Are You Happy Now?

A Grey's Anatomy fic by Gigi

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Come Round Soon

A/N: Yep. Five years later I'm finally writing this again. (Thanks in no small part to a kind guest reviewer by the name of RandomFicAddict reminding me this fic exists.) We'll see how this goes.

Addison bolted to the door when she heard the doorbell ring, needing to prepare Izzie before she just walks in to see her almost-ex-husband sitting there.

"Hey, how was your pedicure?" she greeted too happily, refusing to budge from the doorway so that Izzie remained outside.

The blonde stepped back, a slightly panicked smile on her face at her host's eagerness. "Hi, um…it was nice."

"Good, good," Addison said as she crossed her arms to prepare herself. "Alright, so I have something to tell you."

"Oh?"

"Karev's inside."

Whatever serenity Izzie might have found at the salon quickly drained away, along with all the blood from her face. "What?"

"I called him when you took that bubble bath when you got here because you both still need to talk things through before giving up on your marriage." Addison took Izzie's hand and pulled her into the house. "It will help. I promise."

Still stunned, Izzie let herself feel at least a little bit hopeful. "I guess it's a good sign that he came out here for me," she said softly. Addison bit her lip and refrained from telling her how much she had to convince him to come.

When the two women walked into the living room, Alex quickly stood up from the couch. "Hey," he croaked. He seemed at a loss for what to do with his hands, and as a result, they ended up awkwardly flapping by his sides.

"Hi, Alex." Izzie shot him a small, unsure smile. "Addison said you wanted to talk?"

Addison could have slapped Alex over the head when he actually winced. Did he not think they were going to get right into it? Did he really think they were going to have an hour or two of pleasantries and drinks without drowning in awkwardness?

"Yeah, uh, I could—should have been more willing to talk things out in Seattle," he admitted, scratching the back of his head and looking at his wife's knees as they were far less hopeful than her eyes. He felt like a dick right then. He was just stringing her along, wasn't he?

"So, I'm going to make myself scarce," Addison announced, pushing Izzie a little further into the room. "There's wine and liquor in the kitchen, and tons of food so you won't starve while you hash this out. I'll be upstairs if you need me."

xoxoxo

Alex's mind was a complete blank. The second Addison left the room he couldn't remember a damned thing that he'd rehearsed. Izzie kept watching him with those hopeful eyes of hers, and all Alex could think about was how he really couldn't stay married to her. His feelings for her had dried up somewhere along the way, and he couldn't even muster up any nostalgia, not with how she'd decided to handle things.

"Should we sit?" Izzie asked, still hovering on the side of the room. Alex hadn't said a word since Addison went upstairs.

"Yeah, I guess. It'll be easier." His voice came out more gruff than usual. It somewhat dulled the excitement in her stomach as they both sat on either ends of the couch. "So…"

"I'm so sorry, Alex," she started, leaning forward so that her hand fell onto the middle cushion between them. "I took you for granted, and I didn't listen to you. I—"

Alex cut her off. "Iz, you did more than take me for granted. I had your back at every turn, and every time, it would come to bite me in the ass. You took all your anger out on me, and you blamed me for getting fired when I was trying to save your job. You left, and yet somehow I got saddled with your hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills. And still, those are sitting in a filing cabinet at home, even after you came to send your medical records to another hospital." He stopped to take a few calming breaths when he noticed how close to tears she was. When he spoke again, his tone was at least somewhat more tempered. "This conversation won't work if you keep minimizing the extent of crap you put me through. I'm here because I need to know I didn't throw us away too fast, but I will be out that door if you keep lying to yourself."

Silence rang through the house, punctuated by the sounds of Izzie desperately trying to maintain her composure. She couldn't help the fact that her nose was now running from the tears that pooled in her eyes, but she could do everything in her power to keep those tears from spilling over. She would not be pathetic; she didn't deserve to make him pity her. Because he was right. Everything he said was 100% true, and while it was bad enough on its own, she felt a hundred-fold worse when she realized he didn't know about her cancer-addled-self cheating on him with her dead fiancé.

