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chapter forty ━ the alchemy
season eight, episode ~

❝ arizona's great and all,
but she's not you! ❞

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After the whirlwind of events of the past couple weeks, Aliya desperately felt the overwhelming desire and unwavering need to complete the to-do list she had sitting on her bedside table collecting dust and coffee rings for the past year.

It was the sort of effect that the clinical trial being tampered with by one of her most trusted friends, and her mother showing up at the hospital to tell her she was a failure had on her.

No wonder the girl had trust issues, seeing as the people she was meant to trust always found away to betray her.

"How's the whole peds thing going?" Jackson asked, genuinely without malice, his fingers tapping a tune against the steering wheel.

Aliya, in her new era, was sat in the passenger seat, one hand swirling her iced coffee around in her takeaway cup whilst her nodded along to the music, a pair of sunglasses on her face which made her look like some sort of celebrity.

"I wish to claw my eyes out." Aliya spoke causally in response.

As much as the brunette loved both Alex Karev and Arizona Robbins, she couldn't ignore the fact that her heart was owned by a completely different specialty.

"It's been six days—"

"Irrelevant." Aliya quickly interrupted from where she was now rifling through Jackson's CD collection, spread across her lap like a blanket. He liked his CD's as much as she did, and she didn't even think that was possible. "The Bangles! No way!"

"You know," Jackson cleared his throat, reaching his hand over to turn the volume down the music on the radio Aliya insisted on blasting.

"We could always skip the first item on the agenda," Jackson pitched, glancing over at her, where she hadn't even fully processed what he had to say yet. "Go straight to whatever else you have on that magic list of yours."

Aliya, finally returned to Earth, consulted her list (written on Powerpuff Girls stationary of course) carefully, narrowing her eyes at her cursive handwriting. "Are you suggesting we go against the natural order of the list?"

From the tone of her voice, it seemed as if Jackson had suggested committing a crime.

"It wouldn't hurt." Jackson spoke with a shrug.

"Past Aliya made the order of the list for a reason, it's sacred." Aliya held the paper up to Jackson's face, which was a potential hazard seeing as the Avery man was currently driving across the highway. "See, right after visit Andy's house is go to Trader Joe's. That's basically free therapy."

"Oh, of course," Jackson smirked, looking over at her yet again with his hands on the wheel. "My bad, how could I forget?"

"Yeah, how could you?" Aliya spoke with a disappointed, yet playful sigh. "'Cause right after punch Alex for stealing my frosted flakes is put frozen peas on my hand."

The man beside her nodded slowly in understanding, but also a little bit of disbelief that the brunette never failed to shock him every single day of his life. "It would be pointless to put frozen peas on an unbruised hand."

"Exactly!" Aliya clapped her hands together with enthusiasm. "He gets it!"

With a shake of his head, Jackson chuckled, finding her amusing in this moment of time. "What else does this list of yours entail then?"

"Um—" Aliya consulted her list yet again, holding the pages close to her face. "After Trader Joe's and before punch Alex is get a helix piercing."

"Everyone knows Trader Joe's fills you with the overwhelming desire to pierce another hole in your ear." Jackson joked.

Aliya chuckled, folding the list back up and sliding it back into her pocket as Jackson pulled up onto Andy's drive, and the moment Aliya laid her eyes on the house before her, it was as if her her heart had an instantaneous response as it began to thrash recklessly in her chest.

Mainly because everything looked the exact same as it always did.

The thing about Andrea Burman was that that woman was sentimental. She kept everything.

Let's just say, if Aliya scribbled a note for her on the back of an ER chart, Andy would have probably stored it away in a little hat box underneath her bed which all the other things Aliya had given her over the years.

(You would find that exact hat box if you looked under her bed, it was not a hypothetical scenario.)

On her front porch of her home, a dozen wind chimes hung, sending melodies in the wind that always made Aliya feel welcome. It felt like home, even though it wasn't hers.

Plant pots were scattered by the door, and surprisingly they were still alive, courtesy of the neighbours who left everything the way it always had been, the welcome mat was where it always was, her mailbox paint was chipped, like it always had been. The wisteria growing up the side of the house, all the way up to the first floor looked unkept, as if it were abandoned.

