The Daycare Plague (Grey's Anatomy, F, starring Lexie)-- Part 4 added

[wannablessedbe]

Hi kiddies!

I know it's been quite a while since I've written any new stories here...that's cuz all my energies have been focused on an epic Supergirl fic I'm working on over at fanfiction.net, with Kara and Alex as girlfriends instead of sisters. It's gotten very long (15 chaps so far!) and has been tons of fun (and yes, I stuck in a couple of sneezy chapters where one of them is sick and the other one is overly protective, heh). AND since the actress who plays Alex (Chyler Leigh) is the same actress who played Lexie on Grey's Anatomy, it's been making me feel nostalgic about how very very much I loved Lexie; I even kind of combined the two characters in my Supergirl fic, which is lots of fun. But it also made me realize I have never written a Grey's Anatomy fic, which seemed odd since it's one of my favorite shows; but I guess there was just never a fantasy-ship that caught my attention, and that's usually the basis for all my fanfics. But even though I never thought anyone on the show was good enough to date Lexie, I still loved her best of all, and since I've been thinking a lot about her character lately this cutesy little sick!fic just popped into my head. It's just a small bit of whimsy. I hope you'll enjoy!

—WBB 

…..................................................................................................................................................................
The Daycare Plague
A Grey's Anatomy fic for SFF starring Lexie! 
…..................................................................................................................................................................

    “I am finding it really hard not to mess with her right now,” Cristina said to Alex in her usual deadpan, observational tone, nodding across the kitchen table to Lexie, who was asleep in her seat with her head in her hand, her elbow resting on the table next to a now-cold cup of coffee.

    “I know, right?” Alex chuckled, taking another big bite of cereal. He had been crashing here for a few days while his apartment building was being fumigated, and Cristina had spent the whole night with Meredith in Zola's room, going over the multi-organ transplant that was supposed to be Meredith's today but was now hers; because Zola had caught the bug going around the daycare, and Meredith was determined not to be the kind of mom who leaves her kid with a babysitter when they're sick. Unlike her own mother. 

    “Leave her alone, she was up all night studying for Dr. Sloan's hemiglossectomy with lymph node dissection,” April scolded them both. Cristina threw a Cheerio at her. 

    “Yeah, that's not gonna be a train wreck,” the cereal-flinging Dr. Yang snorted at April sarcastically, flicking a Cheerio across the table at Lexie this time; it hit her arm, but it didn't wake her up. “I know Lexipedia was like a baby genius and she skipped third grade and went to Harvard Med and everything, but she is an idiot if she thinks she's gonna stand six inches away from her ex in an OR for fifteen hours without one of them going off the rails. They are soooo not ready for this.” She threw another Cheerio at Lexie; this one hit her right in the chest, but she still didn't so much as twitch. She was out cold.

    “Stop throwing food or get out of our kitchen,” April snapped.

    “Ooh. Kepner. Five am is way too early for the squeaky voice,” Cristina winced, making a show of sticking her finger in her ear.

    “Jackson!” April complained, looking to her best friend for intervention.

    “Congratulations, you are all kindergarteners,” Jackson rolled his eyes, smirking a little. It was good for them to wind each other up like this, really, because it helped wake them up and make them alert for the surgeries the day would bring. Cristina threw another Cheerio at Lexie, this time hitting her squarely between the eyes. The sleeping girl jolted awake with a breathless gasp of shock. Cristina laughed. April smacked her shoulder.

    “What? That was funny,” Cristina shrugged unapologetically.

    “I wasn't sleeping,” Lexie grumbled to no one in particular, rubbing her eyes. She picked up her cold coffee and took a big gulp. That was when Derek walked into the kitchen with Zola on his shoulder. The one-year-old looked very sleepy. It was her third day staying home from daycare, but the fever had finally broken the night before, so she seemed to be feeling a little bit better. She wasn't crying, anyway. 

