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chapter eleven ━ perfect little accident
season six, episode sixteen

❝ do you want to sign me
up for organ donation
while you're at it? ❞

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"Did you hear about Avery?" Alex exclaimed in a rather frantic, loud voice directly into Aliya's ear lobe, causing her to jump out of her skin.

"Alex!"

Aliya's first instinct was to swat the man in his chest as a method of self defence. Though, when she realised it was only Alex, she simply shook her head, clicking her pen as a stress outlet.

"No, what about Ja— Avery?" She asked, as calmly as humanly possible, trying to steady herself.

"He's Harper Avery's grandson!" Alex informed her in disbelief, clutching her arm and shaking it about, causing her to drop said pen onto the floor.

"As in," Aliya straightened up as Alex let go of her arm, clearing her throat dramatically. "The Harper Avery award for surgical innovation goes to—" She fanned out her hand, as if receiving an envelope from her side, her voice dropping an octave for dramatic effect.

"Duh." Alex scoffed, though he did find her performance fairly amusing. "Who else would it be?"

"I don't know," The brunette shrugged, retrieving her pen from the floor. "I just really wanted to do the impression, and it was fairly obvious, Alex. His last name is Avery."

"Okay, Levine." Alex exaggerated her last name with a smirk, just to prove a point that surgical nepotism was all about this hospital. "Anyway, Harper Avery is in the ER right this second being treated for abdominal pain, Jackson brought him in because they had breakfast together." The Karev explained unusually enthusiastically, especially for him.

Aliya nodded her head, staying silent to try and avoid the topic of him.

"How did your surgery go with Dr. Bailey yesterday?" The Karev man questioned, seemingly changing the subject for her.

"Good, classic bowel obstruction." Aliya nodded, reaching for one of her charts she was busily getting through. "She even let me do the whole entire thing."

He leant against the counter, almost hidden behind said pile of charts. "That's because you're her favourite now O'Malley is dead."

"That's a bit morbid." Aliya commented looking over at him from over the top of the pile as he pulled out his buzzing pager from his pocket.

"Oh, for gods sake—" He complained, his voice a low grunt.

Aliya peered over to his pager with a smirk. "Who did you piss off now?"

"Crabby old man." He frowned, before sprinting, far from gracefully, down the hall.

The Levine woman chuckled, picking up her overpriced smoothie from the counter and slurping on it through the straw, completely focused on the charting she had been procrastinating doing.

She was nearly finished, until Cristina pulled her by the sleeve of her scrubs.

"Ow—"

"I misdiagnosed Harper Avery! In front of Harper Avery." Cristina spoke rapidly to the two women left from her intern class, one hand tugging on each of their scrubs.

Aliya's brows knotted, and she cast a look from where Cristina was gripping her forearm tightly, to the mortified look on her face. "Yang, what did you do?"

Meredith chuckled, shaking her head at it all, though she quickly received a look from her friend in crisis.

"Who cares about the details? I misdiagnosed him! Do you know what that does to my chances of one day winning a Harper Avery?" Cristina groaned, throwing her head back with a sigh.

"I would bet significantly high?" Aliya offered, not helping matters at all. "C'mon, Cristina, when you do something worth a Harper Avery, he's not going to take into an account a mistake you made when you were a resident. I bet he made a few mistakes when he was our age."

"And, could die before then." Meredith pointed out, trying to make the Yang woman feel better, but she waved her off. "I mean, he could die today even!"

"You know what? You two are the worst people to talk to about this. I need to find someone who isn't a nepo-baby, like Karev, where's Karev when you need him?" Cristina sighed, resigned. "I just need to operate on my motorcycle daredevil, and then I'll be fine."

"Ugh, I wish I could get a motorcycle daredevil. My surgical life is as stale as that four week old bread Alex has in his room." Aliya stated, crossing her arms in dismay, and casting a dark look towards Meredith. "And, it's all your husband's fault."

"Alex has a four week old bread in his— you know what. I don't care." Cristina stopped, dragging her feet behind her as the trio walked across the hall.

"Is it true Harper Avery's here?" Lexie rushed to join the group, her blonde hair — courtesy of Aliya's hairdressing skills — swaying behind her.

"I'm not surprised you're so perky after what you did last night." Aliya smirked, earning a slap across the arm from the new blonde.

"So!" Meredith instantly began to cackle at the memory of merely a few hours ago. "Derek walked in on her naked this morning in Alex's bed!"

"Meredith! God!" Lexie groaned, throwing her hands down in frustration at the three women revelling in her embarrassment.

"We're just cheering her up, she's having a bad day! Be generous." The dirty blonde defended as Cristina leant onto Meredith's shoulder with a smile, feeling slightly more cheery than she did before.

"You know what?" Cristina prodded Lexie in the shoulder, drawing her attention. "You can't be having feelings for Karev. He's like Meredith three years ago."

"I said that!" Meredith gawked.

"Oh, yeah, Lex. I love Alex, but he's as emotionally unavailable as a corpse in the morgue." Aliya replied blandly, causing Lexie to scoff, and Cristina to nod her head in agreement, he wasn't called Dr. Evil Spawn for nothing. Though, she added, quickly: "Don't tell him I said that."

"I don't have feelings for Alex!" Lexie raised her voice, shaking her head in an attempt to deny the fact that she can't have a romantic interaction without catching feelings. But, Aliya thought there was nothing wrong with that.

