Chapter 4- "Homecoming"
The ride to Meredith's was considerably more lighthearted than the conversation from earlier. For Izzie, it felt good to laugh as Alex clearly embellished on awkward dating mishaps of his youth…
"…so yeah…as you can imagine she never called me back after THAT experience." Izzie was laughing so hard she nearly had tears coming out of her eyes, so it was amid gasps that she managed to ask,
"You? The alleged smooth-talking sex god of Seattle Grace?"
"Yep," he grinned sheepishly for a moment and then regained his arrogant composure and turned his attention back to the road, "but that was a looooooong time ago. Now I'm COMPLETELY irresistible." He now smiled cheekily and dramatically.
"Oh yes, of course," Izzie played along. Turning his head briefly to glance at her, Alex said in a purely joking but mock serious manner,
" Now Stevens, I'm making a HUGE exception here by telling you all this…you HAVE to promise that what you heard in this car STAYS in this car!"
"Scout's honor," Izzie said giggling and holding up four fingers with her thumb across her palm.
"Good," Alex said firmly, but trying not to laugh at the same time. He eased the car to a stop and parked in front of Meredith's house. Izzie grabbed her stuff from the backseat and just before she slammed the car door she added,
"Wouldn't want Georgie to find out you had trouble with the ladies!" With that she ran to the front door.
After unloading the alcohol they had been asked to bring, Alex joined her.
"I'm not afraid of O'Malley," he defended himself in a macho voice.
"Surrrrrrre," Izzie replied with an innocent look that said she was not convinced.
"Hey," Alex quipped, leaning towards her and lowering his voice, "…at least I'm not dating a man! Should you tell him or should I?" Izzie gave his shoulder a rough shove,
"ALEX!" she exclaimed but couldn't help giggling slightly.
Suddenly Meredith opened the door and greeted them. She gave a small squeal at the sight of Izzie and crushed her in a rib-cracking hug. She soon led her to the living room to set down her stuff and then to the backyard where the barbeque was to be held. Alex went to the kitchen and began to unload all the things he was carrying, which included the tasty appetizers Izzie had "whipped up" (which to Alex seemed to have quite a similar definition to "ransacking Alex's kitchen", but nevertheless, he could not deny that they looked and smelled amazing).
Cristina came up behind him as he finished putting the beer in the fridge and started arranging Izzie's appetizers on a platter as she had specified earlier.
"Well someone's pretty WHIPPED," she taunted snidely. Alex glared at her with slight poison and muttered,
"Your mom." Cristina laughed with slight amusement and would have loved to continue, but her fun was interrupted by Burke's voice from the other room,
"Dr. Torres! Glad you could make it. Meredith and O'Malley are in the back. Oh! And Dr. Stevens is here as well!"…
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The barbeque dinner was delicious and the atmosphere was light and enjoyable.
"Oh," Burke said suddenly, "I heard they're going to be shooting fireworks over the bay (A/N: is it a bay?) later tonight, if anyone would like to go."
"Over the bay?" George asked with interest.
"Yes," Burke replied, "I believe they are shooting them off some ferryboats." Meredith's fork clattered to the floor at his statement.
"Sorry," she mumbled when everyone turned to look at her.
"That sounds fun," Callie said looking at George with a questioning glance.
"Yeah," he agreed happily and looked to his left, past Alex at Izzie, "You coming Iz?" he asked. Izzie smiled.
"No, I really would like to, but I'm really tired. Alex and I stayed up pretty late last night." She smiled over at Alex simply because she couldn't help it.
They had, Alex recalled:
FLASHBACK TO THE NIGHT BEFORE
Izzie's eyes stared through the TV as the images flickered on the screen. These eyes were not watching Jay Leno as the audience laughed heartily at his comic monologue. No, these eyes were hollow and mournful. The ticks of the clock met Alex's ears at a volume that was deafening and seemed to overpower the voices and the laughter. From the opposite side of the couch he watched Izzie intently. Conversation had already been attempted many times but had been awkward and uneasy. So, now he merely sat silently and wished desperately for the moment to end and Izzie to finally drift off to sleep. It seemed to be the only time she was at peace and he would not leave her side until this was the case.
