Hey, sorry for the delay, but I just started my senior year, and already it's decided to be one of those years that makes me want to tear out my hair. But that's okay. Hakuna Matata. My goal is to post something somewhere at least once a week, but I try not to make promises I can't keep. AP US History and AP Lit may have something to say about that, and I don't really see them being helpful. So I would get used to unfortunate gaps again. Sorry!

Other than that... I TOLD you I would bring Bex back somewhere! Oh, and the title is a Kate Rusby song. Except it's "Awkward Annie", not "Awkward Addie". But it was perfect! I couldn't just NOT name the chapter that because of two Ns.


"Addison! Addison, wait up!"

Addison turns at the sound of her name. The corners of her mouth turn down when she realizes that she has absolutely no idea who is running towards her. "I'm sorry," she says politely. (Addison Forbes Montgomery is never impolite. Except when introducing herself to her husband's mistress. Then she's a little impolite.) "Do I know you?"

The younger woman takes a second to catch her breath (it hasn't run that far). Then she plasters a smile on her face. "Right. Sorry. You don't know me. Hi, I'm Bex." She holds out her hand to shake. Addison takes it.

"Addison, but you already seem to know that." This is when Addison notices a slight physical anomaly in the other woman. She's visually stunning, rich brown hair and green eyes. All her fingers and toes are in the correct places and she has ten of each. Although on the slightly shorter side of average height, there isn't anything wrong there. But the thing is… if you concentrate, you can see right through her. Bex is almost transparent.

Bex notices Addison staring, although, to her credit, it doesn't really look like staring. She looks down. "Oh. Yeah. Um, that's nothing. The way I figure it is that I have a lot less people believing in me than you do, so I'm not nearly as real. But you're not hallucinating, I swear."

"Right," Addison replies skeptically.

"You're not!" Bex exclaims. "I'm new here. I needed to see someone I know. Well, sort of know. I know you, but not you you. I mean, I know you in my story, but not you here. Is your head starting to hurt? Because mine is."

Addison stays quiet. No point in talking back to a hallucination. (You never know when they're just going to up and disappear on you.)

"Are you just going to keep ignoring me until I go away? Because that kind of hurts. I mean, I know you don't know who I am, but a little common courtesy would be nice."

She has to go away eventually, right?

"If I introduce myself, would you at least look at me?"

Maybe she should try pinching herself. Maybe she's dreaming. She does. It hurts and Bex is still standing in front of her, waiting expectantly. (Bex, however, is not good at waiting of any sort.)

"I'm Bex. I'm Alex's best friend."

Addison frowns. "They've never mentioned you on the show," she says.

Bex rolls her eyes. (Fun fact: Bex won the Eye Rolling World Championships of 2006.) "That's because I don't exist on the show. Yet. I think Juli, that's the girl who created and me, and her friend Kate have a plan to kidnap Shonda and prove that I'm an interesting character and should be on the show though, if that makes you feel any better."

(Addison does not feel any better.)

Addison asks, "So wait, why aren't there more random people running around here then?"

Bex glares. "Do I look like I created this place? I have no idea. But anyways, I was just heading to get a drink and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me."

"At Joe's?" Addison asks warily.

"I don't know," Bex snaps. "I'm good at LA, not Seattle, but we're currently heading towards Seattle. You play tour guide."

Addison sighs. She can see that the weird see-through girl isn't going to leave her alone. (Addison is still not convinced that Bex is not a figment of her imagination, however.) May as well take her to a bar. At least this way she can get drunk. (Not a good idea. Addison getting drunk is never a good idea. Drunk Addison does and says a lot of stupid and/or embarrassing things. And yet Sober Addison still often gets the urge to go find Drunk Addison anyways.)