Though the one night stand she had with a Mercy Wester from Joe's the other night that she hoped no one knew, or will ever know about certainly did not run the risk of her getting attached to him.

She was pretty sure he stole her sock.

Cristina threw her head back in exaggerated laughter. "You do! Your heart lives in your vagina!"

Meredith tugged at Cristina's scrubs in unknown excitement. "I said that!"

"You are both monsters!" Lexie groaned. "You're my only friend now." She pointed at Aliya before walking away from the people mocking her, and Cristina started pointing at both Mer and hers foreheads, as if symbolising their supposed mystical, otherworldly form of telepathy.

"Yang, I heard you met Harper Avery today." Derek turned away from his computer to join the conversation, it seemed they had done a tour of the whole entire hospital in the process of gossiping about Harper Avery and Lexie's love life.

"She's still mad at you, by the way." Mer pointed at Aliya, who had avoided Derek when she grabbed her coffee and breakfast this morning, and when she decided to take her own car instead of carpooling like she always did.

"It's not as big as Isaac's tumour but, you can scrub in on my craniotomy this morning." Derek offered with a convincing, very chiefly smile.

"Consider yourself half-forgiven." Knowing the surgery was given out of pity, Aliya still smiled back, knowing that her car would probably not start back up again when she got into it to go home, therefore it was necessary for her to act like she had forgiven her roomate to get a ride home.

Otherwise she would have to live at the hospital. Though she practically already did.

The excitement and joy at the prospect of another surgery quickly disappeared when her phone rang from her pocket, flashing a three letter word on the screen that could dampen all of Aliya's happiest days.

The brunette stopped in her tracks, staring at the number on her phone with cautious eyes. Not prepared to hear a voice she hadn't heard since Christmas, exactly two months ago. She took a deep breath and clicked answer, walking away from the group who continued to talk about Harper Avery.

"Hi, Mom."

Even the tone of her own voice shocked her. Unreflective of the current mood she was in when she saw Mom with a devil face emoji pop up on her screen. The devil emoji she had next to her name earned Aliya a forty-five minute lecture, it didn't go down very well.

Her voice was weirdly light and airy as she strained through those two words, a tone her voice only reached when Alex bought her extra fries, or when she stole a case from Cristina. Or, when she had coffee in her hands. It was usually the latter when that reaction occurred.

"Aliya, Hello." Molly Levine's voice was as stern and as formal as ever from the other line, leaving Aliya still, waiting for her mother's usual follow up comment on the reason for this particular call.

Though it never did, all she heard afterwards was a hushed voice speaking on the other line. The crackle of a palm next to a speaker sounding in Aliya's ear, which only caused her to begin to chew her fingernails, walking to find the nearest stairwell.

"Hello?" Aliya spoke, her voice agitated. Phone calls with her mother proved incredibly tedious time and time again. "Mom! Anybody?"

"Aliya. Hello." Molly's voice returned, still with the same level of formality.

"You've gone through that line already." Aliya reminded, though she knew that would only make her mom mad.

She heard a sigh through the end of the line and the crackle of the mic returned yet again. "I just can't deal with her! She's insufferable!"

Aliya flinched, her mother's words that she wasn't meant to hear this time, hurting her in more ways than one. She shouldn't be surprised, her words were always the ones that cut the deepest.

"Aliya. Look." Molly Levine's voice returned, reluctantly. As if it were a chore to talk to her own daughter. "We haven't talked in two months and I wanted to know if you are coming home for your birthday. March 3rd."

"I know when my birthday is, Mom. But to answer your question, no. I won't be coming to LA, I'm working." Aliya replied. She wasn't ready to play fake nice with her mother, it wasn't as if she played nice with her ever for that matter.

Especially since she hadn't heard her mother's voice since Christmas, and even then it wasn't that much of it. It wasn't as if she was expecting an apology of any sort. Her mother never apologised for anything in her whole life, no matter how many times she hurt her youngest daughter, she never seemed to want to apologise.

Aliya couldn't even remember the last time a sincere apology ever left her lips to anyone.

However, that didn't stop her from sending her daughter passive aggressive emails.

And, that didn't stop her daughter from sending passive aggressive emails back.

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17th January 2010, 8:54am

TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Dr. Henderson's 1000th Surgery Dinner Party, invitation eight

Aliya.

I have attached the other seven emails I've sent you about David Henderson's 1000th Surgery Dinner Party. He needs are RSVPs by the end of this week, and he has taking a liking to you so I think it would be good (reputation wise) if you to come with your father and I.

Would you like pork or fish?

Dr. Molly E Levine

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17th January 2010, 7:02pm

TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: re: Dr. Henderson's 1000th Surgery Dinner Party, invitation eight

Molly.

I have attached 0 emails that I've sent in regard to Dr. Henderson's 1000th Surgery Dinner Party. As you can probably deduce, I do not wish to attend this social gathering seeing as Dr. Henderson placed his hand on my ass at his 900th Surgery Dinner Party.

Aliya.

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21st February 2010, 6:12am

TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: I am not very happy.

Aliya.

Have you seen the article published last night? I did not throw red wine at Missy Walters white dress. This article is making me look like a moronic idiot wine-drunken idiot! Missy walked into my wine glass like the gravitationally challenged idiot she is!

