Hello darlings!

Small note on this chap regarding the crossover: I am not sticking to any specific canon plotline for where we are in the Grey's Anatomy timeline. It's an AU, so I can do whatever I want anyway. I just took the characters I wanted, and referenced some things that fit well; but don't assume anything beyond that in terms of the Seattle timeline. It's just good times. So enjoy!

…...

I'd Carry a Plane for You

Chapter 17: Family Secrets

…...

By the time Meredith and her friends arrived at Joe's at the end of their shift, Kara and Alex had already eaten dinner at two different restaurants (well, Alex just had coffee at the second one), and were now playing darts at the back of the pub, Alex trying to show off by competing left-handed since her dominant arm was out of commission. They were arguing playfully about whether or not Kara was losing on purpose to make Alex feel better, when the jingling bell over the pub door signaled the older Grey's arrival. Kara knew it was Meredith before she even turned around; she recognized the sound of her honorary cousin's voice, even through all the din across the length of the pub. She felt a nervous rush of tingling energy when she thought about the conversation they were going to have to have with Meredith later; how the older Grey knew, somehow, about Kara's secret, when no one else had ever guessed the truth.

But Kara and Alex had both decided not to worry about that for now; if Meredith was going to spill the beans, she obviously would have done so a long time ago, and they were eager to meet all of their big cousin's cool doctor friends and hear about her life in Seattle. That was what they had come here for, after all, to take Kara's mind off her Supergirl troubles. That conversation could wait until they were alone.

"Hey! Mer!" Kara jumped up and waved excitedly as the older Grey lead her group back towards the booth near the dart board where Alex and Kara had been camped out for the last hour. There were five others following after Meredith, three guys and two girls; all of them young and beautiful and looking like they had just walked off a movie set about a hospital, rather than an actual hospital. They must have been working for at least twelve hours, but they didn't even look tired; they had the same adrenalin-fueled glaze in their eyes that Meredith did. Same as Alex and Kara after a major DEO bust. Thrill seekers, the whole lot of them.

"I see you managed to stay out of trouble in Seattle for a whole afternoon," the blonde resident teased, hugging Kara and Alex both in turn, being a little more gentle with Alex than necessary and carefully avoiding the sling holding her right arm motionless against her body.

"So you're really in the FBI? You must be so brave. I think I'd wet myself the first time I had a gun pointed at me," the freckle-faced redhead behind Meredith babbled admiringly.

"Yeah, well that's a pretty low bar. You'd probably wet yourself if I pointed a Nerf gun at you," one of the guys rolled his eyes. He looked a little rough around the edges, but the redhead girl just rolled her eyes back at him; so obviously he wasn't really so tough.

"Remind me, Alex, about the heart in the elevator? I'm sure the pretty girls would love to hear that story," one of the other guys said mildly, raising an eyebrow. He had an especially gentle look, like the kind of boy who wasn't a fighter, but would take a schoolyard beating to protect someone smaller; and then dust himself off and carry your books to class for you.

"Bite me, O'Malley," the tough guy rolled his eyes.

"Ha! You just don't want Mer's hot cousins to know you're a little bitch-baby," snorted the other female resident, an Asian woman with long wavy hair and a very satisfied expression of amusement as she looked between the tough guy and the cute dorky guy. "You know they're engaged, right? To each other? So they don't care how big a bitch-baby you are, anyway."

"Stop saying bitch-baby, Yang!" The tough guy snapped. Everyone else burst out laughing, and they all sat down around the booth; even the tough guy, though he was still rolling his eyes and pretending not to care.

"Okay, everybody shut up. This is the famous Little Grey—my brilliant cousin Alex, senior FBI operative and forensic analyst," Meredith beamed, ruffling Alex's hair beside her, and delighting in the fact that Alex couldn't retaliate because her arm was in the sling. Alex just rolled her eyes sheepishly and allowed her hair to be mussed. "And this is my honorary cousin, and soon to be official cousin, the equally brilliant Kara Danvers."

"Hi," Kara waved with a shy smile. "It's nice to meet you all."

"And this is Cristina Yang, April Kepner, Jackson Avery, George O'Malley, and Alex Karev," Meredith pointed to each of her friends in turn. The tough-looking guy, as it turned out, was the other Alex, the one whose room they'd be taking over. He looked like the kind of guy who said "whatever" a lot when he didn't want to talk about actual feelings.