Though, it never really was. Aliya asked one of the  many neighbours to check in on the house every week, to make sure everything was the way it should be, and it always was. Even the curtains were still drawn, never re-opened ever since the day Andy died.

It was all very poetic when you came to think of it.

"Can we just stay in the car for a bit?" Aliya requested, her anxiety rising as she blinked at the sight before her, her eyes fixated on a pearly white shell on one of the wind chimes.

"Yes, of course, take your time." Jackson replied back, his voice gentle as he took the keys out of the ignition.

"Is it hot in here?" The Levine woman questioned, her voice sounding scratchy. In an effort to cool herself down, she began to wave her hand in front of her face, desperate for at least a breath of cool air.

"I could—"

"I feel like it's hot in here." The brunette began to frantically start scratching her neck, a feverish rash spreading across her chest as she began to repeatedly cram her finger into the button to roll down the windows. "Why isn't the darn window opening!"

Jackson put his keys back in without a word, and the window finally rolled down, causing Aliya to sigh with relief, hanging her head out the window like a dog gasping for air. 

"You good?" Jackson asked sincerely, watching the Levine woman closely and carefully as she sat lurched over the window, her shoulders rattling with every breath she took.

"Yes, yes—" She stuttered, her arms resting on the wide open window. "All good, I just needed some— OH MY GOD!"

"WHAT!" Jackson leaped out of the skin at the sound of her very high pitched scream, and the fact she practically jumped out of her seat, yanking ahold of her seatbelt.

"It's fine," Aliya breathed, clutching her chest from the unwanted shock of her phone buzzing from her pocket, which wouldn't usually scare her, though seeing as she already was in a particularly jumpy mood, it didn't really help matters. "It's just my phone—"

"Okay, good," Jackson settled down, breathing a breath of relief. "For a second there I thought—"

"OH MY GOD!"

Jackson, yet again, leaped out of his skin for the second time in a ten second period. "WHAT!"

"It's my dad." Aliya spoke, dumbfounded at her father's sudden and unexpected message.

"Your dad?" Jackson questioned, puzzled as Aliya stared at her lit phone screen. "What the hell does he want?"

It was safe to say Jackson Avery no longer had any respect for both her mother, or her father.

Her mother, for what she had done to his girlfriend for twenty nine years of her life.

And her father, for letting her mother do what she did for twenty nine years.

"He wants to meet me for lunch tomorrow." Aliya read off of her phone, completely and absolutely dumbfounded by the proposition of lunch. With her father.

"Oh, that s—" Jackson stopped himself before he said something about Aliya's father her probably meant, but didn't want her to hear, so instead he raised a sceptical brow, drumming his fingertips on the wheel to relieve some of the anger he felt towards her parents. "Are you gonna meet him?"

"I don't know." Aliya chewed on the inside of her cheek, her fingers hovering over her key board and glancing to the green eyes man. "Should I?"

"I can't make the decision for you, Aliya." Jackson answered as the brunette chewed on her lip in conflict. "But, I'd like to come with you if you do."

"You want to meet my dad?"

"Yes." He replied back simply, because it was only half a truth.

It was also safe to say that he didn't exactly trust any of the other Levine's except Aliya. And, he didn't necessarily want to leave her alone with them, despite the fact that they were her family.

He wanted to save her from the pain they had caused her, seeing as he knew exactly how much of an effect it had on her. He had seen it when she woke up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat, or when she drifted off into her mind, zoning out of reality.

He saw the effect her parents had on her, and for that, he didn't think he would ever be able to look them dead in the eye without seeing the pain in her eyes in his mind.

"We don't have to do this today, Aliya." Jackson said in suggestion to the brunette's hazy eyes welling up.

"I put my overalls on and everything." Aliya muttered, disappointedly staring at her hands. "I thought today was gonna be today."

Jackson started his car back up. "It can be the day we got a breakfast sandwich instead."

And at the proposition of a breakfast sandwich, Aliya perked up, a grin spreading across her face as Jackson reversed off of the driveway.

And after having the breakfast sandwich where Aliya had given him her pickle, they went to Trader Joe's and Target, so in Aliya's opinion, it was the definition of a perfect day off.

