The Best Medicine

Chapter Seven:

Shakespeare Wrote It First

"Doctor Pope, I don't recall agreeing that you can return to service today." Olivia sighed, laying her pen on the open chart and turning slowly to look at Richard Webber, a sheepish look gracing her face.

"I can't continue to sit in that room with her and my sister, Richard. It's been two weeks. I have to work. I'm going to go crazy if I don't."

"Make it an easy day and Grey is on your service."

"Which Grey?"

"Meredith."

"I don't need a babysitter, Richard."

"Olivia…" The older man sighed, placing his hands on his hips and eyeing her.

"Both Greys and I get to do the surgery on my Hirschsprung case." She knew how to bargain with her boss and she knew that, using the tone she had, he wasn't going to disagree.

"Fine." She tried not to grin as he walked away, leaving her to the chart before her. She wasn't left alone in her quiet world for long before her shadows for the day arrived, arguing over something. Shaking her head, she spun around to face the two Grey sisters. It was going to be interesting having both ladies on her service considering the fact that Meredith wanted absolutely nothing to do with her younger sister. Olivia kept the smirk on her face to a minimum at that thought - she wanted nothing to do with her younger sister, either.

"Doctors, are you ready for surgery?" Meredith narrowed her eyes in Olivia's direction, crossing her arms and tilting her head.

"Doctor Webber said you weren't allowed in the OR today."

"That was before he agreed to allow me to take the lead on my Hirschsprung case," Olivia shrugged, "Lexie, can you page Doctor Bailey?"

"Bailey's scrubbing in on a peds surgery?" Lexie questioned.

"She asked me for the consult and Hirschsprung isn't something you see a lot. I told her she could scrub in with me."

"Do you want me to take care of your other patients?"

"They're already taken care of. You're scrubbing in with me, too, Meredith." The younger woman nodded, looking relived. Olivia understood that feeling. Even if she hadn't gone through the extremely competitive residency program, after going two weeks without surgery, it felt like she was losing a part of herself. She had to get back in that operating room.

The three doctors headed toward the OR in silence. Olivia tried to push away the thoughts of her mother and the potential health problems they were now facing - two weeks was a long time to not have waken. It didn't help that everywhere she turned in the hospital, she was running into Angela and Braxton. Her sister had tried speaking to her over the week, but she had used every excuse she could to avoid the younger girl. Angela didn't know that Olivia knew and she wasn't sure which was worse. Part of her wanted to tell her sister that she knew; wanted to get the yelling and throwing things out of the way. Instead, she kept her mouth closed and waited for her mother to wake.

/

"Olivia." She tried not to show the discomfort she felt at the pity in Derek's voice as she sat at the table in the cafeteria beside her fellow doctors.

"Bailey was kickass in the OR with the Hirschsprung kid." Sometimes the best defence was offence and that's exactly what she did. It was better to deflect the attention to Miranda than listen to any apology Derek felt like giving. He had been nothing but apologetic since the surgery.

"Go Bailey," Callie cheered.

"Where is she?" Arizona questioned.

"Bailey never eats in here," Olivia shrugged.

"I'm not even sure she does eat," Derek laughed.

"Derek, can I talk to you about your trial?" Richard walked up to the table, pulling the handsome doctor away, but not before he had a chance to speak to Olivia:

"Liv, can you meet me in your mom's room at six? I need to talk to you about -"

"Sure, Derek," she cut him off, not needing to hear what he had to say. It had been two weeks - of course he would start talking alternatives. Suddenly, lunch wasn't all that appealing anymore. Making her excuses, she stood from the table and tossed her nearly untouched salad into the trash. It was a short trek to her mother's room and she made sure her sister was nowhere in sight when she entered.

"Hi." She nearly jumped out of her skin at the groggy voice, turning her attention to the bed and a wide-eyed Maya.

"When did you -"

"About an hour ago."

"And no one has been in here?"

