A/N: Another author's note...sorry. Just a short, mostly fluffy chapter as Alex and Blake discuss the events of dinner and how even they struggle to understand why they came together as they did.

Chapter 3 – A Bizarre Portmanteau

"I should never have eaten dessert," Blake groaned as he lay down on the bed in the hotel room, loosening his tie but not mustering the energy to take his jacket off. He lay very still and closed his eyes; walking from the restaurant to the hotel, though it wasn't at all far, had nearly killed him.

"No, you shouldn't," Alex commented, shutting the door behind them. She pulled off her coat and draped it over the back of a chair before perching herself on the end of the bed where Blake was lying, noticing that he grimaced at the movement she created on the mattress. "But I could tell you weren't going to back down when Frances forbade you to order the cheesecake."

Blake rubbed his eye sockets and smiled ruefully. "Stubbornness is a mandatory Collins trait, I'm afraid. I should know by know that my mother knows me best when it comes to my stomach."

"Well, if it makes you feel better," Alex laughed, pulling off her shoes. "You did a good job of pretending you weren't going to explode."

He smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you."

She rose to get him a glass of water and when she returned, they sat quietly for a while; Alex was lost in thought and humming quietly to herself, and Blake was trying to let the contents of his stomach settle a bit before he attempted to move again. Blake cleared his throat after some time, having gone over the events of the evening in his mind. "So. Jane's husband..."

Alex pulled some clips from her hair and shook it out, groaning. "I know..."

Blake laughed, but regretted the sudden movement. "She can say what she likes about us, but I would not have put them together in a million years. He's very...nice...amiable"

"Oh yeah," Alex agreed, looking down at him. "If not a little...you know..."

"Dull?"

"A little," she nodded, fighting a smile. "But very nice." She turned away from him again and stared ahead.

"You know," Blake said quietly, his tone becoming a little more sombre as he thought carefully over how to word what he wanted to say. "You changed the subject every time Jane started talking about her wedding." He managed to sit forward, as she was, with a small groan.

"I did?"

"Yes," he mused. "But if it makes you feel any better, you did a good job of pretending you weren't." Alex rolled her eyes, but she didn't smile and kept her eyes focused ahead. "Do you want to talk to me about it?" Blake offered, pulling off his jacket and laying it beside him.

"It's not what you're thinking," she said, flushing crimson.

"I hadn't really got any thoughts on it," Blake assured her calmly. "I was interested on yours."

Alex heaved a deep sigh. "It's just...maybe you can understand." She paused uncomfortably. "My entire life, every decision I've made –good and bad – was all for one endpoint: dance. And I sat there and realised that I'm nearly thirty and I have nothing to show for that."

"You are co-director of a performing arts school," Blake reminded her. Alex pulled a face.

"Yeah, I know, but that's not what I mean. I have achievements, success, prima roles to be proud of. The directorship was the first decision I made that wasn't to further my career," she added, smiling a little, which Blake returned. She'd taken it to stay with him in Baltimore, and they both knew that. "But when I was growing up, my dad used to always say that it didn't bother him whether he was at the top of his profession, because he loved my Mom and me, and he had a family to go home to at the end of the day. And the only thing he would count as a failure was if that fell apart."

Blake listened carefully as she spoke. He felt like reaching out to touch her, but she was moving her hands expressively as she talked to him and so he sat still.

"So when I changed the subject at dinner, it wasn't because I was jealous, or because I didn't want to hear it, it was just that everything she spoke of reminded me of everything I've given up over the years. And I'm not fishing for a marriage proposal – I mean, I don't know what's ahead of us...that is to say I wouldn't..." Alex trailed off, blushing deeply and putting her face over her hands and laughing. "Oh gosh, this is awkward," she groaned, lowering her hands to look at him. "I shouldn't have said anything. I should have just lied and said I hate talking about weddings."

Blake fought a smile and caught sight of them both in the full length mirror across the room. What had Andie said at dinner? "You were obviously totally different people when you first met. People who shouldn't have ended up together." But here they were. They weren't so different really, and when looked at their reflection – the both of them sat on the edge of the bed – they looked good together. He liked being with Alex. It would be a lie to say he hadn't considered marrying her – be it now or back when he was a young adult. He couldn't vocalise that though. He stole a glance at the woman beside her; her hair had grown quite long since her return to Baltimore, longer than Blake had ever seen it. She'd worn the sides back tonight, but now, hanging about her face in dishevelled waves, she looked more and more like the seventeen year old girl he'd first started dating. "That's ok. I'm glad you talked to me about it."

