redamancy

Addison sat alone at lunch, eating her apple. "Sleeping with an intern, really? I thought you were smart? Also since when did you bat for the other team and where was my invitation?" Callie said to her, slapping down her lunch tray.

"Hello Callie."

"How long has this been going on?" She asked, picking up her slice of pizza and taking a bite.

"A few weeks." Addison tries to hide the smirk on her face.

"Is she good?" Callie asks, Addison just raises her eyebrows and takes another bite out of her happy. "She is, isn't she? Urgh, you're so lucky. I need to get laid." Callie groaned and Addison laughed.

She's pulled from the memory by Alex. "I've been looking all over for you." He says with a smile. "It's Charlie's birthday on Friday."

"Oh. That's two days away."

"Yes, I thought she told you?"

"She did, I just forgot, came around so quickly. Can't believe we've been together for 7 months." Addison smiles.

"Bit of advice, she doesn't like making a huge deal about it, some shit happened when we were kids and it kinda messed up her birthday for her. Just...buy her dinner, watch a movie, anything she wants to do, let her." Addison nods her head.

"Noted." She smiles at him.

*

Charlie wakes up alone on her birthday. The sun shine's through the cap in her curtain and illuminates her face. She blinks awake, shifting so her face isn't in the sun. She stretches her arms up, yawning loudly, one arm comes to rest on the empty spot next to her in her bed. She sits up, leaning back on her elbows and takes in her room. It's a complete mess, mainly because they couldn't keep their hands off each other and ripped their clothes off, Charlie could tell by her t-shirt hanging off the top of the door. She scans the room for some decent clothes she could wear. A crumpled t-shirt and a pair of boxers will do. She yawns as she leaves the bedroom, the smell of bacon drawing her to the kitchen. Addison stands in her kitchen, wearing one of Charlie's white oxfords and nothing else. Charlie bites her lip, as she stares. God, did she love her legs.

She pads across the wooden floor and wraps her arms around Addison, placing kisses on her shoulder. "I was going to give you breakfast in bed." Addison says flipping the bacon in the pan,

"Well, I woke up to find that the breakfast I wanted wasn't in bed with me, so I came looking. I like you wearing my clothes, it's very hot." Charlie presses kisses to the back of her neck.

"Your present is on the side, and so is your coffee." Addison points with the spatula. Charlie untangles herself from the leggy red head and pulls both the box and the mug of coffee closer to her. She takes a sip from her Star Wars mug and starts to rip the paper off the package. Charlie opens the box and inside sits a watch, a very expensive looking watch. "I know you've been looking for a new one and Derek recommended this one to me."

"I love it, thank you." Charlie says, wrapping her arms back around her the red head, pulling her tight to her chest. Addison she turns off the bacon then turns around in Charlie's arms and kisses her, jumping to wrap her legs around her waist. "Happy birthday to me." She whispers carrying her back to the bedroom.

*

Charlie drives them to work in the truck and of course Addison's fearing for her life the entire time.

"I don't know why you hate on the truck so much. It's been loyal to me for ten years." Charlie laughs as she pulls into the parking lot. As she gets, out she spots Alex, holding a pastry box in two hands.

Addison trails along behind as Charlie runs to her best friend. He puts down the box and opens his arms wide, allowing her to run and jump, giving him a bear hug.

"Happy birthday." He whispers in her ear, setting her down. He offers her the box, inside are doughnuts; Charlie's all-time favourites. She laughs and kisses his cheek, carrying the box inside the hospital.

"I will see you later." Addison says pressing a kiss to her lips and getting out on a different floor. The doors close and Alex shoves her shoulder.

"So any plans for tonight." He says with a wiggle of his eyebrows. The doors to their floor and they both step out into the busy corridor.

"God, you are such a pig! Why are you invested in my sex life!" She laughs, caring the box into the locker room.

"Happy birthday Satan Screwer!" Cristina says, taking the box from her hands and opening it.

"Is that my nickname now? Also, they're mine. Don't touch." As she snatches the box back from Cristina, Doctor Bailey appears in the doorway. She stands there, watching her interns.

"There better be a good excuse, for why none of you are ready for rounds." The interns turn to the door frozen. George speaks up.

"It's Charlie's birthday."

"Well unless you got cake, I don't care."

"No cake, but I do have doughnuts." She offers her superior the box in her hands, Bailey opens it and takes a doughnut. 

"You have 5 minutes." She says, doughnut in hand, before walking away.

*

Her day goes pretty slow. She was on Ortho with Callie so she did enjoy herself, as Callie let her break most of the bones as a birthday gift.

"Got any plans tonight?" She shouts over the music and the buzzing of the bone saw as she cuts a tibia.

"Not really. Calling my mom then takeout and a movie, same as every year. This year could be different, now I have Addison, but I don't like making a big fuss. As my brother puts it, 'it's just another year closer to death'." Charlie laughs at her brother's comments.

