Chapter 15

A/N: Hi guys, sorry for the long wait. I needed some time away, but I'm back now. This chapter follows the events of the third episode of season 11. I struggled a little with it, because there's a lot going on and a lot of very important dialogues. It's a bit slow because of the dialogues, but please bear with me. Thank you for reading and for your reviews.

Two months have seemed to pass much faster than the first few days after Alison's arrival in Seattle. Amelia and Alison were becoming closer every single day. Sometimes it was still akward, because Alison couldn't make herself to call Amelia by name or anything other than that. 'Mom' was definetely still out of the question. As close as they've become it was far from a mother-daughter relationship, but slowly, step by step, they were on a good path to get there. Alison was getting used to her new routine, new people and a new city. Between hospital, studying, spending time with Amelia and talking with her family she didn't have a lot of free time. But when she did she played tennis in the club. She even made Zack go with her once. He was a terrible player and Alison teased him that he made a great choice by choosing medicine instead of sports. Alison on the other hand was a great player. She started playing when she was 8 and found it was a great stress reliever. So when she felt anxiety and anger building she would leave whatever she was doing and went to the tennis court. It was some kind of terapy for her and she loved it.

Most of the time spent together in the hospital Amelia and Alison were very professional. Even though Amelia sometimes felt like she wanted to scream in front of everyone that Alison was her baby, she knew she couldn't and decided to wait as long as it was needed. On a daily bases she could find a reason to be proud of Alison. The girl had an exceptional talent for surgery and a great sense of how to talk and deal with patients. Everybody, even Derek who was convinced on Alison's first day that the internship and the competition would eat her alive, had noting else to say about Alison, but to praise her.

Alison herself was a little disappointed when Dr. Robbins started her fellowship in fetal surgery with Dr. Herman. She spent almost two weeks working on peds with Arizona and felt like she was learning more then ever in her life. Dr. Karev took over. He was a great peds surgeon, but as a teacher Alison hated him.

In the past two months a lot has happened and gossips were flying around the hospital. The worst ones were about Arizona and Callie splitting up and about Maggie being Webber's and Elis Grey's daughter. Maggie still refused to talk with Richard, but her and Meredith were even becoming friends. Other news were that Dr. Kepner was pregnant and that Derek and Meredith were acting more polite to each other. Their fights were temporarily replaced with sex time-outs.

Rainy monday mornings were always the worst. When Alison's shift started the ER was already packed with patients. Zack wasn't feeling very well so she was even more busy than usual. Around 10am ambulance arrived, bringing an old couple. They were in a fire and the husband took his wife and jumped through the window trying to save her. Paramedics couldn't find her pulse, but the husband wouldn't let her go. When they arrived in the ER Meredith was able to find a very weak pulse of the wife, so Owen, Maggie and Amelia went to take care of the wife and Meredith, April and Callie stayed with the husband.

''Good tube placement. Yeah...haemo pneumothorax is bigger. Edwards prep for the chest tube.'' – Pierce said while looking at the scans.

''Before you do that, Edwards can you check the CT again and see when they can take us.'' – Amelia inquired in a hurry.

''But, she's bleeding in her lung...'' – Hunt jumped in.

''I know, but I felt a pressed temporal bone fracture and she has the spinal fluid coming out of her ear, and I need a CT to confirm.'' – Amelia answered matter-of-factly.

Hunt just nodded in approval when Kepner walked in the trauma room.

''I'm on my way up to radiology. Is anyone free to update the family?''

''I can do it.'' – Amelia said and took off the gloves before heading out in the waiting room to search for the family members.

''Sarah...what are you doing here?'' – Amelia was genuinely surprised to see Sarah outside the meetings.

''Amelia? You're...a doctor?!'' – Sarah wasn't surprised, she was rather shocked how could somehow as screwed up as Amelia be a doctor.

''Yeah, I am...yeah...'' – Amelia stumbled upon the words and felt pretty uncomfortable. She was trying very hard to keep her battle with addiction as far as possible from her job or people she loved. She was ashamed of that part of her life.

