Chapter Text
"All I want is Seattle. I want Seattle and never to see you again."
Despite how the words from the man she's loved - still loves - sting, Addison can't help but bite back a cruel, twisted smile.
It's funny, really. He finally shows he cares like she had begged him to and now it's too fucking late.
As she watches him walk away from her, she knows she won't be able to shake his words off easily.
It's true, isn't it? It's her fault, right? She caused this. She cheated on him. In that moment, it doesn't matter how much she tried to repair their marriage. It doesn't matter that he neglected and dismissed her in New York. It doesn't matter that he barely tried in Seattle. It's her fault. She hurt him. She ended their marriage.
She's spiraling.
This place, these walls, are suffocating her. Everyone she looks, there he is.
Suddenly, standing here is unbearable.
Maybe she'll give him what he wants. It's the least she can do.
She can't just quit now, but she'll tell Richard she has an emergency and she'll go to New York for a few days. Then, she'll figure out how to resign.
Yeah, yeah - that's what she'll do.
//
The rest of the day is a blur.
Addison barges into Chief Webber's office and it's all too clear that he knows, because rumors - especially ones about her - seem to run around here with the speed of The Flash.
She barely gets out an explanation. He tries to question her, tries to calm her, but she interrupts him and repeats her question firmly, nearly hysterically: can she have a few days off?
He says yes and she leaves.
As she's flying down the stairs, she begins to think about how fine Derek must be. She was a mess this morning. She had to compose herself before walking into that room with that lawyer. But he was fine. Is fine. The fact that 11 years are going down the drain mean nothing to him. He'll go straight back to Meredith, where he was before she waltzed in and ruined it.
Addison's barely unpacked her bags at the hotel, so it's easy to get everything together. She books the flight that leaves in the middle of the night. She sits in the hotel room for hours before night falls and she calls a cab company.
She goes to load her bags in the trunk of the car, but the driver already has some stuff in there and not all of her bags fit. So, she puts them in the backseat of the car. Getting into the passenger's seat up front, Addison tells the driver where to go.
Then, they're off -
And it all goes to shit.
//
Chief Webber is just heading out when he remembers that he has to talk to Bailey about a surgery she's doing the next day. He stops in the ER, finding her filling out paperwork at the front desk. Just as he approaches, though, the doors to the ER burst open, paramedics rushing in with a woman on a gurney.
Attendings run to help, so Bailey joins them. "Unidentified female involved in a severe car crash. Was an unrestrained passenger in a cab and-" one of the paramedics lists off, but his voice seems to fade the moment Webber turns around and gets a look at the patient.
That's not an unidentified female.
She's no Jane Doe.
That's Addison Montgomery, who would always be Webber's favorite resident.
Strapped down to a gurney, stomach impaled with a part of a tree branch.
Fear floods the Chief. That's one of their own, fighting for her life. Goddamnit.
A/N: This chapter was purposefully short/vague. There's more to come, including Derek's reaction.