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chapter six ━ new history
season six, episode nine

❝ i'm sure that's going to
work out well for you. ❞

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MARK'S APARTMENT
seattle, washington
( several months ago )
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The alarm clock buzzed it's annoying wake up call from the bedside table. They completely forgot to draw the curtains before they drifted off to sleep, meaning that early morning light shined through the windows blindingly.

Aliya groaned into Mark's chest where her head was led upon, one hand slumped across his stomach.

Mark yawned awake, his hand remaining around Aliya's shoulders as he used his other hand to slam a button on the top of the alarm clock. "Shut up." He mumbled to it, returning his head back to the cushions. "We could just stay in bed all day." He told the brunette, whispering the words into her forehead where his lips brushed against.

"Sounds like a great plan." Aliya replied, nestling closer into him in a tangle of limbs.

"I'm glad you agree." He smirked, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Do you remember that lecturer at Columbia? Dr. Asher Armstrong." Aliya asked, her voice soft as she spoke into his shirt.

"Ash-hole!" Mark said, as enthusiastically as he could, his hand tracing circles on her back. "How could I forget?"

The Levine woman smiled fondly, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "Do you remember when he kept saying that time was just a construct, and if you wanted you could stop it at will."

"The guy was going through a divorce—" His hand brushed up her back, reaching her hair where he began to twist her brunette strands of hair which to him smelled like the rose conditioner she always used. "He was going mad. He put orange juice on his cereal and salt in his coffee."

"My point is—" Talking through her laughter, Aliya leaned closer toward him. "Technically we could stay here all day, he may have been crazy but, he was very wise. How are we to know any better?"

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Mark held her by the waist, flipping her onto her back in one swift movement. "I guess we have ash-hole to thank."

"I think he's dead now." Aliya told the Sloan man, who was kissing a trail along her jawline.

"Aliya," He murmured in between kisses. "Please don't mention dead people."

"Deal." The brunette chuckled, happily ditching the topic of dead people.

He slowly leant into her so their lips met, only to be, quite frankly, rudely interrupted by the alarm clock yet again because the man only switched it to snooze, which was a rookie error on his part.

"Oh, for the love of—"

Mark leant across Aliya, ripping the alarm clock from the plug socket on throwing it across the room in one swift movement. The sound of the alarm clock breaking as it hit the wall filled the room, and Aliya's only reaction was to laugh at the shattered pieces of plastic, trying to ignore the fact that that was the alarm clock she had gotten him for his birthday, with one hundred different sound options that he changed every week.

It was only from the dollar store but, Aliya would've hoped he had some sentiment towards it.

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ALIYA'S BEDROOM
seattle, washington
( present day )
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Aliya's eyes flew open as her alarm clock buzzed its usual wake up call.

She rallied up enough energy to lean across to her bedside table, after lying there for a minute listening to the grating noise that was her alarm, switching it to snooze as she nestled back into her duvet.

Her brain was single-handedly torturing her in her sleep with memories she did not exactly want to relive.

Who would want to relive flashbacks to that?

It was cruel.

Waking up each day alone was enough.

Groaning, she pressed a hand to her forehead, listening to the sounds of footsteps padding up and down the hallway outside of her room as they got ready for the day.

It had been five days since Arizona's birthday party, which meant it was five days since Wallace passed away, on his own birthday.

It also marked five days since she found a tumour in Eliza's abdomen, and two days since Dr. Bailey and Dr. Robbins removed it.

However, the good news was they got the mass out and did a biopsy and they found that it wasn't cancerous, meaning Eliza should recover from it in no time.

"Aliya—" A muffled voice called from somewhere in the house, otherwise known as Derek Shepherd. "Do you want some scrambled eggs?"

He called up to her like he did most mornings, after spending the past year complaining that the woman always took his granola bars in a rush out the door, he now insisted on making breakfast each morning.

"Yeah!" Aliya answered, trying her best to put on a happy tone of voice, when all she really wanted to do was scream until her throat hurt.

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"Good morning." Callie grumpily slumped over to Mark, leaning against the coffee cart, her eyes bolted tightly shut from tiredness, though she made no effort to stay awake.

"Rough night?" Mark raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Another one of those as well." He added to the barista that he knew Aliya was on a first name basis with, handing over a few dollar bills.

"Rough?" Callie scoffed, nursing her temples. "Rough's an understatement. I haven't gone home yet. My patient is refusing surgery."

Accepting the coffee with one hand, she downed it in a matter of seconds, slamming the cardboard cup onto the counter, and Mark watched her in awe.

