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chapter thirty eight ━ unaccompanied minor
season seven, episode twenty two

❝ save it for someone who hasn't
spent months working their ass off
on the clinical trial ❞

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trigger warning!
this chapter contains depictions of
abuse, please read with caution.

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"So, you're still doing the whole silent treatment routine?" The oldest Levine sibling spoke, placing down the box he was currently unloading from his creepy rental truck and crossing his arms.

The five of them — Jackson, Aliya, April, James and Trent — were currently moving boxes into his new house.

Well, April, Jackson and Trent were. Aliya and James were sat on said boxes, playing a very heated game of uno in the back of the van before Jackson and Trent had to step in.

Who knew a twenty nine year old could be so competitive.

And, angry when James put down a plus four.

Now that he had sent April and Jackson up to James' bedroom to help him unpack, Trent had finally gotten his sister all alone.

Though Aliya know wished she was back in the presence of her nine year old nephew, not her older brother.

"Nope." Aliya denied, though she didn't meet the dirty blonde man's eyes, she just pursed her lips at the many boxes of stuff her brother had in his possession, now that she had to actually help instead of entertain her nephew. "Jeez, you have so much crap it's unbelievable."

"Excuse you," Trent looked up, personally offended by the insult. "Have you seen the amount of shit you have in your room?"

"Hey!" Aliya whipped her head around to finally look at him. "It's not shit. I knew you always hated my dresser!"

Her brother pulled a look of disgust, placing a box down onto the sidewalk. "It looks like something Nana has in her bedroom." Trent replied matter-of-factly, taking a box away from the brunette.

She had already dropped a whole box of dishes, hence why she was put on babysitting duty.

"Are you—"

"I'm implying that you have the taste of an old woman." Trent clarified before Aliya could even question it.

"Oh! That is rich coming from someone," Aliya pulled out a casserole dish with pictures of Trent in his sophomore year of high school around the outside. "Who owns this."

"That was a gag present—" Trent protested, tugging the dish out her grasp, frowning. "It's nostalgic."

He placed emphasis on the finally word, holding the casserole dish close to his chest as if it were a life jacket.

"Hm." She grunted, closing the box and bundling it up in her arms, advancing towards the house, which was relatively big for just the two of them, she thought to herself.

With four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a huge kitchen diner, an even bigger living room and a garden with one of those wooden play structures that looked like a castle, Aliya couldn't help but wonder if he bought this house for a particular reason, that involved the red head, of course.

"Hey, Liy—" Trent moved forward, abandoning the boxes as he jogged up to his sister, stopping her before she had a chance to go inside the house. "I honestly didn't mean to tell Mom about Jackson, if I could rewind time, I would. He's a good guy, if she can't see past the whole Avery thing then—"

"It's fine." Aliya interrupted, giving him a convincing smile, before redacting that previous statement. "Actually,"

(Because, she couldn't let her brother get off that easy, and everything was definitely not fine.)

Aliya moved up the steps leading to the house, placing the cardboard box down on the very huge porch before jogging back down the steps, striding past Trent to grab another box of his belongings. "It's not fine, she's going to kill me, and you're going to be responsible."

Trent chuckled, though when he was met with one of Aliya's glares as she popped back out from behind the wide open door of the van, he quickly stopped, his face dropping. "I deserved that. Look, I'll deal with Mom. She'll have to go through me first."

At that, Aliya scoffed, shaking her head as she passed him again, dropping another box off at the front door. "Because, you're the golden boy who can do no wrong."

Trent sighed, following her up the steps, gesturing for her to take a seat on the step, which she did, very begrudgingly. "Why do you think I moved to Seattle?"

It seemed like a genuine enough question.

So, with a raised brow, Aliya answered. "Because you're all lovey dovey with April."

Trent grinned, looking back towards the wide open door, where he could see through all the way to the kitchen where April was currently giving James a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal, smiling wide as she spoke to him, and laughing harder when he spoke through a mouthful.

"That's one of the reasons."

Watching her brother closely, Aliya could see as clear as day how much he was in love with April Kepner. It was written all over his face. Ever since they were kids, Aliya could read him like a book, he displayed every single emotion he felt on his face for only her to see.

"You know," Trent forcefully tore his gaze away from his girlfriend, and Aliya had to hold herself back from laughing at him. "I'm gonna marry her."

"You are?" Aliya grinned in surprise, pushing her shoulder into her brothers, forgetting the betrayal from before, how he told their mother about Jackson.

Because, she could handle her mother.

She handled her for twenty nine years of her life, she wouldn't be able to even ruin her and Jackson. She couldn't even come close.

"Yep." He answered causally, and he reached into his pocket, digging out something before showing it to Aliya.

The brunette woman gasped as she laid eyes on a ring box in his hand, clasping a hand over her mouth from the shock.

"No way!" Aliya exclaimed, completely at a loss for words as she reached for the box, opening it carefully, exposing the most April ring she had ever seen — princess cut and silver. "It's beautiful, she's gonna love it." She assured, marvelling at how darn shiny that thing was.

"James loves her, she's met Mom, Dad's gonna come and see the house next week," Trent trailed off, shrugging his shoulders as he slipped the ring box back into the safety of his pocket. "It just feels right, you know?"

"You sap." Aliya joked, a small smirk on her lips, taking great joy in the fact that her brother was finally happy again. "When are you gonna ask her?"

"Tonight." Trent replied immediately and without hesitation, as if he hadn't been sure about anything more in his entire life, which Aliya audibly gasped at. "At dinner. I booked us at the same restaurant we had our first date. I'm gonna ask her to move in too."

The brunette clapped her hands together. "No more chore wheel!"

Trent raised a suspicious brow. "What?"

"Never mind," Aliya brushed him off, not ruining what he has coming for him. "You were saying?"

