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chapter thirty seven ━ i will survive
season seven, episode twenty one

❝ i mean, who decided
to give owen hunt
all the power, huh? ❞

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"But, what do I do Aliya?"

One thing you should note about the friendship between one Cristina Yang and Aliya Levine, was that they never called each other.

Aliya could not even think of a reason as to why they had each others numbers, seeing as the pair rarely spoke over the phone unless Meredith shoved the call into Aliya's face — like a mother trying to get her child to talk to her creepy uncle.

So, you could imagine Aliya's shock when she got a call from the Yang woman at six o'clock in the morning, which she answered to the woman instantly word vomitting about Chief Resident in a total blind panic.

"Since when are you calling me for advice?" Aliya spoke, grumpily and groggy into the mic, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up.

"Mer's indisposed." Cristina explained with a sigh, as if Aliya should have already known that fact.

"How flattering." The brunette mumbled, reaching over to turn on her bedside table lamp she got ten years ago at a thrift store, nearly knocking a half full mug of freezing cold coffee in the process.

"So." Cristina spoke, curtly, the sound of a running tap in the background of her call.

Aliya raised a brow. "So?"

"What should I do!" The Yang woman burst out, and Aliya could picture her pacing back and forth the old firehouse she called home.

"Right," Aliya cleared her throat, thinking of the best advice she could possibly give. "I think you should withhold sex."

Even Aliya didn't expect to suggest that.

"Withhold sex?"

"Like a reverse hooker." Aliya elaborated, seeing as Cristina was acting as if Aliya had told her to run along the streets of Seattle stark naked. "Just until he makes his decision about Chief Resident so he can remain objective, instead of giving it to the woman who gets into his pants on the weekends."

At that, Jackson shuffled over, twisting his head on the pillow with his eyebrows knotted together at what he was currently hearing, mouthing What!

"Oh," The Levine woman pointed to her cellphone with her free hand. "Cristina's worried Owen's not gonna make her Chief Resident because they're married, so I think she should withhold sex so she has all the power, not him. I mean, who decided to give Owen Hunt all the power, huh?"

Jackson rubbed at his eyes, his brain processing the information in the warm glow of Aliya's lamp, that only seemed to light up her face.

"You got Avery there?" Cristina questioned, though by her tone, it seemed more
like a police interrogation.

As Jackson could hear Cristina's side of the call too, he raised a hand, shaking it and mouthing no!

However, it seemed the Levine woman was taking no notice, and if she was going to be subject to Cristina's rants, so will he.

"Yes." Aliya replied, and Jackson dropped his head back down onto the pillow with a sigh, pressing a hand to his forehead.

"Put him on." Cristina ordered.

"What, no, Aliya—" Jackson protested, panic rising in his eyes. "I'm dead!"

"Gladly." Aliya quickly shoved the phone into his hand, slipping out of the bed sheets to sit on the end of the bed, rolling out her shoulders out.

"Yang," Jackson spoke monotonously, pursing his lips tight. "What a pleasure."

Aliya turned her head over her shoulder, Jackson's eyes pinned on her as she heard the distant mumbles of Cristina on the other line, word vomiting into his ear.

"Hm." Jackson replied, softly to what something Cristina had said, a very displeased look on his face. "Yeah, yeah."

After giving him an encouraging thumbs up, Aliya side stepped out of the room to the sound of Jackson's murmurs and mumbles every couple of seconds, answering Cristina with incoherent grunts.

She tiptoed her way into the bathroom, locking the door behind her, and reaching for her toothbrush, just needing one second of privacy in the house. 

Though, she realised most of her housemates were out of said house.

April stayed over at Trent's new place after having dinner with her mother the previous night, which Aliya had yet to find out whether or not it went well.

Though, she would bet a large amount of money on Molly Levine making the red head pull out her own hair.

(Her mother had that sort of effect on people.)

Lexie and Derek were both at the hospital, and Meredith was on her way there too for her interview.

