Author's Note: Again, as always, thank you for your reviews, comments, and the interest you show in this story. I never get bored of hearing what you have to say about it. Sorry it's taken me a week to update this again, I've been pretty busy, but I'll try to pull my socks up a bit.

Disclaimer: As before

Three hours was not enough sleep, Alex groaned to himself as he rode the elevator up to the third floor, where his and Addison's office was situated. Three hours hadn't been enough as an intern, and it definitely wasn't enough now. He was getting too old for the whole going out thing, and wondered how he used to be able to manage it. Not that last night had been "going out" as such, but still. The trouble was, he mused, that a night in with Addison was likely to lead to even less sleep.

He made his way, slightly dazed from the lack of rest, along the corridor to his office. He had fifteen minutes before rounds, and sitting in the rattling, half empty carriage on the tube on his way in, the thought occurred to him that he still had Michael's coffee. A cup of Kenyan Roast would go down a treat right now.

He shrugged his coat off and threw it over the back of his chair; no doubt Addison would tut at him later for his messiness, but in truth, she was no tidier herself, even now her desk was liberally littered with papers. He filled the kettle at the little sink that was in the corner by the window, and switched it on. The blinds on the window were closed but he was too bushed to open them.

As he waited for the water to boil, he flicked through a few memos that were lying on his desk – blood doning in the radiology conference room next Tuesday, a retirement party for a departing nurse at the weekend, an approval request form for another three incubators that the SCBU wanted him to lend his support to. None of it was urgent, although if he had a minute later, he should probably pop over to SCBU and have a word with Doctor Shaw, that piece of paper had been sitting in the same spot on his desk for over a week.

The kettle was coming to the boil, and he turned back to it. When he reached for the tin of coffee that had been there though, it was gone.

'Looking for something?'

The voice came out of nowhere, and Alex jumped in surprise. He spun around to see Michael Newton-Jones sitting in the far corner.

'Holy shit Michael,' he exclaimed, 'was the drama really necessary?'

'We are talking about coffee Alex. There are no lengths to which I will not go to protect my supply, or to gain revenge on those who plunder it.'

'Idiot,' Alex replied succinctly, and took another mug out of the cupboard. He held his hand out for the tin, and after a moment of hesitation, Michael tossed it over to him.

'You'd better have a good reason for stealing my coffee Alex,' Michael said a minute later, when they were both sitting down, hands wrapped around the hot drinks against the early morning cold.

'I do,' Alex said with a smug grin.

Michael raised an eyebrow enquiringly, but Alex didn't give him an answer right away – he deserved to be kept waiting a little after that stupid breaking into his office stunt; he didn't think his heart rate had quite returned to normal yet. Besides, he enjoyed these battles now just as much as Michael did.

Eventually, Michael broke first and rolled his eyes with a sigh. 'And what might that good excuse be?'

'Addison and I came to a truce yesterday over a cafetière of your excellent Kenyan Roast.'

'Ah-ha, then your treachery might not have been entirely wasted. What do you mean by a truce?'

'A cessation of hostilities.' Christ, he was even beginning to talk like Michael. He needed to hang out with normal people more often.

'When were there hostilities?'

'There weren't, not really, but I was pretty sure there were going to be yesterday morning.'

'Oh yes, of course, your game of hide and seek.'

Alex scoffed. 'Fine one you are to talk about hide and seek. You haven't called Clare Townsend in three weeks – if you must have affairs with nurses, can you not choose my scrub nurses? She's been useless in the OR since you slept with her.'

'You digress,' Michael said pointedly.

'All right, we came to a truce over coffee, and an agreement over dinner.'

'And what did you agree?' He didn't really have to ask. The older man could see the smile, a deep seated peace, in Alex's sleep deprived eyes; he'd known since the second he saw him enter the office. In fact, he'd had a fair idea ever since he'd noticed his coffee was missing. Only his secretary – a staunch tea drinker – and Alex knew where he kept it.

'You know how I said I'd tell you if the situation between Addison and I changed?' Michael nodded. 'Well, consider this your notification.'

