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chapter nine ━ i like you so much better when you were naked & state of love and trust
season six, episode twelve & thirteen

❝ you do realise this is
going to crush him? ❞

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Growing up in the Levine household, Aliya was taught a lot of things. Many revolving around a scalpel and a whole host of other fancy medical terminology, but the others revolved around basic life lessons children were usually, more commonly, taught by their parents and guardians.

One of those 'basic life lessons' was that everyone deserved a second chance.

In an ideal world, Aliya would like to say she believed in second chances but, she found that they never really went very well.

She gave Elijah a second chance, and that ended with slamming a door in his face and moving across the country.

She gave Mark a second chance, and that situation only ended in tears and tequila.

Aliya did ultimately however believe in the goodness of people, but she was also very hyper aware of the fact that a vast majority of the people in this world were complete and utter assholes, and were guaranteed to let you down in the long run.

So, at the end of the day, it could be argued one Aliya Levine didn't really believe in the goodness of people, even though she pretended too.

Meredith Grey pressed a palm to her forehead with a sigh. "Izzie leaves, and Mark gets a kid, and you two decide that the best way to deal is to get drunk and mash your genitals together?"

Aliya paused in the doorway and grimaced at the conversation she had just accidentally walked in on, setting her bag down onto the table. "Ew, Mer, could you have chosen a better way to say that?" She shuddered and wandered to the cupboard, pulling out the coffee.

The Grey woman shook her head, her eyes still pinned on the pair, looking at them as if they committed had just a crime.

Alex rolled his eyes at the dirty blonde. "Look, no freaking way you get to judge us or give relationship advice. Besides, you were a total dirty mistress, like, two weeks ago."

Lexie gulped, raising her hand in the air. "Are we calling me a dirty mistress?—" And, Aliya continued to make her coffee, unbothered by the conversation happening around her.

"That was two years ago," Mer corrected Alex, before turning to her sister. "And, his wife didn't have cancer."

"—Because, I've only been with, like, six guys in my whole life." Lexie continued, stuttering in an attempt to defend herself. "Okay, Alex and I we've done it before. It was recycling. It was, like, good for the environment."

"Very eco friendly, Lex." Aliya commented, whilst Lexie just gulped, digging her face into her hands with a groan.

Mer scoffed. "Wait, Aliya why are you here?"

Aliya brought the coffee cup to her lips, leaning back against the counter. "I don't know how to answer that except I live here."

Mer frowned. "I thought you had work?"

Aliya slurped on her coffee annoyingly, causing her to receive a death stare from Alex. "Yeah, but I'm on my break, and I was hungry and in need of free coffee instead of overpriced lattes, why are we lecturing them?"

"Alex slept with Lexie." Meredith announced to her.

Lexie groaned further into her palms, her fingertips digging into her forehead.

"I gathered that when you described sex as 'mashing your genitals'." Aliya said, scrunching her nose up, because even just saying it sounded revolting. "Anyways, I knew that already, I walked past your door, you guys are extremely loud."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the reaction by the way."

"Learn how to shut a door, or at least put a sock on it if you don't want me and my reactions." Aliya replied matter-of-factly, topping up her mug of coffee.

Lexie, who was still hyperventilating, emerged from her burrow. "Oh, crap! I am a dirty mistress. Oh, God. You're gonna tell Derek, and then Derek's gonna tell Mark that I'm a whοre!"

"Derek's not gonna tell Mark you're a whore, Lexie." Aliya patted the brunette on the shoulder, offering her a pop tart which she accepted, biting into it sadly.

(It had to be stated, that the brunette did feel the tiniest bit smug, watching the demise of Mark and Lexie right before her very eyes after everything, after all the second, third and forth chances.)

"No, I am not going to tell Derek." Meredith assured, her hands on her hips. "And, neither are you, and you're not gonna say anything. We are keeping our mouths shut. Izzie is coming home."

The pop tart fell out of on the floor, out of Aliya's hands. "Shoot!" She picked it up quickly, shoving it onto the counter with a grim expression, now that it was covered in gross floor lint. "Izzie's coming home?"

Aliya quickly handed her emotional support pop tart over to Alex, which he accepted, and Aliya had to mentally psych herself up to prepare for the late nights at Joe's that will inevitably happen once the blonde leaves again.

"Yes." Meredith said with a firm nod, determined to keep this affair on the down low. "And, no one else is going to know."

In that moment, as if on cue, Izzie appeared in the doorway, a suitcase in one hand, and a duffel bag in the other. The blonde stopped short, widening her eyes as she heard the tail end of the current conversation. "Know what?"

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Meredith watched Richard turn the corner away from her, before she returned her stare to the surgery board where 'WEBBER, R' was written next to the Whipple, replacing Dr. Bailey's name that was once there.

Jackson was also looking at the board, his eyebrows knotted with a puzzled expression.

Richard was the Chief, the pair guessed he could easily put his name on a surgery that wasn't even his to begin with. He was starting to act like the Mercy Wester's, poaching surgeries.

"Are you going to stop grinning anytime soon?" Jackson broke the silence, averting his gaze from the board to Meredith, who somehow had forgotten that her sister had just slept with her friend's husband last night .

