The ride home was silent. The tension in the car was so strong, you could feel it and even slice it with a knife. Owen gritted his teeth, and kept his focus on the steering wheel in front of him. Meanwhile Amelia peered out of the car window, pretending to be interested in the dark poorly lit streets outside. Owen was fuming inside, but he was driving so he had to control his temper. He didn't want the car to swerve to the side. Neither one of them uttered a single word until the car reached the trailer.

They were both so absorbed in their thoughts. Owen was tending to his hurt and anger, reeling over the fact that Amelia had relapsed, and it might be partially or even fully due to him. Meanwhile, Amelia was also furious with Owen for not leaving her the hell alone. He brushed her aside in the first place, he made it clear that he didn't want her prying in his personal life, so why should he pry into hers? She wished that she had drank more of the vodka so she could be totally drunk at not feel any emotions at the moment. But too bad, no, the few sips of vodka she took wasn't enough to wash away all the hurt and anger she was feeling inside.

The silence continued between them as they went about their chores as they reached the trailer, with Amelia taking a shower and Owen preparing some hot chocolate for them both.

Owen finally broke the silence as they were both sipping hot chocolate at the kitchen counter.

' So tell honestly me why did you do it?' Owen asked. ' Why did you go back to day One after working so damn hard to be sober for so long?'

' It's because of you' Amelia finally answered curtly, looking down at the kitchen counter.

' What do you mean it's because of me?' Owen asked- taken aback.

' You shut me out, Owen. I let you in all my darkest secrets. I open up to you about my past. I trusted you. Instead what do I get? You not even telling me a single thing , and telling Meredith instead.. So she is more important to you now, I get it.' she answered calmly in a dangerously low voice, anger laced deep in her voice.

' Amelia- I didn't mean it like that.' Owen said exasperatedly. 'I just didn't want to burden you with my personal issues...'

' So you're saying that I burden you with my personal issues when I entrust them to you?'

' No, I don't mean...'

' Alright, you made it loud and clear. From now on, I wouldn't tell you any of my personal issues anymore ok? '

'Amelia- you can always tell me anything you know. You are my friend and my confidante, you can always tell me anything that is bothering you...'

Amelia's blue eyes bore into Owen's in anger. The vodka still in her system was now causing her face to flush.

' Oh so now you're telling me that I am just your friend? Your friend and nothing more? So now you're telling me that all the sex all this while was for nothing?! That I'm just a fuck buddy for you? That is oh so comforting to hear!' she spat out furiously.

Owen scratched his head and sighed in defeat, he seemed to be saying everything wrong, he just couldn't find the right words to say to her anymore. Besides, he was dead tired and exhausted after a long shift, he couldn't think coherently anymore.

'You know what?' Amelia said suddenly. ' You go and have a nice chat with Meredith, since she is now your new best friend. Don't come to me anymore.' she said, jumping into bed and throwing the covers over herself.

The next morning

' What do we have here?' Owen asked, rushing over a couple of paramedics carrying a stretcher holding a young woman with a bloodied chest.

' A 28 year old woman, found lying on the floor of her kitchen unconcious by a neighbour who heard a gunshot sound. Turned out she was shot by her husband who then disappeared' one of the paramedics explained, as they transferred her to a trolley. 'But she is still breathing and still has a pulse'.

' Hey, what's your name?' Owen asked the lady as she slowly opened her eyes to look at him.'

' O...Olivia...' she muttered softly, but loud enough for him to hear. ' He...he left me for the dead...'

Owen's anger rose at her last words...' He left me for the dead.'

Suddenly flashes of his painful past, snippets of the painful memories of that fateful day came rushing back to him.

' How could you' Owen turned to Nathan, his voice suddenly full of hatred and anger towards the man he once considered his brother. ' How could you just leave her like that! She is your wife! Was….' He corrected, looking down at her lifeless form.

' There was nothing we could do Owen.' Nathan tried to reason. ' The bullets were being fired so fast, if we tried to save her all 3 of us would be dead'

'You just left her!' Owen exclaimed. ' Olivia was your wife and she was my sister and you just left her out there to die alone!'

