Whoa, Baby!
A Grey's Anatomy fic by Gigi
Chapter 2: Phone-y Lies
A/N: I'm glad you guys enjoyed the first chapter! I was ridiculously bored at work today, so I just wrote the next chapter on my notepad.
Two months had passed since Addison broke the news to Alex. In those two months, Alex would cover Addison in the mornings if and when she found herself in need of a toilet to throw up into. They maintained the ideal professional relationship in the hospital, exciting no unusual comment from patients nor peers.
Addison was satisfied with the fact that no one—not even Callie, and especially not Miranda—knew that she and Alex were together, let alone that she was carrying his child. They were a well-oiled machine, skilled at keeping their work lives separate from their personal lives. Addison was still the teach and Alex was still the intern who continued to show immense promise and increasing interest in the OB/GYN field.
But the well-oiled machine was about to have a wrench thrown in it.
Addison stared at her stomach in the mirror, turning this way and that, straining to see the slightest of swells that had appeared.
Picking up her phone, she dialed the familiar number.
"Hello?" Alex answered, yawning.
"Did I wake you up?" Addison asked worriedly, brushing out her hair.
"No, I was already awake," he insisted. Addison smiled.
"You suck at lying."
Alex checked his watch. "Is there any reason you decided to call me at 6:30 in the morning on my day off?"
"You're too sweet," Addison replied dryly. She put the call on speaker phone before throwing the phone on the bed so she could begin getting dressed. "I just wanted to let you know, I'm telling Richard today," she announced from underneath a slightly loose-fitting dress as she pulled it over her head.
Alex jerked upright. "You're what?!" he shrieked.
"I'm starting to show." Addison reached for the phone and returned it to her ear while she examined herself in the mirror again to make sure the bump was concealed. Picking up her earrings, she put them on and said, "I need to tell him before it gets any more obvious."
"Do you need me to come with you to tell the chief?"
Addison smiled when she heard the concern in his voice, but she turned him down. "No," she declined, putting the finishing touches on her makeup. She slipped on her Mary Jane stilettos, silently regretting the fact that she would soon have to change her footwear. "If anyone sees us both in Richard's office, they'll start wondering why. Besides, if you're in the room when I tell him, he might very well try to throttle you."
"Sometimes I hate the fact that you're the chief's favorite," Alex growled.
"You'll love it soon enough," she assured, grabbing her bag and her keys. "Listen, I'm heading out, but I'll call you later and tell you how it went."
"Good luck," Alex wished before hanging up. She'll need it, he thought to himself. Getting out of bed, Alex opened the door and almost plowed right into Izzie. "God, Izzie!" Alex exhaled once his heart rate slowed down. "What the hell are you doing standing right outside my room?"
Izzie's eyes sparkled with curiosity over the brim of her coffee cup as she took a sip. "I heard you talking through the wall," she explained when she had finished drinking. Alex cursed the fact that his room was right next door to hers. "Who would you be talking to at 6:30 in the morning?" She leaned in eagerly, gripping her coffee mug so tightly her knuckles were white. "A girlfriend, maybe?"
Panicking, Alex feigned indifference. "Please, if I had a girlfriend, you would know," he snorted. "That was a buddy of mine back in Iowa."
"But I heard you mention the chief," Izzie commented, puzzled. Her grip on her mug loosened ever so slightly; her knuckles were slowly returning to their pink color.
Shit. "He's an intern at a hospital in Iowa, and he gets away with a lot of the crap that we get in trouble for because he's the chief's favorite," he lied, hoping to God she would buy it.
"Oh," Izzie breathed out, looking almost disappointed.
"Um, Iz?" Alex asked after a minute. She snapped back to reality. "Nature calls."
"Oh, right, sorry." Izzie moved out of the way and let Alex leave his room.
That was way too close for comfort, he thought to himself.
XD
Addison stood outside Richard's office, steeling herself for the confrontation she knew was about to happen. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned the knob and stuck her head in.
"Uh, Richard?" she asked, catching the Chief of Surgery's attention. "Do you have a minute? I kind of need to talk to you about something."
