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chapter thirty six ━ white wedding
season seven, episode twenty
❝ well i don't have
another mother do i? ❞
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"You're going to kill me."
Aliya announced from the doorway of the kitchen, watching as Jackson looked up from where he was sat on the stool at the breakfast bar, his dark brows knotted together.
The Avery man set down the book he was reading peacefully onto the counter. "Then I should be reading the book on how to discard bodies, I left that one at the library though."
"Putting me in a body bag full of rocks and dumping me in the middle of the Pacific Ocean would be pretty easy." Aliya suggested to him, sauntering over to the stand in front of him, though she quickly began pacing around the kitchen.
Jackson nodded at the suggestion, realising that the woman he shared a bed with almost every night was into true crime. "I was thinking the middle of the woods burial route."
"Fool-proof plan," Aliya agreed, wiping her sweaty hands in her jeans. "If sniffer dogs weren't a thing."
"Darn it," Jackson said, softly. "Otherwise I would have gotten away with it completely."
Aliya let out a breathless and nervous laugh, reaching for a bottle of water from the fridge, downing half of it as if it were a bottle of tequila on a random Tuesday night, whilst Jackson tried, and failed, to deduce what was going on with her.
When it came to Aliya, he learnt it could be anything.
"Okay, so, why am I going to be responsible for your murder, sweetheart?" Reaching out for his girlfriend's arm to stop her from continuing to stomp around the kitchen, he pulled her onto his lap, where she immediately hooked her arms around his neck, burrowing her head into his shoulder.
Aliya sighed, before her confession. "I may have agreed to go on a triple date tonight with Summer and Mae three weeks ago, and completely forgot about it until now because, quite frankly, I needed them to get off my back otherwise—"
"I'll go." Jackson interrupted what seemed to be the start of a very long Aliya rant.
"Huh?" The brunette looked perplexed, bolting up right in the safety of his lap.
Jackson shrugged, reaching to tuck a loose brown curl behind. "It sounds like fun."
"A triple date?" She made emphasis on the triple, just so he knew what he was signing himself up for.
"Yeah, and besides," Jackson smiled at her, kissing her temple delicately. "I haven't met your parents properly yet, so at least I can meet your friends properly."
Aliya smirked, not breaking away his eye contact. "You know most of my friends, we live with them, which constitutes to the whole knowing them properly thing."
"Hopefully these ones are less of a pain in my ass." Jackson joked, lightheartedly.
Though, Aliya's smiled faded slightly at the thought of what Jackson had said previous, about meeting her parents properly.
Because, even the thought of Jackson meeting her mother and father as her boyfriend and Harper Avery's grandson, sent her in a downward spiral of anxiety.
She couldn't let them ruin another good thing in her life.
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"Okay," The brunette cleared her throat as the couple were approximately two minutes from their destination, and ten minutes late.
Aliya paused for longer than she intended to.
"Anything gonna come after that okay? Or was it just to psych yourself up?" Jackson asked, his eyes pinned onto the road with one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on Aliya's knee.
"I have a few things I have to tell you, because they are guaranteed to be brought up tonight in an attempt to embarrass me." Aliya spoke, quickly, spinning the bracelet around on her wrist.
"Okay," Jackson spoke, cautiously. "Hit me with it."
With a deep breath, Aliya cleared her throat to begin. "When I was sixteen years old I got an ear piercing, but it got infected so my ear was practically the size of my hand, so I had to wear a bandana for a week which was fine because everyone in LA wears bandana's. During a volleyball competition, a ball went straight into my face and broke my nose and, I know for a fact Mae has video evidence. I have an ex-fiancée, and during graduation, I drank too much champagne and after my Valedictorian speech, I nearly fell off the stage. Emphasis on the nearly."
"Hang on, rewind—" Jackson took his eyes off the road for a brief second. "How can I get that video?"
Aliya scoffed, throwing her head back as they pulled into the restaurant parking lot and into a parking space.
Just as the brunette was going to continue on the list of embarrassing stories, she noticed the time on the dash.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Aliya exclaimed in a sing-song voice as she leaped out of the passenger side door, pulling her bag out with her. "C'mon Jackson, we're late!"
"And I wonder why that is." Jackson murmured to himself when Aliya was out of earshot, locking his car and following the brunette to the door of the restaurant.
As soon as the pair stepped into the dimly lit room, a hand from the table in the far corner shot up in the air straight away, waving the couple over.
Aliya laid her eyes on Mae and Summer, her smile widening as she took Jackson's hand in hers, as if she was scared he'd run away from her if she didn't, and led him over to the table.
"I'm not going to run away, you know?" Jackson informed her, as if he had read her mind.
