A/N: To my amazing, wonderful readers: I find it incredible that it has been almost a month since I've updated, and I'm still getting new reviews. You guys are the best! I've been going through a lot of stuff with A/I, and it's gotten to the point where sometimes I wonder if there's a point to always believing that KH will come back. That made it really difficult for me write this, and to finish writing my other one-shot (The Man Who Can't Be Moved). But I've finally started to sort of get over it (I hope :P). So here you go!
This is a good cutesy chapter for the most part. It's sort of a filler, and whatnot.
The smell of blueberry pancakes and French toast seemed fill the entire house, and he couldn't escape it. Even though the kitchen was down stairs, the scent almost woke him up in his room. He looked over at the clock; it was a little after 3:30AM. The smell was too good to be Meredith's cooking, and when he realized that it was probably Izzie, he got out of bed and went downstairs.
The only light that was on was coming from the kitchen, which almost made Alex trip as he went down the stairs. He cursed quietly when he did, and walked into the kitchen.
"Izzie?" he said, as he rubbed his eye from the intensity of the light. It was too early, way too early.
The kitchen was a mess, which was to be expected. A stack of pancakes and French toast sat on the counter, right next to a few muffins from earlier that week.
"Crap, sorry. Did I wake you up?"
He shook his head. "It's three-thirty in the morning. We have to wake up in an a couple hours for work. Besides, aren't pregnant chicks supposed to be tired?"
"But that's the point! It takes me forever to fall asleep as it is. It's either way too hot in my room or its freezing. And then, as soon as I'm about to fall asleep, I have to pee. And then it starts all over again. This whole pregnancy thing isn't really working out with me, Alex." She put the plates of food into the fridge, and started to clean up her surroundings.
Her frustration about the smallest thing amused him. "So you decided to make breakfast instead?" he asked.
She threw an empty egg carton into the garbage, and placed a bowl and a spatula in the sink. "I had nothing better to do" she simply said.
He sat down at one of the stools by the counter, and started to take a piece of the French toast, before she softly slapped it out of his hand. "Hey, that's for Meredith!" she said, pulling the plate away from him.
"What, I don't get breakfast?" he asked.
"No. You're on probation, remember?"
He laughed, entertained by the endless possibility of dirty jokes that could be made at that point. "Really," he said, raising his eyebrows and smirking, "so what does this probation entail, exactly? Do I need to be hand-cuffed?"
She let out a small laugh, before throwing an oven-mitt which was next to her at his direction. "You really haven't changed."
He wasn't sure how he was supposed to take that. "Is that good, or bad?" he asked.
She smiled. "This time, it's good. You still know how to make me laugh."
Just her smile made the room a little bit brighter. It seemed funny to him how less than twenty-four hours ago, they weren't talking; and now it seemed like they were back to their old selves; laughing and joking around. It made him realize how much he had truly missed her.
"You should go to sleep" he said. As soon as her back was turned, he reached over the counter, and took another small piece of Meredith's French toast. He was too late though, because as soon as he took it, she noticed. He walked, almost ran, straight out of the kitchen, and towards the stairs to avoid what she would do.
He could hear the laughter in the voice. "Goodnight Alex" she said, speaking a little bit louder since he was no longer in the room.
"Night, Iz" he replied.
Izzie sat back in the chair in the lab room, as she waited for the results of the CT scan to appear on the computer screen. Exhaustion had been following her all day, and she knew it was nobody's fault but her own. She should have been sleeping all night instead of baking. It seemed insane for any normal person to stay awake for more than thirty-two hours, let alone anyone carrying a baby around for almost two months. She had bargained with the idea that since she couldn't get to sleep then, she'd never get to sleep. But she soon started to regret it as she watched the sun rise over a plate of freshly-baked sugar cookies.
She yawned, as the image of her patient's brain slowly crept up on the monitor. She tried to look for anything; a hemorrhage, any bleeding, or even a small tumor. Part of her felt bad that she was wishing for something wrong just so that her life would become a bit more interesting. Unfortunately, she knew that it was a feeling shared by many doctors who had watched the same screen before. She was focused so closely on the image, that she didn't even hear Meredith come in and sit down beside her.
"Anything good?" Meredith asked.
"Nothing yet" she replied. "This scan is taking a long time."
Meredith nodded, understandingly. "So…you and Alex sounded like you were having a good time last night."
The statement caught her off-guard. "Oh…you heard us? Sorry, I didn't realize we were being that loud."
