20 Drabbles for fics20in20
So, there is a fics20in20, which is awesome! This was the first round, and surprise of all surprises, I claimed Addison and Derek from Grey's Anatomy :)
But since this is a 20in20 and potentially people who don't watch Grey's might read them, the spoilers indicate what season any spoilers are from. A couple are Private Practice related and those indicate which season the event happened in as well.
If you read them, I hope you enjoy them!
Theme: Mirror
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She had learned to hide who she was pretty much from the day she was born. Don’t ever lose control in public, her mother had told her. If you need to cry, do it where no one can see you. Show the world you’re in control, you’re happy, everything is perfect.
Derek had hated that attitude. He had despised everything her mother stood for and had taught her to be. Or so she thought.
Because here he was, taking her hand, smiling for their friends and colleagues, kissing her on the cheek, pretending everything was wonderful.
When he spun her around on the dance floor, she could see their reflection in the mirror on the wall. The perfectly nauseatingly happy couple.
So how was it that she was the only one who knew that mirrors often lied?
Theme: Minor
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She worried too much about the minor details. That’s what he had always told her. She worried whether the tablecloth was the right color blue, if the couch was in the exact right spot, if the gift she bought his mother for Christmas would be the one to finally win her over.
He said he preferred to look at the big picture - where their careers were going, how many kids they would have, where they would live when they retired.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy for him to let it all go. Move on and create a new big picture. Maybe that’s why it was so hard for her to do the same, why she kept seeing every little detail, wondering if that one thing would have made all the difference. Wondering if looking at the minor details had ultimately cost her the most major detail of all.
Theme: Mimic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She had always been amazing with his nieces and nephews. As babies, they’d all liked to tug on her flaming strands of hair. When they were toddlers, they liked to be cradled in her arms. When they were school age, the girls wanted her to take them shopping and the boys wanted her to teach them card games. When they grew up, they wanted to talk to her and seek her advice.
He watches her now, playing with the little girl who is mimicking her every action. Addison places a finger to her nose and laughs and the little girl follows suit. When Addison claps her hands together, so does the child.
He sighs.
He might have a new life now, a new chance at happiness, but he knows his biggest regret will always be missing out on having that little red haired girl he sees every night in his dreams.
Theme: Minute
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy
Warnings: None
It took one minute for her life to change forever. His face appeared in front of hers at the end of class one day. He grinned as he asked her if she wanted to study with him sometime. She stuttered out a reply and wanted to die when she felt her face turn bright red. He pretended not to notice.
It took one minute to make her the happiest woman in the world. He took her hand as they stood on top of the Empire State Building, got down on one knee, slipped a diamond on her fingers and asked her the question that changed her life for the better.
It took one minute for it all to fall apart. She watched as his face changed, from shock to disbelief to horror to rage, as he stared at her where she lay underneath his best friend, her legs still wrapped around him. But the disgust that came after that was by far the worst minute of her life.
Theme: Middle
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
If there was one thing Derek Shepherd really hated, it was being stuck in the middle between his wife and his mother.
“You should give her a chance. She’s a good person,” he would say to his mother as she complained again about Addison’s lack of culinary skills and her affinity for buying his family expensive presents. “She just wants you to like her.”
“Don’t think that. My mother loves you,” he would say to Addison in the dark of night as she cried against his shoulder because she just knew his mom had been sending her evil looks across the table as they ate Christmas dinner. “She’s just protective of me because I’m the only boy.”
He wished he could make them both see how amazing and wonderful the other one was, but with every snide remark from his mother and every onset of tears from his wife, he knew that was never going to happen.
Theme: Horror
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 3 of Grey’s
Warnings: None
Addison hated horror movies. She’d spend more time with her head buried in Derek’s shoulder than she would watching the film. He’d tighten his arms around her and stroke her hair as he’d feel her jump and tremble against him. Later on those nights, she would snuggle as close to him as humanly possible, the safety of his arms the best protection against any haunting nightmares.
The night the divorce went through, Addison watched a horror movie alone in her hotel room, the only protection the pillow she kept putting in front of her face.