"I…I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am," she finally said. "I was horrible to you, and I have no excuses. You deserve so much better than what I did to you."

"Yes, I do." Alex looked her dead in the eye when he said that. It took him so long to understand he was worth experiencing good, kind, actual love that now that he has, he needed to affirm it any time he could. "And now that I'm here, I can't love you anymore. Even when we first went out, I was the person you tossed aside for Denny. You've never treated me like an equal. I was just this jock who you loved having around to serve your interests."

"That's not fair, Alex," she argued.

Alex almost laughed. "Isn't it? When has anything ever been a mutual decision for us? It took me so long to realize that I was convenient for you, because I was actually in love with you and didn't stop to think about how you were treating me. Hell, I probably thought it was normal because my parents were such a great example of a healthy relationship."

Izzie had nothing to say to that. Not because she thought he was right—she was not the monster he was painting her to be, no matter what she'd done to ruin this marriage. She loved him. That wasn't selfish, was it? "So you really came down here to tell me in depth why we are getting a divorce," she said. She felt hollow.

"I came down here to clear the air in the hopes that maybe, down the line, we can maybe be friends again," he answered. "We both have to recover from this relationship, and maybe, in a few years, we can actually be in the same room and not be in pain."

A harsh sound ripped from Izzie's throat in what was probably supposed to be a bitter laugh. "Yeah, definitely friends when all I'm getting from you right now is that you hate me."

"I won't hate you forever, Iz," Alex sighed, rubbing his face. "Just while it hurts, yeah, I'm not going to be inviting you to any parties."

"How long until it doesn't hurt anymore?" Her voice had grown so soft. She felt lower than ever, almost removed from the situation and watching it from above.

Alex just stared over his knuckles at the coffee table. He didn't have an answer for her.

xoxoxo

It had taken all of Addison's willpower not to eavesdrop at the top of the stairs. She occupied herself with cleaning the entire second floor, and by the time she was done, she couldn't hear anything from downstairs. But going downstairs into what was probably not a pleasant silence sounded about as appealing as parading around the office naked. So she drew herself a bath instead, only having just slipped into the water when Izzie knocked on the door.

Making sure the bubbles covered her appropriately, Addison called for her to come in. The blonde walked in, tears streaking down her flushed face as she sat on the edge of the tub. "I just wanted to say thank you for your hospitality, Addison. You've been wonderful and kind to me when you didn't have to be, and I genuinely appreciate it."

"Of course, Izzie. But you don't have to leave. You're welcome to stay as long as you want."

Izzie sent her a watery smile and shook her head. "No, I can't stay anymore. Alex…he doesn't love me anymore. I've been pretty horrible to him, so I guess I can't blame him, but…I hoped, you know?"

"I know," Addison commiserated.

"Anyway, I can't really be in the same place as him right now, so I'm going to go to a hotel for the night and then head back home for a while to see my mom."

"Hand me that towel?" Izzie did as she asked and politely looked elsewhere while Addison stood and wrapped the towel around herself and drained the tub. "I'm so sorry you weren't able to work things out with Alex."

Izzie's eyes shimmered. "Me, too."

xoxoxo

After putting Izzie in a cab, Addison tightened her bathrobe around her waist and walked to the living room to see Alex drinking a beer, white knuckles gripping the bottle. "Alex?"

Glassy brown eyes swung in her direction, and he grabbed the bottle of wine he'd also swiped from the kitchen and put it on the table. "I need to get really drunk right now."

Boy, did she know that feeling. Since Izzie had interrupted her wallowing before…well, getting drunk with Karev looked extremely appealing.

"Mind if I join you?"

A/N: Sorry, Izzie fans. I genuinely tried really hard to keep Alex from going off on her. I really did. But it's Alex. He does what he wants. What's a girl to do? I hope you liked this update, despite the absurd amount of time that has passed since I published Chapter 2. Please review!