The brunette glanced back at him, her glossed lips turning upwards at him. "I know."
"Finally!" Summer threw the cloth napkin down onto the table.
"Hey!" Aliya greeted the four people sat at their table, who have seemingly already gotten through a whole bottle of wine, a basket of complimentary bread and butter. "Sorry we're late!"
She manoeuvred herself around the table, greeting every single one of the four individuals with a hug.
"That's okay!" Summer beamed, wrapping her arms around the brunettes neck. "These three have already drank a whole bottle of Dom Perignon, you can easily catch up."
"Aliya had a shoe emergency, many fatalities were involved." Jackson joked, letting Summer hug him whilst simultaneously earning a nudge from the shoe murderer in question when she finally returned to his side.
"It's true," Aliya slipped into the free chair, letting Jackson tuck it behind her. "Lots of shoes died today."
"Sorry for your loss." Mae chuckled, eyeing up Jackson in an incredibly unsubtle sceptical manner that made Aliya suddenly realise she hadn't done the polite, proper thing, which was an introduction.
"Right, Jackson," Aliya shuffled in her seat, hanging her coat over the back of her chair. "You already know Summer and Daniel, this is Mae, and her girlfriend, Emma."
Aliya gestured toward the dark haired woman and the blonde haired woman, who were now both looking at Jackson in a very intense manner.
"It's nice to meet you." Jackson nodded his head towards them politely, now feeling the weight of their eyes on him.
"He's hot, Aliya." Emma marvelled at the man sitting across from her, earning a prod in the stomach from her girlfriend of a six months.
Aliya grinned, her eyes darting from the hot guy in the blue shirt (more formally known as Jackson), to the blonde, opening her menu and peering at her from behind it, mouthing: "I told you he was."
Emma's voice lowered to a whisper, leaning close to her. "But, you never told me he was this hot."
"I can still hear you." Jackson whispered, smirking behind his menu.
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"And, it sent the ball flying right into Aliya's face! There was blood everywhere!" Summer exclaimed in laughter, a fork in her hand.
"And, I have it on video!" Mae contributed, very helpfully.
"I have the hospital bill to prove it!" Aliya further added to the embarrassing as she looked over towards Jackson, who was also laughing.
He caught her eye, giving a knowing nod as she resisted the urge to say I told you so, she knew the volleyball story would come up, it was inevitable. She could've bet money on it.
"So, Summer," Emma took the wine away from her lips, turning to the Vasquez woman. "Last time we spoke, you just finished your chemo, how's it all going?"
"Well, I'm officially cancer free," Summer informed, and everybody raised a glass. Aliya smiled wide at her, making a supportive holler noise. "It helps I had a great doctor."
All eyes turned to Jackson, though Aliya's remained on her pasta, which she proceeded to stab with a fork.
Mae looked up from her own pasta, directly towards the Levine woman, seeing as she was the only one who had deduced the real reason as to why Jackson and Aliya broke up in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Jackson nodded towards Summer, clearing his throat and raising his beer. "I had a great patient."
"Wait—" Emma paused, looking back and forth between the two in awe. "You were Summer's doctor?"
Jackson nodded, briefly glancing towards his girlfriend, who was slowly chewing her pasta. "Yes, I was."
"No way." Emma's jaw hung wide open, looking to her girlfriend as if to say you never told me that! "How long have the two of you been together?"
"Oh—" Jackson thought for a moment.
Aliya choked on her pasta. "Well—"
"It's been—" Jackson trailed off, his eyes darting to Aliya's, though she proved no help.
"Uh—" Aliya lowered her brows, and Jackson noticed the worry line on her forehead that she always got when she was stressed. "Three-ish months?"
"Three-ish months?" Emma repeated back to her.
"Yeah." Aliya nodded, firmly.
"But, we've know each other for much longer." The Avery man clarified.
"So, you knew each other before Summer's diagnosis?" Emma asked, totally innocent and totally not catching onto Mae tapping her shoulder, and Summer who also seemed to catch onto why it was a tricky conversation topic.
Seeing as Aliya broke up with him because he didn't tell her about Summer's cancer, which Summer had kept hidden from her for months.
"Yes." Aliya answered, clearing her throat.
"We did." Jackson confirmed, reaching over to Aliya's hand.
"You know, I hate shrimp." Aliya randomly burst out with, changing the conversation as quickly as possible, earning a side eye from her boyfriend, who shouldn't be surprised at this point. "They make me want to throw up."
"You've always said this, Aliya, but you've never even given them a chance!" Summer responded, a pro-shrimper. "Just try one shrimp cocktail!"