She leads the way to Joe's, certain that she's about to run into all the doctors whose shifts all miraculously end at the same time so they can hang out at the bar and not have to go be doctors. She is not disappointed. Derek and Meredith are in a corner. She smiles sadly. It still makes her sad that he's moving on and got this great, epic love and she's stuck with sex and complicated relationships. Plus, there was the whole being married for eleven years thing. But she can't exactly feel betrayed by him because she was created in order to make problems for the couple. Complicated is a very, very good word for this situation, but it leaves something to be desired. (Ice cream, actually. It's a little known fact, but the thing that is left to be desired is ice cream. Chocolate ice cream, to be precise. People always forget the chocolate ice cream.)

"Alex!" Bex calls. He turns and has the same frown as Addison did earlier. (Well, not the exact same. That would be weird and would require that he steal her mouth. And that is not the way that he would like to have her mouth on his body, because stealing body parts and placing them on your body is creepy and nearly impossible.)

"Do I know you?" he asks.

Bex does another championship-winning eye roll and explains. "I'm your best friend. But in a different universe, so you don't know that I'm your best friend. But you know in the other universe."

Cristina looks at the new girl on the block. "You're transparent," she states the obvious.

"Yeah. I am. Can we move on? It's not that interesting."

"But why are you see-through?" Izzie asks.

Addison senses a long, confusing discussion coming on and slinks off to find herself a drink. (Although she is ecstatic that other people can see the translucent Bex. At least she's not going insane.) Alex follows her lead. "Hey," he says, coming up to sit beside her at the bar.

"Hey," she replies. Suddenly, it hits her—they're sitting in the exact same spots as they did on the show when they kissed for the first time. Awkward. After today's conversation on the beach, definitely awkward.

"Do you believe her?" he asks, nodding towards Bex, who is currently getting very frustrated trying to explain the concept of slight reality to Slightly Drunk Izzie and Very Drunk Cristina.

Addison shrugs. "I don't know. I'll believe just about anything until proven wrong." Subtly, she shifts in her seat, away from him. Proximity is just a bad, bad thing. Proximity makes her do stupid things. Addison dislikes Proximity. (Proximity, on the other hand, likes Addison a lot. Proximity particularly loves Addison in relation to Alex, which Addison, of course, despises. It makes for a very interesting relationship.)

They fall into silence. It's not a very long fall. Then they hear Frustrated Bex yell, "For the last freaking time, I'm only here so I can get Alex and Addison together!"

Awkward.

Alex and Addison look at each other. Alex starts laughing. Addison is too busy being mortified to laugh. She refuses to meet his eyes. He, being the super-perceptive guy that he is, stops laughing. "Hey, you okay?" he asks.

"Um, yeah, er, I mean, um, yeah."

"You're looking sort of pale." (Alex is being nice here. Addison looks like a freaking ghost. Even more than Transparent Bex does.)

"It's just… uh, hot in here."

"Are you embarrassed?" he asks.

"No!" she exclaims quickly. The look he sends her tells her that she knows she's lying. (Although, he's actually trying to convey that he knows she's lying and wishes that she would give him a chance. She, unfortunately, does not pick up on this second part.) "Yes," she revises.

"Why?"

"Um, because your supposed best friend just announced that her sole purpose in life is getting us together?"

"Right," he says. They study the bar. It's very interesting.

Eventually they snap out of their daze. "Addison," he says quietly. He's never said her name like that before. She doesn't like it. (This is true. She doesn't like how he says her name; she absolutely loves it.)

"Um, I… I should go," she stammers. She smiles weakly and touches his hand, trying to convey that today is just not the day for him to be interested. She's not quite ready for him to be interested. Maybe tomorrow.

The contact makes her feel like she's stuck a fork in an outlet. (Bad idea. Don't do it. Frazzled nerves will be the least of your worries.) It also makes her feel like she needs to get as far away from this man as possible in a very small world. With one last glance at Bex, who seems to have gotten more solid during her explanation to Izzie and Cristina, she flees the scene.

She's very good at fleeing the scene.


I don't really have much to say, but I usually say something down here. Um, I guess... Until next time, I remain, and always shall remain,

-Juli-

(who is begging desperately for a review)