chapter twelve ━ the karev family
( season six, episodes nineteen & twenty )

❝Alex has a brother? I didn't know
that.❞

ELLIE SAT AT a nurse's station, filling out charts for Dr. Bailey when Lexie came up to her. "Ellie, I need you to talk to April."

She looked up. "About what?"

"Derek." Ellie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "She's developing a crush on him. I was watching them in surgery."

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked, looking back down at her chart. "She does respect him. It could just be that."

"It's a crush."

Ellie sighed. "No, I will not talk to her, because I am helping Dr. Bailey schedule her surgeries. If you talk to her, do it nicely."

"Please, Ellie?"

"I haven't noticed any of this," Ellie said, handing the nurse her chart. "Only you have. So, if you have a problem with all that, you should be talking to her, not me."

Bailey walked up to the two. "Sloan, with me. We have a consult with Karev's brother."

"Alex has a brother?" Ellie repeated, following the attending. "I didn't know that."

Once they arrived at the room, Bailey started examining him while Ellie and Meredith took down the information in the chart. "How is it your brother is a surgeon and you waited months to take care of this?" the attending asked.

"I don't know." Aaron shrugged in response. "Karev's are tough." Bailey sat him upright as he let out a breath. "I guess five years in foster care will do that to you."

"Foster care?" Bailey repeated.

"You're all foster children?" Meredith asked.

"Well, me and Amber were in and out, but Alex, he had like..." Aaron fluttered his lips, thinking back to their childhood. "Seventeen different foster homes in five years."

"So, Alex was a foster child?" Meredith asked.

Aaron nodded. "Yeah, because my mom was, you know, and it was before they had all the meds that they have today, and she was—I guess she was doing her best. But my dad, he... wasn't a good guy, and he was... you know... whatever. And so Alex, he got shipped around a lot. And... he was a pretty rough kid if you didn't know him, so people didn't like to keep him. Then he ended up in juvie."

Bailey looks at him in shock. "J—J—Juvenile detention?"

Aaron chuckled. "Yeah, cause my mom, she — sometimes she'd forget to... buy food, so... he was good, though. People wouldn't have even known he was stealing anything if it hadn't been for the video cameras."

"How old was he?" Bailey asked.

"Mm." Aaron shrugged. "Eleven, maybe twelve?"

"Hey." The group turned when they heard Alex's voice and Ellie smiled softly at him. "What are we doing with 2807?" Alex noticed the looks on Bailey and Meredith's faces and frowned, looking at his brother. "Dude, are you talking crap in here?"

"No."

"Dude, I work here."

"So go to work!" Bailey said, ushering him out of the room. "Uh, check the chest tube in 2807. Go."

"Shut it, Aaron." Alex left and Ellie watched him go, her heart sinking for the young Alex Karev.

Bailey leaned Aaron onto his back and looked out to the hallway, double-checking that Alex was gone. "So what happened after juvie?"

"Dr. Bailey," Ellie said, shaking her head. "I don't think that Alex—"

"Mind your business," Bailey cut her off and she let out a breath, glancing at Meredith. "Aaron, after juvie?"

☀️

MEREDITH WAS SHOWING Aaron his scans on the computer. "That's my intestine?"

"Yeah." Meredith nodded. "And that part right there is supposed to be on the inside of the membrane, not the outside."

"Dude, that is sick. Can I get a copy of one of these? I want to hang it from my fridge."

Arizona came up to them as Ellie looked at Aaron with an amused expression on her face. "Hey, are we doing consults at the desk nowadays?" she asked. "'Cause I kind of need to use the computer."

"Oh, this is Alex's brother." Arizona smiled at the younger Karev. "Aaron, this is Arizona Robbins."

"Oh, nice to meet you," Arizona said, shaking his hand. "How come I didn't meet you at the wedding?"

"Actually..." Meredith intervened. "Dr. Robbins—"

"Oh, that's right, that's right," Arizona interrupted with a nod while Ellie looked between them, just as confused as Aaron. "No one's family came. Last minute switcheroo and all that."

"What wedding?" Aaron asked.

"Uh, Alex and Izzie's," Arizona said just as Meredith shook her head.

"No one's."

Arizona's smile faltered at Meredith and Aaron furrowed his eyebrows. "Alex got married?"