"Another one please. Make it a double shot." She passed the dollar bills over with a long sigh. "To top it all off, I have a resident on my service."

"Well, Callie, sorry to break it to you but, you will always have residents on your service." Mark remarked, a smile of unfiltered amusement on his face. "This is a teaching hospital, no amount of bug spray will get rid of them."

Callie waved him off. "Yeah, but— I can't socialise right now." She shivered at the thought of human interaction, which was utterly understandable.

"You're socialising with me." Mark pointed out, nudging into her shoulder.

"But, you're different." Callie defended, her eyes drifting shut again as she attempted (and failed) to reclaim back a little more energy.

The coffee was not working.

"Thanks?" He questioned, side eyeing her while he took the coffees from the counter, handing one to Callie. "Who is the lucky resident who has to deal with, all this, today?"

"Levine." Callie replied, sipping on her coffee with desperation.

"What's wrong with Aliya? I dated her." He argued, suddenly feeling a desperate and overwhelming need to defend her.

Even though he had no right to.

Just because they broke up a couple of short months ago, didn't meant he wanted people to talk crap about her, or think she wasn't great at her job.

There was a reason why she survived the merger after all.

"Nothing." Callie ran her fingers through her hair, pulling out the tangles. "She's one of the competent ones. I guess, I have nothing to moan about. If I wanted a resident on my service who I knew wouldn't pester me all day and actually do their job, it would be Levine. She's quite funny too, hot as-well. I can see why you dated her for so long."

"She was funny." Mark mused, nostalgically.

"Was? She's not dead, idiot." The Torres woman judged her friend, who was now proceeding to look like a lost puppy that has just been kicked out in the cold.

"She is funny." The idiot in question corrected with a solemn look on his face. "And smart. And hot. And—"

"Oh lord, snap out of it!" Callie snapped her fingers in front of her friend's face, stopping in the middle of the crowded hallway to look at Mark, who was moping about in a way that had to be stopped right this exact second. "You have no right to say all that bullshit. You crushed the poor girl, and you're with Lexie!" She stated, matter-of-factly, watching as all colour drained from Mark's face. "Snap out of it."

"I did not crush the poor girl." Mark huffed in complete denial of the statement, waving his coffee cup around as if it were a prop to convey his point.

Because, even he knew he couldn't possibly have crushed a girl like Aliya.

Could he?

"She also isn't a poor girl. She's very—" Mark paused in thought for a moment, before landing on: "Headstrong."

"You crushed her until she was forced to break it off with you." Callie took another sip of the hot coffee, savouring every mouthful. "God, I need this in an IV."

"Wait—" Mark rounded in front of Callie, stopping her from walking away any further. "I crushed her? I didn't crush her. What are you talking about? This is— What?"

Callie stopped herself from colliding into Mark's chest, her eyebrows knotted together as she smirked at his cluelessness. "You don't know the damage you did? Gosh. That's why the nurses hate you." The brunette shifted past him, continuing her aimless trail.

Mark pursed his lips, catching up with her yet again. "I thought they hated me because I had sex with them and their colleagues."

Callie cackled at the naivety, throwing her head back in a fit of laughter. "You underestimate the grudge of a nurse. They hate you for what you did to her. The nurses love her. They adore her. They cherish her like she's some sort of baby deer. Why do you think Andrea Burman refuses to be in the same room as you?"

"It wasn't that bad." Mark spoke solemnly, shaking his head in some form of denial.

Then, he got flashbacks to when Andrea Burman put too much salt in the cookies and let him have them on purpose.

And, the time she accidentally cancelled all of his minor botox procedures. 

It all was starting to add up.

"You detached from the relationship, led her on and cheated on her with Lexie, which forced Aliya to break up with you. Why do you think you look at her so guilt-ridden? Or do you not notice when you do that?" Callie pushed her hair away from her shoulder, happy to know more information than Mark for once, no matter how bad said information it was.

"When you put it like that—" Mark started but Callie was already walking away from the totally oblivious man. "Torres! It wasn't that bad, was it? I know I was a jerk, but was it—"

Mark watched as Callie walked off, leading to him beginning to recall his ten month long relationship (plus the several months he knew her before then) with Aliya. Which happened to be longer than any of his previous, committed relationships.

Which was truly record breaking for him.

But, they weren't just a fling. Mark truly did love her, and he came up with a resolution that a part of him would always care for her.

