A/N- One Shot. Set sometime post season six.
Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy.
Lexie Grey let herself into her apartment, half-heartedly dropping her coat and keys on the table by the door and continuing in. Halfway down the hall she pauses, confused when hearing a soft noise coming from the kitchen. She sighs inwardly; it was eleven at night and she had just come off of a forty-eight hour shift. She didn't have the strength to deal with any burblers, mice, or whatever it was that was causing the unfamiliar noise in the other room, she thought warily. Carefully she rounds the corner, heart pounding, wondering if maybe she should have grabbed one of the umbrellas by the door for self-protection. What she saw when she fully entered the room made her let out a breath of relief but also flooded her with a new kind of panic.
"God Meredith, you scared me" she says, letting out a breath and dropping her purse on the table. Then she stops and stares, her eyebrows raised.
"Oh, sorry, I was just getting ready to leave" Meredith says nonchalantly, looking up from the kitchen table where she stands…folding what seems to be a towel and placing it on a stack of already folded clothes.
Lexie felt that it took her several minutes to respond, although in reality it was only a beat.
"Are you-are you doing my laundry?" she asks not able to tear her eyes from the scene. Meredith looks up again "oh" she says "yeah" as if it was often that she broke into her sister's apartment and did her laundry for her.
"Okay" Lexie says, not really sure how to proceed with this situation. "Thanks" she adds as a hesitant afterthought "I…I think…" Deciding to prolong investigating why her sister is in her apartment, doing her laundry, she hazily walks over to the fridge, intending on getting a drink.
There is a brief moment of silence before…
"Oh my god" Lexie exclaims from behind the refrigerator door. She shuts it and turns around "Did you get me groceries?!" She questions, now beginning to feel sufficiently freaked out.
"Yeah, you didn't really have anything in there…but butter and water" Meredith explains, looking slightly uncomfortable now, as she pushed the basket of folded laundry aside, wringing her hands nervously.
Lexie presses herself against the cool refrigerator door trying to wrap her brain around what was taking place, finally she found her voice. "So you-you did my laundry, and you stocked my fridge with food" she relays, as if going over the facts trying to get to a conclusion. "And-you did my dishes?" she says in surprise, her eyes flitting to the empty sink. She proceeded to look around the room trying to see if anything else was changed.
"You vacuumed?!" she squeaks thinking that this is just starting to get ridiculous, looking at the tile floor which looked suspiciously neat. Meredith's eyes flitted around nervously "yeah, but I should probably get going now, so…" she attempts to head for the door, but Lexie stops her.
"Wait, you just broke in, cleaned my apartment, and now you're leaving?" she asks in exasperated confusion. She decides she's almost mad.
Meredith looks up biting her lip "yes?" she half answers, half asks. Lexie raises an eyebrow in a very Meredith-like manner. It strikes Meredith just then the eerie similarities in their mannerisms, something she hadn't really taken seriously when Lexie had pointed it out a couple of years ago.
"I had some time okay, and you've had hell week" she finally says shrugging. Lexie's face softens, but she's surprised. "I have had hell week" she agrees quietly "You came over and bought me food and did my laundry because I've had hell week?" She's almost afraid to ask, afraid Meredith's answer won't be the one she's hoping for. The one she's desperate to hear.
Meredith sighs again and pauses a moment before answering. She walks over to the counter and sits on one of the bar stools a few feet from where Lexie stands. Lexie's heart hammers at their proximity, but she stares, trance-like, waiting for her sister to say something. "Look" Meredith begins slowly "your mom used to break into my house while I was working a shift and do my laundry and cook me dinner."
Lexie feels chills creep across her arms; this was not where she had expected this conversation to go. Meredith plays absently with the fabric on the edge of her sweater as she continues "my mom never did that kind of stuff for me, but Susan did. She made sure I had food and she cleaned…I wasn't used to it, but it was nice…really nice."
She pauses, looking at Lexie with rare fondness, and Lexie thinks her heart stops for quick moment "I know she would have done it for you, but she can't…and you had a rough week, and I just thought you needed to be taken care of a little." She suddenly laughs slightly, pausing from her rant, and the lightness lets Lexie subconsciously relax a little "I usually actively avoid being taken care of, but your mom once told me everyone needs to be once in a while, and well, I think she was right."
She looks around the kitchen, suddenly vulnerable "So yeah, I did your laundry, and vacuumed, and I can't cook so I didn't even try because last time I tried I sent you into anaphylactic shock, so instead I just stocked the fridge and did your dishes…" Meredith's voice trails uncomfortably at Lexie's continued silence.
Lexie is frozen, her eyes shining, and without warning she lets out a sort of strangled dry sob. Meredith's eyes widen in alarm as she watches her sister put a hand to her forehead, her shoulders shuddering with unshed tears.
"I've just had such a long week"
Her voice is raw and it seems, in this moment, Lexie has finally let her exhaustion overcome her. Without thinking about it, the younger women steps forward and lets herself lean into her sister, resting her head on Meredith's shoulder.
"I-" she croaks, but she can't find the words to say. Somehow, there is an unspoken understanding. Somehow, Meredith just knows.
"I'm so tired" she murmurs, her voice muffled by Meredith's cable knit sweater. Meredith tenses at first, but then she discovers with surprise that her sister leaning into her feels normal, it feels good. They've come a long way, but it still sometimes shocks her, the closeness, but just for a moment.
After all, you don't give up half of your liver for just anyone.
Families, she's knows for a fact, are not always perfect. She's discovered you may not have known them all of your life, and they may be flawed. Family is hardly the Norman Rockwell painting it's made out to be. Maybe, she thinks, family is shared mannerisms and knowing things without having to say them. Maybe family is breaking into your sister's apartment and stocking the fridge. She lets her head lean gently towards Lexie's, feeling hot tears not her own fall onto her neck.
Maybe family is just being there.
"I know" she whispers "me too."