Title: Elevators
Rating: T
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Addison/Alex
Summary: Ten elevator rides with Addison and Alex, nine visits Addison makes to Seattle Grace Hospital, and one visit to the Oceanside Wellness Group.
Note: I wrote this for a friend of mine, and it's not my usual sort of thing (beware of some fluff here) and it involves more dialogue than I usually work with, so i hope you don't find this too terrible. This is really just a fun and a lighter version of my favorite couple, Alex and Addison, so keep that in mind and do enjoy! I want to thank Ocean of Ashes for pointing out that the line breaks didn't appear in the must delete the breaks I use, so I put in the line thingy now--sorry about that!
"Ava looks good," Addison comments as she, Alex, and a handful of others ride the elevator up to the third floor.
"Yeah," Alex responds.
"I'm glad to see that you two are…that you're still able to see her," she says, picking her words carefully. She's not sure on the details of them, or even on them as individuals.
"Yeah," he repeats.
Getting that he's not up for any conversation, Addison drops it, thinking to herself that she should've known better--Alex never was much of a talker.
There is a small, but awkward moment when Addison catches Alex's eyes as he walks into the elevator. She gives him a clearly taut smile, and he nods so as to recognize her presence. He turns his back to her, raises his finger to the buttons, only to see the floor he's heading to is already highlighted.
"Headed to the ground floor?"
"Yep," she says softly, then bursts out with a little giggle. Alex turns around to her, with a raised eyebrow. She pats her chest, stops giggling, and explains, "I'm sorry, I just felt a little strange when you walked in here, after that little conversation we had."
He shakes his head, and turns back around. The elevator gives a small ding, and as the doors begin to open, Alex hangs back to let Addison go first. As she passes him, he tells her, "you ever gonna give me an answer?"
Addison presses her hands against the doors to keep them from closing in on her, and looks over her shoulder to Alex. She cocks her head to the side and squints, as if contemplating it over, and says, "I haven't decided yet."
He sees her hastily walking (almost running) to catch the elevator. He holds the doors open for her, and she smiles politely, and when she's nearly caught her breath, she greets him with a "hello, Dr. Karev."
He nods politely, and watches her brush her hair back out of the corner of his eye.
"So you're back?" he asks.
She bites her lower lip and nods. "I'm here…for now."
"Huh."
"Yep. Just a couple of days. Working a medical case that Richard insisted no other surgeon in the country could perform half as well as me." She explains this while waving her right hand, and with a roll of the eyes. He smirks.
"Third visit in two years, Dr. Montgomery. You sure you aren't just missing this place?"
Addison slowly shifts her eyes towards him. "The last thing I'm missing, is this place."
Alex hides a teasing smile, but his nose twitches for a second or two, nearly giving him away. Addison notices the twitch, but opts for a change in topic. "How are things with Dr. Stevens?"
"She's fine. We're good."
"Good," she smiles, "good." A few seconds pass, and she begins to say, "I heard Dr. Stevens went through a--"
But the elevator rings, and cuts her off. "Sorry, I've got a patient," he grumbles and dashes out of the elevator.
"Well, that wasn't rude," she murmurs as the elevator doors close.
"You did a wonderful job with Baby Samson," Addison compliments Alex.
They're pressed between a slew of patients who have just signed out and are anxious to leave, and a few nurses. Neither one of them has much shoulder room, much less room to turn around to look at each other, but given a little volume in their voices, they are able to speak to and hear each other.
"Thanks," he responds.
The doors open, but only one person leaves the elevator, and three more enter. They're squeezed further together. Addison's left shoulder gets pushed into Alex's chest, and she looks up to see him flinch.
"Ah, sorry," she mutters, trying to re-adjust herself to no avail. She scrunches her face together and moves her right shoulder only to push one of the already aggravated nurses.
"Sorry!" she yells, but the nurse ignores her by looking away. Addison feel's Alex's chest shake a bit, and she looks up to see him chuckling.
"Not funny," she says sternly. He pacifies himself and looks away.
Beneath her breath, Addison swears, "I'm never riding on another Seattle Grace Hospital elevator again."
"Liar," is the first thing he tells her as Addison prepares to leave the hospital for what is now her fifth 'visit' to Seattle.
Confused, she says, "what?"
Alex turns his body to her, and states matter-of-factly, "last time you were here, when we hardly had any breathing room in the elevator, you said you were never going to ride another Seattle Grace Hospital elevator."
Addison contracts her jaw back and forth a few times, then shakes her head. "I cannot believe you heard that."
"I'm a good listener," he grins.
"Well," she drawls out, "I recall an elevator ride in which I began asking you something about Izzie Stevens, but you ran out of there before I could finish my question."
Alex frowns, and looks away for a second. Staring at the doors, he says, "sorry about that. She was going through stuff and I didn't want to talk about it."
"I know," she says, understanding, "and I heard you two--never mind, not my business."
Alex glances at her. Reluctantly, but knowing it pointless to not say what she had heard from others, he voices, "yeah, we didn't make it. But I tried."
She smiles broadly at him. "You did. And that is your answer."
Alex's brows furrow, not quite sure what she means. He opens his mouth to ask her to elaborate, but the elevator doors open, and she waves a goodbye to him.
"When are you coming back?"
"I'm not coming back. This is it. Six visits in three and a half years? Richard can find another surgeon," she snaps a little too angrily.
He ignores it. "I finally got what you meant by my answer. I'm glad I stayed."
She only nods once to acknowledge her discovery. Another time she would have genuinely smiled and been glad to hear that he was content with his decision not to run away, but she was worn out this day.