    “Hey, why do you have Zola? You're not staying home with her, right? Meredith is staying home with her,” Cristina demanded anxiously. “Because I just spent nine hours preparing for her transplant surgery today. It's still my surgery, right?”

    “Yes, Cristina, it's still your surgery. Meredith's just taking a quick shower. She hasn't been able to put Zozo down for two days straight,” Derek smiled gently, putting his hand protectively on his baby's back. 

    “Yes McDreamy, I know. I just spent the last nine hours in Zola's room while she was crying and snotting all over Mer. And my PET scans. Seriously, there are like gross daycare cooties all over my patient's chart now.” Cristina rolled her eyes; but she couldn't pretend not to care about her baby Goddaughter's health and happiness. “Somebody's feeling a little better today, huh?” Zola blinked sleepily at Cristina, raising her head slightly from her father's shoulder; then, in a single moment, Zola and Lexie both closed their eyes and sneezed at the exact same time. Everyone except Derek laughed.

    “All of you suck,” Lexie grumbled, taking a napkin from the middle of the table to wipe her nose.

    “Okay, that was funny,” Alex snorted, shaking his head as he wolfed down the last of his cereal and stood up to put his bowl in the sink. “C'mon idiots, carpool time.” Everyone rose as one to follow Alex to the door, but he took a step away when Lexie stood up from the table.

    “Uh-uh, not you Typhoid Mary,” Karev shook his head. “You and your snot are not getting in my car. I'm operating on a kid with short gut syndrome today, I don't need the freakin' daycare plague making me see double.”

    “I do not have the daycare plague,” Lexie whined, stamping her foot. “It's just a cold. I'mb fine.” She sniffled sharply and wiped her nose on the crumpled napkin again, trying to push back the wet tickle inside her head. Alex rolled his eyes.

    “Fine, whatever. But you're wearing a surgical mask.”

    “I am not wearing a surgical mask in the car!” Lexie exclaimed indignantly. Alex opened his mouth to argue back, but Derek cut him off.

    “You can ride with me, Little Grey. I've already been exposed, if I was gonna get it I'd have gotten it by now,” Derek smirked, giving his little-sister-in-law's shoulder a gentle squeeze after he finished bucking Zola into her highchair. 

    “I don't have the stupid daycare plague,” Lexie complained; but in a much quieter voice this time. 

    “Okay,” Derek said amicably as he mixed up a small bowl of baby oatmeal for Zola. 

    “Whatever. Sneeze on me and you're dead,” Alex shook his head, grabbing his car keys and following after the others out the front door. 

    “It's so nice having a full house,” Lexie sighed, rolling her eyes as the door closed behind Karev. “Thanks for giving me a ride, Derek. We're leaving soon, right? Because I have to...I h-have to prep Mark's hemiglossectomy patient...before rounds...” Her voice trailed off as she lost her train of thought, and her dark eyes narrowed involuntarily. She cupped her hands back over her face, still holding the crumpled up napkin.

    “Hhkshxchtew!! *S-snfl*...ughh, I'mb sorry,” Lexie mumbled behind her hands as she straightened up, wiping her wet nose roughly and reaching for another napkin from the middle of the table. She looked exhausted.

    “Here.” Derek picked up the box of tissues that was sitting on the kitchen island and handed it to her before she could take another rough paper napkin. 

    “Thadks,” Lexie mumbled grudgingly, taking two tissues from the box and folding them together before she scrunched up her eyes tight, and blew her nose into the bundle. It was wet and itchy, and even after she blew as much as she could, she still had to sniffle again as soon as she took the tissues away. Her nose was already a little pink. Derek watched her as he spoon-fed his one-year-old oatmeal. 

    “You sure you really want to go in today?” He asked gently, raising one eyebrow. Lexie groaned and glared at him. 

    “Have you ever missed a surgery because you had a cold?” The young resident demanded, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

    “The daycare plague is not a cold,” Derek shook his head.

