XX
Alone in a hospital full of people was a peculiar feeling, but Alex was well used to it. He didn't expect people to like him and he didn't really care, but sometimes he wished it was different. Being 'evil spawn' was one thing, but studying in the tunnels alone was another. He didn't want to think about his night with Izzie, it hadn't gone the way he wanted at all, and it was his fault, although he had no idea why. Today wasn't the best day to be distracted by the night before, nor was any other. His exam was coming and he couldn't fail, not again, he couldn't go back, he wouldn't. He needed this job, and they needed him to have this job, his brother and sister wouldn't last without it.
"Hey I've been looking for you." Izzie said as she stepped off the final step and headed towards Alex who was leaning against the nurses station, reading a file with his back to her.
"Hey." Alex replied, shutting the file and turning to face her. Her arm resting on the nurses station, her hand almost touching Alex's, not even a foot space between them, he tried to focus, trying not to think of his failure last night. A failure he couldn't work out, and one that he really hadn't wanted.
"I'm on the quints case." Izzie smiled brightly. She was always so happy, although he had managed to piss her off a few times already, he seemed to have a gift at doing that.
"Yeah I heard." Alex took a small step backwards, wishing he was somewhere else, wishing that things happened differently last night. Wondering if it had anything to do with his looming resit, or if it was something else entirely, Alex kept his expression neutral as Izzie continued to smiled, seemingly oblivious to his worrying.
"Yeah, they're going to need multiple surgeries once they're delivered. I put you on the pager list, so you're in too." Izzie continued brightly, unaware that he had moved away from her, unaware of everything that was going on his head, and unaware of what was really going on in hers.
"Yeah, I kind of got my own cases to worry about, so.." Alex started, his eyes flitting to the staircase before back to Izzie and then down at the file that his hand rested on. He wasn't used to this, Mere was right he had lost his mojo, but he had got it back, although apparently not all of it.
"Okay, Alex, was it me? Because we seemed to be actually having a normal time, a good time." Izzie asked, her voice lowered as she moved her body closer to his, her smile faltering before Alex gave her a small smile at the memory of last night, before it happened. Before he couldn't.
"Yeah, we were having a good time." Alex replied, his small smile growing briefly before it disappeared. He felt weird around her, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but no doubt it was attached to what happened last night, or more so what didn't happen. He may not be a people person but he was good at sex, and last night he couldn't do it.
"Well, then, was it me? Was it something I did?" Izzie watched him with a curious expression, trying to pinpoint the exact moment it all went wrong. It was going well, better than well, and then it didn't.
"It wasn't you ok. It was just.. look I didn't feel like doing it. I was tired." Alex said, his voice low as he hesitated every few words trying to come up with an acceptable excuse, which was harder than it seemed. How could it be her? She was gorgeous, and smart, and she was, well Izzie. It definitely wasn't her.
"Well, do you feel like doing it tonight?" Izzie asked, as her body unconsciously moved a step closer to Alex as she smiled at him. Unlike Alex she hadn't had sex in a few weeks, maybe even a few months by now, although she tried not to think about it.
"Well, uh, I'm on call so..." Alex muttered, trying to find an excuse, he wasn't that he didn't want her, he did, he just, didn't know why he couldn't. Plus he had to study tonight, he had already missed a night when he went out with Izzie, and he couldn't fail, he couldn't.
"Okay, well do you feel like doing it now?" Izzie said, her smile growing as she bit down on her bottom lip for a moment, as she watched Alex's expression carefully.
"What right now?" Alex couldn't help but smile a little. At least he knew that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, but that didn't mean it would work this time, although he really wished it would.
"People have sex in this hospital all the time." Izzie grinned. She took a step backwards, biting down on her lip as her smile grew. Alex watched her as she took another two steps back and then turned around, heading towards an on call room. Stuck in his head, caught up in his thoughts for a few seconds he didn't focus on her again until she was walking around the corner. Handing one of the nurses the file, he followed Izzie.
...
