Out Of The Dark

Chapter 2: Voices in the Dark of the Roadside.

Chapter 2: Voices in the Dark of the Roadside.

Meredith hits "answer" on her phone before she looks at the caller ID and she pulls over to the side of the road when she hears the start of Addison's voice on the other side of the line.

She's called her six times in the past few hours but gave up after she'd gotten no calls back in response.

"Oh hey, Meredith" Addison tries to act casually as if she'd just dialed this number by accident, rather than the way it actually was. Which was that Addison had dialed this number no less than seven times before she finally had the courage and bravado to press "call".

"Are you okay?" Meredith gets right to the point.

"Ah-" Addison stammers because she'd been expecting some sort of small talk to occur before she'd been asked that so she hadn't had the time to formulate a proper response.

"So okay we can drop the 'is Addison okay' question for now if you want" Meredith offers her and Addison takes this gratefully.

"So tell me, are there any boys in your life Addison Montgomery" Meredith says to her in a sort of teasing tone.

"Well there's this one guy..." Addison trails off because to be honest, it's not that exciting.

"Ohh, well please do go on" Meredith says in a gossipy way and Addison can't help but feel a small pang of regret when she hears Meredith's voice perk up at the mention of her shacking up with someone else.

"Well this cute-ish cancer doc keeps asking me out to dinner but I keep turning him down" Addison exhales sharply. "He's like just, okay" she tries to explain to Meredith.

"I see, so your cancer doc is cute-ish and he's flirting but you're not sure he's smart as he thinks he is because he has no solutions for helping Susan and because if he did, then maybe he might have sort of a shot of at least you showing up to his dinner offer" Meredith guesses exactly.

"Right." Addison concedes to her. "I didn't expect you to guess that all on the first go" she sighs.

"Well, I am, aren't I?" Meredith asks her gently. "Well, you are," Addison says with another sigh. I guess I better be getting back to see what he's come up with" Addison can think of no more excuses to keep talking to Meredith now, no matter how much a part of her wants to.

"Do you want me to come over?" Meredith offers and Addison frowns at her seemingly hearing a tinge of hope lacing Meredith's tone.

She decides she's imagining it. The hope, that is. And that it's her own mind construing Meredith's offer to be something it's not because some wretched part of her brain apparently wants to dredge up her painful past and thrust her all the way back in with some new obstacles to contend with.

"I said, do you want me to come over?" Meredith offers again because Addison has not said a thing and she wants to see if Addison is even still breathing after she couldn't hear her even sighs over the phone anymore.

"I- I-" Addison tries terribly hard to say "I don't want you to feel you have to just for me" to Meredith to her offer but she can't get the words to form right and she thinks that she's going to start crying again because when Meredith said that, she realized that out here that she's all alone.

"I'll be over tomorrow" Meredith answers for her. "It's not just for you" Meredith covers quickly. "There's a sort of surgical innovation conference happening this time of year in LA and I always wanted to go but I never got invited to one" she explains. "But there's public lectures sometimes in the mornings so I could go check those out while I stay in LA for a few days" Meredith shrugs audibly.

She hadn't said anything yet in response, but Addison was starting to panic a bit off Meredith's comment because she had just said "a couple days" not "a few hours" and as far as she knew, Meredith had no family outside of Seattle. So where would she stay?

"I could stay at Sam and Naomi's or I could stay at the hospital or I could book a hotel or I could-" Meredith takes a breath before saying what Addison thinks she is saying.

"Come stay with me" Addison finally answers her.

"My mother's at a hotel so there's space. And I need someone there in the nights anyhow for when I wake up with nightmares, I feel bad for Sam and Naomi they've gotten no sleep since she's been sick" Addison says honestly and she has absolutely no idea on earth why she might be spilling her guts all of the sudden to Meredith Grey over the phone.

"Send me your address" is all Meredith says as Addison contemplates. "I'll take the burden off of your best friends and neighbors" she offers and she has no idea how Meredith had figured that one out so fast but whatever. It was already settled then.

Addison says "okay" to Grey before Meredith hangs up and Doctor Grey puts down her phone drives away again.

And Addison is suddenly relieved when she realizes that Meredith had been too preoccupied to ask her if she was doing okay again, which she wasn't.

She wasn't okay because Meredith Grey was going to come out and visit her. In her house. To sleep in one of her guest beds (shut up, of course, Addison has like three she's rich as hell) and she would be there by tomorrow.

And Addison Montgomery has no idea how to feel about it all, but she's slightly ashamed at how soothed she is that she won't be alone in the house anymore. And that maybe, just maybe, that Meredith Grey would hold on to her tight.

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