She shook her head. "No, it's fine. Actually, I'm glad you two worked things out" Meredith told her, as she got up and walked out.
Izzie turned her gaze back to the picture on the screen, which was almost done loading. She pushed down on the speaker button. "Just a few more seconds, Mrs. Levy, we're almost done here" she said, and released the button.
As she waited to print the image, she thought about the woman sitting in the machine; terrified, unsure of what was going to happen. From the picture for the CT scan, it seemed like everything would be fine. Izzie could tell that she was going to be okay. She didn't need surgery, and she probably didn't need to stay in the hospital overnight. But all she could think about was the patient and how scared she must be. Mrs. Levy didn't have any other family; her husband had passed away, and she had no children. Not even a brother or sister. She had seen cases of the elderly or young children who were all alone, and it never made it any easier.
She realized that Mrs. Levy and she were not all that different. Izzie had people, but when she thought about it, and really thought about it, she didn't have anyone. She had Denny, who died before she could even actually have him. She had her mom, who she hadn't spoken to for anything besides a cupcake recipe. She had Meredith and George, who were both so absorbed in their own lives that she barely got to see them. And she had Alex, who most likely wouldn't bother to look at her if she wasn't carrying his child. If she was the one who was getting the CT scan, she wondered if there would be anyone waiting for her.
Before she could finish looking over the scan, the steady tick of the blood pressure device began to race, as her patient started to crash.
He pulled into the driveway of Meredith's house, and shut off his car. He looked around, and it seemed like he was the last person to get off of work. He spotted Izzie, Meredith, Derek, Cristina and George's cars all near the house. Most nights, they'd all be at their own apartments. But the weekends were a different story. Ever since they'd all gotten together to watch tapes of Meredith's mothers' surgeries, it had become habit. They'd all meet up at the house, and go to Joe's afterwards. Izzie would cook dinner, while Cristina and Derek would debate neurology versus cardio. Meredith and George would usually help Izzie in the kitchen until they'd all eat dinner. The only time anyone was actually quiet was when they were eating.
He walked inside, expecting nothing but loud conversations and something possibly burning. As he placed his coat on the hook, he found it almost funny how everyone had the night off, but couldn't keep a conversation that didn't have to do with the hospital. He overheard George and Meredith discussing a pre-op patient, while Cristina and Derek were talking about the benefits of using sutures over staples. As predictable as it was, that environment was the closest thing he'd ever felt to having an actual family. And an actual family meant one that didn't spend all their time fighting or threatening to leave each other. Even though he thought George was pathetic, Cristina was annoying, and Derek spent too much time on his hair; he knew things wouldn't be the same if any of them weren't there that night.
He greeted everyone, and placed the bottle of wine he'd picked up on the kitchen counter. Izzie was running around herself, as usual, trying to make a salad and baste a chicken. She smiled at him slightly, but then returned to chopping lettuce.
He walked towards where she was standing, and made sure that he maintained the conversation at a lower volume. He soon realized that even if he had yelled it out, everyone else was so consumed in their own conversations that they wouldn't even hear him. "How are you?" he asked.
"I'm good…fine. Just like the other seven times you've asked me today" she answered stubbornly.
"Sorry." He took out two tomatoes from the fridge and placed them beside the salad bowl. "You should sit down. You didn't even get any sleep last night."
"Neither did you."
He sighed. "You know what I mean…"
She ignored him, as she placed the chicken with its pan in the oven.
"Okay, so is this like, a hormonal thing? Or a mood swing? Because you can't be pissed at me when I haven't even been here for five minutes." His voice unintentionally became louder.
To his surprise, her face softened. "You're right" she replied. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired and I had a long day." She pushed the chopped lettuce into the bowl, and began cutting the tomatoes.
"It's cool, but Iz, you need to take a break. You've been awake for almost two days, you look exhausted, and this can't be good for the -". She cut him off before he could finish, motioning towards the others with her eyes.
"I'll take it easy once I'm done here. I promise" she told him. "I have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow morning. You can come, if you want."
It was one thing to talk about the idea of a baby growing, but it was another thing to see it actually happen. To see a baby on the screen almost made it realer than it actually was. It put everything into a different perception, and it never really hit him until he realized that it was actually happening. He'd felt the same way when it was Ava's baby, but with Izzie, he felt more secure. He felt that maybe, they really would be okay, after all. Maybe it wasn't just what people said to make you feel better when you were in a bad situation.
"Yeah" he said, with a small smile. "I'll be there."
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