This time she wanted the nightmares. The monsters and the killers on the TV were nothing compared to the pain and emptiness her life had become without him.
Theme: Humor
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Not really, though it’s based off an episode in Season 5
Warnings: None
She hadn’t any inkling that he was even planning anything, so when he disappeared for a few minutes during their reception, she briefly wondered what was going on. When he reappeared with a guitar in hand, her eyes widened in surprise - and maybe horror.
When he started singing, in the most unmelodic voice she could imagine, about knowing she was the one as he met her eyes over a cadaver - and the guests started whooping and hollering - she began to smile.
And when she caught sight of her mother, looking outraged and indignant that this travesty could possibly be occurring during an otherwise flawless event, she burst out laughing.
It was the only moment of their wedding that really felt like it was theirs.
Theme: Hurt/Comfort
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
He found her sobbing on the bottom bunk of an on-call room bed, her knees pulled to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She didn’t react as he slid on to the bed beside her nor did she react as he pulled her into his arms.
He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair as she sobbed. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
He knew what had happened and why - Richard trying to teach her a lesson by making her think it was her fault the baby had died - and although he understood it on an abstract level, seeing her so hurt and so upset did nothing to lessen the rage he felt toward the man.
For the first time in his life, he understood the urge to actually want to kill someone.
Theme: Historical
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
They had taken one of those historical photos once, at one of those galleries that offered props and dresses from decades before. She had gone for the Scarlett O’Hara look while he was her Rhett Butler.
He’d twirled her around and kissed her before they grinned for the photographer. And when they’d taken the infamous staircase shot, he had leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” in a perfect imitation of Rhett Butler himself.
She had thought then that it would be fun to have her own Rhett Butler. But now, as she sat waiting for him for the tenth night in a row and not once had he had the decency to call, she decided that she had somehow already gotten her own Rhett. And reality was no where as good as the make believe.
Theme: Heroic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
It had been a Sunday, two weeks after graduation. They had been in the Hamptons, celebrating a little before starting their internships.
They were wandering down the street, a little tipsy, a lot happy. She didn’t see the car. She didn’t hear it either until it was already right behind her.
Before she could even scream or think to move, she felt something hit her right side, and she was sent flying on to the ground, out of harm’s way.
She screamed as she watched him bounce off the hood and kept screaming long after. The doctors had to sedate her to get her to calm down, but she wouldn’t leave his side.
“It’s just a broken arm and a small concussion,” he told her when he woke up. “Don’t worry.”
“Don’t ever do that again!” she said angrily. “You don’t have to be the hero!”
He just grinned at her with those dreamy eyes. “Don’t you know I would do anything to save you? I’ll always be your hero.”
CATEGORY; FOOD
Theme: Hotdogs
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None, but based off an episode in Season 5
Warnings: None
Addison threw the leftover hotdogs into the trash and burst into tears. If she hadn’t been certain Derek’s mother hated her before, the way she scolded her in front of everyone for not knowing how to cook a turkey and blamed her for Nancy getting food poisoning made her more than certain now.
“Addie,” Derek said gently, coming up behind her as she tried to choke back the sobs. “She didn’t mean it. You’re not a failure.”
“Yes I am!” she almost screeched. “And she meant every word!”
He pulled her into his arms. “She didn’t mean it. I promise.”
But she knew he was lying. And she hated him for it. As much as she hated him for saving Thanksgiving with those stupid packs of hotdogs.
Maybe there was a reason her mother never let her eat hotdogs as a kid. All they would ever be from now on were a reminder of pain and humiliation and failure.
She never let Derek bring hotdogs home again.
Theme: Trout
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Season 2
Warnings: None
One month of living in the trailer and Addison was pretty sure she hated trout even more than she hated hotdogs.
She hated the eyes that seemed to follow her wherever she moved and she hated the slime that seemed to cover every surface. And most of all she hated the smell that permeated absolutely every possession she had.
If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn he was rubbing his stupid fish all over her clothes.
She’d asked him over and over to keep the fish outside, but of course he didn’t. He was doing it to torture her, to punish her for her indiscretions and her failure as a perfect wife. It was his way of getting back at her, at making her work to earn back his love.
