"Just spit it out Bailey," Erin said, staring at Bailey in her genome lab.
She hadn't told Arizona about this but she had asked her to drop Archie off at daycare, lying that she had to meet Meredith to talk about the baby. Meredith was getting hers after Erin, as Derek was insisting on going with her.
Bailey looked down at the papers in her hands, a frown firmly on her face.
"Bailey, come on. I'm not gonna fall apart if you tell me I'm gonna get it," Erin sighed.
"I just think that maybe you shouldn't be getting your results alone. Why don't you call your sister in, get yours with her? Or Arizona. You should have someone here," Bailey said.
"So, that means I have it," Erin said, leaning back in her chair. Bailey sighed.
"You have tested positive for some of the genetic markers but that doesn't mean that you will get it," Bailey said.
"It just means I'm a lot more likely to get it than anybody else. Okay. What about Archie? Does he have it?" Erin said.
"Archie only tested positive for one of the genetic markers but it is not a cause for concern. I would say that Archie does not possess the gene for Alzheimer's," Bailey said. Erin nodded slowly, grabbing her handbag. "Erin, don't go. This isn't the end-" Bailey started.
"I have a patient. Thank you, for this," Erin motioned to the table and left the room.
"Hey, how was it?" Derek perked up from where he was sat on a chair outside the office. "Meredith is taking Zola to the daycare," he said.
"I have a patient," Erin said again, making to move past him.
"Hey, hey, hey," Derek jumped up and grabbed her shoulders. "What's wrong? What did she say?" he said.
"Nothing. It's fine," Erin shook her head. Derek raised his eyebrows.
"Erin, you can talk to me. I'm your brother," he said. Erin looked down at her feet. "Do you have it? Does Archie have it?" he asked.
"Archie's fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be living with Arizona while I'm locked up in some home because I won't know who the fuck either of them are," Erin said, her voice cracking slightly. Derek sighed and pulled her into a hug. "No, don't, 'cause I can't cry. I've got work to do," Erin said, pushing him off her.
"Erin-"
"Derek, I just can't. I have to go," Erin said, hurrying down the hallway before he could say anything else.
"Am I telling Meredith?" he called after her.
"No!" Erin said loudly, disappearing down a hallway. She pulled out her phone, putting it to her ear as she waited for Arizona to answer her.
"Hey, Dr. Grey. It's Wilson. Dr. Robbins is just with a patient," Jo's voice came through the phone.
"Oh. Oh. Okay. It doesn't matter, then. Thank you," Erin ended the call, tucking it into her pocket again. She looked around, spotting Hunt walking somewhere. "Hunt!" she called.
"Hey," Owen spun back around to face her. "What's up?" he said.
"I need the day off. Personal stuff," Erin said.
"Everything okay?" Owen frowned. "We have those Syrian doctors here today. I could really use the help," he said. Erin groaned.
"I forgot about that. Shit. Okay, uh, how about I do some paperwork today and stay out of everybody's way?" she said.
"That'd be okay, yeah. Are you okay?" Owen asked.
"Yeah. I'm okay," Erin lied.
"Okay," he nodded.
"Hey. I've been looking for you all day," Arizona said, stepping into the conference room Erin was hiding out in. She looked up from the paperwork she had been doing to try and find funding for everybody's different projects.
"Hey," she said.
"You've missed a lot. Three of Bailey's patients have come in with an infection and one of them has just died. We thought it was Leah Murphy at first, 'cause she was sick and worked with two, but she didn't touch the third, so it was Bailey. We've got legal in with her now. Hunt told me to come and update you, 'cause you're the only one on the board who doesn't know," Arizona said, sitting down beside her.
Erin looked at her with wide eyes. She nodded slowly.
"Wow," Erin muttered.
"I know," she sighed. "Well, enough about that. Why have you been hiding all day? Second thoughts about our wedding?" she smiled slightly. Erin managed a small smile.
