to build a home {ga - alex/izzie}

[slybrunette]

Title: To Build A Home
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters/Pairings: Izzie | Alex/Izzie.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,275
Author's Note: This is my reaction to the episode. In a hopeful, weird world. It's not glorious and it's not the most agreeable thing in the world but it's my reaction.
Summary: Post 6.12 - I Like You So Much Better When You're

Comments

[heartsways]

I love your writing; there's a fluidity and control to it that really astounds me sometimes.

Now, I have to confess: I don't like Izzie. At all. But here you've opened her up and made her a sensitive, thoughtful, WHOLE character in a way that I never quite connected with on the show. I really liked this: "blaming that on the wine and the way it makes her knees wobble when she stands only goes so far, when she really means friendships and loves gone awry." That moment of realisation that the things you leave are often the very things that help you stand. Without them? You're just weak and alone. Beautiful imagery there.

Her relationship with Alex has always intrigued me - I found that I really do like him. I sympathise with him. I even root for him. To see his pain here - as you say, "years etched into skin", is visceral. The way they're both moving around one another in this story is so beautifully painful and real to me; a tip-toeing of hesitancy that you weave so very well.

I also loved the structure - the little vignettes that are punctuated with your short paragraphs of stark reality. There's a wonderful contrast between exploration and explanation, between what is thought and felt, and what simply *is*.

Sorry; I've rambled. But it's so rare to read fanfic that transcends that restrictive moniker and becomes something that's literary in style. Thank you so much for this. And er...I kind of hate you for making me like Izzie, heh.

[slybrunette]

I'm not an Izzie fan and I haven't been for years. But I am a fan of taking what the writers give us and manipulating it, in fleshing out the half-assed motivations they give her and us. It really is what fanfic is for -- correcting and expanding upon canon.

Alex on the other hand, and really their relationship as well, has always been my big draw to the show and it remains so. I'm on his side and I always will be. So the fact that this was from Izzie's perspective and not his? That's a different thing than I'm used to and honestly I enjoyed the challenge.

And I thank you for the rambling. I'm a rambler by nature -- I can't even leave a simple 'thank you' -- so it's nice to have something to reply to, and more than that it's nice to read an in-depth review. It lets me know what i'm doing right and sometimes what i'm doing wrong. That's a good thing.

So thank you very much for reading and reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed it!