After a long dryspell from writing, I have come back with this. It was a self-challenge and it seemed to get a little out of me. Dedicated to Stephanie, who helped me break down the walls when I got blocked on this.

First fic of the year!! (sad isn't it). Lets hope this is the start of more writing. And better writing.

Scent

When he wakes up the next morning, still in his clothes from the night before, she's gone but he can smell pancakes. He supposes it is better than muffins, her previous choice in post-cry baked good. And he had noticed that he hadn't been the only one crying. He just didn't mention it because that meant he had to remember how he had broken down.

He sat up, got up and followed the smell of the pancakes to the kitchen. Meredith wasn't there, nor was anyone else. It was just Izzie, who had put some breakfast on a tray. Two plates of pancakes, glasses of orange juice.

As she noticed him and smiled, almost embarrassed to be caught he smiled back. Things were great. But he was getting there. The first steps towards an honest fine were taken with a smile.

Sight

Alex had painted his room. Izzie stared at it in object horror, suddenly very glad that Meredith hardly came home anymore. She wasn't sure who to blame for this ugly shade of puce, but whoever it was at that store who had suggested it should be smacked hard enough that Izzie had to see them.

"Seriously?"

"No, its wash off."

"No, seriously!"

"Izz, it's not that bad."

"You clearly are ill." She immediately calculated how many cans of paint it would take it get rid of the garish color. Before Meredith came home. Well, before anyone would need to see this. This had to be the recent angst talking.

"It's an accent."

"Please tell me I miss heard and you just said it was an accident."

"Izzie."

"Alex." A couple of glares. "Seriously."

"Fine, I'll repaint it."

Sound

"I've spent the last fifty-five years trying to shut the door on forever." Alex turned away from the screen to look at Izzie, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. They had been rewatching her favorite episodes 

of her favorite television show all afternoon in celebration of her 30th birthday. But she had worked the night shift and with all the visiting of family and friends she hadn't slept so now she did when it was just him and a fictional vampire who was professing his love to his blonde girlfriend.

He smiled as Izzie let out a soft snore. She was utterly exhausted. Slowly, he stood up. He listened to her for a second, making sure she didn't wake up as the end titles of the show began. He picked her up and started to carry her towards her bedroom.

He laid her on the bed just as she let out another snore. He walked to the door but stopped to look at her. He turned to leave but stopped as he heard her voice.

"Stay."

That was all he needed to hear.

Taste

Izzie's skin tastes like vanilla. When he tells her this, she just laughs. Until he tastes her again and she's got other things on her mind. The strange thing is, after a year and a half apart she still tastes like vanilla. And she still laughs.

It's different, yet the same. Getting to know her again like this brings out the similarities. Most of the differences aren't in the mechanics. She still responds to certain things and still knows what gets to him. What is different is how they see it. It's not about feeding the beast as he once heard her call it.

For once they are on the same page. They both want this, and they both want it to work. They take it slow because they need to remember what they used to know by heart, and to explain things that words just don't seem to be able to.

To be completely honest, Alex is well aware that chances are he'd have to be tricked or pissed off enough to ever tell Izzie that he loved her. Meredith was the only one who ever got him to admit he was anything but unaffected by her. And he also knew that Izzie was a little hesitant about saying it as well. She had said it three times already, been left by the first, made a widow-who-wasn't-a-widow by the second and the third…well; he was still trying to figure out George.

Touch

Alex is sitting in the hallway he and the other interns had decided as their own going over some of his paperwork when Izzie finds him. He didn't even notice her there till she grabs his hand and he feels the coldness of her engagement ring. She puts her hand on her stomach and when he gives her a confused glance she begins to explain but not before Alex feels a small kick and knows exactly why.

The baby had started kicking. It was a strange feeling. He hadn't really connected to the pregnancy till this moment. It was more real now. Luckily Izzie understood.

He had asked Izzie to marry him on their first anniversary (or third depending on how you counted it). A month later they found out she was pregnant. Izzie hadn't told him at first, knowing how he had felt after the whole situation with Rebecca. But she finally told him when she went to have a sonogram done. He had accepted it, but he hadn't exactly gotten as involved as perhaps he should have.

At four months he still wasn't excited, even though Izzie was showing and they knew the baby was going to be a girl. It took her kicking to make it real to him.

"She started kicking about an hour ago in the middle of surgery." Izzie explained. She was smiling.

For once, he smiled back.