The Levine man cleared his throat, lowering his voice to a whisper. "I came to Seattle to get away from Mom."

Aliya scoffed, dramatically. "And, here I thought you came to Seattle for me."

He smiled, the corners of his eyes creasing as he reached out for his sister's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You're an added perk."

"Well," Aliya affectionately patted his hand, staring out onto the sidewalk, where a kid was currently walking his dog. "I'm happy for you, I really am."

"Auntie Aliya!" James called from somewhere in the house, though it was quickly followed by his sneakers running across the hardwood floors, and him then throwing himself onto Aliya's back, his tiny arms wrapping around her neck.

"Hey, buddy." Aliya patted his arm, though the kid was currently restricting her airway, so the brunette could barely even breathe.

"I beat April at uno!" He exclaimed, seemingly very proud of himself as he loosened his grip slightly, though his head was still pressed into Aliya's shoulder.

The red head in question came sauntering out of the house, Jackson following behind her. She stopped in front of where Trent was sitting her arms crossed.

"It's true." She spoke with an over exaggerated sigh.

"You're unbeatable." Aliya informed him with a chuckle as Jackson dropped down next to her on the step. "A reigning champion."

April laughed as Trent rose from the step, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "I was just telling Aliya about our dinner reservations tonight."

"Oh!" April exclaimed, nestling deeper into Trent's side as she turned to the others. "We've booked it for two, but it you guys should totally come along."

"That would be nice— Ow!"

Jackson was stopped mid sentence by the elbow jabbing very subtly into his ribcage.

"We're working," Aliya told the Kepner woman, faking a very sad look. "Rain check?"

"Sure!" April nodded, wandering back into the house with Trent attached to her side, where they began to get into a very in depth conversation about picture placements.

"Can I play with you and Jackson?" James asked his aunt, his eyes darting between her and the Avery man.

"Oh," Jackson grinned, shaking his head. "I don't know about that, I too am unbeatable at uno. Your aunt gets very mad at me every time I win."

Aliya scoffed, a smirk dancing across her lips, her eyes narrowing. "I do not."

Now, her lips were pursed, which only made James and Jackson laugh even harder.

James looked towards Jackson, secretly sharing a very all knowing glance, his voice lowering into a whisper as he leaned to Jackson's ear. "I stash plus fours up my sleeves!"

"I heard that!" Aliya exclaimed, jokingly angry as James leapt up, racing into the house to retrieve the uno.

"Now, what was that for? I'm gonna get a bruise." He mocked a sob, though even he knew it didn't even hurt him at all.

In the lowest possible whisper, Aliya leaned towards his ear to say: "Trent's gonna propose tonight!"

"You're kidding!" Jackson exclaimed, looking back to the house, eyes resting on the couple, pointing and staring at a plain wall.

"Yes!" Aliya grinned. "They've only been together for seven months, but I've never seen my brother like this in a long time."

"Have you ever thought about, you know," Jackson cleared his throat, shuffling closer towards Aliya, so there shoulders were pressed close together, and his hand trailed up to her knee, as if the two couldn't even bear to be apart, even in each others presence. "Moving out of Meredith's house, getting an apartment, or a house. Like this one, maybe."

The brunette perked up a bit, focusing her eyes on him. "All the time."

Jackson nodded, a smirk tugging on the very corner of this lips. "I'm glad we're on the same page."

He leaned in closer, moving painfully slow to took everything in Aliya not to grab his face and quicken his movement, but finally he pressed a kiss against her lips, and as they drew away from each other, Aliya placed her hand onto his cheek, rubbing her thumb against his freshly shaven beard.

"Oh," She scrunched up her nose. "I meant just me, alone—"

With a scoff, Jackson rolled his eyes, closing the space between them once more. "Shut up."

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"You wrote crib on the ground." Aliya spoke as she, Derek and Meredith pushed through the double doors on the neuro floor. "I think the social worker had a right to be a tad concerned."

"It required a little—" Derek trailed off, his eyes darting skittishly to the side. "Imagination. But, she got the memo."

The brunette woman raised a very sceptical brow at the neuro surgeon. "That you planned on raising your daughter in a shell of a house?"

Derek made a face at her. "Keep drinking your coffee." He advised before turning to the Grey woman as the brunette sighed, taking a very long sip out of her much needed source of caffeine. Who knew moving boxes was exhausting. "I'm gonna stop by the lab, I'll see you after the intake, okay?"

"Okay." Meredith smiled, stopping at the desk.

"I'll guess I'll see you lying dead in a ditch." Aliya muttered into her coffee cup, seeing as the clinical trial was basically third wheeling for hours on end.

The neurosurgeon shot her a look, retrieving a dollar out of his pocket and passing it to her, as if she didn't have a dollar of her own.

"Use it." He ordered, and before Aliya could question, he continued on. "Buy yourself some coffee. It might make you a bit more pleasant."

"I'm very pleasant." The Levine woman protested with pursed lips.

"Oh God." Meredith sighed, retrieving her own chart. "I forgot it was the Hobart's today. It always bums me out when we have an Alzheimer's patient with young kids."

"I got the Francis', we could always switch?" Aliya offered.

"No, it's okay." Meredith said in reply, staring back at the room the Hobart's were in, the sound of young kids laughing distinguishable.

"There's no shame in sitting this one out." Derek suggested. "I can do the intake."

"Stop treating me like I'm your wife." Meredith quickly fired back, whilst Aliya simply watched their marital quarrel like it was a sitcom. "On the trial, I'm a colleague. I'm allowed to say "it bums me out", it doesn't mean you have to feed me warm milk and run a bath. Treat me like a doctor."

"Right. Sorry. Ok." Derek said, quickly, in surrender. "Go do the intake, colleague."

