Alex kissed his children goodnight and maneuvered his way around the castle, race cars, and teddy bears that littered the floor to exit the room. He knew Izzie would fuss at him for the state of the bedroom, but it had been worth it. His first day back in Kansas had been a lazy Sunday filled with waffles, Disney movies, and recreating those movies with toys and fake surgeries. It was a perfect day off and he was exhausted, far past ready to crawl into bed and go to sleep early, which is what he was doing when his phone started ringing. He almost didn't pick it up, having told the hospital he wasn't available until Monday, but something nagged at him to pick up the device. He smiled at the familiar name and grabbed a sweatshirt before heading out to the front porch.
"Hey." Alex spoke quietly as he shut the door behind him. "Not that I'm complaining, but isn't it the middle of the night where you are?"
"It's 3 AM." Meredith's voice confirmed. "Cristina and I drank a lot of wine and took a nap and now I can't sleep."
Alex laughed. "I guess some things never change." he told her as he sat down on the bench. "It's good to hear your voice again, Mer."
Meredith and Alex's conversation went on for hours. They didn't talk about anything in particular, but just continued catching up. Meredith told Alex all about her day with Cristina and Alex told Mer all about his day with his kids. It was like the old days, Alex thought, when he would come home to Meredith's house, help her put the kids to bed, and stay up talking late into the night until she'd start to fall asleep. The only difference was that this time he couldn't brush the hair out of her face and kiss her forehead after she drifted off to sleep.
"Mer?" Alex asked, after at least a full minute of silence between them, wondering if sleep had gotten the best of her.
"I'm still awake." Meredith told him. "I just…"
Alex could tell from her tone that Meredith had something meaningful to say, so as always, he waited.
"I miss you, Alex. My kids miss you. Everyone misses you." Meredith told him. "I know you have Izzie and you have your own kids and I think that's great."
"But?" Alex asked, prompting her to continue.
"Couldn't you live your life with your family in Seattle with the rest of us?"
Meredith's voice was soft and hesitant, very uncharacteristic, and Alex could hear all of the pain and anguish he'd left her with filling those words. He could tell that it had taken all of her energy and courage to ask such a simple question.
"Mer," he began to speak, but stopped when he realized he didn't have a good answer.
"Look, Alex. I know I shouldn't have even brought it up. You were right to not tell me where you were because I would have shown up to bring you home and I wouldn't have taken no for an answer." Meredith continued, the familiar liveliness returning to her voice. "But you've had time, you've built a family and you can be a father and a doctor anywhere. So why not Seattle?"
Why not Seattle?
Meredith's words plagued Alex as he tried to fall asleep that night. He had told her it just wasn't an option. He wasn't going to uproot his family's lives so he could go back to his best friend and the colleagues he hadn't spoken to in two years. Still, he couldn't get Meredith's persistent voice off his mind.
On Monday morning, Alex wandered groggily into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. Izzie was busying herself with getting the kids fed and ready for school, a task he was normally more than happy to help with.
"Alex, is everything okay?" Izzie asked him, the concern evident in her voice. He had thought he was quiet when climbing into bed around midnight, but maybe he hadn't been as discrete as he'd thought.
"Huh?" Alex asked, looking up at her. "Um, yeah… everything's fine. Just a rough night is all."
Izzie gave Alex the all-too-familiar 'we'll talk about it later' look and returned her attention to their children, fussing at Eli to tie his shoes and Alexis to brush the tangles out of her hair.
Alex downed his first cup of coffee before filling a travel mug and collecting his things.
"I'm driving. Let's go kids." Izzie said, grabbing the car keys from his hand and leading her family outside.
Alex stayed in his daze as they dropped the kids off at school and then drove to the hospital. When Izzie parked the car she turned to Alex with a concerned look on her face.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "What happened between yesterday and this morning that's got you all sorts of off?"
Alex sighed and shook his head. "It's nothing, Iz. Let's just go to work and if I'm not over it by tonight we can talk."