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Having left Jackson at the table talking to Daniel about the New York Mets and seeming enjoying how the evening was going so far despite the interrogation from a clueless Emma, Aliya had gone to the bathroom, totally unaware that lurking outside her cubicle like a couple of stalkers, was Mae and Summer.
"Sweet mother of—" Aliya yelled, clamping a hand to her chest from shock. "Why do you always have to do that?"
"Women go to the bathroom in groups," Summer told her with a wave of her hand. "They didn't even bat an eye."
Nodding, Aliya moved to the sink, turning on the faucet and using the very expensive, very fancy hand soap the restaurant had. "Suppose it checks out."
"You look happy, Aliya." Mae said in a soft-spoken, though cautious manner, adjusting the gold bracelets on her wrist.
Aliya raised a brow, glancing up into the mirror to see Summer to her left, and Mae on her right, both of them staring at her reflection in the squeaky clean mirror. "Is this some sort of restroom intervention? If it is, can you give me three seconds so I can make a run for it?"
"Well," Summer shrugged, leaning against the counter with a swish of her silky brown hair. "Mae is only in town for the night so, yes."
"Okay." Aliya replied simply, turning the faucet off and taking a few paper towels, drying her hands, before throwing them in the trash. "Hit me with it."
Summer cleared her throat, getting ready to begin. "We have a—"
"Few concerns." Mae finished, revealing the fact that they must've spoke about this particular topic before hand.
Raising a brow, Aliya's eyes danced between the two women, who quite frankly scared her sometimes when paired together, especially when they appeared on either side of her in the reflection of the mirror. "Threat level midnight concerns, or just your average basic concerns?"
Mae looked unimpressed, her perfect brows lowering. "Did you just make a The Office reference?"
Aliya shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe."
Pursing her red lips, Mae looked at her childhood best friend as if she had just reached a whole new level of low, lower than she had gone in the last twenty nine years she had known her, ever since they were born. "Don't."
Aliya clicked her tongue. "Ok."
Summer cleared her throat, getting into what was actually going on. "We think Jackson is great—"
"He is, yes." Aliya replied quickly, shifting her weight on her hips, concerned about the level of formality this conversation was getting to, despite the fact that they could still hear the toilet flushing in the background which didn't really add much to the ambience.
"And, we're not here to criticise." Summer assured her.
A sceptical Aliya angled her head to the side, fishing the lipgloss she had slipped into the subtle pocket of her dress. "It seems like you are."
"Just after last time," Mae trailed off, tapping her fingertips against the marble counter, turning to give Aliya space by the mirror. "We don't want you to get hurt again."
"I'm not going to." Aliya told the pair, opening the tube of gloss and applying it onto her lips.
"How do you know—"
"Because, I know." Aliya interpreted, defensive and stern. "I've forgiven him, he's forgiven me. It's all forgotten, it's in the past. I'm not mad anymore, okay?"
Summer shook her head, knowing that her secret was the reason for the breakup, however it was more the fact Aliya had a tendency to run when things got tough. "I didn't mean that."
Aliya gritted her teeth, feeling slightly flustered from unwanted feelings adjacent to anger. "What do you mean then?"
"After Mark." Mae clarified for her.
"Jackson's not him." Aliya brushed off the mention of her ex-boyfriend's name, returning the lipgloss tube to her pocket. "He's nothing like him."
"I know he's not." Mae replied back, calmly.
"What Mae is trying to politely say," Summer glared at the Park woman, before reaching for Aliya's hands, giving them a squeeze. "Mark was an arrogant dickhead asshole hateful little—"
Aliya's lip twitched against her will as she tried to force herself not to smirk. "Now you're just bunching a bunch of insults together and hoping for the best."
"Well," Summer rolled her shoulders. "I'm right though, aren't I?"
Aliya shrugged, leaning against the edge of the sink. "Not far off."
"He was a dick!" Summer exclaimed, rather passionately, which even Mae's shoulders began to shake from trying to hold back laughter.
We all had a passion for something, and Summer's was hating on Mark Sloan.
"Look, I appreciate that you're concerned, but you have to trust me on this one. I've know him for nearly two years, with Mark I barely knew him at all, but with Jackson—" Aliya paused, smiling to herself. "With him, it feels different to all the other times. It feels right."
"Okay then." Summer said, softly, smoothing the fabric of her blouse. "I bet he's good in—"
"Summer!"
"What?" The Vasquez woman held her hands up in the air in a mock surrender. "Am I wrong?"
"No," Aliya sighed as the three moved to the door, ready to return back to the real world rather than the restroom fantasy land. "You're not wrong."
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"Your friends are cool, Aliya, you don't have anything to be worried about." Jackson told her, now they were finally home and in the comfort of Aliya's bedroom.