''My parents...they were in a fire.'' - Sarah started crying.

''Oh God! Okay...umm... This is what we know so far. Your father has some internal injuries and a leg fracture. Your mom has a bleeding into her lung and a cranial fracture. As her neurosurgeon I'm going to need to do some surgery to...''- Amelia explained, but then was interrupted.

''Wait... You want to do surgery on my mom? No...noo...I'm sorry, but no...No...''-Sarah became histerical and turned to the nurses station – ''Excuse me. I'm going to need a different doctor...''

''Sarah...'' – Amelia said softly, not knowing what to say or how to act.

''She cannot touch my mother. I need a different doctor right now!'' – Sarah was yelling at that point, drawing more and more attention.

''Okay, calm down.'' – Amelia tried desperately to calm her, because people were starting to notice and she was afraid what Sarah could say.

''No, I want another doctor!'' – Sarah yelled so loud that there wasn't a person in the whole ER who didn't hear that. Everybody turned and looked at two women. Pierce, Grey, Torres, Edwards, Derek...All eyes and ears were on them. Amelia was aware of everyone listening, but she cared the most for one pair of ears and what they would hear. Alison was there and Amelia could feel her staring.

''What's the problem?'' – Hunt intervened with an intention to calm down the situation.

''She cannot touch my mother. She's a drug addict. I can't have her operate on my parents.'' – Sarah yelled and it seemed like everything and everyone were just frozen. Amelia couldn't believe what she was hearing. She felt sick and couldn't move a muscle.
''Hold it! Dr. Shepherd...'' – Hunt tried to speak, but was interrupted by Sarah yelling for everyone to hear.

''Is a junky. I met her in NA. She's hooked on oxy. She overdosed with her boyfriend and woke up with him dead in bed with her. I want another doctor. NOW! You keep her away from them!''

Shock was written over everyone's face, while Amelia's was just blank. She stood there trying really hard not to cry and to act professionaly, but on the inside she was breaking. Her secret was out in the open. Even though she knew that eventually people would find out, but not like that. It wasn't supposed to happen like that. Hunt looked at her expecting her to say something, but after few seconds of silence Derek stepped between them.

''Hunt don't worry. I've got this.'' – Derek said and looked at Amelia with disgust before heading to the trauma room.

Alison stood there shocked like every other person who heard the women screaming at and about Amelia. She knew about Amelia's addiction, but apparently she didn't know everything. For a minute she found herself unable to move or talk. Her mind was running 200 miles per hour trying to figure out was that woman talking about her father or somebody else. Her father fell asleep and never woke up, but at that time Amelia was in the hospital, so it couldn't be about him. Either it was somebody else that Amelia never mentioned or the whole story was a lie. She saw the disgusted look Amelia recieved from Derek and could see her back off in defeat, utterly shocked about what was said.

Amelia was passing through the hallway and everybody was staring, whispering and pointing fingers at her. She felt humiliated, angry, sad, afraid, weak, and all at the same time. Cloud of heaviness following her at each step she took. Avoiding eye contact with everyone made her feel even worse. And on top of that, her heart was breaking for Alison. She was there, she heard everything. She didn't know about Ryan, and it was thrown in her face in that way. Amelia was still waiting for the moment to tell her. She wanted to make it easier to take in somehow, if it was even possible. Screaming Sarah for sure didn't make it easier. And all of a sudden everything felt more real and painful.

Amelia walked to Webber, who was standing at the nurses station, and said with the smallest voice – ''I need to talk to you.''

They walked in the examination room and the moment Richard closed the door Amelia fell apart.
''She just said it. In front of everyone. All this stuff that I said at the meetings about...'' – tears were already falling when she remembered Ryan and she couldn't even finish her sentence.

''It's okay.'' – Richard said with a soothing voice, trying to calm her.

''How is it okay? Everyone is looking at me.''

''Are you sober?'' – he asked firmly.

''Of course I am.'' – Amelia said without even thinking. That wasn't the point. Of course she was sober. She would never do anything to destroy her life again and the new-found relationship with Alison.