He walked away before Nathan could reply, and both of them never spoke to each other again since then.

Suddenly Owen's entire vision became blurrred. He could feel his breathing become ragged and heavier. Cold sweat trickled down the sides of his forehead, and his fist involuntarily clenched tightly, so tight that his fingers left marks on the palms of his hands.

' I'm sorry, can you call Kepner please and ask her to take over this case?' he muttered to the paramedics before striding away as fast as he could, ignoring the confused glances of the paramedics.

He walked out of the ER entrance to the feel of fresh breeze blowing at his face. Usually the feel of the breeze blowing would calm him down, but not today. He could still feel the anger and hurt of the past boiling inside of him, like a bomb waiting to explode, like a volcano waiting to erupt.

Meanwhile, Meredith Grey was about to clock out from her overnight shift. She just couldn't wait to return home and get several solid hours of sleep before she had to pick up her children from kindergarten, preschool and daycare.

She decided to drop by the ER one last time to check whether they were any pending general surgery cases that needed to be reviewed there.

All the general surgical patients had been cleared, so she walked out of the ER doors, breathing in the first feel of fresh air and freedom post shift.

She stopped on her tracks when she spotted Owen Hunt standing still a short distance away, his back facing her, staring out at the sky.

She decided to catch up on a little idle chat with him, maybe just to enjoy for a short while the cool breeze, and maybe if she was lucky, to get a bit more detail from him about his sister. When she asked him yesterday, she failed to get a reply from him. Maybe she would have better luck today.

Owen felt someone touching his left shoulder. He jumped up at the sudden contact, causing the other person to jump too and yelp in surprise. Still blinded by rage, and mad at this other person for invading into his dark personal space and erupting his volcano, he grabbed the person ( who surprisingly seemed light), by the arm and drew several hard punches to the face, until the person fell face down on the floor.

Satisfied that he had managed to release his anger and bring the other person down, Owen finally calmed down and his breathing came back to normal.

And his vision cleared.

His anger which had subsided was now being replaced by horror as he realized who he had actually beaten up and what he had done to her.

Meredith Grey was now lying face down on the concrete pavement in front of him, her limp form sprawled out, blood oozing from her forehead.

' What have I done...what have I done...what have I done' Owen muttered to himself frantically, as he paced up and down at loss of what to do. Of course, the obvious answer was to carry her straight into the OR, but when he himself was the preperator, and he wasn't thinking straight, it didn't seem like a straightfoward solution anymore.

Just then, several paramedics, nurses, interns and April rushed out of the ER towards them.

The shrill sound of Adele's 'Hello' being emitted from her cellphone caused Amelia to jerk awake on her bed. She rubbed sleep off her eyes as she tried to come to her senses. She had a throbbing headache, most probably from the vodka she consumed the night before.

Adele's voice was playing, and usually she loved the song, but not at this moment.

Groaning, she reached for her cellphone, seeing that the call was from Maggie.

'Hello' she mumbled. 'It's me' she managed to add.

Maggie's voice at the other end of the line sounded frantic and urgent.

'Amelia!' Maggie exclaimed ..' You have to come to the hospital now'

' Huh? ' Amelia asked, her voice still laced with sleep. ' I am off today...you woke me up..'

' I know but you have to come now.. it's Meredith... She has been hurt...she had been attacked by someone...Someone needs to pick her kids up today and I'm on call' Maggie rattled on.

' Maggie...Maggie...slow down please' Amelia begged. Her hungover brain still hadn't fully processed what Maggie was saying.

'Meredith has been hurt...she has been attacked...they said it was Owen...' Maggie repeated slower this time. ' Nelson is now going to operate on her, she had an intracranial bleed which needed urgent surgery.'

Amelia's dropped her cellphone on the floor accidentally in shock at the mention of Owen's name. No, not Owen. No matter how angry she was at him, she knew him too well, he would never do such a thing. No, she heard it wrongly. Or maybe Maggie had gotten the wrong information. And no, not Meredith. No matter how badly her sister-in-law treated her, even though she kicked her out of her house, she is still the mother of her brother's children.

