This was written last night in an attempt to get my vacation out of my system before I dive back into the other stuff. Based on the song "You Are the Everything" by R.E.M., since it's the perfect song for a summer night.

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy is the property of Shonda Rhimes and ABC. This writing is for entertainment purposes only and is not for profit.
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From the patio in the backyard, even with the outdoor light on, the stars seem very bright tonight. They create an illusion that convinces Lexie she can extend her arm, reach with her fingers, and touch them. She even tries it, but, of course, she fails. After she returns her hand to her lap, she laughs at herself, blaming the gullibility on the two glasses of wine she's had this evening.

It's two o' clock in the morning, and if she and Meredith were a lot younger they would have pretended that they were the only human beings alive in the world (and they both secretly are). Everything is still and quiet – no music, nobody coming in and out through the revolving door of the house, where someone is always awake or stirring or causing a disturbance. It's just them there; Derek is at the hospital (emergency surgery), and so is Alex (he's pulling shifts between home and the hospital at Izzie's beside, and the latter is holding most of his time). Cristina, normally still a fixed presence, is probably somewhere with Owen (Meredith doesn't interfere) and Mark knew to steer clear when Meredith and Lexie were together. He knew when he would be the third wheel. The others either don't matter as much, or they're not talked about anymore (one wound in particular is still raw).

The summer night is pleasant with a tiny hint of a chill, cold enough to make the hair on Lexie's arms stand up, but not cold enough to make her want to go inside, even for a moment just to grab a jacket. There's no chance in hell that she'll miss a moment of this. The air smells wonderful and invigorating, a combination of wet grass, smoke from a neighbor's fire pit that had been extinguished hours ago, and the heavy oily odor of the citronella candles spread on the table to keep the mosquitoes away (they're probably all sleeping by now as well).

When Lexie goes to pour herself another glass of Cabernet, Meredith smiles at her and fingers at the pile of playing cards on the table between them, which about thirty minutes ago had been arranged in a game of rummy. They had abandoned it before a winner was determined in favor of sitting in a serene silence, sipping from their glasses and staring up at the night sky. Across the yard, fireflies flickered on and off.

Meredith's grin is sweet but lopsided, the way it always turned when the alcohol was really starting to get to her (she drinks faster than Lexie, still, and has downed three glasses already). Lexie smiles back, a bit more reserved, before passing the bottle to her sister and allowing her to pour her fourth. Crickets chirp somewhere in the distance, maybe in the hedges against the fence. That makes Lexie feel warm – since she could remember, crickets would chirp all throughout the summer; when they were alone, it was the beginning, from the middle of June onward. But she always used to dread the days when the cicadas and their harsh hum would join in, since it signaled the end of August and the beginning of school. The sensory memory recall draws a fond sigh from her and she takes a swig of the rich ruby liquid, settling back into her chair, drawing her legs up into a pretzel position, and closing her eyes.

It's really wonderful to be alone with her like this without having her system flood with nerves.

"You know what?" Meredith asks suddenly, her voice bubbly and an octave higher than usual with tipsiness, finishing with an extreme upward inflection. Sluggish with the wine, Lexie turns her head to look at Meredith and is met with another red-cheeked smile. Meredith's eyes are squinted and it makes Lexie's do the same in a grin of her own.

"What?" she replies, not just to appease Meredith like she once did, but because she knows that Meredith wants to tell her something and that makes her heart leap.

"When I was in elementary school, I used to hate this one girl in my class," Meredith explains plainly, with no ornate details. "Kimberly Witmer."

Lexie laughs just to laugh, because it seems appropriate there. Meredith doesn't notice and continues, trying to concentrate on the story and not let her saturated mind wander. "I was smarter than her and did better than her in everything, because I was a smart kid in elementary school and hadn't discovered rebellion or anything yet. It was a shame, really. But anyways, I had no reason to hate Kimberly. She was no threat to me at all. But she had one thing that I didn't and knew I would never have and I was so damn jealous of her that it made me hate her for years."

"What was that?"

"She had a huge family." Meredith's eyes widen. "Seriously, huge. Like, today, her family would have had a reality show. Called Meet the Witmers or something like that. She was the second oldest out of ten. Eleven?" She narrowed her eyes in thought. "No, ten. Four boys and six girls. The fact that she had nine siblings when I had none used to make me sick. Couldn't she share?"

This time they both laugh; it's dumb but they're drunk so it all works out.

"I tried as hard as I could to imagine some kind of sibling bond. But I never really got it right, so I got frustrated and gave up. Eventually, I became content with being alone. I thought I would never have that chance to feel that connection. But then there was Molly." She pauses to take a drink. "Molly and after her, even more importantly, you. You walked in here like you owned the place and I had grown so used to my life that, at first, the thing I wanted so badly when I was younger, I didn't want anymore. But it's been a year now and I've realized my chance and…" She closes her eyes. "The bond is there. It's not pretend, it's not some kind of fake Hallmark card thing. It's not bad at all anymore, but I'm actually kind of afraid of it because it feels unbreakable." She laughs hysterically as soon as the sentence escapes her mouth. She quiets herself before concluding plainly with, "I'm drunk."

Lexie nods languidly – so is she. But beneath the haze of the wine, there's this sensation in her core that radiates out to her fingertips. Power, pride, elation. All of those things that are a part of being alone with her and bridging the gap by a few more steps.

Meredith returns her focus to the sky, sipping her wine and wrapping her free arm around herself. Lexie takes a deep breath, allowing the biting scent of the citronella and the sweet wood smoke settle in her lungs and bones. Wearing that small smile once again, opening her eyes to the broad darkness above with those bold pinpricks of light in it, she reaches up and tries to touch the stars again.

It feels like she gets a lot closer this time.