"It does not matter what you do in the bedroom, as long as you do not to it in the street and scare the horses." - Mrs. Patrick Campbell
Just a random quote I found and sort of liked! Enjoy. Happy Easter to everybody celebrating the holiday! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday. And please do not eat me; A Hazy Shade of Winter will be updated by tomorrow morning, at latest :) And just in case you can't figure out, the italicized bit is Izzie's little 'trip down Memory Lane' or whatever you want to call it.
"Alex!" Izzie tried to figure out where, exactly, he was taking her. Like a little girl, she gave her legs a tiny kick in the front seat, itching her eyebrow from underneath the red blindfold."Alex, come on. Where are we going?"
"Iz," Alex sang out, "patience."
"This is stupid," Izzie said the words without meaning them; she loved surprises. Just like the way she loved his proposal to her, three months ago. It was the way she'd always wanted it, the way she'd imagined it ever since she was eight years old. It hadn't, thank god, been at a restaurant, snuck into her fortune cookie or caked in the Oreo Frosty at Wendy's, like that guy on the news had done a few years back.
She had gotten home from work around nine thirty, only to find Alex lying down on the kitchen floor, his head stuck under the sink, a wrench in his hand. He was swearing under his breath.
"Uh. Alex? Everything okay?"
"What?"
Izzie cleared her throat. "I said is everything okay?"
"Sure. It's just this damn pipe, it's clogged."
"Okay," Izzie balanced on one foot. "Well. Do you want me to.. call someone?"
"Izzie," Alex laughed wryly. "It's nearly ten o'clock. Who are you going to call?"
Izzie shrugged. "Just an idea. But shouldn't you at least know how to unclog a pipe," she smiled, "of all things that would pass you off as sort of useful, knowing how to unclog a pipe would be one of them."
Alex slid out from under the sink. "Do you know how to unclog a pipe?" he asked.
Izzie rolled her eyes. "I grew up in a trailer park."
"So.."
"Move your ass."
Alex stood up, handed her the wrench and then kissed her cheek. "Good day at work?" he walked over to the fridge and pulled out a beer.
"Okay," she called out. "I had an appy today, on a little girl, and then I was mostly in the clinic the rest of the day. You?"
"My day off today."
"I know. But what did you do?"
"I babysat," Alex said, making a disgusted face.
"For?"
"Lucy."
"She's so sweet," Izzie said. "What did you guys do?"
"I took her to the park."
"Meredith said-" Izzie stopped in the middle of her sentance.
"What?"
"You know when Derek proposed to Meredith like, six million times?"
"Sure," Alex said.
"Do you know if he maybe left the ring under the sink, one of the times, by accident?"
"They're married now," Alex reminded her. "Why?"
"I found this," Izzie got out from under the sink, and handed a ring to Alex. "Does it look like one of Derek's?"
"Iz, McDreamy only used one ring for Meredith," Alex took the ring from Izzie and turned it around in his fingers, with mild interest. "Weird."
"Do you think we should call them? Or like, take it to an antique store?" she wondered out loud.
"I think we should find a place for it," he said.
"Sort of what I was getting at, Alex," she smiled.
"Not the antique store."
"Well, where were you thinking?" Izzie closed the cupboard door and wiped her hands on the side of her shirt.
"I was thinking, maybe.. your finger?" In one smooth motion, Alex was on one knee, holding the ring up to her. "Izzie. Will you marry me?"
And now, they were sitting in the car, driving to god know's where. Izzie bounced impatiently in her seat, shivering at the memory. "Hey, Alex? You're not like, going to throw me into the ocean or anything, are you? Because you don't want to marry me anymore, but you don't have the heart to tell me."
"If you don't stop asking where we're going," Alex teased, "then who knows where you'll end up. Now Izzie, you're going to get out of the car. But do not take off the blindfold."
Alex stepped out of the car and opened Izzie's door, helping her out of the car. "Okay," he took her hand and led her out in front of the car."Keep your eyes closed," he warned, undoing her blindfold. He covered her eyes with his hands. "Now. Open."
Izzie opened her eyes, and bit her lip. They were in front of a house, a big white one, with a tree in the front yard, a tire swing on the tree. There was a box of chalk on the driveway, a pink Barbie bike hastily discarded by the tree. The windows were glass, big and tall. From the front yard, Izzie could hear the splashing of a pool, and the front porch, which donned lemonade glasses and tiny flip flops, wrapped around the side. Out front, on the bright green grass, there was a big Sold sign.
"You like it?"
"It's.. why? Why do you want to know?"
"I'm just wondering. Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful."
"So, you'd live here?"
"There?" Izzie pointed with her finger, to the house.
"No," Alex said, smiling in spite of himself. "There," he indicated to the bush by the house.
"Yes. I'd live here it's.. it's.. but why? Why are you asking? I don't.."
"Izzie. Would you like to live here?"
"Yes. Yes, I would like to live here."
"Well then. It's ours."
"What... Alex." Izzie ran her hands through her hair. "I don't get it. We don't.. we don't have the money, how would we ever afford a place like this, I mean.. it's sold!"
