⠀

chapter twenty four ━ slow night, so long
season seven, episode nine

❝ i'm a bitch when the weather
is above 90 degrees. ❞

⠀
⠀
⠀

Humans are made up of a thousand different qualities.

Thousands.

From the moment you are born, so many things can be scribbled and brainstormed under a persons name.

In that case, Aliya Levine was many things.

There were things that would be listed on documents — saying she was a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a doctor— or maybe the fact she broke her leg when she was eight years old when she fell during soccer practice, or that she drove a red Mini Cooper, or that she was incredibly artistic and was responsible for a great deal of the art work that hung in the hospital and in random hospital staffs homes.

However, there were other traits about her that wouldn't be noted on any actual legal documents.

Except maybe a character witness statement if her and Alex went through with the crimes they were talking about.

Grand theft auto sounded quite fun to them.

The lesson here was, people are made up of so many different attributes.

For example, one thing to note about Aliya was that she was a people pleaser.

Example, if someone made her a meal that contained carrots, she would probably eat it, even though she was allergic — she wouldn't recommend doing that. Or maybe that was determination to not be allergic to carrots, or she just simply had a death wish. But, the most realistic reasoning behind that statement was that Aliya Levine was a people pleaser.

Which led Aliya to be in her current situation (that she did not necessarily want to be in).

"It's great to have you back, Aliya." Keanne Kelly, her recently re-hired therapist, sat across from her, dressed in a dark navy dress with long sleeves. Something absent from her today however was the lack of paper and pens that she usually had in her possession. Her hair was tied up in a bun, making her facial features sharp.

"It's great to be back." Aliya answered, almost too convincingly as she familiarised herself with her surroundings.

(She definitely did not feel great to be back.)

In reality, in the minimalist decorated room straight out of an 'Interiors In Seattle' magazine was the last place Aliya wanted to spend a late Wednesday afternoon.

She suddenly wanted to be at the bar, celebrating getting the Alzheimer's grant so that she and Derek can start their clinical trail.

Alex told her just last week that she had to do therapy for herself. Not for him, because she wanted to be better.

She couldn't take it that Alex was worried about her of all things, he had other things to worry about. Besides, wouldn't it put his mind at ease if she did this? It only took an hour out of her week.

She could do it.

She survived her whole entire residency so far, that surely accounted for something.

"Good." Dr. Kelly nodded, her glasses were folded up on the coffee table before her, her hands bunched in her lap that only made Aliya sceptical as to why she was lacking her usual props. "We are going to be doing this differently from here on out."

"Differently?" Aliya spoke clearly, even though her thoughts felt incoherent. "How differently?" This was not what she signed up for.

A dozen warning signals went off in her head.

"I realised that a different approach may be better for you. So, I'm not going to take any notes." Kelly made an act of gesturing to highlight her absence of stationary supplies. "I'm just going to listen to you, like a friend." Kelly paused for half a second.

Something about Keanne Kelly was that she paused for dramatic effect.

"But, I'm going to remain unbiased, unlike a friend. And, we are going to sit here for as long as it takes."

"Oh— okay." Aliya pursed her lips in further suspicion, her eyes ducking towards the door. "I do have surgery scheduled in an hour, and there's probably traumas in the ER I need to help out—"

"I cleared both of our schedules." Kelly answered, simply, gesturing towards the timetable on the wall where her evening was carefully crossed out in a bold red felt tip pen. "I don't care if I have to sit here until three in the morning. We are going to talk."

Sighing deeply, Aliya dipped her head, before averting her gaze back to her therapist, who was watching her intently in a semi-calm, half frustrated manner that was reflected in her now stern tone. "It's six o clock. In the evening." Aliya clarified, she would rather be the main character in a horror film set in a post-apocalyptic world than sit here all night.

"I'm aware." Kelly nodded, and Aliya still found it strange she wasn't holding her pen and notepad.

Mental images of her therapist included her always hauling around a pen and a notepad.

