Title: Just Wicked Enough
Author: Manda
Word Count: 2,146
Paring: Alex/Izzie
Rating: PG
Spoilers: none
Author's Note: So … my writing is few and far between. This is my second fanfiction ever, and it's being posted more than a year after my first. And the sad thing is, I've got about 3 other stories unfinished and saved on my hard drive.
Anyway, this is my first completely original story, though it is based on a story I read in a different fandom. I thought it was a cute, fluffy idea. I don't know how happy I am with the end, so that may change, depending on what everyone thinks. I kind of hit a wall on an ending. That means please review! (And be honest!)
That means I don't really own the idea, or the characters. I just merged them all into the Grey's Anatomy universe. Please don't sue. And all mistakes are mine, since I didn't have a beta.
Author Edit
I added line breaks between the three sections, because I noticed that the cute typed breaks didn't upload at all. Sorry about that!
"Is this what you do in your spare time? Read?"
Alex Karev's voice filled the hallway, and she sighed with frustration.
"As a matter of fact, yes. Unlike you, I'm literate; I enjoy stimulating my mind with more than Playboy magazines." Isobel Stevens smiled to herself, pleased at coming up with such a biting comeback.
"Ouch. That hurts, Iz. I thought you had more faith in me than that."
She raised her head to glance at him, in a way that only she could, her gaze full of fake skepticism and friendly humor.
"Okay," Alex sighed, jumping onto the gurney she was sitting on. "What are we reading? Maybe some Dostoyevsky? Some Dickens? Something classic, no doubt."
So focused on his guessing, Alex didn't notice as Izzie shifted away from him.
"Or are you more of a mystery kind of girl? Maybe something by Stephen King? The Shining is a classic movie. I can see you wanting to read the book."
Izzie laughed. "Only you would think of reading a book because you thought the movie was good. Isn't it supposed to work the other way around?"
Alex grinned and shrugged. "Why would I waste my time on something I don't know will be fulfilling in the end? If it was good enough to be made in to a movie and I enjoyed the 120 minute version, I'm pretty much game for the book."
"That isn't surprising to hear at all," Izzie said, hiding her smile behind her book.
Alex watched as she went back to reading.
"Seriously though, what are you reading?" Alex couldn't see the cover, and for some reason he couldn't identify, really wanted to know what held her interest so intently.
Izzie blushed slightly. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just …" At that moment, Izzie's pager beeped. "It's Oprah's new book club pick," she continued quickly, glancing down at her pager. "I've gotta go."
Izzie jumped off the gurney that she had been sitting on, taking her book with her. Alex watched her as she ran off, wondering why exactly Izzie was being so jumpy all of a sudden.
The next time he saw her, Izzie was sitting on the floor, leaning against a wall, her nose again buried in her book.
"Oprah picked something that great, huh?" Alex's voice once again broke into her fictional world.
"What?" Izzie's blank stare left him a bit puzzled.
"That book? I never knew that Oprah could pick something so engrossing," Alex qualified, studying her reaction.
"I wouldn't know," Izzie said after a moment. "I was never really big on what she picked. I tried to read The Sound and the Fury when it was her newest book club pick, and I couldn't even get past the first part."
Alex's eyebrows rose. "I … that's not…" He didn't have time to form a response when his pager went off. He looked from it back to Izzie, who was still engrossed in her book. Confused, he went off, leaving her to her reading.
Alex kept an eye out for Izzie all day. For some reason, her book intrigued him enough to find out what held her interest. A little part of him thought that maybe if her knew what sort of book kept her attention he'd have something to go off of. Heck, maybe he'd even read it.
Exhausted, Alex made his way to the nearest on call room. Bailey had had him running all over the hospital, doing odd jobs that the residents didn't want to do or didn't have time for. He finally had a second to relax and he was going to make the most of it and sleep.
Opening the door to the on call room, Alex was surprised to find Izzie reclined on the bottom bunk, still working her way through her novel.
"Shouldn't you be out saving lives?"
Izzie looked up from her book long enough to respond.
"Mrs. Dalton is in surgery now with Shepard, but Bailey's got me monitoring her post op ruptured intestine. He's fine, by the way, and I thought maybe I would get to finish my book," Izzie explained patiently, turning back to the book that Alex was so curious about.
"Okay, seriously, what could be so interesting that you would give up OR time to finish? I thought you were living and breathing surgery this week."
At that moment Izzie's pager went off.
Izzie jumped up and ran off with a murmured "Bailey!" as an explanation.
Alex rolled his eyes slightly. He had to give her credit – even though he could tease her about slacking off, she knew when she needed to move.
He flopped down on the bunk that Izzie had previously occupied. He rolled onto his side, noticing that in her haste to get to Bailey, Izzie had thrown her book up against the wall.
Finally. He could finally see what Izzie was so interested in. Alex smiled as he reached for the paperback. As he flipped the book right side up, Alex stopped and the smile slipped from his face for only a moment, then got bigger as he realized what Izzie was reading.
It was a romance novel. A chick lit, Fabio covered romance novel.
Well, to be fair, Fabio wasn't on the cover. Alex knew that. Fabio was blonde, he was almost sure. But the guy on the cover was a Fabio wannabe: dark, perfect hair, rippling muscles, billowing white shirt, open to expose a perfectly chiseled chest. Alex held back a laugh.
He next registered the girl on the cover, noticing that she looked slightly similar to Izzie. She was tall and blonde, but was wearing a floor length pink dress that exposed a lot of her back and shoulders. Her blond hair looked like it had been pulled into an elegant style once, but had since been tousled, probably by the man whose arms she was in.
