-The Next Morning-

Alex slammed the door of his locker closed just as Izzie and Meredith were entering the locker room. Both women winced at the loud noise.

"Jesus, Alex," Izzie said. "What's wrong?"

Alex whirled around to look at them and Izzie was taken aback. She had never seen Alex look so angry before. She exchanged a concerned glance with Meredith.

"Are you okay?" Meredith asked worriedly.

"No," Alex said through gritted teeth. "I'd saw I'm pretty goddamned far from okay."

"What happened?" Izzie asked.

"Your boyfriend," Alex began, stabbing a finger in Meredith's direction, "slept with my girlfriend. That's what happened."

Izzie gasped and Meredith looked like she had been slapped.

"No way," Izzie murmured.

Meredith sat down hard on a bench, looking up at Alex with tears in her eyes. "You're kidding me, right? I mean, you have to be kidding me."

Alex shook his head, his jaw set. "Addison and I had a fight last night. I went over to her hotel to work things out. I found her asleep, with Shepherd by her side."

"What'd you do?" Izzie asked.

"I didn't do anything. I turned around and walked out. They didn't even wake up."

"This can't be happening," Meredith said. "It can't. He told me he was going to make this right. He said he wanted to fix things between us."

"Well, your boyfriend's a lying, scummy bastard. And my girlfriend's a heinous bitch."

"What are you going to do?" Izzie asked Alex with concern as she sat down next to Meredith and put her arm around her friend's shoulder.

"I'm going to kill Shepherd, that's what I'm going to do."

Meredith looked up at him with wide eyes. "Alex, you can't hurt him!"

Alex scoffed. "You can't really care if I do, do you? He just cheated on you!"

Meredith shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. Hell, I want to punch him myself. But you can't. You'll get kicked out of the program."

"It'd be worth it," Alex insisted.

Again, Meredith shook her head. "No. It wouldn't. He's not worth it. They aren't worth it. Let's just make it through the day and then we can go to the bar and drown our sorrow in lots and lots of liquor."

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Izzie and Meredith were standing at the Nurses' Station, talking about the case they had been assigned to with Burke when Derek approached, an apprehensive smile on his face.

He held out a Styrofoam cup in Meredith's direction. "Coffee?" he asked hopefully. "I got it just how you like it."

Meredith just stared at him. "Seriously? Coffee? You think coffee is going to fix things?"

Derek shrugged sheepishly. "I thought it was a good first step. I mean, I know it's just coffee. But I thought we could maybe start over."

"You have got to be kidding me."

Derek gave her a searching stare, a slight look of confusion on his face. "Meredith, I know you mad, but I thought you were going to let me try to fix this."

Meredith just glared at him. "After what you did? There's nothing left to fix. Just go back to Addison, she's obviously the one you really want."

Derek reached out and grabbed Meredith's arm. "What are you talking about? You're the one I want to be with. Not Addison."

Meredith snorted. "Either you're a liar, or you're more disgusting then I ever thought possible. Either way, I don't want anything to do with you." Meredith jerked out of Derek's grasp and headed down the hall at a quick pace.

Derek moved to go after her, but Izzie stepped in front of him. She leaned right into his face. "Leave Meredith alone," Izzie said, her voice low but deadly. "Leave her alone, or I swear to god, I'll punch you in the face myself." With a final glare at Derek she turned on her heel and hurried after Meredith.

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"Alex!"

Alex heard his name called out, but ignored it. He was in no mood to talk right now. Instead, he continued down the stairway.

He heard the rapid approach of footsteps and stopped when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Alex, I was hoping we could talk."

Alex turned around to face Addison, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, I really don't want to talk to you."

Addison sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Alex, I'm sorry. I never should have made that comment about your relationship with Izzie. But it was just an argument. We can work it out."

Alex just glared at her. "You really are pathetic, you know that, Addison?"

Addison's expression quickly went from apologetic to hurt. "What?"

"I have no desire to work anything out with you. In fact, I have no desire to every speak to you again. So just go back to Shepherd. Or Sloan. It's pretty damned obvious you're not over either of them."

Hurt in turn quickly changed to anger. "God, Alex, what the hell is wrong with you? We have one fight and you decide never to speak to me again? I was hoping we could work things out, but I suppose that'd require you to actually act like an adult for once in your life."

