Sunday on a Saturday Afternoon - 5/20
Previous Chapters: o1 o2 o3 o4
Title: The Heavens Will Hush Themselves
Pairing: Alex/Addison
Rating: PG
Summary: "We're drinking beer together, Alex. When we're drinking beer together, you can call me Addison."
Author's Note: So apparently I've had anonymous commenting turned off in this community. That's fixed now. Also, the next update might be a while in coming because I have two research papers and a short story due, and next weekend I'll be spending quality time with bread pudding and Lake Michigan. So, I'll try to get it up before then, but I make no promises. Thanks to all of you who are reading and reviewing.
The Heavens Will Hush Themselves
Addison had standards. She had standards and she didn’t know (or care) if they made her pompous and snobby, and she stood by them. One of her standards was that she did not usually frequent bars with whimsical names, such as the Emerald City Bar. Because, really, would a bar be home to a Wizard that could make everyone’s dreams come true? Probably not. Addison went to bars that had classic names, like Bemelman’s, or bars with numbers as their title. She went to bars that served exclusively wine. She had standards.
Some days, if the day had been especially bad, she lowered her standards. On days when patients died and spouses blamed her, when babies were never really alive to begin with, those were the days where Addison would settle for the dingy bar across the street with poor lighting and a storybook name.
It wasn’t like she’d never been here before. She had - but not with any particularly pleasant memories. Addison decided to get one drink, then be on her way. She knew that many interns whiled away their hours here, and she thought it might be unprofessional to frequent an establishment where her subordinates spent a great deal of time. And it was unprofessional to spend time in a bar with an inappropriately fanciful name.---
Alex watched Addison weave her way to the barstools. He couldn’t help it; she had a presence that drew his eyes to her. She pulled herself up on a stool and ordered a drink. Alex would have guessed wine, and was surprised when Joe put a Stella in front of her.
Alex was drinking alone tonight. He wasn’t too big on spending time with his co-interns at the moment. Izzie was still mourning Denny and being a little insufferable. Cristina, well, Cristina wasn’t a person who would just ‘hang out,’ at least not with Alex. George wasn’t someone Alex sought out ever, really, and Meredith had enough going on. Alex wasn’t looking for anyone to drink with, though. He didn’t mind drinking alone. But he saw Addison, and suddenly felt like he’d rather be drinking with her.
Addison looked up when Alex sat next to her. “What? I’m not the guy who sees someone he knows but pretends he doesn’t. That guy is stupid,” Alex told her, gently tapping the neck of his bottle against the neck of hers before taking a sip.
“But I’m still and attending. And you’re still an intern. We can’t all be Derek and Preston.” Addison took a sip, and realized her slip before she swallowed and grimaced as Alex grinned.
“Are you saying that you’ve thought about doing what Burke and Yang are doing with an intern of your own? Or that you wish you were?” Alex wiggled his eyes suggestively and Addison almost laughed. She was thankful that she didn’t blush.
“No Karev. No. I have not thought about…that. I just meant that we can’t all be unprofessional. Even though we’re drinking together. I try to keep my bar experiences separate from my work experiences.” She drummed her fingers nervously against the bottle. She was actually having a good time with Alex Karev, which surprised her.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” Alex said, graciously changing the subject, having the brains enough to see that she was uncomfortable. He kind of liked that he made her feel uncomfortable.
“I’ve been here a few times, but I’ve never sat at the bar before. I don’t really like sitting at bars. I’m not a bar-sitting kind of woman.” She was rambling. She knew she was rambling. Alex made her a little nervous. Alex wasn’t usually the kind of guy that made her nervous. She had standards, and Alex wasn’t the kind of guy that fit her standards. Her standards usually included a man who owned his own tuxedo rather than rented, who owned his own cologne rather than rubbing a magazine on his neck, who didn’t hang out in places with names like the Emerald City Bar. She knew that it wasn’t fair to Alex, but he didn’t fit in her usual standards. However, the fact that he did not fit into her usual standards did not change the fact that he made her feel nervous.
“Well, I wouldn’t have pegged you as an Emerald City Bar kind of woman, but here you are.” Alex was in his element. Talking to hot chicks in bars was his forte, his thing. He was great at it; smooth, suave, always steady and sure. At least one woman could be convinced to leave with him on any given night. But Alex wasn’t heartless, and taking Addison home with him wasn’t really the goal tonight. Tonight he just wanted to have a good conversation with a pretty woman, and so he was utilizing his skills.
“Sometimes you just have a bad day and you need a drink,” Addison said, sighing into her bottle. “And you just come to the nearest bar to get that taken care of. You can’t much closer than across the street, so here I am.”
“Well, that’s true enough, Dr. Montgomery.” He contemplated asking just what had made her day so horrible that she had needed a drink badly enough to come to Joe’s, but he didn’t have the courage. He was not the man who comforted women after bad days. He was the one who flirted with them in bars.
“We’re drinking beer together, Alex. When we’re drinking beer, you can call me Addison.” Addison didn’t know if she was flirting, and she didn’t know if she was being unprofessional, and at this moment, she didn’t really care.
“What about if we’re drinking wine?” The smile on Alex’s face made it clear that he thought he was very clever. He knew he was being slightly inappropriate, but he was curious to see how far he could go with pushing the boundaries.
“Not that I’m planning to drink wine with you, but if the situation arose, you could call me Addison then, too. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m an attending and you’re an intern. We can’t -”
“- All be Derek and Preston? You already said that. Have you planned out this speech in case you were ever thrown into a situation with an intern that makes you uncomfortable?” Alex was baiting her, partly because he enjoyed it and partly because it looked like she was enjoying it, too.
“Maybe I just like to be prepared when I am uncomfortable. When I’m uncomfortable, sometimes I ramble. Rambling is not very professional sounding, so I like to be prepared. Although I think I need to change that little bit because, as you pointed out, it sounds like I mean something else.’ Addison took a large sip from her bottle to stop herself from talking. She looked expectantly at Alex. “You say things now.”
Alex didn’t really know what to say. How do you tell your boss that she’s acting silly, and that she’s maybe a little tipsy? Or that you just want to reach over and place your hand on hers so that she’ll stop tapping her fingers? “Oh, it’s my turn?” Alex asked, stalling as his mind blanked. “Well, in the interest of letting you keep your bar experiences separate from your work experiences, Addison,” Alex paused, savoring the chance to use her first name in her presence, “I’ll excuse myself. I’ve got an early surgery with Sloan tomorrow.” He tipped his beer bottle Addison in salute, and sauntered off casually, unsure if he made the right choice. Addison sat, looking after him, feeling slightly bereft.
---
She finished her beer, left the Emerald City Bar, and as she drove home, she decided that she felt very much the way Dorothy must have felt after returning to Kansas, and that the name of the bar might not be entirely inappropriate.
[ Chapter Six]