Aliya pictured her wedding would involve notepad and pens at this rate.

After Aliya's lack of reply, Kelly took it as an opportunity to continue her train of thought. "We need to make progress." Noting Aliya's scowl, she quickly continued. "I'm not saying we haven't made progress, everything you say here is progress. Even if they are slews of words here and there."

Aliya sat there silently for a moment. "Slews?" It was the only thing she could think of saying.

"Is rambles better for you?"

Aliya didn't know her therapist could do sarcasm.

The brunette shrugged. "It's better than slews I guess."

"Let's start with Andy." Kelly spoke abruptly.

And, Andy's name hit her like a kick to the abdomen.

Aliya crossed her arms over her stomach, Andy's name still feeling like poison to her ears.

She hated people using her name so casually in a sentence. She hated that she still flinched at the name, how much weight it holds.

"She wasn't the only person that died." She swallowed back the lump the size of an apple.

Kelly nodded her head. "A lot of people died that day."

"I know—" Aliya stuttered slightly in her speech, clearing her throat and sitting up right in her chair, the images still recurring in her mind, even if it had been six months, it still felt fresh. Something that also defined Aliya was her nervous fidgeting. "I didn't mean the shooting. A lot of people died in the shooting. If you want honesty then she wasn't the only person that I've lost."

"I'm sorry, Aliya." Kelly replied in the trademark sensitivity she possessed. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"I was sixteen." Aliya reached for her water, her mouth suddenly feeling too dry. "My friend, Sam, he was driving us to the movies and another car swerved into the drivers side door. Drunk driver."

"That must've been horrible. To go through something like that so young." Kelly commented.

"I've had a lot of bad days. But, that was probably one of the worst days of my life." Aliya admitted, her hands bracing on the armrests, as her knuckles whitened from clutching it so hard. "I've never told anyone that before. That's progress, right? Telling you something nobody else knows?"

"Everything is progress, Aliya—" Kelly stuttered slightly, though remaining collected as she ran a hand through the ends of her hair as she thought for the right words to say. "Though, sharing things shouldn't be forced. I want you to tell me things you're comfortable with telling me."

Raising a brow, Aliya pursed her lips tight. "I'm not really comfortable with telling anyone anything."

"Why do you think that is?" Kelly asked with a tilted head.

Aliya shrugged, taking her stare away from the wall behind Kelly's head to the wall with the bookshelves. "Some things are better left unsaid." She commented, briefly reading the titles of the books.

"But, sometimes it's better to talk about it. It's a relief."

"Is it, though?" Aliya smiled, forcefully. "I always thought that sometimes it's best to keep things locked up."

Kelly didn't find her comment amusing. "You need to let people in." She insisted, and Aliya couldn't help but wonder if she too was finding this whole interaction draining, both physically and mentally.

"I don't know what you want from me." Aliya sighed, pushing her hair back as she shuffled out of the armchair that she felt suffocated by. "Respectfully." She quickly added whilst she moved to the window, her arms crossed right around her middle so much her arms began to ache.

Ignoring her comment, Kelly continued pushing forward at full speed. "Did you see anyone when your friend died? You were so young."

Aliya shook her head, watching the lights in the distance, illuminating the Seattle sky that felt endless. "Not really. School counsellor for one session."

"Was there a funeral?"

"Yeah." Aliya swallowed back the lump in her throat, turning back to Kelly, her hair falling down her back as she turned. "And a school memorial. I was stared at for a whole month, but I didn't really care."

Aliya met Sam Hartley in middle school, when she was twelve years old.

At the time, there was no way of knowing that in four years, he would be gone. Fate worked in a million weird different ways, and bad things always seemed to happen to good people.

That's what Aliya failed to understand when she held her friend in her lap on the side of the road.

Her memory from that night was a string of flashing images, but she remembered everything.

