Addison sat on the couch with her laptop on her lap and her legs up on the coffee table. She kept checking the bottom right hand corner of the screen to check the time. Jake was late. Usually she wouldn't mind. He was very mindful about small things like that. If he got held up at work, he would call and let her know and apologize over and over again. He would call every chance he had to keep her updated. But she hadn't gotten a single call that day and that worried her.

She sat there staring at the blank word document she opened two hours ago immediately after putting Henry to bed. She was supposed to be working on an article to be published and she didn't have anything but her name and professional title on the page. She just couldn't focus long enough to write but she just kept staring at the page and waiting for Jake to walk in through the door. Another glance at the bottom righthand corner of her screen revealed that it was almost 11:30, almost 5 hours later than when Jake would usually be home.

The sound of the phone ringing caused her to jump unexpectedly. "Jake." she said as soon as she answered the call, after a glance at the screen revealed his name.

"Dr. Montgomery." A voice spoke up from the other end of the line and Addison froze. He only referred to her as Dr. Montgomery, or recently as Mrs. Reilly when he was teasing her or trying to act sexy. But the difference was that this was not Jake's voice and this was certainly not his sexy voice.

"Who is this?" She asked.

"This is Dr. James Roman. From St. Ambrose."

"And what are you doing with my husband's phone, Dr. Roman?" Addison inquired, her heart rate gradually increasing with each passing second. "Is he in surgery? Please tell me he's in surgery and hasn't had the time to call himself."

"He is in surgery. He was in critical condition when he was brought in but I can't say anymore over the phone. We need you to come to the hospital, there is paperwork that needs to be signed and we need his medical history..."

"My husband is on an operating table?"

"Yes, isn't that what you meant?"

"I thought he was performing the surgery..." Addison trailed off.

"I'm sorry, m'am. I thought you knew or else I would have been sensitive."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Addison answered, roughly shoving the laptop off of her lap onto the couch. She got up and grabbed the baby monitor before rushing next door to the Bennetts, hoping they could keep an eye on her son while she went to be with her husband. But as luck would have it, no one was home. Addison ended up having to wake her son and get him changed and dress and secured in his car seat to get to the hospital. She hated the fact that he fell asleep in the car only because that meant she would have to wake him up again.

Less than twenty minutes later Addison walked into the surgical wing with her 1 year old son in her arms with his head on her shoulder, doing his best to get highly coveted sleep despite all the noise and bright lights.

"Dr. Montgomery." a man in scrubs greeted her as she approached the desk. "I'm Gary Roman. We spoke on the phone. I'm the resident on Dr. Reilly's case." he introduced him.

"What happen?" Addison asked in a shaky voice. "Is he still in surgery? I need to see him."

"He is still in surgery so you can't see him right now." he man explained to her patiently. "You can see him once we have him settled in recovery. Until then you can wait in the waiting room."

"You don't understand. He's my husband, I need to see him. I need to make sure he's okay..."

"Dr. Roman, I've got it from here." Charlotte King said as she approached them. She placed a hand on Addison's shoulder as a comforting gesture and leaned in a bit to catch a glimpse of Henry. "Little guy's out cold."

"What are you doing here at this hour? I thought you and Cooper made a pact to be home by 8 to put the kids to bed."

"Addison, I got a call saying one of staff members is in critical condition, then they told me who he was...Cooper and I argued over who gets to come to be here to help you through this. I won. I always win. He should know he didn't stand a chance."

"You didn't have to, it's okay, I'll manage on my own." Addison insisted.

"Well you don't have to." Charlotte answered. "I figured you would have left Henry with Sam and Naomi..."

"I tried, I went over there. They weren't home."

"Oh, well I can take care of him while you do whatever you need to do."

Addison shook her head. "Having him sleep on my shoulder like this right now is the only reason I'm not sobbing violently. I don't want him to wake up. So I'm just going to hold him and hope that's enough to keep me contained through this."

"Kay, then I'll sit around and keep you company while we wait to hear how the surgery went. I can go buy us coffee, or whatever you want." Charlotte offered. "I can stay with you and make someone else go buy us whatever you want."

