No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

66 | I'm Not a Liar

 "No, I just want to say I'm really excited about the clinical trial," Derek said as he took a bite of his sandwich that night as we ate dinner.

Alex gave Meredith and I a look, telling us he hadn't forgotten about what he had seen, and neither had I. After Meredith switched the files, Adele ended up getting the active agent. Nobody knew, well, nobody except the three of us.

"This is Zola." Alex showed the first picture on the overhead in the conference room. We were all meeting about the children that had arrived the night before, "She's six months old, born with spina bifida..."

"Adorable African children, shameless ego stroking...Karev is a genius." Cristina whispered.

Jackson nodded, "Yeah, he's single-handedly stealing Chief Resident out from under all of us, and we're helping him do it. I mean, we can't exactly refuse to treat little sick kids without making ourselves look bad."

April scrunched up her face, "Oh, he's is genius. Or-" she began to say something in an African dialect, "That's what they say in Swahili."

"Well, he only has a shot because I've been benched." Cristina told us matter-of-factly, "The playing field has been leveled. You're all welcome."

"My Alzheimer's trial kicks African-orphan ass." Meredith said, "It kicks all of your asses."

Chief Webber spun his chair around, "Do you wanna keep it down back there? I'm trying to listen to what appears to be the next Chief Resident talking."

Alex smiled from the front of the room, "Before we go, I just want to say thank you to all of you for your participation. It, uh, truly means more than I could say."

Just then, the room burst with applause, but slow applause. "Slow clap." Jackson turned to us, "They're giving him the slow clap. Come on. I'm not giving him the slow clap. Ridiculous."

As I walked through the hall with Meredith, we ran into Derek and Alex at a nurses station. Derek turned to us, "Hey, what do you got for me? Any news?"

Meredith dropped the binders that she was holding onto the desk, "Ugh. I went over all the screening tests, but you need to start looking at the next wave of patient charts."

Alex looked at us, "Next wave?"

"The Alzheimer's trial." Derek told him, "The first wave of the trial is done. Now we're getting ready to treat the next group. Let me know when the O.R. is booked."

As Derek picked up the binders and walked away, Alex gave us, well, Meredith, a look, "Mer, what's going on? Does he know what you did?"

"What did I do?" Meredith played dumb.

"I saw you with the clinical trial envelope." Alex told her, "You were hiding it under your lab coat. Look, if you messed with this trial somehow, this could be bad for you...like, really bad."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Meredith told him.

Alex sighed, "Whatever you did, no matter how minor, it invalidates the entire project."

"Alex." Meredith huffed.

"You could get into real trouble here, Mer." Alex wouldn't let up, "It's illegal to mess around with a blind trial."

"I didn't do anything!" Meredith almost yelled, "So shut up about it."

With that, Meredith walked off. Alex sighed, "Do you know what she did?"

"I'm sorry, Alex." I shook my head before leaving as well.

The next morning I woke up in the spare bedroom of Meredith's house like I had been doing for the past month or so. I was pretty sure that Sam had sold the house by now, so all of my things were shoved into this tiny room. Sometimes, it made me sad to think that I was a grown woman with an amazing job but the only things that were truly mine were these things and my car. I didn't even own the room.

As I made my way downstairs, I remembered that Callie and Arizona were getting married soon. Amazing how some things just slip your mind. Sitting down beside Alex at the kitchen table, he mumbled 'Morning' with his mouth full of cereal.

"Morning." I sighed as I sat back in my chair.

"Is there any milk over there?" Meredith asked as she opened the fridge.

Alex didn't reply. "Alex, is there any more milk?" Meredith asked again.

Groaning, I reached for the carton and gave it a shake, confirming that it still had milk inside.

"There's some left," I told her.

"So, you're not talking to me now, is that it?" Meredith turned to Alex.

"You told me to shut up." Alex swirled his spoon around his bowl, "So I'm just gonna sit here and read the cereal box and practice keeping my mouth shut."

Meredith walked over and sat down at the table with us, "I didn't change any data or falsify any results."

"Or switch a syringe so some sweet, sad old lady would get the drug and not the placebo?"

Alex finished, "That's what I thought."

"Nothing I did will change any results." Meredith told him, "It doesn't change the potential effectiveness of the drug. It doesn't change anything."

Alex sighed, "Except the life of the guy who was supposed to get the drug and now won't. Look, the truth will come out, and when the F.D.A. investigates, they'll invalidate Seattle Grace as a research institution. That blacklists you, Derek, every fricken doctor in this hospital. This is bigger than you. It messes with me, it messes with Ellie, it messes with everyone. I mean, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. I never thought you were either."

"So what are you saying, you're gonna tell?" Meredith asked.

"Morning." Derek smiled as he entered the kitchen.

"I'm late for work." Alex huffed as he pushed his chair back and headed for the front door, "You want a ride, Ellie?"

I looked between Meredith and Alex, and as much as Meredith was my friend, I didn't want to get caught up in this any more than I already was. "Sure." I nodded and followed Alex to his car.