Alex pulled into the hospitals parking area and looked around, Well this wasn't too bad.

She made her way towards the main doors. The door closed behind her with a big gust of wind that nearly blew her inside. She shook her head. "Stupid wind," she muttered. Her whole day had been hectic and frustrating. The call from Dylan hadn't helped at all. A brief look around told her there was a lot of waiting ahead, and also a lot of people were staring at her with angry eyes as she shoved through the crowd. She frowned back at the people and shoved even more- soon reaching the main desk. Behind her was a lot of swearing and yelling, but she was not letting it bother her and raised her hand at the frustrated crowd.

"Miss," The nurse raised from her seat, "You have to wait in line like everybody else."

"I'm just looking for my brother," Alex snapped back, leaning against the desk, "He asked me to come here."

"Miss, still you have to wait in line."

"Are you deaf?" She rolled her eyes, "Just tell me where Justin Russo is and I'm gone."

The nurse was determined not to obey, "Step out of the line and wait. I'll page your brother soon as I can."

"That's gonna take like two hours! There is a lot of sick people behind me," She motioned towards the frustrated crowd, "Just do it now and you can continue your shitty job, alright?" Alex smiled at the nurse who was bright red from anger.

"Step out of the line." She ordered.

A frustrated grunt escaped her lips, "Do I have to spell his name to you or what?" Alex peeked over the desk to see her name sign and continued, "Gloria, people are waiting and honestly you're not doing your job so well…"

The nurse had picked up the mocking tone and got right up in her face, "Miss, I will have to call security if you don't step out of the line!"

"Alex!" Justin appeared from the hallway.

"Found him." Alex laughed softly and waved at the nurse before walking over to Justin.

He shook his head at her as they walked along the hallway, "You really can't stay out of trouble for five minutes?"

She paused thoughtfully, "Not really."

"What are you even doing here?"

"Lunch remember? Duh."

"Yeah, but I thought we agreed that I would call you. I'm still on my shift."

She nodded, "I can wait."

Suddenly, his pager beeped. Justin sighed and looked around them, "I have to go- You can wait in the break room."

Alex raised her eyebrows, "Isn't that like against the rules?"

He raised his eyebrows right back. "Do you really care?"

"Nope."

"I figured." He murmured back.

Alex sighed and sat on the old sofa.

She was so bored.

This room was so... ugh. There was nothing interesting for her-

It was either old magazines or even older fruits and a nice meal that someone had left there- maybe two years ago.

She grimaced at the smell and rested her head against the white wall. This was so not like Grey's Anatomy.

"Okay I've had enough," She muttered to herself and jumped up from the sofa and stepped out of the room. The hallway was quiet and empty. For a minute she stopped to think about how angry would Justin be if he found out that she left the room without his permission.

She just shrugged and continued, she had done worse.

With a sigh she continued her way and soon found herself in the middle of the.. Hospital nursery. She walked up to the huge nursery window. The little plastic cots were lined up neatly in rows. She could see lots of babies in there, lots of little people, safely wrapped in pink and blue blankets, some crying and some just staring ahead.

"Alex?"

The surprised brunette turned to stare at her, "Harper, " Alex responded coldly, her eyes steady on hers, "What? You're stalking me now?"

She watched as her eyes glazed over, her shoulder's tensing slightly as she shrugged, "I'm not here because of you."

"Good," she nodded, desperate to change the subject, "Is- everything alright?"

Harper smiled proudly, "Actually, I had a check up."

Her eyes widened, "Wha-" Then she looked around herself and got it, "Oh, you're..."

"One month," She confirmed, "I haven't even told Juliet. We kind of decided to keep it to ourselves for the start."

"How come?" She asked in a more serious tone.

"Zeke and I had some problems at first with.. You know.. And then I miscarried- You're probably not even interested.."

"No, Harper. Listen," Alex swallowed, "I'm sorry."

"Alex you don't have to-"

"No, really. I'm really sorry for.. All of this."

Harper shrugged her shoulders, trying to act like she couldn't care less, "I don't want you to apologize just because of my little sappy story."

"I'm not apologizing because of that! This, us has been bothering me," She explained and looked at the floor, "I'm sorry for shutting you out."

