Part 2:

Although Alex knew that the next patient he was about to see was his ex-wife, nothing could have prepared him for when he actually saw her. For years he'd wondered what it would be like to see her again. He wondered how he'd feel, how she would be. Today he was finding out. Izzie Stevens was here. In Seattle. And according to the scans he and Jo had just seen, she had cancer again.

Through the window to her room, Alex could see that Izzie's hair was longer than it had been from when he last saw her. Her hair was closer to the length it had been when he first met her. She had glasses on, too. They weren't the same glasses she used to wear back then, but they were glasses nonetheless. She was thinner than he remembered. But that may be because she was sick again.

Jo walked into Izzie's hospital room first, "Hi Dr. Stevens."

"Oh, Izzie is fine, Dr. Karev."

"Then call me Jo," she smiled warmly. Jo motioned for Alex to enter from where she stood in Izzie's hospital room.

Alex walked into the room hesitantly, "Hey, Iz."

"Alex," Izzie exhaled nervously. "Or should I say Chief Karev?"

Alex chuckled softly, "It's interim chief."

"That's still chief nonetheless," Izzie grinned. It was good to see him again. He looked older, and a little grayer, but for the most part he was as she remembered him. "So, you're chief and apparently a pediatric surgeon? And you got married! How the hell did that even happen? When did you grow up?"

"Well, almost going to jail and losing your medical license will do that to you," Alex shrugged.

"Hold on, what?"

Alex and Jo exchanged a look, "That's... a long story. Maybe some other time."

"Izzie, we had a chance to take a look at your scans and labs while we were on our way up here. I'm sorry to say that you're cancer is back," Jo informed gently. "You have mets on your liver as well as on your lungs. The ones on your lungs look fairly simple to resect, so I'd like to get those out as soon as possible. The ones on your liver are more complicated. You have six small ones and one large one that seems to be wrapping around the IVC. I can go in and remove as many of those as possible, but I would like to get you started on some radiation treatment."

"Yeah... I figured that would be the case," Izzie nodded sadly. "You know, I have a son. His name is George Alexander Stevens. I call him Geo. I named him after two of the most influential guys in my life—I considered Denny, but I figured that might be a bit cruel when he started school... I adopted him from the Philippines when he was two years old. He's six now. He's always been so afraid that I'd leave him alone or die, and he'd have to go back to the orphanage again. We'd been talking about adopting another kid. He wanted a little brother, so I'd been looking into adopting from somewhere in Central America. But then my mom had the accident and we had to move."

The stood in silence for a minute before Izzie spoke up again, "I have to fight this. I have to survive this. For my son, for my mom, for me... I'm not done yet. I still have more I want to do. I have research I want to conduct, surgeries I want to perform. I want to see Geo grow up and get married. I want to get married. I want to have an epic love story that doesn't end tragically. So, I have to live and I hope you can help me do it."

Alex nodded tearfully and bent down to put a light kiss on Izzie's head and squeeze her hand, "We're going to do everything we can to make that happen. For right now, we're going to get you settled in and we'll help you make any phone class and arrangements necessary."

"Where's your son? If you don't mind me asking," Jo inquired.

"Oh, he's at school right now. My nanny, Stella usually picks him up and takes him home. I guess I'm going to have to tell her that there's been a change of plans," Izzie replied.

"Hey, I can always make arrangements if he ever wants to stay here in the hospital with you or if you need to find somewhere for him to stay. Between all of us here, there are plenty of people to help out with your kid. I know it's been a while, but you're still family. You'll always be family," Alex gave Izzie one of his signature crooked grins before looking up at Jo. "Can you go see if Mer and Bailey are done? They're going to want to see her."

"Yeah, of course," Jo walked out of the room to locate her fellow surgeons.

"You've got a good thing going here," Izzie smiled at Alex. "I like her. Your wife, I mean. She's a lot more gracious than I'd be if the roles were reversed. Is she a good surgeon."

"She is," Alex grinned proudly. It wasn't often that he got to brag about his wife, so he decided to take the opportunity to do so. "She's kind and calm under pressure. She's steady and sure. Meredith trained her. She's kind of a genius actually. You know she helped bring a dead liver back to life and put it in a patient? She's a fellow and is doing cancer research right now. Who knows? Maybe she'll find something that can help you."

"You love her," Izzie stared at him for a moment. "I'm not going to lie to you, I was kind of hoping you'd be single when I got here. I didn't come here to get you back, but I don't think I ever really got over you, you know with the way things ended. So, a small part of me wished that maybe there still be a small part of you that loved me enough to try again."

"I do love you, Iz. I think I always will. But I'm not in love with you. I haven't been in a while," Alex admitted. He truly did still love Izzie. How couldn't he? She was his first love and would always have a special place in his heart, but she wasn't his soulmate. He might not have understood it back then, but he knew that now. "I'm sorry that I can't fulfill that wish for you, but I'm happy. I love Jo more than life itself. If you knew our story, you'd see that very clearly. She's it for me, Iz."

"I know she is," in the short amount of time that she'd seen them interact, Izzie could tell that there was no one better for Alex than his wife. "I won't come in between that, I swear."

"Good," Alex was glad that they had gotten that conversation out of the way. "So tell me about yourself. I know you have a son, but what else?"