"I wish it was as easy as that," she said.
"Jesse isn't giving you trouble, is he?" Arizona raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, god no. I haven't heard from him since he sent the papers for termination. It's not him," Erin said.
"Have I done something?" Arizona asked.
"No. You do everything right. It's not you," Erin said.
"What is it?" Arizona took her hand. Erin shook her head.
"I don't want to talk about it. Not yet. I will. Just..." Erin trailed off. "Just not yet," she said.
"Okay," she nodded. "What do you need?" she said. Erin shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest in the spinny chair.
"I don't know. I need everything to be okay and that's not gonna happen because that's not how things work. I don't know what I need," she said. Arizona nodded.
"Okay. How about I just hold you, then?" she said. Erin nodded and she stood up, letting Arizona sit on the chair she'd just vacated. She sat down on her lap with a small sigh. Erin leaned her head against Arizona's chest and closed her eyes, her breathing falling into sync with her heartbeat under her ear.
"I love you. You know that, right?" she said.
"I know. I love you more," Arizona said, kissing her forehead softly.
They sat there for twenty minutes before Erin reluctantly pulled away and stood up.
"Come on. We have to get back to work with this Bailey thing," Erin said.
"Okay," Arizona smiled. She stood up and Erin closed the files she'd been working on, carrying them into the other conference room where the rest of the board, Owen and Webber were waiting with the legal woman.
"Here you two are. This is Dr. Grey," Owen introduced Erin to the legal woman.
"Janelle Geller," she smiled.
"Nice to meet you," Erin smiled, sitting at the table.
"Hey," Meredith said softly. Erin looked at her, seeing Meredith had her eyebrows raised.
Erin saw the question she was silently asking. She nodded slowly, watching as Meredith's face dropped. Erin raised her eyebrows back, seeing Meredith nod, too.
They both had the gene, then. They were screwed.
Erin sighed, sitting down in her chair and putting the files in front of her.
"Let's get started, then," she said.
"Hey," Erin walked into the room where the nasal swabs were being taken regarding the staph infection, Meredith and Cristina already in there.
"You're gonna be there when I have the baby, right?" Meredith said.
"You were there for me," Erin said, hopping up onto the table. "I'll be there," she said.
"Cristina won't be because she thinks I'm gonna poop on the table," Meredith said.
"I didn't poop," Erin smiled. "Erin Grey," she told the nurse. She nodded, swabbing Erin's nose and putting the swab in the package with Erin's name on. "I was worried about it, though. I'm just glad I didn't," Erin said.
"Did you have an epidural?" Cristina asked.
"Nope. I was all natural. I'm gonna tell you, though, Mer, peeing after a natural birth hurts like a bitch," Erin said.
"I imagine. You push a watermelon out of your vagina," Cristina said.
"I had to get stitches, too, 'cause Archie had a fat head and tore right through me. Little bastard," Erin said.
"Don't say that," Meredith groaned.
"I gotta go cover peds with Zona while Alex scrubs in with you, Cristina," Erin said.
"Have fun," they said.
"I will," Erin smiled, heading out of the room.
"Hey, Wilson," Erin smiled when Jo joined her at the nurses desk.
"Do you think I'm an idiot for moving in with Jason?" Jo asked.
"Who's Jason?" Erin asked.
"Peckwell. Chest Peckwell," Jo sighed.
"Oh, your boyfriend," Erin realised. Alex had told her about him and, though he hadn't explicitly told her, she knew Alex liked Jo and hated Peckwell.
"Yeah. Am I an idiot for moving in with him? Alex said I was," Jo said.
"Well, it's up to you what you do with your relationship. Why ask me what I think when I'm not the one in it?" Erin said.
"Because you're all wise and you seem to have your life together. I figured you'd know," Jo said. Erin eyed her before nodding.
