lxxv. happy holidays
6.10

thanksgivings eve
& thanksgiving.

"Hi." Atlas greeted as he stepped into a conference room where Mark and Marks supposedly daughter sat across from him. "How are we doing today?"

"Great."

"Fine."

Atlas clicked his tongue, "Okay. Have we thought about a paternity test? Because Callie gave me supplies." Atlas held up his hand that held all the supplies for a paternity test.

Mark nodded rapidly, "Yeah, yeah, okay."

Atlas looked to young woman, he held a smile. "Can I draw your blood?" The woman nodded and Atlas thanked her quietly.

The cardio surgeon, who had a consult on a patients of Teddys soon, got straight to work in drawing up both Marks and the other woman's blood.

"Marky. Right now might be a good place for you to say something, anything." Atlas said, watching as Mark continued to lean back in his chair speechless.

"Dude." The woman who Atlas hadn't gotten a name for started. "Are you, like, high or something?"

"Atly. Sloan." Derek exclaimed as he walked into the conference room where his fiancée and Mark were.

"Yeah." Both Mark and Sloan peeked up at Derek who had entered the room.

Derek chuckled. "Mark. Atly. I need you on something."

Both Atlas and Mark nodded and stood up. Atlas said a goodbye to Marks daughter before he left the room.

"I have a daughter! And eighteen year old daughter." Mark complained. "I am too young to have an eighteen year old daughter. It's a nail in my coffin. It's like death had come to call."

Derek interrupted, "Okay, can we put a pin in your existential crisis for a minute?"

"Mean." Atlas elbowed Derek in the side lightly as they continued on walking.

"No. That's why they call it a crisis." Mark deadpanned, he looked to Atlas for backup. Atlas only shrugged and pretended to be interested by some odd painting on the wall.

"Look. Doctor Robbins and I have a six year old with an inoperable a.v.m. We need both you and Atlys help to make it operable." Derek explained as he took a step forward and turned so he was facing the other two attendings.

"Why me?" Atlas asked as he leaned against Derek.

Derek shrugged with a smile. "Emotional support. "

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Now it was thanksgiving day. Atlas and Derek were off work now, it being around six o'clock.

The couple, including Starlee, were now currently on their way to Atlas's mothers house, where they would be eating dinner. The drive was quiet so far, the only noise being the radio.

"We're here!" Atlas exclaimed as he parked the car in front of his mothers home, there were a few other cars — probably Meredith's and whoever Eliza had invited.

Derek was the first to get out, he got right out of the car and moved towards the back seat door where Starlee was buckled into her car seat. He unbuckled Starlee as Atlas grabbed the bag of baking supplies he had picked up during one of his breaks.

The three made their way towards the door, where Atlas didn't hesitate to open it quickly. "Mom! Mother! We're home! Your favourite has arrived!"

christmas eve
& christmas day

Atlas sat silently as Miranda Bailey walked around the nurses station. Atlas was comfortably sitting on one of the rolly chairs and Miranda paced.

Miranda Bailey wasn't very happy and it was showing. Her father had shown up to Seattle and when he found out that his daughter was getting a divorce, he wasn't to happy.

Atlas was being tasked with going in and talking to Bailey's father. Of course Atlas would, to him Miranda Bailey was his best friend. She was his person.

"Hi." Atlas waved as he stepped into the OR viewing room.

The older man sitting there, who was clearly Miranda's father, turned his head to look at Atlas. "Hello."

Atlas stood bouncing on his feet, he turned to look at the operating room where Bails was operating. "You're Miranda's father?"

"William Bailey. You can call me Bill though." The older man answered as Atlas stepped back and took a seat beside Bill.

Atlas eagerly put his hand out for Bill to shake, which the older man did right away.

"Well then, hi Bill. I'm Atlas Sunny — well I'm actually Atlas Peter Lee-Sunny, and I'm soon getting married so I'll beAtlas Shepherd." Atlas rambled on, when Bill sent him a strange questioning look Atlas stoped talking about his name, and started to talk about something else.

"Miranda mentioned that she snuck you in here. She said I should come say hi."