"I'm fine, Charlotte, you don't need to send anyone to buy anything." Addison replied gratefully. "Having someone with me if already more than I can ask for."

"It's not a problem. You were here for me, you've been here for everyone. I could call the others. Coop can call the sitter and come too. He really wanted to be here for you."

Addison shook her head. "No, it's fine. I don't want everyone here right now." she said with a sigh as she took a seat in the empty waiting room. "As of three days ago we've been married four months. And it's been a really good four months. I don't think I've ever been happier. But it's been fast. I can't lose him this early. This was supposed to be my fairytale; my happily ever after. I'm not ready for it to end after four months of marriage and less than a year of being together. Besides, if he does die in surgery because of this accident, I don't want all of our friends here to see me break down."

"He's going to be fine." Charlotte responded surely.

"You're not supposed to make promises like that to patients' families." Addison reminded her in return.

"Montgomery, the man willingly chose to spend the rest of his life with you. He is the only person I have ever met that is actually able to stand-up in front of you and have himself heard. If that doesn't make him the toughest person on this planet than..."

Addison laughed just slightly. Charlotte had a valid point.


She had already been informed that the anesthesia wore off in record speed and that Jake was already awake and asking for her. As soon as Addison walked into the room, she saw Jake sitting up in bed smiling in her direction.

"Hey." Jake greeted her and the half-asleep child in her arms.

"Hi." Addison responded, exhaling deeply to chuckle just slightly as she moved toward him. It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of her and she was suddenly able to breathe again. "I swear to god, Jake, you gave me a heart attack and a few gray hairs." she said as she leaned over the bed to tenderly kiss him.

"You keep me on edge every hour or every day. I figured it's time I return the favor." Jake replied teasingly.

"How do I keep you on edge?" Addison asked, doing her best to sound as innocent as possible.

"Let's see, you can't leave the house without getting checked out by at least 78 percent of the men who walk passed you. And yes, before you ask, I actually have done the math and calculated an average. That keeps me pretty on edge. Plus there is the fact that you are the most individualistic person I've ever met and you never care to consult anyone about anything you do so I'm constantly worrying about you...If you recall, when we met at the beginning of this year I was significantly less gray. Between you and Angela I'm headed toward white within six months."

"I don't know whether to think its sweet that you worry or creepy that you sit around counting and averaging percentages for the men that 'check me out'." Addison answered before turning her attention to the little boy in her arms. "You wanna give Daddy a kiss?" she asked.

Henry nodded his head and extended his arms out toward Jake.

"No, buddy, he can't hold you and you can't cuddle." Addison sadly informed her son. "Just a kiss, okay?" she told him, bringing him close enough to give Jake a slobbery kiss on the cheek.

"Why can't I hold him? You don't trust me with my kid anymore because of the crash?"

"You have a broken rib and you just had surgery to repair internal bleeding. Having Henry crawling around on you probably isn't a good idea right now." Addison answered.

Jake nodded his head understandingly and watched as Henry stared at him intently. After almost a full minute of staring at one another Jake held out his arms. "I really need to hold my son right now, Addison." he desperately told his wife.

Addison sighed and passed Henry into Jake's arms. Henry giggled happily as she rolled over on Jake's chest, causing him to cringe in pain just a little, before he settled on the bed beside Jake and cuddled into his side.

"You okay? Want me to check if you broke any of the stitches on the incision?" Addison asked in concern.

Jake shook his head. "I'm fine." he murmured. "He didn't want to cuddle with me, he just wanted to sleep somewhere less boney than your shoulder."

"My shoulder is not boney!" Addison exclaimed defensively as she took a seat at the edge of his bed and let out a deep sigh.

"Are you okay?" Jake asked her softly, reaching out the arm not wrapped around Henry to take Addison's hand.

"Aside from the fact that I've spent the last five and a half hours fearing your death, I'm fine."

Jake laughed and shook his head, "You really think you can get rid of me that easily?"

"You were t-boned at a three way intersection, Jake, by a drunk driver who died on impact." Addison reminded him. "You were in surgery for a while. The future was pretty unclear. You can't blame me."

