(no subject)
01 - No Obstacles, Only Challenges
Title: Groove ♠ Girls Like Us [2/14]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Addison. Her sister makes a chapter-long cameo appearance, but it’s necessary.
Summary: Occasionally, you need sense smacked into you more than you need a hug.
Note: This is now officially going somewhere. I have it plotted. Yay for me.
Addison put on a fake smile and waved her sister over to her table. Ellie flipped her phone shut and slipped it in her purse just before she sat down. She flashed her a genuine smile and thanked the waiter for filling her glass of water and put in an order for a glass of wine, noting that Addison already had one.
Ellie jumped in before her sister had a chance, uncharacteristically quietly apologetic. “Addie, I am so sorry. I honestly didn’t have a clue that you two were together. No one’s heard anything since you told us Derek walked out.”
“You know that I cheated on him with Mark, though.”
“So maybe I thought you were smarter than that. That you would go after Derek and that’s why we hadn’t heard anything from you. Not that you would stay with Mark. Mark’s a jackass.” She returned to her normal blunt honesty, though contemplated apologizing for her comment. She decided that she was right and didn’t say anything besides ordering the pasta.
Addison bit her lip and nodded, her sister had no brain-mouth filter and Addison was long used to hearing the truth she didn’t want to hear, and stared at her napkin. “How long has it been going on between you two?”
“Addie, do you really...” She looked at Addison, knowing that an eight-year booty call wasn’t anything Addison wanted to hear about.
“Elizabeth Ann Montgomery.”
“When I was considering transferring to NYU and came out to visit.” Ellie started out at Yale but hated it halfway through the second semester of her freshman year. She wasn’t any more impressed with NYU and ended up at Berkeley.
“I’m gonna kill him,” she muttered under her breath, somewhat relieved that her sister was nineteen at the time. “Was he...”
“God, no. And, shut up let me talk, Mark and I were a thing of convenience. That’s all it’s ever been. A few nights of crazy, hot torrid sex when we’re in the same place or need it. I was in town and called him to say we should get together because that’s what we do.”
“And you didn’t call me.”
“I did. The brownstone voicemail was full, your work voicemail was full, your cell phone voicemail is full. I asked Mark about you and he said that you were okay, just busy. I dropped by the brownstone, you weren’t there.”
“Why Mark?”
“He’s good.” She said simply, voicing what they both knew. “Addie.” She softly put her hand over her sister’s. “Why haven’t you called anyone? Why haven’t you called me?”
Addison caught a hint that there might be more to Ellie and Mark than her sister was letting on, but she left it as the two of them mutually using each other, not wanting to know anything else. She looked away. “Things are...complicated.”
“So you shut everyone out?”
“Eat. We’ll talk after dinner. How’s work?”
--
“You live in Boston, why do you have an apartment here?”
“Long story. Sit. What’s going on?” Ellie looked a command at Addison and then sat next to her on the couch after shrugging off her coat.
After reminding herself that her sister actually was an adult and allowed to do things without telling everyone, she sighed. “I’m pregnant.” Addison took in her sister’s questioning eyebrow and sighed. “It’s Mark’s.”
“Have you told him?”
“Elizabeth.” Addison spoke volumes in one name. Though she had promised to talk after dinner, she really didn’t want to.
She ignored the use of her full name. “Addison do you want me to be a fluffy friend or your sister? Because I’ll be either, you just need to tell me.”
“Sister,” she sighed and slumped her shoulders. Addison was used to people being comforting and offering hugs and shoulders whenever she was upset. Ellie tended to verbally smack her; she was of the mindset that very few things are worth crying over for hours or staying in bed for days and made no effort to hide it. She was willing to do the simple comfort, but made it very clear that people should tell her ahead of time that they simply needed a hug. Even though she really just wanted the hug, Addison knew that she needed some sense smacked into her and no one did that better than her sister. “No.”
“Good. Because if he knew you were pregnant and it was his and he went out and had sex with me anyway, he’s a more of a jerk than I thought.”
“Should I tell him?”