The lights blurring her vision, as if her tear stained eyes weren't enough. She remembered the driver of the red Honda staggering towards her, unharmed, asking in a slurred voice if he was still breathing.

At that time he was.

She had called 911, she could hear the sirens blaring in the distance. The driver passed out behind the wheel from too much beer. He only just woke up to the sound of the sirens.

Sam died half an hour later.

And the drunk driver lived.

"And your relationship with you mom?" Kelly spoke over her thoughts, Aliya didn't realise that she had been speaking the entire time. "Did she understand what you were going through? Did she give you support?"

"No." Aliya paced over to the other side of the room, examining the various self help books on the shelf up close. "Oh! I almost forgot the pat on the back she gave me when she told me people die all the time. She's not the comforting type."

Aliya didn't fully understand her mother or her actions.

Though, after everything, she knew her mother, even if she didn't understand her.

She knew she was unpredictable. That she could respond to something in a handful of different ways.

Kelly took a long pause. "How do you think that affected you in later life?"

Aliya chewed on the inside of her cheek, her eyes narrowing at the pictures on the walls of minimalistic multi-coloured beige lines. "I'm not much of a hugger?"

"I meant in your relationships." Kelly replied, flatly, though Aliya had now realised she didn't really mean it in a heartless way, it was just who she was. "Romantic, or friendships."

"Oh. I have some pretty great friends." Aliya smiled fondly, finally dropping back into the armchair across from Kelly.

"Romantic?"

Aliya shrugged, leaning back into the stiff, beige cushions. "None of them really work out, but it's for the best. Sometimes. Maybe? I don't know." She finally decided.

Kelly nodded slowly. "What's the longest relationship you've been in?"

"Four years?"

"Did it end on good terms?" Kelly asked, shifting slightly in her seat.

"I left the state." Aliya voice was oddly calm when she said those words, seeing as her past experiences that led her to leave where she was residing weren't exactly her fondest memories.

However, she couldn't help being in love with New York, even if memories that took place there seemed to haunt her, how her fiancé cancelled the wedding. You would have to be borderline crazy not to be in love with the city, in Aliya's opinion.

New York was a place of fresh starts, world altering bagels and the impossible art of hailing a taxi.

"Not so good terms. Noted." Kelly nodded her head at Aliya's comment, reaching for her golden framed glasses which were folded on top of a book about grief, strategically placed on the coffee table so the phrase 'every grief journey looks different, even the destination' angled towards her in condensing cursive. "But this is good, Aliya. This is great."

Aliya frowned, at Kelly and the un-inspirational quote. "It doesn't feel great."

"Opening up can be scary." Kelly spoke sincerely, like she always did. "It can be really scary." Now that was too cliché even Aliya couldn't handle it.

"Tell me about it." She grumbled, grimacing back towards the door she longed to run through, in her own little mind before, she sneezed into her elbow.

Kelly mirrored Aliya's previous frown as if she was against people having a cold, or having a weak immune system.

She leaned over and passed Aliya a box of tissues, dropping them in front of her. "Allergies." Aliya sniffled into the Kleenex.

Kelly pursed her lips, a wrinkle appearing on her chin. Aliya didn't know how old she was exactly, but she didn't have that wrinkle before, and Aliya could only assume it was induced by her. "It's nearly November."

Gawking back at her, Aliya racked her brain for an explanation. "In anticipation of allergies."

Kelly sighed, pushing her dark hair back, revealing a few grey hairs dotted along her hairline. "Shall we take a five?"

Aliya stopped tapping her fingernails against the wood of the armchair. "I've only been here for a ten minutes." She proceeded to point out.

"I know." Kelly shrugged, pushing herself gracefully from the chair to grab some water from the mini fridge by her bookshelf, her heels clicking softly across the carpet. "But, you didn't know you were going to be here for so long, so, get a cup of coffee, a snack, refresh. And I'll see you back here in a few moments."