At that, Meredith turned on her heel, striding into the patient room, leaving Aliya snickering at the desk, and the Shepherd man shooting her a look.

"What?"

"Nothin'." Though, the Levine woman was still laughing into her cup.

Who needed TV when you had the Derek and Meredith Show available to you at all times?

"Shepherd? Levine?" Owen Hunt approached the two, completely catching them off guard. "You got a minute? I need to talk to you about your trial."

"Oh—" Derek looked back to where Meredith had disappeared. "I should get Meredith. I just got a lecture on the failure to extend professional courtesy to one's spouse."

Aliya nodded, vouching for him. "It's not something I ever want to witness again."

"I think it's best you don't get Meredith." Owen responded.

That had seemed to catch the pair off guard, as they shared a look and followed the head of trauma back down the hall they had entered to start their day, just moments ago.

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Aliya hadn't even been listening to what Derek and Meredith had been saying, she had simply been pacing the very short width of the hallway they were huddled in.

Because, as if the universe was playing some sort of practical joke, Owen Hunt had just informed Derek and Aliya that Meredith had tampered with the Alzheimer's trial.

They didn't know how.

They didn't know why.

All they knew was that Meredith did something that could potentially result in the downfall of the clinical trial.

Her clinical trial.

Because, even though all three of them had worked on it, Aliya still felt as if she could claim some ownership over it, seeing as she had poured every gram of her last available mental energy into it.

"What the hell did you do?" Aliya snapped, she didn't know if she had interrupted their chatting, but she didn't even care.

Meredith pursed her lips, looking away from her husband, and her friend. "I can't tell you."

"You— you can't tell us?" Aliya scoffed, pressing a cold palm to her forehead as if that would calm
her down. "Meredith, I swear—"

"Nothing I did changes the results of the trial."

She was speaking awfully calm for a woman who had just destroyed a clinical trial with one fell swoop.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Aliya's voice raised, whilst Derek stayed completely silent, staring unwaveringly as his wife. "Meredith, just the fact you did something changes everything! Are you really just going to stand there and say that?"

"I'm sorry." The Grey woman spoke, her voice implying no regrets, no guilt — she was just sorry that they found out. "But, I can't tell you anything."

With that news out into the open world, the three of them sauntered into the room Richard was in.

"You wanted to be treated like a colleague?" The Shepherd man challenged, closing the door behind them. "I'm gonna treat you like a colleague."

Richard, completely confused and dumbfounded, took off his glasses, watching as Meredith stood by the door, her hands rubbing at her arms.

"Alex Karev informed Dr. Hunt that Dr. Grey tampered with our trail." Derek informed Dr. Webber. "She switched around the placebos and the drugs, probably invalidating our trial."

The Levine woman looked across at the dirty blonde, who was now focusing too much on the tips of her shoe, unable to meet Richard's eyes.

Oh—

Aliya's jaw dropped, and she was hit with an epiphany

No,

"Is this true?" Richard took a step forward towards Meredith.

"Nothing I did has any effect—"

"Tell me exactly what you did." Richard said, sternly.

Meredith shook her head. "I can't do that."

Yeah, it was Adele. She changed it so Richard's wife got the drug—

Aliya closed her jaw shut, not knowing if this particular piece of information was true, but it was the best possible explanation. "Meredith—"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Derek gritted his teeth, holding back his anger as best as he possibly could. "You think the FDA will get anywhere near this hospital ever again?"

"Meredith, look at me." The Chief advanced closer to her. "If this is wrong, if there is something going on, if Karev is exaggerating, this is the part where you have to tell me. This is the part where you have to deny the charges."

Meredith's expression remained unchanged, as if it didn't even matter to her. "Kick me off the study. There's nothing wrong with the study—"

"Oh for gods sake, Meredith!" Aliya muttered, running her hands through her hair, turning away from the fellow resident she didn't even want to look at anymore.

How could she have been so oblivious to the repercussions? Of what this meant for the hospital? For her husband? For Aliya?

"—Nothing I did changes anything."

"Meredith, stop." Aliya threw her hands down, the trial slipping through her fingers. "Just, stop."

"But, you're not denying it." Richard pointed out, and Meredith looked to the floor.

One thing Meredith Grey wasn't was a liar, that's for sure.

"I'm gonna have to investigate what's going on here." Richard told the three of them, before addressing Meredith personally. "But, it looks to me like you just lost your job."

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Aliya burst out the room before Meredith and Derek, leaving them to discuss whatever they need to discuss in private.

But, in all honesty, if Aliya didn't get the furthest away from Meredith, she would throttle her.

Because, how could she have been so darn stupid! So thoughtless!

It really was a mystery.

"Hey, what's up with you?" Cristina asked the brunette who had just stormed passed her, stopping right in front of Alex, who was doing his charts peacefully at the desk, unaware of everything that had just gone down.

"What do you know?" Aliya interrogated him, ignoring the knotting of his brows, and the way the four other residents with them darted their eyes toward her and the Karev man.

"Aliya, is everything okay?" Jackson asked from the other side of the desk, noticing the way her cheeks were flushed with the sort of rash you'd get if you were in need of an anger management session.

"What do I know about what?" Alex asked, sincerely.

"Cut the crap." Aliya snapped, though she didn't mean to. She didn't mean to at all. "Meredith. The trial. What do you know?"

"Oh." He frowned, looking away from his charting.

"I'm not mad at you for telling Hunt, I just need you to tell me what you know." Aliya said, trying to get her voice to a level of calm she didn't quite possess at this point of time.

"So, they're probably gonna fire me." Meredith trudged towards Alex. "Are you happy?"

Now, every one's unwavering attention was on the three.

The brunette should really start carrying around a tape measure to ensure the trial wrecker stayed ten feet away at all times.

