A/N: This one's pretty short, but let's imagine this is what happened after the whole egg allergy disaster thing. Haha. :) Thanks for those who reviewed, though I hope I get more! Please read and review! :)

Four: Family

I don't do families. But that's probably because I've never had one. Well, I did have one if you count the five years I had before my father left, but after that, I really wasn't sure about what a family is. All I was left with was an overbearing mother who worked a lot and never saw me a lot. I have a father who left me when I was five to marry someone else. For a short time, I had a 'fake mom' (who, by the way is the woman my father married when he left us) but that one didn't end so well either—she died when we were supposed to operate on her. So, for the most part, families? I don't do families.

However, I am now living my life here in this hospital with my half-sister Lexie. She might just be the only other "blood"-relative I have in my life right now other than my father. But then I just discovered that he's an alcoholic.

I'm sitting here outside the hospital cafeteria, quietly eating alone when I notice a presence (okay, a person) present itself right next to me. I look up and I find Lexie standing there with her lunch tray looking at me as if I'm going to snap right at her. But I don't. I'm not sure if it was the dancing drinking thing we had last night that finally led me to believe that the idea of Lexie wasn't as bad as I thought it was or the fact that even if she was with the father I so wanted to be with… her life was just as screwed as mine.

"Hi Lexie," I greet as I look up at her. She gives me a small smile and she moves forward. "Late lunch?"

"Hi Meredith. Yeah, um, can I…?" She cocks her head to the direction of the empty seat beside me and I nod. She smiles. "Thanks."

"No problem." I reply and I go back to eating my salad while I flip over the chart I was busy reading. Lexie keeps shooting glances at me and I finally look up to meet her eyes. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," she responds and looks back down on her plate, "Well, a lot, but everything's kinda screwed and stuff."

I snort. Everyone in this hospital is screwed. Oh wait, why does it seem like anybody with my surname is screwed?

"Welcome to the club," I retort as I go back to eating my lunch. Lexie drops her fork and looks at me, biting her lip. I stare back at her. "What?"

"Um, I just want to thank you…"

"What for?"

"The um…" She pauses and shrugs her shoulders. "The drinking and the dancing thing the other day. I just um… you know, wanna thank you."

I nod my head and give her a small smile. "It was nothing," I say, shaking my head in amusement for what she wanted to thank me for, "I think you should be thanking Cristina about this. She did invite you."

"Well, I did." Lexie replied, biting on her plastic fork.

"And…?"

"Well, she did say 'Shut it, Three or you won't get any drinking parties for the rest of your life.' and then she threatened me that if I ever breathe a word that she went soft on me to the other interns, she'll make sure that I don't see the OR for the next two months and she'll stick a ten blade out of my neck." Lexie said casually before taking a bite out of her salad.

I laughed. Typical Cristina. Meanwhile, I have taken to staring at my sister, who, for some weird reason has red splotches in different places on her arm. I grab her left hand, pushing the long-sleeved shirt up to her elbow and stared at it.

"What happened?" I ask, lightly touching the rash that covered parts of her arm. Lexie's eyes widened, her cheeks immediately flushing when I look up at her. "Are you allergic to something?"

With her mouth half-full, she shakes her head vigorously but her eyes tell me otherwise. I narrow my eyes at her and she gulps audibly, her eyes darting to different directions. "What aren't you telling me Lexie? I know I shouldn't care but…" I ask cautiously, finally releasing my hold on her arm. Lexie looks at me reproachfully and she bit her lip, her eyes not even daring to meet mine.

"Eggs," She mumbles under her breath before finally deciding to look at me in the eye. "I'm allergic to eggs."

For a moment there I was stunned speechless. I think if I was looking at me from another person's point of view, I'd look like a gawking turkey as my eyes widened in frustration at my half-sister.

"Eggs?" I repeat in disbelief, shaking my head as Lexie cringed in her chair still looking at me. "You're allergic to eggs and you didn't tell me this morning?"

"Well, no," She mutters and I glare at her. Lexie immediately starts speaking again. "I have boundary issues, and when you made eggs this morning, I thought I should just eat them and not turn it down because we've been making progress. I mean, you know, you're talking to me and stuff and I figured that if I refused the breakfast that you cooked you'd be angry or pissed or something so you know, I just…"

Lexie was rambling. She was rambling the way that I do, probably minus the darting eyes all over. I was trying hard not to laugh at her face, vaguely suppressing the gurgling sound in my throat.

"Um, Meredith?"

I focus my eyes back at Lexie, her once frightened look now replaced with confusion.

"I don't know how to cook Lexie." I state, a chuckle half dying in my throat. "You could've turned it down and I wouldn't have screamed at you."

"Oh… Yeah, but…"

"Have you been administered with a shot of Epinephrine?"

She nodded carefully, finally releasing the breath she has been holding. "George gave me one earlier. I guess it just hasn't set in that much yet." She stopped, stared at me again before letting her head drop, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

I sigh, finally letting my hands drop to my lap. "It's okay Lexie. I'm sorry I nearly killed you," I say cautiously, tilting my head to look at her, "You do know I wasn't meaning to do that right?"

"Of course!" Lexie said, laughing. She narrows her eyes slightly at me, pausing before she spoke again. "You're not the killing type of long-lost half-sister, are you?"

I wrinkle my nose slightly, pursing my lips before answering her. "No," I reply bluntly, forcing myself to look back at her. "No, I'm not the murderous type of long-lost half-sister." Lexie looked panicked, probably due to the fact that I'm kidding her around and we still don't know each other that well. I laugh. "I'm kidding, Lex."

"OH!" She mutters, flushing slightly at her crazed idea that it was my lifelong dream to kill her. "For a moment there I thought I offended you… or something."

I shake my head again, partly amused at the incredibly insane things Lexie has been thinking.

"We really need to hang out more." I announce, my fingers drumming lightly on the table. Lexie looks at me in surprise, and I'm sort of surprised at myself too for having invited Lexie to hang out with me. A few weeks ago, I was apprehensive of her, even going as far as hating the idea of her. But now… not so much. "You know, have a couple of drinks at Joe's. Sleep over the house if you're drunk…" I trailed off, barely watching Lexie's sudden change of emotion.

"Thanks Mer—" Her appreciation was cut short with the shrill beeping of a pager. We both grab the communication device from the belt loop of our scrub pants, only to discover that it was mine. Our eyes meet briefly for a moment and Lexie stares back at me, her mouth open in question.

"It's Dr. Bailey." I blurt out, standing immediately from my seat and clipping the pager back in place. "It's an emergency, I have to go."

Lexie nods back in understanding, as I turn on my heel, running towards the direction of the trauma rooms. Somewhere along the convoluted path that is my life, I finally realize that maybe… just maybe, I can do families.