The way she smiled so tiny dimples showed on her cheeks. The glasses she wore to read at night propped on the edge of her nose which made him feel like he was dating a librarian (he wasn't exactly mad about). Her raging coffee addiction that made Mark spend large amounts of time, and quite frankly — money — memorising her coffee orders for all her different moods or coffee needs.

The painting she did for him that hung above them when they stayed up most of the night talking. It was still there. He didn't have the heart to take it down.

He may not have known much about her past and the family that she avoided talking about like her life depended on it, but he knew her.

He knew her favourite perfume, she would always smell of flowers, and how she got the worst hay fever during the summer but still went in the OR even though she felt like she was dying.

Usually, if he saw a woman he was dating with tissue shoved up her nose and sneezing into a bowl of soup, he would've run for the hills. But, he was the fool who made the goddamn soup even though it tasted like crap.

The truth was Mark did detach from her. He led her on, cancelled plans, and treated her like he didn't know what he had until he lost her.

When Aliya broke up with him, he found it strange that she didn't cry, not like he expected she would. All he remembered from that night was her, in a blue summer dress, a beige cardigan draped over her shoulders, and sunglasses propped on the top of her head. Her quick replies to his defences were flying out of her mouth at rapid speed, stunning him into saying things he didn't actually mean.

What he didn't know was that when she left she cried in her car outside his apartment and all the way back home, furious at herself that she let the same thing happen to her again.

And one thing Aliya didn't know, was that he too cried.

He didn't realise how much he was going to miss her until she was half way out of that damn door.

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SEATTLE GRACE HOSPITAL
seattle, washington
( nearly three months ago )
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It had been a whole week since Aliya had broken up with Mark, and the pain in her chest and the bile in her throat accounted for it.

She focused on not letting herself fall apart, making sure she kept her routine the same each morning — wake up, coffee, shower, brush teeth, have breakfast, brush teeth again. It all became cyclic but she couldn't not have her routine, it was the only thing that was keeping her sane at the moment.

There was no time to schedule in wallowing in self pity, or return her mother's phone calls. She really didn't need the emotional warfare that was her mother's insults at a time like this.

"Aliya, honey—" Andy approached the brunette cautiously, knowing all about what had happened. "I have some charts for you to sign."

But the girl didn't answer, her eyes were trained on Mark and Lexie in the distance, leaving the hospital together in a tangle of limbs as they smiled happily at each other.

"That hateful—" Andy spat with anger as she looked in the direction of Aliya's eyes. "Rude son of a bitch!"

"Andy!"

Hearing Andy say 'bitch' for the first time snapped her out of the mental pause she was previously experiencing.

"Sorry." Andy apologised, rubbing Aliya's arm. "I just can't help it, because, well he is an asshole."

And 'asshole'. She had never heard Andy say that particular word either.

The greying woman clasped a hand around her mouth. "In my fifty six years of living, I don't think I've ever said asshole."

Aliya chucked at Andy's guilty expression, forcing back tears with a sniffle.

"Honey," Andy murmured softly, placing the charts down. "You deserve so much better than that jerk."

Swatting away a tear rolling down her cheek, Aliya nodded her head, sniffling softly at the thought of him and Lexie, laughing together on the car ride home, not even thinking about Aliya and the hurt they caused her. 

"I mean that, truly. You deserve someone like my Thomas, he was ever so kind." Andy reminisced with a nostalgic smile to herself. "Easy on the eyes too. Mark isn't that good looking. There's better, and hotter, men out there."

"Andy!" Aliya protested, though there was no denying that the corner of her mouth was curled up in a smirk.

"I'm not lying." The nurse defended, a content smile on her face now that Aliya's smile spread to her cheekbones, brightening up her whole face. "Think of Leonardo DiCaprio in the nineties, Aliya."

Yeah, that helped.

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THE CAFETERIA
seattle grace mercy west
( present day )
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It was finally lunchtime, and Aliya had done two surgical ortho procedures with Callie, and a consult in the pit with a frat boy who fractured his ankle in a dare to jump off the balcony into the pool. Although, she found it amusing when he described it all in vivid detail (he was an English major).

When he was wheeled off to x-ray, he scribbled his number on some bandages, along with a fond nickname of 'Dr. Sweet Cheeks' which Callie stated she would be calling Aliya that for the next ten thousand years, give or take.

She gripped hold of her lunch tray as she slid into the free seat next to Alex, where he was also joined by Meredith and Cristina, staring over at where the attending's had chosen to eat lunch.

"What are we looking at?" The Levine woman popped a tomato in her mouth from her plate, gazing over to the table across the cafeteria.

