Chapter 2 is UP! This chapter is very Alex-heavy.

Please R & R

Lexie hummed softly to the music on her mp3 player. She had taken to diving into a medical journal and filling her head with music over lunch. It was the only way she could ignore the stares and whispers that surrounded her.

As she came up to a page turn, she dared a glance upward and met a pair of slate blue eyes across the cafeteria. Her breath hitched in her throat and her face grew warm. She tried to ignore the conflicting emotions he stirred in her.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she turned her attention back to her article, but the words blurred before her eyes. She could still feel him, his eyes on her. She could feel him approach. Figuring there was no way to avoid this, she let out a frustrated breath and lifted her head to address him.

He was gone. Instead she saw Alex standing in his place with an unreadable expression on his face. It didn't take long for him to walk away, leaving Lexie alone again.

"Good job, Grey," Mark praised the resident on his case.

"Thank you," Meredith smiled behind her mask while the scrub nurse removed her mask and gown.

An awkward silence fell on the pair while they scrubbed out. Meredith had been overly concerned about other people's feelings since the shooting and Mark was not looking forward to whatever, 'Let's talk about our feelings' crap she was about to send his way.

"So, Lexie's birthday is this Friday," she finally blurted out.

"You think I don't know that, Grey?" Mark snapped.

"I…" Meredith blinked. "Yes, of course, I know that. It's just, I'm having a birthday dinner for her and thought you might like to come."

"This isn't a surprise party, is it? 'Cause those never go well."

"No, no surprise. I already talked to Lexie. She thinks a nice dinner with her friends would be nice. Although, she did request we play down the birthday stuff."

"I'm not sure ex-boyfriends count as friends."

"Mark," Meredith titled her head. "Lexie cares about you. She would want you there."

Mark stared at her long and hard before spitting out, "I'll think about it," on his way out the door.

"Dr. Karev, care to present?" Arizona offered cheerfully.

"Michael Austin Greene, nine years old, admitted with fever, vomiting, abdominal pain and swelling as well as blood in the urine." Alex read off the chart, glancing between the boy and pretty young woman with him.

"Thank you, Dr. Karev. Michael, did you understand any of that?" Arizona asked the boy.

"Means I'm sick," he answered miserably.

"Yeah, but we're going to see what we can do to fix that. Right, Dr. Karev?"

Alex offered an encouraging half-smile. "Yeah, man. We'll have you and your mom out of here in no time."

"I'm not his mom," the young woman proclaimed. "I'm not his mom, but his mom is going to kill me when she finds out about this. What if it was my cooking?"

Michael rolled his eyes. "It wasn't your cooking, Aunt Kathy."

Alex smirked.

"Well, blood in the urine isn't standard in the case of food poisoning, so I'msure it wasn't your cooking," Arizona explained. "Dr. Karev and I are going to go over his case and be back with some suggestions for fixing his tummy. That sound good to you, Micheal?" The boy just nodded. Arizona offered a sympathetic smile to him and Kathy before making her exit.

"We'll be back," Alex stated with a nod as he followed Arizona out.

"Any ideas, Karev?" Arizona asked as they convened around the research station.

"Could be his appendix, but the blood in the urine doesn't really go with that."

"Good. What do you recommend?"

"I'd do a CT. See what we find in there."

Arizona smiled. "Good." She handed him Michael's chart. "Let me know what you find out."

Alex had just gotten Micheal settled to get the CT started and gone into the observation room.

"Hey," Meredith pranced in, a bit out of breath.

Alex regarded her for a moment before speaking into the microphone. "Alright, Micheal, we're going to get started now. Just take deep breaths, in and out. You're going to be fine." He switched the mike off. "What do you want?" he asked Meredith as he plopped in the chair and got the CT running.

Meredith, ignoring his desire for her to go away, sat in the chair next to him. "I'm having this dinner thing on Friday. It's for Lexie's birthday. You should come."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Despite what you think, Lexie doesn't hate you."

"Doesn't mean she want me at her birthday party." He grabbed the mike again. "You're doing great, Michael." He turned back to Meredith. "I think I'll pass."

"Alex, it would be good for you to get out and see people. You've been spending way too much time in the trailer. Remember when Derek isolated himself out there? He was bitter and angry and he grew a beard. A beard! You would not look good with a beard, Alex."

Alex was no longer listening, his full attention on the CT. "Look at that. What does that look like to you?"

Meredith's eyes grew wide. "Oh my god." She leaned forward to get a closer look. "Is that a tumor?"

"Fortunately, Wilm's tumor is treatable," Alex explained to Michael's aunt. "Michael is an otherwise healthy boy with no other complications. We'll first need to do a biopsy of the tumor to gauge what stage we're at and then proceed from there."

"But you can fix it?" Kathy's warm green eyes pleaded with him.

"We'll know more about his treatment plan after we've done the biopsy, but yeah we can fix it," he smirked.

"Have you been able to contact his parents?" Arizona asked.

"I left a message at their hotel. They're traveling in Europe, so it's kind of hard to get through to them."

Arizona nodded. "Alright, well, we'll need you to sign some consent forms to get started, then Dr. Karev will prep Michael for the biopsy. I'll be around if you have any questions." With that, Arizona rolled away, leaving Alex alone with Kathy.

She sat down in a waiting room chair. "This is all happening so fast."

Alex sat down on the table in front of her. "It is, but you're doing great. The nurse will walk you through all the paperwork and we'll get Michael taken care of."

"This isn't how we're supposed to spend our time together. Every year he comes to spend a month with 'Crazy Aunt Kathy' while his parents go on vacation. We're supposed to be eating cotton candy and going to the zoo, not sitting in a hospital."

"Well we're going to get Michael in and out as quickly as we can." Alex gave her his most reassuring smile.

He didn't know why, but there was something about this Kathy that drew him in. Alex usually did not care much about his patients' parents, or other adult figures. They usually got in the way of patient care anyway. Kathy, though, he wanted to protect and make this whole situation go away. It scared him because he hadn't felt like that about anyone in a long time.