xxiii. and we kept everything professional
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chapter twenty three ━ something's gotta give
season seven, episode eight
❝ i'll climb up the gutter if i have to!
i've done it before, i'll do it again! ❞
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Aliya held the takeaway box in her lap containing the slice of cheesecake they split for dessert. It was only natural to take another slice away with them — it was the best cheesecake the pair had ever tasted, it would've been a disgrace if they didn't.
That's how Aliya had chosen to justify it anyway.
"Okay, life or death—" Aliya pushed her recently blow dried hair over her shoulder, turning in the seat to look at him. "Seeing as you're such a hater on takeaway boxes, would you rather only eat out of tupperware for the rest of your life, or eat only stone cold food for the rest of your life?"
Jackson chewed his lip, his seat belt undone as he genuinely thought about his answer to the question, like this was going to happen to him one day. After a long pause of him tapping on the steering wheel, he shook his head, clearing his throat. "No." He said, decisively, noticing Aliya widening her eyes at him. "I wouldn't be able to do it without a sad harp playing in the background."
Aliya scoffed, throwing her head back. "A sad harp? Really? You find it that depressing?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. Yes I do." Jackson nodded, firmly, taking his keys out of the ignition. "I wouldn't be able to eat out of a tupperware box."
He cleared up, for the sake of clarity.
"I know you've told me this before, but it's still shocking." Aliya pointed out, leaning a fraction of an inch closer to him, so his navy shirt brushed against her arm. "What about the cheesecake? You would eat the cheesecake, right?" Jackson made a face at the takeaway box she was currently waving in front of his face. "What?"
Pursing his lips, he caught Aliya's hand, lowering it to her lap. "I would choose cold food."
Aliya widened her eyes, fidgeting in her seat, pushing the seatbelt off of her shoulder. "Stone cold food? You would never be able to taste hot soup again." She spoke, sombrely.
"I don't really like soup." He informed, tossing the keys in his hands.
Aliya's jaw dropped as she turned her head abruptly towards him. "You don't like soup?"
"Is that a dealbreaker?" Jackson lowered his head towards her, his eyes flooding into hers.
Feeling her heart speed up like some sort of biological reaction to him being an inch away from her, Aliya leant closer, angling her lips towards his. "Yes. Yes it is."
"That's a shame." His hand reached cupping her cheek and drawing her in closer so their lips touched.
Bracing a hand on his chest, she leant in closer to him, leaning deeper into the kiss and eventually pulling herself into his lap, dodging all of the car buttons even though it was turned off.
"In the car?" Jackson smirked, resting his hands on her hips as their lips drew apart, trailing his fingers tips up and down her legs.
"We are parked around the block. Nobody will know." She murmured, reaching up her hand to flick off the car light as Jackson lowered the seat.
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—✩—
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"Okay we need a game plan." Aliya stated, her hand swinging back and forth as Jackson held onto it, rounding the corner to the house.
"We don't need a game plan." Jackson assured her, though there was never any hope of changing her mind when she had an idea in her head.
"We do!" Aliya informed, her heels clicking against the pavement. "I've never lived with someone I've dated before."
"We can just walk in together." Jackson pointed out as they reached their mailbox, coming to an unnatural stop.
"Together? In these clothes." She looked Jackson up and down, who was clad in a navy shirt and black suit trousers, then back to herself, where she was wearing a black floral patterned dress, paired with a deep red trench coat. "We look like we've been on a date."
"I hate to break it to you, Aliya—" His eyes gazed at her, as his tone echoed sarcasm. "But, we have just been on a date." Rolling her eyes, Aliya turned her head towards the house, her eyes narrowing at the gutter and drain pipes that were conveniently placed right by her bedroom window. "Come on, it's getting cold."
He started up the path, her hand still in his as he dragged her halfway up it. "I'll climb up the gutter if I have to! I've done it before, I'll do it again!" She insisted, her hair blowing around her face in the wind, getting even more tangled by the minute.
It's likely her blowout wouldn't survive much longer if she climbed up the gutter.
Jackson whipped around, letting go of her hand. "Are you crazy?"
"I prefer the term 'spirited'." She replied, her eyes pinned on the gutter, hidden by shadows, that started to look a lot like her best option.
"When did you climb up the gutter? Why did you climb up the gutter?" He questioned, genuinely concerned as to how she got herself into that situation.
"You'll have to wait. It's a fifth date story." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she even had the chance to filter them.
"How do you know I want another date with you?" Jackson fired back, his eyes lit up as he grinned at the wide-eyed brunette standing across from him.
Ignoring him completely, Aliya tucked her hair behind her ears. "Plan B." She cleared her throat, doing up the buttons of her coat to hide her dress. "Give me a ten second head start."
"Is that really your best option?" Jackson placed his hands on his hips.
Aliya shrugged. "It sure seems like it."
Staring her down, reluctantly, Jackson finally sighed. "Fine. I'll give you ten seconds." He crossed his arms. "Do you want a ready, set, go?"
"Oh! Yes. That'll be great!" She nodded, readying herself by clutching her bag against her chest like a life jacket.
