It was two weeks after that morning; Lydia and Arizona are standing at the nurse's station.

"So how's things going with Ryan? Nice to see you've finally settled down" Arizona flashes Lydia a smile at her last words.

Lydia laughs slightly and turns to face Arizona "who says we're settling down?" Arizona raises an eyebrow "okay...so maybe we are a little...but I'm just focusing on work and convincing Julia that it's time Ellie came home to me"

"I'm sure she'll be here soon" Arizona offers Lydia a smile and gives her arm a light squeeze.

"Yep" Lydia looks back down to her chart.

Julia sits up from an on call room bed. She re-fastens her shirt. Mark Sloan copies her.

"We can't keep doing this here, people are going to find out" Julia whispers standing from the bed and fixing her hair.

"Oh please you love all this sneaking around" Mark winks to her; she smiles slightly.

"We aren't kids any more Mark, we have careers to think about and-" Mark stands up and kisses her stopping her train of thought.

He whispers against her lips "and?"

Julia looks into each of his eyes for a moment before pulling away smiling and leaving the room. Mark watches after her for minute before sitting back down on the bed.

Smiling slightly Julia wanders back to her office. She turns a corner and runs into Lydia.

"Lydia" she says smiling.

"Hey Jul-why are you smiling like that?" Lydia stops and looks at her properly.

"Smiling like what?" Julia drops the smile and replaces it with a frown.

"Never mind. Listen I'm just going down to do a surgery now and then after that I'm done so I'll pick Ben up and you can you know...chill"

"Oh thanks...yeah that's great I was working late tonight anyway" Julia shrugs her shoulders and nods.

"Cool – see you later then" Lydia smiles to Julia and steps past her before stopping "oh and Julia"

"Yeah?"

"If you and Sloan are going to use the on call rooms you may want to think about keeping it down a little" Lydia smirks slightly before wandering off, a slight skip in her step.

Julia rolls her eyes with a sigh and continues on her way.

Lydia and Megan exit the operating theatre.

"You did great today Megan" Lydia taps her shoulder gently.

"Thanks Dixie, you know I think maybe I might enjoy surgery more..." Megan glances to Lydia slightly.

"Maybe... ER work is way more fun though...maybe not in a hospital like this though...New York is the best place for it" Lydia smiles slightly.

"Do you think you'll go back?" they continue down the corridor to a sitting room.

"I don't know...probably not, not now I've set this up" Lydia opens the door to the sitting room. A man and woman are sat holding hands worriedly. "Mr and Mrs Danson, Craig's surgery went fine it was just a little break so we really didn't need to do too much. Dr Ascott is going to take you up to the day ward now and will answer any questions for you"

Mrs Danson stands smiling "oh thank you Dr Dixon, he's such a silly boy!"

Lydia smiles and nods before leaving the sitting room. She rubs a hand over her hair and sighs. As she strolls down the corridor her beeper sounds.

'Ryan- NEED UR HELP 2ND FLR NRS STATION'

Lydia reattaches the beeper to her bottoms and runs towards the station.

Ryan is stood rolling his beeper through his fingers. Lydia rushes around the corner to his side.

"What's wrong?" she asks calmly but seriously.

Ryan smiles to her and shakes his head slightly "nothing is wrong I just need your help with something"

Lydia looks around and sees the area relatively empty "well...what is it?"

"I bit my lip"

"Okay?" Lydia offers him a 'get-on-with-it-look'.

"Was just wondering if...maybe you wanted to kiss it better" Ryan asked cheekily, raising an eyebrow.

"Ew" Lydia laughs slightly. "You're disgusting"

"Gee thanks, I'm in pain here" Ryan pouts slightly.

"Aww diddums" Lydia moves forward giggling and places a gentle kiss on his lips. "All better"

Mark enters the nurse's station "urgh get a room"

Lydia scowls at him "we would but all the on call rooms are taken"

Mark looks around for a moment. "Julia told me to tell you that she wants to see you. She's downstairs at the main entrance"

Lydia rolls her eyes "oh my, what next? Passing around letters?"

Mark laughs slightly and shakes his head. "Well she sounded pretty serious so I'd go now if I were you"

"Fine" Lydia sighs and heads off. "Come on Ryan"

Ryan drops his pen and glances to Mark smiling. Mark smiles back and begins to follow them.

