The neurosurgeon approached the lounge. Amelia had the rest of the day and she thought that she might as well go take a nap when she got home. She opened the door with her free hand while she took the last sip from the juice box.
"Hey blondie," she greeted. "What are you up to?"
"Are you really going to call be blondie now?" asked Arizona.
"Well, it's not like it's offensive or anything… but seriously though, what's up. You're usually busy at this hour of the day."
The paediatric surgeon groaned and plopped to the free spot next to her.
"Ohhh. It's about Callie, I'm assuming," responded Amelia who sat facing the blonde.
Arizona let out another groan. "I made a fool out of myself by giving a long speech about how much I loved her and that I wanted another baby," she sat back up. "Seriously… She did not say anything and we ended up falling asleep on opposite sides of the couch."
"I mean, I kind of understand…" Amelia received a smack to the arm. "Ouch! Watch it, neurosurgeon arms here!"
The comment made Dr. Robbins smirk. It is quite hard to stay annoyed by the Shepherds. There is something about their personality that makes them so damn lovable.
"I'm serious, Amelia! I don't know what to doooooo" she whined.
The brunette joked around a couple other times, gaining glares from her friend. In the end, she told her that it will work out at one point and that if her and Callie were meant the be then they will find a way to each other again.
Amelia was glad that Arizona found trust in her especially when a lot of people questioned her subsequent to secret being out. She was finally happy again.
The doctor left her friend at the hospital and headed straight home where she found her roommate getting ready for his shift.
"Isn't it funny how we almost never see each other when we are on-call and yet I see your face all the time?" Amelia laughed.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"A good thing. Your face is pretty nice."
The redhead snorted as he finished putting his socks on.
"How was your day anyway?"
"The usual, y'know. But I bumped into Arizona earlier and man, Callie and her are basically MerDer all over again."
"Oh yeah. I know. Trust me, I have never been so included into someone else's relationship since Cristina left… Actually, they are a lot more like Cristina and Meredith."
His roommate cocked her head to the side.
"… They are not together but they are basically their old coupled-self again."
"I still don't-" she started.
"Had to be there, I guess" he interrupted.
Meanwhile, Catherine Avery dragged her son out for some coffee. What seemed to be annoying for Jackson, she did it out of love. This was different: it was out of love alright, but for April.
"Mom, seriously. I thought you left after the baby shower."
"Honey, this is my daughter-in-law and my grandson that we are talking about it here!"
The barista took their order quickly, noting the tension between the mother and son.
"I can take care of this. We are fine."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. You are not fine. April is definitely not fine and neither are you. Don't tell me I'm wrong because you know I'm right."
"Mom-"
"No, Jackson. You are going to listen to me and that is all. I don't care if you don't agree with April's viewpoints on this but you are going to listen to her like you should be doing since the beginning and respect her choices and support your wife. Now if you would excuse me, I have a lunch date I have to go to."
Dr. Avery walked away, leaving her son stranded at the coffee stand as the barista handed him their order. He picked them up and yelled at the figure walking away from him.
"Now what am I supposed to do with two lattes?"
Richard was leaning against his car door, waiting for his lunch date. Things ended on the wrong for with Catherine and him. He wanted to fix it like he is trying to do with Maggie. It was not easy and he knew it. Perhaps the damage is still possible to be fixed.
He glanced up at hospital's main entrance when he heard Jackson yelled something about lattes. The general surgeon shrugged when he saw the smaller figure walking up to him.
"Hello, Richard."
"Catherine," he greeted as he opened the passenger door.
The drive to the restaurant was awkward and silent. It was not like that before. Perhaps things have changed.
"So, I don't know if you heard about this from anyone but our new head of cardio is my daughter."
"Yeah, April mentioned it when we went shopping the other day."
"I just feel really bad about not being there for her you know."
"It's not your fault, Richard. You need to stop blaming yourself for things that you can't control."
"I know, I know. And then there is Jackson-"
"He is not your son."
Richard glanced at his passenger.
"I was just-"
"He is not your child, Dr. Webber."
He scuffed at her distance. "All employees are my children. I see them more than their parents, I make sure they are staying out of trouble and I'm there for them, even if they don't want me to be. Every single one of them from the day they stepped a foot into this hospital that I called mine for so many years. Even now, I still do. This hospital is one of the most important things in my life and yes, I may not be their biological father but I am at least their work dad. If you have a problem with having another person caring for your child while you are gone well then you will have to deal with it because I am not going to stop."
Things definitely has changed. There are relationships that just can't be fixed. Between Catherine and him, he knew that it was over.
"Drop me off here," she said coldly.
Alex walked into the normally empty room, staring at the odd sight before him. Boxes and boxes lined the room. Jo finished packing what must have been one of the last ones.
"What are you doing?" Alex said quizzically.
"Packing." Jo answered simply.
"I can see that." He huffed.
"I'm moving in with Stephanie. I mean, I basically live there anyway. It's weird, this living arrangement it weird Alex. I don't want to live with my ex, my ex that I would kind of like to be friends with eventually." Jo explained.
"Oh, I didn't realize. Um, do you, you know, need any help?" Alex stuttered.
"I could use some help carrying these to my car?" Jo suggested. Alex nodded in agreement and started loading up Jo's car outside his house.