"I wasn't being serious—" Jackson paused, narrowing his eyes. "Okay. Go." He waved his hand towards the front door and Aliya was off, darting up the path and slipping through the door as quietly as possible, determined not to wake anyone up.
She couldn't help but feel the butterflies in her stomach, stopping for a second as the door shut to look back at him, he was watching her leave, smiling and chuckling to himself in the middle of the path, his jacket balled in his hand.
"I just don't understand why!"
Aliya's ears pricked up at the raised voices coming directly from the kitchen. Slipping off of her heels, she tiptoed towards the staircase, the said heels in her hand, dodging all the creaky floorboards she knew about.
"I just don't understand why Cristina quit!"
Aliya dropped her shoes with a loud, abrupt noise.
What in the sweet mother nature—
Aliya practically ran into the kitchen, leaving her heels in the middle of the hall, where Derek, Lexie and Meredith were all gathered like they were having a conference. "Cristina quit?"
Lexie tilted her head towards her from where she was sat on the chair, her elbows propped up on the table, a mug of coffee in front of her, her eyes half open. "You didn't hear?"
"I'm hearing it now." Aliya's voice strained from the shock.
Cristina.
The woman who lived and breathed surgery.
The scalpel hungry future cardio goddess quit?
Aliya walked to the counter, wide eyed, taking a mug from the collection that was led across the counter, a product of her channeling her grief into pottery, and pouring herself a cup of coffee.
"I'm going to need a minute." She managed to say, bringing the mug to her lips with both hands and gulping the burning hot coffee that Derek just made down her throat.
Shadows appeared in the doorway of the kitchen as the other three people in the room began talking about Cristina's departure again, and Jackson appeared in the doorway, unseen by anyone else except the Levine woman.
Aliya wildly moved her eyes, gesturing with one hand for him to go upstairs. He put his hands up in surrender, nodding and continuing his quiet tip-toeing down the corridor and up the stairs.
"Aliya!" Meredith snapped her fingers in front of her face. "What the hell are you doing? Focus."
"She just needs time, okay?" Aliya said, matter-of-factly, refilling her coffee cup eagerly. "She needs time to regroup, then realise what she wants."
Meredith shook her head in disagreement. "No. What we need is a plan of action."
"Maybe Aliya's right." Derek acknowledged from where he was leaning thoughtfully against the counter.
Meredith scoffed, pressing a hand to her forehead. "I need Alex. He'll agree with me. Aliya, where is he?"
"He's not here?" She questioned, her head inside her patterned, hand painted coffee cup.
"Was his car in the driveway when you snuck in?" Meredith deadpanned.
Aliya cleared her throat, putting her mug back on the counter. "I don't have a tracker for him if that's what you're wondering."
"Seeing as we are all awake, Aliya, I need to talk to you for a moment." Derek pushed himself off the counter, his own ferry boat mug Aliya made him in his hand as he lead her into the hallway, leaving Lexie and Meredith to resume their discussion.
Pulling his computer out of his bag, Derek clicked on the word file, angling it towards her. She squinted at the brightness of the screen, taking his computer from him. "'Alzheimer's is a bad disease. We should cure it.'" She read, side eyeing Derek.
"That's all I got." He shrugged, sipping his coffee.
"Uh—" Aliya straightened up, pushing her hair out of her face. "It's a start." She smiled, optimistically.
"I need your help." He pleaded as she slipped her coat off, folding it over her arm and raising a brow. He glanced at her outfit, and the heels in her hand. "You went on a date?"
Aliya pursed her lips, looking up at Derek from the computer as she quickly grabbed her heels. "I'll help you if you don't ask any questions."
Derek nodded, following her to the sofa. "You've got yourself a deal."
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—✩—
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The lecture theatre was packed with doctors and nurses, all listening to Teddy Altman as she talked through Roy Henley's case. The day the residents were allowed to wear the iconic dark blue attending scrubs, April and Cristina operated on a man who needed a lung transplant as a result of end-stage pulmonary hypotension.
Aliya wasn't stupid. She knew exactly why everyone had gathered here today and it had nothing to do with Roy Henley — they wanted intel.
Doctors were notorious gossipers.
When you spend so much of your time at the hospital, it seemed only fitting to want to know the latest ins and out.
The latest headliner today was all to do with Cristina Yang. And, why on earth she quit the residency program.
Teddy cleared her throat, standing on the stage, Roy's scans displayed behind her on the big screen. "When a heart wasn't available, I opted to continue with Roy Henley's lung transplant."
Aliya snuck her phone out, staring at it as she opened the chat she currently had with Alex, who was not picking up his damn phone.
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:05am)
hey
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:06am)
hello
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:08am)
can you let me know you are not
lying in a ditch dead? that would be
great if you could let me know?
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ALEX KAREV (10:10am)
Can confirm, I'm not lying in a ditch dead.
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:10am)
DUDE!
where are you?
ALIYA LEVINE (10:12am)
HELLO!
I HATE TEXTS.
PICK UP THE PHONE PLEASE!
