Chapter 11: Location, Location, Location
Alex and Jo's discussion had gone better than he expected, but Jo had still cried. 'Great. Two crying chicks in one night,' he had thought while handing her tissues.
The reason for her tears was that she had been confused in her feelings about him, not knowing whether to act on them or not, not knowing if she really liked him or just liked their friendship. Then, he had done the asshole thing of trying to get into her pants as a distraction, and she felt hurt. The ultimate hurt was when she had walked in on Alex and Izzie because she had wanted to know how he felt about her, and instead found him on top of someone else on the couch that she had helped him pick out.
But Alex had explained to her that he hadn't planned it that way, and he was sorry. He had entertained the idea of turning their friendship into more, but he honestly had nothing more than friendly feelings toward her and it wouldn't have been fair to her. Jo was glad Alex was honest with her, and she had forgiven him, telling him that their friendship was still golden.
"But Alex, your girl, you didn't say who she is..." Jo had said, after their conversation had wrapped and she was getting ready to go.
"That was Izzie, my ex-wife."
Jo had raised her eyebrows, giving him a skeptical look. "You know exes are usually so for a reason..."
Not missing a beat, Alex shrugged.
"Stupid reasons."
Alex found himself walking to the hospital after that. He wanted to find Arizona and talk about a few things on the case file she had given him to study. On the way in, he nearly ran right into Izzie as she was on her way out.
"Can't stay out of this place, can you?" Izzie winked at him. She automatically leaned in and kissed his cheek, and then wondered if maybe he minded. She then decided that he didn't. Alex was a lot of things, but he usually said what was on his mind, and he was definitely straight up with people.
"Nah. I lied to you earlier. The real reason I bought Mer's house is 'cause it's so close to the hospital," he winked back at her, "if I can't live here, the house was the next best thing."
Izzie laughed, and he smiled from ear to ear. Her prediction that he hadn't minded the kiss on the cheek was right. Of course he hadn't minded. Alex was glad that things between them were so easy and natural, not forced in the slightest. They were comfortable around each other even though they hadn't been near each other in years. That had always been one of the best things about their relationship in the past - no matter what they put each other through, they had always had the chemistry to make it work. To come back to one another.
"Hey, you wanna come talk to Arizona with me? I'll even buy you a cup of coffee," Alex said, clearly trying to tempt her to come in with him. He suddenly wanted to show her off, maybe, or just spend more time with her either way.
"I really need to go back to the hotel and pack," Izzie said distractedly, thinking, then changed her mind. "Actually, you know what, I have four hours before my flight. Be such a gentleman and buy me coffee," she finished, teasing him.
He offered his arm to her, smiling a little. "You're gonna mock me now? Well, no coffee for you."
"I'm so hurt. Seriously. I might not recover." She took his arm and they fell in step with one another, entering the hospital again. "How'd your talk go with intern-girl?"
"Intern-girl cried, but we're good now," Alex said, shrugging.
"Do you guys have like... a past? Or?"
"Nah. Nothing like that. Jo's like my sister," Alex pressed the elevator button as they reached it, "things have just been messed up with the crap about the hospital and we all thought we were gonna be fired, you know, emotions ran high or whatever, so feelings got a little mixed up."
They entered the elevator. Alex stepped away from Izzie, leaning back against the wall. It had always been easy to talk to her, and nothing had changed. Now he was certainly hopeful that she got her job back here because he wanted to see more and more of her. He hadn't known she would be leaving Seattle for her next interview so soon, and he found himself thinking that he wasn't really ready for her to go yet.
"Yeah, getting fired does make emotions run high," Izzie glanced over at him, a small smirk on her face.
"Your panties still in a knot about that one?" Alex asked defensively, then saw that she was joking. "'Cause I was gonna say I can help you out with that. A quick fix," he said, trying to make a quick recovery from his defensive question.
Izzie stood facing the elevator doors, and Alex leaned against the wall, facing her. At his words, she turned toward him and crossed her arms, smirking at him.
"Oh, you do, hmm? And what, exactly, is your treatment, Dr. Badass?" She asked in a joking tone.
But Alex wasn't joking. He stepped toward her, placing his hands on her arms, and pushed her against the wall.
"Take them off," he said, his voice low. He put his lips on hers, pressing his hips against hers, and deepened the kiss. Izzie gripped his face in her hands and bit at his bottom lip. Alex pulled his mouth away from hers and moved to her neck. She sighed with pleasure, her hands now on his back. Alex felt himself becoming more and more aroused.
"Wanna go to an on-call room? Supply closet?" He asked, smirking, thinking of the time she had snatched her scrub top over her head in a supply closet, saying she was horny, and ordered him to take off his pants.
Still gripping his face, she looked into his eyes and Alex saw something there, but he couldn't quite decipher what it was.
"I can't, Alex. Not here. Not yet," she said, taking her eyes away from his, shaking her head slowly.
At first he wanted to be annoyed, wondering why she had enthusiastically joined in, but then he realized that she wasn't referring to him at all. She was referring to the location - the hospital. She still hadn't worked out all of her demons with the place.
She looked back up at him, a mischievous shine in her eyes.
"But you can take me back to your place."