"I moved in with one of my boyfriends way too fast. It wasn't my choice. He was a prick, ruined my life for a while. I was in my intern year like you. He was... I mean, I should've known from the start that he was an enormous red flag. But, anyway, uh," Erin trailed off as she tried to think, "My point is, you're young. You're gonna make mistakes, date idiots and mess up a whole bunch of times. Do what feels right. If you want to move in with Peckwell, you move in with him," Erin said.
"What happened to your boyfriend? Or ex, I'm assuming," Jo said. Erin shrugged.
"I'll tell you one day, Wilson. This isn't about me today," she said. Jo nodded and Erin smiled, turning to leave. "Oh, Wilson?" she said.
"Yeah?" Jo said.
"If it goes wrong, you always have a place to stay with us. Always," Erin said.
"Thank you, Dr. Grey," Jo smiled slightly.
"Hey, it's Erin. Don't make me feel old," Erin laughed, walking down the hallway.
"Our investigation has determined the presence of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus USA600," the CDC investigator told the board members and Owen. The door opened and Bailey stepped in.
"Bailey..." Arizona trailed off.
"Oh, Dr. Bailey, you should not be here right now," Jackson said.
"This is about me. I'd like to hear it," Bailey said.
"That's your call," the CDC man said.
"We have a protocol for a reason," Jackson said.
"Okay, we vote," Meredith said. She raised her hand, Callie, Erin, Arizona, Cristina and Derek doing the same. Erin nodded.
"She stays," she said.
"Staph aureus USA600 is an antibiotic-resistant infection with a range of symptoms from simple skin rashes to fatal sepsis. We have traced the source of the infection to one doctor. Dr. Miranda Bailey is a carrier of MRSA USA600. But the real culprit here is the gloves. Records show the surgical gloves in use at the time of outbreak, march 15, shipped from the manufacturer Hemming Synthetics, incorporated," the CDC man said, his assistant pouring a bottle of water in the gloves.
"We switched to Hemming's gloves when Pegasus was here," Owen said.
"Our testing reveals manufacturing defects. Microscopic tears in the gloves, which facilitated the transmission of staph USA600 to Dr. Bailey's patients. It is the CDC's determination, were it not for the defective gloves, the patients in question would not have been infected. As for Dr. Bailey, we recommend eradication measures before she can go back to any kind of patient care," the CDC man said. His assistant squeezed the gloves, showing the water slowly leaking through them.
"Alright," Derek smiled.
"Thank god," Callie sighed.
"Best possible outcome," Cristina said. Erin nodded happily.
"All sorted," she said. Bailey turned and left the room. Erin's smile dropped.
"Here are copies of our report. The CDC thanks you for your time and cooperation. And please feel free to call my office if you have any questions. Thank you," the man handed them all the files and left the room.
"Can we go home now?" Erin sighed. "I'm exhausted," she said.
"Yeah. We can go home now," Arizona said. They all stood up, getting ready to leave work for the day.
"Hey," Alex knocked on Erin and Arizona's bedroom door that night. Erin looked up from the paperwork she was doing, Arizona looking up from the video she was watching on her phone of a new experimental surgery being done in Japan.
"Hey," Erin said, shuffling over so he could get on the side of the bed. He walked over and lay down, putting his head on Erin's stomach.
"I'm an idiot," he said.
"Why?" Erin asked.
"I love Jo and I think I've screwed it up," Alex sighed.
"Knew it," Erin said, putting her files aside. She looked at Alex carefully. "She asked me if she was an idiot for moving in with him today. I told her that she's young and she's gonna make mistakes but that she always has a home here with all of us. I know guys like Peckwell. They're not a forever thing," she said.
"She hates me," Alex said.
"Well, give her a reason not to. Show her what kind of man you are," Arizona said. "Your actions speak louder than words. I mean, you're a pediatric surgeon, you're Archie's godfather and you're not a bad person. Show her all of that. Peckwell isn't as great a guy as you and yeah, maybe she might not love you back, but it's worth trying to be her friend again, at least," she said.