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"Alex, look—" Aliya held the Karev man's cellphone to his face for him to see. "She's hot!"

Alex squinted at the picture of the blonde on the screen, where Aliya was currently swiping through his dating app, very happily might she add.

He grumbled in response.

"What?" Aliya's eyes widened, staring back at the phone and cradling it in her hands. "What's wrong with her? She looks nice."

"More like over-enthusiastic." Alex informed her, though Aliya just thought she looked sweet, but maybe it was the very wide, doe-like eyes that threw him off.

"Over-enthusiastic?" She stared back at the profile, where in her bio she stated about fifty different things about herself. "Ugh, fine." Aliya swiped right anyway, because even if the Karev man said no, she would still swipe right.

Let's just say, Aliya hadn't really grasped the concept of dating apps.

It made a little, satisfying ding.

"Oo!" The brunette beamed, sipping happily on her coffee. "This is so fun, way better than Candy Crush."

"Knock yourself out." Alex smirked, before raising a suspicious brow. "You're overly perky today? You've been a total grump all week."

"I have a new lease on life." Aliya stated, eyes still on the phone.

It seemed the brunette's outlook on life changed every two seconds, seeing as one minute she was all sunshine and rainbows, and the next she hated on anything and everything.

The classic sound of a swipe right sounded again, and everyone's heads turned in Aliya's direction as the two stopped at the front desk, ready to pick up their charts for the day.

"Aliya—" Cristina furrowed her brows at the Levine woman. "You're on dating apps? I swear you're with Dr. Pretty Eyes, or have you broken up already?"

Aliya laughed, dryly, at Cristina's comment. "I'm playing it for Alex." She justified, because she was really treating it like a game. 

"Playing it?" Lexie shook her head, baffled.

"It's the best game ever." Aliya nodded, swiping right to a potential crazy cat lady.

"You don't play on dating apps, Aliya." The Yang woman spoke, matter-of-factly.

"But, it's so much fun!" Aliya happily continued swiping.

"Let's see," Lexie rounded the desk, stopping to pear over Aliya's shoulder. "She's cute! Swipe right!"

"What is all this swipe right business, isn't that what you're supposed to do?" Aliya questioned, swiping right for about three in a row, causing a very satisfying array of tings.

"You've been swiping right for all of them?" Lexie raised a suspicious brow.

"Yeah?" Aliya replied.

"That's it, I'm taking away your privileges, no more dating apps for you—" Alex reached over, but the brunette turned away from him so that he couldn't retrieve his own phone out of her grasp.

That was until someone appeared out of thin air behind.

"Hi!" The voice of a very perky blonde peds attending sounded.

"Oh, sweet mother of—" Aliya jumped out of pure shock, Alex's phone flying out of her hands and lying face up with a picture of a half naked woman on the screen.

The Karev man hadn't moved that fast before in his life as he practically threw himself at the floor.

"Uh—" Arizona stuttered, seemingly not catching sight of what Alex had on his phone screen, courtesy of Aliya. "You're on my service again today, Levine. Isn't that great?"

The Karev man rose to his feet, clutching the phone tightly to his chest. "Great." He spoke through gritted teeth.

"I would've bought my roller skates." Aliya frowned in disappointment. Though, being on the peds service wasn't exactly a shock.

Seeing as she was now barred from neuro, which only led to her shooting the Shepherd man looks in the corridor.

"Oh God, don't give her roller skates." Cristina muttered, out of Aliya's ear shot.

"I hid them," The Avery man appeared behind Cristina out of nowhere. "Don't worry."

Jackson, a man who loved every part of Aliya, hid them for her own safety. Seeing as, the last five times she had roller skated, she came home with an injury. Whether it was a broken toe, or a cut open knee, or a head lac, without fail she would come home battered and bruised.

And, he had grown particularly fond of the Levine woman, so it was necessary for her to stay alive.

(Even though she really should be wrapped in bubble wrap.)

"I have spares!" Arizona exclaimed, and she ushered the overly-excitable brunette to follow her.

"Karev." Jackson pointed at the man, starting to follow the two women down the hall. "Don't let her put roller skaters on, she'll break her neck, I don't care what you have to do."