"Meredith—" Aliya scoffed, her head flying back to meet her eyes. "What the hell do you expect?"

"Come on," Alex replied, his voice gruff. "They're not gonna—"

"I want your crap out of my house by the end of the day."

Aliya didn't think she could hate Meredith even more than she did at that point in time.

Firstly, she sabotages the trial, and proceeds to act all calm and collected when she's dragging the hospital down with her, when she's dragging Derek and Aliya down with her.

Then, secondly, she kicked Alex out of the house in front of everyone for having a shred of a moral compass.

Because, at the end of the day, these are people's lives.

The person who was going to have the active agent, had the placebo instead.

Meredith denied them of the opportunity to have a potentially life altering dose of the drug.

Could she really not see that she was the one in the wrong here?

"You're the freaking one who did what you did," Aliya snapped before Meredith had a chance to even escape. "You were the one who screwed up, who acted stupid. What about the FDA, hm? We might be blacklisted, are you happy? Don't blame him for telling the damn truth."

"As I said," Meredith pressed her lips tightly together, her blue eyes landing on the woman she had just betrayed. "Nothing I did—"

"Invalidates the trial," The brunette rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I've heard that a thousand times."

"Aliya, I had—"

"Save it, Meredith—"

The Grey woman was taken back by the fact that she wasn't even calling her Mer, and the way she was saying her full name cut her like broken glass.

"—I really don't want to hear it." Aliya stopped her, shaking her head because she didn't want to hear Meredith's lame excuses. "Save it for someone who hasn't spent months working their ass off on the clinical trial, only to have it invalidated right in front of their eyes."

Meredith opened her mouth to say something, but quickly she realised nothing she could possibly do could soothe Aliya in that moment, so instead she left her, disappearing down the corridor.

"What the hell was that?" Cristina's voice was laced with the bitter taste of confusion, just as everyone's pagers buzzed.

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—✩—
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"A 757 went down in the Sound," Richard announced on the set of stairs in the foyer, his hands braced on his hips as he stood before the slew of doctors in front of him. "We're looking at about two hundred injured passengers, we're the designated crisis centre. Families will be instructed to come here to find their loved ones."

Aliya turned her head, glancing up at Jackson stood behind her, his arm round her shoulder as the pair listened to the Chief.

"We are activating Surge Protocol, Dr. Hunt is gonna be running the show. It's gonna be chaotic. You need to listen carefully, you need to stay focused, do not contribute to the panic. Get to your stations."

At the Chief's command, everybody scattered, and Jackson and Aliya began to rush to the ER, following Dr. Bailey and Dr. Hunt and the other residents down the corridor.

"What happened?" Jackson whispered as they moved, mindful of the fact that Meredith was standing right before them.

"I'll tell you later, okay?"

He nodded his head in understanding, seeing as they were currently in crisis mode. Instead, he reached for her hand, giving it a quick squeeze, just so she knew he was right there with her, whatever was going on.

"Dr. Bailey, clear any beds that we can. Discharge or transfer." Owen ordered, before holding a clipboard in his hand. "All right, Torres, you'll be with me. Kepner and Levine, set up the ER for triage. Other Grey, I want you running the family centre, take over the cafeteria. Yang, blood bank."

"We might need a candyman." April suggested.

"Dr. Sloan will be our candyman. Let's be liberal with pain meds for our victims, and sedatives for patients that we're moving." Owen announced, referring back to the previous clipboard. "Avery, you can help him out. Let's move, people!"

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"Officials say it's too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, but here's what we do know—"

The radio was playing quietly in the background of the ER, and Aliya was vacantly listening as she sat on a gurney, Jackson sat on a stool next to her, seeing as she had taken this opportunity to tell him what happened with Meredith and the trial, and he appeared to be just as stunned as she was.

"—The flights originated this morning in Baltimore carrying one hundred and eighty three passengers and eighteen crew members—"

"Still nobody?" Lexie asked as she entered the ER from where she was manning the family centre. "The families are going crazy, what is taking so long?"

"Fishing two hundred people out of the water is slow business," Mark replied, holding up his phone. "You wanna play angry birds?"

Lexie shot him a look of pure disgust.

"They'll do trade at the waterfront." Owen explained, seeing as Mark provided no help whatsoever, just the proposition of phone games. "Takes time."

"Actually," Owen began with a sigh, Arizona next to him, clad in a truman gown. "With it taking this long, there's gonna be a lot of hypothermia— Kepner!"

"Yeah!" April called. "Warm blankets, heated lamps, and heated IV fluids, got it!"

The Kepner woman disappeared, and Aliya and Jackson had started a game of who could throw the most cotton balls in a bed pan without missing.

"You post chief resident yet?" Mark called across the ER.

"No," Owen shook his head. "Not yet."

"What's the hold up?"

"The suspense ain't killing me." Callie said, eyes fixed on her magazine as she pushed herself into view, where she was sat on a stool. "It's out pf Grey or Levine."

"Well, Karev made a great play for it. A plane full of orphans, that's pretty impressive." Arizona informed, hyping up the man she was mentoring.

"He's already decided." Callie pointed out that obvious fact. "You don't have to lobby for your boy."

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"This is an extremely serious accusation, Meredith."

The game of bed pans and cotton balls didn't last very long, seeing as she was whisked away to a conference room by Richard to discuss the clinical trial once more with Derek and Meredith.

"Can't you tell me anything?" Richard asked, whilst Derek just paced behind his chair, still completely perplexed by all of this.

"I can't, I'm sorry." Meredith answered back simply, and Aliya just sat there, her hand on her face as she stared blankly into space.

"Talk to me." He said, sternly, lurching forward towards the dirty blonde. "How many patients are we talking about here? Did this happen more than once?"