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:14am)
i'm going to keep annoying you
until you pick up (just so you know)
ALIYA LEVINE (10:15am)
cristina's quit, mer's spiralling and
reese is throwing up on the mat because
lexie gave him spicy chicken wings
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ALIYA LEVINE (10:16am)
ALEX!
ALEXANDER!
ALIYA LEVINE (10:19am)
if you don't respond you're going
to wish you were lying dead in a ditch
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With a heavy sigh, Aliya slipped the phone back in her pocket, wondering were Alex was. He never did this. He never went AWOLL.
Jackson leaned across to Aliya, lowering his voice to a whisper. "My name isn't on the OR board."
"I'm sure it's just a mistake." Aliya replied back, flicking her eyes towards him, and then back at the front of the room.
"Aliya, I checked the schedule, nobody wants to work with me because I'm not on anyone's service." He looked at her with a worried expression, his hands braced along the armrests, his fingertips drumming against them.
"Put yourself out there." Aliya suggested, still keeping one eye on Teddy Altman's speech. "I'm sure someone will let you in on a surgery if you try."
Jackson inched even more closer, she didn't think it was possible. "Do you know how many things I've screwed up in the last month?"
"Stop it!" Meredith hissed from behind the pair, summoning their attention. "I'm serious. Just ask around and get on someone's service and get back to work."
Aliya turned back around to watch the lecture, just as a pair of knees collided with the back of her head. Then, the hand of the person who had hit her reaching to pat the spot he had just hit.
"Hey! Watch it!" She looked back to where Alex had just sat down behind her, wearing something that wasn't his scrubs. "Oh. Look who it is."
"I told you I wasn't lying dead in a ditch." He grumbled, dropping down into a seat.
Meredith curled up her nose. "You smell like you're sweating booze, where have you been?" Eyeing up his attire, Aliya realised he had definitely not been at the hospital all this time, otherwise he wouldn't be wearing a suit, covered in dirt and what looked like oil.
"I want the weekend you had." Jackson moaned, Aliya side eyed him, knowing too well what their weekend entailed. Catching her expression, he mouthed joking at her, the corner of his mouth curled upwards at her reaction. "I would choose the weekend we had in a heart—"
Even though his voice was soft and barely detectable, Aliya reached over to swat his thigh with a light shhh.
"What happens in Vegas, you know?" Alex said with a short and abrupt bit of laughter.
"You went to Vegas without me?" Aliya hissed, flicking his knee as she turned her back towards him. "We made a pact."
He narrowed his eyes at her, seeing as he had completely forgotten when she said that. They must've been extremely off of their faces, he gathered. "Hey, who's Stark? I'm supposed to be on Stark's service today."
"Oh, me too!" April chimed. "He's the new Peds attending since Robbins left."
Dr. Stark made Aliya miss Dr. Robbins even more than she already did.
"Crap. I can't handle a bunch of sick kids today. I can't do it." Alex protested, bringing a hand to his forehead.
"So was it, uh, a bachelor party?" April stuttered, asking the question innocently and awkwardly.
Exchanging glances, Jackson and Aliya knew exactly what April was thinking, watching her nervous fidgeting with a pained expression.
Did the red head like Alex?
"Shush. They're talking about Cristina." Pointing at the front of the lecture hall, they all pinned their attention on what Teddy was saying, rather than what Alex was supposedly doing in Vegas.
"It became clear to Dr. Yang that they were gonna need to switch modalities." Teddy announced in the microphone. "The patient was put on ECMO."
"And why did Dr. Yang opt to use the intra-aortic ballon pump over an RVAD?" A random doctor from the front row questioned.
"I— I can't answer for Dr. Yang."
The doctor sighed. "And why isn't she here?"
"She—" Teddy paused, glancing across the crowd. "She quit. She left the program."
"I'm sorry, what? She what?" Mark lurched forward in his seat.
"Dr. Yang cleared the balloon pump with Dr. McQueen, who agreed it was the best—"
"Go back. Go back." Mark pushed himself up, standing tall and blocking Aliya's view with his head, causing her to crane her neck in her seat. "Yang quit the program?"
Derek swivelled around to Mark. "Where have you been?"
"It's the first I've heard of it." Mark reported, head snapping to Owen. "Hunt, what the hell happened?"
"She told the Chief she quit." Owen replied, simply, as if his wife didn't just ditch the career she had been training for nearly ten years.
"This is like an episode of that soap opera." Aliya grimaced, however watching the scene intensely all the same. "Intriguing, but depressing."
"Richard—" Mark turned to Dr. Webber, who held his hand in the air, a phone pressed to his ear as he slipped out of the room.
Teddy cleared her throat through the microphone. "If we could just finish the presentation—"
Raising his hand in the air, Derek sat up in his seat, opening his mouth to speak. "I have a question. Can you tell us about your decision to put Dr. Yang in charge of this patient?"
"Sorry?" Teddy answered in confusion, shifting on her feet in irritation of the bombarding of questions.
"But she didn't quit quit, right?" Mark shot back up from his seat yet again, causing Aliya to drop her face into her palm. He turned around, finding Meredith in the crowd. "Grey?" Everyone in the room turned towards her. "You're joined at the hip. What'd she say?