“Are you going to keep it?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell him. It’s your body and your choice. It’s only if you want him to have a say in the matter that you should tell him.” Her face softened. “You made an appointment, didn’t you?” At Addison’s nod, she sighed. “Tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Addison hated that Ellie could read her so well.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“I put Savvy down as my contact.”
Ellie hooked her finger under Addison’s chin and raised her head up. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“You don’t have to...”
“Addison, shut up. Ever since Derek walked away you’ve shut everyone out. No one’s heard from you in two months and now I find you like this? Falling apart and pregnant by a guy who neither notices that you took your wedding rings off nor cares enough about you to tell someone that the sex is a no-go because you’re very much in his picture? I’m your sister, Ads, let me back in. Do you want me to go with you?”
Addison sniffled and nodded. “Yeah.” She suddenly found herself in her sister’s arms, sobbing on Ellie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered repeatedly, taking comfort in the warmth and protection of the one part of her family who hadn’t judged her for cheating on her perfect husband. Ellie was the first person Addison called when she recovered her voice that night and had spent most of the night and well into the morning listening to nothing but Addison cry. And then Addison made other necessary phone calls and hadn’t spoken to anyone since.
“Want to stay here for the night?” Ellie asked, lifting Addison’s head from her shoulder after a while, and handed her sister a tissue. She was mildly interested as to where she stayed the night before, certain she wouldn’t want to stay with Mark after finding him in bed with her sister and fairly sure she wouldn’t go back to the brownstone but didn’t ask.
Addison blew her nose and tossed the tissue in the trash can Ellie pulled over and grabbed another from the box. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Of course. Want some ice cream?”
--
“Addison Forbes Montgomery-Shepherd, look at me.” Ellie commanded her sister over a homemade breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. Addison had been silent or mumbling all through breakfast and Ellie was tired of it. She waited until Addison looked up and didn’t bother to soften her voice, just quieted it. “Addie, you know I’m behind you 100% for this and if I were you, I’d be doing the same thing. But are you 100% sure that you want to do this?”
Addison set her fork down. “Ellie, you’ve been asking me that every twenty minutes for the past fourteen hours. That’s not really backing me up.”
Ellie sighed. “I keep hearing hesitation in your voice, Ads. That’s why I keep asking. I don’t want you to do something you’re going to regret later, you can’t reverse this.”
“You think I don’t know that?” The harshness in her own voice surprised Addison.
She backed off. “I just want to make sure, that’s all.”
Still snappish, though slightly calmer, Addison followed up. “What makes you think I might regret it?”
Ellie cracked her neck. “If you’re making the right decision, you won’t. But,” she held up a hand to stop her sister from interrupting, “for the past few years you’ve been talking about kids of your own like crazy even though you keep saying you aren’t ready. You’re getting older, Ads, and you know that women have a window.” She shrugged and took a bite from a crispy strip of bacon. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“I have time, and I’m doing this.” Addison looked at Ellie firmly, ending the conversation.
--
Addison stared at the paperwork in front of her, the first page and a half filled out. Next to her, Ellie, feet tucked Indian-style under her, aimlessly killed time looking at an information pamphlet, learning anatomy Addison knew by heart without even looking. Addison found herself blinking at a line for her signature, her name already neatly printed on the line below it, the signature that would state that she had read everything she was supposed to read, done everything she was supposed to do, and any mental consequences were no one’s fault but her own. Her vision went fuzzy and a teardrop blurred the ink of her printed name. She shook her head, trying to clear her emotions and just do what she knew had to be done.
“Addie?” Ellie whispered, picking up on her sister’s sudden tension. She put the pamphlet back where she found it and set her hand on Addison’s arm. “You okay?”
Addison shook her head again, Ellie’s earlier words ringing loud and painfully true through her mind. “I can’t do this,” she breathed. She closed her eyes. “I can’t do this. Get me out of here.”
Ellie nodded and took the clipboard from Addison’s hands and returned it to the desk clerk who promptly shredded everything Addison filled out and smiled, long used to sudden changes in heart. She picked up her sister’s purse and took her hand and helped her up and then outside into Ellie’s car.