"Mae and Summer love you," Aliya smiled at him where he was watching her take her earrings out, putting them on her jewellery stand. "And Daniel, he really seemed to like you, maybe you should go to a football game sometime."
"That would be nice, then we can hold hands and skip afterwards." Jackson smirked at Aliya's pursed lisp. "Kidding, that would be nice."
Aliya grinned, slipping out of her dress and into her pyjamas. "About what Emma said."
"About?"
"Summer." Aliya answered, freeing her hair from where it was trapped in her shirt.
"Ah." He made a knowing noise, pulling back the sheets and crawling into Aliya's bed, though he had practically moved into her room at this point.
"I do realise now I may have been, you know, a little, rash." Aliya said, slowly, beating around the push as she perched on the end of her bed. "And stubborn, for not, you know, listening to your side of things. I just got scared, and I ran."
"You're forgiven, Aliya." Jackson replied, reaching over to her hand. "I just hope I can never give you a reason to run again."
Aliya smiled, softly, crawling into bed next to him. "I don't think you ever could."
"You know, about earlier, I have to ask, you had an ex-fiancée?" He spoke into her hair, now that her head was resting on his chest, close enough that she could hear his heart beating in his chest.
"That topic didn't come up at dinner, thank God." Aliya replied. "But, yes. Back in New York, during med school. We were going out separate ways so, we called the wedding off. There's no skeletons in that particular closet, he's long gone."
"What about the skeleton in the downstairs storage cupboard?" Jackson joked, tracing circles on her back.
"That's the only skeleton you'll find."
(For educational purposes only.)
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"This is Zola." Alex began as he started his speech on his African kid programme, and Aliya watched the screen, the adorable face of her patient appearing on it. "She's six months old, born with spina bifida."
"Adorable African children, shameless ego stroking," Cristina muttered next to Aliya from where she and the rest of the residents were stood at the back of the room to watch. "Karev is a genius."
Jackson crossed his arms, a grimace on his face. "He's single-handedly stealing chief resident out from under all of us, and we're helping him do it. I mean, we can't exactly refuse to treat little sick kids without making ourselves look bad."
"Oh, he is a genius." April's face tightened up, watching the man who leaves his dirty socks scattered around the house continue his presentation. "Or—"
The red head then proceeded to speak a different language, earning the confused and baffled stares of the five residents around her.
"That's what they say in Swahili." She informed.
Cristina raised a brow, unconvinced. "I'm not entirely convinced that that is—"
"Shhh," Aliya lowered her voice, having watched the red head and her brother hunched over his laptop at the dining room table for a whole week with headphones in their ears. "Just let her have it."
"Well, he only has a shot because I've been benched." Cristina muttered, still annoyed by the fact that Teddy was purposefully ignoring Cristina's entire existence as a surgeon, and as a person for that matter. "The playing field has been leveled. You're all welcome."
"Sure it has." The Levine woman scoffed at her cockiness. "Do I need to mention my groundbreaking clinical trial, Yang?"
Meredith nodded her head slowly in sincere agreement. "Alzheimer's trial kicks African-orphan ass. It kicks all of your asses."
With that, the blonde and the brunette high fived.
"Do you want to keep it down back there?" Richard questioned the light chatter coming from the back of the room. "I'm trying to listen to what appears to be the next chief resident talking."
"Before we go," Alex began. "I just want to say thank you to all of you for your participation. It truly means more than I could say."
The attending's and other residents began to clap their hands, painfully slow.
"Wooo!" Aliya cheered, teasingly, which only caused Alex to shoot her a look as if to say I'll get you back for that later.
"Slow clap!" Jackson burst out, eyes laser scanning around the room. "They're giving him the slow clap. Come on. I'm not giving him the slow clap. Ridiculous." The Avery man crossed his arms tightly with a huff.
Aliya grinned, watching as he gritted his teeth, and gaze distastefully at what was happening before him. "I think you're going to cut off your circulation."
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"Makena?" Derek greeted as they entered Zola's room, where she was crying in the arms of the woman holding her. "Hi, I'm Dr. Shepherd, this is Dr. Levine, though you already know her."
"Good morning." Aliya smiled.
"We're here to take a look at Zola today." Derek took the crying six month old off of Makena, holding her in his arms differently to the way Makena had her. "Sometimes babies with spina bifida can develop Chiari malformation."
"Which causes fluid build-up in the brain." Aliya explained to Makena, who was listening closely at what she was saying. "It can be pretty uncomfortable for them, however it helps to adjust her head position."
They watched as Zola's crying stopped, her hand holding onto the side of Derek's face as she stared up at him with wide dark eyes.
"It helps relieve the pressure." Derek grinned at her. "Let me see this. Let me see this face."
