To when I return

14. Find A Way

Next week Lexie started working at the hospital. Normal people would've taken time off from work after quitting their former job, but Lexie was a workaholic. She had been working for 16 years with out a real break. Except the time she had spent in maternity leave or laying on a hospital bed after the crash. She is filling paper work on her office when she hears knock at the door frame. Looking up and seeing her mother she puts the pen down. "What do you need Grey?" Lexie asks with the voice she had used at work for 10 years.

"Watch your tone and I just came to see you." Ellis answers.

"I became an attending at 25, head of neuro when I was 27, I needed to get tone that is imminent, so people would take me seriously. Now tell me: What do you want?"

"Why did you leave? Where did you go?" Ellis asks after moment or two of silence.

Lexie rubs her eyes before looking back up and answering "I stopped asking that question long time ago. I guess I just didn't feel like I belonged here. I went to college in Harvard, finished my Med school there and started at Mass Gen 2011. I'd been at Boston all this time."

"Boston? Somehow didn't see you ending up there."

"No one did. Was that all? I need to finish this before I get home."

"Why do you have PTSD?"

"I don't talk to my shrink about it, why would I talk to you?"

"Lexie..." Ellis gives warning voice.

"You don't get to give me that voice you know? I'm not a kid anymore."

"I know."

"Ask it."

"Ask what?"

"What do I exactly know about mid 90s. I mean... I was four."

"You still know how to read people."

"It's a gift."

"What do you know about mid 90s related to Richard?"

"He had an affair." Those words made Ellis go pale. "I know that you two had an affair, and that is why dad left."

"How?"

"I heard your conversation between you and Helen once. I was probably eight. You said something like 'It wasn't just an affair. I was ready to destroy my family for him. My kids lost their dad because of him. I loved him. I still might, but he doesn't. He wouldn't leave his wife. He cares too much about her.' I didn't understand what it meant back then but when I grew older I understood. When we would spent time at hospital, I realized who he was."

"Have you told anyone?"

"No. It's not my place to tell."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You had to learn about it on your own."

"It's okay."

"Well... I'll leave you to your work." Ellis says and turns to walk away.

"Mom?" Lexie asks.

"Yes?"

"How old is my sister?"

"13. Well she will turn 14 this year."

"But she skipped a grade?"

"She did. Why do you ask?"

"For no reason. I just think I saw her when I was passing the school."

After Lexie sees her mother walking away she mutters to herself 'my sister is younger than my kids...'

Lexie heads to cafeteria around noon and sits down next to Link. Moment later Jo and Jackson join them.

"So... How is your first day?" Jackson asks.

"Tell your mother that she should've warned me that Koracick worked as the head of neuro before me. Would've prepared myself to clean the office." Lexie sighs.

Jo looks at her and asks "How did you know it was Koracick?"

"I started as head of neuro at Mass Gen after him. He left the office to the same condition there."

"Right."

"Also what I've heard my lovely mentor recommended me to replace him to chief."

"How did he start mentoring you? The guy hated working with residents." Link points out.

"I'm fast and I knew what I was doing. I'm also the only person he admits is better surgeon than him. He likes the way I think. That's why he likes me."

"You must've done something else. He wouldn't keep you under his wing if you hadn't."

"I'm starting to question if you guys really lived with me back then." Lexie sighs. "He was the attending who told me I couldn't do the surgery I got Katharine Fox from. He hated working with me, then he learned to respect me. That is why he taught me. I guess he saw something in me that no-one else did at the time."

"He saw something in you no-one with authority had seen. That's why you respect him. He was first one to really believe in you." Jo thinks out loud.

"That's about right." Lexie says and looks up to see Ellis. "Total stranger believed in me when even my mother had seen nothing in me."

"He isn't a bad guy after all. He's arrogant and narcissistic but not to all apparently." Jackson says to all but Lexie.

"He is arrogant you're right. Narcissistic? Not so much." She says.

"Pardon me?"

"A guy who does everything for his kid is not narcissistic. The moment David got sick he was ready to throw his career away."

"I find this so hard to believe."

"Well... He said he owns his life for me after I cut the inoperative tumor from David. He was 100 percent in when I asked him to do my idiotic nerve transplant. Not because he believed it would work but because it was about my life."

"I mean that would explain." Link says.

"Fine maybe he isn't as bad as we thought as he is." Jackson sighs.

They talk about different things through the lunch. Well mostly about the cases they were having, till Lexie had told them that she should get back to her papers. And she did. She was done around three pm and she would head home. Mark's sift had started later and it would end later so Lexie would make dinner tonight. When she gets home she sees Elliot and Adriana down stairs playing with their brothers on the floor. Elena gives her small rapport of the day before going home herself. Lexie was delightful about the fact that the boys came along with their nanny so well. It hadn't been always like that in Boston. Lexie makes dinner, they eat, and spent quiet evening. Mark arrives home at some point to find her wife and all 5 children watching cartoons at the couch. He joins his family and before they realize, day has turned into night and they were going to sleep. 

I'm a good student publishing this part during my math class... Hope you enjoyed it more than I enjoy this class.

By the way. Every time my chapters name makes no sense it has been named after the song I'm listening at the moment. This one is safety suit if you're wondering.