"You think?" Alex said.
"Yeah," Arizona said.
"Start small, alright? We're sending out wedding invitations soon. I was gonna invite Jo, or I can not invite her and you can take her as a plus one. You two had loads of fun at Bailey's wedding so this one should be no different," Erin said.
"Just invite her. She'll be offended if you don't invite her. She really likes you, says how much she admires you as a surgeon and a mother or something," Alex sighed, rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in Erin's side. She sighed and started running her fingers through his hair.
"Okay. You just wanna get in with us tonight?" she said.
"You mind?" Alex said.
"No," Arizona said. "Just don't spoon me, alright?" she said. Alex laughed.
"You got it, Robbins," he said. Erin rolled her eyes fondly.
"You know, when I was a kid and I thought about my future, I never thought it would be like this. Wow. How things have changed," Erin said.
"Better than you thought, though, right?" Alex said.
"Tons better," Erin said happily.
"Good," Arizona smiled contently.
"Bailey is ignoring everybody," Callie sat down beside Erin at the peds nurses desk. "So, we're gonna ambush her when she comes out of the bathroom," she said.
"You know, if she's ignoring us, it's for a reason. Don't bother her. Let her get through it," Erin said.
"No. Come on," Callie said.
"Nope. I'm not gonna be a part of it. Bailey hates me for quitting and that was months ago. I'm not gonna give her another reason to hate me by not leaving her alone. If you want to ambush her, do it. Just keep me out of it," Erin said.
"Are you okay? You've been weird since... Since Bailey got her lab," Callie frowned.
"I'm fine, Callie," Erin said, closing a chart and handing it to Edwards. "Go and find Alex and tell him that I need a consult for the tumour kid in 2319 because the scans have shown that it's grown since the last scan," she said.
"Okay," Edwards nodded, heading down the hallway.
"You sure? You don't sound fine," Callie said.
"I am fine. Drop it," Erin said.
"Okay," Callie raised her eyebrows, standing up to leave the desk. Erin sighed.
"Sorry. Sorry. I'm just stressed right now. Everything is chaotic. Look, I'll sort Bailey. You go and do surgery or whatever you're doing," Erin said.
"You'll sort Bailey?" Callie asked. Erin nodded, pulling out her phone and clicking on Ben's contact.
"I'll sort it," she said. Callie nodded, walking away.
"Hey, Erin. Everything okay?" Ben said.
"Hey, Ben. Not really. Can you take a minute?" she said.
"Yeah, of course," he agreed.
"One more?" Archie begged, looking at Erin and Arizona with wide eyes. They were all on the couch watching the Muppets and it was late, past Archie's bedtime, but he just adored them and they were quite hesitant to say no to him because he was just so cute and it wasn't like he was doing any harm.
"One more. But then it's bedtime, okay? Promise me," Erin said, holding out her pinkie. Archie held his pinkie out and Erin linked them with a smile. "Okay," she said, pressing play for another episode.
"Kermit!" Archie laughed, turning to look at the television again. "On my pants," he said, pointing at his Kermit pyjamas with Kermit's face on the pants.
"Yeah, on your pants," Arizona laughed.
The front door opened and Erin looked up, smile dropping when she saw Alex leading Jo in. The right side of her face was bruised and her lip was bleeding.
"Archie, stay here with mommy," Erin said, standing up and moving over to them. She took Jo's hand from Alex and pulled her into the kitchen, sitting her on the stool at the island. "Alex, get me some ice and take photographs of this before I do anything," she said.
"Okay," Alex nodded, moving to get ice.
"Arizona, go and find me some pyjamas for Jo, please?" she called.
"On it," Arizona said, hurrying upstairs.
"And the first aid kit! Put them in our room," Erin called after him. She took Alex's phone and took photos of her face.
"You okay with this?" Alex looked at Erin.
