Thank you so much for all your reviews and adding this story to your favorite/alerts. Your support is the BEST! It keeps me motivated to crank out these chapters as fast as possible!

This chapter is kind of a filler, but it sets up some important things for next chapter...there will be drama and some revelations come to light! I already have it written, but I want to put some finishing touches on it before I sent it out to you guys. It will be up later this week, but reviews could persuade me to put it up sooner ;)

As always, if there is something you'd like to see included in future chapters, feel free to leave a review or send me a PM!

Enjoy :)

Amber sat at the dining room table, staring at the papers in front of her. She and Alex had a productive morning and it didn't take them long to figure out what school she should go to, since it was literally under two miles from their house. They had given her a list of all the courses she could take and now she had to put together her own schedule so she'd be able to start sometime next week after her transcripts had been sent over from Iowa. There were way more classes offered at this school than her previous one…all kinds of AP and college prep options for juniors. She really had no idea where to even start, so she opted to just sit at the kitchen table and stare at the papers instead of actually making a single decision.

"Hey," Meredith greeted as she came into the kitchen, pulling Amber from her daze. "You get some shopping done?" she commented casually, nodding over to a few bags that were sitting along the wall.

"Yeah, we did," Amber replied softly before quickly adding, "I'll wash up our clothes and give them back tomorrow." Accepting help from strangers had never been a forte for her and she still felt slightly guilty about it.

Meredith shook her head as if it were a preposterous idea. "Don't even think about it. There're yours now."

Amber felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. Why was everyone so nice to a complete stranger? It was a concept so foreign to her that she still didn't know what to make of it.

The only thing she was able to reply was a simple, but heartfelt, "Thank you."

Deep down, she was actually quite thankful for the nice gesture because that added even more options to her wardrobe. At first Alex had insisted they go to an actual store at the mall to buy her new clothes, but Amber shot down that idea repeatedly until he finally gave up and took her to a thrift store. Growing up, they had always bought clothes at those types of stores; it was the only option with what little money they had, and it honestly never bothered her at all. Knowing the value of hard earned money, she couldn't allow Alex to spend it on her just because he thought she needed new clothes. She had always been a low-maintenance kind of girl, which was surely influenced by her upbringing, and that wouldn't change any time soon.

"Is Alex here?" Meredith asked, grabbing a few things from the fridge to make a sandwich.

"Uh, no. He was going to stop by and talk to a lawyer and then he had to go in for a surgery or something," Amber explained. She had hoped he'd actually have the entire day off, a part of her secretly wanting to spend time getting to know him. But as he'd said, you could predict the life of a surgical resident as much as you could the weather.

"Guess I'll see him at the hospital then. You want one?" she asked, holding up a slice of bread that she was smearing mayonnaise on.

Amber shook her head. "No thanks, still full from breakfast."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Alex took me to get some waffles." Although they had barely spoken during the meal because he had spent most of the time checking his phone and researching nearby lawyers, she had still secretly enjoyed doing something together.

"Well that was nice of him," Meredith replied, a hint of shock in her voice. Maybe Alex was a decent human being after all.

Amber just smiled. "Not really. I'm pretty sure we went out to eat because there's no more cereal left."

Meredith chuckled. "Yes, now that sounds more like him."

There was a comfortable silence as Meredith continued preparing her lunch to take with her to the hospital. Amber thumbed the corner of one of the papers, trying to decide if she wanted to bring it up or not. She knew it was only the two of them in the house right now, so there was no chance anyone would overhear her. The picture she'd seen at the hospital the first day she'd arrived was still engraved in her mind—something itching at the back of her head that she just couldn't quite shake off. There was something about it that kept her craving for more details. So she went for it.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Meredith replied cheerfully. Amber's ambiguous question didn't really give her any inclination about the topic, but she'd already decided that she wanted to form a positive relationship with this teenager. Alex had been very vague on the details that he did share about their relationship and past, but she'd gathered enough to know that she didn't have many people to turn to in her life.

"What was Alex's marriage like?"

Meredith paused mid stroke with the knife in her hand. Of the random list of ideas in her head, that hadn't even been a possibility to her. "What do you mean?" she asked, hoping to figure out how little detail she actually needed to give so she didn't end up putting her foot in her mouth like she did the last time.

Amber shrugged. "You know, what was the girl like?" Was she the girl I saw in the picture? "Why did they get a divorce?"

Meredith continued to busy herself with finishing her sandwich and cleaning up the area, not wanting to make eye contact directly with Amber. "Alex hasn't told you about that yet?" she asked casually.

"No, he hasn't exactly been forthcoming about many details…about anything really."

"Well, uh…she…she was a doctor that worked with us at the hospital," she began.

But Amber cut her off right away, "Was she blonde?"

Meredith's brow furrowed in slight confusion at such a specific question. "Yes, she was. Why?"

"Just wondering," Amber replied nonchalantly, but now that almost confirmed who the girl in the picture had to have been. She waited for Meredith to go on and when she didn't, she promoted, "So what happened?"

Meredith shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She didn't want to blow off her question, but quite frankly this wasn't something that Amber needed to hear from her. "She had, um, well I mean, they decided to—" Suddenly her phone started vibrating on the kitchen counter, drawing both of their attentions to it. "Sorry, it's the hospital. I need to take this," she blurted out quickly before grabbing her sandwich and waving goodbye to Amber as she stepped out of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief before answering the call. "Perfect timing, Derek," she gushed into the phone as she made her way upstairs.

Amber stared at the entryway where Meredith had just disappeared. She hadn't meant to make her so uncomfortable, but why was it so hard for her to get a straight answer? Clearly there was a lot more to the story and she was beyond intrigued to figure it out.

