waltzmatildah

Title: Kiss Yourself Goodbye
Character/Pairing: Alex and Addison
Word Count: 2600
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I see nothing, I hear nothing, I speak nothing...I definately own nothing!

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Earlier that evening...

Despite the blonde hair and the big boobs and the ‘obvious pretty’, Izzie Stevens wasn’t stupid. She’d seen the eye sex and the sneaky glances, not to mention Alex’s sudden and total devotion to all things baby. Her own totally inappropriate sexual liaisons aside, Izzie still felt a jealous pang in her gut when she saw the way they looked at each other. Even though she knew she and Alex would never go there again she was a little miffed that he had moved on so quickly from his declaration that he still felt something for her. It was unreasonable and completely irrational but there it was. Every time her thoughts strayed in the direction of Alex Karev she would have to physically drag herself back on track and even that had a particularly nasty way of backfiring and blowing up her in face…big time.

‘Izzie, Dr. Bailey wants us in the pit, she’s already there, apparently there’s been an MVA across from First…’

George. She still couldn’t believe she had gone there, that she has enjoyed it, that she wanted to go there again. He was married and even though Izzie would be the first to put her hand up and declare the marriage a mistake, her personal opinion didn’t change the reality. She had turned George into an adulterous ass and it had taken less than a month. She had covertly confessed her sins to one person, Seattle Grace’s other adulterous ass, and while George was determined that no one else know about their transgression Izzie couldn’t help but feel she had guilty tattooed across her forehead. She had never been a convincing liar. In fact she had a sinking feeling that Alex had already figured it out, or at least he had his suspicions, he’d been …not cold…but, different to her even since that disastrous evening of copious alcohol, abject misery and, ultimately, inappropriate sex.

‘Right. On my way,’ Izzie replied, looking up to make eye contact with George only to find him already half way down the corridor ahead of her. ‘Okay, so don’t wait for me or anything ,’she muttered under her breath as she hurried to catch up.

---

Three hours and one emergency appendectomy later Izzie emerged restless and agitated from OR2 to the already raging scandal that Alex and Addison Montgomery had been caught in the aftermath of apparently very hot on-call room sex. They were screaming at each other in the hallway by the nurses station in the NICU as, even before they rounded the corner and slipped behind the safety of a closed door, she began literally ripping his clothes off…or so the story began. In the thirty minutes following the surgery Izzie had heard seven different versions of the sordid event, there was even talk of an award for Addison, fastest removal of a scrub top…ever.

Izzie sighed and rubber her hands over her face. It was all a bit too much really. With still twenty minutes left before her shift ended Izzie found herself organizing an admission for a fourteen year old who had attempted to jump from the second floor balcony of his family home onto the trampoline below and then into their backyard swimming pool. All he had to show for his trouble was a broken ankle, a lecture on appropriate after school activities and an overnight stay at Seattle Grace. In fact Izzie was just metres from the admissions desk when she head the woman ahead of her approach the desk and ask for Dr. Alexander Karev. Izzie forced herself to stop a discreet distance behind but definitely within eavesdropping distance as the enthusiastic nurse behind the counter loudly agreed to page him to the cafeteria so she could have a coffee while she waited for him.

‘And who should I say he should look for?’

‘Kathleen Brennan, it’s fine, he’ll know who I am, I’m his mother in law.’

The young nurse did a much better job than Izzie of concealing her shock, simply replying with a ‘certainly maám, no worries,’ and a toothy grin.

Izzie felt her face instantly redden as the information sunk in and she disguised the high pitched squeal she accidentally emitted as a choked, tight cough and turned on her heel. Passing the charts to a nurse just beginning his shift, Izzie hurried on towards the locker room. There was only one solution to this revelation, tequila, lots of it and her friends to drink it with her. As Izzie burst into the locker room moments later she was relieved to find Meredith and George already there and changed ready to leave. Marching straight to her own locker with determination and purpose, Izzie grabbed out her coat and purse and slammed the metal door clothes with completely unnecessary force.

‘Right. Everyone. Joe’s. Now.’

‘But Iz…what the…aren’t you at least going to change first?’ came Meredith’s shocked reply as George retorted with, ‘what ever the locker did Iz, I’m sure it’s sorry!’.

Izzie, oblivious to their words and their shock and their shared glances of disbelief, pulled the locker room door open and almost collided with an unawares and unprepared Christina.

‘What the..?’

‘Christina, we’re all going to Joe’s, meet us there, I’ll probably already be drunk when you arrive.’