"We are looking at Cristina's new present." Mer, who was now back at work, explained, not looking away from the blonde haired woman that had captured everyone's interest.

"Oh yes, cardio goddess!" Aliya enthused, peering over to see the blonde haired woman in question, better known as Dr. Teddy Altman, laughing as she watched Owen tell a story to the others with exaggerated jazz hands.

"Did you just call her a cardio goddess?" Cristina scoffed in distaste.

"Isn't she so cool?" Aliya asked the group, a smile so clear on her face as she admired the blonde, now telling the attending her side of Owen's story. "Hot too."

"Owen said she'll surprise me." Cristina huffed, arms crossed as she turned back around in her chair, forcefully taking her eyes off the new head of cardio. "And, guess what? Surprise! She doesn't know how to do surgery."

"She was a total badass in the ER today. It's all around the hospital." Aliya picked up her afternoon coffee and sipped it, letting it burn down her throat. "Just give it time, she's only been here for five hours." She added, earning a disgusted look from Cristina — who truly believed her abilities demanded a cardio surgeon better than the countless ones hired at Seattle Grace over the years.

"Why are you defending her? She went to state school." Cristina pointed out, aggressively puncturing her lettuce with her fork.

"So did I." Alex retorted, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite out of the corner of it.

"Well, she's skinny and blonde." Cristina bit back, shoving the lettuce in her mouth with dismay.

"So is Mer."

Cristina looked over at Mer whose eyes widened with an expression saying don't get me involved.

"She's all sunshiney, it's sickening." Cristina spat through a mouthful of salad.

Alex pointed his fork in the air in the direction of the only woman looking at the new attending in awe, rather than intimidation. "So's Aliya."

Aliya peered away, not wanting to get in the middle of an Alex and Cristina showdown. She locked eyes with Meredith, who appeared just as concerned as she did.

Cristina sighed. "Well, she's annoying."

"So are you." Alex's voice raised in frustration.

"Where is your wife, by the way?" Cristina placed her elbows on the table, looking at Alex with a smug expression as she hit the easiest nerve she could, the cut that ran the deepest.

"I— What did you say to Owen?" Mer interjected fast, noting Alex's expression and the way he flinched when Cristina asked the dreaded question on Izzie's whereabouts, his hands balled into a fist on the lunch table.

"Oh— that she has got to go! I mean he knows how important this is to me!" Cristina continued to babble on about how hiring more staff was ruining her life — first the merger, and now now this new cardio goddess. "And he brings me this Desert Storm Barbie who hasn't seen an OR in ten years. I mean, if this is what he thinks of my talent. I've gotta break up with him."

"She's more of a G.I. Jane." Aliya noted, receiving another one of those infamous looks from Cristina.

"Have you even talked to Izzie yet?" Cristina turned her attention back to torturing Alex.

"Izzie? Wait— she's here?" Aliya practically nearly spat out her salad from the shock of it all, spinning over to Alex, shocked mostly because she didn't hear it before. "Have I missed something?"

"You didn't hear?" Cristina said in surprise, seeing as Aliya usually knew all of the hospital gossip.

"No!" Aliya exclaimed, her head whizzing back and forth between the three people seated at their table. "I've been in surgery all morning! I hear about cardio-goddess, but not Izzie freakin' Stevens!"

"No one is allowed to talk about Izzie while I eat." Alex finally grumbled, a frown across his lips.

"Am I the only one concerned here?" Cristina questioned the group. "I mean, her treatment—"

"Maybe I can formulate a decision on that one if someone tells me what the hell is going on here? Why is Izzie back? Is she okay? God, Alex, are you okay?" Aliya interrupted Cristina, her concern rising by the second at all these unanswered questions.

Suddenly, Alex slammed down his sandwich on the tray when Aliya had finally finished speaking, sending lettuce and cheese across the table, getting up from his chair in a fast, rigid movement.

"Dude!"

The group all watched him throw his lunch into the trash, pushing out the door.

"For the love of—" Aliya huffed, turning and pushing her salad over to the blonde. "Can you watch my lunch? Doctors are vultures. And, I'm gonna have to sort all that out."

Aliya, however, knew full well the dirty blonde woman would probably end up eating it, but she nodded anyways and Aliya slipped out of her chair, following Alex down the hall.

The Karev man swerved past a group of nurses and began weaving through the halls with Aliya jogging close behind in an effort to catch up with him.

When she finally reached him, she placed a hand on his shoulder and tugging him back slightly to reveal the total irritation displayed as clear as day across his face.

