It felt like someone was grasping at her neck and refusing to let go.

Hannah was chewing on a chocolate-chip granola bar, the paper flashing as she swung her legs back and forth underneath her. Christina was leaning against the wall with a knowing smile spread over her lips, sneaking glances at both of them when she thought they weren't looking while Meredith was trying to keep the clawing curiosity at bay, instead opting to nibble at her own granola bar half-heartedly. Eventually, she knew she'd have to ask. Eventually, the curiosity would eat away until she couldn't take the suspense, because after all, this could be her daughter. This could be the source of a very long, drawn-out next few weeks, and she needed to know if there was a reason for her to start panicking now. She needed to bite the bullet, get it over with, rip the band-aid.

"Hannah-" the hand was grasping desperately now, forcing the words back down her throat before she could choke them out, "Hannah I-"

Her voice sounded strangled and lost even to her own ears. Hannah looked up.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I-never mind, it's nothing."

"Tell me!"

"It's not important," Meredith assured before adding under her breath, "just me, losing my freaking mind."

"Well now I'm curious."

"It's noth-"

"She wants to know if you're her kid," Christina cut in impatiently before Meredith could pretend, again, that it was nothing.

The clock on the wall tracked the seconds turning into minutes. The granola bar wrapper fell to the floor, and Hannah's mouth stopped chewing.

"What?" she finally spat.

"I-I-"

"I love my parents, and I don't need new ones."

"She knows," Christina answered again, once it was clear that Meredith was sinking into a pool of embarrassment at the far end of the lockers and couldn't speak for herself, "She's just wondering because…you look like her. A lot like her. It actually makes me sick, how freakishly alike you two look...and she has a daughter about your age."

"If you're asking me if I was adopted then yeah, but the odds of her being my mother are…"

"Do you know Mark Sloane?" The question came out clear and focused, unlike Meredith's earlier attempts at speaking.

Silence.

Christina rolled her eyes from the corner and Hannah's hand twitched. She looked scared, like her world had just stopped spinning.

"Yeah…why?"

She wasn't the only one.

"He-I-We…we used to…date. In high school. Nine years ago… and I got pregnant."

There. She had said it. And it sounded ten times more suspicious then the thousands of times that she had thought about it. It sounded like she was 100, no-joke, undeniably Hannah's biological mother.

And that freaking sucked.

"A-are you sure? Because it could have been another Mark Sloane, I mean…it's not that uncommon of a name…"

"Blue eyes, light brown hair….drop dead gorgeous?"

"Ew," Hannah said, momentarily forgetting the gravity of the situation, "but that doesn't mean-"

She cut short when Meredith started running for the bathroom, holding her mouth and clutching at her stomach.

She wanted to follow her.

"Do you think-God, could she really be my mother? I mean, that's the girl that my dad….my adoptive dad is…what are the odds of that?"

Christina shook her head, "I don't know why everyone's having such a hard time seeing it. You too are identical. No lie."

"I think I'm going to throw up."

"Like I said," she quipped, "identical."

She raised her eyebrows to emphasis her point.

"W-Where's my dad?"

Christina shrugged.

"Does he know?"

"Nope. And don't even think telling either Shepherd or the She-Shepherd about this. Because this little flip-out Mer had? Will be ten times worse."

"But I have to tell them, I mean…"

"You can tell them just not …now. Give them time to work things out first, okay?"

Hannah's eyes started to well and Christina looked on awkwardly.

"Listen," Christina began in an uncharacteristically warm tone, "I know this is probably…hard. But your Mom's great-Meredith I mean. You guys will…you're totally alike, so you'll get along. It'll be hard for a couple of weeks…or months, but eventually things will get better."

Hannah sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her hand and glancing up with watery eyes at the intern who was now awkwardly patting her shoulder.

"Get a tissue," Christina ordered, breaking the mood, "I can feel the germs from here."

"I take it you don't have kids."

"Never have, never will," Christina announced proudly, stepping away from the nine-year-old to search for her best friend.

"I'm going to go…find my dad…"

"Remember not to tell him," She warned, "It would be really, really bad for him right now if he knew, okay?"

"Okay. I promise."

"Good. Don't get lost."

"I'm nine, not five."

"Right."

AN: Like? Don't like? Let me know!!!!