"Good morning, Dr. Shepherd —or should I call you Derek? Now that we're getting to know each other, since you didn't let me sleep last night," Maddox waves her way to the neurosurgeon, who turns around with eyes wide and lips half-open in surprise. "Do you need a coffee? I guess you haven't had any sleep either," Maddox reaches out to hand him the second cup she's holding. "Don't worry, I've got my mouth shut. Do you have a moment?"

"Yeah, sure. What do you need, Dr. Easton?"

"Jamie Hayes has been admitted. The girl with the brain anomaly," Maddox clues the man in further on the case, and Derek nods as he walks, Maddox following close behind. "She has what looks like continuous seizure activity in her left foot. Her balance is off apparently," Maddox shows him the scans.

"How old are they?"

"Three months."

"I need new ones. Her brain could look dramatically different than that."

"Okay. I'll order them."

"Thanks," Derek nods, somewhat uncomfortable with the situation. It's strange the way Maddox looks at him and smiles, like she knows something he doesn't, despite her offhanded confession that she knows he's slept with Meredith. Hell, she even saw them kissing the other day at the party. Derek knows there's no point in hiding it anymore, at least at Meredith's house.

"Funny, I'm actually headed in your direction," Maddox smiles, holding the elevator doors. They close, and Maddox is grateful to be alone. "You know, you should be more careful. Meredith told me Bailey caught you the other night."

"You know I'm your boss, right?"

Maddox shrugs. "Technically you're my boss's boss, so I'm not worried about that. You're someone else's concern. I'm serious: you need to be careful. I don't care what Meredith does in bed with others, I don't care that she's sleeping with you because I know she's here for her skills and not because she's sleeping with you. But George and Izzie know that now too and they are not very happy about it. They think you're going to favor Meredith and that's not good for your reputation nor hers."

"This elevator has never been slower," Dr. Shepherd mutters.

"You're an attending, she's an intern. If you're with her, prove it or the shit will go down as soon as people find out," the elevator dings, the doors open and Maddox smiles again. "Thank you, Dr. Shepherd. I hope I wasn't a burden."

A while later, Maddox returns to the little girl's room with the patient's chart under her arm. She's had time to have a coffee, catch up with George —Maddox sees that he's acting weird, but assumes it's because they've seen Shepherd leave the house that morning— and cross paths with Cristina, who looked really sick. Derek hasn't made it to the room yet, so Maddox goes in to chat with the parents.

"Good morning. I'm Dr. Easton, and Dr. Shepherd will be here in a few minutes. This is the little girl I've been told about? You look like a princess. Do you know you're a princess? We're gonna find out what's causing these seizures, okay?" Maddox taps the little girl's nose, who wrinkles it and laughs.

Dr. Shepherd enters the room seconds later, and Maddox momentarily forgets the conversation they had earlier. They must be professional now, as they owe it to their patients.

"Does MRI know we're coming up?" Derek asks after patting the girl's legs and gesturing for her to smile.

Maddox nods, knowing he had ordered a CT scan. "It's available for us."

Derek nods with a small smile. "Doctor, is she gonna need surgery?"

"I don't know yet," the parents nod, probably considering the costly price of treatments, but the girl's leg is shaking again and Derek worries. "It's a focal left side seizure. Let's get that Diazepam right now, please. Hey, Jamie, here's what we're gonna do," Derek looks to Maddox with his eyes.

"We're gonna put this on your arm, okay? Isn't it fun? Like that. And this is gonna feel cold. This is a butterfly, look," Maddox distracts the little girl as Derek inserts the IV into her arm. "Butterfly lands right there. There we go. A blanket for the butterfly, please, Dr. Shepherd."

The little girl's seizure subsides, and Derek smiles at the parents. "Amazing stuff, right? Hey, you like spaceships?" The little girl nods, smiling. "Okay, should we take you with Captain Easton, my first lieutenant, to the spaceship MRI? Let's go."

"Seriously, how can parents be like this?" Maddox frowns, taking a bite of the donut she bought at the cafeteria. It's already close to ten o'clock at night, so she knows she won't be eating dinner when she gets home, unless Izzie is cooking again.

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Shepherd's voice startles her, and both she and Meredith turn around, alert.

