Chapter 22: Secrets We Hide
Over the next few days at the hospital, the ER was back to normal and the Doctors had completed the follow-up care for the patients injured in the explosion and were rescheduling the surgeries that had been pushed back. After receiving her couriered package that included a Gucci backpack filled with money, several outfits (compliments of Alice), and a new cell phone; Allison had planned on asking Doctor Hunt to reserve a room for her at a local hotel for the next few weeks.
She had been surprised when Derek and Meredith sought her out the morning after the explosion to apologize for not making sure she had somewhere to go and had invited her to stay at their house while she waited for an updated passport. At first, she had declined knowing that being around her would be uncomfortable for Meredith, but by the end of the first day they had worn her down and she agreed. Leaving the hospital with them had been a familiar, yet weird experience as she sat in the back seat answering questions about her life in England and watching the loving interaction between the couple. Upon arriving at their home, she had to fight to keep her emotions contained when being introduced to her now seven year old niece, Zola; four year old nephew, Christopher and 18 month old, Lexa. Although, she had known before the plane crash that Meredith had accepted her as a sister; finding out that she had named her youngest daughter in her honor was proof that she had been loved by her as well. In that moment, Allison had almost broken down and told them the truth of who she really was, but had stopped herself by pushing everything back inside. Internally calming herself, she gave them all warm friendly smiles and allowed the two oldest kids to give her a grand tour of the house, before being shown to the guest room.
Several hours after putting the kids to bed and having a glass of wine with Meredith and Derek; Allison quietly slipped out of the house to hunt. Running deep into the forest, she let her instincts take over until she found her prey and took down a large buck in seconds. Once completed, she made her way to an over cropping on a mountain and looked down into the darkened forest, while sitting on her knees. Now alone, she could no longer hold back all of the emotions she had been controlling since her arrival; closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let everything go. At first, it was just tears, that flowed down her face in a steady stream but they quickly turned into loud sobs, until she could no longer stop thinking about everyone she had left behind. Turning her face up to the stars, she gave a long scream in anguish at the top of her lungs, startling the surrounding wildlife below. Eventually, her tears stopped and she lay down on the cool granite to think about her family sleeping peacefully below; she had seen Zola's crutches, which meant her Spina Bifida had progressed to the point where a dangerous surgery was needed to fix her spine. Hopefully, she could spend some time with Zola, so that she could slowly heal her without anyone noticing. Sighing, she continued to watch the night sky until thunder clouds filled with lightning began to roll in. Feeling better, Allison quickly made her way back to the Shepherd household before storm hit, took a shower and then because of the time difference called St George's hospital to explain that she had to prolong her vacation for two more weeks. She could tell that the Chief wasn't happy, but since she hadn't taken any vacation time at all during her residency, he could not complain. Of course, once she returned to England and let them know she was not going to complete her fellowship there, they would be very upset. But after all of the crap, Doctor Radcliff had put her through, she really didn't care.
The next morning, watching her now domesticated sister rush around the house to try to get the kids ready for their morning commute into the city had been fun to watch. According to Meredith, their nanny would normally feed the kids and help with their clothes so that they could take Zola and Chris to school, but the nanny was on vacation this week. Forty five minutes after leaving the Shepherd home and dropping the two eldest off at their school, they pulled into the hospital parking lot and Allison unstrapped Lexa from her car seat. To Allison's surprise the toddler let her pick her up to carry into the hospital; following behind Derek and Meredith chuckled as they watched their normally shy daughter happily babbling to Allison as she play with her hair.
"She must like you." Meredith said smiling as she takes Lexa from Allison's arms, "Most of the time she whines or cries if someone she doesn't know holds her."
"Oh… well she's a sweetheart and I'm pretty good with children, that's why I want to specialize in Pediatric Neurosurgery." She smiled back and waved her niece good bye as Meredith took her to daycare.
Turning back to Derek, she asked. "Doctor Shepherd, I hope you don't mind…. But I'm going to take off after morning rounds to run a few errands and shop for some clothes. I should be back later this afternoon, unless an emergency comes up. If so I've left my new cell phone number at the nurses' station."
"Sounds good, Doctor Scott; just have me paged when you return and we can do the Jacobson consultation together." He said agreeing to her request and they walked into the elevator to begin the day.
Pulling up into the cemetery, Mark Sloan stopped his car near a familiar gravesite and reached over to take the bouquet of Daisy's and wildflowers from the passenger seat. Making his way over to her grave, he carefully laid the flowers on top of her gravestone then traced his fingertip on her name carved in stone. After waking up from his coma, he had been told what had happened to Lexie's body and that they still erected a gravestone next to her mother in her memory, but he still came here once a week to visit and talk about what was going on in their lives.
"Hey babe, it's me. Sorry I haven't been here in a few weeks, I just got back from taking Princess Sofia to Disney World….you would have gotten a blast out of watching her race around to meet all of the Disney characters. I gotta tell you, that kid wears me out." He chuckles for a minute, then becomes somber.