His brows were knotted together, sending harsh lines across his forehead, as if he had just seen a real life ghost. Which, technically he had, seeing as they both thought Izzie was long gone by now.

So, with that, Aliya bundled him into the nearest supply closet, closing the door shut behind him.

"So, Izzie's back?" Aliya questioned cautiously, her lips pressed in a line as she paced back and forth the small closet, her hands on her hips as she entered full on crisis mode.

Alex nodded, looking everywhere but Aliya, finding great interest in the stacks upon stacks of clean gauze, which he know had begun sifting through.

"Do we need to slap her? Yell at her? Tell her she needs to do better?" Aliya offered, but Alex didn't even look up.

"I— I don't know." Alex sighed in defeat, his eyes tunnelling into the ground. "I don't know why she's back, I don't understand what the hell is going on. I just don't get her, Aliya."

He picked up a fistful of unused gauze, sending them across the storage closet, but they didn't go very far, instead they just bundled on the ground, looking almost as sad as him.

"Come on," Aliya hooked her arms around Alex's, leading him out of the claustrophobic closet and into the hall, carefully. It was almost as if she was trying to tame a wild animal. "Let's go find some chocolate pudding and fruit cups."

"I hate fruit cups." Alex grimaced at the thought of the world abomination which was the hospital fruit cups.

The brunette smirked, pulling the Karev man down the hall. "The fruit cups are for me, not for you."

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Aliya wasn't as close with Izzie as she was with Alex, seeing as she was his Best Man at their wedding and not the Maid of Honour, but that didn't mean she didn't care about Izzie.

And, that certainly didn't mean she hadn't spent the last two years of her life being friends with her, to be completely abandoned by her on a random Wednesday evening.

When George moved out and Mer stayed over at Derek's, where it was just the two of them in the house, they would be in the kitchen baking as they tested each other on flashcards in preparation for their intern exam, and listened to all the old music they seemed to both like.

When Izzie left, Aliya undeniably began to miss that. She knew people left all the time, it's happened to her before, and it was bound to happen again. It was just a part of life, the way the world worked.

The relationships she had made with her fellow residents was something she tried so hard not to lose, that it ended with her loosing two in a short space of a time, falling out of her grasp so fast she couldn't salvage any of it.

She pulled open the door to the catwalk, beelining to get to another ortho surgery she had scheduled with Callie that she would use as a means of distraction.

But, the brunette paused about a metre behind Dr Bailey, who was bent over, clutching hold of the railing as she peered over in the direction of Dr Webber's office.

"Watcha doin'?" Aliya sung, causing Bailey to, quite frankly, leap out of her skin.

"Levine! Don't sneak up on people!" Bailey reached out to slap Aliya on the arm.

"Ow! Hey!" Aliya swatted her hand away, rubbing her wrist where Bailey had just slapped.

Bailey smoothed out her scrubs and readjusted her coat, her face stern.

"You know—" Aliya began, running a hand through her hair, her eyes catching the blonde sat in the Chief's office briefly, before looking away almost immediately. "—it's rude to stare."

"I'm not staring." Bailey defended, averting her eyes back to the Chiefs office. "I'm observing."

"Observing, staring, spying. " Aliya smiled widely at the woman who was practically raising her into a doctor. "Potato, pot-a-to."

Bailey sighed, pulling her gaze away from the office, turning her back away from them. "Have you spoken to her yet? I need to know what's going on."

"Who?" Aliya pretended to be clueless, going back to peering into the office, her curiosity getting the better of her as she watched Izzie speak to Dr. Webber. She could agree with Bailey that it was pretty interesting, like some sort of television drama.

Dr. Bailey rolled her eyes, pointing to the Chiefs office where the blonde was sat. "Izzie. Because, I have no clue why that girl is here, and I was hoping you do. You apparently know everything."

Aliya breezed past the attending, advancing further down the catwalk. "Avoidance is my favourite stage of grief." She called from over her shoulder.

"That's not even a stage!" Bailey replied after her, but it was no use, she had already disappeared through the double doors. "That girl is going to be the death of me, I called it." She muttered to herself.

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—✩—
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"Levine!" Callie approached Aliya who had just entered the ER, handing her a chart as she reached the front desk. "Sorry— Dr. Sweet Cheeks." She corrected, grinning wildly as she recalled the nickname previous frat boy had coined for her.

"I guess there's worse things to be called." Aliya shrugged as she flipped the chart open, skimming it quickly. "Kyle Prague, hip replacement, nice!"

