Author's Note: Well, here's your next episode of Grey's! Several of you have been kind enough to say that you think of the new chapters as episodes so here is the next one for you. Sorry you've had to wait a little while for it – life, you know. Thank you for all the reviews, I love hearing from you all, particularly as you say such lovely things.
Disclaimer: As before
As she walked into the hospital's main reception, Addison went through her daily ritual of slipping off the sensible, dull flats she secretly wore to do battle with the Underground every morning, and slid her feet into her signature heels with a satisfied sigh. God, did she need them today.
They were her favourite pair. She felt like she could conquer the world in these shoes. Prada, and pure class; black, classic court style and made out of the softest Italian leather, with high narrow heels and a pointed toe. She drew every ounce of courage that they gave her all the way up through her body, using it to straighten her spine and hold her head up.
She remembered when she'd first come to Seattle, and she'd needed so much courage – nothing less than three inch heels – to face Derek every day. Her shoe collection had doubled in those months. To remain dignified in the face of his snarling, biting, hurt sarcasm had given her strength that she'd never had in New York. And when he was cold towards her, or worse, when he'd supposedly forgiven her but she caught him looking sideways at Meredith at every opportunity. It had been the hardest lesson she'd ever learnt, but she was going to put it to good use today.
If she let it, the humiliation of last night could overwhelm her, as it had done in the past – echoes of you're not my girlfriend rolled around in her head– but not today. She was older, if not wiser, and it was going to be different this time. She was going to make Alex talk about this if it was the last thing she did.
By lunchtime though, she was beginning to wonder if all her good intentions were going to waste. She hadn't seen Alex at all. Well, that wasn't entirely true; twice she had seen the briefest glimpse of him disappearing around a corner as she approached and she was reminded of when they had kissed in Joe's bar and she had spent the day avoiding him. No wonder he'd been annoyed with her then; she was finding now it was damn frustrating.
Alex spent his journey into work on the tube trying to compose some sort of apology speech, but even he was appalled by the words he came up with. Everything was, as Steve had predicted, pathetically inadequate. It was based around a sorry, I'm an ass sort of premise, but every time he came up with something, the image of Addison, hurt and shocked on the sofa, with her cheeks still flushed pink from their passion, popped into his head and ridiculed him. Inadequate didn't even come close.
Nevertheless, he knew he had to talk to her; she deserved that much from him. His resolve held right up until the moment he walked through the main doors of the hospital and saw her. He tried to walk over to her, but somehow his legs seemed to have turned to stone and he was frozen to the spot. Instead, he just took a moment to watch her.
She was rummaging in an oversized handbag and he grinned to himself as he saw her pull out a pair of shoes and slip them on her feet. Sometimes, because he spent so much time with her these days, he forgot how stunning she was, and it was moments like this that reminded him. He got the feeling he was witnessing a private little ritual, and felt a weird sense of privilege.
She was standing up straight again and smoothing down the crisp black suit she was wearing. He thought she looked as if she was trying to summon up the courage to face the day, and that made him feel terrible. One of the things he'd always hated about the way Derek had treated her was that sometimes it seemed like every last ounce of energy and fight had been knocked out of her, and he knew that he was one of the few people she'd ever allowed to see it. Now here he was, doing the same thing. God, he was stupid.
He got decidedly more stupid as the day went on though. Every time he saw the flash of her red hair coming towards him, he ducked into the nearest doorway, behind a supply trolley, anything to hide from her. Each time he did it, he berated himself, but like a child knowing he was doing wrong, he did it anyway.
Once, Michael happened to be walking past at the most inconvenient of moments and caught him cowering behind a particularly large hospital porter. Typically, he called out to him deliberately loudly. 'Alex, good morning.'
He shot his boss a dark look, waiting until he was sure Addison had departed around the corner before he re-emerged. 'Would you like me to explain how may ways that wasn't funny, or do you think you can work it out for yourself?'
'Sometimes you just make it too easy; I can't resist. Should I invite you to my office to bait you further or might you hit me?'
'I might hit you,' Alex replied grimly.
'Fair enough.' Out of the very corner of his eye, Michael could see Addison lurking and he thought he had better not torture the younger consultant any sooner. He had noticed Alex's deliberate acts of avoidance and Addison had a militant look on her face. Whatever Alex had done, doubtless he was going to have to pay for it.
'I think I'll leave you to your game of hide and seek now,' he grinned. 'Good luck.'
Addison had been getting steadily more frustrated with Alex as the morning went on, but was conscious that after the first time she'd kissed him, that night in Joe's a million years ago, she'd avoided him, refused to talk about it, for the better part of a week, so in a way she was in no position to complain. That time, he'd eventually ambushed her, and she didn't think that sounded like too bad a plan right now. She saw Michael talking to him, and lurked just out of sight, ready to pounce.
'Karev,' she said imperiously, and was rewarded with the sight of Alex starting in surprised.
Immediately, he looked flustered, and she saw him glance from side to side, as if looking for an escape route.
'About last night…'
'Uh… now isn't a good time Addison. I'm really busy. I… umm…' he grabbed a chart out of the hands of a passing nurse. 'I have to go check on –' he paused to consult it – 'on Baby Donnelly.'
'Alex, don't walk away from me, we need to discuss this.'
He averted his eyes from her cool blue gaze and began to back away down the corridor. She was standing there, as tall as he was in her heels, hands on hips and looking truly terrifying if he didn't know her well enough to know what there was underneath the surface. And then, a fraction of a second before she opened her mouth to speak, he knew what she was going to say, and cussed his stupid, annoying self of seven years ago. Payback's a bitch.
'Well, when you have a minute, I'd like to talk about all the kissing,' she called out, her voice ringing off the walls.
He stopped walking, and groaned as everyone within a twenty foot radius stopped what they were doing and turned to stare. He was in half a mind to stalk off, but the corners of her mouth were turning upwards in a smirk and he found himself chuckling softly. 'I kinda deserved that, didn't I?'
'Payback's a bitch,' she repeated his own thoughts to him.
'Too damn true.'
'So I take it I don't have to drag you into a supply cupboard then?'
He sighed, and smiled at her. 'I, uh,' he looked down at the chart to give himself a moment to summon the courage to meet her gaze. When he looked up again, her eyes were glowing and he felt himself falling into their depths.
'I have no idea who Baby Donnelly is,' he admitted. 'Do you want to go grab a coffee? I know where Michael keeps the good stuff.'
'That sounds like a plan.'