The Grey woman swivelled around to face him, a smile dancing across her lips. "I'm going to dissect the neck of the pancreas from the portal vein."

Jackson nodded in confirmation at what the chief had just informed her. "You are going to dissect the neck of the pancreas from the portal vein."

Meredith smiled even harder at that.

"You probably want to practice first though seeing as one wrong move and—"

"Don't finish that sentence." Meredith interjected, quickly stopping him before he ruined the moment for her. "So, Aliya."

Changing the subject quickly, Mer eyed Jackson in suspicion at how over the past few months (five months to be exact) since the merger, he seemed to have taken to her brunette roommate.

"Aliya?" He repeated, his upper lip beginning to twitch automatically, as if hearing her name made him want to smile instantaneously. "Wavy hair? Coffee addiction? Annoying grin?"

"Perky, but also a little dark and twisty?" Mer contributed, side eyeing the man all-knowingly.

"Stop looking at me like that." Jackson crossed his arms, suddenly feeling slightly exposed to the blonde's watchful eyes.

"Like, what?" Meredith played dumb, even though she knew exactly what he meant.

She saw it. Maybe she had even spotted it before the two in question saw it.

Alex didn't see it, yet. Even though he knew Aliya better than anyone — maybe it was because he was in denial. Or, the fact he would rather Aliya be celibate.

Even Cristina saw it when she wasn't busying herself with surgeries.

And even though the pair had spent the majority of the past six months pretending to hate each other, sometimes when you know, you know.

"Like you know something I don't know." The Avery man replied, his lips moving slowly.

Meredith glanced at him as if she could grab a scalpel and shove it into his neck rather theatrically, which totally changed the tone of their conversation to light-hearted, to a potential murder scene. "Don't hurt her."

Now, Jackson was even more confused than he already was. "What do you mean?"

Meredith simply shrugged. "You'll get what I mean, and then you can look back on this conversation. So remember my words. Don't you dare hurt her, Avery."

Yes, she could definitely stab him with a scalpel in the operating room if he did anything to her, it would just be that easy.

Jackson looked sceptical, baffled as to why half of the women he has spoken to in this hospital spoke in codes. Seattle women spoke in codes, noted.

"Fine." Jackson gave in, even though he had no idea what he was agreeing to. "I won't hurt her whoever her is."

Jackson couldn't help but grin as he said it.

Maybe he did know, he was just intent on denying it too.

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Alex and Aliya walked into the room where Meredith was standing over a very dead corpse with Jackson at her side. Which isn't even the weirdest thing the pair had ever walked in on in the past two years.

"Jeez, new lunch spot?" Aliya set down her tray cautiously, slipping onto a free stool. "I don't think I feel comfortable eating my food in front of a corpse."

"Just pretend he's not there." Meredith advised, looking up from where she was performing a whipple on the dead guy.

Aliya was oblivious to the fact that Jackson looked up at her for a just a second too long, long enough for Meredith to notice in light of their previous conversation, and smirk at Jackson when he finally averted his gaze away.

"What are we talking about?" Alex questioned, having heard Cristina's voice from all the way down the hall.

Meredith waved her scalpel in the air, pointing it at the Yang woman. "She's on this thing—"

"Okay," Cristina cleared her throat, shifting in her seat. "If you had to choose between the thing you love — surgery — and the person you love, which would you choose?"

Cristina was now looking back and forth between Aliya and Alex, waiting for their response on the subject.

Meredith glanced up, staring directly into Alex's eyes, as if she wished to perform some sort of hypnosis. "You would choose Izzie, right? Because you two are gonna get back together?"

Alex rolled his eyes, already irritated by this whole interaction, which wasn't unusual for him, seeing as irritated was his default mood. "Shut up. Wait, why do you have to choose?"

"That doesn't matter." Cristina waved him off, seeing as it was a totally hypothetical situation. "You just do. Which is it? Surgery or love?"

"I want both." Jackson spoke, biting down on his carrot stick.

"That's what I said." Meredith agreed with him.

Aliya raised a brow. "Am I not allowed to have both?"

In her mind, Aliya was a hopeless romantic. Her guilty pleasure wasn't trashy rom-coms for nothing. She fell in love with fictional characters on the screens, and on the pages. It seemed to act as some sort of a distraction whenever she wasn't in surgery, or studying — a form of escapism.

She adored a good love story, and got mad when there were no happy endings, because wasn't that the whole point?

Most days she was surrounded by less than ideal endings. She wanted to keep a portion of her life filled with at least some happiness so she didn't go mildly insane — even though she knew happy endings were rarer than a complete lunar eclipse.

The fact was that Aliya did want both. She wanted the exciting career, and the family to come home to after the long days of surgery after surgery.

However, at the current point of her life Aliya was tunnel visioned. To reaching the finish line. To passing her boards. To becoming an attending. That's all that mattered right now, and she couldn't lose focus again. She didn't have the time to focus solely on a relationship she would have to put so much of herself into. She didn't want to choose between the two things that would mean a great deal to her.

In the long run, it would only end in even more heart-break.

It would be easy to blame her parents. They were both surgeons and they made it work but as a child, Aliya constantly had to witness her mother choose surgery over her.

