Author's Note: Awesome is what you guys are! All those reviews flooding my inbox was awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You guys had some questions and I answered them as best I could in a review for the chapter. I hope you continue to enjoy this story! I also hope you can forgive some OOC in this chapter! I am not too pleased with it. It is sort of filler. An anxiety chapter. Bleh. Next chapter is pure happiness though, I promise!

Chapter Twelve

"I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see." Peggy Noonan

Alex had heard that post traumatic stress disorder could cause people to behave in ways they wouldn't usually behave. He hadn't really believed any of that until after the shooting. After the shooting Cristina seemed rather…different. The odd part was he couldn't really put a finger on what was so different about her. She was just not the Cristina he knew and loved to torture. In the six weeks they had been attending group therapy he had watched her slowly become someone else. The someone she had become seemed more interested in planning an impromptu wedding to Owen Hunt than chasing the best surgery. He hadn't even realized Cristina and Owen were getting serious enough to tie the knot!

"Your wife and your ex-mistress are whispering about something upstairs," Jackson Avery murmured. Knitting his brows together, Alex turned to look at the younger man. He couldn't have heard him right. There was no way in hell Izzie and Lexie would talk. Izzie hated Lexie, and Lexie was scared of Izzie. At least that was the vibe he always got. "You heard me correctly, Karev. Your wife and your ex-mistress are upstairs, right now, whispering about something to do with tests."

Tests? What sort of tests did Lexie and Izzie have to talk about? Brow still knitted together, Alex elbowed his way through the small crowd that was gathered in Meredith's living room. He half ran, half flew up the stairs, his heart pounding. The fear that had been rampaging through him turned to anger when he found the upstairs hallways empty. He turned on the ball of his foot, intent on storming back downstairs to tell Jackson Avery what he thought of his little joke. When his foot hit the first stair he heard the murmur of voices. They sounded like they were coming from Meredith's room. The fear crept back in as he found himself slowly walking toward his former roommates domain. He hoped the voices where Izzie and Lexie because he really didn't want to walk in on Shepherd and Meredith having a little pre-wedding fun, or Cristina getting ready for the wedding or, worse, Cristina freaking out about the wedding.

He found them in Meredith's bathroom. Izzie sitting on the side of the tub, Lexie leaning against the wall. He barely noticed either one of them when his eyes fell on the pregnancy test sitting on the sink. Well hell. That would have to be the test Jackson heard them talking about. And since chemo had blown Izzie's chances of getting pregnant out of the water…

The blood drained from his face. Lexie couldn't be pregnant. Not when things were getting so good with Iz. His marriage was starting to feel like a real marriage. Yeah they both worked a lot and at different hospitals but the time they did have together was spent exploring the future and enjoying the present. They had even tentatively talked about house hunting. He see it all crashing and burning, and all because of that stupid test sitting on the counter. "You should have talked to me, not her," he said lowly, his scared gaze swinging from the test to Lexie.

"Why would I talk to you?" Lexie shook her head, confusion written across her face. She pushed away from the wall, her arms crossed defensively over her chest. He shifted his gaze back to the test. Her gaze followed. "Seriously? You think I'm…seriously? Give me some credit, Alex! I might be naïve and I might not be as experienced as other women but I'm not stupid. I know how to prevent having to take a test like that." She shook her head again, her cheeks spotting with a bright red blush. "Furthermore, I've had to buy tampons twice since we broke up. Trust me, there is no bun in my oven."

Tossing a hunk of hair back, Lexie stalked out of the bathroom. She paused in the doorway and looked back at Izzie. "Let me know about tomorrow okay?" Izzie nodded, her face downcast toward the floor.

"It's wrong," Izzie whispered, her fingers nervously twisting together. "It's a false positive or something." She looked up, tears dripping down her cheeks.

Her words slowly sunk in. The test had never belonged to Lexie, it belonged to Izzie. His heart twisted. He knew she was right. It had to be a false positive. With all the chemo and the other drugs they had pumped her full of the chances of her getting pregnant the old fashioned way was slim to none. But not impossible, a silent voice reminded him. "It doesn't matter, Iz," he whispered, gathering her close. His heart ached even more when he felt her body shaking as she silently sobbed.

"I might be sick again," she choked out. "That's why I was talking to Lexie. I thought I could guilt trip her into secretly running tests. Which was a stupid idea because nothing ever stays a secret at that stupid hospital. I just didn't want to scare you or make my boss nervous if I didn't have to."

Tipping her chin up, Alex's hazel eyes met her dark brown ones. "Iz, do you remember what I said when we got back together?"

"You said you weren't going anywhere," she sniffled. "I remember. I know. I just…you didn't come back to sign up for another round of cancer."

"I signed up for another chance at life with you. I knew there was chance the cancer could come back. If it has that doesn't change my mind about wanting to be with you. Nothing is ever going to keep us apart, Iz. Nothing." He held her close again, his body trembling. Tentatively she wrapped her arms around his waist. Burying his face in her hair, he inhaled deeply. Honeysuckle. She always smelled like honeysuckle. It was her shampoo. He had figured that out after he moved into Meredith's. He'd started using the same stuff just so he could smell her. He choked back a sob of his own. If something happened, if she was sick again, he didn't think he could survive if she didn't make it.

No. Alex wasn't going to think that way. He had let himself think that way the last time and it had ruined their relationship. Instead of being someone Izzie could rely on he had turned into a hovering idiot who treated her like a child. "Izzie, look at me." She pulled back, her face stained with tears and sorrow. "We're going to go downstairs and watch Cristina get married and then we're going to go home and get some rest. We're not going to worry about anything until tomorrow. Okay?"

She looked like she wanted to contradict him. In the end she nodded, a small smile on her lips. It didn't quite reach her eyes but he understood. The smile he pasted on his lips didn't quite reach his either.