How Am I Doing?
A Grey's Anatomy fic by Gigi
Disclaimer: I hate to have to say it at the beginning of every fic, because it totally negates my philosophy of the power of positive thinking. If I constantly say I don't own Grey's Anatomy or Shonda-land, then how on Earth will I ever come to own it?
Chapter 2: How was LA?
A/N: Okay, so apparently, I like to have themes in my chapter titles. Perfume and Promises chapters are all Idina songs, so how about these chapter titles all be questions? Nice.
A/N 2: Oh, yeah, sorry about the long wait and stuff. I'm writing this when I should be studying for finals, so yeah, be happy.
A week.
It had officially been one week. Seven days, she had been gone. Eight days since he last saw her, since he last held her, kissed her, did a few other things to her, and most importantly, rejected her.
Now, Alex Karev paced the NICU, periodically checking the numerous beeping baby monitors, while he waited for his boss to finally make an appearance. Over this week, he had contemplated what exactly he would say to her, what he would do, and he still hadn't come up with anything. Should he hug her? Kiss her? Twirl her around and propose to her? What the hell could he do to make her believe him enough to stay?
He heard her long before the door to the NICU opened. Her telltale high heels clicked along the hallway floor and exuded confidence just from the way the stilettos hit the tile and sent echoes throughout the hospital—everybody knew that Addison Adrianne Forbes Montgomery was back.
When the door finally creaked open, Alex stopped pacing, subconsciously smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles on his white lab coat. Addison hair swung in front of her face as she ducked into the NICU, and she didn't even notice Alex in the room, too preoccupied with making sure neither Mark nor Derek was following her.
Alex's ears caught the faint "Mule-headed buffoons," she mumbled under her breath before she turned around and finally saw him standing there. "Dr. Karev," she greeted professionally. He couldn't tell completely, but he thought he saw a hint of pink color her cheeks.
"Dr. Montgomery," he responded with a smile. He walked toward her, making as if to hug her amiably – until her hand shot out in front of them. Alex's eyes fell toward the offending appendage, and he repressed the urge to flinch as he enveloped her hand in both of his, shaking with one hand and stroking the top of hers with the other. "How was LA?"
Her pale blue eyes had noticeably less stress in them, but he still hoped she would slump her shoulders and declare that LA had absolutely nothing to compare with Seattle, not the work, not the sights, not the men. But instead, a small, relaxed grin graced her features. "LA was different," she answered. "It was nice."
That last statement scared the wits out of Alex, so instead he focused on the fact that he still held her soft hand in his and the fact that she hadn't made any motion to change that. There was hope yet…hopefully.
At last, Addison seemed to notice his thumb gently stroking the skin on the back of her hand and almost jolted out of his grip. "So has the NICU become your favorite hangout, now?" she asked tentatively, moving to check on her tiny patients.
"Kind of, yeah," Alex affirmed. He followed behind her and lowered his voice. "Some pretty good memories happened in here." He heard her breathing hitch ever so slightly. "Besides, it's quiet and I can actually get work done in here."
"Admit it, Karev," Addison demanded lightly, smiling into her chart. "You like being around babies."
"I really, really don't," Alex replied vehemently, "not twenty-nine-year-old ones, anyway."
The obvious disgust in his voice for his fellow interns surprised Addison. What had happened in the week she had been away? "And newborns?" she insisted.
Alex hesitated. He really didn't mind them, but he never knew if it was because he thought the babies themselves were cute or if it was just that he associated them with the redhead standing not two feet away from him. "They're cute, I guess," he mumbled in defeat. Might as well make her happy.
Addison turned her head to look back at her intern with a genuine smile. "I always knew you secretly enjoyed my service," she declared in such a way that Alex couldn't help but smile back. They stood there for a few seconds, smiling at each other, until Addison once again realized their proximity. "Anyway, you've done an excellent job with these little ones, Karev." She looked back down at the chart in her hands and resumed her professional voice. Putting the chart back on its rack, she stuck her stethoscope in her ears and listened to the baby's heartbeat. "But why doesn't this chart have a last name?"
"That's Ava's baby," Alex supplied. Addison's hand jerked away from the baby's chest by a millimeter before she caught herself, causing Alex's eyebrows to climb up into his hairline. What was that about? "Is anything wrong?"
She removed the stethoscope from her ears and braved a less genuine smile this time. "Nope, everything is just fine," she maintained. "Will you schedule an abdominal CT on Baby Carver? He has some distension in his stomach, and I just want to make sure he doesn't become another Laura Grey."
"Rushed into another surgery after almost dying in delivery?" Alex finished her thought.
"Exactly. Thank you, Dr. Karev." Addison handed him Carver's chart and watched him retreat from the room. Sighing, she went to sit down in the rocking chair in the corner of the NICU. She buried her face in her hands. Damn it, Addison. He already said he didn't want you—twice, she berated herself. Stop reading so much into his actions otherwise you'll ruin whatever relaxation you managed to achieve in LA!
8D
Alex stood in line for CT with the baby warmer by his side when Callie approached him. "Karev, have you done what I told you to do a week ago?" she demanded as quietly as possible. Debbie was about twenty feet away.
Alex's head whipped around to stare at Callie O'Malley incredulously. "I'm working on it," he replied succinctly.
"Well, hurry your ass up about it, Karev," Callie hissed menacingly. "And ask her what went down in LA while you're at it. Maybe that'll wake you up to just how close my best friend is to leaving Seattle!" With that, she walked away, leaving a confused, slightly distressed Alex Karev at the head of the line for CT.
A/N: Okay, so it isn't the longest chapter. I just barely exceeded my minimum of 1000 words for my chapters. But I do feel like the writing was much stronger in this chapter than in the first one. What do you think? Remember, I'm in the middle of studying for finals so the fact that I'm even writing this is amazing. So REVIEW!