So, that left Jackson, Alex and Lucie Fields.

There really wasn't any reason to lock the door after all.

That was until Alex started banging on it, repeatedly.

"Aliya! Let me in!" He hissed through the wood in a sense of urgency. "Aliya!"

Aliya moved to the door mid way through brushing her teeth, and as soon as she unlocked it, the Karev man pushed through.

More like hurtled his way through as he locked the door behind him and hurled his body against it, as if he were scared a bear was going to follow him inside.

"You okay, is someone chasing you? Blink twice if you're in danger." Aliya raised a brow as she spoke through a mouthful of toothpaste, therefore it really sounded like: hm umkay, and then a whole load of incoherent gibberish.

"Lucie got the job at Baylor." He burst out quickly, beginning to pace the very short width of the bathroom.

The brunette watched him with wide eyes, taking it as a time she had to cut her tooth brushing short, much to her dentists' dismay.

"Are we happy about it?" She asked, cautiously, trying to assess the situation they were dealing with here. "Or, are we all dark and gloomy?"

"I don't know." Alex grumbled, answering with Aliya's anticipated answer, his brows knotted together, tightly.

Both of the residents seemed to possess the inability to actually comprehend their emotions.

Alex turned on the faucet, splashing cold water at his face. "I should be happy for her, right?"

"Yes, but," Aliya trailed off, putting her toothbrush back in the holder. "You don't want her to leave Seattle, do you?"

Alex made an incoherent noise as water dripped down his face. He reached for the towel, patting it dry.

"I'm going to take that as a no," Aliya deduced, leaning against the sink. "You and Lucie work really well. You've got a good thing going. It would suck if she left."

"Since when are you handing out relationship advice?" Alex scoffed, jokingly, setting the towel back down.

"Since just this morning, funnily enough. I should've really gone into psychiatry." Aliya answered back with a shrug.

Alex paused for a moment, however still pacing the room, every so often he looked as if her were going to say something, though he then quickly closed his mouth straight after, as if he were doing an impression of the fish at the aquarium.

"She's going to stay, right?" The man quickly questioned, seeking reassurance.

"If she truly cared about you, she would stay. One hundred percent. She would have to be a fool to leave you." Aliya comforted, an encouraging smile of the face, mainly striving to stop the whole Finding Nemo routine he had going on.

Alex looked across to her, sceptically, seeing as she was all sunshine and rainbows. More so than usual. "Where's cynical Aliya when we need her?"

Aliya grinned. "She's gone into retirement for the time being." 

He scoffed, light-heartedly.

"What did you say when she told you?" Aliya questioned, doing her best to stifle a yawn.

The Karev man shrugged. "I told her to be a shark, and then I came to find you."

Aliya's face fell, and she rolled up the magazine she had been reading in the bath the previous night, using it to smack her hopeless friend over the head.

"Ow!" Alex protested, swatting the magazine away from his head. "What was that for?"

"You didn't say anything!" Aliya facepalmed, discarding the magazine onto the floor.

"I told her to be a shark!" He said, as if that made matters better.

Oh, he was hopeless, for sure.

"And," The brunette prompted. "What did she say?"

"She said that— I dunno, something about," Alex trailed off, looking at the floor.

"Oh my God," Aliya whispered, her lips slowly curving into a smile of realisation, no longer the frustrated pout she was giving Alex. "She was waiting for you to tell her to stay!"

"She was not." He grumbled back at her, not even meeting her eyes.

Her smile only got wider, reading him like a book in the hospital library. "Was too."

At that, a soft knock sounded on the door, unlike Alex's frantic hammering fists, cutting their conversation short.

"Alex? You in there?" Lucie called out, her shadow appearing from underneath the door.

"Uh—" Alex stuttered, his eyes frantically darting towards Aliya, who shrugged, proving no help at all. "Er— yes, just coming out now."

The pair moved to the door, throwing it open to Lucie, dressed in nothing but an oversized tartan shirt, presumably one of Alex's.

