The morning after a big event can be draining.  Exhausting even.  So much so that you wish you could do nothing but lay in bed all day and just sleep the day away.  Unfortunately, that's not how real life works no matter how much we wish it did.  What we don't know is the after effects the morning after can leave us.  Happiness, grief, death, love. . . 

-

It was the next day and most of them, especially the interns, were still recovering from the night before.  Except for Alison.  She had to admit that she had a pretty great night overall.  She was able to meet her boyfriend's son and they spent the evening together before she left to sleep at her apartment.  Alison had discussed it with Anthony earlier and they both agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate if she spent the night at his place the first time they meet.

Alison was okay with that.  She didn't want to make it awkward for Bentley and she wanted him to feel comfortable around her.

Alison still couldn't believe what had happened the night before.  Denny.  Izzie cutting his wires.  Denny having a heart attack and dying after a successful surgery.  It was all just too much and Alison suddenly didn't want to be at the hospital where it all happened.  But she knew that she had to put on a brave face for her patients who needed her today.  

*

"Did you know about Denny?" Addison asked still shocked over what had transpired.

"I didn't know about it until after it happened," she confessed to the ped's doctor.  

"You bitch!" she gasped joking.  "Who the hell told you?"

"Bailey," she shrugged her shoulders not in the mood to talk about it today.  "What's with you today?  You look like you're in another dimensional world."

"Yeah," Addison looks out into nothing.  "You could say that it's something like that..."

Addison said nothing more not wanting to talk about what she had found from last night.  She knew that Alison knew enough about the love affair and didn't want to tell her of her feelings, knowing she got enough of it from Derek.  Because even though Alison and Addison worked together - she was ultimately Derek's best friend.  

Now Addison felt like she had no one to turn to.

"Doctor Anderson, you're wanted in room 232," the nurse told her and Alison excused herself from Addison.

"Who are you?" Addison stared at the blonde as this was Addison's first day.

"I'm Alison," she put her hand out for the new ped's doctor to shake her hand but she didn't and put it down.  "You must be Addison, Doctor Shepherd's wife, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"I've heard a lot about you," she smiles at the brunette, despite her standoffish behavior.

"From Derek?" Addison slightly perks up at the thought that maybe Derek still loved her.

"No, from Richard.  He said you're the best ped's doctor."

"That's very kind of Richard," Addison told the other ped's doctor but deep down she was hoping that the good news was from Derek.  It would make her feel like he still had any kind of good feeling toward her other than hatred.  

"Doctor Montgomery-Shepherd, we need you and Doctor Anderson," the nurse, Olivia, who was with Karev earlier told her.  "Quick!"

"Doctor Anderson is with another patient.  I'll come."

On their way to the patient, Addison was given the facts.  A baby was left in the dumpster and wasn't doing good.  Alison was helping a kid who had to have his leg amputated due to having cancer in his leg.  Alison loved helping Jacob especially.  He was only seven years old and she and Callie were helping him adjust to life with just one leg.  It was just him and his mom for right now - it was a sad situation.  His dad is in the military and was deployed in Iraq right before the surgery and thankfully they allowed him on emergency leave to be there for the surgery but a month after the surgery he had to go back, no matter how much he didn't want to.

Alison knew that it was hard on the family and wanted to do everything she could to make it easier on them even if it meant more work for her.

*

Addison had washed the black laced panties earlier in the day as she had a plan on how to dispose of them at the hospital.  She couldn't believe she had been so stupid to believe that nothing was going on with Derek and Meredith.  That they could just be friends, all of them, especially after how it all went down.

Now she felt like the foolish girl.

*

"Tell me you didn't sleep with her," Alison says in a statement with a deadpan look on her face.

"I didn't sleep with her?" He says a little unsure.

"Derek come on," she flings her arms up then down in exasperation.  "You don't get to play victim anymore, Derek!" Alison raises her voice at her colleague and best friend.  "You don't! Maybe at the beginning okay but now enough is enough.  I have watched you pawn after Meredith even after you took your wife back to work on your marriage.  You need to stop playing victim, take some responsibility and choose which woman you want because you can't have both.  In the end all three of you hurting.  It's either Meredith or Addison but you can't have both."

"Hey guys," Callie greets the two doctors that were having lunch.  "Mind if I join?"

"Go ahead, I was just leaving," Derek says upset as he grabs his food and leaves.

"Your just upset because you know I'm right," Alison says as Callie is confused.  "Don't worry about him.  I'm Alison."

"I know who you are, I'm Callie," she greets her fellow doctor.

