Author's Note: Well, for those of you who are rather hoping that the epilogue will carry on ad infinitum, there is a strong chance you might just get your wish. Okay, maybe not quite ad infinitum, but it's beginning to look like they might go on for a while anyway. Thank you for all the reviews on the last chapter, it was great to hear from so many of you. And if you have enjoyed this story, please may I encourage you to check out my new story, Be careful what you wish for. Without wishing to upset all the Maddison fans who are currently reading it, it's definitely going to be another Addex story – just be patient!!

Disclaimer: As before

It was much later that evening, and they were both lying on the suede sofa, looking out over the city. Two empty champagne glasses were sitting on the table next to them, and the remains of the dinner Alex had cooked them earlier lay on the sideboard over in the kitchen area, forgotten. They weren't interested in the mundanities of dirty dishes tonight.

The last drops of red sunlight were disappearing below the London skyline, and Alex was transfixed by the way the colour shone on Addison's hair. He'd never been more happy.

Addison was wearing a narrow band of gold, with a brilliant cut diamond set between two rich coloured emeralds, and they both kept glancing down at it when they thought the other wasn't watching. It looked right on her hand, as if it had always been there, always belonged there.

When they'd eventually left the apartment (the bedroom) that morning, they'd gone for lunch at the National Portrait Gallery, overlooking Trafalgar Square, the site of their first date, and Addison had insisted they walked hand in hand down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. They hadn't had the time to do many touristy things since they had been in London, and besides, Alex was too happy to not let her have her own way.

On a normal day, he might have been embarrassed when, through some elaborate gesturing, she persuaded a young Japanese man to take a photo of them outside the giant, ornate gates of the Palace, but he wasn't today. She could have sat on one of the lions in Trafalgar Square and burst into song if she'd wanted, and all he would have done is smile. He felt like he'd been smiling like an idiot all day.

They had stopped at a jewellers on the way home.

'You know,' she said teasingly, her fingers running gently up and down the arm that was encircling her waist, 'you nearly choked when that saleswoman told you how much the ring was.'

'I did not.' He had a little bit, if he was being honest, but he didn't want to admit that to her. It wasn't that he minded spending the money, but three thousand pounds – pounds, as in sterling, not dollars, pounds – for a ring? He had made damn sure they were very sparkly diamonds before shelling out.

'You did,' she insisted. 'I could actually see the colour drain from your cheeks.'

'Well, can you blame me? All that money, for a piece of jewellery?'

'Not just jewellery you heathen. It's a diamond, and emeralds, and gold, and it's pretty.'

'You know diamonds are just carbon atoms, don't you? They're exactly the same as the graphite you get in your pencil, only the atoms are bonded differently.' He looked serious for a minute, as if he knew what he was talking about, then his professor face crumpled and he laughed. 'Or something like that anyway. But my argument stands. Diamonds are just little lumps of carbon; they can even manufacture them these days. I don't see what all the excitement is about.'

'Oh, stop complaining. You love it.'

He smiled down at her earnestly, and picked up her hand. Gently, he pressed his lips to the "lump of carbon" set into the ring, then slowly trailed a line of kisses up the underside of her wrist and along her arm. 'I love that you love it.'

In fact, what he really loved was that he was able to give her something like that. He was able to hand his platinum card over at the jewellers for the ring without flinching, for all that Addison was ribbing him about it now.

He was no longer some struggling intern who was trying to win over a queen with nothing more substantial than charm and kindness. This time round, he felt like her equal, which is never something that they could have had in Seattle. Even if she had stayed, and it had happened, they would have been just another intern and attending, and he'd never wanted it to be that. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he'd always thought he and Addison were different than that, less stereotyped than Meredith and Derek, or Cristina and Burke had been.

In a way, he was glad that circumstance (he didn't believe in fate – you made decisions, and there were consequences, but they were not beyond your control; after all, in seven years, there was nothing stopping him from jumping on a plane to California, he had decided not to) had forced them to wait for so long, because this, exactly this, was the way he wanted it to be. He not only wanted to give her everything she deserved, but knew now he was capable of doing so.

She moaned lightly as he reached a sensitive spot in the crook of her arm. 'I love you,' she said.

'More than the ring?' It was his turn to tease now, and she wrinkled up her nose, which he found adorably cute.

'Hmm, not sure.' She pretended to think about it. 'Maybe the same as the ring.'

