The OR scene is taken from episode 11x15 with some slight changes. I make no claims to owning that scene or dialogue or any of the characters.

Baggage

Meredith and Alex were in the OR operating on a fourteen year old boy who had fallen off a ski lift during an earthquake. Jo and Stephanie were dutifully standing by assisting. Alex shook his head and scoffed, "That couple is doomed, all that fighting."

Meredith agreed, "I don't miss that. Look at us, we are both in stable adult relationships. For once we are on the healthy side of things."

Alex glanced at Jo and uttered, "sure," letting Meredith continue her monologue.

"I had to cancel DC, but that's okay. Sometimes he has to cancel and I say it's okay," she rambled as her hands worked inside the teens open abdomen. "I'm a busy surgeon with two kids to take care of. He's at the NIH, doesn't mean we're not happy. That's just how our lives are right now. We're happy; we're in a groove," she went on sounding as if she were trying to convince herself as much as the other doctors in the room.

"Sounds like you're in a rut," Alex chimed in honestly.

His friend glared at him over the operating table, "It's not a rut."

"Whatever," he responded flippantly.

"I resent you saying that," her glare deepened.

"Okay."

"And you're hardly an expert on long-term relationships," Meredith chided.

"Really?" Alex and Jo shared a look, "that's not even true."

"What, Izzie?" Meredith mocked, "That was a cancer marriage that lasted five minutes." Now it was his turn to glare across the table while Jo observed the exchange closely taking it all in. "Oh and then there was Ava, who peed on my couch," Meredith continued with derision.

"All right, would you quit it!" Alex spat out to his friend glancing at Jo gauging her reaction.

Ignoring him, she kept going, "I'm forgetting one," she paused seemingly thinking.

Jo piped up, "Hello, I'm right here." Alex and Stephanie both looked her way nodding, but Meredith just kept ignoring her.

"I know, the nurse who had syph," she stated proudly.

Jo looked between Meredith and Alex incredulous, "As in syphillis?"

"It was a long time ago Wilson, relax," the older surgeon admonished.

"Screw you Meredith!" Alex growled before she could say anything else about his past relationships. She had already done more than enough to drive a wedge between him and his girlfriend over the past weeks and months since she began fighting with Derek and he had just stood by and let it happen. Well, he wasn't going to to let her walk all over him anymore. It was one thing to berate him about his messed up relationships when it was a back and forth and they were giving each other crap, but to call him out in front of his girlfriend was crossing the line.

The rest of the surgery passed by in tense silence. No one spoke unless it was about the operation at hand. When it came to an end Meredith stood back and said, "Edwards, Wilson, you can close," and backed away.

Jo breathed out looking to Stephanie, "The streak is still alive."

"What streak," Meredith demanded with narrowed eyes.

"You're streak. You have had 89 good outcomes in a row. You haven't lost a patient since November 14th," the resident said with admiration apparent in her eyes. She clamped her mouth shut when Alex rolled his eyes and followed Meredith out to the scrub room.

His anger was evident as he stood by his friend washing his hands. He knew she was hurting and that she missed her husband no matter what she led the others to believe. He had known Meredith for years and he knew the truth. But her hurt feelings didn't give her the right to act the way she was and lash out at everyone.

"You've got to stop it Mer," he said evenly turning to her his glare seething.

She looked back at him wide eyed and said innocently, "What?"

Alex rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air in frustration, "If you want to pretend like your marriage is so perfect and happy without your husband in it, that's fine. If you want to walk around here like some kind of martyr or... or... victim or something, great! But, you are just as much at fault for him being gone as he is," he ground out honestly. He was tired of walking on eggshells with her. He was known for being brutally honest and that's what he was going to be. "You pushed Derek out the door," he pointed his finger at her for emphasis, "You told him to go to DC." His voice softened as he watched his friends face, "If you want your husband back here, then just tell him. He will come home; you know he will. He always does."

Meredith met his gaze stonily, "I don't need him. Him being gone has shown me who I am outside of my marriage, and I'm amazing." Her facade crumbled just a bit and she added timidly, "but I do want to share it with him."

"Great, tell him that," Alex advised. He grabbed his friend's arm and stopped her as she turned to leave the room. "We're not done here," he shook his head. "I am in a good stable relationship for the first time ever, no thanks to you, and I'm not going to let you screw that up for me. I want this relationship; I want to be in it, with Jo." Meredith raised questioning eyebrows silently asking what this had to do with her. "Cut it out!" he demanded. "No more coming into my house in the middle of the night and kicking my girlfriend out of our bed, you can't make snippy comments to or about Jo anymore and you can't keep bringing up the past trying to undermine my relationship." She opened her mouth to interject, but he wouldn't let her get a word out. "If this is what being your 'person' is: blindly agreeing with you right or wrong, telling you whatever you want to hear, and just sitting back while you trash on my girlfriend, then I'm out. You can find yourself another person." He stormed out the door.

Meredith finally piped up, "Alex?" He stopped and turned to look at her. "I thought maybe you could do the post op notes?" she shrugged. He glared at her and rolled his eyes slamming the door on his way out.

Later that night, as he crawled into bed next to Jo he stuttered, "Umm... About earlier... Umm what Meredith said about... About"

Jo smiled sympathetically at him, "About all your indiscriminate exes?" she supplied.

"Shut up," he grumbled and reached up to turn off the lamp by the bed cloaking them in darkness. It's so much easier to pour your heart out in the dark. Jo snuggled into his side and he wrapped his arm around her pulling her close, kissing her temple and breathing in the intoxicating smell of her. "What I'm trying to say is... That's all in the past... or whatever. I mean what I had with them was nothing compared to what we have. We... I don't know... We connect on a deeper level or something..." He struggled to find the words to express what was in his heart.

Jo leaned up on her elbow and looked down at him quieting him with a finger to his lips. She shook her head, "You don't need to explain anything to me. You've got baggage; we both know I do too. I get it. This right here," she gestured between them, "you and me here is all I need." He smiled up at her, marveling at how well they understood each other. He reached up gently tangling his fingers in her silky brown curls and brought her head down to his meeting her lips in a slow heated kiss. She broke away and with a glint in her eye teased, "Syphillis, really Alex?" She wrinkled her nose up in disgust.

"Shut up," he growled and attacked her lips once again.