"You're not getting rid of me that easily after only four months." Jake assured her surely. "You are stuck with me for years and years and years."

"You make it sound like a bad thing."

Jake shrugged. "It may not sound like a bad thing now but in 50 years when we're in our 90s and constantly fighting over your ever expanding collection of black grandma shoes, then you'll probably be annoyed with me."

"You think I'm going to buy grandma shoes?!"

"I was hoping you'd be able to get passed the mention of shoes enough to get the message of growing old together."

"A. A woman, no matter what her age, can never have too many shoes. B. I would never even glance at grandma shoes, let alone buy them. If we can't agree on that now I don't see how we can survive 50 more years together."

"Fine. I apologize. I would love nothing more than being in my 90s with you by my side in a pair of six inch Christian Louboutins at Denny's for an early bird breakfast."

"Early bird breakfast, huh?"

"Yup. And matinee movies with the senior discount, and trips to the pharmacy will become like a trip to Disneyland. It will be awesome. Growing old and white together is going to be rock. I promise you, you won't be able to get rid of before we hit the 50 year mark."

Addison laughed and nodded. "I'll keep that in mind from now on but you try to keep yourself out of trouble. You took like 10 years off my life tonight."

"I'll try." Jake agreed, watching as Addison visibly relaxed as she got up from the bed to sit back in the chair beside his bed. They sat there in a comfortable silence for twenty minutes before he saw her shaking her head in disapproval. "What now?" he asked.

"I still can't believe that you think I'd buy grandma shoes..." Addison trailed off, cringing at the thought of it.

"Hey, you never know what the future holds. Maybe your taste will evolve to appreciate half inch elevated black shoes made of shiny, soft leather."

"Yeah, I learned tonight that you never know what the future holds. You wake up in the morning with the perfect life, a perfectly healthy and sane husband and before the end of the day said husband is in a possibly fatal crash that altered his judgement."

"It did not alter my judgement." Jake responded surely. "My doctor told me I'm perfectly fine and expected to make a full recovery."

"You picture a future with me in grandma shoes having an early bird breakfast at Dennys and going to matinee movies with a senior discount. Your judgement is obviously questionable right now."

"I said you would be wearing six inch Loubs."

"But we both know you're still picturing black, flat grandma shoes from the pharmacy."

Jake broke eye contact with his wife and smiled. "I am." he admitted. "And you look absolutely adorable if it's any consolation. In the image I have in my mind you are the hottest senior citizen Denny's Early Bird breakfast has ever seen. Oh, come on, Addison, you love the thought of it and you know it. You love the idea of growing old with me..."

"I'm never wearing shoes from the pharmacy." Addison mumbled under her breath.

"We'll see. Remember, we never know what tomorrow holds."

"No. I can tell you for sure I'll never wear shoes from the pharmacy." she insisted. "The future might be a mystery but that is clear. It will never change. It's just fact."

"Okay." Jake nodded dismissively. "Just forget I said anything."

"Fine." Addison replied, settling back into a comfortable silence while she turned her attention out the window to see the sun raising. She turned back to see Jake staring at her with an amused smirk. "You're still picturing me with grandma shoes from the pharmacy!"

He broke out into a laugh. "And now they're white so it's even funnier. White grandma shoes with black pantyhose and a girdle...That's what's going to replace the red Jimmy Choos and sexy black negligees you use now. "

"You are just such a freak...You just had major surgery. You're supposed to be exhausted and in pain."

"A freak you're going to spend the rest of your life with whether you like it or not." he confirmed before another silence took over. "Hey, Addison." he called out to get her attention again.

"What?"

"Remember when you were basically shitting on yourself because you were afraid of losing me?" he asked. "Still too early to laugh about it?" he asked when she did not give him an amused response.

Addison shook her head. "What did I get myself into with this marriage?" she asked herself out loud.

"I ask myself that every single day..."


I'm going through a Jaddison phase. I can't get into the Addek mood long enough to finish the next chapter of Forgotten. I just keep popping out Jaddison one-shots instead.

Hope you liked this one. Review! :)