When Owen left, the young woman felt stupid. She threw a glance to the others but no one seemed to have noticed what just happened between the two surgeons. They were all happy. Amelia, meanwhile, was not at all. She wanted him to understand there will never be anything more between the two of them but she didn't mean to break his heart. The brunette had planned to tell him softly, but it didn't happen this way. She spoke without thinking twice about what she was saying, she should have. But it has been a really hard day, after being on call at the hospital for twenty-four hours, she does not want to have a serious and long conversation. She rose up.
"Meredith, can we go home now?" Amelia asked, she thought that she should have taken her car.
"What? Not yet!? We just arrived here"
"I know but I'm really tired, I am going to call a cab don't worry." She smiled at her sister-in-law, grabbed her back and then went out to call a cab.
When she called the cab company they told her that she will have to wait at least fifteen minutes. The young woman was pissed off she didn't want to wait more than a quarter of an hour until going home, but she didn't have the choice. She sat on the sidewalk behind her, because after spending many hours up in surgery, the young woman couldn't feel her legs anymore.
She sighted Owen, who left the bar few minutes before her. He was in his car ready to go home. When he started the car and left, she knew he saw her but he fainted he didn't. Finally, Amelia's cab came to take her home twenty minutes after. The next day, the neurosurgeon only started at one in the afternoon, so she stayed in bed until eleven o'clock because she only managed to fall asleep around four in the morning.
The first thing to do when the shift starts, is rounds. That's what the brown haired woman did. Then there was no surgery scheduled before two hours so she went into the cafeteria where Maggie and Arizona were already and sat at the table with them.
"Hey what's up? Who's the woman with Owen?" remarked Arizona, staring at the table behind them.
Amelia immediately turned around to see Owen. Indeed, there was a gorgeous blond girl with him and they looked like they were having a lot of fun together. The woman was laughing out loud to something he has just said.
"Mh... I don't know, probably his new girlfriend." Amelia said.
"Oh really? I didn't know he had a girlfriend." Maggie answered looking at the neurosurgeon.
"Me neither." Mumbled Amelia.
At this moment, Owen rose his head and made an eye contact with her, she tried to smile at him but it was much more looking like a grimace than a grin. To greet her, he just made a simple nod and then broke the eye contact to look at the other woman again. She felt a hint of jealousy within her whole body. Yet seeing Owen happy with another woman was all she wished for. Her head was a mess at the moment, he was supposed to be a simple fling, she had let him go, and she is not in love with him, so why does she feel jealous when she sees him with somebody else? She did not have the time to think more about this because a trauma arrived in the Emergency Room and she was paged to go.
The patient was a young girl, she had fell while washing her window in the third floor of a building. She had multiple fractures and wounds on her body. Amelia started to check on the girl's head when Owen
entered in the room with Callie. She looked at them quickly.
"We have to take her to do an X-Ray and a MRI right now." Amelia said looking at them.
All of the people in the room moved at the same time, perfectly synced and shifted the patient to lead her in the X-Ray room. When this was over, Callie, Owen and Amelia waited for the results together, to see if she needed surgery or not, even though it was obvious that her broken leg should be fixed with an operation. Owen and Amelia were both ill-at-ease, unlike Callie, who was completely comfortable and broke the silence.
"Hey Owen, I heard rumors about you and a new girlfriend today, tell me more about it!"
"Mh, well, there is not a lot of things to say… She's not my girlfriend, we're just dating." He responded, more uncomfortable that he was before.
"Who is she? And where did you meet her?" Amelia suddenly spoke, she was too curious to stay quiet.
"Her name is Maureen, she's from the geriatric service of the hospital, I had a surgery on one of her patient, that's how I met her." He responded, without looking at her.
"How long have you been dating?" asked Callie, making Owen feel like he was in a police interrogation.
"This morning only, it was our first date today."
The two other surgeons did not have the time to question him more because the results of the MRI and the X-Ray appeared in the computer screen. Even though the patient's head was badly injured, she did not need a surgery, she should be fine, on the other hand her leg needed the intervention of Callie, and Owen would help her. Amelia hurried out of the room, she did not know why but she could not bear Owen's presence in the same place as her anymore, it was too uncomfortable. Once she left them, she headed to the OR and scrubbed in for her routine surgery that was scheduled in the afternoon.
After this surgery, all she had to do was some consults in the emergency room. She finished her day of work around eleven pm. Before going home, the doctor went to check one last time on the patient who fell from the window to make sure there were no brain damages one last time and then left the hospital.