"No." Olivia frowned, moving toward the monitors and checking her mother's sats before pulling her stethoscope from her pocket and listening to Maya's heart and lungs.

"Everything seems okay, but I'm going to page Derek to double check." She stepped out of the room for a few minutes, returning only after she had made sure the nurses had paged Derek. After giving Maya a sip of water, she leaned against the wall and began speaking:

"Why didn't you tell me about Braxton?"

"Would it have changed your mind about Jake?"

"Of course it would have. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It would have changed your relationship with your sister."

"And you think that hasn't already happened?"

"It was a bad decision. I'm sorry, Olivia. Angela thought she was in love with him and he swore he loved her. But he wouldn't leave you. I knew that and he knew that, but your sister didn't. When she found out she was pregnant, he told her he didn't want the baby. I have spent the past seven years helping your sister raise a child from a man I loathe because that child is my grandchild -"

"If you could put aside those differences for Braxton, then why did you say what you did about Bekah?" Olivia tilted her head, curiosity on her face.

"I thought he would abandon you like he did your sister. I didn't want you to go through that, Olivia. You have a huge heart and you were so close to realising your dreams. If he had left you, you would have never finished your residency." Taking a deep breath, Olivia nodded. Maya hadn't made the best choices and she sure didn't have the most sound reasoning for her choices, but who was to say that anyone could have chosen better in that situation? It was a little surreal as was.

"When did it start?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question, but if she never asked, then it would always be in the back of her mind, nagging.

"The year after the two of you met. I didn't find out until she told me she was pregnant." Fire burned in Olivia's eyes at her mother's admission and she tried to quell the string of curse words flying around her head that were directed at her former husband. For the first time since the incident, she thought, Jake was better off dead.

"She would have been fifteen."

"I wanted to press charges, believe me. Maybe I should have."

"Don't." Olivia shook her head at the self-deprecating tone of her mother's voice. Maya felt bad about what had happened and how it had been handled. That much was evident.

"Olivia, you paged?" Olivia's gaze snapped toward the door as Derek entered, his head buried in a chart.

"She's awake."

/

"Hi," Fitz greeted, giving Olivia a chaste kiss and passing a warm cup of coffee into her hands. She accepted the cup, taking a deep sip and sighing.

"Hi." She linked her arm with his, leading him toward her mother's room.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier when you called." He spared a glance at her, patting the hand that rested on his arm.

"It's okay. She woke up. Nothing catastrophic happened."

"I would have been here if I could," he offered, allowing her to lead him into her mother's room where a team of doctors were currently standing around the bed. He recognised the redhead standing by the tall, "obviously good with the ladies" brunet doctor. The redhead, Lexie, was on Olivia's service more often than not - his girlfriend had taken a liking to the young girl.

"Doctor Pope," the brunet greeted, turning with a show-stopping smile that was focused on Olivia.

"Doctor Shepherd," Olivia grinned, "this is Fitz."

The two men shook hands and Fitz tried to recollect where he had heard Doctor Shepherd's name before. He barely heard what was being said about Olivia's mother. He didn't feel too bad - he probably wouldn't have understood it anyway. Doctor Shepherd was speaking to Olivia which meant that he more than likely wasn't using the kid terms.

"How do you like neuro, Lexie?" Olivia asked once Doctor Shepherd had exited the room. The redhead seemed to take a moment to think as she unwound the bandages around Maya's head.

"It's interesting, but it's Meredith's thing. Besides, I really like peds."

"We like having you on peds. You're good with the kids. It's a good thing you and Karev won't have to compete for the residency program." Lexie nodded, tilting her head in concentration as she wrote in Maya's chart.

"I'll leave you guys alone." Olivia noted absently, waving the girl away before turning her attention to her mother.

"No neurological damage. That's a good sign."

"Is that what the good-looking one was saying?" Maya chuckled. Olivia shook her head at her mother, patting the older woman's hand.

