redamancy

Addison comes home from the airport in the early hours. It's dark and quiet in their apartment.

She opens the door, Charlie is splayed out on the bed, her arm hanging over the edge, the sheet bunched up around her hips, her back exposed. The light from the street lights seeps in through the gap in the curtains, bathing her in an orange glow. She leans against the doorway, staring in at Charlie as she snores softly. She leaves her suitcase by the door and pads over to where she sleeps. She crouches down and sweeps a piece of stray hair behind her. Charlie groans and opens one eye.

"Hey." Addison smiles.

"Hi," Charlie replies in a groggy voice. "Get into bed and cuddle me please." She says, turning over and pulling the sheet up. Addison smiles and strips off, crawling into bed, next to her fiancee.

Charlie pulls Addison close and presses a kiss to her forehead.

"How was LA?"

"Lonely, glad I'm home. With you." Addison cuddles deeper into Charlie's chest.

Charlie wakes a couple of hours later, the bed empty. The bedroom dark, save for the light coming through a crack in the door.

Addison sits on the sofa, a lamp by the TV, the only light source filling the room. She sits, with her legs pulled up to her chest, blanket over her legs.

"Addie?" Charlie groans, pulling a sweater over her head.

"Hi."

"You okay?"

"Couldn't sleep."

Charlie sits on the opposite end of the couch. She leans her head on her hand and stares at Addison. "Talk to me. What's happened?"

"I didn't go to LA on a consult," Begins the confession to Charlie.

"My old friend from med school...is a fertility specialist. I know we just started talking about it, but I wanted to be prepared." Charlie moves closer and takes Addison's hand, gently rubbing circles on it, with her thumb. "We did some tests and...I...I can't have kids, Charlie." She stares at Charlie. Her fiancée takes a deep breath in before wrapping her arms around Addison.

"It's okay. We'll be okay." She says whispering in her ear and rubbing soothing circles on her back. Addison cries herself to sleep in Charlie's arms.

*

She tucks the envelope in her bag before they leave the next morning. She kisses Addison before she heads to the intern locker room. They crowd into the room, chatting and laughing. Suddenly Alex enters with an envelope, clutched in his hands. "I haven't touched it yet." He says to Charlie. "You get yours yet?"

She nods and pulls it out of her bag. They smile at each other and rip open the envelopes. He yells and jumps in the air pointing and shoving the piece of paper in her face.

"I passed!" Charlie grins at her best friend.

Alex looks at her, waiting for an answer. "Well? What about you?"

"So did I!" She screams and throws his arms around her, picking her up and spinning her around.

"Your dad would be so proud of you, Charlie." He tells her as he sets her down in the locker room.

They all pass except George. He quietly says it and they all crowd around him and hug him tight. He's quiet when they head off for rounds.

"We're going to celebrate tonight, you coming with?" Alex asks Charlie as they settle on the hospital beds. He opens a pack of pretzels and offers her some.

"I can't. Wedding planning and I need to call mom, still haven't told her we're engaged. I know she's gonna freak and then want to jump on the next plane out here."

George comes into the hallway dragging his feet behind him and flopping down on the bed. "Charlie, what's happened with Addison, she's being meaner than usual today."

Charlie furrows her brows, then thinks back to the conversation she had with her that morning. "I'll talk to her. Don't worry about it." She steals one last pretzel from Alex and jumps off the bed.

She finds Addison outside the NICU, staring at the babies. Arizona checks on the preemies and waves as Charlie passes by and settles next to Addison. "You okay?"

"I had this whole life plan you know? Get married, have kids, get a dog. The whole white picket fence thing. Then it all fell apart with Derek and I aborted Mark's baby. I had a chance. A real chance to be happy, with a family."

"Are you saying you can't be happy with me?" Charlie turns to her, face full of concern.

"What? No! God, no, I'm not saying that. I love you, Charlie. It's just...timing was never my strong suit. I found the perfect someone and now I can't have kids." Addison smiles sadly at Charlie.

Charlie moves to wrap her arms around Addison's waist and rest her chin on her shoulder. "We're gonna be okay, you know. Even if it's just us. We'll be okay." They stay silent for a while, watching. "I could do it. We can get a donor and I could do it?" Addison pulls out of Charlie's hold and faces her, taking her hands.

