THIRD INSTALMENT OF Every Thing Happens for a Reason: (2038) Maddy and Charlie's High School Graduation

Apologies if it seems like a bit of a confusing change from my last one but I tried my best to introduce any new characters and establish their basic back story without giving too much away for future chapters. I have about ten fics planned that will be set in time we've just jumped over so those years will not be ignored :)

❀❀❀ Eighteen years have gone by since Madeleine was born and today she graduates high school alongside her older sister Charlie ❀❀❀

Alex could not believe that the day had finally arrived… It was his daughter's graduation day. Balancing five year old Xander on his hips as he rounded the corner of the house he'd built for him and Jo over eighteen years ago, Alex stopped in his tracks when he heard the two graduates bickering inside their shared bedroom. He peeked inside the doorway expecting to see both girls still laying under the covers of their beds. Neither Charlie or Maddy were morning people, which is why Alex was shocked when he saw the two of them already dressed and ready for the day, one sitting in front of the other as Maddy straightened her older sister's hair.

Maddy was the spitting image of her mother. Her thick brown locks fell and rested on the spaghetti straps of her floral jumpsuit. Her hair had always had a natural wave to it but today she had added some extra curls that made her hair bounce up and sit at her shoulder. The shorter hair was a new hairstyle inspired by an old photo of Jo during her residency that Maddy had found whilst packing for her summer internship last week. However in her modest attempt to keep it a bit more subtle, Maddy had opted out of the blonder highlights Jo had embraced almost twenty years beforehand.

That was the thing about Maddy, she was obsessed with maintaining a perfect goody two shoes image. She had spent her senior year building up her college application until she was confident she could get into any school in the country. So far it consisted of class president, head cheerleader, school librarian, national spelling bee champion, lead actress in every school production since kindergarten, and much, much more. Alex sometimes felt as if he was raising a mini Kepner but was equally grateful that he never had to deal with her getting into trouble. Still, he will never understand how any child of his and Jo's could be such a teachers pet.

Charlie on the other hand was so much like Alex that it scared him. That kid punched an attitude and wasn't afraid of a fight, giving both him and Jo a run for their money if they dared upset her. The one thing she definitely shared with him was her tendency to push people away and act out just for the sake of acting out. Charlie was incredibly intelligent, one might even say she was smarter than Maddy (although Alex would never admit that outloud), and yet just two months ago he and Jo weren't confident she would even graduate.

She had always been a bit more a 'social butterfly' than her sister in that she was almost always getting piss drunk every Friday and Saturday night. Alex and Jo didn't really mind that much as long as she made it back before curfew but there had been a few occasions where she was late. Alex had been leaving the house for an early shift when he'd found her climbing through her bedroom window, a half eaten burrito in hand, and one less shoe than she'd had on when she left. It took him everything to not crack a laugh when she tried the "I'm totally and completely sober dad" line on him. However, despite the odd grounding, Charlie hadn't caused any major problems until about half way through her senior year when it was discovered that she had been skipping class and failing to hand in assignments.

Her rocky start to life had already set her back a year in school so it was not ideal that she was possibly going to be set back again, prompting Charlie to kick her butt into gear. For the final few months of senior year all Charlie did was study. She'd worked harder than her parents had ever seen before and it had successfully worked off because she was going to actually graduate alongside Maddy.

Not a typical 'girly-girl' like Maddy but also would be seen dead without makeup, today Charlie was wearing a black midi silk dress that she had excitedly bought the week before shopping with Jo and Amber. Alex figured she must have lost a bet or something because it wasn't like Charlie to straighten her hair, let alone let Maddy do it for her. She naturally had very curly hair, possibly the most curly hair Alex had ever seen. It was what had caught his eye the first time he'd ever met her. Charlie was wrapped in Jo's arm sitting on a gurney in the ER giggling uncontrollably. She was telling jokes with a smile that stretched ear to ear and yet her tear stained cheeks, combined with the sympathy glares she was receiving from the social worker who stood next to her, told Alex everything he needed to know about her. She was his blue eyed, freckled face daughter with an unruly head of vibrant red curls.