"Where's Angela?"

"I sent her to the hotel. I didn't think Braxton should be around for all this doctor mumbo jumbo." Olivia nodded, reaching for Maya's chart and scanning the first page. She would rather not have to confront her sister anyway. There were some wounds she wasn't ready to open.

"Derek said he'll discharge you soon if all goes well."

"Good. I'm sure you're just waiting for me to go back to Maine." One look at Maya's face was enough to tell Olivia that her mother was merely teasing.

"Hilarious," Olivia rolled her eyes. "You can stay with me while you recover, mom."

"We'll see how long that lasts," Maya winked in Fitz's direction, laughing at the look of amusement that covered his face.

"Well, we will live you to get some rest."

"Is that a joke? I've been asleep for ages," Maya whined, a grin spreading across her lips.

"Mom."

"Go. I'm sure you two have a hot date to get to." Olivia snorted, whispering in Fitz's ear and watching as he said goodbye to Maya before walking out of the room. She edged closer to her mother's side once he was gone, filling a cup with water and handing it to Maya.

"We're having dinner together. He's introducing me to his kids as his girlfriend."

Maya grasped the plastic cup in one hand, chasing the straw around for a bit before pinching it between two fingers and holding it to her lips, taking a long, cool drawl of water. After swallowing, she responded: "His kids will love you, Libby. Has Bekah met him?"

"Yeah. She adores him."

"I think you finally found the right guy, Liv. Don't keep him waiting out there too long," Maya winked.

"Good night, mom," Olivia giggled, handing Maya the remote for the television and giving her a quick peck on the forehead before flouncing out of the room.

/

"I'm sorry I didn't have anything fancier in my locker," Olivia bemoaned, pulling at a thread on her black skinny jeans.

"You look beautiful." Fitz grasped her hand, raising her knuckles to his lips and brushing a kiss across them. Olivia sighed, glancing down at her burgundy button-down and jeans to the nude heels on her feet. Fitz's invitation to dinner had been out of the blue earlier that morning and she had planned to dash home for a more appropriate outfit before arriving at his house. Maya's unexpected recovery had put a wrench in those plans, though.

"I'm nervous," she confided, running a hand through her hair. Suddenly, she was self-conscious about how long it had been since she had had a decent shower or had the chance to wash her hair. Indiscreetly, she sniffed her shirt - relieved that her perfume seemed to have lasted the test of the day.

"They'll love you. Teddy already does." Wrapping her arms around her body, Olivia glanced around the darkened sky, rubbing her arms to ward off the chill. They had been standing outside since first pulling up to Fitz's house - Olivia had been too wary of entering at first.

"Let's get this over with," Fitz chuckled, grasping her hand in his and punching his code into his lock and swinging his door open. He stood to the side as he allowed her to enter the home first, following behind and shutting the door. Taking his and Olivia's jacket, he hung them on the coatrack by the door.

"Right this way." Fitz led her into his kitchen. Olivia stopped by the large, white island with the black granite countertop. His kitchen was a little more homely than hers. Large, spacious, and well-decorated, but obviously lived in. She was hardly home and when she was home, she never cooked. Fitz was the complete opposite from the looks of it.

"Where are your kids?" Olivia wondered, glancing behind her as if they might suddenly reappeared.

"Karen's probably in her room reading and if I had to guess, Jerry is playing a video game that Teddy shouldn't be watching, but is anyway."

"He likes to follow his brother? That's sweet."

"When he's not getting into things he shouldn't," Fitz shrugged. "I'll call them when dinner's ready."

"Do you need help? I can't cook, but I'm pretty good at reading labels," Olivia joked.

"I think I can manage," Fitz smirked, pulling the dark, wooden bistro stool from the bar and gesturing for Olivia to take a seat. "You sit there and enjoy your wine."