"Oh," Lucie's eyes widened fully, and she tugged her shirt further down her legs as her eyes bounced between the two people in front of her. "You're both in here?"

"Uh—" Alex's eyes frantically darted to Aliya.

"Yeah." Aliya said, painting her lips with a smile as she turned back to Lucie, seeing as this particular house guess didn't leave tooth paste in the sink, or her dirty bowls on the counter. "I needed to brush my teeth, and Alex had to shave his beard."

Lucie glanced to Alex's very unshaven beard.

Even Alex rubbed at his beard to double check.

"Which he hadn't gotten around to doing yet, I was yapping his ear off." Aliya explained.

"Do you do this all the time?" Lucie asked, her voice strained as if to imply that them in the bathroom together was weird.

Though, to Alex and Aliya who had been sharing a bathroom for the past three years or so, they were unfazed by it all completely.

"One bathroom between seven people, you learn to share." Aliya explained, gesturing towards the very nervous man to her left. "The amount of times he's stolen my lotion—"

"And, she's stolen my cereal." Alex grunted, his voice low as he recalled the dozen boxes of frosted flakes that went missing.

"I can never have any nice things in this house." Aliya said with a frown, slipping past a confused looking Lucie, to race to her bedroom, leaving Alex to deal with his feelings.

However, she was pretty sure she heard him mumble something about chief resident interviews, rushing back down the hall to get ready.

"Any verdict?" Aliya questioned, stepping back into her room and shutting the door behind her, rifling through her closet for a fresh pair of jeans and a shirt, seeing as she too had to get to the hospital, promptly.

Jackson placed her cellphone back onto the bed side table with a yawn. "She's settling for the withholding sex route."

Aliya smiled, happily, gathering her hair up into a ponytail, shooting him a glance over her shoulder. "I give the best advice."

"When I suggested to just act normal, she berated me for not having a uterus, therefore I don't understand." Jackson explained with a frown, brushing a hand along his jaw.

"That sounds like Cristina." The brunette shrugged out of her pyjamas, tying her robe around her, seeing as it was probably best she had a shower before leaving the house. "When's your interview today?"

"This afternoon," Jackson grumbled, even though he was a morning person. "I'm probably gonna end up blowing it."

Aliya gave him a disapproving look, dropping back down onto the end of the bed. "No, you're not, you're going to be fine. Just talk about how you're kickin' ass with the clinical trial, okay? You are practically the main reason it got approved for human testing."

Jackson mumbled an unconvinced yeah.

"Hey, don't worry." Aliya leaned forward to prod his arm in an attempt to snap him out of his grump mood. "You're gonna be fine. If Owen Hunt can't see how much of a great, talented, ass kicking—"

Jackson scrunched his nose. "You really like ass kicking today—"

"—doctor you are, call me, and I'll knock some sense into him." Aliya continued on, ending her speech with a broad grin.

The Avery man smirked, raising a suspicious brow. "How would you do that?"

"I've always wanted to throat punch him." Aliya mused, tilting her head to the side.

"Now that I have to see." Jackson said, letting Aliya pull him from the bed, skewing the duvets and blankets.

"C'mon, you need a shower—" Aliya informed the man, who she was now dragging down the hallway towards the bathroom, an expression on her face that could only mean one thing. "All I can smell is self deprecation."

"Is that it?" He questioned, looking the door behind them. "Or, are you just looking for a reason to get me in the shower with you?"

Aliya shrugged off her robe, turning on the shower, testing the water with her hand to see if it was warm enough, she looked over at a still dressed Jackson. "Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna take off your pants?"

The Avery looked up, grinning devilishly as he tore off his pyjama bottoms, stepping out of them, his green eyes darkening at his girlfriend's proposition. "Now you're talking."

Aliya laughed lightly as he pressed a kiss to her lips, savouring the taste of her raspberry scented lip balm, his hands running through her hair as he lifted her into the shower, his hand lingering by her hips, chuckling deeply against her mouth.