    “I don't have the stupid daycare plague!” Lexie moaned, sounding resentful and adolescent. “I just...” Her breath huffed involuntarily again, and she groped absently for a fresh tissue, staring off into space as she rubbed it under her nose. “Hhh...uhh'chhxiiiew!! *Snf.*” A chilly shiver ran down Lexie's spine when she sneezed that time; then she felt a hand on her back that she knew was not her brother-in-law's. 

    “Hey! Bless you,” Meredith said sympathetically, as her little sister straightened up blinking and blowing her nose. “We're sorry we got Auntie Lexie sick, aren't we Zo?” The older Dr. Grey leaned down and kissed her baby as she spoke, taking the oatmeal and the little spoon from her husband's hands. 

    “It's ndot Zola's fault,” Lexie sighed, ducking her face into the crook of her elbow to cover a cough. 

    “Yeah, well. Go get back in your pajamas, and after I finish feeding Zola we can watch some of my mom's old surgery tapes in front of the humidifier, okay?” Meredith gave her sister a little half-smile, tucking a lock of long, dark hair back behind her ear and lightly touching her forehead to feel for a fever. 

    “I amb not missing my surgery for a cold!” Lexie huffed indignantly again, smacking Meredith's hand away from her face. “Derek, I will see you in the car.” She turned and stomped out of the kitchen much more loudly than necessary. 

    “Oh, yeah. She's a Grey all right,” Derek chuckled to his wife as they heard the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut again behind a cranky, sniffly Lexie. 

    “Will you please bring her some meds? And make sure she takes them?” Meredith sighed, knowing there was no stopping her sister from going to work if she didn't want to be stopped. She'd been exactly the same way as a resident, too. There was no arguing with a Grey.

    “Yes dear,” Derek grinned, leaning in and giving his wife a kiss.

…..................................................................................................................................................................

    Lexie's day didn't get any better after she left the house. And even though she took the extra-large dose of cold meds Derek gave her in the car, she just felt worse and worse as the morning wore on. Her throat was raw, her nose was running, her chest ached. And when she sneezed, she felt the tickle all the way back into her eardrums. It was very disorienting.

    I do have the plague, the younger Dr. Grey thought miserably to herself as she hurriedly scrambled over to the nurse's station when they came close to one, and threw away all the used tissues in her lab coat pockets, grabbing as many fresh ones as she could from the box on the desk before scrambling back to join her group for rounds. She thought fleetingly of being home on the couch, in her PJ's, with her sister and the humidifier...and being able to fall asleep in the middle of a surgery. Because it was on tape.

    She couldn't fall asleep in this surgery. This was the first time Mark had asked her to work on a case with him since they broke up. They had worked so well together in the OR for so long, Lexie couldn't bear to lose that, too. Today had to go well. Stop sneezing. Just stop, she commanded herself silently, like she could somehow harness the force of her insanely high IQ to stop her brain from firing a particular neuron. The one that said, sneeze.

    “Hhh'chxshh! *Snf.*” She fell a pace behind in rounds again, stumbling to a halt for a moment as she pitched forward into a fresh tissue from her pocket, and wobbling slightly before she righted herself. She wiped her nose once, then shoved the tissue back in her pocket, hurrying to catch up with the group. Again. Somehow, she made it through rounds; but by the time she scrubbed in for Mark's surgery, she felt even worse. She wanted to lie down on the floor and cry. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up on the couch next to her big sister. 

    But she was a surgical resident, and she was scrubbing into an highly advanced and experimental procedure that could make a woman speak again after losing 60% of her tongue to cancer. You are not allowed to sneeze. You are not allowed to cough. You are only allowed to do surgery, she told herself sternly over and over as she was scrubbing in. The water in the scrub room felt freezing cold on her skin, and the chill made her tender pink nose start running again behind her surgical mask; but she scrunched her eyes tightly shut and sniffled hard, biting the inside of her cheek. The itchy tickle in her head slowly faded into the background. It wasn't gone, it was just less intense now, a slight annoyance in the back of her head. See, you can do it. No more sneezing. She dried off her freshly scrubbed hands and entered the OR, allowing a nurse to glove her before stepping up to the table beside her ex-boyfriend with what she hoped was a casually cheerful smile.

