August: A Maddek Fanfic Chapter 2

Notes: This is a fanfiction based on characters from the TV shows, Grey’s Anatomy, and Private Practice. This is the story of Derek, Addison, and Mark in med school. In it, other characters will pop up like Sam and Naomi from Private Practice as well as Weiss and Savvy, who were in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy (2×08). I’d also like to add that I know virtually nothing about medicine or med school. So I won’t be adding too much medical jargon. Just know that there will probably be mistakes there moving forward. This story and chapter were originally posted on Archive of Our Own on October 20th, 2021. To better understand this chapter, it’d be best to read the first chapter before reading this. This has been edited to include headings and images.

August: Chapter 2

He was cute. Addison could at least admit that. But he’s also clearly that guy. You know, the one that can turn on the charm and get any girl he wanted. And maybe knowing that is flattering in a sense but Addison definitely didn’t want to be one of those girls. You know, the one that’s swept off her feet by the first guy that’s interested in her just to get ghosted after sleeping with him. No, I’m definitely not doing that, Addison thought. Plus, there are plenty of good-looking, available guys that aren’t just looking for a hookup.

As Mark got back to the dorms, he found Derek arranging his books onto the bookshelf near his bed. Watching him, he dropped onto his own bed and took a bite out of the granola bar he bought.

“Hey, you find anything good?” Derek said as he finished unpacking his books.

“Yeah, I did actually,” Mark smiled thinking about the redhead he’d met at the vending machines. Derek plopped down next to him, grabbed his snack, and took a bite.

“This is disgusting,” Derek said with his mouthful. He leaned over and spit it out into the trash can near the bed.

Mark and Derek Reminisce

“No, not that,” Mark said, laughing. “There was a cute redhead by the vending machine. As for the snack, I should’ve just gone with the potato chips but I was a little distracted,”

Over the course of their entire friendship, Mark had always been the womanizer. So it was never a surprise that he got distracted by another girl. But Derek had learned to keep his distance from his many conquests. The longest relationship Mark had ever had with a woman lasted maybe four months before he dumped her for almost no reason at all. And the only reason why it lasted that long was because Derek inadvertently became friends with her. To this day, Derek still kept in touch with Jess. Even if they avoided talking about him altogether now whenever they did talk.

And while Derek was classically handsome, he was much more of a serial monogamist. But he was ready for a fresh start. His last long-term relationship had been at Bowdoin but after he and Mark got accepted to Columbia, it ended. But things would be easier here. His childhood home was less than an hour away and he always preferred New York to Maine anyway. He always knew he’d come back to the city so he always knew that whatever happened in Maine, stayed in Maine.

“You get her number?” Derek asked.

“Not yet,” Mark sounded optimistic. But then again, when was he not when it related to one of his many female conquests?

Addison’s First Day

Finally, the first day of classes came and Addison was prepared. She bought her textbooks two weeks in advance, researched her professors as much as she possibly could, and had every school supply you could think of in her bookbag. So some would say she’s overprepared. Okay, most people would say she’s overprepared. It’s the first day of classes and she had a full bag of textbooks and school supplies, most of which she knew she wouldn’t need. But she liked being prepared. Overprepared. Maybe it made her seem like a crazy person, maybe she was a little crazy. But it’s precisely what would make her a good doctor someday, she thought. She just had to get through med school first.

Addison met her roommate, Laurel, briefly but they really hadn’t talked much since they first moved into campus last week. But what she did know was that she was a journalism major and seemed to be much more carefree than Addison. But that was just based on what she observed thus far. Laurel didn’t stay in the room nearly as much as Addison did. Apparently, she transferred from NYU with some friends so they went out during the day as Addison toured the campus.

Today may be the first day of classes but Addison already read the first few chapters of her textbook. Again, she was overprepared. But she liked to think it just meant she was driven and determined to succeed.

In her first class of the day, Organic Chemistry I, Addison sat down in an empty seat next to a petite blonde that was pulling out her notebook and pencils as she sat.

Addison Meets Mia

“Oh!” she exclaimed. Addison stopped in her tracks. Maybe she was saving the seat for someone else. When the girl saw Addison hesitate, she quickly said more.

“Sorry, I just didn’t hear you come up. Seat’s all yours,” she gestured to the empty seat.

“Thanks,” Addison said politely. As Addison grabbed her things out of her bag, the girl lightly fiddled with her pencil in her hand, tapping it on the desk every so often.

