, the worse it’ll get for you and you do not deserve that. Derek neglected me for years and then I slept with his best friend. It’s our war, and I refuse to let you be collateral damage anymore than you already have been.” Addison explained. Meredith sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to her. Addison sat down next to her and waited for the blonde to speak, it seemed to be an eternity that they were sitting in silence, but in reality it was only about five minutes.
“You don’t get to decide that for me Addison.” Meredith whispered. “You don’t get to decide what I can and can’t handle. For the record, I can handle you being in Seattle. What I can’t handle is Derek acting like an innocent victim when he lied to me. You are not responsible for everyone talking about me, Derek is.” She was silent for another minute and then she took a deep breath before telling Addison something she had never told anyone else before. “My childhood was ruined by an affair. My father left when I was five and then I never saw him again because my mom was cheating on him. I don’t know who she was seeing, but it was serious enough that she threw my father out. I haven’t seen him in twenty years. My mother…” Meredith sighed. “She took me to the park and I rode the carousel while she was talking to a man at the edge of the park. He walked away and she was a wreck. That night she slit her wrists and I called 911 when she passed out. After that we left Seattle and moved to Boston, the only reason that I came back is because my mother has Alzheimer’s and this is where she is. In a care home in downtown Seattle. An affair destroyed my childhood, Addison. I haven’t told anyone else this, not even Derek. I knew that Derek was hiding something from me, that I couldn’t trust him fully, but I never imagined that he was married. Don’t leave Seattle because you think that it would make things easier for me, you don’t owe me anything.”
“If I hadn’t cheated on Derek, he never would have come here and then you wouldn’t be in pain.” Addison whispered. “No matter how you look at it, I still hold some blame here.”
“I don’t know you very well, but I do know that when you saw a patient mistreating me you defended me. You admitted that you cheated first. You didn’t have to do that. You could have played the scorned wife, but you didn’t.” Meredith cautiously put her hand over Addison’s, staying silent for a moment as if waiting for the redhead to pull her hand away, but she didn’t. Instead she took Meredith’s hand in hers and squeezed softly, encouraging her to continue speaking. “You defended me when you didn’t have to. That tells me that you are a good person and that cheating on Derek wasn’t a decision that you made lightly. You said that he neglected you, and believe me, I know that sometimes people go to insane lengths to get someone’s attention. You’re not a villain Addison, not completely. You shouldn’t have cheated, but Derek shouldn’t have neglected you and he certainly shouldn’t have just vanished without a trace and started a new relationship as if you never existed. Stay in Seattle. Don’t let him win.” Addison nodded, and in that moment they weren’t the dirty mistress and the scorned wife. They were merely two women who were in pain, two women who the staff of Seattle Grace misunderstood. Neither one of them were villians in the other one’s story, they were women who had loved and been hurt by the same man.
Addison stayed in Seattle and she couldn’t help but be drawn to Meredith. She couldn’t deny that the blonde was a brilliant intern who knew her stuff, most people credited her mother, the great Ellis Grey, for Meredith’s intelligence while Addison knew that the intern worked just as hard as any other intern to get to where she was. She knew that there was more to Meredith Grey then met the eye and she was determined to get to know the true Meredith, not just the legacy daughter.
Their friendship bloomed in coffees and shifted to drinks at Joe’s after a long day. In the glances that lingered a moment too long and in the easy laughter that Addison hadn’t realized she had missed. The lines between them blurred gently, like ink in water. Then one night after a long shift, Meredith kissed her and Addison kissed her back like it was the most natural thing in the world. It wasn’t scandalous or a betrayal of any sort. It was right and it was pure. Something that neither one of them had ever experienced before in their lives.
Derek tried to get Meredith to come back to him, but she refused to give him the time of day. He could tell that the distance between them was hardening into something impassable, but he couldn’t let her go. When he noticed Addison and Meredith getting closer— their hands brushing in passing, the secret smiles— he couldn’t help but poke at old wounds.
“You’re doing this to get to me.” Derek accused one afternoon when he had cornered Addison in the stairwell. “You’re using her to hurt me.”
“Not everything is about you, Derek.” Addison rolled her eyes. “You’re not as important as you think you are.”
“You don’t know her the way I do.” He stepped closer to Addison, backing her into the corner.” You don’t know how she operates. Meredith—“ Addison slapped him across the face, cutting him off before he could say anything else.
“Don’t you dare.” Addison’s voice was sharp as she pushed Derek away from her and walked to the door. “Don’t you dare make her smaller just because you lost her.” With that, she pushed through the door and let it slam closed behind her.
It wasn’t easy, falling in love in Seattle Grace wasn’t something that could be done quietly. People watched and they whispered, but neither Meredith or Addison cared. What people said didn’t matter to them. All that mattered was that they made each other feel seen, they made each other feel wanted, and they made each other feel loved.