Izzie sat across from Alex who hadn't touched his salad the whole 20 minutes they'd been sitting there. She'd finished her burger and had moved on to a piece of cake she had brought from home. Well, not home, her hotel. Her beautiful, elegant, lonely hotel.
"You good there?" She asked jokingly.
"Fine." He answered, his tone low and his eyes remaining on the salad.
"No you're not."
"Stop trying to fricken read me Iz, I said I'm fine."
"Is it because Jo moved out?" Izzie asked after several moments of silence.
"How did you know she moved out?"
"Alex, you know how the rumor mill around here works. I knew within minutes of entering the front doors."
"Shit." He said under his breath.
"If you want to get rid of your spare room I could, you know, take it. I'm still looking for a place and I can pay you rent, a lot more rent than I ever paid Meredith and I know where it is and I bake, remember how I bake? It would be like we were interns again!" Izzie rambled with glee.
"Except we're not interns anymore Iz, things are different now." Alex said in a dark tone, glaring at Izzie as he did.
"Oh, crap I have a surgery I um, I should go." Izzie went to stand.
"Do you still bake those pancakes? You know the ones that you used to make when -" Alex trailed off.
"When we lived in the trailer." Izzie reminisced.
"Yeah."
"Guess you'll have to let me move in to find out."
"You can bring some stuff over tonight, I mean if you want."
"I'll see you tonight then." Izzie smiled and got up, remembering that she actually did have a surgery and it wasn't just an excuse to leave when the conversation got awkward.
Dr. Torres thanked the remaining people in the waiting room. She finally finished the prototype for the leg. Owen suggested that she test it out before giving it to Arizona. If this works perfectly, she could even continue her research and perfect the prosthetics and help other people. He was right.
It was a success: 9 out of 10 people they chose felt comfortable with the leg. In fact, they said that it was a lot better than the prosthetics that they have tried before.
Callie finished cleaning up the coffee cups with a immense grin on her face. She has succeeded. What would she do without Arizona?
She remembered their conversation from the previous night and her grin only grew wider. Callie knew what to do.
Meredith crawled under the covers of a bed that felt much too big. She still wasn't used to the coldness behind her. She missed him; she missed him holding her as she drifted off to sleep and waking up the same way she had fallen asleep. She smiled at the thought of it. She was brought back into the present as her phone buzzed beside her.
"Hello?" She answered groggily, not bother looking at the caller before picking up.
"Meredith?" A familiar voice said on the other end.
"Derek? Is everything okay?" Meredith was suddenly more awake.
"Yeah, everything, it's fine everything's fine." He replied.
"I already put the kids to bed if that's why you're -"
"I didn't phone for the kids Mer, I just," He sucked in a deep breath on the other line, "I just needed to hear your voice."
Meredith smiled and slid further into the covers.
"I'm here." She said softly.
Izzie drunkenly stumbled up the familiar stairs of Alex's house. She remembered doing this plenty of times during her intern years. She smiled at the memories. The hallways seemed to be slanted slightly; at least by Izzie's perception. She held on to the wall for support and took her time getting down the end of the hall and entering Meredith's old room. Izzie pushed the door open, walking in and slowly removing clothing that felt uncomfortable before sliding into bed. She fell asleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.
Alex had woken up during Izzie's journey up the stairs and down the hall. He didn't realize they had yet to work out a room arrangement for her but he assumed she knew he would have the master bedroom. Apparently not, he thought, as her body radiated heat beside him.
He didn't get out of the bed; he didn't wake her up either. Alex did find himself moving in a little closer, so close there was almost no distance between them. He fought the urge to gently drape his arm around her torso; an urge he had grown accustomed to during their brief marriage.
Sun peered through the curtains making Izzie begin to open her eyes only to be greeted by a pounding headache. She rolled onto her side and looked at the empty space beside her. She sighed, giving herself a few moments before forcing herself to get up and walk to the kitchen. A waft of pancakes lingered in the air as she exited the bedroom; thankfully it didn't make her want to hurl.
Alex finished up the last of the pancakes, putting some onto a plate for himself and leaving a couple for Izzie, along with a couple aspirin and a bottle of water. He carried his plate to the kitchen table, setting it down and drowning in syrup. Izzie entered the kitchen and was greeted by Alex smirking at the table.
"Fun night?" He asked.
"Ugh." Izzie groaned, making her way to the island and taking the aspiring, chasing it down with the water.
"Glad you didn't bring anyone home, don't think three of us could fit in that bed, but don't think I've tried." Alex joked.
"What?" Izzie asked, bringing her pancakes to the table and taking a seat opposite Alex.
"You know you slept in my bed, right?"
"Well where did you sleep?"
"Seriously Iz, you don't remember?"
"Did we, have sex, again?" She asked in a very serious tone.
"You passed out the second you were in bed. Plus, I don't need to get you drunk to have sex with me." He looked at her and smirked.
"Oh shut up." She laughed. "Alex, these pancakes are amazing, when did you learn how to cook?"
"It's not a big deal." Alex said, shrugging it off.
"No seriously these are better than mine, and that's saying something."
"A patient in the cancer ward gave me some recipes after you, you know." He trailed off.
"Oh." She said. "Did you learn to cook anything else?"
"I had to learn to cook everything, you left Iz I didn't have a chef anymore."
"I was a chef, huh?" Izzie joked, lightening the mood and making Alex smile.
"I wouldn't go that far." Alex continued.
"Oh yeah?" Izzie giggled.