Back once again with another update. Hope you are all enjoying this!

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Chapter Seventeen:

By Rosa241

Alex POV:

Stealing myself for the conversation I'm about to have, I finally push the door open.

"Stevens we need to talk." Her eyes meet mine and for a second something akin to delight flashes through them. It's gone almost as soon as it appeared and for a moment I think maybe I imagined it. "We need to settle this."

"Alex." I'm almost tempted to believe the innocent look in her eyes, key word there being almost. "Sit down…please."

Ignoring her I move to stand against the wall. Childish – of course! Hey I'm finally talking to her that doesn't mean that I have to be an adult about it.

"You were right before." The words almost kill me but somehow I manage to spit them out. "We work in the same place. We can't go about yelling at each other every time that we meet, it's not good for the patients."

"Oh I'm so glad you feel that way. I've hated all this fighting and I know, I know it's totally my fault but if we could put this behind us-" Oh whoa wait there just a minute.

"Hold up!" She startles slightly as I interrupt her. "I'm not saying that I'm just going to forgive and forget what happened. You've spent weeks making my life hell and all because of what? Because George wanted to move out and I happened to have a spare room."

"I know I've been completely out of order." Isn't that a complete understatement! "But I want to make up for it, I want to put the whole thing to bed. I'll do whatever it takes."

Anyone else would probably believe her but I know her too well. The world thinks that Izzy Stevens is this sweet and innocent woman who bakes in her spare time. Well let me tell you that description is wrong! If she likes you she can be your best friend but get on her bad side and damn! She's got a mean streak, she'll do just about anything to get her own way and that means taking down someone standing in her way. Izzy's the kind of person who likes to use emotional manipulation to get what she wants, guilt trips people…that kind of stuff.

"If you're willing to make the effort then I guess I can do the same thing." I nod my head to her and quickly leave the room. Anymore time in there and I think I might kill her.

Mark's POV:

"You apologised to her!?" Seriously can't believe this guy! "She tried to pin her mistake on you and you apologised."

"Oh for the love of…I didn't apologise! All I said was that she had a point. We work in the same hospital and us fighting all the time is going to cause trouble for us both." Still sounds like an apology to me.

"So you're just going to let her off the hook?" He sighs and shakes his head.

Jesus O'malley you really did a number on him. A year ago he'd never have let Izzy get away with this but now he's just letting it go! God knows that I wouldn't. If she'd treated me the way she's treated him there's no force on earth that would stop me from taking her down.

"Well you're a better man than me Karev." Judging from the furious look that crosses his face at that moment being the bigger person isn't the reason he's doing this. "Or maybe there's another reason you're letting her off the hook?"

"I'm not letting her off the hook! I'm not forgiving her either I'm just…being civil." He almost spits those last two words out of his mouth. I can't help chuckling at his reaction. You've got it so bad.

"So this has got nothing to do with your little tiff with O'Malley then?" How he doesn't break his neck at the speed he spins round is beyond me.

"How the hell do you know about that?" Hitting the nail on the head.

"That nurse I went out with overheard you arguing and told me all about it. Lover boy was really mad you." He throws a pillow my way but it lacks any real heat. "So you just apologised to her because you wanted to make up with lover boy."

"Stop calling him lover boy." Okay mental note he didn't argue with me.

"Man you've got it bad." Hopping off the counter I move over to the door before he can make any more attempts at defending himself. "Hope you know what you're doing buddy."

I can't help smirking as I head down the corridor and over to the stairs. The sooner those two finally admit how they feel and get together the better it'll be for everyone. Honest to God the sexual tension is just about ready to explode.

Izzy's POV:

"So he agreed to try and be civil?" George sounds almost shocked at my words, Meredith almost looks like she doesn't believe me whilst Christina merely rolls her eyes.

"Well he wasn't happy about it. Honestly he didn't sound very pleased about the whole thing." The entire thing was completely forced and to be truthful I don't think it would take a lot of pushing for him to fall over the edge. If I play my cards right I could completely tear them apart without any of the blame falling back on me.

"To be honest Izzy I wouldn't be too happy about spending time around you given the way you've been acting lately." I can't help but scowl at that. What the hell is wrong with Meredith? She's my friend, she's supposed to be on my side, why the hell would she say something like that?

"I know I've been out of order lately, and I know I can't expect Alex to just forgive me in a heartbeat, but at least now we can be civil to each other. It'll make things easier on everyone else." Meredith hums slightly before heading off home. It's rare that the four of us (note that's four, not five Alex!) get to spend our nights together down at the bar. With George having moved out those nights are even rarer, lately he spends most of his nights off with evil spawn.

"I gotta pee." Christina announces as she hops off the bar stool. I wait till Merediths out of sight before I speak again.

"God what's her problem?" George gives me a funny look before he speaks.

"What Christina?" See this is why I need to protect him, he can be so clueless sometimes.

"No Meredith. I'm trying to do the right thing here but it feels like everyone's against me. First Alex, now Meredith…" Sighing I let my eyes droop down to the floor. I can't say I'm surprised when I find myself wrapped up in a George hug.

"Don't worry Iz, everything will be fine you'll see. Alex will calm down and Meredith's probably just had too much to drink. You're doing the right thing here. It takes a lot of guts to admit when you're wrong." Seeing his smile I almost let myself get lost in it, recently it's like he's been reserving that smile only for a certain evil spawn.

All I've got to do is take my time. Don't rush this and don't try too hard. Alex is bound to screw this up sooner or later, even if he doesn't I can make George see that man for who he really is. All I have to do is be patient.

George's POV:

He's trying. After everything he said to Izzy the other day I never thought he'd do that. Meredith was right about what she said to me. After everything that Izzy's done to him recently it's hard to be angry with him for not wanting to be around her. But she's trying. She wants to make a go of this and now so does Alex.

The truth is I don't want to have to choose between them. They're both my friends. Thinking about it I guess I can't blame Izzy for not liking him, let's face it he was a complete ass to her when they were dating. I suppose she's never really gotten over it. But that doesn't excuse the way she was acting around him these last few weeks. This whole things such a mess!

I know I can't hesitate any longer. I've been putting it off for two hours now but eventually I'm going to have to go back through the door. Ever since my conversation with Meredith I've been feeling increasingly guilty about the way I spoke to Alex. I may have meant what I said but that doesn't excuse the way I spoke to him. He didn't deserve that. Finally getting the inevitable over with I push open the door.

"Hi." He gazes up at me from the sofa, grunts out a hello, before turning his attention back to the football game. Now that I'm here I don't really know what to say. I thought that if I came back here I'd know what to do, what to say but now…

I could apologise. Tell him I'm sorry for the way I acted but is that enough? He's been avoiding me since our argument, maybe he doesn't want to speak to me? The slamming of a door gets my attention. By the time I look up again Alex has left the room.

Great. Now what?

Hmm…not my best chapter but not the worst either. Struggled through writers block for this one but at least I managed to get something down on paper (err…computer screen). Bye bye x