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chapter thirty three ━ this is how we do it
season seven, episode seventeen

❝ i should really stop drinking,
it never does me any favours. ❞

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"You're living in a trailer now?" Aliya stood in the pouring rain, an umbrella over her head as she raised a judgemental brow at what her eyes were currently staring at.

It was not everyday you saw your best friend living in the hospital parking lot. In Derek's trailer. Taking up three whole parking spaces in the process.

Alex Karev was brushing his teeth on the front step in his pyjamas, watching the cars pull in. He had saw Aliya's red mini convertible, so he chose to sit out on the front step, waiting for her to inevitably see him.

Aliya knew something was up when she ran into Alex's room this morning, to see his bed actually made for once in his three years of living in that house, and also his toothbrush missing from the bathroom.

And his shoes were no longer dotted around the hall. Which was always suspicious.

"Yeah." Alex replied, with a mouthful of toothpaste dripping down his chin which made Aliya cringe at the sight.

The brunette woman blinked, training her eyes along the sides of Derek's, now very old and beat up, trailer — still needing some more explanations. She could still see the dent on the side from Mark's beer bottle. "And why is that?"

"Well, you know, we're in the race for chief resident." He shrugged and stopped brushing his teeth, spitting the toothpaste out disgustingly onto the concrete, holding the toothbrush in his hand. Aliya watched him as he did it, the lump of toothpaste on the ground distracting her completely out of the corner of her eye. "I get to the surgeries first. I'm here when the chief arrives—"

Bringing her thermal coffee cup to her lips, she kept her eyes fixed on him.

It wasn't necessarily a bad idea. The race for Chief resident was on, from the med student tests, to spots on clinical trials, they were so clearly being assessed by their superiors.

For the past two years, Aliya had been writing articles for an online medical journal about various different cases, the statistics on various different conditions etc. in her free time so her name could at least be considered for Chief resident. For example, in her second year she wrote an article on the microscopic worms in her patients brain.

It was hard not to think years into the future when someone was constantly doing it for you.

"It's a smart idea when you think about it." Alex cut in, inviting her inside the trailer with a wave of his hand. "Plus, when the Chief's trial funding comes in, I have an upper hand. Come have a look."

"I've already seen the inside of Derek's trailer, I don't know why—" Aliya began to mutter, though she still begrudgingly took a step inside, closing down her umbrella and shaking off the rain.

"So, what do you think." Alex stood proudly in the centre of the trailer, which physically made Aliya's skin crawl at the total disorganisation of it all.

The dining area was disguised by piles upon piles of photocopied charts, various medical books, and dirty laundry which continued all the way across the floor and to the bedroom, which gave the effect that the small space of the trailer was carpeted when it was in fact, plastic faux wood floors.

The sink was piled high with cups, even though Alex had only just moved in last night, and that led Aliya to have the rather amusing thought of imagining him trying to manoeuvre the large trailer into the parking lot in the early hours of the morning.

At least that mental image gave Aliya something to laugh about. Out of all the things Aliya trusted Alex to do, she would not trust him to drive her car.

"Alex," Aliya tried to speak calmly but, if she couldn't get out of this trailer in the next minute, she could quite possibly pass out from the stress. It didn't help the fact that she was already filled with anxiety twenty four hours of the day. "I can't see the floor."

It wasn't the point that Aliya didn't like camping, or living in trailers, she had done it a million times before, but only in trailers or tents that weren't disorganised chaos.

Aliya liked clutter, she enjoyed it even. From growing up in a house that was always put together to the extreme that if even one dust particle was out of place, her mother would throw a fit, Aliya liked to make the places she lived in homey.

But this, this was on a whole other level.

She hadn't even noticed the pair of green boxer briefs dangling from the open cabinet.

"It's great though, huh?" Alex grinned, opening his arms wide as he gestured around, causally banging his forearm on the open underwear cabinet. He rubbed at his elbow with a frown, but quickly regained his composure. "I mean, if I don't get chief resident I don't know— Aliya, why are you green?" He realised in that second his friend was starting to go the same colour as the green boxer briefs.

"This— I— What—" Aliya threw her bag down, abandoning her umbrella on the welcome mat as she began to manically pile all of Alex's presumably dirty clothes into her arms.

"Aliya! That's not— Oh—" He reacted to his sock being thrown at his head, accidentally of course. "What are you doing?" Alex protested, holding his stray sock in one hand, and following her around the trailer as she attempted to make some order in Alex's madness.

"I can't— ugh! Clean up your cereal!" Aliya thrusted the cereal milk into his hands with a look on her face that suggested she was on the verge of some sort of breakdown.

"I was saving this for—" He watched Aliya shove all of his clothes into an empty cupboard opposite the bed without folding them up, taking a sigh of relief as the room looked less messy than it did before, now the mess was quite literally out of sight, and out of her mind for the moment. And now that every single item of clothing that was strung up around the room like bunting was hidden away, she could finally take a breath.

"Never mind." Alex said in defeat, glad Aliya had finally stopped running around the place as he put the bowl in the sink, along with the coffee mug he had out, just for good measure. "What is up with you?"

