So, here, have another chapter- It's more filler than anything, since my muse has apparently decided that now would be a fabulous time to come up with new and exciting storylines that have absolutely NOTHING to do with my current stories.
In other news, special credit to BabyWonder7 for making smile and getting referenced in this chapter. For some reason, I just really, really liked the image of Addison and Alex standing in the middle of the hallway, yelling, "JUST KIDDING!!". It made me giggle, so I mentioned it in passing in here somewhere. If you giggle too, I can't take credit for it. Sorry to disappoint.
And if you don't know that I don't own Grey's by now, I don't know what I'm going to do with you.
Addison and Alex stay in the room—which turned out to be an on call room, by the way—not ready to break out of their peaceful bubble and start to put their, if not new, newly cemented relationship to the test yet.
She smiles when he laces his fingers through hers, shaking her head slowly in disbelief. This doesn't go unnoticed by Alex, who asks, "What?"
"This. Us," she replies, then elaborates, "I'm never completely sure about anything, I over think things and I worry. But this… it just feels right."
Alex is silent for a moment before chuckling. "Wow, that was maybe the sappiest thing I've ever heard."
"Oh, shut up," she laughs, smacking his chest playfully, simultaneously aiming to hurt and appreciate the body of her ridiculously hot boyfriend. Quickly, though, she becomes serious. "So how do you think we should tell everyone?" she asks quietly.
"Well, they already think that we just broke up. Maybe we could just stand in the middle of the hallway and yell just kidding," he suggests.
She giggles at the image. "Yeah, because that wouldn't look ridiculous or anything," she scoffs.
"So?"
"Maybe…" Addison hesitates.
"What?"
"Maybe, we just keep it to ourselves for awhile." She sees the confused look on his face and hastens to explain. "I don't mean keep it a secret or anything. Believe me; I want the whole world to know I'm in love with you. But it's just… everything up until now has been for everyone else. Does that make sense? It's all been so public. I need time for it to sink in that this isn't. For the first time, this isn't about them, it's about us. I just need to feel like it's real this time."
"Addison, everything I said to you before, in front of everybody, I wasn't lying."
"I know that, Alex, I do. But that's part of the problem—I know it, but I haven't really comprehended it."
"It's your call, Addie. I don't care. I'll do whatever makes you happy."
Addison rolls her eyes. "So no pressure or anything."
He laughs. "Nope, none at all."
"Maybe… maybe we don't keep it a secret, we just don't tell people unless they ask directly. Besides, in this place, telling one person is basically the equivalent of announcing it over the intercom."
He chuckles. "True. So what do we say?"
"Say?" she frowns.
"If someone asks," he prompts.
"Oh." Addison becomes quiet, trying to figure out what to do, as she realizes that they have an opportunity to tell everyone the truth.
"Do you want to tell everybody everything?" he asks gently, correctly guessing the source of her silence. "Or do you want to keep with the story?"
Addison hesitates as she mulls things over—on one hand, it would be nice to tell the absolute truth. On the other, she's not really too keen on finding out Mark's reaction, particularly what he might do to Alex. "You know," she starts slowly, "For all intents and purposes, you're going to be the father…" she trails off, not sure if the sentence needs an ending.
He grins and kisses her. She smiles against his lips. "What was that for?" she asks happily.
He shrugs. "Because I can."
She smiles blissfully. And then her mind returns to the task at hand, and she bits her lip, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. "We can just say that I was being hormonal and everything is fine," she suggests.
"Not to burst your bubble or whatever, Adds, but you kind of yelled that you don't love me—that's going to need more explaining than hormonal."
"I don't know, Alex, maybe you could stop playing devil's advocate long enough to actually help me!" she snaps, then sighs, rubbing her temples. "Sorry. I didn't mean that. I just thought that breaking up would simplify things, and now it's making everything worse."
"You got scared," he announces. "You got scared, and you said awful things that you in no way meant, and will never say again." The last part is said sternly, and Addison smiles.
"See, I knew there was a reason I keep you around!" she exclaims.
"Please, you love me."
"Well, there's that," Addison smirks, "And there's the fact that you're man candy."
"Is that so?" he asks, and kisses her. She deepens the kiss, and just when they're starting to consider relocating to the nearby bed, her pager goes off. She groans and looks at it. "It's the Patterson baby," she informs him. "Sorry, I'll talk to you soon."
She kisses him once quickly and then leaves, not worrying about when soon is. It doesn't matter anymore—they've got all the time in the world.
0ooo0
It's a struggle for Addison to keep a smile off her face for what is left of the day, which doesn't go unnoticed by most. People start talking about what could possibly have the redheaded attending smiling just hours after a loud break up.
Derek tracks her down just as she's on her way to the locker room. "Wow, dumping Karev really put you in that a good a mood, huh?" he says, sounding more concerned than entertained, but valiantly trying to make it sound like he's teasing her.
"No," she answers. "But I'm fine, Derek."
He frowns. "You sure you're okay? Nothing you need to talk about?"
"Hey, Derek?" she asks, knowing that she's just about to break the rule that she set, but she figures that she doesn't really care—Alex won't mind, and the fact that she's in love with someone who loves her back is starting to sink in.
"Yeah?"
"Alex and I aren't broken up." She flashes him a brilliant smile and pushes the door to the locker room open. He doesn't follow, just stares after her and tries to make sense of her announcement.
0ooo0
By the time Addison's ready to go home, she's exhausted. Fighting back weariness, she gets ready to exit the hospital. Longest day ever.
"Hey," Mark says as he approaches her. "How are you?"
She sighs. Apparently the longest day ever is about to get even longer. "I'm fine," she replies.
"I heard about you and Karev," he says.
She doesn't even look at him. She keeps her eyes straight ahead, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, while she informs him, "I'm not sleeping with you, Mark."
"Ouch, Addison, I'm hurt. It's sad that you think so little of me," he pouts.
Addison rolls her eyes. "Well, it would help if you could give me a little more to work with. And clearly you're not fully up to date on the gossip today, because otherwise you wouldn't be hitting on me right now."
"What?"
"Alex and I are back together." She hides a smile as she says this. "And I really wouldn't suggest messing with it. He could probably kick your ass. He used to wrestle, you know. Just saying…"
Mark's mouth falls open. "Addie, I-"
She cuts him off as they reach her car. "Mark, seriously. Go to Joe's, have a drink or two, and leave with a pretty, young thing whose name you won't remember in the morning. Now, if you'll excuse me…" She trails off as she gets into the car, and drives off, leaving him behind. She sees him head in the direction of Joe's in the rearview mirror and shakes her head. Typical Mark.
Wow, seriously, longest day ever. I think that day spanned four chapters. Time for Addison to get some much deserved rest. I mean, let's recap. In the course of one day she: broke up with her fake boyfriend, explained to Izzie, realized she was in love with her ex-fake boyfriend, explained to Callie, had to hunt down her ex-fake boyfriend, and made her ex-fake boyfriend her current real boyfriend. She deserved a filler chapter...
But even though it's a pretty filler chapter, that's not to say that you didn't need to pay attention. Because one chance event often leads to another, and can have some pretty dire consequences. I'm just saying...
But enough of me being cryptic. Here's a not so cryptic message: Drop me a review, will ya? ;)
-Juli-