"Hey, Derek," Maddox greets him, scrolling down her phone and not looking at his face. "Meredith's case. Mom is a bully, dad is a lapdog, and the patient is starving herself to please her mother. I wish I could say this was a rare case," Maddox shrugs, putting the phone away and raising her head. Both Meredith and Derek stare at her. "What?"

"Derek?" whispers Meredith louder than she should.

"Oh, I didn't tell you? We make a good team. We had a two-year-old who was diagnosed with Rasmussen's encephalitis. Half of her brain was dead or dying, so Dr. Shepherd had to remove that part for her to live. Turns out the anesthesiologist was drunk and fell asleep, so I woke him up my way," Maddox makes a thud sound as she swings her arm and smiles. "I would have shat my pants in any other circumstance, but everyone saw him fail, so my thud was a minor inconvenience compared to that, so," Maddox drinks water, getting into the car. "Will you stop looking at me like that?"

"You're something else, Maddox," Meredith tries to say earnestly, but finds it impossible to resist laughing and starts the car's engine.

Maddox sits in the middle seat in the back, leaving it to Derek to join Meredith in the front after a long day. "It's true," he says at the end, when by now the girls barely remember the conversation. "We make a pretty good team," the surgeon clarifies. "By the way, you know I've ordered a CT scan, right?"

"Of course," Maddox sips again from her water. "But I took the trouble of ordering an MRI. It's what any decent neurosurgeon would have done."

"How do you know that?" Derek asks her, turning around in the seat.

"I know everything," Maddox replies, playing it down.

"She does," Meredith corroborates, looking at her through the mirror.

"You're pretty scary."

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are," Derek counters again. "But you were good today. You should have seen the girl, Meredith. Completely blown away by her doc's words," Derek smiles. "Our surgery was a success. You know your way around neuro."

"Really?" Maddox's eyes light up at Derek's approval and satisfaction, still smiling. "I mean, yeah. You're lucky I study most nights, so your screaming didn't wake me up last night. Oh, and I bought these," Maddox flashes orange earplugs. "Three pairs. In case George and Izzie have trouble sleeping too."

Derek laughs out loud. "I like her."

"Shall I leave you two alone?" Meredith teases, still driving.

"Don't worry, I don't like to steal. I'll get another attending for myself," Maddox winks and walks into the house, yelling, "Izzie, love, my stomach and I are home!"

"Three interns, four residents and six nurses on this surgical floor have been diagnosed with...syphilis," Chief Webber says, and Maddox has to stifle a laugh that threatens to escape her throat. She disguises it with a cough, and Izzie nudges her, her lips also trying to hide a smile.

"There are more than 70,000 new cases every year. If undiagnosed, syphilis can lead to blindness, insanity and death."

"If you have unprotected sex with another staff member, get tested," Webber continues, and from the look on his face, he's not amused. Maddox thinks he probably wouldn't have imagined having to do this in a hospital. "This is not a request," The boss's secretary pulls a banana and a condom wrapper out of a bag, and now Maddox does laugh, accompanying Cristina's complicit look. "Patricia will now give you a safe sex demonstration."

Laughter is evident in the room. Maddox knows she shouldn't laugh, because it is a disease that is affecting several people she knows, especially George, who is embarrassed and ashamed. Patricia grabs the banana with one hand and the condom with another. "When the time comes, and, gentlemen, you all know when that time is, carefully open the condom packet and roll it over the banana."

"Was this really necessary?" Maddox asks once they leave the room. Everyone is laughing, even Bailey has seemed to fall asleep at the demonstration on the odd occasion. "I didn't go to med school for four years for this."

"There's a line down the hall," Alex mentions behind her. "I'll go check it out to see who I don't want to sleep with. In weeks, at least."

"You're totally going to get tested."

"No, I'm not," Alex frowns.

"Yes, you are. But I'm not going to tell. That way you'll owe me a big, fat favor."

"You are Evil Spawn!" Karev yells after her as Maddox walks away.

"What was that?" Izzie asks behind her, walking to catch up.

Maddox shrugs. "Oh, nothing. Just beating Karev at his own game," Maddox picks up one of the charts to read patient information, meeting Cristina on the way. "Are you getting tested?"

"God, no," Cristina scoffs.

"Do I have to?" asks Izzie, teasingly. "You'd tell me if I had to be here, wouldn't you?"

Maddox moves dangerously close to her, kissing her on the cheek. "Of course, darling. You don't have to worry, there's no one else," Cristina looks at the two of them, not knowing what's going on. "Oh, didn't we tell you? We're having great, unprotected sex every night now. Hearing Meredith and Shepherd made us jealous."