Miranda's father smiled before he gestured with his hand to the operating room, "So what's that she's doing down there?"

"Oh! That's a hernia repair. We get so many during the Christmas times. People lifting trees, or heavy gifts. Sometimes it's even Santa bags." Atlas rolled his eyes. "We get lots of broken bones too."

Bill nodded. "Are you a bones surgeon? Or one like Miranda... a general surgeon?"

"Oh no. I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon. But I do know someone who's a bones surgeon — an orthopaedic surgeon. She had a patient earlier this day who broke both his wrists by an electric shock from some Christmas lights." Atlas grinned widely as he talked.

"Oh, woah."

"Yeah." Atlas looked back down at the operating room. "Your daughter is my best friend, she's my person. And I know things are shocking — like her divorce. Sometimes it's hard accepting things — "

"I'm sorry? What?"

"Miranda mentioned that you're having a hard time accepting her divorce. That's totally understandable! But I know that she didn't come to that decision lightly."

Miranda's father nodded as Atlas talked.

"She's a great person, she's my best friend, I have to say that. But, uh, yeah... merry Christmas."

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Oliver Lee-Sunny and Eliza Lee-Sunny stood side by side as they enjoyed a chocolate bar at one of the nurses stations. Miranda Bailey's father stood not to far away, he was quiet as he waited for his daughter.

A few minutes later when the twins had moved on from their chocolate bar and to a bag of chips, Bailey rounded a corner with a bounce in her step. "So, how was the view." Bailey asked her father, not paying any attention to the two residents that were now leaning even closer so they could hear.

There was a pause before William Bailey started to talk, "I have been a proud father. Your whole life, I have been a proud father. Your mother and I sat in the front row of every dance class, every oboe recital — " The twins chuckled when the older man mentioned oboe recitals " — And we cheered. We sat in the front row of every graduation. I was always the first one on my feet. And the loudest one in the crowd."

Oliver leaned over towards his sister, to the point he was practically leaning on her, "Oboe recitals." He whispered.

"I have been... a proud father." Miranda Bailey smiled and chuckled at her fathers words, until he continued on, then she stopped smiling. "And today, Miranda, I-I sat in the gallery, and I watched you repair some fat man's hernia. And for the first time in my life, I felt ashamed of you."

Poor Oliver and Eliza gasped into their hands. "Oh no."

"This is what you do on Christmas?" Miranda's father asked in an accusing tone. "For this, you traded your husband? For this, you traded your child's family? So you could work all day and go home alone on Christmas to an empty house without even a tree. I would be a bad father today if I didn't like you in the eye and tell you have made a terrible mistake."

That's when Oliver rounded around the nurses station, his bag of chips leaving his hands. He practically stomped forward until he was standing beside Bailey. "She's not going home alone." He swung his arm around the woman's shoulder and Eliza walked over to them.

"She's spending Christmas with us, and her niece." Eliza pointed out with a slight glare.

"And she's not making a mistake." Oliver denied the older man's words. Oh how Atlas will be proud. "She's happy, and she's not making a mistake."

Eliza flashed a tight lipped smile before she turned to Miranda. "Atlas is waiting, he got you your favourite ice cream, too."

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Owen Hunt held a guitar in his hands, his fingers strumming along to the song Baby, It's cold outside.

"I really can't stay." Arizona sung, as others around hummed and clapped along.

Richard Webber continued on, a smile on his lips, "Oh, Baby, it's cold outside."

Eliza nudged Arizona with a wide smile, "I've got to go away."

"But, Baby, it's cold outside." Richard went on to sing, he swayed lightly from his seat beside Arizona.

Arizona continued, "This evening has been..."

Eliza looked to her twin brother and niece as she sung the next part, "So very nice."

Atlas stepped into the living room. His voice wasn't to loud, and he wasn't one of the best singers, but he joined in away ways. "Hopin' you would drop in, I'll hold your hand. They're like ice."

Arizona nodded as she continued on the next part, "My mother will start to worry."

Richard Webber smiled, "Hey, beautiful, what's your hurry?"

