Author's Note: Would you think I was crazy if I told you that I had no idea this story had got as far as chapter ten already? No wonder so many of you are so keen for the date to happen – I didn't plan to have spun the build up out quite this long! But thank you to those who think that approach has worked and were kind enough to tell me so: I happen to agree.

Disclaimer: As before. And no, the barman wasn't based on the one from Sex and the City. Never watched it. So the similarity is a coincidence. To be honest, the barman is based on Joe as much as anyone, not Joe specifically, but more the concept of Joe – the friendly barman who always likes to know what's going on.

The butterflies that had been bugging her ever since she first saw him this afternoon had gone into overdrive at around six o'clock when Alex called to say he'd booked a table at one of the restaurants on the Haymarket if that would be all right, and that he'd meet her at Leicester Square tube station at eight, again adding a casual "if that's all right with you?"

It was in the theatre district so it should be bustling, interesting, a vibrant sort of a place. 'That would be great.'

'Fine, I'll see you at eight.'

The intervening two hours had been a panic of discarded outfits as she had laid out pretty much every item of clothing she had with her (there were many suitcases and boxes waiting in storage in L.A. to be shipped over as soon as she found herself somewhere more permanent to live). Nothing seemed quite right. Her dressy things were too dressy, her work things were too worky, and her casual things… well, she didn't exactly have any casual things.

In the end, she threw on the first thing she grabbed from the top of the pile as all of a sudden it was twenty to eight and she was running catastrophically late. A quick look in the mirror before she dashed out of the door told her it wasn't a bad effort though. A simple midnight blue dress, not too short, not too low, but of a nice silky material that flowed with the movement of her body. Hopefully, it would be okay. A pair of vertiginous heels to finish it off, of course.

As she rose up the elevator out of the bowels of the underground, only a miraculous ten minutes late, Addison looked around. She was sure he would be there already, probably thinking all sorts of things of her for being late. She stepped off the elevator, getting jostled in the process and thinking that the pumps with heels in the handbag idea of earlier was perhaps one she should have repeated this evening. Then…

There he was.

He was standing, waiting for her, just on the other side of the ticket barriers. Her heart stopped at the sight of him. He was wearing black trousers, possibly the same ones as earlier, but with a blue shirt this time, open necked and casual. He was… beautiful. Simple as that. In soul as well as body, if only he would let it show from time to time. Perhaps tonight he would do; you never knew with Alex.

She walked up to him a little awkwardly. 'Sorry I'm late.'

He smiled, and it was dazzling. 'Don't worry about it, I knew you would be.'

A small furrow passed across her brow. 'How?'

This time the smile was more like a smirk. 'Well, I only gave you two hours to get ready. No woman can get ready in that time. My guess was that you were going to take three at least.'

She sputtered, outraged, for a moment or two before the smirk disappeared and was replaced by something altogether more serious. 'Don't worry about it Addison. It was worth it.'

'Huh?' How did he do that, completely steal her ability to form words?

'It was worth waiting for you. You look beautiful.'

Oh. Ohh.

By the time they were onto their main courses, Alex knew he had to get to the point. Spending time with her, indulging in that gentle banter, bordering on flirtation that was based more on looks than words; it just made him feel alive again. He had gone from automaton back to human, and it was because of her. Which made this doubly, trebly hard.

'Addison, I… I think we need to talk.'

She stared at him, that wide eyed stare that he knew meant she was at her most vulnerable. God, if only she wouldn't look at him like that. 'We should… If we're going to be working together…' He took a deep breath and forced himself to speak coherently. He was a man for Christ's sake, it wasn't meant to be this hard.

'I feel like I owe you an explanation.'

She wanted to tell him, no, it was a long time ago, forgotten and in the past, but she wouldn't have meant it. After seven years, she still wanted to know. She needed to know why he pushed her away like that. What did she do wrong? 'Okay,' she said slowly.

'I'm not intending this to come out as an excuse, because I know the way I treated you was inexcusable, but I don't do relationships. I can't do relationships. After everything you had been through with Derek and Sloan, you needed someone who could look after you, who could… barbeque, and teach children to play catch.'

Addison frowned. Those words sounded familiar. In fact, they were her words. How the Hell…? 'I wanted someone to barbeque and play catch. I needed you.'

He shook his head.

'Alex, for all that you hurt me, and you did hurt me, most of the time, you treated me a lot better than Derek or Mark did. You were there, you cared. You noticed. Do you have any idea how long it had been since someone had noticed me?'