Meredith breathed. "She hasn't spoken to me about it." A hundred pairs of eyes were still watching her, including Aliya's. "Stop looking at me. Look up there."
"Does Torres know anything about this?" Mark pulled out his phone. "I'm calling Torres."
As she's returned back to the front of the lecture hall, Teddy tried to continue her speech. "Can we please just—"
"I guess I'm asking you, why did you choose to put Dr. Yang under so much pressure that day?" Derek interrogated, calmly, slouched comfortably in his seat.
"I didn't." Teddy defended. "I intended the opposite. I gave her a simple pre-op checklist on a stable patient."
"Stable patient?" The neurosurgeon scoffed. "The patient almost died twice."
"I couldn't have seen that coming." She spoke, scanning her eyes across the doctors. "I'm sorry. Is this a patient presentation, or a post-mortem on Dr. Yang?"
"Well, you saved the patient." Derek fired back, leaning back casually in his chair as he held Teddy's eye contact, her mouth dropped in surprise.
"Cristina's like a robot." A random resident whispered in front of the group as Teddy continued the lecture after a moment of shock. "She's practically a walking scalpel. She'll be back soon, I bet fifty bucks she'll be back in a week."
"Hey." Aliya spoke sternly, kicking her foot against the back of the residents chair, drawing the attention of said resident. "Stop dehumanising her."
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—✩—
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"I know you didn't go to Vegas." Aliya paced over to Alex, who was tugging on his white coat outside of the paediatrics nurses station. "I was looking all over the hospital for you."
Raising a brow, Alex shrugged, moving past her to pick up his chart from the front desk. "I'm here now."
"No shit." Aliya replied, earning a harsh shush from the nurses, seeing as she was currently on the peds floor, parents wouldn't be too thrilled if they heard their young children cursing. "Sorry!" Aliya apologised, offering a wide smile in exchange for their forgiveness.
As Aliya was still bargaining, Alex swivelled his head, staring up at the clock behind them. "Why aren't you in therapy?" He spoke fast, his hand moving to her arm, as if he was prepared to physically drag her against her will to Dr. Keanne Kelly's office.
"Oh. I quit." Aliya replied simply. "Do you have Connor Nelson's chart? I've been looking for it everywhere. Shepherd and I are taking out his tumour, and he's letting me clip an aneurysm tomorrow!"
"Aliya." Alex spoke, his face stern as he held his gaze into her.
"Do you have the chart? I'm on a time crunch here. We have to remove his meningioma first thing, so I can scrub in for a lab coly with Bailey later." Aliya asked again, more forceful than anticipated but, seeing as she was in no mood to be interrogated, she wanted to distract her friend for as long as possible.
"You need to go to therapy, Aliya. Please—" Alex begged as Aliya cheerfully thanked a nurse that handed her the chart she was looking for. "Aliya!" His fingers snapped in front of her eyes.
"I quit, okay? End of discussion." Aliya shrugged him off, turning on her heel and descending the corridor, the acquired chart tucked under her arm.
"No. Not end of discussion." Alex called after her, jogging and catching up with her, tugging her back again to face him. "Why did you quit? You've only been going for a couple months. I didn't think you were a quitter."
"Alex." Aliya placed a hand on his arm, squeezing tightly, a strained smile on her face. "I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't sit there talking about stuff that—" Pausing, she let go of Alex's arm, running the back of her hand across her forehead, rubbing her tired eyes and making a mental note to ask for more of the pills to soothe the headaches she continuously developed every single day without fail. "I just couldn't. I didn't want to sit there unravelling my childhood, or how two of my friends have died over this past year right in front of my eyes and I couldn't do anything to stop it. It was too much. I don't care what anyone thinks, call me weak, it's just too much to unpack right now, okay?"
She didn't cry as much anymore, it was like her tear ducts were now permanently clogged, she was sick of crying.
"I get it. I really do." Alex looped his arm through hers, moving her down the hall, away from people who were constantly passing by. "I know that bottling up your feelings seems like the best option but, Aliya, you're not alone. You can always talk to me. Please, just talk to me." He was saying all the right things, that were leading Aliya to share, to vocalise the things that haunted her in the middle of the night. "I'm worried about you."
The door slammed shut in her mind, the cap on the bottle tightened as he said those words.
She knew he meant well.
She also knew he could see right through her, he knew when she was not feeling herself, when her smile wouldn't fully reach her eyes, or her laugh wouldn't get to the same intensity it used to.
Aliya was still her, she was still everything that made her, but after what she had lost, it was hard to keep every single aspect of her person within her grasp. Some things just slipped through her fingers.
"You don't have to worry about me." Aliya assured, rallying herself up to smile wide at him. Even when he looked at her hesitantly, sceptical of her act, she patted him on the arm. "I'm okay."
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—✩—
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Holding onto her coffee for dear life, Aliya weaved her way to the table Alex, Jackson, April and Lexie were currently sat at.
"I think—" Aliya started, before Alex quickly aimed a children's toy at her, shooting her with a ping pong ball right in the middle of her chest. "Ow!" Aliya protested, her coffee spilling out of the coffee cup and onto the table. "You're going to have to reimburse me for that."