"We've had her at the orphanage since she was two months old. This is the first time she's stopped crying since I can remember." Makena explained in wonder at the finally silent baby.
Derek held the flashlight from his pocket in her hand, switching it off after checking her eyes. "Let's just run an M.R.I. and check to see if she has a Chiari malformation, or hydrocephalus. If it's positive, we're gonna have to do a shunt to drain the fluid. It's gonna postpone the spinal surgery, but I think it's gonna be worth it."
"She really has stopped crying." Aliya smiled, having held Zola a few times, all involving her crying into her lab coat. "I think she likes you, Dr. Shepherd."
"She can keep that, I have plenty." He handed Zola back to Makena, smiling at the baby as she grasped the flashlight in her tiny hands.
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"I mean," The faint smell of mice excretion and saw dust hung in the air as Jackson continued his rant to Aliya, where she was sat on the counter, surrounded by a swarm of books. "You'd think being on the chief's research project would help in the race for chief resident. You might even think it'd make me a contender. Only I'm not saving little kids or people with Alzheimer's—"
He looked at the brunette, pointedly, who only looked a tiny bit smug by it.
"—I'm cleaning up mouse poop."
"Do it for the Mickey, Cheddar and Jerry, Jackson!" Aliya raised a fist in solidarity.
"Oh no," His face fell as he glanced back towards the cages, then back to the woman with her nose in a book. "You're getting attached, you've named the mice."
"There's also Jackson Jr, Whiskers, Spencer, Fleabag— but that's besides the point," Aliya waved him off with a grin, gesturing towards said mice. "You're the protector of the mice! It's a very important job."
"Wanna hear my conversation with the chief every morning?" Jackson asked, before Aliya was going to agree, he carried on anyway, taking off his mouse poop covered gloves. "'Avery, how are the mice?'"
Aliya burst out laughing, dropping the book in her hands, and throwing her head back. "That's your impression of the Chief's voice?"
"'Oh, they're fine, chief.'" He continued, in his normal Jackson voice now, only slightly airy as if her were high. "'They're running on their wheels. They're eating their cheese.'"
"They're taking away all of my sanity." Aliya added for the realism.
"If I worked at a pet store, I'd be employee of the month by now." Jackson told her, truthfully. Seeing as being in the Chiefs trial involved a lot of animal care. "But I'm a surgeon, babysitting a bunch of mice."
"Best babysitter in the whole world." Aliya smirked, glad Jackson was no longer wearing his dirty gloves judging the way he was currently looking at her. "No, but seriously though, when you get F.D.A. approval, you'll be working on human people any day now, and then you'd look back on the mice and miss them."
He smirked, picking up one of her many books about Spina Bifida in his hand. "Why'd you have so many books, anyway? You could open your own library with this many."
"Zola, my kid from Africa," Aliya began to explain, flipping the page. "Shepherd and I ran an MRI for Chiari malformation. She doesn't have it though, but she does have hydrocephalus so we're taking her up for surgery for a shunt later today."
"Poor kid." Jackson frowned, flipping through the pages of the book.
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JACKSON AVERY (4:45pm)
CODE BLUE MOUSE J
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ALIYA LEVINE (4:46pm)
NOT JACKSON JUNIOR
JACKSON AVERY (4:46pm)
When did we agree that we were gonna name a mouse after me?
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ALIYA LEVINE (4:47pm)
last night when we were watching criminal minds
hence why mouse d is called spencer
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JACKSON AVERY (4:47pm)
It all makes sense now
I was asleep, you did it against my will
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ALIYA LEVINE (4:48pm)
justice for spencer
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JACKSON AVERY (4:48pm)
Mouse Spencer or Spencer Reid?
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ALIYA LEVINE (4:48pm)
both.
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"Okay," Aliya put her phone down and emerged from the dressing room in a dusty blue mid-length dress with strappy sleeves, smoothing down the fabric as she moved to the mirror. "What do we think of this one?"
"You look hot." Alex spoke, nodding in approval at the dress as he simultaneously crammed a fistful of smuggled potato chips he wasn't meant to have in the store into his mouth. "I like it better than the yellow, you looked like mustard dip."
"I was going for Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days." Aliya answered, liking the blue mush more than the sunshine yellow she tried on earlier, being compared to a mustard dip had that sort of effect.
"It's an iconic dress." He replied, shoving the chips into his jacket pocket and reaching for the shirt ties on a random stand by the dressing rooms, picking up on blue one, and one red checked one. "Which tie do you—"
The Karev man stopped as Aliya dropped to the floor with a grunt, hiding herself directly behind a mannequin ironically wearing the Kate Hudson yellow dress.