    “Good morning, Dr. Grey,” Mark greeted her in an appropriately professional way; but Lexie was sure she could still hear the warmth and affection in his voice that was reserved only for her. It made her feel a weird rush of contradictory emotions; happy that he still loved her, but sad and angry because he couldn't love her, and she couldn't love him, because they wanted different things in life and that was not changing anytime soon. She was not ready to be a co-parent to Mark's baby. She was a goddam surgical resident.

    “Good morning Dr. Sloan,” she said politely back, smiling despite herself behind her scrub mask. Her nose was running again, and she gave a tiny sniffle. She wished she could just wipe it. But even without the scrub mask in the way, she was not allowed to touch her face in the OR.

    “All right, look alive people. We're going to make a woman speak today,” Mark addressed the entire ER staff, his blue eyes bright with confidence as they always were in the OR. “Watch and learn, folks.”

    Two hours into the surgery, Lexie was starting to worry that maybe she should have stayed home. So far she was only responsible for suction, and she was doing fine with that; but her head felt fuzzy, it was hard to stay completely focused on what she was doing, and her part of the dissection—the part she'd been up all night studying—was coming up soon.

    “Dr. Grey, would you like to dissect out the lymph node?” Mark was asking her, being as mature and professional in the OR as any ex-girlfriend could hope for her recent ex-boyfriend to be. She blinked hard, trying to shake herself into alertness. She was so tired, and she couldn't stop sniffling, and breathing hurt; and now she was starting to feel hot and woozy. 

    “Yes, thank you Dr. Sloan,” she smiled weakly behind her surgical mask; but she could tell by the way Mark was looking at her that she wasn't fooling him. He didn't say anything; he just gave her the look. He had no right and no business giving her the look anymore, he wasn't her boyfriend. But he did it anyway. Lexie deliberately avoided eye contact. “Ten blade,” she asked the scrub nurse beside her, holding out her hand. She had the scalpel just an inch from the patient's open mouth, when she paused.

    “Lex? You okay?” Mark asked, his feelings momentarily clouding his professionalism as he watched her stare off blankly into space with the scalpel in her hand.

    “Juhhst a...s-sec...” Lexie hitched softly, taking a step back from the patient. Her eyes flickered and narrowed helplessly. “Hhit'chxuh!! *Snfl,*” She rocked forward a little as she sneezed helplessly behind her surgical mask. She really tried to hold it in, but it was harder to stifle now since she couldn't touch her face. Her nose was running; but at least no one could see it. She sniffled a few times.

    “Bless you.” Mark was still looking at her over his mask like no one else was in the room but the two of them. Lexie felt awkward and embarrassed. She sniffled again.

    “I'mb sorry,” the dark-hair girl sighed, wishing more than anything that she could just take off her mask and blow her runny nose. 

    “You shouldn't be sorry, Lexie. I'm sorry. You look terrible,” Mark shook his head. “I should've said something before we scrubbed in. Go on home and get some rest, I'll have Avery come take over for you in here.”

    “Ndoe, I'mb...*snfl!*...I'm fine Mark, really, I can do it. It's just a little cold, no biggie...” As she spoke, Lexie felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment; because the scratchy tickle in her head was rising up again, all the way back to her eardrums. Scrunching up her eyes and biting the inside of her cheek wasn't helping anymore. All she could do was make sure to hold her instruments away from the patient. “Ehhii'shew!! Ah-aahtxchOOoo!!! *S-snf*...*snfl*...” Her eyes were starting to tear up from the sneezing, and she blinked rapidly as she opened them. She felt someone—a nurse, probably—taking the scalpel gently out of her hand. A deep, jagged cough rolled over her like a wave, and she buried her face in the crook of her elbow, even though she was wearing a surgical mask; it was just instinctual. She straightened up again with a soft, despondent sigh. 

