A/N: Wow! Thanks everybody for your response to last chapter! Thanks for reading! Thanks also to mandyg67, Butterflysparkle97, Patsy, greysfannn, and Kaykay12345nine for your comments!
Please enjoy this next chapter!
Mark shifted from one foot to the other outside of the townhouse, his hands shoved in his pockets as he waited. The night air was cool against his skin. He was about to turn around when he saw a light turn on in the front window. Footsteps could be heard behind the door.
He swallowed nervously.
The door swung open, and he was face to face with Carolyn.
"Mark Sloan!" She gasped.
"Carolyn." He nodded.
"Gracious me, what are you doing here?"
"You said I could drop by anytime..." he said, quirking his lips in a slight smile.
"Well come in then, I'll put on a pot of tea."
He stepped into the house, shaking his head at the memories that assaulted him. He'd come here often as a teenager. After school, he'd hang out with Derek, read his comics, play his games and be invited to stay for supper. A break from the lonliness that haunted him at his own empty home.
Carolyn ushered him in, and he followed her to the kitchen. She'd hardly changed, except for a few more lines, and... maybe a little more emptiness in her eyes than before her son died. She filled the pot with water and set it on the stove before producing two black mugs and a couple tea bags. "Earl Grey?" she asked.
"Sure," he said.
They waited in companionable silence until the kettle whistled and she poured him a cup."Well?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.
Mark doused his tea with cream and took a sip. "I screwed up... I cheated on Lexie." He didn't tell her it was with Amelia... that wasn't the point.
"Oh Mark." Carolyn sighed.
"But I'm going to fix it."
"You are? And you came all the way to New York to tell me this?"
"Lexie got a fellowship in D.C. I have a flight in a few hours."
Carolyn's gaze softened. "So you do love her," she said.
"I do."
"What are you going to do? Propose?"
"And scare the crap out of her?" He grinned, "No... but I made a list... I talked to Derek the other day and... I think he'd be impressed." On the flight over, on a bar napkin, he'd scribbled down his ideas to woo Little Grey back to him.
At the mention of Derek's name, Carolyn looked down at her tea. "I imagine he had a lot to say."
"Hm." Mark said, remembering Meredith's Drunken night at the cementary.
"How is she?" Carolyn asked, "Meredith."
He knew Carolyn worried about her. He knew she blamed herself... there was a lot of that going around. After the accident, Carolyn had arranged the funeral for the baby, she took care of all the expenses, she'd stayed with him until Meredith woke up. But Meredith had refused to see her. So wracked with guilt, she remained silent when Carolyn tried to talk to her. "It still haunts her... everyday. But she's trying to move forward I think..."
"She won't talk to me." Carolyn said.
"She doesn't know what to say... she blames herself."
"Don't we all?" and there was a trace of bitterness in her voice. "I'd love her like my own daughter, Mark, if she'd let me..."
"I know..." he replied.
They sipped their tea. From the living room, the old grandfather clock chimed. The furnace kicked in, warm air blowing over his socked feet. "Wanna see some pictures of Sofia?" he offered, brightening at the thought of his rambunctious child.
Carolyn's expression lit up. "Would I?"
xxx
"What the hell?" Alex said as he stared at the patient in front of him. A girl. A little girl, but she looked... she couldn't be... was she pregnant? She couldn't be more than ten or eleven years old.
"Oh... it hurts." she said, curling up on the bed, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Get me the ultrasound..." he snapped to Warren. As he tended to the girl, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, but he ignored it. "Where's her parents?" he snapped.
"I don't know..." Warren said, "She was found outside the hospital."
"What? Somebody just left her there?"
Warren shrugged. "I don't know."
Alex shook his head. "Look at her hair, she's got a dutch braid... somebody cared about her. Takes a long time to do a dutch braid and not have it fall apart. I know... I used to try it on my sister..." He picked up the ultrasound wand and the jelly, smearing it on the girl's stomach.
She moaned and squirmed again on the bed.
"Shh, it's okay, just stay still," Warren said, his hand gently caressing her forehead.
Alex watched the ultrasound monitor anxiously. Sudden relief hit him when what he saw on the screen negated his earlier suspicions. "Oh thank God," he said.
"She's not pregnant." Warren confirmed.
"No, but that's a massive tumor... How the hell did they let it get this big?" Alex looked down at the girl with compassion. This was crazy. Crazy and stupid. How did everything go so wrong for her?
"We're gonna need another surgeon," Warren said.
"Page Mer," Alex said.
"She's in surgery with Zola," Warren replied.
"Damn... Bailey? Webber?"
"They just started a liver transplant in OR three."
"Crap." Alex sighed. "A shunt surgery shouldn't take long right? The tumor can wait a few hours... let's put her on morphine and call CPS in the meantime." He made his way out of the room, reaching in his pocket for his phone, he should probably text Jo, this might be an all-nighter.
But he stared at the message he'd just sent him. Who the hell was Fred Martin and what the hell was happening with Amber?
xxx
For the first time in a long time, Meredith was nervous as she stood over the skull of the small child. She hadn't done anything remotely Neuro in a long time... but a shunt repair surgery was fairly simple in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't like she was resecting a difficult tumour.
"Grey?" Arizona asked.
"Just give me a minute!" she snapped.
"Ookay..." The pediactric surgeon scowled.
Suddenly feeling bad, Meredith apologized, "Sorry... I just-" She shifted on her feet a little, cracked her neck, and started the incision. "I never thought I'd see her again..."
