Author's Note: I can't believe it's been the better part of a month since I last updated this story. I'm sorry for that, but hope very much that you are all patient enough to still be reading, and if so, that you will be kind enough to leave me a review to let me know what you think of the final throes of this story.

Disclaimer: As before.

Addison shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying to move into a position that allowed a little of the circulation to return to her arm. Alex, having declared that he hadn't travelled as much as she had and therefore deserved to sit in the window seat, had promptly fallen asleep on her shoulder about twenty minutes after taking off from Honolulu and had been snoring lightly ever since.

So much for business class being the way to fly, she thought to herself as the slight move sent an attack of pins and needles coursing down her arm – next time, they were going first class. What was the point of having a multi-million dollar trust fund if you didn't use it from time to time?

They'd been to Hawaii on honeymoon – she'd insisted on going somewhere exotic so she could go back to Seattle with a suntan, but with them both being consultants in the same department, they had only been able to get ten days off work, and it wouldn't have been that much without Michael's influence, so there wasn't really the time to jet off to somewhere really extravagant like the Maldives or Mauritius like she'd wanted. There's always next year, Alex had said to her with a grin when she was disappointed, and she'd smiled in anticipation of the next year, many years, stretching ahead of them.

The wedding itself had been just the small affair they both wanted. They were both busy in the run up to their time off, so with a hint of trepidation, they had allowed Steve and Tina to organise the day. To their absolute credit, with only a couple of days notice, they pulled an amazing ceremony out of the hat.

It was just the four of them, plus a minister who happened to be a friend of theirs, in the dining room at the Thames House Hotel, where they had had that beautiful date where they finally decided to put an end to the fear and hesitation and be together. Instead of filling the room with candles, this time there were cream coloured roses covering every surface, and even petals strewn on the floor where Addison made her way towards the makeshift altar.

Tina had made Addison's dress herself, a capped sleeve, knee length creation of vintage lace the same shade as the roses, and lent her her grandmother's pearls to go with it. The morning of the wedding, when Tina had brought the dress round to the penthouse while Steve and Alex got ready at the hotel, she had fingered the material in amazement that her friend could create something so magnificent. It had looked even better on. She'd never forget the look in Alex's eyes as she walked down the 'aisle' towards him. It made her feel… she couldn't even put it into words it was that fantastic.

The ceremony itself was short and simple, to the point almost, but Addison knew she would never forget the words Alex had said to her in their vows. 'You are my teacher, my lover, my life and my love. You have shown me who I want to be, and inspired me to be that person. I love you, will always love you, and I promise,' he'd smiled then, straight from his heart and into his eyes, 'and I promise, with all that I am, that I will never, for all my life, stop noticing you. Because you are all I see, all I will ever see, and all I ever want to see.'

The words, completely engrained on her heart even after just seven days, moved her to tears simply thinking about them. She couldn't believe how lucky she was that after all she had done, the mistakes that she had made, she had come out of it with this, with Alex.

The pilot made the announcement that they were beginning the descent into Seattle, and Addison felt a flutter of… something in her stomach. Nerves? Anticipation? Fear? Excitement? She wasn't sure exactly what feelings were running through her at the prospect of returning to Seattle, but she knew that whatever everyone's reactions would be, that it was going to be okay. Better than okay, with Alex.

The seatbelt sign flickered on, and Addison gently elbowed her new husband. She still loved saying that – a week definitely wasn't long enough for the novelty to wear off; in fact, she didn't think it ever would – and she loved Mrs Karev even better. She'd made them wait in the departures lounge until they were late for boarding, just so she could hear them call Mr and Mrs Karev over the tannoy.

Alex showed no signs of rousing, so she shrugged her shoulder to move his head, and elbowed him again, harder. 'Alex, Alex, wake up.'

'Hmph.'

'Come on sleeping beauty, time to wake up. We're nearly in Seattle.'

This time the noise Alex made was a little more human, but wasn't entirely distinguishable as vocabulary from the English language. Slowly, he straightened up, and put a hand to his neck to ease the crick out of it.

'Hey,' he smiled sleepily at her, and leaned in to plant a kiss on her lips.

She wrinkled her nose. 'Ugh, morning breath.'

He was unrepentant. 'You love me anyway, Mrs Karev.'

'You're right, I do.' He kissed her again, and this time she didn't even pretend to be bothered by his breath.

'So,' he said, sitting back in his seat and taking her hand, 'what's the game plan for this weekend? Is anyone meeting us at the airport or anything?' Out of the window, the cold waters of the North Pacific were giving away to the coastline, and the edge of Seattle, and they both looked down for a moment on the city that marked the start of things for them.

'No, no-one's going to be at the airport. Callie was desperate to come, but luckily she had a shift and I managed to talk her out of it. What about Izzie? Surely you can't have persuaded her that you don't need meeting off the plane.'

'I lied,' he confessed with a sheepish expression. 'I told her I could only get two days off work, and that I was going to have to fly in tomorrow and go straight to the christening. By the way, do you know yet why they asked you to be godmother? Not that I don't think you'll be a fabulous godmother,' he paused to kiss her neck softly, 'but it's a bit weird.'

'Meredith explained when I called. She said, please not to take it the wrong way; she was going to ask Yang but she wouldn't know what to do with a baby if it landed in her lap, and if she wasn't going to ask her, she couldn't really ask Izzie ahead of her, so the choice reverted back to Derek. So the godparents are going to be me and Mark. Which is weird.'

'It won't be when people know about us.'

'No. It'll be amazing when people know.'

'Not long now.'

She squeezed his hand, and felt the pressure of not only her engagement ring, but the narrow band of gold that now accompanied it. 'Not long at all. In return for Callie not coming to the airport, I had to agree to meet her at Joe's as soon as we've checked in at the hotel. I think everyone's going to be there after their shifts, it's a sort of pre-christening drinks thing.' She looked at him uncertainly. 'You don't mind, do you?'

'Mind?' He looked deeply into her eyes, and slowly wound one of his hands into her hair, drawing her close to him. He kissed her, gently easing her mouth open and caressing her tongue with his own, revelling in her taste, her softness, her. He broke away for a moment.

'I don't mind at all. I can't wait to tell the whole of Seattle that you are my wonderful beautiful wife.'

He kissed her again as the plane came in to land.