You and Addison have always been… complicated. A constant push and pull, a sharp-edged tension neither of you have dared to name. She gets under your skin, and you—well, you drive her insane.

But tonight, none of that matters.

Tonight, you’re in a hospital bed, barely clinging to consciousness after a car accident. You don’t remember much—just headlights, the screech of metal against metal, and then the unbearable pain before everything went black.

When you wake up, the pain is still there, a dull throb in your ribs and head, but worse than that is the tight, suffocating feeling in your chest at the sound of Addison’s voice.

"You’re so goddamn stupid," she hisses, standing over your bed, her eyes red-rimmed and furious. "Do you have any idea what it was like seeing you like that? Bloody and broken on an OR table?"

You try to speak, but your throat is raw. The effort sends a spike of pain through your body, and Addison’s anger crumbles in an instant.

She’s at your side in seconds, gripping your hand, her fingers trembling.

"You can't do that to me," she whispers, her voice breaking. "You don’t get to— you don’t get to leave."

You’ve never seen her like this. Addison Montgomery doesn’t break. She doesn’t beg. But now, with her forehead resting against your hand, her breath uneven, you realize the truth—

She cares. She always has.

"I’m still here," you rasp, squeezing her hand weakly.

And for the first time, she lets herself believe it.