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“If you go--” The rest of her sentence is drowned out by the sound of the door slamming behind Derek as he leaves. If you go, our daughter is going to have a broken family.
Addison is left staring at the door, almost willing her husband to come back. She’d made a mistake tonight. But god, hadn’t he made mistakes too? Coming home late, forgetting their anniversary, showing up late to his own daughter’s birthday party… the last one had been nearly unforgivable had Ivy not been so ecstatic he’d arrived at all. Still, what Addison had done was worse than missing a few special occasions.
As if summoned by her train of thought, Addison hears the telltale soft thumps of small footsteps on the hardwood floor. She blinks, turning towards the stairs to find a familiar figure standing at the top of the staircase with a stuffed purple unicorn in hand. In the midst of all the commotion she hadn’t realized they might’ve woken Ivy.
“Hi sweetheart.” She says softly, abandoning her spot in the foyer in favor of walking up the staircase to comfort her daughter. She stopped a few steps away from the top so they were level with one another. Everything else could wait until the morning, the toddler needed to go back to bed. “Did you have a bad dream?”
She so sincerely wished she was in the middle of one right this moment, except the dampness of the shirt she was wearing and the cold water droplets all over her skin and hair told her this was all so very real. Ivy shakes her head, sky blue eyes regarding her mother carefully. “Why you wet?”
“I got caught in the rain outside.” She replies, trying to give a reassuring smile like she’d been doing something silly rather than getting thrown out by her husband. “Now let’s get you back to bed, it’s too late for little girls to be up.”
Before Addison can touch her to pick her up, Ivy turns away, taking a step back. “No touchy.” Addison stares at her for a second, trying not to burst into tears at having her heart broken twice in one night. Had Ivy heard what was going on? Thankfully, the little girl quickly puts her out of her added misery by adding, “You wet. Don’t wanna be wet too.”
That made sense. Leave it to Addison to have raised the tiniest drama queen in Manhattan. She nods, going the rest of the way up the stairs before holding out her hand. Ivy eyes it warily before taking it, looking up at her mother as she asks, “Sleep wif you tonight?”
Addison’s mind wanders to the sleigh bed in her and Derek’s bedroom, the paisley sheets a reminder of her betrayal. She couldn’t stay there tonight, and as much as she wanted to stay downstairs and wait for Derek to come back, she didn’t want to give Ivy the idea that something was wrong. “How about I sleep in your room?”
The toddler nods, leading her mother to her bedroom. Addison stops at the door, in turn causing Ivy to stop and look up at her again. “I’m just going to change. I’m sure you don’t want all your friends getting wet. Mama will be back in a few minutes.”
Ivy nods, making her way inside her room while Addison goes further down the hall to hers. She showers quickly, putting on a pair of pajamas. Ivy wouldn’t go back to sleep until her mother arrived and Addison had already ruined enough tonight, she didn’t want Ivy’s sleep schedule to be the next thing she ruined. She hurries back to Ivy’s room to find the toddler sitting up in bed, waiting patiently for her.
Addison climbs in, pulling up the covers before wrapping her arms around the toddler. Ivy rests her head on her mother’s chest. “Night, mama.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart.” She replies softly, pressing a kiss on Ivy’s forehead. Within minutes, she feels the toddler’s breaths even out as she falls asleep. She does her best to stay awake, hoping to catch Derek in case he returns, but Addison soon finds herself allowing the sound of Ivy’s breathing and occasional snores to lull her to sleep.
-
Derek returns early the next morning before the sun even begins to appear on the horizon. He enters the brownstone carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible. To his surprise, Addison isn’t waiting by the stairs or asleep on the couch. He creeps around carefully, briefly wondering if she’d left. She wouldn’t. Not with the way she’d been talking last night. Still, Derek creeps up to their bedroom, opening the door to find the bed empty.
He enters carefully, almost feeling like an intruder in his own home. The room is almost exactly like how they’d left it after… Derek shakes his head, not even wanting to think about it. As he grabs a bag from his closet and starts packing his clothes, he notices Addison’s phone and pager on her nightstand. Objects she wouldn’t have left behind if she did leave. Then where was she?
He finishes packing his things quickly. He’d made plans last night, he was going to Seattle for a fresh start. and the Head of Neuro position , a voice in his head that sounds eerily like Addison reminds him. It wasn’t wrong. After missing out on the position at Mt. Sinai three years ago he’d wanted to jump at the opportunity to take over neuro at Seattle Grace. The only thing keeping him in New York were Addison and Ivy.
Which reminds him, if Addison had truly left she wouldn’t have left Ivy behind. His bag in hand, Derek makes his way back into the hall, stopping in front of his daughter’s bedroom. He opens the door carefully, the room illuminated only by the soft glow of the night light on the bedside table. Addison and Ivy are cuddled close and sleeping soundly. Well that answered his question of where his wife was. More importantly, it pretty much solved the dilemma that had been plaguing him all night.
The decision to go to Seattle had been easy enough, it got him away from Addison and gave him the job he so desperately wanted. The problem was Ivy, more specifically, whether he should take her with him. Derek had never been a particularly invested father. He loved Ivy, he did his best when he was around, but… something had changed in him when he’d gotten passed up for the head of neuro. Addison, on the other hand, had been all-in as a parent from the moment the plus sign had appeared on the pregnancy test. She was there for every little milestone and came running if Ivy had so much as a paper cut. Seeing her and their daughter curled around each other had only confirmed what Derek himself had decided: Ivy should stay with Addison, even if it meant she might grow up without him. Addison may be a cheater but there was no doubting the fact she was an amazing mother.
Derek takes one last look at his wife and daughter. He loves them. He does. But he just can’t bear to look at them right now, not while the hurt and betrayal were still so fresh. Maybe someday he’d forgive her and they could be a family again, but for now Derek closes the door and heads out into his new life.