"I know who you are too.  We all do.  You're quite famous around here."

"Why?  Because I'm the new ortho doctor?" she let out an unattractive snort and shook her head which made Alison laugh.

"Yeah and just about every guy who's single here thinks you're hot."

"I might have my eye on someone," she answered with a smirk.  "So is it true that they call Doctor Bailey the Nazi?" Callie asks as she leans in to whisper.

Alison lets out an unattractive snort before she covers it up with her hand which makes Callie grin at her.

"It's true.  And you're the ortho queen," she tells her.

"Me?  What about you Wendy Darling," she says in a fake British accent which makes Alison grin.

"You heard about that, huh?"

"I kind of overheard Karev calling you that.  Does everyone have a nickname around here?"

"Pretty much."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Alison shrugged.  "It's what we do.  Makes it fun."

*

"You okay, Ali?" Derek asked his good friend as they met up in the hallway.  "You don't look so good."

He made the comment as she started to slightly start getting sweaty and had a nasty cough.  Derek scrunched his nose slightly in disgust as his best friend was having a coughing fit.  

"Gee, thanks so much.  You sure know how to flatter a woman," just as she said this she felt as though bile was coming up and covered her mouth as she ran to the nearest trash can to empty it out.

Clair Müller, a Nurse Practitioner, for the ped's department noticed a doctor throwing up and another male doctor helping her, holding her hair back.  She noticed that everyone else was running around and not helping out so she decided to go to them before she headed to the ped's floor for her first day of work at the new hospital.

Clair noticed the Winnie the Pooh scrub cab in the blonde's white coat pocket as she guessed she either loved the movie or was a ped's doctor.  

"Do you two need some help?" 

"Oh yes, thank you.  I have a patient I need to get to but she's sick.  Can you look after her?"

"Yeah, I can do that.  I'm Clair Müller, by the way."

"The new ped's nurse practitioner?  Nice to meet you.  Derek Shepherd, neurosurgeon.  Excuse me."

"Your Clair?" Alison asked as she finally stopped throwing up and Clair handed her a Kleenex.  "Thanks."

"Yeah," she nods her head.

"I'm Alison Anderson.  I've spoken on the phone with you a few times.  It's nice to meet you," she says but then begins to throw up again.   

Clair winces at the sound, never having been a fan of being around people who are sick, which is ironic since she's a nurse practitioner.  She's always hated whenever she gets sick.  Grabbing some more tissues, she hands them to the doctor and also looks for a bottle of water, finding one and handing it to her.  

"Thanks."

"How about I take your temperature?" Clair asked the blonde as she found one and put it on her forehead.  It read 102.5.  

"Okay, I am sending you home."

"Wait, what?  No," the blonde shook her head.  "It's just a little fever.  It will go down if I have an IV full of fluids stuck in my arm.  I just need a few hours.  Besides, you're new here."

"Alison, go home.  You have the flu.  Rest up and drink lots of fluids.  You know as well as I do that you would not want to work with a patient under these conditions."

"Damn, did anyone tell you that you already are starting to sound like Richard?  Alright, alright, I'll go home.  Ped's floor is on the third level.  Please assign the rest of my patients to Karev."

"You got it.  Feel better, Doctor Anderson."

That night Alison was at her house, resting in her bed as she watched reruns of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  It was a petty show just like Keeping Up With The Kardashians was - but somehow she was addicted to it.  It was her guilty pleasure along with Sex and the City.  Her boyfriend, Anthony, spent a few hours with her helping her feel better.  Making sure she ate her chicken noodle soup, drinking lots of fluids and resting in between.  

There are certain moments in our life when they choose to define us.  To let us know if we are making the right decision or not.  We could be questioning all the time if we are doing the right thing and then after a big event - the morning after we would know for certain.  

That we are who we grew up to be.

It doesn't always work out that way.  But it's the little moments that help too.  A helping hand after a loved one passes away.  Someone we care about or a total stranger helping us when we are sick.  As doctors we are so busy taking care of other people that we sometimes forget that we need taking care of too.

--

I am so sorry that I am posting this later than I said I would!!  I have loads of midterm quizzes and tests this week for school so I wanted to get this chapter up before then.  I hope you guys enjoyed!

Also if you didn't notice at the end Clair Müller is my character that I am having in my Switzerland Jackson Avery fanfic!  This is going to be a spin off series of sorts.  I'm hoping to have the first chapter of that fanfic up soon but not sure when.  It's already up though if you want to check it out :).

Hope you all are doing well :)