Alex wasn't exactly a dependable person, but there was one thing that he could depend on. Apparently that was no longer the case. With his hands gripping the mattress as he sat on the end of the bed, his scrub top on the ground where Izzie had dropped it only a few minutes ago, he once again tried to figure out why. Last time it was in her bed at Mere's, this time it was a bed in an on call room, so it obviously wasn't setting, he had already had sex in here.
"If it's me just tell me it's me." Izzie said as she tied up her scrub pants, her eyes on Alex trying to read him as he stared at the ground, his body tense, in all the wrong places.
"It's not you." Alex answered, his gaze still stuck to the floor, of course it wasn't her, how could it be her? He was distracted, he was worried about his exam, concerned for his crazy patient that was all, it was nothing more than that, surely...
"Well then is it a medial thing, or a problem?" Izzie asked, picking her teal long sleeve up off the floor, her gaze still fixed on Alex. "Because guys have problems sometimes." She continued as she pulled her shirt over her head, trying to read him. He didn't look as though this was a common occurrence for him, and judging by what the nurses whispered about him, she was definitely missing out.
"I don't have a problem." Alex said quickly. Pushing his resit out of his mind he looked up at Izzie and smiled at her. "Get back down here. We're going to do this until we do it." He continued as he took her hand in his, smiling up at her as she smiled done at her.
"Ok." Izzie beamed as she sat back down, drawing her body close to his, before she lies down, her hand resting on his knee as he leans over her. With one hand placed on her hip, Izzie can't help but laugh as Alex undoes the bow on her scrub pants, before he pushes her shirt up and leans down to kiss her stomach. Izzie closes her eyes in anticipation but instead of Alex trailing his kisses towards her lips or below her waist, her pager goes off.
"911. I'm sorry." Izzie groaned as she picked up her pager. Grabbing her scrub top off the bed, she leant forward, kissing Alex on the cheek before looking at him for a moment, biting her lip and standing up to go. "Dammit." She muttered as she shut the door behind her, leaving Alex alone in the on call room, having achieved absolutely nothing. Cursing himself, he punched the mattress above him before groaning and letting himself fall back onto the bed.
...
"Martin, open the door!" Alex demanded as he banged on the bathroom door. Behind him, the nurse, Olivia, ran out of the room to turn off the water and get some restraints. Alex had enough problems without his patient drinking for the bathroom tap, while his one job was to make sure that he wasn't drinking anything. His hand wrapped around the metal handle he moved his hand up and down, as he banged as the door with his free hand, this door needed to be opened and soon.
"The waters off. We'll just have to wait until he sobers up." Olivia announced as she ran back in the room, dropping the restraints on the foot of the bed as she headed towards Alex. She had four other patients that needed her right now, but instead she was stuck with the intern who gave her syphilis and broke up her and George, although that was her fault really.
"His sodium levels will drop too low." Alex snapped as he continued to bang on the door. "Screw it." He muttered before he pushed his shoulder against the door, hard, forcing the door to swing open, revealing Martin with his head in the toilet, drinking out of the bowl like a dog. Speechless Alex looked over at Olivia before sighing.
"No! Leave me alone. I need to water I need it!" Martin protested as Alex and Olivia wrapped their arms around his and picked him up off the bathroom floor. Hauling him back into his room as he struggled, they both tried to maintain neutral expressions.
"Martin, we're trying to help." Alex insisted as he struggled to put Martin on the bed. Olivia grabbed the restraints off the end of the bed, whilst trying to avoid Martin's kicking feet as he struggled against Alex, trying to get back to the bathroom.
"I don't want your help." Martin cried as Alex held him to the bed. "I don't want people to look at me. I'm pathetic." Martin continued, and Alex couldn't help but agree. Holding his arms down, Alex's eyes swept over Martin, focussing on Martin's pajama shirt that was wet at the front, where water had splashed in Martin's attempt to drink as much as possible as fast as possible.
"Stop looking at me!" Martin cried at Olivia as she handed Alex a restraint, and grabbed Martin's left hand. "Stop looking at me." Martin demanded, looking from Alex to Olivia, who were both busy restraining him, neither of them looking at him.