Don't show any one the article, and could you report it. I'm trying to take it down.

Dr. Molly E Levine

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22nd February 2010, 2:35am

TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RIP Missy Walters' white dress

Molly.

I have decided that for my own personal morals, I can't quite possible report this article.

After speaking to Trent, your son, he has informed me that it was no accident. And, that you purposely threw red wine at Missy, on her wedding day night I add.

Aliya.

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22nd February 2010 7:45am

TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: (No Subject)

Aliya, now that's just cruel and I can't believe you could do this to me.

It was not my fault, it is a bad angle! I didn't do it. I had no malicious intent. It was not my fault.

This is not fair. Now, report that article or I may need to pay my good friend, Richard Webber a visit.

Dr. Molly E Levine

P.S. What the fuck are you doing replying to emails at 2am?

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After a long enough pause, Molly cleared her throat. "Okay. I'll mail your present. What would you like?

"You don't have to get me anything." Aliya replied, smiling at Andy who passed her in the corridor, offering her a wave and a grin, her eyes bright behind her gold frames. "I have everything I need."

Molly huffed, and Aliya could almost picture her sat at the dining room table, a pen in her hand that she was tapping quickly on the notepad as Travis gave her enthusiastic gestures of how to communicate with the bain of her existence.

"You're—" She hesitated, another thing Aliya knew about her mother is that she never hesitated. "You ask her about the other thing."

"Hi, Ladybug." A familiar and calm voice chirped in her ear.

"Hi, Dad."

"The second thing on the agenda to discuss is that— your mother and I were just asking whether you've thought any more about y—your speciality." The last part came out as a stutter, obvious to Aliya that her mom was prompting him on what to say and do, like he was a glorified puppet. "It's a big choice, and we want to help you make the right decision, for your future."

"Do you mean Mom is asking?" Aliya questioned, having gone through this conversation countless times before. She pushed into the stairwell at last, dropping onto a step to pull at her shoe laces as a distraction from the same old discussion.

"Ladybug, please, just listen—" Travis pleaded, caught in the crossfire between Aliya and Molly, even though the two weren't currently in contact in that very second.

Aliya cut him off. "Dad, I hear you loud and clear."

"She's too young to make important life decisions." Molly muttered, loud enough for Aliya to hear through the microphone.

"Tell Mom, I'm twenty seven years old, twenty eight next month which she pointed out earlier, and I'm perfectly capable of making decisions. I've been successfully buying my own shampoo for well over a decade." She snapped down the mic, pulling at the loose thread in her shoe, causing it to loosely untie.

"Aliya, please, don't raise your voice. I'm only asking." Travis spoke, his voice sounding tired and drained. She could almost imagine the bags that lay under his eyes from his busy work schedule, or the way he would never be able to make it to take his shoes off due to the exhaustion, so he would just fall asleep with them on.

"Dad. I'm calm." She reassured (though it was clear she was in fact not very calm). "Pass the phone to mom, please."

"Aliya," Travis said her name with a sigh. "We are doing this for your own good."

"Hm, pass the phone to mom." Aliya replied, calmly her voice slightly and managing to tie her shoelace back up with one hand.

"Look, Aliya." Her mother's voice returned. "I'm going to email some cardiothoracic papers for you to read. I also emailed your Chief of Surgery to put you more on the cardio service—"

Aliya let out a nervous burst of laughter, shaking her head in denial. "You're joking."

"Aliya. I don't joke." Molly answered, and Aliya heard the swishes of the paper turning from the other line.

"No. You have to be joking." Aliya pleaded, wanting her mother to just be supportive for once in her life, though it really was just wishful thinking.

"Aliya, stop it." Molly snapped, her voice harshening.

"You did not." Aliya mumbled in disbelief.

"Let's not go back and forth. I haven't heard from you, so I made some executive decisions on your behalf." Molly explained, matter-of-factly, as if it was normal for a twenty seven year old to have her mother orchestrating behind the scenes.

The brunette scoffed, getting up from the step to pace around the small space. "Do you want to sign me up for organ donation while you're at it?"

"Oh, that's a thought," Molly exclaimed. "Have you done that yet Aliya? When you die your organs might come into good use."

Aliya groaned in frustration, massaging her temples as a sudden mother induced headache occurred. "Yes, I have done, and don't sound too eager at the thought of my organs being removed one by one."

She could almost picture her mother waving her off with an elegant hand gesture at the dinner table. "I also emailed Dr Bailey to mentor you in general."

"Mother." Aliya let out a breathless laugh, starting to kick the step as a way to release some of the anger. "Please. Stop meddling with my life, it's unnecessary. When I have eventually decided what I want for my own life, I'll give you a call. Or, I'll contact you via pigeon."

"How will you know, Aliya?" Molly's voice grew sterner and even more condescending, taking Aliya back to middle school when she snuck out to a house party.

Her jaw clenched. "If you haven't noticed, I'm pretty smart. I'm sure I'll figure it out one of these days."

"I don't want you to disappoint us Aliya."

The Levine woman stilled, her eyes trained on the steps she was beating the shit out of.

"Don't you mean 'you could never disappoint me?', or, better yet, 'I'll be proud of you no matter what?'. Can't you just say that for once?" Her voice strained into the mic, and a part of her wished she had just hung up the darn phone.

