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thanksgiving eve

it was the day before thanksgiving and lydia was on her sister's service with lexie. all she could think about was that it was her first thanksgiving with mark. she was excited but also nervous. callie and arizona were joining them too and for that, lydia was grateful.

lexie and lydia were examining a young boy with a nosebleed.

"when did the bleeding start?" lydia asked the boy's parents.

"this morning. he's had these before. i just... i've never seen a nosebleed go on like this." the boy's mother told the doctors.

"there's blood on timmy, mom." said the little boy.

"mr. and mrs. jacobsen, can i see you?" derek asked.

"go ahead. we'll be fine." lexie said to the jacobsen's.

"nicholas has what is called an arteriovenous malformation." derek told the parents.

"it's a cluster of tangled blood vessels in his brain. it's what's causing the bleeding." arizona said.

"in order to stop the bleeding, we need to remove it." derek told them.

"y-y-you mean like brain surgery or..."

"i'll do everything i can to protect the brain tissue and minimize damage." derek explained.

"i'm sorry. i know it's scary. but we have to go in right away." arizona said.

lexie and lydia left the room and went down to the pit. the two girls a=saw mark talking to a blonde girl and decided to walk over to them.

"and, um, i'm pretty sure you're my dad." the unknown blonde said.

lydia's eyes widened as she looked at the two, then around the room at everyone else's reactions. to say she was shocked was an understatement. She looked at lexie and the younger brunette looked back at her with her jaw dropped.

lydia walked backwards until she turned around and walked over to callie.

"um, should i offer up a paternity test?" lydia whispered to her friend.

"i'll go get the materials." callie whispered back, walking off to get the tubes for the test.

lexie brought the blonde girl and mark into an empty conference room for them to talk.

soon enough callie came back with the materials and the two women walked into the conference room.

"hi, how's it, uh, how's it going in here?" lydia asked the two, awkwardly.

"great." "fine."

"okay. so have we broached the question of a paternity test? cause we brought supplies." callie told them.

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they agreed to a paternity test and lydia was paged to go to her surgery.

"she's eighteen, not that much younger than me." lydia told the surgeons in the room.

"well, it's not that shocking actually. i mean, the way mark got around before he met you, there could be a gaggle of sloans. sloan jones. sloan smith. sloan sloan." derek told his friend's girlfriend.

"mean." arizona said to him.

"ah, damn it. son of a bitch." derek said. "i can't access the feeders."

"so... what does that mean?" lexie asked nervously.

"it means i can't get at it. i can do a temporary fix, but once he starts bleeding again, which he will, there wont be anything we can do." derek said, sadly.

"so we're just gonna..." lydia trailed off.

"send him home to die?" lexie continued off of lydia.

"happy thanksgiving, jacobsen family." arizona said.

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the surgery was over and the surgeons went back to nicholas's room to tell his parents the bad news.

"i-i-i-i don't ... i don't understand. you ... you said that ... that he would die without the surgery. and now you're telling us we're supposed to just take him home?" mr. jacobsen said, confusedly.

"right. well, i've stopped the bleeding temporarily. but the only way to remove the a.v.m. safely is through the sinus." derek told the parents.

"well, why don't you do that?" mrs. jacobsen asked derek.

"because there are no instruments that can maneuver through a nasal cavity this small and get the appropriate angles." lydia explained.

"why not? who does that? who invents those things?" mrs. jacobsen asked them.

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a little later, lydia joined meredith, alex, and cristina for lunch in one of the skills rooms. the girl walked over to the lunch table and sat down next to alex.

"this is the best thanksgiving ever." cristina said to the group. "no obnoxious relatives. no stupid traditions. no going around the table and saying what you're grateful for."

"yeah, i think we should do the opposite. talk about what we're not grateful for." alex said.

"the merger." cristina said.

"the mercy westers." meredith told them.

"they're like the plague. i mean, stealing all our surgeries, eating all that pie in the nurses' station." lydia pointed out, taking a bite of her salad.

"you're doing that wrong." meredith told alex, who was trying out a new suture.

"i am not." he said.

"you are. can i show you?" she asked, taking the suture kit from him and showing him how to do it correctly.

"private lessons with the chief..." cristina scoffed. "man, those daddy issues are working for you."

"i don't have daddy issues. he's teaching me." meredith told her.

"you're his bitch."  alex said to her.

lydia laughed. "well, in that case, you're teddy's bitch." meredith told cristina.

