Alice ✧ [a. karev]

0. prologue

The rain poured down hard, splattering heavily against Alice's head as she cursed the umbrella she'd forgotten at home.

She ran as fast as she could, her soaked through sneakers smacking against the wet pavement as she tried her best to shield the bakery box in her arms from the rain.

It was her last night in New York before she left for Seattle, last night with Addison, and the last night before she would officially become a doctor. It was a night of celebration.

She finally approached the brownstone house and slowed a bit on the first few stairs, staring down in confusion.

Clothes were scattered on the concrete steps, quickly being soaked through and ruined. She recognized most of them as Addie's and the comforter from her and Derek's bed.

She quickly made her way up the rest of the steps and she could see silhouettes behind the smoky glass of the door as she approached. She knocked on the pale green wood of the door, trying to peel away wet strands of auburn hair that were plastered to her freckled skin while balancing the pink box in her other hand.

The door swung open and Jade stepped inside without even looking up, eager to get away from the horrid weather.

"My god it's cold," she complained, a shiver ripping through her as rain droplets dripped off her hair. "Why are your clothes outside?" She asked in confusion as she looked up.

She was met with silence. Addison stood there with mascara stained cheeks in only a t-shirt and shorts, both of which were slightly wet along with her frizzy hair. Derek didn't look at Alice and kept his eyes on Addison with an expression she'd never seen him wear before.

Addison looked desperate as she glanced at Alice, hands clutched at the base of her neck as Derek shook his head, his hands switching from his waist to his hair and then in his general vicinity like he didn't know what to do with them.

"What's going on?" Alice asked cautiously.

She'd been in that house hundreds of times, even lived in it for a while during her first year at med school and the air in the house never felt the way it did right then. It was tense and anxious and it put Alice on edge.

"Why don't you tell Al what you did" Derek said, his voice agitated and mean.

Derek looked at her just once, his eyes hard and sad as he reached behind her for the door. She quickly stepped out of the way and he went out into the rain, slamming the door behind him.

Addison flinched at the noise and then looked at Alice.

She had never seen her like that before. So sad, and guilty, and desperate all at the same time. Her cousin wasn't a desperate woman, she was confident and strong and she stood in front of Alice right now looking completely broken. It quite honestly rocked her.

She used the term cousin loosely. Those girls were like sisters through and through. Grew up together, were even raised under the same roof for most of Alice's childhood. Could easily pass as them too with the same red hair and strong bone structure.

Alice's night of celebration turned into a night of comforting Addison, letting her sob as she listened to the whole story. Her side of it at least. Alice had never been in a relationship long enough to know what was reasonable when it came to these situations.

They stood in the kitchen around two a.m., half-empty glasses of red wine on the island and the box of cupcakes sitting in between them. They were kind of mucked up from Alice's running in the rain but they were still edible. And at a time like this, their favorite chocolate cupcakes were a must.

"So what happens now?" Alice asked the question she'd wanted to all night.

Addison shrugged, peeling the wrapper off a cupcake and sniffling.

"I mean you guys are going to get through this right?"

"You saw the way he looked at me," Addison swallowed. "I don't know if we can get through this."

"But-" Alice stammered, not wanting to accept a truth as horrible as this one. "But you're Derek and Addison."

The thought of Alice's only family being torn apart scared her half into staying in New York. She had to be there to fix it, to pick up the broken pieces and try to put them together the way she always had. She was good at it, she could fix them.

"You're going to try right?" She asked, her tone as downcast as the weather.

Addison nodded but it wasn't a strong one as she picked up her glass and chugged the rest of her red.

Alice knew it was unfair on her part to ask so much of her after they had literally just broken up. She didn't even know if broken up was the right phrase. They were married for god's sake, you don't just break up after eleven years of marriage.

She sighed, folding up her cupcake wrapper into little pieces as the kitchen fell silent.

"Maybe I shouldn't go to Seattle yet," Alice started.

"No," Addison immediately cut her off, shaking her head. "No, Seattle Grace has an incredible program, you're going. I'm not going to ask you to give this up for me just because I made a stupid mistake"

Alice rolled her eyes. "I'm still going to go. I'm just saying I don't start until July and it's only May, I don't need time to get settled in I could stay here just until you guys sort things out" she compromised.

"You being here isn't going to make a difference, Alice, you can't put your life on hold," Addison reasoned.

Alice sighed, knowing she was right.

But what if she left and things went to shit? They were already kind of shitty but what if she came back from Seattle in a few months and she didn't have a family anymore? She'd be alone.

"I might go by 'Jade' in Seattle. Jade Taylors" she said, changing the topic.

Addison welcomed the change gladly, grabbing the wine bottle and refilling both their glasses as she answered. "Oh yeah? I like it, but what's wrong with Alice Montgomery?"

"Too many wonderland jokes," she said, squinting her eyes playfully over her wine glass at the girl who made most of said wonderland jokes. Really she just didn't want to go by the name her dad picked out anymore. "Plus Montgomery's a little too grand for me. Jade Taylors is simple"

"You got it, Jade" Addison sighed tiredly, taking another long sip from her quickly emptying glass.

They spent the rest of the night that way. Half celebrating Alice and her new job and new name and half mourning the possible end of Derek and Addison's relationship. Polishing off the wine and cupcakes as they giggled and cried over the island in the dim-lit kitchen as the rain continued to howl outside.

a/n
sort of first chapter! let me know what you guys think of this i kind of like it but idk