When Aliya was four and had the chicken pox, Molly Levine wasn't there. Which wasn't the only time she had left her daughter alone, or chose countless other insignificant things over her. Whilst her four year old was suffering from the chicken pox, she was at work and chose to do a minor surgery that could've waited for the next day, leaving Aliya with a nanny she had just met yesterday.

On Aliya's eight birthday, she didn't see her mother until two days later. On the night before her birthday, her mother flew out to Chicago to watch a surgery. She didn't even scrub in, and she never even called.

"No, you— you can't have both." Cristina told them in a huff.

"Why the hell not?" Jackson remarked, not letting Cristina win on this one.

Cristina did a double take as she glared Jackson, acknowledging his presence finally. "Why the hell is he even here?"

"I said he could be in here because he's on the whipple too." Mer explained, narrowing her eyes at the body in front of her as she chewed her lip, thinking of her next move.

"Again, you cannot have both." Cristina clarified, still persisting on with the whole love vs surgery thing. "You have to choose."

"I mean, you can have both." Aliya spoke as she stared at the ripped up napkin in front of her she didn't realise she had actually ripped up. "But, the thing is you'll be constantly given opportunities where you need to choose and that, well, it can end in disaster."

"Choose what?"

The residents spun around to Izzie stood in the doorway, surprising them for the second time that day.

Even the corpse even looked up.

"Uh, my PET scan got pushed back an hour, so thought I'd join you for lunch." Izzie explained, nervously shifting closer into the room to take the seat opposite Alex.

"Okay. That—" Cristina angled her head to what Mer was currently doing. "You have to give up that. Learning the procedure, tuning out the world until you get it, you know, doing the procedure is the only thing that matters. Like if you don't get to do it, you'll die! That's what you have to give up."

"For what?" Izzie questioned, intrigued on the newest topic of conversation amongst the residents.

"Love." All the residents replied in unison.

Izzie looked confused. "Why?"

"Yeah, that's what I said." Jackson clapped his hands together, though Alex silently glanced at Izzie who was sat opposite him, his eyes darting towards her and away from her, as if he don't actually know what to do with himself.

"That's not the point!" Cristina argued back, so passionately that the fillings of her sandwich started to fly out of the bread totally unintentionally. "You know you couldn't do it. You know you'd choose the procedure."

"Fine! If I had to choose, gun to my head, I would choose surgery. Okay?" Mer finally gave in to Cristina, because she knew the other twisted sister wouldn't ever back down in this.

"Okay, well, thank you." Cristina cheered in victory. "Is that so hard to say? I don't know, why is it so bad to say that out loud?"

"Because, it's crazy." Izzie spoke up.

Everyone looked toward the blonde.

"How— how— it's crazy." The Stevens woman stuttered, unable to comprehend the conclusion Cristina had just got to. "Surgery— it's just a job. It's just a job. It's the thing you come home from, not the thing you come home to. And, if you lose your job, you get another one, 'cause there's always another one. But, if you lose your love, if you think you're losing your love, well, then suddenly, nothing else matters."

The blonde finished her speech, staring down at her hands, leaving Alex looking the same shade of green as the lettuce on his plate.

Jackson, the only Mercy Wester in the room, looked concerned. "This is what you guys talk about during lunch?" He cleared the silence, finally catching Aliya's attention he had been not so secretly trying to get.

"We are very philosophical." Aliya replied, holding Jackson's eyes with hers in just one glance.

"I'm with them. Love comes and goes. Surgery doesn't." Alex concluded, whilst simultaneously looking directly into Izzie's eyes, like he was telling her that instead of the whole group. Like, he was giving up on their relationship right there and then, in front of everyone's eyes.

His phone buzzed from his pocket, breaking their eye contact, and freeing the room for the most awkward silence ever.

"Results are back."

Cristina hopped out of her chair, following Alex out of the room in a hurry.

"You choose love." Izzie voice cracked in defeat as he left, looking down at her plate solemnly.

"Yes!" Meredith's fist launched in the air, jumping on the balls of her feet. "Just did a perfect dissection without lacerating the portal vein."

Jackson smirked, taking his eyes off of the brunette for once. "You gonna do that little fist pump in surgery too?"

That earned a frown from Mer.

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Later that night, Aliya crashed into her bed, her head surrounded by the numerous throw pillows she had in her possession, which was a significant amount.

She had lost all energy to move them, or even put her pyjamas on. After a full day with three long back to back surgeries, she instantly needed to sleep or she ran the risk of going cranky, or going completely psycho.

Just as her eyelids were about to give in, she heard footsteps across the hall, and then wheels of a suitcase being dragged across the hardwood floor, and then the creaky step of the stairs wailing.

And after all of that, she heard the latch of the door creak open.

Aliya groaned, her curiosity getting the better of her as she slipped off of her bed, shrugging on her cardigan as she tip toed down the staircase to find Izzie, struggling to pull her suitcase out of the door, her hair pulled back in a small clip.

"You're leaving again aren't you?" Aliya crossed her arms, taking the image of Izzie sneaking out late at night, all guilt ridden and incognito.

Izzie turned around to see her friend, who jumped in surprise at someone being awake at one o'clock in the morning.

"I can't stay here, Aliya."

