Imperfect Dinner

chapter 9

 "My phone is gonna ring any second.", Meredith guessed. "Therefore I believe it is more clever to just spill the tea myself.", she decided bravely.

"At least let us guess, slowpoke!", Alex suggested, making his best friend sigh in hesitation but finally allow it with a nod.

"Three guesses, you can choose one person for each one!", Andrew made the rules, actually pretty excited about what his ex-girlfriend was going to tell them. He hoped it could be reason enough for them to try again.

"Alright.", the blonde agreed. "Number 1 is for Carina."

"Uhh, well, that was unexpected.", the gynecologist chuckled. "How about you are pregnant with your fourth child?", she wondered.

"Too crazy to just tell all of you at the table. I mean, this would be as much of a shocker as if Amelia suddenly announced Owen as her baby's daddy.", Maggie, not aware of how she was telling the truth, compared, giggling again.

Her sister's eyes widened, which didn't go unnoticed by her boyfriend, who simply understood the gesture as if she was finding the idea ridiculous, like he did. Owen noticed it too, and was kind of hurt, believing the same thing, but not saying anything.

"Okay, chance number 2 is for Jo!", Meredith chose, almost sure that none of her friends would be able to guess it right, but not prepared for the absolute smartness of the fresh general surgeon.

"You're dating someone. Let's say, a new colleague.", she nonchalantly exposed her friend's secret, not even knowing she'd be right.

"Wait what? Probably not, right Mer?", Teddy said in total surprise.

"You aren't, are you?", Andrew, who wasn't convinced either, asked in disbelief.

"Uhh, she is right. I am dating McWidow. Tadaa!", Meredith confirmed.

"Huh? Who is McWidow?", Owen wanted to know.

"You, Hunt.", Tom joked. "But I guess you'd know if it was you."

"Tom!", Amelia warned her friend.

"Oh, getting defensive there again, right Shepherd?", the male neurosurgeon teased.

"Yeah, why exactly are you trying to help him out of this uncomfortable situation after he caused me to feel this way all evening.", Link wondered. "Let him squirm for once."

"Leave her alone, dude!", Alex interfered, meaning both, his wife's best friend and Koracick.

"Guys, guys, guys!", Maggie yelled loudly, getting everybody's attention back. "You know, I love both of my sisters equally. But now I really wanna hear about Meredith's new lover boy. Is that alright for you?"

"Not really.", Andrew said under his breath, sinking back into his chair in defeat.

"McWidow is Cormac Hayes, the new peds surgeon.", his ex-girlfriend explained. "Cristina sent him."

"Of course she would do such thing.", Teddy chuckled. "Is he hot?"

"Too much detail. I was brave enough to spill my own tea, so don't be greedy.", Meredith warned.

"I mean, he definitely is.", Carina judged, getting nudged by her brother, who for once would have loved to have her on his side.

"He stole your job.", Owen realized, talking to Alex. "And you start dati-", he started but was interrupted by Amelia's phone as she got messaged.

"Hey, how did the ultrasound go? Is it twins like what mom wished for?", the brunette read Nancy's message out loud.

"You would have told us...right?", Tom inspected his best friend.

"No worries, I am not having twins.", the neurosurgeon promised.

"We're not having twins.", Atticus corrected his girlfriend. Amelia thought about finally telling the truth, but she couldn't bring it over her lips. She didn't want to hurt him that much.

"Hello??? Amy!!", Nancy continued her attack of messages. "Don't ignore me! I simply wanna know how my baby sister is doing!", she sent the next one. "And I don't want to reply to you.", the brunette mumbled, looking at her phone. Of course, the older Shepherd wasn't having that and called her a minute later.

"Oh, crap.", Alex commented, reading his friend's mind.

"Nancy, stop annoying me!", Amelia answered the phone, sighing.

"You could have simply told me, what I wanted to know and there had been no need for me to call you.", her sister explained.

"The baby is doing great. It is healthy and I am 20 weeks along. Goodbye!", the neurosurgeon informed and hang up the phone, hoping for Carina to not say anything, but of course the gynecologist got confused.

"Amelia, remember how we established that you're not 20 weeks but 24 weeks along?", she asked, seeing the begging look on the face of her patient and immediately shutting up, but it was already too late.

"No, that can't be right. It must be 20 weeks, since this is how long the conference in San Diego is ago.", Link interfered.

"Unless...", Maggie started thinking things through as much as her drunk brain would let her. "Oh God Amelia, please don't say my crazy comparison from earlier wasn't fake.", she whined.

"You mean...", Owen wondered, as he looked at the cardio surgeon, not quite believing what was being said.

"No!", Atticus begged. "Please tell me, this isn't true! I know the both of you were together at that time, but you said this is my baby!"

"Here we go again!", Teddy commented. "Cheers to Leo's parents giving him another sibling.", she added.

"I didn't know any better!", Amelia defended herself loudly. "When I had the ultrasound this week, I thought I was 20 weeks along, because I truly believed it was yours, Link. But Carina told me I am further along and no matter what anyone here wishes for, this makes the baby Owen's.", she shrugged and teared up.

"When it comes to babies, you are the craziest person, I ever met!", the ortho surgeon yelled in his anger.

"Hey!", Alex and Owen shouted at the same time, being the only ones beside him to know about the neurosurgeon's first born.

"What? Why are you reacting like this, guys? Didn't she tell all of you about her brainless baby in LA?", Link wanted to know, realizing he had just exposed yet another secret of his girlfriend. "See, the only thing you do about your children is lying."

"I swear, if you don't shut the fuck up anytime soon, I will rip you apart!", Tom joined the fight angrily, taking everyone by surprise, especially Owen, who had been wanting to say the same thing.

Amelia just stood there, hurt by her boyfriend's words, although she knew that this situation was so painful for him to turn him into such a monster. She silently cried, while staring out of the window, before she couldn't take it anymore and ran outside, followed by Teddy and Owen.

"Amelia, stop!", the blonde ordered. "There is no sense in running away! Nobody is judging you for what happened to your baby, I promise!", she tried to get her to stop walking. "Did you know?", Teddy whispered to her ex-boyfriend.

"About her dead son, yes. But she never told me the cause of his death.", he sadly answered as they finally reached the distraught brunette, who was now just standing there with empty eyes, hugging herself to protect her unborn kid and looking really pale.

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I don't know about you, but I am sad. Let's see what happens next between our most hated love triangle. And let's see what happens between Amelia and Link, because you shouldn't forget that we still don't know Link's secret. Any guesses?

I hope you liked this chapter! :)