“I’m Mia, by the way,” she finally said.

“Addison,”

“So…” Mia started. “What are you in here for?” she chuckled, laughing at her own joke just slightly.

“I’m studying to be a doctor,” Addison replied, smiling politely again.

“Fancy,” she said back. Then, a short silence as she waited for Addison to ask the same question back. But Addison just flipped open her textbook and continued putting her notebook and pencil in place just where she liked it.

“I’m going into environmental science,” Mia finally said. When she did, Addison looked up and smiled again. Great, a hippie, she thought. When Addison didn’t say anything again, Mia, again, couldn’t let it go.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

“What? No, of course not,” Addison was taken aback a bit. She wasn’t used to people as confrontational as Mia.

“I just…” Mia started. She paused for a beat until she figured what she wanted to say. “You’re not one of those snobby people that only make friends with other med students, are you?”

“No, not at all,” Addison explained. “I’m sorry, I’m just a little…I don’t know, nervous? I just want to do well,” she felt the need to defend herself now.

Adison Forgets How to Socialize

“You know it’s the first day, right?” Mia asked nonchalantly. “We probably won’t even do much today other than going over the syllabus and stuff like that,”

“I know, I just…” Addison stuttered. “I don’t know,” she chuckled slightly, now embarrassed. How was it that she was so out of practice making new friends? She’d made friends at Yale but most of them either stayed there to get their Masters or transferred elsewhere. And the friends that did come to Columbia with her weren’t ones she was particularly close with.

“Relax,” Mia said back. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” she said somewhat mockingly. Addison chuckled nervously back. As uncomfortable as the conversation was, it was a nice change of pace to talk to someone so different than the people she’d grown up with. Mia was nice, confrontational, and easygoing whereas many of her old friends from back home were either products of their WASP-y parents or at the very least, just as studious and somewhat neurotic as her.

Then, class started and both girls turned their attention to the professor. And it turned out that Mia was right. It was their first day and while Mr. Wilson did talk about the curriculum, it was brief and most of what he said was basically a rewording of the first chapter. Which Addison knew because she already finished reading it. But besides that, most of their class consisted of going over the syllabus and how the rest of the semester would go.

When Mr. Wilson first gave a stack of syllabi to the first student to pass around, Mia shot Addison a look. Even though she didn’t say anything, she may as well have said “I told you so”. And Addison couldn’t help but smile and nod back in defeat.

Mia and Addison Get Breakfast

After class ended as Addison started putting her things back into her bag, Mia walked a little closer to her desk and tapped her on the shoulder as she was reaching down.

“Hey…so I don’t have my next class for another 45 minutes, do you wanna grab some breakfast or something?” Mia asked. At this point, it was still only ten in the morning.

“Sure,” Addison replied as she grabbed her bag off the ground. Bizzy would’ve scolded her for putting her bag on the ground and made a speech about how she should’ve hung it on her chair or something. Anything but put it on the floor. But the fact that she wasn’t here and couldn’t tell her what to do only made Addison happier.

“I have an hour till my next class,” Addison said as she stood up. “And I may have skipped breakfast,” she admitted.

“But breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” Mia exclaimed, looping her arm around hers as they headed towards the door. “You’d think a future doctor would know that,” she said rather mockingly. Addison couldn’t help but laugh. She was right, she should know better. But at least she grabbed coffee at a cart before class.

Clinical Gross Anatomy Class

While Addison went to her early morning classes, Mark and Derek didn’t get up till almost 10. Mostly because Mark refused to take anything before 9:00. And he and Derek wanted to take all their classes together for as long as they could. Best friends, through and through. After they ate breakfast in the dining hall, they found themselves getting to their first class of the day: Clinical Gross Anatomy at 11:00. Little did Mark know that he’d later see a familiar redhead.

As Derek and Mark walked over to a lab station, other students began piling in. Addison had already gotten there early. Because of course, she did. But Mark nor Derek saw her just yet. Instead, they found their way to an empty station, complete with a metal table, an adjoining monitor, and a set of desk chairs with wheels.

“Is this seat taken?” A male student stood in front of Addison as she flipped through her textbook.

“No, go ahead,” Addison said back politely. She was so concerned about making sure she had everything ready come class time, she didn’t even notice the guy glancing at her every ten seconds.

“I’m..” The student cleared his throat after he heard his voice sound a little coarse. “I’m Sam,”

“Addison,” She said back, just slightly glancing up at him to say her name. After noticing that she wasn’t really paying much attention to him, Sam nodded his head slightly in defeat.

