"Amelia, what is all this clutter?" Meredith remarks as she watches her rummage through the cabinet beneath her bathroom sink, clearly on a mission.

Amelia continued to ignore her as she threw things left and right, finding old bath toys, a swim diaper that had to be at least seven years old, and some of Bailey's and Zola's old bath towels. She didn't see Meredith as the sentimental type to keep their old bath towels with the ducky hoods, but then again, she was a single mother, hoarding everything she could for her youngest to make it work. With the help of Maggie and Alex, she was making it work.

"Where do you keep your pregnancy tests?!" She asks frantically, tossing another box of tampons to the side, every individual one flying in opposite directions.

Meredith sets down their new puppy whom she had found peeing on the wooden hall floor, watching him crawl towards the tampons to put in his mouth and she shoos him, taking the hygiene products and collecting them back into the box. She then shut the door behind the curious pup, pushing Amelia's frantic hands back into her lap and closing the wooden cabinet door.

"I don't know Amelia, maybe because I thought we were all well past our child bearing years. Why would I have some? To encourage my sixteen year old daughter to use them?" She replies smartly, her words carefully and cynically laced to make a point.

"No, because we're doctors." Amelia deadpans as if it was obvious, like all doctors should have them.

"Then why don't you have any?" Meredith retorts, helping Amelia to her feet, and watching as she leaned back against the counter.

Amelia blew air out of her rouge colored cheeks, clearly not in the mood for their sisterly banter. She had had a fight with Owen the night before, bringing up the possibility of having kids again after they had put it on the back burner again. She told Owen how she felt towards having to go through a tragedy again, even though neither good or bad was guaranteed. And after she realized that they still weren't ready she freaked out, leaving Owen confused to why they had even brought it up in the first place.

"Owen and I got into a fight last night, so I stayed the night here." Amelia lets out an exasperated breath. "Where are they?!"

"I thought Owen had a vasectomy when you decided you didn't want kids at all." Meredith interrogates, trying to be helpful by understanding where she was coming from.

"I might have stopped my birth control too soon... like as soon as we decided he would get when I mentioned I had stopped taking them, he panicked. He belittled me for being irresponsible for not taking them when the doctor even warned me not to stop it too soon. For not waiting until he was fully- you know, healed."

Amelia wrings her hands together, sheepishly sharing this information as if the two weren't doctors who saw unexpected pregnancies in their cases everyday. As if pregnancy were taboo and they didn't have patients who were under the knife who they didn't know about the baby until it was too late.

"What did he say to that? Is it even possible for you to be pregnant?" Meredith insists, cutting the tense silence with her sharp tone of voice.

"Because as doctors, it doesn't mean we're inhuman or immune to mistakes. My doctor told me to stay on birth control until he was healed but…" She implies, blushing sheepishly.

"You couldn't wait?"

"When I saw that spark of excitement in his eyes, like when he started to suspect what I was trying to say, I panicked and backed out. Told him I wasn't ready and wasn't sure I'd ever be;That if we couldn't have had a kid years ago, we certainly shouldn't now."

"Amelia," She coos, slight disappointment laced in her voice.

"Just promise me Mer, you won't say anything to him until anythings for sure. Because I can't stand to see him disappointed again and live with guilt when the test comes back negative. Because I'll be relieved, but it'll kill him if he has to live through it again."

"Nothing is for certain and you can't possibly be always prepared for whatever life throws at you. As doctors, we can do the check up, have clean labs and still get to the OR and have the possibility that the patient codes on the table."

Amelia kicks her foot back and forth across the linoleum floor, brushing all the toys to the side, then bringing them back with the side of her foot. She knew Meredith was usually always right and always kept things in a realistic perspective, unlike Maggie, who would surely just focus on all the good, forgetting the fact that there was an actually problem that wasn't being solved. Maggie was sunshine and rainbows, a hoverer who liked to keep only the perspective on good, while Meredith was open-minded and viewed the problems from all sides, without an overly optimistic view.

"There's always the unknown, the unpredictable, the uncontrollable. You can feel fully prepared but really never actually be. The best thing you can do is except what comes at you and trust that God will bring you through it. How you handle it is really what matters, it shows character, and is the only thing you can control."

Before either one had a chance to fill the sudden silence, Zola began to bicker with Bailey, shoving him to the side so that she could fill her backpack with her textbooks and laptop for school. The house that once was a somber and quiet place for adults to converse had been turned into a "Crazy Cat Lady" house, with children instead of cats, leaving marks of their presence with toys scattered amongst the house.

"Here's what you do: There's pregnancy tests in our supply closet, which I hope you already knew. Take one and report back to me, and we'll figure something out from there. But Owen is your husband. I'm not going to tell you what to say to him, I'm just here to listen if you are pregnant." Meredith informs her as she unlocks the bathroom door and shoves her into the hall, brushing themselves past the kids who had been impatiently waiting to leave.