Aliya didn't need to be told twice.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Yay! Pizza!" Aliya smiled wide as she spotted Meredith in the window to the attending's lounge, quickly slipping through the door, the smell of tomato and mozzarella greeting her.

"You're perky." Meredith watched her as she picked up a slice, dropping down on the couch opposite her.

"Oh, Mer." Aliya chucked, holding the pizza in her hand like it was her lifeline, at this point of the evening, it was. "Don't be fooled, this is just a mask because, internally I'm screaming." She spoke through a mouthful of pizza.

Meredith shook her head, grimacing as she looked around the lounge, a place neither of them has been before.

It was nice, decorated in a spectrum of blues and a fancy coffee machine in the corner Aliya spotted halfway through eating her pizza. The pizza was an abandoned on the cardboard and she was up by the machine within an instant.

"Your night can't be going as worse than mine. Stark is an ass." Meredith complained.

A short laugh escaped Aliya's mouth as she hung her head back, taking a mug from the varied collection the attendings own (this one had a picture of a brain with a moustache on it). "I would much rather be on Stark's service than where I am now, you wanna swap? We can dye out hairs and put contacts in, we'll be fine."

"Deal." Meredith nodded, going for Aliya's abandoned slice. "Wait, what are you doing now? I feel like it's vital information before we pull a Freaky Friday."

"Therapy." Aliya spoke over the clattering of her trying to work the machine.

Aliya truly believed her love language was coffee.

And, hot pretzels.

Preferably cinnamon pretzels.

Meredith visibly recoiled. "I'm sorry?"

"My therapist has me on house, I mean room, arrest until I open up to her more." Aliya explained, clicking buttons on the machine, the mug filling up with coffee she desperately needed circulating in her system. "It's a sick joke."

Meredith bobbed her head towards the last remaining slice of pizza. "You can have the last slice if you want."

Aliya gave Meredith a small smile as she brought the mug of coffee to her lips, slurping intentionally. She hung her head back, leaning it against the sofa cushions as she sunk further in with a groan. "I swear the point of therapy was working in your own time frame."

"It is." Meredith confirmed, seeing as she had been in therapy herself.

"Then why am I being forced to open up in the space of a night? It's crass." Aliya dropped her hand down from where it was lazily draped above her head, letting it hit the space on the sofa next to her with a bounce.

"Just quit." Meredith urged through a mouthful of pizza.

Aliya sighed and pursed her lips. "I don't like to quit. Not even therapy."

"Well then, Aliya—" Meredith finished her bite, wiping her hands into a napkin and disposing of it rather hesitantly in the attending's lounge bin. "You're just gonna have to stick it out."

"I'm not very patient either." Aliya said, matter-of-factly, wondering if she really was setting herself up for failure, but at least that was better than quitting, she thought.

"What are you then?" Meredith asked, lazily as she studied a fancy blue glass paper weight that she had picked up from the coffee table.

"Annoyed. Frustrated. Melodramatic."

Meredith grinned in amusement, setting the paper weight back down. "Get those words printed on a shirt."

"I also do Anger. Hunger. Depression."

"Dr. Levine." Dr. Webber opened the door to the attendings lounge, just as Aliya informed Meredith of her second shirt slogan.

For that short amount of time, she even forgot that therapy existed. All she was thinking of is three words to print on a shirt and now the Chief was standing in the doorway looking at Aliya as if she committed a felony.

Run. Sprint. Fly.

"Oh—" Aliya swivelled around, her hand flying over the top of her coffee mug to stop anything from spilling out. "Hi Chief! I thought it was your night off?"

"It was my night off." Richard snapped, his voice mirroring his very obvious murderous expression. "But, seeing as I had two phone calls, one from a patients mother who felt the need to call me a screaming about the incompetence of this hospital, and one from Dr. Keanne Kelly wondering where the hell you had disappeared off to."

Aliya shoulders slumped forward, her jaw slacking as the mug balanced in her lap, the coffee nearly spilling over the edge onto her scrubs. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh." He thundered, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the two women. "Why aren't you moving? Go!" He gestured to the door for Aliya to move.

