Callie sighed as she closed the door to her apartment. Arizona was sat gazing up to her from the couch waiting for her wife to break the intense awkward silence.

"They're settled on the couch for now just talking things through, I think she'll stay the night then go home in the morning" Callie explained.

"Come here" was Arizona's response, she held out her arms to her wife whose expression had turned so sad. "Now will you explain to me what's going on, please?" she added once Callie was settled in her arms.

"I don't honestly know where to begin..." she replied quietly.

"You could start with how Lydia has a husband" Arizona sighed.

"Urgh I don't want to think about him" Callie muttered, a look of distaste on her face. Arizona frowned slightly. "I guess I should start with him being a total loser drug bum..." Callie sighed after a while.

She explained the story to an ever saddening Arizona. They sat in silence for a while after the story was told.

Arizona cleared her throat before speaking "how could anyone hurt her?" Callie shook her head "she's so young and innocent and nice"

"I know" Callie sighed.

"God! What is wrong with some people!"

"Don't know" Callie muttered gazing into thin air.

"What do we do?" Arizona asked quietly.

"Nothing, this is her business- we're just her fall back girls, we'll be there for her at the end of the day" Callie offered Arizona a slight smile.

"Wish I could do more"

"Wish I could kick his head in"

...

Mark and Lydia lay cuddled together on the couch, both of their eyes blood shot from tears.

"Geez you cry more than me" Lydia croaked wiping away a stray tear.

Mark cleared his throat and shifted slightly "a real man knows how to cry" he said quietly.

"Mm" she sighed in response.

"How could this have happened to you" he said quietly, more so to himself. Lydia didn't reply. "You could have called me, I would have been there, you know that"

"I know..." Lydia quietly replied "I was young, stupid. I thought I could handle it, I thought I had to, I thought I was being a good wife"

"Not stupid, never stupid...what do we do now? You can stay here for as long as you need"

"Thanks...I'm gonna have to see him, talk this stuff out" Lydia sighed.

"You should call the police"

"So you can get charged for assault to" she replied looking up to him.

"Worth it" Mark muttered.

"No, just cause more trouble, besides he's nearly as rich as we are- he'd just buy his way to freedom"

"Is that why he wasn't sent down for what he did to you" Mark asked in shock.

"Yeah, why do you think I left the city?" Lydia looked to him again. Mark shook his head.

"Mm well when you see him make it somewhere public and I'll park up outside"

"What are you the mafia" Lydia laughed slightly.

"I'm the godfather" Mark replied simply.

Lydia laughed slightly and smacked his chest lightly "dufus"

"Nerd"

...

The next morning Callie peeked her head into Mark's apartment. He and Lydia were both lay in the same position fast asleep, she smiled slightly and shut the door quietly before sighing and heading down the stairs with Sofia in the car seat.

Hearing the door Mark woke with a slight jump. He watched Lydia cautiously, suddenly remembering the night before and being careful not to wake her. However she grunted slightly and lifted her head.

"What time is it" she sighed, not opening her eyes.

Mark glanced over to the clock at the other end of the room.

"Six thirty" he replied, voice quite deep and rough.

"Urgh I have to be in work for eight" Lydia grunted sitting up and rubbing her face. Mark sat up straight too. "Ow" Lydia muttered as her hand traced over her cut "forgot about that" she added.

"Did you sleep okay" Mark asked, avoiding the subject.

"Yeah, did you?"

"I did actually" he laughed slightly.

"Is your hand sore?" Lydia asked noticing the bruising of his knuckles.

"Nope" he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm gonna get a shower"

"I need to get home, I'll see you in work?"

"Want me to come round with you? We'll go into work together" Mark offered.

"Nah, I'll be okay" she sighed with a thankful smile.

"Okay" he smiled back.

They stood up and she gave him a tight hug which he returned.

"Thank you Marky, love you" she whispered to him.

"Love you too kid" he replied running a hand through her hair.

"Okay, I really better go" Lydia laughed.

"See you in work" he called to her as she headed to the door.

"See ya" she called back with a smile as she slipped through the door.

Just as she entered the corridor Arizona was locking the door to her apartment.

"Morning" Lydia said awkwardly.

For a moment Arizona looked at her, half way between crying and grabbing her in a hug 'get it together' she thought to herself "morning" she replied with a warm smile after a moment. "How's your cheek?"