Izzie left as abruptly and as suddenly and with as much commotion as she had entered, leaving the other three, wide eyed and none the wiser, in her wake.

---

By the time Christina arrived over an hour later Izzie had already proudly chased three shots of tequila with two glasses of champagne. The chewed lemon rinds on the table in front of her testament to the increase in her blood alcohol level. Seeing no end to the night anytime soon and with less than cheery lives of their own to deal with Izzie had had little trouble convincing Meredith and George to join her, reluctantly at first but with gathering gusto and momentum. In fact, Izzie was especially pleased to note that as Christina joined the fray her first view would have been of George, his head almost inside a jug of beer which he was skulling, to the delight and cheers and encouragement of a small gathering of enthralled onlookers, through a pink bendy straw. While Joe didn’t supply pink bendy straws Izzie had reached her hand into her ridiculously large and stereotypically overstocked handbag and come up triumphant.

‘So,’ Christina sighed as she slid onto one of the two remaining barstools, ‘is anyone going to tell me what the hell this is all about?’

They hadn’t actually discussed Izzie’s locker room antics, voting instead in favour of vodka and tequila and beer over heartfelt discussions which was probably why George almost choked on a mouthful of beer when Izzie giggled.

‘This, Chrisssteeenah, is about adulterous assholes and filthy whores.’

Meredith simply shrugged her shoulders and nodded Christina to the bar, ‘your shout girlie…tequila we definitely need more tequila.’

Izzie’s eyes followed Christina to the bar where she could see her elbow her way in beside Alex who was seated at the bar tossing back a double shot of something thick and black and toxic looking. She’d, unsurprisingly really considering their preoccupation with the task of getting plastered, missed him enter. She could see Christina nudge him and indicate for him to collect the tray of shots Joe had just placed in front of her, she could then see him rise reluctantly to follow.

‘Alexxxxx, ooooh Alex and Addison sitting in a tree, K I S S N…no, shit wait, what is it? Oh wait, I N G!’ Meredith slurred triumphantly. Izzie watched as Alex rolled his eyes and poured a shot of vodka into his mouth, grimacing slightly as the alcohol burned the already alight trail to his blood stream. She still hadn’t mentioned to anyone what she had heard at the admissions desk but knew in her increasingly inebriated state it probably wouldn’t stay a secret for long.

‘So Alex, coz you and Addison slept together, and Derek and I slept together, and Derek and Addison slept together, does that mean you and I have slept together by association?’ Meredith giggled, ‘Coz that would be gross!’

‘Gee thanks,’ Izzie heard Alex reply sarcastically, ‘but I think you are safe because if that was the case then things would get very interesting very quickly around here.’

The jibe, obviously intended towards her and George was immediately pounced upon by Izzie, by now too loose too stop and process her thoughts before they flew with unreasonable vehemence from her mouth.

‘Oh, and what is THAT supposed to mean, Mr. Honour and Virtue?’ she spat.

‘Iz, honestly,’ Alex closed his eyes and tipped his head back as another thirty mils of tequila made its way down his throat, ‘I was joking…don’t even worry, forget I said anything.’

Izzie could feel the room spinning around her and recognized the defeated look in Alex’s eyes but the day had been too much and she’d had too much alcohol and was way too drunk so she forged onwards.

‘Because you are so good at forgetting things, aren’t you…Alexander?’ Izzie could see the blood visibly drain from Alex’s face as confusion turned to sudden, shocking understanding, turned to…fear?

‘Iz…’ he said, standing up and taking a step towards her, ‘don’t…okay? Izzie?’

‘Don’t what Alex?’ she heard herself ask, now completely out of control and dignity and anything resembling respect for privacy. Izzie had always had bitchy tendencies, no doubt enhanced by her stint in the modeling industry, and definitely released when mixed with tequila and champagne and not to mention, some of George’s beer.

‘Hey Iz, sit down girl, have another drink,’ Meredith purred suggestively while attempting a seductive eyelash flutter that only succeeded in crossing her eyes and causing her to list dangerously to the left.

‘But I’m not finished discussing forgetting with Alexander yet,’ Izzie countered testily, hand closing with reduced dexterity around the stem of her champagne glass. She could see Alex stiffen again at the mention of his full name as she felt the need to expose his situation overwhelm her.

‘Well, I am finished discussing it with you, Isobel because I swear to God if you don’t drop this I may have to mention some of the forgetting you have been doing lately,’ Alex sneered back and Izzie saw his gaze briefly flick up and across, up and across to George.