"Hi everybody," Alex smiled at all of them and accepted a glass of beer from a pitcher than Meredith poured for her. "It's great to meet you all. And, um, Alex," she addressed Karev, "thanks for letting us crash in your room for a few days."

"Whatever," Karev shrugged indifferently, immediately fulfilling their first impression of him.

"Yeah, I'd check the whole room for hidden webcams before you say that," Cristina snorted, taking a glass of beer and passing the rest around. "Karev would just loooooove to get some free girl-on-girl porn while he's sleeping on the couch, wouldn't you?" She smirked and raised an eyebrow at him teasingly. Karev rolled his eyes. Meredith hit Cristina on the arm.

"Shut up, perv! These are my baby cousins!"

"I didn't say I was using them for free porn!" Cristina exclaimed indignantly, rubbing her arm in fake pain. Kara giggled, and Alex beamed hugely—not at the conversation, but at Kara's smile. This was why they'd come here. Being with Meredith was always good.

"Everybody shut up," the younger Grey smirked. "We haven't seen Meredith since she started her residency. We want to hear about cool surgeon stuff. What are you guys studying? What cool procedures have you been in on?" Alex raised her eyebrows eagerly.

"I thought you were an FBI agent," George frowned in confusion. "You really wanna talk shop with a bunch of surgical residents?"

"She does forensics too, George. Not just field work. She has a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford," Meredith said proudly, her smile as big as Alex's had been when she was watching Kara giggle.

"Wait, you have a PhD? But I thought you're only 24," April shook her head in confusion. Alex smiled shyly, and Kara beamed at her proudly.

"Well I told you she was brilliant, didn't I?" Meredith grinned, poking Alex between her ribs. Normally this would make the younger Grey giggle like a three-year-old; but right now her ribs were still bruised from the sonic blast that broke her arm—the one Kara caused when she was poisoned with the Red K—and she stiffened with a slight jolt of pain, trying not to wince visibly. Meredith noticed, but didn't say anything, knowing from all their years growing up together how much Alex disliked being fussed over when she was hurt; unless, of course, Kara was the one doing the fussing.

"I skipped third grade," Alex shrugged modestly. "And I got advanced standing in my doctoral program straight out of undergrad because of my research. That's how I got recruited into the FBI."

"Ooh, what research?" Cristina asked, her eyes going wide with the manic gleam of intellectual curiosity, the same one that Alex had had a minute ago when she was asking them about their surgical cases.

"I'm sorry, it's classified," Alex sighed, smiling sheepishly as they all groaned and threw peanuts at her from the basket on the table.

"Do you know what her research is about?" Cristina demanded of Kara, her eyes still wide with urgent determination to get all the information.

"I work for Cat Grant. You really think I'm allowed to know national security secrets?" Kara joked, her favorite method of evading problematic questions without actually having to lie. She just didn't actually answer the actual question.

"Oh, yeah, Mer told us that. Is the queen of all media as terrifying as the legends say?" Jackson asked, putting on his most dazzling, green eyed smile for Kara, even though he knew perfectly well that she was engaged. To the girl sitting right beside her. April rolled her eyes at him. Boys.

"Sometimes. But she's an amazing mentor, too. I can't even begin to tell you how much I've learned from her...everything I owe her..." Kara's voice trailed off as her blue eyes grew glassy and distant, her brain flashing back unwillingly to the image of throwing her boss off the 40th floor balcony; and how compassionate Cat had been afterwards in the interview, forgiving Kara on screen in front of the whole world, when the blonde superhero couldn't even forgive herself. She'd cried a little on camera during the interview, even though she'd tried hard not to. And suddenly, she was back there, feeling the shock and horror of waking up from the Red K; not here in Joe's Pub. Everyone at the table sensed Kara's sudden discomfort, though only Alex and Meredith knew she was actually having a minor PTSD flashback. Meredith jumped into the sudden lull in the conversation and hastily switched gears.

"Okay, here's something cool. Remember my mom's old journals that I found in high school, the ones that had notes from virtually every single case of her residency?" The older Grey asked brightly. Her mother had died when she was very young; that was why her dad, Alex's uncle, had moved them back to his own hometown of Midvale, where his brother's family would be close by. And that was how little preschool Alex had become her older cousins's shadow, from the time she was four and Meredith was eight.

