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chapter forty six ━ put me in, coach
season eight, episode seven

❝ all of a sudden the ball
was out of my hand
and into, well, his. ❞

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The last thing Aliya would've expected to spend her Tuesday morning doing was playing softball with a bunch of other doctors.

But, the world worked in strange ways, and here she was, playing softball with a bunch of doctors.

However, when Hunt told everyone that they were going to be playing a game of friendly softball against Seattle Pres, that's when Aliya's competitive drive kicked in.

So, she didn't necessarily mind playing softball at six o'clock in the morning.

Now, in preparation, the Seattle Grace Mercy Wester's had been split into offence and defence teams.

Aliya was on the defence, but seeing as her and the Karev man couldn't go two seconds without either throwing that ball at each other or getting into a conversation where they forgot the ball actually even existed at, Owen was getting pretty annoyed at those two residents in particular.

"Levine! Offence! Now!" Hunt snapped his fingers at her (the audacity that man had), pointing over to where the rest of the batters were stood.

"What!" Aliya protested, holding her arms up in surrender from where she was stood out in the middle of the field, with Alex sprawled out on the floor next to her (not purposefully). "I'm not doing anything!"

"That's the problem!" Owen called back, and Aliya couldn't even argue with the point he was making, so she slipped off her glove and dragged her feet behind her as she crossed the baseball field.

Callie Torres held out the bat for Aliya to take, with a great big smile on her face (she was having way too much fun). "Wanna show us how's it done?"

The corner of her lips twitched up, breaking the scowl she had on her face for the past ten seconds of her walk of shame. So, she accepted the bat, all grudges against being moved to offensive team slipping away. "You betcha."

The brunette made her way to the marker, gripping the bat in her hands as Derek threw the ball up and down, preparing for his shot.

"You ready, Levine?" He questioned, swaying on the balls of his feet — the Shepherd man was also taking all of this very seriously.

Aliya brought the bat up with a smirk dancing across her lips, leaning down slightly in preparation. "As I'll ever be." She answered, her eyes narrowing in on the ball.

And, Derek did the classic throw every pitcher in all the movies ever made about baseball did, the ball hurtling its way all the way to Aliya.

With as much force as she could possibly muster, she swung her bat forward, hitting the ball and sending it practically flying up through the air.

"Go, Aliya, go!" Derek called over to the brunette, the ball still soaring through the air over the top of him.

"Drop the bat, and go!" Owen clapped his hands to usher her on, and she threw the bat to the ground, running all the way to the first marker as everyone hustled to catch the ball she had just hit.

Then, she raced all the way to the second mark.

"Somebody get the ball!" Hunt ordered, though it was pretty impossible seeing as she had managed to hit the ball all the way over the fence.

Maybe she actually did have good aim after all.

And finally, she ran across to the third marker where Jackson was standing beside, waiting for a ball that wasn't actually going to come.

As Aliya passed the mark, she threw herself at him victoriously, holding her hands up in the air as everyone clapped and cheered for her.

Though, no one knew if it was just a fluke, or if she was actually good at baseball.

He just simply laughed at her as she crashed into him, his arms folding tightly around her, his hands braced across the navy blue long sleeved shirt she was wearing, seeing as now her feet were actually of the floor.

"Oh my God!" Aliya marvelled, her lips spread out into a wild smile as she tipped her head back with a laugh. "I actually hit it! I hit the ball!"

She wasn't expecting that much, even though she wasn't actually too bad at sports. So, the fact that she actually hit it so far across the field so they couldn't even retrieve it was a win in her book.

"How come I never knew you could play ball like that?" Jackson asked, setting her back down on the ground.

She lifted her hand to one of her pigtail braids that Lexie did for her that very same morning, twirling it about in her finger like a damn high schooler.

That's what she was now apparently.

He made her feel like she was seventeen all over again.

She shrugged, and the Avery man smirked at the way her cheeks had a perfect blush across them, dipping his neck further down so their lips met, his fingers hooking around the belt loops of her jeans to draw her in closer.

And they started kissing shamelessly, right there on the baseball field.

It seemed now, after the whole article thing, that Aliya really couldn't help any one's opinion of her, so why should she even try? So, she just smiled there, right into his lips.

"Get a room!" Alex called over to them in an attempt to make what they were doing stop, a very disgusted look passing across his face.

"Come on!" Owen groaned, blowing rather aggressively on his whistle, desperately attempting to get them back into action. "Look alive!"

"Shut up, Karev!" Jackson called back, their lips parting as he glanced over his shoulder, shooting him a look.

"Yeah, shut it, Karev!" Aliya agreed, pressing one last kiss to his lips, before bounding back over to the batting line as Elijah (who looked as if he wanted to ram that bat into his own head) hit the ball off into the air.

The Levine woman high-fived Callie's out stretched hand, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet from the adrenaline rush that was recreational sports.

Who knew it could be so much fun?

"Hey!" Cristina protested as the ball flew right past her and Meredith's heads from where they were led out on the grass.

"That coulda hit us!" Meredith frowned as the pair sat upright in alarm, because it wasn't as if a softball game was happening around them, that would be insane. "Careful!"

"Nice hustle." Alex commented as he got to the ball, picking it up with his glove.

"So," Callie began, a mischievous look on her face as she swayed her hips from side to side, bumping gently into the brunette beside her. "That new doctor, huh? He's your ex-fiancé?"

"From a whole other life ago." Aliya joked, rolling her eyes at the dirty blonde man running to the second mark, her hands braced on her hips as she waited for another go.

Next, she would picture the ball was actually Elijah's face.

Now, that would make this game ten times better than it already was.

"Hm, well, you have good taste." Callie commented admiring Elijah as he ran from the second to the third marker. "You sure know how to pick 'em."

Aliya tipped her head back, laughing at the Torres' woman's comment as the ortho surgeon traced her eyes from Mark, to Elijah, then back to Jackson.

Two of Aliya's exes, and her boyfriend in the same open space, how fun!

She only pieced that together in that moment.

"Oh, god! Half of the men I've slept with are in this field!" She buried her head deep into her hands, luckily missing the way Jackson and Elijah were now shooting daggers at one another as he ran past him.

"We've all been there." Callie patted the woman on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Karev, throw the ball!" Hunt yelled out to Alex as he stood chatting with the Meredith and Cristina, who were still on the grass, before turning to the Beck man, strolling back to give the bat to the next person up.

They really should've brought a picnic blanket and snack if they planned on doing absolutely nothing all morning.

"You ever played baseball?" Hunt questioned the new doctor.

"I played it in high school, and college." Elijah confirmed, glancing over at Aliya (mid-existential crisis) over his shoulder, seeing as he was the one who taught her a bit of baseball, until she gave up indefinitely. "Nothing beats it."

"That's good to know." Hunt pulled out his clipboard, scrawling something along the top of it.

From the other side of the field, Alex seemed to snap back into action, sending the ball flying over to Mark, and he caught it, sending it right over to Arizona, clad out in what looked like armour.

"Ah!" The blonde squealed, stepping out of the line of fire so the ball just hit the metal walls of the pitch, sending it ricocheting across the floor as Arizona scrambled to pick it up, falling over twice in the process.

