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chapter forty seven ━ heart-shaped box
season eight, episode eight

❝ heart in a box,
who's gonna get on
my last nerve today? ❞

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Aliya didn't know exactly when she had fallen asleep on a stack of plans for Trent and April's wedding, but it had happened.

Whilst Trent was in California for the weekend, catching an early morning flight back, April had invited Aliya over with the promise of alcohol, potato chips, and at least three veto's (that the brunette had used up in the first half hour).

So, it was only natural that the Levine woman fell asleep during the eighteenth discussion about floral arrangements, dreaming only of evil tulip's and peonies coming to life and feeding on her last fighting brain cell.

Even though wedding planning proved insanely draining and mind numbing for her, Aliya still loved weddings. So, as much as she complained about it, she did secretly enjoy planning this wedding, even if April was slowly but surely turning into a certified bride-zilla.

And, just as an evil tulip was threatening to eat her brains (they were zombie tulips, Aliya had a track record for very weird dreams), a throat cleared, making her eyelids flutter only slightly.

"Aliya." A voice spoke softly, which she wasn't exactly sure was real, or it was in her dream.

But, she doubted evil tulips were soft-spoken.

She murmured something inaudible, her voice muffled by the wedding plans.

The voice was also joined by another, the floorboards creaking as they moved through the kitchen where they had been situated in since the afternoon of the previous day. "April."

Though the two women still didn't stir at all, despite the blinding back pain from sleeping in a hunched position all night.

"Aliya," The first voice returned (potential evil flower from her dream). "Matthew McConaughey's here, and he wants to take you out for a nice, fancy meal at the—"

The brunette darted upright almost instantly after the mention of Matthew McConaughey's name, a post it note stuck to her very red cheek, dried up drool on her chin. "I'M AWAKE! I'M UP! HUH?"

Her eyes were only half open, though they began to dart around the room rapidly, as if she had actually forgotten entirely where she was and was in fact searching for a certain nineties heartthrob.

"There we go!" Jackson clapped his hands together in victory as Trent chuckled from beside him, dropping his luggage next to the counter.

"I was almost gonna get the pots and pans." Trent said, moving over towards April, who was still fast asleep despite all the commotion happening around her.

"What? What time is it? Where—" Aliya rubbed at her eyes at the light seeping through the windows, snapping her back into reality, though she still didn't have the slightest idea what was actually going on around her.

"It's three pm," Jackson stated, and Aliya squinted at the large clock on the wall, clearly telling her the time was in fact seven o'clock in the morning. "In the year 3026, the Zombie's are taking over."

The brunette angled her head back to the Avery man, her eyelids heavy. "You're just reciting the plot of that Zombie movie we saw last week."

He grinned, reaching to take the post it note off of her cheek with the number of a bakery scrawled across the top in Aliya's handwriting, sticking it back down onto the front cover of one of the many binders. "You might wanna cover your ears."

"What? Why?" Aliya yawned into her palm, pushing her hair out her face as Trent began to try and wake April up, shaking one of her shoulders lightly.

"Trust me." Jackson replied, simply.

It was safe to say her brain was lagging like shoddy Wi-Fi, not processing what he was about to do to wake his fiancée up. So, Jackson held his hands to her ears, and Trent began to wake her up.

The red head let out a high pitch scream, darting up on the stool with widened eyes, causing her to nearly fall off her chair and onto the hardwood floor, a look of shock painted across her face as Trent simply laughed wildly.

"This never gets old." The Levine man grinned, ruffling up April's hair, affectionately.

Like she was a freaking labradoodle.

April simply scowled, pushing her hair off of her face, that had stuck to the drool on her chin.

"Oh. That's why." Aliya nodded in realisation, Jackson's hands dropping from her ears. "April, we're not victims of a break-in, it's fine. It's just seven am."

"Seven am?" Her brows darted to her hairline, her eyes searching for her clock, the one with the painting of chickens on the clock face. "I've gotta sort out the OR schedule!"

The brunette woman clicked her tongue, leaning against Jackson's body as he stood beside her, her head sinking into the side of him. "Already done."

April breathed a sigh of relief, before turning to Trent. "That wasn't funny." Her jaw was clenched, her brows lowered as she gave her soon-to-be husband a very disgusted look.

"It was a little funny." Trent smirked, and April had to purse her lips to stop herself from laughing too, and he leant down, kissing the point where she was trying so hard not to smile.

It only made her smile anyway.

"Intern year," Jackson cleared his throat, his hand on Aliya's thigh as he slipped onto the stool beside her. "April, Charles, Reed and I shared this apartment, every single morning she'd scream at her alarm."

"Did not." April denied, slipping off of her stool to retrieve her herbal tea, a post-it note on her upper back reading 'kick me' (Aliya's doing). "And, besides, you and Charles stayed up until, like, five am every night watching horror movies." She added, matter-of-factly, because you couldn't really argue with that.

Jackson snorted. "Better than the seventies soap operas you'd watch, crying into a bowl of popcorn at eight pm."

At that, April stuck her tongue out at him, retreating back to her stool, flicking open her flower and decor binder. "Okay, so I was thinking, for the floral arrangements, white roses. Roses are the most romantic flower, and with daisies of course, and, Aliya suggested eucalyptus too."

Trent nodded in approval of the wedding plans, looking through all the sheets of paper spread across the counter. "That sounds great. I see the planning is going well."

"It's going great actually," April said, cheerily. "And, Aliya's managed to get a discount on every single thing we've bought. Isn't that genius?"

"How did you manage that?" Jackson marvelled, and Aliya just shrugged her shoulders.

She brought her hand up to his cheek, rubbing her thumb across his smooth skin, a smile dancing across her lips. "I have my ways."

"Sweet talking," April elaborated for her. "And, a light bit of flirting."

The Avery man widened his eyes, tilting his head at the brunette in intrigue. "Flirting, eh?"

"Oh yeah," Aliya waved a hand, raising her chin in the air. "Bobbie from Bobbie's Bouquet's said she wants to take me out. She's a little too old for me though, seeing as she is in fact eighty three."

"Poor Bobbie." Jackson frowned, mockingly. "She really thought she had a shot."

Aliya's eyes sparkled the way they always did, and she shrugged, yawning once more into her palm.

Jackson couldn't quite believe it was possible, to love her more. It was her in the morning that sent him weak at the knees.

The morning were the part of the day where things were so simple — her small, tired yawns, her reddened cheeks, the way her wide brown eyes adjusted to the bright lights around her, the sun spilling through gabs in curtains. The smell of the very first coffee of the day.

She caught his own eyes on her almost immediately, sending one of her smiles he craved so much across her pink lips, affectionately reaching for him, as if there shouldn't be any distance between the two of them at all.

"—And, I have a dress fitting this weekend, and oh, I booked you all in for the seamstress to take your measurements this Saturday, my sisters are coming down too, I adjusted the schedules so that it'll work, and—"

"Take a breath, honey." Trent lifted his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind April's ear, who was getting more and more stressed out by the minute about this whole wedding thing. "Oh, and Henry can't make that date, he's got a doctor's appointment."

"Oh," April scratched her chin in thought, reaching across for their home phone. "He's the best man, he has to be there. I'll ring them and ask to change it." She stated, making her way into the living room to make the call.

"She seems calm." Trent said hopefully, optimistically looking back at the couple on the other side of the kitchen island.

"You should've seen her about eight or nine hours ago." Aliya stated with a frown to her brother, lifting up her hand up in front of her, staring at her right index finger in particular. "I lost a nail."

"Sorry for your loss." Jackson consoled, earning a prod from the woman next to him.

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"How would you feel about clipping an aneurysm today?"

Aliya looked up from her computer over the top of the rims of her glasses, her fingertips hovering over the keys on the keyboard as she saw Derek, leaning over to her at the counter.

"I feel very good about clipping an aneurysm today." Aliya replied, just as formal as the neurosurgeon.

"Good." Derek straightened out his white coat, before coughing rather vigorously into his balled up fist, his eyes darting around the hospital in a frenzy.

The brunette raised her brow, giving Derek a look that didn't exactly mean to be judgemental, but it most certainly was. She had never seen that man flail before. "What's wrong?"

He sighed loudly, propping both elbows onto the desk to lean even further over the counter than before towards Aliya, his mouth opening to say something, but then quickly shutting again with a huff.

