A/N: Wow! Thanks everyone for your wonderful reviews! Anna is adorable isn't she? Thanks for Everyone's comments, fav's and follows. I realize Mer's story is a little bigger than everyone elses at this point, but we will be digging in to each pairing, and other stuff along the way. Keep in mind that it's taken 14 chapters to cover 2 days... so... I have a feeling that this will be a looong story. Please Enjoy!
I have closed the poll and made my decision regarding Zola. We shall see how it plays out.
Also, I am looking for someone to help me with images to post as covers for my three active stories. I'm completely clueless about where to find and or make them. I have some ideas for what I want... So if anyone wants to help me out with that, that would be awesome! you can PM me. In return, maybe I can send you some previews of upcoming chapters or write a quick one shot of an idea you have.
Anyway Enjoy!
Stephanie Edwards was on a mission. Find Medusa, aka Dr. Grey. Their patient had woken up, and while Dr. Hunt had given Grey an hour long break, it had now been another hour and she hadn't answered her pages. Stephanie looked everywhere she could think of, on-call rooms, the attending lounge, cafeteria, conference room. She even checked the parking lot to see if Grey had left, but her car was there, parked in its usual spot.
Normally she would've taken this opportunity to be a little proactive, and she would've just handled the patient herself, as it wasn't critical. But there'd been a lot going on in that OR and Edwards would rather be yelled at for bothering Medusa than yelled at for missing something in regards to his care.
So here she was, strolling the tunnels, hoping maybe she'd find her cantankerous attending here. Instead, she found Jo perched on a gurney, charting on a tablet. "Jo!" she called, "Have you seen Grey?"
"Meredith?" Jo asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Yeah."
"Probably in my bed," she muttered.
Stephanie was confused. "What?"
Jo jerked her head up, "Oh, sorry, um... Alex had her babysitting the house fire girl. Maybe she's in Ped's?"
"Okay," Stephanie said. She was about to take off when she stopped and turned to her friend, "What do you mean, 'in your bed? Medusa was in your bed?'
Jo rolled her eyes. "Alex and I had sex last night. Amazing, great, perfect sex. I totally jumped his bones. Next thing I know, she's in our room, I'm half naked, and it's like 'move over Wilson- my turn."
"Oh my God." Stephanie remarked. "She didn't- they didn't- you know..."
"No, they just talked, for hours," Jo huffed. "My neck still hurts from sleeping on the couch. Thank God Lexie didn't stay last night."
"So did you talk to him?" Stephanie asked, hungry for the drama.
Jo sighed. "A little bit, then he got paged for a trauma or something." She checked her watch. "Look, I'm off shift now, so I'll help you find Grey. I think I know where she is."
"Good, I already got yelled at, I don't want it happening again."
"Do you know of any good apartments or condos around here?" Jo asked as they stepped into the elevator.
Stephanie followed and waited as Jo checked the patient list for house-fire girl Anna. "Over here," Jo said, leading her to a small semi-private room. Anna was listed as the only patient.
Stephanie stepped forward, slid the curtain aside and gasped at the sight she saw. Her illusion of 'Medusa' was now shattered.
Meredith Grey lay curled on the bed asleep. Her right hand was delicately tucked under her chin and her left arm protectively placed over four year-old Anna's waist as the girl also rested, facing her. Anna's small body seemed to fit perfectly against Meredith, one tiny hand resting on her solar plexus, the other on top of the woman's outstretched arm.
In the years that Stephanie had known Dr. Grey, she'd never seen her look so relaxed and at peace before.
Jo poked her head in beside her, "What? What is it?" she asked.
"Shhh!" she said. Now she didn't know what to do. She didn't want to wake her.
"Oh." Jo whispered, covering her mouth. "Oh my..."
xxx
It was a bright blue sky day, warm and slightly humid. The smell of fresh cut grass lingered in the air, and Meredith was pushing a swing.
Higher! Go higher! Anna cried, leaning back as she attempted to pump. Her dark curly-wavy hair flew behind her as was pushed through the air.
We're about as high as we can go, Meredith laughed. Can your toes touch the sky?
My toes are touching the sky! Look, they're touching the cowds! Anna called out, looking over her shoulder and gracing Meredith with her infectious smile.
The swing brought the girl back to her and Meredith felt Anna's warm back push against her palm as she absorbed the small weight against her.
Higher, Mommy. Higher!
"...diff. Merediff... up." A child's voice spoke in her ear. Meredith struggled to open her eyelids. Her body felt so heavy and stiff, and she couldn't will her limbs to move. Instead she sighed loudly.
"Dr. Grey," another familiar voice.
"Muh," she managed. She moved to rub her eyes but her arm didn't quite co-operate with her brain's commands and she practically hit herself in the forehead instead. Something wiggled beside her.
"You so sweepy, Merediff."
Meredith sighed again, consciousness was returning in increments as she sucked in more oxygen. What was the warm wiggly thing beside her? She rubbed her eyes, blinked. Two grey-green eyes stared back at her, and small fingers touched her face. Anna. Meredith thought.
