Season 18. Age 16.
patterns.

TW: domestic violence.

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

time skip | year five
Amelia returns to the sister house to find charlotte sitting alone on the porch swing, "charlie? what are you doing here, i thought you were out with—"

charlotte looks up at amelia revealing a black eye and split lip, scratches littering her face. a suspicious red handprint lingers over her right eye. "can i stay here? please?" she asks with a shaky voice.

amelia freezes in her tracks, staring in concern at the injured teenager. she blinks, snapping out of her sudden shock, "of course, yeah. come in."

charlotte follows the doctor inside, taking a seat on the couch as the latter retrieves an ice pack. the teen accepts it gratefully, wincing as she holds it to her injured face. she flinches slightly at the cold and pulls it away briefly. amelia gently guides the ice pack to its previous spot and places a comforting hand on the teenagers back, "what happened?"

charlotte sniffles, "we were arguing," she speaks, regarding the 'slightly' older boy she had recently begun seeing, "he kept saying that he couldn't trust me, that i was a liar, that—that," she breaks off in tears, unable to continue explaining.

"he hit you." amelia concludes angrily.

charlotte lets out a sob, covering her mouth with the hand not holding the ice pack. "it just got so bad." amelia rises from beside charlotte on the couch, gently moving the teens legs up onto the furniture and easing her back to lie down. "i don't know what's gonna happen now," charlotte stresses.

"nothings gonna happen." amelia grabs a blanket draped over the couch and lays it over the distraught girl. "you're safe here." amelia grabs a pillow from the other end of the couch and tucks it under charlottes head. "you just need to get some sleep, all right? just try and sleep." she stands back up, grabbing her keys from the coffee table. "if you need anything, i'll have my cell."

charlotte sits back up, calling after amelia as the surgeon races to the front door of the house. "where are you going?" amelia doesn't respond. charlotte continues to call, "amelia, what are you gonna do?" the doctor grabs her coat and shrugs it on, shutting the front door behind her.

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

Amelia stands in a trauma room with dr koracick as he shines a light into the eyes of gavin; the boy charlotte had been seeing as of late. "what happened?" an intern asks, looking through gavin's scans.

"what does it look like?" amelia retorts rather dryly.

koracick asks his intern, "what do you see?"

"like someone super messed him up."

koracick stands up straight from leaning over the patient, "talk like a doctor."

"um, temporal bone fracture with an epidural hemorrhage." the intern answers.

"and how soon does the bleed need to be evacuated?"

the intern turns to the surgeon. "like, yesterday."

"book an OR, lets get him up there." the intern scurries off. koracick turns to amelia. "shepherd, what the hell happened? who did this?"

amelia dodges the question, keeping her eyes trained on the teenager in the bed, "make sure he doesn't die. you can't let him die, okay?"

suspicious, koracick leaves the room, passing by meredith grey in the hallway. "hey, grey," he calls after the surgeon, "can you check with shepherd, she brought in a kid with a brain bleed, he was beaten half to death. gavin yorks, your strays little friend." meredith widens her eyes, jogging past koracick. "good talk, grey!" he calls after her with his usual sarcasm.

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

Meredith finds maggie in the scan room. "we have a problem."

"mere, check out this hyperdensity." pierce gestures to the scan displayed up on the wall, "is that something, or just noise on the film?"

"that looks real to me," meredith rushes, "it's amelia." that gets maggie's attention. she turns from reviewing the scans and rushes off with meredith.

the sisters find amelia in the attendings lounge and begin their interrogation. "i know none of us like the guy very much but seriously, amelia? fighting a kid?"

"technically he's not a kid. early twenties." amelia shrugs.

"amelia. i mean, you could go to jail, your whole career—"

amelia cut the sisters off. "i'm not going to jail. he was like that when i found him!"

"that's your story?" maggie looks unimpressed.

"no cop is going to believe you." meredith takes a breath. "amelia, it's us. just tell us."