END FLASHBACK
Alex now smiled back because he HAD found a way to help her -this morning, or at least a little bit. However, he soon noticed George's face and realized from the look of mortification that Georgie-boy had very different ideas as to why they had both been up so late. Annoyed by his presumptions and not being able to resist his cocky tendencies Alex wiggled his eyebrows at George and gave a self-satisfied grin. George nearly choked on his food. Izzie did not notice however and continued by directing her next statement first to Alex and then to the rest of the table,
"I think I'm gonna stay here tonight…maybe try my luck with coming home again." Meredith and George could not conceal their happiness and Meredith leapt on the opportunity to avoid the ferryboats,
"Izzie that's great! I'll stay here with you and help you get settled."
"Oh Meredith, I don't want to spoil your fun-" Izzie began.
"No!" Meredith interrupted, "it's the very least I could do! I feel like we haven't been able to do ANYTHING for you these past couple of weeks and I can't tell you how happy I am to have my roomie back!" She smiled, it wasn't a lie.
Izzie's heart melted slightly at the statement, she really did love her friends. Everyone began to chatter excitedly about either the plans for later in the evening or the fact that Izzie was home again, no one noticed the crestfallen look Alex could not conceal.
"Hey umm wow," he said, " I have an early shift tomorrow morning…I should probably get going." They did not pay much attention to his comment but all uttered a half-hearted "bye." Izzie was surrounded by Callie and Burke and could not get away to say anything more to him and to be honest, she too was caught up in the moment. George however took the time to ask in a patronizing way through his teeth, as a means of trying to stick up for his best friend…as he wrongly thought he needed to,
"Gotta go find a replacement for your most recent bedmate?"
"Something like that." Alex muttered with his back turned to George as he threw out his plate. Why bother defending himself? No one would believe him anyway. He turned and winked at him and then left to start the lonely drive home.
"So then," Burke said happily, "it looks its just Callie and George coming with us Cristina." Cristina looked up from her plate, her chewing slowed, and she glanced at Callie and George with her face rather frozen in place.
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"Relax," Meredith said, attempting to console her best friend as she dried the dishes, "I'm sure it won't be as bad and your making it out to be."
"BUT MER," she said with disbelief, "I'm gonna have to hear all sorts of comments about 'double dates' and 'the more the merrier'…and that's not even including the hours of O'Malley and Madame Bonecracker's lovefest!"
"Oh Cristina," Meredith said laughing, but wondering where Izzie had gone off to.
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Izzie had thrown her stuff on the floor of her room and changed into some pajamas, but now she lay curled up on her bed shivering despite the mid-summer humidity. Her room felt dark and endless. She stared at the two prom dresses that hung idly from her closet door and now had thin layers of dust covering them. That's kind of how she felt right now…discarded and dusty…but her eyes began to slowly droop as she realized that this was not going to be a simple or easy process. She knew her future would contain both ups AND downs but she just had to keep the willpower to wake up each morning and make herself strong enough to face them.
Breakdowns were okay as long as she allowed others to help her put herself back together again. Alex had taught her that, and she was willing to try.
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Meanwhile, back at his apartment, Alex HAD found his replacement for the evening. Unlike George had suspected though, it was not another woman, but rather a frosty bottle of beer. The condensation on the bottle chilled his hand and the cold feeling traveled up his arm until it reached his chest and caused him to shiver slightly. The place seemed so empty without her.
Soon, the deafness of sleep slowly began to overtake him and he could hear whispers of "The Late Show" begin to fade away. It would be hard getting used to her not being there with him, but he knew she needed space and time, so he was willing to try.
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A/N: I am SOOO sorry its taken me so long to update. I have been really really busy with…well…just life in general. I don't know when I will be able to update next, so I won't make any promises. However, please know I WILL try. With this chapter I kind of wanted to take a peak into why Alex sometimes acts the way he does. I know things seem kind of out of place, but I wanted Izzie to be happy for a while because the story would really be no fun with her just moping all the time. However, at the same time its rather unrealistic to just make it "all better" for her, so that's why I included that last scene with her. Umm…also, I try to parallel Alex and Izzie and best as I can so that I can demonstrate how they rely on one and another and how they will both change and grow together. Please review because I love to hear from you guys and I also will take a look at any suggestions you have for the story. I hope I haven't let you down.