Izzie sighed but gave in and Alex spent the rest of the day thankful that the mother of his children worked on a separate floor of the hospital, because he definitely wasn't over it. As he performed what felt like his thousandth appy of the year, Alex asked himself the same question that had been nagging him all day - Why not Seattle?
Unfortunately, Izzie could tell the instant Alex got in the car that he was in an even worse mood than he had been that morning.
"Alex Karev, if I am taking you home to have dinner with my children, you will tell me what's going on with you."
"Iz…" Alex trailed off. He had no idea what to tell her. He hadn't even told Izzie that he'd run into Meredith, let alone that he was speaking to her again. Of course he'd never told her that they'd stopped talking, but it had been fairly easy to figure out. Meredith featured in almost every story he had to tell that didn't include his ex-wife but he never provided any updates on how her life had been the past couple of years.
"Alex." Izzie pressed.
Alex sighed before impulsively speaking the words that he hadn't even decided on himself before that very moment. "I want to move back to Seattle."
It was a typical rainy Thursday in mid-May. Typical in every sense except that Meredith found herself at home alone with her children, which meant she was in charge of dinner. There was no Maggie, no Andrew, no Jackson, no Amelia. She was on her own trying to prepare a meal as Zola watched and laughed.
"Mom, are you sure you don't want to just order a pizza?" Zola asked as she packed up her finished homework.
Meredith shot her daughter an unamused look before turning her attention back to the vegetables that were on the stove. She wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but the recipe had said to cook them in a pan with oil so that's what she was doing. There were some nights where Meredith knew she was a good mother, because at least she was doing better than Ellis Grey, and other nights where she felt like she was failing her children completely. This night was one of the latter, as Zola explained something to Meredith that she had learned on the cooking channel about sauteing.
Meredith laughed. "Go wash up, Zozo, and you can help. I promise not to mess up opening the package of beef. That part I do know how to do."
Zola rolled her eyes before prancing out of the kitchen to go wash her hands and retrieve her siblings, leaving her mother wondering if she really should have just picked up take-out on her way home. A few moments later, Meredith heard a shriek coming from the hallway.
"Uncle Alex!"
Meredith felt her breath stop at Zola's words. She dropped the knife she was holding onto the counter and froze. She and Alex had been sending stupid innocent texts back and forth for weeks, but he hadn't said a word about coming to Seattle. Nor had they spoken about anything other than her idiot interns, his obnoxious orderlies, or the cute things their kids were up to since Meredith had implied that Alex should pack up his family and move them all to Seattle.
She took a deep breath and turned around to see her two younger children running down the stairs, Ellis running straight into the leg of Alex Karev, where there was a black rolling suitcase not much smaller than she was on the floor next to him.
"Alex?" Meredith asked as she walked closer to him.
"Hey Mer." he said with a grin as he put Zola down and gave Bailey a big, bone-crushing hug. "How's it going?"
"How's it going?" Meredith asked, stunned. "Did I miss a phone call?"
"Nope." Alex confirmed. "I would have called, but I wasn't sure I was actually going to get on the plane."
Meredith sighed and shook her head, stunned, while watching her former best friend sweep her youngest child up into his arms.
"C'mere Elle Belle!" he chided, placing a kiss on top of her head. "Uncle Alex has missed you so much!"
Alex made his way over to Meredith and gave her a side hug with his free arm, not putting Ellis down. "Are you pissed?" he asked.
Meredith sighed. She wanted to say yes, that she was livid he would show up at her home without even a text message. But at the same time, this was just how they worked. Alex never called. He always just walked in.
"You're just lucky I was home tonight." she muttered, sliding out of his grasp to return to the kitchen with hopes of salvaging her vegetables.
Thanks to anatomyofacastle and XantheIris for your reviews on the last chapter! I've been writing quite a bit during this quarantine and am feeling such a strong muse for this story right now! It'll be kinda slow burning, but it's definitely starting to take shape and I'm super excited for where it's going!
xx Lissa