"At least you're not being called a dirty mistress." Callie offered, and the ortho surgeon did have a good point. She tapped the chart with her index finger. "Meet me outside the OR in half an hour."

The Levine woman nodded, briefly looking over her shoulder where she was instantly met with the incredibly agitating grin of Jackson Avery, approaching the counter like a bad omen and scribbling something onto the chart in his hands.

In her peripheral vision, she kept catching him peer over at her, and she was desperately trying to suppress whatever kind of smile was trying to make its way onto her face without her permission.

"I don't like you." Aliya pointed out, after a while of standing next to each other in silence that wasn't exactly awkward.

That only made Jackson grin even harder, showing the fronts of his teeth. He leaned onto the desk so he was at her level, slouching slightly over it.

"I'm going to make you like me, Levine, one way or another. You'll see." Jackson announced and he watched the brunette scoff, rolling her eyes as she tried not to even entertain him but, Jackson noticed every movement and falter in her expression. "I'm a very likeable person."

That made the brunette scoff once more.

"I'm sure that's going to work out well for you." She replied sarcastically, moving behind the desk and logging onto the computer, seeing she had some time to kill before the surgery. "You know, usually frustrating the hell out of someone doesn't make you very likeable."

"So, you're admitting I frustrate you?" A smirk danced across Jackson's lips, opening his mouth to reply, but was stopped by Aliya practically launching out of her seat as fast as she sat in it. He changed his tone, his back straightening up as the brunette's jaw dropped to the floor. "Is everything okay?"

She had tried to access Eliza's chart, but a message came up on the screen in big bold text about unauthorised access and her attempt to log in being denied, the red lettering mocking her as she tried yet again.

The Levine woman rapidly searched the ER, spotting Arizona from the other side of the room.

"Levine—" Jackson called after her as she started to beeline towards the head of peds.

"Dr. Robbins! Hi—"

Arizona turned around from where she was standing, her patient was being pushed out through the double doors, Cristina and the new cardio attending (or 'goddess') following.

"I'm sure this is a misunderstanding but— I can't access Eliza's charts?"

"Oh. No, that's not a misunderstanding." Arizona smiled, kindly, which made Aliya even more annoyed, because how the hell was she supposed to be mad at her?

Aliya laughed, weakly as Jackson stepped beside her, his arms crossed as he eavesdropped, rather obviously might she add. "You— you can't freeze me from Eliza's charts! I know all the nurses! The nurses love me!"

"I sent a message to the nurses to deny you access to that chart. And, through the computer systems." Aliya opened her mouth to try and persuade her otherwise but, Arizona quickly cut her off. "Now, Levine, if you'll excuse me, I have surgery. I'm really sorry."

And the worst part of it all, the apology did seem genuine, making it even harder for Aliya to be annoyed.

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—✩—
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Stalker was a weighty word.

But, Aliya may have been checking up on Izzie's patient, Mr. Singer, to see how long she'll be in this hospital for, after discovering the real reason behind the blonde's comeback.

It turned out her old professor was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, and Derek took him into surgery to place a shunt which would allow a build-up of fluid to drain to his abdomen.

Aliya was smart enough to know that as soon as the surgery was over, Izzie was out of there.

That girl had a knack for running, so it seemed.

As Aliya turned the corner and she instantly saw Izzie sat on the chair outside a patient's room, flipping through a magazine that was placed on her lap, her handbag close beside her, hooked over her elbow as if she would get up and leave any second, proving the previous point.

Aliya stopped infront of her, causing Izzie to look up to see who it was.

"Were you even going to stop by for one second and say hi?" Aliya questioned immediately, crossing her arms as she watched the blonde's expression drop. "Instead of sneaking around."

She looked exactly the same, though entirely different at the same time.

Izzie sniffed, dragging her sleeve across her nose.

"I—" The Stevens girl cleared her throat. "You would be on Alex's side regardless." She peered up at Aliya through glazed eyes, as if she had just stopped crying.

"That's not a good enough reason and you know it." Aliya informed, matter-of-factly, taking a seat next to Izzie. "You're my friend too. Nothing's gonna change that."

"But Alex— he's your person or whatever. Like Mer and Cristina. And—" She wiped her eye, swatting away the threat of tears. "Like George and I."

"But, that doesn't mean you can't come to me. I was worried about you, Iz. Even though I did threatened to slap you an hour ago, I do miss you." Aliya admitted.

