Just a repost of a fic I posted over on A03 recently!

Updates will be slow but I already have the entire series planned so once I get time to write then the next chapters should be up!

Thanks for reading

x Lina

❀❀❀ BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS ❀❀❀

Well I Didn't See That Coming: CHAPTER ONE

No one quite knew how to feel about Alex leaving, Meredith included. She wanted so badly to be happy for him but she couldn't help but feel abandoned. Everyday Meredith fought the urge to call him so that she can hear his voice again and tell him a funny story about a dumb intern to make him laugh. Last week she almost packed her bags and took Zola, Bailey and Ellis to Kansas just so that they could have a waffle Sunday together again. They'd been asking about him a lot, always wanting to know when they would see him again and why he didn't say goodbye. Meredith always tried her best to give them a positive answer because she didn't want them to realise just how angry she was at him, however when the kids started to ask questions about Jo instead she couldn't hide her real feelings anymore. Meredith was mad at Alex for making her feel lonely but she knew Alex hadn't shut her out for good. But Jo, that's a completely different story because she was his wife and Meredith is furious at Alex for walking out on her. Despite getting off to a rocky start, Meredith had come to like Jo quite a lot and hated Alex for the pain he was most doubtedly putting her through.

It was worrying Meredith how well Jo appeared to be dealing with it all. She knew better than anybody that it's when someone is truly hurting that they tend to put on the brave face act the most. Yet Jo had been trying her best, rather successfully in fact, at avoiding Meredith completely. So much so that four weeks ago Meredith took the day off from work to sit outside the loft until Jo eventually returned home, having no choice but to talk to her. What she wasn't expecting, however, was that it would be Levi Schmitt who returned home that evening instead of Jo. The lease had been signed over to him after Jo decided to take a last minute sabbatical. No texts, no phone calls, nothing - Jo was MIA.

Today was a world record number of Alex related questions received by Meredith and she was just about at her wits end. She was never mad at the patients because they didn't know the situation, but Meredith was sick of the hospital staff whose only intention was to gain some extra gossip to discuss on lunch break. Having now enforced an Alex ban within the OR, the memo was slowly spreading throughout the department that Meredith was not the right person to ask. Typically though, that memo had not quite reached the idiot interns coming in for the start of their shifts.

"You with the purple glasses" Meredith yelled in the direction of the closest intern she could find, sending them scurrying over towards her. "Find the post-op file for Mr Simpson in 503 so we can compare his stats"

"Oh yes Doctor Grey, I actually already did that sorry Doctor Grey" the intern mumbled back to her.

"Well then where is it?" Meredith sighed as she rolled her eyes frustatenly at the intern who was now wasting her time.

"I got them sent over to Doctor Karev. She was the general surgeon attending on the file" the owner of the purple glasses responded matter of factly, having expected Meredith to be praising her right about now instead of the angry expression she was receiving instead. "Was that not what I was supposed to do?"

Meredith glared at her, genuinely shocked by the stupidity of the intern standing before her. "No it was not the right thing to do. Do you pay attention to anything that goes on around you? Doctor Karev has taken a leave of absence and has done for the last four weeks, hence why you probably haven't seen her anywhere in this hospital for a while now." Meredith huffed out in annoyance.

"I'm really sorry Doctor Grey I hadn't heard. I will fix my mistake right now I promise and it won't happen again" the intern ramballed apologetically whilst staring at the ground below them.

"Just get it done quickly please" Meredith nodded towards the young surgeon and was about to dismiss them when she suddenly felt the need to address the elephant in the room. Turning to the nurses desk beside her to address its occupants, Meredith found herself saying what she'd been wanting to say for weeks. "Okay listen up, Jo is gone - she left - she left because her husband and love of her life walked out on her to go live with his ex-wife on a farm in fucking Kansas of all places and she had to find out in a letter he sent her that was attached to signed divorce papers. Would you want to stick around at the place you used to work together after that? Where everyone knows you by the last name you got after marrying that man? I don't think so." Meredith took a moment to look around the room that was now filled with a collection of shocked faces and gossipy whispers. "So let this be a lesson to everyone that love undoubtedly sucks and you can't trust anyone. They were perfect and meant to be together and when I thought about the future I saw a cute suburban neighbourhood with a house filled with little Alex and Jo's running around with a minivan parked outside. Not this bullshit. So if one more person asks me what's going on with Alex I will make your life so much of a living hell that you'd want to go join him on his perfect family farm with Izzie fucking Stevens in Kansas just to escape me."

Meredith immediately regretted her words as she processed what she'd just let slip from her lips. However she knew she'd really messed up when she'd turned around to walk away and seen Jo standing near the entrance of the building, clearly having heard every word of Meredith's dramatic rant. Now walking towards her with a smirk painted across her face, Jo addressed her co-workers to apologize on Meredith's behalf before turning her attention to Meredith herself "I am so happy I was here to witness that myself because I really thought it would be me to have the first Alex induced breakdown. I think you're almost making me feel normal when I compare myself to what you just did."

"You're back?" Meredith asked in a confused manner

"I'm back" Jo smiled back reassuringly. "Except I've got nowhere to live, not since I sold the loft to Levi, so any chance Amelia's old room is up for grabs?"

Meredith laughed slightly at the notion that she could possibly say no to Jo but gave her the official nod of approval anyway. "Of course it is. Make yourself at home."

Meredith wasn't expecting a party when she got home but she was shocked to see that Jo had already gone to bed. She figured she'd at least be hanging around in the living room considering it was only 8.30pm in the evening. Having had a long and tiring day herself, Meredith took a note out of her friends book and headed up the stairs to turn in for an early night. But as she entered the hallway and noticed the quiet whimpers escaping Jo's room, she pushed open that door instead of hers, revealing a red faced Jo on the other side.

"Oh Jo. What's wrong?" Meredith wondered if that was a stupid thing to ask because she knew what was wrong - it was about Alex - but she knew it had to be something more to get Jo in a state like this.

"We were meant to move to a big house in the suburbs" Jo choked out between tears. "We were going to start a family together and take them on road trips to do all the things we never got to do ourselves as kids."

Meredith immediately realised that it had been her speech that had brought this on. "I was wrong before Jo. I shouldn't have said it and I'm really sorry I did. You are so brave and so strong and I know that you will come back from this and realise that you are so much more than Alex's wife. You're going to do big things Jo and you will find someone who makes you happy again, happier than Alex ever could, and you will move to that house in the suburbs with them" Meredith said sympathetically as she wiped Jo's tear stained cheek.

"It wasn't what you said Meredith" Jo said, shaking her head. "Well it wasn't just what you said - there's something else."

Meredith eyed Jo in confusion as she waited for her to clarify what she meant. Silence had taken over the room for what felt like hours, only broken when Jo stood up to grab some objects out of her purse and brought it back to place in front of Meredith on the bed.

"How can they all be positive?" Jo cried out through additional whimpers, waving her arm towards the twelve positive pregnancy tests laid out on the duvet.

"Well I didn't see that coming" Meredith joked anxiously. Jo's behaviour suddenly made sense and she felt sick thinking about all the things probably going through her head right now. "I know you think of me as Alex's friend but I'm yours too. Well right now I hate his guts so I'm just yours. I will be there for you as much as you need me - however you decide to go about this. Hell I'll even move to that stereotypical cul de sac suburban house with you if you want me to."

Jo laughed in response to Meredith's last words as she imagined the two of them playing happy families together. "Thanks Mer. You do sort of owe me for the last six years of free babysitting" she smirked back.