Luckily, Amelia managed to get out of the hospital early and escape from the epic tension between Meredith and Derek. In the little while she had lived with them she had witnessed several screaming matches and passive aggressive silences, but this was far beyond those. It was pure tension, unspoken and lethal. Knowing fully well she couldn't play Switzerland and be neutral and diplomatic she just decided to run and, with the excuse of having to cook dinner, she disappeared. She was definitely not ready for the awkward fest that was going to be this dinner. It was going to be boring and uncomfortable enough before Meredith walked in on her and Owen and now without knowing that Cristina knew she was going to make her night as miserable as possible. All things considered Meredith could get mad all she wanted about them sneaking around, but they were both single and were more than allowed to do whatever they wanted with whomever they wanted. After all it wasn't like her and Meredith shared and told each other everything, they were close, but not that close.

Also, she cursed herself all the way back for deciding on making lasagne, which was going to take up most of her otherwise free afternoon. Well, she volunteered to take the kids home so it wouldn't have been free anyway, but she liked spending time with her niece and nephew and they were good kids so it wasn't that hard anyway. Meredith, Derek and Cristina came home about a couple of hours later, their faces told her the unresolved issues between them were still unresolved and a look Derek threw her way made her palms begin to sweat. Had Meredith told him about her and Owen, was he going to scream at her too, because she was tired and she was on call so she did not have the patience for that, not tonight. Still minding the food, she kept under control all the people in the living room out of the corner of her eye. Cristina was playing with Zola, Meredith had disappeared somewhere and Derek… he was just there a minute ago and now he was gone.

"What have you done?"

Amelia jumped three feet into the air. She had not seen him standing right next to her. "You'll want to be more specific."

"Yesterday I spoke to Meredith and she was fine – well, not fine, but she didn't look ready to rip my head off, today I couldn't even say a word." He was gathering dishes and cutlery to set the table. "I know I didn't do anything and Cristina didn't either, so when she mentioned something about you I realised-"

"Derek either you spit it out or the dinner will burn." She said, fidgeting with the oven mittens, going out of her mind with her brother tip toeing around whatever it was that irritated him.

He sighed and leaned his back against the counter beside her. "Nothing, it's probably nothing. Just hope you made enough because Owen is coming too, Meredith insisted."

Well, of course she did. Screaming internally Amelia tried to stay calm and collected, hoping to be able to get through the dinner and get out in one piece. "Owen? Is Cristina okay with him coming?"

"Funnily, yes." He shrugged. "She was laughing her head off in the car when Mer told her."

Amelia gave a tight smile.

"Is everything okay?" when she didn't answer he pressed on more. "Amy, do I need to worry?"

Unfortunately in the mess her life had suddenly become she had momentarily forgotten about her addiction and how every time she looked a bit off everyone would automatically assume she was using again, or at least think it. "No, God, Derek no. I'm just tired."

Balancing precariously the dishes in one hand he patted his sister's back with the other. "If you want to skip the dinner it's okay, we can keep some leftovers in the fridge and you can go take a nap."

While he was being uncharacteristically nice and understanding and his offer sounded so, so inviting at the moment, she couldn't really bail, not after yesterday. "It's fine, I'm on call anyway, might have to run to the hospital in the middle of it." He nodded satisfied with her answer and went on setting the table, trying not to trip on any of the million toys Zola managed to scatter all over the floor in the little time she had been home.

Amelia turned off the oven and looked around, fixing the salad and all the little things she prepared for dinner, making sure it was all done, wanting to take a shower or rather wanting to get away before the dinner. She went to her room closing the door behind her and taking a deep breath enjoying the quiet. A part of her wanted to tell Derek about Owen, right away, rip it off like a band aid and maybe fake an emergency and let him stew, but with Meredith still so angry the rational part of her decided it was probably better to wait until she calmed down and maybe wait and do it with Owen. She tore off her clothes and went into the bathroom, making a mental note to thank Derek for building a house with so many bedrooms and especially for building her spare bedroom with its own bathroom.