"I'm fine," Erin nodded. She didn't have time to get emotional right now. Erin took the ice and carefully put it to Jo's face. Jo whimpered and Erin nodded. "I know. It's okay. You're safe, okay?" Erin whispered. Jo closed her eyes, leaning into Erin's hand against her cheek.
"They're in our room," Arizona stepped back downstairs.
"I'm gonna have her in our bed with us," Erin looked at her.
"Yeah, of course," Arizona nodded. Erin nodded.
"Okay, let's go," Erin said, easing Jo to her feet. Alex grabbed her other side and they started towards the stairs.
"Mama? Jo okay?" Archie said, looking away from the television with his big blue eyes.
"Jo's had a little accident, baby, but mama's gonna make her feel better with uncle Alex. How about we finish the episode?" Arizona said, sitting down on the couch with Archie. He nodded.
"Jo be better soon?" Archie looked at Arizona.
"Jo will be better soon, yeah," Arizona said.
Erin and Alex got her upstairs and into Erin's room, sitting her on the bed.
"Okay, tell me what happened," Erin said. Jo shook her head with teary eyes.
"Jo, it's okay. It's Erin," Alex said. Jo nodded slowly.
"We were arguing. He kept saying that he couldn't trust me anymore, that I was a liar, that I... that I lied about who I was," Jo whispered.
"He hit you?" Alex asked.
"God, it just got so bad. I don't know what's gonna happen now," Jo shook her head.
"Nothing's gonna happen. You're safe. Alright? You're safe here," Alex said. Erin nodded.
"You are," she said.
"You just need to get some sleep. Alright? Just try and sleep. If you need anything... I'll have my cell," Alex said, moving to get out of the bedroom.
"Alex," Erin grabbed his arm. He looked at her and she nodded, seeing just how determined he looked. "Just be careful, okay?" she said.
"Okay," Alex nodded, making his way down the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Jo said. "What are you gonna do?" she cried, moving to stand up.
"No, no, no. Sit down," Erin said, easing her back down onto the bed. "You are staying here with me right now," Erin said.
"But-"
"But Alex can handle himself. Right now, you need help. Let me help," Erin said. Jo nodded reluctantly.
Erin got her into her pyjamas and then patched up her face, tucking her into hers and Arizona's bed. She got changed in front of Jo, not caring that her body was on display. She knew Jo was looking at some of her scars, specifically ones from Rob, but she didn't care. She pulled on shorts and a hoodie, climbing in beside Jo.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't gonna come in in case Archie was awake. That's why I waited for Alex to come home," she said.
"Hey, Archie won't remember this when he's older. Don't worry about him. I told you to come here if you needed to. You came and that's what matters," Erin said. She leaned over and grabbed the spare key from her bedside table, handing it to Jo. "That's yours, now. Whenever you need to come here, you come here. And I'm trusting you not to bring all of your weird loser intern friends and throw parties. This is because we're friends and I want you to know that, whatever you need, I'm here," Erin said. Jo nodded.
"Thank you," she said, leaning back against the headboard. Erin sighed and wrapped an arm around Jo's shoulder.
"Alex is my person and he cares about you a lot. I care about you. So, that kind of makes you one of my people, too. I'm serious, Jo. Whatever happened, whatever will happen, I am on your side. But you have to tell me the truth about what happened," Erin said.
"Can I tell you in the morning?" Jo asked. Erin nodded.
"Yeah. Of course," Erin said. Jo closed her eyes, leaning her head against Erin's shoulder. Erin turned the television on for background noise. She knew from experience that background noise helped to ground her after everything with Rob had happened.
She sighed, closing her own eyes as Jo curled more into Erin to get comfy. Erin rubbed her back soothingly, waiting until Jo's breathing deepened and she fell asleep before Erin let herself fall asleep.
Arizona brought Archie up to bed about ten minutes later, kissing him goodnight before getting into bed on the other side of Erin, wrapping her arm around her fiancée's waist.