With a look towards the coffee that was dripping down her arm, she dropped down in the seat next to Alex, who was aiming the ping pong shooter around as if he was in a real life video game.
"Now Bailey's given up on me, too." Jackson whispered to April from where he was sat across from Aliya, who couldn't hear him as she was currently attempting to tug the ping pong gun out of Alex's grip.
"You're on her service!" April pointed out, looking at Jackson with sympathy. "Why are you still freaking out?"
"No, Bailey's in surgery." Jackson spoke as he took quick panic bites out of his sandwich.
After finally getting the ping pong shooter after twenty seconds of fighting and shooting ping pong balls at each other, Aliya swivelled it around, aiming straight towards Jackson's sandwich in his hand, hitting it clean out of his hand.
As if the man wasn't in crisis already.
"Hey!" Jackson whipped his head down to his sandwich, which was lying directly on his lap.
"Nice! You have good aim!" Alex clapped his hands, craning his neck and pointing in the general direction of the attendings. "Try and hit Stark's lunch on the floor!"
Aliya held the ping pong shooter up, closing one eye to get a better aim. "Bailey's not in surgery yet. It's scheduled in twenty minutes." She pulled the trigger, sending the ping pong ball flying into Stark's lunch tray, knocking his apple onto the ground.
The ping pong shooter was out of her hands and into Alex's lap before it could even hit him.
"You're scrubbing in with her?" Jackson interrogated, placing his deconstructed sandwich on the tray.
Nodding her head, Aliya watched out of the corner of her eye Stark whipping his head around to meet Alex's eyes, a murderous expression on his face.
"As if he doesn't hate me already." Alex grumbled, tearing his eyes away from the new peds guy.
"She trusts me to watch a post-op drip fluid in a bag every ten minutes. Ow!" Jackson swatted away the second ping pong ball that was directed at him, curtesy of Alex.
"Inappropriate!" Lexie eyes the ping pong shooter in Alex's hands before turning back to Jackson. "You need to relax. You get an easy day, take it. Shepherd didn't need me, so I took a nap in the research library." Another ping pong ball landed on the table. "Give me— give it to me!" Lexie reached for the toy, pulling it out of Alex's grasp, straight away aiming on at Alex's chest.
"Jerk-face."
"Check this out." Meredith approached the table, a man clad in a black suit tailing her. "Armed escort to get a yoghurt."
Lexie leaned in, lowering her voice. "Okay, who is it? Is it Bono?"
"It's totally Bono!" April bounced up in her seat, clapping her hands. "It's all over the hospital!"
"I don't think it's Bono." Aliya whispered. "I bet it's a politician. My mom used to always operate on VIP politicians. They usually have heart failure. Which is weird."
Meredith shook her head, a look of frustration on her face. "It's not Bono."
"Are you going to Cristina's tonight?" Lexie questioned.
"I don't know." Meredith shrugged, and Lexie took it as a cue to shoot her with a ping pong ball.
Meredith's jaw dropped as she went to pick up the ball, throwing it back at Lexie so it got her right in the shoulder. "Not okay."
"It's addicting." Lexie chuckled, the ping pong ball still bouncing loudly on the floor.
"Put it away before my guy wrestles you to the ground." Meredith urged.
Alex lurched forward. "Give me that."
Lexie looked at the gun before looking back up at Alex. "No." She held it closer to her chest.
"Give me the ball."
"No! Get—" Attempting to tug it off of Alex and failing, Alex picked up the ping pong ball, holding it carefully in his hands before pushing up from the table.
"What's his problem?" Meredith asked, watching Alex practically run out of the cafeteria.
"He's having a rough day." April explained, as the man in the suit cleared his throat.
"Jeez, I'm coming." With widened eyes, Meredith followed the man out of the cafeteria, just as Lexie pointed the ping pong ball gun right at the man's back, sending two balls ricocheting around the room.
The man turned back, his face stern as he eyed Lexie.
Both Jackson and Aliya's fingers pointed instantly towards the youngest Grey sister, who placed the toy slowly onto the table, raising her arms above her head in surrender whilst a loud snort of laughter came out of Aliya's mouth.
The brunette clasped her hand around her mouth, laughing uncontrollably into her palm as the man turned to leave, and the now whole table collapsed into laughter.
"We should go to Bailey," Jackson said, as the laughter died down, carefully eyeing up Lexie and April to make sure they wouldn't grow suspicious. "See if she needs us."
Aliya, who was not suspicious in the slightest and had no idea what he was talking about, stabbed her lettuce leaf. "Surgery's not scheduled for another—"
She trailed off, her eyes travelling from the clock, to Jackson, to Lexie and April, back to the clock, and the back to Jackson yet again.
"—Oh," She nodded her head slowly, knowing what he was now propositioning. "Yeah, that's sounds like a great idea."
Her levels of perkiness sky rocketed as the two practically darted up from the table and ran out the room.
"What the hell?" Lexie screwed up her nose, looking towards April. "Is it just me, or are they acting much weirder than usual?"
April sat there thoughtfully for a moment, sipping on her juice box. "They are acting suspicious."