"Dude," Aliya recoiled, her lips turning downwards into a frown. "You're really starting to freak me—"

"What do I wear?" Derek asked genuinely, his voice lowered to a hushed whisper.

For a brief moment, Aliya was taken aback.

Because, not once in her life had Derek Shepherd come to her for fashion advice. And, when she did give him advice relating to clothing, he never took it. She said no tie, he wore a tie. She said blue shirt, he wore white.

She blinked at him. "Come again?"

He huffed, looking over his shoulder superstitiously, as if he wanted no one to ever hear this conversation ever. "What do I wear to a court hearing that says 'My name is Derek Shepherd, and I am a fit parent'?"

Aliya leaned in closer too, the corner of her lips curving up at his question. "You're asking me for fashion advice?"

The Shepherd man ran a hand through his hair, muttering something inaudible before stating: "I knew I was gonna regret this, I just knew—"

"No, no, no!" Aliya stopped him before he could turn and run away from this whole interaction with rapid waves of her hands. "This is awesome! I'd go for smart trousers, the light blue shirt you have, and that expensive jacket you bought last week. No tie, too formal. And, don't do up all of your buttons, keep one undone. It makes it more casual, but not too casual. You're not a male escort, you're a surgeon."

It was safe to say Derek looked overwhelmed, and she could practically see the cogs turning in the very back of his mind.

"No tie?" He gulped, suddenly getting a rushing feeling that he was in way over his head.

"No tie." Aliya nodded, slowly and calm, because at least one out of the two doctors had to remain at ease, otherwise their whole dynamic was thrown off. "You got this."

"Shepherd," Owen Hunt cleared his throat from behind the neurosurgeon, gathering his attention. "Do you need Levine today?"

"She's my resident," Derek stated, turning around to the trauma surgeon, who had a certain annoying resident in tow. "She's clipping an aneurysm today, of course I need her."

"Well, I'm going to have to take her off your service, I need her for a—" He trailed off, looking from the Beck man beside him, to the Levine woman, looking quite frankly very alarmed at what was going on. Because, if Elijah was involved, it couldn't be good. "A team building exercise."

Aliya curled her nose up at the proposition, seeing as she was in fact done with team building exercises — they were quite frankly pissing her off. "I thought softball was the team building exercise."

"And, that only ended with you bruising his balls." Owen deadpanned, ultimately stating the facts, his hands braced on his hips in some sort of superiority.

"They're not bruised anymore." Elijah announced to the whole hospital, as if anyone really cared.

(No one cared.)

The brunette pursed her lips. "That's just your ego though, right?"

Derek snorted, looking back at the woman at the desk. "Good one."

"Now that that's sorted, Levine, come with me." Owen waved a hand for her to follow, waltzing down the hall with Elijah in tow, heading in the direction of the emergency room.

Though, Aliya stayed sat at the desk.

Mainly because she wasn't sure whether she could actually move after sleeping at a table for the entire night. But, it was also due to the fact she really didn't want to do any team building with the guy.

And, she wasn't a fan of Owen's bright ideas, that weren't very bright at all.

"Levine." The Hunt man stopped in the hall when he realised she was in fact not following him, casting her a look over his shoulder, where she was staring at Derek for help.

She pursed her lips together, tearing her eyes off of the neuro surgeon. "I really feel my surgical abilities are better suited by clipping that—"

"It's not optional." Owen stated, matter-of-factly.

"I'm coming." Aliya grumbled, begrudgingly following the two men down the hall, shooting Derek a look as if to say something along the lines of kill me now. "Can't believe I'm missing my aneurysm for this."

However, Derek just gave her an encouraging thumbs up, that didn't make her feel any better for that matter.

"So," Aliya drag out the syllable, walking beside Owen, who was currently acting as a wall between the two opposing residents. "What exactly is this team building for?"

"Well," Owen glanced between the two surgeons either side of him. "You two seem to have some issues you need to work out. I saw that as clear as day on the softball field."

"I don't see how that's any of your business." Aliya retorted, her arms crossed.

"I agree." Elijah nodded, and that would probably be the first (and last) time the two doctors would ever agree on anything.

"At least you two can see eye to eye on something." Owen took that as the first victory of the day as he pushed through the double doors leading to the hectic emergency room. With the beeping of monitors, patients complaining, nurses running wild about the place, interns getting lost—

The ER had descended into chaos.

"You two will be running the ER today." He announced to the pair, looking pretty proud of himself to say the least.

"Oh—" Elijah muttered, staring at the pit with widened blue eyes, exchanging a look with the brunette at his side. "We're screwed."

"Speak for yourself." The Levine woman walked off away from the two men, throwing herself into her work.

Because, they would never be able to work together as a team, but at least she could say she's a much better doctor than him.

Instead of being the doctor standing at the entrance, gawking like a lost soul.

"Hey, you," Aliya pointed at the intern running about the place, approaching him quickly, leaving the two men behind. "Stop running, this isn't cross country sports, what do you need?"

"I need to put in a central line! How do I put in a central line!" He said, stressed out about it the whole thing, dropping the numerous supplies he had in his hand.

"Right, that's fine, take a breath, I'll come show you how to do one." Aliya assured, following the scruffy haired intern over to the bed where a woman was waiting patiently.

"I've waited twenty minutes for a neuro freaking consult, they'll probably just tell me I have a concussion." A voice from the bed opposite to the woman complained, and Aliya looked over her shoulder at the man.

"Tyler!" Aliya hollered across the emergency room. "Could you page Derek down here? Say Aliya says it a 911."

The man probably in fact had just a concussion, but at least that's one patient checked off the list.

And, after a short five minutes that insisted of showing an intern how to administer a central line, rushing to revive a coding patient then sending them up to surgery with Dr. Altman, and assuring the man he only had a concussion (it definitely wasn't a 911 emergency) with the help of Derek's helpful consult, Aliya headed back to the front desk, now that she had put out at three theoretical fires.

The Levine woman grabbed a stack of five clipboards of the patients needing to be seen to, flicking through them and deciding that Doris Matthews, seventy five year old woman with a history of heart attacks, was her top priority.

"Take your pick." Aliya shoved the other four clipboards into Elijah's arms, turning on her heel towards bed five, where a white haired woman was led, scribbling something into a bright pink notebook. "Hey, Mrs. Matthews. I'm Dr. Levine, I've read your chart, you're suffering from chest pains?"

"Are you a Sagittarius? Libra?" The woman instantly questioned, her glasses balanced on the very edge of her nose.

"Actually, I'm a Pisces." Aliya replied back sympathetically, and Doris let out a sigh, taking her pen and crossing out something she had written.

"Goddamnit." She muttered under her breath, closing her notebook and stuffing it back into her purse.

Aliya welcomed the calm after the chaos of the past couple minutes, glad the ER had reverted to a somewhat quieter atmosphere. "Leo?"

All of a sudden, Doris lurched forward in alarm at what Aliya had said, gripping a hold of her wrist. "How did you know? Did they send you?"

"Intuition, I guess." Aliya shrugged, putting down the clipboard down and tugging out her stethoscope from her pocket. "I looked at your chart, Mrs, Matthew's, it says when your birthday is, do you mind if I take a listen?"

"If you must." Doris said with a leisurely wave of her hand, and then that's when Aliya noticed the amount of jewellery on her person — diamond rings, pearl necklace, shiny earrings.

"Pretty pearls." Aliya pointed out, putting the stethoscope to Doris' back to take a listen.

Her hand went up to reach her necklace, moving the pearls back and forth around her neck. "You can have it when I die if you'd like."

If Aliya were drinking coffee, that moment would've made for an excellent spit-take.

But, alas, Aliya was not drinking her beloved coffee, instead she choked on her own breath.

"My grandkids ain't having it, that's for sure. Ungrateful little shits." Doris sneered in her very British accent, scowling over at the wall.

Aliya grinned wide, because she finally found a patient with a good sense of humour. "Mrs. Matthews, are you under any stress at the moment?"

"Oh, honey," Doris laughed at the supposed novelty of the word stress. "I'm sitting on a retirement fund bigger than my ass, I'm living the dream."

"Good for you, Mrs. Matthews." Aliya said supportively, taking her stethoscope away. "I see you have a history of heart attacks, so I'd like to run a few tests to be sure you're not having another one if that's okay?"