"Fine, if you don't like the ties, you could've just said instead of dropping to the floor, that's rather dramatic, Aliya." Alex sauntered over to where the brunette was crouched, accepting his fate and dropping himself to the floor beside her as she brought herself up to peek behind the counter, narrowing her eyes at something she spotted in the near distance. "Is there a reason why we are in the floor, or did you just get a rush of vertigo?"
"What the hell is my mother doing here?"
Alex scanned his eyes across the store in search for the blonde Wicked Witch of the West. "Molly Levine?"
"Well I don't have another mother do I?" Aliya said, sarcastically, watching as her mother meandered around the store with purpose, her Burken Bag draped across her arm, her blonde hair bouncing behind her, sunglasses on the top of her head as if she were a movie star. "She lives in freaking LA! What is she doing in Seattle?"
"I have no idea when it comes to that woman." Alex mumbled, finally catching sight of the infamous Levine. "Shopping trip, maybe?"
Aliya turned to him, slowly. "One thousand miles away from her local mall?"
"Isn't Trent moving here?" Alex questioned, coming from a different angle. "Maybe she's here to visit or—"
"Get down!"
Grabbing Alex by the collar of his jacket, she tugged him to the floor, hearing the crunch of the remainder of his potato chips as he hit the floor against his will.
"Ow!" Alex protested, his cheek crammed against the carpet. "Not cool."
"Sorry." Aliya whispered, her eyes narrowed to her mother moving around the store. "Oh, this can't be good."
"She could just be here for Trent." Alex offered, his back pressed against the counter, his legs spread out in front of him as he crammed more of his smuggled chips into his mouth.
"She could be," Aliya frowned. "Or, she could be here to torture me, hassle me about chief resident, and meet Jackson. Oh, god, Jackson!"
The Levine woman huffed, dropping her head into her hands with a groan.
"Why don't you want your mom to meet Avery?" Alex asked through a mouthful of chips.
"Do you even have to ask that?" Aliya quickly replied, because her mom had a tendency to ruin everything good in her life.
"Yeah, your mom is a psycho. A total bitch."
"Exactly! I don't want her to ruin this, because she will. It's guaranteed." Aliya clapped her hands together, but quickly dropped back down as she watched her mother leave the store. "Okay, the coast is clear."
"It's funny that we are both twenty nine years old, hiding from mothers." Alex mused, as Aliya pulled him to his feet.
"Full circle." Aliya smiled, nearly leaping out of her as a store worker appeared behind her with a raised brow. "Oh! Hello, don't you think this one looks great, honey?"
Aliya swivelled over to Alex, smoothing the silk of the dress.
Alex nodded, cramming the chip packet into his pocket. "Yes, it looks great."
"I'm gonna get this one." Aliya beamed, turning back to the very unimpressed store worker. "Do you take cash?"
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"Is there any milk over there?" Mer asked as no more milk was coming out of the carton she was pouring into her coffee. With no reply, the Grey woman sighed, setting the carton onto the counter. "Alex, is there any more milk?"
A very moody Alex stayed silent, his eyes trained directly onto the very interesting back of the cereal boxes in front of him.
Meredith sighed, loud enough for him to hear. "So, you're not talking to me now, is that it?"
"You told me to shut up," Alex replied from where he was spooning his morning cereal combo into his mouth. "So, I'm just gonna sit here and read this cereal box, and practice keeping my mouth shut."
Meredith moved out from behind the counter, making her way over to the dining table and taking a seat beside him. "I didn't change any data, or falsify any results."
"Or switch a syringe so some sweet, sad old lady would get the drսg and not the placebo?" He deduced, giving his roommate, who was now frozen in the chair, the side eye. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Nothing I did will change any results." The blonde repeated. "It doesn't change the potential effectiveness of the drսg. It doesn't change anything."
Alex shook his head with a scoff. "Except the life of the guy who was supposed to get the drսg and now won't?"
Meredith rolled her eyes, brushing off his comments and criticisms.
"Look," Alex set down his spoon. "The truth will come out and when the F.D.A. investigates, they'll invalidate Seattle Grace as a research institution. That blacklists you, Derek, Aliya," He paused at the name of his best friend, because not telling her what he knew was killing him, but at the same time he couldn't do that to her, not after the work she had put into the trial. "Every fricking doctor in this hospital. This is bigger than you. It messes with me. It messes with everyone. I mean, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. I never thought you were either."
It was only then, that Meredith truly realised the extent of what she had done. How many people this could have affected. Maybe she did act irrationally, but you never would see her admit that.
"So," She whispered slowly, hyperaware of all the bodies in the house at this current moment of time, at this point in her life she was practically living in a youth hostel. "What are you saying, you're gonna tell?"