It was all valid questions, but the answer was quite obvious, Aliya thought.

Meredith shook her head. "I can't say that either."

"She can't say anything." Derek muttered out of frustration.

"We're gonna unwind this, Meredith." Richard was now taking a different approach, so it seemed. "Karev is figuring out what cases he was on when he saw you. He'll narrow down the dates, we know which patients—"

"Nothing I did changed the trial. Fire me, do whatever you have to—"

"Look—" Derek interrupted, his voice raised enough the whole hospital could probably hear him. "You don't get to choose, okay? You don't get to decide who gets the drug, or the placebo. You don't get to decide what information the trial gets!"

A knock on the window sounded, and Alex appeared with a brown envelope for Richard, who got up to accept it.

"Anything I tell you affects the trail. If you don't know what I did, the trail stays blind—"

"The trial is over. You screwed me, you screwed the hospital, you screwed yourself, you screwed Aliya, this is your disease we are trying to cure—"

"Am I the only one who's not blind here?" Aliya broke her silence, finally saying something in the fifteen minutes they had been in this room. "I mean, it's obvious who she swapped everything around for, right?"

Her eyes darted between the other three in the room, and it seemed Richard had found out to, from the information in his hand.

"Derek, it was Adele."

And, that confirmed Aliya's exact suspicions, all along she knew Meredith was acting weird, trying to get Adele in.

"What are you gonna do?" Derek questioned after a deafening silence that Aliya wouldn't necessarily want to relive.

"I don't know." Richard, now defeated, placed the envelope onto the table.

"The protocol is fairly clear."

Meredith's face twitched, and she slowly turned to her husband. "Are you encouraging him to fire me?"

"Derek, I basically pressured her to do it. You have to fire us both." Richard moved towards the neurosurgeon.

And, totally against her will, Aliya dropped her face in her hands and began to laugh at how insane this situation was.

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—✩—
⠀

Paged back to the ER again, Aliya welcomed the escapism of it, because this whole situation was impossible.

She couldn't even begin to comprehend what was going through her mind, her thoughts were just an incoherent mess.

"Emergency services had begun identifying bodies. They've given us a list." Richard stood at the front of the room, acting as if he hadn't just told Derek to fire him. "The airline reps are on their way, we've got social workers here, and more coming. It's a long list, each of you have families to inform."

Aliya accepted the list off of Dr. Bailey staring at the four names she had on there, and she wondered how she could possibly manage to tell four different sets of people that the person they love is dead.

"There's more coming. It's a long list. Each of you have families to inform."

"So, please be outside the cafeteria in exactly one hour." Dr. Perkins, the trauma counsellor began to speak. "You'll call one family at a time, and you'll be assigned a room to take them to and deliver the news, it's gonna be a long day."

"That's it." Richard spoke, disappearing with Perkins.

"This blows." Aliya made a face at the four surnames on the sheet in her hands.

"I can do yours if you'd like." Jackson offered from beside her.

"It's okay," Aliya gave him a strained smile, nodding her head in determination. "I'll be fine."

Owen passed them with his own sheet of paper in his hand, and Aliya had thought it was his own list, put now he was pinning it to the bulletin board, where on it, it was written as clear as day:

CHIEF RESIDENT:

APRIL KEPNER, M.D.

Alex and the others scowled in disappointment, leaving the newly appointed Chief Resident to stare at the board.

The Levine woman turned to her soon-to-be sister in law. "Congrats." She managed to say, trying to ignore the fact that her mother was going to kill her.

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—✩—
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"What did you say to her?" Meredith stormed into a room Alex, Aliya, and Zola's social worker were in, stopping in-front of them with her arms crossed.

"I didn't say anything." Alex defended.

"Janet," Meredith brought her attention to the very confused social worker, Janet. "Anything they say—"

"Can you shut up for a second?" Alex interrupted, because Aliya was currently busying herself with flicking through Zola's chart to avoid any interaction with the Grey woman. "This is nothing about that."

And, seeing as she wasn't a totally monster, she and Alex were discussing Zola's medical notes with the social worker, despite everything.

And, besides, she had just spent the past hour and a half telling people their family members were dead.

Janet smiled, warmly. "We're granting you temporary custody of Zola. Pending the completion of the petition, at which point, assuming all goes well, you'll be granted permanent custody."

Meredith looked shell-shocked, she hadn't even moved a single muscle.

"And, Zola's doctors, Dr. Levine and Dr. Karev, here says she's doing great. So, you can take her home."

"It's true." Aliya nodded her head, finally looking toward Meredith, rustling the chart in her hands. "Zola's perfect, she's ready to go home."

"Today, for that matter." Janet informed.

"Her incisions look fine, she's tolerating a normal diet. She's still on antibiotics." The Karev man listed off.

"She'll need regular neuro follow-ups." Aliya added.

"Here's a prescription of any pain meds she might need, but she's been fine the last couple of days." Alex moved from the chair, handing Meredith a slip of paper. "Do you have any questions about anything?"

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"Aliya Levine!"

The woman in question could have picked that voice from a line up, and as her mother stormed across the reception of the hospital, her designer handbag slouched along the crook of her elbow, wearing a beige trench coat, Aliya's heart began to hammer rapidly in her chest.

"Trent told me the news that his little girlfriend got Chief Resident," Her mother snapped, stopping behind where her daughter was stood against the desk, with the company of Jackson and Alex. "How could you let this happen? And, don't get me started on the clinical trial."

The Avery man turned around at the sound of the voice, noticing the way his girlfriend's knuckles had turned white, her grip tightened around her pen as she left her eyes trained on the counter, not even bothering to look over her shoulder.