The truth was Aliya didn't just go to the attendings lounge after her therapist told her to take five minutes.

Five minutes quickly turned into forty when she stumbled into the ER and was roped into helping Jackson and Lexie when they were swamped — a kid was in a car accident who passed away in the trauma room due to his injuries — and then forty turned into an hour when she found a group of nurses in the residents lounge snacking on muffins bought in by a patient — it felt right to stop for a blueberry muffin since Aliya had worked on that case and had tried these world changing muffins before.

"You know, Chief—" Aliya cleared her throat, leaning forward to set the mug on the wooden coffee table, next to the empty pizza box. "I really do feel like my services are better elsewhere, you know, doing my job instead of—"

"Dr. Kelly is waiting for you, Levine." He interjected, his face the same epitome of unimpressed. "Don't make me drag your ass to the third floor."

She raised a brow as Meredith snorted beside her. "Did you just say ass?"

"Yes, I did. Now move." He placed a hand on the door, holding it open for Aliya to walk through it.

Shooting Meredith one final stare behind her to see if she would save her from this situation, she accepted defeat and slipped through the door.

Before she descended further down the hall, Aliya quickly turned back before Dr. Webber could shut the door. "Wait, did you approve Dr. Kelly's request to clear my schedule?"

"I did." Dr. Webber responded with a nod.

Aliya couldn't hide the horror on her face, just as Dr. Webber couldn't hide his borderline bored expression.

"That was a wonderful idea." She spoke through gritted teeth, before a very inappropriate remark left her mouth that wouldn't be very pleasant to say in front of the Chief of Surgery.

"Look, Levine—" Richard sighed, leaving the attendings lounge and shutting the door behind him for privacy in the empty hall. "We are all still healing from the shooting. No one will ever move on fully from this tragedy, but we need to accept help when it's offered."

Aliya thought of a reply, but she couldn't really comment on moving forward when she still felt frozen in time, so instead she just smiled and said something to break the uncomfortable pause. "I guess you're right."

Richard smiled slightly, angling his head to the hallway behind her. "Good. Now go, I need to deal with sleazy lab techs."

"Good luck." Aliya offered and the door shut behind the Chief, and she walked back to therapy — painfully slow and the long way around.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"You're a runner." Kelly stated rather ambiguously after a few minutes of the two sitting in silence since Aliya's return to therapy.

Aliya slumped in the armchair across from her, her hands folded in her lap as she narrowed her eyes at both the ceiling above her, and Kelly's abrupt statement. "I played soccer and tennis in High School so I don't know if that qualifies as the status of being a runner."

Her therapist simply sighed, somewhat over exaggerated in Aliya's unbiased opinion. "No. I mean you run when things get tough. Like you did just now."

Aliya shrugged. "I got distracted."

"And, you get distracted easily." Kelly pointed out.

"I guess." She scratched her forehead, pushing back the loose hairs around her face, the failed attempt of bangs she tried to cut herself that were now outgrown.

"Why do you feel the need to run when things get too much?" Kelly now had a pen in her hand and a notepad in her lap, a visible whole page worth of notes written neatly in fountain pen. "You left the state in your previous relationship."

"Ships. Relationships. I left the state twice."

Kelly gave her a pointed look.

"I thought I would elaborate." Aliya thought it wouldn't hurt to give the woman a bit more than vague answers.

"Okay." Kelly said in a tone that was the most surprised she had ever been. "What was the issue there?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think it was you or them that caused the relationship to end?"

"Oh— me. The first one, anyway. I can hand on heart admit that. Then the second well, we were getting married, and then he announced to me that he was moving to Florida for his surgical residency and he didn't really factor me into his tiny pea sized brain and didn't want me to come with him— actually he was very smart but, still. Pea sized. You know?" During her small rant, she ended up on the edge of her seat, her hands waving around in front of her to convey her point in rapid gestures. "I mean I would've loved Miami but, I think I love Seattle more. I'm a bitch when the weather is above ninety degrees."

