The Grey-Shepherd household was buzzing with activity on a rainy April Saturday. Meredith was attempting to prepare her children for a weekend staying with their Uncle Jackson while also running through her own pre-trip checklist. Now that both of her sisters had moved out, she was realizing just how difficult life as a single mother was and thanking the god she didn't believe in for the kindness of Jackson Avery.
"Tell Aunt Cristina I miss her!" Zola said cheerily as her mother tied her shoes.
"I will, Zozo." Meredith laughed. "I'm sure she misses you too and will be so happy to hear that!"
"Ryan said his dad always brings home chocolate when he goes to Switzerland. Will you bring us chocolate?" eight-year-old Bailey asked his mother.
"If you're good for Uncle Jackson." Meredith promised. "Ellis!" she called out for her youngest daughter, who was nowhere to be found. "It's 9 o'clock! Mommy's going to be late!"
The kindergartner bounced down the stairs in mismatched socks, carrying a stuffed panda bear that Uncle Jackson had given her for good luck on her first day of school.
"I had to find Mark!" Ellis quipped as she pulled the pink jelly shoes that Amelia had insisted she needed over her one orange sock and one purple sock.
Meredith chuckled and checked Ellis's bag for her hairbrush, as she'd definitely need it before being seen in public. Jackson had really stepped up for Meredith since Alex's departure and her subsequent break-up with Andrew. He wasn't exactly her person in the sense that Cristina and Alex had been, but he'd become her closest confidant and was always there when she needed someone. It had been Jackson's idea for Meredith to go and visit Cristina in Zurich for a long weekend and he had offered to take in the kids while she was gone. He'd have Harriet for the week and said it could be fun for the kids to hang out together.
Amelia had moved out about two years ago, right after her son was born, and Maggie had moved out of the house four months ago after reconciling with Winston. As much as she loved them, Meredith was beyond ready for a weekend away from her children. It would also be the first time in almost six years that she would get to see Cristina.
As she rushed her chaotic brood out of the house, Meredith handed Ellis' bag to Zola and instructed her to brush her sister's hair in the car. She made sure Ellis and Bailey were in their car seats and that all four of them had the necessary bags for their weekends away before driving off to the hospital. When she got there, she paged Jackson to the parking lot.
"Really Mer? You can't bring your own kids into daycare?" Jackson laughed as he herded his friend's children out of her car.
"I'm not going to daycare." Zola informed him. "I'm too old for daycare so I get to go to work."
"Oh, of course Dr. Grey-Shepherd." Jackson winked at Meredith who mouthed a very dramatic thank you before speeding off in the direction of the airport.
The flight to Chicago was alright. Much smoother than most flights Meredith had been on in recent years, which made her feel better about the trans-Atlantic flight. Still, she needed to calm her nerves. She texted Cristina that she had arrived in Chicago and that her flight to Zurich was on schedule to depart at 10:23. Then she located the closest place to get a drink.
"Tequila." Meredith spoke as she placed her carry-on on an empty chair and sat down in the one next to it. "And keep them coming." Before she could find her wallet, which she knew was somewhere in the disorganized bag, she heard a soft, familiar voice coming from the other end of the bar.
"Mer?"
Meredith looked up and broke out into a grin at the sight of her best friend. "Alex!" she exclaimed, rising from her seat and meeting him halfway for a hug.
Meredith pulled her bag and drink over to sit next to Alex.
"God, I've missed you!" Meredith said, giving him another hug.
"I've missed you too, Mer! So fucking much." Alex responded, taking a step back but not releasing her from his embrace. "Her drinks are on my tab, Sam." he told the bartender, whose attention they'd caught with their excitement.
"Alex!" Meredith exclaimed, taking her new seat. "You don't have to do that!"
"I live on a farm, Mer. Let me buy you some damn drinks."
Meredith smiled and took one of the fries off of Alex's plate; acknowledging that she wasn't going to put up much of a fight.
"So, how are the kids?" he asked.
"The kids are good." Meredith told him. "Zola refused to go to daycare this morning. Which I guess makes sense. The staff there were probably going to ban me if I tried to drop off my ten-year-old again."
"Zola's ten?" Alex asked in shock.
"Yep." Meredith deadpanned. "She starts junior high next year. Like, what even is that?"
"Well, they call it middle school now. Y'know - just something to keep in your cool mom toolbox."
Meredith laughed and stole another fry. "I guess so. I just hope Jackson doesn't kill me by the end of this. He got called into the hospital and had to deal with Zola tagging along at work today."