"maybe that's my problem. i'm nobody's bitch." alex said.

"same here." lydia said, pointing to herself.

"oh no, no, you're definitely robbins' bitch." alex told her.

"yeah, you get all of her cool peds surgery's." meredith said.

"well, at least i want to go into peds." lydia said. "and anyways, you were izzie's bitch."

"you're the bitch." alex told lydia.

"you know what, it's thanksgiving. can we just have no name-calling?" meredith asked.

"yeah. please." lydia said.

"whatever. just show me that stitch again." alex told meredith, who obliged.

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later, lydia went home to her apartment to get started on dinner with callie and arizona. the woman was busy chopping up vegetables for dinner while arizona was holding her niece and kissed callie. suddenly there was a knock on the door and mark walked inside.

"hey." all of the women said to mark.

he waved and sloan walked inside saying a quick, "hey."

the girls greeted sloan by saying 'hi' or 'hello', and lydia just had a shocked look on her face.

"welcome. happy thanksgiving. who wants wine?" callie asked.

"ooh, i do." sloan said.

"no, you--you don't." mark said to her. "um... hey, everybody. uh, well, the results are in. it, uh, turns out sloan was right about her parentage."

lydia started to chop faster, while also keeping her eyes locked on mark and sloan.

"i am her dad. um, so here's another thing to be thankful for." mark then talked directly to lydia. "lydia, sloan here is gonna move in with us or a little while"

lydia didn't exactly live with mark, but she was over so much she basically lived there. suddenly, a chop was heard and it didn't sound like vegetables. lydia looked down and saw that she had chopped off the tip of her pinky.

"oh, my god." callie exclaimed, looking at her severed finger.

"oh." arizona said, taking emily away. no one wanted the baby to see her mother like that.

"ouch." lydia said. she couldn't believe anything that was happening in the moment.

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christmas eve

lydia was over at mark's apartment, decorating the christmas tree when mark walked over to talk to her.

"how's it feel?" mark asked his girlfriend. "still tingling?"

"oh, it's fine, i pretty much have full sensation." lydia told him as her boyfriend was examining her hand.

"great. good. so... have you uh. i mean, uh, you think you could ask her how long she's planning to stay?" mark asked.

lydia looked over at sloan, who was sitting in the kitchen, painting her nails. "mark, it's been a month, and you've exchanged three sentences with her. two of them were, 'pass the cereal.' in the spirit of the holiday, maybe you can ask her yourself. she's pretty easy to like once you get to know her." lydia told mark, putting her arm on his shoulder.

"really?" he asked hopefully.

"no, she's a vapid, vapid, girl. but she's your daughter, okay? so--so try." lydia said to mark. "i'm trying to get to know her and i'm trying to like her, the least you could do is try. okay? try--try to be her dad." lydia pushed mark toward his daughter, she hoped she made an impression on him.

mark took a deep breath and walked over to sloan and smiled. "uh..."

the girl turned around to face her dad and asked, "what are you looking at, you old perv?"

lydia looked at the girl in shock, her jaw dropped. mark just smiled awkwardly and walked away. lydia left the tree alone and went to comfort her boyfriend.

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for christmas, meredith invited everyone over to her house to celebrate the holiday. so, lydia, mark, emily, and sloan made their way over to meredith's house. later in the evening, lydia and arizona were singing with richard for a while before lydia left them to go try and talk to sloan. she wanted to be on good terms with her boyfriend's daughter. so, lydia went over to mark and handed him emily, telling him to watch her.

"you're not serious. you got him a snowglobe of seattle?" lydia asked sloan.

"what? he likes seattle?" sloan didn't see anything wrong with what she did.

"i gave you fifty bucks. where's my change?" lydia asked.

sloan sighed and put her hand on her hip. "okay, i spent the rest on a new pair of jeans."

lydia put her hand on sloan's shoulder. "it's ok. all i wanted to know was if you had change. i was most likely going to let you keep the extra money anyways." she told sloan gently.

"why are you being nice to me when i've been rude to you for a month?" sloan asked the woman.

lydia sighed and pointed towards mark, who was looking at them. "look at mark. do you see him? i love him and he loves you, even if he's bad at showing it. and because i love him, i'm going to try to like you because you're important to mark, which makes you important to me." lydia told sloan, her voice filled with care.

