No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

65 | Africa to America

 12 weeks, 5 lbs, and 8 oz. That's how old and big Callie's baby was now. Callie could walk now, and hold Sofia. Sofia was no longer attached to tubes and monitors but was a regular baby inside a crib in the nursery.

As I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, I cracked a smile when I saw Alex's trailer being towed. Everyone knew it would happen sooner or later, so Alex had no one to blame but himself. As the trailer was pulled away and I got out of my vehicle, I walked towards Alex, "No! Not the trailer!" I mocked.

"At least you have somewhere to stay." Alex huffed.

"You do too," I reminded him, "Meredith never kicked you out of the house. Just come back there with the rest of us, because frankly, you living in the parking lot is pissing off the Attendings more than getting you closer to Chief Resident."

As I followed Alex inside and got changed into my scrubs and coat, we both walked to the main desk where we found Jackson, Cristina, and Lexie. Alex handed Jackson a folder. "What's this?" Jackson asked.

Alex raised his eyebrows, "What's this? It's your kid. Your African kid."

"Oh, that's happening?" Cristina questioned.

"Today?" Jackson turned to him.

Alex sighed, "Tonight. The first group gets here tonight. I've been telling you this all week. Look, each of you gets your own kid. Some of them will be traveling with family, a few of them or orphans, so you are in charge of your kid, right? You're like their ambassador."

Everyone nodded as Alex handed out folders. As he handed one to Cristina, he stopped, "Wait. You can't have her. You'd be awful to her."

We all chuckled as Cristina gave him a look. "Um, him." Alex pulled out another file, "No. Yes, him."

We all looked at our files. "He's melting down." Lexie chuckled.

"Train wreck." Jackson agreed.

"Evil spawn is now mother Teresa," Cristina said.

I sighed, "Sure, he's freaking a little bit. But think about, if one thing goes wrong, he'll never hear the end of it."

As Cristina got up, Alex called after her, "Don't forget, they get here tonight!"

Smiling, I headed off to find a case to work on since I didn't have much. As I walked through the hall, I noticed an open door to the room where the envelopes for the trial were held. Peeking inside, I saw Meredith take something out of one of the envelopes and stick it under her coat. As she turned for the door, she saw me. "What are you doing?" I asked.

Meredith's eyes widened, "Shh!" she ordered as she pulled me out of the room and into an empty exam room close by.

"Meredith, if you're doing what I think you're doing..." I started as she locked the door and closed the blinds.

"It's for Adele Webber," she told me as she turned on the lights that we use to examine scans and held the white folder up to the light so we could see inside. Written clearly was the word, placebo.

Meredith sighed as she turned off the light and we walked back to the file room. Meredith placed the file back, before pausing. Meredith grabbed the folder behind it and dragged me into the exam room. Turning on the lights again, this folder said active agent. "Meredith," I warned as we exited the exam room once again and ran into Alex.

"Ah. there you are." Alex pulled out a file and handed it to Meredith, "here's your kid. They're coming tonight."

Meredith panicked, "Um, okay. Uh, hold it for me be-"

"Look, just take it," Alex said.

"Well-"

"She's a five year old with optic glioma-" Alex started as the trail folder fell out from Meredith's coat.

Alex looked down at it as Meredith snatched it up. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm working," Meredith told me before gently pushing me forwards and walking away.

"No, what are you doing?" Alex turned to us.

We were about to turn to him when Lexie came out of nowhere talking to him about something from a lawyer. Taking this chance, we ducked into the file room again. Meredith quickly put the active agent file into Adele's folder and put the placebo into the other patients.

"Meredith!" I tried to stop her, "This is not okay! This is really bad."

"It's for Adele." Meredith said, "No one will know."

I sighed, "I'll know."

That night, a big bus pulled up at the hospital and all the kids from America got off. Alex stepped on, grabbed a small infant and walked off. "I need a wheelchair," he said to one of the nurses. "Lexie, Ellie, Avery." Alex waved us over. As we helped one of the smaller children into the wheelchair, family's began to enter the hospital. This was a good thing.