B for Babies

14

Alex walked into the Grey residence the same way he would any other evening. He kicked off his shoes and began unbuttoning his shirt. By the silence hanging in the air he assumed the kids were all asleep. His steps were soft, not wanting to wake up the children. He almost jumped from fright when he finally noticed Meredith sitting alone in the dark. Her arms were folded neatly against her chest, and she looked pissed.

"What are you doing up?" He asked her quietly, figuring he would start off gently. He didn't know why she was mad now, he never knew. Her pregnancy moods were too unpredictable lately.

"You kissed me." She said sourly, not giving up on her scowl. She felt angry at him, how dare he kiss her? How dare he!

"So?" He asked, obviously clueless as to why she would be upset about that. Everybody already thought they were screwing, he didn't think a two-second peck was going to do any further damage.

"So? You kissed me. You put your lips on mine and kissed me." She expanded her trail of thought, wanting Alex to get what she was so annoyed about.

He shrugged again before sitting down on the other sofa. They didn't always see eye to eye, so this wasn't exactly a surprise to him. "I kissed you, and we're having a baby. Big deal..."

Meredith finally unfolded her arms and moved forward. She lowered her voice and sighed. "You didn't ask, you just kissed me. I didn't know kissing was a thing we did now." She said, sounding vulnerable and confused. The frown across her brows made Alex feel almost bad for the kiss happening. It hasn't been a grand gesture, just a simple peck and he hadn't even thought about what it could mean, or why it had upset her like this. Maybe it was a pride thing, how Meredith didn't like being caught off guard.

"I'm sorry okay? I didn't know it would upset you this much. It's just a kiss. Didn't mean anything." He promised her, reaching out to give her hand a quick squeeze. He waited until she was looking up at him before giving her a gentle smile. "Have you eaten? I was thinking of making some toast." He offered, but she just shook her head, toast wasn't what she craved right now.

She groaned and buried her face in amongst the sofa's arrangement of cushions, ignoring the fact that they smelled of children's snacks, and probably hadn't been washed in months.

She could hear Alex fumbling around in the kitchen, looking for ingredients for whatever it was he was trying to cook up for himself. She thought about how she still had so many things to do before the end of the week, and how suffocating that felt to her.

When Alex looked over towards the living room, he saw Meredith peeking over the back of the furniture. He smiled and slipped a fallen piece of meat into his mouth. He wasn't the best at making grilled sandwiches, but he was hungry so he didn't care about precision.

"You are so stupid," Meredith told him, shaking her head. Her words weren't about his eating habits or his intelligence. She wasn't even certain that those words were even aimed at him. She just felt like everything they were doing was stupid. She could hardly breathe without feeling like everything was all wrong.

Why were they dancing to this tune?

She was having another man's baby, a man that isn't Derek, and certainly isn't Alex, yet there he was in her kitchen being stupid. She found herself walking towards him, the sounds of her footsteps echoed and overpowered the sizzling from the sandwich press. She stood in front of him, staring up at Alex's big stupid face. "You are so stupid." She repeated.

"You're stupid." Alex retorted with a snort. He looked back towards his sizzling sandwich before returning his previous glance.

"We are so stupid." Meredith nodded, before she was the one planting an unexpected kiss to his lips. The surprise in Alex was only prominent for a second, before his lips parted, and it was no longer an innocent peck. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was just two lonely adults, Alex didn't care which at this point. The silence in the air made Meredith's ears ring, but their pants were soon all she could hear.

He lifted her up onto the kitchen counter, her hands fumbled with his belt. It was all moving so quickly, it felt like somebody had pressed fast forward. Her heart was pounded as his hands ran through her hair.

Eye contact wasn't made until suddenly it was, and everything started to slow down. She reached up to cup his face, and Alex closed his eyes delicately, the feeling of her soft lips tracing down his neck and back up to his lips once more, felt like he'd been touched by a ghost, or an angel.

With her legs wrapped around his thighs, his mind was going wild with thoughts he'd never expected to have about the woman he had given everything up for, the woman who he wanted to protect with his entire being.

"Oh god!" Maggie's voice interrupted the intimate exchange, causing Alex to jump away from the bench entirely. They'd never expected to be in this situation with each other. It wasn't the first time for either of them, getting caught was all part of life's awkward plan for everybody, but now as Alex stood bare chest in Meredith's kitchen, he felt the blood rush to his cheeks as though he had been doing something wrong.

"I'm so sorry. I should just leave you two alone." Maggie spluttered, and Meredith couldn't help but smile. Her smile didn't last very long before she was laughing herself silly, this whole thing was such a mess, what else could she do? She laughed until her ribs hurt, laughed until she could barely breathe. She was just about to bone Alex, Alex...