⠀

chapter thirty nine ━ free falling & she's gone
season eight, episode one & two

❝ i'm standing
my ground! ❞

⠀
⠀
⠀
It had been nearly a week since everyone had found out about Meredith sabotaging the clinical trial, and nearly a week since the very public argument Aliya had with her mother in the middle of the hospital foyer.

(Which already had managed its way into a news particular, headlined Famous Doctor, Molly Levine, Caught In A Heated Argument With Her Youngest Daughter, Aliya Levine — as you can tell, it was a very low budget paper, seeing as the headline wasn't very short and snappy.)

And, to top it all off, it just so happened to be the resident's first day of their fifth year.

"Aliya," Jackson squirmed in the bed, pursing his lips. "We really need to move out." He pointed out as the pair stared up at the ceiling of Aliya's bedroom, out of breath and covering themselves with the duvet.

The Levine woman blinked. "No—"

"Because," Jackson pushed himself up in the bed, moving to lean over her, so that he could at least look her in the eye. "I have a very long, extensive list of reasons as to why we should probably get our own place."

"—I'm standing my ground." The brunette said with a level of determination people would be jealous of, though the sound of a baby crying caused the woman to squint, painfully.

Jackson laughed, though it wasn't at the fact it was funny it was more of a laugh because he knew exactly what she was going to answer that question with. "You've said that fifteen times this week."

"And, I'm sticking to it." She informed him, resigning herself to a life of listening to a baby from a broken home cry her lungs out at six thirty in the morning. "We pay rent, it's our house as much as hers. She can't drive me out."

"Yes, but—"

"We're standing our ground."

Jackson didn't seem particularly impressed about that. "You know what you've also said fifteen times this week?"

Aliya shrugged her shoulders, running her fingertips up his arms. "What?"

"That you can't have sex when a baby is crying."

It wasn't her fault, she really couldn't have sex with him when Zola, Alex's replacement, was screaming in the other room where Meredith and Cristina were looking after her.

She loved the kid, she was the sweetest child on the planet, but God, she had a set of lungs on her.

That was another thing, Owen kicked Cristina out of their house, because she was having an abortion.

As if Aliya didn't need another reason to hate that man.

Therefore, the twisted sisters were playing house.

"Can you?" Aliya interrogated, pressing her head back against the cushions, watching him with narrowed hazel eyes.

"Er—" Jackson stopped himself, because they both knew the answer to that question. "Even more reason to get our own place." He murmured, leaning slowly down to her, kissing along her jaw.

And, for a moment, Aliya finally felt like she could do it, but then, she was drawn back into reality, rather than living in Jackson's Fantasy Land.

"The only way you're getting laid is in an on-call room." Aliya informed a rather disappointed Jackson, pushing him to one side like a curtain in the ER before sliding out of bed, tugging on her underwear, bra, shirt and pyjama bottoms.

The Avery man let out a very disgruntled groan as he flopped back down onto the mattress, and she disappeared out the door.

"And, she wonders why people call her McStubborn." Jackson muttered to himself, though, Aliya seemingly had heightened senses as she poked her head back through the doorway.

"I heard that you know." She said, her lips pressed tightly together.

"It wasn't a secret." The man in her bed retaliated, casually, watching her huff and turn on her heel, where he could hear sound of her footsteps walking down the hall and down the stairs.

It seemed it would take a hell of a lot of convincing for her to move house, that's for sure.

"Oh—" Aliya stopped short in the doorway, watching as three heads turned to her, her hair scruffy, and she was pretty sure there was a stain on her shirt. "I say this in the most loving way but, what the hell are you doing here?"

"You call that loving?" Trent said with a scoff from where he was sat on the stool, April and Henry either side of him.

"I still had a couple boxes to pick up." The Kepner woman explained, smiling giddily at her fiancée, seeing as she was nearly, officially moved into his home.

"Okay," The brunette meandered her way to the coffee, where they supposedly made a fresh pot with her coffee, she could smell it. "You used my coffee?"

"I thought you wouldn't mind." Trent defended, though he was more focused on looking at the magazines and, a huge ass scrapbook.

"You thought—" Aliya scoffed, filling up her mug with the coffee. "What's my one rule—"

Trent chuckled. "It's not don't steal my coffee."

"Don't steal my damn coffee!" The Levine woman burst out, because that really was her one rule, and it was betrayal. "Why do you have all this here anyway?"

"Oh!" April picked up her scrapbook, where the front was full of stickers and glitter with a title reading My Wedding. "It's my wedding scrapbook! Made it in senior year, isn't it great?"

Aliya had already been claimed as one of the bridesmaids by April, and by the looks of it, the red head wanted her to where bright pink tulle.

"Great." Aliya said through gritted teeth.

There was no way she was being caught dead in pink tulle.

"What?" April's face appeared to drop at Aliya's unconvincing act. "What's wrong?"

"I think it looks great." Henry informed the woman, whose panic levels were rising and the other woman (who he knew was completely done with life) was proving no help at all.

"Wow—" Aliya smiled behind her coffee mug, letting it burn her hands. "Sex with Teddy must be really good."

Another thing that had changed, was that one Henry Burton really loved his wife. And that his wife, loved him back even more.

This epiphany led to them not actually getting a divorce after all.  

And, Henry choking on his coffee.

"Do you need a napkin?" Aliya asked, sincerely, though Henry shooed her off with a wave of his hand.

"So," April continued as Henry mopped up the mess he had made all over the table. "The rough estimate should be about eighty people?"

"Um—" Trent made an incoherent nose. "Yes, Aliya— Can I talk to you in the hall?"

He caught the brunette's attention, who was now retrieving the sugar from the cupboard. "Sure."

Aliya nodded, following him into the hall.

"Aliya, are you coming to the breakfast? At the hospital? The one your soon-to-be sister-in-law organised?" April called before Aliya could make her escape.

"I'll be there!" Aliya called, before lowering her voice and saying: "Begrudgingly."

The siblings then left April with Henry, who had gotten himself into a debate over floral arrangements.

The Burton man's face was panicked, asking Aliya with his eyes to stay and help him, but it was too late.

She had to get away from floral arrangement talk.

"Are you okay? Getting cold feet—"

"No," Trent denied with the shake of his head, closing the kitchen door behind him, and guiding Aliya further down the hall, away from any potential eavesdroppers. "Never, no."

