A/N: Thanks for your follows and favs. And thanks titi! glad to have you on board as my Japril fan, I hope to do the characters justice.
Anywhat...
Alex checked a few boxes on his chart for his patient. A four-year old girl with a few minor burns and some smoke inhalation damage. Thankfully, she'd be able to make a complete recovery. Kids were resiliant. The only problem? The poor kid really had no home to go to. A foster kid, she was now set to be rotated out to another foster home as this one had been burned down and her foster mother was in critical condition. He sighed. He could empathize.
So far, the little girl seemed to accept the situation with a grace only a child could. He tore a lab order form from the chart and stuck it into a clear plastic bag with a blood sample. For now the girl slept peacefully in her very large bed.
He walked back to the nurses station to find an intern to run the labs for him and checked his watch. It was early afternoon, should he call Mer? Was that his new Person duty?
"Alex!" Someone called, and he spun around from the desk, half groaning. It wasn't someone. It was Lexie, and that meant rambling. He pulled open the drawer to Arizona's stash and pulled out a package of reese's peanut butter cups. Maybe that would distract her.
"What? I'm busy." He tried to sound grumpy.
"No you're not. I checked the OR board and your patient list. " She knew him too well.
"Whatever. I'm not your girl. I'm already Mer's Person."
"Well you're just going to have to deal with it. I was going to talk to April but she's in the OR with Hunt, and can I just say it's hard to talk to people when they have pregnancy hormones raging through their system?"
"So?" Alex tossed the candy bar up to Lexie, hoping it will slow her down.
"Ooh Reeses peanut butter cups!" She tore open the package, grabbed one of the sweet treats and took a bite. "Anyway... I am so mad at Mark right now, and Amelia- I just want to punch her in the face!"
"Why?" He asked.
"They slept together!" Lexie exclaimed, jamming the other half of the peanut butter cup into her mouth.
"So?"
"What do you mean, 'so?'"
"I mean, that. So?"
"Can't you be on my side?"
"Look, I told you, I'm not gonna be a girl for you, okay? I don't care about Sloan and Shepherd."
"Argh, you- you're infuriating!" She bit into another peanut butter cup, and appeared to be trying not to cry.
Alex sighed and crossed his arms, looking up at Lexie from his slouched position in his chair. "You wanna know what I think?"
Lexie nodded, swallowing.
"Sloan cares about you. He loves you. But Amelia was hurting, and so was he. They both lost Derek, and they're both sometimes immature fifteen year olds. So they had comfort sex. You have stress eating, Mer has tequila, and Sloan has sex with inappropriate people. I mean he saved your life on that plane didn't he? He's willing to give up his practice and move to DC if you get that BRAIN fellowship you applied for isn't he? And let's not forget what you and I did that one time..."
"Mark and I were broken up!"
"Maybe, but Mark didn't think so."
"Urgh!" Lexie threw her last peanut butter cup at Alex. It hit him in the chest as she stormed away. Alex grinned, peeling the wax wrapper off. He took a bite out of the sweet and salty snack. That wasn't so bad, he thought, it was kind of fun watching Lexie squirm.
xxx
Lexie stormed away, her white lab coat billowing behind her. Ahead of her, she saw a target. Amelia Shepherd. Boosted by her sugary treat, she picked up the pace. She was going to have a 'little chat' with that dirty mistress.
"Uh, Lexie?" A deep voice boomed. She turned around suddenly and was face to face with Richard Webber. "Dr. Webber!" Lexie said with forced cheerfulness. She quickly looked back to see Amelia turning the corner further down. She was getting away. "I uh, have to do this thing- uh lab results-" She thumbed down the hall and turned back toward the direction Amelia had been going in.
"Dr. Grey!" It was Webber's tone for 'stop what you're doing, or you're in big trouble,'
"What?" Lexie's posture slouched, slightly defeated. She turned slightly toward him, still wanting to chase after Amelia.
Webber took a few steps toward her, an official looking envelope in hand. "This came in the mail today." He handed it to her, and she clutched it nervously. It had the president's seal on it. It was from D.C.
"The B-BRAIN initiative?"
"It seems you've caught their attention, Dr. Grey."
She didn't think it would be possible that they would pick her for their research fellowship. Despite good surgical success, she was still a relative nobody out here, more so out east. Was this their acceptance letter?
"You gonna open that?"
Her whole world could shift on the results of this letter. The question was... did she want it to? "I..."