"Test away, doctor." Doris leaned back on the gurney, as if this was some sort of luxury spa resort, instead of a hospital. "As I said, retirement fund bigger than my ass."

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After one gaping head laceration Aliya had spent fifteen minutes suturing, a hypochondriac insisting he was dying of a stroke (he wasn't dying of a stroke), a ten-year old with appendicitis, and a cheerleader with a twisted ankle, Aliya had abandoned Elijah in the ER after bossing every living person about the place, craving five minutes of solitude whilst she picked up Doris' test results.

This team building was actually going pretty well, as well as things could go.

She had successfully told Elijah to go screw himself at least twice, and nobody died a tragic death on her watch.

That was a win in her book.

And, to top it all off, team building didn't really seem all that challenging. She just had to get on with her job, and Elijah kind of just disappeared out of her mind.

Like an irrelevant fruit fly.

"Hey," The brunette leaned against the counter, appreciating the moment of silence. "I'm here for Doris Matthews' test results."

"Of course." Brian, the receptionist, disappeared to collect them, leaving Aliya to stare into space in silence, which she welcomed.

Because, at least she didn't have her ex-boyfriend in her ear—

"Aliya, can I ask you something?"

Oh.

People say the universe worked in strange ways, because one of her exes was lurking behind her, bouncing his daughter in his arms, a tortured expression painted across his face.

"Sofia, hi." Aliya beamed wide at the young girl, completely ignoring what Mark had to say as he handed Sofia over to the brunette, who instantly held Sofia up in the air. "How is it possible to you look even cuter?"

Aliya grinned at Mark's daughter, bringing her back down and swaying her in her arms, beginning to make some strange noises with her mouth that she would never do to someone who wasn't under the age of one.

"Avery's cheating on me." Mark announced, unsolicited.

A wide range of emotions passed over the Levine woman's face, all from shock, to disgust to complete and total confusion. "Are you deluded?"

"I can feel him slipping away," Mark said with a frown, followed by a very heavy sigh, as if he had a million weights on his shoulders. "And, how do I get him back?"

It was as if her were reciting nineteenth century poetry, and Aliya wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Brian appeared back at the window with the scans, passing them through so Mark could grab them for Aliya, and the pair began to descend down the hall, the brunette growing even more intrigued. "First, you rewind, and start from the beginning."

The Sloan man turned to Aliya, who was now showing Sofia her flashlight from her pocket. "He took himself off of the nerve graft, and then—"

"Wait. What? The nerve graft?" Aliya replied back stunned, seeing as she couldn't shut up the Avery man for weeks, all he wanted to talk about what that nerve graft. "He's been preparing for that for weeks, why would he—"

"I was hoping you would know." Mark admitted, his fingertips drumming on the large brown envelope in his grasp. "You don't know anything?"

"Nothing at all." Aliya shrugged, bouncing Sofia so she wouldn't get bored of the conversation about his daddy's boyfriend cheating on him. "I can try to talk to him if you'd like? Though, as far as I know, he loves plastics, he can't stop talking about it for that matter."

"Really?" Mark questioned, hanging onto the sense of relief that Jackson wasn't in fact leaving him in the dirt for another speciality.

"And, he's certainly not cheating on you with another speciality that's for sure. That would be insane." Aliya informed matter-of-factly, her brows lowered as she spoke to really try and drill that sentiment into the Sloan man's skull.

"It would break my heart, Levine," Mark took it to heart, looking down at the floor tiles sadly, as if his favourite character on a long running television show had just died. "I think I'm—"

"Aliya Levine!"

Mark trailed off as the two doctors paused in the hall, slowly turning their heads to the woman in a wheelchair who had just called out Aliya's full entire name in the middle of the corridor for everyone to hear, with Meredith Grey pushing her closer to them, a look of remorse on her features, as if apologising in advance for whatever's going to happen.

Because, that woman was in fact George O'Malley's mother, Louise O'Malley.

"Oh my god, you're beautiful." Louise mused, making grabby hands at the brunette, a wide smile lighting up every inch of her face.

"Oh my— Mrs. O'Malley!" Aliya said in shock, her grip tightening around Sofia in her arms, who was now holding onto the corner of her scrubs for dear life, unbeknownst to what was actually going on around her, which was probably for the best. "It's so great to see you, what are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine, dear." Louise brushed her off, her eyes tracing every inch of Aliya's face, as if hunting for clues. "I'm better now that I've seen you! And, this baby! Oh my god! You and Mark had a baby! She looks exactly like you! I knew you would eventually, I'm so happy for—"

"Oh! No!" Aliya quickly intervened, desperate to make it stop, her eyes darting awkwardly from Meredith, back to Mark, then down at the baby in her arms, before landing back into Louise. "No, Mrs. O'Malley she's not mine, his but, no not mine, those— uh— labs are mine."

And, on that note, Aliya held Sofia out for Mark to grab, and she took the labs from his hands, waving them about in the air, a grin that began to hurt her cheekbones painted across her face. 

"Yeah, no, we don't— uh—" Mark held Sofia, not exactly wanting to give George's mother the timeline accurate recollection of events that had led up to this very moment in time. "We're not together anymore. She's my daughter, not hers, she wasn't uh— in— her womb— uh— excuse me."

Mark scurried away with Sofia, leaving Aliya totally helpless.

"I'm barren Mrs. O'Malley, no baby in my uterus at all, never, nope. Not today." Aliya rambled on, and she saw in her peripheral vision Meredith face palming, looking away from the absolute train wreck going on before her.

"Oh," Louise's smile faltered, but she quickly regained her composure. "So sorry for the mix-up dear."

"It's okay." Aliya assured her, awkwardly laughing at the whole ordeal. "Easy mistake."

"I better get her off to CT." Meredith now decided this interaction had reached its time of death, beginning to steer Louise O'Malley away. "Go get a coffee, Aliya. You need one."

"Right, yes, coffee," Aliya nodded in agreement of the dirty blonde's advice, beginning to turn on her heel. "And, I have an ER to run, so—"

"Aren't you all grown up!" Louise gushed, waving the brunette off with a maternal grin. "Bye, honey!"

Aliya smiled and waved a goodbye, however now she desperately needed to find a good place to dig a hole and bury herself in it.

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"Mrs. Matthews," The Levine woman greeted after downing two coffee's, per Meredith's professional advice. "I ran every test in the book, and you're fine. Better than fine even, you're gonna live for the next eighty years, outlive all of those grandkids of yours."

Even though Aliya was sure this case had to be surgical, sometimes things just turned out to be completely fine, even if there were a hundred different possibilities it could've gone wrong.

"Hm," Doris reached over for her bag, sliding it onto her shoulder. "That'll teach 'em how to be grateful. The chest pains gone now any way, I think it might've been from the five packets of barbecue chips I had before."

"Maybe." Aliya grinned, passing Doris' her hot pink fur-lined coat, which was definitely a statement piece. "Just take it easy, okay?"

"I always do, dear." Doris grinned, placing a hand on Aliya's wrist. "I've got a date to go to. Guy's a solid five, but god, he's good in bed if you know what I'm sayin'."

Aliya snorted at the comment, walking Doris to the door. "Have fun, you deserve it."

"Oh, I will." Doris gave a very enthusiastic thumbs up, before disappearing out of the emergency room, and Aliya sprung back into action yet again, striding back over to the desk to retrieve the next clipboard.

"How's it going?" Elijah asked, genuinely seeming to be nice, though Aliya really wasn't buying it.

He sometimes reckoned how long it would actually take to get her to like him again.

But, he would probably be waiting a hell of a long time.

"Pretty great actually." Aliya beamed, though he knew she wasn't directing it towards him, rather the forty year old with a swollen ankle. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have six more patients to see to."

"Aren't we meant to be working together?" The Beck man spoke up before she had a chance to escape him. "You know, as a team. United front."

Aliya considered this, though quickly realised there was no room for an ex-fiancé on any team she wanted to be apart of. "If I need help, I'll be sure to ask someone else."

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"I need a sandwich, and a shiv." Aliya announced, poking her head in between Alex and Jackson's shoulder as they stood at the cafeteria counter. She reached in, quickly grabbing a sandwich with an unknown filling, and an apple whilst the other two plated up their fries.

Jackson raised a brow at the brunette, walking further as the queue moved up. "What's the shiv for?"