"Okay," Aliya trailed off, watching her brother carefully, because right now he looked as if he was either going to pass out, or tell her he ran over her dog — which would be weird seeing as Reese just padded past them.

"I've been thinking a lot about the guest list for the wedding." Trent began, pressing his hands together, as if he were nervous for what he was going to say.

"Are you having a shotgun wedding?" Aliya questioned, seeing as they had really started proper discussions about the event. "Do I need to start writing my speech now—"

"I don't want mom there."

That definitely took Aliya by surprise, and it was definitely something she didn't expect her brother to say to her — given that his relationship with their mother was sunshine and rainbows, compared to her relationship with their mother.

Aliya blinked. "Come again?"

"I don't want mom there," Trent repeated the fact of the matter, simply. "After what she did, after what she said to you—"

The Levine man paused, gnawing on the inside of his cheek as he looked away from his sister and began to focus his attention towards the picture frame hanging on the wall.

"I don't want her at my wedding." He finished, decisively, now crossing his arms and turning back to Aliya, but for some odd reason, he couldn't even meet his sister's eyes.

"You don't have to do that." Aliya said, softly, shaking her head, remaining calm at the mentioning of her mother. "You and mom have a better relationship than she and I ever will—"

"I don't want her there." He interrupted, forcefully, and it was the first time Aliya had noticed that Trent was angry, the kind of rage someone shook with, that turned their face a colour that was as if they had stood over a bonfire. "It's all my fault—"

Trent's voice broke as he dipped his head, tuning his back on Aliya, and taking a few steps away from her, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair, and along down his stubble across his jaw.

"I failed you—"

"What do you mean?" Aliya asked, confused as to where this had all come from.

"I shouldn't have told mom about April getting chief resident, or that you were dating some surgical child of nepotism," Formally known as Jackson Avery. "I should have known she would have been mad at you, I should have saw it coming, I didn't—"

"Hey," Aliya stopped him, lowering him down onto the step so he could at least catch his breath, because she wasn't convinced he had taken one in the last thirty seconds. "Take a second."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked her, watching as she took a seat next to him on the staircase, resting her arms on her legs. "Why didn't you tell me how bad it had got?"

"It's always been this bad," She spoke, because now, she really had made her peace with it. She had vowed to herself that she wouldn't let herself be hurt by the woman who brought her into this world again, and besides, the damage had already been done. "And, somehow admitting that to anyone at the time made it even more real. I didn't want it to be real."

"Aliya," Her brother's voice was soft spoken, a hint of deeply rooted regret for how oblivious her was to what was going on. "Why didn't you tell me all those years ago? You could've come to me for—"

"You were raising a child," Aliya pointed out, matter-of-factly. "And coping with your wife's death, you had a lot on your plate."

He shook his head, as if it wasn't a good enough reason for him to be left out of the lurch, to not know how much pain her sister had been put through, mentally. "I still could've helped you."

"No one could've. Not even you."

Aliya believed that fact to be true, because if she had a second go at life, she didn't even know if she would've told anyone. Her whole life, no one ever really knew what her mother had put her through.

Sure, they knew Molly was hard on her youngest daughter, how she worked her to the bone. But, everyone was too busy with their own lives.

And, maybe that's what made Trent ashamed. Because, if he had opened his eyes, even only by a tiny fraction, he would've been able to see what was happening right in front of him.

"And, as much as you want to hate mom," The brunette cleared her throat, reaching across for her brother's hand. "You don't have to hate her for me—"

Trent made a sound. "Aliya—"

He so desperately wanted to hate her, and a part of him did, for what she did to his sister, but the other part of him...

"Because, you'll only regret it if she doesn't come, and she probably would find a way to blame me for it anyway." Her tone was light-hearted, but even she knew her mother would find a way to on the blame in her, like she always did.

She didn't know what would be the worse option.

Her mother not coming to the wedding, Trent being miserable because despite everything, he still loved his mom, and then Molly blaming Aliya for not being invited.

Or, her mother coming to the wedding.

And, god knows what would happen then.

They hadn't even set a date yet and the whole household was already stressed.

Trent still seemed unconvinced, beginning to pick the skin around his fingernails. "I just, I can't help thinking that if I did more to help you, instead of being so damn blind—"

"Trent." His sister interrupted him, her voice so calm, but at the same time, the way he said her name held a certain edge that it almost took him by surprise. "With all due respect, I don't want to talk about Mom with you."

Trent twitched slightly, narrowing his blue eyes he inherited from their mother. "What do you mean?"

"Because," Aliya straightened her back, looking down at her hands, before facing her brother again. "As much as you properly see what's been going on all this time, what our relationship is like, you'll never get it—"

"I do get it—" He interjected, desperately trying to convince her he understood, that he knew exactly what she was going through. What she went through.

But, the thing was, he didn't even know the half of it, no one really did.

"No." Aliya pursed her lips as they curved upwards into a smile of sympathy, of how clueless he was if he believed what he had just tried to say to her. "You don't. You didn't live every day of your life in that house in fear of what Mom might do if you didn't get the perfect grade, or if you didn't sew that one suture right. You don't know fear like that."

Her brother's face dropped, paling three shades lighter than usual. "Aliya—"

"So," She spoke with a newfound calm, that could only be described as derived from the total and utter loss of the will to exist. "When I tell you that I'm not mad at you, I'm not."

Her words were simple enough, but even Trent knew there was more coming.

"I'm not mad at you for not stepping in when mom was— You know, Mom. I'm disappointed, okay?" She spoke, admittedly, after years of bottling up that emotion for the sake of not seeming selfish, but nowadays, she really didn't care anymore. "I'm mad at the relationship you had with her. And, to be honest, I'm so done with everything, that I really couldn't care less about your guilt."

"Oh." Was all that Trent had managed to say, before the creak of the upper step sounded, and the siblings looked up to Jackson, walking down the staircase, yawning into his palm. "Hey, Jackson."

"What are you doing here?" The Avery man asked, not even bothering with a hello, that kind of alarmed his girlfriend.

Trent cleared his throat, obviously not used to the unpleasantries and hostile hospitality Jackson was currently providing him with.

"April just had to pick up the last of her boxes," Aliya answered for him, because the way Jackson was looking at him, it was best for them not to do much talking. "And, now she's using the kitchen as her zone for wedding planning."

