Impossibility (Kaimelia, 18x07)

When you find that thing that you weren't even sure was possible

"Cell survival rate is still at 75%" The room is silent as Meredith picks up her coat, mutters something about coffee, and walks out, her pace a little too fast to be considered calm.

Kai sighs and leans back in their chair. Everyone is exhausted. They've been at this for hours, staying late every night in a desperate attempt to meet the unfathomable demands that David keeps throwing at them like freaking knives.

Amelia, for one, wants to scream. She's a surgeon. She looks at a scan and she cuts. Tumor gone and problem solved. With research, though, you don't get the same "instant gratification" as Kai so graciously pointed out.

She runs her hands through her hair and gets up, moving to slide a new batch of cells into the tray.

"You still awake Shepherd?" Despite the exhaustion and disappointment of this entire night, this entire week, Kai's voice is still as collected and calm as ever

"Always, Dr. Bartley." Amelia knows she's teasing, but she can't help it. Being around Kai is easy and calm and she loses herself in their playful banter, which has quickly became the highlight of her days in Minnesota.

She smiles, her mood instantly changing as she glances towards Kai, her eyes taking them in. Their hair is messy and their lab coat long discarded. This is unprofessional, Shepherd.

She forces herself to look away, instead pressing a few buttons and adjusting settings for the next group of cells. Soon that low familiar sound of machines clicking and whirring fills the lab again.

Kai is back to reading their book, and Amelia eyes it curiously. It looks like something on synapses. An incredibly fascinating topic and she's not surprised. Before she even met Dr. Bartley, she had admired and followed their brilliant research from afar.

She takes her seat across from them, lifts her computer into her lap, and scans an article on cell regeneration. She hears them turning pages of their book and sipping their coffee, but fights the urge to glance up at them. When she finally does, admiring the way the moonlight from the window dances across their skin, Kai looks up and catches her staring.

Their eyes are amused and they hum gently, taking another sip of coffee, their gaze never leaving her.

She can feel the heat rise in her cheeks, but if Kai notices, they don't say anything, only throwing a half-smile at her. And, damn it, that's what gets her every single time. Despite the constant stress and failure of curing an incurable disease, Kai is always calm. Always steady and collected. She admires that.

Just admiration, she tells herself, that's all.

When late becomes even later, and the familiar hum of the lab becomes a pounding in her head, Amelia seriously contemplates going to her hotel.

She doesn't want to, though. Doesn't want to leave this lab. This lab where Kai Bartley sits across from her, occasionally glancing up at her and making her stomach flutter.

They have ran scan after scan and trial after trial, only to be met with, at the highest, an 80% survival rate. Meredith never came back to the lab, and both Kai and Amelia are supremely exhausted but incredibly stubborn.

They've moved to sitting on the couch in the corner of the lab, and Amelia gets to be closer to Kai, which she's obviously not complaining about.

"Shepherd?" Kai is over halfway through their book now, and Amelia, when she's not watching them, has been counting floor tiles or absentmindedly reading articles.

"Hm?" Her computer is closed and on the table, and her eyes are shut. Just for a minute, she promises herself.

"You know it's late right?" Yes, Amelia is painstakingly aware of how late it is. Not even coffee could help at this point.