''Did you disclose your recovery when you were hired?'' – Richard continued with the questioning.

''I didn't have to. Derek hired me. He knew. I assumed people knew...'' – tears were chocking her.

''And you've done nothing wrong! Okay?'' – he gently raised her chin, so he could look her in the eyes – '' She did! She violated your privacy and you are under no obligation to tell anyone anything more, unless you've done something to compromise your ability to do you job. And you haven't. So you don't need to say anything about it.''

''Okay...'' – she whispered.

''Those are your rights. It's the past and you don't have to defend it!'' – Richard gave her the meaningful look.

''I thought I got away from it. I thought I had a chance for a new life... With Alison... But you never get away from it...''

''No. No, you don't.''

Amelia nodded with tears in her eyes – ''What do I do now?''

''You just stay on track. You look after yourself. Do your job. And as soon as you can you need to get to a meeting.'' – he said with the chiefly tone – ''And Amelia...talk to Alison. I'm sure she'll understand.''

In the meantime, Alison was trying hard to concentrate, but failed miserably. She was wondering how Amelia could keep all that a secret. They made a deal to be honest with each other two months ago and Amelia already broke it. She technically didn't lie, but for Alison this was even bigger then a lie. Amelia never mentioning the dead boyfriend or her relapsing hurt Alison very much. The two of them were on a good path and Alison started to trust her. After being abandoned at least what she deserved was the truth, tho whole truth, not just half of it. In a way, Alison felt betrayed and didn't know if the trust, that was building for two months, could survive such a hard blow.

Amelia was writing on the surgical board, trying not to listen the whispers when Owen approached her.

''Dr. Shepherd...umm...can we go somewhere private to talk?'' – he felt very akward.

''I'm busy right now, actually.'' – Amelia said without looking at him.

''This is important.'' – he paused and came closer to avoid anyone eevesdropping – ''Listen. Is there anything you want to tell me to...clear this up?''

''I don't...I think you heard all the facts...'' – she answered with a cold and distant voice.

''What I heard was a very distrout woman shouting and I think there's another side to the story.'' – Owen tried to push her to talk.

''A woman requested another doctor and I was removed from the case. That is her right. People have rights...'' – Amelia started rambling to distract him, but Owen interrupted.

''Listen. I am just trying to have a conversation...''

''That is none of your bussiness. If I'm doing my job...'' – she paused and looked at him questioning – ''Am I doing my job?''

''Amelia, I am trying to help you here.'' – Owen wasn't giving up.

''I just...'' – she paused, looked down then looked him right in the eyes – ''I don't have to dicuss this with you.''

''And that's your answer?'' – he was irritated.

''That's my right.'' – Amelia answered with that cold tone again.

Owen sighed heavily, said – ''Okay.'', turned around and left.

After that very tense conversation with Owen, Amelia decided to hide for the rest of the day in a scan room and busy herself with her cases. It was easier to try to save other people's lives than to battle with herself. But the distraction didn't work as well as she hoped it would. Thinking about all the explaining she owed to Alison made her even more nervous. There wasn't and easier way to tell the story after all. But she didn't know where to begin or would Alison give her the chance to say anything. Yet again she found herself asking how is it possible that everything is great in one moment and then in the next one everything is totally screwed up and awful.

Derek got in the room breathless and without knocking, relieved he found his sister. Amelia's thoughts were interrupted and before she was able to say anything Derek asked - ''Did Owen talked to you?''

''I didn't tell him anything''- Amelia answered looking for any kind of support in her brother's eyes.

''Did he tell you about your job?'' – he continued.

''He's saying he's going to take my job?'' – she exclaimed with a panic on her face – '' Derek, talk to him!''

''I did...I did already.'' – he sighed heaviliy – '' I think I might of given him the idea.''

''Derek...noo...'' – tears were collecting again in her eyes.

''I didn't mean to...I'm sorry. I'm going to fix it.'' – Derek tried to explain himself.