Alex laughed again as he registered the title of the book – "Just Wicked Enough".
He couldn't believe this is what had been holding Izzie's attention. He flipped the book over, scanning the synopsis on the back.
"The breathtakingly handsome Earl of Huntingdon is determined to take a bride, and equally determined that his marriage to Miss Georgina Pierce will be a business arrangement only - after all, he has been wounded in love before. But there is unexpected passion in his innocent wife, and he soon begins to look forward to many days - and nights - with her . . . until he shockingly discovers that her promised fortune has been squandered. Though Georgina rightly protests that she knew nothing of it, Huntingdon is wounded to the core."
Alex laughed out loud. And he had given Izzie the benefit of the doubt and assumed she had been reading something with literary merit. He began to page through the novel.
" "The beauty of the moon pales when compared with your loveliness." He cringed. Devil be damned. That was the most awful thing he'd ever murmured to a woman."
Alex cringed for the poor sap in the book. And he thought his pickup lines were awful. It amused him to think that Izzie was reading this stuff.
Flipping further through the book, Alex stopped at another passage.
" His eyes raked up her body, taking in every curve of her form. His hand reached out, gently pulling down the neckline of her dress even further until he exposed her soft …. "
Alex stopped suddenly. He wasn't sure if he could read further, not because he couldn't handle it, but because he wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry. He couldn't wrap his mind around it. Izzie read chick smut?
It was at that moment when the door opened and Izzie stormed in.
"Do you know what Bailey wanted?" Izzie didn't give Alex a chance to guess as she continued on. "She wanted to know where I had put the post op notes for her ruptured intestine guy! I thought something exciting was happening, but nooo…" She drew out the last word for emphasis. "I had given them back to the nurses station, just like we're supposed to. But they had gotten shuffled in with pre op charts… ugh! I could have been relaxing … finishing my book."
"Waiting for the Earl to come ravish Georgina, huh?" Alex couldn't resist the gentle barb.
Izzie's wide eyes flew to meet Alex's.
"Excuse me?" Izzie said, suddenly forgetting her anger towards Bailey.
"I ... I just…" Alex didn't know how to respond. "You left your book," he finished lamely.
"Oh God, Alex, no one was supposed to… I just... I like to have something less intense to read. Something that doesn't take any brain power. Something that I can just lose myself in," Izzie tried to explain, knowing full well that her explanations weren't working.
"Lose yourself in the arms of the great Earl of Huntingdon?" Alex couldn't resist teasing her some more.
Izzie's glare effectively shut him up. He watched as she pushed past him and grabbed her book, making her way back to the door.
"Iz, wait."
Izzie turned to face him, her face clearly conveying her annoyance.
Alex didn't know what to say.
"I didn't mean … I'm sorry," Alex faltered. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"It's not, I guess. It's just that I don't really want people to know that I sometimes … that I even own any of those kinds of books. People already think I'm Dr. Model; the blonde pinup girl that shouldn't be a doctor anyway. I don't really feel like I need to add in the chick lit cliché."
"I don't think anyone will care that much," Alex tried his best to console her.
"Do you see Mer or Cristina reading stuff like this?" she accused?
"Well … not Cristina," he conceded. "She's definitely more of the blood and guts horror type, I would imagine. But I do know that O'Malley favors the comic book, superhero genre. "
Izzie laughed at that.
"It doesn't matter, Iz. Really."
"Thanks," Izzie was surprised at his sincerity. "But can you not mention it? Not to anyone. I don't want to deal with people knowing."
"Sure," he laughed. Pausing a second he took the book from her hand and paged through it.
"So, how far exactly are you? Has the Earl ravished Georgina yet?"
"Alex! Did you read it?"
"Just the back. And about four sentences of the page I randomly opened to. You know Iz, from what I could tell, some of that stuff is pretty racy," he couldn't help the gentle tease.
Izzie blushed, reaching for the book back. "It's not that bad, really."
"Uh huh. I don't believe you," Alex moved the book out of her reach. "I might have to read it. You know, just so I know you're not ruining your mind."
"What about you ruining your mind?" she questioned.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure there's nothing in this book that could ruin my mind. I'd bet the characters in this book have nothing on me," he smirked.
"Alex! I don't need to know that."
"I could show you, you know. I bet I could ravish you better than the Earl can ravish Georgina. Want me to try?" his smirk got even larger.
Izzie couldn't help but stare at him, eyes wide. He couldn't be serious. There was no way. She decided to call his bluff.
"Sure," she struggled to keep the laughter from her voice. "Ravish me, Alex. Make me forget my book," she tried to take it a step further, hoping she sounded sexy.
Alex's smirk slowly slid off his face. He hadn't been expecting that reaction. Slowly, seriously, he stepped toward her. If it were possible, Izzie's eyes grew wider as Alex leaned towards her.
"Alex," she breathed as his lips touched hers, tentatively at first, then more confidently when he realized she wasn't pulling back.
And suddenly, her lips weren't on his anymore. It took him a moment to recognize the sound of a pager and blonde hair flashing in his face.
"Mrs. … Dalton. Shepard. I have to go," Izzie stammered, completely caught off guard.
Alex watched as she scurried towards the door. "Iz?"
She turned back towards him.
"The beauty of the moon pales when compared with your loveliness," Alex cringed as Izzie burst out laughing.
"You might want to try again, Alex," Izzie said through her laughter. "I gotta go."
Even after the door shut, Alex could hear her laughter. Maybe it wasn't what women wanted to hear. It would be the last time he tried anything he read in a novel. Best to be original.
After all, he would much rather act on his fantasies than read about them. And he was determined to teach Izzie as much.