"Don't you dare give me on advice or maturity, Addison."

Addison scoffed. "You know what, Karev? Screw you. I knew I shouldn't have ever gotten involved with an intern. Especially not a jackass like you." Addison stormed down the last few steps and through the door to the second floor.

Alex cursed loudly and slammed his fist into the wall.

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Mark was trying to get a few minutes of sleep in the on-call room when the door slammed open and a very pissed off Izzie Stevens entered the room and threw herself down on a bed.

Mark stuck his head down from the top bunk and gave the blonde a curious look. "What the hell's the matter with you?"

Izzie let out a groan and pulled a pillow over her head. "Go away!"

"Hey, I was in here first," Mark protested.

Izzie removed the pillow from her face and looked up at him. "Fine. Then you just leave me alone and let me lie here and peace and dream up ways to kill your best friends."

The plural on the end of that sentence didn't escape Mark's notice. "Friends? As in not just Derek? I'm not surprised to hear that you're pissed at him, that's nothing new there. But what did Addison do to incur your wrath? I mean, I'm assuming it's Addison you're talking about, right?"

"Do you have any other friends?" Izzie asked coldly.

"Jesus," Mark said. "You're in a mood today. So what happened?"

"I think I've made it clear that I'm not interested in talking to you."

"Yeah," Mark agreed. "But that was before you told me you were thinking of ways to kill two people I care about. I want details. You were all excited about getting Addison and Alex together, so what changed?

Izzie sighed, but otherwise remained quiet.

"You know I'm just going to keep bothering you until you tell me, right? You can confide in me. We're practically dating, after all."

"What?!" Izzie sat up, almost hitting her head on the bed above her. "What are you talking about? We are not even remotely together. We are never going to be together. Ever."

"Whatever," Mark said dismissively. "Just tell me what Addison and Derek did that was so horrible."

Izzie had pulled the pillow back over her face and Mark couldn't make out her response.

"What?" he asked.

Izzie removed the pillow and spoke again. "Derek and Addison had sex last night."

Mark nearly fell off the bed in shock. "Excuse me?"

"Alex and Addison had a fight last night. Alex went over to her hotel room to apologize later and found them in bed together. They were asleep and apparently didn't even wake up when he came in. He just turned right around and left."

Mark swore. "I can't fucking believe it."

"And then Derek had the nerve to come up to Meredith today like nothing had ever happened. Giving her coffee and talking about how he wanted to start over. I can't believe I ever thought he was a good guy. I really should have punched him. The look in Meredith's eyes when Alex told us...And I've never seen Alex so angry before."

"It doesn't make any sense," Mark said. "As much as I hate to admit it, Addison seemed to really like Alex. And she and Derek...they were beyond finished. What the hell happened?"

Izzie shrugged. "I have no idea. But they hurt two people that I really care about. And I can't help but feel guilty about it."

"Why would you feel guilty?" Mark asked.

"I'm the one who pushed Addison and Alex together, Mark. If I hadn't done that, Alex wouldn't be heart-broken right now. I just wanted him to be happy, and now he's worse off than ever." Izzie angrily brushed tears off her cheeks.

Mark slide off his bed and crouched next to Izzie. "Hey," he said softly, "this isn't your fault. You couldn't have expected this to happen. No one could have. You were just trying to do something good for a friend."

He grabbed a tissue from a box on the nearby table and reached out, gently brushing the tears from her cheeks. "You have nothing to feel guilty about, alright? Derek and Addison are the guilty parties here. Not you. Okay? I wasn't happy about you getting the two of them together, but what's happened since that moment isn't your responsibility. Jesus, even I feel bad for Karev. He didn't deserve this. But you have no reason to feel guilty. None at all."

Izzie bit her lip and nodded. She met Mark's gaze for a moment, then turned away, embarrassed. "Thank you," she murmured. "And you were right before?"

"About what?" Mark asked.

Izzie smiled softly. "You really are a good guy."

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Note: Another update! Next chapter, we flash back to the night before to learn how things went down after Derek showed up at Addison's hotel room. I'm looking forward to writing it. Expect it up in a couple of days or so. I've been thinking of starting back up on "Through the Looking Glass" as well. I just have to remember where I was planning on going with it.