A/N: Hello there, sorry it's been a while but I had to finish my finals and take a break because they damn near killed me. Anyways, here you are. We are nearing the end of this story but I have vague plans for a sequel. What I mean is, I probably won't stop writing this anytime soon but the story might take on a different form.

Thanks for listening and enjoy R&R please!

Alexa

I couldn't believe that Amelia hadn't won custody of me.

There, I said it. It felt completely wrong to be hoping that my adoptive mother wouldn't win, but I had always been feeling like this whether I knew it or not. She was just awful to me. A lot worse, as of late, but she never felt like my mother.

Amelia felt like my mother.

And this whole thing sounded like a giant soap opera. I mean, it's not like my adoptive parents were just going to randomly die in a car accident and I just so happen to have the chance to find my birth mother or anything, but the fact that I basically hated my adoptive mother and found and lover my birth mother seemed like the type of thing that only happened in cheesy writing.

It was messier than anyone liked to admit, though. I still loved my sister Kaleigh. I still loved my adoptive father… though we were distant since they cut me off. I guess those were losses I was going to have to deal with if I wanted to start a new life out here in Seattle.

I had been thinking about all of this in the shower. I mean, technically, Amelia didn't have custody of me but she might as well have. I went to Meredith's house every weekend, I never spoke to my adoptive mother or father, and I lived here in Seattle. The paper was a formality, everyone kept telling me, but I could tell it was just to make me feel better about the fact that Amelia lost. I wanted to be her daughter again.

I was walking back to my room, wrapped in a towel, shower shoes clicking against my heels. A perk of UWash was that the bathrooms were way nicer than at UNH, but the people… not so much.

My roommate wasn't the same person as last semester, since I had decided so late that I wanted to stay for the spring semester. She wasn't an awful human compared to the awful people in my life, but she wasn't exactly welcoming.

"Hey," I said when I entered the room. Oh God, why was I being so weird? I just left fifteen minutes ago for the shower, and it wasn't like she was missing me.

"Hey, do you want to come to a party tonight?" Lily asked without looking up from her phone.

It was a Thursday night, and I had class the next day. I could probably skip, but I still wasn't usually a huge partygoer. "Uhh…"

My silence got Lily's undivided attention. "Oh, come on. We have 4 guys in our group, so our ratio is awful. We need more girls. And besides we can like… bond."

So that's why she was inviting me. She wanted to get into the frats without abandoning her guy friends.

"Sure," I agreed, surprising myself. Whatever. Even if she was only asking me to benefit herself, we definitely could have used some time together and a favor for her wouldn't hurt. I didn't have any homework that needed to be done for tomorrow, so a party was doable. "Where is it?"

"Lambda," she said, and then I was sorry I asked. Like that would mean anything to me. It was all Greek to me. Ha. "We're leaving at 10 but the guys are coming here to pregame first. If that's cool." Lily asked as if she hadn't had friends over a thousand times before without my permission.

I just nodded. "Okay, the only thing is… I don't really have that much to wear. I'm not really prepared for this kind of thing."

"Please," she rolled her eyes. "I've seen your closet. You have all the right stuff, just no idea how to put it together." She stood and started moving hangers around in my closet, looking for the perfect shirt. "So wear this…" she handed me a hanger. It was holding a thin strapped blue-green shirt that I wore to my grandmother's wake under a black cardigan. I had to admit, without the cardigan it looked nice in a different way. "And then just some black leggings. See? Not too hard."

"It's February, and you want me to wear this?" I asked incredulously. "Shouldn't I grab a sweatshirt or something?" That was my normal attire. Sweatshirts leggings or tee shirts and jeans. I knew I wasn't dressing as nice as I possibly could have but I knew I never looked bad enough to catch attention either. I was in the middle of the road.

"It's a short walk to the house and then it's going to be like a thousand degrees in there. Trust me, you'll thank me later."

"Alright, then." Who knew what I was getting myself into.

Turns out, parties were actually fun! Our whole group got into the house pretty easily but I think it's because we got there relatively early and there weren't already a lot of people there. The furniture in the living room had been rearranged so there was room to dance, but I wasn't one for that so I was hanging out with Lily and a couple of her friends by the beer pong table. We weren't playing, just sitting and watching the guys who we came with.

"I'm going to grab a beer. Do you want anything?" Lily asked me. I shook my head. She looked hurt. "Come on. One beer is not going to kill you. I know we haven't exactly been warm to each other but… Let's drink to it. Ya know?"

She left before I could protest again. Whatever. One beer really wasn't going to kill me.