"Robbins, don't be afraid of it!" Hunt stood watching her with his arms crossed, reinforcing the fact that his only job appeared to be bossing everyone around.

At least everyone was at least trying, he was just simply stood there.

"Wait!" Arizona finally retrieved the ball that insisted on just rolling further and further away from her, as if mocking her. "It flew at my head!"

"You're meant to catch it, Robbins!" Owen lectured.

"Helpful advice!" Aliya spoke sarcastically, clapping her hands together and giving a thumbs up, because it really was easier said than done.

"Sloan." Derek called over to his friend, who was currently making out with a random woman from Seattle Pres, which almost made Aliya's jaw drop to the ground, and Teddy's too. "Sloan!"

"Yo!" He said in between a kiss, brushing him off.

Derek sighed heavily, throwing his hands down in frustration as to why he actually bothered with this if everyone insisted on making out in the middle of a field. "Focus! Hello?"

"Okay!" Mark responded, but he still didn't stop kissing the red head.

"Who is that?" The Altman woman questioned, narrowing her eyes over towards the two, now Mark's hand was on her ass.

"Julia Canner, or Kinley." Arizona replied, now finally able to take a breath now she was away from any balls hurtling towards her, seeing as it was now in her hand. "She's an ophthalmologist from Seattle Pres, Mark's been seeing her."

Callie laughed, still watching the Sloan man, happy he finally found what he was looking so long for. "Every night this week."

Lexie didn't look too impressed about that, it was safe to say.

"All right, nice throw, Robbins." Richard encouraged from the benches as Arizona threw the ball back over to Derek. "That's the way."

"Webber, why don't you come down here and show us how it's done?" Callie asked, energetically to the man sat absentmindedly reading his book.

"Let me finish the chapter, I need my energy for the game. In my experience, we'll need it." The Webber man replied, reverting his attention reverting back to the discoloured pages of his old book.

"Who's up?" Derek questioned, and Lexie took that as her cue, walking out onto the field, her knuckles turning white as she gripped hold of the bat.

Aliya drifted away from the battling line, seeing as she had been ignoring Elijah's presence for the whole morning, she brushed passed him, making her way back over to Jackson. "I was thinking we could catch a movie tonight, you know, before the big game."

"Oh, yeah?" He smiled down at her, pushing the sleeves up of his red shirt. "What kinda movie were you thinking?"

"Anything." Aliya shrugged, watching as Lexie stood ready on the marker. "Just get me out the house. April wants to come over for wedding related stuff, and I've already spent the last three days straight planning it all with her. I'm gonna loose all the hair on my head from the stress. I'm gonna be a bald bridesmaid."

Jackson chucked as she self-consciously reached up to touch her braids, just to make sure her hair was in fact still there. "Gotcha. That new Zombie movie it is."

"I knew you were gonna pick that one. I just knew it."

"Now, Little Grey, let's go!" The Hunt man commanded, and Derek pitched yet again, and Lexie sent the ball hurtling across the field.

Maybe she pictured the ball was Julia's face?

That would as sure as hell give her motivation.

"Drop the bat. Go, go! Run to third!" Owen ordered, coaxing Lexie to run faster with rapid hand gestures. "Don't stop, all right, come on everyone! Look alive!"

Owen sighed, bracing his hands on his hips, feeling like the only one taking this whole thing seriously.

He looked across at his wife, a frown across his lips. "Yang, Grey, you could at least stand up!"

Meredith laughed at the novelty, because that so was not going to happen. Not even in a million years.

"Hi, honey!" Cristina waved, mockingly, leaning back leisurely on her elbows.

Hunt simply shook his head, then seemingly getting himself into a rather uncomfortable conversation with the Chief of the opposing hospital team.

"Oh, by the way, Trent wants you to be one of the groomsmen, or whatever." Aliya announced out of the blue, catching the Avery man completely off guard.

He snapped his head back to her, quirking a brow. "A groomsman?"

"Yep," She confirmed with a nod, bouncing on the spot. "Tailcoat and all, oh, and a top hat."

The expression that appeared on Jackson's face was horrified, to say the least.

But, judging by the brunette's smirk, he breathed a sigh of relief. "You're joking, aren't you?"

"Aliya!" Derek called over before Aliya had the chance to even respond to the accusation, and put Jackson out of his misery. "We've got a consult."

"Okay, coming!" Aliya replied back, kissing Jackson on the lips again as a goodbye, before jogging back over to catch a ride with the Shepherd man.

"Please, tell me you're joking!" Jackson called desperately, though earning no verbal response from the brunette, just an encouraging thumbs up. "There's no way in hell I'm wearing a top hat."

"I gotta check in a sick kid! Can I get a ride?" The Robbins woman asked quickly as the two started to leave the field, and she was already taking off her gear to join them, not even waiting for a yes or a no.

"I gotta update the boards." April exclaimed, also making her way off of the field.

"Is that it?" Cristina called, because it seemed like everyone had taken that as their sign to ditch this place. "Are we done?"

Owen placed a hand to his head with a sigh, because they certainly were not done.

They were doomed.

There was no way that they were gonna win this.

Just look at Seattle Pres, they had matching uniforms for godsakes!

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"The patient just flew in from San Francisco, she has a hypothalamic hamartoma." Derek explained as the two stepped out of the elevator after changing into their scrubs. "What do you know?"

"HH Tumours are rare, benign form of brain tumour." Aliya began to recall, walking beside Derek as they headed to the room their consult was in. "They're slow-growing, and they're located at the hypothalamus, and it can cause hormone imbalances, seizures, cognitive dysfunctions— she's only a kid." She frowned as she looked down at the patient's scans in her hands.

"Good, now what—" But, the neurosurgeon stopped talking as they entered the room, because Charissa, the patient, was now seizing on the gurney. "Ms. Bayer, can I help you?"

"No, it's best if I just hold her." Cheryl, Charissa's mother, told them, obviously been through this countless times before as she began to rub her daughter's back, her hands tight around her shoulders. "It's okay, sweetheart." She soothed, pressing a kiss to her temple.

Aliya reached over for a washcloth, gently bringing it to Charissa's face to wash the saliva off her chin.

"How long has she been seizing?" Derek questioned, rounding to the other side of the bed to help Ms. Bayer stabilise her.

"This is the fourth one today." The mother spoke, her voice tired as Aliya glanced up at the time on the wall.

It was only half past eight in the morning.

Luckily, Charissa's seizure began to slow, and Aliya walked across to switch on the light box, retrieving the scans from the brown envelope to place them up there so they could take a closer look.

"It's getting worse, so please tell me you can help her." Ms. Bayer pleaded, desperately.

"We'll do our bet, Ms. Bayer." Aliya offered the woman a smile, returning back to Derek's side once she put the scans up.

"It's tricky." The Shepherd man said, glancing back over towards the scans. "Charissa's tumour is eccentric, it's off to one side more than the other. Protocol is a sub frontal approach from here, but I'd never get it all." He pointed up to the image of Charissa's brain, taking his hand away.

Ms. Bayer chewed on her lip, her hand gently clutching her daughter's shoulder. "The surgeon in San Francisco said that even if you just got a little bit of it, the symptoms wouldn't be as bad."