"Mom—" Aliya blinked back the stress migraine from the day, after the clinical trial falling apart with her friendship with Meredith along with it, and informing the plane crash victims families the bad news, her mother's unexpected presence was the last thing she needed. "Not now. Please, not now."

"If not now, then when?" Her voice was sharp, her brows arched, and if looks could kill, you wouldn't want to be Aliya Levine.

"Hello, Dr. Levine," Jackson stepped forwards, extending his hand in an attempt to diffuse the tension, seeing as this is the last thing Aliya needed right now. "We've met before—"

Molly looked him up and down in judgement, staring at his outstretched hand as her blue eyes narrowed, as if she was better than him, as if he had some sort of audacity to even be talking to her.

"I know exactly who you are." Every word packed a punch, her lip curling upwards, her gaze returning to the back of her daughter's head, rather than the Avery man. "And, I didn't come here for you. I came here for her."

"Fine," Aliya pushed her hair back, out of her eyes, letting out a sigh and turning around to face her, dead in the eye. "If you're going to do this now."

The brunette gestured towards one of the side rooms off of the reception, because the last thing she wanted was a scene.

Molly advanced closer to the door, but before Aliya could, Jackson pulled her back, his voice lowering as he whispered in her ear. "If you need me, shout."

Aliya gave him her most convincing smile, though he could see right through it. "I will." She said, before disappearing through the door.

Molly didn't even wait for the door to shut before starting whatever she had to say.

"I haven't properly spoken to my own daughter in months and the only time you call is to ask for the money from your trust fund—"

"To fund surgeries for children living in Africa, Mom," Aliya pressed a hand to her forehead, moving across the room to lean against the oak table. "It's not like I wanted to buy an island."

Molly scoffed, rolling her eyes and placing her bag down onto a chair, shrugging off her trench coat, hanging it over the back. "I just don't get it, Aliya."

With a deep sigh, Aliya dug her palms into the table. "What don't you get, Mom?"

"How could you have let this happen?" If Aliya was none the wiser, she would say that she was truly hurt by it all.

Though, after knowing her mother for the twenty nine years she had been alive, she knew she wasn't hurt by it one bit.

"I thought you were more than this," Molly continued on, bracing a hand on her hip. "I really did. Did you even try for Chief Resident?"

Aliya began to laugh into her palm, though it could be said she was delirious. "Are you serious? Of course I did, Mom."

In an incredibly annoying gesture, Molly flicked her hair back, a firm pout on her lips as she waited for her daughter to continue.

Because, this was the same routine they did every time, the same dance.

This wasn't Aliya's first rodeo.

Not even her second, third or fourth.

"What do you think I do all day?" Aliya went on, because they both knew she would, she couldn't leave anything alone. "Mope about the hospital? I have been killing myself working on the clinical trial, alongside a dozen different surgeries that only further my career, writing articles, putting in extra hours, I don't know what else I could've done!"

"You didn't do enough!" Molly burst out, beginning to pace the very short width of the room off to the side of the reception as she continued her lecture. "I raised you to be better than this Aliya! I did not raise a failure."

It was as if Molly had taken a dagger, and killed her daughter.

Because, how could you hurt your own child, your own flesh and blood in more ways than one.

Aliya took a breath, because if she didn't focus on her breathing, she convinced herself she would stop. "April deserved it—"

"You've gotten too soft." Molly cut in with a scoff, shaking her head, narrowing her eyes in the direction of Jackson, who was still standing right outside, arms crossed, with Alex stood beside him, also peering at the mother and daughter duo of the century. "It's because of that boy isn't it? The one who was looking at you as if you found the cure for cancer."

Aliya followed her eyes, making direct eye contact with him, her gaze lingering on him for a second, savouring him, because that was the one thing her mother couldn't ruin for her. "This isn't about him. Don't bring him into this."

"Harper Avery's grandson, right?" Molly scoffed, shaking her head in disappointment. "Trent told me after I gave him one too many glasses of wine."

Aliya raised a brow at her openly admitting to making her own son drunk. "Why does that matter?"

"You should know better, Aliya!" Molly fired back, her voice raising. "You should known better not to let a boy distract you from what matters, especially if it's Harper Avery's grandson."

The brunette shook her head, gnawing at the inside of her cheek, trying to stay calm. "He isn't distracting me—"

"You always do this." Molly cut in, never letting Aliya finish whatever she has to say. "You're too distracted, you never could really focus on what matters. Aliya, this is your future we're talking about. I raised you to be a brilliant surgeon, and when Trent told me, and when I got that call about that little trial— you can't imagine my disappointment."

And, everyone wondered why Aliya had kept her relationship a secret from her mother.

The words Molly was speaking were ones Aliya had heard so many times before that they didn't even feel like words anymore.

"I think I can." Aliya spoke slow, her voice straining. "Are you done?"

Aliya didn't even wait for a response as she took a step forward, moving towards the door and pushing it open, physically and mentally exhausted from the day.

"Aliya!" Molly gathered up her coat and her bag, following her daughter out of the room, where they had seemed to have developed a crowd lingering outside the room, that scattered as soon as the pair walked out of it. "How dare you walk away when we are in the middle of a conversation!"

"Oh I'm sorry," With a scoff, Aliya turned back, arms crossed around her body. "I thought it ended between the second failure and the third disappointed."

Molly stomped her heels into the ground with gritted teeth, her eyes narrowed. "Real mature, Aliya. Real mature. Why do you do this? Turn everything into an argument."

"Are you kidding me?" Aliya couldn't help but to laugh, though nothing about this was all that funny. "I'm not going to sit there and let you tell me I'm a failure. Just go home!"

"Hey, she's not a failure!" Alex (known by Molly as Alan) called out, a thunderous expression on his face at the prospect of her being called a failure.

"No," Molly quickly replied back, ignoring Alex completely. "I'm not going home, we are not done."