"Nothing." Aliya replied quickly and defensively, crossing her arms tightly across her chest it ran the risk of cutting off circulation. "Nothing at all, why would anything be wrong? Nothing's wrong at all, everything's perfectly fine."

Her words sounded more like a jumble of letters because she was speaking inhumanly fast, and rocking back and forth on her feet didn't necessarily help matters.

"Okay, okay, sit down." He pushed her shoulders down until she hit the bed, dropping back so her head hit the cushions with a groan. "Now, can you tell me what's wrong?"

"Something's wrong?" As Aliya looked up at Alex, he realised her eyes were widening by the second, like some sort of lost deer. "Something's wrong?"

Alex frowned at the sight of her. "Are you on drugs?"

"What? No, are you crazy!?" Aliya replied in alarm, darting up so she was sat on the bed, rather than sprawled out across it. "Why would you think I'm on drugs? I'm not on drugs? It's all the mess, it's messing with my head."

The brunette scowled, her hand flying up to rest in her forehead as she let herself fall back onto the bedsheets for the second time, the mattress springing her back up a few times before staying still.

"Fine, I'll tidy up later—" Alex asked, calmly, though he was interrupted by Aliya's incoherent mumbling into her palm no one, not even him, could decipher.

"Can you just move back home?" She spoke through the mumbles. "You're the only person keeping me sane."

"I've only been gone twelve hours." Alex pointed out, and he could admit the trailer did look a little more tidier now his clothes were shoved in a cupboard. Even if they were all going to be crinkled.

With a sigh of defeat, Aliya moved a hand away from her face. "Twelve hours too long."

"Why don't you move out?" Alex asked, and the proposition made Aliya freeze, her eyes boring holes in the ceiling above. "It's been awkward for you, and well, everyone. You two are hardly ever in the same room together and it's well, tense."

"It's tense?"

"A bit, the first week you two broke up, Lexie raided the snack cupboard." He replied admittedly to her, though it didn't make Aliya feel better at all with the thought of how uncomfortable it made everyone else in the house. "Meredith's probably going to sell the house anyway, it might be nice to get your own place. Or we could get a place, just the two of us."

"That would be nice." Aliya smiled, though it didn't quite meet her eyes.

Because the thought of leaving Meredith's house, that held a multitude of memories, felt like something Aliya would never want to do.

Every scratch of the hardwood floor and wooden doors, every night they drank too much tequila, the exceptionally crappy cooking, the random times everyone would come home, the chaos in the mornings. A good proportion of Aliya's happiest memories happened in that house, and thinking about leaving made her feel ill because, that house was the only place she had ever felt at home.

Aliya let out a huff of laughter, brushing away the thought out of her mind, her hands resting across her stomach. "So— Hot OB? I've been harassing you for information all week and you've given me nothing—"

"I told you her name." Alex defended, lowering his brows at her.

"Lucy Fields." Aliya spoke in triumph, a smile spread out wide and giddily across her lips now she placed the whole house thing at the very back of her kind, next to the commitment issues and life long resentments. "But, I already knew that."

"It's nothing—" Shaking his head, he kept his eyes on the small ceiling of the trailer, knowing that if he looked in Aliya's direction, she would be able to read every expression her made like a book. "Nothing will happen. She'll probably go crazy on me or something."

Sighing, Aliya reached over, giving her friend a prod in the rib and frowning at him, like a displeased parent on report card day. "You have to stop thinking it's your fault, because it's not Alex. It really isn't, it was so out of your control and you did the best you could. You really did."

"Yeah." He muttered, thoughtfully. And though it was a little while ago, what happened with Rebecca still played on his mind. Along with his Mom. "I could've—"

"You did enough." Aliya said firmly, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tightly as the two led in Derek's trailer, sprawled out across his bed before their shift started. "Now, what does a girl have to do to get a cup of coffee around here?"

Alex pulled himself off the bed with a sigh, his feet padding across the plastic flooring as he reached for his instant coffee. "You have a problem, do you realise that?"

She grinned as he started to boil the water. "The best kind of problems are the ones you ignore."

With a displeased look on his face, Alex side eyed his friend, who he know realised was wearing a pair of fluffy odd socks with her sneakers, and that the bottom of her jeans were soaked and damp from the rain. "That's what crazy people say."

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"So, a lot of patients need time to come to terms with their diagnosis," Meredith explained to Richard Webber, who had just left his newly diagnosed wife in the examine room. "The same thing happened to my mother."

"We don't have time." Richard quickly replied back, his hands braced on his hips. "Derek, we need to get Adele in on your trial now."

Derek crossed his arms, glancing over at Aliya, knowing this will be a difficult conversation to have. It wasn't everyday you tell your Chief of Surgery his wife has Alzheimer's, let alone it may be a possibility she won't be able to get a spot on the trial. "We need her consent to even consider her."

Richard shook his head, defiantly. "I'll take care of that, don't worry."

"There's a hundred things to consider," Aliya cut in, sensing both Meredith and Derek's discomfort with the whole situation. "There's a possibility she may not fit the criteria, and there's an extensive waiting list of patients."