''He wants to give you my job and you're going to let him!'' – Amelia was shocked with her brother.

''No, I'm not!'' – was his defence.

''You son of a bitch. You kept me here. You asked me to come. You asked me to stay. I was building a life. A new life. A second chance that I have given to MYSELF. Just so you could feel better about leaving.'' – Amelia couldn't keep it together anymore.

''I was trying to help you and I was trying to help myself. I'm just trying...'' – Derek stuttered, knowing he would be the one to blame if the board takes Amelia's job.

''And you gave me this job and you have abused me since the second I took it, but that is not enough. You need to destroy my entire career. How can you do this to me?'' – she was yelling at him, devestated that her own brother was capable of doing that to her.

'' TO ME?'' – Amelia repeated in disbelief.

''I will fix it. I will talk to them.'' – he chocked a bit a continued – '' I will talk to all of them and I WILL FIX IT.''

''How can you do this? You're my brother...'' – was all that Amelia could say.

Derek frowned, nodded and rushed out, leaving his sister shocked. Amelia couldn't believe her brother could do that to her. He was suposed to protect her. From everyone and everything. And yet again, he failed. She felt betrayed. Her big brother betrayed her trust. She looked up to him her whole life and he was doing this to her. It would be probably a lot easier to take the blow in the gut then that. Amelia was so hurt. She needed someone. Someone to talk to, who would understand her. Not just her addiction like Richard, but her as a person. She thought of calling Addison, but quickly threw that idea out of the way. Addison would fly to Seattle that second and asked all the questions Amelia couldn't answer in that moment. She needed someone who would just listen, without questions and judgement.

The first person she could think of was Meredith. So Amelia found the courage to walk the hallways again and to find Meredith.

''It was just a misunderstanding. He'll take care of it. He said that he would.'' – Meredith tried to comfort Amelia.

''He did this Meredith. Why should I beleive that? Why do you believe it?'' – Amelia questioned, sincerely interested to hear the answer.

''Because he's your brother.''

Amelia sighed – ''That's why he can do it. That's why he could steal my toys and pull my hair and call me names...because I'm family. That's why he thinks he can get away with it. You don't get it...''

''No, I don't. I was raised as an only child. And I am historically loussy at being a sister.'' – Meredith said with a half smile.

After few moments of silence Amelia looked at her and said softly - ''You're here right now. It's good enough.''

As that terrible, terrible day for both Alison and Amelia was nearing to its end, Alison heard the nurses gossiping about some urgent board meeting that would supposedly took place in an hour. It wasn't hard to assume that the reason for the meeting was Amelia's situation. As she was listening the nurses and doctors whispering about Amelia, Alison felt sad for the first time since everything happened in the morning. The anger was consuming her every minute of the day, but in that moment, when she realised that it was her mother everyone was whispering about the anger subsided a little and she felt the urge to find Amelia.

An hour later, at the board meeting Meredith, Torres, Avery, Hunt, Bailey and Webber were all there, just deciding not to wait for Robbins when Derek came in and started speaking.

''I know you're trying to figure out what's going on. I know you heard some stories...about...Amelia. I let you believe something. I let you believe that...'' – Derek was struggling with the words.

''Shepherd, you were pretty clear when we spoke, so...'' – Hunt jumped in.

''She's in recovery. She works really hard and she's been successfull and...'' – he paused and shook his head in disbelief at what he has done – ''This hospital should have protected her. This woman should've protected her. And...more importantly...I should've protected her!'' – he sighed and continued – ''I didn't. And I didn't because I wanted her job. I wanted my old job back. So now we're here. My fault.''

''Derek, why did you even...'' – Meredith couldn't believe what she was hearing.

''She should stay where she is, Owen. She can do this job. She IS doing the job. I couldn't do it any better.''

A/N: I hope to hear your thoughts. Do you think Alison should be very angry at Amelia for not telling her everything or should she try to be Amelia's rock in this terrible situation?
I know Derek's an ass, but he has to be for now to keep the storyline going.
And again, thank you very much for reading. Your reviews and views keep me motivated.