Lydia glances behind her with a curious look as she sees Mark following her and Ryan, her gaze also notices Callie, Arizona, Meredith... almost everyone also following but at a distance.

"What's going on?" Lydia asks stopping on the stairs.

Mark offers her a confused though slightly impatient look "what do you mean?"

"Well why is everyone following me?" Lydia gestures to the almost crowd behind them.

"They aren't here for you, you aren't a celebrity Lydia" Mark rolls his eyes at her.

Lydia offers Mark a scowl. She's about to say something when she hears a familiar noise from the bottom of the stairs. Her heart stops.

Turning she doesn't want to smile in case it isn't true. The noise is getting louder and louder. It must be real.

"MOMMY!"

Lydia turns to see and squealing Ellie at the bottom of the stairs waving her arms. For a moment Lydia just stands there. Her mouth slightly open in a half smile and a half cry. Tears begin stream down her face.

Julia is standing next to Ellie holding her hand with Ben holding the other. Lydia rushes down the rest of the stairs and pulls the little girl into her arms. She stands and lifts the girl above her slightly.

"Mommy did you miss me?" Ellie laughs.

"Mommy missed you so much" Lydia splutters as she pulls the girl in close to her body.

"I missed you too" Ellie whispers placing a kiss on the side of Lydia's head.

"You're so big, you've grown so much" Lydia laughs slightly.

"Mommy can we live here now with Aunty Julia and Ben?" Ellie speaks quickly with excitement.

"Yeah baby this is home now" Lydia whispers.

"With you?" Ellie pulls back to see her mother's face.

"With me" Lydia nods and pulls the girl in once again.

Julia wipes away a tear as she watches the scene, her hand finds Ben's and she pulls him into a hug. Mark lets a tear fall down his cheek and places a hand on Ryan's shoulder, who is smiling with adoration and also crying. Behind them Arizona and Callie are holding hands and crowd is cheering and laughing.

Lydia lowers Ellie to the ground and takes her hand.

"Ellie there's someone I want you to meet" Lydia turns her attention back up the stairs and laughs slightly, tears escaping her eyes "actually there are a few people I want you to meet" Lydia gestures for them to come down the stairs.

Ryan and Mark slowly walk towards them. Ellie swings Lydia's arms as she waits for them to get to her.

"Ellie this is your Uncle Mark"

"Hey kiddo" Mark smiles to the little girl before lifting her up. "I've been waiting a while to meet you"

Ellie smiles to him "you have?"

"Oh yeah, Ly-your Mom told me you were amazing and wonderful and smart" Mark bounces her slightly.

"And funny, I said funny too" Lydia chimes in winking at Ellie.

"Oh yeah I make Mommy laugh lots" Ellie nods matter-of-a-factly.

Mark laughs and nods slightly, before putting Ellie back down.

Lydia smiles to Ryan who smiles back. A twinkle in his eye that she'd never seen before.

"Ellie...this is Ryan" Ellie walks over to Ryan and lifts her arms up so he'll carry her. "Ryan is...Mommy's er... Ryan-" Lydia frowns slightly as she tries to explain.

Ellie ignores her and looks to Ryan "are you my new Daddy?"

Lydia's eyes widen and she glances to Julia who is frowning slightly.

Ryan smiles slightly and glances to Lydia "well...do you want me to be?"

Ellie thinks for a moment "are you a doctor?"

"Yes"

"Do you like children?"

"Yeah"

"Do you like my Mommy?"

Ryan smiles slightly and bows his head to Ellie's ear. He whispers "your Mommy is the most beautiful woman I've ever met, I love her completely" Lydia tries to decipher his words.

"Okay...Okay" Ellie smiles to him.

"Okay?" Ryan smiles back to her.

"Okay" Ellie sticks her thumbs up to him.

"Alright then" Ryan looks to Lydia and laughs.

Lydia smiles to them. She steps forward and pulls them into a hug together.

N'awww. I've still got a long way for this story though. Keep reading folks. Sorry for the late update had lots of work to be doing. So much crying in this chapter I'll make the next one all about laughter! AB xx