"Elijah's throat." Aliya replied back fast, a scowl across her face.

The Avery man chuckled, as Alex let out a huff at the very mention of Elijah's name. "What's he done now?" Jackson asked, picking up a bacon sandwich from the hot counter.

"What hasn't he done?" Alex muttered in response.

"Actually," Aliya corrected, eyeing the fries on Alex's plate, quickly reaching for one to pop into her mouth before she continued. "I need two, one for Hunt too. He's got us running the ER for team building purposes." She waved the fry in the air, putting it into her mouth, sadly.

Nobody should be sad whilst eating fries, it was a tragedy.

"Team builing?" Jackson repeated, glancing down at a rather annoyed and irritated Aliya. "Isn't Hunt just full of bright ideas?"

"The brightest." Aliya sighed in resentment, before returning back to the matter at hand, and why she had was here. "Oh, Sloan harassed me about you today."

"Dude," Alex scoffed, Aliya suddenly reminding him about his own thing, and Jackson's head quickly shot up in alarm, eyes darting between the two residents by his side. "Sloan will not shut up about you. I wouldn't have taken the surgery if it meant I was breaking up the plastics posse."

"The Plastics what-now?" Aliya tried to stifle a laugh, but she couldn't help but find what Alex had said relatively entertaining.

"He's using that in public now?" Jackson eyed the cafeteria, really hoping no one had heard the whole 'plastics posse' thing, seeing as it was truly mortifying for him.

"What? You're lucky." Alex said with a shrug, casting a look across the cafeteria at Robbins. "I wish I had an attending who had my back like Sloan's got yours."

"Excuse me." Lexie appeared behind them suddenly, making an attempt to move the Karev man over so she could grab her own lunch.

"Hey, no cuts." Alex snapped at the youngest Grey, who was pushing him slightly over in attempts to snag a BLT.

"Sorry, I just gotta get back to my patient." Lexie informed, finally retrieving a sandwich Alex was desperately trying to keep her from, a book balanced in her other hand. "Oh my god, you guys should read this. It's amazing."

"Wait, is that one of those books about the time travelling chick?" Alex questioned.

Aliya angled her head so she could see the from cover, and instantly recognised the front cover from a book Doris had in her bag, as well as the infamous notebook. "Oh, my patient in the ER today had one in her bag."

"Yeah, every other mom in peds has one in her purse." Alex scoffed, casting a judgemental look Lexie's way, but however it was more judging her taste in books rather than anything else.

"Uh— cause they're awesome." Lexie enthused, waving the open pages of the book around in the air. "I mean, one minute, Kate is running through 1890s Paris with this pickpocket that she loves but can't trust, and the next thing she knows she's being pulled across time, dodging Nazi's with this adorable American GI. It's like slaughterhouse five, but totally hot."

Aliya blinked. "Woah, that's a lot to take in."

"Right?" Lexie grinned, her eyes reverting back to the pages.

"'Cause thats what Vonnegut's missing." Jackson stated, moving his tray as the queue moved up yet again. "Hotness."

"Okay, I gotta go." And with a very brief summary of a multi book series, Lexie had scurried away, breezing back out the cafeteria.

The two men picked up their trays, scanning account the room for a free table, but they were only met with Arizona and the resident she was showing around for the peds fellowship, flaunting it for all to see.

"It's heinous," Aliya commented, scowling over at the blonde. "That's what it is."

"Come on, let's eat somewhere else." Alex grumbled, leading the other out of the cafeteria doors, in search of another place where they could eat in peace without the background noise of the exaggerated laughter coming from the table opposite.

"Back to the nerve graft thing," Aliya said as they descended further down the corridor. "Sloan came up to me today, wanting to know why you bailed on the surgery."

"He talked to you about it?" Jackson gritted his teeth, his jaw tensing at his supposed secret getting out. What that secret was, no one even knew. Not even Sloan. "Damn it."

"Why did you?" Aliya pried, her brow raising at the Avery man, who was seemingly picking up his pace a tiny bit, as if wishing to escape this conversation, though one thing Aliya was was persistent. And, she wasn't going to let this one go that easily. "You've been talking about this nerve graft for weeks. It's all you've been talking about."

"It's nothing." Jackson shrugged his shoulders, turning the sharp corner. "I had to write this stupid paper."

Stupid paper never measured up to a nerve graft.

Aliya had spent the past however many weeks listening to this man yap about nerve grafts, she started to have dreams about it.

"Bullshit," Aliya called out, and Alex pulled a face beside her, training his eyes down onto his bacon, away from whatever was happening by the side of him. "There must be a reason."

"Somethin' came up." Jackson shrugged, still not letting up.

(They were both as stubborn as each other.)

"Like what?" Aliya instantly replied back, her lips pursed as they stepped into one of the side rooms, where April, Meredith and Cristina were situated in, but Aliya's focus wasn't on them, it was more on her boyfriend acting highly suspicious.

"Look!" Jackson pointed his index finger over to the other side of the room, past the three women at the table, and over at— "Heart in a box!"

"Woah!" Aliya's jaw dropped to the floor, and Jackson grinned in victory, having successfully distracted the brunette from his thing, moving her swiftly onto a new object of fascination. "No freaking way! That's sick!"

"She's brilliant, right?" Cristina mused, staring at the heart in admiration.

Because, it was in fact a heart in a box, beating as if it were still in someone's body.

You couldn't get something much cooler than that.

"Heart-in-a-box," Meredith dropped her pen with a sigh, narrowing her eyes at the heart. "What's wrong with George's mom?"

"Is she a magic eight ball?" Aliya spoke in awe, slipping onto the free chair at the table, propping her chin up onto her palm, her eyes trained on each beat the heart made.

"Kinda," Cristina shrugged, referring back to her list of surgeries she had out in front of her. "She gives you perspective."

"Okay," Aliya cleared her throat, sitting up straighter, narrowing her eyes at the magic eight ball. "Heart in a box, who's gonna get on my last nerve today?"

Though, Aliya really didn't need a magic eight ball   or a heart in a box to know the answer to that particular question.

There were at least a dozen names on the list of possibilities.

"Well, your run in with George's mom was far from pretty." Meredith snorted, recalling that interaction in her mind as Aliya's cheeks reddened, still mortified over it.

"Who's George?" April questioned, looking up from where she was still in the midst of her wedding planning.

"He used to work here." Meredith explained to the red head. "He died."

April took a sad bite of her sandwich.

"Woah, who died?" Jackson spoke from where he had sat down with Alex on the sofa with his lunch, finally tuning in on the conversation as he peered over, seemingly interested.

"George." Both Meredith and Aliya answered at the same time.

"And, we're talking about that creep because...?" The Karev man piped up from the other side of the room, mid way through his mouthful.

"Alex, you're an ass," Meredith said, her voice stern as her eyes darted over towards him, though he didn't really care all that much, seeing as he was called an ass multiple times a day. "His mom's in the hospital."

"O'Malley." Cristina recalled his name, sighing nostalgically as she leaned back leisurely in her chair. "I haven't thought about him in—"

"Why would you?" Alex muttered under his breath, and Jackson snorted at the comment, but judging by the fury across Meredith and Aliya's faces, the Avery man quickly looked down at his lunch.

"Alex!" Meredith hissed over at the man, who simply shrugged casually, continuing on with his point.

"Oh, come on." He scoffed, pointing his fry at the dirty blonde. "Don't act like you stay up all night writing poetry about the guy."

"Alex, you're being a dick, zip it." The Levine woman informed him, giving Alex a look of warning, which he seemingly took, seeing as he didn't even respond further. "He's dead, dude."

"Remember when he gave you syphilis?" Cristina then added to the conversation, lightening the mood and further shutting Alex up.

Jackson very nearly choked in his lunch. "How?"

April, however, looked slightly green at the statement, and it was safe to say she was horrified. "What?"

Meredith gasped at something, her lips curving into a smile. "Remember heart-in-an-elevator?"

Because, even though he was flawed, he was George at the end of the day.

He was one of them.

"Oh my— that feels like forever ago!" Aliya replied back, shaking her head as she started to unwrap her sandwich, peeling back the aluminium foil.

"Heart-in-an-elevator! I should put that on my list!" The Yang woman clapped her hands together, scrambling for her pen before looking back at Alex again, a look of amusement on her face (she did enjoy teasing the Karev man, he just made it so easy). "George mad you look like such a chump."

