It was late when Alex walked up to their flat. He assumed Jo would already be in bed so he was careful to pull the door open slowly, not that it helped much. The rumble of the heavy sliding door was quickly followed by a soft murmur from the couch.

"Mmm, what time is it?" Jo asked as she sat up.

Alex put his bag down then checked his watch. "A bit past midnight. Sorry, I didn't plan on being this late. I told you not to wait up for me."

"I know," Jo said getting up from the couch and tossing him sweatpants to change into, "But I was worried. How's Meredith?"

Alex sighed. "About as good as can be expected considering she may be losing her medical license." He sat down at the edge of their bed. "This job is who she is. The world needs Meredith Grey at the forefront of medicine. I can't believe this is even being debated."

Jo joined him on the bed, wrapping her arms around him. "Yeah, it's crazy," she said. "No one who has actually worked with her or been one of her patients would ever question if she should be a doctor."

A few minutes passed in silence, Alex almost falling asleep in Jo's arms when what she said flicked a switch in his brain. Meredith had saved so many lives, touched so many hearts, and inspired so many minds. Quickly he turned to face Jo.

"What if we reached out to her old patients? I'm sure there are loads of people who would come out to support her. And maybe actually seeing all the lives she's helped and saved, maybe a show of support like that, maybe..." Alex trailed off. As excited as the idea made him, he was scared to get hopeful. But then he looked up at Jo and her smile told him that he was on to something.

"Alex, that's it! First thing in the morning we'll go to Records and dig up all her big cases. We'll contact everyone we can, explain what's going on, and ask if they'd be willing to come to the trial. And I'm sure some people who can't come would be willing to write instead."

"Like letters of recommendation!"

"Yes! And why stop with just patients?" Jo ran to her bag and came back with a notepad. "There are so many doctors who have worked with Meredith who would vouch for her." She started scribbling down names and suddenly Alex was feeling like maybe this would all work out and everything could go back to the way it was, the way it should be.

Then Jo handed him the notepad.

"Here," she said, "You take the doctors and I'll take the patients. Reach out to anyone you can think of."

And that was the decision that would both help save his best friend's career and change the trajectory of his life forever.

Author's note: Basically, I'm retconning the show writers' retcon. I get why they did what they did, but boy oh boy, it did not go down smooth. Hopefully this will be a bit better.