Alex looks over at the nurse who has been doing their charts for their case, and who is obviously eavesdropping. He drops his voice down and leans over to Addison.
"Go out with me."
Sure she's heard wrong, she turns on her heel in haste, nearly bumping into him. She rests her hands on her hips and tilts her head up.
"Excuse me?"
"I'll get George to cover the late shift for me. You staying at the Archfield?"
"Yes, but--"
"I'll pick you up at seven."
Addison opens her mouth to protest, and conscious of the other person in the elevator, she looks over at that person who's straining her ear to listen in.
When the elevator signals that it's stopped, she looks between the doors and Alex, not sure what to say, or if to say anything at all and instead just get off the elevator quickly.
The doors begin to open, and she stammers to Alex, "I don't know, Karev, I ca--"
"Come on, Dr. Montgomery, just do it. Alex obviously has the hots for you--he's been doing anything and everything he can to make your job easier since you came in yesterday afternoon," the nurse intervenes.
Alex and Addison raise their eyebrows at the nurse. "Fine," she retorts while looking at the nurse, "but you tell anyone and you'll get hell from me."
Behind her, Alex smiles.
He waits (impatiently) by the first elevator to the left on the first floor, still the slightest bit aggravated that she exclusively told him not to pick her up at the airport. He spots her marching through the halls, sunglasses perched on her nose. He pushes himself off the wall he's been resting against, and waves. She plucks her sunglasses off, and rolls her eyes at him. Casually, he pushes the button for the elevator to open for them, and the two stand quietly next to each other until the elevator arrives.
For two floors, they're accompanied by several others. Going up to the second floor, they don't even look at each other. Going up to the third, they pass each other a small smile, hoping Derek doesn't notice. Arriving at the third, everyone but Addison and Alex leaves. Going up to the forth, Addison presses the "STOP" button, and grabs Alex by the neck.
He chuckles softly, but then concentrates solely on pressing kisses on her lips, neck, and collarbone.
"Hi," she delivers in a breathy whisper when their kisses slow.
He pulls his head back and smiles. "Hi."
"You're back," he expresses in a surprised voice.
"Yep."
Not caring for the nurses and doctors in the elevator with him (the entire hospital's been running amuck with rumors of AddisonandAlex), Alex steps closer to her and pronounces point blank, "you didn't tell me you were coming."
Addison remains perfectly calm and shrugs. "The Chief knew. It doesn't surprise me that he didn't tell anyone--he likes his surprises."
"I could've gone to get you."
Addison glances at him, and looks away quickly. "Doesn't matter. I'm here now."
She hears him such in a breath, and she tucks down a smile. "You can, however," she says slowly, "drive back down to LA with me to help me finish packing my bags, and then drive me back down here to my new apartment, just some several miles from your place."
Alex looks at her in disbelief, positive she's joking and positive she wouldn't joke about something that serious.
Practically reading his mind, she says, "yes, Alex, I'm serious. I'm really back."
"No wonder you're leaving this place."
She jabs him. "Hey, I'll let you know that I've thoroughly enjoyed working at Oceanside these past four years."
He scratches his head and retorts, "yeah, yeah."
She went down there to say goodbye to her co-workers, and having been sure that it wouldn't take her more than ten or even 20 minutes to bid the place farewell, he went along with her. All in all, it took an hour and ten minutes for her to tell everyone goodbye. The longest goodbye took place between Addison, her best friend Naomi, and…him, Alex. Naomi had refused to tell her friend goodbye, and even took a moment to blame him for Addison's departure. After a drawn out debate between her and Addison on Addison not leaving over a man, and after too much crying, Alex managed to drag Addison out. So just this last elevator, and they were home free. Before that, though, a thought crossed his mind.
"Hey, Addison?"
"Yeah?"
"You ever Christened this elevator?" he asks as he looks around and calculates the space.
"Wha--? No!" and her eyes widen when she sees Alex's raised eyebrows and suggestive smile.
"No," she shakes her head at him, "no. That will not be the last thing I do at Oceanside. And besides, there's a camera."
Alex ignores her, pushes the "STOP" button, and drags her over to the back wall of the elevator.
"Alex," she says as a warning, but he's already pushing his hand down the top of her skirt, and nipping at her neck.
"Alex," she repeats, albeit less forcibly, and with a shaky voice. He draws his lips on hers, pries her mouth open with his tongue, and snakes his free arm tight around her waist.
She finds it hard to protest after he's shaken her loose from her skirt, along with his own jeans.
On the way up to the Chief's office, Alex grabs Addison's hand, and rubs his thumb over her hand, hoping to calm her nerves.
"He probably already knows," Addison hisses, but she is the one who brought up the issue of informing the chief about their relationship the instant they returned from LA.
"It's either this or Sloan telling him at the worst time," Alex remarks.
"He's not that spiteful," Addison responds, then adds, "depending on his mood."
Addison interlopes her fingers through Alex's, and holds down on his hand tighter.
"We'll be fine," Addison whispers, hoping to reassert herself. This isn't just about telling the Chief--this is about the Chief informing the entire hospital and board. This is about everyone knowing and a restriction clamping down on her job and her relationship.
Alex presses a kiss to her temple, and whispers, "we will." She leans against his head, breathes in, breathes out. They hear the elevator's ding, but they allow themselves another five seconds before going out, just to remind themselves one more time that in the end, it's no else but her and him.
The doors slide open, their hands let go, but they walk out with only inches separating them, and hands constantly brushing together, their contact intact.