"Give him a three percent hypertonic solution at 500cc's per hour over the next four hours to stabilize him." Alex instructed Olivia as he finished tightening Martin's restraints. He had to go study for his test, and try to figure what was wrong with him, why couldn't he have sex with Izzie, there must be some explanation. Stepping away from the bed, he looked back down at Martin, feeling as though he was missing nodded her head in response to Alex's order and Alex remembered.
"Wait no that's wrong. 500cc's over four hours." Alex corrected himself, as he grabbed Martin's chart. Olivia nodded and left the room, while Alex sighed for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few hours. This time however it was a sigh of relief, he could have killed Martin, and who knows what else could have happened.
"You think you're such a hotshot doctor. You're not, you're nothing. I'll fire you too." Martin glared at Alex, as he tried to escape his restraints, wanting to drink an entire pool. Alex finished writing in his chart before he slammed it shut and bent down over Martin.
"Go ahead fire me." Alex replied, glaring back at Martin for a moment before straightening up and leaving the room, making sure not to slam the door behind him as he headed down the tunnels to study.
...
"Hey." Izzie said as soon as she was in earshot. Alex and Mere were standing side by side by the coffee cart in the open eating area, their conversation halted as Izzie approached, something that she couldn't fail to notice. "Addison wants me to put you on notice. When the quints are born we'll need everyone available. There are going to be five babies and at least three surgeries, we'll need all the hands we can get." Izzie continued brightly as she stood between the two of them, grabbed a coffee cup and a tea bag.
"Ok." Mere answered, taking a sip out of her coffee, no sign of a smile on her face.
"Fine." Alex nodded.
"So I'll just page you guys when we need you?" Izzie asked, feeling her cheerfulness being sapped out of her. She understood why Alex was in a bit of a mood, and she completely understood why Mere was, she would have to spend the afternoon with her ex and her ex's wife, plus she had heard about her one night stand showing up at the hospital. But there were three surgeries at least involved with this quints, they could at least be a little bit happier.
"Ok." Mere nodded, wishing that her pager would go off, giving her an excuse to leave, or that Cristina would show up so that she could tease her about Burke giving her a key, something to distract her from herself.
"Fine." Alex nodded again, trying not to be sucked into his thoughts, he had enough to be worried about already with his exam, let alone worrying about what wasn't happening with Izzie.
"Okay." Izzie muttered as the two of them walked away. Gina, one of the nurses, walked up beside her and Izzie felt her good mood returning as Gina began to talk.
"I was studying whats your excuse?" Alex asked as Mere dropped into a chair and he stood by the table, stirring his coffee, trying not to think about Izzie.
"I was staring at the ceiling in abject horror. My one-night stand is a neurosurgical case." Mere answered. The whole point of a one night stand was that she never had to see them again, not so they could come to the hospital, and then alert Derek of their relationship, it was mortifying.
"I heard you broke his penis. Nice." Alex grinned down at her, his worried look vanishing, as Mere scowled slightly, more so at herself than at him.
"So I'm having a lot of sex. What's wrong with that?" Mere asked, attempting to push Derek's amused expression out of her mind, trying to ignore the fact that Steve was upstairs in a bed, still in her life, after she had expressly wished to never see him again, ever.
"Nothing at all." Alex replied. He couldn't help but look at Izzie when he said that, wondering why they weren't having lots of sex, wondering why he couldn't.
"It only gets problematic when you start to care. When you let your emotions get in the way, you know?" Meredith said, watching Alex as Alex looked over at Izzie, who was smiling brightly as she laughed at what Gina had said, before bringing the piece of banana cake to nose and smelling it.
"Yeah right." Alex muttered, realising why he couldn't with Izzie, or at least why he thought he wasn't able to have sex with Izzie. Turning away from Mere who relaxed into her chair, and closed her eyes as she brought her coffee cup to her mouth and took a long sip, Alex walked towards Izzie who smiled goodbye to Gina who rushed off to the OR.