"Don't start, Aliya."

She held the phone to her ear, even as she heard the beep of the phone hanging up.

Because that's what Molly Levine did. She had moments where she made Aliya feel like they could finally have a good relationship, for a fleeting second. Like, when she took care of Aliya when she broke her ankle when she was twenty two. Or, when she put a simple note in her birthday card one year.

But, the vast majority of the time she made Aliya feel small, unworthy.

She took a deep breath, slipping her phone back  into her pocket, and shaking her hands as if to rid herself and her memory of the phone call.

So, she started to slowly make her way up the stairs, focusing on just taking one step at a time.

"Oh God, what are you doing!"

The brunette screamed, a reaction to Jackson sitting on the very top step in complete and total silence.

The Avery man frowned, his hands bunched up together in front of him. "It's a free country."

"That's what a stalker would say!" She sighed, continuing up the steps with a hand clutched to her beating heart.

He rose to his feet where he was wearing his everyday clothes. A dark maroon henley, that he should be buried in because how, how, could he look that good in just a plain old, simple shirt?

The game was rigged.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Jackson defended as Aliya gave him an unconvinced look, stopping just in front of him on the stair case. "Rough phone call?"

"You could say that." Aliya gave him a strained smile, propping herself against the bars of the staircase. "Sorry to hear about your grandfather, I hope he's okay." She offered, sympathetically.

"Thanks—" Jackson shrugged, sitting himself back down on the step, leaning his arms on his knees.

She dropped down next to him on the step, slipping her phone back into the safety of her pocket, where she could forget the phone call ever happened.

"—He's been asking for you, you know." Jackson informed her, causing the brunette's head to move so fast she could quite possibly get whip lash.

"Me?" Her jaw dropped. "Why me?"

Jackson nodded, simply. "Something about needing the children of famous surgeons on his case or whatever, he's already roped in Grey."

"Oh," Aliya rubbed at her eyes with a delirious laugh. "Well, I can assure you, he doesn't want me. He probably hates me."

He scoffed, shaking his head. "He doesn't hate you."

"Please," Aliya grinned, resting her elbows on her knees. "Need I remind you of—"

"He doesn't hate you because you're Molly Levine's daughter." Jackson quickly interrupted before her thoughts could reach a downward spiral.

However, Aliya was still very sceptical. "Have you read the articles?"

"I don't read those kind of articles." Jackson responded, brushing it off — seeing as the articles usually spouted nonsense he really wasn't all that interested in. "I couldn't care less about the articles."

"I guess that's a good thing." The corners of her mouth curled upwards, and how the man in front of her really didn't care about who her mother was, and if she was being honest, she didn't really care who his grandfather was.

The pair sat in comfortable in the silence, though her brain still felt as if it were trapped in the conversation she had with her mother just moments ago, especially as her phone vibrated from her pocket and she tugged it out, a text message brightening up her screen.

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ELIANA LEVINE (11:42am)

I heard about that conversation
with Mom and Dad!

They're threatening to take away
your trust fund if you pick plastics
as your speciality or whatever, and I
need money from said fund to buy this
retail spot at the mall. You know, the one
below the food court? To start my business.

And, you can give me free botox too
which would be great.

Also I'm pretty sure you have my floral
print dress. The one with the slit?
Can you send it over? I have a work
thing I need to attend and that dress
suits me better than you.
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Aliya quickly shut her phone off after scanning her eyes across her sister's rather pathetic messages, noticing Jackson's face tense, as he watched her.

"What?" The brunette scoffed, suddenly feeling self conscious.

"Nothing." Jackson shook his head, though he quickly took a breath, changing his mind of the fact he actually did have something to say. "Does your whole family treat you like shit or something?"

"Excuse me?" She stuttered slightly as he caught her totally off guard.

"Just an observation." He shrugged, gesturing to the cellphone in her hand. "The text message. The phone call—"

"No," Aliya denied, though it was all a lie. "My entire family doesn't treat me like shit."

Jackson Avery didn't know her.

He didn't know what her family was like, he's never even met them. He wasn't the one who had to spend eighteen years living in the same house as them, being constantly told to try harder, do better.

He wasn't the one who had nightmares, waking up in a blind panic at eleven years old, worried sick to his stomach about failing a test. Worried about his parents reaction to it.

Jackson leaned his head closer to her, a fraction of an inch. "Seems like it."

"It's complicated." Aliya explained, disregarding his effortless observations.

"Why does everything have to be so complicated?" Jackson stated, looking back over Aliya to study her round cheeks, the small scar in her hairline, her slightly parted lips as she breathed, and the way her eyes creased when she smiled or thought too hard, like she was so blatantly doing right in front of him.

"I ask myself that question everyday." She said breathlessly, her eyes fixated on the window in front of her, where it was raining, as it usually did in Seattle.

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Later that day, Aliya sauntered into the MRI room Derek was sat in, accompanied by Alex at the desk.

Unexpectedly, the brunette leaned across and slapped the neuro surgeon clean around the shoulder.

"Ow!" Derek yelped, clutching his shoulder, looking frantically at his wide, manic eyed resident.

"You didn't even give me a heads up! You are no longer half forgiven!" She replied, angrily. "Hell! You are— you're in the minuses!"

