Imperfect Dinner

chapter 2

 "Dinner hasn't even started yet!", Meredith tried to find a way out of being the first one to be exposed. What she was hiding wasn't really a bad thing, but her friends didn't need to know anything about it yet.

"It's just Helm.", Teddy told her after she had curiously peaked at the display. "What can she possibly want other than something about a patient?"

"We all agreed to play, now play!", Alex instructed, happy that his phone wasn't the first one to blow up with messages.

His best friend rolled her eyes, before she took the phone and pressed the speaker button. Another rule was to not inform anyone else about the game, so that nobody was able to escape embarrassing situation.

"Helm?", Meredith answered the call impatiently, ready to be done with it as soon as possible.

"Dr. Grey, great to catch you at this time of the day, especially since you're having your dinner party right now, the one we weren't invited too.", the intern started chatting without pause, causing all the attendings at the table to giggle. They were trying to be as quiet as they could, but when Jo wasn't able to hold her laugh anymore, Alex had to put his hand on her mouth.

"Anything important you wanted to tell me?", the blonde wondered, already having enough from the intern's unpaused talking.

"Yes! I am calling to let you know about Mr. Keith. His recovery was very successful and he was taken home by his wife today.", Taryn informed her superior.

"Glad to know. Thanks Helm!", Meredith said and hung up the phone, sighing in annoyance.

"Oh come on! You can't blame her for having a crush on you!", Amelia chuckled.

"You can't blame me for being annoyed by her having a crush on me. If it was you? Okay! You sound like a bisexual woman sometimes, but me? I am straighter than straight.", her sister defended herself and made the neurosurgeon laugh. "I'll get the first gear."

"Wait, I will help you!", Maggie and Jo announced at the same time and stood up to follow Meredith into the kitchen.

"Huh?", Link and Owen wondered at the same time.

"You are bi?", Tom asked and chuckled. "There's nothing about you that's not interesting, is there, Shepherd?", he teased her.

"Why aren't you two looking surprised?", Andrew addressed Teddy and Carina, who both shrugged and drank some more wine to not have to tell anyone a thing.

"Because they know that I wouldn't mind sleeping with Carina if I wasn't taken.", Amelia nonchalantly shrugged.

"Karev, give me the wine bottle, please!", Owen said after he had cleared his throat in surprise.

"For me too!", Atticus let the redhead know, holding his empty glass in front of him to be filled and made his girlfriend laugh.

"Here you go! Gear one is tortillas with salsa, guacamole or cheese dip, plus some skewers.", Maggie, the first one to be back, explained as she put some bowls onto the table. So did Jo and Meredith a moment later.

"Enjoy!", Alex told the group, already taking a chip.

The friends and colleagues started some conversations about everything and nothing, eating their snacks with pleasure, when another phone's display lit up with a message from an unknown number.

"Crap, that's mine.", Carina chuckled. She wasn't expecting anything this evening and wondered who would message her.

"I'll read!", Andrew grinned mischievously and grabbed the phone. "Dear Dr. DeLuca, I am sorry to have to tell you that I won't be able to attend my appointment next week. Therefore I would love to be called back by you during the next two days, since it's pretty late by now and I don't want to intrude. Thank you so much, yours Mrs. Miller."

"Boriiiing!", Teddy teased, slowly finding some fun in playing this game.

"What she said!", Owen agreed with his girlfriend and kissed her cheek.

"Told you, I do not have any secrets.", Carina smirked, her Italian accent evident in her voice.

"Well, all of us said that. Still, not everybody was quite ready to play.", Maggie, already a little bit tipsy, wisely meddled, while taking her sweet time to make eye contact with her sisters, Teddy and Jo.

"We are now. There is no need to act like we are the ones who have something to hide, just because our privacy is somehow more important to us than yours is to you guys.", Jo argued and Amelia nodded in agreement.

"Well, I bet on one of them getting exposed this evening.", Tom, always the one to try to make things funnier than they have to be, shrugged.

"I bet against it.", Link firmly fought back, wanting to protect his best friend and the love of his life.

"Hey, stop driving each other crazy!", Andrew tried to calm his colleagues down. "This is supposed to be a great end of a stressful week. Don't ruin it."

"Mommy, when is dinner ready?", Zola wondered, as she came downstairs with Leo holding her hand.

"Mommy!", he repeated his cousin's first word, giggling softly and breaking Teddy's heart. She was the only one who knew that the toddler meant Amelia and not her. He had been saying it every time he accidentally got to see something of the brunette, even if she wasn't with them in person.

"Soon. I'll bring it upstairs in a few minutes, sweetie.", Meredith answered her daughter, who nodded and took the boy back upstairs with her.

"Wow, so he is calling you mommy!", Amelia cheered, faking her happiness. She would have loved to be called "mama" by one of her sons, but she had lost both. Christopher never got the chance to call her that and Leo now belonged to another woman. Maybe the tiny baby in her belly was going to be the first one naming her "mommy".

"He is.", Teddy lied and grinned, acting excited. She felt bad somehow, since her and Amelia tried to be friends by now, but maybe if the neurosurgeon wasn't aware of Leo having chosen her as his mother, she could have a chance of taking that place.

"I am happy for you, Teddy!", Meredith smiled. Maggie was torn between how to react in this situation. Her sister called herself "aunty Amy" but being happy for another woman seemed wrong too.

Owen said nothing either. To him, Leo and Allison were his and Teddy's kids most of the time. But right now, when Amelia was in the room too, he had no idea if this thought was right anymore. She used to be his son's mother figure and was never asked about how she felt as soon as he was basically taken away from her, even though she could see the toddler often enough.

"It's so great to have that many babies and little kids around here!", Carina started. "And it's one more since you two adopted your tiny boy.", she happily addressed Jo and Alex, who were going with the lie of Eddie lawfully belonging to them already.

Maybe they shouldn't have, because right in that moment, Jo got a call from the social worker.