The brief sadness was quickly replaced by anger, anger at Izzie for giving up on Alex so quickly, for leaving him like people did to him countless times before. But, what did she expect? She knew the blonde would only come back for the novelty of five minutes before leaving again, and this time, never come back.

"Did you even tell him you're leaving?" The brunette spoke, bitterly, wrapping her cardigan around her.

"It wasn't my idea." Izzie defended. "He told me to go."

"Izzie," Aliya shook her head, rubbing her arms as the cold air ran through the house. "You wouldn't do something that you don't want to do, I know you. You're leaving because you want to leave."

"Aliya— I— There's nothing left for me here." Izzie's hand tightened around her suitcase handle like it was a life jacket, keeping her from falling apart as Aliya stood there silently, not knowing what else there was to say.

"What about us?" The brunette questioned, hurt at how Izzie was acting like the past few years meant nothing to her. "Izzie, you can't be—"

"It's like the thing about love and surgery." Izzie interrupted whatever Aliya was going to say. "I lost my love. I lost three in fact. Denny. George. And, now Alex. I have to choose surgery now, I have to do what's best for me. I have to go where I can be a doctor. And, that's not here. I can't be a doctor here anymore."

Her explanation hurt more, because Aliya knew deep down that it was true. Her life wasn't here anymore. And, she knew Izzie needed this, but it didn't make it hurt less. Nothing would make seeing her friend leave hurt less.

Aliya sighed, heavily. "You do realise this is going to crush him, right?"

Izzie swallowed, inhaling heavily to try and stop the tears burning their way down her cheek, and down against her neck. "Goodbye, Aliya."

"Goodbye, Iz."

Second chances were a load of crap.

Aliya didn't care what anyone else in her life said, people only ended up disappointing you.

And, as Izzie's car pulled off of the drive, she looked down at her current outfit of choice — blue jeans, a red long sleeve, and a cream cardigan — and decided that was good enough as she slipped her shoes on, reaching for her keys and jumping into her own car, and heading straight to Joe's.

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Finally reaching the bar after driving through torrential rain, Aliya immediately slouched upon it, craning her neck over to try and catch the owner's attention. "Hey, Joe—"

"He's over there." Joe gestured his head to the dartboard, knowing exactly what the woman had came for, or who she had came for in fact.

Because, there he was, angrily playing a very heated game of darts.

"Thanks." She smiled as Joe handed her a bottle of beer and three darts, and she made her way over to him, avoiding the bodies of the other drunken doctors crowded in the bar in a friday night.

Wordlessly, she stopped next to him at the round table by the dartboard, where he had just taken a long swig of his own beer, his expression dark.

Setting down her own bottle, she cleared her throat, moving to aim and sending her dart hurtling into the board, hitting the red bullseye, right in the middle.

"Dude, I got her nose." Aliya smirked in an attempt to at least cheer the Karev man up. Therefore, she aimed twice more, getting one dart on either side of the board. "And, her eyes."

Alex scoffed, light-heartedly, moving to aim whilst Aliya collected her darts from the board, stepping to the side to let him have a go. "Score, I got her mouth."

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THE NEXT DAY
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"Either of you know what this big meeting is about?" Jackson questioned, walking with Charles and Reed behind Alex, Aliya and Lexie.

Most of the hospital staff were on their way to Derek's speech as the newly appointed Chief of Surgery, seeing as he practically got Richard Webber fired the other day.

Aliya knew Derek's plan, they were up until two in the morning one night talking about it.

Aliya, with her head drowning in a bowl of cereal and Derek, shoving potato chips in his mouth as he chatted about what he should do. Not the he, Aliya couldn't get a word in.

Every few minutes he asked her what she thought he should do, and Aliya would respond each time telling him to follow his instincts, be fair, and do the right thing.

No wonder she fell asleep at the dinner table.

"I heard there was a coup. Webber's out. Shepherd's in." Charles replied, acting as if he was the hospitals new gossip channel.

"Is that true?" Reed's doe eyes widened.

"We know what you know." Alex replied, sounding bored as his shoes scuffed against the tiles as he walked.

"Bull. All right? Your sister's married to the guy, and Levine is his favourite resident." Aliya briefly glanced over her shoulder at Jackson, who continued on with his point. "You two are safe, do you really expect me to believe you don't know what's going on?"

"Look, we honestly know what you know." Aliya tried to convinced, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Yes, we live with Shepherd, but it's not like he feeds us information about the goings on in this hospital, alright? And besides, he's fair. No one's getting fired unless they deserve it."

"Don't you have your own loser friends to talk to anyway?" Alex grumbled, pulling out his phone to punch the letters on the keypad with irrational aggression.

Charles continued on, ignoring the memo that Alex didn't actually want to talk to him. "I also heard Shepherd plans to clean house."

Aliya just scoffed. "Those are just pointless rumours that came from chatty interns."

"Maybe he'll start with you." Jackson regarded Alex, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Dude, I'm safe. The guy is my roommate. You're the ones who should watch your backs." Alex looked over his shoulder at the three (former) Mercy-Westers. "Simple math— Shepherd hates the merger. You're from Mercy West, you're toast."

Lexie sighed at the logic. "Derek's not gonna fire people just because they're from Mercy West. He's not like that. He's loyal and fair."

