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"Dr. Shepherd?" She turned around to see no one other than Lucas Adams running down the hall, causing a chuckle from the other interns around her.
"Yes, Dr. Adams?"
"Can we talk for a minute?" She sighed, biting the inside of her cheek as whispers started behind her.
"You can say whatever it is here, Adams."
"Okay, well, I just wanted to let you know that my mother is here. And Nancy and Kathleen."
"Fuck."
"Hey," Amelia muttered, gently placing her hand on Link's back and guiding him down the hall to the nearest on-call room.
"Hello?" His eyes went wide as she pushed him inside and shut the door behind her. "What's happening?"
"I need a favor. A really big favor and you're probably going to want to say no, but I will literally do anything to make it up to you." He raised his eyebrows. "My sisters are here. All three of them."
"Oh god."
"Yeah," she feigned a grin, "and they know that I'm dating someone. But, they don't know who-"
"No."
"Just let me finish, please?" She shoved her hands into the pockets of her lab coat and leaned her head back against the door. "They don't know about Kai, and I'm not ready for them to know. If I don't have a name of someone I'm supposedly dating, they're going to find out on their own, and I think the only thing worse than me having to tell them about Kai would be them finding out on their own, so," she bit her lip. "I also never told my sisters about Scout, and I'm pretty sure they'll find out about him while they're here, so I want to manage how much of my life becomes family gossip."
"Why don't you ask Adams? Half this hospital thinks you're sleeping with him."
"He's my nephew, so I'll let you imagine how my sisters would react to that." Link's jaw dropped.
"Which one does he belong to?" Amelia chuckled and shook her head.
"Liz, the only one you didn't meet. But Lucas doesn't want people knowing, which I am this close to going against because it's starting to drive me insane knowing that people think we're sleeping together. Anyway, that's beside the point."
"Do you not remember how well it went last time we lied to your family?"
"Okay, but this time, you're not lying about who you are. They already know you, and I just need you to be okay with me lying a bit and to keep it up if they find you and ambush you."
"If they find me, I'm running away from them."
"Please?" Link sighed and brushed a hand through his hair.
"Fine. But you owe me."
"Thank you," she smiled. "I will text you if I see them or if anything happens."
"So what's our story? The same but without all the proposals?"
"Pretty much, I guess. But don't stress too much, just work with it, and if you say anything I should know, text me." Her phone buzzed, and she froze. "Okay, maybe we will see them."
"What?"
"Meredith just texted me that they're heading down this hallway, so what if we happen to stumble out and see them?" Link laughed and took a step towards her. "We'll say we're on our way to surgery, so it'll be quick. Just a casual on-call room situation."
"The other one's name is Liz, right?" She nodded. "Okay. You know that this is a terrible idea, yeah?"
"Well, I think it's more believable now. They know who you are; they've assumed we were together since that dinner, and if they really don't believe us, we have a child to prove it."
"About that, are we mentioning him?" Amelia pursed her lips and dropped her phone into her pocket.
"Not unless they bring him up. But I'll handle the talking if it does. You can just stand there, maybe pull out some baby photos."
"Is it okay if I put my hand on your back while we're out there? It might-"
"Link, you're fine," she muttered, grabbing the door handle. "Ready?"
"Nope, but sure." She pulled the door open, immediately hearing her sisters' voices coming from down the hall.
"Amelia?"
"Oh," she turned on her heels, plastering a smile on her face as her sisters approached. "Hey, what are you all doing here?"
"When your son comes out to Seattle to start an internship and then doesn't answer your calls for a month," Lizzie muttered, holding out her arms before pulling Amelia into a hug.
"We figured it was time for a visit, anyway. We haven't heard from you since that dinner, so," Kathleen bore her typical smile, and Amelia nodded.
"I've been busy," she muttered, looking over at Link as the on-call room door opened. "We were actually just heading into surgery, so, but Link, you remember my sisters, right?"
"Yeah, of course." He stuck out his hand to Lizzie. "We haven't met before."
"So there's a 'we'?" Nancy crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows. "You two are together? Still?"
"Yup," Amelia leaned her head against his shoulder. "Well, I'd love to catch up, but we need to go scrub."
"We'll find you later."
"I'm sure you will," she muttered, grabbing Link's hand and pulling him away, waiting until they were a safe distance away to drop his hand. "So, do you need a surgical assist today?"
"Go put your name on the board for my surgeries. You can stay in the O.R. and hide."