"Wait- Mer! What do I do if it's positive? How do I tell Owen?" She chases after Meredith as she takes long strides towards the kitchen.

"You're a neurosurgeon, use your head." Meredith responds smartly, then her face softens a bit. "Relax, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But I can't talk to Owen for you. He wants to hear from you, his wife, and not me." She reminds her firmly, before shimmying her purse up her arm and nudging the kids through the door, lunch boxes in hand.

-XXX-

Maggie's biggest regret in her career, well actually, she couldn't talk about it, but hitting a patient was in her top ten. She had been sent home after having a rough day, unable to get her focus back after instinctively slapping Owen in defense of Amelia when he began yelling. He had one of each of her wrists wrapped in his fists, but little did she know that Owen's PTSD was troubling him after all they have been through.

At least not at the time when he turned to tell her to leave and she took to the chastening as a threat. Sweet Maggie Pierce couldn't handle seeing her sister taking the blow of his anger and with a simple misunderstanding she took her aim, slapping him as he began reaches hands just to simply set them on her shoulder. He didn't know what he was doing and she didn't understand that. Immediately, she felt awful.

After realizing what she had done, she profusely apologized and blatantly excused herself with the mutual understanding that she should, and will, go home to recollect herself. So she walked through the door of her dead birth mom's house, still a weird feeling even after almost eight years of doing it.

She threw down her keys and medical ID, kicking off her shoes and walking half-dead to the kitchen, fixing for a glass of wine to hopefully help ease her guilt of what she had done. She hadn't known what the fight had been fully about but as her usual, hovering, overbearing self, she just wanted to do what's right. Unfortunately, that hadn't entailed hitting her ex brother-in-law.

"Aunt Maggie?" She suddenly hears a voice from the other room, backtracking towards the living room where she had thought she heard the familiar voice.

"Zola?" She confirms with surprise, finding the teenager in her bathrobe, wrapping her skinny fingers around the mug of something that she could see was still steaming, freshly made.

"Does your mother know you're here? Shouldn't you be in school?" She interrogates with worry laced in her gentle voice. "We've gotta get you back." She begins to pack her stuff up, stopping when she realized Zola wasn't making an effort, neither paying attention.

Zola stares into the steam rising above her tea, darting her eyes away from her aunts as her cheeks blush with shame. But of all the people she was glad it was Maggie, because her mother would not want to hear this after her 48 hour shift and Amelia had problems of her own. She shakes her head, hoping that Maggie will continue to guess what was wrong so she wouldn't have to say it.

Zola continued to pull at her curls, watching out of the corner of her eye as the coils bounced back to their original form. After watching this for a few minutes, Maggie grabbed Zola's hands in hers, setting them down on her lap.

"Zola, you can talk to me about anything. I may not be the 'Cool' aunt like Amelia, but you know you can tell me anything, no judgement." Maggie's soft voice coos reassuringly.

Zola's lip quivers, feeling shaky from the inside out as her breathing quickens and heart pounds in her ears. She knew her aunt wouldn't like to hear this but for goodness sake, she was a doctor and was used to seeing harsh things and delivering disappointment to grieving families.

"Aunt Maggie," Her voice shakes with hesitance, then she takes a deep breath. "Annice dumped me."

Maggie stares at Zola in disbelief for a few seconds before letting out a small laugh with relief, bringing the small girl into a gentle hug. Zola pulled away in dismay, unamused by her aunt's reaction. She held the same, emotionless glare in her eyes as Maggie began rambling on, thinking of ways she could help Zola through her first "real" break-up.

"Well with a name like that, it wasn't like he was exactly a keeper." Maggie jokes and Zola raises her eyebrow. "It's kind of embarrassing." She adds in a comical whisper, as if she didn't want him to hear it.

"Clive?" Zola reminds her sassily and Maggie immediately shuts up in defeat.

"So this is why you skipped? Because you crap-head of a boyfriend dumped you? Sweetie, I deal with broken hearts everyday. They may be quite literally broken, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to help a young girl with a metaphorically broken one." She comforts her as Zola leans into aunt's arms, resting her head on her shoulder.

Zola's face hardens as she tries to refrain the heavy sobs from escaping, unable to see that Maggie was really trying to connect with her niece, wishing that she would open up to her the way she used to. Maybe it was the angsty teen years or whatever, but she wanted so desperately to help her.

"Z-bug, you know you can tell me anything that's on your mind and it wouldn't make me love you any less." She brushes the matted curls from her niece's face, Zola only burying her face deeper into the crease of Maggie's shoulder, soaking through her dark blue scrubs.

"Aunt Maggie, I can't come back from this; I really done messed up."

"Life is full of second chances, it's how you learn from your mistakes and grow from them that counts."