Izzie laughs. "Look at her face. She totally bought it," Maddox and she high-five and resume their walk.

"I wouldn't sleep with someone I live with. I mean, I could. But I wouldn't."

"I hate you both. I believed it for a second."

"You want to do an unauthorized autopsy?" Maddox exclaims in the break room, her face contracted into a grimace.

"I know you, Cristina. You don't want to be known as the new 007. An autopsy clears your name," Izzie tries to convince her.

"Cristina, no," Meredith contradicts.

"What about Franklin's wife? You saw the way she was looking at me. She wants the autopsy. She doesn't want to fight with her daughter. She looked so sad," Izzie lashes out again, this time with sorrowful eyes, and Cristina stares at her for a long moment in silence. "Okay, Cristina Yang: license to kill."

"Okay, I'm in."

"I'm so not in," Maddox mutters, looking everywhere but at them.

"Maddox, this is Fight Club," Cristina threatens. "Nobody's talking about it."

"Fine."

"We have to do it when Bailey's not around."

Izzie scoffs. "She's always around. She's everywhere and knows everything."

"Bailey has a thing tonight from 7 to 11. You two will be the last thing on her mind," Meredith mutters, and Maddox nods to herself.

"How do you know that? What kind of thing?"

"We can't tell you. Fight club, too," Maddox sentences, and she and Meredith get up and leave the room. "We're really doing this. You don't think they'll be mad, do you? We're keeping something very important from them. And besides, we've been called by Dr. Shepherd, I mean. They'll think he's favoring us."

"Relax, we've got it under control. If anything, they'll think he's favoring me. You'll be in because of your skills. Dr. Shepherd said so, remember? Stop it, okay? We have a big task ahead of us and we need to stay focused."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Welcome, Dr. Grey, Dr. Easton," Derek glances at them, but even under the glasses and mask the two girls can see he's smiling.

Bailey appears from behind them with a raised eyebrow. "You better not screw this up."

"Got it, Dr. Bailey."

"This went well. Thank you all," Derek says at the end of the operation, checking to make sure the wound is well closed. He directs a final nod to Maddox and Meredith, who subtly return it.

"Grey, Easton," Bailey calls after them. "Call Stevens and Yang. Tell them I want them to cover your patients. I need you to stay and monitor the Chief."

Maddox signals Meredith not to speak while Bailey isn't looking. "I believe Cristina and Izzie weren't on call tonight, ma'am."

Bailey lifts her head. "No? Then one of you stay here and the other covers her and the other's patients."

Maddox doesn't think twice, responding as she dresses the wound, not taking her eyes off it. "I'll page them right away, Dr. Bailey."

"Hold on," Bailey says and glares at Meredith. "Grey, do you know something we don't?"

"What? No! No."

The resident smiles sarcastically. "Oh, you're lying. I know you're lying. You know how I know that? Because you're a bad liar. I hate bad liars. And I hate you for being a good one," she points at Maddox, who lets out a sigh she didn't know she was holding back. It doesn't take Bailey long to realize where Cristina and Izzie must be. "I know exactly where they are."

Maddox feels like she hasn't slept for days, so when night falls and she's on call, the first thing she does is take a nap in the break room. Luckily it's empty, so it doesn't take her too long to find a good bed and sleep for a while, but she wakes up barely an hour later with a shaking and slapping of her face. When she opens her eyes, Meredith and Cristina hover over her, startling her.

"For fuck's sake," Maddox huffs, running her hands over her face. "Am I the only one who was working tonight?" she exclaims upon seeing them in their street clothes. She, on the other hand, is still in the light blue scrubs.

"Izzie was here, too," Meredith replies, somewhat agitated. She gently nudges Cristina, who hesitates, and this does not go unnoticed by Maddox, who rubs her eyes but gets up. "Cristina here has something important to tell you. Come on, you have to tell her! We're a relationship of three people here."

"McDreamy is married," Cristina lets out very quickly, earning surprised gasps from Meredith and Maddox.

"What?" The latter says, more than surprised.

"Cristina is pregnant," Meredith counters, which earns her a punch to the bicep from Cristina.

"WHAT?" Maddox exclaims again. "Am I still dreaming?"

"You're not," Cristina mutters.