"Geez, morbid much?" Callie laughs and a resounding crack is heard, the saw finally cuts through the bone. Charlie watches as Callie does what she does best.

They scrub out and Callie stops her before she goes. "Come to Joe's tonight. We can have a birthday drink, most of the guys will be there." Charlie smiles and thinks about it.

"I don't know, I'm trying to cut drink out and Addison said she would finally let me introduce her to Star Wars and I am not missing my chance at that." Charlie half smiles and leans against the sink.

"Well if you change your mind, we'll be at Joe's." She adds a wink and leaves the scrub room. Charlie takes a breath and leaves the scrub room.

She sits on the hospital beds in the basement. Legs pulled up to her chest and chin resting on her knees. She closes her eyes and basks in the silence.

"Hey, are you okay?" Charlie opens her eyes and sees George, brows furrowed, a look of concern on his face. Charlie nods her head and smiles at him. "No you're not. Do you want to talk about it?"

George sits down on the bed next to her. They sit in silence then Charlie speaks up. "Am I a terrible person?"

"What? No. No, Charlie you're amazing. You're becoming a doctor! Only amazing people can do that, and anyway I think you would be a pretty amazing person, even if you weren't training to be a doctor."

Charlie sits, her chin still resting on her knees. She smiles at him then takes a breath and starts telling him something, only a select few knew. "On my 18th birthday, my mom found me OD'd in my bedroom. She had seen it coming for about a year. After my dad died, I went off the radar. That's when the drugs started. I would skip class and steal money from mom and my brothers. I would be out all hours and not come home. Me and Alex...we had a real bad argument that year. I said some things I shouldn't have and he didn't speak to me for 3 months. We were never quite right, since then. But I just got on with things. Then I...ran away, I guess." Charlie takes a sharp intake of breath.

"I met this girl, she would get me the stuff and we would shoot up in the back of her car. I lived with her for 2 months, then she OD'd and died. I woke up next to her and she was dead. I came back home around 2 months before my eighteenth birthday. My mom didn't want to talk to me, thought I would steal from her again, I kept telling her 'mom, I'm clean. I promise, I'm clean.' I wasn't, obviously. I thought if I just kept lying to myself then, it would be okay, that I would be okay. Then my birthday rolled around and I felt completely alone. Alex and me had made up, by this point but for the first time in 6 years, he wasn't around for my birthday. He didn't want to be around for my birthday. I didn't want to talk to my mom about it and my brothers all had their own lives. So I went out and bought a couple of grams. I don't really remember the rest. I just remember my mom crying because she thought I tried to kill myself. Thinking back, I probably did try. Alex was there with my brothers and that's when we truly became okay again. I haven't touched the stuff since, I sometimes have a couple of drinks every now and again because I can stop with the drink. I can say no but I couldn't stop with the drugs." George looks at her, with teary eyes before awkwardly wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm very glad you didn't die." He whispers in her ear.

"So am I," She says, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "How did you know I was down here, anyway?" Changing the subject to something more light-hearted.

"It's pizza day, you never miss pizza day." Charlie looks at George, he stands up and holds out his hand, Charlie takes it and they walk off to the cafeteria.

*

"I'm sorry." She says to Alex as they're both in the NICU.

"For what?" His eyes are concentrating on the chart of a preemie.

"For what I said about your family all those years ago." He stops and looks up, he's at a loss for words.

"Hey, that wasn't you talking, that was the drugs Charlie, it's okay."

"No, it's not. I was horrible to you Alex. You didn't speak to me for like three months."

"You're my best friend, Charlie. My sister. You're my family, okay. Nothing will change that." He takes her by the shoulders, and smiles at her. "I mean that. I love you." Charlie grins and nods her head. Alex turns his attention to the preemie in the basinet. "This one isn't doing so well. The heart beat keeps dropping below 60, I don't know what to do."

"Where's the mom?"

"She's in the ICU, Addison had a time with the delivery so by looks of it, she's gonna be in there a while."

Charlie looks down at the preemie. She's barely a few hours old and already she might die. She carefully lifts the baby up and stares at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Someone needs to hold her. If she's going to die, she needs to be held." Charlie cradles the baby to her chest. "Hey, it's going to be okay, you're going to be okay." She whispers to the baby.

Alex checks on the other babies while Charlie cradles the preemie. She's holding the baby, and gently swaying, her eyes closed.

"Is that the preemie?" She opens her eyes and Doctor Bailey is standing in the doorway.

"Oh, yeah. I was just, uh ... Well, they tried everything. I just thought maybe somebody should hold her before, you know." Charlie hesitates, hoping she won't be getting shouted at for wasting time with a baby.

"Kangaroo." She mumbles under her breath

"What?" Alex says making his way over to the two of them.