Arizona pursed her lips. "I'm... just gonna go use the computer over there. Bye."

"He got married and he didn't even call us?" Aaron asked.

"No, it-it-it sounds weird," Lexie said, having joined them. "But it was totally a spur-of-the-moment thing, you know, because of the cancer."

"Alex has cancer?" Aaron asked.

"Lexie—"

"No," Lexie replied, cutting off Meredith. "Izzie has cancer."

"Who's Izzie?"

"Alex's wife." Meredith and Ellie were watching the exchange like a ping pong game. "But... she's not really his wife anymore. It's—you know, I—I really, I wouldn't worry about it."

"They got divorced?"

"No, but they a—well, s—she left," Lexie said. "And then, you know, she came back. But he didn't really think it was the right thing-"

"Lexie." She looked at Ellie who let out a breath. "Stop talking."

"Okay."

Aaron sat down just as Alex came up to them. "Hey."

"Dude." Alex looked up. "How could you not have told me you got married?"

Alex turned to Lexie. "You told him?"

"No. No. It—It wasn't me. W—Well, some of it was, but—"

"It was Arizona Robbins, and it was an accident," Meredith explained just as Aaron stood up.

"Yeah, she figured your own brother would already know that you married somebody—"

"See, this is why I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd make a big deal out of it."

"It is a big deal!" Aaron argued. "You get married on the spur of the moment, you walk out on your wife—"

"I did not walk out on my wife," Alex retorted, shaking his head. "She walked out on me. She walked out."

"You have any idea what Mom's gonna do when she finds out?" Aaron asked. "She's gonna go off her meds."

"She's not gonna do anything because you're not gonna tell her, alright?" Alex said, walking toward his brother. "You're gonna get your free surgery, you're gonna get back in your truck, and you're gonna get the hell outta here."

Aaron nodded. "Fine. You know what? I don't need your free surgery. I'll see ya."

"Aaron, stop."

Alex took him by the arm. "You're not going anywhere."

Aaron slapped his hand away. "I don't need your crap! You walk out on us, you walk out on your wife." He scoffed. "Like father, like son."

Ellie groaned just as Alex grabbed his brother by the shirt. "Take that back."

"Get off me, man."

"Take it back!" Alex slammed him into the wall and Aaron head-butted him, giving Alex a bloody nose. Aaron started to walk away but Alex turned him around.

Ellie shook her head. "Alex, no!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears and he punched his brother, the two of them falling to the floor in a fight.

"Get off me, man!"

Bailey ran in. "What are you two fools—oh, no, this is not hap— Alex!" She smacked him with a stack of papers. "Karev!"

She separated the two and Ellie and Meredith both held Alex back. "What the hell is your problem, man?!"

"You are!"

"Alex!"

"You hitting people now, too?" Aaron asked. "You really did turn into Dad."

Ellie let out a breath. "You're not helping. Alex, come on, we're gonna ice your hand. Come on." She dragged him into an exam room.

"It's fine."

"No, you're gonna sit down and let me ice your hand because you're a surgeon and surgeons need their hands."

He sighed and sat down in defeat. She nodded and pulled out an ice pack, stretching his fingers. "I'm not like him."

She looked up and nodded. "I know. I believe you."

"Why?" Alex asked, looking at her. "We've barely talked to each other."

She sighed and sat down on a stool. "Because when your brother was describing your childhood and your parents, I thought about you. And that person he was describing, that's not you. You... You like kids and want them to feel better. You stick by your friends, no matter what. And I never knew the full story with you and Izzie, but I know she left. You're a tough person, Alex, but that doesn't mean you don't have a heart."

"My mom is a schizophrenic," he said and Ellie looked at him sympathetically. "My Dad abandoned us when I was little. I had to take care of my siblings. I did what I could."

Ellie nodded. "You remind me of Mark. Willing to do anything for your siblings."

"How so?"

She shrugged. "Everyone's childhood is different. Nobody's is perfect. I never had parents, exactly. They had me and couldn't care less. So, Mark did. He did everything. Brought me to the doctor, and made me chicken noodle soup when I was sick. He was mom and dad at 14. And look where he ended up. Your past doesn't define you, Alex. It's just a part of your story. You can't control the past. But you can control the future. How you want the rest of your life to play out. That's up to you. Aaron is in surgery right now. And I think it would be good for the both of you if you were there when he woke up. It may not be the perfect relationship, but he's your brother. And deep down, you love him."

