B for Babies

12

Meredith, Alex and Maggie all sat in a row of exhaustion. The mall was buzzing all around them, but the three of them looked like they'd just run a marathon. "Why do babies need so much stuff? It's not like they do much and they're so small. Who needs that much stuff?" Maggie asked, looking between Alex and Meredith who were sitting either side.

"They puke and poop a lot. You'd be surprised." Meredith answered, a hand on her newly obvious belly. It's not like she needed to buy a whole lot more, she had most of Ellis and Bailey's hand me downs, but her sister had twisted her arm into coming.

Alex chuckled down the line, he's worked with hundreds of tiny babies in his time, but never been on this side of it before. He didn't know what half the crap did or why you needed all of it.

"Who wants food?" Meredith asked soon after. They'd all been sitting there together for half an hour, which was the opposite of why they had come down here in the first place. She was hungry, and honestly at this point she didn't care if the others weren't, she was going to get herself a burger.

Her cell phone rang as soon as she had manoeuvred herself onto her feet. It was Amelia calling of course, she's already phoned half a dozen times already. "Hello?" She answered reluctantly. This was the first time she'd actually accepted the call, and she knew her sister in law wasn't going to appreciate that.

"Maggie told me you were going baby shopping. I swung by your house and you'd already left, and then I thought maybe you'd wait for me at the baby store, but I wasn't sure which one so I went to all the ones I know, but none of them had you. So where are you?" The explosion of words erupted down the line and Meredith had to control her urge not to listen. She loved her, it was strained and a little awkward at times, but Amelia was family and she did love her, she just didn't know how to deal with her.

"We're going to get burgers. You should come." She responded, looking over her shoulder back to Alex, who was busy on his own phone.

They did actually wait for her this time, despite Meredith's impatience and her growling stomach. The four of them sat together in a booth, Alex beside Meredith, still checking his phone every few moments. Meredith thought he must be trying to reconcile with Jo, but of course she couldn't know for sure, not with her sisters within earshot.

"You know I never really understood the whole Merlex thing..." Amelia spoke up. They were all finally chowing down on their lunches, and the comment actually made Alex focus on something other than his phone.

"The hell is a Merlex?" He asked before wiping ketchup from his chin.

Amelia laughed and looked between the couple sitting opposite her. "You know, Meredith, Alex. Merlex."

Maggie gasped. "Oh I get it! That's pretty clever. I wonder what it would be for me and Nathan..."

Meredith stiffened beside Alex, who was the only person who noticed. He spoke up trying to get rid of the Nathan tension in the air. "Who calls us that anyway? We're not some twilight characters.."

Amelia shrugged. "You know, a few of the nurses, interns. I don't know like everybody?"

Alex shook his head. "Why? It's not like we were a thing before now.."

She smirked and tilted her head a little at that. "Trust me, you were a thing before now. Ever since I've been here, some people have talked the talk. I mean obviously not when she was married, they wouldn't have dared spoken about that when I was around, but I've heard it all."

The very thought of this upset Meredith, who was still very protective of her husband and their relationship. "Good to know everybody likes gossiping about married people so much." She said coldly, not feeling at all like eating her burger. It was funny how quickly you could lose an appetite. She almost felt like pulling away from Alex who was still sitting rather close to her.

Amelia didn't know what can of worms she had just opened, but even she knew better than to keep talking.

Later than evening Alex watched as Meredith rushed around her room. She had decided that her closet needed sorting right then and there, he didn't know why bit he had learnt not to question it. She was busy muttering to herself, a few times she had walked out to say something directly to him, only to change her mind.

"You know what I hate?" She asked him, and he looked up at her wondering if she was going to cancel the conversation before he had a chance to engage again.

She stared at him when he didn't answer, waiting for him to acknowledge that she was speaking to him. She looked as though she was about to repeat herself.

"Me?" He asked sarcastically.

"No." She sighed and shook her head in annoyance. "I hate that everyone is just out there having their own stupid thoughts about us. They think they know what's going on, but they don't. They think they predicted us happening as if it was something that was bound to be." She said, her words scrambling a little as she tried to get them all out. She sat down beside him, her feet aching from all the walking she's done.

"Who cares what they think? It doesn't change anything." He pointed out, choosing not to be offended by her distaste of them being a couple. He didn't care really, they weren't actually together anyway. This was all because he didn't know how to leave Meredith to her own destruction, and she didn't know how to keep it in her pants.

"It changes everything Alex." She complained, and maybe it was her pregnancy making her this way, but her heads felt messy and she didn't like that feeling at all.

"I don't want that for you. I want you to have a real family, a real relationship, something like that with me is a lie. This is a lie." She said it as though he didn't already know, as if he hadn't been the one who started this very lie.

"It's not all a lie. You are my real family. You and the kids? You're my family. What's a lie about that?" He asked, feeling defensive all of a sudden.

"You don't want a widow with four kids, you don't want someone who has already been married and already done all the milestones. You don't want to be with someone, without actually being with them." She shot back, wondering why he would even agree to this mess, why he would want to help her, when all she ever did was mess up. She was broken goods and he knew that better than anybody.

"You can't tell me what I want." They were both so stubborn. And although Maggie couldn't hear what they were saying, she could hear the commotion from down stairs, the happy couple they were pretending to be weren't so happy after all.