I'll Look After You

Chapter 8

This is the distance
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Here," Addison entered Derek's office and handed Burke a piece of paper. "It's my two weeks notice... Or something like that." Burke raised his eyebrows at her. "You can sign that, right? I mean, you are chief."

"I believe I can, but with a verbal yes from Derek," Burke told her as he laid down the paper on top of his desk alongside other papers.

"So he needs to say yes first," Addison followed through. She knew Derek would never say yes, especially not now. Addison let out a determined sigh. "Then fire me."

"What? Are you out of your mind?" Burke looked at her strangely. "I will not jeopardize my position just so you could run away from this mess you caused, Dr. Montgomery. Derek needs to be the one to release you from the services of this hospital."

"So you know about the mess I did."

"I live with Dr. Yang, Dr. Montgomery, so yes, I do know what you did. And off the record? It's not very nice. "

"On or off the record, Dr. Burke, what I did really wasn't nice. But I'm Satan, remember? The ruler of all evil," she remarked.

"And now you plan to run away and leave the mess you left behind?"

"It wasn't really my plan, Dr. Burke, one thing just led to another... My only mistake was riding with it when I could have stopped and made him realize what he was doing," Addison shrugged. It wasn't really her plan to ruin Derek's marriage, but it happened and she just chose not to stop it from happening. "And if you would just look past your clouded judgment, you'd actually realize that I'm going away for their sake. There's still hope for them to salvage what's left of their marriage."

"Salvage? What is there to salvage when the both of them are flying to god knows where, Dr. Montgomery."

"Meredith's leaving?" Addison asked, surprised by the news.

"I believe she is," Preston nodded. He ignored her reaction and took a hold of the papers she handed him a few minutes ago. "You need to wait for Dr. Shepherd to come back to have these signed. That is..." He looked at her with doubt. "If you still want to go knowing that there is nothing to salvage..."

"I'm not like that, Preston," Addison raised her brow at him.

"You did admit on being Satan, Dr. Montgomery, your words, not mine. And for some reason, I can't bear to disagree."

"Hey," Alex called her attention. She's been quiet their whole ride to the airport and now that they're waiting for her flight to start boarding, she's been staring into space. "Mer."

"What?" she turned her head and looked at him, clearly dazed.

"What's on your mind?" he asked her. He knew what she was thinking about. Shepherd, once again, of course. She's been thinking of nothing but Shepherd. She didn't reply so he continued to speak. "You know... If you keep on thinking about him... You'd never move on."

"I already moved on, Alex," she muttered.

"Keep telling your self that, Grey," he smirked. "Maybe you'd even start believing it... Seriously though, get that jerk out of your mind. You've done nothing but cry. And as much as I want to permanently ask you to move in with me?" He raised his brow and smiled at her. "I really do not want a hysterical chick in my apartment."

She smiled at his comment.

"See? You can still smile," he told her.

"Alex, could you do me a favor?" she suddenly asked as she pulled something from her bag. She handed him the small velvet box and he took it without hesitation. He opened it and found the two rings he has seen her wearing for the past two years.

"What? You want me to marry you?" he joked, trying so hard to lighten up the mood. "Cos' I'm not that easy to get, Grey. You need a more romantic plan to make me say yes."

"Alex! I'm not kidding around!" she lightly hit him on the shoulder but she was smiling, and that was all that matters to Alex. "Seriously."

"What do you want me to do with them?" he asked.

"Do whatever you want with them, I don't want them anymore," she spoke softly.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Throw them away or something..."

'FLIGHT 71 to WASHINGTON, D.C. is NOW BOARDING passengers from the 1st class'

Alex turned his head towards the door that led to the airplane. He looked at Meredith with a small smile. "That's you, Grey." She stood up and he followed suit as he helped her place her bag on her shoulder. She looked at him for a second and he noticed her eyes trailed down to the velvet box in his hands. He placed the offending hand behind his back and he called her attention. "Hey, look at me." She looked back at him and he smiled at her reassuringly. "You enjoy yourself there, Grey. And call me if that Layton dude tries anything. I'll beat the shit out of him. And don't forget that you're there to forget about McBastard."

"Thanks, Alex," she leaned over and gave him a hug. He wrapped his free hand around her and gave her a tight squeeze. She let go after a few seconds and bravely smiled at him. "I'll be back in three days."

"We'll be waiting," he gave her a wink and gently pushed her towards the entrance. He watched as she gave him one last look and walked inside completely. Alex sighed and looked around, looking for nothing in particular. He squeezed the velvet box in his hands and prayed to god that D.C. does some good for Meredith.

"This is all your fault, you know," George glared at Christina. Christina raised her eyebrow at him and waited for him to explain his self. "You were the one who introduced her to Layton. And look where she is now! Not here, Christina! Not here!"

"She's in D.C., George, that's where she is," Christina rolled her eyes. "It's just three days. She'll be back in no time."

"Well what if that Layton guy's a murderer, Christina! You just made her go with a murderer!" George

"Shut up, bambi," Christina pushed him. "McGorgeous won't be of any harm. He's a lawyer. A high-profile lawyer, at that. He's watched by the public, he won't be doing anything." When they all looked at her, she sighed, she knew those three knuckleheads had no idea whatsoever of the current events going on around them. "Don't you guys watch TV?"

"When did you have the time to watch TV?" Alex asked.

"He's the lawyer of that man who was convicted of raping the daughter of some rich folk or something," Christina informed her oblivious friends. They all gaped at her, clearly showing that they really didn't know anything. She shook her head in pity. "You guys should really learn how to manage your time."

"Is he any good?" George asked.

"He just won the case and from what I've heard, the man's as guilty as how guilty they could go," Christina smirked. A few minutes passed as they others absorbed what she just said. "So you guys have nothing to worry about, she's in perfectly safe hands. Okay?"

One by one, each of them gave a nod. After a few seconds more, Alex pulled something out of his pockets and examined it in front of them. Christina's eyes narrowed as she recognized the two rings Alex were playing with. "How much do you think these puppies will sell for?" Alex asked them with a small smirk and a hint of amazement.

"Are those Meredith's rings!?" Izzie grabbed them from Alex's hands and looked at them carefully. "How the hell did you get these?"

"She gave them to me when I brought her to the airport, she said I could do whatever I want with them," Alex shrugged as he took the rings back from Izzie. "I figured I'd sell them and make some bucks, you know. But what I really want to do is display them in front of Shepherd, tease him a little until he punches me so I'd have a reason to punch him back. I've been itching to punch that asshole."

"Don't we all?" Christina retorted.

"When the hell is that bugger coming back anyway? I need to know when I'm gonna start parading the halls with these babies," Alex wiggled the rings in his hands once again.

Christina wished the bugger came back soon. She can't wait to see Alex punch the dude.
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