Though, the pair really did not have time for that, even if it was a welcomed distraction from the interviews that could change their career.

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As soon as Aliya entered the hospital with a very strict and meticulously planned schedule for that day, it simply was destroyed by a forceful Dr. Bailey, requesting her specifically to scrub in with her.

So, her day went from very busy, to incredibly busy. From her chief resident interview, to working on the clinical trial, to Zola's abdominal surgery, every minute of her day was accounted for.

Until Bailey put a spanner in the works, which left her very behind schedule, hunched over a computer at the front desk, punching letters into the keyboard.

"One of these days you're going to get a hunchback."

The voice that could only make her day even more chaotic came from in front of her, on the other side of the desk.

Aliya looked up, briefly to Mark Sloan, before looking back at her screen. "I'll go see a chiropractor." She said, dryly.

Though, the Levine woman had to do a double take, seeing as she totally missed the sight of Mark Sloan, wearing a baby carrier.

With a baby in it.

(It would be odd if he was wearing one without a baby in it, so the very presence of a baby carrier implied the presence of a baby. Or a small dog.)

"Wow." Aliya managed to say, after staring at him wide eyed for the past couple of seconds.

"I know, right." The Sloan man said, grinning from ear to ear as he tilted to the side, so Aliya could see the squished face of Sofia, fast asleep soundly against Marks chest. "You wanna hold her?"

"Oh," Aliya stuttered, her jaw hung open, her hand still paused on the mouth. "I better not, I'll probably wake her up."

"Nah," Mark shrugged, undoing the strap, lifting Sofia into his arms. "She needs a bottle anyway."

"I'll probably drop her." Aliya blurted out.

Mark chuckled, lightly. "You won't." He assured her, and by some magnetic field, Aliya got to her feet, moving around the counter.

From across the room at the other desk, Jackson was watching their interaction closely as Aliya picked up Sofia in her arms, smiling down at the tiny baby as she gripped hold of her pinkie.

The Levine woman turned to Mark, and he could just about make out her telling him that she had a good grip.

"Withholding sex is going great, Avery. You give the worst advice." Cristina informed him as she stopped at the desk next to him with a whole bundle of charts in her arms.

"It's only been four hours." Jackson replied simply, raising a brow, though his eyes were still on them across the room.

"Yes, and it's going well. Owen is already going insane and—" Cristina pursed her lips with a long sigh. "And you're not even listening to me, what are you—"

The Yang woman followed Jackson's eyes over to Mark, Aliya and Sofia, where the Levine woman was now bouncing the baby in her arms.

"Ah," Cristina nodded her head, knowingly, laughing to herself. "I see."

Jackson finally looked away, his brows flying upwards at Cristina, who seemed to know it all, as if she were looking into his thoughts. "You see, what?"

"You," Cristina angled her pen into the direction of Aliya. "Looking at Levine and Sloan like a lost puppy."

"I did—" Jackson pursed his lips tightly together, clearing his throat, ready to deny all possible accusations. "I was not looking at them like that."

"You were." Cristina laughed, shaking her head, pointing her pen back to the Avery man. "Like a lost puppy being kicked to the curb." She spoke, matter-of-factly.

"They—" Jackson paused, not wanting to be the one to ask Cristina Yang about his current girlfriend's past boyfriends, because surely all that was private, right? "Nevermind."

And besides, Aliya told him about her ex-fiancée, what more could be possible ask from her without it sounding suspicious.

"Spit it out, Avery." Cristina ordered, because even she liked to gossip.

With a sigh, Jackson turned to the very persistent woman. "They dated, right?"

"Mm-hm." Cristina nodded her head. "They were together for months."

Jackson raised a brow in surprise, not expecting the duration of their relationship being that significant. "Months?"

Cristina nodded once more, scribbling in her charts in the most casual way. "We're talking nearly a year."

"A year?" Jackson said in shock.

The Yang woman eyed the man across from her, a knowing smirk on her face.