At her words, he stopped kissing her, and turned away his face, letting his arms hang limply around her. He did his best to pull an offended face but he had to do battle with the corners of his mouth to keep them under control.

She was the first to break. 'Okay, okay, I love you much more than the ring.'

He laughed and pulled her back into his arms. 'So, anyway,' he began. 'The wedding. You're going to want some big gig with lace meringues and white doves aren't you?'

'God, no; I couldn't think of anything worse. Something really small – what's the equivalent of City Hall over here?'

'City Hall? You're kidding, right? You don't want to get married at City Hall.'

'I do. Why not? Why wouldn't I want a small wedding?'

'Because you're a woman, and women don't want small weddings at City Hall. That's not the way it works – I've seen your copies of Cosmo or whatever it is that you leave lying around.'

'Cosmo?' she huffed indignantly, clearly insulted that anyone, even Alex, should think she read such a magazine. 'I already know ten ways to blow my man's mind thank you, I read Vanity Fair I'll have you know. And by the sound of it,' she nudged him in the ribs, and grinned, 'so do you.'

'Pipe down.' They nestled quietly into each other for a minute, and Addison slid her hand in under Alex's shirt, and drew lazy circles on his stomach. God, she just loved being close to him, knowing he was there was going to be enough for her forever.

'I honestly do only want a small wedding Alex. City Hall, with Steve and Tina as witnesses, nothing more than that. I want to be married to you, it doesn't matter to me how that happens.'

'Honestly?' he asked, still doubtful. 'Because if you do want a proper wedding, I don't mind.'

'What do you want?'

He smiled down at her, touched that she should ask. He'd never considered that weddings were much about what the groom wanted – in his opinion, you should love the girl that you were marrying enough to walk over hot coals for her; letting her have the wedding she wanted was a small thing.

'A small wedding,' he admitted. 'City Hall, or whatever the Hell the equivalent is, with Steve and Tina as witnesses.'

'Well, that's pretty perfect then, isn't it?'

'I guess it is.'

He kissed her, and while one hand wound into her hair, drawing her even closer to him, the other ran up her leg, under the hem of her skirt. She found he had shifted them slightly, and now he was above her, looking at her deeply.

'I love you Addison Montgomery, and I can't wait to be married to you. I can't wait any longer. Promise me you'll marry me soon?'

He didn't give her a chance to answer, and lowered his head to nuzzle her neck. He groaned at the taste of her and Addison felt him pressing against her thigh. Before both of them got too carried away, there was one more thing she wanted to say.

'Alex…' The hand that was under her skirt was at her hipbone now, and hooked under the lace of her panties, so his name came out as something of a moan.

'Mm..?'

'Stop a second, there's something else I want to say to you.'

'Stop… what, exactly?' He smirked at her as he asked the question, and all of a sudden, his fingers slipped somewhere that made her gasp and arch her back into him.

'Oh god Alex,' she panted. 'That. Stop that. For a moment.'

He paused in his torturing of her for a second, and looked down quizzically at her. 'What is it, is something wrong?'

'Definitely not. But I needed to tell you, when we're married, I want to be Addison Karev.'

Completely blindsided, Alex sat up and stared at her. 'What did you just say?'

Addison sat up as well, and held his hand tightly. 'I want to be Addison Karev. Mrs Karev. I want to take your name.'

'Why?' Alex knew his jaw had slackened into a cod-like gape, but he was utterly powerless to stop it. It was the very last thing he had expected her to say.

'For a lot of reasons,' she replied, and started to list them. 'Because I want us to be a husband and wife absolutely and holding nothing back. Because I think we're already about as close to being one person as two people can possibly be, and our names should reflect that. And oh, I don't know, even because Addison Montgomery doesn't really exist any more; she had become some jaded, shadowed version of her former self, until you drew me out again.'

She was speaking with utter conviction, and it struck Alex that, outside the OR anyway, he had never heard her sound more sure or more certain about anything. But he still had to ask, 'are you sure? What about being Addison Montgomery-Karev?'

She shook her head. 'Too much of a mouthful,' she said. They both knew the real reason she vetoed Montgomery-Karev was that it reminded her too much of being Montgomery-Shepherd, and she was grateful that he didn't make her say it.

'So you really want to be Mrs Karev?'

'Definitely. And soon.'