The ten minute shower was more about the ten minutes surrounded by the sound of the water falling, rather than washing, the sound of the water drops reminded her of the sound the rain drops made on the trailer. She closed her eyes and thought back to any of the times she'd slept in the trailer falling asleep to the sound of the rain, amplified by the shape and metal of the tin box, all while being held in the arms of this man that most days felt like a dream, just a figment of her imagination. Hanging on the calm and relaxed feeling Amelia threw on the same jeans she had been wearing before and picked out a clean shirt, pulling her hair up in a messy ponytail. Leaving her room and trying to keep it together enough to get through tonight, she bumped into Cristina. The two looked at each other for a few seconds without making a sound.

"Hey I don't know if I should thank you or anything, but tonight is turning out to be one of the best nights of my life. I feel like I'm trapped in a really bad soap opera and out of the proverbial crossfire." Cristina smiled. "Seriously just when I thought yesterday was good you topped it. I really like you Little Shepherd."

Amelia's eyes narrowed. "I liked you too before you called me Little Shepherd, but I'm glad I'm making your stay worthwhile."

"Oh come on, cheer up! And it's a sibling thing, when there's more than one of you I need a way of making the distinction."

Amelia sighed. "I guess it's better than Derek's Sister."

Cristina tilted her head to look at Amelia. "Don't be so tense, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardise whatever secret agreement you two have, you guys are so cute together – it'll be more fun like this anyway."

"Oh, well then you should know that Meredith knows." Amelia gave a sarcastic smile. "Because this wasn't awkward enough, so…"

"I see your point now. She has been in a crappy mood all day, no wonder. Why did you tell her?" seeing Amelia's guilty look it suddenly came to her. "Oh my God, she walked in on the two of you doing the nasty? This is amazing. I should write a book."

Amelia rolled her eyes and they both heard the doorbell ring, knowing fully well who that was going to be. "Show time. I have to get food out of the oven."

"Yeah, you do that. I'll wash my hands." Cristina patted Amelia's back in mock sympathy.

Amelia walked back into the living room, debating whether she should avoid Owen completely and pretend he wasn't there or if that would look entirely too weird and she should instead try and be nice and polite and detached, but interact with him like she would with any colleague of theirs coming to dinner. She went for a mixture of the two, saying a quick hello and thanking him for the wine, grabbing the bottle from his hands and taking it away with her into the kitchen. For just a second the temptation to open it and drink, just a glass, was overwhelming, her better judgement kicked in and she just set the bottle on the counter next to the food that still needed to be brought over to the table. While everyone else settled in and especially helped Zola settle in because, while Bailey already had dinner, she was going to eat with them, Amelia waited in the kitchen, which despite the lack of walls and proper separation from the living room still offered a sense of protection and isolation. Taking a deep, deep breath she took the bottle in one hand and the lasagne in the other and made her way to the table. Carefully putting everything down, she gave Derek the bottle who gratefully took it away from her with a smile that made her insides turn. She hated the pity looks. However, the best part turned out to be how she randomly ended up sitting right between Owen and Derek. Owen turned to her and the look on his face was an adorable attempt at looking casual, a rather failing attempt.

"Sorry, I know you can't drink." He tried to also sound casual, still failing, the softness in his voice was unmistakeable and Amelia just hoped Derek wouldn't notice until the end of the night, because otherwise Cristina would have golden material for her book.

She smiled avoiding eye contact and pretending not to see Meredith glaring at her from her position opposite them at the table. "It's fine, don't worry."

In fact Meredith was so intent on glaring that she completely missed how Cristina turned to Zola, sitting in between them, and made her laugh a little to relieve the tension and especially to have an excuse to laugh herself. "Are we going to eat or what?"

Derek took control of the food and the wine, not entirely oblivious to what was going on that he was obviously missing, but determined to keep up morale and not turn the dinner into a screaming match for whatever reason. Halfway to dessert two pagers went off and all doctors, minus Cristina, went to check only to see it was Owen and Amelia being paged back to the hospital. Apologising as always they stood and put on jackets and shoes, and pick up bags and phones all around, making their way to the door still apologising for the extremely impolite way they were leaving dinner. Being surrounded by surgeons though, they entirely and genuinely understood. They all understood, but Meredith was still glaring, she was on call too and hadn't been paged, it was definitely strange. Something that Cristina now noticed and had to elbow Meredith to offer an 'I understand', even if it was just out of having – relatively – good manners. "Stop it."

