Author's Note: I don't really have much to say up here; this story was started in the midst of the nervous breakdown I'm pretty sure I had as a result of finals. I decided to rewatch 6.08 - Invest in Love in the hopes that shirtless Alex would make me feel better. It didn't (well, maybe a little bit…I mean, how can you not feel good after watching a hot shirtless man hold an innocent baby!) but as a result you've got this one-shot. And I've finally made it to double digits for my fan fic count! So YAY! I'm so … well, PROUD! (…good one, Kate.)

Proud

"You'd be good in peds."

Miranda Bailey's words echoed in his head as he drove back to his house from work that night. It had been a long day and night, and his body literally ached for his soft, warm bed. He'd lost track of time, but he knew he spent quite while sitting in that rocking chair cradling the preemie. And now, against all logical reasoning and medical facts, that preemie was out of the woods and going to make a full recovery.

And it was all because of him. He was the one to reach out to the dying baby and envelop the tiny bundle in his arms. Him. Alex Karev, self-confessed ass…holding babies.

When Alex had decided to go into the medical field, he decided he needed to pick an area that would allow him to remain as cold and detached as possible. Granted, he knew he needed to show compassion and understanding to his patients, but he never wanted to actually allow himself to care about them. Whether they lived or died, recovered or were sent home to die, that he cared about. But the patients themselves, no, he didn't want to care.

However, soon Alex began caring about his patients, particularly the newborns. He found he had a knack with them, surprising everyone including himself. And it was all thanks to one person.

Alex had never counted on liking working with Doctor Addison Forbes Montgomery. In fact at the beginning he hoped to serve his sentence as her intern and then quickly get away from the area to go back to doing what he really wanted to do: plastics. But somehow he went from loathing every second of the gynie squad to envisioning himself someday being a world renowned neonatal surgeon.

Then Addison left and Alex forgot about how much he enjoyed neonatal. Sure he still worked with the occasional newborn, but it was never quite the same feeling, the same rush of adrenaline that kicks into gear when you realize you have a tiny human, completely unaware of how cruel the world is, unaware that people die and girlfriends go crazy and friends get hit by buses and wives leave, depending on your every move to save their life.

However, cradling the newborn infant to his chest brought that old feeling back. And saving her life merely by holding her, well that confirmed it for him: Alex missed neonatal, and he missed the woman who made it possible for him to even miss neonatal.

So he did what any sane man would do. When he got back to his house and plopped down on his bed, he picked up his phone and dialed her number.

After the seventh or eighth ring, Alex considered hanging up. However the unmistakable click of someone answering the phone on the other end stopped him.

The sound of the phone bumping along on an end table and the rustle of sheets filled his ear, and then she spoke.

"Hello?" It came out as a half-mumble, half-yawn.

"Doctor Montgomery?" Alex glanced down at the phone to make sure he had the right number, for the voice at the other end of the line was hardly recognizable to him.

"…Karev?" Some of the grogginess had left her voice and Alex breathed a sigh of relief. It was her.

"I…um…tonight I saved a preemie. She stroked out at thirty weeks and she was bradycardiac and her temp wouldn't go up. Everyone said she wouldn't make it. So I held her, because she was dying and I thought she deserved to be held. And then she started getting better. So then Bailey had be take my shirt off and her vitals grew even stronger—"

"The Kangaroo Effect." Addison interrupted impatiently.

"Exactly, the Kangaroo Effect!" Alex exclaimed happily, but something about the tone in Addison's voice seemed off to him, so he asked, "Hey, are you okay?"

"It's 3:45 in the morning, Karev." She deadpanned.

An awkward silence enveloped both sides of the phone.

"…Oh, right," Alex cursed himself inwardly for losing track of time, "I'm sorry! I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Thank you." Addison managed to get out through a yawn and Alex had to smile. The woman was still polite even when she was rudely awoken in the middle of the night.

"You're welcome. Again, I'm really sorry." Alex apologized again.

"Goodnight, Karev." Her voice already sounded like she was dozing off as she hung up.

"Goodnight, Add—" The click on the other end of the line interrupted him and he realized she was no longer there.

Unsettled, Alex frowned to himself. Sure he had gotten to tell the one person he wanted to tell about saving the newborn, but he was kind of hoping for a response other than a yawn and a "It's 3:45 in the morning, Karev."

So he did what any sane man would do: he called back.

This time she picked up more quickly. "Yes?" She answered, not even bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice at being woken up again.

"Yeah, hi, me again!" Alex quipped, hoping to make light of the situation.

"Karev, what the hell do you want? I haven't talked to you in ages and it's the middle of the freaking night. Say whatever you have to say and let me get back to bed!" Addison practically growled and Alex was taken back to happier times, like when he first started out on her service and she lived to make him suffer, or that time he got a root canal and the local anesthetic wore off.

"Look, I know you're mad. You have every right to be. We haven't talked in practically a year and here I am calling you twice in the middle of the night to tell you stuff you probably don't even care about. But saving that infant tonight reminded me of you, and how much I loved working with you. We were a good team and…I don't know. I'd just like to know if you're proud. You! Not the chief, who I really should be trying to impress since he's firing people left and right; not Arizona or Bailey, who were on the infant's case with me; not my freaking wife who's left me. Only you. So there." Alex admitted.

For the second time that night, an awkward silence filled the conversation.

"You can hang up now." Alex finally broke the silence.

"Um, okay…goodnight, Alex." Addison said, her voice sounding slightly shocked.

"Goodnight, Add—" The click on the other end of the line once again interrupted him.

Alex sighed. Once again that did not go according to plan.

So he did what any sane man would do: he fell asleep.

The pounding on the front door of his house awoke Alex sometime later from his sleep. Glancing at the clock he grew very annoyed. It was noon. And when it was Alex's day off from work, he definitely slept way later than noon.

Stumbling out of bed and swinging the front door open, Alex rubbed at his tired eyes then froze slack jawed at the woman standing before him.

For standing in his doorway was Addison Montgomery.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" She joked as she took in his appearance.

"What-how-why-what are you doing here?" He stammered.

"I am proud of you; I just wanted to let you know. And I'm sorry I'm such a bitch when I'm awoken in the middle of the night. Vanilla latte?" She offered him one of the steaming cups in her hands.

Alex looked down at the cup and then back at her dazzling smiling face. Too happily surprised by the turn of events, he did not say anything. Instead he let his lips come crashing down onto hers. In response, Addison dropped both lattes on the ground and threw her arms around him.

When they pulled away, both were grinning from ear to ear.

"Um," Addison looked at the spilled drinks on the grass, "never mind on the aforementioned offer of a vanilla latte."

The two shared a laugh.

"That's alright, I think I have some vanilla latte mix inside. I'll make us some. If you're coming in, that is?" He asked hopefully.

"Where else would I stay? Meredith and Derek's place?" Addison asked sarcastically, "I'm coming in, you'll make some vanilla lattes, and then I want to hear all about the Kangaroo Effect baby!"

Alex smiled, took her hand, and led her home.

The End!

This may seem out of character and different for him to reach out and call her and for her to get on a plane and head to Seattle, but I feel like everyone's a little out of character this season, so I went with it! Now, if you wanna go review, I wouldn't be opposed to that!