Someday she swore she was going to burn down the stupid trailer and take all his precious trout with it, but for now, she grinned and bared it. She wanted her husband back, and she wasn’t going to let trout stand in her way.
Theme: Chinese food
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Season 2
Warnings: None
Chinese food had always been their thing. There had been a little hole-in-the-wall place just steps from his apartment in med school that stayed open later than anything else around them.
They would stop and pick some up when they had to pull all-nighters, and it became the dinner of choice for holidays that were spent cramming instead of cooking.
She’d wanted so desperately to recapture those times, but as she sat outside the trailer waiting for him, the bag of warm food slowly turning to ice in her hands and his car never appearing in the distance, she found herself wondering once again if she was just clinging to a memory of a life that had died out long ago.
The cold Chinese food next to her said yes.
The hope in her heart said no.
Theme: Pudding
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Slightly season 2 but not really
Warnings: None
The first sign that Derek was maybe beginning to forgive her was the little container of pudding he dropped on her lunch tray as she sat at a table in the cafeteria, alone like always, an untouched salad in front of her and an unused fork dangling from her fingers.
Her eyes immediately shot upward as the pudding touched down, bewilderment etched on her face as she stared at her husband.
“What’s this for?” she asked almost suspiciously.
He shrugged. “I heard you have a big surgery later. It’s not going to do the patient any favors if you pass out because you don’t eat.”
He walked away then, leaving her there with her mouth hanging slightly open.
It wasn’t really the declaration of love or forgiveness she was looking for, but at least it was a start.
Theme: Chocolate syrup
Rating: R
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
The second sign Derek was maybe beginning to forgive her was the bottle of chocolate syrup he held up the morning after they finally had good sex again.
“No,” she said when she saw it, shaking her head vigorously.
“But we used to do it all the time in med school,” he teased her.
“We were young and stupid then. And didn’t worry about making messes in thousand-count sheets.”
She was still ticking off reasons it wasn’t a good idea when he pushed her backward on to the bed, yanking her shirt over her head and started pouring chocolate all over her stomach.
“Derek!” she started, but her indignation didn’t get very far, as his tongue found the chocolate and his fingers slipped inside her pajama bottoms.
“What were you saying?” he mumbled into her stomach as his fingers made their way under the edge of her panties.
A low moan emitted from her throat.
“I thought so,” he said.
AUTHOR’S CHOICE
Theme: Author’s Choice 1
Rating: PG
Spoilers: General series knowledge
Warnings: None
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, when all she can hear is the ocean churning faintly in the distance and the soft sounds of her own breath, she misses him more than she can bear.
On those occasions, she likes to pretend that he’s still there with her, his arms wrapped around her as presses her back against his chest. Or maybe she’s cradled in his arms with her head over his heart, letting its rhythm lull her to sleep.
She likes to imagine that the cheating never happened, that Seattle never happened, that they’re the same couple they were back when they first fell in love.
In her mind, she can hear him say, as clearly as he said the night they were married, “I will never stop loving you.”
And every time she whispers back into the empty room, “I’ve never stopped loving you either.”
Theme: Author’s Choice 2
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 6 finale
Warnings: None
Blind panic is the first thing she feels when she hears the news that he was shot. The next thing she feels is sheer terror.
No one’s answering her calls and she doesn’t have time to pack and the plane is taking too long to get there. And with every shallow breath she takes, she’s imagining the worst.
He might not be hers to love anymore, but she knows she can’t live in a world without him in it.
She doesn’t stop to ask the police officer blocking the door to the hospital if she can go in. She just barrels past at a run, ignoring the shouts behind her while barely stopping to ask for a room number.
He’s still unconscious when she gets there. She takes his hand and holds on and doesn’t let go, refusing to answer the questions her former colleagues are asking her.
When he wakes, it’s to find her, fast asleep, curled in a chair, his hand gripped tightly in hers.
Somehow it feels right.
Theme: Author’s Choice 3
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Private Practice Season 4
Warnings: None
She doesn’t even realize he was at her mother’s funeral until it’s over, but there he is, standing by the bar, chatting it up with a woman she thinks might possibly have been one of her many French tutors.
