Two weeks later Addison and Alex were leaving the hospital. "You, um, you got somewhere to go, or you want to go grab a bite to eat?" Addison asked as they headed to their cars. It was Thanksgiving and both of them had volunteered to work since neither had family to spend the holiday with.
"Yeah, Mere told me to come over when I got out. She invited everyone. I'm sure Izzie is doing most of the cooking, though, because Mere can screw up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
"Oh. That sounds nice. Have fun." She smiled, but he thought he detected a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"You should come."
"I'm not crashing Thanksgiving at my ex-husband and his pr...his wife's house." She shot him a nervous glance, hoping he hadn't caught her slip. As far as she knew Derek and Meredith hadn't announced the pregnancy yet, and she didn't want to ruin the surprise.
Luckily he was oblivious. "Oh, come on! They won't mind. Everyone will be there. O'Malley, Yang, Sloan, little Grey…"
Addison cringed. "Yeah, no. I'm gonna pass on that. You go, have a good time and eat an extra piece of pie for me. I'll see you tomorrow." Before he could protest she got in her car and drove off.
Alex went to Meredith's house, where he made small talk and raised his glass after dinner when she and Derek announced that they were expecting, but he didn't seem to thoroughly enjoy himself knowing that Addison was alone. "Hey, I'm gonna take off," he said when he found Meredith in the kitchen. He set his plate in the sink and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Congratulations."
"You can't go! We haven't even had dessert yet!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the ridiculous number of pies on the counter.
"Yeah, I know, but work was crazy today and I'm beat…"
She nodded sympathetically, knowing how tough it could get with the hospital understaffed on holidays. "Fine. But take some with you!" she ordered.
"Well, I won't argue with you over that." He grinned and loaded up a plate with apple, blueberry, pumpkin, chocolate, raspberry and coconut pie, made his rounds to say goodbye, and left, heading in the opposite direction of his apartment.
He got to Addison's house and saw that the downstairs lights were still on, so he assumed she hadn't gone to bed yet. He pulled into the driveway, climbed the front steps, took a deep breath and knocked, hoping she wouldn't be pissed to see him.
He needn't have worried. She broke into a shy smile as soon as she opened the door. "Karev! What are you doing here?"
"Well, Mere made me take all this pie, and I was on my way home and saw your lights were still on so I thought maybe instead of me eating a piece for you we could both eat it…"
Although she had never been to his place she was fairly certain her house wasn't on his way home, but she let it slide. "Okay, yeah, come in." She put on a pot of coffee, then got out two plates. "Okay, let's see what you have."
"There wasn't any strawberry, but I'm sure there's something here Ella likes," he said as she studied the plate.
"Ooo, is this coconut? I don't know about Ella, but I can't pass up coconut. Unless you want that one," she added hastily, not wanting to sound greedy.
"Go for it. I'm here for the apple and pumpkin."
Once the coffee was ready they took their dessert to the living room, where the TV was tuned to a Christmas movie. "Christmas movies? Already?" he teased.
"Thanksgiving is the official start to the holiday season. It's a tradition, watching Christmas movies after Thanksgiving dinner." She left out the fact that her Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a rotisserie chicken and sides from the 24-hour grocery store a few blocks away, hardly traditional but she wasn't about to cook a turkey dinner for herself after working all day.
"And let me guess, you'll have a tree up by this weekend?"
"No! It's too early, the needles will start dropping before Christmas. The tree won't go up for a few weeks." The rest of the decorations, though? Definitely coming out this weekend, she thought excitedly. "But, um, I might need some help with that."
"Of course. But only if I get Christmas cookies."
"I will make you...okay, I can't lie...I will get you the best Christmas cookies money can buy."
"You don't bake Christmas cookies?" He knew she wasn't big on cooking but given her enthusiasm for the holiday he found that surprising.
"Who was going to teach me to bake? Bizzy?"
"Who's Bizzy?"
"My mother."
"You call your mom Bizzy?"
"Mother. Not mom, she hates that. Mother. And yes, we call her Bizzy. Bizzy never baked Christmas cookies, and then I went off to college, and med school, and became a doctor, and who the hell has time for baking Christmas cookies?"
He didn't know much about her family - we? She never mentioned any brothers or sisters -but he felt a little sad for her hearing the way she spoke about her mother. "Well, maybe someday Ella will want to bake Christmas cookies. We could give it a shot. I mean, we're doctors. We cut people open and put them back together. How hard can it be to follow a recipe? Of course you can't even follow directions for a crib, so maybe not…"
"Is that a challenge?"
He smirked. "Maybe."
"Oh, you're on. I can bake cookies. I totally can…" Her voice was less confident than her words, though, and they both laughed before falling into an easy silence as they finished their dessert.
The movie ended soon after and he was about to stand up when he remembered something. "Oh, so, I guess I should tell you this before you hear it through the gossip mill at work. Shepherd and Meredith are -"
"Pregnant? With twins?"
"You knew?"
"Yeah. She was having some spotting a few weeks ago and her OB was unavailable so she came to me."
"Oh. That day in the elevator? That's what that was all about? And you didn't say anything?"
She shrugged. "Wasn't my story to tell. I figured they'd announce it when they were ready. And, you know, doctor-patient confidentiality and all that."
"And you're...okay?"
"Yeah. I am. I mean, it hurt a little, at first. I wanted...we wanted babies. We did. But we were so busy with work, and it never seemed to be the right time, and then...well, you know what happened. He's not my husband any more, hasn't been for two years. He moved on, they're starting a family. I figured it would happen eventually and I'm...happy for them. I have Ella. It's not the way I thought it would be, but I'm getting my baby so how could I be anything but happy? And...they're good people, Derek and Meredith. They deserve to be happy, too."
She seemed genuinely happy, so he smiled. "Well good. I'm happy that you're happy. And now, if you'll excuse me, I really should get going."
She got up and walked him to the door, giving him a peck on the cheek before he stepped outside. "Thanks for the pie. Happy Thanksgiving."
Okay, just a little Addex fluff, no big deal. Hope you like it.