"I see." Jackson said, though not regarding the brunette as he gave Trent one final, judgemental glare before sauntering off into the kitchen.

"Your boyfriend is mad at me." Trent commented, stating the very obvious.

"No, he isn't." Aliya denied, watching Jackson disappear, though she wasn't even believing herself entirely.

"Trust me," Her brother sighed, rolling his shoulders out. "He looks as if he wants to gut punch me."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Good morning, and, welcome to your final year of residency."

Instead of in the comfort of her own home (or Joe's bar, both provided adequate levels of comfort), Aliya was now in the cafeteria where she had been unwillingly dragged along to the breakfast April had set up for the first day of their fifth and final year of surgical residency.

Hence why, the red head was now starting her speech, stood on some sort of step stool, holding a clipboard.

"Um—" She began to falter as she noticed nobody was really listening to her. "This breakfast is the one time when all the fifth years and the attendings will be in the same room, so use your time wisely, residents."

From across the room, Meredith had been trying to catch Aliya's eye, seeing as she avoided her like the plague, which was hard because they did share a house together.

The only words Aliya spoke to Meredith was through Zola, where Aliya would say things like, your mommy really does like apologising doesn't she!

Now, that the brunette had caught the dirty blonde staring at her, Cristina by her side, she narrowed her eyes, because she was in no position to look away. She had nothing to be ashamed of.

"Find a mentor, ask questions—"

"This sucks, for real." Aliya muttered, rather pessimistically.

"It's going to be fine." Jackson told her, his arm hooked around her as the pair found a spare table to sit at, preferably away from Alex, who smelt as if he hadn't showered in a week.

"No, it's not." Aliya frowned, looking around the room at the attending's she would rather jump off a cliff than learn under them, seeing as the one surgeon she wanted to learn from wasn't actually in the room. "It's all going to shit."

Jackson looked over at her, over the top of his very strategically assembled breakfast sandwich, that he had spent five minutes making at the designated station. "That's rather dramatic."

"I wouldn't need to be dramatic if this hospital wasn't a low budget soap opera, why are we even here?" Aliya scowled at the people around the room.

Jackson found, that as his girlfriend had lost the clinical trial, she had also appeared to gain something.

A bad attitude.

She had also lost the will to live, but that was a whole other thing.

"Don't know about you," He said through his mouthful. "But, I came for the free food."

"—Get advice on your futures." April carried on with her speech. "And, um, I see you're already chatting away," She trailed off, looking like a girl in complete defeat. "So. that's good. Just carry on."

"That's a good enough reason for me." Aliya nodded her head, determined, reaching over to her own breakfast sandwich Jackson had assembled for her.

Because, the thing about Aliya was, god the girl could bake. But, could the girl cook?

No.

Not in a million years.

So, her breakfasts usually consisted of granola bars when someone wasn't making it for her.

With a sigh into her sandwich, Aliya scowled at the room. "This is stupid—"

"Why don't you speak with Dr. Nelson?" Jackson suggested, and he knew he said the wrong thing just by Aliya's downright horrified expression.

The brunette gasped. "Did you just say—"

"Oh god—" Jackson regretted his suggestion straight away.

"Dr. Nelson!" Aliya said his name as if he was a convicted felon. "He hates me! And, I hate him, he is the most boring specimen of a man and I would rather stick—"

"Pins in your eyes than operate with him." Jackson finished her sentence, affectionately smirking at her as she went crimson red at the mention of that bores name.

"Exactly," She clapped her hands together (the boy was finally getting it). "Couldn't have said it better myself."

"Oh," Jackson practically threw down his breakfast sandwich suddenly, jumping to his feet. "I see Sloan, now's my chance."

And, with a supportive you got this! Jackson ran after his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, seeing as he declared plastics as his speciality.

At that, Aliya's head fell into the crook of her elbow with a groan, her hair fanning about the table as she lay there for who knows how long until Alex came to join her.

She didn't even see him, but as she smelt the faint aroma of very bad breath and sweat, she screwed up her nose and shot up.

"Dude, please," The Levine woman grimaced at her homeless friend. "Come home, and have a shower, you smell like a dumpster."

"It's not home anymore," Alex stated, matter of factly, picking up a piece of bacon (because, his dying wish was to eat more bacon). "And, besides, there's showers here."

"Use them." She advised, sipping on her coffee as Jackson sat back down, and by sat, he basically fell back into his chair in defeat. "How'd it go?"

He simply frowned at her.

"Not good?" She deduced by the very look on his face.

"He mentioned you three times, told me I wasn't a great surgeon, and then tried to make me eat the bacon he didn't want—" Jackson dropped back into his chair, crossing his arms. "It went great."

Alex and Aliya smirked, laughing at the prospect that it wasn't just the two of them whose fifth year of residency had started in the worst possible way.

"New beard?" Jackson questioned with a raised brow, gesturing to how Alex's facial hair had grown quite a significant amount.

"Not intentional." Alex muttered, gruffly, self consciously rubbing at his overgrown stubble.

"Look! The Chief's here!" The Kepner woman's voice appeared to startle everyone as she leapt out from wherever she was hiding, practically skipping over to Richard. "Chief, is there anything you'd like to say as we embark on our final year of residency?"

Richard looked back at the gaggle of doctors watching him, waiting for him to finally speak up and say whatever was on his mind. "You all know what you're doing, just don't kill anyone."

Jackson and Aliya shared a very concerned, very confused, though quite amused look.

"Great piece of advice there." Jackson muttered, his brows knotting as he watched the Chief search the crowd.

"More like famous last words." Aliya added with a smirk, because everything was just a comedic joke now.

This new outlook really was great!

(Not.)

"Dr. Levine—" The Chief finally found what he was looking for, and all eyes moved from the Chief, to the brunette.

With this many eyes on her, the hair on her skin raised, standing upright like soldiers, ready for battle. Or in this case, ready for a potential Chief speech.

"Can I see you in the hall for just a moment?"

The brunette woman nodded, pushing herself off of the chair, even though her mind was screaming no, stop, it's only going to be bad news.

Now, escaping the lingering eyes, the door closed behind them, and they reached the privacy of the corridor.

Richard crossed his arms, and clearing his throat, as if he were going to deliver some bad news. "As you know, there was a meeting with the board about the clinical trial."

