Sorry it took me forever and a day to get this up.

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Chapter 16: "Let it Be"

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Alex felt Meredith stir and stretch next to him. Instinctively, he reached out to touch her. She peeked at him and groaned. "You are so not off the hook."

So Meredith was angry with him. That, he could handle. Because, at least she was talking to him. And, more importantly, she wasn't kicking him out of her bed. But most importantly, she was letting him touch her.

"I didn't realize that I was so important that a fight with me constituted half a bottle of tequila," he whispered as he inched closer to her body.

"Shut up." Meredith made a halfhearted attempt at hitting him, but ended up just grazing his arm.

"Admit it, Grey." Alex pulled Meredith to him, feeling her warmth radiating through the sheet between them. "You like me."

"You bug me," Meredith managed to eek out before surrendering to his touch and sinking into him. His lips grazed the nape of her neck and Meredith felt her body respond all the way down to the tips of her toes.

"And you like me."

"If I say I do, then what do I get?"

Alex chuckled. "Get up, Grey, there's no way in hell I'm wasting my day off in bed."

Meredith sat up. "I didn't realize that a day in bed with me was a waste of time!" she scoffed.

He grinned at her, then kissed her temple. "Didn't say that sweetheart. But since we wouldn't be doing anything besides moping, let's get out of here."

"This had better be something really good, Alex. I mean it!"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm trying to get off the hook, remember?"

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Izzie and George were already awake, talking in whispers, when Alex made his way downstairs to wait for Meredith to finish getting ready.

Izzie held her mug of coffee in her hand and looked at Alex over the rim of it as she sipped from it. "Sooo … Alex."

"What do you want, Stevens?" There were people who annoyed him more, Alex knew, but at the moment, he could not think of a single person who bothered him more than Izzie Stevens and George O'Malley.

"Wh-What are you and Meredith doing today?" George asked.

"Stuff," Alex spit out.

"Oh, that's great. Stuff. Sounds fun," Izzie guffawed. "If you're going to be with Meredith, then you have to be good to her!" Alex raised his eyebrows, wondering where this was going. "I mean, you can't just run errands with her and call it a date. If that were a date, then I should have gotten to at least third base with her."

Alex was trying desperately to not to react in some way. Not that he was sure whether he was supposed to laugh or yell. George, on the other hand, spit out his coffee. "Izzie!"

"Sorry. The point is. Be her boyfriend. Don't be her whatever."

Partially because he didn't care, but mostly because he liked pissing off Izzie, Alex shrugged his shoulders and responded with, "Whatever," before getting up from the counter to go greet Meredith at the foot of the stairs.

"What's Izzie so worked up about?" Meredith asked, as she could hear the faint rumblings of Izzie complaining to George.

"Beats the hell out of me," Alex said, taking Meredith's hand and leading her out of the house.

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"So where we going?" Meredith asked, settling into Alex's truck. She liked the fact that Alex drove a truck. She liked manly men. And Alex was a manly man.

"You're not going to get me to ruin the surprise."

"It's a surprise?" Meredith was surprisingly chipper for being quasi-hung over and angry with Alex. She was really close to just forgetting yesterday ever happened.

"Yup."

To both Alex and Meredith's surprise, Meredith didn't argue or try to get it out of Alex. Instead, she slid over to the middle seat of Alex's truck and snuggled into him.

"Told you that you like me." Alex grinned and threw his right arm around Meredith.

"Oh, get over yourself. I like a lot of people. Apparently, I have poor taste in people." Meredith grinned up at Alex with bright and shiny eyes and it struck her. She was happy. Really, undeniably happy.

"Ooooh, and I was this close to telling you where we're going."

Meredith shrieked. "You were not!"

"You'll never know, will you?" Alex winked and continued to drive.

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"Do you ever talk to your mom?" Alex was being amazingly open about his life, which was something that she'd never experienced before.

Alex shrugged. "I'm a guy, Grey. Guys don't do the mommy thing, unless you're O'Malley."

Meredith raised her eyebrow, but giggled nonetheless. "But you do talk, right?"

"Yeah, we talk. She's still back home. She's all wrapped up in my little sister, they do all this girl stuff together." Meredith smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "I always did my own thing."

"Well, it's good to know that this whole loner thing isn't a recent development." Meredith raised her head, suddenly aware of their surroundings. They'd been in the car for a little over two hours. "Alex?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why are we going to Canada?"

Alex smirked, then shrugged. "I like Canada."

Meredith tipped her head back and laughed deeply. And for a fleeting moment, Alex wondered if their kids would have her laugh.

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