    “Lex, go home. You're sick. You shouldn't be in the OR, you shouldn't even be in the hospital. You sound just like Sophia did last week. You got the daycare plague, huh? You must've picked it up from Zola.”

    “I do not. Have. The damn daycare plague,” Lexie growled mutinously. “And I would appreciate it if you would treat me the same as any other resident, Dr. Sloan.” She said his title with emphasis—he couldn't be her overattentive ex-boyfriend in this room, fussing over her sniffles. He was her attending. She was his resident. This was her surgery. 

    “All right, Dr. Grey,” Mark responded with fake politeness, his blue eyes glinting at her with a combination of concern and amusement. “As my resident, I can't have you in my OR with a fever. This is an experimental procedure and you're a liability. If you make one mistake, it's an instant lawsuit. Your judgement is impaired, you might as well be drunk. So go home and sleep it off. That's an order. From your attending.”

    “I do not have a fever,” Lexie snapped stubbornly at her ex-boyfriend, returning his glare with one of her own. “I just have a freaking cold, Mark! Residents don't just walk out of surgeries because they have a cold.”

    “That would be a lot more convincing if you weren't soaking through your scrub cap,” Mark said lightly, nodding towards the light blue scrub cap covering her hair, that was currently sticking to her forehead with sweat. Lexie just glared at him more.

    “Nurse, will you please take Dr. Grey's temperature?” Mark asked evenly, without breaking eye contact with Lexie. She stared back at him resentfully, but when the nurse obediently stuck the electronic thermometer in her ear, she didn't resist.

    “101.9, Doctor,” the nurse said to Mark—not to Lexie—when it beeped.

    “101.9,” Mark repeated, still looking only at Lexie. “Go scrub out. I'm calling you an Uber.”

    “Mark, this is”—

    “Out! Out!” 

    “Ugh! Fide,” Lexie growled in frustration, stomping her foot like a cranky toddler before walking away from the table. As she stripped off her gloves, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, a few feet from the exit. 

    “Lexie, I swear to God, I will have an orderly come and carry you out of this hospital if I have to...” Mark threatened; but the dark-haired girl just shook her head helplessly, holding up a finger in the universal gesture for just a second as her breath hitched deeply in her chest again.

    “'Chxshhh!! *Snghf.*” She pinched her nose through her scrub mask as she straightened up, her other hand throwing her discarded gloves into the OR trash. 

    “Bless you,” Mark said gently. Then, much more sternly: “Now go home.”

…..................................................................................................................................................................

    When Lexie let herself into the house, she found Meredith on the couch next to a sleeping Zola, who was propped up in the corner of the couch so she was more sitting up than lying down as she slept. Probably so she could breathe easier, Lexie assumed. The humidifier was there too, as promised. And the Ellis Grey surgical chronicles on VHS. 

    “I don't think I've ever been this happy to be home in my entire life,” the dark-haired girl sighed gratefully, kicking off her shoes and dropping bonelessly on the couch on Meredith's other side, pulling a pillow under her head so she wouldn't be lying down flat, either. She could barely breathe when she was standing up. 

    “Hey,” Meredith greeted her, managing to convey love and comfort in only one syllable as she put one hand gently on her sister's head beside her on the couch, stroking her hair and feeling her forehead. “How'd you get home?”

    “Stupid Mark put me in a stupid Uber,” Lexie grumbled, reaching for a tissue from the box conveniently in front of her on the coffee table, and wiping her nose with a dejected sniffle. “He kicked me out of the OR. I've never been kicked out of an OR, Mer.” 

    “Lexie, you didn't do anything wrong. Stop torturing yourself,” Meredith shook her head with a gentle smile that her sister didn't see. “You're just too sick for the hospital. It happens.” Lexie gave a drunken little giggle.

    “To most people, that sentence would just not make sense at all,” she shook her head against the couch cushion, sounding wildly amused by her own observation. “Too sick for the hospital...heh.” She sounded stoned, Meredith thought with affectionate amusement. Derek and Cristina had both told her in the past that she seemed stoned when she had a fever; and now, looking at her little sister, Meredith finally knew what they meant. Lexie was looped.