“What are you doing here?” she asks. She’s been trained her whole life not to grieve in public. Her face is blank as she waits for an answer.
He doesn’t give her one. Instead, he grabs her hand and pulls her outside with him. She protests the entire way, tries to stomp her foot defensively, but he doesn’t stop moving. He finds the hammock they once laid in when she first brought him home to meet her parents. The hammock they once had sex in when they were pretty sure no one else was around.
He pulls her down into his lap, and she struggles against his grip.
But when he whispers to her that she can tell him the truth, that he won’t tell anyone, she loses it. She sobs in his arms for hours.
He never once loosens his hold.
Theme: Author’s Choice 4
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 7 Grey’s, Season 4 Private Practice
Warnings: None
The phone calls aren’t something that are planned. They just sort of happen.
She calls to tell him Sam cheated on her. He calls to tell her he broke it off with Meredith. She calls to tell him she wants a baby. He calls to tell her he does too.
She calls to tell him about a patient she had. He calls to tell her a story about the new intern. She calls to tell him she’s worried about her father living alone without her mother. He calls to tell her his sister is pregnant again.
She calls to tell him she’s sorry about everything that happened between them. He calls to tell her he forgives her.
She calls to tell him she still loves him and she wants him back.
He shows up on her doorstep and tells her he loves her too.
Theme: Author’s Choice 5
Rating: PG
Spoilers: I wish
Warnings: None
They get married the second time on the beach in Hawaii, with just his sister and her brother for witnesses. They don’t tell anyone else what they’re doing and they don’t really make any plans. It’s a far cry from the elaborate production that was their first wedding.
It’s intimate and low-key and perfect.
She cries as he slips the ring on her finger - an exact replica of the one she had the first time around, a reminder that they need to try harder this time, a reminder that they need to do better.
She promises to talk more and listen better and she tells him she never stopped loving or cherishing him. He promises to put her before his job and pay attention when she’s unhappy and he tells her he never stopped loving or cherishing her either, even when she thought he did.
The justice of the peace pronounces them husband and wife, and he takes her hand and kisses her lips. He promises to never let her go again. She promises to never let him.
But since this is a 20in20 and potentially people who don't watch Grey's might read them, the spoilers indicate what season any spoilers are from. A couple are Private Practice related and those indicate which season the event happened in as well.
If you read them, I hope you enjoy them!
Theme: Mirror
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She had learned to hide who she was pretty much from the day she was born. Don’t ever lose control in public, her mother had told her. If you need to cry, do it where no one can see you. Show the world you’re in control, you’re happy, everything is perfect.
Derek had hated that attitude. He had despised everything her mother stood for and had taught her to be. Or so she thought.
Because here he was, taking her hand, smiling for their friends and colleagues, kissing her on the cheek, pretending everything was wonderful.
When he spun her around on the dance floor, she could see their reflection in the mirror on the wall. The perfectly nauseatingly happy couple.
So how was it that she was the only one who knew that mirrors often lied?
Theme: Minor
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She worried too much about the minor details. That’s what he had always told her. She worried whether the tablecloth was the right color blue, if the couch was in the exact right spot, if the gift she bought his mother for Christmas would be the one to finally win her over.
He said he preferred to look at the big picture - where their careers were going, how many kids they would have, where they would live when they retired.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy for him to let it all go. Move on and create a new big picture. Maybe that’s why it was so hard for her to do the same, why she kept seeing every little detail, wondering if that one thing would have made all the difference. Wondering if looking at the minor details had ultimately cost her the most major detail of all.
Theme: Mimic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
She had always been amazing with his nieces and nephews. As babies, they’d all liked to tug on her flaming strands of hair. When they were toddlers, they liked to be cradled in her arms. When they were school age, the girls wanted her to take them shopping and the boys wanted her to teach them card games. When they grew up, they wanted to talk to her and seek her advice.
He watches her now, playing with the little girl who is mimicking her every action. Addison places a finger to her nose and laughs and the little girl follows suit. When Addison claps her hands together, so does the child.
He sighs.