When Lily came back and handed me the can, I struggled to get my finger under the tab, but she was poking a hole in hers. "You're not going to shotgun it?"

"I've never even had a beer, I'm definitely not going to shotgun one right now. Sorry." I finally opened the damn thing and took a sip.

"You guys, we should play that flip cup game. Not Flip Cup but the tossing one," one of Lily's friends said. As if that made any sense.

But they all seemed to know what she was saying.

"Alright Alexa, you're my partner," Lily pulled my off the couch. "Okay, so when it's our turn, you take the solo cup and toss it to me. If I miss, that's a shot. Then you toss the ball to me and I try to catch it with the cup. I can't use my other hand to help it in. If I miss then that's another shot. Then we switch. So four shots total if we miss everything, okay?"

"Uh, yeah alright," I reluctantly agreed. I had played softball, I wasn't planning on missing that many anyway. "Shots of what?"

Lily grinned as someone pulled a handle of Southern Comfort Whiskey out from the cabinet in the kitchen. Jesus.

"We're going first," the one named Jenna said. Her and her partner lined up a few feet away and Jenna tossed the cup. "Oops, totally my fault!" she said all sarcastic as she cast the cup in the complete wrong direction. "I guess that's a shot for us!"

Lily nudged me "Don't miss on purpose. We don't want to get sloppy like those two already do."

I nodded in agreement as everyone took their turns. Finally, Lily and I got to go.

We both missed the ping pong ball, so that was two shots each.

I was started to feel a buzz after our turn ended, so the next time I did miss on purpose. Another shot each.

By the time I was five shots in, I elected to sit down. I could tell I was starting to get drunk even though I hadn't ever been before.

"What's your tolerance, like 0?" Lily joked.

"Tell me, Lily, what's the exact scale on tolerance again?" I snipped. She seemed impressed and sat down next to me. "I am having fun, though. Thanks again for inviting me."

"Yeah, sure, you did us a favor. Lambda is usually the worst to get into if we have that many guys."

"That was a fun game," I commented.

She laughed. "Don't be a fool. Drinking games aren't meant to be fun, they're just meant to get you drunk."

Amelia

Thursday night, I was sitting in Owen's bed while he was in the shower. I noticed the time, 11:34 pm. I hadn't talked to Alexa much since the trial and I knew she wasn't asleep yet so I decided to call her and just quickly say goodnight.

"Heeeeeeeeey," her voice rang through the receiver. "It's me. Alexa."

"Uh, yeah, I know… Wait, what are you doing?"

"Just chillin'. You know. At Lambda."

I paused. "You're drunk?"

"Hahahaaaa, you know it. You know me so well. What's up with you?"

"Nothing," Now I wanted to hang up as soon as possible. "I just wanted to see how you were feeling and say goodnight. Oh, and ask you what time you wanted to be picked up tomorrow. Just text me in the morning then."

"Actuallllllly, Lily asked me if I wanted to go out again with her this weekend, so I was going to stay here. If that's cool."

I wanted to ask her to come anyway, but I stopped myself. Who was I to stop her from having fun? She hadn't stayed at school a single weekend since the start of this semester, and I was glad she was hanging out with friends. Still, I wanted to talk to her about the trial and it kind of hurt that she would rather be there than with me. "Yeah, absolutely. Hope you're having fun. Be safe. Don't party too hard. And call if you need anything… or if you change your mind."

"Yup, I will, bye!" she hung up without another word.

I guess I probably looked a little defeated when Owen got out of the shower. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head. "Yeah, I just called Alexa and she was drunk is all. And she asked me if it was okay that she stay at school this weekend."

Owen sat down next to me on the bed even though he was still in his towel. He just smiled at me with the sad, pity eyes that I usually hated. Tonight they were comforting.

I put my head on his shoulder. "Am I really jealous of a 20 year old right now?"

He laughed a little. "It makes sense. She gets to party and let loose to forget about the trial. You don't. But, you have an entire night with your amazing boyfriend so it's not all bad."

I rolled my eyes. "Are we okay?"

"Of course we are. I told you we would be." He stood and smiled. "Now, what do you say we get our own party started?" He grabbed a pair of flannel pajama pants and a long sleeved black tee shirt from his drawer and got dressed, flopping into bed with me. "I'll bet that stupid show you like is on."

I chuckled. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing."

I was happy, laying in Owen's bed, basically using his bicep as a pillow and huddling together against the cold February skies under his fluffy comforter. The trial seemed like a thousand years ago.

I forgot where I was for a minute when I woke up. I hadn't slept in the trailer in a really, really long time. I longed for the heat of my room at the house. Above me in the sun roof I could see the rain turning into snow as I nuzzled closer to Owen.