"Oh, she's pissed." Alex commented, leaning back in his chair with a smirk of amusement. "Wait, why are you pissed?"

"Dr. Ass-hat had an email from my mother and didn't even bother to give me a heads up." Aliya huffed at the betrayal.

The Karev man shook his head at Derek, tutting as she reached up to pat Aliya's shoulder in an offer of sympathy.

"You do realise I'm your Chief of Surgery?" Derek pointed out, though Aliya's face still remained unfazed. "And, you just called me Dr. Ass-hat."

"McDreamy's gone into retirement." She sneered, dropping into the last free chair at the desk. "And,  you may be Chief, but you're still the man that steals my coffee beans!"

"Get the hell out of here, Karev!" Mark Sloan yelled out of nowhere as he entered the MRI room with Callie at his side.

"What?" Alex spat, spinning his chair around, confused at Mark's outburst whilst Aliya simply stared at the whole interaction with widened eyes.

"Get the hell out! Now!" Mark ordered, pointing over his shoulder.

The Levine woman looked over at Callie, hoping the orthopedic surgeon would be able to give her at least some explanation of Mark's current behaviour. But, then it clicked into place. He must've found out about Lexie and Alex.

Alex glared at the Sloan man, walking out of the room without so much as a goodbye.

Derek raised a brow. "What was that?"

"I don't like the guy." Mark said, causally, looking through the window at the patient in the scanner.

"He slept with Lexie once, Mark. You two were broken up." Callie sighed, rolling her eyes at the immaturity.

"Actually he's—" Derek stopped himself as Aliya glared at him, as if there were warning signs in her pupils telling him not to get himself involved in whatever shit Mark was pulling. "Never mind."

Mark straightened, arms crossed sternly. "You don't sleep with another man's girl—"

"Slightly hypocritical." The Levine woman muttered under her breath, seeing as you didn't see her yelling at Lexie for sleeping with her ex-boyfriend, as much as she wanted to.

"—I learned that the hard way."

"Well played." Derek replied, seeing as the Sloan man was referring to the love square circa 2007.

"It's the twenty first Century, Mark." Aliya responded, reaching for the coffee cup in front of her. "She's not a piece of property—"

Aliya trailed off, sniffing the coffee, and her face instantly turned to pure disgust.

"Decaf?" She set the cup back down, slouching back into her seat in disappointment.

Derek's eyes widened. "You're like a sniffer dog."

"Don't listen to a word he says." Callie told the pair, referencing Mark. "He's acting out because he can't deal with the human emotions he's having. Ask him how many nurses he's slept with today."

Derek sighed heavily, pursing his lips tight in chiefly disapproval. "You're sleeping with nurses now?"

"You said no drug reps!" He defended. And, Aliya watched him with narrow eyes as he fought his case, and she wondered if he slept with anyone else while they were still together, because there was a high chance most definitely. "And, I'm a grown man! I can screw whoever I want!"

Derek lowered his brows. "Not in my hospital."

"What are you gonna do, fire me?" Mark challenged further.

"Alright, enough with the testosterone." Callie snapped.

"Yeah, I'm out. I feel suffocated." Aliya hopped up out of her chair. "Good luck with the whole Man-Whore thing."

Mark shot his head over his shoulder, pouting at the Levine woman as she dug her hands into her lab coat pockets and strode down the hall with Callie, to get away from the testosterone.

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"Kamala Thompson. Aged fifty six. She was recently diagnosed with a benign brain tumour, a chordoma, located in her left frontal lobe that is scheduled to be removed today with a craniotomy. No history of any other tumours with her symptoms being headaches and troubles with fine movements."

Aliya presented the case, the chart pressed under her arm as she spoke, making eye contact with Kamala at the end to give her an encouraging smile.

"Very good, Dr Levine." Derek nodded towards Aliya, before approaching Kamala's bed. "How are the headaches, Mrs Thompson?"

"They come and go." She shrugged, leaning back into her pillows. "They mostly happen when I concentrate for too long. No biggie, though." The woman added, looking up at her daughter who sat by the bed, bouncing her own child on her lap.

"Mom. You have a tumour in your brain. It's a biggie." Her daughter commented with her lips pursed.

Kamala stuck out her tongue playfully, causing her grandchild to giggle, hopping off his Mom's lap to climb up onto his Grandmother's bed. "So, Dr Levine, will you be assisting?"

Aliya nodded. "Yes, I will, Mrs Thompson."

"Don't mess things up in there them." She tapped her head with a smirk. "I have an important event I have to attend."

Aliya gave her a knowing smile. "I'll try my best."

"Giving birth isn't an important event." Kamala's  daughter tapped her stomach fondly with an eye roll directed to her mother.

"It is for me, Leslie!" Kamala said passionately, turning to Aliya. "Dr. Levine, if you had a child and she was lying on a bed, alone, giving birth, would you like to be there?"

"I would, yes." Aliya replied. "I would bring noise cancelling headphones though. And, snacks. Hospital food sucks."

Kamala threw her head back with a laugh.

"Don't put ideas in her head!" Leslie protested, however unable to hold back her laughter, just from the sight of her mother.

"I shall be stealing those tips from you. Dr. Levine." Kamala led back in her chair, looking across to her daughter in admiration. "Any more would be appreciated."