"Yeah, tell that to Webber." Jackson pointed out, seeing as Derek was the one who got it fired.

As the six rounded the corner,  Aliya spotted Derek instantly. He was stood on the staircase of the reception, flash cards in his hand that he was looking over one last time before he finally gave his big speech.

Aliya raised her brows as she took in Derek's (very blue) outfit.

"Damn it, I told him to go no tie, it makes him look uptight." She muttered to herself with a sigh, shaking her head to the floor at the sight of the Shepherd man not taking her advice. "He looks—"

"Like a real estate agent." Alex finished her sentence, looking at Derek with the exact same expression Aliya had.

Partial disgust.

"I want to thank you all for being here. I know you're busy, so I'll try and make this quick. As you may have heard, I have been appointed to the new interim chief of surgery." The whole crowd erupted into hushed whispers as he spoke as if his voice only had one tone, which was the polar opposite of Aliya's advice. "It's my personal goal to make this transition as smooth as possible. I know we've had a few rocky months."

"Here it comes." Alex whispered, making sure Jackson, Reed and Charles heard him.

"Mistakes have been made." Derek cleared his throat, tapping his finger on the flashcards.

"He's talking about the merger." Alex whispered, looking at the three of them separately, as if Shepherd was calling each one of them personally a mistake, earning a nudge from Aliya and a shush from Lexie.

The three in question all stared at them, tense at the prospect of loosing their jobs.

"He's not talking about the merger." Aliya muttered back to him. "It could be anything."

"Oh yeah, we're getting fired." Jackson replied, tapping his foot on the ground nervously.

"Yes. Yes, you are sucker." Alex smirked with victory, being all anti-merger and that.

Aliya peered over her shoulder, the tapping of the Jackson's shoes ringing in her ears rather obnoxiously. "You're not getting fired."

Jackson pursed his lips, his breathing catching in his throat as looked down at her, where she was offering him a small smile. Which took him by surprise, seeing as he would have figured the brunette would jump at the opportunity to get him fired.

"I intend to right those wrongs and—"

"Told you—" Alex clicked his tongue, bouncing back and forth on his heels with a smug expression.

"Alex." Aliya hissed.

The Karev man narrowed his eyes at her. "What's your deal?" He whispered as the two briefly stopped paying attention to Derek's speech for a single moment.

"I don't have a deal." Aliya muttered slowly, shaking her head at his accusations.

"You do." He pointed out, rather forcefully might Aliya add. "You have a stick up your ass."

The brunette scrunched her nose up. "I don't have a stick up my ass." She denied, crossing her arms in a huff.

"Check it out, Chief Webber." Reed acknowledged while all the heads in the room turned towards Richard, walking in to witness the end of Derek's speech, which was now reaching a nose dive.

"And, um. What I meant by that— um— what I'm trying to say is I wanna thank you for your support in advance." Derek stuttered, stuffing the flash cards into his coat pocket. "That's all. Let's get back to work." He cleared his throat before hurrying down the steps, away from all of prying eyes.

"How's the face?" Alex poked Aliya's cheek as the whole reception erupted into chatter, just where the bruise was starting to heal under the layer of concealer she had carefully applied that very morning.

"Hey, watch it!" The Levine woman swatted his hands away, a sharp sting spreading across her cheek. "Dude. Not cool." She pressed a hand to her cheek with a frown, trying to soothe the throbbing pain.

"Karev! I heard you're the future of peds." Arizona interrupted the pair, before Alex could poke her cheek for a second time.

Alex choked on his own breath, his hand dropping from Aliya's faces as she shook his head in bewilderment. "Excuse me?"

"Birdie named Bailey whispered it in my ear. I want you to work with me today. So I can see if she's right." Arizona grinned.

"I also have photographic evidence." Aliya chimed into the conversation, paying him back for poking her bruise, seeing as the photo of Alex shirtless holding a newborn in her camera roll was just collecting dust anyway, it would be good to put it to good use.

Alex slowly turned to her, his face rigid with a thunderous expression that Aliya willfully ignored, too busy grinning to herself.

"Email them to me." Arizona smiled, pushing her blonde hair out of her face as she returned to the matter at hand.

Alex sighed. "What'd she say?"

"That you're the best babysitter in the hospital." Jackson answered, smug as he managed to get the front row seat to Alex's humiliation. Intern Alex Karev from two years ago would not want to be caught dead on the peds floor.

"Shut up." Alex responded.

Arizona laughed breathlessly, moving to face Jackson, looking him up and down as if it were judgement day. "You don't think peds is hardcore? You can say that to my face, Avery."

With a shake of his head, Jackson opened his mouth to speak. "No, no, ma'am."

"Don't let the rollerskates fool you. Peds is nothing but hardcore." Arizona turned back to address Alex. "Rounds. In ten."

Jackson watched Arizona leave, letting out a breath until she was out of earshot. "Peds. Who's the sucker now?"

Alex rolled his eyes, ignoring Jackson as he turned his attention back to his wide eyed friend watching the whole encounter. "Whose service are you on today?"

"Hunt's." Aliya grumbled, placing an irritated palm to her forehead. She didn't know why Owen Hunt pushed her buttons (in the wrong kind of way), but something about that man made dinner with her mother sound splendid.