"Yeah, of course. We were the only kids in school blowing off our homework to read the unabridged medical journals of a Harper Avery Award winning surgeon," Alex smirked fondly. Kara hastily wiped away a tear that was about to fall, trying to shake off the sudden onslaught of haunting flashbacks and feelings from the Red K that talking about Ms. Grant had brought to the surface of her mind. Alex slipped her hand into Kara's, grateful that her fiancee was sitting to her left so she had a hand available to offer. She rubbed her thumb in little circles over the back of Kara's hand, something that always made the blonde girl feel better when she was upset. Kara gave her a shy little smile, and a soft kiss. Everyone noticed how the two young women seemed to communicate without words; the love between them practically radiated from the table.

"Right," Meredith cleared her throat to get their attention back, though she was smiling biggest of all at the PDA going on right next to her. She'd been waiting for years for this to happen. "Well, I showed them to the Chief, and he wants me to work with him on a clinical trial for a pancreatic implant device my mom was working on before she died, that could possibly cure Type I Diabetes."

"The Islet cell experiment?" Alex's eyes grew as wide and excited as Meredith's. "Oh my God, Mer! That's amazing! I bet all the advancements in 3D imaging and laparoscopic implantation methods will really make a difference. You could put it almost anywhere."

"I know, right?" Meredith beamed back excitedly.

"Hi, I'm sorry, time out," Cristina waved her hand up and down between the two Greys to get their attention back from geeking out together. "Little Grey read your mom's medical journals? How old were you then, fifteen?"

"Fourteen," Alex corrected modestly.

"And you understood them, and you still remember it all ten years later?"

"Photographic memory." Alex tapped the side of her head with a small smile, trying not to look too smug.

"If you weren't a federal agent, I'd punch you in the face right now," Cristina said with a completely deadpan expression. Alex and Meredith both giggled, thinking of what Kara would do if that actually were to happen.

"How about if I say the next round's on me?" Alex offered with an easy smile, gesturing to the empty beer pitcher sitting in the middle of the table. She started to get up, but Kara put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"No Lexie, sit down. I'll get it. You shouldn't be lifting heavy stuff anyway, you can only use one arm," Kara chastised gently, standing up and running her fingers lightly through Alex's hair, leaning down to kiss her before she could argue.

"A pitcher of beer is not heavy, Kar," Alex smirked, raising an eyebrow in amusement (and, okay, a little bit of enjoyment) at how protective Kara was still being over her injury. "A bazooka is heavy." It was just such a relief that the blonde superhero didn't seem depressed or guilty about Alex's arm anymore, as she had been since she woke up from the Red K; right now she just seemed like her usual, loving and overprotective self, doting over Alex and just wanting to take care of her.

"Well you're not allowed to pick up one of those, either," Kara teased, leaning down and giving her fiancee one more lingering kiss. "Just keep your cute ass in that seat and let me get the beer, Lex."

"Okay, bluebird," Alex smirked back, her spirits lifted instantly just by seeing the happiness in Kara's eyes at being able to do something nice for her, even just something little. Kara loved doing little things for Alex. And Alex loved letting her. Especially if it meant distracting her from the depression she'd been suffering from since she woke up from the Red K. The blonde girl beamed triumphantly and gave her fiancee one more quick kiss before walking away, back towards the bar for a fresh pitcher of beer. Alex watched her go, smiling like an idiot.

"Have I mentioned yet how happy I am that you wised up and put a ring on her finger?" Meredith asked affectionately, watching Alex watch Kara.

"Not as happy as me," Alex said simply, her dark hazel eyes glowing with affection as she stared at the blonde girl's profile, leaning against the bar talking to Joe, with her long hair hanging loose over her shoulders.

"Aww. You guys are really cute together," April gushed. "Have you set a date yet?"

"No. No wedding talk. I was just starting to warm up to Little Grey here. She wants to talk about science. She doesn't want to talk about wedding dresses and floral arrangements," Cristina groaned. "Right?" She was looking demandingly to Alex now for confirmation.

"Uhh...I guess," Alex gave a one-sided shrug, "if I have to choose just one...and we haven't set a date yet, anyway, we haven't talked about anything, really. It's only been a couple of weeks since we got engaged. But I'm not the only person at this table with a love life, am I?" The dark-haired girl teased, looking at her cousin with a big, gleeful smirk on her face. "When do we get to meet your studly neurosurgeon boyfriend?"

