Disclaimer: If I owned Grey's, someone would tell Addie what is wrong with Alex, so that she could be aggressive about it. Meaning: Go and get her man. Sadly, not even the Addison in this story does that. Quite yet.

A/N: Yeah, I know my updating sucks. And the chapter I had wanted to write next wanted to wait another round, so it could be 'Karma XI'. Thus, this is not as good. Sorry. Also, my 'Happy Birthday' oneshot still isn't finished and I don't know whether I'll ever publish it. The other one-shot is in progress, I'm working on it. You should go and read 'The bet', though. It's my first smut fic and I think it's quite... agreeable. 'Room service?' might get an update soon. Might.

Anyway, have fun with this chapter. Sorry, I know the chapter's rather boring and useless.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS! NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE DEDICATED TO YOU! I promise, it'll will make you drool. I know it'll make me...

While the two women had been talking – unbeknown to him – Alex had made a friend. Sure, the guy had to be like at least ten years younger than he was, but he seemed nice. Apparently he liked surfing and some chick named Naomi. Alex figured he was talking about someone who worked at Oceanside Wellness Group, though he hadn't really taken his time to find out more about the staff there. The only people, who worked there, that he cared about where his wife and a certain redhead. The first, he hadn't found yet, and the seconds hated his guts. Thus he thought, why spend the day in the hotel, when he could just as well go to the beach and (pretend to be) check(ing) some hot LA chicks out?

It turned out, this Dell guy worked at OWG, too. Surprise, surprise, since they'd met when Alex had been on his way back to the hotel, and the other guy had been on his way to work. Apparently he was some sort of clerk.

They'd talked a little, Alex had told him he was here for Melody, but knew Addison, and since he had nothing else to do, they'd decided to go for a surf. It seemed like Dell always went to the beach at one and came back at two. Obviously, Alex wouldn't be able to go into the water, he did have a cast and all, but chose to come with him anyway.

So now he was lying on the beach, enjoying the sun. He was grateful he'd brought some swimming trunks with him, since he didn't really have the money to buy some in a store here. There was only stuff by Gucci or Armani or some other fancy label that no mortal man could pay for. Right now, he was having a little discussion with Dell about their respective women (okay, truth to be told, Dell had no clue about anything Alex/Addison related, all he knew was that they'd worked together),

"Dude, what the hell is she doing here... I mean, you just told me she's got like two patients per day tops. She used to have at least four back in Seattle. She has to be dying of boredom.", Alex stated, "Plus, she's one of the top neonatal surgeons in the world. Her talent's absolutely wasted as long as she works at a place like that-... no offense."

"If you ask me, she left Seattle because of a guy. Or several guys. Dunno."

Alex opened a lazy eye. No, that hadn't really captured his interest... Not at all... Sarcasm, sarcasm...

"What makes you think that?"

"She kept going on and on about people with weird Mc-somethings."

"Oh.", Alex said. McNicknames? She'd only been talking about guys with McNicknames? He didn't have a McNickname. She hadn't even bothered mentioning him? Had he meant that much to her?

Little did he know, the only reason why she hadn't breathed a word about what'd happened between them was that she'd been embarrassed, feeling like a 'twelve-year-old' shouldn't be able to make her go all weak in the knees, just by smiling in her general direction. Let alone his tendency to say perfect things. Or the fact that every time they'd touched, there'd been so much electricity, she'd felt like jumping him. Addison had thought, she'd gotten too attached, for no good reason (at least not for reasons she'd actually admitted to herself), and that the rejection had not only felt like a punch in the gut, but had also been the most humiliating experience ever.

Yeah, Alex didn't know any of that.

addexaddexaddexaddexaddex

Meanwhile, Addison was getting a little desperate and depressed and in need of someone she could talk to. She felt like a total bitch. After having heard Alex' story (told by Melody), she had never felt more stupid in her entire life. How could she have assumed she was the only one with problems? Hell, her problems seemed like sweet, tasty cake in comparison to Alex' messed up childhood / adolescence / adulthood. She'd acted like the world revolved around her. Why had she not been able to see what he had to be feeling like all the time? It made sense, it explained everything. And she had been god damn blind.

She couldn't even believe she'd ever been disappointed, that she'd thought he was a bad guy after all. For more than a second, she was kind of glad he'd decided to turn her down. If she couldn't even begin to grasp what he'd been through, if she'd been absolutely clueless for so long, even though it'd been staring in her face, she could hardly be the one to 'heal' him, right?

Addie didn't even try denying every word Melody had said was true. Their history was not more of a lie than the observation, that she was so in love with her ex-intern it made her feel stupid and insignificant.

So she did what Addison did when she needed help, she dialed Callie's number. Once more, she started talking without even waiting for someone to say their name.

"God, you won't believe what I'm about to tell you..."

"Uh... Again, I'm not Callie. Do you want me to get her for you?", George O'Malley asked uncomfortably. Addison sighed. She had the feeling this would be only the first of many sighs to follow in the course of that phone call.