"Yes, that's true." Aliya replied, her arms tucked behind her back. "But, the problem is it'll grow back. And, then the symptoms would come back."

"Well," Cheryl straightened, her eyes darting back and forth between the two doctors. "We'll take any relief that we can get."

Derek and Aliya exchanged a look, and she knew that he had already made up his mind, because there's no way he would do just a half-fix.

He wasn't that much in to half-fixes.

"I know the risks, and I've done my research." Ms. Bayer said calmly, leaning over to her bag to retrieve a very large binder, flicking it open to one of the many pages. "And you, you were successful on eight seven percent of your surgeries last year. So, we want the surgery, and we want you to do it."

Derek took a breath, looking down at Charissa for a brief moment. "I'd like to try something else."

"Excuse me?" Ms. Bayer replied, not sounding too thrilled about a sudden change of plan.

"I'd like to come in from here," He pointed back at the scans once more. "From above. I think I'd have a much better visualisation, and I think I could get it all."

Cheryl shook her head lightly in disbelief. "But, none of the eight other neurosurgeons we talked to even suggested that."

"That's because it's never been done before." The Shepherd man explained, which made the mother even more unsettled.

"What are the risks?" She asked after a moment of hesitation.

Derek glanced over at the brunette, coaxing her to reply, to discuss the risks.

"Well, going in from above means we're passing between both hemispheres of the brain." Aliya explained carefully, because discussing the risks of surgery always seemed like the hardest part. You had to admit there was a possibility the patient could die, and no one liked doing that, no one smiled when they said those words. "So, in that sense it's a little more risky. There's a greater chance of memory loss, stroke, or even death."

"No." Ms. Bayer shook her head as soon as she heard the word death came into it, as if she was waiting for her to say it out loud. "I can't do that."

"I understand. I really do." The Shepherd man nodded, digging his hands into the pockets of his white coat. "A sub frontal approach is a very standard procedure. You can probably find another surgeon who's qualified to do that. Can I see the list of who you've talked to?"

Cheryl gawked at the neurosurgeon in surprise, looking over at the resident next to him as she retrieved the list. "Yes, but I'd rather have you."

Derek took the list, his eyes scanning over the list of neurosurgeons. "Dr. Samuelson is fantastic. I don't think you could do better than him. It's very nice meeting you, Ms. Bayer, and I wish you the best of luck."

He then filed out the room after handing the woman back the list, leaving her completely dumbfounded by his sudden disappearance.

"Let me talk to him." Aliya smiled with reassurance after watching him leave, looking back across towards Cheryl. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." Ms. Bayer managed, but just by the tone of the voice you could tell she didn't expect that to come out of his mouth.

So, Aliya retreated to the hall, looking both ways but, it appeared he had rushed completely out of sight, no where to be found by anyone.

So, Aliya then proceeded to go on a glorified wild goose chase around the hospital to find where the Shepherd man had actually gotten to.

When she had finally found him, she sighed in relief. "Hey, Derek, I've been looking all over for you, you just ran off!"

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Derek dismissed, signing a chart quickly at where he was situated at the front desk of the hospital, avoiding the topic at all costs. "What's done is done."

"Look, I know what you're saying. Believe me, I know." Aliya began, trying to make him see sense, because they couldn't just give up, it wasn't their brand. "If we do the surgery the mom wants, we're signing this kid up for living in the possibility of her tumour growing back again."

"Then you know why I'm not doing that, I'm done with these half-fixes. The false hope." He stated, and Aliya knew he wasn't just talking about Charissa's tumour, and that he was actually talking about Zola.

"Then, we convince her that the transcallosal approach will work." Aliya pitched, watching him open yet another chart, sighing his name down across the bottom. "We give her that hope that it'll work cause it will! It will work."

Derek opened his mouth to reply, and Aliya believed she had finally got him, but Owen Hunt came racing down the steps, heading straight towards them. "So, why did I just have an irate mother claim that you refuse to save the life of her teenage daughter?"

"It was a consult for an HH Tumour, I told her that with a transcallosal approach, and that I think I could get it all. She didn't want to take the risk." Derek explained, snapping out of Aliya's fantasy land she almost had gotten him into, and pushing away from the front desk, walking away from Owen with Aliya in tow. "It's a free country."

"So, do it the old-fashioned way." Owen spoke, chasing the two doctors down the hall like a puppy.

"There are plenty of surgeons back in San Francisco as qualified as I am to do that." The neurosurgeon explained, his mind already made up.

Owen sighed. "But, they want you. They got on a plane."

"I won't do that, it'll grow back." Derek shook his head, not willing to give up on this. He was stubborn — it seemed all neurosurgeons and soon-to-be neurosurgeons were in fact stubborn.

"Maybe it won't." The Hunt man countered.

"HH Tumours have an eighty three percent chance of growing back." Aliya pointed out helpfully, before adding: "Just for reference."

"Maybe, maybe we'll see and just hope for the best." Derek shrugged, nonchalantly.

"Yes!" Owen enthused, and it must've only been Aliya who could tell Derek was only being sarcastic.

"No." Derek shook his head, and something shifted in his tone. "I'm not gonna do that anymore. I've got a resident taking the boards this year, and she needs the cases where we don't just hope for the best afterwards."

He gestured pointedly towards the woman walking beside him, before reverting back to the matter at hand.

"And, I had a kid in a crib in my bedroom for a while, and social services took her away." His voice cracked, but he persisted on as the three stopped outside the elevator. "And, the only thing they're gonna say to me now is that you gotta wait and see, and hope for the best."

Owen dipped his head, nodding slowly, because it wasn't as if he could say anything else to that. "It's frustrating. I get that."

"I think it's a little bit more than frustrating." The Levine woman muttered under her breath with a scowl, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's a joke."

"I am sick of half measures." Derek continued on, angrily. "Not in my OR. Not today, I can't."

"I think you can." Owen tried to convince as Derek punched the elevator button, hands on his hips as he stared up, waiting for the elevator to reach their floor. "I think her best shot is in your hands, and so does that mother. We don't send people home, Derek. It's not who we are, it's not who you are."

"You're right," Derek said with a sigh, because he didn't even want to admit that himself. "Don't send her back."

"So, you'll do it?" Owen asked, hopefully as the pair stepped onto the elevator now it had opened for them.

"No." Derek answered, and Owen's face dropped, his lips parting in surprise because he thought he had them. "I'm gonna prove to her my way will work."

Aliya grinned wide as the elevator doors closed on Owen's dumbfounded face. "Heck yeah you are."

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"How about now?" Derek asked now that him and Aliya were in one of the labs, testing out all the different angles they could approach Charissa's tumour using the probe. "Any lights?"

"Ding, ding, ding," Aliya said, her chin resting on her palm as she propped her elbows up onto the table where she was watching the screen, calling out every time Derek either paralysed her, or killed her. "You just paralysed the supplemental motor area."

"Great," Derek sighed, setting down the probe as he stared into the fake model of the brain. "I just paralysed her whole left side."

"Oh, she's paralysed both sides now." Aliya corrected, which made him exhale even louder. "We hit the right earlier."

His jaw clenched, and he reached for the probe yet again with newfound determination. "All right, let's try another angle."

"Ding, ding, ding."

