Sorry for the shorter chapter... I promise the next one is going to be much longer!
Chapter 21: No Place to Go
Later that evening, the mad rush of emergent patients was over. Those that would need additional surgeries or recovery time were now safely upstairs to be monitored by the night shift and the less injured patients were sent home. The exhausted Doctors and Nurses began to filter into on-call rooms or go home for much needed sleep before they could begin again tomorrow. Saying good bye to Derek and Meredith, Allison had returned to the Resident's lounge to change, but then remembered that she didn't have any clean clothes to change into. In fact, everything she had brought with her on this trip including her luggage and purse had been destroyed in the Mall explosion. Sighing she began to search through her dirty clothes and found she had stuffed a fifty dollar bill into her pocket after her purchase from Bloomingdales.
"Well at least I have enough to go get a drink." She mumbled to herself and plopped down on the couch to close her eyes. As the lounge door opens, Allison hears a gasp and opens her eyes to see a familiar red head standing in the doorway with her mouth hanging open.
"Uh… Uh….Lexie?" April Kepner whispers, still standing frozen by the door.
"No, I'm Allison Scott. I'm a Neuro resident visiting this hospital for a possible fellowship." She watches April visibly relax once she realizes she's not seeing a ghost.
"Oh… that's right… with everything that happened today, I forgot you were coming today." April comes into the lounge and walks over to the couch to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm one of the trauma surgeons, April Kepner. Sorry about me getting you confused… it's just you look like…." She hesitates for a moment not sure on how to proceed.
"I know. I look like Lexie Grey." Allison says once again completing the answer.
April chuckles and sits down next to her on the couch. "I bet you've been told that a lot today."
"Yeah, just a little bit." Allison says, sighing a little. Then an idea pops in her head and she cocks her head to look at April. "Doctor Kepner, do you have some extra clothes I can borrow for the night?"
"Umm…. Sure, I always keep some in my car in case of emergencies." April replies; confused about why she would need clothes.
"I'll explain later over drinks at the bar across the street, Okay?" Allison asks and watches as April shrugs then nods her head in agreement.
Twenty minutes later, the two ladies cross the street and enter the Emerald City Bar or to the locals "Joe's Bar". Sitting up at the Bar, Mark Sloan looks up from his glass of Scotch to see April Kepner walk in with Lexie's doppelganger, Allison Scott and watches as Kepner pulls her over to a table where Avery, Karev and Wilson are sitting. Suddenly, the sound of a breaking glass pulls Marks attention to the bartender.
"Holy Crap!" yelps a startled Joe. "That was….that looked like Doctor Grey…. I mean Lexie Grey. But she's… you know … dead, right?"
"Yes, Lexie's dead." Mark sadly replied, while taking a sip of his alcohol and watched Joe start to pick up the glass he broke. "That my friend is someone who looks a lot like her."
"A lot like her… she could be her freaking twin." Joe says and they both watch Allison excuse herself from the table and make her way to the pay phone near the restroom. Ten minutes later, Allison makes her way to the bar and sits down on a stool to place her drink order with Joe.
"Could I get a glass of red wine and large tequila with lime, please?" she asks.
"Uhh, I need some ID first. You look a little young to be drinking." Joe says.
"Seriously?" she asks, surprised by Joe's request. "I don't have my ID; I just lost everything in that Mall explosion."
"I'll vouch for her, Joe." Mark says, and then turns his blue eyes to really get a good look at the woman standing next to him. He can see now that she does indeed look like Lexie when she first arrived as an intern, yet not exactly like her.
"This is Doctor Allison Scott and if she's old enough to do surgery, she's definitely old enough to drink." Joe nods and gets her drink ready.
She had seen him sitting at the bar when she approached and had spent those moments absorbing the changes that had occurred over the last five years to the man she loves. His hair was still thick and curly, but had gotten greyer; he once again had a beard with a mustache and his face had a few more lines, but he still looked the same. God, he was still so handsome and she suddenly wishes for Edward's gift of reading thoughts as Mark mentally begins to compare the differences in her appearance between Lexie and Allison. It was so hard to stand there and watch him accept her new persona, when all she really wanted to do was scream, 'Mark, it's me Lexie!' And jump into his arms.