"Sore- thanks for cleaning it up though" Lydia smiled to her thankfully as they walked to the staircase.

"Not a problem" Arizona smiled to her.

An awkward silence filled the staircase, leaving only the sound of their heels to the steps.

"Did Callie tell you everything" Lydia asked quietly after a moment.

Arizona glanced to her before replied softly "yeah"

"Would you mind just keeping it between the two of you, I don't want others..."

"No yeah of course, of course"

"Thanks" Lydia smiled to her.

As they came to the pavement Lydia began to turn right while Arizona continued straight.

"Hey Lydia" Arizona said quietly. Lydia stopped and turned to Arizona. "I just...you know...you can always talk to me about what happened"

"Thanks, that means a lot" Lydia smiled sincerely to her. "I'll see you at work"

"Okay" Arizona smiled back to her "see you there"

...

It was a long shift and it felt like every five minutes someone else was asking how she received her cut. 'I fell in the shower' that was her best excuse, and she stuck to it. No one had encountered Dylan, he refused point blank to enter the emergency room, much to Lydia's relief as she couldn't bare the questions and stares.

"Dixie we got an MVA rolling in two critical and a minor with no sign of trauma" a nurse called.

"Thanks Lucy- Okay people!" Lydia called slightly loud. The surrounding residents and interns closed in. "Holly you're with Megan I want you to take the first one to trauma 2, Daniel go with them. Michael and Alex your taking the second one and I'll be in with you in a bit. Sam you're with me with the kid- alright let's go"

After an hour or so Mark wandered down to the emergency room. He spotted Lydia in the drug's cupboard.

"Hi" he called to her. She turned around and offered him a smile.

"Hey, how's your day?" she asked him semi-cheerfully.

"Crappy, what about yours?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Awesome, we had an MVA come in and the Dad had this shard of metal sticking through his leg, anyway I totally fixed him up good...Hunt had like nothing to do you should have seen his face. Not a happy bunny" Lydia laughed as she rooted through a box of meds.

"Were the family okay?" Mark laughed.

"Yeah, I think...the Mom's in surgery- perforated lung, but she'll be fine" Lydia shrugged her shoulders.

"Awesome" Mark laughed.

"Wanna have lunch at like 3?" Lydia asked after a moment still looking in the drug box.

"Dixie we need you" Megan called from behind Mark.

"Okay I'm coming" Lydia called before leaving the meds.

"3 sounds great" Mark smiled to her as she left the drugs lock up.

"Cool" Lydia smiled to him.

He watched her as she hurried over to a trauma.

"What have we got?" Lydia asked Megan.

"52 year old male, complaining of back pain LOC on arrival but he's back with us now"

"Alright roll him to exam two, hello sir I'm Dr Dixon can you describe the pain to me?" Lydia sighed.

Mark watched in wonder. This was the girl that used to ask him to play hide and seek, the girl that would never take her fairy wings off. He'd always seen her as a little girl, young, innocent, but here she's a woman, strong, intelligent, a fighter.

As the man spoke Lydia took in every detail of his manner. His eyes were wide with anxiety, he was sat awkwardly straight and he seemed almost too quiet. Sudden onset back pain, now moving into his stomach as well.

"It's a triple A, we need to get him to surgery now" she called.

"All the theatres are booked I just checked" Megan replied anxiously.

The man suddenly collapsed against the bed.

"He's hypotensive" Lydia called. "Alright this things ruptured"

"Should we move him to trauma too?" Megan asked in shock.

"No he isn't stable" Lydia called as she began to prep his abdomen.

"What are you doing?" Megan asked.

"We're going to cross clamp it here" Lydia said quietly not looking up.

...

"Did you hear about Dixie's trauma today?" Meredith asked as she Lexie and Callie sat at lunch.

"No why" Callie asked looking up from her food for the first time at lunch.

"She cross clamped an aorta, in an exam room"

"What? Can she even do that?" Lexie asked in shock.

"Apparently it's not her first, and apparently she used to be half surgical and half ER doc over in NYC" Meredith added with impressed raised eyebrows. "Ask her yourself" Meredith nodded over to Lydia who had just entered the cafeteria with Mark.

"Hey Dixie" Lexie turned in her seat.

"Yeah" Lydia asked with a slightly amused smile.

"Did you cross clamp an aorta?"

"Yeah why?" Lydia asked with confusion.

"How?" Lexie repeated.