"You're a lifesaver!"
"I'm gonna grab lunch," Link spoke as he ran the soap bar over his arms. "Do you wanna come with?"
"I am going to sit in this scrub room until your next surgery."
"That's in two hours."
"I know." She slid down against the wall. "It's not safe out there."
"Want me to bring you back something?"
"A salad would be great." She smiled and pulled out her phone, letting out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Of course. Text me if you need anything else." He dried his hands and tossed the towel into the bin before waving goodbye and leaving the scrub room.
"Link, right?" He turned as Kathleen slid up behind him, silently cursing himself for not moving quicker.
"Yup, that'd be me."
"I almost called you Owen there," she waved her hand down, "habit, I guess." Link smiled tightly, forcing out a laugh to match Kathleen's. "So, I have a question."
"And what would that be?" He handed his tablet to the nurse across the station and folded his hands together.
"Who's Scout? Because I was on your mother's Facebook page-"
"How did you find my mother's Facebook page?"
"And she made a 'Happy Birthday Scout!' post a few months back and tagged you and Amelia. And then there's a picture of you and Amelia with a child, who I'm assuming is Scout. So, any explanation?" He sighed.
"You already know, don't you?"
"I just want to hear you say it."
"Say what, that we have a son and made a decision to keep things private?" He hoped his voice didn't shake as he spoke and that he came across a lot more confident than he sounded in his head.
"Right." Kathleen nodded with her lips pursed. "Well, thanks." She walked past him, and Link pulled out his phone.
They know about Scout. Kathleen found my mom's Facebook post. I'll call my mom and teach her about privacy settings later, but they know.
Fuck.
"They're in the lobby," she whispered, slipping her arm through his. "We walk out and say we're about to head home. You can say you need to get Scout, and I'll just offer to meet you somewhere not inside this hospital."
"And when they ask to see Scout?" Amelia glared at him. "It's inevitable."
"We're in a rush to get home to stick him to his sleep schedule. Got it?"
"Yup." He pushed open the door, holding it open with his back for her to walk through and towards her sisters.
"Hey," Amelia called out, waving as the three women turned their heads. "Sorry we didn't get to see you much; we were both pulled into surgeries all day."
"Right," Nancy crossed her arms and glanced between the two.
"I think you'll be seeing a lot more of me because I'm not sure my son can function as a human being, so I'll let you know when I'm in town." Amelia could feel Link tense beside her, and she laughed nervously.
"Right, well, we've gotta get going."
"Scout's finally got a sleep schedule, so we're sticking to that," Link added, glancing at Amelia beside him. "I'll grab Scout?"
"Let me go change; I'll meet you by the car?"
"Got it." Amelia stepped away, holding Link's hand until her arm was fully stretched and then slipping her fingers away from his. He turned to the Shepherd sisters in front of him.
"Well, it was nice to meet you," he shook Liz's hand, "and to see you both again."
"I've been looking for you for half an hour." She glanced up at the sound of a familiar voice.
"What are you doing here?" Amelia grinned and walked over to Kai, slipping her arms around their waist. "I told you to go to Meredith's house."
"You did?"
"Did you not get my text?" They pulled out their phone and opened the text thread, showing her the screen. "Huh." Amelia grabbed hers from her bag on the table and laughed as she noticed. "I never sent it. Well, my sisters were here today."
"Oh?" Their eyes went wide.
"Yeah, I'll tell you that story at home when I don't have to worry about this entire hospital finding out." She slung her bag over her shoulder, leaning against Kai as they wrapped an arm around her waist and left the lounge.
"Am I gonna want popcorn for this?"
"It's going to be a really long story; you need to be caught up on the dinner party that happened years ago. So, yes, on the popcorn." She hit the elevator button and turned to face Kai as they waited. "I think I'm gonna call out tomorrow." They moved their hand to her back as the elevator doors opened.
"Is it just a mental health day?"
"And maybe a sex day." Kai snorted, and Amelia leaned her head against their shoulder. "Although, maybe those are the same thing."
"Don't think I can disagree with that."
Their fingers laced together, and Amelia tugged them out of the elevator, beaming as they rolled their eyes at her.
"Do you think she's dating both of them?" Kathleen whispered, scrunching her nose as she watched her sister tug a stranger down the hallway, clearly oblivious to the fact that the sisters hadn't left. "Good for her."
"I think I'd rather they were just lying to us again," Nancy muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "Let's just choose to believe that."