A/N: Sorry about not update for the whole summer. I hope I didn't loose too many readers.

Chapter 8-

It took a few moments for Derek to process the information Richard gave him about Addison. "Are you sure?" he asked. The look on Richard's face revealed that it wasn't a joke, he was dead serious. "But I didn't do anything."

Richard's expression remained unchanged, "Do you want her to stay?"

Derek hesitated; sure he did want her to leave Seattle before when they were married, but now all he wanted was to be friends. "Yes."

Richard's voice softened. "Then do something about it," he said simply.

"She said she was leaving?" A voice asked from behind them. They turned around to face an anxious intern.

"It doesn't concern you." Richard sighed, annoyed at the level of curiosity everybody had in this hospital. Apparently Richard was the only one who hadn't heard the most recent gossip going around the hospital.

"Yes it does." The Chief gave Alex a curious look but it only took him a few seconds to fill in the blanks, everything started to make sense now, there had been talk about a budding relationship with an intern and an attending but he didn't expect it to have been Alex and Addison.

Richard shook his head in frustration, "This hospital needs Addison; she's one of the best. Don't do anything… stupid." He stated giving both of them a stern look. They nodded meekly. "Good." Once he was sure they were at an understanding he left the two men alone in an uncomfortable silence.

"Uh you should probably talk to Addison. She was acting a little weird earlier," Derek said.

"Yeah I guess I should."

x x x

Alex had no idea what he should say. He didn't know how he exactly felt about this; he didn't know if he should be angry, surprised, hurt, or all of the above. One thing he did know was that he didn't want Addison to leave. Their relationship was the only one he had in a while that he hasn't screwed up. He couldn't help but wonder if he had somehow screwed this one up as well.

He was pulled from his thoughts when a nurse said she had seen Dr. Montgomery going into one of the on call rooms a little bit earlier. Alex knocked on the door Addison went into but received no answer. He went in and saw her lying on a bed. Without a word he sat down on the bed across from hers.

Alex couldn't think of a subtle way of asking her so he was just going to come out with it. "Are you leaving Seattle?"

Addison knew that one was coming, "I don't know."

"But you're thinking about it?"

Addison hesitated, "I don't know what I'm thinking right now." She said in all honesty.

"Addison…"

"Please Alex right now I just want to be alone."

"We need to talk about this," Alex urged.

"No we don't," Addison snapped.

"I can't just ignore this. Aren't couples supposed to work things out?" Addison kept silent. "Was it something I did?" Alex asked solemnly.

Addison's tone became softer, "No you didn't do anything."

Alex sighed; at least the problem wasn't his fault. He then realized what the probably might be, and he knew that it was something she had to do herself. "You can't keep running away from your problems, eventually they'll catch up. You should know that by now."

Somewhere inside her she knew he was right but running away was so easy, she wanted to say he was right but the only three words that came out of her mouth was, "Please just leave."

"Fine," If she didn't want to talk about it, Alex couldn't force it. He gave up and headed for the door. "Leave if you want, apparently you have nothing here in Seattle stopping you." The door slammed on his way out.

It wasn't the way Alex had wanted to end it, but if she was thinking about leaving then their relationship didn't mean much to her, so there was no point to even keep dating. If this relationship meant anything to Addison she would stay and what he said wouldn't matter. He half expected her to burst out the door and come after him. However, he wasn't too surprised when she didn't.

Addison laid there, tears rolling down her cheeks, trying to get what Alex said out of her mind. If he didn't want her to stay then there was really no point in her being in Seattle and making herself miserable. The rain was really no help either. Alex was the only thing stopping her and it looks like she really messed it up.

x x x

The next day neither Addison nor Alex had come to work and by lunchtime it got most of the surgical wing of SGH talking. Rumors had already spread about an argument, a possible break up and Addison's possible departure.

"No way!" Meredith exclaimed. "I thought it was really going to work out between them."

Cristina snorted, "Seriously? They were just a disaster from the start. No way it would have worked out." She said then took a bite out of her hotdog.

"Guys it's just a stupid rumor," Izzie pointed out. "Neither of them came to work today, so you know, anything could have happened."

Meredith nodded. "Yeah. Maybe Addison left and Alex went after her," she suggested.

"They're probably just having make up sex," Cristina put simply.

"Cristina!" Izzie scowled putting down her burger.

"What it's more probable than Addison leaving and Karev coming after her," she said, rolling her eyes. "I can't believe they even lasted as long as they did."

Just then Alex walked by. "Guys, it's Alex, shut up," Meredith whispered as he passed them. If he had heard them, there was no indication on his face that he had. He went to a vacant table and sat down.

"He looks kind of sad," Izzie noticed.

"Maybe they did break up," Meredith said.

"Do you think we should go talk to him?" Izzie asked with a concerned tone.

"No. If he wanted to talk to someone then he would have sat here," Cristina explained. "And plus…"

"Yeah I think we should go to talk to him," Meredith interjected and got up from her seat along with Izzie.

"Come on, we should just leave him alone," when they didn't listen Cristina sighed, picked up her tray and followed them.

Wordlessly the trio sat down. Alex sighed; he knew what this was going to be about.