Author's Note: As you might have guessed it from the last chapter, things are starting to wrap up with this story. I don't want you to worry though. I have another one lined up. The title will be Underfoot and the premise is one you will enjoy! It involves a scorned ex-lover, a little switch-a-roo, two adorable babies, and some match making lesbians, as well as our favorite couple! Now if a teaser like that doesn't intrigue you I don't know what will! In the meantime, back to our story at hand! Which is so bittersweet. I know you were hoping for more but sadly there isn't any more to tell of this story! I think I do a good job of wrapping up everything in this final chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed the ride!

Chapter Eleven

I love being married! It is so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life! Rita Rhudner

Forty years old. As a child forty years old had seemed ancient. Even in her early twenties Izzie had looked at the big four oh with a bit of dread. It meant leaving behind whatever it was that made the twenties so fabulous, and accepting that she didn't accomplish everything she wanted to accomplish in her thirties. Then it happened. Cancer. Funny how something like that changed a person's perspective on things. Funny how it made turning forty seem like an accomplishment. Funny how it made her appreciate life more. At first she hadn't looked at it that way. She had been too wrapped up in trying to gather up the pieces of her old life to think about building a newer, better one. It had taken leaving her husband and working with children who probably wouldn't live to be ten, let alone forty, for her to open her eyes. Now she looked at birthdays, even the big four oh, as a reason to celebrate. And boy did she celebrate!

It started the first year she was back at Seattle Grace. Her friends had welcomed her "home" with open arms and party planning hearts. She was still a bit stunned at how over zealous Cristina was when it came to making birthdays special. Her friend took the events seriously and put as much into them as she did a quadruple bypass. The first one had been held at Derek's lake. A quiet barbeque celebrating her return and her twenty-ninth birthday all in one. The second and third were pretty much the same. Things didn't get out of hand until her thirty-second birthday. She was seven months pregnant at the time and someone, Cristina if memory served correctly, thought it would be great to make a cast of her stomach. After it dried, they wrote notes to Kensington, letting her know how special she was. Izzie wasn't sure her friends could top something like that but they proved her wrong. When her thirty-sixth birthday rolled around and she was stuck on bed rest, because her second pregnancy was considered high risk ,they decorated her bedroom, brought in cupcakes, and watched chick flicks. Sure they had banned Alex and all other males from that one, but it was definitely one of Izzie's most memorable ones. Her friends had rallied around her, reminding her that she wasn't as alone as she felt.

And now, at the age of forty, they had done it again. They had rallied around her, coming together to celebrate her "life." That was what her birthday had come to mean to her: life. What a life it was! Two kids that never ceased to amaze her and a husband that could still rock her world! Life was good. It was real. It was nothing like the lie she had lived that year Alex and she had been apart. Just thinking about that time hurt. It also scared her. How close she had come to living a life without Alex, Kensington, and Gregory. It was unimaginable! Almost as unimaginable as forty had seemed at the age of ten, she mused as she slid her feet into a pair of black Jimmy Choo sling backs that made her legs look even longer. She paused near the full length mirror that stood in the corner of her bedroom. A smile stretched across her lips. Forty or not she still looked damn good!

"Mommy!" Gregory's over excited voice echoed in the upper hall as he clamored through the doorway, his hazel eyes wide and bright. Her little Alex. Amazing how much he looked like his father. Right down to the dimple in his left cheek. "Aunt Kissy-tina says you need to hurry or else."

Or else! Pish. Izzie knew better. The years had turned Cristina into a big ball of mush. Or maybe all various off spring of her friends had done that. Owen and Cristina had never had any children of their own, they maintained it was by choice, and thought it was their job to spoil the Karev, Shepherd, and sometimes Sloan children. Once she had admitted that Kensington was her favorite but had sworn to deny it if Izzie ever said anything. Izzie didn't blame her. There was something special about her daughter. It wasn't her pretty blonde curls or her big hazel eyes. Nor was it her deceptively sweet smile. No, there was just something extra and unseen that made Kensington extraordinary. Gregory had it too. Alex liked to tease her and say their kids were so special because they had had time to marinate in a Petri dish.

"Mommy! She use her mean face. The Dr Evil face! She serious!" Everything with Gregory had an exclamation point. He was born that way. Excited about life and out to live it. Something the three year old had in common with his mother.

"I'm coming!" Izzie laughed, ruffling her son's dark hair. She held out her hand and felt her heart melt when the tiny fingers wrapped around her's. A lump of emotion formed in her throat as she let her little man lead her down the stairs and into a swarm of friends hell bent on helping her celebrate her birthday. She felt her eyes start to sting as her friends and family blasted her with birthday wishes. It was her husband and daughter carrying out a large sheet cake loaded with forty candles that brought on the surge of tears though. Life didn't get much better than this!