A/N: Again with the late update :( I'm really sorry guys. But I swear, I've been working on this chapter for 3 weeks now. Look up writers' block in the dictionary; it's literally the worst thing ever! This is probably the sixth time I've written this chapter, and I'm finally happy with how it came out. Reviews do help though, I swear. Let me know what you want to want to see, what you don't want to see, what you're excited for, etc etc.
Updates from now on will be a lot faster, because I know for sure where I want to go with the story now. Thank you guys so much for being so loyal, as always. You're the best! (:

He woke up to the sound of running footsteps in the hallway, and then a door slam shut. Closing his eyes, he silently hoped that it was still dark outside so that he'd get a few more hours of sleep. But once he opened his eyes again, he noticed the faint reflections of a dim sunrise streaming through his window. He pushed the covers off of himself and sat up, although his brain protested and tried to think of excuses for him to go back to sleep.

Down the hallway, he noticed the bathroom door cracked opened, and a blonde kneeling over the toilet. He quietly stepped inside.

"You okay?" he asked, as he tried to mask the slight concern at the bottom of his stomach. It's pathetic, he reminded himself, you know that this is normal.

She nodded slowly and shut her eyes, as she sat back up and leaned against the wall. The color in her cheeks was slightly paler than usual, and she looked surprisingly thinner. But mainly, he couldn't help but notice that her stomach was a bit wider. It wasn't a big difference; and it probably wasn't noticeable to people who didn't know. Maybe it was the way her tank top outlined her figure, but there was definitely something there.

He took the glass cup that was sitting next to the sink and filled it with water. Carefully, he sat down on the bathroom floor and handed it to her. She opened her eyes once she felt him next to her.

"Thank you" she said, with a small smile. "It's times like these that make me really appreciate 80-hour work week limits."

He envied the fact that she didn't have to go to work. "So what are your plans for today?"

"I don't have any yet. Probably going to end up emptying out Meredith's fridge, trying to find something to bake" she chuckled.

"Well, why don't we just hang out here tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Here? As in, next to the toilet?"

He laughed. "We can order take-out or watch a movie or something" he said. "I mean, unless you'd rather stay in the bathroom."

"Sure, that sounds nice" she nodded. "Alex, you really don't need to do all this."

"Shut up."

"Wanna trade?" Alex said as walked over to her, holding a chart very similar to the one Meredith was filling out. "Broken tib-fib, showing signs of compartments' syndrome."

"That sure sounds a lot better than…" Meredith read the diagnosis on her chart: "an inflamed and infected gallbladder, scheduled to be removed this afternoon."

"You win." An infected gallbladder removal was one of the most intricate, and probably one of the most disgusting procedures a doctor would have to do. He remembered the time he was scrubbing in on a gallbladder removal, and it practically exploded all over Dr. Bailey. "I need to go do rounds."

"You're doing rounds now?" she asked, with surprise. "It's a little early"

"I'm only going to be here for a few hours. I'm going with Izzie to her-" he stopped himself. "I'm meeting up with Izzie."

Meredith looked at him with apprehension, and he turned to leave. As he began to walk away, he assumed that he was off the hook, and was even impressed with the way that he'd handled that. But her voice pulled him back into their halted conversation.

"Alex? Since you used to sleep with my sister, and you've been living at my house for almost two years…I think we're friends" she said, easing into what she really wanted to know. "So what's going on with Izzie?"

He wasn't sure how to respond; he didn't know if Izzie had already told Meredith, or if she even wanted to tell people at all. But this affected his life as much as it did hers, and he figured that since they were both living with Meredith, she had a right to know.

"Um…I don't really know how to say this" he said, as he approached her.

"She's strong, Alex. She's a big girl. You know, whatever it is, it's going to be okay, because she's going to make it be okay" she replied. "Just, is it bad? Because you kind of have me freaking out a little bit over here."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead a little bit. "Mer, Izzie's pregnant."

She moved uncomfortably, sitting on the examination table. The doctor had asked her to put on a patients' gown, which made it a little awkward with Alex in the same room. She was thankful when he offered to step outside so she could change. At the same time, she knew it was ridiculous; he'd seen her naked countless times. Besides, what was she going to when she was giving birth, ask him to wait outside?

"Everything looks pretty good here, Izzie" the doctor said, as she reviewed her file. "I'm just going to need to do a few tests, so I'm going to need some blood, but after that, you're free to go. Before we start, though, I have a few questions."

"Oh, okay" she replied with a small nod.

"When, exactly, did you take your first positive pregnancy test?"

"I think…a little over two months ago? I'm up to 9 weeks now" She recalled every detail about the night she found out, as if it had been burned into her memory.

The doctor quickly scribbled something down, and turned back to Izzie. "Have you smoked, had any alcoholic beverages, or taken any drugs since you found out?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing."

"Good" she said, and Izzie could tell that she was checking off some boxes on that same sheet. "And this is the first baby you've had, correct?"

