Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a wonderful summer

Thank you so much for still reading my story and also for letting me know what you think. I know I said to some of you that I would update earlier, but sometimes, it is just hard for me to write. I don't really have a good excuse, except that I can't. Sorry for the wait, and enjoy!


She wasn't asleep. She just pretended to be. It was easier. Of course, Lexie was exhausted, but it would be too easy to simply rest. She didn't deserve that peace of mind.

Silence was threatening. The brunette focused on the sound of her breath, ignoring the best she could that she was in a hospital. The place she worked, and soon, the interns would start rounding. What would they say? What would her father say? What would Meredith say? Suddenly, it was all too much.

Lexie sat straight up, her heart racing.

"Hey... Hey... You're okay..." Derek's strong hands kindly held her.

Lexie shook her head, desperately trying to remove herself from his grip, but he wouldn't let go.

"Easy... you're ok" The reassurance in his voice was undeniable. Or maybe she was too tired to argue.

The brunette nodded, still trying to catch her breath.

It took her a few seconds to collect herself and eventually her head leant on the pillow again.

"Me.." She tried, but her sore throat didn't cooperate. "Meredith?", she finally whispered, staring at the ceiling.

"She's ... around" There was no good answer here. Lying would be useless.

"She's mad" Lexie drew her own conclusions. "I deserve that"

"She's not"

Lexie let out a sigh.

"Ok, maybe she is... But not at you. She's not angry with you Lexie. Tonight was just a lot to deal with. She'll come around."

Lexie just shrugged.

"She will, just give her time. Come on, you need to rest."


Meredith needed to keep herself busy. She needed to erase from her head the last few hours. One particular scene was playing again and again in her mind: that moment when Bailey blocked her way a few hours ago.

"You can't stay here. We've got her"

"She's my" Meredith desperately refused to let go "She's my sister"

"Let us help her!" Bailey's commanding tone was scary and reassuring at the same time. But it was impossible to argue against her. From the moment she let Bailey taking care of Lexie, Meredith began wandering from a hospital hall to another. Of course, Derek had offered support, but she needed space. She needed to be alone and to stop thinking about Lexie. What if, she had given the girl a chance from the beginning? Could she have avoided the tragic turn of circumstances? She should have.

"There you are. I paged you a thousand times"

She would not melt down again. "I was busy" Meredith made sure her eyes showed no emotion.

"You were busy?" Even though he didn't buy it, Derek still hadn't found a way to go through Meredith's shell. Maybe there was no way. The only thing to do was waiting, until she was ready to thrust the world again.

"That's right I was busy" She protected herself the only way she knew how.

"Lexie's awake"

"Good" Meredith acknowledged.

"She's asking for you"

"Well... you tell her that I'm busy... since you know.. I am!" Meredith started walking again but Derek grabbed her arm.

"Meredith stop! She's ok! No internal bleeding, she just has a concussion. She's fine." It surely wouldn't do any good to raise his voice, but at least he would get a reaction from Meredith. Any kind of reaction would be better than pretending that she was fine.

Meredith's rage finally reached the surface. "She's dehydrated. She suffers from exhaustion. I... I can't look at her right now! Thrust me, she doesn't want to hear me!" And maybe she was right after all.


It was about noon and since the interns were all camping in front of Lexie's room, the brunette pretended to be asleep once again. Pretending seemed to be a common passion for the grey's sisters. They didn't mean to be rude, they just didn't know how hard life could be. She just hoped that they were too busy laughing to notice the occasional tears escaping her shutting eyes.

An outcry finally made Lexie jump. "What are you looking at?" Some loud footsteps, and then silence again. Until the door opened.

"Now drop the act! I know you're not sleeping!" Meredith exclaimed. Even though you're supposed to, she wanted to add, but managed not to.

She had prepared a good "I told you so" speech. She would just have to spit it out. And she wouldn't care about Lexie's puppy eyes. After all, Lexie didn't think twice before running back to her precious jackass dad.

Except that she couldn't.

Lexie looked so little in the austere hospital bed. So little and scared.

Meredith just switched off for a few seconds, looking out of the window.

Lexie timidly broke the silence. "I'm sorry"

Sorry wasn't enough.

The muffled sniffing was the only indication that Meredith had been crying. When she finally faced Lexie, she was gathered. Much more calm than a few minutes before. "Do you realise how dangerous that was, Lexie? Do you realise you could have died?" She genuinely asked.

Lexie's heart stopped for a second.

"You don't" Meredith finally sighed. "You thought, maybe things could turn back the way they were. You were hoping that your dad loved you enough to quit drinking."

The brunette's eyes were looking for an escape way. But the elder sister grabbed Lexie's hand. "It would be simple, if we could just stop hurting the people we love, right?"

"I'm sorry" Lexie repeated with a shaky voice, not caring about the tears escaping her eyes.

With her free hand, Meredith gently dried some of the tears running down Lexie's face. "I know. I'm sorry too"

"You need to rest" Meredith finally concluded.

Lexie's unconvinced nod was easy to detect. "What is it? Are you in pain?"

The brunette just shook her head but there was no way to know if she was telling the truth. She felt way too ashamed to admit to anything right now.

"Are you scared?"

Lexie, obviously nervous, kept biting her lips. Since it was all her fault, she didn't deserve to be comforted.

"You know, it's okay if you are." Meredith casually added. "Now move!" She joked, climbing in the bed next to Lexie. "Because of you, I haven't been sleeping all night, the least you could do is share"

It felt weird, for a few seconds, but it also felt nice, to be able to hold her sister tight. Nobody's gotta hurt you again, Meredith wanted to promise, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead, she just stroke the brunette's hair. Next step wouldn't be easy. Lexie would need to talk about what happened. Everything that happened.

"Don't leave" Lexie mumbled before allowing herself to sleep.

"I won't"