"Damn." He looked up from the probe, eyes narrowed. "What was it now?"

"Fornix," Aliya informed with a disappointed frown. "Oh, and through to the basilar. That's rough." She gritted her teeth as the big red sign flashed on the screen in a very mocking manner.

Derek huffed in defeat, running a hand through his hair, trying to figure this thing out. "So, she'd be mute, memory loss, and brain dead, and do you have to make that noise?"

"Yes, it's like we're playing real life operation. You know, the game with the buzzer?" Aliya responded, because she had to at least make one aspect of this fun, or it was going to turn very depressing, very fast.

He began to tap his fingertips against the table in thought. "I'm familiar with it, yeah."

After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Aliya cleared her throat loudly, straightening out her back. "You wanna talk about it?"

The Shepherd man quirked a brow, his face still as somber as it had been for the past however many days. "About what?"

"About Zola." Aliya spoke gently, because it proved a sore subject for him, and for Meredith.

But, from how he ranted earlier, it seemed like there was a high chance that he needed to get what he was feeling out in the open, rather than just keeping it all bottled up inside.

"It hurts too much, Aliya." Derek whispered truthfully, running a hand over the stubble growing out across his jaw. "All I want is to get her back and, and she's probably forgotten us by now."

"Forgotten you?" Aliya scoffed at his comment, shaking her head and waving a hand at that ridiculous thought before it destroyed him even further. "Derek, that kid has definitely not forgotten about you, are you kidding?"

The neurosurgeon shrugged his shoulders, not even knowing what do believe anymore. "It just feels hopeless. This all feels hopeless."

"You'll get her back, Derek." Aliya reassured him, because she had to believe it enough for them, they had to get her back. "They can't just do this. If they cared one bit about Zola and her happiness, they'd pick you. You're her parents."

Derek seemed to not even believe that anymore.

He hadn't exactly given up, but it was hard to keep the faith (as Meredith liked to say).

The door of the lab swung open half a second later, and Owen walked through, here to check up on how they were doing. "How's it going?"

"I just can't find a clean approach." Derek exhaled, rolling out his shoulders from being in a hunched position for the past half hour. "Aliya, shut down the monitor."

"No," Aliya denied, lurching forward as if to body block him from coming closer to it, because they couldn't just give up. "We have to keep going, there must be someway. We just have to keep trying."

Still, he looked more defeated as ever. "I guess I owe the Mom a surgery."

"No, no, no—" Owen tried to stop him from quitting, from losing his spark as he moved to stand behind Aliya, peering over her shoulder at the monitor. "Not yet, listen to Levine. Try again."

"Now you're really getting on my nerves." Derek scoffed, the probe still sat limp on the table.

"I'm just practicing my coaching skills." Owen replied back. "Seriously, Shepherd. Pick up the damn probe."

"All right," Derek muttered under his breath, begrudgingly retrieving the probe, and trying a different angle.

Both Aliya and Owen stared intently at the screen, waiting to see what—

"Beep." Aliya made a different sound, because she wasn't exactly finding this game much fun anymore.

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—✩—
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After a few more failed attempts at finding the right angle with the probe, the three doctors went off to go grab some lunch.

Who would've thought making buzzer noises would make someone so hungry?

"Hey, Henry, what are you doing here?" Aliya asked as she met Henry in the corridor, a sandwich in her hand that she was munching happily on, seeing as she didn't really have enough time to properly sit down and eat.

"Bailey needed to run a few tests, apparently the device is faulty." Henry explained, catching the look of terror crossing over the Levine woman's face. "No big deal though, that's what clinical trials are for, right?" He cleared up, because the brunette nearly turned the colour of the lettuce in her sandwich.

"Yeah, they're trial and error, hint's in the name, there's bound to be things to improve." She spoke through a mouthful, though she had to try and stop herself from almost having a cardiac arrest.

Because, the thought of losing someone else—

Well, that thought alone could kill her.

"You know, I'm employed here now?" Henry informed her of this brand new set of news, changing the subject away from an untimely death.

"No!" Aliya's jaw dropped, her sandwich nearly falling from her hand along with it. "What? Since when?"

"Since this morning." He explained, sticking his chin up in the air with pride. "I'm a vascular surgeon."

"Vascular surgeon?" The brunette smirked, entertaining the Burton man's fantasies. "Wow, now that's new. Have I missed a few year?"

"Isn't it?" Henry agreed, happily. "Hunt only employed me so I can be on the softball team, great right?"

"Amazing!" Aliya enthused, seeing as Henry was a pro ball player before his condition. "Where have you got me?" The brunette peeked over at the papers he was holding in his hand, now that she knew what they were for.

"Centre field, still good at catching right?" He pointed to the drawing of the field in his hand, and where her name was scrawled across it. "I also hear you have a mean swinging arm."

"Ha! You bet it." She grinned at him, looking forward to the game tomorrow, seeing as April just paged her to grab her jersey. "Have you seen Hunt and Shepherd? I've been looking for them all over."

"They're on the roof." Henry answered, not even looking at her as he grabbed a pen, scribbling something else onto the plan. As if that was a normal place for people to be.

Aliya's brow flew up to her hairline. "The roof? Why the hell are they on the roof?"

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—✩—
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"Oh, this is why you're on the roof." Aliya stepped out of the elevator and onto the helipad, and if she were afraid of heights, she would probably get back on that damn elevator instantly. "Henry was being very elusive."

"We're clearing our heads." Owen clarified as he threw a ball over towards Derek, who hit it with the bat in his hands, sending it hurtling into the net.

"Right," Aliya cleared her throat, stepping further onto the helipad. "Well, Ms. Bayer wants to know if her daughter's having the surgery today, she paged me nine times in the space of time it took me to walk from the restroom to their room, which is only two minutes, might I add."

"Sometimes, the body thinks better than the brain. We're clearing our heads." Owen repeated yet again, throwing the Shepherd man another ball.

"So you said." Aliya lips pursed as she watched Derek miss it.

"Ugh!" He protested as the ball bounced across the roof, stopping just before it fell off.

"Levine, toss him a ball." Owen ordered as he retrieved his blaring cell phone from his pocket, holding it to his ear straight away.

"So." Aliya retrieved a ball from the bucket, moving it from hand to hand before throwing it for Derek to hit.

"So?" He raised a brow, sending the ball crashing into the back of the net.

Aliya slowly reached down to grab another ball to throw for him. "I think we just gotta keep trying. There has to be an angle we haven't tried yet. We must be doing something wrong, there's something we're missing. Is there any way we can approach the tumour in a differently?"

"The one that doesn't leave her paralysed, mute, or brain dead?" Derek retorted, and Aliya could tell he was looking at this situation in an optimistic light (not).

"Well," Aliya shrugged. "It would be great if she wasn't all three of those things."

"Don't worry," Owen slipped his phone back into his pocket once he was done with the call. "Just shake it off, shake it out, shake something."

Aliya scrunched her nose up, confused at the reasoning behind this whole speech.

"It's his new coaching persona." Derek elaborated, noting the look on her face.

"Oh, it's better than this morning I'll give you that." Aliya replied, actually paying the Hunt man a compliment for once in his life. "You were so stressed you're staring to grey prematurely."