Addison stayed quiet until they were back in Ellie’s apartment and she sat down on the couch, pulling her knees to her chest. She felt how she assumed a pregnant teenager would feel: lost, terrified to tell the father, unable to abort it. “What the hell do I do?” She took a few deep breaths. “I can’t have Derek, I don’t want Mark and I’m always going to think I’m a terrible mother for almost aborting this child. I shouldn’t even...maybe I should just go back and...”
“Nuh uh. Sit.” Ellie stared at Addison and handed her a glass of water when Addison sat back down. “Addison, you were never going to go through with it. Maybe at one point you were, but the moment you told me you were pregnant I knew you were never going to do it.” She sat on the table in front of her and took Addison’s hands comfortingly in hers when she started to sniffle. “You’re scared. You started to do what you thought was right. That does not make you a terrible mother. No, you don’t want Mark. You don’t know if you really can’t have Derek but if you can’t, you still have you.”
“Plus you’ll babysit.” Addison smiled crookedly.
“Plus I’ll babysit.” Ellie squeezed Addison’s hand. “Short of being a surrogate mother, and I think it’s a bit late for that anyway, I’ll do anything you need. Okay? If you need me to take time off to help you out, I will. If you need to get the hell out of New York, my guest room has a phenomenal bed.”
A few tears fell onto Addison’s cheeks. “What’s the catch?”
“What?”
“I drop contact from everyone for two months, it’s pure ironic luck that I even end up talking to you and you’re being, you know, nice. Why aren’t you angry with me?”
Ellie sighed heavily. “If you weren’t pregnant, I would smack you. We’ve been over this. I’m your sister and I’m your friend. This is the kind of stuff sisters and friends gear up for.”
Addison dropped her head for several moments and then looked up confidently at her sister, remembering that she had accumulated enough vacation time to give her enough time off to figure out what she wanted to do. “You promise it has a good bed?”
“Phenomenal bed.”
♠ Champagne Beat Boogie
Title: Groove ♠ Girls Like Us [2/14]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Addison. Her sister makes a chapter-long cameo appearance, but it’s necessary.
Summary: Occasionally, you need sense smacked into you more than you need a hug.
Note: This is now officially going somewhere. I have it plotted. Yay for me.
Addison put on a fake smile and waved her sister over to her table. Ellie flipped her phone shut and slipped it in her purse just before she sat down. She flashed her a genuine smile and thanked the waiter for filling her glass of water and put in an order for a glass of wine, noting that Addison already had one.
Ellie jumped in before her sister had a chance, uncharacteristically quietly apologetic. “Addie, I am so sorry. I honestly didn’t have a clue that you two were together. No one’s heard anything since you told us Derek walked out.”
“You know that I cheated on him with Mark, though.”
“So maybe I thought you were smarter than that. That you would go after Derek and that’s why we hadn’t heard anything from you. Not that you would stay with Mark. Mark’s a jackass.” She returned to her normal blunt honesty, though contemplated apologizing for her comment. She decided that she was right and didn’t say anything besides ordering the pasta.
Addison bit her lip and nodded, her sister had no brain-mouth filter and Addison was long used to hearing the truth she didn’t want to hear, and stared at her napkin. “How long has it been going on between you two?”
“Addie, do you really...” She looked at Addison, knowing that an eight-year booty call wasn’t anything Addison wanted to hear about.
“Elizabeth Ann Montgomery.”
“When I was considering transferring to NYU and came out to visit.” Ellie started out at Yale but hated it halfway through the second semester of her freshman year. She wasn’t any more impressed with NYU and ended up at Berkeley.
“I’m gonna kill him,” she muttered under her breath, somewhat relieved that her sister was nineteen at the time. “Was he...”
“God, no. And, shut up let me talk, Mark and I were a thing of convenience. That’s all it’s ever been. A few nights of crazy, hot torrid sex when we’re in the same place or need it. I was in town and called him to say we should get together because that’s what we do.”
