Running in Circles - Lexie Grey x OC

You Have A Home

Evening — Christmas Eve
Dexter Avenue — Eric and Lexie's Townhouse

The Christmas tree was too big.

Eric had said so when Lexie brought it home.

He had said it again when the top scraped the ceiling.

Then, three days later, it was standing perfectly straight in the corner of the living room despite having leaned noticeably toward the windows when Lexie went to bed.

Lexie had found a folded piece of cardboard wedged beneath one side of the stand.

Eric maintained that he knew nothing about it.

The lights had suffered a similar fate.

Lexie had put them on.

Eric had apparently developed no opinion whatsoever about the uneven six-inch gap near the middle.

Then Lexie had gone upstairs for another box of ornaments and returned to find the gap gone.

"Christmas vandal," she'd called him.

"Electrical correction."

"That isn't a thing."

"It is now."

The tree was still standing.

So technically, Eric considered the argument resolved.

Now it glowed against the dark windows, covered in ornaments that had absolutely no relationship to one another.

Some were new.

Some had come from Meredith's.

One was a wooden snowman missing an arm.

Another was something Meredith had made when she was eight that looked vaguely like a reindeer if you tilted your head and were generous.

Beneath the tree, presents had multiplied.

That was what Arizona noticed after dinner.

She sat cross-legged on the rug with a glass of wine in one hand, leaning forward to read the nearest tag.

"Jackson."

Another package.

"April."

Eric, gathering plates from the table, didn't look over.

"They were Alexandra's frat house roommates."

Lexie's head snapped around.

"My frat—what?"

Eric continued stacking plates.

"You lived with approximately twelve surgeons."

"Five."

"Debatable."

"It is not debatable. There were five of us."

"At any given moment."

Lexie stared at him.

Arizona looked between them, delighted.

Then back at the presents.

"So?"

Eric glanced at her.

"So I know them."

"You know lots of people."

"Yes."

"You don't buy all of them Christmas presents."

Lexie came through from the kitchen.