Alex laughed at the mental image of Zola Grey-Shepherd following Jackson Avery around the hospital, clipboard in hand trying to absorb as much knowledge as she could.
"Other than that, Zola is Zola and Bailey is Bailey. And Ellis…" Meredith paused, choosing her words carefully. "Ellis is in kindergarten. She probably misses you more than any of us."
If she were being completely honest, Meredith would have told Alex that Ellis had cried more than a few times after Alex had left. He was the closest thing that Ellis had known to a father, which had been a difficult realization for Meredith to grapple with.
"I told you that you could come visit. That includes the kids."
Meredith smiled. "I know. But you told me to visit when I was ready to be supportive Aunt Mer, and I still don't know that I could promise that I wouldn't drag you back to Seattle with me. Hell, if I wasn't on my way to see Cristina, I might do just that right now. Hey! Want to come to Zurich?"
Alex chuckled and watched as Meredith grabbed what must have been her tenth fry off of his plate.
"How do you eat like that and still weigh next to nothing?" he marveled, changing the subject.
"I have a lot of sex." Meredith countered with a shrug. "But enough about me. How are your kids?"
Alex's grin grew even bigger than the one on Meredith's face. She had to admit she loved seeing him so happy, even if it did mean he'd had to move to Kansas to be with his family.
"Mer, they're amazing! They're in second grade and just absolutely brilliant! Alexis is going to be a doctor for sure. Probably a surgeon - cardio or neuro if I had to guess. Eli would definitely go into ortho or plastics, but he loves baseball more than anything right now, so who knows. They're also only seven, y'know, so wherever they end up I'll be cool with it. I just love that I have them and I get to be supportive and take care of them."
"I bet you're the best dad." Meredith said softly. Her smile was genuine but her eyes were starting to betray that she wished he was still around taking care of her own kids. "And Izzie? How's she?"
"Good." Alex said. "Izzie's good."
Meredith's smile grew, but she did notice that he hadn't gushed about his wife like he did their children.
"Now." Alex stated. "Back to you and all the sex you're having."
Meredith groaned and picked up the fresh glass of tequila that had been placed in front of her.
"Well, is it still DeLuca?"
"Yes and no." Meredith sighed. "It's complicated, but more like it's DeLuca again. For the third- no- fourth time?"
Alex chuckled and sighed. "Fourth time? Poor DeLuca. What did you do to him?"
Meredith grabbed another fry, prompting Alex to laugh and push the plate over in front of her.
"What time does your flight leave?" she asked.
"It was delayed - I'm here for awhile. Now… back to the resident."
"Excuse you, Andrew happens to be a top-quality attending general surgeon."
"Pity. He showed so much promise in peds."
"Yeah, well…" Meredith trailed off. "He and our chief of peds don't really get along too well. Which is also a pity because they're both wonderful cooks who happen to speak Italian. I think they'd get along well if it weren't for..."
Meredith brought her glass to her lips and smirked back at Alex whose eyes widened.
"You're sleeping with the new me?" Alex's jaw dropped in fake offense, causing Meredith to laugh.
"Not anymore. Now I'm sleeping with Andrew again. I did sleep with Hayes, but it was more complicated than that. Like in a lie in bed talking until 2 AM way; definitely not a gossip at the airport bar way." Meredith said, giving Alex enough that he knew she wasn't going to get into the details there and then, but an unspoken promise that they weren't going to go two years without speaking again.
They continued to catch up on how things were going at work, Meredith's research, Alex's patient in Chicago, Maggie's on/off again boyfriend, and the perils of trying to help second graders with their math homework. Anyone watching could have mistaken their interactions for small talk between two travelers crossing paths, but there was so much spoken through their eyes, smiles, and touches to one another's arms or knees. They stayed away from the heavy stuff but spoke easily until Meredith's phone rang with an incoming Facetime call from Jackson.
"Hey Zo!" she said excitedly, raising an eyebrow over at Alex who nodded in agreement. "Guess who I found at the airport?"
"Ariana Grande?" Zola asked excitedly, which caused Alex to laugh.
Meredith chuckled as well and shook her head. "What if I told you I found someone more exciting than Ari?"
Zola gave her mother a look, which caused her to laugh harder before handing the phone to Alex.
She listened as her daughter squealed with excitement and watched Alex's face light up while they chatted animatedly about Zola's day. Jackson had pawned her off on Hayes for most of the day and she'd had a blast helping him on the peds floor.
After a solid five minutes, Meredith pushed her way into the frame. "Go get your brother and sister, Zo."