"Body blocking, rugby tackle, got it." Alex accepted the assignment, jogging after them.

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It seems that one Alex Karev didn't do a very good job.

Well, he was an excellent surgeon, but he wasn't the best man for the job of keeping a very very far distance between Aliya, and Arizona's spare pair of heeleys.

Seeing as the brunette was currently sat on the desk chair with an ice pack on her ankle.

"I swear," Aliya protested with a groan. "That cabinet wasn't there yesterday. And, believe me, I should know. I've been stuck on this floor for seven days."

"You don't have very good spatial awareness." Alex commented, narrowing his eyes at her swollen ankle.

Though his statement was rather unhelpful, might Aliya add, seeing as she hurtled her ice pack at his face.

"Hey—" Alex bent over to pick it up, launching it back towards her. "Keep it on your ankle, or you're gonna blame me if we need to cut the damn thing off, or if you fall over mid-surgery this afternoon."

"I'm gonna be fine." Aliya assured, holding the ice back tighter against her ankle. "And, I have excellent spatial awareness, thank you very much."

"How are you holding up?" Arizona questioned as she bounded over to the peds floor front desk, charts in hand. "That really was quite a fall, you sure you can stand vertical for the rest of the day?"

"You're the lunatic who gave them to her." The Karev man muttered under his breath, side eyeing the blonde.

The peds doctor, snapped her head to look at him, her eyes narrowing at his very pitiful attempt to whisper like a secret spy. "Karev, I saw a half naked woman on your phone this morning, you have no leg to stand on."

"Ha!" Aliya burst out into laughter, clapping her hands together, finding the way Alex's expression dropped and paled a few shades rather amusing. "Half-naked woman— ha!"

"I'm surrounded by children." Alex muttered, as Arizona reached over to high-five Aliya, the blonde also finding Alex's dating life rather funny.

And not in the funny ha-ha way, in the very tragic way that you couldn't even help laughing.

Like when you slow down when you're passing a car crash. You can't help but look at the damage.

"Well, you are on the peds floor." Aliya said matter-of-factly, gesturing around at the farmyard animals on the wall, and the kids drawings on the pinboard.

"Your dating life really is a joy, isn't it Karev?" Arizona teased, patting him on the shoulder lovingly.

"Shut up." He grumbled, with the same brooding look he always had on his face.

It was his brand.

Aliya shrugged her shoulders, unable to hide the pleasure she was getting from this. "It keeps me entertained."

"I'm really gonna love it when you're off the peds service, you're a real pain in the ass." Alex said, though the two women knew that to be untrue.

"Oh, please, you love having me around." The Levine woman smirked, pushing her hair back behind her ear.

"At least she doesn't smell like a trash can, Karev. At least she showers." Arizona contributed.

Alex gawked at the blonde, before self-consciously and far from subtly smelling his armpit. "I'm living in the hosp—"

"Oh, Levine, you'll love this," Arizona interjected, changing the subject before Alex even had the chance to finish his train of thought. "Guess who Karev stumbled out the on-call room with last week?"

"On-call room?" Aliya repeated with a gasp, her eyes rapidly darting between the pair. "No freaking way who!"

"Peyton!" Arizona replied back with just as much enthusiasm. "Nurse Peyton!"

"Stop it!" Aliya's hands slapped down on her leg, no longer caring about her ankle as the ice pack fell to the floor. "You're being serious?"

Arizona nodded in confirmation. "As a heart attack."

"Make it stop." Alex groaned, jamming his hands into his ears as he glared across at them.

"This is great!" Aliya leant back into her chair with a wide, toothy grin. "This is amazing leverage, thank you Dr. Robbins."

"Anytime, Dr. Levine." Arizona said, smug as she waltzed away, her blonde curls bouncing behind her.

Alex watched her leave, before slowly turning towards the Levine woman, who was still grinning from ear to ear as if she had just stumbled across a pot of gold. "I don't trust you two in the same room anymore."

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Usually, lunch would be Aliya's favourite part of the day. However, when lunch also included her father sitting across from her, and her boyfriend staring him down as if he had committed a crime against humanity, it wasn't very fun.

Though, Jackson's glare was pretty amusing, in total honesty, which made it the only fun part of all of this.