She changed her clothes at record speed, grabbed her keys and drove as fast as she could to the hospital.

Amelia peered down from the observation gallery of OR2 at the neurosurgical team operating on her sister in law. It was confirmed that Meredith had been brutally beaten up by Owen, something which shocked the entire hospital. She was now feeling the familiar feeling of being helpless, of not being able to save a loved one. Her father was shot in front of her, James had slipped away in front of her, she was unable to save Derek, and now Meredith. Even though she knew that she wasn't supposed to operate on Meredith as Meredith was a family member, and she was off duty for the day and there was no time to lose, she couldn't help but feel that she shold be the one operating on her. Maybe she could save her sister-in-law if she operated on her. She failed to save her brother, but maybe she could save his wife. Gosh, how she hated the feeling of being helpless.

She could make out Nelson barking orders at the scrub nurses and the monitors starting to beep.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore. If Meredith dies, it would be her fault. It would be her fault that Owen had beat Meredith. Because if she had talked things out with Owen the night before, if Owen hadn't gone to bed angry, this might not have happened. She made Owen angry, and caused his anger and PTSD to flare, causing him to attack Meredith. So yes, how on earth was she going to face Zola, Bailey and Ellis when she was responsible for the death of the only parent they had left? Who would take custody of them then? She? The aunt who indirectly killed their mother? Maggie would be a better choice. But then again- Maggie would be too busy with her schedule to take good care of them. Would social services take them away?!

Before she realized it, hot tears started rolling down her cheeks. Embarrased to be caught crying, she walked out of the observation gallery and into the waiting area. She stopped on her tracks when she saw who was already there- his head buried deep in his hands.

She couldn't see his face, but she could practialy memorize his broad structure, his broad shoulders, which she used to love tracing the outline of while they were having their more intimate moments. All that now seemed like distant memories, as she continued standing rooted at her spot, and he finally looked up, sensing that she was there. Their blue eyes met, both full of hurt and unspoken words.

' I beat her' Owen muttered softly, burying his hands in his head again. ' I beat her... I didn't realize it until she was already lying bleeding on the ground... I don't know what came over me... ' he muttered, his body rocking back and forth in a gentle swaying motion.

' I know' Amelia said softly, causing Owen to look up to her again.

' I would never ever beat a woman' Owen said, his voice cracking..

'Especially not a single mother of 3 children' Amelia finished for him.

This caused Owen to resume his rocking motion.

' The monitors were beeping the last I saw' Amelia said simply. ' All we can do now is hope and pray.'

' I just couldn't help it, I couldn't control myself' Owen muttered.

' You have PTSD' Amelia said simply. ' You need help. So do I. I have an addiction to drugs and alcohol. I need help. We both need help.'

She finally sat at the other end of the room of him, making sure to keep a cautious distance between them.

They both sat in silence, her praying to the power above that her nieces and nephew wouldn't be orphans and him wondering what on earth had overtook him, and whether things would ever go back to normal for him.

After what seemed like an eternity for the both of them, the doors opened, causing them both to jump up from their positions.

Both looked like they had been through hell and back, so Nelson decided to spare them both the pain of anticipation.

' I managed to evacuate the brain bleed, Avery managed to repair her jaw and Torres managed to fix her hands. She had a jaw fracture and a radius/ulna fracture of both hands.' he went straight to the point. ' But she is stable for now.'

Both Amelia and Owen sighed collectively in relief.

' Thank you Nelson' Amelia managed to mutter.

He gave her a small sympathetic smile.

' She is now being transferred to the ICU- you can visit her there. But she isn't expected to wake up for the next few hours or so.' he said, before walking out of the room.

' Well, I am going to grab a coffee in the cafeteria and then pick up Zola and Bailey and drop them in daycare before I go to visit Meredith.' said Amelia, more to the door which closed behind Nelson, than to Owen. ' I wouldn't be going back to the trailer tonight and maybe for quite some time, I need to take care of the kids'.

' You should go home and get some rest and a shower, you look like crap' she continued, before she walked out of the waiting room door, leaving Owen still standing rooted to his spot, wondering how will things ever get back to normal between them anymore.