Charlie begged Jo to straighten her hair every single day for the first few weeks after she'd moved in with them. She told them that it was because she'd never had it done before but both Alex and Jo knew that it was really because she wanted to look more like Maddy. It's funny actually because if you lined up all five kids in a line you'd never be able to guess who was adopted and who wasn't, especially since Charlie had gone blonde for her senior year. Her biological little brother Xander had the darker hair and olive skin tones to match Maddy and Holly, whereas Charlie's fairer features matched Elsie's.

Ah Elsie, or Worm as Alex had always called her. She was the one baby that Alex and Jo had truly planned for, earning the name wiggleworm after a few too many changing table incidents. Alex had heard many complaints from her about the nickname as she grew older but had zero intentions to stop calling using it yet.

She, like Charlie, scared Alex but for entirely different reasons. She was the loudest and most opinionated twelve year old on the planet, definitely taking on more of Jo's feisty yet determined attitude. Brooke and Monty, Link and Amelia's twins who were born less than a year after Elsie, got a puppy for their birthday recently. Unfortunately for Jo and Alex, that is now all that they hear about, so much so that they've had to put a ban on the subject entirely. Elsie still found a way to annoy her parents over the topic though, crawling into bed with them one Sunday morning in the hopes that if she spoke to them before waffle brunch that they'd be in a good mood. They weren't but that didn't matter because she still got exactly what she wanted because, in a state of hunger, tiredness and annoyance, Alex had made the worst possible mistake of his life and told his daughter that she could have any animal she wanted as long as she paid for it herself. It would be an understatement to say Jo was mad at Alex after that, especially now that the twelve year was only two weeks away from saving enough from her paper route job to buy a dog herself. Alex suddenly felt bittersweet as he realised that it'll be her turn to graduate next. Maybe not for another six years or so but things like that had a tendency to creep up on you and Alex wasn't ready to say goodbye to another one of his babies.

"I thought you said you were going to get him dressed?" Jo questioned Alex as she too rounded the corner to come face to face with him still holding Xander who was in last night's pajamas. Alex, still lost in his thoughts, missed his wifes questions. So Jo did what Jo did best and after a few frustrated waves of the arms later, picked up the closest item she could find and sent it flying at Alex's head.

"Ow what the hell Jo!" Alex yelled as he lent down to the ground to investigate whatever item had just hit him, soon discovering that it had been a rubber duck bath toy. "What on earth was that for?"

"Well Alex, ten minutes ago my very kind husband of mine promised me he would take care of getting the five year old dressed for the day so I could get ready myself - only to find that neither husband nor child are dressed but are instead standing like statues staring at god knows what." Jo rolled her eyes at the blank look Alex was still giving her in response. "Ah forget it, I can do it myself. Come on Xander baby, mommy is going to help you get dressed."

Wiggling out of his dad's arms, Xander skipped excitedly towards Jo. "I really was going to do it Jo" said Alex in an attempt to cheer up his clearly anxious wife.

"Sure you were Alex and I'm the queen of England" Jo yelled back.

Alex was just about to respond when he heard the sarcastic tone of one Charlie Karev instead who had just caught the end of the exchange between her parents. "Really mom? You could have told me that sooner, I would have sprung to wear my nice tiara today instead."

"Shut up Charlotte." Alex, Jo and Maddy all groaned at once.

"Okay everybody gather round for pictures!" Meredith yelled to get the attention of all the party goers gathered in Jo and Alex's backyard.

"Seriously Auntie Mer? We already took pictures at my house, more pictures at your house and now you want some here too?" a very unimpressed Scout asked. At eighteen years old he was the exact same age as Maddy and so was graduating today as well. That's about all they had in common though as Maddy tended to get on better with Scout's seventeen year old sister Gracie, while on the other hand he and Charlie were inseparable.

"Not with the Karevs we haven't"

The Karevs. It made Jo's hair stick out on the back of her neck, it was just such a typical cheesy family thing. She honestly never thought she'd see the day that someone would refer to her family as 'the Karevs'. Yet the sight of her small herd of children racing towards their auntie at the mention of their names made her realise how lucky she was to be a Karev.