He was looking at Mark as if he wanted to kill him with his bare hands.

In other words, that boy was jealous.

"He was a jerk to her, you know. Cheated on her with Lexie." Cristina informed, seeing as Aliya's advice was really working, she figured she could at least help her friend out. "She would never go back there, just so you know. Aliya is many things, but stupid isn't one of them."

"Believe me," Jackson replied with a scoff, his gaze turning back to Aliya, who had given Sofia back to Mark, and returned back to the desk chair she was sat on, resuming her typing with unwavering concentration that her forehead started to wrinkle. "I know."

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"Stop bouncing your knee." Alex narrowed his eyes at the very nervous brunette, her leg bouncing purely out of anxiety and stress.

"I can't help it." Aliya replied, bracing a hand on her knee in an attempt to stop it, but it seemed to have a mind of its own. "This is important, like the super bowl."

The Karev man let out a scoff, though even he couldn't deny his own nerves as the pair waited to be called for their Chief Resident interviews. "You don't even watch the super bowl."

"Bullshit." Aliya snapped. "I watched it this year, we ate popcorn and nachos."

"You fell asleep forty five minutes in." Alex told her in an I-told-you-so kind of manner. Like the know it all he was.

"In my defence, I did just get out of a sixteen hour surgery, I could've fallen asleep to Criminal Minds." Aliya gave a very convincing case, though Alex was still questioning the validity of her being a super bowl fan.

"Guess what." Alex opted to change the subject.

"You've finally bought your own lotion instead of stealing mine?" Aliya guessed, much to Alex's dismay.

"No." He said, grimly. "Robbins thinks I'd be a good fit to take her job in Africa, working at the clinic."

The Levine woman was startled by the announcement, slowly turning towards her friend to look him in the eye, or check his temperature to see if he wasn't delirious from a fever.

Though, even that specific thought led Aliya to spiral in shame, because she couldn't be the one to stop him from doing something that could further his career.

But, for purely selfish reasons, Aliya didn't think she could live ten thousand miles away from him.

On second thought, she was sure she couldn't live that far away from him.

"Oh." Aliya finally managed to say, even if it was just a noise. "Really? That's great."

Alex chewed on his lip, narrowing his eyes at the way the brunette was trying to be supportive in a totally unconvincing manner. "You don't think I should go?"

Aliya sighed, sweeping indivisible dirt from her scrubs as her eyes bored holes into the floor. "It's a great opportunity. I'm not going to be the one to clip your wings, Alex."

"Clip my wings?"

"You know what I mean." Aliya said with a light-hearted shrug. "I never want to be the one to hold you back from what you truly want in life. As much as I would want you to stay in a ten mile radius from me at all times."

Alex chuckled, softly, reaching up to tousle her hair in a loving gesture.

"And, besides, I could just hide in your suitcase, and then you're stuck with me until I get a flight home." Aliya joked, grinning like a mad woman.

Alex watched her, silently for a moment too long.

"After all these years," He spoke, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "You're still my favourite person to talk to."

A wide smile danced across her lips. "I'm a great conversationalist."

The Karev man's face fell in an instant. "You're meant to say it back otherwise I sound really dumb."

"Levine, you ready?" Owen stepped out the conference room, standing by the open door.

"Yes, all ready." Aliya slipped out of her chair, advancing towards the room.

"You're meant to say it back!" Alex protested, calling after her as Aliya paused, shooting him a look from over her shoulder.

"You're not so bad to talk to when you're not grunting and grumbling like a cave man."

And then, Aliya disappeared into the conference room, leaving Alex all alone.

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"No!" Aliya protested as Bailey advanced towards her with purpose, scrambling around the desk looking for one of the many papers she had scattered on it. "I have so much to do today still, and I—"

"Suck it up," Bailey interjected, a hand on her hip, disregarding the fact her resident had a list of things to do for the trail, let alone her coffee break so she could finally unwind after her interview.

It went well, all things considered.