"Charlie, I can't ask you to put your career on hold just so we can have kids. We can adopt or foster, or I don't know get a surrogate."

"Well, my career is going to go on hold if we have kids anyway, it just means, it'll go on hold a little longer. I'm okay with that." Addison smiles and presses a kiss on Charlie's lips. "Right now, we could get an animal instead? My mom got Dax when everyone but Jeremiah moved out, and it would be nice to come home to something other than the plants that I murder. We don't have room for a dog, but a cat? A cat could work. We can go to the shelter after we both get off work." Addison nods her head and smiles widely at her fiancée.

They head to the shelter after work. A lady shows them where the cats are and ends up Charlie falls in love with every single one and wants to adopt them all. "One cat, Charlotte. One." Addison warns her, before wandering off to take a look in the cages.

Charlie comes across a ginger cat. He's sad and a bit rough looking. He has a chunk taken out of his ear and a short stubby tail. Charlie sits in front of his cage, staring at him. "Pablo." Addison reads off his information sheet.

"Ah, little Pablo. He's been in here a while. He's old but he's a softie." A shelter volunteer says to them. Addison watches as Pablo wakes and walks towards the bars of his cage, Charlie sticks her fingers and he immediately rubs his face against them.

"We'll take him." She smiles softly at the volunteer and turns back to Charlie talking to him in a baby voice.

They take him home and introduce him to the flat, he's nervous at first, unsure about what to do, but then he jumps on the couch and settles down. He's at peace.

They spend the rest of the evening sorting out wedding stuff. Location, caterer, colour scheme, invite list. Charlie, with the help of Meredith and Cristina, presents her completed invite list to Addison.

"Okay, so with your people and mine that's about 80."

"Hang on, 80. You only want 10 people at your wedding. Addie, come on."

"Charlie, you're forgetting that my friends are your friends. Half these people on your list, we know together. I only want my brother and some old med school friends anyway, I don't really speak to my parents and I don't think they would approve of this anyway. As long as Archer is there, I'm happy.

"Have I even met Archer? Would I be meeting him for the first time at our wedding?" Charlie laughs.

"I haven't met your brothers!" Addison laughs back.

"Fair enough. Okay, key thing we do need to work out; band or DJ?"

"You know what," Addison says, throwing down the magazine and crawling over to Charlie. "I've had enough of wedding planning for one night." She finishes, straddling her fiancée's lap. "We could be doing something a lot better with our time." She whispers, leaning down and nipping at Charlie's lips.

"We need to tell my mom," Charlie says over dinner, later that night.

"You sure? Like you said, once you tell her; it makes it real." The redhead says, spearing some asparagus on her fork.

"Yeah, we need to, can we call after dinner?" Addison smiles, nods her head and continues with their dinner.

Charlie washes up and they settle on the couch, ready to video call Charlie's mom.

"Hi, baby," Lisa says as she connects the call, Jeremiah sitting next to her.

"Hey, mom. Hey kid, how's school?" She asks her kid brother.

"It's okay, I have the mathletes tournament next week, so I've been prepping for that." He smiles at her. Addison settles down next to her and Pablo jumps on her lap and curls up in a ball.

"We have some news," Charlie says glancing back at Addison. She smiles and raises her hand, showing off the ring. "I proposed." She smiles.

"Oh, Charlotte! Baby, that's amazing." She smiles and Jeremiah grins next to her. Charlie's mom starts to go into wedding planning mode. "Ever since you got the ring, I've been planning." She tells her, sitting back down with a stack of magazines in her lap. Charlie just looks over to Addison and widens her eyes.

"I told you." She whispers and Addison smiles and laughs.

Three hours later, they're still on the phone with Charlie's mom, she's showing them dresses for the two of them and even a few choices of matching suits for Charlie, Alex, and her brothers. Once they finally disconnect the call, Charlie yawns loudly. "You coming to bed? I have early rounds tomorrow." She says, stretching as she gets up. Addison nods her head and picks up Pablo, bringing him to their bedroom.