"Yes, I heard about that." Aliya spoke, cautiously, wondering why Derek wasn't included in this conversation.

"That being said," The Chief took a dramatic pause, which only made Aliya's panic rise by a fraction. "They've decided to take you off of neuro's service for the time being, just until this whole thing cools down."

And, the hits just keep on coming.

"I'm sorry," Aliya's word caught in her throat— because what the hell was going on. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Levine," Richard said, sincerely enough. "There was nothing I could've done."

"Why am I being punished for something I had nothing to do with?" Aliya shook her head in denial, because there was enough evidence to provide that the universe was conspiring against her.

"I don't know, it was the boards move, I had no say on the matter." Richard admitted. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't have done that. It's a poor move, because you'd make a fine neurosurgeon."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"There you are! I've been searching around the whole hospital for you!" Aliya sighed in relief, dropping down to sit cross legged on the nature rug Derek Shepherd was currently sitting on with Zola, who was playing with a lion teddy. "Hey, Zo." Aliya reached out to the girl, shaking her tiny hand.

"Thought I'd spend some time with her before surgery, you still scrubbing in?" Derek asked.

"About that," Aliya started with a sigh, picking up a toy monkey in her hands. "The board have taken me off neuro."

The Shepherd man dropped his toy pig. "What?"

"The exact reaction I had."

The neuro surgeon looked drained of all colour, now that his hopeful mentee was now removed (temporarily) off of his service. "I'll talk to the board, you shouldn't be punished for what Meredith did, that's just unfair."

"Exactly what I said too." Aliya muttered, waving the toy monkey in front of Zola, who reached out for it, ditching the toy lion. "I doubt the board care what any one of us wants. It's obvious."

Derek shook his head, looking at the pig as if it were a member of the board. "They're out of their goddamn— I probably shouldn't be saying that around a baby." He looked guilty at Zola, who really wasn't paying them that much attention.

"You think?" Aliya smirked, trying to think of a more kid friendly way of saying it. "How about, they've completely lost their minds, how fun!"

(Sarcastically, of course — it really wasn't fun at all.)

"So fun!" Derek enthused, and Zola (agreeing with them) clapped her hands, excitedly.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"As if this day couldn't get any worse." Aliya muttered, more to her self, as she stood with her fellow residents in the ambulance bay, arms crossed and staring vacantly off into the distance as she waited for the ambulances to arrive after hearing about a sink hole. "But, optimistically, at least I'm not lying in a hole surrounded by dirt."

Only when the whole entire ambulance bay had gone silent, Aliya had noticed that every single pair of eyes were on her.

She glanced over at the concerned faces. "Was that too soon?"

"Maybe just a little bit." Jackson admitted, swaying on the balls of his feet behind her. "Just don't say it in front of any patients."

Aliya nodded. "Noted."

"We're going to the scene for an on-site amputation, woman's trapped under her car." Owen informed April as he paced past her with Callie following closely behind him. "You guys are gonna get swamped with bodies. Kepner, you're in charge until I get back."

"Yes, sir! Have fun!" April smiled, drumming her hands onto her clipboard with joy, revelling in the fact that she was now in leading the ER.

Callie raised a brow. "At an amputation?"

"I— uh— I meant good luck!" April corrected as Callie hauled into the back of the ambulance, just as the sirens sounded.

"You know what?" Cristina began, turning towards the older Grey as she joined them, after being called into the Chief's office. "There's bound to be piles of head trauma. Derek's gonna have to talk to you."

"I got fired."

Oh. Aliya stilled, not even looking back as her eyes remained trained on where the ambulance would inevitably appear in just a few moments.

"What?" Lexie questioned in shock, pushing back her newly cut bangs.

"The Chief fired me." Meredith reiterated, her eyes now directly pinned on Alex.

Cristina, turning to the Karev man, was still in shock. "You son of a bitch."

That seemed to have caught Aliya's attention for her to look back.

"I mean, are you happy now?" Cristina began to push him away, slapping his shoulders with her hands like some sort of deranged bird. "'Cause this is all because of you. You and your big, fat, stupid mouth!"

And, Aliya, who seemed to find it all fairly amusing, started to laugh. "You really putting all the blame on him? Yeah, he's a narc, but A) he's our narc, and B) Meredith still did what she did."

"Get off!" Alex protested, because now Cristina had him against the ambulance, swatting him like he was infested with mosquitoes.

"Kepner, control your people!" Bailey ordered.

At that, April lurched forward, attempting to split the two up. "Stop! Stop! No hitting! Would you stop that right now?"

However, Cristina only stopped when Bailey reached out for her neck, and dragged the Yang woman back.

"You going to the scene?" Alex asked the paramedic, who nodded his head, giving Alex the go ahead to get in the ambulance.

"Wait, wait," April tugged him back by his trauma gown. "I didn't tell you you could go, I need you here!"

Completely ignoring the red head, Alex jumped into the ambulance, and off it went, doing something way better than hearing Meredith complain about being fired, even though it was entirely her fault.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Nicky Hoffman, sustained crush injuries and was very unstable in the field, Robbins is holding a trauma room. We called Shepherd from the field."

"Jeez, you look even dirtier and I didn't think it could be possible." Aliya pulled a face at Alex, who had just come back from the scene of the sink hole, covered in dirt and blood from where he helped saved a kid buried in said dirt.

"Thanks," Alex frowned, looking over at the whiteboard. "Which room are they in?"

"Uh—" April looked back, narrowing her eyes at the board behind her. "Oh, god. I don't know."

"Well, find out!" Alex snapped, grabbing Nicky's chart and wandering off after the gurney.

"It's supposed to be on the board!" April sighed, raising her voice to the whole ER. "People, I need you to make sure you're updating these boards!"

"I hate to break it to you April, but I don't think the people like the board system." Aliya gave a friendly suggestion, coming from a place of complete and total honesty, earning a very annoyed look from the chief resident.

"April, I need you to reassign these cases." The dirty blonde asked, slamming a pile of files onto her ER desk.

"Uh— Yang!" April turned to the woman beside her, knowing not to even bother asking the other brunette. "Take over Meredith's cases."

"No." Cristina replied back to April, dryly.

"Cristina." April said, firmly, probably for the first time in her life.

"I'm with Altman." The Yang woman informed her, screwing the cap back on her water bottle. "And, Meredith should keep her cases."