"Don't sound too excited." Jackson replied.

"I like trauma it's exciting— it's just— it's just that I was really enjoying being on neuro, and now Derek is Chief and now I'm stuck with the other neuro attendings when I'm actually on the service, like Dr. Nelson who doesn't make neuro surgery as fun and amazing and magical as it should be, that guy makes me want to stab a pencil into my eye and destroy my own brain!"

Aliya finished breathlessly, finally noticing that Alex left halfway through her rant, and that it was just her and Jackson standing in the middle of the reception as she yapped to him like a stoned college student.

"Multiple pencils in fact." The brunette corrected, looking up at the man opposite her, which she almost instantly regretted it.

The man in question was staring directly at her, his green eyes shining with amusement and his lips slightly parted. Aliya wanted to smack that expression right off of his smug face, but that wouldn't be very good of her, she would rather smack herself for word vomiting to him of all people.

At the end of the day, he was just a guy she worked with. Like any other guy, take Charles for example. She didn't like Charles that much, she merely just tolerate him.

Even though Jackson occasionally did do something nice. Like give her access to her goddaughters chart. But, surely she was reading too much into that, right?

"Your eye twitches when you rant." Jackson remarked with a smirk dancing across his lips, studying Aliya with intense curiosity that made her skin itch.

Aliya blinked at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"That whole time you were talking you were practically winking at me." Jackson exaggerated, nudging Aliya in the shoulder as they walked to the front desk to get out of the way of a supposed stampede of interns racing past them. "It was cute."

Aliya turned to gawk at him. "It's not cute. I don't do that. "

Jackson shrugged. "If you say so."

"Well, stop staring at me." Aliya protested, her heart starting to beat erratically in her chest.

"I'm not staring at you. Conversations usually involve eye contact." Jackson explained to her, his eyes still on hers as if exhibiting said eye contact, increasing her heart rate even more by the second where she ran the risk of hyperventilating right there and then.

"Eye contact is overrated." She stated simply as she moved behind the front desk, rifling through the charts. Though, in all honestly, she didn't need any of the charts, she was on the trauma service today.

"I find it to be quite an important aspect of the whole conversation thing." He still kept his eyes on her, even though she wasn't looking at him.

Aliya snapped her head back, pressing her lips together in a straight line. "Ha! Fine, I'm going to leave you and your creepy stalker eye contact here while I go be a doctor, okay?"

She turned on her heel, descending (fleeing) down the corridor. Aliya couldn't help herself as she looked over her shoulder halfway down the hallway, catching Jackson as he chuckled, a smile tugged on her lips, both of them holding their gaze as Aliya disappeared through the double doors.

They really had to stop doing this, or Aliya was going to have to move to Australia.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"I just helped Hunt remove an ice skate out of a figure skaters chest, how cool is that?" The Levine woman enthused as she caught up with Alex in the hall.

"I thought you hated the guy?" Alex questioned, biting down on his apple.

"I do, but, you should've seen it there was blood everywhere!"

"Nice!" He chuckled, still with a mouthful of apple, sending the juice dripping down his jaw as they met Cristina in the hall. "Why are you walking like that?"

Aliya peered at the Yang woman and it had to be said, she was walking weird. It was more of a waddle, than a walk.

"Yang, what happened to you?" Aliya in raised a brow in genuine concern.

"I got a burn." Cristina said casually, proceeding to waddle her way.

Alex smirked. "Where?"

"Go away." She hissed back as the trio entered the emergency room.

"We're all doctors here," Alex acknowledged, trying to get Cristina to give them all the gory details to do with her burn. "No need to be embarrassed."

"I'm not embarrassed!" Cristina protested, crossing her arms across her body as she glanced around the ER, searching for someone. "I'm just waiting for Meredith, now go away."

"I'll let you treat my tick, come on." Alex tried to bribe, but it really wasn't seeming to work.

The Yang woman huffed, looking restless. "This is not a tick."

"Oh God— Cristina," Aliya pressed her hand to her mouth, and she let her eyes drop down, and then back up again. "Did you get a burn on your ass?"

"What! No—"

Aliya threw her head back, a loud inhumane cackle escaping her lips as she found this way too funny. "You so did!"

"No—"

"Today sucks. Mark sucks." All of a sudden, Lexie Grey fell onto the gurney they were stood by with a groan, staring up at the ER ceiling.

The Levine woman's laughter fizzled out, and she clutched her chest to try and calm herself down, ultimately curious as to how Cristina managed to get a burn on that particular body part. "Tell me somethin' I don't already know."

"Yang got burns on her girl parts." Alex told her, as if it would make her feel so much better.

At that, Lexie shot upright, all thoughts of Mark flying out of the window. "What—"

"I do not—" Cristina slapped Alex's shoulder with the back of her palm. "It's not on my girl parts."

"They're on her ass, look how's she walking." The man pointed out as Cristina walked (waddled) away.

"How do you even manage to do that?" Aliya interrogated, dropping down onto the gurney now it was free, leaning on her palms. "Is it a sex injury? I bet twenty dollars it's a sex injury—"

"Don't you three have patients?" She quickly interrupted, therefore Aliya gained clarity on the fact that this must be a sec injury.

