Chapter 5:
"Owen! Have you seen my bag?"
Amelia yelled from the top of the stairs. She had been looking for her purse for about 30 minutes, but she couldn't find it anywhere! If she didn't hurry up, they were going to be late.
"Did you look in your car? Maybe you left it there." Owen was already wearing a jeans and a nice shirt and he was waiting for Amelia to finally be ready.
"No, I didn't! I'll check in a minute, I just have to finish my hair! I'll be ready in a second."
Knowing that if the bag wasn't in her car, they'd have to turn the house upside down and they wouldn't arrive at Meredith's thanksgiving party for another hour or two, he went to look himself. He grabbed her car keys from the basket next to the door and walked towards the driveway, where her car was parked. He found the bag under the passenger seat and smiled; it probably had ended up there while she had been driving. He collected some stuff that had fallen out of it and put it back into the purse. When he walked back towards their house, Amelia came running out the front door, wearing a beautiful, red dress.
"Did you find it?" He held up the bag and showed it to her in triumph. She smiled in relief and kissed him. "What would I be without you?"
"Probably lost." And he kissed her again; he could never get enough of her sweet lips.
"Let's go!"
They got in Owen's car and drove away from the house they had bought less then a year ago. It had taken some time finding the right place, but when they visited this last house, they both fell in love with it immediately. It had four bedrooms and a nice garden. They both wanted to live close to the woods, just like Meredith and Derek, so the house was surrounded at three sides with nothing but trees and they both liked the tranquility. The only thing you could say about the house was that it was a little big for only two people, but they knew that they wanted to live the rest of their lives up there.
In the car they talked about baby Ellis, who was born a few days after they had started house hunting. She looked just like Derek, it had already been obvious when she was only a newborn, but she just kept growing to be more like him. They had reached Meredith and Derek's home and they looked in the direction of the trailer when they started walking down the path leading to the front door. It was a habit; they always looked at the trailer when they arrived and left, because there were so many good memories in there.
"Hey! Come in!" Meredith had opened the door and Zola immediately ran outside to hug her aunt. Entering the living room, they noticed that they were indeed, the last ones to arrive. Alex and Jo were talking to Maggie on the sofa and Derek was in the kitchen checking on the turkey.
"Hey everyone!" They walked in and joined the festivities. Owen sat down on the couch opposite of the one Alex and Jo were sitting in and he joined the conversation about the military base in Iraq. Amelia put Zola back down on the ground and walked to the kitchen to greet her brother.
"Can I help?"
"Oh hey, Amy! No, don't worry, you can go sit with Owen."
"I think I'd rather supervise the cooking. Remember the thanksgiving dinner Addison had cooked and Nancy had ended up with salmonella? She never tried preparing one since then. Addison, I mean. She always orders a pre-made turkey."
"Yeah, that wasn't a great day for her. But you also remember I was the one who saved the day."
"Yes, but not by making a turkey, so please, let me help."
"Fine, you can check the temp on the blasted bird, but then you go sit with the other guests." Amelia grinned victoriously and checked the turkey; she didn't want anything to go wrong today.
"How did you learn to cook anyway?"
"I took some classes with a friend of mine, back in LA. I wasn't that good in it, but Owen taught me some things too."
When she was done, Derek shooed her out of the kitchen and went back to working on the sides. Amelia sat down besides Owen and took his hand in hers. He looked up at her and smiled, while Jo and Alex were still talking about their time in Iraq.
"Luckily, there weren't any attacks on us, while we were there, but we did learn a lot about trauma and how to save people without many supplies."
"Jo was right." Alex joined in, "It was a great opportunity to learn, but I must say I missed taking care of kids."
"I know you did and I must say I kind of missed Ortho too sometimes, but I'm really happy I now have the experience."
After Owen had returned from Iraq, Jo wanted to go too. They had fought a lot about it, but eventually Alex had decided to go with her, as he didn't want to live without her. He had agreed on going for a month, because Jo was still a resident, and they both agreed that it was for the best that they had only left for that long.
"Not that you didn't have enough ortho to do out there. You were the best; every time a soldier came in with a broken bone, they immediately sent him to you."
"Wow, I know it's necessary that doctors go out there, but I must say it's nothing for me. I would probably die of fear the first day I was there." Said Maggie.
"It's not for everyone, but I would have said the same thing, until I went to visit Owen there. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure we guests were kept away from the real excitement."
"Yeah, every time we sent you guys away, there were tents flooding with bloody soldiers. But we need doctors here too; you save people here every day." answered Owen.
"I do hope my patients are okay; I got this 20-something year old, post op. Nelson is covering for me, but I hope he doesn't kill her."
"Nelson is competent enough to keep a patient alive, you don't need to worry."
"And Stephanie is still in the hospital." added Jo. She had tried to convince her friend to come too, but she didn't want to leave the hospital at such a 'bloody and traumatic day'.
"Right, but what do you guys think of the interns? I know there only been here for a few months, but were we ever that dumb? I don't think even the interns of Lexie's year were that stupid and they started a 'suture your own arm and take out your own appendix'-group." Meredith had just put Ellis down and Zola and Bailey were playing in the corner.
"They did what?!"
Meredith turned towards Maggie. "Didn't I tell you? When Lexie was an intern, the chicks and ducks decided that they weren't getting a good enough education, so they started to learn sutures on their own arm. I think they even gave someone a sedative."
"Ooh, wow, I knew Lexie was badass, from when I met her, but did they really take out an appendix on their own?" Amelia had never heard of this story. She liked Lexie a lot from when she helped her convince Derek to try to help Erica.
"Yup, but I think it was stoked by my friend Sadie, the one's appendix they took. Lexie eventually came clean in the middle of the surgery and they were all put on probation."
Derek walked towards them with the mention that the dinner was ready.
While they were sitting at the table, the conversation continued.
"So where are Richard, Catherine, April and Jackson?" asked Amelia.
"They're all celebrating Thanksgiving in Ohio with April's family."
"Aah, that must be a lot of fun. The holy Marys and the Scientists together, a perfect combination."
"Alex!" Scolded Jo. "I'm sure they're getting along. Especially with the baby on the way."
"I just hope that baby will be okay. It's horrible to lose a child." Amelia looked down at her plate and Owen grabbed her hand under the table.
Everyone else just continued the conversation, not noticing how personal her statement had been. Amelia looked up at Owen and shot him a look, indicating that it was time. He nodded and stood up, and so did Amelia.
"Can we have your attention please?" Everyone looked up curiously and stopped talking. "Amelia and I have something important to tell you."
Amelia looked at Owen and smiled: "Owen and I are engaged!"
There followed a rain of 'congratulations' and 'I'm so happy for you' and Meredith and Derek got up to hug Amelia and give Owen a hand. The rest of the evening they talked about the wedding and it quickly became one of the best thanksgivings ever for Amelia.