Atlas looked away from the people gathered in his mothers living room. (The whole Lee-Sunny family had decided to his a big Christmas dinner, everyone who wanted to come had shown up, and more were showing up.) His eyes twinkled as he looked out the window where snow began to fall from the cloudy sky and stuck to the grass.

Lilla sung some words next as she joined the party in the living room, a dish towel in her hands, "My father will be pacing the floor."

"Listen to the fire roar."

"So really, I'd better scurry."

"Well." Oliver softly smiled, "Maybe just a half a drink more..."

A while later, when dinner was finished everyone gathered around the tables that had been pushed together. Atlas sat with Derek on his left, and Eliza on his right. Starlee was to Derek's right. And Oliver was to Starlees left. And so on, so on.

"The house looks beautiful, miss Lee." Lexie said to Lilla as she fished herself up some food.

"Awe, thank you dear." Lilla smiled back as she handed around a plate of mashed potatoes.

"How did Kelsey do?" Teddy asked Christina awkwardly, it was clear to someone who payed a lot of attention — like Eliza ( or any of the Lee-Sunny family ) — that Teddy had some feelings for Owen.

Christina perked up, "Oh, well."

"Who's Kelsey?" Derek asked as he looked around the table, he looked from Bailey to Teddy, to Atlas then Christina

Bailey smiled, now much more interested. "A girl with no heart. I had to do a laparoscopic bowel repair while the poor thing was awake at the table."

"Miranda, mind your manners." William Bailey said as he looked right at his daughter. "Even if surgery is your whole life, it doesn't mean you have to talk about bowels at the dinner table."

"Teddy asked..." Eliza whispered quietly, but she knew some people had heard her.

There was a pause, the only noice to be heard was the clank of silverware. "My child is healthy." Miranda started.

"Excuse me?"

Bailey looked up from her plate, a sad expression laced on her face. "He may not be with me tonight, but he's healthy — "

"I didn't say," William Bailey interrupted only for Miranda to keep talking.

" — And he's well loved. He's a well loved boy. And he's a happy boy. And staying in an unhappy marriage." Bailey was interrupted by her father once again, but she only continued on talking. "Staying in an unhappy marriage, a marriage that I've outgrown, a marriage full of ultimatums and numbers and resentment... that is not the kind of life I want to model for my child. That is not what I want him to believe married love is." Miranda's voice grew louder and louder.

Until it softened, "Look, I know what's possible. I know what's out there for me because you taught me well. You and mom showed me what true love looks like. So I chose not to settle, and I'm happier for it... even if I'm alone at Christmas. My child is healthy, and I'm happy."

"Whoo. Go Bails." Atlas cheered quietly. He was so proud that she stood up for herself. That she showed her father who was boss.

new years eve
& new years day.

Atlas stood in the operating room. He watched with big eyes as his soon-to-be-husband worked his magic with some brand new tools. (Brand new tools that Atlas had helped pay for, Atlas wanted you all to know that he helped pay...)

"Oh, how's it handling?" Arizona asked as she looked into the microscope device they were using.

Derek let out a sigh as he fiddled with the instrument. "It could bend a little bit more gently."

"Don't get all critical. Thing cost me a fortune." Mark looked up from what he was doing to send Derek a friendly glare.

"I could use one more day to practice. Okay. Inserting the clip applier."

"Why don't you try torquing it a little to get a different angle?" There was a short breath before Mark spoke again. "There you go."

"Okay. There it is. Perfect. Okay." Derek muttered. "Got it. That was the last clip."
."
"Oh my god!" Arizona exclaimed.

Derek smiled under his mask as he looked to Atlas, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we're done here."

"Nice work. Beautiful." Mark complimented.

"You did it!" Atlas cheered, blowing a kiss to Derek. A kiss in which Derek caught.

"Hand on. Look at the clock. And that's uh, seven. Six..."

"Five, four, three, two... one!" Everyone counted down loudly, joy in the air.

"Happy new year!"

Atlas took a few step forward, right until he was placed in front of Derek. "Happy new year, my love."

"Happy new year." Derek leaned in a placed a masked kiss to Atlas's lips, or what he hoped was his lips. "I love you."

"I love you more."