thirty-five

Alex and Cristina were sitting on the table discussing about Jo Wilson, and how Alex seems to like her—but doesn't know it yet.

"Hey." Cristina greeted before turning her attention back on Alex, "I heard your girlfriend did a little panty dance in the kitchen this morning."

Allison gasped knowing who Cristina was talking about, "Jo was in the house this morning?"

"She's not my girlfriend." Alex rolled his eyes, as Allison joined them at the table with a cup of water in her hands. "Look, I know it's weird. She's hot and she's always around, but I don't even think of her like that. It'd be like one of you and I sleeping together."

"Ew." Cristina and Allison said at the same time, not wanting to think of that. They were immune to Alex Karev's charms.

"Did you hear your husband accidentally copped a feel?" Alex ignored the both of them as he looked at Cristina.

"He's not my husband." Cristina shook her head, "That's why he's sneaking in the crack of crack."

"You are a messed up broad." Allison shook her head, "But I still love you."

"Dr. Webber rejected my mother's cookies." Jackson sighed, tossing a tin of cookies onto the table in front of the group as he walked in. Bailey ran late to her wedding because she was saving Adele Webber's life—unfortunately she died that night, the surgery was too much for her.

"That sound dirty." Alex commented as he nodded.

"She's worried about him." Jackson ignored the comment with a small shake of his head, "She wants me to assess his mood. She thinks he's depressed."

"Well, his wife died a month ago." Allison spoke up, only for Jackson to ignore her, as she sighed.

"Isn't he supposed to be depressed?" Cristina asked, his wife died—it would be a surprise if he wasn't grieving.

"Of course, but, like normal depressed or too depressed?"

"I mean, he's fine. He's back at work." Cristina shrugged.

"But not operating." Allison pointed out, before taking a sip of her water.

"Maybe you should hold him." Alex suggested.

"And I'm done." Jackson sighed, as he got up from his chair, "Enjoy the cookies."

***

"Hey, where'd you get the cookies?" Meredith asked Cristina, once she and Allison joined her at the Nurse's station on the OR floor.

"Webber didn't want the pity cookies from his girlfriend about his dead wife." Cristina shrugged as she and Meredith took a cookie from the tin before setting it on the counter in front of April, "He's not operating, so Jackson's 'mommy' was worried. Whatever. These cookies are awesome."

Allison awkwardly shifted at the mention of Jackson causing Meredith to glance at her, "Are you still pining over Jackson?"

"W-What?" Allison asked before shaking her head, "No."

"Allie, Jackson is like a cookie." Cristina held a cooking up in front of her, "People want to lose weight, they don't eat the cookie. But then they get so hung up on not having the cookie that their whole life is about the cookie."

"My whole life is not about the cookie." Allison denied, "He just hasn't spoken to me for a month, so right now yeah, it's about the cookie." Allison walked up to Cristina as she took a hold of the cookie and walked away.

***

Couple hours later, Allison found herself sitting between Derek and Arizona in the courtroom, having to be called there. The judge and the lawyers had made themselves ready to leave, while the group just sat there.

"Did I miss it?" Allison's gaze went to Callie who rushed inside the courtroom, arriving late because she got stuck in surgery, "Damn it. I'm sorry. I got out of the O.R. as fast as I could, but I didn't think it was gonna happen today. Oh, God." She saw the look on everybody's faces. "Was it bad?" Meredith shook her head, "It wasn't?"

"We won." Arizona informed her wife.

"He said the airline company had a history of mechanical problems with the plane. It was in public record, and the hospital should've known." Derek explained.

"He found the hospital negligent." Meredith continued as Callie smiled.

"So we won." Callie looked over at the judge, "When's he gonna tell us about the award? I mean...I hate to be all about money—-"

"He already did." Cristina responded.

"He's giving us $15 million." Allison replied.

"Whoa."

"Each." Allison finished, as Derek let out an exhale.

***

"So what happens now?" Meredith asked, looking at the lawyers in front of her and her friends. "Does the hospital hands us a check for $15 million?"

"Oh, well, their insurance company does, and it'll probably take some time to get through all the bureaucratic rigmarole, but, yeah." The lawyer explained, "Pending appeal, the insurance company will issue each of you a big check."

Derek nodded as the lawyer walked away, "In the meantime," He began to get up, "I have a ping-poll ball to hit."

"Yeah." Arizona got up as well, "I gotta get back, too. I have James Leggett's surgery."

"Oh, how is James?"

Arizona sighed, "Well, that's right. You and—and Mark did his original expansion."

Everyone began to leave except for Callie, who tried to stop them, "Wait. Wait. Wait." They all turned to face her, "Why is everyone rushing off? This is a momentous event. Shouldn't we do something, like celebrate or..." They all gave her a weird look, not feeling like celebrating, "Okay, maybe 'celebrate's' too strong a word." She smiled, "Dinner. We should have dinner. Come on. We've been sitting in rooms with each other for months talking about this, and we just won. What's wrong with sitting one more room with—with food in front of us?"

***

Allison, Derek, Cristina, and Meredith all stood in front of the elevator as Alex leaned against the back of it. "We could buy a house."