"George was the heart-in-an-elevator guy?" The Avery man marvelled, looking back and forth from Alex, to the women at the table. "I heart about that, that sounded badass. Were you there?"

Alex sneered across at Jackson's very innocent questioned, and at his lunch he had lost his appetite for, and at the women gathered around the table making his life difficult. "I just wanted to eat my freaking lunch. That's all."

"Look who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Aliya smirked, and ruling that as his last straw, Alex pushed himself off of the sofa, storming out of the room with his tray in hand.

"Wait! Wait, everyone, shut up!" After Alex's departure, Cristina ushered the others to be quiet, her eyes widening at the heart.

Aliya took a bite of her sandwich, glancing over at the woman who was becoming slightly insane due to all this list making. "We weren't talking—"

"Heart-in-a-box," Cristina said, calmly, waiting for a response from the heart. "Heart in an elevator?"

In the silence, they all watched the heart, expecting in to make a noise other than the beating, or jump out at them, or at least give some kind of sign.

But, they got nothing.

"It works. It totally works." Cristina gasped in wonder, which only confused them even more, because it seemed like she got something from the heart. "Webber is a genius!" She exclaimed, flipping through the pages of her notebook in a hurry.

"Heart-in-a-box is really starting to creep me out." April stated.

Cristina's mouth dropped at the audacity of it all, pausing her mania for just a moment. "Don't talk about her that way." She said with a raised index finger, which only made April curled her nose up, looking disturbed.

Aliya raised a brow, looking from the heart, to Cristina, then back to the heart yet again, feeling as if she was missing something. "Do you want us to give you two some privacy?"

"Very funny." Cristina faked a laugh, beginning to scribble something down in her notebook.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Okay," Aliya cleared her throat, returning back to the ER desk, sliding onto the chair to log in to her computer, seeing as she was single handedly preventing the ER from descending into total madness. "Bed eight needs a rectal exam, and you're pretty familiar with asses, seeing as you are one so I said you'd be right over, and bed five needs to be taken up to X-Ray, and bed two is waiting on a peds consult."

Elijah chuckled, shaking his head. "Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?"

Aliya glanced up, grinning sarcastically. "Send Mr. Harrison my regards."

Elijah's face contorted in disgust, begrudgingly taking bed eight's chart, and trailing over to the bed, leaving Aliya victorious at the desk, where she was now updating the online system, now that everything was under control.

It had been a long six hours since lunch, marking it seven o'clock in the evening, which meant she had only one hour left until she was well and truly free.

And so far, she had done very well at avoiding the whole team building thing, and besides, making snide comments at Elijah was proving quite fun.

"What are you smiling to yourself?" Henry questioned as he stopped at the ER desk, brows knotted as he watched the brunette grin manically to herself. "You look like a crazy person."

"Well, hello to you too, Henry. It's great to see you too." Aliya replied back sarcastically, the grin still plastered across her face as she tore her attention away from the computer.

Henry smirked, leaning his elbows onto the counter, drumming his fingertips on the surface nervously. "Jackson told me you were in the ER all day, and I wanna run something by you."

"Hmmm," Aliya murmured, logging off of her computer to give him her full attention. "I'm listening."

The Burton man took a breath to steady himself, before announcing: "I wanna go back to school."

Aliya's mouth dropped in shock, the corner of her lips curving upwards as Henry's very sudden declaration. "That's great!"

He chuckled nervously at the brunette's enthusiasm, his laughter dying out just as quickly as it had come, suggesting that there was more to the story. "You might wanna keep listening."

"Okay?" Aliya tilted her head with intrigue, waiting patiently for the punch line, of what more there could be.

"Med school."

At that news, Aliya leaped out of her chair, her hands flying to her cheeks in surprise, though it did make sense for him to become a doctor, he's been in hospitals most of his life. "You wanna be a doctor?"

He had picked up and thing or two over the years from a patient's perspective.

He had seen it all first hand, and that experience sometimes proved even more valuable than any lesson in a classroom could give.

"Henry that's great!" Aliya enthused brightly, and Henry's facial expression broke into relief as the she threw her arms around him. "Amazing, even! Oh my god!"

He laughed when Aliya pulled away from him, and he reached up a hand to scratch the back of his neck, his eyes dipping to the floor. "I really wish Teddy thought the same."

"Oh, she's not too thrilled about it, huh?" Aliya deduced, crossing her arms as she listened to him intently, genuinely interest at his new career change.

Ex pro-baller to doctor, you didn't see that every day.

And, Aliya had seen him play ball, he was good, he was still good, but he can't be sat behind a desk all of his life like he was at his old job. It wasn't him, and it only made him more miserable.

She truly believed that this new career change was good for him. Bailey's clinical trial had given him a dozen more years to live, and he should hold the right to live them the way he wanted to, seeing as he had spent the majority of his life in the shadow of his illness.

"Thrilled?" Henry's eyes widened at her choice of words, and how correct she was. "No. More like horrified." Correcting himself, he gulped back the rising lump in his throat, propping his elbows up on the counter to stop himself for growing dizzier.

"It's a big change," Aliya admitted, a gentle smile on her face. "But if you feel like it's the right one you should do it. You got good grades in college, you'll get into med school easily. You'll be a great doctor."

Henry chuckled, lightly at the sentiment. "Can you tell that to my wife?"

"I can try," The brunette girl offered, nudging into his arm slightly. "Though, I'm sure she'll understand that this is your decision, and your future. She just needs time."

Nodding at Aliya's actually very plausible advice, Henry straightened up with a sigh, pulling his jacket on his shoulders properly. "I better get home, you still on for dinner at that Italian place this Friday?"

"Giovanni's?" Aliya smiled broadly, her mouth watering merrily at the thought of eating an obscene amount of pizza and pasta. "I wouldn't miss it."

"Great, see you then, Aliya."

Dipping his head goodbye, Henry disappeared out of the double doors of the emergency room, leaving the space where he once was empty.

And, Aliya watched him go taking a breath as the cold autumn breeze travelled through the open doors, catching the bare skin of her arms, raising the hairs on her skin.

There always comes a time where a person looked back to appreciate the smaller moments of life.

The supposed insignificant details of life always proved to be the most special.

The light brush of a hand, a quick hug, the wave goodbye.

Those little moments meant the whole world.

"Levine!" The voice of the Shepherd man broke her temporarily out of her haze, seeing as the ER only had one patient in it now, reaching its evening lull. "Are you done here?"

"Not quite," Aliya breathed, smirking as Elijah reemerged after the rectal exam, looking very repulsed by it. "I'm finished in about an hour, how did the aneurysm go?"

"Great, clipped it and she didn't die." Derek watched Elijah's grimace, his brows raised as the Beck man very visibly shuddered.

However, Aliya was ignoring whatever act Elijah was pulling behind her that Derek had gotten so interested in. "That's always a plus."

Derek cleared his throat, tearing his gaze off the current dynamic the other two had, or therefore the lack of dynamic, seeing as they were both mutually ignoring the other one's existence, Elijah resigning from his life mission to get her back for the night. "I've got you something."

"A present?" She said, excitedly. "You got me a present? Is it cheetos? 'Cause I said yesterday I really wanted a bag of cheetos and—"

"Think bigger." Derek prompted, waiting for whatever else she would come up with, besides a bag of chips.

"Um—" Aliya chewed down on her lip in thought, racking her brain around on what else she could possibly want. "A trip to Greece?"

"No, here." Seemingly growing bored of the game he had created himself, the neuro surgeon pushed a notepad into her hands, prompting her to open the book up.

"Oh!" Aliya chuckled as she held it in her hands, not really knowing what it entailed. So, she opened the first page, where she was met with a page of names, then she turned the next one, and the next one, and the next one, even more names jumping out of the page. "A list! Exciting."

"Read it." He tapped the pages, though Aliya wasn't exactly sure what she was missing.

But, she flipped back to the very first page anyway. "Harry Walker, Josephine Saunders— a list of names? Who are these people?"

See, when this particular neuro surgeon reached the point where he was inspired. He got a certain sparkle in his eyes.

A stupid, annoyingly charming sparkle.

It was just his brand, they didn't call him McDreamy all intern year for nothing.

"You know Yang's list?" Derek questioned, with that particular sparkle in his eye.

