Alex was trying so hard to pay attention to what Cristina was going on about at the front of the room, but there had been so much happening in the last 48 hours that he was struggling to focus. First Meredith had freaked out because DeLuca was in love with her, then she freaked out even more because that same man had turned himself in for a crime she had committed. Since being Meredith's person was a full-time job these days, he'd barely had time to process his feelings about Jo choosing to check herself into the psych ward when Meredith called and said she needed him to come and stay with her kids so she could leave him too. It had been a fairly easy call to follow suit.

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"Good night Uncle Alex!" Ellis exclaimed with a smile. Alex smiled back and closed the door to the youngest Grey-Shepherd child's room.

She was far too young to be at all concerned about her mother's absence as long as there was someone else she knew taking care of her. It had been that way her entire life and her Uncle Alex was the closest thing she had to a father. That thought pained Alex, as he had never intended to take Derek's place in the lives of Meredith's children, but ever since he'd gotten the call that Meredith was in the hospital after giving birth he had been even more of her person than Cristina had ever been.

Alex walked into the kitchen and sat down next to Richard. "Are you sure about this?" he asked the older man.

Richard nodded. "It's the right thing to do."

Alex nodded in agreement. If all three of them turned themselves in it was possible they could lighten Mer's eventual sentence. He and Richard had spoken, and with Jo seeking inpatient treatment and Catherine being involved in their dismissal, they figured they didn't have much to lose if they spent a few nights in jail. No matter who walked through the doors to the Grey-Shepherd house first, they would leave the kids with them and head out to join Meredith at the police station. She had been through so much already in the last few years and out of the three of them she had the most to lose.

"Alex?" he turned his head at his name being called from the front door to see DeLuca walking in.

"DeLuca." he said softly. "Can we talk for a minute?"

DeLuca nodded and followed Alex into the living room. "I'm guessing you're aware that Meredith came and turned herself in."

Alex nodded. "And Richard and I are following suit. She may have acted alone, but we didn't stop her."

"I was in that room too." DeLuca responded.

"DeLuca, you're a resident. It would be much harder for you to dig yourself out of it than it will be for any of the three of us." Alex told him. "I'm not asking you to lie, but I am asking you to give us the space to leave you out of it."

DeLuca held eye contact with Alex but didn't say a word. It was almost as if he was challenging him to work harder at convincing him to stay out of it.

"Look, DeLuca. I know we haven't had the easiest go of it, but Mer really likes you. She may not say it, but it's been a long time since she's trusted anyone the way she trusts you. You're the first man since Derek she's introduced to the kids. I don't know how long it's going to take any of us to get back here, but until then, I need you to take care of them."

DeLuca nodded, still silent.

"Zola is pretty self-sufficient, but when she's difficult she can be won over with ice cream. Bailey is super easy as long you remind him constantly if he needs to be doing something like getting ready to go or cleaning up his toys. Ellis…" Alex paused. He didn't like to admit it, but Ellis was his favorite of Meredith's kids. He tried not to tear up thinking about leaving her with DeLuca, who clearly cared but never asked for this. "Elle is an angel. Read her a bedtime story every night and she'll fall right in love with you. They'll all eat pretty much anything you put in front of them, although Bailey's going through a no-green-food's phase. Zola doesn't need a car seat anymore, but the other two do. They're in Mer's car…" Alex trailed off.

"I have the car." DeLuca said quietly.

"Oh good. Okay. Car seats are in the car. If you go on a trip longer than fifteen or twenty minutes you should bring a snack. Goldfish or pretzels are good. They'll also want a snack when they get home from school. Oh shit. Um… school. Amelia and Maggie know about their schedules and can help with that too. I have no idea if either one of them are actually living here right now, so you should probably give them a call. There's also a babysitter. I think her number's on the fridge. Bedtime is at 8, which usually gets stretched to 8:30, or even 9 for Zola because Meredith's soft."

Alex paused for a moment and tried to think of if he'd left anything off.

"I think that's it. The sisters can fill in anything I missed."

Alex looked to DeLuca and saw a somewhat glazed look on his eyes.

"Look man, I know it's a lot, and probably definitely not what you were expecting when you came back here tonight."

DeLuca laughed. "Not at all, but it's okay. I get what you're trying to do. I think it's dumb, but if you really believe it'll get Meredith back here sooner then I'm all for it."

Alex smiled at DeLuca and pulled out his phone. "I'm also sending you the phone number for Dr. Cristina Yang. Call her and tell her what's going on. She needs to know, and may even be able to help expedite things."

Alex walked back upstairs to make sure the kids were all asleep before getting into a waiting cab and driving away.

"Karev," Richard began after a short while. "Thank you, for taking care of her. For taking care of all of them."

Alex just smiled at Richard, expressing everything that needed to be said. He was glad he'd been able to be there for Mer when she needed him most, but he was also glad to see her finally letting another man into her life. Even if she had chosen a resident stupid enough to take the fall for her stupid actions.

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"Karev!" Cristina snapped. "Are you listening?"

"Yes." Alex muttered. "We're all idiots and should have known better."

Meredith stood up angrily and turned towards Alex.

"You weren't supposed to follow me!" she yelled. "You were supposed to stay here and take care of my children!"

"DeLuca showed up with your damn car, Meredith! I figured between that and all the nights he's spending here you'd already deemed him responsible enough to make sure Zola gets to school in the morning!"

"Well he may be, but we're not there yet!" she yelled back. "And besides, I'm the one who committed insurance fraud. Not you and not you." she turned to yell at Richard before walking away from the couch.

"Meredith, sit!" Cristina raised her voice even louder than Meredith's. Alex sunk even deeper in his own seat as Meredith returned to the one next to him. They both took sips from their glasses, mildly afraid of the woman who had flown across the world to bail them out of jail.

"Listen." Cristina stated, sitting down on top of the coffee table. "What's done is done. All three of you have turned yourselves in and confessed to being a part of this. What we're going to do now is call your lawyers and figure out a game plan. There will be no more yelling, no more blame, and no more hiding anything. Am I understood?"

"Yes." all three of them muttered quietly.

"Good." Cristina said smiling. "Now Shane and I have made arrangements to stay until this little incident at least starts to become resolved. So... who has a guest room?"

Alex and Meredith looked at each other, then both turned to Richard.

"You know, um… Jackson Avery has a very nice guest room. Doesn't he, Dr. Grey?"

Alex spit out the sip of tequila he had just taken and burst out into laughter as a slight blush rose up on Meredith's cheeks.

"Well then. I guess on the way there we'll just have to stop for another drink and catch up." Cristina smirked at Meredith, eager to hear the story of what had happened in Jackson Avery's guest room.