a/n: chapter two! yay! so the button only loves a couple of people forever, so thanks to those of you who the button loves!

disclaimer: i. do. not. own. grey's. anatomy. no need to rub it in.

An hour and thirty minutes later, Holli had waited an extra half an hour; just to be on the safe side, she knocked on Addison's bedroom door. She heard some knocking around, as Addison and Alex struggled to get out of bed and dressed. She rolled her eyes and yelled, "Hurry up in there! I'll give you another five minutes and then I'm coming in and separating you two, no matter how traumatizing it may be," then she muttered to herself, "How hard is it to get out of bed without getting back in?"

Just then Alex walked out, buttoning his jeans. "You'd be surprised," he replied.

"Ok, ew."

"Alex, stop scarring Holli. By the end of the summer she's going to be totally messed up the way you're acting," Addison ordered as she walked out of her room wearing a Betsey Johnson dress and Prada heels.

"It's not like I'm the only one, Addison," he teased. "Dude, seriously, though? You look hot," he gave an approving nod as his eyes scanned her body.

Holli pretended to gag. When she was done with that she pointed out very calmly, "I'm going to be one very messed up adult by the end of this day, the way you two are heading."

--------------------------------

"I still don't see why you won't tell anyone," Holli commented as she and Addison drove to the hospital. Alex always took his own car because it looked suspicious if he and Addison showed up to work in the same car. This had all been well thought out and planned; she and Alex were very big on the secrecy thing.

"Because."

"Because is not a reason, it's the start of one, generally followed by the reason."

"Smartass."

"I know, I work very hard at it," Holli replied with a smirk, pulling her sunglasses over her eyes, "Now, stop trying to distract me and give me a reason."

Silence.

"Yeah, that's what I thought; you don't have a good reason, do you? Have you even told Callie yet?"

More silence.

"You haven't told Callie? I thought you two were all buddy-buddy, tell each other everything people! You've been with this guy for, what, almost a year now, and you still haven't told your best friend? Wow. Someone's tight-lipped."

"I am not tight-lipped. I just don't want people to know, that's all."

"You haven't told your best friend, well aside from me, of course, I call that tight-lipped."

"It is not."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh," Addison started to reply, but then realized what she was going to get herself into (Holli could keep these things going forever) "I'm not going to get into this with you."

"You're only quitting because you know you'd lose," Holli said, sneakily challenging Addison's competitive side.

"Oh, no, I am not going there."

"You're no fun," Holli pouted as they drove into the parking lot and pulled into a parking spot.

"I'm sorry," she apologized sarcastically as she got out of the car and walked away.

"Hey! You never answered my question!" Holli yelled after her but Addison pretended not to hear her.

---------------------

"So, anyways, she's like totally in love with this guy and he's in love with her and they're together, but they don't want to tell anyone. I'm the only one who knows. Well, me and Ava, and now you, but I can trust you not to tell anyone, can't I?" Holli rambled.

No answer.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, seeing as you're kind of in a coma and all. I have no idea if you can hear me or whatever, but I had to tell someone cuz they're bugging me, and I can't keep my mouth shut if something bugs me. Just the way I am, I guess," she shrugged.

No answer.

"Sorry, I must be completely boring you, talking about people that you don't know or care about. You really need to snap out of it, because then you can talk to your family and they can talk to you about stuff that you care about. Oh God, I'm rambling again. Then again, you kind of have to ramble if your having a conversation with someone who can't talk back. Is it really a conversation then? I wouldn't think so; I don't think that's the definition of conversation, but whatever. It seems like more of a monologue, don't you think?"

No answer.

"Well, I guess right now it's impossible for you to have an opinion. Unless you can hear me, and then I suppose you could, but it's not like you could voice your opinion, so I don't know why I keep asking you questions. But I suppose, if you can really hear me, I'm keeping you up to date on everything. Not that you really care about what goes on here, but you probably should, since if, no, when you wake up they're going to have you stay here for awhile, and I can tell you from experience that the gossip is by far the most entertaining thing when you're stuck in a room all by your lonesome. So if you can hear me, you should remember that. Or you know, you could have your family bring you something to do, that would work too."

-----------------------------

Addison stood outside of the room Holli was in; watching in amazement as Holli apparently had an entire conversation with a guy in a coma. How she could do that completely eluded her. How do you have a conversation with someone who can't talk back? She had never really thought of that before. She wondered what Holli could possibly be blabbering about.

She was so lost in thought that she jumped when someone slid an arm around her waist. She looked over, startled, and saw that it was Alex so she relaxed. Then she realized that no one here knew about the two of them, so she quickly moved from his grasp and hissed, "What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry; you just looked so cute, all dreamy, that I couldn't contain myself. I mean, generally boyfriends do get to put their arms around their girlfriend," he pointed out.

"Not when they're pretending they aren't boyfriend and girlfriend. And especially not when they're where they definitely don't want it to get around that they're together."

"So, about that. I was thinking about what Holli's been saying, and I really think that she has a point."

"And I don't."

"Why not?"

"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling that if we tell someone then things will go downhill or something bad will happen. I'll let you know if that changes though."

"It's just really hard to keep this from my friends, well I wouldn't call all of them my friends, but you know what I mean, and it just doesn't seem like the secrecy's worth it."

"I get that it's hard, I really do, but I just don't think that it's a good idea. But I can think of some ways to make it worth your wile," she raised her eyebrow seductively.

"Now that's just not fair. That's bribery."

"So?"

"So…" Alex thought about this. Was it really worth it to out them to his friends and risk ruining his relationship with Addison? And he knew exactly what she would bribe him with and it sure wasn't money. Did he really want to refuse? Uh, no, no self-respecting guy would, so he answered, "I'll take it."

"I knew you would," she whispered her lips brushing his ear before she walked away.

conversation: oral communication between persons... just thought y'all would like to know... what? i find it interesting...
so the button tells me that he'll give y'all a second chance at his never ending love, but you have to review to earn it! he doesn't just give away love freely!