A/N: Okay I love Alex and Izzie, but she's just been really awful to him right now and Reed's been so sweet and cute that she may just be the wake-up call Izzie needs to stop being awful and to get her shit together. But you know, I wouldn't mind Alex and Reed, but I still love Alex and Izzie, so here's a sort of mash-up for that. Enjoy!

Budding Consequences

--

The monitor's steady beeping wasn't just a reassurance that he was alright. It reminded her of the first day she stepped into this hospital, as a wide-eyed eager intern, seeing herself holding a clipboard and wearing the dark blue scrubs as an attending. It reminded her Denny and how his life relied on every single bleep of the machine, much like her when—she shook the image out of her head—surgeries. It reminded her of surgeries and the natural high she felt in the OR. She could still feel the scalpel in her hand as it slowly cuts through flesh, blood bleeding with iodine—

"Izzie?" Meredith knocked gently, looking in. She was sitting beside the bed, watching him sleep. "You want to come down to the bar with us?"

"I have to stay here," she said, motioning to her mentor, the first person who ever believed she was more than blond trailer trash. "He's still reeling in from the surgery."

"Derek says he won't be up until the morning," Meredith advised, "his brain needs to recover. You know that. And you need a break."

Izzie looked down at his chart. She looked through the document again, making sure there was nothing else she missed, and nodded at Meredith. She grabbed her coat and left the nurse some instructions.

"So," Izzie started, as they walked away from the room, "how's your liver?"

Meredith laughed. It felt like old times.

--

She knew coming with Meredith was a bad idea. As they were about to head down, she saw Alex walking in the lobby, and her feet came to an abrupt halt. After a few steps, Meredith turned around, realizing Izzie was no longer following her.

"You coming?"

"I think I'll just—"

He stopped walking too. Izzie wondered if he saw her coming, but was surprised to see another figure walking towards him. It was the tiny girl doctor, the one from Mercy West—what was her name?—Adamson. Reed Adamson. They stayed idle for a while in conversation, she in a cheerful disposition (which Izzie already hated the moment she entered the hospital) and he unresponsive, unassuming, until she saw the trace of a smirk on his face. Meredith watched Izzie's reaction to the scene unfolding.

"They've become friends, ever since the chief stopped firing people," she presented as an explanation. She actually didn't know what was going on with the Mercy West doctors and her friends, but Cristina mentioned one of them in passing and there wasn't any verbal sparring between any of them on the surgical floor. She figured they were getting along fine.

Alex returned Reed's smile. As Izzie looked on, he realized that he looked back for her; he was waiting for her. They walked out together.

Izzie fidgeted with her wedding ring. "I don't think it's such a good idea. Alex's mad at me. I don't understand, he was the one who told the chief, but," she paused, taking a breath, "I don't think he wants me there right now."

"You have to understand, Iz, you left him with a note and a two hundred thousand dollar medical bill. You don't show up for your treatments. You don't return any of his messages. Of course he's going to be mad. But he loves you, still. Don't ruin it."

She indulges Meredith's happy honeymoon recovering-from-giving-half-of-my-liver-to-my-estranged-father demeanor. She reassures her that she'll follow, her reasons for leaving looking bleaker and bleaker as she repeated them in her head.

He loves you still.

He wouldn't be this mad if he didn't.

Don't ruin it.

The thing was, she thinks she may already have.