When she came home, it was not really her home but she considered it as hers, nobody was here. The kids were probably at the daycare of the hospital and Meredith on call. If Amelia knew she could have picked them up but it was too late now. She showered and prepared herself to sleep. Before going to bed, she took her computer to search some houses or apartments adds on the internet. She found some really interesting, close to the hospital, and noted the phone numbers on a paper, promising herself she would call them the next day. Shortly afterwards, she found her way to the guest room, which was now her room, and lay down on the bed. The young woman checked her phone one last time. One of the last message she has received was Owen's one, the one he sent her the day before. On a whim, she decided to answer him 'Hey, I'm sorry for what I said yesterday, hope it didn't hurt you. I'm glad you found someone, you two are really cute together, make it last.' She put her phone on the nightstand and closed her eyes. But ten minutes later, she heard her phone ring, Owen has answered her text. His message said: 'Don't worry for yesterday. Thank you, I hope it will last too, I really like her even if we're only dating for a day, goodnight Amelia.' Just because she wanted the last word, she replied 'Goodnight Owen.' and put her phone back on the nightstand and fell immediately asleep.
Amelia was not working the next day, she used her day off to call the people for the apartments she had found the day before. Only two people out of three answered to her. She agreed to visit them in the afternoon. When she did, she had a crush on one of them. Forthwith, she decided that it will be her new home. She talked with the owner and made the lease. She could move in whenever she wanted to. The apartment was pretty small, there was only one bedroom, a bathroom and a living room where the kitchen was. But it was definitely enough for her as she was living alone.
The next shift of the neurosurgeon started at seven in the evening, for twelve hours, the day after her apartments visit. She told Meredith that she will move into her new home in the week end and that she will need help to install the furnitures she will buy. Meredith told her she will come and bring some help with her.
When Amelia reached the hospital that day, she saw Owen coming on the parking behind her. Of course, they had to be on the same shift. She sighed and got in the hospital.
"Amelia, wait!" A voice shouted. She turned and discover Owen, running after her.
"Hey, what's up?" She said as she stopped waiting for him and started to walk again when he reached her.
"Hi! You're on call too?" He asked.
"Looks like I am." Amelia muttered.
Once she put her white coat on, she headed to the emergency room, which was really agitated that night. There were patients everywhere, not enough beds for everybody. Amelia made consults for the cases which were not neurologic cases, to dismiss as much patients as possible. Most of them came for minor problems and could go back home immediately. Owen was here too, as well as a lot of other doctors.
After few hours, the ER was almost empty, only the most serious cases were still there, but none of them were neurologic. So Amelia went in the cafeteria to eat a doughnut ant drink a coffee. She was exhausted after all these consults. He entered in the cafeteria and sat at her table. The fact that he was coming to her proved he wanted things to get better between them and she was glad he did, they could not stay like that a long time as they were working together.
"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" Amelia said sharply. It was the first thing that came in her mind.
"She's not working now, and she's not my girlfriend. We are only dating, remember?" Retorted Owen, her gaze dropped on his face and she smiled.
"Dating and girlfriend, it's the same, isn't it?" She answered, frowning.
"Not at all, when you date someone, you only meet that person at one point and you only talk, but when somebody is your girlfriend or boyfriend there are kisses and all the couple stuffs." He explained to her. Amelia purchased her investigation.
"Oh, so it means that you haven't kissed her yet, right?" She asked raising an eyebrow. "If you did, you'd call her your girlfriend, no?"
"Why does that interest you? It's not really your business."
"No it's not, you're right. But I'll know that when you'll start calling her your girlfriend, it will mean that you'd have been further with her."
"Maybe. When does your shift finish?" He said nervously, changing the subject.
"In less than two hours, what about you?" She responded and then drank a gulp of her coffee.
"Same." They remained sitting in front of each other in utter silence for a short moment until Owen's pager rang. "Well, I have to go, see you soon."
Amelia did not answered anything and he left the table, letting her alone. She started to think about her life, about how unlucky she was. The young woman wanted a normal life, she wanted to marry a good guy and that her father takes her to the altar. She wished she could have a real family who will be waiting for her at home when she will come back from work. But it couldn't happen, she tried once but it failed. Her fiancé died and her baby died too, she thought it was a sign saying she could never have a happy life, even if she was probably wrong. She really thought she could have something special with Owen, she wanted to, but then Derek died and everything has changed. Amelia stopped thinking about all of this because if she continued she will be depressed and it was something bad for her. Depression makes that she will be craving for some drugs and she does not want that to happen, not anymore. She was staring at the tiling without really watching it when somebody hid her sight. She rose her head to see who the person in front of her was.
"I heard you are moving to a new apartment this weekend, Meredith asked me to come help you, that's great!" Maggie said.
"Yeah I just thought I needed my own place." Amelia answered.
"I can understand, living with three kids might be hard sometimes." Maggie said.
"No, it's not because of the kids, I like them so much, it's just because I feel like an intruder in their house and that I'm not going to live with them forever."
"Oh okay, well I have to go, see you this weekend." Maggie smiled and moved away. Amelia also left the cafeteria to go to check on some of her post-op patient before leaving the hospital.
When finally she parked her car into Meredith driveway, she saw Zola and Bailey playing together through the huge window. Amelia stepped outside the car and went inside the house. Meredith was about to go to work.
"Hey, do you want me to take care of the kids?" Amelia proposed, as her day of work was over. "I don't have anything to do today."