"Morning." Derek wandered in, fixing the cuffs of his shirt and interrupting their conversation.
Following close behind was Aliya, still in her pyjamas, also followed by Jackson. "I'm single-handedly going to be responsible for ruining Callie and Arizona's wedding day!"
The brunette was shaking as she flung open the refrigerator, where her and Derek had removed the majority of the shelves (and fed everyone the food) to make room for the wedding cake, all three tiers of it.
"Aliya, calm down," Jackson taking two bowls from the hutch, reaching for Alex's frosted flakes and pouring some in both bowls with some milk in each. "There's plenty of time until the wedding."
"I was meant to wake up an hour ago to finish decorating the cake!" Aliya threw her hands down in frustration, reaching into it to grab out the tray of handmade frosting flowers she had made the night before to decorate the cake with, along with the ceramic statue of a brunette bride and a blonde bride that she had bought online.
"I did tell you that if an alarm clock comes with stickers and gemstones you can add to it, it probably won't actually wake you up on time." Jackson informed, watching as the brunette whipped her head towards him, her eyes narrowed at his unhelpful comment. "Totally the wrong time to mention that though."
Derek sipped his morning coffee, admiring the cake. "Why did you agree to do this, Aliya?"
Aliya shrugged, tying her hair up and out of her face. "Zinfandel and a bowl of sweet and salty popcorn."
He raised a brow. "Care to elaborate?"
"I'll agree to anything when I've had two glasses of pink wine!" Aliya exclaimed, washing her hands. "I'm weak. And besides, it's gonna taste great. The top tier is lemon and lavender, middle is red velvet, and the bottom is vanilla and raspberry, it's gonna be fine!"
They didn't know if she was trying to convince them or herself.
Jackson rolled his eyes, lovingly handing her the bowl of cereal. "I need to shower, can you keep an eye on her?"
"Sure," Derek chuckled, sipping the coffee as he made his way over to the stool, staring at where the brunette was working, now that it was just the two of them left in the room. "So,"
"Hm?" Aliya murmured, concentrating on piping patterns on the surface of each tier of the cake.
"I've been thinking."
"You've been thinking?" Aliya repeated, slowly, setting down her piping bag, feeling the need to do so just by the tone of his voice.
"I'm thinking of adopting Zola." He told her, and it was a good thing she had stopped piping frosting onto the cake, otherwise there would be a high percentage that she would have sent the bag flying across the room.
"Oh my god!" She clamped a hand to her mouth in surprise. "Really?"
"Yes." Derek laughed at her reaction. "I held her and I— it just felt right. I can't explain it, I can't put it into words."
"This is great news," Aliya clapped her hands together, throwing her arms around his neck, though the pair have never really hugged before, he still hugged her back, despite the fact she already had frosting over her even though she hadn't properly started decorating the cake. "Oh my god!"
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"So, my date just called to say she got stuck delivering a baby." Alex appeared beside Jackson and Aliya's side, where everyone was watching Callie and Arizona's first dance after their ceremony.
"That blows." Aliya smirked, not as sincerely as she hoped she would sound, her hands intertwined in Jackson's.
"By stuck, I mean it literally." He exaggerated, slipping his cellphone into his pocket. "The baby got stuck, halfway out."
Aliya snorted into her champagne flute, taking a sip.
"I was wrong to doubt the mice." Jackson announced to the group, now that Cristina and Owen were there too, his hand wrapped casually around Aliya's shoulder, his cheek pressed to hers as he leaned down to look across her, towards the others. "Karev, watch your back."
It seemed that it was the placement of the device which was the reason behind Jackson Junior's downfall — he developed a hernia and his portal vein wasn't draining properly. Which Jackson found on an MRI, and other very expensive tests.
For a mouse.
Talk about dedication.
"Mouse J—"
"Jackson Junior." Aliya corrected, instantly.
"—Has just made me a contender." Jackson raised his own glass of champagne, and Aliya clinked hers against his in victory of the pair both being on successful clinical trials. "Thank you Mouse J."
"You're not the only contenders, you know." Owen addressed the four incredibly overly competitive residents. "My sources tell me that Kepner could be a dark horse."
Cristina snorted, rolling her eyes at the idiocy. "Oh, please." She scoffed, walking away from her husband, who finished off his whiskey in one gulp.
Or, at least tried to as Karev took his glass away from him.
"No offense, Dr. Hunt." Alex set the trauma surgeon's glass onto the table. "But, I have you scheduled for a Swenson procedure on a two-year-old orphan tomorrow morning, I'm sure you understand."
Jackson and Aliya shared a look, before turning back to Alex attempting to butter Owen Hunt up, failing as he just took the man's source of alcohol.
