oh, i know, it's been forever. but term papers and finals took control over every aspect of my life, and then it was summer and i didn't want to do anything remotely academic sounding/looking/smelling/tasting/feeling, and then there was a drought of inspiration, and then FINALLY this came together. please, please, please forgive the delay!

-insert disclaimer of your choice here-

Around five in the morning Addison’s cell phone rings and wakes both of them up. Alex mumbles for her to turn the damn thing off and goes back to sleep. She declines the call and turns off her phone since she’s too groggy to contemplate why someone’s calling her at five in the morning. Then she scoots closer to Alex and goes back to sleep.

When she wakes up around eight, Addison resolves to act like nothing out of the ordinary happened. Just another morning in the Montgomery-Karev hotel room. So she gets up, gets dressed, turns her phone back on, and brushes her teeth. When she returns from the bathroom she finds Alex awake and in the process of getting dressed. “Morning,” he greets her when he notices her.

“Morning,” she replies, and hesitantly starts to move over to him. He sees her tentative steps and crosses to her. And kisses her, leaving her out of breath and probably not just from the lack of oxygen. “Wow,” she breathes.

He smirks. “My mind hasn’t changed, you know. Feel free to kiss me any time.”

She smiles and lifts an eyebrow. “Check out’s not until noon,” she mentions. “We have some time.”

He grins back and pulls her close. “I like your thinking, Dr. Montgomery.”

She giggles, which surprises even her. “I had a feeling you would, Dr. Karev,” she replies and kisses him.

0ooo0

“So I’m thinking,” Addison announces as they lie in bed together, “that I could definitely get used to this non-friends thing.”

He laughs. “So I’m thinking I agree with you.”

“But,” Addison continues and he groans. “I’ve got to know, what are we doing? I mean, is it just a sex thing?”

“You’re thinking too much,” he complains. “Now, I have ways of fixing that…”

“Alex, I’m serious. It’s not a big deal if it’s just a sex thing, but I just need to know.”

“Addie,” he’s about to answer when her phone goes off. She glares at it, and lets it ring, then looks at him expectantly. “Look, I like you, I’m pretty sure you like me, and I’m taking you to meet my family. It’s not just a sex thing, okay?”

Addison’s eyes widen. She was expecting the opposite response. “Really?”

“Really.” She smiles and her phone rings again. “If that thing goes off one more time,” he threatens, “I swear to God, I’m going to throw it out the window.”

“I’ll just pick it up,” she says, “Someone obviously really wants to talk to me.” She gets up, pulling the sheets with her to cover her body. “Hello?”

“Hi, um, is Alex Karev there?” Izzie’s voice.

“Oh crap,” Addison mumbles. “Are you here?” she mouths at Alex. When he looks at her strangely, she points at the phone and mouths, “Izzie.”

“It’s just that he called me from this phone, at least I thought he did, and every time I tried his cell phone, it just went to voicemail and then I found it in his room, or his old room anyways, and so I thought I’d try this number, and hope for the best.”

Addison signals that she needs an answer and he shrugs. “Um, yeah, he is here, hold on a second,” she says to Izzie.

“Wait,” Addison hears Izzie say as she takes the phone away from her ear, “Dr. Montgomery?!”

“Hey, Iz,” Alex greets her. “I… Izzie… No… What? … Iz, calm down… Hold on a second.” He takes the phone away from his ear and looks at Addison. “She knows it’s you,” he informs her. “Do I tell her?”

Addison groans. “May as well. No point in not telling her, she’ll tell people anyways.” She can’t hear Izzie’s side of the conversation, but from what Alex says and from the unintelligible yelling coming from the phone, she can figure out that Izzie’s not happy. When he hangs up, she winces. “Does she totally hate me?”

“No. She hates me right now, but she’ll get over that, and she doesn’t hate you.”

Addison rolls her eyes, but doesn’t reply. “We should probably get dressed and check out,” she sighs.

“Adds,” he says, pulling her into his arms, “we’re hundreds of miles away from them, there’s not a single thing they can do. We won’t even be able to hear them.”

“I know, but Callie is going to be so pissed off.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re here and I told her you weren’t and… she’s just going to get mad. Have you ever seen her mad? She’s like a bomb; she explodes and everything’s leveled and no one’s left standing. You want to be on the next planet when she goes off, she’s that bad.”

“Can’t help you there, but you do have a couple states in between you and her,” he points out.

“I’m going to call her before she hears it from someone else,” she announces, grabs the phone and dials before she can chicken out. “Don’t pick up,” she mumbles. Callie, never one to obey desperate pleas, picks up on the second ring. “Hey Callie.”

“Addison! Hey! How are you?”