"I am your Chief Resident. You have to do what I say."

It had to be said, April was very convincing when she wanted to be.

"April, it's fine." Meredith intervened before the girl bitch slapped Cristina. "I can't wait, just sign them when you have a minute."

April nodded, picking up her clipboard and rushing away.

Cristina put her own chart down, walking closer to Meredith. "You're just gonna give up?"

"I was fired."

"So, what are you gonna do about it?" Cristina questioned, because her other half giving up was simply not a very good answer. "You have to go talk to the board."

"The board fired me!" Meredith protested in defeat, resigning herself to a life of serving slushies at the multiplex. 

"Do you know what else the board decided on?" Aliya mused, balancing her chin in her palm, not even waiting for the go ahead. "They've removed me from neuro for the foreseeable future, I hope you're happy."

Meredith almost looked guilty, and Aliya started to believe that she actually was by the way her jaw hung open, and something undetectable passed behind her eyes.

"I didn't mean—"

But, before she could even finish whatever apology she had been scrambling to put together, Aliya was already gone.

"Hey, does Nicky need brain surgery?" The Levine woman asked Derek, totally innocently as she peered over his shoulder.

"We don't know—" He paused, narrowing his blue eyes at the woman. "Levine, you were removed from neuro for the time being, it sucks but—"

"I wasn't removed from peds." Aliya smirked, suddenly having her best idea yet.

(And, she usually had a lot of bad ideas.)

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Guess who's back in neuro!" Aliya smiled happily, catching up with Jackson in the hall as they were paged to the ER, slamming her body into his as she wrapped both arms around the Avery man's side as they walked along.

He moved his arm around her shoulder, smirking down at her. "Already? Jeez, the devil works hard, but Levine women work harder."

"I want that on my gravestone, anyway—" She took a sip of coffee in between breaths, seeing as she was currently talking a mile a minute. "I found a loophole."

"A loophole, huh?" He raised a skeptical brow.

(He knew she usually had a lot of bad ideas.)

"I wasn't removed from peds!" Aliya said, excitedly, as if she had just cracked a secret Russian code. "Meaning, I just scrubbed in on Nicky Hoffman's surgery! Loophole!"

"My girlfriend's a genius." He marvelled, leaning down and kissing her cheek twice as they turned a corner at the perfect time, catching up with April, Alex, Cristina and Bailey.

"You all got paged too?" Aliya questioned, following them as Bailey strode on ahead of them.

"Yeah." Alex nodded, confused as to why they were all paged.

"Oh, she's gonna fire us, isn't she?" April began to panic, something the Kepner girl tended to do.

"Why would she fire us?" Alex asked.

"There was that patient mix-up in the OR." Jackson mentioned as they turned the corner.

Even Aliya had heard about that, and she was helping remove a piece of pipe out of some woman's abdomen. "Oh, yeah, that was funny."

"Yeah, you should be fired." Cristina smirked back at April, who wasn't very impressed.

"Me?" She snapped. "You guys didn't update the board."

"As I said," Aliya began, swirling her coffee around in her takeaway cup. "The board system doesn't work. No one ever has time to update it, especially during a big trauma. I've told you this a million times."

"That's why she looks so pissed off." Alex observed as they all came to a standstill as Bailey began to hustle around the ER, checking all the clipboards.

"That's not good for it." She muttered to herself. "Uh— Let me see that chart."

The all moved to follow her, Cristina walking ahead of them all. "What is she looking for?"

"The will to live," Aliya contributed, angling her head to the side, trailing Bailey into one of the trauma rooms. "If she finds it, can you make sure she lets me know where?"

Cristina shot her a look from over her shoulder, but for once the brunette wasn't actually joking.

"What have you got?" Bailey questioned Callie, who was working on a woman.

"A field amputation with complicated extrications." Callie informed. "Still assessing her multiple crush injuries, but I felt a broken pelvis for sure, and her BP's in the toilet."

"Yeah," Bailey nodded slowly, a smile slowing tugging at the corners of her lips. "This is a Gunther."

Callie looked back, seemingly knowing what the hell a Gunther was. "Really?"

"Really." Bailey confirmed with a nod of her head.

"Think they can handle a Gunther?" Callie asked, taking a pointed look at the fifth years.

"Oh," Bailey glanced back at them also. "I think they need a Gunther."

"Uh—" April stuttered, turning back to her fellow residents, who were just as perplexed as she was. "What's a Gunther?"

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Who pages 9-1-1 for a Panther?" Alex said, annoyed from where all five residents were crammed on a gurney, waiting for Bailey to come back and save them.

"It's a Gunther." Aliya corrected him from where she was pulling at her scrubs, next to Jackson who kept kicking her because he was squirming so much.

"No," Alex shook his head, awfully sure of himself. "I'm pretty sure it's a Panther."

"I'm pretty sure it's a Gunther." Jackson agreed with Aliya, now resorting himself to drawing squiggles on a random napkin.

Alex still looked unconvinced.

"It is a Gunther," Aliya said, matter-of-factly, just as Bailey entered back into the emergency room from wherever she had disappeared to. "Like the barista from Friends."

"Okay, follow me." The woman ushered for them to follow, and they all started to slip on their trauma gowns, huddled outside trauma one. "She was pinned under her car, her leg was amputated in a pit of dirt, her abdomen is pull, and her pelvis is probably crushed."

Jeez, maybe the universe wasn't conspiring against Aliya after all.

"You will work together to assess her injuries and repair them." Bailey told them, and Aliya couldn't help but feel just a little excited about it.

"In the OR?" April questioned, tying the back of her trauma gown.

"No, at the Jiffy Lube." Bailey deadpanned. "Yes, in the OR. Now, Dr. Torres's will supervise your work. If you're killing her, she will step in. Otherwise, you're on your own. Don't screw this up, like you screwed everything else up you've touched lately."

The residents sighed as Bailey turned her back to them, striding into the trauma room.

"Ladies and gentleman, step away from the patient."

At that, the five of them burst into the room like a pack of wild zoo animals, ready to step in. 

⠀
—✩—
⠀

Jackson narrowed his eyes, holding up one of Sarah's many scans. "It's an open-book pelvic fracture."

"And, a comminuted femur fracture." April chimed in. "Has anyone full examined the stump?"