The brunette grinned, because unlike some of the doctors in this hospital, she actually liked her patients. "There are plenty more where those came from."

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"Guess who is operating on the Harper Avery."

Cristina announced to the whole resident lounge, though only Aliya was in there.

"It's not a big deal," Meredith groaned pushing past the Yang woman and sitting down on a bench in front of her locker whilst Cristina kicked her feet up and onto the table Aliya was sat at.

"Right, Aliya." Aliya looked up at Cristina from where she was looking over Kamala Thompson's chart. "If you had an opportunity to operate on Harper Avery himself, would you do it?"

Aliya craned her neck, contemplating it for half a second. "Probably."

"Probably? No, No, that's not enough, show more enthusiasm, Levine!" Cristina exclaimed.

"You need some enthusiasm tonight, Liy," Mer told her from across the room. "We're playing baseball."

Aliya snapped her head up, with an expression that could only described as pure confusion, which only caused Meredith to laugh.

"Girls Night!" Meredith put on a very fake, very high pitched and overly enthusiastic voice.

"That's tonight?" Aliya questioned, checking her mental calendar.

The Grey woman nodded her head as an answer, checking the time on her watch. "Well, I better go operate."

"On..." Cristina prompted, not letting this one go.

"Ugh, fine, the Harper Avery!" The dirty blonde laughed as she waved goodbye, and Aliya glanced over at Cristina, tearing her eyes off of her charting.

"What? It's a big deal. I would kill to operate on a legend, wouldn't you?" Cristina interrogated from where she leisurely sprawled out.

"I mean, of course I would. But, it's too much power." Aliya explained, scribbling notes into her book.

"That's what surgeries about! Power." Cristina said, finally kicking her feet off of the table to take a shower.

The Levine woman snorted into her coffee. "You sound like every evil genius ever."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"I don't get it why is he allowed to operate on his own grandfather's awake surgery?" Lexie gestured to the OR from the gallery where most of the hospital staff gathered to watch Harper Avery's awake surgery.

Cristina slurped on her coffee, watching the surgery with jealousy. "The same reason Harper Avery personally requested Meredith Grey to be his resident."

"Nepotism sucks." Alex stated, watching the surgery through the window carefully, whilst Aliya just mumbled in agreement.

"Hey, Levine, you can't talk." Cristina nudged at Aliya's shoulder from where she was sat behind the brunette. "Your parents were nominated for Harper Avery's! Multiple times! You are nepo baby too, you know."

"They didn't win Harper Avery's. Hence why they hate Harper Avery, and why Harper Avery probably hates me." Aliya commented, leaning her cheek into her palm.

"But, they've won other awards." Cristina replied from over her shoulder. "They've pioneered clinical trials, funded research. No wonder they're the lead surgeons of the entire state of California."

Aliya shrugged, mumbling something unclear into her palm, picturing the award shelves at home that her mom insisted on cleaning every single day to prevent dust.

"Hey, you wanna grab a bite?" Alex leaned forward, whispering in Lexie's ear.

The youngest Grey looked at him over her shoulder. "No. Actually. I'm full." She returned her eyes to the surgery, clearing her throat.

"Really? 'Cause you didn't seem full last night." Alex replied in a low voice. Aliya eyes grew wide, and she peered up at Cristina, whose eyes were flickering too and from Alex and Lexie, and the pair shared the same, somewhat disgusted look.

"I said no! Ok? I'm not hungry. At all. So just go. Eat alone." Lexie coaxed him away, and Alex slumped back in his seat in defeat.

The Levine woman checked the time, realising she had surgery of her own to perform. So, she pushed herself out of her seat, saying goodbye as she manoeuvred her way to prep her patient for surgery.

After prepping Mrs Thompson, she stood next to her in the OR as the anaesthesiologist was waiting to do his job. "Dr. Levine. C—Can you promise me everything will go okay?" Kamala gulped nervously, scratching at her throat.

Aliya smiled warmly at Kamala. "I can't promise anything. But, I can say you're in the very best hands."

The woman's eyes glistened as she reached for Aliya's palms, holding them up in the air and analysing them with great detail. "Good hands." Kamala confirmed with a nod, placing her own arms back to her sides.

"I'll see you on the other side, Mrs Thompson." Kamala nodded a confirmation she was ready and then she began to breathe in the anaesthetic, her eyelids slowly shutting as it begun to have an effect.

After the skull flap was carefully removed and placed to the sidw, they were ready to remove the tumour. It was pretty simple, as a simple as tumour removal was, seeing as the tumour was located just at the top of left frontal lobe.

"Okay, Levine, will you do the honours?" Derek questioned, turning to Aliya who grinned under her mask in excitement.

"Is that even a question? Retractor please, Francis." She accepted the retractor from the scrub nurse, beginning to move the healthy brain tissue aside.

After she successfully isolated the tumour, she began to remove it, slowly and carefully to avoid any damage to healthy tissue.

"Perfect." Derek nodded his head. "You have the steadiest hands out of all the residents I've seen at this hospital." And, that was true. Years of holding a paintbrush had taught her how to steady her hand. "It's true. Museum Worthy." Derek exaggerated.

Aliya scoffed, placing the removed tumour onto a tray. "You're just saying that to make me forgive you."

"I'm not actually, Levine." Derek said, sincerely for once. "I do hope you consider Neuro in the future."