"Sure, Addie, come on in," he beckoned. Addison let herself in and closed the door behind her. Once she'd seated herself, Richard gestured for her to begin.
"Before I tell you, I want you to remember that I'm a grown woman who has had a lot of crappy things happen to her. I'm capable of making my own decisions, and I feel confident and happy about this one," she prefaced.
"Okay," Richard said slowly, already not liking where this was going.
"And remember that you love me and you only want to see me happy," she warned again.
"Just tell me, Addie," Richard ordered.
"Okay." Addison jumped at his brusqueness. Visibly collecting herself, she finally said the two words she knew would send him into a flying rage. "I'm p-pregnant."
Richard leaned forward in his chair. "You're what?!" he demanded, sounding a lot like Alex did on the phone earlier.
Addison flinched from the volume. "I'm pregnant," she repeated.
"How? When? Who?" He growled out that last part, a slightly murderous look flashing in his eyes.
"Um, about two months ago, and you know how, Richard," Addison answered much more calmly than she felt. She felt like she should be running away as fast as she could from the suddenly intimidating man sitting in front of her. Why wasn't she running? "As for the who, I need you never to let it leave these halls until I'm ready to let other people know, okay?" Richard contained himself enough to manage a tight nod. "Alex Karev."
"Karev?" Richard repeated, twice as angry now. "Karev?"
"Yes, Karev," Addison affirmed. "We've been together for two months, and you are the first person I have told. We have maintained a strictly professional relationship at work, and nobody knows anything yet. I plan to keep it that way." A grimace flickered on the redhead's face before she composed herself. "I am not going to favor him or even treat him like anything more than an intern in the hospital, unlike some attendings." Thinking of her ex-husband's relationship with Meredith Grey was enough to make her nauseous, but that might have been the morning sickness kicking in. Just a little.
"This hospital is a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen," the chief muttered under his breath. "Strictly professional?" he asked Addison, who nodded. "Alright then," he permitted grudgingly.
Addison released the breath she never realized she'd been holding. "Thank you, sir. And, like I said, I don't want anybody else to know about this until they have to. Deal?"
"Deal." They sat in silence for a few minutes before finally something clicked in his brain. Breaking into a smile, he got up from behind his desk and picked his Addie up, hugging her tightly. "You're pregnant!"
Laughing, Addison hugged her mentor and second father just as tightly, whispering, "My kid's going to be calling you 'Grandpa,'" in his ear.
XD
Alex lunged for his cell phone when it started to ring. Picking it up, he immediately said, "I'm dying here. How did it go?"
Addison's laugh jingled through the phone. She was sitting in front of her locker, alone in the attendings' locker room. "We got his blessing," she announced happily. "And he promised not to tell anybody until we're ready."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." Derek opened the door to the locker room and walked in. "I've got to go, but I just wanted to let you know."
"Is someone else there?"
"Yeah," Addison watched her the neurosurgeon warily. "I'll see you later."
"Who was that?" Derek asked as she put her BlackBerry back into her coat pocket.
"No one of consequence to you," his ex-wife replied curtly. "How did Ava's surgery go?"
Derek eyed her suspiciously for a moment before answering. "It went fine. We'll know soon if her memory is back." He stopped Addison on her way to the bathroom, peering into her face intently. "Something's different about you."
"I'm happy," Addison quipped, repeating his words from after the divorce. "I understand why you wouldn't recognize it."
"I meant something is physically different about you," he clarified, choosing not to dignify her statement with a response. "You look a little green. Are you okay?"
Addison opened her mouth, but covered it with her hand, power-walking to the bathroom and vomiting into the toilet. After wiping her mouth on toilet paper, she stood back up and faced Derek. "Yes, I'm fine," she answered.
"What the hell was that?" Derek demanded, looking genuinely worried.
"I have to go," Addison said, trying to escape before Derek figured it out.
He grabbed her arm once again, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. "You're pregnant."
Addison closed her eyes. She couldn't bear seeing the hurt in her ex-husband's eyes.
Shit.
A/N: I wrote 1,641 words, 900 of which I wrote at work. I work in a research lab. Do you see the problem with that? REVIEW!
