Before We Turn to Stone

Season 16, Episode 14: It's Over, Isn't It?

"It's over, isn't it?

Isn't it?

Isn't it over?

It's over, isn't it?

Isn't it?

Isn't it over?

You won and she chose you and she loved you and she's gone.

It's over, isn't it?

Why can't I move on?"

* * *

"I don't even know what to say to you right now."

Alex hastily closes the supply closet door behind him before Jo can really let loose. She's been spitting her anger at him since they left Koracick's office, her face is screwed up in a mask of fury. Her voice has been getting steadily louder the farther away they get, and so finally Alex finally puts his hand on her back and steers her into the closet where she can call him an idiot in privacy.

She stalks to the back of the closet and spins back to face him, waves of her hair snapping around her face. "What were you thinking? Were you even thinking? You didn't take two seconds to even consider what I—"

"How are you mad about this?" he snaps back.

"How am I mad?!" She gapes at him, incredulous.

"How is this not the best solution?! I want to be in those kids' lives, Jo. I can't be some face they see once a year! How am I supposed to do that if they live in the middle of nowhere freakin' Kansas?"

"Don't act like I'm the one being irrational here. And besides that, Alex, I'm not mad about the solution, I'm mad that you just made a huge life decision without consulting your wife."

"Jo, I had to take the opportunity. Right then, while the offer was on the table. I couldn't accept Koracick's deal and then waste time discussing the situation. That was my one shot! My one shot to make it so Izzie would want to move back! I had to take it! How do you not get this?"

She's looking at him like she's never seen him before. "Alex, you have no idea if Izzie will agree to this. She hasn't made any effort to let you into those kids' lives before – what makes you think she's going to uproot her entire life to do it now?"

"She will," Alex says, but the certainty he felt in Koracick's office has suddenly dissipated. "We've talked about it. She knows I want to be involved. She wants me to as well."

Jo shakes her head. "Alex, you have no idea if you're both on the same page. Being involved could mean anything! You cannot expect her to just be completely fine with this unilateral decision you made for her."

A visceral wave of panic moves up through Alex's solar plexus. "You don't know what you're talking about," is all he can manage to say.

"Do you?!" she counters.

He yanks the door open and storms out without an answer.

* * *

"Dr. Alex!" Alexis shouts joyfully.

Izzie glances up from the coloring book she and the kids are working on to see Alex in the doorway. She starts to smile at him but comes up short. He's smiling at Alexis and leaning over to inspect her art, but there's something about his eyes as he looks at the kids, something almost fearful.

Something happened.

"Everything okay?" she asks him, sotto voce.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He glances around the room. "Where's Anh?"