Though, Aliya wasn't even sure herself is he wanted to be chief resident.

Sure, it was a great opportunity and all, it's what they all had been working towards all year, but now it's just one step away, she didn't even know anymore.

Surgery was what she was good at.

And, being chief resident only took time away from it.

"You're coming with me. I have a bowel obstruction."

"You do?" Aliya perked up, because bowel obstruction's are always fun. "What is it?"

"Not me, my patient." Bailey deadpanned, an implication in her voice showing that she had actually managed to crack a joke.

Aliya let out a sigh. "Surely there's another resident who—"

"Levine," The attending's tone was sharp enough to cut through glass. "I'm offering you a free surgery. Are you taking it, or are you going to sit around punching letters on keyboard?"

The Levine woman chewed on her lip, finally pushing herself out of her chair, though begrudgingly. "Fine! Though, it better be something interesting like a dolls head, or a lion's tooth." She grumbled, following Bailey down the hall. "What's going on with you today?"

Bailey scoffed. "What do you mean?"

Aliya narrowed her eyes. "You've forced me to scrub in with you, twice!"

The attending shrugged her shoulders, handing Aliya the chart. "You're the least annoying resident at this point in time."

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Aliya placed a hand on her heart, mockingly, though Bailey just rolled her eyes. "So, how's it going with the hot nurse?"

Bailey's jaw dropped from the shock of the very abrupt statement, reaching over to swat at the resident's arm. "I think I made a mistake, you're very annoying."

"Eli," Aliya said, the corners of her lips curving upwards. "That's his name right?"

Bailey nodded, her pace quickening as if to get rid of her. "Go prep the patient."

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"Hey, Aliya—"

"I'm not asleep!" The woman in question burst out, shooting upright in her chair from where she may or may not have fallen asleep against the keyboard after the bowel obstruction surgery with Bailey, and Zola's hernia repair surgery.

It went well, even if Meredith and Derek were hanging around the door to the OR, pestering the peds attending every few minutes. Though, seeing as they were going through with the adoption after all, Aliya didn't mind at all. She was happy for the couple.

"You looked pretty asleep." Henry Burton commented, pointing to the yawning woman's cheek. "You gotta post-it note—"

"Oh," The Levine woman swatted the neon yellow paper away. "Why are you here?"

"Wow, thanks." Henry frowned, sarcastically.

Aliya yawned once again into her palm, stretching her back out. "You know what I mean."

"I had some questions for Dr. Webber." He explained, drumming his fingertips onto the desk. "About his diabetes trail."

"Really?" Aliya smiled, leaning her chin into her palm. "Is he gonna take you on as a patient?"

Henry shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."

"There's something else?" Aliya raised a brow at the Burton man's incredibly nervous silence, where his eyes were scattering around the room.

"Maybe." He repeated, seemingly skittish.

Raising a curious brow, Aliya leaned back in her chair, spinning from side to side. "And that is?"

"Who is this— uh—" Henry cleared his throat, leaning in closer. "Dr. Perkins?"

He regretted it as soon as he said it.

Because, now his best friend's youngest sister was looking at him as if she had just discovered a gold mine.

Where, in that gold mine, was the discovery that one Henry Burton had something for the cardio goddess, formally known as Teddy Altman.

"No freaking way!" The brunette exclaimed in disbelief.

"Don't." Henry shook his head, burying his head in his palms, as if that could help him hide from her.

"You like her!" Aliya clapped her hands together.

"Stop!" Henry hissed, and it was as if they were teenagers all over again.

"Oh!" Aliya threw her head back in laughter, amused by the blush painting his cheeks a deep red. "They should make a movie out of this! This is great material, I'll have you know. Marriage of convenience really is a recipe for true love, who would have known."

"I'm not in love with her." Henry said, stubbornly in denial.

Aliya pursed her lips at him, her arms crossed over her chest, totally unconvinced at what he was trying to express.