"The way she's holding the baby, it's called a kangaroo hold." She explains to Alex. "Uh, there's been cases where the kangaroo has helped babies thrive. But look at the numbers. Look at the heart rate." She points to the machine, where the baby is still hooked into.

"It's going up and her temperature is normal!" Alex is shocked at what he's witnessing.

"Beck, you may have just kick-started this baby's entire system." Doctor Bailey says proudly. Her interns just did something good.

"Just by holding her?" Charlie questions, she's read about it, but she didn't think it was actually true.

"Are you okay to take off your shirt?

"I mean yeah sure, but why?" Alex takes the baby, as Charlie removes her scrub top and t-shirt, leaving her in her sports bra, her abs on full display, along with the tattoo's that cover her back and some of her torso

"The kangaroo hold, it's most effective when there's skin-on-skin contact. It's usually the mom, but, you know, you're gonna have to do." Charlie takes back the baby and cradles her to her chest.

"See? It's the skin-to-skin contact. The baby can feel your warmth better, sense your heartbeat better. See that? The baby's own heart is picking up in response." Doctor Bailey smiles at her interns. "Beck, you stay here and help that baby. Karev, come with me, I need some help with a patient of mine.

Charlie takes a seat by the preemie's basinet, she closes her eyes and gently rocks in the chair.

*

The beeping of the machines is the only noise she can hear, it's getting dark out and she knows that technically she's off work now, and she should be going to enjoy her birthday, but right now, she's in complete bliss.

"Beck, you're still here?" She opens an eye and Doctor Bailey stands in the doorway to the NICU.

"Yeah, I kinda fell asleep." She laughs with a yawn.

"Go home, enjoy the rest of your birthday. A nurse can take over for you."

"Actually, I ... I'm okay. I'm ... I'm good here." She smiles and looks down at the baby.

"You'd be good in Peds, you know that? Both you and Karev. You get invested. You have good instincts and you stick to them. You'd be good in Peds, Beck." She looks down at her intern and smiles.

"Oh, hi. Am I interrupting something?" Addison stands awkwardly in the doorway, eyes locked on Charlie.

"I was just telling your intern, that she and Karev would be good in Peds." She tells Addison as she walks out, "Think about it." She says to Charlie and leaves them alone. Addison walks over to Charlie and stares softly.

"Hey." Charlie manages to tear her eyes away from the preemie and looks up at Addison. "I'm pretty sure we're going to miss our dinner reservations. Alex told me where you were. I can cancel if you want to stay here?"

"No, no. I'm good, a nurse can take over for me. Let's get food."

Once Addison manages to track down a nurse, Charlie begins pulls on her t-shirt, when she catches Addison staring at her stomach. "Like what you see?" She says, pulling up her shirt, showing off her abs to her girlfriend.

"I do, a lot, but there are children so not now." Addison rolls her eyes and Charlie laughs pulling on her scrub top.

*

Their reservation is for some fancy restaurant in town and Charlie feels completely out of place amongst the rich people and their $300 bottles of wine, in jeans and a button up. She looks at the menu, nothing here is within her price range, so she panics. "There's nothing here for like 20 bucks." She whispers to Addison.

The red head looks at her partner. "Get what you want, I'm paying."

"Addie, it costs like 40 bucks for a burger." She scans the menu, everything is easily over $25

"Charlie, it's your birthday, I want to take you out. Get what you want." Charlie nods her head and goes back to scanning the menu.

She settles on the steak; ribeye and medium rare, while Addison has the truffle risotto. Charlie stares longingly across the table at Addison, she looks so beautiful in this lighting. "Move in with me."

Addison nearly chokes on her wine. "Really?"

"You already pretty much live with me, so you're paying for a hotel room you don't use and anyway I like waking up to you in my bed." Charlie adds with a smile. "So, move in with me." Addison nods her head as the waiter delivers their food.

They head home after dinner. Charlie's Star War's plans forgotten as soon as soon Addison leads her to the bedroom.

Charlie draws patterns on Addison's shoulder with her fingers, her head lay on Charlie's chest, her red hair fanned out over her back.

"How do you feel about kids?" She mumbles into her neck.

"I have a nephew, he's 7 and I adore him and I love working on Peds. Why?"

"Seeing you, today, with the preemie...I couldn't stop imagining that was our kid. I couldn't stop seeing you holding our child."

"You want kids with me?" Charlie replies, a hint of shock in her voice.

"Maybe. One day." Addison says, closing her eyes and settling on Charlie's chest.

"Oh hey, one last thing before I forget, I know you have an early start tomorrow, so I'll bring you coffee. That place on Liberty Street does really good lattes." Charlie whispers and places a kiss on Addison's head.

If only Addison hadn't had an early start that next day, maybe everything that came next would have been different.