"When I asked you for lunch," Travis began, his lips straining into a polite smile. "I thought it would be just you and me."

Aliya glanced over to Jackson, whose jaw tensed even more, and Aliya didn't even think it was possible.

"Don't get me wrong," Her father cleared his throat, quickly jumping to defend himself. "It's really great to finally meet you Jackson. I didn't— uh— I didn't know you were the man my daughter has been with all this time."

Jackson's expression remained unchanged, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. "It's not as if you make an effort to actually get to know her."

Travis winced at his comment, staring down at the sandwich sat in front of him, courtesy of the hospital cafeteria. "I deserved that."

"Dad," Aliya said with a sigh, setting her coffee cup back onto the table, and finally meeting her dad's brown eyes, the exact same shade as her own. "If you've come here to defend mom like some moronic knight, don't waste your breath."

"I'm not here to defend your mother." Travis replied, and Aliya couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. Because, surely he should be joking. He never once disagreed with his wife, so Aliya couldn't really imagine him changing his tune. "I'm here because—"

As if guilt-stricken, her father paused, and his eyes darted everywhere but Aliya.

It was something about how his eyes glassed over, how his cheeks puffed with each heavy breath he took, the way he spun the ring around on his finger when he was nervous.

Despite everything, the man across from her was still her father. And, even though she so desperately wanted to hate him, to throw her lunch across the table at him, she couldn't.

Because, he was still the man who called her ladybug, who put her pyjamas on the radiator when she was younger so they'd be nice and warm for when she went to bed.

At the end of the day, he was still her dad.

"I'm here because I regret how it's been between us for the past however many years."

Aliya blinked at him, unable to fully comprehend what he had just said. "I'm sorry?"

Travis scratched him temple, before reaching for his iced tea. "I found out you had a long-term boyfriend through Trent, who didn't tell us his name for months until your mother gave him too much wine at dinner."

"Knew it." Aliya mumbled, because Trent wouldn't give up that much information that easily. Wine and Molly had to be the culprit.

"I don't want it to be like that between us anymore." Travis told her, his hands braced on the table. "I want you to be able to tell me things. I want to know you, for real."

The Levine woman was still sceptical, because how could she know this wasn't too good to be true? Like everything appeared to be. "How do I know this isn't some sort of mind game, huh? Orchestrated by mom? 'Cause I know exactly how she feels about me, and Jackson."

"You can't help how she feels about the Avery's." Travis told her, mainly because he knew even he couldn't change Molly's mind. "No offence." He added, glancing over at Jackson, who doubled as Aliya's personal body guard in this moment of time.

"None taken." Jackson replied with a wave of his hand. "Besides, I'm sure my Mom could say the same about the Levine's."

"So it's some sort of feud over not winning an award? So what?" The brunette questioned, though long time feuds were quite hard to bury, people took them to the grave. "Just drop it and let it go, it's not juniors high."

"It's deeper than that Aliya." Travis sighed, shaking his head.

Aliya lurched forward, her forearms resting on the table. "How deep are we talking here?"

Travis glanced around the room, as if he was letting up confidential, top secret information. "We're talking thirty years of back and forth."

Aliya's jaw dropped from the news, because she knew about the feud, everyone knew. But thirty years? That's a whole lot of minutes wasted holding a grudge. "How did I not know about this?"

"They're pretty good at keeping it hidden." Travis informed, causally, as if he didn't just drop this brand new piece of information onto her at midday on a random Tuesday. "It'll just take your mother some time."

"I don't really care about mom's opinion." Aliya fired back, before adding: "And I don't exactly care about yours either."

She would take that last comment back in a heartbeat if she was in possession of a time machine, judging by the way Travis' breath caught in his throat, blinking at his daughter before slowly regaining his composure.

"And I don't expect you to." He mustered out, watching as Jackson's arm rested on the back of her chair, his fingertips grazing her shoulder. "I'm in town for a few more days, do you think maybe we can catch up sometime? You know, without your own personal bodyguard?"

"I'll have to see." Aliya responded, because she couldn't offer anything more at this time.

"It was great to meet you, Jackson." Travis spoke, genuinely as he held out his hand for him to shake. "You seem exactly what my daughter needs."