Cristina arched an eyebrow, all of them had clearly been part of the conversation where Owen and Amelia had decided to drive to the hospital together. It was absolutely normal and Derek hadn't thought twice about it and took it upon himself to get Zola ready for bed leaving Meredith and Cristina to catch up and drink all the wine. "Why are you being like this?"

Meredith groaned. "It doesn't matter, I'm just so angry I could strangle a puppy."

"At Owen?" Cristina probed. Meredith shook her head not entirely convinced. "Little Shepherd?"

Meredith looked up, a look that screamed dark and twisty thoughts. "You really don't want to know."

"Well, I want to know."

"No, Cristina, you don't." she insisted. It was endearing to Cristina how Meredith was trying to protect her in this dysfunctional, energy draining way.

She stood taking the bottle and her glass and moving to sit on the sofa, hoping Meredith would just follow suit. Once they sat facing each other Cristina filled their glasses back up. "If you are referring to Owen and Little Shepherd spending time together naked, I know. I can't believe I have been here two days and I know and you don't, I mean, you live with her."

"How do you know?" Meredith was now more intrigued than anything, she was apparently past the frustration and just falling back into old habits. "Did Owen tell you?"

"It's actually kind of a funny story," she began smirking. "When I arrived yesterday I went directly to Owen's trailer and he wasn't there, but I saw his car coming up, so I waited. Imagine my surprise when Little Shepherd came out and sat with me. It was blatantly obvious she was expecting to find Owen, but she handled it remarkably. Then it started raining and we had to get into the trailer with the emergency key that she relocated and once inside she changed into Owen's clothes. So that's how I used my mad detective skills to put together the pieces-" Had Meredith just elbowed her? "Ow! Such boney hands."

Meredith looked at her expectantly. "Well, what happened next?"

Cristina wiggled her eyebrows mischievously. "You want the details of our hot, so very incredibly hot threesome?"

"Gross. Tell me that did not happen."

Cristina sighed. "Awesome as it would have been no. It was just me and Little Shepherd until Owen came home and I came over here, so no nudity and no porn, at least while I was there. We just talked."

"Little Shepherd?" Meredith asked, a smile finally made it to her face. "What is that?"

"Come on, you know I don't do names."

Meredith sat back with her glass, feeling a lot more comfortable and relaxed, she had been so mad for Cristina, but seeing her being apparently okay with it was allowing her to, at least in present company, ease up on the ice cold shoulder. "I like Little Shepherd. So, do we like her?"

Cristina nodded. "We do. Really, I mean, Mer she's so much more fun than Derek."

"Derek doesn't do drugs."

Cristina shrugged. "Meh, nobody's perfect. Apart from me, that is." They both laughed. They were immensely happy of this improvised reunion and were just making the most of it, despite the recent events. "You should go easy on her."

Meredith looked down with the same exact look Bailey pulled whenever he was caught doing something he shouldn't. "It wasn't Amelia I was mad at – okay her too, but mostly Owen. I guess I still had this stupid dream fantasy where someday you would come back and you two would ride off into the sunset together. Also I was mad because they have been sneaking around and it's against the hospital rules."

"Really?" Cristina raised her eyebrows. "Are you really trying to make me believe that this was about the hospital policy? 'Cause let me tell you, you're doing a really bad job at it." In her eyes, though, Meredith noticed the same sadness Amelia had days before, it turns out it wasn't just her stupid dream fantasy, Meredith's eyes must have told Cristina what she'd seen because she was quick to stop either from taking the fantasy any further. "Look we did it, Owen and I, we were together for a long time, hell we even got married. I love him – or loved him – regardless, we kept hurting each other and no matter how much I want to be with him I can't give him what he wants and he deserves someone who can. He deserves to have everything he wants."

Meredith hearing the broken watery voice of her friend scooted closer so that Cristina could lay her head on her shoulder like the old times. "Even if that person is not you?"