"Alright, I want details. You're pregnant? What are you gonna do?" Maddox whispers back, this time more awake and more concerned. She sits on the bottom bunk while Meredith and Cristina occupy two chairs in the living room.

"You know what happens with pregnant interns. I'm not switching to the vagina squad or spending my life popping zits. I'm too talented. Surgery is my life."

"Which backs the question: who are you sleeping with?"

"Just a guy," Cristina sighs, and for that, Maddox knows there's something else hidden behind her words.

"That's all we get? You can't just bring something like this up and expect us to drop it," Meredith grumbles under her breath.

Cristina opens her arms and rises from her chair. "Watch me."

She exits the break room, leaving her two friends behind, worried, but Maddox decides not to stay there. Meredith leaves behind her, avoiding the elephant in the room, but Maddox isn't about to leave it at that. Not when she's been awakened from her brief nap.

"What was that about McDreamy? What do you mean he's married?"

"Apparently he had a wife back in New York. She's introduced herself before: 'Hey, you must be the one who's been screwing my husband'. Can you believe that? I feel so stupid."

Maddox puts an arm around her shoulder. "You shouldn't. It's his fault. Who the hell starts a relationship like that and forgets to mention they're married? You didn't know, so you shouldn't feel stupid, ashamed or even guilty. But hey, what is his wife doing here?"

"She's a surgeon, too. She's travelled from Manhattan to accept the job Chief Webber's offered her. So now I'll have a lying ex-boyfriend and a psychopath ex-wife on my back. Double the fun."

The next morning, when she's gone more hours than she can count without sleep —after learning that Joe has been admitted that same night, a visit to the man is mandatory— Maddox realizes it's not just double the fun, note the irony, but triple or quadruple. She crosses paths with Meredith at the front desk, where Maddox asks for a patient's chart and her friend wants to book an OR.

"I'm working with Addison Shepherd. Turns out she's a neonatal surgeon and she's asked for me to be on her case."

"God, your life's a mess. You're fucked."

Maddox hears the clacking of heels behind her, and judging by the pallor on Meredith's face, she knows that must be Addison Shepherd. However, when Maddox turns around, she doesn't expect to find someone so... breathtaking. Maddox takes a deep breath when Addison seems to notice her presence as well.

"You have the time to make friends, Grey? Is the OR booked?"

"Yes, Dr."

"Good," Addison's inquisitive eyes bore into Maddox. "You want to scrub in, too?"

"Oh, of course, Dr. Shepherd. What surgery are you performing, ma'am?"

"TTTS. Do you know what that is?"

"Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome," Addison raises her head curiously, and Maddox interprets that to mean she should keep talking." Conjoined twins connected by blood vessels in the placenta. One twin gets too much blood and the other too little, endangering the lives of both."

Addison seems to smile. "That was actually accurate. Maybe Grey should learn a few things from you," The doctor looks at the chart a nurse hands her and nods. "OR's booked in an hour. I expect you both there in time."

The older surgeon leaves, leaving Maddox with her mouth hanging open. "That is Derek's ex wife? You've gotta be kidding me. I may have found my own attending," Maddox smirks.

Maddox figures she has no sorrows to drown in alcohol, at least for the moment, so when Meredith orders shot after shot, Maddox just asks for a soda. Someone will have to drive her home, the girl thinks as she pats her car keys in her jacket pocket.

Maddox turns around when she sees Cristina take a seat between Meredith and her, making room for herself on the empty stool. Neither girl says anything, so Cristina sighs and is the first to break the silence. "The clinic has a policy. They wouldn't let me confirm my appointment unless I designated an emergency contact person. Someone who's there just in case, and to help me home, you know, after... Anyway, I put your names down. That's why I told you I'm pregnant. Well, I really didn't tell you, but I would've if you were there," Cristina nods to Maddox, who nods back. "You're my person. Both of you."

"We are?" Maddox asks out loud.

"Yeah, you are. Whatever."

"Whatever," Maddox and Meredith mutter at the same time, smiling a little as their gazes meet.

Cristina pops a snack into her mouth. "He dumped me."

Meredith and Maddox look at each other again, their eyes curving in pity and understanding, and they both wrap their arms around Cristina's shoulders in an awkward hug.

"You realize this constitutes hugging?" Cristina says in a monotone voice.

"Shut up," Maddox says. "We're your person."