"You know- I didn't mind it," She answered promptly, "I didn't mind it when you almost buried me with your worries. That's what friends are for. What ruined our friendship was you. You ignored me like I was thin air and truthfully it was hurtful."

Alex crossed her arms, "Then why can't you trust me now?"

"After everything that I saw happen… What it did to our friendship.. You have to understand that it seems a bit odd. You didn't even wait a second before going to him for help."

"Justin is my brother." She reasoned.

"So is Max."

"But you still don't understand it, do you?" Alex looked at Harper, waiting for her to nod.

"I don't know Alex."

Honestly, she kind of enjoyed living with Justin. After what Harper had said she was a bit upset and hurt. It bothered her that her ex-best friend thought that she was some kind of psycho. She was so not like that. Sure, they were close, but they were supposed to be that close- He was her brother! What was she supposed to do about it?

Right now they had a casual, relaxed relationship more like a friendship. He would joke around with her, sometimes intentionally scare her half to death or stand over her shoulder repeating, "You're doing that wrong, you're doing that wrong, you're doing that wrong," until she would growl at him that she was not doing it wrong. He would then give her an adorable little pout and pretend to sulk which was quite an endearing sight, and it never failed to make her smile. Even when they were just hanging around at home and not teasing, she liked when he would explain everything he was going to do that day, everything she needed to do that day with Emma.

"Earth to Alex?" Justin waved his hand in front of her face.

"Huh? What?"

He smiled at her dumbfounded expression, "You were zoning out, everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, just, thinking…" She answered softy, her voice wavering, "Nothing important."

"You ask me to take an extra lunch hour just so that I can watch you think?"

Alex sighed and decided to forget about the confrontation with Harper and tell him what she had been nervous about the whole morning, "I need to tell you something." she began.

"Yeah?" he murmured, still reading the newspaper.

"It's not directly about you." she added, "Okay it is."

This seemed to pique his interest, and he finally looked away from the newspaper, looking over at her. "Tell me."

"Dylan asked me to be his date at the charity event he is throwing this Friday."

He had never asked or brought up Dylan after their one date, and she never told him what had happened, but she had the distinct feeling that he knew anyway, because he always seemed to know what was going on.

Justin took a few seconds before answering, and she wondered if he would at all, but then he finally did, "And?"

"Well I thought.."

"That you need my permission?" He asked irritated.

"I'm not asking for your permission," She went on, "I'm just asking your opinion."

Glancing down, he said quietly, "Alex, I think he is a good person for throwing this event together, he's a good doctor, but that doesn't make me blind to his faults. He's a pathological flirt and he cheats on every one of his girlfriends. Remember Dean and all those other guys you dated? Well they are exactly the same. You only tend to be with guys who treat you like shit."

"That isn't true," she insisted. "Besides don't you think it would make things easier."

He considered this for a moment, then shook his head. "In what sense?"

Her voice broke a little, "I can't live with you for the rest of my life."

He looked at her in disbelief, "It's not like you're gonna marry him. Why are you talking about stuff like that?" He asked sternly, raising an eyebrow.

She didn't know where this all was coming from. Maybe it was the talk with Harper that had pushed her into this.

"I just need to know that it's okay with you- I know that you will be there too so I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"I wasn't even planning on going." Justin choked, trying to come up with something, "Juliet has work and I'm going to watch Emma.."

"Justin…" She tried to ask for a explanation.

"Stop it."

"It's just one night." She reminded him, "I don't want to be rude and decline."

"And he has never been rude towards you." Justin snapped.

"Stop being like that."

He smiled and shook his head. "Like what?"

"Like an overprotective brother." Alex replied.

"He doesn't really care about you. "

"How would you know?"

Justin stared at her with that penetrating gaze of his for several long seconds, causing her to squirm just a bit and wonder what his response was going to be. But then it ended and he merely shook his head, breaking eye contact. "I just do."

She considered disagreeing with him again, but something stopped her, telling her she might not be prepared to really hear his answer.

"I can't believe this." Juliet smiled widely at Harper, "I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks." She smiled back, "Honestly I was as surprised as you are right now."

Juliet stared at her pregnant friend, "This great. You're going to be a great mom."

They stood on the terrace and watched as Emma played near them.

"Don't go near the pool honey!" She yelled after the girl who then nodded and waved back at her mom.

Soon Juliet noticed Harpers face had turned into a frown, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head in respond, "It's stupid.. don't worry about it."