"I'm just looking out for the kids that I brought here." Alex explained. "From Africa." He added for good measure.
"And Dr. Hunt," Aliya smiled broadly, swaying in Jackson's arms to the sound of the music of Callie and Arizona's first dance. "Don't forget about the groundbreaking clinical trial Dr. Shepherd and I are working on."
Owen shook his head with a short grunt of laughter. "I don't think I could, Levine." He said, before wandering off, escaping them at last.
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After a chicken dance, the macarena, and a conga line, Aliya finally left the dance floor to grab an iced tea Callie and Arizona had at the bar, taking a sip as Trent joined her with his beer, leaning against the bar beside her.
"Great wedding." Trent commented, watching April, Alex and Jackson dance in the middle of the dance floor.
If whatever they were doing could even be classified as dancing.
"It is isn't it?" Aliya agreed with a smile, because she too loved weddings.
Who knew if she'd ever make it down the aisle herself, but it was a nice thought to have.
"Mom's in town." Aliya announced to her brother, casting a look over towards him to try and decide whether or not he knew about this.
"Wait, mom's in town?" He turned to her, a small grin on his lips.
Aliya scoffed, knowing too well he was playing her, that he knew all along. "You're not fooling me at all."
"Fine." Trent sighed, sipping his beer. "I thought you knew!"
"Please," The brunette scoffed. "I don't regularly chat with mom over dinner cocktails and cups of coffee."
"She's here to meet April." Trent informed, watching the red head on the dance floor as she laughed at something Alex said.
"Have you warned her?" Aliya asked, watching the perky red head too that her mother would thoroughly enjoy crushing into a million pieces.
"No."
"Warn her." Aliya whispered, sipping on more of her iced tea.
"You know," Trent cleared his throat, putting his beer down on the table. "This is the first wedding I've been to since mine and Lou's, I guess Henry and Teddy's doesn't really count but—"
Trent looked down at his shoes as he trailed off, and Aliya reached for his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. "She would be proud of how far you've come."
"I feel guilty, you know—" Trent paused, looking over towards the wall of fairy lights. "For moving on without her, with April."
"I know you do, but you shouldn't. You deserve to be happy, Trent, and she makes you happy, just look—" Aliya pointed to April, who was now making her way over to him now as the tempo of the song the band was playing turned slow.
Jackson was following straight behind, holding out his hand for Aliya to take, which she did, letting him lead her back onto the dance floor.
"Don't let her step on your feet!" Trent called from over his shoulder, his arms around April's waist as they started dancing to the soft sounding music.
"April, don't let him pull your hair!" Aliya advised, having flashbacks to the time in fifth grade when he pulled at her ponytail. "He's vicious."
"Noted!" April called back, and Aliya buried her head into Jackson's shoulder as they swayed to the music, which kind of mirrored the type of dance usually done at a high school prom, but judging by the blisters Aliya was beginning to get on her heels, she couldn't take any lively dancing right this second.
"Oh My— is that Perkins? Crap!" Aliya swivelled around so her back was turned on the man who told her she needed therapy almost a year ago.
"Perkins?" Jackson peered over to who Teddy Altman was dancing with. "As in the shooter therapist?"
Aliya choked, hooking her arms tighter around his neck. "Shooter therapist sounds wrong."
"I regretted that as soon as I said it."
"More like the man I told all about my pain in the ass mother." The brunette corrected.
"You know, you never really talk about your Mom," Jackson spoke into her ear, his lips brushing gently against her forehead. "I mean, we all know of her. Hard to find a doctor who hasn't but, you never really told me why she's a, and I quote, pain in the ass."
Aliya let out a short burst of laughter. "That's a story for another day."
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( notes! )
mae & summer, aka the #1 mark sloan haters and aliya's #1 protectors !!
i also wanted to say thank you so so so much for 300k reads on this book !! i really appreciate everyone who reads/votes/comments, you're the best !!
also, aliya is giving hardcore lorelai gilmore vibes in this chapter (i'm not angry about it at all) and here's why:
example one. when luke is teaching lorelai to fish for her date with one of the brown haired guys she dates (pretty sure his name is alex???), he sets up a paddling pool with a bunch of fish in it which lorelai proceeds to name —> aliya names all of jackson's clinical trial mice
example two. lorelai bought a fluffy alarm clock (just because it was fluffy) and it didn't wake her up for rory's first day of chillin —> aliya buys an alarm clock which came with stickers that you can add to it
example three. lorelai and rory hide from lorelai's mum at the mall —> aliya and alex hide from aliya's mum at the mall
lorelai 🤝 aliya
also wattpad, you will pay for your crimes, pls fix the formatting issue it took me half an hour to stop everything shifting to the left
( word count! — 7,300 )