'So you're…'

'Dating, I guess,' Alex finished for him, then considered his words. 'A little more that that really, in a relationship.' He was trying terms out loud, but none of them seemed quite right for them. 'I don't know, it's kind of undefined. But we're definitely…'

He let the sentence hang in the air. The more he thought about it, the more he thought that there wasn't some conventional term or title or phrase to apply to them. They had the bond of history between them, shared experiences and moments, that had given them sort of a fast track to being in love with each other now, but the relationship between them was so new that there was still a tinge of uncertainty to it all. On one side of the coin, they had been in love with each other effectively for seven years, on the other side, they had only been on one real date. How do you describe that?

'Good,' said Michael emphatically, distracting him from his thoughts. 'About bloody time.' Then a frown flashed across his face. 'This happened yesterday? The twenty second?'

'Um, yeah,' Alex said, not sure what he was getting at.

'Morning or afternoon?'

'Huh?'

'Pre or post noon? Am or pm?'

'Pm. Why?' There was a gleam of something vaguely akin to triumph in Michael's eyes that aroused Alex's suspicions.

'Would you be less offended to hear I just won seven hundred and fifty pounds in the pool we had going on you if I said I would take you and Addison out to dinner on the proceeds?'

'Infinitely.'

'That's decided then.'

Michael wasn't as given to torturing Addison as he was Alex, but when he saw her a few hours later, walking down the corridor with a grin bordering on the inane plastered on her face, he couldn't help himself. 'Addison,' he called out.

She spun around. 'Michael, morning, how are you?'

'Excellent thank you. Delighted to hear the happy news.'

'My god, he told you already?' She laughed. 'He just couldn't keep it in, could he?'

'Actually, I ambushed him as it happens. And, incidentally, if I were Alex, I would be shouting it from the rooftops right now. The whole of London would know.'

'One of the main reasons why I am with Alex, and not you then Michael,' she said. Michael always adopted a gallant air of flattery towards her, but he'd always respected that she was Alex's girl, even when she wasn't.

'Congratulations. I'm happy for you.'

'Thank you. I'm happy for me too.'

The Alex Karev he knew now was an extraordinary man, but Michael had done his homework, and knew he hadn't always been so, not overtly anyway. He wondered how this somewhat epic love story had started – and to him, it was an epic love story. These two people had loved each other, unknowingly, without any hope of realisation of their dreams, for seven years of absence from each other. He got bored when he hadn't seen his wife for seven hours. What Alex and Addison had was, to him, completely unfathomable, but utterly admirable.

'Why him?'

'I'm sorry?'

'I don't mean now,' he explained. 'Now is obvious. But every surgeon of note in the northern hemisphere had heard of Derek and Addison Shepherd. Why an intern after that?'

He knew the question was somewhat inappropriate, but he and Addison had become something approaching friends in the time that she had been there, and he was fairly sure she wouldn't be offended.

'Because Alex didn't judge me. He couldn't care less that I cheated on Derek, or that I came to Seattle to steal back Meredith's great love. Of course, he was an arrogant little sod at first, hated that he was stuck on OB/GYN, but… I don't know. He…' She remembered his words, and the warmth that she felt trickle through her as he said them. The warmth that was there all the time now. 'He'd have noticed, if I went missing. He would have noticed. And he was the only one.'

'I don't believe that for a minute,' Michael said.

'It's true. When I needed someone, Alex was there, and in those few months, I fell in love with him. I didn't mean to, and I didn't want to, but ever since, no-one's even been able to come close.' She gave a little shrug. 'It's simple really. I wish we'd seen it like that at the time.'

Michael touched her briefly on the arm. 'Well, I'm happy for you now,' he repeated.

She smiled back at him, and he saw the exact same expression of love and peace and contentment in her eyes as had been in Alex's. 'Thank you.'

Suddenly, her pager went off. 'Sorry, I'd better…'

'Yes, of course.' He watched her walk away, and called out after her. 'So, does this mean you and I are definitely off the table?' he joked.

'Yes Michael,' she laughed back at him over her shoulder. 'Definitely off the table.'

Author's Note: Anyone for a little spoiler? Well, a little one is what you're going to get – I don't want to give away too much too soon. In the reviews I received on the last chapter, there were two guesses as to what 'Be careful what you wish for' would be about, and I can now tell you, one of you was spot on and the other was not. By the way, the first chapter is all written already, but I'm not going to post it until this story is finished. Because I'm mean.