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This is Not the Way She Would
Spend Her Christmas
By TheAgonyofBlank
Izzie does not like to do Alex any favours, because she thinks he's a jerk. Actually, she's pretty much a hundred percent certain that he's a jerk because she has it on good authority that he is. However, she also knows that she can't ever be a hundred percent certain about anything, because if she's learned anything in her first two years being a doctor, it's that nothing is ever certain, not even when you think it's safe. She's reminded of Denny, of course, but the moment passes, and she moves on. This is helped by the fact that Alex is still standing in front of her, his eyes revealing a bit of impatience that causes Izzie to frown in annoyance.
Then she remembers that he's just asked her a question, and he's probably just waiting for an answer. She doesn't like to do him any favours, but she does it anyway – she'll switch shifts with him, so he won't have to stay tonight. Really, she doesn't mind so much because the power is out at her house. By her house, she means the house she has with Meredith and George, which really is Meredith's house, but that's not the point here. The point is, her power is out so staying at the hospital overnight really isn't a bad deal, and she might've just done that anyway, even if Alex hadn't asked to switch shifts with her. She wishes, though, that Puget Sound Energy would just get her damned power working again, because ever since the snowstorm they had a few days ago, the power's been knocked out and she just wants it fixed. If they'd fixed it already, she wouldn't have to be doing this favour for Alex… but she knows better than to hold a grudge against the electric company, so she doesn't. Just forces a smile and then turns away to check on patients for that evening.
She doesn't hear Alex thank her, because she's tuned him out. Besides, she's so far away now even if he were to yell, she probably wouldn't hear him. She wonders what's so important that he's willing to trade shifts with her, because her shift's on a Saturday, and that's the night most interns prefer not to work because, well, it's a Saturday. It's a Thursday tonight, and that's also why Izzie doesn't mind trading. Thursdays aren't her special do-something nights; Fridays are, and she usually spends those with Meredith and George on the couch watching some TV.
She finds out later, when she sees Alex leave the hospital with Dr. Montgomery. She's heard rumours of Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Sloan fighting over Alex, and she's always thought that Dr. Sloan would win because he's in plastics, and Alex wants to do plastics. But when she sees Alex leave with Dr. Montgomery, she thinks that maybe Dr. Montgomery has won after all. There's also a wrenching sort of feeling in her gut, but she brushes it off as the hot dog she had for dinner. When Dr. Montgomery catches her eye, though, the feeling only intensifies and she has to look away quickly. She leaves to check on her patients, and then spends the rest of her shift in the on-call room, because so far it's a quiet evening patient-wise, and it's always a good place to think about things such as the feeling that definitely did not result from the hot dog dinner she had.
Two days later on Sunday – Christmas Eve, to be exact – Izzie agrees to trade shifts with Cristina. She likes Cristina better than Alex, and she knows Cristina has someone to spend Christmas-Hanukah with, and so that's reason enough for her to switch shifts with her. The fact that Addison Montgomery is scheduled to be on call tonight has nothing to do with her decision, of course. Izzie doesn't schedule things around other people, or more accurately, she doesn't schedule things around Dr. Montgomery. That's what she tells herself, but it's not what she really believes. What she really believes is that she's been liking Dr. Montgomery for a long while now, and it took Alex leaving with her two nights ago for her to realize this. She's not going to admit it, of course, because that'd be too easy.
She gets called into surgery around ten in the evening, and she's secretly glad to see that it's Dr. Montgomery who needs her. She scrubs in and they operate, and they're out of there by half past eleven, and thank goodness the baby is okay because it would be heartbreaking for a parent to have their kid die on Christmas Eve. She tells Dr. Montgomery this as they wash their hands, and the OB-GYN gets this funny look on her face, which immediately makes Izzie feel silly and childish and not worth the surgeon's time. She mumbles something about checking on more patients, but really she makes a beeline for the on-call room. It's become a safe-haven, of sorts, ever since last Thursday.
She's surprised when Dr. Montgomery enters the on-call room a few minutes later. She guesses the doctor's in here to rest as well; she knows nothing's wrong with the patient they just operated on, because no one's paged her yet. She acknowledges her with a nod, then lies down on the bed, hands resting on her belly as she hears the door shut. Now the only light in the room is that of the small window that was built into the door, and that kind of makes it hard for her to get sleep. But then she feels her mattress sink down slightly, and she knows that Dr. Montgomery is sitting on the edge of her bed. Somehow that makes it even harder for her to sleep, and she wishes the red-haired doctor would just go away so she could function when she was paged. She half-expects Dr. Montgomery to say something, but for the next few minutes she doesn't say a word; she just sits there.
Izzie is finally forced to break the silence because, well, she's tired, and all she really wants is to sleep. And if Dr. Montgomery goes away, she'll be a step closer to achieving her goal.
"Dr. Montgomery," she begins.
"Addison."
"What?" Izzie questions, confused.
"Addison. Just call me Addison."
"Right. Addison," Izzie replies, shifting on the bed. "Is there anything you needed?"
There's a long silence again, and Izzie almost falls asleep while awaiting an answer. She's woken up again, much to her frustration, when Dr. Montgomery – Addison – speaks again, though it takes a little while for the words to penetrate Izzie's foggy and half-asleep brain. When the words do register, Izzie isn't sure she heard them quite right, so she takes a long pause and then asks Addison to repeat herself. She can never be too sure.
"I didn't want you to spend Christmas Eve alone. I didn't want to spend Christmas Eve alone. So I though we could spent it together," Addison repeats, and somehow Izzie doesn't think those are the exact same words as the ones she'd uttered before. It is less personal this time around, but Izzie doesn't blame Addison because, well, if she'd said something personal and Addison asked her to repeat them, Izzie doesn't think she'd be able to say them again. She's pretty sure she hears a trace of a smile in Addison's next words, "Countdown to Christmas together."
"I have friends," Izzie blurts out suddenly. "I have friends to spend Christmas with."
"I don't," Addison answers honestly, confidently. Izzie isn't sure why Addison would sound confident about something like that; it certainly doesn't sound like something to be proud of – but then she replays the words in her head, and thinks that maybe she hears a tinge of hurt in there. Immediately she feels guilty for having said what she did. Why had she said something like that in the first place, especially to someone she held an interest in?
"I'm sorry," she apologizes. "I didn't-"
"It's okay," Addison reassures. "Besides, you're here now, aren't you?"
Izzie nods.
"And your friends are at home, aren't they?"
Izzie nods again.
"Then we can countdown to Christmas together, can't we?"
Izzie grins slightly, then nods.
Yes, they can.
So the two women spend the next few minutes in comfortable silence, and Izzie tries to shift away from Addison because the redhead is just so close. And she's afraid that she'll do something that will make Addison tell her to call her "Dr. Montgomery" instead of "Addison," and she doesn't like that because over the past few minutes, she's decided that she really likes the name Addison. And she doesn't think she'll be able to call her Dr. Montgomery again, because the words won't roll off her tongue. So she tries to say something else, like warning Addison about Alex – about how charming he can be, before he runs off to sleep with Olivia, and then he becomes much less charming.
But before she can say anything, Addison looks down at her watch, then back at Izzie and says, "Merry Christmas."
"Is it-?"
"Yeah. The twenty-fifth."
"Merry Christmas, Addison."
And because they're still so close that Izzie can feel Addison's breath against her cheek when she breathes out through her mouth, Izzie throws all caution to the wind and damns it all.
She leans forward and claims Addison's lips with her own.
The End