"How did you get burns on your ass?" Lexie asked.

And as if on cue, the oldest Grey sister entered the huddle of interrogators. "You paged."

"Mer," Cristina sighed a sigh of relief, holding out a bunch of different supplies for her to take, that the dirty blonde stared at, wide eyed. "Come, the rest of you, bye."

Leaving behind the other three residents, the two of them disappeared behind a blue curtain.

"Oh my God!"

The three of them heard Meredith exclaim.

"Okay," Aliya held in a laugh, rifling through her pockets and dumping the cash she had in them into her lab. "Right, I've got a ten dollar bill, and a couple of quarters, I'm betting on a sex injury."

"I'll take that action." Lexie began her hunt through her own pockets, drawing out a five dollar bill, placing it into Aliya's pile of cash.

"Only one way to find out." Alex said, advancing towards the curtain.

"What?" Lexie followed him. "That's an invasion of her privacy?"

The Levine woman shot up, stuffing her cash into her pockets as she walked with them towards the curtain. "Invasion of her privacy? Please, aren't you curious?"

"No—" Lexie immediately answered, before dipping her head to the floor. "Yes."

"Right, Alex, go ahead." Aliya ordered, standing in anticipation as Alex pulled back the curtain quickly, revealing Cristina, sprawled out in the gurney with very red, very angry looking grate marks on her ass.

"Alex!" The two women behind the curtain protested at his sudden entrance.

"Hot cross buns." The Karev man in question snickered, staring directly down at Cristina's ass.

"Ha! Good one!" Aliya mused, tilting her head to look closer. "That must hurt like a bitch."

"Oh— That's gonna blister." Lexie curled her nose up at the sight of it.

"Uh! Will you get the out of here?" Cristina ordered Meredith, waving her hand as if to try and shoo them out.

Aliya leaned in. "Are those vent burns?"

"Bailey's paging me." Meredith sighed as she picked up her buzzing pager. "Aliya, will you finish this for me?"

"Yeah, sure—" But, Aliya's pager also sounded from her pocket, and she drew hers out. "Oh! Look who it is, Hunt's paging me, does he have any ass burns I should know about?"

"I hate you! I hate all of you!" Cristina's head dropped into the pillow, and a disgruntled and muffled scream came from her figure, looking totally defeated.

Death by vent burns. Now, that was one for the gravestone.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"I don't think I can stomach another tequila."

That was a sentence Aliya would never even think she would say, but seeing as most of her life was spent in Joe's, she truly meant it. And, now this marked the second night in a row she had found herself in this bar.

"Oh, come on, Aliya." Cristina passed her another tequila, seeing as Alex had gone home in between the fourth and the fifth tequila, calling it a night.

Which left Aliya with Cristina, the total opposite of a light weight.

Aliya picked up the tequila the same time Cristina held hers up into the air. "To your vent burns."

"Funny." Cristina sneered and they clinked their glasses together, throwing their heads back as they took their tequila shots.

"You want some peanuts with that, Levine?" Jackson appeared by her side with his wallet, asking Joe for another two beers, handing him some dollar bills.

"No." The brunette slurred, pulling a face and swaying slightly in her chair in a very drunken haze. "Oh, wait, Joe!"

Aliya shot up, finding a new burst of energy.

"Aliya," Joe smiled at the woman, and how her cheeks were now a very dark pink. "The usual?"

"You read my mind." Aliya grinned in the dimly lit bar, clapping as Joe disappeared into the back.

"What's the usual?" Jackson asked with intrigue.

"You don't want to know." Cristina grimaced, seeing as Aliya's post-drinking food craving disgusted her. "Pickles and potato chips."

Jackson watched the brunette curiously.

"My two major food groups!" Aliya clapped her hands as Joe handed her two bowls, one with pickles and one with potato chips. "Joe, you're an angel!"

"Aliya," Cristina turned her nose up, wafting her hand around. "You're stinking out the whole bar! I'm going to the restroom."

"Wanna pickle? Or a chip? I've got chips too." Aliya munched on a chip (and a pickle) as she spoke, holding up the two bowls to Jackson as an offering, though the bowls were now wobbling in her very unsteady hands.

"I'll take a chip." Jackson reached into the bowl, right before Aliya sent both the pickles and the chips all over the bar, and all over the floor.

"Shit! Joe's gonna kill me!" Aliya exclaimed in shock, throwing herself onto the floor in an effort to pick every last chip and pickle from the floor, as if it were her life's mission.

"Hang on one second, mad woman!" Jackson dropped to the floor with her, helping her pick up every last remainder of the chips.

"Joe's gonna kill me—"

"Aliya!" As if he heard her, Joe emerged from behind the bar, casting the brunette on the floor a look that could quite possible kill her. "You've done this the last five times! That's it, I'm taking away your potato chip and pickle privileges."

"No!" Aliya jumped to her feet, though her centre of gravity was totally off as she practically leaned into Jackson's chest, her hand unconsciously grabbing a hold on his jacket for support. "Joe! It was his fault! He distracted me!"

Aliya pointed her finger at the man next to her, holding the bowls in his hands, looking totally innocent.

"Don't try and put the blame on me, butterfingers." Jackson replied, placing the bowls on the bar, frowning at the pickle juice staining his shirt.