"Yeah, there's lots of debris from the sink hole, it's also not a clean cut." Aliya, from where she was examining Sarah's amputated leg, spoke up, knotting her brows together as she concentrated harder. "Can we hang some antibiotics, I don't want her to catch sepsis."

"Pneumopericardium, and an enlarged cardiac shadow." Cristina assessed, moving across the room, though there was hardly any space to move, or think for that matter. "She needs a chest tube and a CT."

"Free fluid," Alex spoke up, where he was running an ultrasound on her abdomen. "She needs an OR."

"An embolization and angio would help stabilise the pelvic bleeding." April called out.

"An angio's just gonna waste time." Alex muttered loudly in response.

"We could pack her in the OR." Jackson suggested.

"She needs to get to the OR fast if she's gonna make it, and she would possibly need a CT, but I don't think there's enough time." Aliya spoke rapidly, seeing as this woman was bleeding out both internally and externally, they needed to quickly repair the damaged before it was too late.

"Someone call the OR tell them we're on our way and prep for an emergent laparotomy."

"Excuse me—" Owen appeared behind Bailey, a slight concerned look on his face as he was faced with the carnage that was trauma room one.

"Oh, no, no—" Bailey reacted to Owen reaching for a trauma gown.

"What do you mean no? That's my patient." The Hunt man protested.

"We're doing a Gunther." Callie clarified, but Owen was still confused regardless.

"What the hell's a Gunther?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes at all the chaos.

"It's like a team-building exercise." Callie elaborated further for the man.

"See, the hospital does it when the residents aren't working well together, it seems to help."

However, despite Bailey's comment, it seemed that it wasn't exactly helping this particular group of residents.

"Who the hell died and made you God!" Cristina snapped.

"Oh— Okay, look. I think what we need to do is we just need to take a moment—"

"April, you're the chief resident, not chief of surgery." Jackson called across the patient, coincidentally the exact time Aliya raised her voice and said: "You're not the freaking chief of surgery!"

The couple looked at each other, realising now that they may just be a tad telepathic.

"Did somebody call the damn OR!?" Alex asked in admist all the bickering.

"No, because she needs a CT to assess her cardiac injuries." Cristina spoke, sternly.

"What did I say about—"

"No one gives a crap what you say!" Cristina interrupted before Alex had the chance to finish.

And, as if Sarah was spiting them, her monitors began to beep, loudly and mockingly.

"Still want to take her to Radiology?" Alex asked, sarcastically. "Maybe wait in line for a little while 'til the machine is free?"

Aliya pulled up the side of the gurney, not caring what anyone else was doing, seeing as the one thing this woman needed was an OR, preferably with surgeons who weren't arguing every few seconds. "We need to get her up to an OR right now!"

"Is somebody gonna call the OR?" Jackson snapped, pulling up the other side of the gurney, getting ready to move her.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Give me a ten blade please." Cristina ordered the scrub nurse, reaching out her hand.

"Don't give her a 10-blade." Alex snapped quickly, a manic look in his eyes. "The woman just had her leg hacked off. She doesn't need her chest cracked open for something we're not even sure she has."

"Yeah, well I'm sure," Cristina persisted, her hand still outstretched, waiting for a ten blade everyone was pretty sure, wasn't coming. "And if her heart craps out she's not gonna give a rats ass about her leg!"

"Look," April cleared her throat, approaching the matter factually. "We know that she is bleeding from her pelvis and her abdomen, which gives her plenty of reason to be hypotensive."

Alex simply shrugged her off. "Let's just do an x-lab and see what we're dealing with."

The Yang woman looked horrified behind her mask "No!"

However Aliya, who had been standing there with her eyes closed, finally gave in. "Everyone just shut up for a damn second!"

"We don't have time—"

"Ok," Aliya said, decisively. "We need to open her up."

Jackson, agreeing with Aliya (because if he didn't, she would probably come for his head), nodded his head, turning to the group. "Karev, start the incision."

"Why him?" The Kepner girl shrieked. "Just because you're pissed that I'm chief resident doesn't mean that you can pretend I'm not here!"

"Now's really not the time to argue who's cutting open who, Kepner." Aliya exclaimed.

Because, if you make me wear pink tulle—

"But—" April began to protest.

"Nobody cares that you're chief resident!" The Avery man yelled, getting tired of April saying she was chief resident every two seconds.

"We are wasting time arguing." Cristina stated, matter of factly.

"I couldn't agree more." Aliya sighed.

"The only logical conclusion is to take care of her heart first."

"Oh, please." The brunette scoffed, rolling her eyes. "The only reason you want to do that is because you're all scalpel hungry to go hacking at this woman's heart."

Now, up in the gallery overlooking the chaos, some other doctors were looking down on them, watching in amusement as if they were watching a soap opera.

Or, a train wreck.

Who knew.

"Who do you think the Gunther is?" Arizona asked Mark as she reached over to steal his salt and vinegar chips.

Mark raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

Arizona's jaw dropped in shock. "Is this your first one?"

Mark, puzzled, nodded his head.

If Aliya were there, she would've yelled, we got us a Gunther virgin! But, that would've been hypocritical seeing as she too was a Gunther virgin!

"The name Gunther comes from the doctor, not the patient." Arizona told him through a mouthful of chips. "One of the residents always kind of emerges as a leader when they do this."

The Sloan man nodded slowly as he began to finally understand the Gunther lore.

"The first time, it was this little quiet guy named Gunther," The blonde continued on. "And everyone thought he was gonna flame out of the program, but it turns out, he's the alpha dog."

"We know it won't be Avery." Mark commented, looking displeased at the one resident who wanted to learn from him. "He doesn't have any balls."

"Well, Karev's got the balls, but everyone hates him. So, I don't really see them following his lead." Arizona stated, frowning at her mentee.

"Bound to be Yang."

"I don't know." Arizona murmured, waving a chip in the air. "Levine's kind of competitive. I can see your taking the lead."

Mark smirked, looking over at the Robbins woman. "You feel good about that position? You willing to back that up?"

"What, like, fifty bucks?" Arizona questioned, and Mark silently agreed to that bet. "Bring it."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Looks like Yang's the Gunther." Mark commentated with a grimace, looking down from the gallery at the woman who had just cut open Sarah's chest to operate on her heart.

(Earning quite an earful from the Levine woman.)

"Yep." Bailey observed, closely. "No surprise."