(Aliya failed to mention she had broken up with him four times in the space of four years.)

Kelly nodded her head in agreement. "Miami does get a lot of heatwaves." She spoke, thoughtfully.

"Tell me about it!" Aliya clapped her hands, excited that Kelly finally cracked somewhat of a smile-like expression. "I hope he has no air conditioning."

"He would probably die of heat exhaustion." Kelly said, her voice (and expression) back to her usually serious demeanour.

"God! No!" Aliya lurched forward in sheer panic. "I don't want him to die! You think I want him to die? I'm not crazy!"

"No, Aliya—" Frowning, Kelly shook her head. "I wasn't insinuating that."

"Okay. Jeez. You scared me for a moment there." Aliya settled back down, one hand on her chest as if that would help slow down her hammering heartbeat of near being accused of murderous intentions whilst Kelly reached across for her water glass.

After setting the cup back down, she cleared her throat, leaning back into her seat. "Let's move away from that, shall we? Do you think you have difficulty opening up?"

"I mean. Probably."

"Do you find it easy to share?" Kelly further questioned.

"If I did I would probably be out of therapy by now." Kelly blinked, whilst Aliya came to the realisation she could be an incredibly bitter person. "Sorry. That was mean. I'm not usually mean."

"It's okay. Really." Kelly insisted, the corner of her lips upturned. "I would like to revisit the topic of your mother. We've touched on it a few times but, what was it like when you were a kid? Growing up with a mother who didn't show you much affection?"

"Oh. I felt a lot of things." Aliya stretched in her seat, time was passing quickly even if they hadn't spoken at all. Most of this session contained silence, running away and staring out of the window. "Resentment. Jealousy for the other kids with the parents who baked cupcakes and pinned their report cards on the refrigerator, or actually picked them up on time."

Kelly stared at her intently, her hands balled up in her lap. "It must've been hard for you. Seeing everyone else with parents like that."

"It was." Aliya breathed, widening her eyes as if that could help anything. "I saw it every minute of every day. Trent and Eliana got a different set of parents to the ones I got."

"Trent and Eliana? Your brother and sister?" Kelly twitched as if she wanted to quickly flick through her notebook, seeing if Aliya had ever said those names.

Aliya nodded her head. "They are both older than me and my parents—" Aliya paused. "They worshipped the ground they walk on and that's not me being dramatic. I never really understood why they treated me so different from them. I mean, I don't remember the last time I hugged my mom. I don't think I've ever hugged her actually."

"Aliya—"

"Oh, you don't have to analyse this. Please don't analyse that because, I'm at peace with it." Aliya lied through her teeth. "I haven't even heard from them that much since the shooting. I mean, my dad calls once in a full moon when my mother isn't in the same room. Eliana calls when she wants something from me. Trent always calls. My brother has always been the best person in that family."

In terms of extended family, they all lived in Los Angeles.

Saying this, Aliya had never seen them a lot growing up, mainly because her mother failed to get along with another human being. Growing up, she only really had her friends and her brother Trent for company, seeing as being alone in a room with Eliana was her idea of the worst possible scenario.

"I'm sorry, but— what are you actually hoping to achieve from this?" Aliya questioned, she never really liked to give her family much thought, even though it took over most of her mind. "I don't think this is working, I'm feeling even worse than I did before."

"You have to get worse before you get better. You're doing great." Kelly assured before continuing on. "It may be tough, Aliya, but we will work this out."

"There's nothing to work out." Aliya replied quickly. "There's no way of fixing this. To fix what the hell is wrong you're going to have to be a witch, you're going to need some sort of resurrection, brain washing spells to solve it."

