Disclaimer: Not mine. All Shonda's. Clearly I'm not as talented as her. But I try.

Izzie sat at Joe's, sipping the water Joe had given her, and thought about what Meredith had said. She did love Alex, that was becoming clearer to her every minute. And she wanted to trust him. But she couldn't get hurt again.

She decided that her only option was to talk to him, and to tell him how she felt. He had laid his heart on the line for her, the least she could do was to be honest with him about how she felt.

Just then, the bell above the door chimed, and Izzie turned around to see a familiar figure walk through the door and make his way to a back booth.

Is the universe trying to tell me something, or do I just have really weird luck, she thought. Well, if it was trying to tell her something, she'd better listen. She took one more sip of water, wishing it were something stronger, then made her way over to the booth where he was sitting.

"Hey."

He looked up, surprised. He'd been so lost in thought, he hadn't noticed her walk up to his table.

"Hey," he replied, and he couldn't help but smile a bit, just from seeing her and hearing her voice.

She stood there awkwardly, and he just stared at her for a moment, taking her all in. He couldn't believe this was the same women who he'd posted model pictures of around the hospital. God, he'd been an ass. No wonder she refused to let him in. But she was here now.

"Um, do you want to sit down?" Alex asked, gesturing to the seat across from him.

"Sure." Izzie slid into the bench, resting one elbow on the table and running her other hand through her hair.

Finally she looked up into his eyes. "We need to talk. I need to talk."

"Izzie, you don't have to. What I said last week in the kitchen, it was-"

"It was honest. And thank you for that. Now I need to be honest with you."

She took a deep breath and continued. "I thought I loved Denny, I really did. HE made me happy, and I really needed to be happy, Alex. But I wasn't in love with him, just with the idea of him, and the idea of love."

"But that doesn't mean that his death didn't affect me, because it did. I honestly thought I was going to marry him. I thought we had all the time in the world. And then he died. Denny taught me that nothing is a given, nothing can be taken for granted. And none of us have as much time as we think."

"I don't want to waste any more of my time being miserable, Alex. I want to be happy. And I think you can make me happy. I know I care about you, and my feelings for you never went away. But I can't get hurt again. And you have a pretty long history of hurting me."

Izzie could feel the tears threatening to fall, but blinked them away. She had to get this out without breaking down.

"You're trying to change. I know that. After Denny died, you were so nice to me, I could feel how much you cared. So I'm willing to give us another chance. But we have to take it slow. Really slow. And until I know I can trust you again, you're definitely not getting in my pants!"

Izzie started laughing at her last comment, suddenly self-conscious. She looked up to see why Alex wasn't laughing with her.

His face was unreadable, save for one tear running down the side of his cheek. Izzie reached up and tenderly wiped it away. He lifted his to meet her's, and she smiled at him softly.

"Slow sounds good," he said finally, in a voice so unlike his usual loud, cocky tone that Izzie almost didn't hear him.

"Good," Izzie said, and then leaned across the table kissed him. Unlike most of their kisses, which were fiery and hot, this one was soft and sweet.

A new beginning.

I don't have much to say except that this chapter makes me happy. Let me know what you think.