"Well, let Hunt know when you've made a decision. There's still that opening for Chief of Neuro we need to fill."
"Oh... uh, I-I'll get back to you. Er Hunt, I mean."
Richard nodded and smiled. "Good work Dr. Grey, this is what everyone dreams of in med school," and with that, he patted her on the shoulder and headed off.
Lexie stared at the envelope for a few more seconds, then swallowed. She needed to find a vending machine.
xxx
Mark was just finishing up the downstairs bathroom, when he heard a crash. "Grey?" He called. He didn't hear an answer right away, so he dropped the windex and paper towel and dashed upstairs. "Grey?" He called again, searching the rooms.
"I'm fine... I just- I'm fine," He heard Meredith reply. He found her in her room, clutching her side, breathing hard. A box of books was overturned on the ground. "I was grabbing this box, and it was a little too heavy I guess... then I tripped."
"Your hip..." Mark said, moving toward her.
"It's fine, it's nothing, just a bruise probably." She sat down on the bed.
He sat down besider her to better observe her. "I don't know how you get through twelve hour surgeries."
"Practice. And lots of physical therapy. And sometimes I get a stool. I'm not ashamed to admit that."
"Hm."
"Can you put those books back in the box and move it over to that corner?"
"Always the bossy one," He grinned, and set about to do as ordered.
Meredith sighed, "Carolyn called," she said.
"Oh?"
"She calls every year and leaves a message. I don't pick up because I don't know what to say to her. What am I supposed to say?"
"You don't have to say anything, she understands."
"I should've listened to her- she was going to get a cab, she didn't want me to pick her up at the airport."
Mark shook his head he blamed himself too. He should've been available to pick up Carolyn, he should've ignored that emergency page. Family came first right? "You can't play the blame game," He said. Still it was always hard to face- the death of your spouse and the death of your unborn child all in one year.
Meredith sighed sadly. "I know. I just do sometimes." She got up and walked back over to the closet. "I have some old sheets and towels in here that should go in the hallway- oh."
Mark put the box down in the corner, wondering if Meredith was in pain, but when he turned around, he saw her holding a soft pink blanket. She dropped the towels and sheets on the floor and lay down on her bed with the blanket.
"Mer?" Mark asked.
"I forgot I still had this," she whispered, clutching the blanket to her cheek. "I was going to have her wrapped in this, after she was born."
"I remember," Mark approached the bed and sat down. He reached out and felt the soft fleece of the baby blanket. "Lexie bought this for you. We had to go to like six different stores to find the right shade of pink," He smiled bittersweetly.
Meredith sat up. "You have to work things out with Lexie. Don't let this be your unhappy never after."
"I want to- I just don't know if she'll forgive me."
Meredith sighed, "Well for one, stop having sex with every doctor who walks in the door."
"I know... Amelia and I..." He shrugged, he didn't really know how to explain it. "I picked her up at the airport... and she was upset... she broke up with her fiance, and she missed Derek and I missed Derek and we just- it just happened." He held his head in his hands at a loss.
"If Derek was here he'd punch you in the face. For like, the third time."
Mark smiled, "He would, wouldn't he?"
"I would, but I bruise easily and you probably have a hard head."
"I do have a hard head."
"You have to fix this, Mark." She pulled herself up against the headboard of the bed and clutched her knees to her chest. "I don't want anyone to lose the love of their life like I did. I wasn't sure I'd make it. If I didn't have another life growing in me at the time... I don't know what I'd do. And then, when I lost her?"
Mark nodded. "I know..."
"I almost died. I gave up Mark, I really did. Twice almost."
Mark had nothing to say, he just put his hand on Meredith's knee and squeezed.
"You know why I woke up after my accident? Why I fought so hard to breathe on my own?"
He shook his head slowly.
"I thought I heard Derek say I wasn't finished," she whispered. "And then I thought I heard a baby cry. My baby. I thought I heard her cry. And then I woke up... and she was... I was empty."
Her words struck him like a knife. She wanted to die, Meredith didn't want to live without Derek and now she was, and though she took it like a trooper, she would never be the same. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"So you better fix this stupid thing with Lexie, if you love her, if you really do, nothing else should matter."
Mark swallowed and gave Meredith a half hug. "I just hope she still loves me, they way I love her."
"I hope so too."
A/N: Intense!
For my Fight to Remember fans, I will be working on that update in the next few days.