"Bailey! Ellis! Uncle Alex is on the phone!" Zola yelled out into Jackson's large apartment.
Alex and Meredith exchanged a knowing smile and laughed while they waited for the younger children. "Go get them Zo, don't just yell."
No sooner had the words left Meredith's mouth did Bailey and Ellis bounce onto the sofa next to Zola, Bailey grabbing the phone out of her hands.
"Uncle Alex!" Ellis shrieked in delight, taking the phone from her brother and giving it a tight hug before handing it back to Bailey.
Alex laughed and smiled. "Hey Elle Belle. I've missed you so much! I've missed all of you!"
"I miss you the most, Uncle Alex!" Bailey exclaimed. "Uncle Jackson's house is cool, but he's not as cool as you are."
"Hey! Who's cooler than me?" Jackson's voice cut in right before he appeared behind the children.
His eyes widened when he saw Alex on the screen and he took a second before responding. "Hey man! How are you?"
"I'm doing alright. You?"
"Pretty well. It's good to see you."
"Yeah, you too."
Meredith cringed at the awkward exchange between her person and her current Seattle-best friend. She had definitely spoken negatively of Alex's departure to Jackson and was thankful that her children were there to keep the interaction civilized.
Jackson turned his attention back to the three Grey-Shepherd children cuddled together on his couch. All three looked elated.
"I came downstairs to tell you all that you have ten minutes before we have to start getting ready for bed, okay?"
"Okay!" Zola said confidently. Jackson ruffled her hair and left the kids to talk to Alex, which they did excitedly for the next ten minutes.
Meredith's heart swelled with joy as she sat and watched Alex Karev listen to her children with the biggest smile on his face. He didn't get a word in edgewise between the three children who were so eager to talk to him and she really didn't want to split up the beautiful sight before her, but she did have a flight to catch and her children had a Jackson-imposed bedtime to adhere to. Instead of trying to interrupt, Meredith rested her hand on the back of Alex's shoulder and watched impressed as he immediately took the hint.
"Alright kids, you heard Jackson. Time to get ready for bed."
"Okay." Ellis spoke more calmly than she ever responded to Meredith. "Can you call us again tomorrow?"
Meredith inhaled sharply and held her breath as she waited for his response.
"I don't know about tomorrow, Elle, but I promise to call you again sometime um…" Alex turned to Meredith. "When do you get home?"
Meredith chuckled and cupped Alex's hand with hers to turn the phone as she looked at her daughter's big blue eyes. "Mommy will be home on Wednesday. We can call Uncle Alex then."
"Okay!" Ellis responded brightly. "Good night Uncle Alex, I love you!"
Without any further regard for her mother, the five-year-old bounced off the couch and ran off to find her Uncle Jackson.
Bailey similarly bid his Uncle Alex goodnight before handing the phone back to Zola.
"Good night Uncle Alex! Good night, Mom." Zola added with a smile, pleased that she had remembered her mother was on the phone as well.
"Good night, Zozo. I love you. Be helpful for Uncle Jackson tomorrow."
"I will." Zola said. "Love you too."
The ten-year-old ended the call and Meredith became aware of her physical actions, moving her hand away from Alex's and drinking the last few sips of her fourth glass of tequila.
"Well, um… I should go figure out where my gate is." Meredith said, not wanting to part.
"Yeah, my flight starts boarding in five." Alex agreed.
The two sat in a mostly comfortable silence as Alex paid the check and Meredith dug through her bag for her wallet, insisting that she at least get to leave the tip.
Meredith handed Alex the cash and he smiled at Sam the bartender, thanking her for taking such good care of them.
"I'm this way." Alex commented, pointing further down the concourse.
Meredith looked around to take stock of their surroundings. "I'm the other way." she concluded.
"It was really good to see you, Mer." Alex said softly, taking a step closer to her.
"You too." Meredith smiled. "Thanks for talking to my kids. They really do love you."
"I love them too." Alex said. "Leaving you and those kids, Mer…" he paused for a moment, selecting his words carefully. "Leaving you was the hardest part of staying in Kansas."
"Alex. Don't say that." Meredith scolded.
Alex sighed and shook his head. "It's true. I loved Jo, but you're my family. You always have been and you've been the hardest person to live without."
Meredith smiled and closed the distance between them, wrapping Alex in a hug. "I'm only a phone call away." she told him as they parted.
"I know." Alex responded, gently kissing her cheek and walking away.
And we're off! There's a long term plan to highlight where all of our current characters are at (Cristina & Izzie coming soon!), but if you'd like to see someone specific, let me know in the reviews!
xx Lissa