Meredith had taken off for the hospital not too long ago and Amber was once again left alone in the huge house. After watching an episode of another soap opera (they were starting to grow on her, even though she'd never admit it out loud), an idea suddenly popped into her head.

There weren't any more clues around the house that would help her understand her brother's life, but there was one place that surely could give her some answers—the hospital. There had to be other things in that locker of his along with the picture. Answers she so desperately craved. At that time, her idea seemed fool proof. Figure out the bus system, get to the hospital, check out his stuff. And if anyone saw her, she'd simply say she was there to wait on Alex to get off work. Easy enough. So out of boredom and lack of better options, she looked up the nearest bus routes, then grabbed her bag and some money from Alex's not-so-secret stash in his dresser drawer and she was out the door.

Three buses and one mistaken route later, she was finally standing in front of Seattle Grace-Mercy West Hospital, only this time she was able to enter through the main doors instead of being wheeled into the ER.

She slowly wandered through the hospital, trying to recall the steps to get to the surgical wing, all while keeping a special eye out over her shoulder for anyone that she might know. Finally she had successfully made it to the doctor's lounge that she instantly recognized from before, relieved to find it completely deserted. Tossing her bag on the couch, she made a beeline for his cubby again, quickly rummaging through it at lightening speed to find something to quench her thirst for answers.

There it was. The picture of the mystery blonde haired woman, well no longer a mystery…it had to be his ex-wife, she just needed to find someone to confirm her suspicions. Lying the picture on top of the stack, she continued digging for more. She was so lost in thought that she didn't even hear the door open.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" came a booming voice from behind her.

Amber instantly turned around, a panicked look on her face. Stick to the plan, just stick to the plan, she inwardly reminded herself. She was met with a stranger's piercing green eyes that bore into her, momentarily taking her off guard. "I, uh, Alex asked me to look for something."

Jackson nodded his head skeptically, unsure if he could believe her. "And who are you exactly?" He glanced at the green cast on her arm and inwardly wondered if this wasn't one of Alex's patients gone crazy.

"I'm Amber Karev."

His perplexed look made it obvious that he had no idea who she was, aside from the fact that they happened to share a last name. Why had Alex still not told anyone about her? Before she could dwell on the topic further, the lounge door flung open and Cristina Yang came storming in, throwing herself wearily down on the couch.

"Oh, hey, it's Kathy," she announced indifferently, plopping her feet up on the coffee table in front of her and resting her head back against the couch.

Jackson turned his attention back to her. "I thought you said your name was Amber?" he accused.

"It is!" she affirmed, glancing to Cristina to see if she was about to offer any help. When she noticed her eyes were still closed and she made no sign of moving, she explained, "I'm Alex's sister."

Jackson also glared between the two women, clearly confused. "Yang!" he said rather loudly so she'd open her eyes. "Alex has a sister?" he asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

Cristina gave him a bitch face before closing her eyes again and settling into a more comfortable position. "Do I look like the Karev family tree to you?" Jackson let out an annoyed sigh at her indifference, but before he could retort something, she spoke up again. "If she's willing to claim evil spawn as family, she must really be his sister."

He scowled at Amber again. Ignoring his intimidating look, she jabbed with a hint of a smile, "Told you."

Jackson nodded his head, but his eyes were still narrowed. Just then, his pager went off and he pulled it up to see it, reluctantly diverting his eyes from her. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath. He jogged off toward the door, before throwing over his shoulder, "Just stay out of his stuff, why don't you." It wasn't that he actually cared about Alex or his things, but he could sense something was off about this whole situation.

"God, Jackson, since when are you Alex's boyfriend?" Cristina sneered at him before he disappeared out the door.

Amber couldn't help but smile. There was something that drew her to Cristina. Maybe it was her blunt remarks or her "I don't give a shit" personality. Something about it let Amber know that Cristina might just be her key to getting the answers she was searching for.

She went over to Alex's cubby and quickly grabbed the discarded picture before taking a seat next to Cristina. "Do you know who this is?" she asked point-blank, nudging her with her elbow and holding out the picture.

Cristina peeked open an eye to glance at it before quickly closing it again. "That's Izzie," she announced matter-of-factly.

"And Izzie was…."

"Alex's wife."

And there it was; she had finally received the confirmation she'd wanted. Now it was time to get more details and it seemed like Cristina didn't have a problem divulging any information.

"What happened between them?"

Cristina rolled her head to the side and slightly opened her eyes. She instantly saw Amber's curious gaze as she anxiously waited for some response. Normally Cristina wasn't one to sit around and gossip about this nonsense, but she was too exhausted to care after being on for 36 hours. The kid was asking her for answers, so she saw no problem in giving them.

"Izzie might actually be more psychotic than your brother," she said flatly.

Amber shifted in her seat so she was fully facing Cristina now. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, I felt bad for Alex for like a minute, then I remembered what an ass he is."

Unfazed by the clear jab at her brother, she prompted, eagerness clear in her voice, "So what happened?"

Cristina opened her mouth to start off the whole story, but just then, yet another person rushed in through the door, causing it to slam against the desk from being pushed with such force. The loud bang caused Cristina and Amber to both turn in that direction.

"Amber, what the hell are you doing here?" Alex demanded. Amber felt her breath hitch in her throat at his tone. Whether he was worried or angry, it was hard to tell because his tone never changed. And just then her fingertips reminded her that she was still holding onto Izzie's picture.

A/N...Can you feel the impending drama?! Eek. I also just wanted to clarify that Izzie won't be a part of this story. I'm simply using that whole thing as a catapult for what's to come next :)