Playing with fire (Amelia Shepherd) ABANDONED

Four

"I know you're not, Mallie," Maya said, grabbing Mallie's hands. "I know you're not and she knows that, too," she said.

"She told me her marriage was over. I still wasn't gonna do it," she said.

"I know," Maya nodded. Mallie nodded.

"Okay," she said. She let go of Maya's hands. "C'mon. My churros need chocolate drizzled on them. Nice and easy with the wrist movements, not too thick or thin," Mallie said, handing her a spoon.

"You got it," Maya smiled, dipping it in chocolate and starting to drizzle it on the churros.

"Station 19, fire alarm," the speaker sounded.

"My churros," Mallie whined, throwing the spoon into the sink and putting the chocolate in the fridge.

"We can finish them later," Maya said, running towards the pole.

"Hey, heading home?" Travis leaned against the island as Mallie packed up the churros into a takeaway container for her dinner.

"I was going to stop by Joe's first, grab a drink or twenty and then collapse in bed and barely sleep before our next shift," Mallie smiled at him.

"That sounds amazing but I'll raise you. Drinks at my place. It's closer than yours, we can sleep where we land instead of getting a cab," he said.

"Deal," she said.

"Oh, and you're sharing those churros," he said.

"I thought that was implied," Mallie laughed, sliding the container over to him and pulling her jacket onto her shoulders. Her phone rang on the table and Travis picked it up.

"Amelia. Are we answering?" he said. Mallie looked at the phone and then at Travis.

"No. We're not answering," she said. He nodded and put her phone on silent, putting it in his pocket.

"Let's go home, then," he said. She nodded, following him towards the stairs.

"Mallie Cruz, my little fire baby," Bailey's voice came from behind Mallie as she was in the beanery a few days later. Mallie turned away from the leftover Chinese she was eating, smiling at her former mentor.

"Dr. Bailey, my hospital mom," Mallie said. She walked over and hugged her, letting Bailey brush her t-shirt down like she was a child.

"How are you?" she said.

"I'm good," Mallie nodded.

"Do you know?" Bailey asked.

"About what?" Mallie asked.

"Amelia," she said. Mallie nodded slowly.

"Yeah. I know," she said.

"Then you know her surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, right?" she said. Mallie frowned. She figured that was what the phone call a few nights ago was from.

"Yeah, I think Meredith mentioned it," Mallie said.

She also figured Meredith would've told her if she'd've let her bring up Amelia in conversation. She made up excuses to get off the phone whenever Meredith dropped Amelia's name and she figured Meredith had got the hint, as she had stopped bringing her up eventually.

"You didn't know," Bailey said. Mallie nodded.

"I did. She told me about her tumour before anyone else," Mallie said.

"But you didn't know about the surgery. Okay," Bailey nodded, stepping aside to greet the others.

Mallie leaned against the island, pulling her phone out. She opened the call log and stared at the amount of missed calls she had from Amelia. Five, one for every day they hadn't talked since the night they'd almost kissed.