"Yeah." Jackson looked at the Levine man's hand, before reluctantly shaking it, even though he didn't even want to, not in the slightest. But he was an Avery, and one unshaken hand was bad karma in the family bible. "She also needs her mother to be banned from Seattle, but banning a whole person from a state seems a tad unreachable."

"Er—" Travis stuttered, his eyes darting to Aliya as if expecting her to jump in for his defence.

"What?" Aliya shrugged her shoulders, smirking at Jackson's comment. "I think that's a perfectly reasonable request. It'll sure as hell make my life a little easier."

"You know, before you go," Jackson quickly started before Travis even had a chance to escape them. "I just have one quick question."

Travis reached for his jacket, shrugging it on. "Hit me with it."

"Why did you let it happen?" The Avery man questioned genuinely, before Aliya could stop him.

"Excuse me?" Travis' eyebrows knotted together, confused by Jackson's out of the blue question.

"Jackson—" Aliya reached for him, but the Avery man stood up, standing taller than the man across from them.

"Why did you let your wife treat your daughter like dirt from the moment she was born? Can you tell me why the hell your daughter is terrified of her mother?" Jackson interrogated, his brows lowered as he practically spat the words out at him. "I sure as hell don't understand how you could've stood idly by and let this all happen."

With a deep breath, Travis nodded slowly, as if he was racking his brain around what to address first. "I regret—"

"Yeah." Jackson spoke, not letting his get a word in, knowing how much fathers were full of pitiful excuses. "You, Trent. You should regret not doing anything. For letting this happen. For letting Molly treat her as if she didn't matter."

"I didn't—"

"You didn't what?" Jackson voice raised, and suddenly a few eyes were darting in their direction, desperately craving the gossip. It's what this hospital loved most. "You didn't realise? How could someone not realise this was going on? You'd have to be a complete and total moron—"

"I think what Jackson's trying to say is goodbye, dad." Aliya reached for his him, her hands wrapping around his arm as she strained a smile at her father. "We'll pick this up another day."

Jackson lowered his voice. "I think what Jackson's trying to say is that he has no respect for a man who lets his daughter get emotionally abused in his own household."

Aliya wasn't entirely sure if Travis had heard what Jackson muttered, because his voice was so quiet, but if he did, he showed no signs of it.

Instead, he dug his hands into his pockets, said goodbye to the pair, and sauntered out of the cafeteria, leaving half a sandwich and half an iced tea.

As her father was well and truly gone, the brunette quickly turned to the Avery man, letting go of his arm. "Now, what was that about?"

"What do you mean?" Jackson shrugged, nonchalantly.

Aliya squinted, her words unable to form as her mind thrashed against her skull. "What do you think I mean?"

"I don't know what you expected me to do." Jackson pointed out. "Do you really think I'd be all best pals with your dad? Go golfing on sundays? After he—"

Aliya watched Jackson as he faltered, as his eyes looked scattered around the room. And, she actually managed to understand what he was trying to say. What he had meant by all of it. That he couldn't look at her dad without seeing her pain. "I know."

"He didn't even help you Aliya." He murmured, desperately trying to keep his voice soft despite the fact he wanted to use Travis' face as a personal punch bag. "All your life, he didn't even try. He never— God!"

Jackson dropped back onto his chair, and Aliya lowered herself down to her own.

"He hurt you just as much as she did and for that I can't be expected to treat him like everything's fine when it's not." Jackson snapped, his jaw tensing into a harsh line. "It's not fine at all."

"I know." Aliya spoke, softly, reaching for his hand.

"You do? You really do?" Jackson ran his thumb over the soft skin on her palm, their fingers intertwining.

"Yeah." Aliya nodded, a smile tugging on her lips as she reached her hand up to his cheek. "And, besides. He doesn't golf. He's more of a tennis guy."

"Good." He laughed, planting a small kiss on her palm. "I'm great at tennis. Then I can beat his sorry ass."

Aliya snaked her arms up and around his shoulders, pressing her cheek against his as she laughed. "Is that why you're being all icy with Trent?"

"Icy?" Jackson clicked his tongue, denying all accusations as he reached up to ruffle her hair with his hand. "I'm not icy."

