Chapter Two

❀❀❀ THE BLUE-EYED GIRL ❀❀❀

Her eyes had been the very first thing Alex had noticed about her all those years ago, and despite never having actually met before, he knew exactly who the girl standing in the doorway was. She was the blue-eyed girl.

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One day, after having spent the weekend visiting his mom in Iowa, seven year old Lex went to Alex and asked him why he never told her about the other little girls who go to granny's house. Confused by his daughter's questions, Alex relayed the comment to Helen over the phone that evening, in which she claimed she had no idea what Lex was talking about.

She continued to bring up the little girls every chance she got. She would frequently ask Alex, and sometimes even Izzie, when she would next be allowed to go back to granny's house to play with the cute babies there. However, no matter how many times she brought it up, Helen would deny any such existence of other children at her house that weekend. It wasn't for another year and a half after the fact that Alex finally saw for himself what Lex had been talking about for so long.

He had gone back home to Iowa to help his mom move into a care home facility and whilst packing, Alex had come across a photograph of his daughter and his mom from that weekend they'd spent together. Only they weren't alone in the picture because, hugged tightly either side of his mom, were two other young girls. Lex was holding the hand of the taller girl who was burying her face into his mom's jacket, revealing only her pale yellow hair to the camera. The second girl – the blue-eyed girl – was what caught Alex's eye the most. It was like he was looking at a photo of his little sister, Amber, as a child. There were some notable differences, such as her thick brown waves compared to the long blonde hair Amber had, but everything else – the eyes, the crooked smile, the two identical dimples on each cheek – were all the same.

Over the years, the pictures kept appearing, and Alex watched the blue-eye girl grow bigger and bigger until she was the same age Lex had been when she'd first mentioned her. Scattered among his mom's belongings were various items with her face on it, from christmas cards to school photographs, her blue eyes sparkling prominently in each and every one. Alex could never explain why he felt such a strong connection to the little blue eyed girl his mom seemed to know, and yet, something kept pulling him back towards her. The first thing he would do during his trips to Iowa was check in all the drawers and cupboards for more evidence of the girl, usually finding a photo or two buried in the back of one of them.

That's the thing, though; they were always hidden, never in plain sight like the photographs of Eli and Lex or Amber's children. Alex didn't find it strange at first, assuming that his mom was probably just friends with one of those overly proud grandmothers who liked to send endless photos that nobody else cared about. However, all it took was for him to turn up in Iowa unannounced one day and suddenly, with his mom not being able to stash the photos before he arrived, Alex realised just how important the blue-eyed girl was to his mother. The pictures that he would usually find at the back of a junk drawer somewhere, were instead framed and hung on the wall alongside photos of his own kids. The most recent photo of the lot, as shown by the year engraved at the bottom of the wooden frame, had the cheerful young girl hanging upside down from a tree, accompanied by an older shaggy haired boy and who Alex assumed was the same blonde girl she'd been pictured with all those years ago.

Alex never did see a photo of the blue-eyed girl again. He'd be planning to ask his mom who she was when he'd first found her plastered around the walls, but something had come up, and the next time he was in Iowa all evidence of the young girl had disappeared. It didn't make any sense to Alex...What harm would come of him knowing about the little girl his mom had grown so attached to?

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Standing dead in his tracks, Alex took in each and every feature of the blue eyed girl he'd watched grow from a small toddler to an energetic kid through his mothers photographs. Her chestnut hair, still as wavy and as thick as ever, was looking slightly lighter at the ends. She was sporting a nose ring, and wore a floral dress with an embroidered denim jacket, complete with black boots. And her eyes, if possible, were looking even more blue than ever, probably due to the way her makeup accentuated the bright colour. It was definitely her though, a good few years older and all, but her, nonetheless. If he had to take a guess, Alex would say the girl was about fifteen years old now, possibly nearing sixteen. She still looked like the spitting image of his sister, even now more than ever because she's around the same age that Amber had been when she'd dyed her hair brown for the school year.

The young girl appeared startled by Alex when she'd first opened the door. Eyes going wide with fear as she stood frozen in the doorway, her breath hitched in her chest. The nervousness didn't go unnoticed by him as she looked to be taking him in, as if she recognised him back. "Oh my bad, sorry. I didn't realise somebody was on their way out." Her furrowed brows stared past him back at Meredith in confusion. "I was hoping to speak to Doctor Grey."

They knew each other. The mysterious child that his mom knew and Meredith Grey, his best friend, somehow knew each other. "I was just on my way out," Alex managed to choke out, before extending his arm in greeting. "I'm Doctor Karev, by the way. Alex Karev. You can just call me Alex."

The girl accepted the handshake hesitantly, nodding softly. "Nice to meet you, Alex."

"You look very familiar…" Alex said testing the waters. "How do you know Doctor Grey?"

"Harley is my niece," Meredith led the girl inside the room. "Her mom is a very good friend of mine. She's a surgeon here."

Meredith's words took Alex by surprise, causing him to look confusingly between the two. It wasn't completely far-fetched to say that his mom could know somebody who worked with Meredith, but it was still an unlikely scenario. "Your mom is a doctor at this hospital?"

"That's right!" Harley shot a friendly smile Alex's way but was quick to turn her attention back to the blonde attending. "I can come back later if now is a bad time for you. I don't want to interrupt."

"No!" Meredith held her hand up in protest, "Alex was just leaving." If the stern tone or furious eyes weren't enough for him to get the hint and go, Meredith's less than subtle hand on his back pushing him towards the door got the message out loud and clear.

He was almost out the door when another figure entered the room, this one a lot less of a mystery than the last. So much of her was different, whilst so much was also the same. A fair amount of time had passed since they'd stood face to face and yet she looked no older. More mature maybe, but not older. Her hair was lighter than he'd ever seen it before, nearly completely blonde, and it was cut to the same shoulder-length style that he'd always thought looked best on her. From the moment they locked eyes, her pain, her anger, her hatred for him, all radiated through Alex's body.

"Jo..."

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mdevonsunflower

AUTHORS NOTE: that's all for now folks! hope you enjoy the new series so far