“And you didn’t call me.”
“I did. The brownstone voicemail was full, your work voicemail was full, your cell phone voicemail is full. I asked Mark about you and he said that you were okay, just busy. I dropped by the brownstone, you weren’t there.”
“Why Mark?”
“He’s good.” She said simply, voicing what they both knew. “Addie.” She softly put her hand over her sister’s. “Why haven’t you called anyone? Why haven’t you called me?”
Addison caught a hint that there might be more to Ellie and Mark than her sister was letting on, but she left it as the two of them mutually using each other, not wanting to know anything else. She looked away. “Things are...complicated.”
“So you shut everyone out?”
“Eat. We’ll talk after dinner. How’s work?”
--
“You live in Boston, why do you have an apartment here?”
“Long story. Sit. What’s going on?” Ellie looked a command at Addison and then sat next to her on the couch after shrugging off her coat.
After reminding herself that her sister actually was an adult and allowed to do things without telling everyone, she sighed. “I’m pregnant.” Addison took in her sister’s questioning eyebrow and sighed. “It’s Mark’s.”
“Have you told him?”
“Elizabeth.” Addison spoke volumes in one name. Though she had promised to talk after dinner, she really didn’t want to.
She ignored the use of her full name. “Addison do you want me to be a fluffy friend or your sister? Because I’ll be either, you just need to tell me.”
“Sister,” she sighed and slumped her shoulders. Addison was used to people being comforting and offering hugs and shoulders whenever she was upset. Ellie tended to verbally smack her; she was of the mindset that very few things are worth crying over for hours or staying in bed for days and made no effort to hide it. She was willing to do the simple comfort, but made it very clear that people should tell her ahead of time that they simply needed a hug. Even though she really just wanted the hug, Addison knew that she needed some sense smacked into her and no one did that better than her sister. “No.”
“Good. Because if he knew you were pregnant and it was his and he went out and had sex with me anyway, he’s a more of a jerk than I thought.”
“Should I tell him?”
“Are you going to keep it?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell him. It’s your body and your choice. It’s only if you want him to have a say in the matter that you should tell him.” Her face softened. “You made an appointment, didn’t you?” At Addison’s nod, she sighed. “Tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Addison hated that Ellie could read her so well.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“I put Savvy down as my contact.”
Ellie hooked her finger under Addison’s chin and raised her head up. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“You don’t have to...”
“Addison, shut up. Ever since Derek walked away you’ve shut everyone out. No one’s heard from you in two months and now I find you like this? Falling apart and pregnant by a guy who neither notices that you took your wedding rings off nor cares enough about you to tell someone that the sex is a no-go because you’re very much in his picture? I’m your sister, Ads, let me back in. Do you want me to go with you?”
Addison sniffled and nodded. “Yeah.” She suddenly found herself in her sister’s arms, sobbing on Ellie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered repeatedly, taking comfort in the warmth and protection of the one part of her family who hadn’t judged her for cheating on her perfect husband. Ellie was the first person Addison called when she recovered her voice that night and had spent most of the night and well into the morning listening to nothing but Addison cry. And then Addison made other necessary phone calls and hadn’t spoken to anyone since.
“Want to stay here for the night?” Ellie asked, lifting Addison’s head from her shoulder after a while, and handed her sister a tissue. She was mildly interested as to where she stayed the night before, certain she wouldn’t want to stay with Mark after finding him in bed with her sister and fairly sure she wouldn’t go back to the brownstone but didn’t ask.
Addison blew her nose and tossed the tissue in the trash can Ellie pulled over and grabbed another from the box. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Of course. Want some ice cream?”
--
“Addison Forbes Montgomery-Shepherd, look at me.” Ellie commanded her sister over a homemade breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. Addison had been silent or mumbling all through breakfast and Ellie was tired of it. She waited until Addison looked up and didn’t bother to soften her voice, just quieted it. “Addie, you know I’m behind you 100% for this and if I were you, I’d be doing the same thing. But are you 100% sure that you want to do this?”