She should have seen this coming. It was inevitable; she'd done patient histories before for OB-GYN patients. Why didn't she think of it sooner? Alex had no idea about Hannah, and this was the last way she wanted him to find out. She spoke slowly and cautiously formed her words. "No…this will be the second baby I've had."

She felt Alex quickly turn his head towards her direction, but she knew better than to turn around. He would be angry, she didn't doubt that, but there would be no reason for him to be. It was before she'd met him; she was young and foolish and it was part of her past and she aimed to keep it that way.

The rest of the appointment was as expected; the doctor talking to Izzie and Alex remaining silent, not that he'd been saying anything before. When she was finished, Alex walked out the door wordlessly and by the time she finished changing back into her regular clothes, he was gone. She sighed in frustration; she had suspected that this side of Alex was too good to be true, and she had set herself up to be disappointed when reality came crashing down. She made another appointment with the secretary before leaving.

She entered the residents' locker room, to find Alex standing in front of his locker. He looked at her, and rolled his eyes.

"What's your problem?" she asked, with exclamation.

"You have a kid, Izzie! Were you going to, oh, I don't know, bother telling me anything about it?"

"I was sixteen. Why does it matter?"

"Because I'd like to know if my kid had a half-brother or half-sister somewhere! You can't mess with peoples' heads like that" he said, as he pulled on his white lab coat.

"Half-sister" she replied, calmly. "Her name is Hannah."

He took a deep breath in. "Listen, I get it. The whole not wanting to talk about it, I understand. But this isn't about who you heard snuck off together in the on-call room. This is-" he was cut off by the loud beep of his pager. He looked down, and words '911 – trauma bay 2' appeared on the small digital screen. "We'll talk at home, okay?" he said, grabbing his I.D. from his locker. "I gotta go."

She nodded, and before she could say another word, he was already out the door.

He held the steering wheel with one hand, while trying to find the number for the Chinese food takeout near their house. He scrolled down through his address book, until he finally found it. Trying to keep at least some of his attention on the road, he pushed the speakerphone button on his phone and waited for someone to pick up.

He knew exactly what Izzie's would want to eat; he'd gotten used to her getting the same thing every time they got Chinese food. He used to tease her on her predictability, and she'd always say that one day she would order something different. But it was three years later, and Alex found himself picking up Chicken Lo Mein with mixed vegetables…again.

Sometimes, he'd missed the comfort, or even the predictability, of being in relationship. Having someone to go home with or wake up to; the stability of it was something Alex needed. He wouldn't dare to try to date anyone now; and the image of Izzie going out with some other guy, while she was carrying Alex's baby, made him sick to his stomach. When he found out about the baby, he'd always had this image in his head of him and Izzie, back together, with their kid. Like one of those lame family movies, where the girl is pregnant and the guy isn't ready to have kids – but they both fall in love again and end up happy. He longed for a family so much, he just wanted something he could call his.

He walked in, and placed the bag on the table in the kitchen. Looking around, he tried to spot a plate of muffins, brownies, or cookies hidden somewhere, and was relieved when he saw a clean, empty kitchen. "Izzie?" he called out, assuming she was upstairs.

He started to open the bag and set out the different containers. Izzie came downstairs, and turned the corner to find Alex setting the table. A confused look dawned on her. "Hey" she said, trying to figure out what was going on. "What is all this?"

He narrowed his eyebrows, in confusion as well, as he took the last plastic container out of the bag. "I thought we said we'd hang out here tonight. You know, movies, Chinese food…stuff that normal people do?" he added.

"No, I know" she replied, with a small smile. "It's just that…with everything that happened today, I just thought…"

"Thought…that I'd get food and make you watch me eat it?" he joked. He noticed a smile spread across her face. "What?"

She shook her head quickly. "It's nothing. I'm just surprised." She began to help him set the table, and took two pairs of utensils out of the drawer near the sink. "Old Alex would be sitting on stool at Joe's right now…probably trying to find some nurse to hook up with."

"Yeah, well old Alex wasn't going to be someone's dad" he replied, throwing away the paper bag.

"You know, today when you walked out of the doctors' office, I started to think that you hadn't changed, and that we really weren't ready for this after all. That I was forcing myself to think that you were someone else, just so I could make myself feel better. But after you found out about Hannah, and after what happened in the locker room, you still ended up bringing home take-out and saying that you want to watch a movie." Her face lit up, and he could tell that she was really serious about all this. "I didn't expect it. I guess I'm just trying to say thank you" she said, and leaned towards him to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He smiled; being so far from her for so long, he hadn't realized what he'd been missing. Just that closeness made the events of that afternoon seem almost insignificant. "We're going to do this, Iz. We're going to do this right, and even if we're not ready to parents, we'll learn."

She couldn't hold back the smile that was escaping her. "Besides, I've been craving Chinese all day, so even if I was mad at you, I would have caved eventually" she added, with a small laugh.

*Don't forget to review :)