    “You are burning up, Little Grey,” the young mother sighed, stroking her sister's forehead consolingly. “You didn't take the meds Derek gave you, did you?”

    “No, I did,” Lexie protested sleepily, with a sharp cough into the tissue she still held. “Owwww. Why does it hurt more every time I cough?” she whined softly.

    “Because you have the daycare plague,” Meredith said gently, threading her fingers through her sister's dark hair. She remembered Lexie saying once, offhandedly, that that was what made her feel better when she was in pain. 

    “I have the daycare plague,” Lexie sighed, finally giving in to reality. “Fuck.” She felt the itchy tickle welling up from the back of her head again; but this time she didn't have the energy to fight her body to suppress the unnaturally deep breath her lungs sucked in. She didn't have to hold it together anymore. “Hhh...hhuh...aah'iishhOOoo!!!” Her whole body shuddered weakly on the couch with the force of her sick sneeze, and the tickle that reached from her nose all the way back into her ears was beginning to make her feel a little dizzy.

    “Bless you,” Meredith said affectionately, leaning down and kissing the top of Lexie's head. Sandwiched on the couch between her sick baby and her even sicker little sister, all of Meredith's maternal instincts were in hyperdrive. “Stay right there, okay little bug? Don't move. Just be limp. I'm gonna go get you some PJ's and an ice pack. And tea. Do you want tea? Do you like tea?” 

    “Ndoe,” Lexie sniffed, wiping her nose in a fresh tissue. “But if I was sick, my mom would always make it for me anyway...she'd put a fresh cup of tea in front of me every half hour, even if I hadn't touched the one before, just so there would be a hot cup ready for the moment where I gave in and drank some. *Snf.*” Lexie and Meredith had talked to each other about their dead mothers before...in a way, it felt like just as big a part of what connected them as the fact that they had the same dad. 

    “I bet your mom was great at sick days,” Meredith said gently, running her fingers consolingly through Lexie's hair again.

    “Yeah...” Lexie agreed sleepily, and pressed her crumpled tissue hard against her pink nose as her lungs sucked in another painfully deep breath. “Hh-hhtchhew!! ...*snf*...ughhh. I bet yours was awful,” she sighed as she wiped her nose, her stuffy voice conveying as much sympathy as Meredith's had.

    “Yeah,” Meredith agreed. Her hand was still in Lexie's hair. “Okay, you don't like tea, you don't have to have tea. You like mango juice. Do you want mango juice? I'm pretty sure we still have some in the fridge.”

    “Yes, please,” Lexie smiled sleepily, reaching out blindly and wrapping one arm snugly over Meredith's leg, keeping her from moving off the couch. “...In a minute.”
 

Edited October 2, 2016 by wannablessedbe

[Irelephant]

I loved this! Please please please make a part 2, you're a very very good writer! I don't know how you write so much for one part XD 

[Evergreen]

I loved this. And I loved the Sloan/Little Grey relationship so pleaseeee have him come take care of her. I'm hoping there's a part two.

[Winged]

I saw "Grey's Anatomy" in the title and immediately made a bee-line for this thread, haha. And the fact that it's LEXIE, who is my darling little favorite and I am forever bitter about what happened to her. I've been rewatching some lately and I had forgotten how much I loved her You did a lovely job with this, I love the dialogue between everyone at the beginning (Alex would totally make her wear a surgical mask) and I love how kind Meredith and Derek are being to her. Keep up the great work! 

[darkness-is-the-light]

Everything about this is accurate enough to be an actual episode. I really wish they would've done more with some of the topics on the show, there's so many possibilities. I saw the actress that played Lexie in something embarrassing before I watched the show so it was a bit difficult at first but then I ended up really enjoying her. The relationship with Mark was adorable for some time, and then I was angry with how the writers handled them. I agree, it was horrible to see what happened to her. I'm glad to finally see a full length story about her and the McDreamy household that's this accurate. 