He stirred. "You hogging all the covers is a feeling I haven't missed," he joked.

"I'm cold," I complained. "Maybe you shouldn't have a full-sized comforter on a queen-sized bed."

"It was what I had. What, was I just going to ask Shep to replace the bed for me? 'Hey yeah, Derek, I need you to downsize the bed for me. It's just too lavish for my needs.'"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be dramatic. We'll go buy a new one later."

"Or, we could just get a house."

I was stunned. "What?"

"A house. You and me. With a room for Alexa. And a guest room. Or two guest rooms, maybe. And we can get all new furniture and bedding. Whatever kind you want."

"Owen…"

"What? We were engaged before. It's not like we hardly know each other."

"I know… but it's not like we can just pick up where we left off and forget about everything that happened in between," I sighed.

"That's not what I'm saying, Amelia. Why do you always have to go on accuse mode?" Owen said defensively.

"I'm not, I just…"

"Give me one good, solid reason why we shouldn't start looking for a house together. And you can't just say 'this isn't the right time'. Give me one good reason."

I couldn't. I really couldn't think of a single reason why we shouldn't be taking this step in our relationship. Yeah, maybe we were moving a little quickly after breaking things off, but life is way too short. Alexa's dead father (and my own) were a testament to that. I shrugged. "I guess we're officially looking for a house?"

Owen smiled and kissed me, and broke the kiss by smiling again. "We're getting a house together."

"Wait," I said.

"I know what you're going to say, but I already beat you too it." Before I knew what was happening, Owen was opening the tiny velvet box with the ring inside. My ring. "I asked Derek to find it for me. So Amelia… let's get married."

He slipped the ring over my ring finger and it felt like it belonged. Maybe it was because I had already worn the ring before but I figured it was more than that.

"Can we get a reclining couch at least?" I asked.

Owen laughed. "That's all you have to say?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

It didn't escape anyone's notice that the ring was back on my finger that day at work. I think April and Arizona were the most excited out of anyone.

"Can we help plan the wedding? Oh, Sofia and Alexa can be flower girls! Who are your bride's maids going to be?" April gushed.

"I don't think Alexa is going to want to be a flower girl. She's twenty, April," Arizona commented.

We were all sitting in the attendings lounge eating a quick lunch. "Actually, we're getting married soon. Like really soon. We both just figured… why wait? And he's right, we were engaged before this. So there's no time like the present."

"Like, how soon? I have time to start a wedding binder right? You need a wedding binder for sure," April interjected.

Just then Mer walked in. "Wedding binder?"

I held up my hand and wiggled my fingers. "Will you be my maid of honor, Meredith?"

"No fair!" Arizona playfully hit my arm.

"Well sure, just as long as I'm not looking for a runaway bride three minutes before the wedding," Mer said as she sat down.

I rolled my eyes. "I already did the whole running-away-from-my-problems-shebang. There's going to be a wedding, promise."

Mer poked her salad with her fork. "Did you tell Alexa yet?"

"I haven't talked to her. She's having fun this weekend, I didn't want to bother her."

"When are you planning to have this wedding? Derek said Hunt said sometime soon…"

"Two weeks. Wait, you guys knew?"

"Oh, yeah, Derek had me scouring the entire house for that ring," Mer laughed.

"Okay so Zola and Sofia can be the flower girls, and Alexa can be a bride's maid then? And Bailey can be the ring bearer," April was still going on. "You never answered the question. Who are all your bride's maids? And where are you getting married?"

"You two, Alexa, Callie if she wants…"

"Oh, she wants," Arizona cut in.

"… and then Meredith as the maid of honor. I think we want to have it in a church but we'll see what we can get on such short notice, you know?"

April was staring at me like I had three heads. "You don't want any of your sisters to be your bride's maids?"

"You guys are my sisters. They probably won't even come," I said. And while I believed it with every fiber of my being, I still didn't want it to be true.

Owen and I left work together that night, holding hands and talking about how we wanted to furnish our new house. "I'm just saying, leather couches are amazingly comfortable."

"They don't last as long," Owen protested. "Besides, if we get a leather couch everyone's going to make our house the get together house and I don't know if you can handle that kind of responsibility," he teased.

"Oh, fine. But we're not getting a futon either."

"What? A futon is so practical, though!"

"We're not twelve, Owen, we don't need to have extra space for sleepovers. We're going to try for a guest room anyways, right? So it's fine."

"Fine," he grumbled. I couldn't help but laugh. For the first time in a while everything, everything felt right.