She glanced to Mark in amusement before answering "well it's not my first, and I was in surgical back east"

"I've never cross clamped an aorta on my own" Lexie gasped with wide eyes.

"I wasn't alone, Megan Ascott was there" Lydia laughed in response.

"She isn't surgical though"

"No but she has hands and knows how to follow orders" Lydia winked at Lexie who smiled and turned back to the table.

"She was surgical" Callie asked with curious eyes as she watched her and Mark at the counter.

"Mm apparently she was offered a fellowship at some hospital in Chicago for cardio but turned it down" Meredith added.

"Who did what with cardio?" Christina asked as she approached their table.

"Dixie" Meredith answered between mouthfuls of her dinner.

"What? She's sniffing around cardio? That's mine" Christina watched her with a scowl.

"No she was offered a fellowship, it was with that dude...Kensi...Kensoi-"

"Kennison?" Christina asked with a look of disgust.

"Yeah that's the dude" Meredith replied nonchalantly continuing eating her dinner.

"And she turned it down?" Christina asked with a growing disgust.

"Mhmm" Meredith replied as she shoved a big piece of salad into her mouth.

"Urgh" Christina grunted as she sat down. "What did she do bang half of Harvard? Then again aren't her family worth fortunes? They're probably hoping that she'll give them money. Then of course there's her sister-"

"Shut up Yang" Callie ordered under her breath.

Christina simply looked over to her with shock before scowling back over at Lydia and making another 'urgh' sound.

...

Anxiously Lydia walked to the Chief's Office. After hearing about her work in the ER he'd paged downstairs to see her ASAP 'not happy words' she thought to herself. Coming to a stop at his office she let out a long sigh before gently tapping his door.

"Come in" she heard him call.

Slowly she entered his office.

"Ah Lydia" he smiled to her, though she could see something hidden within his smile.

"Chief" Lydia smiled in response, nervousness apparent in her manner.

"Please, take a seat" he offered her the seat opposite him. Carefully she sat down before him. He waited a moment before speaking, tension filling in the room. Avoiding his gaze, Lydia played with the hem of her scrub shirt. "Excellent work this morning" he began, sincerity in his voice.

"I'm sorry" Lydia said in response, eyes full of guilt.

"Sorry?" he replied confused. "For what? You did an excellent job"

"I have no surgical rights, I didn't even call for a surgeon, I was wreckless. I'm sorry"

"Oh please, you're Julia Dixon's sister. And from what I read in your history you're more than capable of performing such surgeries." Lydia looked up to him, a slight curiosity in her gaze "A girl of your age and you've managed to clock more hours than some of the residents here, very impressive. You're obviously dedicated, offered a lot of time to excel in this job. Is there a particular reason you opted out of doing surgery here?" he asked finally.

Lydia sat for a moment before shrugging "it got to the point where I felt the pull between excelling in surgery or excelling in emergency medicine. I preferred emergency, I can publish more for it and I like finding new procedures and creating better techniques. I feel like I make a difference"

"Well that's a highly respectable decision" he said simply, though secret motives were settled in his smile.

"Thank you sir" Lydia replied softly.

"We're very proud as a hospital to have such an eager and intelligent young doctor like you, and after much consideration we'd like to offer you a split attending role" the chief said simply.

"Erm, how do you mean?" Lydia asked confused.

"We'd like to give you surgical rights here, and we'd like for you to be an attending not only in the ER but in Emergency Surgery too" the Chief smiled to her.

"Th-that's awesome, but, how could that even work? What about the residents?"

"Well for the first year we'd like you to choose two residents to join you on the surgical service and you can teach them about emergency surgeries and publish with them numerous articles which would in turn create one journal to present to the board so they can see the progress you've made" the chief explained while Lydia played the scenario out in her mind.

"I'll do it, but I want my own OR" she said simply.

"Excuse me?" was the chief's shocked reply.

"I want my own OR, my family will pay for it, but it's mine- Torres, Robbins, Sloan, Bailey – all of them upstairs up here aren't allowed in it"

The chief thought for a moment "fine, but you're paying for it"

Lydia smiled cheerfully "awesome. Also I've been meaning to ask, I was hoping to start a clinic- for people that can't afford insurance or get insurance and using the funding from my family to pay for it- but if I could occasionally, occasionally, use it to perform surgeries that for example kids can't get but need, in my OR. That'd be awesome too" Lydia offered him a hopefully smile. The chief placed a finger to his mouth in thought.