"well, then i guess i'll try and like you too. it's just, i just met my dad and i find out his girlfriend isn't much older than me and she has a baby, who mark acts like she's his. " sloan said to lydia, reaching out to her.

"i get it. if it were me in your position, i would be a little weirded out too. are we ok?"

"yep." sloan said to lydia.

soon enough, everyone sat down at the table, eating dinner. lydia was sat next to mark and arizona. emily sat in her carseat, asleep at the head of the table next to bailey, the latter rocking the seat.

"the house looks beautiful, mer." lexie said from her spot next to mark.

"thank you."

"callie?" derek asked.

"working. arizona said.

"oh, that's too bad." derek said.

"here, do you want some stuffing?"

"thanks."

"oh, how--how'd kelsey do?" teddy asked cristina.

"uh, well." cristina replied.

"who's kelsey?" derek asked.

"a girl with no heart. i had to do a laparoscopic bowel repair whilst the poor thing was awake on the table." bailey said from her spot at the end of the table.

"miranda, mind your manners. even if surgery is your whole life, it doesn't mean you have to talk about bowels at the dinner table." bailey's dad told her.

"my child is healthy." bailey announced.

"excuse me?" her father said.

"he may not be with me tonight, but he's healthy ..." bailey started but was interrupted by her father.

"i didn't say he ..."

"and he's well-loved. he's a well-loved boy. and he's a happy boy. and staying in an unhappy marriage, staying in an unhappy marriage, a marriage that i've outgrown, a marriage full of ultimatums and numbness 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. 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." bailey ranted, whilst everyone stared at her.

"my child is healthy, and i'm happy. and, you know, part of my happiness is the fact that i got to repair a woman's bowel and save her life today. and that's god's work, which makes this appropriate christmas dinner conversation." bailey said, which everyone agreed.

"i'm happy. and my child is healthy. and that's enough for me today, dad. that's enough."

"uh, green beans, anyone?" arizona asked as an ice breaker.

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new year's eve

"it's new year's eve." lydia said, holding her daughter in her arms.

"i know." mark said, playing with emily's hands, making the baby laugh.

"she shows no signs or leaving-- no suitcase packed, nothing. i'm nice to her and she's ok to me, but she might have overstayed her welcome just a bit." lydia told mark sincerely. "talk to her right now, or no more sex for you."

lydia left the apartment with emily to get ready for her day at work.

"hey, zona, can you give me a ride?"

"yeah, of course." arizona said, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"thanks, let me just get emily ready to take to the hospital day care."

lydia left the room to change and dress her daughter, who was about four and a half months old. she dressed the baby in a purple onesie and brought her to the kitchen, where she took a bottle out of the fridge and started feeding her while her and arizona walked to the car.

they made it to the hospital and lydia met arizona in nicholas' room after dropping emily off.

"he's in hypovolemic shock. he's lost too much blood. and i didn't want to have to do this, but we're gonna have to put a tube down his throat to help him breathe." arizona told the boy's parents.

"nicholas." his mom gasped.

"we need to tube him right now." lydia said.

"don't tube him. bag him till we get to the o.r." derek said, walking into the room.

"the o.r.?"

"we finished the instruments. we're gonna operate. i just need you to sign a consent form." derek said.

"pretty dramatic timing, dr. shepherd." lydia said, smiling.

"i like to make an entrance."

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a little later, they were in surgery, trying to fix nicholas's nosebleeds.

"oh, how's it handling?" arizona asked derek.

"it could bend a little more gently." derek told the peds surgeon.

"don't get all critical. thing cost me a fortune." mark said to them.

"i could use one more day to practice. okay. inserting the clip applier." derek announced.

"why don't you try torquing it a little to get a different angle." mark said, derek doing what he said. "there you go."

"okay. there it is. got it. that's the last clip." derek said, lydia watching him help the boy.

"oh my god." lydia said.

"ladies and gentlemen, we're done here." derek announced.

"nice work. beautiful." mark said, admiring the work.

"oh, my god. you did it." meredith said, happily.

"amazing." lexie said as she and meredith hugged.

"hang on, look at the clock. and that's, uh, seven, six..." derek counted down.

"five, four, three, two, one. happy new year!" everyone counted down.

lydia walked away from her spot next to lexie and meredith over to mark. the woman hugged him and the two kissed with their masks on. it really was a happy moment for everyone.

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11/11/20