He might have a new life now, a new chance at happiness, but he knows his biggest regret will always be missing out on having that little red haired girl he sees every night in his dreams.
Theme: Minute
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy
Warnings: None
It took one minute for her life to change forever. His face appeared in front of hers at the end of class one day. He grinned as he asked her if she wanted to study with him sometime. She stuttered out a reply and wanted to die when she felt her face turn bright red. He pretended not to notice.
It took one minute to make her the happiest woman in the world. He took her hand as they stood on top of the Empire State Building, got down on one knee, slipped a diamond on her fingers and asked her the question that changed her life for the better.
It took one minute for it all to fall apart. She watched as his face changed, from shock to disbelief to horror to rage, as he stared at her where she lay underneath his best friend, her legs still wrapped around him. But the disgust that came after that was by far the worst minute of her life.
Theme: Middle
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
If there was one thing Derek Shepherd really hated, it was being stuck in the middle between his wife and his mother.
“You should give her a chance. She’s a good person,” he would say to his mother as she complained again about Addison’s lack of culinary skills and her affinity for buying his family expensive presents. “She just wants you to like her.”
“Don’t think that. My mother loves you,” he would say to Addison in the dark of night as she cried against his shoulder because she just knew his mom had been sending her evil looks across the table as they ate Christmas dinner. “She’s just protective of me because I’m the only boy.”
He wished he could make them both see how amazing and wonderful the other one was, but with every snide remark from his mother and every onset of tears from his wife, he knew that was never going to happen.
Theme: Horror
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 3 of Grey’s
Warnings: None
Addison hated horror movies. She’d spend more time with her head buried in Derek’s shoulder than she would watching the film. He’d tighten his arms around her and stroke her hair as he’d feel her jump and tremble against him. Later on those nights, she would snuggle as close to him as humanly possible, the safety of his arms the best protection against any haunting nightmares.
The night the divorce went through, Addison watched a horror movie alone in her hotel room, the only protection the pillow she kept putting in front of her face.
This time she wanted the nightmares. The monsters and the killers on the TV were nothing compared to the pain and emptiness her life had become without him.
Theme: Humor
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Not really, though it’s based off an episode in Season 5
Warnings: None
She hadn’t any inkling that he was even planning anything, so when he disappeared for a few minutes during their reception, she briefly wondered what was going on. When he reappeared with a guitar in hand, her eyes widened in surprise - and maybe horror.
When he started singing, in the most unmelodic voice she could imagine, about knowing she was the one as he met her eyes over a cadaver - and the guests started whooping and hollering - she began to smile.
And when she caught sight of her mother, looking outraged and indignant that this travesty could possibly be occurring during an otherwise flawless event, she burst out laughing.
It was the only moment of their wedding that really felt like it was theirs.
Theme: Hurt/Comfort
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
He found her sobbing on the bottom bunk of an on-call room bed, her knees pulled to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She didn’t react as he slid on to the bed beside her nor did she react as he pulled her into his arms.
He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair as she sobbed. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
He knew what had happened and why - Richard trying to teach her a lesson by making her think it was her fault the baby had died - and although he understood it on an abstract level, seeing her so hurt and so upset did nothing to lessen the rage he felt toward the man.
For the first time in his life, he understood the urge to actually want to kill someone.
Theme: Historical
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
They had taken one of those historical photos once, at one of those galleries that offered props and dresses from decades before. She had gone for the Scarlett O’Hara look while he was her Rhett Butler.
He’d twirled her around and kissed her before they grinned for the photographer. And when they’d taken the infamous staircase shot, he had leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” in a perfect imitation of Rhett Butler himself.
She had thought then that it would be fun to have her own Rhett Butler. But now, as she sat waiting for him for the tenth night in a row and not once had he had the decency to call, she decided that she had somehow already gotten her own Rhett. And reality was no where as good as the make believe.
Theme: Heroic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
It had been a Sunday, two weeks after graduation. They had been in the Hamptons, celebrating a little before starting their internships.
They were wandering down the street, a little tipsy, a lot happy. She didn’t see the car. She didn’t hear it either until it was already right behind her.
Before she could even scream or think to move, she felt something hit her right side, and she was sent flying on to the ground, out of harm’s way.