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—✩—
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On call rooms were notorious in hospitals — or maybe that statement was just exclusive to just Seattle Grace Mercy West. But, it seemed they were only really ever used for sex. Or, walking in on people having it. Aliya was unfortunate to say she had experienced both, the latter against her very will.
"That's my pager." Aliya spoke between urgent kisses, frowning as she reached back, a hand secured around Jackson's neck as she grabbed the buzzing pager from the bedside table.
Jackson sighed, his hand braced on the mattress to hold him up, the other one around Aliya's waist. "I better go too. I have to watch a fluid bag." He rolled his eyes, however not moving from his position.
"Still no surgeries?" Aliya questioned, sliding off the bed as Jackson's hands loosened from her hips.
"My surgical career is a vast, waterless desert." Jackson flopped back onto the bed, rather dramatically, with one hand supporting his head.
"I didn't think you were one for metaphors." Aliya smirked, putting her pager in her pocket.
"I'm incredibly literate when frustrated."
"I'll keep that in mind." Aliya leaned down, giving him one last kiss before grabbing her lab coat and dashing out the door.
"Surgery stealer!" Jackson yelled to her as the door clicked shut on the latch.
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—✩—
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Entering the patient room after running manically through the halls, Aliya pulled her hair out from where it was trapped under her coat.
Bailey glanced towards her, her eyes narrowing at the brunette as she rushed to her side, a smile spread wide across her face, taking a quick breath to collect herself.
"Present." Bailey instructed, pursing her lips.
Aliya readied herself, starting off by smiling wide at the patient before beginning. "Isabella Melendez, seventy eight years old, in for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy after experiencing painful gallstones as a result of substance imbalance." Mrs Melendez smiled back at her, nodding along.
"They are a pain in my ass." She joked, her hands resting on a floral patchwork comforter.
Aliya chucked, taking the chart from the table. "Let's get you up to the OR floor, get you prepped and get them out of you."
"Thank you, Dr.—" Mrs Melendez squinted at Aliya's name tag. "Avery."
Aliya froze, her heart rate reaching unsafe levels as her cheeks reddened. "I'm sorry?" She managed to say through the unfiltered panic.
"Dr. Avery." Isabella replied, none the wiser, pointing her hand at Aliya's chest, where the blue embroidery was placed. "Jackson Avery. It's on your lab coat. I guess Jackson is conventionally a boys name but, I guess it works for you."
A noise sounded from beside her, something between a mix of amusement and shock. "Yes. Dr. Avery is going to take great care of you. She's one of the best." Bailey patted Aliya's shoulder, squeezing it tight as Aliya physically felt her cheeks light on fire, and she truly wished she was a sorcerer so she could magic a hole in the ground to swallow her.
Because this was a joke.
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—✩—
⠀
After escaping Bailey's endless teasing as they left Mrs Melendez's room, she found Jackson, who had her actual lab coat folded neatly on the desk in front of him, outside his patients room, where he was logging her recent fluid levels in her chart.
"Jackson! This isn't funny!" Aliya hissed at the man stood next to her, who had been laughing for the last five minutes.
"It's a little funny!" He chuckled, managing the words as he handed her coat back to her.
"I'm mortified." Groaning, Aliya pressed a hand to her forehead, as if that would stop the mental image replaying in her mind. Shrugging off Jackson's lab coat, she handed it back to him.
"At least both of us have embarrassed ourselves today." Jackson took the coat, giving Aliya's back to her.
"You haven't embarrassed yourself. It's just paranoia." Aliya answered, slipping her arms into her own lab coat that didn't smell of his aftershave, pulling it straight and checking the name tag, just to be one hundred percent sure.
Her from three years ago smiling at her.
"Look, the attendings take time warming up, okay? It took Bailey over a year before she warmed up to us, and I still think Dr. Nelson holds a grudge towards me from when Shepherd and I poached his patient three years ago."
Jackson frowned, his eyes darting back to his chart. "I guess." He spoke, reluctantly.
"Avery, how's our patient?" Approaching the pair, Bailey stopped beside Aliya, who instantly straightened, clearing her throat.
"No change." Jackson replied, closing the chart and tucking it under his arm.
"That's what I like to hear. We're going into my colon." She gave a pointed look towards Aliya, ushering her to follow.
"So, you still don't want me to scrub in?" Jackson asked, looking back and forth between Aliya and Bailey.
"No! I have enough hands. I need you to watch—"
"Ms. Cortez." Jackson finished her sentence in disappointment. "Right. Like I said, no change."
"Avery. I need you where I need you. I don't have time." Bailey waved him off, turning towards Aliya. "Let's go, Levine. Is it Levine? Or are you still Avery." She made an act of squinting at Aliya's name tag, even though it had her name boldly embroidered on it.
Jackson choked on his own breath from behind them.
Aliya pressed her lips into a strained smile, one that made her cheekbones tight. "Dr. Bailey, has anyone ever told you you're funny."
"Every damn day." Bailey responded.
"You're wasted here, really. Should've become a comedian." Aliya insisted, as Bailey just laughed loudly again, whilst Aliya's hand darted to her pager as it buzzed unexpectedly.