"Yes," Aliya nodded her head, and she knew it was along the same level as the clinical trial, purely judging by the look he was giving her, which only made her stomach turn, excitedly waiting for the big reveal. "I'm familiar with the list."

"Well, you know Charissa's tumour?" He questioned further, really drawing out this whole big reveal.

"I was there in the OR with you so, yes, I do know Charissa's tumour." In all honesty, she was finding this a little amusing, but at the same time, she really did want him to spit it out.

"Well," Derek began, gesturing to the famous notebook, which reminded her of Doris from this morning, and her very own famous notebook. "I found people who have been told no but every doctor they've seen, and we're gonna tell them yes."

It seemed that today, the hits just kept on coming.

Firstly, it was the whole team-building thing in the ER, then the whole nerve graft thing with Jackson, then the whole med school thing with Henry, and now this?

Aliya could say confidently that she would need to indefinitely hire a fork lift to pick her jaw up off of the floor, seeing as it ran the risk of staying there permanently.

"We?" Aliya said in shock, rendered speechless for the fourth time that day.

"We." Derek confirmed, charming sparkle and all. "Consider this a present. And, think of how this'll look in your boards."

"You're crazy." Aliya scoffed, though she couldn't deny the excitement she felt just thinking about all these cases labelled inoperable, becoming operable because of them. "I love it. Best idea you've had so far. This is— I have no words. This is great. Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He said proudly, straightening the edges of his white coat. "Work starts tomorrow, okay?"

"Roger that." She nodded in confirmation, and the Shepherd man wandered off back out of the ER after dropping the news.

"So," Elijah piped up like an annoying rodent from behind the desk. "You've gone for neuro?"

"Yep." Aliya replied simply, too tired to even fight back or add an ass onto the end of that sentence, though the sound of ambulance sirens close by took her attention. "What—"

Her voice trailed off as she wandered through the automatic doors, peering as a red flashing ambulance pulled up in the bay.

An ambulance they hadn't even received a call about.

She really wished she had put on her white coat, because she was certifiably freezing her ass off by the short time the ambulance took to pull up to a stop in front of her, the paramedic instantly leaping out of the back doors as the sirens died down.

"Fifty four year-old Mia Beck, her neighbours called when they found her passed out on the floor. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and she's currently undergoing chemotherapy." The paramedic explained, pulling the gurney out of the back.

"Mia Beck?" Aliya gawked at the woman, who was currently unconscious at this moment in time.

Because, she instantly recognised that name—

"Mom?"

The Levine woman turned back to Elijah, now stood in the ambulance bay as they began to wheel his mother into the warmth of the emergency room, rather than the freezing cold ambulance bay.

"Get Miss Beck to trauma one, please." Aliya ordered them, receiving the chart from the paramedic as she followed the gurney into the hospital, before turning to a frozen Elijah. "Your Mom has cancer?"

"You've got the chart don't you?" The Beck man said, his tone sarcastic as he angled his head to what was in her hands, walking alongside his mother, running a hand over her head. "It's gonna be okay, Mom, we'll figure this out."

"Hey, you can't treat her." Aliya pushed into the trauma room, barging in front of him to get to Mia first, instantly reaching for her stethoscope to listen to her heart, which was beating steady despite it all.

"She's my mother Aliya, of course I am." Elijah scoffed at the comment, getting to work straight away.

Aliya sighed at the man scrambling beside her, dismissing his statement as he knocked a stack of gauze clean off a table from rushing around the place. "Which is exactly why you can't treat her."

Elijah huffed, digging his face into his hands, because even he couldn't exactly deny the fact the brunette was right.

She took his pause as the go-ahead, pulling out her flashlight to check her pupils — which were equal and reactive. "She's been getting treatment? Chemo?"

"Yeah." Elijah nodded, digging his hands into his pockets as he stood by her bedside. "It was going good, I don't understand—"

"She could be anaemic." Aliya suggested, reaching over for a needle and syringe, so she could get Mia's bloods to run tests on. "It's a common side-effect of chemotherapy, and that'll explain the fainting. But, you knew that already."

He nodded his head, chewing on a fingernail, racking his brain around a million different possibilities. "What if she hit her—"

"We'll book a CT to rule that out, okay?" Aliya answered before he could even fully entertain that thought. "Your Mom's gonna be fine, we'll figure it out."

"You don't know that." He said, his jaw tensing with anxiety, his knuckles whitening around her bed frame, before quickly adding: "And, don't act like you care either."

"I'm not acting." Aliya stated the facts simply, beginning to draw blood from Mia's arm, who still remained unconscious. "I've always liked your Mom, she was always nice to me. Why wouldn't I care about her?

At that statement, Elijah scoffed, rolling his eyes at the novelty of it. "Please, don't do that. We've been fighting all day, and now you're acting like this just 'cause you feel bad."

Aliya pushed a cotton ball to Mia's arm, placing the vial to one side, ready to be sent up for the lab to run tests on. "I don't feel bad. This isn't guilt for arguing with you all day, this is me genuinely caring about your mom, 'cause I'm not an evil bitch."

"Where am I? What's going on?"

They both instantly drew their stares off of each other, and down to the woman now awake on the gurney, blinking as a reaction to the harsh fluorescent light coming from up above them, and Aliya stating that she wasn't an evil bitch.

"Hey, Mom." Elijah spoke softly to her, reaching down for her hand now that she was awake, adjusting herself to her surroundings. "You're at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. You fainted, do you remember that?"

"I remember making a herbal tea and—" Her blue eyes, the exact same ones he son had, widened as she caught the gaze of the other doctor in the room, who she instantly recognised. "Aliya! It's been years, how are— what are— what are you doing here?"

"Miss Beck," Aliya smiled as Mia reached over for her hand, taking it in hers. She usually just called her Mia, but when you hadn't seen your ex-fiancé's mother in five years, it was hard to known what to actually call her. "I work here, it's great to see you, it's been a while."

Mia's lips curved fondly, bringing out the soft lines and wrinkles of her cheeks, her thumb brushing back and forth across her palm. "I always told Eli he shouldn't have let you go."

"Mom—" Elijah tried to stop her, but despite the fact the woman had only just woken up from fainting a moment ago, she persisted on.

"I mean," Mia chuckled to herself. "He's a very bright boy, but he can't see a good thing when he has it."

"He should get some glasses." Aliya blurted out, attempting a joke which Mia seemed to find funny despite it all, laughing gently at the brunette trying to lighten the mood. "Right, I'm gonna go call up and get you in for a CT scan, just to check you didn't fall and hit your head, then we'll take you up, okay?"

Mia nodded, and Aliya left her and her son in the privacy of the trauma room, making her way to the phone to call up to CT.

After finishing up the call that only lasted less than a minute, she placed the phone back down onto the stand, looking back over to the trauma room with a sigh.

As much as she spent the majority of her twenties hating Elijah, she couldn't help but feel the slightest bit bad about it all. About how she had been insulting him for the past two weeks whilst his mother was in chemo.

It made her feel like a terrible human being, to say the least.

"Hey." Jackson approached her at the counter, already dressed to go home, his bag slung over his shoulder.

At the sight of him, her face instantly broke out into a smile, and she pressed her head into the soft grey material of his shirt with a sigh.

He chuckled, running a hand through her hair, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Long day?"

"Long is an understatement." Aliya informed him, lifting her head up, because staying there ran the risk of her falling asleep on his chest, right there and then. "Wait for me? I just have to take a patient up to CT."

The Avery man nodded, glancing over to the occupied trauma room, catching sight of Elijah stood there beside the gurney. "How's it been with him today?"

"I try to forget he exists." Aliya joked, not even looking back over her shoulder at where Jackson's attention was. "Now, tell me. What's going on with you? Why did you quit the nerve graft?"

He shifted on his feet, releasing a breath he hadn't even realised he had been holding all this time. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"C'mon!" Aliya prodded his ribs, light-heartedly, trying to get his to fess up to what was really going on, because surely that's what being in a relationship was for, right? To tell your partner what's bothering you. "It must be something, you can talk to me."

"You wanna know the truth?" He asked her, his voice light, his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Yeah," She nodded her head, absentmindedly, her fingers brushing along the edge of his jacket, chewing on her lip. "That's kinda what I've signed myself up for."

A smile grew across his lips at that, lifting a hand to scratch the corner of his mouth. "I was jealous. And, stupid. God, I was being so stupid. I wanted that nerve graft so badly, and I— I was being stupid."