"What does that mean?" Teddy questioned, peering down towards the gallery.

"It means she took over whilst everyone else is standing around like idiots doing whatever she says." Mark informed, though it really could be argued that they all knew what they wanted to do, Cristina was just reckless and did what she wanted without even asking them. "I mean, look at Avery. Useless."

"I gotta go." Arizona muttered, handing Mark fifty buck. "I could've swore it would've been Levine."

"V-fib!" Jackson called out from down in the operating room.

Cristina looked up quickly from where she was operating. "I need the paddles!"

Aliya, who was sandwiched in between Cristina and Alex, moved her hands away.

"Charge to 200!" Cristina ordered, placing the paddles into Sarah's chest. "Clear!"

Everyone watched the monitor, watching closely for any possible change.

"No change." Jackson spoke as they all began to frantically scramble to save her life.

"She needs one of epi!" Aliya called out.

"I need one of intracardiac epi!" Cristina repeated. "Someone take over massaging the heart!" She moved away, and Alex's hand slipped in before Aliya could've got there.

"I got it." The Karev man said, starting a cardiac massage.

And, as Cristina held onto the epi, she reached over, stabbing the syringe in the heart.

Or, so they thought.

"Ow!" Alex reacted, pulling his hand out of Sarah's chest.

"Oh my god!" Cristina exclaimed, her eyes wide from behind her glasses. "Alex!"

Aliya's own hands flew into Sarah's chest instead as she started to massage, watching the two residents stare at each other with wide eyes. That surely hadn't happened, right? "What's going on?"

She still asked anyway, even though she knew exactly what had just happened right before her eyes.

Alex choked on his own breath, clutching at his chest as if he couldn't even breathe.

"Oh, crap, Alex?" Aliya desperately tried to nudge him with her elbow, but he was staring directly at his bloody gloved hand.

"Look at me!" Cristina reached for him, though the man was still in a bit of shock. "Alex, look at me. Alex?"

"Cristina," Aliya asked, carefully. "Did you just—"

"Yes!" Cristina replied, frantically.

"Oh God! He'll be fine, okay!" Aliya said, more to herself than anyone else. "We need another epi! Right now!" Aliya ordered the scrub nurse, who passed the syringe straight to Jackson.

"Here you go, Doctor."

And this time, Aliya put her hands up in the air as he put the syringe into Sarah's heart.

"Oh my god! Alex!" Cristina yelled, and shocking the life out of everyone, Alex fell backwards onto the floor, knocking over a steel trail as he fell directly onto the floor behind Aliya. "What the hell just happened!"

Aliya threw her head over her shoulder. "Cristina, is he breathing!"

"I can't find a pulse!" Cristina yelled, her breathing growing louder the more she panicked.

"You— You, what!" Aliya's heart thrashed in her chest, but she couldn't move, seeing as her hand was lodged into a woman's chest. "What do you mean he doesn't have a pulse?"

Aliya felt physically sick.

Callie, who had put down her sudoku, rushed over to them. "Why the hell doesn't he have a pulse?"

"I need a crash cart." Cristina demanded, ripping off Alex's shirt.

"An epi doesn't stop a healthy person's heart!" Callie handed Cristina the pads. "What did you do?"

"I don't know!"

"Her hearts back." Aliya observed, tearing her gaze from her best friend on the floor, focusing her energy on Sarah, because otherwise she would fall apart. "I'm gonna deal with the pericardium."

Jackson nodded his head. "We need to forget about the pelvis for now."

"She's bleeding through the packing in the right upper quadrant, should I repack it?" April asked, quickly, from where she was assessing Sarah.

"Try a Pringle manoeuvre." Jackson suggested, from where he was stood opposite Aliya.

"Graft, please." Aliya held out her hand.

Now, they didn't know who was actually leading who, seeing as the Levine woman, and the Avery man both had their hands in Sarah's chest, working together in a perfect synchronised fashion.

"Hey, get me and Dr. Altman gowned and gloved, and I need something to stand on." Bailey requested as her and Teddy pushed through the door to the OR.

"Everything's okay." Aliya spoke, though she only managed two words seeing as she was concentrating the hardest she had ever concentrated in her life.

Because, if she concentrated on Alex on the floor, she would probably join him.

"Dr Bailey, it's under control." Jackson elaborated for her. "We got a lot of hands in here, and two more surgeons are only gonna confuse matters. I'm gonna ask you to step back, please. Can I get another pledgeted 3-0 prolene?"

Aliya briefly looked up at him, and the pair locked eyes, sharing a glance for a brief second. "We need suction too."

"Charge to 200." Cristina grabbed the paddles, holding them to Alex's chest. "Clear!"

Finally, Alex gasped awake, his eyes flying open wide as he adjusted to his surroundings, seeing as one minute he was standing, and now he was not the floor.

"Alex? Alex, can you hear me? Alex?" Cristina held his cheeks in her hands, questioning him frantically.

"You crazy bitch!" Alex yelled, but as Aliya heard his voice, she finally took a breath. "You almost killed me!"

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Don't touch me!" Alex yelled, putting up a fight as he was wheeled out of the OR.

"I'm not touching you." Cristina surrendered.

He glared at the hand holding onto the gurney as he was wheeled away. "Don't touch my gurney!"

"All right, we need to get this artery, can you see it right there?" Jackson asked, calmly.

"Yeah, I see it." Aliya nodded her head, reaching for a suture. "I'm gonna do a tie on the hemostat."

"Who would've thought it." Bailey marvelled, staring at the sight before them.

"There's two Gunthers." Teddy mused.

"What the hell happened?" Mark breezed through the room, holding a mask to his face.

"Yang almost killed Karev, and Avery and Levine are the Gunther." Callie summarised the very eventful past twenty minutes they had. "Good old fashioned nepotism right there."

"Avery? Levine?" Mark raised a brow, looking across at the pair working together. "Get outta here."

"Hand to God." Bailey said, smiling at the surgeon she believed to have raised. "They make a good team."

"Avery—" Mark called out, an oddly proud smile on his lips. "Good job, son."

Jackson knotted his brows together, and Aliya gave the Sloan man the side eye. "Thank you."

"Don't know how to feel about him calling you son." Aliya said, under her breath, because it was just a tiny bit weird.

Only a little bit.

