"Do you want to go get drunk?"
Izzie had been sitting on the living room couch, absent-mindedly knitting a scarf. She startled slightly at the sound of Meredith's voice.
"What?"
Meredith flopped onto the couch next to her. "Cristina is spending time with Burke, George is staying over at Callie's, Alex is out with Addison and I'm currently not speaking to Derek. I'm bored, I'm miserable, and I want to do something. Let's go get drunk."
Izzie sighed and set her knitting down. "Mer, I'm in my sweats and slippers. I don't really want to go anywhere."
Meredith wrinkled her nose. "Fine." She paused for a moment before saying, "Do you want to get drunk here instead?"
Izzie grinned. "That sounds like a very good idea. You dig out the booze, I'll go order us a pizza."
Meredith returned her smile. "Then we can bitch about our respective love-lives."
"Okay," Izzie agreed. "But we better have a whole lotta booze."
------
Izzie and Meredith were just starting to get tipsy when the doorbell rang.
"Oh!" Izzie exclaimed. "Pizza. I'll get it." She grabbed her wallet off the coffee table and hurried to the door, looking forward to eating some hot, greasy junk food. When she opened the door, however, the smile on her face fell.
"Doctor Shepherd," she said stonily, crossing her arms over her chest.
Derek ran a hand through his hair and offered Izzie a nervous smile. "Is Meredith here?"
"I don't think she wants to talk to you," Izzie replied.
Derek let out a sigh. "Would you at least ask her?"
Izzie glared at him a moment longer before turning to call over her shoulder. "Meredith, Derek wants to know you'll talk to him."
"No!" Came the nearly instantaneous reply.
"Told you," Izzie said as she began to close the door in Derek's face.
Derek reached out to stop the door from closing, and pushed it open further, coming inside.
"She said she didn't want to talk to you!" Izzie protested. But Derek ignored her completely.
"Meredith," he called out.
Meredith appeared in the doorway, her arms crossed, a sour expression on her face. "I said I didn't want to talk to you."
"We need to talk, Meredith. You can't just ignore me forever."
"I can try."
Derek smiled slightly and stepped closer to her. He wrinkled her nose when he caught the scent on her breath. "Are you drunk?" he asked.
"I'm certainly trying," Meredith replied.
"I want to make this right. What can I do to make this right?"
Meredith studied him for a long moment. "I don't know if you can, Derek."
A look of surprise crossed Derek's face. "What?"
Meredith sighed. "You're still hung up on your wife, Derek. The wife who should be your ex-wife by now. But she isn't. And I'm sick of being the dirty mistress. I'm sick of you being more concerned about Addison's love life than ours.
"Meredith," Derek tried to interrupt.
"No. If you can't prove to me, and yourself, that you're really completely over your wife and ready to start a real relationship with me, then I don't want anything more to do with you."
Derek shook his head. He reached out to stroke her face, but she flinched back and he faltered slightly.
"I think you should go now," Izzie spoke up from the living room.
"Okay," Derek said, realizing he wouldn't get anywhere right now. "I'll go. But, I'll make this right, Meredith."
Meredith just looked at him, tears in her eyes, "I really wish I could believe that."
With one last sigh, Derek turned and walked silently out of the house.
Izzie turned to Meredith, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Time to get seriously drunk now?"
Meredith nodded fiercely. "Seriously."
----------
Addison was sitting in her hotel room feeling miserable and alone. She had thought about calling Alex to apologize, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to talk to her. And truth be told, she wasn't sure how much she really wanted to talk to him.
She was pissed that he was so wrapped up in the Mark and Izzie situation. And she was also mad that he had just walked away from her like that. She regretted mentioning him sleeping with Olivia, but she hadn't' said it to hurt him. She had been trying to point out that he was being overprotective. She hadn't thought about the fact that he might take it so badly.
She sighed deeply as she stepped out of her wet clothes and wrapped herself in a bathrobe as she waited for the bathtub to fill. She hoped that a hot bath would help her relax, but she was having some doubts. She just wanted to put the fight out of her mind. She hated that she was fighting with Alex already. But she knew that things couldn't be perfect forever.
The real question was whether Alex would be able to put this behind them easily. First fights were tricky things. It was a make-or-break moment. She wanted to have faith that Alex would be able to move past this. It hadn't even been that big of a fight. But she just wasn't sure.
She heard a knock on the door and looked up eagerly. It had to be Alex. She went to the door and looked out the peephole. The hopeful smile fell from her face as she tied the bathrobe tighter around her and opened the door, revealing a very wet and miserable looking man.
"What are you doing here, Derek?"
-------------
Alex was angry, tired and cold. He had decided to walk back to his apartment after leaving Addison at the bar following their fight. He thought it would help him let off some steam. Unfortunately it had started to rain, and he had quickly gotten drenched to the bone.
He just wanted to get home and go to sleep. Actually, what he really wanted to do was go to Addison's hotel room and go to sleep.
He was still mad at her, but he wanted to be with her anyway. He didn't quite no what to make of it. His relationships didn't usual make it past the first fight. Then again, he had been fighting with Addison for a while now. If it hadn't stopped them for starting a relationship, why should it end their relationship?
Yeah, she had defended Sloan. That pissed him off. Not to mention confused the hell out of him. Alex just didn't understand how she could stand up for that jerk. But it was her remark about him hurting Izzie that crossed the line for him. He couldn't believe she had thrown it in his face like that. Yeah, it was true. He had hurt Izzie. And he did regret it. It probably was part of the reason he now felt so protective of her. But Addison had been wrong to bring it up like that. He wouldn't throw Addison's affair in her face.
Actually, Alex had to admit to himself that probably wasn't true. He often said some pretty hurtful things to people when he got angry. He supposed that he couldn't get too angry with Addison for a fault that he shared. And he was also pretty sure that Addison hadn't said it to hurt him, not really.
Showing up at Addison's hotel room was sounding more and more appealing. He could fix things now, rather than spending a horrible night alone thinking about how much he needed to fix things. He could have a hot shower, they could order room service, and then they could have really good make-up sex.
She had given him a key to her hotel room earlier. They often worked different schedules, and she had wanted him to be able to get into the room if he got off before her or after she was in bed for the night. He was quite sure of the etiquette of showing up unannounced after they had a fight. But if he was there to apologize, he didn't think it'd be a problem.
His decision made, Alex hailed a cab and head toward Addison's hotel. He actually was almost looking forward to this. He was optimistic that they'd be able to get over this bump. The more he thought about the fight the more he realized it wasn't that big. Yeah, he had told her to go screw herself, but he'd make up for it. And they'd work out their differences of opinion on the Mark and Izzie situation. Couples didn't have to agree on absolutely everything after all.
He took the elevator to her floor and quickly walked down the hall to her room. He slipped his keycard into the door and gave a silent prayer that she'd be awake.
Alex had prepared himself for the fact that she might be angry. He was prepared for a fight, even if he didn't want one.
But he wasn't prepared for her to not be alone.
Addison was asleep on the bed.
And Derek was asleep beside her.
-------------
Notes: Yeah. So I'm not dead or anything. I have no excuses for not updating, other than complete lack of will. But I've got the next couple of chapters planned out, so maybe I'll get back into the groove of updating. I'd like to thank all the people who have continued to review and offer support.