The Home and The Heart

Breathe

Amelia's car was surrounded by glass.

They had seen the black car screech away down the dark street, leaving nothing but damage and a single crowbar behind.

They knew who it was, of course they did. Amelia sighed as she opened the driver's side door, watching shards of glass fall out of the car onto the ground.

Jo stood frozen behind Alex, who was feeling white-hot rage. It was one thing for this violent man to come back into their lives, but it was another thing entirely that he was now causing problems for their friends and their family.

"I don't understand. What exactly is he trying to achieve here? And he left the crowbar behind, why would he do that?" Maggie asked, opening up the back door to assess the damage further.

"There's no chance he wasn't wearing gloves so there would be no prints. He's a smart man, he probably left it there so that I'd go to the police and cry wolf with no evidence that he did it." Jo said solemnly, startled when she heard another car quickly turn onto their street.

Relief flooded her system when she realised it was Meredith's car that had stopped behind Amelia's damaged car.

Meredith Grey got out of her car and slowly walked towards Amelia's car, taking in the damage caused without saying a word for a few moments.

"What the hell happened here?"

"It was Paul. They were sure they weren't followed back who else would be going around smashing windshields with a crowbar." Alex explained.

"Amelia stood up to him outside of the bar, this is his way of telling her to back off before it gets worse." Jo continued.

Meredith nodded.

"Are you all okay? Were you out here when it happened?" Meredith's eyes moved to the loft, where every light was switched on.

"No, we walked Jo upstairs and were talking inside the loft when we heard what sounded like glass smashing. Turns out it was a lot of glass smashing." Maggie gestured to the car.

"I'm so sorry about your car Amelia, I'll pay for the damage I promise." Jo offered, hearing the glass crack and splinter under her shoes as she shifted her weight.

"You'll do nothing of the sort, this was not your fault Wilson."

They continued to talk outside of the loft for another twenty minutes before the vehicle recovery truck showed up to take Amelia's car away, as there was far too much damage for her to simply drive it back to Meredith's place.

With a final smile and a squeeze of Jo's shoulder, Meredith followed Maggie and Amelia to the car to leave. Alex and Jo stood on the side of the road, watching the smashed-up car leave their sight, followed by Meredith's SUV.

"I can't believe he would do this," Jo muttered once they were safely back in their loft.

"I can. The man is a psycho, Jo, I should have killed him when I had the chance."

"Alex I..." Jo started and then stopped, not wanting to admit that she was scared, not even to Alex.

"Jo, he's not gonna touch you, I can promise you that," Alex promised, putting his arms around Jo and pulling her to him.

"Alex you can't promise me that, he can get to me here and at work, he can..." Jo was going to continue but was interrupted by Alex.

"He's not getting anywhere near you. If you want to stay home I will stay here with you until this is all over. And if you don't want to stay home, stick to peds this week with me and Robbins if that will make you feel safer. And screw it if you want to move house right now I'll get the suitcases and we can start packing." Alex said, trying to get Jo to smile and succeeding.