"An' you snore," the girl continued.
"Do not." Meredith rasped, still not quite awake. She pulled Anna's hands away from her face and gazed sleepily at the little scamp that woke her up.
"Do too. You're loud!"
Meredith licked her lips and swallowed. The pillow was wet under her cheek. Did she drool too?
"Um...Dr Grey? "
"Mer, you gotta get up."
Meredith looked to see Alex and Edwards staring at her. Alex had a huge smile on his face though, while Edwards looked nervous.
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Meredith sat up. Sleepiness still hovered over her, but she felt strangely... light. "How long was I out?" she asked Alex as he handed back her cellphone and pager.
"Uh..." He looked at his watch, "an hour and a half."
She'd been asleep for an hour and a half? Crap! "Edwards, our patient?"
"He's stable, but you should look over his labs... and Dr. Hunt wanted to talk to you about him."
"Oh," Meredith said. She stood up and picked up her labcoat, becoming Dr. Grey again. "Edwards, get back to the patient and I'll be there in a couple minutes."
Her resident stood there for a moment with a deer in the headlights look, then she blinked. "Of course," she said, bowing out of the room.
"Are you weaving?" Anna asked, crawling back to the middle of the bed.
Meredith felt an unusual lump in her throat. She sat back down on the end of the bed. "Yeah... I'm going to help a patient."
"Oh." Anna said.
"Dr. Alex is going to help you, and then a nice lady is going to help you find a new home."
"But I like it here." Anna said. "I like you, and Docker Alex."
"I know..." Meredith didn't know what else to say. Her hands pressed against her knees, and she rubbed her thighs. She placed one hand on top of Anna's. "You're a sweet girl, and a very good doctor. One day, a family is going to find you and take you home, and you won't ever have to move again. Just keep thinking about that okay?"
Anna sighed. "Okay," she said.
"Okay," said Meredith, giving Anna a hug and a quick kiss on the forehead. She caressed her face. "You made me have a good dream. Behave now."
Anna leaned into her for a moment and just sighed.
Meredith stuck her hands into her labcoat pockets. She gasped when she realized that she still had the pudding and granola bar from before. "Here, make sure you eat these," she said, placing them on the table.
Anna nodded. She pulled herself up to her knees and reached for her coloring book. She flipped inside and ripped out a picture she'd colored. "Dis for you, Docker Merediff."
"Oh, thank you." Meredith hugged her again, then stopped. It was too much. She shouldn't get too attached. "I have to go." She folded the picture and tucked it into a pocket.
"Bye Docker Merediff."
"Bye, Anna." Meredith said slowly, but her body turned her on her heels as she was unable to allow herself to prolong the moment any longer.
"Mer," Alex called after her.
"I got her to eat," Meredith kept walking. "Though you might want to talk to social services about getting her some counselling."
"Mer-" He started again, "It helped, right?"
She turned back toward her friend who was trying to help. In the left hand pocket of her white coat, she felt the rough paper of the picture Anna had given her. "I..." She didn't know. She was on a rollercoaster of emotions today and she wanted to get off.
Mildly hopeful before the OB appointment, thinking maybe. Then her heart had been broken when that illusion had been crushed. Jealous and bitter toward April, because life just wasn't fair and the universe liked to play dirty pool. Because of that she'd morphed into a fire breathing dragon and burned Maggie, the new Head of Cardio, eliminating any chance of potential friendship.
Then, a four year-old tiny human with nobody examined her scars and prescribed 'Medicines.' They had comforted each other. She fell asleep, and dreamed... she couldn't quite remember what the dream was but it was good. The best dream she'd had since before Derek died. She'd slept. The best hour and a half of sleep she'd ever had, only to be poked awake to stare into the most remarkable eyes, so fresh and innocent.
Now she had to leave. Anna wasn't hers. Anna was a patient who was going to be discharged any minute now and...
She wanted her heart to stop breaking. She needed a minute to just breathe, and think, and evaluate. But by the looks of it, it wasn't going to happen anytime today.
"I have to go, Alex," she said as she stepped into the elevator.
xxx
Arizona was double checking charts, making sure that Alex wasn't too overloaded. She felt that maybe she dumped too much on him. Just then there was a knock on the door.
"Come in..." She said smiling, thinking it was Callie.
But it wasn't. It was Dr. Herman. "Oh," Arizona said, her mouth stuck in the 'O' shape. "Dr. Herman..."
"Your paperwork is in order, Dr. Robbins," The tall, older doctor said brusquely. "Impeccable references, compelling surgeries, you're officially my fellow."
Pride beamed through Arizona's features and she felt a slight blush. "Thank you Dr. Herman, it will be an honour to work with you."
Dr. Herman gave her a grim smile. "Mm, good then. We have a lot of work to do. I hope I made the right choice."
It was then that Arizona noticed the stack of papers, magazines and books Dr. Herman was carrying. A sudden heaviness settled on her.