"Again?" Arizona asked.
Meredith carefully drilled a small hole where she'd be placing the new shunt. "After my accident... I watched Zola get her first surgery..." she didn't know why the heck she was telling Arizona this. They weren't exactly friends, but for some reason, she felt like sharing this little tidbit. "I visited her a couple times." She shrugged. "I guess... I dunno, she was alone, I was alone, and after I lost my baby, being around her... kinda made me feel better."
"Wait- you visited Zola back then?" Arizona asked.
Meredith looked up from Zola's skull. "Yeah..."
"That was you?"
"Umm..."
"No... it's just, I remembered the nurses talking about how at night Zola would cry and cry, but we were so short staffed because of the shooting, they couldn't always get to her right away, and when they finally checked on her, she was already asleep."
"Catheter," Meredith called, holding her hand out. She didn't really know how to respond to Arizona... they weren't exactly close.
xxx
Arizona regarded Meredith as she worked on Zola. This revelation from her was surprising. What she knew about Meredith was that she was hardcore. Since her return to surgery after her accident, Meredith seemed to focus on being the best. She was still good with patients, as she'd always been... but just- detached?
She made a small incision in the opening where the shunt would drain. The two of them began to thread it through. As Arizona worked, she glanced up at her colleague. Meredith was focused, but there was something different in her eyes, something she couldn't place.
"So..." Meredith asked, "What's going to happen to her? I mean after?" And Arizona couldn't help but hear the brokeness in her voice.
"Well-I," Arizona started, about to inform her of her decision to adopt Zola.
"I mean, she can't go back to Africa... that's just cruel." Meredith interrupted. "Nobody deserves to be alone."
Arizona sighed. "Callie and I-" she started again.
"I called CFS you know... I thought maybe I might I could- I thought- well there was this girl, Anna... she's really adorable. So I-I called about her..." Meredith sighed. "Forceps," she said. "I guess I'm a little too late, there's a family already interested. I'm on a list... but I'll probably never get a shot- I work too much, I don't have any experience with kids... and I mean it's not like I had a good example growing up, my mother had all the nurturing of a steak knife."
"You want to be a mother?" Arizona asked. She never realized.
"I don't want to die alone, Robbins. But I don't know how much I have left in me..." She met Arizona's gaze before quickly looked back at Zola's skull, "At least you have Sofia," she murmured.
At least she had Sofia... Arizona swallowed nervously. "Um, well Callie and I, well, we're looking into adopting Zola actually."
Meredith stopped her stiches. "Oh!" she said. "That's... that's good." Meredith whispered. "Four-oh silk please, Bohkee..."
Why did Arizona feel like she was taking something that didn't belong to her?
xxx
Maggie squinted at the computer screen. She couldn't believe she was doing this. "I'm a criminal. This is... this is illegal."
"What? No it's not!" Wilson said. "It's your password..."
"I just feel like I'm invading someone's privacy."
"She's your mother. Okay... when were you born?"
"November of 1983..."
"So you would've been concieved in what? Spring of eighty-three?"
Maggie nodded, but she pushed the computer away. "I can't do this... I'm... I'm going home... This was a bad idea, this whole thing. I don't need to know anything more... I have a family. A funny goofy, lovely family who loves me. In Boston." She started to stand, but Wilson put a hand on her knee, stopping her.
"No!"
"What?"
"Well... you're just so close. I was abandoned, okay? And unlike you, I didn't didn't a nice happy family that adopted me. I got to surf around. Lotta fun that was. And I know Grey hasn't exactly been accepting of the situation yet... but- I mean, if I could have a chance to find out why... if I had a chance to talk to my mother or some brother or sister and I don't know... understand them? I would give anything for that. And you're here now, the answer's right in front of you. Tell me that in another five or ten years, you won't regret it."
Maggie regarded her colleague. Her resident. How did this pretty young thing get so smart? She made sense. Of course she did. And if she didn't figure this puzzle out now, it would bug her the rest of her life. She just couldn't put it down.
She shifted in her seat, pulling the laptop closer. She stared at the screen, steepled her fingers and sighed. "Alright Wendy, Let's do this..."
"It's Wilson!" she snarked.
"I know... I'm just teasing you." Maggie replied.
Wilson shook her head, "Whatever, let's do this..."
xxx
Owen ran after Amelia, but lost her down the hall. Where did she go? He fumbled with his pager for a moment before he gave up. She should be here somewhere right?
Unfortunately, after twenty minutes of frantic searching, he couldn't find her. Where could she have possibly run to? What was wrong with her? Did this have something to do with her brother's death? He sighed and sent her a text. You Ok? Txt me.
Why was he so attached? He shouldn't be... it was still so soon. He still missed Cristina. But somehow... Well, Amelia kissed him. They made out... bigtime. It had caught him off guard. But that kiss... he couldn't get her out of his mind. She put everything into that one kiss. And now...
He just couldn't let go.
Owen made his way to the attending lounge to change, he was off shift now. As he pulled on his jacket, his phone beeped.
Across the street, at the bar. Amelia had sent back.
A/N: And there you go! Another update! Just couldn't get it out of my head! Please review! And happy Greys Day! Don't worry about Zola and Anna, they will get where they belong :) Oh, and if you haven't checked out my story Ferryboats and Scrubcaps, you should! You're missing out if you're a Derek fan!