a/n: So, a new story has begun! This is kind of really just the prologue, but it's long and I didn't want to add anymore to it, so yeah. Sorry the sections are so short. It was kind of just how the story wrote itself... If I get enough reviews, I'll post the next chapter before Sunday (Greek Easter!). From there, I can't promise anything, because I go back to school. Blech. :P
disclaimer: I don't even own the title of the story. It's a line from an All-American Rejects song. All I can say is mine is the idea.
dedication: So I don't usually dedicate fics to anybody, but this one calls for it, I think. McMuffin, thanks for actually taking the time to read through my monsterous profile, and actually telling me that you would read this. It was just the kick in the ass I needed to actually type it up. So this one's for you. Cheers!
Ava is back. Addison is back. How is it that the only two women in the world with the power to make him miserable are both here now? And Ava is pregnant. Great. Fantastic. He's not ready to be a father. He doesn't even think he wants kids ever.
Alex sits in an on-call room, trying to absorb everything. The door swings open. Addison stands there, bathed in the fluorescent light of the hallway. "Oh, uh, sorry," she stammers. She starts to back out of the room, but notices his stricken look. "Are you okay?" she asks. The funny thing is that it actually sounds like she cares.
He looks at her, trying to determine whether or not to share his "happy" news.
"Well?" she asks impatiently. Something in the tone of her voice, like she actually has someplace better to be, makes him want to shock her into staying, or at least into silence.
"Ava's pregnant," he informs her.
"Oh." The noise sounds like all of the air has just been forced out of her lungs. She sits besides him on the bed. The weird thing is that she seems just as shell-shocked as he is.
"Yeah."
She nods, but stays quiet. Instinct tells her that there's really nothing that can be said. Instead, all she can do is offer her presence. She sits with him in silence until he becomes aware enough to become embarrassed and leave.
0ooo0
Izzie is the one who tells her. The poor girl. She's bursting with a secret that may destroy one of her best friends, and it's too big to keep to herself. For some unexplainable reason, she chooses to unburden herself to Addison. It all comes rushing out in one big word, "Ava'snotpregnantshe'sfakingIdon'tknowwhybutsheis." After asking Izzie a second time, it becomes clear that Ava's not pregnant, she's faking, and Izzie doesn't know why, but she is.
Addison can't help her. She is seriously tempted to tell Izzie to just blurt it out and ruin the small bit of happiness, or at least acceptance, that Alex has developed since their on-call room incident. She knows it's petty, but she can't help it. She was fine in LA, but the second she stepped foot in Seattle again, all her humiliating feelings came rushing back, whether or not she wanted them to (and she most definitely did not want them to). But the same feelings that inspired the petty, jealous reaction, also won't allow her to so directly ruin his happiness. So when Izzie asks for advice, Addison merely shrugs, and says that Izzie has to do what she feels is right.
Izzie takes issue with this advice.
0ooo0
He finds her after his world comes crashing down around him. She listens to him as he explains Ava's psychotic break. "Oh, Alex, I am so sorry," she says quietly when he's done.
He shrugs. "Whatever.
She once again realizes the futility of any verbal comfort she might offer. They sit side by side in silence.
0ooo0
By the time Addison leaves, they have yet another complicated relationship. Though they don't really communicate outside the hospital, Addison is there when Alex needs someone. He has accepted responsibility for Ava and when things get too tough, he'll sit with her and they'll talk. Never about anything more important than the weather, mind you, but they talk. They never mention anything about their history, but it seems to be implicitly understood that things are okay between them.
When she leaves, he doesn't see her off or anything, but the last day before she goes, she slips him her phone number.
Not for anything but emergencies, of course.
0ooo0
She was home for all of two weeks before Alex calls her. But a lot can happen in two weeks. Like maybe sleeping with Pete. Lovely. That just makes her life oh so very much easier.
And then Alex calls her and just about all hell breaks loose. He informs her of Ava's suicide attempt.
Even though they're not really friends, she's on the next flight out of LA.
0ooo0
Alex appreciates Addison coming, especially after the way he's treated her. She's only there for a couple days—just long enough to assure herself that he is fine. Whenever she's near him, he can't help but remember how it used to feel standing next to her. It's never been simple between them, but just being in the same room together felt so right. Of course, he screwed it up, and they're still screwed up, but once their hands brush and he nearly jumps away from the shock of electricity that shoots between them. If he had looked closer, he would have noticed that she had the exact same reaction.
He thought he was over her. Apparently he was wrong.
0ooo0
That trip back to Seattle was a series of strange things and mistakes. She had once again created a weird, quasi-friendship thing with Alex and rekindled feelings that she had hoped and prayed would go away. And then, she may or may not have, sort of, almost, kind of, maybe slept with Mark again. Except there was no sort of, almost, kind of, maybe about it. It was a definite, certain, irrefutable event. And drunken, for that matter. Which, considering that she leaves two days later, wouldn't be a problem. That is, if she could remember if they'd used a condom.
0ooo0
Her third trip back to Seattle is for a surgery two weeks later, and is actually her final one. She knows it from the start. Things with Pete are just too weird now, and Sam and Naomi are always fighting, and she can just feel that LA has done everything it can for her.
Besides, if there is one thing Addison hates, it's quitting, and she can't help but feel that she definitely ran from Seattle and quit. And Addison Forbes Montgomery does not, under any circumstances, quit. Not without a fight first.
When she's finally moved up to Seattle (again), she rarely talks to anyone but Callie and Miranda. Derek is happy, and she's happy for him, but there's no need to be masochistic enough to talk to him, and she's still avoiding Mark (and doing a damn good job of it, too, she might add). There's no need to talk to Alex. Life is pretty calm, and their relationship is like 911—for emergencies only.
Three weeks after she returns, that 911 friendship becomes very useful.
So, the quicker you review, the more you get.
Next up: Addison uses the 911 buddy system and a plan is put into action.
-Juli-