Aliya scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she dug her heels into the ground. "Oh, I think we are."

"This is about you never taking any responsibility. You've always been too headstrong for your own good." Molly informed her of the supposed characteristics she appeared to possess.

With a small laugh that really didn't seem to help the situation. "Where do you think I got it from?"

"If you got it from me," Molly started, raising her chin in the air in some sort of act of superiority. "Then why are you not good enough to be a surgeon?"

"Okay—" Jackson stepped forwards, out from behind the front desk, unable to take this anymore. "I think we should just—"

"Being Chief Resident doesn't define how good of a surgeon I am." Aliya spoke, her voice strained in an effort not to stutter, or fall apart.

"Of course it does!" Molly hurtled on, as if she was physical pushing the knife deeper into her daughter's chest. "It shows leadership, surgical ability, employability—"

"It's not the end of the world!"

"Until you're on the side of the road, passed out in a ditch." Molly Levine muttered, rather distastefully, under her breath.

Aliya laughed, deliriously, unable to withstand the mental load it took to talk to her own mother. "Oh, you really had to bring up Aunt Peggy!"

"Why the hell do you never even try to be serious about anything?" Her mother cried, her lip curling up in disgust.

"Mom, all I do is try!"

She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take it, not today, not ever.

Because, no matter how hard she tried, she knew that she would never, ever be good enough for her own mother.

It was something she could never accept, because it hurt too much for her to even acknowledge it.

But, it was so clear, it was right in front of her eyes that her very existence in this world was a disappointment.

"I try so fucking hard to please you, to make you happy, to make you actually see how hard I am trying to be what you want me to be. I really don't know what else I can possibly do to make you see that I'm trying the best I possibly can." With those words, her mother just sighed at the fact she was being overdramatic, but Aliya continued despite it all. Despite her mother not getting her in the slightest. "For years I've been killing myself trying to reach your impossible standards and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of bending myself backwards for you."

Molly crossed her arms in a huff, at the sheer idiocy she thought her words were.

"It's exhausting being your daughter! Or, should I say your failure. Because, that's what I am to you, right?" Aliya's eyes had officially began to line with tears she couldn't hold back, they were ones that were clinging on for dear life, unwilling to fall, to show themselves. "I'm your biggest disappointment, and I'll never be good enough for you. Even if I become a cardio surgeon, like you, win awards like you did, even then you'll find some way to torture me when will this end?"

"Oh for crying out loud, you always blame me!" Molly spat, and now it was official, that every single pair of eyes were on them. "You always make me the villain in your pathetic little narrative! All I've wanted is what's best—"

"You've never cared about me!" Aliya interrupted quickly, not wanting to hear what her mother wanted, what her mother wished for her. "My whole entire life! You've always seen me as a doctor, never your daughter."

"I didn't carry you inside me for nine months to ignore the fact that you are my daughter, Aliya. Don't be ridiculous."

"Of course," Aliya nodded, slowly, shifting the weight on her hips. "I'm the ridiculous one."

Aliya remembered three times Molly Levine laid a hand on her.

The first time, Aliya was seventeen and Molly had found out she was with Kai Park.

The second time, Aliya was in med school, she got a perfect grade on a test, but even then it wasn't good enough.

The third, was when Molly Levine came to Seattle for the first time four years ago.

Now, the other times before the ones she remembered in vivid detail were hazy, seeing as Aliya was younger. And, somehow her mind did a clever thing of blocking it out, and she had never mentioned it to anyone before — not her therapist, not her dad, her friends, not even Jackson.

"How fucking dare you!" Jackson was standing between Aliya and her mother within an instant, a hand stretched out in front of her. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Aliya hadn't even realised her mother had slapped her until Jackson was there, and she felt the sting across her cheek. It had all happened so fast.

"Don't you fucking touch her!" Alex snapped, jointing her side, and looking Molly dead in the eye, as if he could've killed her right there and then.

"Ma'am," Dr. Bailey was now there, stepping in front of the two men. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"What?" Aliya heard Molly say, as if no one could ever kick a Levine surgeon out of the hospital.

The fact that every doctor who had witnessed the argument knew the Levine name, was embarrassment enough for Molly, cause word in the medicine community traveled fast.

And, if it came out, world famous cardiothoracic surgeon Molly Elizabeth Levine had laid a hand on her daughter, destined for the same level as fame as her, in public, well, everyone knew what karma was like.

Aliya didn't know how her mother left the hospital, or what else was shouted between her and Jackson and Alex, because she temporarily lost all of her senses in a daze, and she allowed the Jackson's warm hands to guide her into the conference room, sitting her down on the chair, holding her to his chest as she sobbed.

He held her as she thrashed against him, as she shook from the adrenaline of it all, and she cried again of envy, of all the people in the world who had a mother opposite of her own.

When she had finally stopped hyperventilating to the sound of Jackson's soft murmurs into her ears, and his hands holding her together, he cupped her red and swollen cheek in his hand, and she allowed herself to lean into him.

"Aliya, how many times has this happened?" He asked gently, because even he couldn't stop the burning rage inside of him, because how could he not have known her mother was that bad.

Sure. From what he heard, Molly wasn't winning a mother of the year award.

But, never in his whole life had Aliya told her that her mother had hit her.

"A few." She mumbled, her voice catching in her throat.

"Oh, Aliya," He chewed on the inside of his cheek, because seeing the woman he loved hurting in this way, made him want to get rid of the causation of this pain immediately. "I had no idea."

"I—" She breathed, deeply, pressing her lips together as she gulped back the lump in her throat. "I never told anyone before because then,"

The brunette paused mid-sentence, slowly glancing up at Jackson, who was staring at every inch of her face, taking in every single expression, every single crack.

"Then, it made it even more real."