"Mer is right, we should get some photographs in quickly before Xander or Holly get their clothes dirty" Alex said, giving Jo a slight fright as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Mmmm good idea" She mumbled back but her focus was really still on her kids who were laughing in the distance. "First I want to enjoy this moment of my children actually getting along for once. It's such a rare occurrence"

Alex chuckled but joined Jo in admiring the kids. They may drive them crazy ninety nine percent of the time but in that one percent of the time when they aren't, Alex had to pinch himself to triple check he wasn't dreaming. However it quickly became apparent that today was not that one percent of the time as fights soon broke out.

"You're so mean Holly" Xander spat as he stormed past his parents into the house.

"Me? What did I do? It was Worm who called you an idiot" Holly defended.

"STOP CALLING ME WORM HOLLY!" Elsie replied angrily as she also stormed into the house to join her brother.

"Great thanks Holly, now we've lost her too" Charlie teased her youngest sister which earned her a glare from Maddy.

"Why do you always blame me for everything Charlie" Holly whimpered as she started to cry.

Maddy rolled her eyes unimpressed by the emotional fall out that was happening. "Was that necessary Charlie? Now she's crying"

Luckily Alex intervened before Charlie and Maddy went completely at each other's throats. "We haven't lost anybody so let's not get dramatic right now Charlie. Holly cut it out and quit it with tears. Anybody else cries today and they lose technology privileges for a week. Now, Maddy and Charlie, why don't you go take some photographs with Scout to celebrate the three graduates and then I'll go get the others from inside so we can take a family picture."

"Fine, whatever" both teenage girls huffed in unison.

"Ah it was nice while it lasted" Jo said, walking back up behind Alex to rejoin their hug, fingers entwined in one anothers.

"You get Worm and I get Xander" Alex offered but it only earnt him a laugh from Jo in response. "What?"

"No way are you getting Xander, he's the easiest one. No you get to go get Elsie."

"Fine" Alex mumbled back somewhat disappointed. Worm was a hard one to crack and so he was in for a challenge.

Alex grinned widely as he took in the two high school diplomas that were now framed in the same hallway that he stood in that morning.

It was quarter to midnight and everyone had gone to bed, more specifically, everyone had gone to his bed. The graduation celebrations had come to an end a good few hours beforehand and the entire Karev family had piled into the master bedroom to watch a film together. Of course every single one of them fell asleep before the movie had even finished though, prompting Alex to get out of bed and fetch the two diplomas from downstairs to put on display whilst no one was around to object.

Taking a step back from the wall to look his DIY job over and ensure the frames were level, Alex felt himself holding back tears as he read the names on them.

Madeleine Brooke Karev

Charlotte Christina Karev

It was still so unbelievable to him that he had any kids at all, let alone two teenage girls who had just graduated high school.

The sound of the floorboard creaking made him whip his head around to look at his and Jo's bedroom where his family were sleeping. Except he must have missed Jo waking up because she was now walking towards him with a ginormous smile on her face. Looking between his wife and the five kids snuggled together in their bed caused him to lose his fight.

"Hey" she whispered quietly as she pulled him into her embrace and used her sleeve to wipe the tears on his cheeks. "I thought you said no one else was allowed to cry today." she smirked.

"Shut up"

Alex felt Jo laugh slightly against his chest at his response. Pulling out of the hug momentarily to look at the additions to the wall, Jo chuckled once again. "Frames really? Do you really consider us diplomas on the wall type of family Alex?"

"Of course we are Jo. It's a miracle that any child of ours actually graduated high school on their first try. Sure I'm proud of Maddy and Charlie but this is for us. We've kicked some serious parenting ass."

"We really have done good" Jo smiled up at Alex before spinning to look at the bed behind her "although Maddy pretty much raised herself."

"I can't disagree with you there. If she didn't look so much like you then I would think we took home the wrong baby." Alex said, earning himself a gasp and a smack across the chest from Jo.