"Well, I'm a neurosurgeon," Izzie's eyes shined in excitement. "I was kind of inspired by Derek after he removed my brain tumor. I always like neuro, but that's what really pushed me over the edge. I did my fellowship in Pennsylvania where was I was living up until last year when my mom had her accident. I had a few friends and dated causally here and there. I still bake, all the time. But it's nice because now I have someone to bake for. Geo loves my chocolate chip muffins. We spend hours in the kitchen baking on the evenings when I'm off. We have a dog named Piper. She's a 4 year old black lab."

"You went into neuro?" Alex raised his eyebrows. "I always assumed you'd go into general or maybe fetal."

"I thought about fetal for a while. I really loved saving babies, but I didn't think I could handle losing them. I don't know how you do it everyday," Izzie looked at Alex in awe. "I respect the hell out of you for it."

"It's always hard. Especially if you get attached to them. I just, try my best to make sure that even if there's nothing more I can do for them, that they don't die alone. That they don't die without being held by someone first," Alex's face was solemn.

"I always knew you were never the evil spawn Cristina made you out to be. How is she by the way?" Izzie asked.

"Cristina is doing. The last time I spoke to her was a couple months ago, right before my wedding. She was supposed to come, but she ended having to go in for an emergency surgery and missed her flight. So instead, she stood up until 4am in Switzerland to watch Mer officiate my wedding over FaceTime," Alex chuckled softly.

"Meredith officiated your wedding? The same Meredith Grey who go married on a post-it note?" Izzie asked incredulously.

"Yup."

The laughed for a few more minutes and reminisced of the days when they were residents running around reeking havoc on the hospital grounds. A while later, there was a knock on the door followed by Bailey and Meredith walking into the room.

"Izzie!" Meredith exclaimed. She looked between Alex and her former friend skeptically. "What are you doing here?"

"Isobel Stevens, well I'll be! It's so good to see you!" Dr. Bailey smiled and embraced her former student. "What happened? Why are you sitting in a hospital bed?"

Izzie explained the events leading up to her reappearance and exchanged stories and heartfelt words with the group. Feeling a bit out of place, Jo lingered by the door. She felt like she was intruding on a private moment, a family reunion of sorts. Seeing how well Izzie fit back into the group filled Jo with a bit of anxiety. She couldn't just stand around doing nothing.

Deciding to leave the former crew to enjoy some catching up, Jo turned on her heels and left the room. She had only walked a couple into the hallway when she felt a gentle touch on her arm.

"Hey, what's going on?" Alex looked at his wife in concern. "Why'd you leave?"

"I'm just tired, I think I'm going to go home a bit early. I need to rest up if I'm going to be ready for Izzie's surgery tomorrow morning. I'll see you at home?" Jo forced a smile.

Although he wasn't convinced, Alex decided not to push the issue, "Yeah, I'll see you at home. I might be a bit late, though. I just... I don't want her to be alone, you know? Her kid should be here this evening so I want to make sure everything's set up for them."

"Oh, okay."

By the time Alex got home, it was 10pm. It was definitely later than he had expected to arrived to the loft, but he'd been busy running back and forth between his patients and Izzie's hospital room. He couldn't wait to shower, lay down in his bed, and hold his wife.

As he opened the door, he peered into the loft in surprise. The lights were all off and Jo was already laying down, asleep in their bed. Alex's eyes scrunched in confusion. Jo never went to bed this early. She was a night owl and horrible insomniac that couldn't fall asleep before eleven o'clock no matter how hard she tried.

He took off his shoes to walk quietly passed her sleeping form and into the bathroom. Once he exited the shower, Alex put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He shuffled back towards the bed and pulled back the covers, slipping in under the sheets. He reached out and wrapped an arm around Jo's waist, pulling her close to him. His body instantly relaxing at the feel of her in his arms.

"Hey."

Alex looked down at his wife who was staring back at him, "Oh, hey. I thought you were asleep."

"You know I can't sleep this early."

"Yeah I know."

After a few beats of silence, Jo spoke again, "Alex."

"Yeah?"

"I think we should stop."

"Stop what?" Alex asked, confused.

"I think we should stop trying—for a baby. There's just... a lot going on right now and I—um, I wouldn't want to pull your attention away from Izzie because she's going to need you. I don't want to be a distraction," Jo took a deep breath and averted her eyes. "I know you still love her and you care so much. It's one of the things I love about you the most. I'm just saying, maybe for now we should take a step back. In case things change within the next few months. It can keep things from getting messy."

"Jo," Alex breathed out sadly. "You are not a distraction. You're anything but a distraction. Everything else in my life is a distraction. You're my priority. You're my wife, so stop talking like I'm going to leave you at any second. Yes, I still love Izzie. But I love you more. I'm so in love with you it's insane. And I don't want to stop, at least not because you're trying to avoid being pregnant in the event of a break up."

"Wait, so you don't want to stop? You want to keep trying with me?" Jo sniffed.

"Of course I do," Alex grinned at her. "Jo, the entire time Iz was talking about her son today, all I could think of was how I couldn't wait to have kids with you. I want a little girl who's got your eyes and your smile. I want a little boy with your nose and your hair. I've wanted it for a long time, and that's not going to change because my ex-wife showed up to the hospital we work at with cancer."

"You promise?"

"I swear to God, Jo. All of its with you," Alex squeezed her tighter and dropped a light kiss on her forehead.

"Okay," Jo exhaled. "So we keep going? Just like everything is normal?"

"Yup," Alex nodded. "And we have a hell of a lot of fun doing it."