Kelly sighed, deeply. "This is real life Ali—"

"I know that!" Aliya stated with a little more passion than she realised. "I've accepted everything that has happened to me because, I know there's nothing I can do to bring people magically back from the dead, or make my family more bearable, nothing can help that."

"I'm not trying to change what has happened to you. It's out of our control." Kelly straighten in her seat, rolling her shoulders as she remained calm. "What we are working on is you. Your outlook. How you view yourself and how you deal with situations you are put in. How to cope with the what life has given you."

"I deal with things fine. I am fine." Aliya spoke firmly. "In the grand scheme of things, I am fine. I can handle it. I handle it every day and I think that accounts for something."

Aliya believed that miracles existed. So many unexplainable events happen in the world that it would only be a result of cynicism to not believe in miracles. How could you explain a plane crash with no casualties? Or someone being brought back to life. Miracles happen every day.

The way Aliya's phone began to vibrate abruptly on the coffee table at 7:56pm felt like a miracle from the universe.

"I'm going to get that." Aliya leaned forward, grabbing the phone and rushing out the door, hearing Kelly's disgruntled huff as the door clicked shut. "Hello?"

"Hello there, is this Aliya Levine?" A voice she did not recognise spoke through the phone speaker.

"It is. Who's asking?" Aliya pressed her back against the wall next to the door, holding the phone tight against her ear.

"Great. This is Harry Buchanan. I'm a lawyer at The Buchanan and Kahn Group—" For a split second Aliya believed she had committed a crime in her sleep. After that sleep walking incident at Summer Camp, anything was possible. "—I apologise this call is so late, we have been finalising the will of Andrea Burman."

Andrea Burman.

She froze instantaneously.

"There were a few things that were bought up before we could execute it. Do you have a time you are free to come into the office?"

"Oh—" She opened her mouth to try and force words out but, her throat completely dried up and her thoughts were muddled and unravelling too fast for her to makes sense of them. "I'm working all week— I— Andy's will? If you don't mind me asking, why am I being contacted?"

A piece of paper was ruffling in the background of the call. "Ms. Burman has no living relatives and you are listed as her emergency contact. She's left everything to you." Harry spoke casually as if he didn't just tell her that she just inherited all of a persons belongings.

Aliya's breath caught in her throat. "What?"

"Her estate, her finances, her possessions. She's left them to you." Again, Harry was really nailing the causal announcements of fortune. Aliya guessed it was his job to call about these things, he's has a lifetime of practice already. "She didn't say anything?"

"No." Aliya replied back, pacing back and forth from one wall to another unconsciously.

"I know this is a lot to process." He said with convincing sensitivity. "Give it a few days and call us back, we can sort everything out for you."

"Okay. Okay." That was something Aliya could do, in a few days she just hoped she could string a sentence together about this new information. "Thank you."

"I'll speak to you soon Dr. Levine. Have a nice evening."

"You too." She managed before the call disconnected.

⠀
⠀
⠀
━━━━━━━
⠀
⠀
⠀
VERY MUCH LOST
seattle grace mercy west
( three years ago, intern year )
⠀

Aliya Levine was freaking out. Maybe freaking out was a slight exaggeration, but seeing as she was three hours into her first ever shift at Seattle Grace Hospital, freaked out was an understatement.

She felt nauseous, thrilled and confident all at the same time and seeing she was jacked up on a gallon of coffee, she would be forever known as the brunette who shotted double espresso like they were jäger bombs.

The interns in her class were nice enough, all with varying degrees of friendliness. Though, there wasn't much time to make friends when she was so desperately trying to find the CT room.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no." She muttered under her breath as she fast walked through the hallway that looked exactly the same as the last two she walked through. She was used to hospitals, most halls looked the same, but she had never been in this particular hospital before.

"Hey, honey." A calm and warming voice coming from the nurses station on the third floor stopped her.

"Oh, hi!" Aliya stopped, nearly dropping the charts that were bundled in her arms all over the floor.

The woman staring at her had big, round glasses propped on top of her nose, seemingly widening her soft eyes.