"How are you so optimistic?" Alex asked. "You could have the worst day ever and still have a happy smile on your face."

She stood up and shrugged. "That's a very good question. I don't know. I don't see you any different. I only know you as you are now. A good person, who occasionally gets into a fight. Might I suggest you stop doing that?" Alex chuckled and she smiled at the sound. "If you want a successful surgical career, you're gonna need your hands."

"Thank you, Ellie."

"It's what friends are for," she said, pulling him into a tight hug. "Cause we're friends. And I care about my friends."

☀️

ELLIE'S PHONE WENT off in the middle of the night and she picked it up in confusion. "Callie? Why are you calling at two in the morning?"

"Sloan just had her baby."

Ellie was suddenly more awake. "What?"

"Yeah, she showed up at Mark's place," Callie said. "Teddy was there and helped deliver him. It's a boy."

"A great-nephew," Ellie muttered, nodding her head. "How's Sloan? Mark?"

"Sloan is good. Mark is ecstatic." Ellie smiled to herself. "They'll be at the hospital."

"I'll see them tomorrow. Thanks, Callie."

"Goodnight."

The next day, Ellie knocked on the door of Sloan's hospital room. "Hi."

Mark smiled, holding the small baby in his arms. "Come in," he said softly. "Sloan is sleeping, so I brought him in here. Do you want to meet your great-nephew?"

"Still sounds weird, but okay." Mark placed the baby in her arms and she looked down at him. "He's so cute."

"He's a Sloan," he said. "He has Dad's nose."

She paused for a moment and nodded. "Yeah. He does."

Derek came in just as Ellie gently transferred the baby into Mark's strong hold. "I hear there's a new family member in the Sloan family."

Mark put him in the bassinet and the two men stared at him while Ellie watched them. "You can see it, right?"

"The—the resemblance?" Derek asked. "It's a newborn. It resembles other newborns."

"Okay." Mark nodded. "Alright. Fine. But you want incontrovertible proof?" He undoes the onesie and diaper. "Here we go."

"Oh, God." Ellie groaned, holding her head in her hands..

"Look at that."

Derek nodded, impressed while Ellie shook her head. "Oh. Well, it's impressive. I'll give you that. Well, I mean—I mean, a lot of that swelling is from the birth. It will go down."

Mark smiled, looking proudly at his grandson. "He's a Sloan."

"God, am I glad I'm a girl," Ellie said with a sigh.

☀️

ELLIE WAS ASSIGNED Arizona's service and the two were in Sloan's room when Mark came in. "Hey, the baby's sleeping. Um... thank you for... everything."

Arizona smiled with a nod. "I'm happy to help."

"Dad."

"Hey." Mark smiled and walked over to his daughter. "Everything's fine. The baby's doing great."

Sloan chuckled and looked at Arizona. "Hey, can you grab my bag?"

"Oh, yeah."

Sloan opened it and dumped out the contents. "What is all that?" Mark asked. "You... did you buy all this for the baby?"

"Yeah." Sloan nodded while Ellie held a small toy soldier in her hand, tilting her head at it. "I figured he was gonna need stuff, and I was already in the store. I mean, I know it's lame. All the girl's stuff was way better. But boys like army crap, right?"

"Oh, no." Arizona took another toy soldier and cleared her throat. "Well, that's a choking hazard. And, well, he's a little young for that." She took another toy out of Mark's hand. "And—and that. He's just a little young."

"Well, whatever," Sloan said with a shrug. "It doesn't really matter anyway. He's gonna be getting a lot nicer stuff soon. Here." She handed Mark a piece of paper. "Uh, this is the number for the people that are gonna adopt him — Trish and Keith. Can you call 'em?"

Ellie sighed. "Mark-"

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to handle that call?" Arizona asked softly.

"No, no." He shook his head. "I'll take care of it.

☀️

CALLIE AND ELLIE were walking toward the peds unit when they heard Arizona and Mark arguing. Ellie sighed to herself. "That doesn't sound good."

"We should probably..."

Ellie nodded. "Yeah."

"Tell me that you called the parents," Arizona was saying just as the two walked up to the bickering pair.