"The trail is full, Richard." Derek carried on for her, knowing the hours him and the Levine girl looked over everything, seeing if there was any possibility they could get Adele in on the trail. It was slim to none. "Even the waiting list is full."

The Chief sighed deeply, still processing the diagnosis himself. "I know all of that. I also know that you'll do whatever you need to do to help my wife."

With that, he turned away from the three, walking away and leaving them even more conflicted.

Letting Adele have a spot on the trail would jeopardise the whole experiment. It would technically mean they tampered with it, picking and choosing people to have on the trial, whether it's friends or not. It may be barred, they could be blacklisted by the FDA — and Derek and Aliya spent too much time on the trial to have it shut down.

It wasn't an option.

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"Sonya!" Derek regained a cheery composure which contrasted with the internal conflict, smiling as he entered the next clinical trial patients room. "You ready for the big day?"

"You bet!" Sonya replied, just as joyful as Derek who looked as if he just saw twenty golden retriever puppies. The lady sat up in her bed, smoothing down her silk robe. "Try to shave as little of my head as possible."

"We'll try our best, Sonya." Aliya smiled, despite this morning, she was also happy to be back in neuro after a brief day in cardio.

"It's hard enough dating with Alzheimer's," Sonya pointed out with pursed lips. "I can't be bald too."

"I promise." Derek spoke sincerely, turning to the man stood next to Sonya's bedside. "You must be Tarik, congratulations on the marathon by the way."

He reached out to shake Sonya's son's hand.

"You didn't." Tarik turned to his mother.

"They're not like other doctors here." His mother patted his hand, lovingly, gesturing to the two doctors in the room. "They're actually interested in their patients."

Derek smiled at her comments. "I heard you just moved back from London?"

"I came as soon as you accepted us into the trial." Tarik explained, squeezing his mother's hand. "I can't thank you enough."

"I'm glad you're here, thank you."

He didn't have the McDreamy name for nothing, that's for sure.

"I'm going to let Dr. Levine get on with her work, and I'll see you in a little bit." With a quick nod of his head, Derek left the room, and Aliya gathered her clipboard and pen, making her way to Sonya's bedside.

"Okay," Aliya smiled, and she didn't know why she was even looking at her clipboard, she knew every question off by heart at this point. "I'm going to say three words to you, and then I'll ask you to repeat them back to me later, okay?"

"Sounds good." Sonya nodded, listening carefully.

"Truck, cabin and spoon." Aliya spoke clearly.

"Truck, cabin, spoon." Sonya repeated with unwavering concentration.

"Perfect." Aliya gave a nod of encouragement before moving to the next question. "Ok, what did you do for Thanksgiving last year?"

"Oh!" Sonya clapped her hands together. "I was in London, visiting Tarik." She answered confidently, and Aliya glanced quickly up at the man in question, just in case.

The son shook his head.

"What? Why, is that wrong?"

Tarik looked at his shoes, bouncing on the heels of his feet. "Last year you were at the Simmons', remember?"

"No, I was with you and Gavin in London." Sonya narrowed her eyes, the cogs turning in her mind. "I have that picture outside the palace." She recalled.

"That was three years ago, Mom, before we broke up." Tarik reminded.

Sonya lowered her brows. "You really should call him."

"He broke up with me, we're not getting back together." Tarik told his mother, though she didn't look very impressed at the whole prospect of her son breaking up with his boyfriend. "Sorry, out of all the things she can't remember, she still remembers the ex."

Aliya offered him a smile, turning back to Sonya in an effort to move on from all the confusion. "The next one is can you start at one hundred and count backwards by seven."

Sonya nodded in understanding, beginning to count backwards.

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Aliya didn't exactly know why she was randomly being paged to the emergency room in the late morning, seeing as her whole day was set to be filled with clinical trial patients and admin.

But, as one of the ER nurses pointed her to one of the beds, her senses picked up on the incredibly familiar voices chatting back and forth to each other, transporting her back in time to her childhood, and the rare pleasant moments that occurred.

"Now, what are you two doing here?" Pulling back the curtain, she was met with the familiar faces of Trent and Henry, laughing at something that Aliya didn't have the joy of knowing.

"You could at least be happier to see us." Her brother frowned, pulling his sister into a hug.

She hugged him back reluctantly as he swayed her from side to side. "I am always happy to see you two, just not in the emergency room." Pushing Trent back by the shoulders, she turned towards Henry, who looked close to pale. "What's wrong?"

"We went for a jog—"

Aliya whipped her head back to her brother, who had offered what looked like the most insane explanation, judging by Aliya's furious expression displayed clearly on her features. "A jog? Are you out of your mind!"

Trent crossed his arms. "It's not like we mugged people whilst doing it."

"I was having a bit of chest pain so—"

"You decided to go for a jog!" Aliya scoffed, drawing out her stethoscope to listen to his heartbeat. "Henry! You know better than that, you need to be resting and taking it easy. Do you even know what those two words mean?"