Tears broke free and slid down Izzie's cheeks. "I missed you too." Aliya reached her arms out and pulled Izzie into a hug, patting Izzie's back reassuringly. "But, we're going to have to rewind on the wanting to slap me part."

The Levine woman laughed into her shoulder, her hands pressed against Izzie's back as she grasped onto some normality, at the hope things could return to the way they were before—

"Are we ready to go Isobel?" A voice belonging to a short man emerging from the room to the left of the two women.

"Yes. Yes, Dr. Singer. Just give me a minute." Izzie wiped a tear from her eye, and a look of guilt washed over the face in that moment.

—But, that was all just a fantasy.

Aliya knew guilt. And, she knew regret even better. And, she knew that the blonde looked guilty, but did she regret any of it? No.

Guilt showed on the creases of faces, on the lining of tears on eyes, pupils glasses over as the person tried and ultimately failed to suppress the lump in their throats, the ache in their chest.

"Who— who are you?" He asked Aliya, adjusting the thin frames on his face.

"Oh, Aliya— Aliya Levine." She held out her hand and he took it, shaking it quickly.

"Nice to meet you." He greeted politely, before shuffling back into his room to wait for his former student.

Aliya watched him leave and when he was gone, she didn't even turn back to Izzie, she simply just stared, wide eyed at where Dr. Singer had once stood. "You're going back to Chehalis aren't you?"

After a long pause, the blonde finally and reluctantly nodded, reaching over for the brunette's hand, but she moved it away from her reach. "Aliya. Can you look after Alex for me? Make sure he doesn't—" She trailed off, looking down at her hands.

Aliya chewed on her lip, annoyed at herself for forgiving her, even if it was just for a brief moment.

Forgiving her for leaving her best friend.

Forgiving her for not messaging her back when they all were worried sick about her.

She wanted to hold onto her friendships, so tightly that she became blind to their flaws. People can easily toss two years of friendship away like it was a candy wrapper, like it never mattered to them in the first place.

Aliya exhaled the breath she had been holding, turning slowly back to the woman sat next to her, waiting for her next move. "What do you think I've been doing all this time?"

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—✩—
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Aliya yawned into her palm, completed wiped out from the hip replacement surgery on Kyle Prague, which went well.

Slipping her jacket over her shoulders, she tugged her bag out of her cubby, longing to go home and collapse into her bed and just sleep off the whole day. Though, that was far from likely, seeing as she knew exactly where her best friend would be at this time, after the reappearance (and yet another disappearance) of his wife.

"Here." Jackson approached her suddenly, causing Aliya's soul to leap out of her body as he handed her a large brown envelope.

"Am I being served?" Aliya asked with a raised brow, peering at the envelope sceptically. "Is this your side hustle now?"

"It's a restraining order." Jackson dead panned, waving it in front of her face before she was forced to take it. "Just take it."

"Did you name a star after me?" Aliya mused, using her index finger to break the seal of the envelope. "I've always wanted a star to be named after me. Or a plane ticket to Italy! I haven't been on vacation in years. No, actually I want a pony. Maybe even a whole farm, that would be cool—"

"Just look!" Jackson interrupted, tapping the envelope she was taking forever to open.

"Okay, okay." Aliya reached in, pulling out the first cluster of papers paper clipped neatly together.

And, her breath caught in her throat as her eyes widened over the name, printed across the top of the papers, which turned out to be charts.

With the name, Eliza Vasquez.

"I may have done some eavesdropping earlier—"

The brunette pursed her lips, eyes quickly darting to him, then back to the charts in her hands as she tried to wrap her head around what was happening. "You are far from subtle."

"—and heard that you were banned from her charts. Hard not to hear seeing as you caused such a commotion. These are copies. Dr Robbins will never know." He stuffed his hands in his scrub pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet.

Aliya smiled broadly, laughing a little as she looked up. "Jackson— I— I don't know what to say."

"I'll accept a thank you." The man who confused her greatly remarked. "Or, payment in Jolly Ranchers."

The brunette smirked, her hands gripping ahold of the papers. "Thank you."

"Anytime." Jackson began to walk away but stopped in the hallway, turning on his heel and Aliya savoured the way he looked at her, stuffing it into the backs of the messy drawers in her memory. "Actually, not anytime. It's boring doing nice things. And, this job is hard enough."

Aliya laughed, shaking her head at the Avery man's statement. "And here you were making me believe you're a gentleman."

Jackson paused thoughtfully in the doorway, casting her a look from over his shoulder before he disappeared out the door. "Maybe I am. You'll just have to put up with me long enough to find out."