She screamed as she watched him bounce off the hood and kept screaming long after. The doctors had to sedate her to get her to calm down, but she wouldn’t leave his side.
“It’s just a broken arm and a small concussion,” he told her when he woke up. “Don’t worry.”
“Don’t ever do that again!” she said angrily. “You don’t have to be the hero!”
He just grinned at her with those dreamy eyes. “Don’t you know I would do anything to save you? I’ll always be your hero.”
CATEGORY; FOOD
Theme: Hotdogs
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None, but based off an episode in Season 5
Warnings: None
Addison threw the leftover hotdogs into the trash and burst into tears. If she hadn’t been certain Derek’s mother hated her before, the way she scolded her in front of everyone for not knowing how to cook a turkey and blamed her for Nancy getting food poisoning made her more than certain now.
“Addie,” Derek said gently, coming up behind her as she tried to choke back the sobs. “She didn’t mean it. You’re not a failure.”
“Yes I am!” she almost screeched. “And she meant every word!”
He pulled her into his arms. “She didn’t mean it. I promise.”
But she knew he was lying. And she hated him for it. As much as she hated him for saving Thanksgiving with those stupid packs of hotdogs.
Maybe there was a reason her mother never let her eat hotdogs as a kid. All they would ever be from now on were a reminder of pain and humiliation and failure.
She never let Derek bring hotdogs home again.
Theme: Trout
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Season 2
Warnings: None
One month of living in the trailer and Addison was pretty sure she hated trout even more than she hated hotdogs.
She hated the eyes that seemed to follow her wherever she moved and she hated the slime that seemed to cover every surface. And most of all she hated the smell that permeated absolutely every possession she had.
If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn he was rubbing his stupid fish all over her clothes.
She’d asked him over and over to keep the fish outside, but of course he didn’t. He was doing it to torture her, to punish her for her indiscretions and her failure as a perfect wife. It was his way of getting back at her, at making her work to earn back his love.
Someday she swore she was going to burn down the stupid trailer and take all his precious trout with it, but for now, she grinned and bared it. She wanted her husband back, and she wasn’t going to let trout stand in her way.
Theme: Chinese food
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Season 2
Warnings: None
Chinese food had always been their thing. There had been a little hole-in-the-wall place just steps from his apartment in med school that stayed open later than anything else around them.
They would stop and pick some up when they had to pull all-nighters, and it became the dinner of choice for holidays that were spent cramming instead of cooking.
She’d wanted so desperately to recapture those times, but as she sat outside the trailer waiting for him, the bag of warm food slowly turning to ice in her hands and his car never appearing in the distance, she found herself wondering once again if she was just clinging to a memory of a life that had died out long ago.
The cold Chinese food next to her said yes.
The hope in her heart said no.
Theme: Pudding
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Slightly season 2 but not really
Warnings: None
The first sign that Derek was maybe beginning to forgive her was the little container of pudding he dropped on her lunch tray as she sat at a table in the cafeteria, alone like always, an untouched salad in front of her and an unused fork dangling from her fingers.
Her eyes immediately shot upward as the pudding touched down, bewilderment etched on her face as she stared at her husband.
“What’s this for?” she asked almost suspiciously.
He shrugged. “I heard you have a big surgery later. It’s not going to do the patient any favors if you pass out because you don’t eat.”
He walked away then, leaving her there with her mouth hanging slightly open.
It wasn’t really the declaration of love or forgiveness she was looking for, but at least it was a start.
Theme: Chocolate syrup
Rating: R
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
The second sign Derek was maybe beginning to forgive her was the bottle of chocolate syrup he held up the morning after they finally had good sex again.
“No,” she said when she saw it, shaking her head vigorously.
“But we used to do it all the time in med school,” he teased her.
“We were young and stupid then. And didn’t worry about making messes in thousand-count sheets.”
She was still ticking off reasons it wasn’t a good idea when he pushed her backward on to the bed, yanking her shirt over her head and started pouring chocolate all over her stomach.
“Derek!” she started, but her indignation didn’t get very far, as his tongue found the chocolate and his fingers slipped inside her pajama bottoms.