"Don't be hypocritical, Aliya." Henry spoke breathy as Aliya listened to his breathing sounds in between his words. "When you broke your leg you neither rested nor took it easy."

"I was a hyperactive six year old." She took off her stethoscope, placing it around her neck.

Trent nodded his head in agreement, before returning back to the matter at hand — how the two of them cannot be trusted together. "The chest pains got worse, and he fainted, so I brought him here, and I made them page you, I didn't want a random—"

Henry choked on his own breath. "I don't f—"

His head lulled back into the pillow as he slipped away, unconscious.

"Henry!" Aliya brought her fingers to his neck, checking desperately for a pulse which she couldn't find for the life of her. "I need a crash cart here stat!"

"What's going on? Aliya? Talk to me!" Trent pleaded, but as the Nurses came with the crash cart and monitor, Aliya's only focus was on Henry, and how Trent would kill her if she let him die.

And Teddy would probably to.

It would be a team effort.

Time paused, and Aliya narrowed her eyes at the monitor, pulling away from the chest compressions to reach for the paddles, giving the nurses space to take off Henry's shirt. "He's in V-Fib, can we charge the paddles?" Aliya called out as she held the paddles in her hands, placing them on Henry's chest.

"Ok, clear."

Henry gasped awake, his eyes flickering open as they readjusted to the light shining heavily above him, and Aliya was glad it only took one shock to bring him back. She didn't know how she could've dealt with this if it went on any longer.

"Welcome back, Henry." Letting out a sigh of relief, Aliya placed the paddles back down, tucking her stray strands of hair behind her ears.

"Crap, you scared me there for a second." Trent breathed, patting Henry on the shoulder. "How did it feel?"

Henry raised a brow at his friend's genuine question, guessing real estate agents don't have much knowledge on the whole resuscitation process.

"What? Dying and being brought back to life?" He murmured in response, and Aliya gave him a smile, reaching for his hand as she took a breath. "Pretty damn awful."

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"You had chest pains so you decided to go for a jog?" Teddy lectured, angrily pulling her stethoscope from her pocket, even though Aliya had already listened to his heartbeat over twenty times.

"Exactly what I said." Aliya pursed her lips at the man who was practically her brother at this point.

"Ow!" Henry protested from where Aliya was clearing up the wound on his shoulder from where he fainted onto the sidewalk.

"Sorry!" Aliya strained a smile, checking his pain killer medication.

As if reading her mind, Teddy turned to her. "How much morphine did you give him?" Teddy inquired, her eyes narrowed and Aliya would almost say that Teddy cared for the man on the bed, even though it was only a marriage of convenience, so they both said. But Aliya wasn't buying it at all.

"I gave him ten." Aliya answered, reaching to give him more of the morphine.

"He shouldn't be in this much pain." Teddy acknowledged with a sigh, looking worried. "Give him more."

"On it."

"So what is this, a heart attack?" Henry questioned, his chest rising and falling with now steady breaths. "'Cause it sure feels like one."

"I don't know." Teddy replied, watching as Aliya upped his morphine. "We're gonna have to run some tests to find out."

There was a few moments of unspoken silence passed between the four bodies in the room, but that quickly disappeared when the two women remembered how idiotic the two men were.

"A jog!" Teddy snapped at Henry, before her anger directed towards the other Levine. "You let him jog!"

It was Trent's turn to be yelled at.

"It was his suggestion! He said it was fine!" Trent pointed an accusatory finger at Henry. "You said it was fine!"

"Hey," Henry shrugged, lulling his head on the pillow so he was watching Teddy. "It's not like I went out for a cheeseburger."

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There were many times that Aliya could note when the universe was being a pain in her ass. Or playing a sick and twisted sort of practical joke on her. She could probably write a memoir on the many reasons why, if she lost all sense of self control, she would want to throw a table at a wall.

For starters, the whole family thing, which didn't really require another long explanation as to why her parents were the antagonists in Aliya's entire life story.

Another example was how her best friend died when she was sixteen in a car crash caused by a drunk driver.

The comedy show that was Aliya's love life was also another one to add to the list, from how her fiancé called off their engagement on Valentine's day, without even a trace of an explanation, which is every girls dream, to being cheated on by another.

There can be no forgetting to mention how the closest thing she had to a decent mother-like figure was shot and bled out in her arms during a hospital shooting. Which led to a gun being pointed at her head.

Two of her friends got cancer, and both of them kept it a secret from her. Another one died because he decided to get himself run over by a bus.

Those were the great tragedies to date in Aliya's life, but something else shocked her entirely, maybe even to that level of extreme.

"Did I just hear the word glitter pens come out of your mouth?" Aliya gawked at the changed man before her, who happened to be Mark Sloan, organising a full ass baby shower for Callie.

"Yes, you heard correct." Arizona responded, and she caught Aliya's eye, mouthing send help in desperation for the brunette to get her out of this mess.

"You should've heard him say scrap booking station." Cristina grimaced in disgust.

"Right—" Aliya looked slightly concerned, but then turned to her fellow residents as she remembered the matter at hand, a situation more severe than the glitter pens. "I've been looking for you two."