"Answer me this one," Aliya started, assisting the neurosurgeon as he started to reattach the skull flap. "How bad was the email?"

The Shepherd man inhaled sharply, shaking his head. "Your mother scares me. It was over a thousand words with many different adjectives. The amount of times I typed 'define' into the internet was embarrassing."

"She has that kind of effect on people."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

After surgery, Aliya was hunched over Mrs Thompson's chart, writing up every detail from her surgery. Recalling each fascinating moment with an over haul of detail which she must have obtained from her mothers extensive vocabulary list.

"Hey, Levine." Jackson's voice echoed through the hall, which only did sick things to her heartbeat. She looked up at the man, who was accompanied by Lexie, Cristina, Charles and Alex. "I want you to meet someone."

Minutes later after he retrieved the brunette, they reached Harper Avery's room, and Jackson turned around, looking at the group before making his way into the room.

"Just— Just don't be— Forget it." He shook his head, stopping himself from further speech as he  entered the room. "Grandpa, I wanted you to introduce you to some friends. If you feel up for it."

Harper Avery blinked from the bed, peeling his eyes open. "Bring 'em in."

Jackson walked over to the doorway. "All right. Hurry up. Come on." He ushered the five into the room, letting them rush past him like a pack of wild animals.

"We met— uh— already this morning. But— I— you weren't—" Cristina stuttered, laughing it off with a nervous gesture — who knew being in Harper Avery's presence threw her off her game. "There was so much going on."

Harper Avery reached out his hand for Cristina to shake. "Start with your name and we'll go from there."

Cristina took his hand to shake it, a little too eagerly. "Cristina Yang. It's an honour, sir."

"It's nice to—" Before he could even finish his sentence Cristina turned her phone around, taking a lightening fast selfie with the older Dr. Avery. A huge grin plastered across her face as she cupped her phone in her hands.

"Thank you so much!" She edged away from the bed in a hurry.

"—Officially meet you, Dr. Yang." Dr. Avery finished, lips pursed. "And the rest of you."

"Oh, Lexie Grey." Lexie reached out her hand to shake his.

Alex grinned as Lexie moved to the side so it was his turn. "Alex Karev."

"Hi." Aliya smiled, warmly as Alex moved to the side, reaching to shake his hand. "Aliya Levine."

"Levine?" Dr. Avery questioned instantly, pausing to look at her face in closer detail, and Aliya nodded her head in response as their hands parted. "Levine! Ah-ha!"

Harper nodded his head back at her as Jackson watched his grandfather and Aliya interact with intrigue.

"Travis and Molly's youngest daughter?" Harper questioned. "They don't seem to like me anymore but, I do remember you!"

"You do?" Aliya replied, as confused as everyone else in the room.

"Last time I saw you, you were about as small as the height of a desk. Butterfly clips in your hair." He gestured to her unkept braid. "Your father had something to do, and he asked me to sit with you for a moment. You were only four and you were talking my ear off about this and that and everything." He recalled in disbelief.

Aliya smiled in awe, disappointed that her four year old self didn't hold onto that memory of meeting a world famous surgeon. "I wish I could say I remember."

"No hard feelings." Harper raised his hands before dropping them back down. Aliya moved along to the side, letting Charles introduce himself.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

SAN FRANCISCO GENEREAL HOSPITAL
san francisco, california
( april 14th 1987 )
⠀

Molly Levine held tightly onto her youngest daughter's hand, practically dragging her through the halls of the hospital she was meant to be performing a surgery at in fifteen minutes.

"Ah!" The Levine doctor made a sound of relief as she spotted the man she needed, dragging her very ill five-year old behind her. "Dr. Avery, I'm ever so sorry, I had to pick up my daughter from school before I drove out it, it seems—"

"It's fine, Dr. Levine." Harper Avery responded back to her, looking down at the young girl with the bright red nose. "We've met before, how are you doing Aliya?"

Aliya, however, had never seen this man before in her whole entire life. Though, she still smiled, politely. "Well, I caught Tommy H's cough so—"

"She's great, Dr. Avery." Molly quickly intervened. "Is there a daycare I can put her in

"Yes, of course." Harper nodded, ushering the pair to follow him down the hall and into the elevator. "Thank you for coming out here on such short notice, Dr. Levine."

"You're welcome, opportunities like today don't come about that often." Molly's grip tightened even harder around her daughter's hand, as if silently telling her to keep her mouth shut, and not to embarrass her.

"I see the butterfly clips are gone, Aliya." Harper changed the subject as the elevator dinged open, and they were led to the door of the daycare.

"I still have them at home, but our dog ate most of them. He died last week, but—"

"Right!" Molly cleared her throat in attempt to hide Aliya's current chatter about their family dog, that happened to be dead. Now that they were standing in the middle of daycare. "Aliya, I've got to go, be good okay?"

"Bye." Aliya waved the two of them off, and a nice lady in a bright blue sweater came to the door to take her bag and coat.

The lady led her over to the table, placing pens and colouring sheets in front of her, seeing as how the young girl was violently coughing every few seconds, she kept her far away from the other kids.

Because, it wasn't like she couldn't take her, seeing as her mother was no other than Molly Levine.

"Wanna see a magic trick?" A boy, around the same age as Aliya with dark hair and a wide grin, slipped onto the chair beside her, holding out a deck of cards in his hands.