"I'm not!" He continued to deny further. "She's dating Dr. What's-his-face with the fancy hair and blue eyes, she doesn't have time for her sick husband."

"You have great hair too, Henry." Aliya, Henry's personal hype-woman, told him. "And, blue eyes are overrated. Green eyes are much better."

Henry frowned. "You're only saying that because your guy has green eyes."

"Maybe, maybe not." Aliya shrugged, chewing on the cap of her pen she had been using as a prop for the past five minutes. "However, the sentiment is still the same. You're a catch."

Henry gave her a disapproving look, though he didn't mean it at all, this woman was the closest thing he had to a sister, despite the fact he actually had a sister of his own.

He liked to think that Aliya was his.

The pair grew up together, he had known her ever since she was in diapers. Surely that accounted for something.

"I'm going to tell Trent you said that." Henry threatened.

"He would agree with me."

He tried not to laugh, because that only gave her more ammunition to use against him. "You're not funny."

"I'm very funny." Aliya countered, just as Trent appeared behind Henry, scaring him half to death.

"You ready to go?" Her brother questioned Henry, patting him on the arm as he held his chest from the shock of Trent yelling in his ear.

"Oh, yeah." Henry nodded, gathering up his coat and bag. "Just telling your sister here that she's not very funny."

Trent chuckled. "Good, she needs to be humbled."

The woman in question pushed her hair back over her shoulder, unbothered by their statements. "Did Mom like April? Does she still have all of her hair?"

Trent raised a brow. "Mom was fine."

Aliya scoffed, crossing her arms. "That makes a change."

"And, I might have accidentally slipped up—"

Aliya inhaled, sharply, knowing this couldn't possibly be going somewhere good. "Oh, God—"

"And told Mom that you are dating Harper Avery's grandson."

"You did what?" Aliya hissed, jumping up from her seat in panic.

"I'm sorry!" Trent raised his hands in surrender, and Aliya knew her brother didn't actually mean to do it.

Because, at the end of the day, he was always on her side.

"What's so bad about that?" Henry asked in alarm, not knowing the full extent of what their mother was like.

"Oh," Aliya chuckled, morbidly, though it was only going to be her funeral. "Sweet, naive, innocent Henry."

Trent turned to the Burton man, prepared to elaborate further. "Mom has a vendetta with every one. Especially people who don't give her fancy awards or some shit. And, Jackson, well he's Harper Avery's grandson."

"Let me guess," Henry, America's Sherlock Holmes, spoke. "This Harper Avery didn't give Molly an award?"

"Right on the money." Aliya grumbled, hands braced in her hips. "I can't believe you told her."

"She already knew you had a boyfriend," Trent shrugged, as if he wasn't aware of the carnage he had just caused for his sister. "It came up at a family dinner a couple months ago. She just didn't know who he was."

"That's weird." Aliya mumbled. "She hasn't interrogated me about it."

"Yet." Trent corrected in a warning tone. "She said something about coming to visit you."

At that, the brunette dropped back onto the desk chair, burying her head into her hands and thinking about all the places she would rather be in other than the state her mother was in.

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"And, then she danced on the table with a whole bottle of tequila on her hand." Aliya whispered softly to the wide awake baby in the crib, her chin resting on the bar as one hand was being held by Zola's. "But, don't do that until you're at least the legal age to be drinking. You're only six months only, I shouldn't be talking to you about tequila."

"I don't think that's a very child-appropriate story. Like Humpty Dumpty, or The Ugly Duckling." Jackson said from where he was standing by the doors to Zola's hospital room, his bag hooked over his shoulder, smiling causally as if he hadn't spent the last thirty minutes looking for her, only to find her here.

"The Ugly Duckling always bummed me out." Aliya told him, shifting her head around to look at him.

"The nurses told me you would be in here, what are you doing?" Jackson asked, moving towards the stool she was sat on.

"Derek and Mer asked me to watch Zola whilst they had their adoption interview." Aliya explained, picking up the stuffed teddy, placing it next to Zola's head. "She's great company, she finds my stories interesting. How'd your interview go?"