Owen laughed, dryly. "I'm still working on it."

"Oh, Teddy's husband said you'll be up here." The elevator doors opened, and Lexie Grey walked through them, advancing towards where they were all gathered. "Your patient's mother keeps catching all the residents in the corridor, she told me to come find you."

Aliya sighed, shaking her head, but she couldn't exactly blame Ms. Bayer, she was a mother. "I just spoke to her five minutes ago." She threw another ball for Derek, which he missed for the third time.

"Oh, you're coming at the ball all wrong, it's not Aliya's throws, it's your body." Lexie observed as Derek prepared for another ball, listening to Lexie's advice. "Adjust your head, drop your shoulder. I mean, you're not connecting."

"You played softball?" He questioned, adjusting how he was coming at the ball.

"Yeah, I was pitcher." The Grey woman said as she watched Aliya pitch the ball again, this time Derek hit it hard into the net, and the three of them watched his face contort into relaxation, as something finally snapped in his head, like the pieces of a puzzle interlocking together.

"The head's at the wrong angle." He breathed, dropping his bat down onto the ground.

"Oh my god, yes, that's it! You've just been moving the probe, you need to move the angle of her head!" Aliya realised, nodding slowly at what the Shepherd man had said. "Thanks, Lexie!" She said over her shoulder as the three of them rushed across to the elevator, abandoning Lexie on the roof.

"No problem, I guess." She shrugged, not actually knowing what she had actually helped them out with.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"I went back to the lab to test my approach, there's a very good shot I can access the tumour from above." Derek informed Charissa's mother as he led her out into the hall outside the room her daughter was in. "I think we can get it all."

"A good shot?" Ms. Bayer still didn't look entirely convinced about it, still sceptical about the risks of the procedure, and if the benefits outweighed them.

"A great shot." Aliya corrected her, seeing as she made no buzzer noises in the lab moments ago.

"This is my child." Ms. Bayer placed a hand to her chest, looking back through the window where her daughter was texting on her phone.

"There are risks either way, but this certainly has more risks." Derek explained, gently.

"So, she could die in surgery?" Ms. Bayer elaborated for him, shaking her head, not wanting to even entertain that thought. "Look, thank you for trying, Dr. Shepherd, but I— I can't let my little girl be your guinea pig."

"Ms. Bayer, in all your research have you ever found a story of a kid with an HH Tumour who ever got better?" Derek questioned, rendering the woman speechless. "Who ever got a job? Had a life? This is the best shot you'll have."

Ms. Bayer chewed on her lip, wiping away the tear that broke away from her eyes, still watching her daughter, as if thinking that if she looked away, only for a moment, she'd slip away.

"You'll be giving Charissa her best chance. " The Levine woman added, handing Ms. Bayer a tissue to wipe her eyes. "To live her life. To be a normal teenager. If we get it all, it's a permanent fix. You're guaranteed for a life of arguing about dates, make-up, clothes, normal teenager stuff."

Ms. Bayer wiped her eyes, watching Charissa as she smiled at something on her phone, and then tapping away at the keyboard. How she longed for that life with her daughter. "Fine." Her voice breathy. "You can do the surgery."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Okay, I've got some of it, but I need to change the angle to get the rest of it." Derek announced once they were in surgery, operating on Charissa's tumour. "Okay, let's release the mayfield, please. I need you to hold the probe steady so I can adjust the angle."

Aliya's brows knotted together, glancing over at Derek beside her. "Wait, we're keeping the probe in?"

"It's too risky to take it out." Derek said, holding the probe steady as he waited for Aliya to take it from him. "But, wouldn't it be risky to leave it in, too? It could hit healthy brain tissue. Come on, take the probe. Hold it still. Move it even one millimetre and it's over, got it?"

"Yep. Got it." Aliya cleared her throat to steady herself, putting down what she had in her hand and taking the probe from Derek, keeping it as steady as humanly possible.

"Okay, let's give it a whirl." Derek then began to move Charissa's head slightly to the side to get a better angle. "Okay, good, I think the tumour's dropped into the field, let's tighten the device. Okay, good job, let's start the aspiration, very slowly."

"Her heart rate's 130," Aliya pointed out as they started the aspiration. "It looks like the tumour is pulling on the hypothalamus."

Derek looked over towards the heart rate monitor, then back towards where they were operating. "You're right, twenty labetalol, please. Levine, hold the retractor."

"Heart rate's 160." Aliya observed again as Charissa's heart rate started to rise by the second.

"Damn it," Derek muttered under his breath. "I'm pulling out the probe."

"But, we have to leave it in, like you said?" Aliya spoke up in alarm as he began to pull it out, which seemed to calm Charissa's heart rate instantaneously.

"We don't have a choice." He said with a sigh, now that the probe was fully out.

"We try again, right? That's what we're gonna do? Get the rest of it?" Aliya questioned, looking across at him, waiting for his answer.

"That's the plan." He nodded his head, glancing over at her. "You're sticking with me?"

She smirked from behind her mask. "Is that even a question?"

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"You mean it's gone? You got it all?" Ms. Bayer pressed a shaking hand to her mouth, unable to comprehend what the neurosurgeon was actually telling her.

"Yes," Derek nodded, his classic smile that made him live up to his McDreamy name on his face as Ms. Bayer began to sob happy tears, wrapping her hands up around his neck as she brought him down into a hug, squeezing him tight as if she needed to check this was real life. "We won't know where we are for a couple days, but yeah we did, we got it all."

"Wait, so, what?" Her voice cracked. "So, no more seizures, and she won't freak out anymore?"

"Well, seizures, no." Aliya smiled at the woman, who came up to her too, enclosing her into an organ shattering hug once she was done with Derek. "Freak out, most definitely. She's a normal teenager after all."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Let's go, Shepherd!" The staff of Seattle Grace Mercy West cheered on as the Shepherd man took the mark, bat in hand.

It was safe to say, after playing against Seattle Pres for a while, these doctors were shit at softball.

And, not the kind of terrible you could write off with, oh they're just having a bad day!

They were certifiably crap at the sport.

"Levine," Elijah spoke from beside the brunette, changing his tone after how their conversation had panned out a few days ago. "I see you're pretty good at batting."

Aliya shrugged her shoulders, watching as Derek swung his back, sending the ball flying through the air, and out into the field. "All I have to do is imagine the ball is your face, and then the rest is just so easy."

"Oh, wow," Elijah chuckled her comment off, holding a hand to his chest. "Now that hurts."

"You know what hurts?" Aliya snapped her head towards him, missing the moment when one of the Seattle Pres caught Derek's ball. "My fist in your—"

"Hey, no fighting." April lectured, pulling Aliya back by the sleeve of her jersey, away from the Beck man before she took his eye out. "Jackson, aren't you gonna even try to stop her?"

Jackson shook his head, bringing his bottle of beer up to his lips (alcohol was a must when playing softball, it seemed). "If she wants to punch him, let her punch him."

"Avery," Elijah cleared his throat, and Derek sent his SGMW cap to the ground in frustration. "Did you catch the Mets—"

"Don't talk to me." Jackson deadpanned, looking at the dirty blonde in disgust.