"Bring me a full report, and if I like what I see fine" he replied softly.

"Really?" Lydia half chirped.

"Yeah, but trial period only, we'll see how we go" was his stern reply.

"Of course" Lydia replied attempting to contain her happiness.

"Alright then, I want your report next week" the chief added sternly, though with a slight smile.

"Consider it done!" Lydia laughed standing up "Oo! When do I get my surgical rights?"

"Now" he smiled to her.

"Awesome!" she giggled "thank you sir, thank you thank you thank you. I won't let you down"

"You're welcome" he laughed in response to her behaviour.

"Have a good day" she added as she bounced out of his room giggling.

...

Giddly she bounced over to the surgical nurses station where she found Mark and Derek. They smiled at her Cheshire cat grin and bouncy manner.

"What's up with you?" Mark laughed.

"I have surgical riiii-iiiights" she sang dancing around them.

"What?" Derek laughed.

"And I'm getting my own O-RRR-RRR" she sand again.

"You're getting what?" Christina asked, looking like she might throw up as she wandered into the area.

"And I'm opening my own cliiin-nniiiic" she paused for a minute "on triaaaal bassiss for noooo-ooow" she added in song.

"Why?" Mark asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because the chief thinks I'm awesome!" she replied merrily before dancing off "I'm a surgical aaattendinggg!"

"She's a what?" Christina scoffed.

Derek and Mark exchanged a confused though amused look.

...

Later that day the attending were called into a meeting with the Chief. They all sat whispering, wondering why they were there, and exchanged extreme looks of confusion as Lydia wandered in merrily and took a seat next to the chief who offered her a supportive smile and nod. To which she returned a confident and calm nod.

"Alright" the chief began. Silence filled the room. "I have some very good news. You all know Dr Dixon" Lydia turned slightly to smile to the attending "well she's been reinstated with her surgical rights, and as an ER attending is going to be handling a number of surgeries down in the ER from now on. Now I know she's young" Lydia smiled slightly as she heard a few of the attending shift "but she's extremely talented and has published a great deal for both surgery and emergency medicine and is more than capable, I have it on good word, at running her own surgeries."

"So what? She's the new trauma attending?" Owen asked, trying not to sound slightly offended.

"No" Lydia replied before the chief could "but I'll step in if you need me too, if there's more than one and so on" the chief smiled at her explanation. Owen nodded and smiled sincerely.

"How will this work?" Derek asked confused. "I mean, there aren't enough ORs as it is"

"Erm" the chief smiled "well Lydia is going to be opening her own OR" Lydia couldn't hold back her smile as she thought giddily about her own OR.

"Right on" Mark replied smiling "can I-"

"No" Lydia responded quickly "it's mine, all mine" she smiled cheekily.

"What?" Mark asked slightly upset.

The chief laughed "the OR is going to be down in the ER, and used only for Emergency Surgeries- and surgeries for her clinic" the chief offered her a look of trust, to which she nodded with a smile.

"Awesome" Arizona smiled before giving Lydia a pat on the shoulder. Lydia smiled.

"For now Lydia will be performing the occasional surgery, appy's and such in spaces available and introducing two of her residents to surgical and emergency medicine" the chief explained.

"They'll be scrubbing in?" Callie asked confused.

"Not yet, they're going to observe a couple first, get used to prepping for surgery and things like that but by the time the OR is built they'll be able to scrub in" the chief replied.

"What about this clinic?" Teddy asked with intrigue.

"Well I'll let Lydia explain that one" the chief replied with a soft smile.

Lydia turned her seat to face Teddy and everyone else "it'll be a trust, somewhat. Where families that can't afford insurance can get care, and when I get my OR they can get the surgeries they need too without going through all the difficult routes. Obviously there is a lot that needs to be worked out for such a scheme, freeloader proof and all that but that's what I hope for"

"And you'll be getting the funding from your family?" Mark asked smirking slightly.

"Yes" Lydia replied matching his smile.

"Well alright then" Derek said with a proud smile "welcome to the team, Dr Dixon"

"Thank you" she smiled as the attendings smiled to her supportively. She glanced over to Richard who offered her a trusting smile.

Bit of a contrast to the last chapter, but the next one is going to be super super dark and action packed SO be prepared and maybe don't read it if you have a bad day haha. It's all about to kick off : ) Let me know what you think!