"You totally are." Aliya chuckled, poking his ribs, playfully. "At the dinner table last night, when April and him were talking wedding plans, you looked as if you wanted to hurtle your pasta at his face."

"I can neither confirm or deny."

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"Ok." Aliya burst through the doors to Derek's office, and as soon as she entered, she began to pace the very small space. "So, I hate peds. It's totally not for me."

Derek looked up from the computer screen, eyes narrowed at the brunette. "That's—"

"Great?" Aliya finished for him, hands now bracing on her hips as she stopped the pacing, instead, her foot was now tapping against the carpeted floor. "Yeah. I know. You see, the thing is that I had some sort of—"

"Revelation." Derek contributed with raised a brow.

Continently, Aliya said the word epiphany at the exact same time.

"Go on." Derek prompted with a wave of his hand.

"Well, I realised that I want you to teach me." The brunette exclaimed, rather breathlessly. "To be a neurosurgeon. That's what I want. I've known it all along, all throughout the clinical trial. I know now that that's what I want to be."

As much as proclamations of love went, Aliya was really trying her best with this one, seeing as she had an unknown knack for big speeches.

"And, I want to be taught by you," Aliya continued on, whilst Derek just sat there, silently taking it all in with an annoying little smirk on his face, which she had grown to despise. "And, I can't settle for anything else. Arizona's great and all, but she's not you."

"I'm married, Levine." Derek said in sarcasm.

To that, the brunette rolled her eyes with a very over exaggerated sigh. "You know what I mean."

Letting the Levine woman squirm for a few seconds, Derek finally gave in, straightening in his chair. "Good. 'Cause I got a lot of things to teach you and only you. If you'd let me."

"Hell yeah, I will." Aliya grinned, clapping her hands as she moved over to his desk to peer at his computer. "Whatcha doing anyways?"

"Anyone tell you you're a little nosy?" Derek commented.

"All the time."

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"When I get my hands on him," Aliya started her train of thought through a full mouthful of potato chips. "He's gonna wish he wasn't such a pathetic loser of a man, I mean, is he really that much of a complete, total idiot."

The Levine woman probably shouldn't be declaring her undying hatred of Owen Hunt in front of his wife, however, seeing as Cristina yang was currently on the Owen hate train, she didn't really mind.

Taking a swig of her soda, Cristina frowned. "He's clueless. Completely clueless. There's nothing going on up there." The Yang woman tapped the side of her temple.

Aliya scoffed, concentrating on cutting Cristina's hair, seeing as she now was a part-time hairdresser in her free time. "If I could beat the crap out of him I would, just so you know."

"You know he was in the army?" Cristina said, moving her head even though Aliya had told her to keep skill.

"Yeah, I know." Aliya said, reaching across for her beer, before taking a swig and setting it back down on the counter. "I can throw a good punch, believe me."

Cristina chuckled, and the sound of the front door opening and softly shutting could be heard from down the hall, and Meredith appeared in the kitchen doorway, a sleepy Zola in her arms.

"Hey." The Grey woman spoke, her eyes trained on Aliya, for any whisper of warmth she knew she didn't deserve.

"Hi, do we really trust Aliya with the scissors? She's never cut my hair before." Cristina questioned, though the woman cutting her hair had now put all of her concentration into it, just to avoid the dirty blonde.

"She's good." Meredith nodded, readjusting Zola in her arms.

"I wouldn't get yours done if I were you," Cristina warned, the tension in the air rising by the second between the two women. "She'd have to fight the urge of stabbing the sharp end of the scissors into your skull."

Meredith gawked at her best friend's comment, addressing a now amused Aliya. "You're really not going to say anything? Nothing at all?"

Aliya finally looked up, a strand of Cristina's hair in her hand, and the scissors hovering, ready to cut. "Is there really anything else to say?"

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( notes! )

aliya's chaos and stress levels were maxed out in todays chapter oh my days

also this chapter is kinda a filler chapter because it sets up this whole act e.g. it introduces the molly x catherine feud, travis wants to make amends, aliya and derek being neuro gods & aliya still hating on meredith!!

also also, what's your fave tortured poets department song??? my no.1 is guilty as sin for sure!!

( word count! — 5,800 )