"All right, all right," Owen instructed, clipboard in this hand. "Karev you're on second, let's get out there, and get it back! We can do it!"

"We are down eight-nothing." Meredith groaned, leaning against the bar as everyone wearing the navy jersey's moved out onto the field.

"It's 'cause we're all crap at softball." Aliya stated, scrunching her nose up at the sun shining directly into her eye.

"We're screwed." Alex grumbled, heading out to his spot with a grimace, seeing as they were losing pretty tragically right about now. "He should just call it now."

"The new Chief's got something to prove." The Yang woman called, throwing her head back over her shoulder to look at her rather stunned husband with a smirk, before reverting her attention back to Meredith, or rather, what Meredith had in her hands. "Hey, still got your—"

"Yeah—" The dirty blonde nodded, dragging her flask out of her glove.

"Yeah!" Cristina spoke, excitedly, taking it from Meredith and taking a long swig.

The Levine woman stared longingly at the tequila, because she would in fact sell her soul for a pint of it right about now. "Hey, anyone ever told you to share?"

"Give me two reasons." Cristina held the tequila close to her chest for security measures.

"For starters, my ex-fiancé has been harassing me all week," Aliya started with, her hands braced on her hips. "And, a newspaper called me a slut."

Meredith seemed to look slightly concerned at the brunette. "Yeah, she deserves it."

"Ugh, fine." Cristina held out the flask for her to take, which she did, taking a shot of it almost immediately. "Your life is depressing."

Aliya grinned wide, looking at the tequila like it was the love of her life. "Tequila tastes so much better midday during a softball match." She held the flask affectionately, going the rest of the players on the field, handing the flash back to the Grey woman.

The first Seattle Pres batter took the mark.

And, with Teddy as pitcher, it was bound to not go very well.

Because, even though she was a phenomenal cardio surgeon, she was a crap pitcher.

"All right, come on Brechman," The Chief of the opposing hospital clapped his hands. "You can do it!"

"Come on, dude! Ring it up!" Another one of the yellow jersey wearing doctors called, and the came a whole load of chants from them.

"Here who go! Here we go!"

"Hit it out of the park!"

"Hit it out of that park! That's right!"

"He's got it, he's got it!"

"Here we go!"

They all cheered as he hit the ball, sending it plummeting across the field.

Aliya ran to it instantly, the tequila giving her a newfound burst of energy as she leant to grab it with her glove, sending it back towards one of her team members.

"I was getting that!" Elijah frowned, annoyed, as he met Aliya in the field, watching as Mark caught the ball, throwing it straight over to Henry.

"You're just too damn late, aren't you?" Aliya retorted, turning on her heel to get the furthest away from him, ditching him right there in the middle of the field to return herself back to the tequila source. "Do you have any more of that tequila? Elijah's driving me crazy."

"I was with him on Altman's service today," Cristina informed, handing her the tequila without another question, seeing as she already proved she deserved it. "He's a pretty good surgeon, if he wasn't, you know, a dick of course."

"That just makes me hate him even more." Aliya muttered with a scowl on her face, shooting him a look as she let the tequila burn down her throat.

"Off-pump quintuple cabbage!" Cristina exclaimed out of the blue as the tequila was returned back to her hand. "Any of you have a pen?"

"What are you doing?" Mer questioned, tipping slightly to the right, seeing as she already was a little drunk already.

"I'm making a list." Cristina informed. "Teddy told me to make a bucket list of surgeries. I kept the faith! Who thought that would pay off?"

The trio watched as a Seattle Pres player hit the ball again, sending Bailey and Alex to go and retrieve it, throwing it back over to the pitcher (Teddy, who was still in fact as terrible as she was two seconds ago).

"My faith is currently out of the office." Meredith stated, her voice husky from the alcohol.

"I feel you there." Aliya held a hand to her cheek, seeing as it now was in fact numb for the rapid alcohol consumption.

"Maybe I cured diabetes, though." The Grey woman pondered the thought, reaching for the tequila and taking it off Cristina, bringing it up to her lips.

"Your mom would've been proud." Cristina spoke, almost sincerely.

And, from underneath their caps, Meredith and Aliya exchanged a very pointed look at one another as they seemed to believe otherwise. The two of then glanced towards Cristina in synchronicity, their faces blank before all three of them burst out into laughter.

"No, she wouldn't." Meredith chuckled, and an inhumane noise that sounded reminiscent of a laugh escaped Cristina's lips as she slapped her thigh.

"That's a good one." Aliya snorted, also finding it very difficult to stop finding that funny. "Why are they all cheering?" She questioned, squinting out into the field she was finding it hard to even see.

"Oh my God! It's coming here!" Cristina spoke in panic, leaping up in the air as the ball hurtled their way.

"I got it! I got it!" Meredith was also jumping too, so was Aliya as they ran backwards, eyes pinned on the ball that came dropping—

Right into Bailey's hands as she appeared behind them, her face smug as she threw it right back over to Alex, who threw it straight back to Henry.

"Ball hog!" Cristina snapped, her speech slurring slightly.

"I had that!" Meredith protested, tugging her hat tighter back onto her head, seeing as it was slipping off to the side.

"Did you?" Bailey raised a brow. "Or, were you gonna let it fall to the ground again?"

"What is your problem with me?"

Bailey slowly stepped around to face the three women, but now Cristina and Aliya had stepped back, their shoulders pressed together and their jaws dropped, seeing as they were pretty a fight was in fact about to break out. "I beg your pardon?"

"I don't want on your stupid trial, I just need to get it out of my head." Meredith threw her hands down, frustrated.

"No, Mer—" Cristina and Aliya spoke in unison, reaching desperately for the Grey woman.

But, the two brunette's were currently sharing one brain cell, leaning on each other for support neither one of them had.

Bailey's face twinged with the realisation, looking across at her three interns. "Are you drunk?"

"No?" Aliya instantly retorted, though by the smell of alcohol on her breath, Bailey wasn't convinced. "What did you mean? We are not drunk? Softball is a family sport, that would be highly irresponsible."

"She is." Cristina clarified, placing one hand on Meredith's arm, the other on Aliya's. "We all are."

"So, what is your problem?" Meredith stepped forward, squaring up her shoulders, and Cristina's hand dropped to her side.

"What is my problem?" Bailey also stepped forward as a challenge, seemingly having a whole list as to what the problem actually was. "All right, I'll tell you my problem. My problem is you!"

"Oh, god!" Aliya gasped, her eyes widening twice their natural size as her cheek pressed against Cristina's shoulder.

"Everywhere I look, you're all in my trial, coming in my lab, opening my doors—"

"What's going on out there?" Owen questioned, squinting out to where Bailey was now lecturing Meredith.

Henry took his helmet off to get a better look out into the field. "I'm not sure?"

"Time out." Richard called out, making a T with his hands. "I got this, Hunt."

Owen raised a brow, looking over towards Henry, not entirely familiar with the rules. "Can he do that?"

The Burton man shrugged. "He seems to think he can."

Back on the field, Bailey was in fact, still ranting on. "You are reckless and irresponsible—"

"Oh," Aliya gasped, reaching to grasp the flash in the Yang woman's hands. "You need to give me some of that."