"911. Altman." She read in confusion, quirking a brow until she realised that Cristina had left the hospital, meaning Teddy was most likely on a wild hunt for one resident that could possess half of the cardiothoracic surgical ability she possessed.
"I can do the lab coly on my own— go."
Aliya nodded, darting quickly to the emergency room.
As she reached trauma two, Teddy instantly noticed her presence, clicking her fingers and ushering her into the room. "Levine! Great. Get in here!"
"What do you need?" Aliya asked from the foot of the doorway.
"I need a resident whose good at cardio and—" Teddy flicked her eyes to Aliya, who was now moving to the side of the patient as Teddy pulled up an ultrasound on the unconscious patient. "List the three components of Beck's triad."
"Hypotension, jugular venous distension and muffled heart sounds."
"Great." Teddy enthused, watching as the scan showed up on the small screen.
Aliya's eyes flickered up to the monitor, the scan and then at the patient as she felt his pulse — weak. "He's cardiac tamponading, we need to do a pericardiocentesis." Aliya moved to the patients right, locating a needle and a long thin tube from the trauma drawers.
"Yes, good, you can do it." Teddy grinned, whilst Aliya moved around her. "Seeing as my best resident has quit, I need the next best thing."
"Me?" Aliya questioned, raising the needle in the air as she removed the plastic.
Teddy shrugged from where she eventually stopped the abdominal bleeding. "Nepotism."
Aliya narrowed her eyes at the cardio attending. "Excuse me—"
"Your mother is Molly Levine, right?" Teddy asked, watching Aliya as she felt for the right place so insert the needle. "World Class Cardio Surgeon? Award winner, practicallly invented a dozen cardio procedures?"
"That sounds like my mother." Aliya replied with a wince.
"Plan B is nepotism. Right, you're going to want to— wait have you done one before?" Teddy peered over at where Aliya was about to work.
"I did one intern year." Aliya spoke as she inserted the tube into the chest wall, performing the perfect pericardiocentesis, just like the textbooks said, just like her mothers videos.
"Your mother was right in her emails — you should log more hours in cardio." Teddy mused, her eyes still observing Aliya closely.
"I'm not going to replace Cristina." Aliya pointed out, remaining focused on what she was doing. "She will be back, she just needs more time to— process."
"We are staging an intervention at her house warming party later, you in?"
Aliya shrugged her shoulders, looking back at Teddy as the catheter began to drain the excess fluid. "I think she'll make her own way back, we just need let her figure it out on her own."
"No! No." Teddy shook her head. "She needs to be forced back in, she can't just—"
"Believe me, I know Cristina. I've spent my whole residency so far with her." Aliya bent down, analysing the tube as the fluid stopped coming through the bag. "She just needs a bit of time. I mean, look at what she went through, it's not something someone can do easily, she's giving herself a break. A timeout. It's smart." Aliya was to busy removing the tube to notice Teddy's horrified expression as she was still unable to comprehend her best cardio resident leaving the program. "We should get him up for a chest X-Ray."
"We should." Teddy replied, dryly, frowning at Aliya as she moved past the attending to book one.
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—✩—
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Aliya eyed up the bottle of tequila Jackson was quickly downing. "Hey, steady." She narrowed her eyes, reaching for the bottom of the bottle and pulling it away from his lips, pouring it into her own glass. "Save some for the rest of us."
"Bad day." He frowned, wiping his mouth with the back of his palm as Aliya handed back the bottle.
"It wasn't your fault." Aliya spoke after sipping her drink. "Post-op fistulas are extremely difficult to prevent. You did everything you could."
Sighing, Jackson eyed the tequila, which only had about a mouthful left. "Would you mind grabbing another bottle from the cooler?"
Aliya nodded, knowing that she wasn't going to get him another bottle seeing as he did just drain nearly a whole bottle right in front of her very eyes.
Instead, she made her way into the open planned living room of Cristina and Owen's new apartment, bumping into Callie on her way through.
"Callie!" Aliya said in shock, as if she just saw an illusion of the ortho surgeon. "I thought you were in Africa?"
Her face contorted. "Do I look like I'm in Africa?"
"You know what I meant." Aliya frowned. "Well, it's good to have you back. Nice hair." She commented, eyeing the new, shorter haircut Callie was rocking, with electric blue strands.
"Thank you." She ran her hand through it, pushing it up in some sort of drunken pose. "You should get pink or something. I tried to make Yang do it, but she was to busy buying a whole showroom of furniture— and soft pretzels."
"I'll have to think about it." Aliya took a sip of tequila, knowing that if she had too much of it she probably would take Callie up on the suggestion.
However, just as Callie was about to open her mouth, Aliya's attention completely repositioned to the sight of Jackson, her Jackson, punching Alex, her Alex, right in the face, causing the two to fall back into the coffee table, breaking it almost immediately.
She had to blink twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming about the fact that her best friend and—
She didn't even know what to call him.
Friends with benefits?
No, that's not right?
Because, they are dating—
God, that was a conversation for another night.