Meredith set down the table the two of them were carrying. "We have pagers, you do realise that?"

"Yes, but this was urgent." Aliya explained, waving the comment off and turning to Cristina. Though, Aliya did realise paging them would be just as fast, and save her from watching Mark wave around glitter pens and streamers. "Henry coded this morning and we need to take him up for an MRI, Teddy wanted me to come and get you to work on the case with me."

"He coded?" Cristina replied back in surprise.

"He went on a jog." Aliya explained, rolling her eyes at the stupidity.

Cristina seemed to be having the same reaction as both Teddy and Aliya did. "Is he insane?"

"My idiot brother was involved too." Aliya muttered. "And, Mer, could you take Sonya today? Trent is freaking out and I want to make sure—"

Meredith nodded. "Yes, of course."

"Great!" Aliya clapped her hands, mentally checking off that thing on her mental to do list. Everything was peaceful, until she saw Mark holding up streamers. "I need to get away from Mark, he's creeping me out."

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After taking Henry to the MRI, it revealed that he had a mass near his heart that needed to be operated on. And seeing as Teddy was technically his wife, Cristina and Aliya were going to operate on him instead.

It was also revealed in Henry's incredibly drugged up state that there is a reason why Teddy's dates were going so bad, and that's because she wasn't going on them with him. And that he could stare into her eyes all day. Which, in the realm of love confessions, was quite adorable if you removed the fact he was in an MRI machine jacked up on pain killers.

The Chief however wasn't too impressed with this love confession, which was blatantly mad clear by his expression and the fact Cristina and Aliya had to hide behind their hands for the rest of the scan, mouthing words at each other neither one of them could even understand.

It was just the pure shock of it all.

"I say he's totally gay." Lexie said as she concentrated on her onesie decorating, where she was drawing a slice of pie.

"Well, if he were gay, why would he ask April out?" Meredith replied flatly, squeezing the tube of blue paint erratically onto the onesie as if it were a condiment.

Lexie scoffed, reaching for another colour. "No straight guy waits a whole month before making a move."

"Maybe he has herpes." Cristina offered, angling her head to look at her masterpiece — the anatomy of a heart.

Aliya glanced up from where she was drawing a picture of a bright yellow duck in a field of pastel coloured flowers. "Or a micro penis."

"That wouldn't stop the guy either." Alex grumbled, reaching for a onesie and a blue fabric pen.

Chuckling softly to herself, Aliya gave her friend a side eye. "Okay, syph-boy."

Alex snapped his head back up to her, transported to intern year within a millisecond.

Though, intern year was a tornado of sexual escapades, sleep deprivation and mental breakdowns.

"I vote gay," Alex ignored the mention of the syphilis incident of '07. "I just wish he was into me. Then I could be in all his cool surgeries, too."

"He just isn't taking the hint that I have a boyfriend!" April groaned, reaching for the bright purple paint with a trouble sigh. "I actually have one for once and Stark is gonna screw it all up."

"Just make sure he gets the hint." Aliya said, cautiously, giving Meredith her purple and reaching for a yellow.

"We just have a lot to talk about, ok? He's really interesting once you get to know him." April defended, knowing too well every single resident hate him — it wasn't old news, he was an ass. "And he doesn't have herpes or a micro penis."

"How do you know, though?" With a raised brow, Aliya turned to April, because there was really knowing.

The redhead looked as if this whole conversation was going to scar her for life.

"Which is why she's taking her pants off for him tonight." Alex announced to the group with a laugh

"What?" The four — Cristina, Lexie, Meredith and Aliya — spoke in unison, glancing across to where April was sitting in a synchronised motion.

"You're kidding!" Aliya dropped her paint onto the table, though the onesie was unharmed. "Please tell me you're kidding!"

"She's going to his place." Alex smirked, and April's cheeks flushed the same pink and the paint in her hand. "From Here to Eternity's playing on cable."

"Oh, yeah," Lexie laughed. "Pants are definitely coming off."

"Nobody's pants are coming off!" April hissed, her voice in a low whisper. "I have a boyfriend! I'm happy!"

"Good," Aliya shot her brother's girlfriend a look. "'Cause if you hurt him, Kepner, I know how to hide a body."

April's cheeks paled. "How?"

The brunette shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear and turning her attention back to her onesie decorating. Now that she forgot about the fact that Mark set this up, she was actually enjoying it. "True crime."

"A movie at his place though, April?" Meredith chimed in, reaching for the blue yet again. "That's the definition of pants coming off."

April frowned, dropping back into the chair like a child. "I didn't said yes."

"Virgin's a goner!" Alex hollered in triumph with a clap of his hands.

"And for an older man too," Lexie remarked, shaking her paint pen. "That's impressive."

"I am not taking my pants off for Stark!" April announced passionately to the entire baby shower.

At the sight of everyone turning to look in April's direction, dipping her head down and pouring her attention into her painting.

"Oh my God, that is so ugly." Cristina pointed at Meredith's onesie.

Aliya peered over too, catching a glimpse of the massive blob of colour Meredith had put on the onesie. "It looks like a kindergarten art project."