"I've been having dreams about you again… but this time they're different…. You're still being pulled away from me but now you're changing into a different person. You see there's a new doctor visiting the hospital and she….looks just like you, Lex….and sometimes she acts like you." He sighs heavily and runs his fingers through his rain soaked hair.
"I know… I know… it's not possible, since I was with you that day. But I've been watching her and there are times when I swear it's you pretending to be someone else." He sighs again and looks off into the distance. "Yeah… I hear you… stop being a stalker…..well I've gotta go. I have an Intern following up on my post-ops and you know how I feel about leaving them alone for two long…..I love you sweetheart. Talk to you soon." Kissing the tips of his fingers, he then touches the top of the stone and walks back to his car.
Pulling away, he had just gone beyond the cemetery gates, when a taxi passes him and he gets a quick glimpse of the passenger. 'Was that Allison?' He thinks and turns his car around to follow the taxi inside at a discrete distance. Parking his car at a side road, he watches as a woman exits the cab and walks to the gravesite he has just left, reaching into the back seat he pulls out a toy telescope Sofia had left in the car from their trip. Adjusting it, he could now see that it was indeed Allison Scott standing in front of Susan and Lexie's gravesite. He watches as she smiles at the flowers he had just left, but then moves over to Susan Grey's grave and places a beautiful bouquet of carnations on her stone.
"What the hell?" he said out loud, Lexie had told him once that Susan's favorite flower were carnations, but how would Allison Scott, a woman who had never met Susan Grey, know what type of flower to bring. In fact as he continued to watch her, she was acting more like a daughter "visiting" her mother's grave, then someone who was curious about her "look alike". Fifteen minutes later, Allison concluded her visit as the rain began to come down harder and opened the cab's door to get inside, but she stops and takes a look around the cemetery as if she senses him watching her. Seemingly satisfied that she was not being observed, she gets into the cab and it drives away.
Marks sits there, his mind racing by what he had just seen. When he first met Allison, he had felt such a jolt of familiarity when they touched, but he put it off to her looking like Lexie. Now he wasn't so sure and the only way to learn the truth would be for him to find a way to get closer to her.
A few days later an opportunity arose where he could finally get some time alone with her. After working on a facial reconstruction of a patient that had been hit by a car; the three of them were scrubbing out when Allison let Derek know that she had been asked by her brother-in-law to open his free medical clinic near Forks this weekend. Apparently the new doctor he had hired had broken his ankle three weeks ago and had not been able to visit with patients. Derek had smiled knowing that her family had recently moved to Montana, yet still had a house out in Forks and asked her how she was going to get out there, when he jumped into the conversation.
"Doctor Scott, I've got no plans for this weekend. I'd be happy to take you." Mark said giving her a brilliant smile.
"That's very nice of you, Doctor Sloan! But you don't have to stay all weekend; I only need a ride to Carlisle's house and one of the locals can get me to the Clinic." She replied surprised and a little leery about Mark's offer.
"So how would you get home?" Mark curiously asked.
"Oh, I can get someone from the local Quileute Tribe to bring me back to Seattle."
"Now that's just silly Doctor Scott, I'm perfectly capable of driving you to Forks and back. In fact, I'll come with you to the clinic on Saturday and help out; once we're done, I'll drop you off at your family's house and I'll rent a room at a hotel. With any luck, we'll be headed back to Seattle by Sunday morning." Mark said trying to convince her of his plan.
Allison felt a flutter in her stomach as she nervously thought about spending a weekend alone with him, but decided that if she couldn't handle a few days around him, then accepting Grey Memorial's Fellowship offer would be out of the question.
"Okay I'll accept your offer. Can you pick me up from Doctor Shepherd's house around 6 AM, tomorrow?" she says smiling back at him.
"No problem, I'll see you then." He answers, almost giddy that his plan worked and watches her walk away.
Derek on the other hand had been watching their interaction and his eyes look at Mark suspiciously.
"What are you doing, Mark?" he asks and watches Mark put on his innocent face.
"Nothing, I'm just being nice to your prospective Fellowship candidate!" he says putting his hands up in surrender.
"Hmm right, your offer doesn't have to do with the fact that's she's young, gorgeous and looks like the love of your life?" Derek crosses his arms across his chest and watches his reaction.
"Hey Bro… I'm not going to lie. It's been…well five years since I've been interested in a woman and yes part of it's because she looks like Lexie, but I know she's a different person. So the whole point in me volunteering for this little trip is to get to know Allison Scott." Mark said suddenly realizing that this conversation was similar to Derek's request for him to stay away from Lexie when she was an Intern.
"Alright… she's young but an adult, so I'm going to trust you not to turn into your former man whoring ways and scare her off. Because if you do; and she declines my fellowship offer, I will kick you in the ass." Derek threatens and then turns to head back to the Neuro dept.
Mark just stands there and takes a deep breath; despite Derek's threat, this is going to be an interesting weekend.