Alex shrugged. "Exactly. It is sold."
"You.. you didn't." Izzie's eyes filled up with tears.
"I did."
Izzie threw herself at Alex, and she felt like that girl from The Notebook; her legs wrapped around his waist, he was holding up her back. He kissed her, long and deep. A little girl appeared on the front porch and screamed. "MOMMY! SOME BAD GUY'S TRYING TO EAT THIS GIRL'S FACE!"
Izzie laughed. "It's okay," she said, meaning for the words to reach the girl, but turning them into a whisper so that only Alex could hear them. "I love you," she said. "I love you so much."
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Izzie sat with Meredith on her deck. Meredith was half watching Lucy run around the backyard, chasing Winston, their Labrador retriever, and half listening as Izzie laboriously planned her wedding.
"Now," Izzie chewed on her nail, "Grace, Alex's mom, she's coming, and Hailey, his little sister, and Hailey's husband, Mark, and their kids, Gerry and Emily. Oh, and then Andy, Alex's stepdad. And a couple of Alex's friends from university.. Derek's the best man. So that's what.. ten for Alex. Meredith? Ten people for Alex?"
"Oh," Meredith said. "Yeah. Something like that. Lucy, sweetie, no hitting Winston."
"And my mom's coming.. I think. I mean, I still have to call her and everything. And actually like, issue an invitation. You're my maid of honour, Lucy's the flower girl, Cristina and Lexie are the bridesmaids.. god, sorry," Izzie shook her head. "This is stupid."
"Who's walking you down the aisle?" Meredith asked.
"I didn't think you were listening," Izzie smiled.
"I'm a mom," Meredith said. "I'm good at multi tasking. Plus, being a doctor hasn't killed it, either. So you've got your maid of honour, which thanks, by the way, for that, I'm honoured, Iz. And the bridesmaids and your mom and everything, but who's walking you down the aisle?"
"No one," Izzie shrugged. "I'll walk myself down." She knew how pathetic that sounded.
"Izzie," Meredith rolled her eyes. "Somebody has to walk you down the aisle."
"Well, who do you suggest? I was six the last time I saw my dad, the Chief and Adele are in Florida. Who else could I ask?"
"George," Meredith said, as though it was the most obvious choice.
"But George isn't.. he's not a father figure, exactly."
"He's a brother figure."
"So? Brothers don't walk their sisters down the aisle," Izzie argued.
"If the dad is dead or AWOL, or whatever, then yeah, they do. Or, the best friend walks the bride down the aisle. So either way, you're fine."
"You think he would say yes?"
"Yes. He would say yes, of course he would say yes." Meredith smiled as Lucy threw herself onto Meredith's lap.
"I don't know," Izzie thought out loud.
"Mommy," Lucy sighed contentedly, twirling a piece of Meredith's hair around her finger.
"Hey pumpkin," Meredith kissed the top of Lucy's head. Lucy had inherited Meredith's dark blonde hair and Derek's blue eyes, and when all the other genetics from the two of them were thrown in, she was a beautiful kid. Izzie always used to tell Meredith she should get Lucy into modeling. Meredith always made a face at this, as though Izzie was suggesting Meredith train Lucy to become a hermit crab, or a taxi driver.
"Winston tol' me a secret," Lucy said, sticking her thumb into her mouth.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Lucy nodded her head vigorously. "He tol' me that we're goin' to have cake for dinner."
"Did he!" Meredith smiled. "I think Winston had too many dog treats this morning."
"No, Daddy helped me feed him before went to the hospital, and we didn't give him any dog treats. 'Cause Daddy said he's gonna be fat if you keep feedin' him." Lucy hopped down from Meredith's lap. "I'm gonna go make some lunch, Frostie Flakes. Aunt Izzie, you want some? Mommy lets me put strawberries in them, and they're really yummy."
"No thanks honey. God," Izzie said, once Lucy had teetered into the house, "she is adorable. Are you sure she belongs to you?" Izzie laughed, closing her eyes and letting the sun wash over her.
"So you like the house?" Meredith asked, after a little while of comfortable silence.
"It's.. I don't even know, it's amazing. It's like, when I was a kid, that's the kind of house I used to look at and think, that's where I want to have my kids. I wanted to have twelve, and name them all Clancy Junior."
Meredith laughed, loud. "Why the hell did you want to name your twelve kids Clancy Junior? They.. they wouldn't even be Clancy Junior, it'd be like Clancy the twelfth... poor kids."
"Whatever. My old neighbour was named Clancy. He was a drag queen, and he used to sing me songs from The Sound of Music. I'm pretty sure he was a pervert, but I thought he was amazing when I was a kid."
"My neighbours were old people. They used to bake us like, twenty pounds of cookies all the time, because the two of them would forget the last time they gave us any. Tasted horrible too," Meredith said, smiling. "The cookies did."
"After Clancy, there was the Douggarts. Their little kid used to try and bake himself."
Meredith sat up. "He used to bake himself?"
"Try and bake himself. He was never successful, or anything. They always rescued him."
"You had weird neighbours."