"No more pickles and potato chips." Joe said, sternly, making his way back to the refuge behind the bar.

"He hates me." Aliya sniffed, sadly, frowning as the owner of the bar retreated with the bowls in hand, her own hand still with a fistful of Jackson's clothing.

"You have spilt chips across—"

"And pickles." Aliya corrected, grimly, her head tilting to the side lazily, causing her cheek to press into his arm.

"—And pickles across his bar five times." Jackson told her as she reached across for her other tequila Cristina had left her with. "Sorry, six times."

"You are no help." Aliya frowned from behind her glass.

"I thought you died—" Charles appeared beside the two, a brief look of surprise passing across his face as he took in the sight before him (that he was sure to mock him about later), taking his beer from the bar. "A bunch of us are playing darts do you want to—"

"Yes!" The woman he definitely wasn't addressing clapped her hands together, taking the tequila away from her lips. "I'm great at darts." She told the two men.

"Really?" Charles looked surprised. "Prove it."

⠀
—✩—
⠀

Almost two hours later, Aliya had won at darts countless times, because apparently she was true to her word.

She had beat Jackson twice, even though to the Mercy Westers he was renowned for being unbeatable, and now he had to live with the brunette's smug expression.

Aliya was now playing against one of the other Mercy Westers, Elliot Harrison.

Jackson watched her closely, her arms flying up in the air as she was declared yet another victory, her hair now tied up into a messy bun at the top of her head, loose strands floating as she jumped around.

What he didn't expect was how Elliot, placed a hand on her hip, leaning in close and whispering in her ear — too close.

Aliya's cheeks flushed a shade of pink that shouldn't be caused by him of all people (even though Elliot was hit friend), her eyes glancing up at the dirty blonde haired man as she let him guide her to the door.

Jackson's fist clenched around his beer bottle, and suddenly all his focus was on them, manoeuvring around everybody at Joe's.

"Dude, can you even hear me?" Charles complained, clicking his fingers in front of his friend's eyes, who were still fixed on the door Aliya and Elliot had left through.

Jackson definitely could not hear him.

Which led Charles, the knuckle head, to actually look at his surroundings for just one second before coming to a conclusion. "Ah, you wanted to be the one to take Levine home tonight!"

That seemed to catch the Avery man's attention.

"He's back in the room!" Charles cheered, raising his bottle in the air that no one clinked.

"What?" Jackson responded, defensively. "No. It's not that."

"If you say so, but dude," Charles leant in, and he could smell the beer in his breath. "Be careful, you can't trust 'em."

"I can't trust who?" The Avery man raised a brow, seemingly playing dumb to what Charles was saying.

"Levine. You can't trust her. She seems all sunshiney, but dude, you can't trust her." The Percy man's voice carried a weirdly assertive tone he didn't usually acquire.

Jackson, suddenly annoyed at his best friend whom he shared an apartment with. "And, why's that?"

Charles leaned in, as if he had something top secret to share. Which he didn't, he never did for that matter. "She's the kinda girl who's gonna rip your heart out of your chest, and feed it to the sharks."

The Avery man scoffed at his best friend's sentiment. "Great analogy—"

"I'm being serious." Charles persisted on, now hunched over the booth they were sat in with his hands balled up on the table. "Just you wait."

⠀
⠀
THE NEXT NIGHT
⠀
⠀

"Milkshake." Aliya ordered, and Lexie brought it up to her mouth, still recovering from an all day hang over.

She slurped loudly through the straw, before returning back to what she was doing. A small brush in hand with a tub of blonde hair dye in the other that she continued to spread the dye onto Lexie's very brunette hair.

"Does it burn yet?" Aliya questioned, teasingly.

Lexie swivelled her head in panic. "No! What do you mean? It's going to burn?"

"Oh. No. It's not going to burn." Aliya reassured, concentrating hard as she added even more dye to Lexie's head, completely unsure whether it was actually going to burn or not.

"Oh, god." Lexie panicked, tapping her fingers on the side of the chair. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Yes." Aliya lied, still concentrating on applying the dye.

"I just— I just needed a change! You know? I needed a change." Lexie explained, her legs bouncing up and down. "I'm doing this for me, not Mark."

"Change is good." Aliya confirmed whilst Lexie nodded her head in agreement, taking a sip out of Aliya's milkshake. "It's the Mark Sloan effect, I'm growing out my bangs."

"I thought the bangs were cute." Lexie informed her. "Maybe I should cut them back in for you, you know, in exchange of you dying my hair."

"There's no way in hell you're going anywhere near my hair." Aliya quickly stated, unconsciously swishing her hair behind her shoulder. "And, I say that from a place of love, Lexie." 

⠀
⠀
⠀

( notes! )

right. where is meredith grey hiding her crystal ball cause she KNOWS GUYS SHE KNOWS THIS IS NOT A DRILL

it's been a little while i'm so sorry it's been so long since i published a chapter! but i hope you enjoyed this one & i hope you are having a good summer so far!! i always love summer but by august i'm sat patiently waiting for autumn and to start yet another gilmore girls rewatch

watching cristina's burn scene SENT ME istg grey's is so chaotic i love it

( word count! — 8,200 )