Addison set her fork down. “Ellie, you’ve been asking me that every twenty minutes for the past fourteen hours. That’s not really backing me up.”
Ellie sighed. “I keep hearing hesitation in your voice, Ads. That’s why I keep asking. I don’t want you to do something you’re going to regret later, you can’t reverse this.”
“You think I don’t know that?” The harshness in her own voice surprised Addison.
She backed off. “I just want to make sure, that’s all.”
Still snappish, though slightly calmer, Addison followed up. “What makes you think I might regret it?”
Ellie cracked her neck. “If you’re making the right decision, you won’t. But,” she held up a hand to stop her sister from interrupting, “for the past few years you’ve been talking about kids of your own like crazy even though you keep saying you aren’t ready. You’re getting older, Ads, and you know that women have a window.” She shrugged and took a bite from a crispy strip of bacon. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“I have time, and I’m doing this.” Addison looked at Ellie firmly, ending the conversation.
--
Addison stared at the paperwork in front of her, the first page and a half filled out. Next to her, Ellie, feet tucked Indian-style under her, aimlessly killed time looking at an information pamphlet, learning anatomy Addison knew by heart without even looking. Addison found herself blinking at a line for her signature, her name already neatly printed on the line below it, the signature that would state that she had read everything she was supposed to read, done everything she was supposed to do, and any mental consequences were no one’s fault but her own. Her vision went fuzzy and a teardrop blurred the ink of her printed name. She shook her head, trying to clear her emotions and just do what she knew had to be done.
“Addie?” Ellie whispered, picking up on her sister’s sudden tension. She put the pamphlet back where she found it and set her hand on Addison’s arm. “You okay?”
Addison shook her head again, Ellie’s earlier words ringing loud and painfully true through her mind. “I can’t do this,” she breathed. She closed her eyes. “I can’t do this. Get me out of here.”
Ellie nodded and took the clipboard from Addison’s hands and returned it to the desk clerk who promptly shredded everything Addison filled out and smiled, long used to sudden changes in heart. She picked up her sister’s purse and took her hand and helped her up and then outside into Ellie’s car.
Addison stayed quiet until they were back in Ellie’s apartment and she sat down on the couch, pulling her knees to her chest. She felt how she assumed a pregnant teenager would feel: lost, terrified to tell the father, unable to abort it. “What the hell do I do?” She took a few deep breaths. “I can’t have Derek, I don’t want Mark and I’m always going to think I’m a terrible mother for almost aborting this child. I shouldn’t even...maybe I should just go back and...”
“Nuh uh. Sit.” Ellie stared at Addison and handed her a glass of water when Addison sat back down. “Addison, you were never going to go through with it. Maybe at one point you were, but the moment you told me you were pregnant I knew you were never going to do it.” She sat on the table in front of her and took Addison’s hands comfortingly in hers when she started to sniffle. “You’re scared. You started to do what you thought was right. That does not make you a terrible mother. No, you don’t want Mark. You don’t know if you really can’t have Derek but if you can’t, you still have you.”
“Plus you’ll babysit.” Addison smiled crookedly.
“Plus I’ll babysit.” Ellie squeezed Addison’s hand. “Short of being a surrogate mother, and I think it’s a bit late for that anyway, I’ll do anything you need. Okay? If you need me to take time off to help you out, I will. If you need to get the hell out of New York, my guest room has a phenomenal bed.”
A few tears fell onto Addison’s cheeks. “What’s the catch?”
“What?”
“I drop contact from everyone for two months, it’s pure ironic luck that I even end up talking to you and you’re being, you know, nice. Why aren’t you angry with me?”
Ellie sighed heavily. “If you weren’t pregnant, I would smack you. We’ve been over this. I’m your sister and I’m your friend. This is the kind of stuff sisters and friends gear up for.”
Addison dropped her head for several moments and then looked up confidently at her sister, remembering that she had accumulated enough vacation time to give her enough time off to figure out what she wanted to do. “You promise it has a good bed?”
“Phenomenal bed.”
♠ Champagne Beat Boogie