Playing with fire (Amelia Shepherd) ABANDONED

thirty six

The five days in LA flew by faster than Amelia and Mallie were really happy with. Despite Mallie being, well, emotionally stunted when it came to making friends with people she didn't work with or bond with over trauma, she had found herself becoming good friends with Amelia's LA family.

She and Addison found common ground in catching up over everything Addison was doing in her medical career, and Mallie's firefighting career. Mallie had confessed that her brothers had died in a house fire when she was younger and she'd vowed never to go near fire again, but the plane crash that killed their mutual friend Mark Sloan and his soulmate Lexi Grey, who had actually been Mallie's intern back when she was a doctor, had sent her spiralling from white right into black.

But Addison could see how happy Mallie was when she talked about her team, now, and about the family she'd built from the thing that had ruined her childhood. Addison could see how genuine Mallie's smile was when she showed photographs of the twins with baby Pru and an OB called Carina DeLuca that Amelia had gushed to Addison about after Amelia and Carina had become friends through Mallie.

Cooper and Mallie had found common ground in how absolutely crazy parenting was. Cooper had been dropped in the deep end with Mason, which was quite similar to Mallie's situation with Saffie. Cooper delighted in telling Mallie all about the hijinks of his four kids, while Mallie told him about how she was terrified about the twins growing up and doing the same kind of things with Pru, Zola, Bailey and Ellis at their sides.

It had taken Charlotte longer to extend a friendship to Mallie. It wasn't that they didn't like each other, they just weren't having conversations as open and honest as Mallie was having with Addison or Cooper.

It was the third day of their five day trip when Charlotte decided to bring Mallie into a conversation. Myles had taken a fall while playing in the park with the other kids and had scraped his knees up a bit. He had only wanted Mallie to calm him down, so she had patched his knees up and held him for a while.

Still, he wouldn't settle, so Mallie had told the others she would take him for a walk to try and get him to nap. Scout was already half asleep in Amelia's arms, staring up at her with big brown eyes as she cooed over how sweet and cuddly her baby was.

Mallie had almost dropped dead at how adorable her fiancée and son were together and couldn't resist kissing them both before getting ready to take Myles for a walk. Charlotte had jumped up and said she'd tag along so she could grab some drinks from the store for the kids while they kept playing.

They had walked in silence for a few minutes with Mallie holding Myles, trying to get him to fall asleep. He just seemed against having a nap, however.

"C'mon, mijo, close your pretty eyes and go to sleep," Mallie whispered, kissing his forehead three times.

"No, mamí," Myles whispered.

"Why not? You're so tired. Cerrar los ojos," Mallie whispered back.

"No," Myles whined, shaking his head.

"Are you hungry or thirsty?" Mallie asked. Myles shook his head. "Okay," Mallie said, patting her hand against his back. "But we're still going to walk around for a while," she said.

"You think he might want some tylenol?" Charlotte said.

"I gave him some when I cleaned his knees. He had a really early morning, but he doesn't like missing out on anything so he keeps himself awake. He's stubborn, just like his mama," Mallie said.

"You know, Amelia has told me about everything you've done for her," Charlotte said.

"I figured. You're her person," Mallie said. "Same way Maya is mine, or Vic, or Mer," Mallie said.