"Good Morning" Alex smiled as he handed her a cup of coffee as she walked into the foyer of Seattle Grace. He had been at work for almost an hour already doing pre-rounds making the Attendings day start off a little easier.

"Good Morning. Thanks for the coffee, I'll need it today" she chuckled and took the coffee. It had been almost two weeks since her first kiss with Alex and they had been out on four dates, a lunch date and plenty of coffee exchanges. They had just been talking and enjoying each other's company with little more than a goodnight kiss. Both wanted to take it slow and they were doing their best to honour that.

"Big day?"

"Long day with a lot of surgeries"

"Do you want to cancel our date tonight? Sleep might be more attractive to you than my rugged good looks" he laughed as he walked Lauren up to the Attendings Lounge.

"How about dinner at my place? We'll order in and you can use those magical hands for a massage" she smiled as they got to her destination "Meet me in the lobby at 8?"

"Sounds great"

Lauren stepped forward to kiss Alex on the cheek until Mark and Derek walked out of the Attendings Lounge. Stepping back, she quickly thought of a ploy to distract them both from any ideas they had about Alex and Lauren.

"Thank you very much Dr Karev for the update, please make sure Dr Grey has all the information before she joins me on rounds this morning" Lauren smiled to Alex whose confused expression soon turned to one of anger and obedience. Mark and Derek greeted the pair before going their separate ways to start their own rounds.

"I'll make sure Meredith knows all the information" Alex growled and shook his head

"Alex I'm sorry"

"You're ashamed of us?"

"No of course not, I just haven't told Derek yet"

"And what's stopping you? Are you scared of him?"

"I am not scared of Derek" she snapped "It's just talking about dating with my brother is a touchy subject and we're not on the best of terms right now. I need to make things better with him before I throw this at him too. I know I have no right to ask this of you after you've been so great for the last couple weeks but please can you just give me some time?"

"I'm late for rounds with Altman. I'll see you tonight" Alex sighed and kissed Lauren's forehead softly before walking away.

XXXXX

"Rough morning?" Meredith asked as she watched Lauren downed the last of her coffee and throw the cup in the trash. Handing her the first chart, Meredith walked beside Lauren as they made their way to the first room. Lauren stopped outside her patient's room and took a deep breath before looking up at Meredith.

"Nothing that will affect our workload today. You ready for back to back surgeries?"

"Bring it on" she smiled and opened the door to the patient's room.

XXXXX

Meredith and Lauren were in their fourth surgery of the day and only had one more before their marathon day was over. Both were tired and sore but the adrenalin from four flawless surgeries in one day was carrying them through. The thought that something had to go wrong plagued the back of their minds but neither thought much of it until Lauren's pager went off in the middle of that fourth surgery.

"It's 911 to 1524"

"Dammit that's Lucas Harrison" Lauren sighed and quickly clamped the bleeder before looking up at Meredith "You can finish this"

"Seriously?"

"You residents really need to stop saying that word" Lauren laughed and ripped off her gloves and mask "Try not to have to page me"

"I got this" Meredith smiled as Lauren raced out of the OR and up to the Paeds ward. By the time she got to Lucas a code blue had already been called and nurses were trying to revive the fragile twelve year old. Pushing through, Lauren couldn't believe he had crashed so suddenly.

"What happened?"

"He complained of chest pains and he just crashed. We didn't see this coming" a nurse answered anxiously stepping back from Lauren as if she'd rip her head off.

"Don't die on me now Lucas" she cried as she pumped his chest trying to restart his heart "push another of epi and give me the paddles"

The nurses obeyed orders and Lauren shocked the twelve year old with no luck. Continuing to pump his chest, she ordered another round of epi and shocked him once again and then twice more.

"Dr Shepherd" a nurse called out to get her attention "Dr Shepherd he's been down too long. He's gone"

Lauren stopped compressions and watched the monitor flat line. Checking his carotid pulse and his pupil reaction, Lauren finally looked down at her watch "Time of death 5:42pm"

Pulling off her scrub cap, Lauren walked out of Lucas' room and out to the waiting room. She couldn't even react about the loss herself until she told Lucas' parents that their son was dead. They all knew death was a possibility for Lucas but the liver transplant surgery he was scheduled for that night was meant to give him a bright future. After giving Lucas' parents the bad news, Lauren made her way back up to the Attendings Lounge slamming the door behind her. The nurses and doctors at the nurses' station and around all went silent watching and listening curiously at Dr Shepherd's sudden hospital disruption.

"Dammit" she yelled and threw her scrub cap at her locker. Flipping the coffee table angrily, she collapsed into the couch and burst into tears. Every memory of losing Lily and now Lucas came flooding back to her and she couldn't keep it in any more. No-one was game to go into the Attendings Lounge but no-one could tear themselves away from seeing what Lauren might do.

"Get back to work" Derek sighed as he passed the nurses' station. Bailey, who was working at the computer in the nurses' station, paged him when Lauren first slammed the door. He would be the only one to talk to her. Nodding to Bailey, he waited before everyone got back to work before going into the Attendings Lounge. Derek sat down beside Lauren and simply pulled her into a gentle hug as she continued to cry.

"Ok I'm ok" she sniffed as she sat up half an hour later. There was just nothing left in her to cry anymore. Wiping her eyes, she looked up at Derek apologetically "I'm ok really"

"What happened Lou?" Derek asked using the nickname his sister was known as when she was a kid. Their youngest sister Amelia couldn't get her tongue around the name Lauren at a young age and so Lou just stuck for the whole family.

"I lost my liver transplant kid"

"Is that it? You've never snapped like that over losing a patient before. I know you Lauren..."

"It's losing Lucas and it reminding me of Lily back in London and it's you and it's Alex and it's all just piling up" she sighed and stood up. Pulling her hair out, she leant back and pulled it back up into a bun. She had a habit of fidgeting or playing with her hair when she was nervous or frustrated.

"I get losing those kids and I know I have been a real jerk lately and I'm sorry. I'm not used to having you here" he sighed and pulled her back down onto the couch "Seattle has always been my escape from our family and all the crap back in New York"

"Don't even worry about it"

"No I do have to worry about it and I have to worry about you because my name wasn't the only one on that list of yours. What's going on with Alex?"

"Have dinner with me tomorrow night and we'll talk. I have patients I have to see" she insisted as she stood up and straightened up her scrubs.

"Lauren..."

"Dinner tomorrow night"

"Alright I'll be there"

Thoughts?

I'm still thinking about how Derek will react to Alex and Lauren dating. How would Meredith and the other residents react to them dating?