"Thank you, for helping with the bartender…. I really needed a drink tonight, Mr…?" She says trying to break the uncomfortable silence between them.
Her accent is cute; he thinks to himself and gives her a polite smile. "It's Doctor, actually… Doctor Mark Sloan, I'm the head of Plastics at Grey Memorial. We umm... actually bumped into each other earlier today."
She pretends to look confused for a moment before saying, "Oh, Yeah outside the resident's lounge. I'm sorry I almost knocked you down…. I was looking for the intern that was supposed to direct me to the OR and wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me."
"No damage done." He says and gives her one of his flirty smiles that still makes her body tingle in awareness. "So Doctor Scott….do you mind if I call you Allison?" he watches her nod in agreement then continues.
"So Allison, I noticed you looked upset after getting off of the phone. Is everything, okay?"
"Actually no... I was at the Mall when the explosion occurred and I lost everything… my luggage…my wallet and my passport. So I called my family to see if they could send a courier with additional funds and replacement documents, for a new passport. They're able to send the money, but all of our documents were sent to our lawyer's office to update the paper work for the new home they just purchased. And just my luck, he was called away unexpectedly and will be gone for two weeks."
"So what are you going to do now?" Mark asks curiously and when she smiles, his heart jumps because at this moment in time, she is Lexie.
Seeing April waving at her to come back to their table, she grabs their drinks and just shrugs.
"I don't know yet, I'll figure it out tomorrow. But for tonight, I've got enough money for some drinks and a few new friends to hang out with." Walking away, she turns but looks back over her shoulder and says. "Thanks again for your help, Mark."
Mark salutes her back with his glass of Scotch and watches her walk back toward the others; even from behind she's amazing and that includes a very familiar ass. Finishing off his drink, he puts on his leather jacket and pulls out his phone as he walks to his apartment, when he hears the caller pickup, he says.
"Hey Bro, it's me. Yeah I know it's late, but I just wanted to give you a heads up, that you might have the next two weeks to convince Doctor Scott to accept your offer."
"Why? Because she lost her passport in the explosion; so unless her family comes to get her, she's stuck here in Seattle until she can get a new one issued." He pauses to listen to Derek's response, "No I think she's going to crash at Kepner's tonight, they seemed to have become friends."
"Yeah, I know. We were all so busy today; everyone forgot she came in an ambulance from the Mall." He pauses in front of his apartment and begins to wrap up his conversation. "No, she didn't seem that worried about it. I just left her getting drinks at Joes. Hey, I'm gonna get some sleep… yeah I'll see you tomorrow…. Night." Hanging up he went into his apartment, turned on the lights and threw his keys on the counter before going over to the mantel above his fireplace. Reaching for the picture frame, he sat down and stared at the picture of Lexie smiling from the deck of a ferry boat. Sighing he traces her face with his fingertip, then sit's back and beings to think about Allison Scott. He knows realistically that she's a different person, but every time he sees her… there's just something in the back of his mind that makes him think she's just pretending.
Rubbing his tired eyes, he puts the picture on the end table and lies down on the couch. Within minutes he falls asleep and begins to dream of Lexie walking through a field of flowers, picking them as she goes. She looks over to him smiling and holds out her hand for him to join her, but as he gets closer the sky turns dark and the field has now turned into a forest with wreckage of the plane strewn around. His heart begins to race as he runs through the trees calling her name and then stops upon finding the tail section; the cold slivers of dread creeping into his soul because he already knows what he will find. Rushing over he falls to his knees and looks underneath, but she's gone! Standing up he frantically begins calling her name, 'Lexie!' and sees her pale form standing silently off to the side watching him, but what's surprising is that Allison Scott is standing behind her. Both women have the same sad expression on their faces as they watch him struggle to get closer, but he can't move. He can do nothing but watch as Allison take's ahold of Lexie's hand to pull her back into the darkened forest until they merge as one and disappeared.
"No!" His heart is pounding and his body is drenched in sweat as he jerks awake. Sitting up he wipes the tears away from his face and gets up to go to the bathroom. Standing under the harsh light in front of the mirror, he sees a grief stricken man staring back until something clicks when the last remnants of his dream replays; in the end Lexie and Allison had become the same person.