"But, it was between me, and the Chief, and my husband, so mind your own damn business! You are not the boss of me!" Meredith snapped back, pointing her finger at the woman in front of her.

"Oh, thank God for that!" Bailey burst out, scoffing as she crossed her arms in a huff. "We're lucky to even be able to have a trial after you—"

"Shut up!" Richard snapped as he finally reached them, now they were on a time out. "The both of you!"

Aliya and Cristina gasped yet again, rapidly yanking on each other's arm (this was way more entertaining than any soap opera they've ever watched).

"Now you," Richard stared down at Bailey, who wasn't looking all to happy about the situation she was in. "You have a lot of nerve rubbing Meredith's nose in her mistakes when you can't fix your own. Your trial is failing, like it or not, you need her."

Bailey opened her mouth to reply, but quickly pursed her lips, scowling at the former Chief of Surgery.

Though, Richard was now done with her as he turned to a drunken Meredith. "And you, even your mom, the great Ellis Grey, made a mistake. You fixed hers. Now, fix your own. Get out of those ridiculous pink scrubs and get back to the work you were born to do."

"I need that back right now." Cristian begged tearing the flash back out of Aliya's hands after she had taken many sips of it.

"Now, the two of you are gonna figure out a way to work together, but you're not gonna do it on this field. You'll do it Monday morning in the lab, is that clear?" Richard waited for a response as the two women sized each other up with narrowed eyes.

"Yes." They both finally agreed.

Richard nodded at a job well done, holding his hand up in the air as he shouted: "Play ball!"

"Alright! Come on!" Aliya heard someone clap as everyone sprung back into action, and Aliya readied herself to try and at least catch another ball.

Though, she wasn't too hopeful, seeing as everything around her was fuzzy blobs.

So, it caught her completely by surprised as a ball came her way, landing right into her glove.

"Woo!" Aliya grinned, smiling wildly. "Ha! In your face!"

"You know," Elijah spoke up from where he was on the other side of the field. "If you spent less time downing tequila every five minutes, maybe you could actually face what's in front of you."

Then, all happiness seemed to completely, Elijah Beck seemed to have that effect. "And, what the hell is that supposed to mean, huh?"

"It means that you run away from any problem life throws at you." He explained, arms outstretched as everyone called over for Aliya to throw the ball. "That you run at the first sign of trouble."

The brunette scoffed at the comment, and how he insisted of bringing it up at every chance he got. "You're really gonna do this here in the middle of the field. Are you really that bitter?"

Elijah shrugged his shoulders at the comment. "I wouldn't need to if you opened your freaking eyes for once in your— OW!"

Aliya didn't really process what she had just done until she watched Elijah fall limply to the ground.

And, when she heard Callie exclaim: "Oh, right in the balls!" Then, it all clicked.

"Crap!" She clasped her hands over her mouth as everyone erupted into complete and total chaos around her, and a few people began to run over to Elijah, who was very much sprawled out on the floor.

Because, she had just fully thrown a ball right at the man's balls.

"Go, Aliya!" She could hear Jackson holler, clapping his hands loudly in the crowd, over the top of Cristina and Meredith practically gasping for breath.

"Yes! I knew it!" Alex exclaimed, his voice amused at the whole thing. "I knew you wanted to hit him! I knew you had it in you!"

"Beck! Are you okay?" Hunt questioned as he rushed over to the man to assess the damage, but he could barely be heard over the very loud laughter.

Aliya's hands were still in fact held to her mouth in shock.

"How's it going, son?" Richard asked from beside him, peering down at Elijah.

"Does any one have some ice? Or, a bag of peas, literally anything to stop the— OW!" Elijah whimpered like a dog being kicked to the curb, his face burying into the grass.

"Hunt!" The Chief of Seattle Pres started to speed walk over to them. "You need to control your people!"

"I got it under control— Levine!" Hunt called over, ushering her over to him, which she did, stopping by Elijah's limp feet. "What the hell happened?"

Aliya looked guiltily at the grass. "All of a sudden the ball was out of my hand and into, well," She looked back up at the trauma surgeon, shrugging her shoulders. "His."

Owen sighed, pressing a hand to his head. "You're benched!"

"What! No!"

"You just hit a man in the balls," Owen spoke, matter-of-factly, stating very obvious facts that Aliya would have most definitely been proved guilty for in a court of law. "Go take five!"

The Levine woman wasn't letting up. "It barely even touched him!"

"He's on the floor!" Owen gestured down at Elijah, who was being helped up by Richard, seeming as Alex and Jackson were making no attempt to help him.

"But—" She stuttered, pursing her lips. "He deserved it!"

"Take five!" Owen advised as he helped Mark escort Elijah off of the field to get him two cold beers.

One to drink, and one for—

Well, you know what the other one was for.

"C'mon you," Jackson smirked, putting his arm around her shoulder and pressing his lips to her temple, walking with her over towards the benches. "Any one ever told you you've got great aim?"

Aliya sank deeper into him, wrapping both of her arms around his waist. "All the time, I never miss."

"So, you were aiming at the man's balls?" He said, watching over as the two men set Elijah down on one of the benches in the bleachers, handing him his beers.

Aliya scoffed, seemingly sobered up now, after the whole ball ordeal. "Let's just say, I wasn't not aiming at his balls."

The Avery man grinned, ruffling up her hair affectionately. "That's my girl."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Time out, time out!" Owen said, beckoning the team into a group at the centre of the baseball field.

The Seattle Pres Chief's jaw dropped as he began to protest: "You just took a time-out!"

"Bring it in! Huddle up." Owen gestured for Aliya and Jackson to come join them from where they were stood over on the sidelines, playing a very spirited game of catch, and they approached the huddle together as Owen cleared his throat, ready to make his speech. "All right, I— I just want to say how proud I am of all of you, you are an incredible team."

"He's seen how crap we're doing, right?" Jackson whispered into her ear.

"He must've." Aliya replied back. "You've gotta be blind to not see it."

"I've watched you work together, solve problems together." Owen continued on with his very corny speech. "I watched you teach each other, and learn from each other. You step up when you need to, and you— You do more than anyone asks you to do. You're the finest team I've ever been apart of."

"My God." Mark grumbled, hiding behind his palm in second hand embarrassment.

Alex scrunched his nose up at the speech, seeing as it really wasn't his thing, especially coming for Hunt. "That's really sad."

"Beautiful." Someone added, sarcastically of course.

Owen smiled at his team, despite all the judgement, before giving the Levine woman a pointed look. "When you're not hitting each other with softballs of course."

The corner of her lip pulled up, and it was then she really she didn't actually regret doing it. Not one bit. "He should've caught it."

"You don't think we actually have a shot of winning this?"

"What, this? This?" Owen laughed at the novelty, because they sure as hell was not winning this one. "No, no, no, we're screwed. You are all horrible at softball. But as doctors, you're pretty great, and I am proud just to get to lead you, and you're all here so, I just wanted to tell you. But, now, now we're going down. So, what do you say we go down fighting?"

"Yes!" They all agreed together, as a team.

And, they all huddled in, putting their hands into the centre.

"One, two, three, go team!" They all cheered, ready as ever to loose.

"Here we go, here we go." Derek made his way to the dugout as Lexie stood in the middle, ready to pitch.