"No really. You can tell me."

Harper took in a deep breath, "I saw Alex."

"At the hospital?" Juliet guessed, "Yeah, she was supposed to have lunch with Justin."

"A lot of memories came back and I guess right now I feel like I miss her more than I really thought I did."

The blonde nodded, "You used to be close. It's understandable."

Harper shook her head again, "Maybe.. But it wasn't always like that."

She was about to walk into her best friends room, but soon stopped as she heard voices coming from his room.

"You're ruining everything again." Justin growled.

"Yeah, I know." Alex had smirked back.

A few seconds later he pushed her from his room and shut the door.

She turned around and looked at Harper, "What?"

"What's going on?"

"Justin's being a dork."

"Care to clarify?" She followed Alex into her room.

Alex looked at her, her eyebrows together, "I thought you were with Zeke and got over your obsession."

"I'm not asking because of him! I thought you wanted to talk about it… never mind."

She laughed as she turned to face her, "Whatever Harper."

"You got your dress for tomorrow?"

"Yep. I'm gonna wear what Juliet wants me to wear," She took the dress from her dresser and held it up, "I just made a few alternations."

Harper gasped, "You cant wear that to their rehearsal dinner!"

"Why? I think it's cute." She held the shorter than short black mini and laughed.

"It's missing like a half of dress!" She pointed at it, "I promised to Juliet that I would look that-"

"What? You're her spy these days?"

"I'll get you a new dress tomorrow." Harper said calmly.

"Don't worry! I'm just messing with Justin." Alex explained casually.

"Alex-"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"So you two made up?" Juliet's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Harper looked at her, "No.. Nothing has changed."

She had figured that he didn't want to talk to her after their intense lunch. So she had stayed at her room for hours. She had heard how Juliet had gushed about Harpers pregnancy. Alex waited yet another twenty minutes before she heard Juliet say goodnight to him. She carefully walked out of her room and stopped before stepping into the living room.

"Alex, I can see you." He said, "I can see your shadow."

She cursed and walked up to him, "Can we talk about it?"

Justin pressed the off button from the remote," You're ruining a good movie, but I guess so."

"I'm sorry for bringing up the whole charity event thing."

"Why are you sorry?" He asked her.

Alex sat on the sofa next to him, "Well obliviously I hurt your feelings."

He agreed, sadly and tiredly, "I just want to protect you."

"I know," She said with a faint smile, "And I'm thankful for that."

"Right," Justin said, her eyebrows knitting together a little in thought, "Anything else?"

"That's it?" she said in a low, threatening voice, "I'm trying to apologize and you act like an moron."

"It's my house. I can act the way I want to." He glared back and opened the TV.

Alex gave him a hard look and was about walk away, but stopped herself.

"Fuck this." She muttered to herself.

"Watch your mouth." he shouted back.

"Ooooh, I'm so scared! What are you gonna do, tell daddy?" she picked up a pillow from the sofa and threw it at him headfirst.

"Alex!" He winced and threw the pillow back at her, "Do you want to die?"

"Are you gonna kill me? Geez, you're a doctor for god sakes!" She threw another.

"Alex!" Justin tried not to shout when the pillow hit him, "You're so immature!"

"I'm immature? You're the one who started this."

"I didn't start anything. You're the one who is making this into a big deal, " He snapped, sounding a little angry, "Now- drop it. I don't want to wake Emma and Juliet."

"Yeah, your dear wife and daughter who have no idea-"

"Stop it." He warned.

She blinked in confusion, "What? You're embarrassed that you got a clear hard-on when you were making out with your sister?"

He didn't want to believe that he heard right, but Justin also knew that when she wanted to make people upset she sure knew how to, "Don't flatter yourself." He didn't want to give her the pleasure and decided to focus on watching the movie.

"I hate you." She practically growled at him.

Now she was just being dramatic which made him mad, "I'm too tired to deal with this now. Just drop it Alex."

"That's the best you got?" She walked up to him and grabbed his face with both of her hands and kissed him.

Yay first chapter in 2011!

Hope you all had a nice New Years Eve and enjoyed this hectic- made in an hour chapter...

The story is moving forward yay!

Next chapter... I see champagne and people in their fancy dresses.. maybe an important event?..

Oh you know it.