"I'm right here if you need anything." Mark called from the sidelines, like a soccer mom. "My guy won. We're gonna be great together."

He was now looking at Jackson as if he were a prized cow at the county fair.

Now, Aliya was even more weirded out than she already was. "Think he should correct son to boyfriend right about now."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Hey," Aliya smiled in the doorway of Alex's hospital room. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." Alex grumbled, frowning as if he were feeling sorry for himself.

"I just had to check with my own eyes that you hadn't died on me." The brunette joked moving into his room and taking a seat on the his bed.

Alex tugged on the sheets of his bed. "You seem to be the only one who gives a crap."

"I'll get streamers and party hats, and a nice big banner saying Pity Party." Aliya joked, though Alex was far from amused, seeing as he was in a vulnerable state right about now. "Seriously though, I'm glad you're okay."

Before anything else could be said, Cristina raced into the room. "Get up!"

"No!" Alex snapped, his hands clenching around his bed sheets. "I'm under twenty four hour observation because you almost killed me!"

"I revealed an arrhythmia you didn't know you have." Cristina stated, hands on her hips. "I probably saved your life."

"Cristina Yang, the most humble woman I know." Aliya spoke with a smirk, reaching over for Alex'a chart to take a peek.

"I'll run an EKG on you later," The Yang woman waved them off. "Just get up!"

"You're supposed to have my back!" Alex burst out.

"Oh, shit." Aliya muttered to herself, eyes wide as she stared back and forth between the attempted murderer, and the guy who nearly got murdered.

"I made a mistake!" The Karev man exclaimed, throwing down his hands in frustration. "Alright? I was drunk."

"Don't tell me you've never been drunk before." Aliya asked Cristina (because she had been drunk many, many times). "You got drunk and told everyone George's mom ironed his pants."

Cristina sighed, bringing a palm to her face. "Oh, for the love of—"

"No! I screwed up! You screw up all the time!" Alex told the woman— it had been a week and he was already sick of being seen as the hospital narc. "I don't have anybody! You guys are all I have! So, you have to forgive me!"

"Fine!" Cristina gave in, pulling the pillow away from Alex's head. "Whatever! Forgiven! Just, get up out of that damn bed!"

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"We were paged?" Derek and Aliya sauntered through the door of a random conference room.

"That was us." Larry, a member of the board, looked up, though he didn't really look all too pleased to see them. "We paged your wife too, Dr. Shepherd, do you know where she is?"

"Well, that is the question of the hour." Derek joked, moving further into the room. "I have no idea where she is."

They all casted a look to the only woman in the room.

"Oh, yeah, I have no clue." Aliya replied back, shoving her hands into her pockets.

"Well, we'll fill her in later. Shut the door please." Larry gestured his pen to the door, and Derek reached over to shut it. "Dr. Webber just informed me that he tampered with the drugs and placebos in your clinical trail."

Well, that was new.

"Huh?" Was all Aliya managed to say.

"Excuse me?" Derek face faltered in surprise, shaking his head in denial. "No, it was Meredith."

"Dr. Grey apparently was covering for him." Larry caught the pair up, and they both turned to Richard, who was looking down at the table and avoiding their eyes.

"She was what?" Aliya's voice strained.

"She knew," Larry said, calmly. "And she was trying to protect him."

"You have my apologies." Richard offered, though failing to meet their very shocked expression, because they could see right through him. "I destroyed your trial."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"It must be awful," Aliya said, sadly, watching as Alex escorted Meredith down the hall, just as Janet the social worker had taken Zola away from them. "I know I'm angry at Mer and all, but I don't want their baby taken away from them."

Jackson nodded his head, solemnly, reaching for her hand as the pair sat on the desk. "I can't imagine what it must be like."

"Zola's their baby!" Aliya protested, smoothing back her hair. Her gut clenching at the thought of Zola, now being put in a car to go to a strangers house, when she should be with them. "She doesn't belong with anyone else!"

"It'll all work itself out." He told her, rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand, though her head dipped down, her hair producing a shield where all he could hear was light sniffling sounds.
"Are you crying?"

The Avery man dipped his head lower, just to a tear fall, dampening a spot on her scrubs.

"No!" The brunette denied, swatting away the guilty tear falling down her face. "She's just such a sweet kid, and they don't deserve this and—"

"Hey, hey, hey, sweetheart," He soothed, his voice careful as he rubbed a hand across her arm, trying to get her to stop crying.

Jackson would probably sell his left kidney if it meant for her never to feel any pain whatsoever.

"Everything's gonna be okay—"

"I'm an awful person!" Aliya suddenly burst out, throwing her hands down in frustration, and Jackson tucked her hair behind her ear, her cheeks bright red and puffy.

(Though she did look cute, was that bad of him to think?)

"What, why?"

"I'm not crying about Zola!" She said, admittedly. "I'm crying because of Andy! Because, it's been over a year since she died, and since Charles died, and, I still have keys to her house that I haven't done anything with yet!" The Levine woman ranted, descending into more sobs as she dropped her head onto his shoulder.

He began to rub her back, shushing gently into her hair. "You don't have to do anything with the house until you're ready, okay? I still rent out the apartment Charles and I have together."

"You do?" She said, barely audible, into the shoulder of his white lab coat.

"Yeah." He nodded his head, smelling the scent of her rose shampoo.

"I bought flowers." Aliya announced, drawing away from his shoulder, looking at the way his eyes started to glass over at the mentioning of his best friend Charles. "For their graves. They're in my cubby, do you want to go?"

"To a graveyard? In the middle of the night? We're gonna get ourselves killed!"

And, Jackson considered it a job well done as Aliya descended into laughter, lightly swatting his arm with the back of her hand.

"But, at least we'll get murdered together!" Aliya replied back, happily.

At that optimistic thought, the pair held each other's hands to the residents lounge to collect the now slightly squished flower bouquets.

⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀

( notes! )

our girl aliya is a fifth year resident!!

in this chapter, aliya is the #1 hater of everything (especially meredith grey) and i find that quite funny

i hope you enjoyed this chapter!!

i don't usually write chapters fast (i literally take so long to write things because each chapter i do is inbetween 5,000–10,000 words) but weirdly this one has probably been the fastest chapter i've ever written in my entire life

probably because i haven't properly proof read it, so if you see a spelling mistake, let's move past it <3

( word count! — 10,000 )