"No it's okay, Zola can't stop telling how she's looking forward to see Sophia at the daycare so I'm going to take all of them but thanks, that's nice from you." Meredith said.
"No problem, you know how much I like to take care of my nephew and nieces." Amelia said, taking Ellis who was on the baby bouncer to hug her.
"Be careful, she ate not a long time ago, she could throw up on you." Meredith laughed and so did Amelia before putting the baby back in the baby bouncer. They talked together for few minutes and then Meredith went to work leaving Amelia alone. This latter did not know what to do. She could not sleep because of the coffee she drank at the hospital, she was wide awake. The brunette did not know what to do so she turned the television on but she couldn't find any interesting program so she finally turned it off. She was quiet bored, thinking about calling a friend to hang out a little bit but she did not have any close friend here.
She thought about Owen, even though they could not be a couple, they could be friends, he was really someone nice and a good friend. Amelia desired to have him as a friend so she chose to text him: 'Hi Owen, I was wondering if you'd like to take a coffee with me? I don't want us to be on bad terms because of some stupidities.' After sending it, she regretted a little bit the end of the message because it was like she was saying that what happened between them was stupid whereas it was not. Sooner that day, Owen showed her he still wished them to be friends while coming to see her in the cafeteria. It was the same for her, she could not bear being ill-at-ease when he is near her.
It seemed like forever to the young woman before the man replied to her message. His answer was saying: 'Sure, I don't want this either. For the coffee, anytime, just tell me when you want to.' She smiled while reading the text and wrote back: 'Today? Right now?' She did not know why she felt suddenly the urge of seeing him. Less than a minute later, Owen answered to her: 'Perfect, at Joe's in 15 minutes'
Amelia jumped off the sofa and put her shoes and coat on, she brushed her hair quickly and retouched her make-up and then left the house to jump in the car and drove until the bar.
Owen was not there yet when the neurosurgeon reached the bar. She took a seat at a table in the back of the room, waiting for him. He entered only few minutes after her and saw her directly, he waved his hand and went to order the coffees before joining her. He headed towards her with the two cups in his hands and finally put one in front of her.
"Thank you." Amelia said.
"You're welcome." He smiled at her.
A silence appeared, none of them knew what to say to each other. Amelia was watching the people around us while Owen was losing himself in her blue eyes. After a while, she spoke first.
"I am moving out of Meredith and Derek's house to get my own place."
"Really? That's awesome, where are you going to live?"
"A little apartment next to the hospital, you could come to visit it if you want to."
"Of course I will! I should think about getting a new place too, the trailer is great but it's not a real home." He said laughing and she joined her laugh to his. "Did you want to talk about something in particular?" Owen asked her.
"Not really." She shook her head. "What about you?"
"I don't know." He simply said but then continued. "There were so many things I wanted to talk about but you made everything cleared when you told me we were just a fling." He laughed nervously.
"I'm so sorry, I was really tired last time, I didn't mean to be harsh. What did you want to ask me?" Amelia said feeling guilty once again about what she said few days before.
"It was not important, don't worry about this. You already answered everything."
"No please tell me, I wanna know!" She said pouting, he could not resist that face.
"I wondered what you felt for me, what you and I meant, if we still had a chance to get back together, but we weren't even together so… But all these questions got an answer so it's okay."
Amelia felt bad and did not know what to answer. She looked at him and smiled sadly.
"What I did feel for you was something strong, something similar to love. I even thought I was in love with you, but after only few dates we started to argue and I realized that you and I together was a bad idea, we were already broke before we started to build something. Then Derek died and you're gone with the army for few months, that's all I have to say." She chose to be honest and told him the truth. Owen was feeling better after he heard her say she was almost in love.
"When we argued, everything was so stressful, I didn't really mean to tell you we were going to crash and all, if I knew it will cause our definitive end, I would not have said that." Owen said, still looking at her right in her eyes, she was doing the same.
"It's too late now Owen, no need to feel guilty about it, it was months ago."
"Why did you say we were just a simple fling if you almost loved me?" He asked curiously.
"Because, we didn't date enough times to be a couple, it was just a fling, it didn't last a long time, it's what a fling is." She responded him. Despite the subject, the conversation was really calm. Owen's phone rang, it meant that he had received a message. He checked his phone and looked at Amelia.
"I'm so sorry, but I have to go. I have a date with Maureen today." He said, she couldn't believe that he was about to leave her alone for another woman. Amelia never talked to the woman from the geriatric service but she could tell that she was pissed at her, without any reason.
"Of course, you can go. Is she your girlfriend now?" She said, wanting to know if he had kissed his new date partner or not.
"Maybe." He replied and vanished into the crowd of people, without saying goodbye. Amelia remained alone in the back of the bar. He was gone suddenly and he didn't even finish his coffee, he left in the middle of an important conversation. Amelia did not understand what just happened and she was a little bit mad at him, she wished he would stay longer with her.
Hey! So this chapter is much longer than the first one, thank you so much for the few reviews I had on the previous chapter! Tell me if you like this one, if I should continue the story or not and follow if you like it :)