"I thought as long as I was here he could date whomever he wanted, because I was sure he would never love another woman as much as he loved me, so they'd be just a…"

Meredith leaned her head closer, knowing exactly what Cristina wanted to ear. "A walking, talking uterus?"

"God, I missed you. Talking on the phone is nothing like this. You just get me." Cristina straightened momentarily to take a sip from her glass, then reprising her position against Meredith. "Yes, that's right. But then I left and I was worried about him, because – because it's not just anybody that can be with him and understand him, what he needs and what he wants and I know that and I just wanted so badly to check up on him regularly, but that would have been completely counter productive, so when I came back I wanted to check on him first."

"So let me get this straight, you want to get back with him, but won't because you both deserve better and at the same time you want to vet who he's with to make sure it's the right person, am I getting it right?"

Cristina nodded, she'd forgotten how easy it was to talk to someone who instantly understood the deepest, most complicated machinations of her brain. "I want to instruct whoever gets to be with him, tell them what to do or not to do, I don't want them to make the mistakes I did – whether they were mistakes or not – I just… don't want him to be in so much pain anymore."

Meredith nodded and wrapped her arm around Cristina's shoulder sensing there was more to this, but not, ever, pressing for more. "This is kind of profound, very evolved."

"It's Little Shepherd. Her words, my intentions." Cristina mumbled.

Trying to distract her without taking away the chance to talk Meredith decided to push just a little. "What about her? For Owen I mean."

"So far, so good, I mean did you see that hickey on the side of his neck? That's chemistry."

Meredith snorted, loudly. "Oh, yes. I know all about the hickey."

"Don't tell me you walked in on that?"

Meredith rolled her eyes shaking her head disapprovingly at the thought of Amelia and Owen going at it like teenagers. "Don't sound too excited, they still had their lab coats on, so I effectively stopped the hickey from spreading any further."

"Like a human contraceptive. That's too bad, I think I would have paid good money to be a fly on the wall."

"Well, there's still Derek they have to talk too, so you might have your chance." She smiled at the thought of Derek finding out that Owen was playing doctor with his baby sister, literally. "Seriously, though, what about Amelia? Do you like her for him, does she pass your rigorous compatibility tests?"

Cristina looked at Meredith with a look that was nearly unreadable. "I think she does."

Meredith didn't know how to take that, personally it was a relief, because if the choice came between her and Amelia she would choose Cristina in the blink of an eye and, for entirely understandable reasons, she knew Derek would choose his sister, which would make their marriage even more complicated than it already was. Suddenly replaying their whole conversation in her head, she got it, got why Cristina was being so confusing and had all these mixed feelings. "You are happy that she does fit, because it means that Owen is going to be okay and you don't have to worry about him anymore and you can move on with your life." Cristina nodded into her shoulder. "But riding off into the sunset with him was kind of your dream too and those two things are mutually exclusive, so you decided to let him go, because that's what you do when you really love someone."

"Yeah."

Meredith didn't need to look at her face to know that Cristina was crying, she just held her tighter, knowing there weren't enough words or promises she could make that would make this easier or less painful. She wanted to take in all her pain, over the years she had seen Cristina hurt because of Owen so many times, but this time was going to be the one and only time she was happy about it. It was a healthy kind of pain. So she just held on, not caring about the time passing and when Derek had checked in, seeing Cristina's tears, she just nodded, everything might be finally okay. With them, at least.

I wanted to thank everybody who took the time to review for the ever appreciated support. Special note to startofdawn: I miss Cristina A LOT and your review made me so happy and feel a lot better about this thing I've written, born out of sleep deprivation and word vomit. It's the first time I let myself write so freely, not caring about the plot or the language and punctuation and keeping the characters in character, so you made me feel relieved about it all. Also, I generally forget that while I may be publishing chapter six I have written about three more that you haven't read and my brain for some obscure reason associates the reviews to the last thing I've written - long story short, I've a lot more written down and I hope I kept the characters as in character and real as possible. That being said I wanted to give you the good/bad news that this story is almost finished at ten chapters, which are mostly all written. So there's that. Hope you liked this and my perception of this whole intricate web of relationships. Plus this chapter is freakishly long and next few ones are too, don't know what's up with that.

Leave a review if you want, they always make me happy. Bye