Sorry this took so long…this chapter hated me and I couldn't get it on paper. And now I have a sickening feeling that it's terrible. But, terrible or not, tell me what you think.

Jealous, Baby

She saw him after the surgery, chart in hand, and suddenly she just knew that he was going to visit Ava again. So she decided that instead shaking her head and moving on like she usually did, she should talk to him.

"Karev," her voice came out sharper than she had intended, but at this point she no longer cared.

He turned around, smiling. "Hey, I was just going to check on Ava―"

"Do I have another Denny Duquette situation on my hands?" she said, and he looked almost amused at her accusation.

"What? Are you serious?"

"I have never seen you so attentive with a patient!" her voice rose, both in volume and pitch, "You're always there, checking her stats, running tests, doing research!"

"But it's my job," he tried to interrupt, but she refused to let him talk.

"No, it's my job," she grabbed the chart in his hands, "I'm her doctor. You're my intern―"

"Which is why I have to know her stats at all times," and as usual he was going head to head with her, not caring that she was his boss, "Because I am not about to stand there in your OR and be anything less than over-prepared. Okay? There's no way I'm gonna go to work everyday with a surgeon like you and not be at the top of my game."

Suddenly, she couldn't stop staring at his mouth, at the way they moved when he yelled at her, and couldn't help thinking about how they felt when she had kissed him at Joe's. And she noticed how convenient that an on-call room was located right next them…

He was finishing up his rant now, "So, if you're gonna yell at me―" and her lips were on his, and she was literally shoving him into the on-call room, pulling off his clothes at the same time. And after a while he responded, kissing back.

At that moment, she was sure that he was the one. He would barbeque, he would teach kids how to play catch, be everything she ever wanted in a man. It didn't matter that they were five feet from the nurse's station when she seduced him, didn't matter that they were probably going to be the object of gossip for at least a month. None of that mattered, because he was the one

How very wrong she was.

It turns out that New Years Resolutions are, in fact, not the least-kept promises ever made by a human being.

Swearing never to drink again after getting a hangover is.

And she knows this, because she's made this promise at least thirty times in the past year, and never manages to keep it for more than two days.

But she makes it anyways this morning, for the pure sake of tradition. She still makes this promise, even though by now she knows there's no possible way she can keep it.

Because she's learned, in the past year, that alcohol was how she gets by when things get tough.

Well, alcohol and sex.

She wonders now if Derek has a thing for women who deal with problems using alcohol and one-night stands.

Or adulterous manwhores. Take your pick.

Sex in general.

But back to hangovers, how much she hates them. How they make her bitter and cynical (not that she's not when she's hangover-free). They give her headaches, and make her sick.

And apparently they make her ramble.

Mentally.

She thinks that maybe she should shut her mind up and stop staring at her reflection in her locker mirror before Richard or Miranda comes in and yells at her.

Maybe.

But as she contemplates whether or not she should shut her locker and add another minute of agony to her already pounding head, in walks Derek and her bad mood gets even worse.

She can tell that he's already made up with Meredith (The wide grin and jaunty walk? Classic). He's whistling again, undoubtedly going through another one of his "bright and shiny" phases. So she rummages through her locker, hoping that if she looks busy enough, he won't talk to her.

But she's forgotten how chatty bright and shiny Derek can be.

"Hey," he chirps, and she can't help but wince at the pure happiness in his voice.

But they're friends now, and she doesn't really want to go back to Derek hating her, so she replies, "Hey."

She shuts her locker as quietly as possible, but still the noise causes her to cringe. Turning around, she sees that he's smirking at her, "What?"

He shakes his head, but still smirks. "How's that head?"

If her locker was still open she would have thrown something at him, but since it's not and she doesn't really want to risk her head imploding, she can only glare and reply, "That's the last time I ever talk to you in a bar."

He looks a little taken aback at her aggressiveness (But why? He did call her the Queen of Passive-Aggresiva), but still seems determined to make a smart-ass comment. But when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out.

Nothing comes out, because Alex Karev chooses to come in right then and shove him up a wall.

She blinks a couple of times, because the bizarre scene she's seeing, the guy trying to kill his boss one, seems just a tiny bit surreal. But she doesn't wake up, and though she wants to check a few more times, Derek's yelling now, and God how her head suffers when Derek yells, so she snaps out of it quickly and tries to intervene.

"Karev!" she yells, but immediately regrets it, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Me?" he snarls, expression perfectly venomous, "I'm kicking his ass."

He raises a fist, but she quickly moves between them, and, luckily for her, he pulls back just in time.

"Stop it!" She seriously needs to stop yelling, but can't help it, now he's trying to push her away, "Alex!"

He finally seems to get that she's not moving, and backs off. She relaxes slightly, and then glares at him, "What the hell was that about?"

To her surprise he seems mad at her as well, "Don't play innocent," he hisses, "I saw you two."

She frowns, nonplussed, "What?"

"Last night at Joe's," he snaps, "Drinking and laughing and leaving together. Don't pretend you don't know."

"So?"

He seems shocked at her lack of guilt. "So? You went home together."

"I still don't see why you risked getting kicked out of the program for assaulting your boss," Wait. Was he jealous?

"You left together!" Suddenly he looks ready to kill Derek again, so for safety's sake (not that it would have helped) she moves back into place, "So you must have slept with him. He―" he points an accusing finger at Derek, who flinches slightly behind her, "Has a girlfriend now. And even if he doesn't, he has no right to shag up my―"

He suddenly stops, and she looks at him, puzzled. "Your what?"

He doesn't speak, and she realizes in an instant what he had been about to say, "Your girlfriend? Is that you were about to say?"

He opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off, taking a step forward, "You were about to say girlfriend, weren't you?"

"Hey―"

"I sleep with you!" And all of a sudden she doesn't care that she's yelling and every word she utters can break her head, all she wants to do is break him for what he did to her before, "I sleep with you, when you need sex. That is ALL. I am not your girlfriend. You have no right to barge in here and beat up a friend simply because he needed somewhere to spend the night. And it is none of your business who I choose to get drunk with on a bad day."

He looks almost mortified now, but she isn't finished, "I am your boss, Karev. We are co-workers, nothing more. You are not allowed to butt into my life where I don't want you to be. So you'd better do your rounds and be a good little boy for the rest of the day, and pray to God that I don't mention this to the Chief."

He stands there for a minute, but she turns up her glare power, so he runs, and she stares after him, fuming silently. How could he? He had no right, after what he did to her. How dare think that just because he wanted her now that she would respond in kind? She doesn't even feel anything about him now above simple attraction.

(Of course, the urge she had to kiss the anger off his face when he was yelling tells the rational part of her mind that she probably does, but she tends to ignore the rational part of her mind when she's mad and hungover.)

"I could've taken him on," the sulky voice of her ex-husband brings her, rather abruptly, out of a soon-to-come sex fantasy and back to reality, "I didn't need your help."

"Shut up," she replies absently, "He was a pro-wrestler in college. He would have destroyed your ego and some of your hair."

"Whatever," he says, but suddenly brightens, "So, you and Karev?"

"No," she mutters, and begins to exit when she realizes that Derek probably didn't cover his ears when she and Karev had been screaming at each other, "Oh, and Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"If you even think about breathing a word about this to anyone," she says, smirking, "I'll make sure that you will regret every little embarrassing story that you told me during our marriage."

She has to leave then, because laughing would have been too much for her head.

Yes, this chapter sucked. Yes, you waited a long time for a bad chapter. But you love me anyway, so you WILL REVIEW.