Before Olivia could ask questions, Fitz had pulled a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and worked on uncorking the bottle of Pinot Noir. Pouring a glass, he handed it to Olivia before he returned to the task at hand - pulling pans and ingredients out of various cabinets and placing them on the island.

"Did you know the chose the name because they thought the grapes looked like black pinecones?" Olivia nodded toward the bottle sitting on the island as Fitz opened a bottle of seasoning, sprinkling some on the steak he had placed in a glass baking pan.

"Aren't you full of unusual information?" Fitz chuckled, moving around as he placed the pan in the oven and began working on the side dishes.

"I really like wine," Olivia confided, mock toasting the air before sipping on the dark liquid.

"You did bring her!" Olivia twisted in her seat at the high-pitched squeal. The brunette girl was roughly the same height as Olivia and from what she could recall of Fitz's ex-wife, looked quite a bit like her mother. She wore a pair of ripped, denim shorts, black Chuck Taylor's, and a black shirt with an umbrella that Olivia instantly recognised as a Bring Me the Horizon shirt. So, Fitz's daughter was a bit of a rebel. Olivia instantly liked her.

"Hi," Olivia greeted, catching a glimpse of the book in the girl's arms. Whiskey, Words, and a Shovel. It sounded different.

"I'm Karen." The girl was enthusiastic as she rushed forward, throwing her arms around Olivia and squeezing. "I'm not sure if you remember me from the hospital."

"I remember," Olivia chuckled. "It's nice to really get the chance to meet you, though."

"Speaking of nice: do you know how great it's been to see my dad so happy? Yesterday, he was actually singing - singing! - when he did laundry."

"Okay, okay," Olivia tried not to laugh at the redness in Fitz's cheeks, "Go grab your brothers."

"You sing, huh?" Olivia smirked as Karen dashed out of the kitchen. Fitz mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like annoyance at his daughter's decision to dish on his private life. Giggling, Olivia pushed further: "Does this mean we're going on a karaoke date night in the future?"

"Not a chance in hell." Olivia laughed, standing from her seat and rounding the island to put her arms around Fitz, standing on the tips of her toes and pecking his lips. It was fun to tease him - something she so rarely got the chance to do.

"Doctor Pope!" Teddy ran into the room, seemingly indifferent to the fact that the two adults had suddenly jumped about a foot apart, and skidded to a halt in front of Olivia. He tugged at the bottom of his Paw Patrol shirt, yanking the fabric over his head and shouting: "Dad says to stop showing everyone my scar, but I think it's cool!"

Olivia glanced at the small, pink-fading scar on the boy's abdomen. It was barely noticeable - she was good at leaving minimal scarring when it came to that procedure. Still, Teddy was proud of the scar and that made her grin.

"That's one gnarly scar."

"Gnarly?" Jerry snorted, drawing Olivia's attention to Fitz's near carbon copy. His smile reached his blue eyes, causing them to sparkle just as his dad's did when Fitz was amused. He inched forward, holding his hand toward Olivia, "I'm Jerry. Am I expected to call you Doctor Pope, too?"

She grasped his hand, shaking quickly and chuckling at his question, "Olivia is fine."

/

"I had fun tonight," Olivia commented, standing outside her door. Fitz smiled, reaching down to grasp her hands in his before leaning forward and placing his lips on hers.

"I had fun, too." Olivia grinned, swinging her hands with Fitz's.

"The kids liked you."

"I liked them."

"We should do this again soon. You could bring Bekah next time." She nodded - it was time for Bekah to meet Fitz's kids.

"She talks about you a lot. She keeps asking when we're going to see you again." Olivia glanced at the second floor of her home - toward Bekah's bedroom window. The light was out. Laci had probably already put her to bed.

"I'll plan something for all of us," he promised, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "Good night, Olivia."

"Good night, Fitz." She stood on the tips of her toes, slowly kissing him before twirling on her feet and entering her home. Fitz put his hands in his pockets, whistling down the sidewalk to his car.