"She's never going to get the opportunity to hurt you again," Jackson said to her. "You're never going to be alone in the same room as her again, you hear me?"

Her eyes went glassy as she stared wide eyed at the door, as if theorising in her head that her mother would appear again, ready for round two.

Instead, Alex and Bailey entered through, causing Aliya to jump at the noise, because she did believe, for a split second, it was her mother re-entering the room.

After sharing a cautious look with Jackson, Bailey dropped to her knees in front of Aliya, reaching one hand out for Aliya's.

"I'm fine." Her words stumbled out, glancing down at Bailey with tears stains clinging against her skin, her hair sticking to them. "I just need a minute."

"None of this is your fault, Levine." Bailey said, her voice soft, her eyes focusing on the woman trying desperately to hold herself together. "It's not your fault, you have to remember that."

Alex cleared his throat behind them, the look of pain on his face, because he knew no one deserved to be treated like that, especially by the people who raised them.

"You're anything but a failure," Bailey informed her, and the brunettes face contorted in a  desperate effort not to cry again. "Your mother is the failure, for not raising her daughter in the way she deserved."

With a sob escaping her lips, Aliya dipped her head, pressing her free hand to her mouth to muffle the sound.

"It's—" She tried to say, but she couldn't physically get the words out.

"Hey—" Jackson reached for her. "You don't have to say anything, okay? Scream, cry, hurtle abuse at Karev—"

At that thought, Aliya chuckled softly, a smile breaking across her cracked lips.

"Karev is quite fun to insult." Bailey offered, which only earned a very pointed look from Alex, but Aliya still laughed all the same.

Aliya shrugged, sniffing and wiping the tears off of her face with the back of a hand. "He's an easy target."

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After Jackson was paged to help Mark with something, though he really didn't want to leave her alone, Alex told him that he'd take her home.

And by home, he had really meant Joe's bar.

But, technically Joe's could be classed as their second home, and Aliya didn't exactly feel like going to the place she actually lived right now.

Seeing as Alex wasn't even going to live there anymore.

So now, the pair were sat at the bar in silence, sipping on their drinks as they stared straight ahead, feeling no need to say anything, seeing as they knew each other well enough to feel comfort, even if they weren't even speaking

The bell on the door of Joe's sounded, and a woman in Aliya's periphery stopped next to the pair, her blonde hair catching the corner of the brunettes eye. "Tell me not to go to Africa."

Oh, Lucie Fields.

Aliya side eyed her, then looked over at Alex, who was ignoring her as if she was just a hallucination.

"Alex."

"You know what—" Aliya slammed her glass of tequila down onto the bar, scaring the blonde only slightly. "He doesn't owe you anything."

"I—" Lucie stuttered, her hand tightening over her bag strap.

"No." Aliya said, louder than she had intended, though it probably was the tequila talking. "You don't get to talk, you stole his job in freaking Africa, a job he had every right to seeing as he brought kids over from the Nambose clinic—"

"It wasn't—"

"—and then you have the audacity to come here, asking him to tell you not to go to Africa?" The Levine woman had appeared to have lost all self control, her voice husky from the alcohol, and the crying. "Are you out of your goddamn mind? He turned down the job in Africa, for you. Because he wanted to stay here, for you."

"I made a mistake—"

"Yeah, you did."

Aliya wasn't even letting Lucie pledge her case, seeing as the Levine girl was, quite frankly, done with everything.

First, the clinical trial. Second, Meredith. Then, her mother. And now, this woman.

Her patience was running thin.

"But, you're stuck with it now." Aliya snapped, matter-of-factly. "And, I think I speak on behalf of the whole state of Seattle when I say, go to hell."

Maybe that was a slight exaggeration on Aliya's part.

Lucie looked over to the Karev man, wondering if her was actually going to speak. "Alex?"

"As she said," He said causally, bringing his drink to his lips and taking a sip. "Go to hell."

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( notes! )

and that's a wrap for act two, season seven!! i really hope you enjoyed it!!

so much happens in this act that it's actually mad so i'm going to a tiny recap for you (i'll still probably miss a couple things out let's not lie):

━ the aftermath of the shooting (mental breakdowns, aliya gets a dog, as well as a therapist and abandonment issues)
━ aliya's ex-boyfriend's new wife thanks aliya for breaking up with him 🤡
━ therapy with keanne kelly (our icon)
━ jackson and aliya kiss (yay)
━ chaos
━ the clinical trial with derek begins
━ jaliya in their i can see you era (which, let's be honest, they weren't very good at, everyone was suspicious)
━ alex & aliya being the best duo ever
━ everyone finding out about their relationship (as i said, they are bad liars), aka my favourite scene i've ever written (in chapter twenty five)
━ aliya finds out her childhood best friend hid having cancer from her for eight months (kick in the teeth, let's not lie)
━ chaos
━ henry burton, our king (aka aliya's brothers best friend, who is practically another brother to her) 
━ aliya then finds out jackson was summer's doctor, leading to her breaking up with him (i'll defend her to my last dying breath, she broke up with him because she's lowkey got trust issues, and nobody's perfect)
━ chaos
━ trent & april caught red handed on the sofa
━ timeline: jaliya were together officially as bf and gf for one and a half months before breaking up, but they kissed a few weeks before that
━ jaliya's season seven angst era 💔
━ jaliya reunion yay!
━ even more chaos
━ trent's moving to seattle with his son! (& he wants to marry april which is very cutesy)
━ everyone finds out meredith sabotaged the clinical trial
━ molly being a certified dirt bag
━ aliya & alex being the best duo in seattle as always

thank you so much for getting this far through scrub caps, i love you all and i honestly can't wait to start act three, i hope you're liking the story so far!! <3

( word count! — 9,300 )