It was Lexie's turn to look, and she gasped. "Are you still blind?"

"I like it," Meredith shrugged off their criticism. "It's abstract."

"Check it out," Alex held up his onesie proudly, showing how he put that blue fabric pen into good use. "Scrubs."

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"Chief." Derek reacted to Richard knocking on the door frame of the office that was dedicated for the clinical trial.

"I need a favour." Richard stepped into the room, his hands in his jacket pockets. "I need an emergency waver from the FDA, could you call your guy that helped you for your trial and see if he can push my request through?"

"I can see what I can do," Derek replied, rubbing at his temples from the headache the clinical trial was giving them both, it was worth it, though. "But you're the chief of surgery. I'm not sure how much more pull I'm gonna have. Aliya's your best bet, she sweet talked that man into cutting the waiting time in half."

Richard moved his attention towards Aliya, a brow raised. "You did?"

"I knew his daughter back in LA." Aliya explained, trying their best to stifle a yawn. "No inappropriate sweet talking involved." She added in her defence, glaring at Derek who made her seem like it was some sort of inappropriate exchange.

"There's always ways to work the system." Richard chuckled, and Aliya could tell exactly where this conversation was going. "You know that."

"I can't put Adele on my trial, Richard." Derek replied with a sigh. "I've looked at it all day."

"Well," Richard shuffled on the spot. "Go over it again."

"You're not hearing me." Derek grew even more irritated than he already was. "I love Adele, but I can't pull a patient off the waiting list. It could compromise the whole trial. It could get us blacklisted by the FDA.

Saying Richard was a little frustrated with his head of neuro was an understatement, and out of the corner of Aliya's eye she saw Bailey appear behind the chief with a sort of look a person would make when they've walked into something they are deliberating whether to escape. Aliya, personally, would choose to escape.

"Adele has no future without this!"

"Hi, Dr. Bailey." Aliya cleared her throat, pointedly, making her presence known.

"Chief?" Bailey greeted. "It's Clara Green, you need to come now."

"Can you make that call, Levine?"

Aliya nodded her head. "Of course, Chief."

"What are we going to do?" Aliya asked Derek as the Chief and Bailey left the room, leaving the two alone to fall back into their internal conflict. This whole situation was the reason why they hadn't slept a single wink. "We can't put her on without risking the validity of the trial."

Derek sighed, deeply. "It's impossible."

"It's a lose-lose situation."

"The worst kind." Derek muttered, grimly, tapping his fingertips on the keyboard, though Aliya didn't know what he actually needed to type.

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After that, the day seemed to unravel after every event, like a ball of yarn falling from a table.

After Aliya made the phone call for the emergency waver, which she managed to get granted, she went up with Cristina to operate on Henry, and he sailed through, turning out just fine despite the distraction of Teddy in the room with the two. But, she found her and Cristina do work well in a team, mainly because they can both trust what the other person is doing.

Sonya dropped out of the trial so her son could be happy, which meant a spot opened up on the trail.

Which led to Aliya and Meredith running the test on Adele, where she scored one point away. One point between her and getting the help she needs.

This day had been painstakingly long.

"She came up to me at the baby shower." Alex announced in a hushed tone into Aliya's ear.

Seeing as they were sat at the front desk, typing away at their respective computers, he didn't want to announce that piece of valuable information to the entire reception. That would be insane.

"Really?" Aliya replied with a chuckle, looking away from her screen briefly, where she was logging even more results from the clinical trial.

"Yeah." Alex nodded, aggressively typing away at the keyboard like he always did, even if he was actually in a good mood.

Aliya waited in anticipation for him to elaborate, she had even stopped the typing she desperately needed to do for a moment so she could hear his full story but, he said nothing. She could've heard a pin drop in the silence.

"And?" Raising a brow, Aliya tried to hold back the laughter in her voice, but that would be impossible for her as Alex proved again how ridiculous he can usually sound, but Aliya couldn't fault him for that. They were just as bad as each other. "Is that it?"

Shaking his head at Aliya's presumption, he leaned back in closer. "She said she liked the pigs in blankets."

"Alex, I think she wants to marry you." Aliya enthused, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Shut up." Alex scowled, his voice gruff as he reverted back to his previous position — hunched over in his seat, only this time he was blocking whatever Aliya was saying out of his mind.

"Alex, I'm surprised you're not in love with everyone at this rate if all they have to say is what kind of food they like!" Aliya snorted letting her head fall into her hands, her shoulders shaking at his stupidity that she was incapable of hating.

"Is it just pigs and blankets? Because you love waffles, what if that woman over there—" Aliya pointed over to one of the few people in the waiting room, clad in a red beret. "Said she loved waffles, huh? Would that mean elopement? City hall? Honeymoon in Hawaii, dream house, couple kids?"

Even Alex could tell he was going slightly insane with the whole pigs in blankets situation. "You're annoying." He frowned, not wanting to admit it to her just yet.

"Who's annoying?" April joined them with a bang of her charts onto the desk, startling the pair. They were easily spooked, it wasn't her fault. "Sorry!"