"What?" Izzie asked as Alex stood a few steps away from her, staring at her, trying to figure out what to say, he wasn't good with this part. He was an ass, he knew that, so he had never really felt like this before, or not for a few years at least.
"Look uh.. I... Doesn't matter." Alex stammered, feeling a lot like George and then hating himself even more for that.
"Alex?" Izzie asked, passing Gerald a few dollars to pay for her tea and then taking a step towards Alex, trying to figure out what on earth he was trying to say.
"I like you. I uh.. I really like you." Alex muttered, his eyes searching Izzie's as he spoke before he turned away from here and headed out of the doors and down the hallway, wanting to get as far away from that situation as he could.
"Hey you can' just say that and leave!" Izzie yelled at him down the corridor, but he just kept on walking. Trying not to drop any of her tea on herself as she hurried down the hallway after him she yelled again, "Alex!"
"What?" Alex replied, turning around to face her as he stopped outside of a storage closet, a small scowl growing on his face, as he felt even more pathetic than he did last night, or in the elevator with George when he couldn't take that scalpel from Burke.
"I really like you too." Izzie said, her voice much quieter than before as she smiled at Alex, especially when he smiled in return. She hadn't had sex in months if she was being honest with herself, and she was in dire need of a climax.
"Look we don't have surgery for a few hours so maybe we could practice a little more, you won't even need..." Izzie bit down on her lower lip as her eyes scanned his body, and Alex grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the storage cupboard that they were standing in front of. Locking the door behind them, he took a step towards Izzie who smiled at him, hoping that this time would be different.
"So it's the feelings huh?" Izzie asked as Alex's palms rested on her hips and his mouth hovered over hers.
"Something like that. It's not you, you're gorgeous, you're..." Alex began, his eyes skimming over Izzie as she beamed at him, she had surgery in a few hours which she had at least half an hour to spend in here with him.
"You're kind of hot too actually. And anyway, I heard you're pretty good at other stuff too, especially..." Izzie said in a low voice as Alex felt all memory of his looming test and all need to study leave his head as his eyes focused on Izzie in front of him.
"You heard?" Alex asked, raising his eyebrow as he felt the last of his mojo returning. Not needing an answer, Alex pressed his lips against hers and felt her body tense for a moment as his fingers slid up her back, before he pulled her scrub top and her teal shirt over her head in one movement. Izzie busied herself with untying Alex's scrub pants and pushing them to the floor as he did the same to hers. Their lips on each others Izzie's fingers traced the top of his briefs before slipping her hand beneath the fabric and giving a sharp intake of breath, and Alex felt her smile against his lips.
"You better have protection syph boy." Izzie muttered against his lips.
Finally the right part of his body was tense, wasting no time Alex pulled Izzie's lace undies to the floor as he stepped out of his briefs that she had pulled down. Hastily he put one on not wanting to waist anytime, dropping the empty packet on the floor he took a step towards Izzie. With her lips on his, he grabbed her by the thighs, and picked her up before pushing her up against one of the shelves, as her fingernails dug into his shoulders as she moaned against his lips. He lingered at her entrance for a few seconds before she arched her back towards him, forcing him in, eliciting a moan of pleasure from him as she tightened her walls around him.
"Oh god Alex." Izzie moaned as she gripped onto his shoulders even harder, their clothes lay on the floor behind him, the door was locked and hopefully neither of them would have their pagers go off. His lips were pushed against hers, her tongue losing itself in his mouth as he panted her name.
Finally.
XX
AN: After watching this episode and an annoyingly sleepless night, I noticed how differently this all would have gone if Alex had just ordered the right amount, 500cc over four hours instead of 500cc every hour for four hours. His pager never would have gone off when he was about to talk to Izzie, and he wouldn't be pissed off and alone in an on call room with Olivia. Potentially one shot, may be more...
Also about the line near the beginning about how Alex needs his job in regards to 'they' being his family, is in reference to how Alex sends money back home to them to pay for his mothers meds and other things.