"Even though I just made everything awkward?"

"Well," he laughed. "Not as awkward as Andie probing into our relationship at dinner tonight."

Alex laughed, grateful for the change of conversation, which she suspected he had done for her benefit. A prickly heat had taken residence down her back as she'd been trying to explain herself, and it had only just disappeared. "Nice play with the word 'baseball', Mr. Sly."

Blake smirked. "Yes, that will have Miss West tying herself in knots as she tries to work it out. Chase won't have a clue, and I doubt my Mom will tell her."

Alex rose from the bed and went to the dresser to take her jewellery off. "Probably not. But my Dad might – when he comes over for Christmas."

Blake paused and looked visibly concerned as he leaned forward to pull off his own shoes. "I hadn't thought of that. Of course I could ask William not to say anything. But that will probably mean I'll pay for it in ridicule."

"Don't be silly – Dad's always liked you."

"I know that," Blake smiled, rising with a bit of effort. He was still full but the worst of it had eased off. "But he's also always enjoyed a laugh at my expense."

"True," his girlfriend laughed. She turned to him and leant against the dressed. "Jane was telling me," Alex said wistfully, looking heavenward as she took out her earring, "that when we were at school everyone made a portmanteau of our names and they used to call us 'Hollins' behind our backs. Did you know that?"

Blake shook his head. He took off his watch and lay it on the bedside table.

"You know it's funny," Alex sighed, grabbing her wash bag and fiddling with the zip. "It bugged me when Jane kept saying it, but when I look back, I have no idea how we ended up together either. I think baseball had something to do with it but...we were totally at odds with each other at first. And yet at the same time..."

"It doesn't feel at all out of the ordinary?" Blake suggested, pacing towards her with his hands in the pockets of his trousers.

"Something like that."

"Can I be honest with you about something?" he asked, standing quite close, just a little taller than her.

"I'd like it if you were."

"I didn't think you'd even come to the first rehearsal," Blake admitted, taking the wash bag out of her hands and replacing it on the dresser so he could interlace their fingers. "We had a run in, before we'd even started, and I had pretty much convinced myself that you weren't coming. When you walked through the door, no one was more surprised than me."

Alex cocked an eyebrow and looked down at their hands. "Can I be honest with you about something?"

"Please do."

"I wasn't going to go. I talked myself in and out of it all day, from the moment you stuck that stupid notice up. I made a list Blake," she deadpanned, making him smile. "A list of pros and cons."

"I should imagine the cons part was extensive," Blake said wryly, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, it was mostly cons," she shrugged. "But I came in the end."

"I'm glad you did," Blake answered, leaning in to kiss her. Alex's hands loosed themselves from his grip and snaked around his neck, and returned his kiss softly. He pulled back quite suddenly with a frown.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But...Hollins? Seriously?"

"That's what she said."

"Huh." He glanced off past her shoulder. "Who came up with that? It's ridiculous."

"Well, it could have been worse," Alex laughed, letting go of him and taking up her wash bag again. She padded over to the en suite, leaving him in his irritated stupor.

"How?"

"Um...We could have been 'Balex'. Or 'Cale'," she called out from the bathroom.

"Cale sounds better," he replied grimly, unbuttoning his shirt and going to the wardrobe for a hanger.

"Kale is a type of cabbage!"

Blake paused with a coat hanger in hand and frowned. "Nevertheless, I'm just saying. The very idea of it is ridiculous. We were hardly a celebrity couple and so we didn't warrant all this attention-"

"Blake!" Alex said exasperatedly, poking her head around the door of the bathroom and cutting him off. "Shut. Up."

She disappeared again, and he smiled to himself. "I'm just saying," he started, but before he could continued, a toothbrush came flying through the air with precision aim and hit him in the arm, fairly hard. He picked it up, muttering about how much it had hurt and when he looked up, Alex had appeared in the doorway and walked forward to yank the toothbrush from his grasp with a scowl. He chuckled, and even with a scowl, she couldn't help but flash him a grin. If only all their fights had been this good natured.