'It doesn't matter. I couldn't… I got to see what Derek and Sloan did to you, how they hurt you, the way your face changed when one of them would say something. It was like you'd been stabbed. I didn't want to be a person who did that to you as well.'

'Who's to say you would have done?'

'Me,' he answered firmly. 'Pushing you away then was bad enough, how much worse would you have felt if I had done that six months or a year later? If I did to you what I did to Izzie that time?'

'I…' In a way, he was right, but was it his choice to have made? Couldn't she have been given the chance to make up her mind for herself? To take the risk? 'You could have let me choose for myself,' she said finally.

'Perhaps,' he replied, but she knew he hadn't convinced him.

'You know,' he said suddenly, 'for what it's worth, and though I hate to admit it, but Sloan really did love you.'

Addison looked at him across the table for a long time. Yes, Mark had loved her, in as far as he was able to, but it wasn't right. Derek always stood between them, an insurmountable obstacle. She reached out, and gently laid her hand on his cheek, taking them both back to a lonely night a long time ago. She felt him lean a little into her touch, and his breath tickled the soft skin on the underside of her wrist. 'And what about you Alex, did you really love me?'

There was sadness in his eyes as he answered. 'Does it matter now?'

'It does to me. It shouldn't, I know. You left me hurt, and humiliated, and well and truly kicked me while I was down. But… yes. It matters.'

'Then yes,' he admitted simply. 'I did really love you.'

She wanted, desperately, to ask about now, but she didn't want to push too far. That the closed off Alex Karev had opened up so much was nothing short of a miracle. Or else he really had grown up. Instead, she asked another question that had been burning on her mind.

'What about Ava? Or Rebecca, or…?'

Shutters came down over his eyes, and once again he was the old, guarded Karev that she remembered. Someone who had been hurt and was reluctant to let anyone close enough for it to happen again. 'She was committed to a residential psych facility about six years ago. As far as I know, she's still there.'

Oh God. Oh, that wasn't good at all.

Alex seemed to sense he had scared her off asking any more with his tight lipped response and smiled at her gently. 'I was with Izzie for a while after that,' he continued. 'Nearly three years in fact. But it just petered out. She's my best friend, and she calls me here most days, but as a couple, we just didn't work.'

No Ava or Izzie? No Derek or Mark? Just… them? Was she crazy, or might they have a chance here?

Somehow, in the conversation, the bill seemed to have been paid, and they were wandering along the street. The silence that had fallen between them wasn't awkward, but it was as if they had to acknowledge something far bigger than the past if they were to continue with the conversation.

They were at Trafalgar Square, sitting on the edge of the fountain before Addison began to pluck up the courage to speak again. Lights were reflecting on the surface of the water, and she reached out to touch them. He caught her hand, and they sat there, suspended in the moment.

'What now?' she asked eventually, her voice no more than a whisper.

His fingers were playing with hers, and she was afraid they were going to stop when she asked the question, but they didn't.

'I don't want to give you the wrong idea. I don't know that I'm any more capable of a relationship than I was last time around. I've – we've both – started a new job in a new place. I… I honestly don't know if "now" is a good idea.'

She could hear his words, but it was his eyes that were really doing the talking. Their velvet brown depths were gazing at her so intensely that she felt herself being sucked in, falling, drowning. She was leaning towards him, and he wasn't pulling away.

'Maybe not, but don't you think we owe it to ourselves to try? To find out?'

'I don't want to hurt you again.'

'You might not.'

'But I might.'

They were so close now Addison could feel his breath on her lips, almost hear the pounding of his heart. Or was that hers? She couldn't tell anymore.

'Addison,' she heard him whisper, his voice husky.

'Alex…'

Then the moment was broken as a drunk couple reeled towards them, the girl tripping over Alex's leg. They sprang apart and Alex rose to help the girl back onto her feet.

'I'm sho – sso shurry,' the girl slurred.

'Not a problem. Are you all right?' She didn't seem to be hurt – drunk people always had an incredible ability to bounce – but he held her arm for a moment while she tried in vain to regain her balance. Once she'd found just enough to be able to stagger away on the arm of her boyfriend, giggling foolishly, Alex sat back down. The magic had gone though.

'Sorry,' he said sheepishly. 'Maybe for the best.'

Addison smiled with resignation. She wasn't sure she trusted herself to speak. They had been so close, so damn close.

'Time to go I think. I have a shift in the morning.' He rose to his feet and offered her a gentlemanly hand. 'Friends?' he asked.

How to answer that?

'Okay Alex. Friends.'