"Aliya." Alex pointed at the brunette the same time she pointed at him and muttered his name.

"Okay—" April brushed over the subject with a wide smile, handing Aliya a chart. "Can you sign this one for me, it was one of your patients in peds last week."

"Aliya!" Alex clapped his hands, tugging on Aliya's sleeve.

"Ow— Alex there's a person in here!" She protested, attempting to swat him away with her free hand.

"No— look!"

Aliya rolled her eyes, pushing her glasses further up on her nose as she glanced up to where Alex was pointing over to, instantly gasping as she caught sight of the commotion.

"Oh, for the love of God!" The brunette darted up from her seat because, she hadn't even realised her own brother walking straight up to Dr. Stark, and punching him right in the nose.

"Trent!" April yelled from the sidelines, stepping back as Alex and Aliya dashed behind her — Alex holding back Stark, which wasn't very hard, and Aliya caught ahold of Trent's arm, just as he was going in for another punch.

However, she only just realised that Jackson was by her side, holding back Trent's other arm as he kept lunging forward.

"Don't you ever go near her again!" Trent argued back at Stark, whose bottom lip was bleeding, along with his rather bruised nose.

It's not like he didn't deserve it.

"Get off of me, Karev!" Stark struggled his hands away from Alex, pushing him away (though Alex barely moved).

In a blind fury, Aliya faced her unscathed brother, reaching up and slapping him lightly around the ear. "Have you gone mad?!"

"Ow!" Trent clutched his ear. "What was that for?"

"What was that—" Aliya scoffed, throwing her hands down in frustration. "What the hell were you thinking!" Her voice strained in agitation as Trent shrugged off his actions.

"He deserved it." He spoke causally, and Jackson snorted from behind him, but then caught sight of Aliya's less than impressed expression.

"Not funny. Definitely not funny." He shook his head as he swayed on his heels, desperately trying not to crack.

"I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, because he did, he most definitely did, he's a jackass." Aliya sighed, her arms crossed like a middle school teacher. "I'm just saying did you really have to do it in the middle of the goddamn hospital!"

"I suppose you have a point—" Though Trent's attention was now elsewhere as he caught wind of a pretty terrified looking April. He moved towards her, placing one hand on her elbow, and the other on her cheek. "April, are you okay? I'm so—"

She took a sigh, nodding her head quickly. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Giving him a reassuring smile, she leant up to him, kissing him softly before leading him off to find ice for his pretty bruised hand.

Aliya took her glasses off of her face, rubbing a hand across her eyes as if that would help her process what had just happened rapidly in front of her.

It usually took her a few hours to process things.

Placing them back on, Jackson reappeared in her vision, and his eyes were straight on her now that she could actually see him in front of her. "Thank you, by the way."

Jackson gave a nod of his head. "Anytime."

With a small smile of nostalgia that Aliya couldn't suppress, she let out a small sleep deprived laugh. "You're not going to say it?"

The corner of Jackson's mouth twitched, only slightly. "Say what?"

"'Not anytime because helping you is exhausting'?" Aliya repeated something she heard Jackson say in the first month they knew each other, which may not have been very accurate seeing as it was so long ago.

The man with the green eyes frowned, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't think I could ever say that to you."

"You did—"

"That was a whole year ago." He quickly interjected, not wanting Aliya to ever remember he said that to her. "A lot has change in year but, trust me, Levine, you'll always—"

"Oh!" Trent stopped from the middle of the corridor, interrupting whatever Jackson had to say, his hand causally slumped over April's shoulder. "Avery! I got tickets to the football game, next weekend, you in?"

Jackson's face lit up like the Christmas Trees in Times Square, it even out shone the sky on New Year's eve. "Always!"

"Wait—" Aliya raised a brow, her head moving back and forth between her brother and her ex boyfriend, wondering how they could be possibly going to a football game together. "What— how—"

"You introduced us at Joe's a few months ago." Jackson explained, though that didn't make Aliya any less confused.

"I don't remember—"

"I thought you wouldn't." Jackson tilted his head, a carefully casual smile on his lips as he buried his hands into his pockets, continuing to sway from side to side, blurring in Aliya's eye line as she was already tired, making her eyes all fuzzy again. "You had about five tequilas in about two minutes so I doubt you would."

"Oh." Aliya scratched her jaw, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she racked her head around all the memories ricocheting in her brain to try and find that particular one. But she failed. "I should really stop drinking. It never does me any favours."

"The time you fell asleep—"

"Jackson! No!" She rapidly interjected with a quick gesture of her hands to get the man to stop talking. "You swore you wouldn't speak of that again, you promised! You swore on your Michael Jackson Limited Edition Vinyl!"

"We swore on the vinyl?" He raised his brow, shaking his head in disbelief, he would never swear on his vinyls.

Jackson Avery would only swear one thing on his vinyls.

And it may have a little something to do with the frantic woman opposite him trying to convince him it was the vinyls. But, he wasn't really paying too much attention to what she was saying. He just took notice of the way her eyes widened and twitched as she spoke, the way her nostrils flared and how her dimples creased on her cheeks.