As everyone settled into their seats and conversed with one another for a few minutes, the professor finally came in.
“Good morning everyone,” He started as he started writing his name on the whiteboard. “I’m Dr. Mason, and this is Clinical Gross Anatomy,”

The Boys Take Notice of Addison

From there, Dr. Mason gave a quick overview of how the rest of the semester would go. He went over their textbook, why he chose to use this particular textbook, and that they’d have multiple quizzes to test their knowledge. Then, he started to talk about dissection and how they’d start practicing on cadavers. There was even some quippy comment thrown in there about how if you didn’t think you could handle the gore, it probably meant you were in the wrong place.

He was detailed and assured he was a firm but fair teacher. And most students were mostly checked out during the entirety of the class. Mostly because more than half of the students had already gone to at least one other morning class and heard pretty similar lectures. It was only the first day so there was only so much a professor could really say.

As he spoke, Addison still paid attention. Particularly to the class’s curriculum and Dr. Mason’s grading system. So she didn’t notice Mark and Derek sitting three stations to her right. Nor did she notice Sam constantly glancing at her. But Mark didn’t notice her either. That is until the class almost ended. After Mark spotted her, he tried to will her to take her eyes off the front of the class. But to no avail. Addison wasn’t messing around. First day or not, she was determined to do well.

Addison Meets Naomi

After class ended, Addison started packing up her things in her bookbag and dropped one of her pencils (yes, she took more than one out of her bag to be prepared in case one broke) on the ground. As she got out of her seat to walk over to where it’d rolled, she was surprised to find another hand pick it up first.

‘Is this yours?” A female student asked when looking up to find Addison staring at the pencil in her hand.

“Yeah,” Addison awkwardly chuckled. “Thanks,”

“No problem,” she said back, handing the pencil to her. “I’m Naomi, by the way,” she said as Addison put her pencil back in its case. After the catastrophic meeting with Mia, Addison told herself she’d make more of an effort to make friends from now on. Things had gone well with Mia, but only because of how persistent she was. But she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to make another friend here. Especially another med school student.

“I’m Addison,” she said as she tried to put on her nicest smile. Naomi was about to say something else but that’s when Mark cut in.

“Hey Red,” Mark said as he walked up to her. Derek was already starting to talk with a few male classmates so he didn’t even notice (or didn’t care) that Mark went over to talk to some girls on the other side of the room.

“Hi Mark,” She said back, somewhat begrudgingly.

“Sorry to break up the party, I just thought I’d say hi,” Mark said after realizing the girls were (kind of) in the middle of a conversation. “I’m Mark, by the way,” He said as he extended a hand over to Naomi.

Addison Invites Naomi to Lunch

“Naomi,” She smiled back politely. After the three of them stood there awkwardly, Mark couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Alright, well it was nice to meet you, Naomi,” Mark added. “I guess I’ll see you around Red,” Mark said, winking back at her as he walked away.

“Wow,” Naomi said as Addison awkwardly smiled and looked down at her shoes. “Looks like you already have a not-so-secret admirer,” Naomi laughed slightly to help relieve the tension.

“Yeah, we met on moving day,” She explained. “Umm…do you want to grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria?”

“Sure,” Naomi said.

It’d been a long time since Addison tried to make new friends but she knew it wasn’t going to happen all by itself. She had to make a change if she wanted one. As they walked to the cafeteria, Addison found out that she was from a normal suburban family in San Francisco and was also interested in obstetrics, just like Addison. This may have only been the first day, but it turned out to be a pretty good one. She’d never been great at making friends but Addison decided it was time to make a change. And making new friends was the first step toward that change.

Additional Notes

I didn’t want to wait too long to start introducing the other characters in the story like Sam and Naomi and I’m trying to fit what’s been said on the show. Addison talked about her college friend, Mia, in one of her therapy sessions but never told us much about her so I could be more creative with who I wanted her to be. Sam and Addison also said on the show that he apparently asked her out before Naomi asked him out but she turned him down because she knew Naomi liked him. And they’ve made multiple references to Sam being a bit of an awkward college student.

I also realized while writing this that we don’t really know much about Naomi’s past so I’m also making that part up as I go. I mean we don’t know her maiden name, anything about her family, or where she’s even from lol. As for Addison and Derek, I didn’t want them to meet just yet. That’ll come sometime later.