‘Oh no, you do not get to pull that shit Alex,’ Izzie heatedly replied, trying to convey a lot more confidence and strength and determination than she felt as Alex tipped another shot of tequila to his lips, the alcohol long abandoned by the others as they watched the show unfold before them. ‘You don’t know anything, you think you know, you have your suspicions, hell you may even be right but you don’t know, I, on the other hand know…for a fact!’

Izzie knew she was being rude and loud and…well…drunk but she simply couldn’t believe he was actually arguing back on this one, trying to turn it all back on her. She had been itching for this showdown since she had slammed her locker door shut, and dammit, pub or no pub they were doing this now.

She watched Alex unsteadily bend to retrieve his belongings from the floor beside his chair, she could see his eyes blinking furiously as he attempted to focus and felt a sudden but fleeting pang of something like guilt. He was quite obviously drunk, maybe even as drunk as her, perhaps he was even upset but dammit so was she.

‘Oh yeah, that’s typical Al…’

‘Iz, hey, don’t you think that’s enough?’ Christina cut in, the others too shocked and wide eyed and slack jawed to respond themselves.

‘It’s not enough til I say it’s enough Christina, Alex don’t you dare leave, Alex…oh look…’distracted by sudden movement by the door, a huge grin spread over Izzie’s face, ‘well, well, well, lookie here. Dr. Montgomery. Does she know? Maybe we should…’

‘Izzie, I swear…’Izzie could see sweat beading on Alex’s forehead and he appeared to be moving in slow motion.

‘Oh come on, this will be fun…watch guys, Dr. Montgomery? Addison?’ Izzie almost yelled, ensuring she had Addison’s attention, albeit confused and apprehensive and fleeting if she didn’t hurry.

‘Addison…do you mind if I call you Addison? You’re probably gonna want to sit down for this, here have Alex’s seat he was just leaving, he’s good at that, leaving, and forgetting, leaving and forgetting, that’s Alex,’ Izzie rambled continuously to the incredulous stares of not only her fellow interns and a frozen on the spot Alex but to Addison and Mark and anyone else close enough to listen.

‘Izzie, please.’ Alex pleaded and Izzie saw Christina stand, no doubt to intercede, so she pushed ahead blindly.

‘So Addison, I heard you had an interesting day if you know what I mean, wink wink, nudge nudge and all of that,’ she continued conspiratorially as Addison‘s eyes grew wider, ‘maybe we could compare notes later on!’

‘Jesus Stevens, is this all you interns do? Work and drink and then drink some more?’ Addison attempted to cut in but Izzie was on a roll.

‘So, I met someone interesting today, I met Alex’s mother in law, little Alex has a wife and he was just going to tell us all about her.’ Izzie sunk back onto her seat to a chorus of gasps and exclamations and dropped beer jugs…George, a wide grin cutting a toothy slash across her face.

‘I don’t have a …’ Alex started, Izzie could see he was pale and shaking and sweating but she was determined to go in for the kill.

‘Yes you do, you must, I met your mother in…’

‘Izzie stop it.’ Addison commanded.

‘…law today and you don’t get one of those without first getting the wife, they are kind of synonymous you know.’

‘I don’t…’ Alex started again but was cut off.

‘Alex, please,’ Addison raised a hand to him and continued, ‘Izzie, I think that’s enough for tonight, why don’t…’

This wasn’t turning out like she expected. Alex was supposed to fight back and get angry and tell her everything and Addison was supposed to be on her side and the room definitely wasn’t supposed to be tilted on a forty five degree angle. Steeling herself for one last barrage and fighting back the tears that were now burning at the back of her eyes she stood and turned to stare Alex down but was shocked to find herself being beaten to the chase.

‘I don’t have a wife, I had a wife, I had a wife for three weeks and she was beautiful and she was Kelly and she was my wife for three weeks,’ Alex took a deep and shuddering and, for Izzie, painful, breath before continuing.

‘But as of a year ago today, I don’t have a wife anymore.’

Before Izzie could even begin to comprehend what he had just said, before she could understand, before she could apologise, Alex had downed the final tequila shot at their table and stumbled desperately from the bar.

Christina had risen, perhaps to follow him, although that seemed very un-Christina, but Addison stopped her with a fierce glance.

Izzie felt sick and dizzy and no where near sober enough to deal with this revelation, that was not the revelation she had been expecting. She slid, shocked and terrified and ashamed, to the floor beside her chair, staring wide eyed at the door Alex had just fled through.

‘Oh God, Alex…what have I done?’