However, the only way he would get the opportunity to swear on the vinyls was if that stubborn, enthusiastic, crazy woman said she loved him first.

He had done enough, he didn't want to force her to love him because, that's not how it worked. It never worked that way. You couldn't make someone love you so, Jackson made his peace with it, and he could wait for her until he couldn't any more.

"I thought it was the Mets sweatshirt?" He interrupted her mid verbal rampage.

Her nose scrunched up, and her cheeks were flushed a shade of pink from all of the ranting. "That was for the other thing."

Jackson quirked a brow. "What other thing?"

"You know." She shrugged, hoping he would understand in some form of telepathy.

Jackson clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "I don't think I do."

He knew exactly what time she was referring to, he just enjoyed watching her squirm in frustration, it was quite adorable.

"You know!" Her frustration was rising and her only outlet was rapid arm gestures.

"Aliya," The Avery man said, calmly though he tried his best not to smirk at her. After everything, he did still find her quite amusing. "Pointing at me and saying 'you know!' won't magically make me know."

The brunette in question huffed. "Well, I can't tell you because that would be a breach of contract."

"Do I need an attorney?" Jackson asked sarcastically.

"It would be a good idea."

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"I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the look on the Chief's face when Henry confessed his love for Teddy maxed out on morphine." Aliya, now with a tequila in hand as her previous statement of stopping drinking was redacted in her mind. 

Cristina threw her head back in laughter, bringing her beer to her lips. "I want 'this hospital is a low budget reality show' on my gravestone, make that know, Levine. I'm trusting you."

Aliya grinned, swallowing her sip of tequila "Only if you put 'why is everyone screwing around in my damn hospital' on mine."

"Deal." The Yang woman held out her hand, and Aliya shook it.

At least they could count on each other for an adequate tombstone.

"Hey." Meredith crashed onto the stool next to the pair, setting her bag in the bar. "Could I grab a tequila, Joe. It's a tequila kind of day."

Cristina frowned, drawing away her beer. "I heard about Adele and the trial."

"Not the finest moment." Meredith replied.

"One point, huh?" Cristina shook her head. "That's sure to suck."

Aliya nodded in agreement, turning to Meredith who was staring into space, obvious her mind was in other places, not this bar. "What happened with Sonya, anyway?"

"Oh—" Mer cleared her throat, running a hand through her blonde hair. "Her son had doubts about moving to Seattle, he was still in love with his ex and I guess his mother wanted what's best for him."

Though, Aliya couldn't help but wonder whether Meredith had forced her hand, giving the push that family required to quit the trail, to free a space for Adele.

But, Aliya didn't even want to humour that possibility.

"Joe," Aliya finished the last sip of her drink. "Could you make that two tequilas?"

Cristina raised an enthusiastic hand. "Make that three."

"Why is your face like that?" Cristina reached up, poking Aliya's cheek in a way that made Aliya think this wasn't Cristina's second tequila.

"What's wrong with my face?" Aliya protested, rubbing her cheek in case there was anything on it.!

"You look like you're plotting a murder." Cristina accepted the tequila in front of her gratefully, taking a long sip.

Aliya rolled her shoulders, stretching and drinking her own tequila. "I'm just thinking about how I can make it look like an accident."

"Dark." Cristina grinned. "Can we make it Teddy? She's being a pain in my ass."

"I'll bring a shovel." Aliya said with enthusiasm.

"I'll bring the trash bags." Meredith chimed in.

"I'll bring the brownies."

The blonde and brunette snapped their heads towards Cristina, who had just suggested to bring brownies to the hypothetical murder of Teddy Altman.

"The brownies?" Meredith laughed at the suggestion.

"Just in case we get hungry — Joey, can I get some nuts!" Cristina shouted across the bar, and because Mer and Aliya were children, they broke down in laughter.

"All masterminds need their sustenance." Aliya announced, picking up a peanut and chucking it into Reese's mouth, whose presence wasn't acknowledged by anyone until now. "Good job!" Aliya smiled wide as Reese caught the tiny peanut.

"Aliya," Meredith spoke in concern, her eyes trained underneath the brunette's stool. "Why is your dog in the bar?"

"Shhhhh—" Aliya giggled now that the tequila had kicked in, a hand to her lips as she stroked Reese's fur with the other hand. "We can't tell Joe!"

"Aliya, you've snuck a huge ass labrador into Joe's! He's gonna know!" However, Meredith couldn't control her own laughter also, reaching down to stroke Reese.

"He was lonely so I took him for a walk and I happened to end up here—" She made it sound like a complete coincidence. "And besides, he's a good dog, look at him."

Aliya smiled affectionately at the labrador, who looked as if he was smiling up at the brunette as if she was his favourite person in the world.

⠀
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( notes! )

YAYAYAYA i changed all my gifs !!! and i actually made them myself this time :)

i also added an act one & two chapter and each one has a taylor song for that act !! because i couldn't help myself, i'm a swiftie first, human second

lots of love and i'll see you in the next chapter !! bring your popcorn because i love the next chapter with my whole heart (when i inevitably finish it off)

( word count! —  8,200 )