"Are you sure this is okay?"
Amelia looked up from her niece to meet Meredith's question. The baby fussed a little at the sudden movement and Amelia rocked her slightly to soothe her.
She loved all her nieces and nephews equally, but it was clear right from the moment she had met Ellie, that this little girl had her heart already.
"Yeah. I told you its fine." she said as she watched Meredith awkwardly look at her.
Things had been weird since Meredith had been back. For the sake of the children they were kind of just staying clear of each other. The kids had been through enough in the last year, they didn't need their home life be a mess with their mom and live-in aunt fighting.
"I'm just going to sign some paperwork down at the hospital with HR. And then I was going to maybe stop by Alex's... But I can come right back..." she started to say before Amelia quickly cut her off.
"Meredith it's fine. I've called in some back up to help with the building of the crib... I'll feed the kids dinner and they'll be in bed way before you're even home."
Meredith sighed a little, clearly anxious about the whole situation. She nodded and grabbed her jacket, pulling it around her and grabbed her bag that was by the door.
"Well thank your crib builder guy for me. I should've just given her Bailey's and moved him to a bed... But there's been a lot of change for them and I just didn't want to change that on him yet. Okay bye Zo-Zo. Bye Bails. Mommy will see you later." she said as she blew a kiss to the kids, who looked up quickly to acknowledge their mother, and then quickly left shutting the door behind her.
Amelia walked and sat down on the couch near where Zola and Bailey were playing. She looked down at Ellie who was sleeping peacefully and she smiled slightly as she watched her little breath rise and fall.
She had only been sitting for a few moments when she heard the knocking at the door. She got up slowly careful not to disturb the baby and walked towards the door. She grabbed the handle with her free hand and opened the door to reveal Owen.
"Hey" he said as he stepped in and closed the door behind him. He stopped when he saw the baby girl in her arms.
He couldn't deny how he felt something in his heart tighten when he saw her holding the baby. She had been through so much in the past year and he could just now, ever so slightly, see a faint sparkle in her eyes again.
"Is this Ellie?" he asked, clearly knowing the answer. He watched her smile and nod as she tilted the sleeping baby so he could see her better.
"Ellie. This is Owen. Owen, this is Ellie."
Owen smiled at the baby and nodded as the newborn whimpered ever so slightly. Amelia leaned forward and kissed her forehead ever so gently, shushing her and soothing the baby back into sleep.
"She's beautiful. She looks a lot like Derek." he said thoughtfully as Amelia gently placed the baby into the pack and play by the window.
Amelia nodded and smiled at the sleeping baby. She felt her eyes water at the thought of her brother. How he'd never get to meet his beautiful baby girl.
"She does." she agreed.
He saw how her mood had shifted at the mention of Derek and gently reached out and rubbed her arm. She looked down at where his hands were and her glassy eyes met his. She squeezed his free hand and then pulled away and stood watching Zola and Bailey.
"Well I should start building that crib." he said sensing the change in the room. He gestured to the tool belt in his other hand. Amelia nodded appreciatively towards him and they both watched as Zola stood up suddenly and walked towards them.
"Uncle Owen?" asked Zola as she went and stood in front of her aunt who adjusted her pigtail that had slid slightly while playing. "You're not going to leave after building Ellie's crib right? Auntie Amy burns our chicken nuggets sometimes."
Both of the adults let out a chuckle as the little girl stood there smirking at her comment. Amelia reached out and tickled the little girl, grabbing her as her body swayed with laughter.
"Oh really that's how you feel huh?" she asked in a playful tone.
Zola nodded and shrieked as she was tickled again. Amelia smiled and let her go, not wanting to completely disrupt the baby's sleep.
"How about pasta Zola? Do you and Bailey like pasta?" he asked as the toddler nodded excitedly at his suggestion.
"Yeah! Can you make pasquetti?" she asked.
Both Owen and Amelia smiled at her innocence. Zola understood that Derek wasn't coming back, she had in fact accepted it in a very profound and grown up way. But it was moments like these that made everyone remember that Zola was still a little girl.
"I can." said Owen. "As long as it's okay with your Aunt." he said as he looked to Amelia for approval.
Amelia nodded as Zola's eyes lit up and she excitedly clapped before running back over to her brother. Owen smiled at her reaction and then looked to Amelia and pointed to the tool belt. She nodded as she pointed to the box that the crib was in by the stairs and watched him carefully hoist the box and move towards the master bedroom where the crib would stay.
She watched him disappear and felt herself shaking her head. He was something else. Just when she thought she might find a flaw in him, he always managed to somehow be perfect. She trusted him, he understood her. He didn't press her to talk about things, but always made it known that he was there for her if she chose to. She didn't know where they stood in terms of a relationship, he had called them a plane crash the last time they had discussed it. But he was there for her and for the first time in a long time she felt safe.