Aliya quickly reacted, rushing over and gripping Alex's shoulders before he could get up and throw a punch back at Jackson, in that moment feeling an overwhelming sense of deja vu from last year, when Alex had thrown a punch in his direction.
"Alex! Outside! Now!" Using every muscle in her body, she dragged her friend outside by his arms, tugging him down the stairs as she just kept muttering 'oh my god' under her breath, holding a newly acquired cold bottle of beer she had grabbed from the ice bucket conveniently at the front door.
After sitting him on Cristina's Old Fire Department House steps, she stood directly opposite him. "You're going to have to start explaining yourself before I loose it." She pointed the beer bottle at him, waving it about like a prop.
"He punched me." Alex grumbled, prodding his bruised face with a hand, squinting in pain.
"Oh, he punched you first. Don't give me that crap."Aliya mocked, beginning to pace back and forth in front of him.
Alex narrowed his eyes. "You don't believe me?"
"Of course I believe you—" Aliya remarked, dropping down on the stone step next to him, placing the cold beer on his cheek. "I saw it with my own two eyes. I'm just confused why he felt the need to punch you."
Alex huffed, looking behind his shoulder. "I tried— I nearly." He dropped his head in his hands, digging his fingers into his eyes as he mumbled something incoherently into his palms.
Aliya wrapped her a hand around herself as a gust of wind brushed across her shoulders. "I don't have heightened hearing because my eye sight is rubbish."
"I was going to sleep with April but—"
"Alex!" Aliya pressed the bottle of beer harder into his cheek, causing Alex to groan in pain. "She's a virgin!"
He pressed his lips into a fine line, angling his head toward her. "I know she's a virgin."
"Alex—"
"It was dumb." He said, admittedly. "I was stupid. I feel terrible."
Sighing, Aliya rubbed her forehead, pushing her hair back from her face and behind her ear. "You gotta change, dude." She spoke after a moment of silence, peering over to Alex who was now watching the Seattle night traffic drive by, instead of Aliya's disappointment. "I love you. But, you can't keep treating people like crap. You're a good person. I know you're a good person but, you have to take some responsibility."
"I know that." He took the bottle from her, pressing it to his own face.
"Well—" Aliya rested her arms on her knees. "That's a start."
After a moments pause, the Karev man looked towards her, his brows lowered, a bruise painting his skin purple and red.
"I was in Iowa."
Aliya turned towards Alex, his eyes glassed over as the words tumbled out. "Iowa?"
"I went home. Aaron." He dipped his head to the floor. "The doctors said — he got diagnosed schizophrenic, just like my mom. You know how they figured it out?" He asked, rhetorically. "He tried to kill our little sister. She's sixteen, she's a kid, and her brother tried to kill her. And my mom didn't do anything 'cause she's off her meds, and — anyway, I was in Iowa. That's where I went, to my brother's commitment hearing. I had to commit him. Whatever."
"Oh, Alex." Aliya placed her hand on his knee. "It's good you were there for her. See, you do good things. You just—"
"I wasn't there." He spat, rolling his eyes at himself. "I wasn't. I showed up, I held my sister's hand in the hospital for about ten minutes, I shoved some pills down my mom's throat, I signed my brother into a nuthouse— and I got the hell outta there as fast as I could. I wasn't there. I'm the ass who can't stand to be there."
"Al—"
"I guess I wanted you to continue on with your therapy because I don't want to loose you too, okay? I can't loose you. You're all I have left." He spoke with as much sincerity and honestly as he could offer her, not willing to look directly at his best friend.
"You're not going to loose me." With a strained voice, Aliya tried to convince him that the last thing she would want to do was leave Seattle. It was the only place that felt like it could stay her home forever, and not just for a fleeting moment.
Alex shrugged, drawing in a sharp breath as he moved the position of the cold bottle on his face. "People go all the time. What's to say you won't too?"
"I'll go to therapy if that's what you want."
"You have to do it for you, Aliya." Alex told her, knowing that if he asked her to hide a body with him, she would do it in a heartbeat. "Don't do it for me, do it for you."
"I'm not going anywhere." The Levine woman informed him. "You know that, right? I don't care if I have to sit with a therapist every week to prove that I'm not going to loose it."
"I know." Alex said, a light smile on his face as she threaded her arm through his, leaning on his shoulder, the cold air causing her hair to stick against her face. "I'm thinking about getting back into tennis. I played it as a kid, along with soccer, and hey, it would be a good excuse to wear a cute outfit on the weekends."
Alex huffed, light-heartedly, shaking his head at Aliya before lowering his eyes at her— he both hated and loved how she could make him laugh no matter what situation they were in.
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( notes! )
alex and aliya are my favourite duo at the moment (ever) and they need protecting at all costs 🤺🤺
and, aliya & jackson are in their i can see you era for sure!! they're not very good at it though, seeing as cristina and bailey already know, and derek, lexie and april are already suspicious.
also, place your guesses as to which speciality aliya is going to choose :)
i'm asking because when i started this, i had one speciality in mind that i knew aliya would choose and then the other day i was thinking more and now i'm deciding between two so i want to know your guesses !!
( word count! — 7,900 )
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