“I’m good,” Addison says. “Um, listen, Callie-” she tries to start, but is cut off.

“Hey, could you hold on for a second?”

“Sure,” Addison mumbles.

“Sorry, George was talking to me. What?”

“I- Don’t kill me, okay?”

“What?”

“So, look, the thing is… I lied before.”

“Huh?”

“When I told you that Alex wasn’t with me, I lied. He was. He is. But before you go completely ballistic, there was nothing going on between him and me when we talked last. So I didn’t lie about that. I just… I don’t know. I couldn’t really believe he was with me. It seemed completely unbelievable and I just didn’t want to screw anything up.” She takes a deep breath. “Okay, the floor is now open for you to yell.”

“So is there something going on now?”

“I… yeah,” Addison answers, blushing even though she can’t see Callie’s face.

“Okay.”

“That’s your reaction? Okay?”

“Um, yeah…”

“Izzie went kind of crazy…”

“Do you want me to get mad?”

“Noo… but it’d just feel more natural if you did.”

“I’m not mad. If I’m anything, I’m relieved.”

“Relieved?”

“It was stressful, trying to figure out when you two would just do it already.”

“Callie!”

“Well, it’s true.”

Addison is silent.

“You still there, Addie?” Callie asks.

“Yeah. It’s just a lot to process, knowing that you knew before me. It’s weird and kind of creepy.”

“Sorry, but I’m just being truthful. Do you want me to yell at you? Because I could probably figure something out.”

Addison smiles at that. “No, I’m okay. Thanks though. I’ve got to go, but I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, Addison. Say hi to the boyfriend for me.”

Just the mention of the word boyfriend makes Addison giddy, which just embarrasses her. “Bye, Callie.”

“Bye.”

Addison doesn’t even have a chance to tell Alex that Callie says hi, when the phone rings again. “Hello?” she answers.

“Um, hi, Addison.”

“What do you want, Grey?” Addison asks, already getting thoroughly annoyed, since she can figure out that this call isn’t for her.

“Can I talk to Alex for a second?”

“Oh my God. Dr. Grey, please get this through your head. I am in no way a hotline to call when you want to speak to Alex. But yes, you may.” She hands the phone off to him, making sure to mention its Meredith. His hands are occupied with bags, so he has Addison turn on the speaker phone.

“Hey Mer.”

“Hey, Alex. So, sorry for saying this, but your girlfriend makes me feel a little like I’m in the third grade again and have to raise my hand to speak.”

“You know,” he states.

“Izzie told me.” Addison can hear the wince in her voice.

“Damn it,” he mutters.

“Yeah. Most people know,” Meredith informs him.

“Izzie?” he asks.

“Y-yeah.”

“And you,” he continues.

“Hey, us with the boobs? Yeah, we’re not so great with the secret thing. In fact, we really kind of suck at it.”

“I know.”

After a moment of silence Meredith says, “Anyways, I just wanted to, you know, say, I don’t know, congratulations or something. I don’t know. Whatever you say.”

He rolls his eyes. “Thanks, Mer.”

“Okay, well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing. I have to go anyways. Bye Alex.”

“Bye Mer.” Addison hangs up the phone for him. “See, it wasn’t that bad,” he says.

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m just waiting for the call from Richard.”

“Why would he care?” Alex wants to know.

“It’s nothing. It’s just that he’s like a father to me, which is weird and something you should get used to, and you’re like the first boyfriend. I don’t think he’s going to be big on the trusting you thing.”

“You were married, Addison,” he points out.

“And look how that turned out. I just think that you should be careful you don’t hurt me.”

He smiles at that. “Don’t worry, I will be,” he says and kisses her.

She melts into his arms for a minute or two, but then pulls back suddenly. “You know, I’m glad this happened. The Izzie thing, I mean. Not us. Except I’m really glad about the us thing. Oh, you know what I mean.”

“I do. And that scares me more than anything else.”

“Very funny,” she comments dryly. He just shrugs and smirks. “God, why’d I have to go and fall for the smartass?” she asks rhetorically. “Don’t even think about answering that.”

“Because I’m really great in bed,” he jokes, as they climb into the car.

Addison opens her mouth to protest, then closes it. “You know, I’m not going to dispute that. You’re right, I’m just using you for sex.”

“Uh-huh, yeah, right,” he retorts sarcastically. “Admit it, sex was the last thing on your mind when you were making that speech last night.”

“Just drive the car,” she laughs. “We have to get to Iowa.”

With one more glance at her, he turns the key in the ignition and pulls out.

so, i know it wasn't my best chapter, but you love me enough to leave a review, right? (the correct response to this is "right, juli! i'll go leave a nice long review right now!" and then go and do just that)

-Juli-