"Okay I don't think I realized how easy it is to screw up building a crib. But after three attempts I think I have it." said Owen as he entered the kitchen almost an hour and half later.
Amelia chuckled slightly at his response as she ever so slightly bounced the now awake Ellie in her arms.
"I started boiling the water before Ellie woke up. I just poured the pasta in. I figured it wasn't possible to burn that." she said as she directed her comments towards her niece who was oblivious to the comment as she colored with her brother sitting at the island.
Owen smirked at the comment before moving to open the jar of sauce Amelia had left out. Amelia began taking out forks and knives, both children and adult size, from the drawer with her free hand in preparation for when the food would be done. They were both busy in the jobs they had started when they were interrupted by Ellie's loud sudden cry.
Both Zola and Bailey looked up before going back to coloring. Owen looked at Amelia who seemed to know what to do and gently shifted the baby in her arms so she was upright, the newborns head against her shoulder. She gently soothed her as she looked at the clock.
"She's probably hungry. There's a bottle in the fridge. Can you just pop it into that bottle warmer?" she asked.
Owen nodded and swiftly walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle, he walked over to the warmer and placed it in. They waited a few moments before it dinged and he pulled the bottle out. He went to hand Amelia the bottle as she quickly stopped him.
"Wait! You need to check it." she said as she grabbed a cloth from the counter and held it out to him.
"Oh right." he said, like it was an obvious statement. He nodded at looked at it before offering it to her again.
"Owen. I'm serious." she said. She watched as he looked somewhat blankly at her. She then realized why he had just stood there.
"You've never checked a baby bottle have you?"
He sheepishly looked at her before shaking his head. If he was being honest, couldn't even remember the last time he fed a baby.
"Okay so what you do is you test the formula on your forearm to see if it's too hot. Just squeeze it and it'll drip." she advised as she watched him follow her instructions.
"Feels good to me." he said as he handed it to Amelia who quickly put it in the fussing baby's mouth, quieting her.
"Feels good to her too. Right Ellie?" Amelia asked the baby as she sat down in one of the stool, careful not to jostle the baby or the bottle.
Owen continued to watch her as he went back to finishing the pasta. Amelia Shepherd was a force to be reckoned with. Not only was she an amazing surgeon but it was also how she dealt and worked with her patients. She advocated for them and tried her hardest to always have their best interest at heart. She did the same thing in her personal life too. He saw how she was with her nieces and nephew; she cared so deeply for them. She might not want you to know it, but she wore her heart on her sleeve, right next to all the scars that showed how much crap she had fought through to get where she was today. It was one of the qualities he had first noticed about her. She was resilient. He didn't know where their relationship was heading. The fact that she had opened up to him on the porch two weeks ago and let him in, he knew wasn't easy for her. She was so conscious of others that she had been shoving her own feelings down for months and didn't properly grieve her brother. Knowing how difficult it was for her to admit that she wasn't in control, made Owen realize she must trust him and at least want to be friends. Maybe they'd figure it out and they would be able to work on things as a couple, maybe she wanted it too. But he'd forever settle for just being Amelia Shepherd's friend, because if he was sure of one thing, it was that he didn't ever want her out of his life.
The house had become quiet within the past half hour. Amelia had given both Zola and Bailey a bath and was now putting them to bed upstairs. He had been cleaning up the kitchen for the past half hour, wondering how such small people could make such a mess with pasta sauce. He was wiping a sponge over the granite counter tops when he heard a little noise come from Ellie on the other side of the room. He looked up and then went back to what he was doing before he was interrupted seconds later by a loud wail.
He looked towards the stairs, debating running upstairs to get her. But he felt bad interrupting Zola and Bailey's bedtime routine.
"Amelia?" he called up the stairs, hoping for a response but knowing she definitely couldn't hear him.
He stood for a moment listening to the wails before he dropped the sponge on the counter and quickly cleaned his hands. He walked over to the other side of the room and stood over the pack and play where Ellie lay, crying loudly, her little fists pumping in the air as she fussed.
"Hi Ellie. Hi sweetheart." he said as he ran his finger over her tiny leg in hopes of soothing her. "What's wrong? Are you hungry? Wet?" he asked like the infant would magically answer him.
Knowing he shouldn't let her just cry, he carefully slipped his hands under her small body and lifted her up, pulling her towards his chest and adjusting her in his arms. He gingerly fixed the pink blanket she was swaddled in and moved his arms ever so slightly, when suddenly her cries came to a halt and she shut her blue eyes.