Weeks turned to months and soon Addison had moved out of the hotel and into a house near the hospital. When she went shopping she bought two toothbrushes, one light purple and one sage green. When Meredith found it the morning after she slept over for the first time she smiled and captured Addison’s lips in a wordless thank you. Addison always noticed the little details, from Meredith’s favorite color to her favorite scent, which soon showed up in the form of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. They didn’t put a label on what they were doing, but eventually no one remembered that they were once the dirty mistress and the scorned wife. They were just two women that only had eyes for each other. They were the great love story of Seattle Grace and it made Derek sick to his stomach. He tried to be civil for the sake of his image, but civility with Derek was like handling a scalpel too close to a vital artery— dangerous and often messy.
“You think this is going to last?” Derek scoffed as he and Addison walked out of a patient room after a consult for a pregnant woman with a brain tumor. “You and Meredith? She’s impulsive. She runs. She’ll break your heart.”
“I would rather be with her now and get my heart broken later than not be with her at all.” Addison responded, her voice confident.
“You really think she’ll stay with you when things get hard?” Derek let out a dry laugh.
“I think that even when things get hard, Meredith and I will choose each other the same way we have been for the past four months. We’re divorced Derek, and Meredith hasn’t talked to you outside of work matters since the day I showed up in Seattle. It’s time for you to move on with your life instead of trying to plant seeds of doubt in my head. We choose each other every day. That’s what matters. You can try to get under my skin, but it won’t work.” Addison turned and walked in the opposite direction where Meredith was waiting for her with two cups of hot chocolate. Derek wasn’t ready to give up, but he did get quieter and in that quiet, Meredith and Addison’s relationship continued to grow.
One night, Meredith showed up at Addison’s house after her shift at the hospital. It was light and she was soaked from the heavy rain that had been beating down all day, her blonde hair plastered to her cheeks and her sneakers squeaking against the floor. Addison laughed as she opened the door and handed her a towel. She pulled her inside and kissed her deeply. “Does it ever stop raining here?”
“You get used to it.” Meredith giggled as she used the towel to ring out her hair. Addison watched her with a soft smile.
“I love you.” She stated simply, kissing Meredith again.
“I love you too.” Meredith didn’t even hesitate.
The cat’s name was Cora She had shown up on the porch one morning during the first real frost of the year, tiny and defiant, and Meredith had fed her leftover turkey and declared her a tenant. Addison pretended to be indifferent until she came home one night and found Cora curled up in Meredith’s lap, purring like a chainsaw. That was the night Cora stopped being the cat and became their cat.
They didn’t say it out loud, but that was the moment Addison and Meredith became us in every way that mattered.
They didn’t flaunt it—but they didn’t hide, either. That line had disappeared sometime between the first toothbrush and the first “I love you,” and neither of them missed it. There were good days. There were surgeries where they operated side by side, seamless and brilliant, and no one could touch them. There were slow afternoons in the living room of the house that went from being just Addison’s to both of theirs with bare feet on the couch and Cora asleep on Addison’s lap while Meredith read through case studies aloud.
There were hard days too. There were complications in the OR. Nights when Meredith would come home and throw her keys across the room and say, “I lost them. I lost her.” And Addison would hold her until the silence stopped hurting. There were days Addison would flinch at the sound of someone calling her “McHomewrecker” under their breath. And Meredith, for all her fire, would just pull her close and say, “Let them talk. I know who you are.” And somehow, that was enough.
Derek didn’t disappear, though Addison had hoped he would. He was quieter about it now—less smug, more haunted. He caught Meredith outside one night after a consult, just as she was pulling her coat on.
“She’s not who you think she is.” he said. His voice was low, too low to be casual. Meredith turned to face him.
“She’s better than who I thought she was.” she replied, not angry, not defensive—just sure.
“She cheated on me, Meredith. You know that, right?” Derek stepped closer, but Meredith stepped back.
“I do.” she said. “And I know she owned it. Grew from it. I trust her, Derek. Because she tells the truth. Can you say the same?” He didn’t answer. She walked away.
Addison had started sleeping on the left side of the bed.
Not because they talked about it—but because that’s where she naturally fit. Meredith curled into her at night like a tether, and sometimes Addison would wake to find her fingers tracing lazy patterns on her stomach in the dark.
Christmas came with snow that turned to slush by noon. Meredith bought a tiny tree, half-decorated it with old ornaments and surgical gloves, and called it festive. Addison made cinnamon rolls from scratch. Cora knocked them off the counter. It was chaos and it was perfect.
Addison handed Meredith a small box on Christmas morning. Inside was a silver ring—simple, elegant. Not an engagement ring. Not yet. But something real.
Meredith stared at it for a long time.
“I didn’t want to rush you.” Addison said quickly. “It’s not a question. It’s a—promise. That I’m not going anywhere.” Meredith looked up, eyes shining and a small but genuine smile on her face.
“You’re ridiculous,” Meredith giggled, slipping it on. “You think I didn’t already know that? It’s been two years. If you were going to leave me, you would already be gone.”
Addison wasn’t running anymore and neither was Meredith. They had built something stronger than whispers. Stronger than anything either of them had had in the past and even though Derek still lurked around, still unwilling to accept that Meredith had chosen Addison and not him, they didn’t pay him any mind anymore. And three months later when Meredith would be the one to propose to Addison in the hospital lobby, the place their story had began over two years ago, they wouldn’t even notice his face in the crowd.