Different Story | Grey's Anatomy

• Chapter 10: Hangover •

The next morning was quite eventful for Lexie. She woke up with a paralyzing headache and an insane feeling of thirst. She stumbled towards the kitchen at about 5 A.M. and chugged 3 full glasses of water, alongside a painkiller. She could vaguely remember the events of last night - something about her crying in the bar, consuming way too much alcohol and finally her sister dragging her out of there. Despite drinking a lot and taking all the painkillers in this world, her head was still pounding. Lexie wasn't sure if this was just due to her hangover or whether it was combined with her heartache. Whatever it was, it was killing her. Then, she heard the sound of a pair of slippers sliding on the floor behind her. The sound irritated her so much she had to cover her ears with her hands. 

"Someone had fun last night," Derek commented and walked towards the coffee machine. She wasn't sure whether he was being sarcastic or straight up mean.

"Fun is the last word I'd use to describe whatever happened," Lexie murmured and laid her head on the counter. "I feel horrible... It's like my head and stomach are going to explode."

"Well," he replied, reaching for a cup from the cupboard. "You're a doctor. You out of all people should know what consequences excessive drinking has on a person's body."

"Oh shut up already," she mumbled with her head still on the counter. She could hear her brother-in-law chuckle. He was definitely making fun out of her, she thought. She'd fight back if she weren't in- well, this state. "Just so you know, you're lucky I feel like crap."

All of a sudden, she felt a twisting pain in her stomach - it was so bad she sprung out of her chair, only to collapse on the floor, growling and panting. Derek left his coffee cup on the counter and approached Lexie, offering her his hand. She shook her head and remained seated on the floor, her back resting against the chair she just fell out of. 

"Maybe I'm dying," she said nonchalantly, and her brother-in-law chuckled again. "Maybe I'm dying and here you are, laughing at me. It's a beautiful day to save lives, you say. Well, I say it's a pretty awful day, actually no- it's been an awful week. And my life isn't being saved. It's being wasted."

"No, Lexie," Derek replies, pulls her up by her arm and pushes her towards the chair. She sits, but now her head is pounding again. "You're wasted. There's a pretty big difference."

"Ugh," she said, running her hands through her hair. "Don't do that again."

Derek left the kitchen and then came back with some pills in his hand. He handed them to Lexie, and before she could say anything he replied: "Take two with lots of water. You have two hours to sober up." With those words he went back upstairs, probably to take a shower, Lexie thought. She looked at the pills Derek gave her, but quickly came to a conclusion that her vision was too blurry to actually figure out what the words on the bottle read. She ended up doing as her brother-in-law had instructed her, and she also went back upstairs to take a cold shower in hopes it would wake her up.

After she hopped out of the shower, Lexie was already feeling a lot better, almost as if she had been reborn. Her under eye bags were telling a completely different story, however. But that was nothing that a tiny bit of make-up couldn't fix. Either way, she can't be seeing patients at the hospital looking like a complete zombie. 

By the time she came back downstairs it was about 6:30 in the morning, and Meredith was feeding Zola in the kitchen. There were some papers and cards scattered across the table - Lexie took a quick glance at them and realized they were her sisters. The contents  of those papers were serious matter, but Lexie found it difficult to take her sister seriously while watching her play 'airplane' with her niece. 

"Lexie, could you move my notes and flashcards? Zola is not liking this spinach and I don't want it to get all over my boards study material," Meredith requested and Lexie began to gather the scattered papers. Meredith has been preparing for her boards that will take place in a couple of weeks, and Lexie knew how stressed her sister must be. As Lexie was collecting the papers on the table, Meredith realized: "Wait, stop. Are you by any chance going to throw up all over my study material?"

"Actually, thanks to your husband's magical pills, I feel a lot better," Lexie replied and smiled.

"My husband's magical what?" Meredith echoed in shock and stared at her sister.

"The pi-"

"Actually, you know what, I don't care," Meredith responded before Lexie could explain herself, and turned back towards Zola. "As long as you're feeling better." 

Lexie rolled her eyes and put her sister's papers in a safe place, away from the table. She walked towards the kitchen counter and made herself some cereal - she had not eaten anything the night before and was starving. But, at the same time, she didn't realize what time it was, as within a minute of her sitting down at the table, with a spoon in hand, Derek appeared in the kitchen and announced: "Hurry up, we're late."

Meredith picked up Zola from her highchair and put her dirty spinach bowl in the sink. She handed Zola over to Derek, and then grabbed Lexie's cereal bowl and put it away as well.

"Hey! I was going to eat that!" she argued with a spoon in her mouth, but Meredith was having none of it. She picked an apple from the fruit bowl and gave it to her sister. 

"There, you can eat that instead," she said without even making eye-contact with Lexie and pulled her away from the table.

"At least you could have bought some bananas, or something. You know how much I hate apples," Lexie kept arguing. "They taste sad."

"Just hurry up and put your shoes on. I don't want to be explaining to Bailey why we're late," Meredith said while putting on her jacket. Derek was already outside, putting Zola in her carseat. Lexie, still experiencing minor consequences of her last night's adventure, was struggling to comprehend everything. Still, she put her shoes on and ran out the door with her jacket in hand. She followed her sister to the car and sat in the back seat, next to her niece. Although she was feeling a lot better already she had to remind Derek to drive a bit slower over the bumps, as her stomach was still not right. 

As soon as they reached the hospital, Derek took Zola to the daycare, while Meredith and Lexie made their way towards the locker room. Perhaps it was the ambient, the scent of the hospital, or her own emotions, but while they were changing into their scrubs, Lexie began second guessing.

"What if I run into him?" she mumbled under her breath. It was not her intention to pose that question out loud, but for some reason she did. She felt her sister's eyes on her almost immediately, and she didn't want to look up at her. She couldn't look into her sister's eyes, she was too embarrassed. After all, she saw her breakdown the day before, she saw her get drunk and yet she hasn't made a single comment about it. Was she pretending as if it didn't happen? If so, then Lexie was more than happy to play along. 

"If you do," Meredith responded while fixing the stethoscope around her neck, "you keep your chin up high and keep things professional at all times, no matter how awkward it gets or how stupid you feel."

That was when Meredith shut her locker and looked at her sister, who was still avoiding eye contact.

"And don't bother hiding the fact you're hungover. Bailey will know."