"Homework." Herman said, "I will be quizzing you throughout the day tomorrow and the rest of the week on various aspects of the field. I need you to be prepared. I don't like to waste time."
The huge stack landed on her desk with a thump, and Arizona gaped at the intimidating pile. "Um, wow... that's um-"
"Surgeons don't say 'Um' Robbins. If you're not up to it, you better let me know now."
Arizona looked at the pile, looked back at Herman. This was the greatest opportunity of her life, Dr. Herman was one of a handfull of neo-natal surgeons in the U.S and studying under her meant soon she would be too. She couldn't turn it down. She shook her head, "Of course, I'll get right on it," she offered her most professional smile.
"Perfect," Herman said, returning the smile. "I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and the notes in the margins? Very important."
"Okay." Arizona said, her smile fading as she watched her new mentor exit. She stared at the huge pile and gulped. Well, so much for chart checking.
"Hey," A cheerful voice called.
"Callie, hey, hi!" Arizona greeted her wife.
Callie strode into the office and leaned over the pile of 'homework' on Arizona's desk. Arizona melted as she was pulled into a passionate kiss from her wife. For a few seconds she forgot the last five minutes with Hernan. For a few seconds, blood pumped in all the right directions in her body and she felt wonderful. Callie wanted her, Callie still loved her.
"Um, wow," Arizona gasped as Callie pulled away, leaving her flushed, breathless and tingly. "That was... wow."
"Mmhm." Callie hummed, her dark eyes full with desire. "Mark's taking Sofia tonight. We have the whole house to ourselves..."
"Oh." Crap, thought Arizona as she looked at the pile. She had so much to do...
"And I saw pictures of Zola today," Callie continued, oblivious to Arizona's sudden apprehension. She's gorgeous."
Double crap, Arizona thought. She stood up and smoothed out her scrubs and labcoat. "Callie, I think we should talk," she said,taking her spouse's hand and leading her to the couch.
xxx
Alex tucked the pamphlet for adoption into his pocket as he signed the discharge forms for Anna. He thought maybe he'd leave them out for Mer to look at or something. The social worker, Janet, had been very kind and compassionate with Anna as they took her to her next home. Jackson had informed Janet of the foster mother's death, and between the three of them, they'd decided that that the little girl didn't need to know right now.
Alex gave Janet a prescription for burn cream and antibiotics, hugged the girl and waved goodbye.
Now he was standing at the desk, lost in thought. He was thinking about Jo, actually. And, as if by magic, she was there in front of him. How did she do that? He thought, blinking. "You're amazing," he blurted.
"What?" Jo asked, twirling a loose strand of her hair, seemingly obliviious.
"Oh... you heard me," he grinned.
"Well, after being booted out of bed last night, you have a lot to make up for."
Alex already had a plan for that though, he'd been ruminating on it since he sent Mer off to babysit. He took Jo's hand, "Come on." he said, leading her to the attendings lounge.
"What-" Jo said again, confused.
They passed Jackson and Noah, on their way out for the day, and Jackson flashed him a 'thumbs up.'
"Good to go man," Jackson said.
"Thanks," Alex pulled Jo into the lounge and closed the door. An unusual shaped object sat on the round table in the middle of the room, draped with a sheet.
"What's going on?" Jo sputtered. "Is this for me?"
Alex took both of Jo's hands and gazed deeply into her eyes. "I got somethin' to show you. But first I gotta tell you something." Because, he'd learned over the years that you have to tell people stuff, you can't just assume that they know.
Jo looked very nervous, but maybe a little hopeful too. "Yeah?" she said.
"I was thinking about what you said, about me being all you have, and..." He sighed, it was Anna who made him think about that. He'd seen that same look in Anna's eyes as he did in Jo's... Just this... wanting. Wanting, but not knowing if it was permanent. Always a little guarded, because people always come and go and it's just better if you're by yourself.
Except it wasn't. He didn't believe in that anymore. He didn't want Jo to believe that.
"I love you Jo. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here, in this with you, okay? The long haul. For as long as you are. You don't have to be scared that you're gonna lose me. Don't be."
Jo swallowed, and Alex saw a sheen on her light amber eyes. "Yeah?" she asked again. He must've made her speechless.
"And, to prove it..." He pulled the sheet off the object on the table revealing a multi-colored lego and cardboard-construction paper house. Complete with lego pirate people and space men, two hot wheel cars in a makeshift garage, and several awkward cut-outs of trees, flowers and sky.
Jo covered her mouth with her hand, "Umm, that's-"
"Last minute, I know. Sophia drew the pictures, and Jackson and Noah did the lego stuff. Brooks helped too I think."
She picked up one of the lego men. "Alex- this is-"
He shrugged, turning up his nonchalant charm. "So, you wanna buy a house with me?"
A/N: Don't worry, you haven't seen the last of Anna. Calzona and Omelia fans, Bigger stuff is in the works for them, please be patient! Please review!