Alex sat down in a seat between Mark and Derek, scowling down at his tray of cafeteria food. He picked up his fork, pushing his food around on his plate absentmindedly. "I'm not really hungry, you know. You guys didn't have to bring me down here."

Derek shrugged. "Meredith told me I had to."

Beside him, Mark nodded in agreement, sipping on his cappuccino. "Yeah, Izzie said you needed a distraction."

Alex smirked at them, pushing around a lump of potato salad with his fork. "So you just do whatever they tell you to do?"

A humorous expression was exchanged between Mark and Derek, as though they were amused by his lack understanding. They both turned to look at him, their eyebrows raised. "Pretty much," Mark confirmed with a slight nod of his head.

Alex laughed, but the smile quickly fell from his face when he realized they were serious. "Wait a minute. You're kidding, right?"

"Not really," Derek responded, smiling as he shook his head. "It's just…easier to do whatever they ask. When you don't make a big deal about the little things, you have room to negotiate the more important issues later on."

"Plus, sometimes it's better to do something that you don't really want to do than to be forced to sleep in the guestroom," Mark added, smirking at Alex's incredulous expression.

Alex shook his head adamantly. "No way; Addison would never kick me out of the bedroom. She's…she's not like that."

Uproarious laugher escaped Derek and Mark's mouths. "Is that what you think?" Derek asked, his eyes watering as his shoulders shook with amusement. Alex merely scowled at him. "Trust me, Alex, Addison is exactly like that. All women are a little like that."

Mark shook his head in agreement. "One time Addie forced me to sleep on my couch just because she said I had a flirty tone when I was ordering Chinese food over the phone," he revealed with a knowing grin. "Well, actually it wasn't my couch so much as Derek's couch, since…well….they were still married at the time and we were-"

Derek scowled at him. "That's kind of beside the point."

"Right…" Mark confirmed, looking at him sheepishly. He turned back to Alex, shrugging at the younger man. "Just remember this, Karev; women hold most of the power in a marriage. They usually don't realize it for awhile…Izzie didn't realize it for a couple of months, actually…but you can't forget Addison's already been married. Derek's totally blown it for you; she already knows the secret."

Alex frowned. "You guys are full of shit."

Derek chuckled. "Yeah, you keep thinking that."

He rolled his eyes, glancing at the clock on the cafeteria wall and noting with dismay that Addison had only been in surgery for forty-five minutes. He wryly wondered if time had suddenly slowed down for the purpose of driving him insane.

With a sigh, he turned back to Derek and Mark, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "So uh, speaking of marriage, Addison and I decided that we're getting married in December."

They both grinned at him. "Congratulations," Derek offered.

Alex nodded. "Thanks." He shifted, looking at them with a somewhat humored expression. "I have this little problem, though. I, uh, I have to have groomsmen, and . . . well, I really like your wives better than I like you assholes, but Addison's already claimed them for her bridesmaids or whatever."

Mark smirked at him. "See, she already holds the power."

Alex glared at him. "Anyway, I guess you guys would make a decent second choice, so I was thinking that you could…you know, be my groomsmen. I'm going to ask O'Malley, too, but, well I haven't gotten around to it yet…"

Derek grinned, exchanging an amused glance with Mark as he covered his heart with his hand. "Wow, Karev, I'm touched."

Mark laughed. "Yes, that was seriously poignant."

"See, I knew you guys were assholes," Alex muttered. With a scowl, he turned his eyes to meet their amused stares. "Will you do it or not?"

Their faces turned serious as they stared at him. "Of course," Derek told him.

Mark nodded. "Definitely."

A relieved look crossed Alex's features. "Great," he said with a sigh. He trained his eyes on the clock once again, groaning when saw that the minute hand had advanced only three minutes since he'd last checked. "Well, I guess we should go back upstairs. I don't want to miss Nancy if she comes out to the waiting room to give us an update."

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Meredith frowned at the baby in her arms, readjusting his head as she attempted to get him to nurse. She groaned as Jack continued to squirm, emitting small cries as he fought his mother's attempts. She sighed, trying to ignore the growing feeling of frustration as he refused to latch on to her breast. "I don't understand why this is so hard! Shouldn't this be instinctive for him?"

Izzie smiled sympathetically. "Not all babies take to nursing right away. It's just going to take practice."