"Sure, O'Malley. I appreciate you not wanting to hear all the gossip I got. It's none of your business anyway."

"Callie? It's Dr Montgomery! She sounds a little down.", he added in a low voice. A little? Hell, she'd never felt worse! Of course, she didn't yell about that at poor O'Malley. He'd find out soon enough. Along with the whole rest of the hospital.

"What did he do this time?", Callie asked, as soon as she'd picked up the phone.

"Nothing.", sigh number two, "I just found out why he's the way he is. And that I'm apparently in love with him."

There it was. She'd actually said it. Wow, it really was true, wasn't it? Okay, not that much of a surprise.

"Oh, you realized that just now?", Callie laughed, "I've known for ages."

"You have? Oh... Now I feel pathetic.", she stated, accompanied by sigh number three.

"So, what's the big news?", the Ortho-resident asked after there'd been silence for a few seconds.

And Addison spent the next half-hour telling Callie all the things Melody Karev had shared with her. After many other sighs (she had stopped counting around 50), a little hysterical laughter, and depressing things that needed acknowledging, Callie breathed:

"Wow. That's some heavy stuff. What are you gonna do now?"

"I have no clue.", sigh, "Can't you tell me?"

"Nuh-uh. At least now I know I was right about him."

True, it'd been Callie who'd told her that Alex could be the kids and barbecue guy. And even though Melody had said, he himself would never admit that, because he was too scared, Addison now knew with 100 per-cent certainty that he, indeed, was.

"You were, I wasn't.", sigh, "I yelled at him."

"Stop feeling guilty.", her friend insisted, "He was being a jackass and you couldn't possibly know any of this. Seriously, do not beat yourself up over it."

Addison sighed. Again. She did understand it was getting a little pathetic. She did.

"You're probably right. It's still not the best feeling in the world, you know? I just feel like-... I don't know, like I should have handled things differently."

Callie somehow sensed the redhead would not turn into a scary imitation of Izzie Stevens (all bubbly and excited) anytime soon, which reminded her of something... Something that might have potential of making Addison forget about her guy problem for a minute or two.

"I know how to cheer you up!", she exclaimed, "Gossip. You like gossip, right?"

"Yeah.", the redhead uttered. Damn, had that been a little sniff? She so needed distraction.

"Izzie Stevens and McSteamy are together!"

It was true. The entire hospital couldn't believe it. The nurses had just formed a club called 'Nurses United Against Mark Sloan', because he'd apparently been in bed with all the halfway attractive ones (something that honestly noone had been all that surprised about) and now didn't seem to be able to close their mouths, sometimes, because their jaws had dropped to the floor at the thought of him being a 'BOYFRIEND', sometimes, because they needed to gossip. Apparently gossip was what kept Seattle Grace nurses alive.

"WHAT?", the redhead on the other side of the phone shrieked. Obviously she was as stunned as everyone else was.

"Uh-huh. They hooked up yesterday and apparently they're serious about it."

It was kind of a relief. Izzie seemed to have given up on George and be disturbingly couplish with Mark. Not that there hadn't been some tension between those two (meaning McStizzie, as the nurses now called them) forever.

"Oh my god...", Addison gasped, in disbelief.

"Weird, I know.", Callie smiled, then decided to check:

"Did it help?"

"A little.", Addison smirked weakly. Then an entirely different thing captured her eye. The clock. It was one fifty-one... Oooh, this would definitely help...

"Gotta go...", she said quickly and hung up.

"Addison? Addison!", Callie asked, suddenly alone. Oh, she didn't even want to know what had happened now.

addexaddexaddexaddexaddex

Addison was too busy hurrying to her seat in the lobby to even think about leaving Callie like that. As soon as she reached it, she quickly sat down and grabbed a magazine, needing a disguise. After a half-minute, Naomi appeared and took a seat next to her.

"Who should be ashamed of herself now?", Addison's best friend grinned.

Of course, she was. Ashamed of herself. Kind of. But it was justified. Sometimes you simply needed a happy pill. And whether it was sick and twisted or not, this always worked.

"Shut up, I'm having a bad day.", she answered, though a little embarrassed, "Besides, you're here, too."

For a second or so, Addison felt a little guilty. It was true, Naomi was her best friend. Usually, best friends talked and knew things about each other. But Naomi had no clue just why exactly Addie was having a bad day. Hell, she didn't even know someone like Alex Karev even existed! She never had talked about him and unless Pete had told someone... Well, she just couldn't know.

"Never said I was ashamed of myself.", Naomi grinned, only to look up at another female figure rushing towards them, taking the last empty seat.

"Did I miss it?", Violet asked, a little out of breath.

"No, he's late.", Addie smirked. Apparently she was not the only one who needed a happy pill today. And lusting over mancandy (even if that guy wasn't even five years old) always did make you feel better, didn't it?

"Addison? Nice of you to join us.", Vi grinned.

"Shut u-...", the redhead started, but got interrupted by a very delicious sight. Apparently Dell was finally here.

And then all rational thought mysteriously left her brain, because he was not alone.