"That lady over there said I can't speak to anyone cause I'm sick." Aliya frowned, pointing over at the lady in question, who was playing Legos in the floor. "And, that if I talk to anyone, she'll tell my Mom, and my Mom will probably be mad."

"Cathy won't mind." The boy said, shuffling the deck of cards in his hands.

Aliya drummed her colouring pencil on the sheet of paper, before dropping it and straightening up, curious at what be was going to do. "What's the trick?"

"Pick a card, any card." He held out the deck for her.

Aliya chewed her lip, carefully reaching into the stack of cards, staring at the Queen of Hearts she just drew. "Got it, what do I do now?"

"Put it back on the deck, and I'm gonna guess your card." The boy shuffled them again once Aliya had put her card back on.

"You're not gonna get my card." Aliya said, matter-of-factly, grinning as she watched him shuffle.

"You'll see—" He smirked, finally slamming a card down in front of her. "Ace of spades!"

"No!"

"Damnit!" He continued to rifle through, placing another card onto the pile. "Seven hearts!"

"You're really bad at magic tricks," Aliya pointed out, even though she was five. "Even worse than the magician Martha P's mom hired for her birthday party. The bunny he pulled out of his hat wasn't even real, it was stuffed."

The boy seemed to find that funny, his green eyes shining in the daycare lights, and he pointed towards the girls shoulder. "You've got something there."

Aliya stared down at where a card was now placed on her shoulder, and her jaw dropped wide open as the boy took the card, showing her the Queen of Hearts.

"Queen of Hearts?" He questioned, flipping the card around in his hand.

"You—" Aliya's jaw dropped to the ground, sniffing (seeing as she was pretty sure she was dying of a cold). "How did you— You have to teach me how to do that—"

"A magician never shares his tricks." The boy slipped the cards back into the box, shoving them back into the pocket of his jeans. "I'm Jackson by the way."

The boy held out a hand towards her.

"Aliya."

And, the girl took his hand.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

THE BASEBALL FIELD
seattle, washington
( present day )
⠀

Gripping hold of the bat, Aliya waited for the ball to come her way. The machine made a noise, the sound of a ball being released and as it came flying towards her, she swung her bat, hitting the fluorescent yellow ball with as much force as she could muster, sending it flying across the field.

In victory, she jumped up and down as everyone cheered. "See! I told you second time's a charm!"

Callie and Arizona hopped towards her, passing her a bottle of beer. "You earned your alcohol!" The couple presented the beer to Aliya, very ceremoniously might she add.

"Thank god." She accepted it with a smile of relief, taking a giant swig off her well earned victory beer.

"Alright, alright." Bailey approached them. "I'll show you how it's done." She took the bat from Aliya, swinging it about in her hands.

"Go, Bailey!" Aliya cheered on as she returned to her position next to Mer, watching Bailey standing on the marker, ready and waiting to hit a ball. Arizona and Callie huddled as they began to shout further words of encouragement, like a pair of cheerleaders.

"You know, I'm in love with Teddy." Cristina made it known to the world as she nudged into Meredith, who proceeded to nudge into Aliya.

"You're like Lexie with the inappropriate feelings for inappropriate people." Meredith commented, stuffing her hands deeper in her pockets as the trio cast a look over to the cardio surgeon stood in the field.

The cold wind slammed into Aliya yet again, causing her to reach up and adjust the scarf bundled around her neck.

"What can I say? My heart lives in my scalpel." Cristina shrugged and skipped off to stand next to Teddy, abandoning her friends.

"You were saying, Bailey!" Aliya called out, a smirk on her blue, hypothermic lips as the woman missed the ball yet again.

"Those were trick balls!" Bailey protested, bringing the bat back up to her shoulder.

"Bailey, you just gotta be taller!" Cristina called out, stopping next to Teddy.

Aliya brought the beer up to her lips, taking a sip, nearly spitting it back out in shock as Bailey finally hit the ball, and everyone on the court cheered.

Teddy clapped. "That's what I'm talking about!"

"What about you Aliya, any inappropriate feelings for inappropriate people?" Mer grinned, rocking on the balls of her feet, and the brunette shrugged her shoulders, batting her eyelashes.

"No, never." She swayed from side to side, though Meredith smiled and nodded, knowingly, which only frustrated Aliya further. "Stop looking at me like that."

Meredith grinned, raising her drink, clinking it into Aliya's, sipping it. She linked her arm through her roommates, and they shuffled to the side to join the others and cheer as Teddy hit the ball up high into the star dusted sky.

"Aliya!" Bailey called over frantically, with Callie and Arizona also waving manically. "We need you to pitch!"

The brunette sighed, abandoning her alcohol source to save Bailey from the supposed trick balls.
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀

( notes! )

raise your hand if you don't like eliana 🙋‍♀️

i always forget to include actual surgery scenes but i think i'm getting better at including them. but i'm not gonna lie, the hardest thing about writing a grey's fic is wrapping my head around all the fancy medical terms and also writing as if i'm from america when i'm actually in the uk (the amount of times i've wanted to write 'bin' instead of 'trash')

fun new development though,,, THEY'VE MET BEFORE!!! these two are the definition of invisible string and i love them for it!!!!

( word count! — 8,200 )