Jackson pushed a stool up beside Aliya's dropping his bag on the floor and sitting next to her, resting his own head on the bars so the pair were staring directly into each other's eyes.

"I'm out." He announced in the most casual way.

Her brows knotted together. "You're what? No, you can't be. What makes you say that?"

He shrugged, reaching a hand up to tuck a loose brunette wave behind her ear, letting his hand trail down her soft cheek. "I quit the clinical trial."

"You what?" Aliya reached her free hand over to his knee. "Jackson, why? It was going so well. It's groundbreaking research and—"

She stopped herself, taking her head off of the bars of the crib as everything made sense, where the pieces of the puzzle neatly slotted into place.

"It could win a Harper Avery." She spoke, her voice small as she watched Jackson dip his head, his hand falling from her cheek.

"You of all people should understand." The Avery man informed her, because even if her mother didn't have an award in her name, she still knew the weight the Levine surname had.

In response, Aliya nodded, holding his hand in hers.

"Anyway," He broke the silence, the corner of his lip tugging upwards. "I got everything I need."

The brunette smiled wide, reaching forward and wrapping her hands around his shoulders, burying her head into his neck as his hands traced circles across her back.

"I ran into Trent today." He spoke into her hair, and he even felt the Levine woman's jaw stiffen against his shoulder.

"You did, huh?" Aliya replied, though she didn't pull away.

"He told me your mother wanted to meet me."

Now it was Aliya's turn to pull away, seeing as she decided one minute ago that she wasn't going to tell Jackson that, to save him from any more bad news today.

"Oh." The brunette's voice was low, her heart hammering in her chest.

"Is there anything I should prepare for?" Jackson asked. "An initiation involving kidney removal and a sacred pact with the devil?"

"I might need to make some flashcards." Aliya joked, glancing back to Zola, just to check she was alright, which she was, now that she was sleeping soundly.

(Though it really wasn't a joke, she would have to make some flashcards if he was going to survive five minutes in her mother's presence.)

"April said your mother was nice."

Aliya scoffed at that sentiment. "There are many words I'd use to describe my mother, and nice isn't one of them. Overbearing, stubborn, persistent come to mind."

Jackson pressed his lips together, panic settling in. Usually, mothers loved him. He was used to it, they found him charming. "I should be worried?"

"It wouldn't hurt." Aliya suggested. "Look, Trent and I got different versions of our parents. He got the loving, caring ones. The ones that supported him no matter what. The ones that got him out of a shoplifting charge when he was eighteen."

Aliya paused with a sigh, chewing on the corner of her lip as Jackson watched her every move, listening to what she had to say with patience.

"I got parents—" She trailed off, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I got the ones that were never proud. Whatever I did, whatever I accomplished, my grades, anything— It was never enough for them. I can never and will never be enough for them. My childhood was far from warm and fuzzy, and even thinking about seeing my mother makes eating battery acid sound fun!"

Her voice raised a little higher than she intended, waking Zola up so much she began to cry.

"Shit!—" Aliya shot the from the stool, reaching into the crib to pick up the crying baby, beginning to bounce her in her arms. "Ah! I mean sugar!"

Jackson smirked at the sight of her frantically trying to stop the meltdown, and now that Zola had stopped crying, he reached across to her, placing a hand on her arm to grab her attention.

"You know," He said, his voice a way Aliya could only describe it sounding like warm coffee. "You'll always be enough for me, Aliya. I only need you, I don't need anything more."

"I know." Aliya replied, glancing at him from over the top of Zola's head as she soothed the baby back to sleep.

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( notes! )

aliya being everyone's therapist as if she hasn't got problems of her own

this is kind of a filler chapter seeing as there's one more chapter left of season seven/act two!! but i promise more eventful stuff happens in the next chapter (iykyk)

lowkey looking forward to it because so much happens in act three *evil laugh*

( word count! — 6,200 )