She was a little older than the other nurses, there was no denying that. Therefore it implied that she had been nursing for years, you could tell by the soft wrinkles that covered the creases in her face in the most outstandingly beautiful way.

Her wavy brown hair was always bundled on top of her head, soft curls framing her face. "I'm Andy, you must be new! Are you lost?"

"Oh, yes! I've been running around for so long I don't think I could find where I started." Aliya smiled, her anxiety quickly calming.

Andy chuckled softly, patting Aliya's shoulder lovingly. "Where are you going?"

"The CT room?"

"Oh! You're not too far, just continue down that corridor then make a right then a left! You can't miss it." Andy pointed down the blue tiled hallway.

Aliya sighed in relief at the fact she was no longer running around in circles. "Thank you so much, you're a lifesaver."

"No worries! Good luck." Andy turned away, heading back to the desk she was working at.

Aliya watched as she tucked her hair behind her ear, carefully handling the pile of papers she was slotting back into charts. "I'm Aliya by the way. It was nice meeting you."

Andy adjusted her glasses on her nose, looking back up at Aliya.

Back then, Aliya had long, dark hair that fell halfway down her back. In a few months, she would accept defeat that her hair was too long to tuck under a scrub cap, even if it was braided back. She also wore glasses, until she decided to actually take her mother's advice and wear contacts.

"It was nice meeting you too, Aliya."

⠀⠀
⠀
⠀
━━━━━━━
⠀
⠀

"You want to analyse something?" Aliya questioned as she pushed open the door, beelining straight to the armchair, dropping her phone on the coffee table with meaning.

Kelly massaged her temples, not even giving Aliya a single glance.  "Aliya, this is not what—"

"Well, do you know Andy?" She flopped down into the chair balancing her head in her hands, pushing her hair back out of her face. "Well, she just left me all of her possessions. Analyse that."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"I wanted to let you know that I don't want to see anyone else." Jackson announced as the two were drifting off to sleep, after he snuck into her room late at night, or early in the morning, in this case, seeing as they were both on the night shift.

Aliya mumbled something incoherently in her sleep.

He watched carefully as her chest rose and fell underneath the covers, her mouth hung wide open as she began to drift away. "What was that?"

"Uh-huh." She muttered, burying her head further into the side of his chest.

Jackson raised his brow. "You've been seeing other people?"

Eyes shooting open, Aliya jolted up right, her hair tangled down her back and out of his hands as she turned to face him, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes. "No. I haven't. Before you, the only people I went on dates with were people Summer set me up with, and I'm never going to do that again, dating is torture when it's with the wrong person."

Jackson angled towards her, a smug smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Are you saying I'm the right person?"

"Don't get too cocky." She poked his arm as she yawned widely. "What I'm saying is that I feel the same way. I don't want anyone else either."

He smirked, in the annoying way he always did. "How do you feel about labels?"

Aliya grinned over at him, turning to her side so her head dipped in the gap under his arm.

"Hm—" She murmured as she wriggled around to get comfy. "I am a fan of labels. And puppies. And ice chips. And vintage purses, and soft pretzels. And throw pillows and quilted sheets—"

Jackson dropped his head back onto the pillow. "Oh God."

Aliya turned over and poked his ribs. "I can keep going if you'd like?"

"Oh, I know, you wouldn't even be able to stop." He leant forward, his hand tangled in her hair as he brought her lips closer to his.

⠀
⠀
⠀

( notes! )

just to clarify so i didn't have to write a cringey-ish scene, they are now boyfriend and girlfriend 😭😭 I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO PUT THAT IN THE ACTUAL CHAPTER WITHOUT CHUCKING MY PHONE ACROSS THE ROOM I'M SORRY

also i'm sorry this chapter is so late out, i wasn't actually gonna publish this one but it kinda sets up the next few chapters so i thought i'd just post it!! enjoy!!

( word count! — 6,300 )