"Sloan's having second thoughts," Mark replied.

"Sloan picked those parents," Arizona insisted, shaking her head. "She asked you to call them. She was pretty clear."

"Well, now she's not clear," Mark retorted. "By law, she's got forty-eight hours before the court terminates her parental right."

"Sloan changed her mind?" Callie asked, a hopeful tone in her voice.

"Maybe."

"That's great." Callie smiled.

"No, it's not," Arizona said.

Callie looked at her girlfriend. "What, she can't change her mind?" she asked. "People change their minds."

"This baby needs parents, not an eighteen-year-old child and a father she met five minutes ago."

"Shut up!" Mark snapped.

Ellie sighed. "Mark—"

"No. You know..." He looked at Arizona. "You don't get to tell me what to do here. I appreciate your help, but you don't... our mom is dead." Ellie looked away. "Our dad's never gonna get off the couch again. This is my grandson—my grandson. I'm not just gonna turn him over to some strangers when I might have a chance at a family. So just... give me a minute here."

"Mark, you have a family," Ellie whispered as he walked away. "You have me."

☀️

ELLIE RAN INTO Sloan's room with Arizona. "Is he okay?"

"I—I don't know. Uh, he won't stop crying."

"Well, what happened?" Callie asked.

"I—I don't know. I was just holding him, and Mark went to get a bottle for him, and he started crying, and he's not stopping, and I think something's wrong."

Ellie picked him up as Mark walked in. "What happened?"

"Sloan got worried," Callie replied. "She paged us. But the baby's fine."

"Oh, he's just hungry is all." He handed Sloan the bottle and she shook her head.

"No, I—I don't know how to do this. I don't—"

"You can't do it wrong," Arizona replied. "And we're right here if you need help." Ellie went to give her niece the baby but she stopped her.

"No, no, no, he's crying. I—I don't think—I don't think he wants me to do it. Please." She gave Ellie the bottle. "Here. Oh, God. I don't feel so good."

Ellie started feeding the baby and saw Arizona give Callie a look out of the corner of her eye.

"Well," Mark said as Ellie looked at her brother. "You've been up all night. You're exhausted and dehydrated. Drink that."

☀️

DEREK PAGED ELLIE to his office and she poked her head in the doorway. "Hey, what's up?"

He motioned to Mark who was sitting on the couch, venting about his frustration. She stood behind Derek's desk. "I'm losing everything today. Everything!"

He threw down a lamp and broke one of the mugs, making Ellie jump. Derek threw him an award. "Go ahead."

Mark let out a breath. "How am I supposed to call a couple of strangers and tell 'em to come take my kid?"

"Sloan's your kid, Mark," Derek said, tilting his head. "You're not losing her. They're not taking her."

Ellie stepped forward. "I know how much you want to keep this baby. I've been watching you all day, trying your best. But I've been helping and... as much as you may hate me for saying this, Sloan isn't ready. She's still too young to be on her own with a kid. And that couple... they can give that kid the childhood we never had. You said it yourself, Mom is dead. Dad is a drunk. You would be giving that baby the life we never got. And right now, those people are sitting by the phone, waiting for the call that will change their lives. You have a family, Mark. It's not based on blood. But by love. Derek is my brother just as much as you are. Call the couple, Mark. If you love your grandson, call them." She hugged Mark as a few stray tears fell down his cheeks onto her blonde hair. "I'll always be here, Mark. Because you're my family."

☀️

ELLIE COLLAPSED ON the couch at the apartment and let out a breath. "What a day."

"We didn't see you today," Reed said, sliding the pizza box toward her. "What were you up to?"

She sighed and took a slice. "I was on Arizona's service. And Sloan had her baby, so we were helping her and Mark."

"She had the baby?" Jackson asked.

Ellie nodded, taking a bite. "Yeah. He's going to a lovely couple who will give him the childhood he deserves. The childhood we never got." She let out a breath and smiled at her friends. "Thank you for being my family."

"What?"

"You four are my family," she said. "We've been through everything together. And I couldn't ask for a better group of friends. I love you guys."

"We love you, too." Reed smiled. "Now, Wizard of Oz?"

"You read my mind."

☀️

━ author's note:

And this begins one of the best friendships I've ever written: Ellie and Alex :)