A/N Thanks to all those lovely people who have reviewed :)
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Alex lay in bed, looking out the window where dawn had just begun to break. His arms were wrapped tightly around Izzie, who was beautiful even now, in the wee hours of the morning – and who appeared to be sleeping soundly still. He had been wide awake for most of the night, not being able to shut his mind, that had been working on overdrive, off.
Childhood – letter – another dead parent. Last night, he had finally drawn the conclusion that not everything in life could be solved all alone by himself, and had initiated a conversation with Izzie that he was sure his girlfriend had not seen coming. Sure, it had not been the overly emotional tale of a kid who had nothing, fought for everything and blamed everyone else. True to himself, he had instead given her a brutally honest account of all that had not been great in a life that was far from perfect.
Izzie had listened without so much as a word, expressions of horror and disbelief and pity gracing her features every so often. It was exactly what he didn't want, yet exactly what he knew was appropriate. Had he been the recipient of such news, he doubted he would have been able to stay unaffected. When he had told her all that he felt comfortable with that evening, she had taken him into her arms and they had just lain like that – together, no questions, no answers, no judgments. It was that moment when he had realized that she was probably 'it' for him. He seriously doubted he could ever feel as 'at home' with anyone else, as he did with her. Telling her that however would be another conversation she would not see coming, and he figured he'd give them some more time.
The changing numbers of the alarm clock brought him back to the present. Today was a new day, and he still had a decision to make about his father's will, so he closed his eyes again and fell into a fitful slumber.
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Cassandra had no clue about court or law or attorney's or any of that. And thankfully, up until today, she had never felt the necessity to deepen her knowledge. She did, however, have a pretty good feeling that the way she had talked the secretary of the attorney's office that was handling their father's last will, into giving her her brother's telephone number, had been shady at best. Shady and fun.
But that had transpired this afternoon. Currently, she was pacing her living room, dialing an unfamiliar number with shaking fingers. She was this close to slamming the receiver back down onto its cradle after the first ring. And again after the second. And when she was on her way to doing exactly what she wanted after the third, she heard a female voice answer.
"Hello?"
A million thoughts crossed her mind in a split second. Had she punched in the wrong numbers? Was this really her brother's residence? What if he didn't want to talk to her? Hated her even, for what she had done. What if she wasn't ready to talk to him? After all it had been almost two decades…Would they still get along? And who was this woman that had picked up the phone? Was she talking to her brother's friend or girlfriend, or her sister-in-law?
"Hellooo?" came the impatient voice over the line again. Her inner turmoil must've had taken her longer to sort out than she realized and she figured now would be the time to say something. Anything at all.
"Ok listen, if this is some sort of prank call…"
She took a deep breath and interrupted the unknown lady. "No, no no…it's not. I'm sorry…I know it's late, but I was just wondering…Ummm…Is Alexander Karev around?
"Why? Who's calling?"
So he was there. Deep breath again. She thought she was about to faint.
"Just…could I talk to him?" Suave.
"You can if you tell me who you are – or what this is about for that matter. Alex is…a friend of mine, and I won't just put him on the phone with some weirdo that's…I don't know…bored or crazy or something…"
Protective. Interesting. The way her conversational partner had stressed the word friend led Cassandra to believe that there was actually more to it than that. People that knew her well sometimes called her perceptive, she liked to think of herself as observant more than anything. But she was not having this conversation to analyze her brother's love life – or lack thereof – so she found her voice again.
'Hey, my sister took off when I was eleven, never heard from her again, but gee, what a lovely childhood I had after that' was not necessarily something that came up during casual conversation. Therefore, since she had no clue if Alex had ever mentioned his relatives at all, she went with the other truth.
"I'm Cassie." A short pause on the other side. Ok…maybe he had.
"Cassie who?" Ok, so he definitely had.
"Cassandra Martins." It wasn't a lie.
The other woman hesitated. "Give me a minute." Well, Cassie thought, her brother's 'friend' certainly wasn't politeness personified, but as long as whoever 'she' was, was looking out for him, Cassie wouldn't complain.
A short while – too short for her, given her current situation – and some muffled sounds later, another voice came on.
"Hello?" He sounded anxious and weary and most of all – grown up. It brought tears to her eyes instantly, but she refused to let them fall once more.
"Alex?" Silence for a while. She could not picture the expression on his face – it had been too long – yet she was willing to bet it had something to do with skepticism. Maybe even fear? Crossing paths with one's past was never exactly cause for celebration if you came from a background like theirs.
After a few more seconds, she heard him again. "Cass? Oh my God…Is that really you?"
She wasn't able to come up with anything intelligent given the state she was in, so she went with the obvious. "Yeah…it's me."
The rest of their short exchange was overshadowed by a haze of her held back tears mixed with his disbelief and amazement, along with promises of an actual meeting – after nearly twenty years, at an attorney's office half-way across the country, to assure themselves personally of their father's demise.
After putting the receiver down, Cassandra was this close to a nervous breakdown. Her whole body was shaking and she could not clear her head enough to be able to digest the very first conversation she just had with her brother in forever. It definitely had been somewhat…formal. Not too much emotion on display, but knowing them, this simple fact came as no surprise. They had been raised to know better. Emotion was for crybabies. Apparently, she had turned into one along the way, because now, after hanging up, she was outright sobbing – without a clue as to how she felt about what had just transpired.
With still shaking fingers, she dialed the – this time familiar – number to her husbands cell phone. She would have to find a way to tell him that she was going to Iowa next week.
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Alex was sitting on his bed, elbows on his knees, head in his hands, staring at the floor. Izzie, who had left the room after handing him the phone earlier, was now back to make sure he was ok – and to enquire about the call. He didn't know what to tell her.
How do you describe your first conversation in 18 years with a person who had been your entire life – until she ceased to be in it? He had no answer. So he continued to stare some more. He felt Izzie sit down next to him, her hand stroking his back lovingly, mumbling something about cookies and hot chocolate and being there when and if he was ready to confide in her.
Turning his head sideways, all he saw was her caring eyes, her 'being there', and in a split second, he made a decision. "Hey Iz…How do you feel about a trip to Iowa?"
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