"When he's not in surgery. Or on call. Or in the skills lab figuring out ways to remove inoperable tumors," Meredith rolled her eyes; but she was smiling too, clearly proud of her boyfriend's brilliance and dedication to his work. Alex recognized that look; it was the same look she got when she talked about Kara.

"Well just say the word, and we'll come running. I can't leave Seattle without meeting your boyfriend, my mom will kill me if I don't have a full description ready and waiting."

"And because we need to make sure this guy is good enough for you," Kara added as she returned with a fresh pitcher of beer, plus a tray of tequila shots. She might not be able to feel the effects of alcohol herself, but it was Meredith's favorite. Everyone gave a little cheer at the unexpected round of shots, and made the first of many toasts for the night.

…...

When the last beer had been drained and the last dart had been thrown and Kara had emptied every little basket of peanuts in the bar, they all eventually drifted home; and once everyone was settled in their beds (except for Karev, who was settled on the couch and already snoring), Kara and Alex tiptoed from their room to Meredith's, eager to have some of the private conversations they hadn't been able to have before in front of the others.

"So..." Kara climbed onto Meredith's bed and sat down cross-legged in her pajamas, her eyes bright with burning curiosity as Alex plopped down next to her, and they both looked up at the older Grey expectantly. "How did you know?"

"How did I know what?" Meredith teased, feigning innocence. Kara looked at Alex sideways, and rolled her eyes.

"She knows I can melt her face with my eyeballs, and she still sasses me. That's oddly comforting," the blonde girl half-smiled at her fiancee.

"It is, isn't it?" Alex grinned back, looking between her favorite blonde alien and her favorite cousin, glad that nothing had changed between the three of them. "Now answer the question, dipshit. We've been waiting all day. How did you know? How long have you known? Nobody else has ever just known. But you knew."

"I knew," Meredith nodded thoughtfully, sitting down on the bed beside them and tucking her feet up under her. "I knew for a long time...that Kara was...different. I didn't know she was an alien. But then, when Supergirl appeared...for the first time, I mean...she—you—it was a plane rescue. And that just happened to coincide with the squeaky-happy phone call I got from Alex the next day telling me how you kissed her, and you finally told each other how you felt, and that you were her girlfriend now...and I asked her how it happened...and she told me she was in a plane crash, and you were both so freaked out it made you wake up and stop pretending not to be in love. So...the first heroic act that Supergirl ever did...was rescuing Alex's plane? And you just happened to have your first kiss that very same night? I may not have skipped third grade, but I'm not an idiot." The older blonde gave her cousins a satisfied smirk.

"Wow...yeah...when you put it like that, I guess I'm the idiot," Alex shook her head sheepishly.

"It's okay Lexie, I'm not mad. I'm glad Mer knows," Kara smiled, scooting closer to Alex on the bed and stroking her hair lovingly.

"Yeah...me too," Alex agreed, grinning as she leaned in and gave Kara a gentle kiss. "Now our whole family knows...no more secrets."

"No more secrets," Kara agreed happily. Then she frowned.

"Wait a sec," she turned back to Meredith. "Why didn't you talk to me if you knew? I would've loved to know that you knew!" Kara complained, throwing a pillow at her across the bed.

"Well I thought I was respecting your privacy," Meredith shrugged, taking the pillow and throwing it playfully back at Kara. "I figured if you wanted me to know, you would have told me."

"...Oh," Kara said blankly, leaning back against the headboard and taking off her glasses, realizing belatedly that there was no reason for her to bother wearing them now. "I guess I can't really argue with that..."

"Yeah, you're welcome," Meredith smirked sarcastically. "And anyway, even though I didn't always know you were an alien, I always knew the truth was something big, and I didn't want to do or say anything that would ever risk your safety. I was scared you'd end up a lab rat, locked in a cage in some secret underground government facility somewhere...I thought I was protecting you." The older Grey shrugged, some of the levity leaving the room as the playful pillow-throwing and sarcasm abruptly came to a halt.

"You were protecting me," Kara smiled shyly, crawling over to where Meredith sat and wrapping her up in a tight hug.

"I was protecting both of you," Meredith smiled fondly back, squeezing Alex's knee after Kara released her. "If anything ever happened to you, Kar...I knew Alex would never be okay again."

"I wouldn't be okay without her either," the blonde girl smiled fondly, curling up against Alex's side and stroking her hair. Then the smile slipped from her face as her hand trailed down Alex's arm, grazing ever so lightly over her broken arm in the sling. "I did this, you know," she said quietly, staring down at the cast, unable to look Meredith in the eye while she admitted to being the one who hurt her baby cousin. "When I was poisoned. It was an accident...but I did it."