"All right, come on guys!" April cried, clapping her hands together. "You can do this!"

Lexie pitched a ball to warm, sending it into Henry's gloves.

"No arm! No arm." Julia Canner spoke up from where she was stood beside Mark at first base. "This is your relief pitcher? Hey, my grandma's not busy, she can pitch better than that."

Oh—

And, it seemed, Lexie and Aliya had something in common after all, as the Grey woman sent the ball hurtling all the way over to Mark's new girlfriend.

"Woah!" Mark exclaimed as the red head clutched her chest where the ball had just hit.

"Oh, right in the boob!" Callie gritted her teeth, and the whole Seattle Pres team began to yell, hurtling insults at the Seattle Grace Mercy West team.

"What?" Lexie raised her arms in defence, a dozen yellow jersey's coming her way. "I thought she was stealing second."

"Woo!" Aliya dropped her bat to the ground, skipping on over to the Grey woman. "Nice aim!"

"For the love of God!" The Chief of Seattle Pres snapped, charging over towards Owen. "She's a surgeon, Hunt! That could've been her hand, I'm calling it!"

"So, okay. So, you forfeit?" Owen questioned, shamelessly.

"No!" The Chief snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at the Hunt man. "We killed you, game over!"

"You forfeit! That was a forfeit!" Owen celebrated, looking out at the chaos that he had created.z

Who knew that softball was a violent sport?

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Well, thank you guys for letting me be your ringer." Henry smiled lightly in the lights of the baseball field, now that the sky had grown dark after they had spent the last few hours drinking in victory. "Though, I didn't really ring much. It was more like a thunk, but—"

"Best vascular surgeon ever." Aliya grinned from where she was resting her head on Jackson's shoulder, her arms wrapped around him, her hands enclosed in his jacket pockets seeing as she was completely freezing her ass off.

"All right, will you take me home?" Teddy smiled at her husband.

Henry nodded, standing up from the benches and taking her hand. "I will take you home."

"Come on." Arizona stretched out of her seat with a yawn, turning to Callie. "We've got Mark as a sitter, so I'm taking you home."

Lexie lurched forward at the mention of his name, sudden looking guilt-ridden. "His girlfriend's gonna be okay, right?"

"It's her boob," Callie stated, a smirk dancing across her lips. "She's in good hands."

"I think I hear my heart singing, can you hear that?" April giggled, whispering into Bailey's ear, who snapped her head at the Kepner woman, watching her sway drunkenly in judgement. "La, la—"

"Are you drunk?" Bailey asked in disgust, to which April kept on singing to herself (or, her heart was in fact singing). "Yeah, I'll give you a ride home. Be in the lab before rounds." She added in regards to Meredith, taking April by the elbow to drag her to her car.

"I will." Meredith replied, curtly.

"Good job, Chief. Made it through four innings." Richard came up to congratulate before he left to go home. "Two more than any team I've ever fielded."

"Can I do a heterotrophic transplant?" Cristina asked, innocently.

"Tonight? No." Owen responded from where he was sat beside her, a hand affectionately playling with her hair.

"Good call." Cristina nodded, her eyes fluttering shut as she buried her cheek into the fabric of his jacket. "You're a good a Chief."

Owen chuckled, getting ready to stand up and take the Yang woman home. "Come on."

"Good night." Derek said his goodbyes as Karev offered his a bottle of tequila. "I'm good, you're fine too." He said to Meredith, who took the bottle anyway, bringing it up to her lips.

"That was a massacre." Alex stated, peering up at the Levine woman sat behind him. "You hit a guy in the balls, Lexie hit a chick in the boobs." He chuckled at the memory he would most definitely bring up any chance he got, and would also make its was into a speech at a wedding.

Aliya laughed, the cold of her breath creating smoke in the air. "Best day ever."

"It's definitely up there." Jackson agreed from beside her, doing his best to stifle a yawn.

"I don't think we did that bad." Meredith announced, optimistically.

"Oh, yeah!" Alex snorted, and so did Aliya (they really all were crap at softball).

"Where were you yesterday?" The Grey woman questioned once their laughter died out.

"I was doing stuff." Alex shrugged in response, acting quite shady.

"Stuff?" Aliya prodded his back with the tip of her shoe. "What kind of stuff?"

Alex simply muttered something incoherent into his bottle, busying himself by taking a large swig of the alcohol.

"Why do you look so sad?" Meredith frowned, shaking him by the shoulders, spilling the alcohol he was drinking in the process.

"I just got a message from Janet," Derek spoke in shock as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. "I guess the judge got in touch with her. He's looking at Zola's files. We're gonna get a court date."

"No way!" The brunette gasped, clapping her hands together excitedly for them. "It's about freaking time!"

"We're getting a hearing?" Meredith's face broke out into a smile, seemingly forgetting about the sad boy beside her.

"We have a hearing." Derek confirmed, drawing his wife into his arms, a happy laugh escaping his lips at the thought of getting their daughter back.

The dirty blonde turned back to her friends, her eyes bright in the fluorescent lights. "We're getting a hearing!"

"Come on." Derek took her hand, leading her out of the field and towards his car.

Aliya watched them leave, before leaning forward to Alex, a hand braced in his shoulder. "You're a good man, Karev."

"Huh?" He replied, pretending to be unaware of what the brunette was hinting at.

"Robbins asked me to sign off Zola's charts, I said hell no, she said you said the same thing." Aliya explained, her chin placed on his shouder (she couldn't hold up her own head, she was that tipsy). "I'm guessing you have something to do with the court date."

"The FBI should employ you." He snorted, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.

"Like I said," She smiled, softly. "You're a good man."

He reached up, ruffling the brunette's hair out as she yawned into her palm, the day ultimately catching up with her.

"You better take her home, Avery." Alex suggested, seeing as she was practically falling asleep on his shoulder.

"You're right," Jackson rose from the bench, helping the brunette up, whose legs seemed to have turned to jello. "Do you need a ride?"

"Nah," He waved him off as he began to lead Aliya down the steps, carefully taking them one by one. "I'm gonna stay out here for a little bit."

Aliya blew him an over exaggerated kiss, a huge grin plastered across her features, so much it lit up her eyes. "Night, Alex."

"Night, dork." He chuckled, as the two began to trek their way across the field to Jackson's car.

"I don't think I can walk any further." Aliya said, stopping abruptly in the middle of the field, several metres away from his car.

"That's easily fixed." Jackson replied, bending down only slightly, his hands out ready to catch her.

"Are you offering me a piggy back, Avery?" Aliya said giddily, swaying on her feet gently as the breeze sent her hair flying across her face.

He grinned back at her. "I'm taking you home, aren't I?"

She squealed, mustering enough energy to crash into his back, hooking her arms around his neck as held her legs against him.

Like a damn teenager.
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( notes! )

never have i ever written so much about owen hunt in one chapter, i need to go on a hardcore owen hunt detox (sorry owen stans)

BUT JALIYA THIS EPISODE I CAN'T COPE WITH THEM!!! they're SOOO so high school coded, i'll accept no arguments.

like my love for them is so bad cause a part of me wants another angsty era but at the same time i love their tayvis cutesy era SO MUCH IT HURTS

( word count! — 11,600 )