"i didn't do anything!" amelia insists.

just then, charlotte rushes into the room. "she didn't do it." the three surgeons turn to the door to see the teen enter with a bruised face and busted lip, her sweatshirts hood pulled tightly over her head. "she just found him." charlotte takes a deep breath in before admitting, "i did it." she rushes to explain herself, "we were having a fight. he-he grabbed my arm, i fought him off. just-it got ugly. he fell backwards and hit his head on the fireplace. he was still yelling when i left, he was fine, i swear!" charlotte insists.

"alright, you gotta get out of here. go," amelia shoos the teen.

"uh, no," maggie interjects. "she has to explain to the cops what happened—"

"nobody does anything until we see how the kid is. look—charlie, go home and don't let anyone see you." amelia tells charlotte before turning back to her sisters. "you two don't say a word to anybody until we know exactly what's going on."
nobody moves. "you do realize charlie is a child fugitive, right? cops grill her on this, they'll find out she's a runaway, that she beat the shit out of paul and drugged her aunt, and that jo and alex technically kidnapped her. she's still a minor, so this could be very, very bad." amelia stresses. eyes widening, charlotte gets the point, taking off with her hood still tightly drawn over her head.

meredith is paged to a patient. on her way out of the room, she turns to amelia. "dont do anything stupid."

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

Amelia stands by gavin's beside as he wakes up. "hey, gavin."

"cops here yet?"

amelia ignores the question. "let's talk for a second."

"she attacked me, alright?" gavin insists. "charlottes a lunatic. she's disturbed, and she's a liar."

amelia rolls a stool up to the bed and takes a seat. "listen. you've got a good thing here; job, nice place. you have friends here?"

"oh, you wanna be my friend now?" gavin smirks.

"me? no," amelia laughs. "i've got enough friends. jackson avery, he's my friend. he owns the hospital. you know the catherine fox foundation? she's his mother. meredith grey owns the hospital, her names on the freakin' doors. tom koracick, miranda bailey. these are my friends, and they don't like the guy who hits his girlfriend. neither do i. and charlie, charlie's pretty well known and well liked in this hospital. she's family to everyone here, and we protect family."

"she attacked me." gavin lies, "what was i supposed to do?"

"you're supposed to take it. a girl hits you, you walk away or you take it. gavin, you can tell this story 'till you're blue in the face but all people are gonna hear is that you hit her. and that little bit is gonna follow you around everywhere you go, even before you get to where you're going. oh and there's also the fact that she's a minor, and you're, what? twenty one, twenty two?"

gavin narrows his eyes. "oh you'll make sure of that, huh? it sounds like you're blackmailing me."

"it sounds like you're a guy who hits girls. cause you are. so what are you gonna do next?" amelia leaves it at that, getting up and exiting the patients room.

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

Amelia returns to the sister house as a storm rages outside, finding charlotte lighting candles in the living room. "what the hell happened?" amelia demands from the teen.

"the power went out a half hour ago—"

"no, you," the surgeon clarifies. "what were you thinking? gavin could have died."

fearing the worst, charlotte asks tentatively, "is he..."

"no, he's fine, and you're lucky he's not pressing charges but you are an idiot." amelia crosses the room. "you get that you could have gone to jail, right? you're eighteen next year. you say that you work so hard to change, to become this new person, but then you do this? if you want to get away from all that violence you say want to get away from, then you need to grow up and start acting like it—"

charlotte furiously shoves amelia away from her, causing the surgeon to stumble a few steps. "no you grow up! the last time someone grabbed me like gavin did, i—" her voice breaks and she takes a breath. "i promised myself no one would ever do that again. so i am sorry, but—no. i'm not sorry, actually, and i'd do it again." charlotte spits. "he had it coming, anyway." she swipes at her tears and crosses her arms.

there's a brief moment where the two stare at each other, one furiously and the other with concern, until amelia starts to laugh. "good. if you hadn't gotten to him first i probably would've killed the guy." charlotte lets out a laugh as well, small at first, until the raging storm outside causes a tree from the front yard to crash through the living room window, landing right in between charlotte and amelia.

the two women pause briefly, both slowly glancing down at the tree that is now in their house. they look back at each other from over the tree, immediately bursting into hysterical laughter as soon as eye contact is made.