"We lived in a trailer park. What did you expect? No," Izzie said, shrugging. "Some of them were nice. Like the uh... I don't know,"Izzie scratched the back of her ear. "There were some nice ones, though."
And so they spent the rest of the afternoon helping Lucy make fudge brownies, playing catch with Winston and trying to remember, exactly, what nice and normal neighbours they used to have.
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"So," Izzie held the magazine up to him, "the sheath bouquet, with the arum lillies or," she flicked to the next page, "the creative bouquet, with the Bells of Ireland?"
"Who picks the names for these flowers?" Alex asked. "Is that a legitimate job, or what? On your resume, for past jobs, do you put Flower Namer?"
"Somebody has to do it," Izzie said, raising her eyebrows a little. "Why? Thinking of ditching the medical field and becoming a Flower Namer? So, arum lillies or bells of Ireland?"
"Iz. You want my honest opinion?"
"Yes."
"I don't care."
"Alex-"
"Let me finish. I don't care, because as long as you're there, as long as you come to the front of that church and say I do, I don't give a shit about anything else. I get it, you chicks have that thing with the big wedding and the dress, and whatever. But to me, none of it matters, just as long as you show up."
Izzie put down the magazine.
"Sorry," he said, "if you want me to be all involved but I just-"
"No," she shook her head, and then slid down so that her head was resting on his chest. "That's really sweet. Really, really sweet. And I don't really want you to be 'all involved.'"
"Good. 'Cause man, I hate weddings."
"Shut up," she laughed, smacking his shoulder. "We have to make our vows," she said, from nowhere.
"Iz. We're getting married in nine months. We have lots of time to make vows."
"I know. But I think you might need lots.. and lots, oh and then maybe some more time to do work on them."
"Why?"
"Alex," Izzie said, crinkling up her nose. "You're not exactly the most profound guy. You might need some time to work up the.. right emotions."
"Hey. I just told you that our wedding was nothing without you there. That's pretty damn profound."
"Obviously the wedding is nothing without me there. Without me, it's just you in a tux with a bunch of people in a church."
"Same goes for me. If I ditch, you just look stupid," Alex played with Izzie's hair.
"Maybe we'll both ditch and go to Las Vegas."
"I thought you loved weddings? Especially this one."
"I thought you hated them."
"Maybe we both hate weddings," he suggested.
"Maybe," she said, getting onto her knees and kissing him, unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt, "you should shut up."
"Yeah," he said, limply. "I can do that."
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Izzied tried to do it over an email, but she couldn't. She couldn't ask George to walk her down the aisle over a stupid email, for god's sake. So she sat, perched on the edge of the couch, the phone in her hand.
"Hello?"
Izzie had to restrain herself from screaming when Marilyn picked up the phone. Marilyn was George's on again off again sometimes girlfriend. She was thirty one, but acted like she was fifty. Izzie had no idea why the two of them dated, let alone slept together. "Uh, Marilyn?"
"Oh! Izzie?"
"Yeah."
"Hi! How are you?"
"I'm good thanks. Listen, would you mind if I-"
"Oh!" Marilyn cried. "Let me guess. You want to speak to George? You two are adorable, I was looking over at pictures-"
"Yes," Izzie said. "I'd like to talk to George please." Had it been anyone else, Izzie would have felt bad about being rude, but with Marilyn she excused her conscience.
After a few seconds, George picked up the other line. "Mimi," he said, "you can hang up now."
"Right! Of course!"
"Izzie?"
"She's charming George," Izzie said, laughing to let him know she was just kidding (although she wasn't really, not at all.) "Do you have to bathe her yet, or does she still have the capability to do that by herself?"
"Oh, shut up," he said.
"I'm just kidding, George. She's sweet. Listen," Izzie toned her voice down slightly. "Um, I have a question? It's about the wedding."
"Okay," he said. "What's up?"
"Um. I just.. it's stupid," she began. "It's actually really dumb. And I probably shouldn't even ask you and maybe it's like, totally inappropriate, but Meredith was the one who suggested it, so.. yeah, it was her idea."
"Izzie. Just say it."
"I don't have a dad, or anything. I mean, I do, I guess. Somewhere, I have a dad. But I haven't see him since I was kid, only six, or something. And so I don't have anyone to.. you know. Walk me down the aisle. And so I was wondering, if maybe. You would. Walk me down the aisle I mean."
"I-"
"I'm sorry. I know it's weird but-"
"Just-"
"I know, I shouldn't have asked or anything-"
"Iz. Let me talk. I would love to, okay? I really would love to, so much. And I'm really happy for you and Alex."
"Oh," Izzie felt tears in her eyes before she knew she was even crying. "Sorry," she warbled out. George didn't say anything. He'd spent many nights listening on the other side of the phone as Izzie cried.
"It's okay, Iz. Thank you for asking me."
"You're welcome," she said, wiping her nose. "I have to go now, okay, but George.. thanks. For saying yes and just.. for everything. Thank you."
"Don't even mention it."
"Okay. I'll let you get back to Marilyn, and everything," she said, smiling. "Bye George."