Meredith looked at her skeptically. "Did you have problems nursing Ben?"

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Izzie frowned at her. "Well, not exactly, but-"

"Then shut up."

Izzie bit her lip, trying to suppress the smile that was slowly creeping to her mouth. "Sorry, I'm just trying to help."

"I know," Meredith sighed. "It's just…I already have this gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'm going to screw up my child like Ellis screwed up me, but I thought I'd have a little time before I really started to do damage. I figured I'd at least be able to make it a month before my dark and twistiness got in the way of me being a good mother."

"Seriously, Mer, you've got to stop being so negative. Ellis Grey did not screw you up. You grew up to be an amazing person despite the crap that she put you through, and if you can turn out normal despite your father's abandonment and your mother's neglect, not to mention your slutty teenage years, I'm pretty sure that Jack will survive-"

Meredith looked at her incredulously. "Are you trying to make me feel better? Because bringing up all my issues right now really isn't helping."

Izzie looked at her sheepishly. "Sorry."

A smile of relief came to Meredith's face when her baby finally began to cooperate. "That's more like it," she muttered, lightly fingering Jack's fine coat of dark brown hair. As she leaned back in the chair, trying to get more comfortable in the waiting room's poor excuse for furniture, she glanced up at Izzie, who was grinning as she watched Meredith with Jack. "So you really think that I'm normal?"

Izzie looked at her awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders as she turned her attention back to an abandoned magazine sitting in her lap. "Well…you know…normal is such a relative term…"

Meredith laughed, shaking her head lightly as she propped her elbow on the armrest of the chair. She sighed, looking back down at Jack who continued to feed hungrily.

An easy silence fell between them. Occasionally Meredith would look away from where Jack remained nestled in her arms, glancing at the year-old issue of People magazine that Izzie was slowly thumbing through, seemingly enthralled by the stale celebrity gossip. It wasn't long, though, before Meredith realized that Izzie wasn't enthralled by the magazine spreads, that she actually wasn't seeing them as she stared at the pages.

Although her eyes were glued to the flashy pictures and juicy news articles, they were unfocused as Izzie's mind began to wander with thoughts of Ben's death, which soon snowballed into thoughts regarding the tragic possibilities regarding Addison's surgery and her subsequent biopsy results.

Meredith's eyes narrowed with concern as she watched Izzie's foot begin to tap anxiously against the leg of her chair. "Iz?"

Izzie looked up sharply, her face surprised as though she'd somehow managed to forget that Meredith was sitting beside her. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. It's just…" She trailed off, a humorless laugh escaping her lips. "I need you to distract me."

"Distract you?"

"I'm trying not to think about it, about Addison and about…about Ben, but when we're not talking, my thoughts keep wandering off, so I really need for you to keep me focused on something else."

Meredith nodded, thinking for a moment before leaning toward her, glancing at the doorway to ensure that Derek didn't choose that moment to return to the waiting room. "So you know how McBitchy came to Seattle for Addison's surgery?" Izzie nodded, and Meredith pursed her lips. "Well just guess who she invited herself to stay with."

Izzie cringed, her mouth falling open sympathetically as she turned her full attention to Meredith. "Well that sucks, though it's not all that surprising since she is Derek's sister. What does he have to say about it?"

"Nothing," she pouted, though she was glad that the bit of gossip seemed to have its desired diverting affect. "He likes to act like there isn't a problem in the hopes that we'll one day get along. He barely even acknowledges that she still treats me like crap. He usually just makes excuses for her."

Izzie frowned. "Well maybe now that you guys have a baby, Nancy will-"

"Trust me, Izzie, nothing's going to change just because Jack was born. You should've seen the way she looked at me when she came into my hospital room this morning. I may as well have been an inner city hooker whoring myself out to the highest bidder."

Izzie looked at her disbelievingly. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"Come on, you've seen that way she is," Meredith exclaimed, looking at her incredulously. "She's never gotten over that fact that Derek and I began our relationship when he and Addison were still married."

"Well, maybe you can use this trip to win her over. Maybe you guys can bond over-"

"Okay, what'd I do to piss you off?" Meredith interrupted with a scowl.

Izzie looked at her with confusion. "What?"

"Why are you taking her side?"

"Meredith, I'm not taking her side. I just think that now that you and Derek and married with a child, it's time to put all of this crap behind you. I'm sure that Nancy is a very nice person underneath-"

"Underneath her ten billion layers of hateful sadism?"