"Annice dumped me." She repeats, sobbing harder.

"I know sweetie, it hurts." She soothes her, squeezing her body closer.

Zola's body was as stiff as a cardboard, resisting her real emotions from coming out but she knew subconsciously that in this house she was safe. She believed, or at least wanted to think that she could tell them anything because after their long medical careers, this wasn't the craziest thing they have heard or seen. So she let her body go limber, let her emotions out, and let Maggie console her as she did so.

"Maggie?" She wipes her tears and look up at her aunt. "He would have made a terrible future husband and an even worse father. All he cared about was how we would look to the football team, to him as a cornerback."

She dragged her sleeve across her nose in an attempt to stop her nose from running before continuing through her now acute sobs. Maggie listened profusely, being careful not to interrupt until she was sure that she was done.

"And when things went down between us, I was just the chick he wore on his arm to make him look better to his buddies. That he would belittle and make me feel inferior in this relationship. That I was to be seen and not heard when around his buddies, and made me believe that none of my friends wanted me either." She pushed her face back into her aunt, a signal that Maggie took as she was done talking.

"Oh sweetheart, if he was using you to boost his ego, then don't you think it's healthier this way?" She watches as Zola cringes at the thought, then continues.

"I know every girl your age must think you've found the 'one', but in high school you shouldn't be worrying about who you're gonna marry as much as who you wanna be. High school is a time of self discovery, and that's already enough pressure on one soul. Don't spend your time trying to change who you are when you don't even know yet."

Meredith had found Derek when she was just an intern, and Zola dreamed of a love story not quite as morbid or messed up as her mom's or even Ellis'. Even with her mom's warning that she and her father weren't perfect at first, and that love wasn't always at first sight or whatever, her happy ending was coming, even if the road there wasn't so pleasant. But that was life, rough and jagged roads leading you to where you're really supposed to be and even finding the one wasn't a promise that life would get any easier after that. And deep down, Zola knew that. She knew Annice was a egotistical jerk, with a really terrible name for someone who thought so highly of himself.

Zola had grown to be quite a mature and beautiful girl, Meredith only wishing her dad could see her now. Her saucer shaped, deep brown eyes still retained a child-like innocent look to them, but her cheekbones were high with a natural yellowish glow to them.

She wore little makeup, but some blush and highlight, as well as mascara on her long, curly lashes. She was a beautiful young lady, well rounded, straight A student because she knew how important education was. This one mistake didn't define her, or rather wouldn't because she had yet to see what the future would bring.

"Zola, is there anything I can do to help you?" Maggie finally breaks the silence as she feels her niece relaxing in her arms, the sobs coming to a gentle hault.

"There's one more thing; Please don't freak." Zola hold real warning in her voice, not just teenage, "I'm gonna get in trouble for sneaking out", but actual fear.

"Anything Zo, I'm all ears."

"I wanna transfer schools, preferably an all girls private school. We can do that right?"

Maggie just stares with disbelief at her, more surprised that she would want to move in the middle of the school year, only a few month left. Zola was set to graduate as a junior next year, already credits ahead of her peers. The sudden change had to be irrational, it had to be because she was a teenage girl with a broken heart, not because she actually saw it as a change for the better. This was coming from nowhere, and Maggie tried to reason that.

"This isn't because you just had your heartbroken and you're mad at like, boys and the world and things right now? You actual have a reason backing this?" Maggie can't wrap her head around it, interrogating her niece on the 'why'.

"Aunt Maggie, I need a change that would be healthier for me."

"You're not getting bullied, are you?" Maggie suddenly gets defensive and sits up straighter, a renewed interest in the conversation.

"No Aunt Maggie." She rolls her eyes before reaching down, digging a flyer and some paperwork from her orange folder and handing it to her aunt.

Maggie stares wide eyed at the flyer, her head suddenly spinning into space as she struggles to retain the information and wrap her mind around it. Not specifically what she had read was as difficult to comprehend as everything else. She sat speechless, staring at it long after Zola had retreated to the bathroom, Maggie hearing the click and not seeing her for a long time after that.

She could only heard Zola's loud sobs over the shower water, her heart breaking despite what she had just seen, because in her mind, Zola was still that same little girl she had met and loved immediately years ago. She knew how Meredith would come home later, throwing her tired self onto the couch, scrubs and all into a lump, sleeping until the morning came and she had to start again.

Meredith had the day off so she had time to stew on the subject, but she knew it wasn't her place to change Meredith's mind, just help support Zola. Honestly she knew that's how Meredith and Amelia would see it too, after the initial shock of their straight A child wanting to transfer.

"Oh Zo-Zo, you will still make an amazing surgeon or whatever you want to be someday. But I'm confident whatever it is, you'll make us proud." Maggie whispers, hugging the flyer to her chest.