He looked around for a moment, knowing this might be too good to be true and carefully went to put her back down as she let out another cry.
"Okay okay, I see how it is. We'll just stay like this." he said lifted her back up and pulled her closer to host chest, settling her in his arms. He stood watching her for a few minutes until she fell back to sleep, eventually after a few minutes moving to sit on the couch.
There was something extremely calming about babies. He'd always liked them, just hadn't been around them a lot until he was an adult. And then five years ago, when Cristina had told him that she didn't want their baby, he realized how much he did want one. He wanted a family, a life beyond the hospital. A house to come home to, someone to share OR stories with. Cristina hadn't been that person.
He heard the crunch of the stairs and pulled from his own thoughts as he turned to see Amelia coming down the stairs. He watched her eyebrows rise a little in concern as she noticed the baby in his arms.
"Hey." she said as she walked up next to the side of the couch. "Is she okay?" she asked as she peeked in his arms to look at Ellie.
"No yeah she's fine. She just wanted to be held." he said as he stood and went to shift her into Amelia's arms.
Amelia shook her head, putting her hands in front of her, smiling at the picturesque image in front of. Owen Hunt, this big tough former army surgeon, current chief of the hospital, completely enamored with this little bundle of pink.
"She looks really comfortable. I guess you'll just have to stay awhile." she said.
As much as she was glad Meredith and the kids were back, to be in this house, to sit here while her dead brother's kids slept, it was a haunting feeling. One she wasn't ready for quite yet.
"She has that same serious sleeping look that Derek had." she said as she rubbed her nieces little balled fist that she has thrown above her head as she slept. "She looks so much like him." she commented sadly.
Owen looked at Amelia who was still staring intently at the baby. He reached his free hand and placed it on the small of her back. She turned her head to meet his gaze as she felt his hand on her. She sighed and then leaned against his shoulder.
"You're really good with her." she commented quietly. "You're really good with kids in general."
Owen looked at her and nodded a little, not knowing how exactly to respond.
"So are you. You're a great aunt. It's clear how much Zola and Bailey love you. And Ellie too." he added as they watched the tiny little breaths the newborn was taking in her sleep.
Amelia nodded in appreciation to the kind words. She sat up removing herself from his arm and looked directly at him.
"Sometimes...Sometimes I feel bad for wanting a family. For wanting another baby. Because I had a baby, and I couldn't be his mother. I couldn't save him."
"Amelia..." he tried to reason, he hated how she could even think something like that, completely out of her hands was her fault.
"No. I know it's not my fault. I mean maybe it is because of how freaking high I was. Or maybe it's just the universe continuing to punish me for everything I've done wrong." she said as she swiped at the tears that left her eyes. "I just feel guilty. For wanting a baby, when I had one."
Owen looked at her a moment and then looked at Ellie. He carefully went to shift the baby into Amelia's arms, her eyes wide.
"What're you doing? She'll.." she started to say before she interrupted by a loud wail from Ellie. She quickly pulled her fully into her arms careful to not jostle her as she did.
"Okay sweet girl. It's okay. You're okay." she said as she tightened the pink blanket on her and slowly moved her while her whole body hummed slightly, soothing her back to a peaceful slumber within seconds.
She turned to look at Owen like he was nuts for waking a sleeping baby and she saw him sitting quietly with a look in his eyes she couldn't quite place.
"See? That's why you want a baby. Because you love so fiercely. Your son knows that you loved him. And I know he wouldn't want you to feel guilty about the circumstances." he said as he watched Amelia glide her point finger over the baby's covered foot.
She nodded and turned back to Owen, who noticed a stray tear and gently swiped it away with his thumb, his hand lingering on her cheek.
"Three." he heard her mumble.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I want three kids." she stated again, pursing her lips together thoughtfully before glancing to meet his gaze again. "Is that... Is that okay with you?" she asked like it was an ordinary every day question.
He swore he felt his heart grow in size in that moment. He looked at this beautifully imperfect woman, holding this little baby and he wanted nothing more then to give her everything she's ever wanted. In that moment, every time he had questioned why his life had led him down certain paths, why things hadn't worked out years ago, why he wasn't already someone's father- in that moment everything made sense. This was supposed to happen all along. She was supposed to happen.
She looked at him, clearly thinking the pause he had taken to gather his thoughts meant that he wasn't on the same page, or that she was nuts for not being able to fully admit how she felt about him, but somehow saying she wanted his babies. She then felt her free hand covered by his and suddenly felt him move closer, until she realized that he was kissing her. She felt him pull away and watched as he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear before he finally responded.
"Yeah. Three is great."
Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed! Happy Grey's finale week!