"Jealous?" Aliya blinked, her eyes tracing back up to his face in search for some sort of clue, because surely he wasn't jealous of Elijah. The man in the trauma room didn't even measure up to the man that was standing right in front of her. "What of?"

"Maybe threatened is a better word." He corrected himself thoughtfully, avoiding her eye contact, which was something he would never normally would do.

Because, eyes did a funny thing of finding someone naturally — as if, a person's eye contact was only reserved for one specific person that never failed to take their breath away.

It was like Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, but those two in a crowded room and their eyes will only be on each other.

This theory of Aliya's proved correct, because the absence of his eye contact drove her crazy. Put her in a crowded room, and she was sure to pick out a pair of green eyes almost instantaneously.

"Hey," Aliya spoke softly, reaching her hand out to grab his. "You don't need to feel threatened by anything, okay? Except rattle snakes. They're quite threatening."

He pulled his back tighter on his shoulder, realising now really how stupid he was for having doubts cross his mind for only a second. "I guess you're right. As always."

But, who could blame him?

Honestly speaking, he didn't care about her past.

Of course, he cared about her, and what she had been through the years he hadn't known her, but he didn't never necessarily minded about her relationships with Elijah, or Mark for that matter.

He took no notice when the article branded her a slut, or when her own mother vowed she could never make anything last.

Because, he knew what they had was more important than any of it, any skeletons in their respective closets that were plotting and scheming against them didn't matter to him.

Though, today was as if the world had turned rapidly on its axis, the what if's intruding his mind, throwing him off his surgeries.

And, he never did that.

Jackson Avery never let his girl problems (Webber's words, not his own) get in the way of surgery.

He didn't even have girl problems.

So, when Richard Webber appeared by his side in the gallery where he was watching the nerve graft happen without him in the operating room, he realised that he was being stupid.

That he shouldn't have had any doubts about the woman stood before him.

And, that he opted out of a pretty great surgery because of his own mind, bringing to light all the possibilities that would end with her leaving him.

"Was it Sloan?" Aliya questioned, her hands placed on her hips, ready to berate the Sloan man for something she wasn't sure whether or not he had actually done. "Did he say something to you?"

"No, Sloan's fine, he's great," Jackson shook his head at her theory. "I guess it's just— god— I love you so much, Aliya, and I don't want to lose you to some guy who's known you longer."

Her face dropped, because she knew his worries were never going to come true, no one could even begin to change what they had. "You're not going to lose me, I can assure you of that, and besides, I've changed so much since med school, he doesn't even know a thing anymore."

"I know that, I think I'm just overthinking it, that's all." He sighed away the what ifs, closing the distance between them. "How about we order a pizza—"

Before he could proposition anything else, Elijah walked out of the trauma room opposite them, catching himself off guard. "Oh, hey. Aliya, did you call up CT? What did they say?"

"Oh, yes," The brunette cleared her throat, her hand falling from Jackson's, feeling absence of her palm against his own. "We can take her up straight away."

"That's great, thanks." Elijah gave her a smile, turning back into the room, but stopped himself just outside, turning his head back. "Will you be coming up?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute." Aliya answered, and Elijah disappeared back to his mother's side.

"That was— civil." The Avery man observed, his eyes narrowed at the first neutral interaction the pair had since Elijah had arrived in Seattle.

Aliya glanced back to Jackson, away from the spot Elijah was once standing. "Well, the whole day I've been avoiding him like the plague."

It seemed the what ifs never really disappeared, despite all attempts, despite all the reassurance in the world. "And, you're friends with him now?"

"Oh, no." Aliya denied quickly, recoiling from the thought of ever being friends with him. "Never, no. It's just, his Mom came into the ER just now, she has cancer, and I just have to take her up to CT."

"His mom?" Jackson said in shock.

Aliya nodded her head with a yawn, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, she came in a few minutes ago. She said something weird though, about Elijah making a mistake when he broke up with me, I don't know what—"

"Oh, woah."

"What?"

To love someone, was to know them.

To know every expression they made, their worst fears, their greatest accomplishments, what haunted them in the middle of the night, their favourite comfort foods, the way they liked their coffee in the morning.

Whether their favourite jewellery was silver or gold, where their favourite place was.

"Your eyes," Aliya pointed out, her own eyes widening as she saw his expression, the expression she knew too well. "They did the thing."

"What thing?" Jackson raised a brow, not knowing what thing she was referring to. "My eyes don't do a thing."

"When you're hiding something they twitch." The Levine woman stated matter-of-factly, her gaze focusing in on the spot where he flinched, unconsciously.

Another moment passed, every line on his face tensed, his lips pursing in an attempt to stop the twitch he didn't even know he had.

"Your eyes are twitching!" Aliya clapped her hands, pointing her index finger directly at the culprit, and Jackson raised his hands up in an act of surrender. "Ha! You're a terrible liar."

"Fine," He dropped his hands back down to his sides with an exhale of breath, casting the Beck man a look through the glass. "I know this is an awful thought—"

"Oh God."

"—But do you think he's using his Mom to try and win you back? Purely based off of what you said she said."

Out of all the things she would've expected him to say or theorise, that would be low on the list.

Usually they were in everything together, sharing a brain cell between them, but right now she couldn't even begin to imagine that was possible.

"She's got cancer, Jackson." Aliya gasped, at least wanting to believe that Elijah wouldn't stoop that low. Because, that would mean he had reached a whole other type of asshole Aliya didn't even want to think about. "He wouldn't do that."

That would be pretty sick of him.

Jackson frowned, because he didn't want to say it out loud, or think of it as true, but he couldn't help but wonder. "He seems pretty set on what he wants, you. His mom must be in on it. So, I wouldn't put it past him to use his—"

"No." She shook her head, brushing him off. "He wouldn't do that."

"How do you know?" Jackson instantly questioned her, his brows lowering. "You said he can't be trusted."

"There's no way he'd use his mother as a pawn. No freaking way, I don't believe it." The brunette insisted forcefully, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly, setting her foot down.

Jackson inhaled sharply in surprise at her dismissal, because he thought it could be a sure as hell possibility. "Why are you defending him?"

"I'm not." The brunette denied, shaking her head, dismissively.

At the end of the day, Aliya still liked to believe the good in people, and there's no way she'd want to give this thought the dwelling time it didn't deserve.

"It sure as hell seems like you are." He fired back at her, and he wasn't even sure if this was an argument, but it sure did seem like one from where he was standing.

"Why the hell would I?" The Levine woman's voice snapped, seeing as she was growing even more annoyed by every second that passed. "He's been nothing but an ass since he's gotten here. But, I don't think he would be that much of an ass."

"There's no way you could know." Continuing on with his point, Jackson didn't even know why he kept on going. He didn't even want to fight with her, but something kept telling his to persist, to keep on going, to push it. "Like you said, you don't know each other anymore, he might've changed."

"Yes but, he loves his mom." Aliya gestured over to the trauma room, where Elijah's mom was now  laughing at something he had said, smiling up at her son, affectionately. "He wouldn't use her for this. He wouldn't get her involved."

"But, he moved her to Seattle." Jackson acknowledged, growing slightly irritated at the fact that she wasn't looking from where he was standing, that after all the shit that had came out of Elijah's mouth, she believed he wasn't capable of doing this. "He moved her to Seattle mid-treatment to win you back, and you expect me to believe he hasn't roped her into whatever game he's playing?"

She pulled a face, still not buying it. "I don't really want to entertain this anymore. Besides, I have to take my patient up to CT."

"Aliya." He reached out for her, but she was too far away, both physically and metaphorically for that matter. "I know it's bad, but do you really think he wouldn't do it? After everything he's said to you? After everything he's done to you?"

"There's just no way he could— No." She shook her head, her voice straining. "Call me naive, I don't care, but I'd like to think he wouldn't use his sick mom as a ploy to win me back, so if you'd excuse me."

Maybe these doubts were setting himself up for failure after all.

Because, now he was standing in the middle of an empty emergency room all alone as he watched her storm of.

And now, he was angry too.

That she moved so quickly to defend him, after everything that had happened.

So, he turned abruptly on his heel, leaving the emergency room to the parking lot, needing to get out of this goddamn hospital.

"Avery, wait up!"

For about a split second, he thought it could be Aliya coming after him.