Izzie glared at her. "No, that's actually not what I was going to say. Stop interrupting me."

Meredith pouted. "You know, now would be a great time for you to abandon your optimism in favor of joining my new I-hate-Nancy-Club."

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The first hour of waiting soon turned into two, and then just as easily, it morphed into three. When Nancy finally entered the waiting room following Addison's surgery, she couldn't stop herself from grinning at the sight before her.

Izzie Sloan's body was lying across three chairs, her knees folded and her head resting in Mark's lap as she slumbered quietly. Mark was staring at her intently, his head bowed as his fingers ran over the length of her long hair, which had spilled across his thighs. As she watched them with interest, Nancy couldn't help but think that she'd never seen Mark look happier. She'd known him for the majority of her life, and it still shocked her that a woman had actually had the power to tame the once feral Mark Sloan.

Her gaze turned to her brother and his wife, who, like Izzie, were sleeping in a couple of chairs across the room. Their bodies were leaning towards one another, their heads resting against each other's as they succumbed to their obvious exhaustion. Nancy frowned as her eyes landed on Meredith's face. She knew that she should give the woman a chance; Meredith and Derek had been married for years, and now they even had a child together, but despite her realization that she needed to move past her childish resentment toward the woman, Nancy didn't think she could ever move past the fact that Meredith had broken up Addison and Derek's marriage. To her, Meredith would always be the slutty intern.

The only person who was alert enough to notice Nancy enter the room was Alex, who was pacing the length of the room as he cuddled baby Jack to his chest. Alex looked up sharply when she walked through the door, quickly advancing toward her. "You're done? You're finished with the surgery?"

The others jolted to awareness when they heard Alex's harsh questioning tone. They all immediately stood up from their seats, looking at her expectantly. She sighed at their worried expressions, nodding her head lightly as Miranda Bailey came to stand beside her. "We just finished," Bailey told them. "They're transferring her to a room now."

"And everything went okay?" Derek asked.

Nancy nodded, glancing momentarily at her brother before turning her attention back to Alex. "Everything went fine. We removed the ovary with no complications, and we're sending it off to the lab for testing."

"The chief put a rush on the order," Bailey added. "We're hoping to have the results back within twenty-four hours."

Alex sighed, leaning momentarily against Izzie as she walked behind him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Can I see her?"

Bailey nodded, extending her hand and resting it on his forearm comfortingly. "Of course. I'll walk with you to her room."

Alex handed Jack to Derek and disappeared with Bailey down the hallway. When they were out of sight, Nancy smiled at Mark, walking toward him and wrapping him in a hug. "Hey, I didn't get to see you before the surgery."

Mark grinned at her. "How are you, Nancy-Pants? It's been awhile."

"Yeah," she confirmed. "Since Meredith and Derek's wedding." She stepped away from him, surprising Izzie by walking toward her with open arms. "It's good to see you too, Izzie."

Izzie lifted her eyebrows, giving Meredith a confused grin over Nancy's shoulder as she wrapped her arms around the woman's small frame awkwardly. "Yeah, I'm glad that you were able to make it to Seattle."

Nancy nodded, pulling away from Izzie and staring at the four people before her with a grin on her face. "You know what? I think that the five of us should catch up. It's been too long. Why don't we all have dinner?"

Meredith frowned at her suggestion. "Oh, well that's a nice thought, but I'm really tired. Plus, this is Jack's first night home, and I just think-"

"Well how about tomorrow then? We can even have it at your house, Meredith, so you won't have to go anywhere."

Meredith's eyes widened. "Oh...well…" she stammered, looking desperately toward Izzie who merely shrugged at her.

"Unless, of course, you still can't cook," Nancy continued, grinning at Meredith with twinkling eyes.

"I can cook," Meredith immediately answered defensively, resisting the urge to glare at Nancy as she recognized the challenge for what it was.

Nancy smiled with satisfaction. "Great, well then it's settled." She turned toward Izzie and Mark, smiling warmly. "I'll see the two of you tomorrow night."

When she walked out of the waiting area in the direction of Addison's room, Izzie turned to Meredith with an incredulous expression on her face. "Are you out of your mind? You can't even boil water."

"I know that, Izzie," Meredith snapped, running her hands over her hair with frustration.

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