nineteen

as she approached Jackson in the hallway. "Why?"

Jackson looked at her, this was the first time since they have had a talk just between the two, "I—Uh."

Jackson didn't have time to finish because Allison put two and two together, "Because you're an Avery by association it could screw up the chances of him getting a Harper Avery award."

"Yeah." Jackson softly said. He couldn't explain to Webber why he quit the trial, he would rather be seen as a quitter than ruining the chances of Webber wining an award.

"I'm sorry Jackson." Allison frowned, knowing how sometimes being Avery has its down sides. She knew how much he wanted to be part of the trial.

"It's the right thing to do, right?" Jackson asked as the two continued to walk down the hallway.

"Yeah."

***

"Hey, how is she?" Allison asked, as she went to stand beside Derek, who was observing Zola.

"She's great." Derek grinned.

"Admit it. You saw how good this baby looked on me, so you had to get one of your own." Mark spoke up as he made his way to stand beside Allison.

Allison and Derek chuckled, "Everything's a competition with you."

"How'd her surgery go?" Mark asked.

"Robbins said she's fine. She's feeding again."

"Good, because Sofia can't wait to have a new friend." Mark looked down, "Isn't that right, Sofia? You and Zola are gonna be best friends. Isn't that right?" Mark looked back up to Derek, "Oh, you just wait this crap will be coming out of your mouth, too."

Derek chuckled, "Well, let hope so. We're dealing with the international adoption treaties, and the waiver we need, they just don't...usually give those things out."

"You both are great surgeons, and you guys are going to make good parents." Allison assured.

"We'd be naive to get ahead of ourselves."

"You're Derek Shepherd. There's a reason I've been jealous of you my whole life, and it's not your hair." Mark said, making Allison chuckle, "You're going to be okay, even Sofia knows that." Mark returned to his baby voice, "Right Sofia? Uncle Derek is going to be Zola's daddy. Yes he is, right?"

Allison shook her head as she rested her head on Derek's shoulder, "You're going to be fine, the both of you."

"I'm gonna go feed her." Mark dismissed himself leaving the pair to observe Zola some more.

***

Allison leaned against the Nurse's station with Derek as Meredith walked away from the two as she focused on her patient's chart.

"Shepherd." Owen called out for Derek as he walked up to them, "You got a minute? I need to talk to you about your trial."

"Oh.." Derek looked into the patients room, Meredith was in, "Well, I should get Meredith. I just got a lecture on the failure to extend professional courtesy to one's spouse."

Owen eyes trailed to Allison before looking back at Derek, not knowing how to form his words, "I think it's best you don't get Meredith."

"What happened?" Allison asked.

***

"So they're probably gonna fire me." Meredith stormed up to Alex, making everyone turn their heads to look at them, "Are you happy?"

"Oh, come on." Alex said, "They're not gonna—"

"I want your crap out of my house by the end of the day." Meredith walked away as Allison and Cristina made their way towards Alex.

"What the hell was that?"

Alex opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by all of their pagers going off. All of them looked at each other before leaving their charts at the Nurse's station and walking away.

***

"What are you gonna do?" Derek asked Webber, leaning back in his chair. Webber, Derek, Meredith and Allison were in the conference room as they recently found out that Meredith gave the drug to Adele.

Webber shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well, the protocol is fairly clear."

"Derek—" Allison said, knowing what he was saying.

"Are you encouraging him to fire me?" Meredith questioned, interrupting Allison.

"Look, Derek," Webber reasoned, "I basically pressured her to do it." Derek sarcastically hummed as he rolled his eyes. "You'd have to fire us both."

Watching Derek get up and leave the room, Allison sighed as she looked at the two, "I'll go talk to him."

***

Allison stood next to April as the crowd of doctors looked forward listening to what the chief was saying. Allison went to go look for Derek but he just needed some time alone.

"Emergency services has begun identifying bodies. They've given us a list. The airline reps are on their way. We've got social workers here and more coming. It's a long list. Each of you have families to inform." Allison looked down at the list that Bailey handed out as she sighed, not wanting to remember the night her parents died and how her aunt delivered the news.

"So, uh," Perkins spoke, "Please be outside the cafeteria in exactly one hour. You'll call one family at a time and you'll be assigned a room to take them to and deliver the news. It's gonna be a...long day."

"That's it." Dr. Webber nodded at them before he walked away.

Allison sighed as she looked at the long list of names one more time before her attention was brought up towards Owen, who placed a paper on the bulletin board about Chief Resident.

April let out a small exhale as she smiled brightly, Meredith rolled her eyes and walked away, Alex scoffed and walked away as well, while Allison looked at April and sent her a smile as she walked over to her, "Congratulations, Chief Resident."

***

"Is the Schema family here—Jessica and Maxwell?" Dr. Altman asked out loud so the people in the crowd could hear her.

"Jason Schema." A man and a woman walked up with smiles, unprepared for the news that would be given to them, "He's our son."

"I'm Dr. Altman." Teddy introduced herself, "Will you follow me, please?"

Allison thought,

April watched them walk away before speaking to Lexie and Allison in a lowered voice, "They think it's good news."

Allison avoided any eye contact as her hands began to shake, she closed her eyes as she thought of happy thoughts before opening them back, ready to get this day over with.

***

Exiting the room where she updated a family, Allison walked over to the hallway as she lowered herself to the ground bringing her knees up to her chest. It brought back so many memories of her parents, she felt the pain the families are going through because she felt the same exact pain years ago.

"Hey." Jackson greeted as he sat next to her, "You okay?"

Allison shook her head, "It reminds me of . It's too much." She softly said.

Jackson wrapped his arm around her, "I know." he whispered.