But, lord, how wrong he was.

First of all, she never really called him Avery that much anymore, and especially after a fight.

If she were catching up with him, she would most definitely yell out Jackson, not his last name.

And second of all, she didn't have a man's voice.

"Oh," Jackson stopped in his tracks, turning towards Mark Sloan, who was advancing quickly towards him. "Right, Dr. Sloan."

Mark sighed as he caught up with him, stopping before Jackson. "You need to talk to me—"

"I'm sorry about today—"

"No," The plastic surgeon stopped him from whatever he was going to apologise for, placing a hand on his own chest in remorse. "I'm sorry, it was my—"

"You don't have anything to be sorry for." Jackson interrupted him, waving a hand for him to stop whatever he was going to say.

"No, I think I should apologise to you for—"

"No, it wasn't you. It was me—"

"I just think we have something—"

"I've been—"

"Okay," Mark cleared his throat loudly, growing even more confused seeing as the pair were just talking at each other, rather than them actually having a conversation. "I'm gonna talk, then you talk, okay?"

"Okay." Jackson winced, because what just happened was starting to grow painful, so he was glad it was all over.

Mark swayed on the balls of his feet, taking a deep breath before announcing: "I want to be your teacher."

"I want to be your student." Jackson replied back, and a wave of relief passed over Mark's face, all worries of his mentee cheating on him leaving his mind.

And, mostly because Aliya had pointed out to him earlier that day how ridiculous he sounded from a sane persons perspective. "I have a cranial vault reconstruction tomorrow."

"I will be there." Jackson promised even though Mark wasn't necessarily inviting him, he was just merely informing him of his OR schedule.

The Sloan man's lips curved into a wide smile. "Good."

"Good." Jackson mirrored, the two just staring at each other, which anyone would say looked a little awkward, but for them it seemed right for some reason.

"Great." Mark gave a nod, and he wished he could communicate with women the way he was communicating with Jackson right about now. If he did, he probably would be in a very different position than he was.

Jackson laughed lightly, slinging his bag together into his shoulder as it began to slip off. "I guess the plastics posse is back in action."

He would have to slap himself later for using plastics posse in public, but he did it anyway.

Because, it just felt right.

"Kicking surgical ass and taking names!" Mark enthused joyously, raising is hand to high five the Avery man, who raised his fist for a fist pump at the exact same time.

"All right—" Jackson's expression dropped as he reverted to a high five the same time Mark switched to a fist bump.

"Just... all right, just do that." Mark then just reached out to shake his hand, rather than do whatever it was they were actually doing.

Which neither of them really knew.

"Yeah." Jackson chuckled, breaking away from the very random hand shake-thing they were doing.

"Great," Mark was now smiling so much, his cheekbones were starting to strain. "Okay."

"All right!" Jackson said in an upbeat tone of voice.

"Drive safe!" The Sloan man called after him, which he replied by giving him a thumbs up, grinning to himself as he walked across the parking lot to his car, any thoughts of his previous argument with his girlfriend disappearing until—

Until he thought of the one person he wanted to tell all of this to.

He sighed deeply, because he shouldn't have just let her walk away.

He should never let her walk away again (even though he still believed his theory to be corrected, they should've just agreed to disagree.)

So, he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket, instantly pressing her contact and bringing the phone to his ear, anxiously waiting for her to pick up.

But she didn't, and as he stared at her contact to call her again, his phone died in his hands, the battery logo taunting him as his screen went completely black.

"Shit." He muttered, unlocking his car and throwing his useless phone onto the passenger seat.

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"Joe, please can I have an extra large tequila?"

After her shift ended, Aliya had found herself instantly in Joe's bar, hopping onto the bar stool next to Alex, where he was mid way through eating his burger, mustard staining his chin.

"Jeez, what happened to you." The Karev man questioned through his mouthful, placing down his burger to wipe the sauce off of his face with his napkin. 

"Jackson and I had a fight." Aliya grumbled a thank you to Joe as he placed her drink down in front of her, which she instantly started sipping on.

"What?" Alex blinked in surprise. "You never fight, well, you insult each other sometimes but you never fight for real." He stated, having witnessed their many random conversations over the past however many months, he knew that they never really truly fought.

Not the whole The Parent Trap throwing a hairdryer at his head sort of thing.

"Well," She set her tequila back down onto the bar, absently staring into space. "It was for real this time."

Without another word, Alex passed his bowl of fries over to her, which she began to silent chew on, reflectively.

"Hi, it's me." A woman from a few seat across from the pair sighed into her cell. "Turns out today was a bust. She kept going on about this guy who helped these kids in Africa."

Aliya's ears pricked up at what she was saying, and she recognised the woman to be the resident from before, interested in the peds fellowship with Robbins.

She dropped her french fry clean onto the bar, zipping her head around to Alex, who began to listen intently to what the woman was saying, realising it too.

"And I was like, "have you seen my three articles?"." The woman huffed, swirling her drink her glass cup. "But, apparently this guy craps puppies, so who cares about me? Anyway my plane lands at ten, so wait up. I'm gonna be drunk, and I'm gonna cry. Just warning you."

Smirking behind his burger, Alex took a bite, now victorious seeing as it was true that Robbins was in fact interviewing other residents just to make him jealous.

But, now he had the upper hand.

He had the knowledge.

"I have to catch a plane," The woman gathered her bags over her shoulder, placing some dollar bills onto the bar. "Keep the change." She said, before slipping out, disappearing out of the doors of Joe's.

"Dude, you crap puppies." Aliya chuckled, nudging her elbow into Alex's upper arm as he revelled in his win of the day. "And, I'm the most idiotic woman in the world."

The Levine woman grabbed her phone out of her purse, tucking her hair behind her ear and clicking his number, though it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey, Jackson, it's me Aliya," She began to speak into the mic whilst Alex happily ordered more beer for both him and her. "I'm at Joe's, and over a bowl of Alex's fries and a very large tequila I'm realising now that your theory isn't exactly insane. Well, it would be crazy for someone to do that but, I think we should just drop it because I don't want to fight with you, especially if it's about Elijah, because there's so much better things we could talk about. Like, which pizza you're ordering. If you order that disgusting one with the pickles, this voicemail never happened."

And, with that out of the way, she hung up the phone, slipping it back into her purse.

Though, this was a new world record for her, it had taken only an hour for her to realise how much of an idiot she had been for even defending Elijah for a second.

"Do you feel better?" Alex handed her a bottle of beer, which she accepted gratefully, brining it up to her lips.

She raised her beer up after taking a sip. "Now I do."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"O'Malley wasn't a creep, okay?" Alex spoke up about half an hour later, now they were joined by both Meredith and Cristina, who looked like they had both been respectively dragged through a hedge backwards.

And, Aliya was now slightly more grouchy, seeing as Jackson hadn't returned her voicemail yet.

"If he were here now, he'd be kicking all of our asses." The Karev man pointed out, and Aliya nodded her head lightly, agreeing with him. "He would've slapped Chief Resident right out of Kepner's hand. I just don't like thinking about him, because then I have to think about Izzie, and then I get all sad and sappy and I totally miss the chance to nail hot, drunk chicks who spent the day thinking about how I'm awesome, which I should be all about."

Aliya snorted, and so did Mer and Cristina, because it wasn't everyday Alex was presenting them with an heart felt speech, he wasn't the kind for sappy speeches.

"George is dead, and Izzie is gone, and we're all different." He stated, matter-of-factly. "We're different."

Alex was right.

They were all so different from how they were this time many years ago.

When they were just interns, the bottom of the surgical food chain.
⠀
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( notes! )

hiiiii!! longest scrub caps chapter so far????? we've got a new record!!!!!

and by the way i pinkie promise this jaliya argument doesn't last long at all!!! i just feel like couples fight all the time and it's healthy that way and they were bound to fight about elijah one day, 'cause we gotta feel for poor jackson, his girlfriends ex-fiancé has just shown up out of the blue — bro's THREATENED in all caps

also, quick question, which season would you like scrub caps to stop???? because i've currently planned all the way up to season twelve, would you like me to go beyond that?? because i would 100% go all the way to season fourteen (or maybe even further!!!), let me know!

also x2, to add to the pain, y'all are gonna kill me but i don't think aliya will be seeing henry at giovanni's on friday...

( word count! — 13,700 )