"And how many times have you saved her life?" Meredith asked gently. Alex smiled. She knew coming to Meredith had been the right choice.

"A few," the blonde girl sighed.

"A few?" Alex tickled Kara's arm, and instantly her glum look was replaced with smile that was almost too big for her face and a hysterical squeal of laughter.

"Okay, okay! I've saved your life a lot."

"Yes you have," Alex smiled triumphantly, her dark hazel eyes shining with affection. Kara settled down against her side, resting her head on Alex's shoulder, allowing the injured girl to wrap her good arm possessively around Kara's body. The blonde girl sighed deeply, and Alex could physically feel the tension draining away.

"Mer?" Kara looked up from her snug spot on Alex's shoulder without actually lifting her head. "How did you know, in the beginning? You said you knew before Supergirl. That I had a secret, that I was different. How did you know?" They both looked up at the older Grey expectantly. Meredith suppressed a small smile.

"Well...you know how people sometimes talk in their sleep? Or sleepwalk? That kind of thing?"

"Yeah," Kara said uncertainly, having no idea where this was going.

"Well, there was this one time, you'd only been in Midvale a few months...I mean, you'd only been on earth a few months," she corrected, and they all smiled, sharing the giddy feeling of finally being able to tell each other everything. "And I was staying with you guys for the weekend," she looked to Alex, "because my dad was out of town on some business trip and he didn't trust me not to throw a party if I was home alone all weekend. And you guys were having a sleepover. You were joined at the hip from the day she got here...you knew all along, didn't you Alex? You knew everything?"

"I knew," Alex nodded, with a satisfied little smile. "Her pod crashed in front of me in the gully. And then Superman showed up and made me promise I'd keep Kara's identity secret for the rest of my life."

"Well then I guess I can't be mad at you for holding out on me," Meredith laughed incredulously, shaking her head at this new revelation that Alex had met Superman when she was thirteen years old, and she had never told anyone. "Anyway. We were all sleeping over, and when I said I was going up to bed, Aunt Susan asked me to check on you guys and make sure you weren't staying up late talking. And like I said, you hadn't been here very long, which means you hadn't had your powers very long, and I'm sure it took a lot of hard work to learn control..."

"Oh my God, what was I doing in my sleep? Just tell me already!" Kara moaned, turning beet red with embarrassment even though she still didn't actually know what Meredith saw.

"Oh, nothing terrible. Just sleeping on top of the covers. About three feet on top of the covers." Meredith smiled giddily, surprised at how good it felt to finally tell Kara and Alex everything she knew.

"I was levitating in my sleep?" Kara asked, dumbfounded. "I didn't know I did that."

"You don't do that!" Alex exclaimed in surprise, with a laugh.

"Well she did it that night," Meredith shrugged.

"It must've been a short-term thing, because I don't even remember that at all," Alex shook her head.

"So, you saw me floating three feet above the bed...and you didn't scream? You didn't freak out at all? You just closed the door and thought, okay, Kara can float, and went to bed?" The blonde girl raised an eyebrow quizzically. It seemed like the kind of sight that would make a person spazz out purely on reflex.

"I had a moment...a moment of total shock and awe," Meredith admitted, her eyes getting a faraway look as she remembered. "I just kept thinking, what I am looking at is not possible; but it must be possible because I am looking at it. I did freak out for a minute. Just, you know, intellectually."

"Definitely a Grey," Kara smirked, nuzzling into Alex's shoulder affectionately. "My little brainiancs."

"So what made you stop freaking out?" Alex asked, playing with Kara's hair absently.

"Honestly? You."

"Me?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't I sleeping too?"

"Yeah. And even though you were in the bed and she was floating three feet above it...you were still holding hands. Kara was just floating there, like there was an invisible cloud holding her up, but her arm was still hanging down to touch your hand...and your arm was stretched out across her side of the bed to reach her hand...it just broke my heart somehow, looking at the two of you sleep together. You made each other so happy. From the day she first got here, she made you happy, Alex. What else mattered? I couldn't bear to let anyone come and take her away from you." Meredith smiled at them. Alex smiled back. Kara burst into tears.

"You're the best cousin in the whole world," the blonde girl sobbed as she threw herself into Meredith's arms and hugged her. "And...you know...my other cousin is Superman."