“What were you saying?” he mumbled into her stomach as his fingers made their way under the edge of her panties.
A low moan emitted from her throat.
“I thought so,” he said.
AUTHOR’S CHOICE
Theme: Author’s Choice 1
Rating: PG
Spoilers: General series knowledge
Warnings: None
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, when all she can hear is the ocean churning faintly in the distance and the soft sounds of her own breath, she misses him more than she can bear.
On those occasions, she likes to pretend that he’s still there with her, his arms wrapped around her as presses her back against his chest. Or maybe she’s cradled in his arms with her head over his heart, letting its rhythm lull her to sleep.
She likes to imagine that the cheating never happened, that Seattle never happened, that they’re the same couple they were back when they first fell in love.
In her mind, she can hear him say, as clearly as he said the night they were married, “I will never stop loving you.”
And every time she whispers back into the empty room, “I’ve never stopped loving you either.”
Theme: Author’s Choice 2
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 6 finale
Warnings: None
Blind panic is the first thing she feels when she hears the news that he was shot. The next thing she feels is sheer terror.
No one’s answering her calls and she doesn’t have time to pack and the plane is taking too long to get there. And with every shallow breath she takes, she’s imagining the worst.
He might not be hers to love anymore, but she knows she can’t live in a world without him in it.
She doesn’t stop to ask the police officer blocking the door to the hospital if she can go in. She just barrels past at a run, ignoring the shouts behind her while barely stopping to ask for a room number.
He’s still unconscious when she gets there. She takes his hand and holds on and doesn’t let go, refusing to answer the questions her former colleagues are asking her.
When he wakes, it’s to find her, fast asleep, curled in a chair, his hand gripped tightly in hers.
Somehow it feels right.
Theme: Author’s Choice 3
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For Private Practice Season 4
Warnings: None
She doesn’t even realize he was at her mother’s funeral until it’s over, but there he is, standing by the bar, chatting it up with a woman she thinks might possibly have been one of her many French tutors.
“What are you doing here?” she asks. She’s been trained her whole life not to grieve in public. Her face is blank as she waits for an answer.
He doesn’t give her one. Instead, he grabs her hand and pulls her outside with him. She protests the entire way, tries to stomp her foot defensively, but he doesn’t stop moving. He finds the hammock they once laid in when she first brought him home to meet her parents. The hammock they once had sex in when they were pretty sure no one else was around.
He pulls her down into his lap, and she struggles against his grip.
But when he whispers to her that she can tell him the truth, that he won’t tell anyone, she loses it. She sobs in his arms for hours.
He never once loosens his hold.
Theme: Author’s Choice 4
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 7 Grey’s, Season 4 Private Practice
Warnings: None
The phone calls aren’t something that are planned. They just sort of happen.
She calls to tell him Sam cheated on her. He calls to tell her he broke it off with Meredith. She calls to tell him she wants a baby. He calls to tell her he does too.
She calls to tell him about a patient she had. He calls to tell her a story about the new intern. She calls to tell him she’s worried about her father living alone without her mother. He calls to tell her his sister is pregnant again.
She calls to tell him she’s sorry about everything that happened between them. He calls to tell her he forgives her.
She calls to tell him she still loves him and she wants him back.
He shows up on her doorstep and tells her he loves her too.
Theme: Author’s Choice 5
Rating: PG
Spoilers: I wish
Warnings: None
They get married the second time on the beach in Hawaii, with just his sister and her brother for witnesses. They don’t tell anyone else what they’re doing and they don’t really make any plans. It’s a far cry from the elaborate production that was their first wedding.
It’s intimate and low-key and perfect.
She cries as he slips the ring on her finger - an exact replica of the one she had the first time around, a reminder that they need to try harder this time, a reminder that they need to do better.
She promises to talk more and listen better and she tells him she never stopped loving or cherishing him. He promises to put her before his job and pay attention when she’s unhappy and he tells her he never stopped loving or cherishing her either, even when she thought he did.
The justice of the peace pronounces them husband and wife, and he takes her hand and kisses her lips. He promises to never let her go again. She promises to never let him.