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—✩—
⠀

"Hey." Aliya greeted, slipping onto the stool next to Alex in Joe's bar, chucking her bag onto the place in front of her.

Usually she liked Joe's, but after the hangover she had after Arizona's party (and how she ended up in this very bar with an ice cream sundae with Alex she did not know, but that triple shot of cinnamon swirl vodka was strong, plus the multitude of other drinks she had alongside it), she had sworn off of alcohol for the time being.

He grunted a 'hello' with minimum effort, taking a long swig of his beer, back hunched over the table before he finally strung a sentence together.

"She's not coming back." Alex confirmed.

"It sucks. It's a very crappy thing to do." Aliya expressed, folding up the napkin on the bar in front of her.

"It is crap." Alex said, miserably. "You give your all to a person and—" He replied with a frown, bringing the beer back up to his lips. "You know about all that though. It's happened to you twice." He remarked, exposing her to the whole entire bar.

(Though, it's not as if she hasn't done that already, drunk on shots of tequila.)

"Hard blow."Aliya winced, not mentioning the fact that it had happened to him the exact same amount of times. "But, I'm going to choose to forgive you. For the greater good."

Alex snorted, handing her his beer to finish off.

Aliya raised the bottle in the air. "Cheers to never finding someone to spend the rest of your life with, and living alone with nothing in the refrigerator but mouldy cheese and lumpy milk."

"That's something I can cheers to." Alex replied, bringing his fist up to bump into the beer. They both smiled at each other, knowing in that moment that they would always have each other no matter what happened. "Do you ever feel like you're just unlucky? At love. At life."

Aliya nodded, idly swigging the beer. "And that everything you do is never good enough for anyone." Alex looked over at her, sadly, as she took another swig from the stolen beer, snapping herself out of her trance. "Now. We don't wallow in a bar. We need to make you feel better. You can't be all dark and twisty, drinking your body weight in beer. I won't allow it."

Aliya finished off the bottle in one gulp, bringing it down to the bar counter. She grabbed her bag and hopped off the stool, shrugging the strap over her shoulder.

"Where do we wallow then?" Alex slipped out from the stool much to his reluctance, following Aliya as she led him out of Joe's bar.

⠀
—✩—
⠀

"Pass the popcorn please." Aliya pulled the blanket higher, receiving the bowl from Lexie, though Alex got there first, stuffing his hand straight in.

"So, what's going on now?" He asked through a mouthful of sweet and salty popcorn.

Lexie crossed her arms. "He can't be here if he asks too many questions." The youngest Grey expressed to Aliya, reaching over to the popcorn on her lap.

"She's hot." Alex observed, chucking popcorn butterflies in his mouth.

"Who doesn't have a crush on Kate Hudson." Aliya agreed, nodding at the screen in a trance, purely induced by the lore of How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days.

"You're watching that movie again?" Meredith questioned as she walked through the front door with Derek by her side. "I was expecting you at Joe's."

"We were at Joe's, for about five minutes before we decided that getting drunk doesn't solve all of our problems." Aliya said, though even she didn't even agree herself. "Who am I kidding, I could really do with a shot of tequila right about now."

"Tomorrow." Alex suggested, slowly shovelling more popcorn into his mouth, and Aliya nodded in agreement, seeing as she was way too comfortable to move even an inch, and feeling way to proud of herself that she had finally managed to get him to forget about Izzie, by focusing on a new blonde — Andie Anderson.

"What's happening now?" Derek asked, innocently, dropping down onto the sofa.

"Shhhhh." Lexie hissed, eyebrows knotted together as she tried to watch the television in peace.

⠀
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( notes! )

i don't know what was going through my mind when i started writing about alex, lexie and aliya watching how to lose a guy in ten days together but i'm here for it all the way

p.s. for reference, here's a timeline of mark and aliya's relationship(!!):

season 3 = first met, a bit — a lot — of angst (edit: now that speak now tv is announced, very 'i can see you' energy), a lot of tequila
early season 4 = even more angst, even more tequila and even more denial
mid-late season 4 = finally together (whoop whoop)
early season 5 = on-call rooms, supply closets and bathrooms — only if they have locks (iykyk)
early-mid season 5 = mark has eyes for lexie and leads aliya on for months
end of season 5 = aliya broke up with mark cause she's a queen who deserved better, rip maliya 💔💔 (edit: now that midnights til dawn edition is out, very 'you're losing me' vibes, edit edit: now that 1989 tv is out, this couple screams all 'say don't go')

( word count! — 7,300 )