After telling a mother that her new daughter hadn't survived the surgery that was meant to give her a normal life, Addison found an empty on-call room. She just needed a few minutes to clear her head. The hard cases had been especially hard for her the past few weeks. Alex saw her enter the room and gave her a few minutes before following to see if she was alright.
Hesitantly, Alex knocked lightly before opening the door. He saw Addison lying with her back to the door, but she rolled over when she heard the door open. Quickly, she sat up and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her lab coat. Alex sat next to her on the edge of the bed.
"What's going on? Is everything alright?"
"Yes, no, I don't know. The baby didn't make it through the surgery when I told the mom that it would give her the best shot at having a normal childhood and now she won't even get to have a childhood. I feel like I lied to her. I'm so sick of lying lately," sobbed Addison, who was now leaning against Alex's shoulder.
Alex didn't know how to react to Addison leaning against him and crying. "You didn't lie to her. You never said that the surgery would give the baby a normal childhood, did you? Why do you feel like you're lying all the time?"
"I know, but my damn hormones make me a crazy woman sometimes. I've been lying to everyone for almost three months," Addison paused, to see if Alex would figure out what she meant she had been lying about. He didn't seem like he was going to question her more, rather waiting for her to continue explaining why she had been lying. "I'm really fourteen weeks pregnant, Alex. I didn't get inseminated while I was in California. I was already pregnant, I just didn't know it because I was only about a week and a half along. Please don't hate me for lying to you and everyone else about this baby, Alex. I thought I'd be able to do it by myself, but I guess I was wrong."
By now Alex was pacing back and forth in front of Addison, who was still sitting on the bottom bunk. "What do you mean that you're fourteen weeks pregnant and were already pregnant when you got to LA? Did you sleep with someone around the same time we were together or is that my baby? Have you been lying to me about it being my baby, Addison?" Alex wanted to yell at her, but he also wanted to keep from drawing any extra attention to the on-call room as possible.
"Alex, I'm sorry. We only slept together once. I was still getting over the fact that I had decided to abort Mark's baby when I found out I was pregnant. I didn't want to get another guy's hopes up, only to do something to disappoint them. I'm so sorry."
He took a seat on the bed across from her and just sat there, staring at her. Now he was the one who needed a minute to process this all. He had just found out that his boss was pregnant with his baby. Addison could tell he was overwhelmed, not only by the fact that it was his baby, but also because she had lied about it for over three months.
Seeing he had calmed some, Addison decided to speak. "Alex, I'm not expecting you to be a part of this baby's life. I mean, you can if you want, but I won't be angry or anything if you don't want to. We can keep this between us. No one will have to know that it's your son or daughter."
"That's my kid, Addison. I refuse to be the same dead-beat kind of dad my father was. That kid is going to know who I am. I'll help with whatever I can, both before and after it's born. I'm probably going to tell Meredith, Izzie, George, and Cristina about this when we're at Joe's later, so you better tell your people before it's all over the hospital."
Sighing, Addison couldn't believe that he had taken this better than she had expected. "I'll find some way to tell them as soon as I can. You said you were going to Joe's tonight, but do you want to have dinner together soon so we can talk more about this, even if it's just me explaining things further as to why I did what I did and how everything's been going during the pregnancy?"
"Uh, sure. I think I'm free Monday night," Alex stammered, slightly caught off-guard.