[stars123]

wow this is just what I needed. There are not enough Grey's fics out there!!! Please please continue! Maybe Mark will show up and take care of her? Thanks for writing this

[musiclover90]

I don't watch Grey's, but I love your stories and I love this, as well. Can't wait for more.

[Xsneezelover3932]

Excellent! Love Lexie Grey, she was always one of my favorites! Loved this story and would love to see more of this and more Greys fics in general. I have watched and been a huge fan since day 1 of the show.

[lifelove1]

Oh wow, this is most excellent! I stopped watching the show before the Lexie/Dr. Sloan relationship but now I'm regretting it  SO good!

[wannablessedbe]

Hello lovelies,

Wow and thank you all for your great feedback! I was (happily) surprised to see how many people out there love Lexie Grey as much as I do. I reaaally love her. She's the only one on Grey's Anatomy that I ever really crushed on hard. She was my McDreamy. And for what it's worth, I was also totally destroyed by what happened to her; but then later I read all about how it had been her choice to leave the show because she wanted to spend more time with her family (can you believe that baby-faced adorable girl has THREE KIDS?), and that she and Shonda Rhymes decided together how they wanted Lexie's storyline to end. It's still kind of sadistic but they said they wanted Lexie's departure to have a strong impact on the audience, as a way of paying homage to how important her character was. So, in that way, I guess they really did a good job. I'm glad to know that it was her choice. Still completely broke my heart tho.

And for those of you begging for more Sloan/Little Grey time...I did what I could. I loved their relationship too, but the story takes place in the part of the timeline when they're broken up, because that's when Zola and Sofia come into the picture, and that's kind of the basis for the story. But I totally believe they would've ended up together if they hadn't both died in a plane crash. Sigh. But nobody is going to die in my fluffy little world here! Meredith is the main co-star in this part, but Mark will absolutely make an appearance. Enjoy and happy weekend

…..................................................................................................................................................................

The Daycare Plague

Part 2

…..................................................................................................................................................................

 

“Dr. Shepard, you have a text from your wife.” The scrub nurse whose sole job was to stand by the tray holding all the surgeon's phones and pagers held Derek's phone up from the pile.

“Read it please,” Derek said without looking away from the aneurism he was clipping.

“Hey, Lexie is home with a temp of 102 and she's seriously coughing up a lung. Will you please send an intern to bring us some cough syrup with Codeine from the hospital pharmacy? Fast please? I can't stand seeing her so miserable, it's breaking my heart.” In any other situation, being forced to read someone else's messages aloud in a room full of people, or having your messages read aloud, would be tense and awkward; but in the OR it was completely normal. It was just the way things were. Still, hearing the intimate details of the doctors' personal lives and families in this way was undeniably a big contributor to the hospital gossip mill; people were always getting up into each other's business. It was like one big, messy, extended family, and any nurse or ultrasound tech could tell you that Dr. Meredith Grey had not been happy to meet her half-sister when Lexie first entered the Seattle Grace residency program three years ago. She had gone to great lengths to avoid any interaction, or even eye contact, with the daughter her father hadn't abandoned. The sister who was a complete stranger to her, even though Meredith saw a little bit of herself in Lexie's eyes, anytime she accidentally did glance in the younger girl's direction.

But, after a few months of Lexie's persistent, stubborn determination to be her sister, and to love her even when she was nothing but cold and dismissive and even told the younger Grey, “you are not my sister,” Meredith started to lose her grip on her rage and resentment. Because it wasn't really Lexie she was mad at; it was their dad. And the younger Grey's sweetness, her overwhelming compassion, her geeky-adorable personality and her stubborn determination to be part of her big sister's life began to wear Meredith down. And now...well, now they lived under the same roof, and Lexie was the one who would raise Zola if anything were ever to happen to her and Derek. And clearly, Meredith had fully and irrevocably become the big sister, who would do just about anything to protect her little sister from pain.

“You,” Derek nodded to an intern whose name he didn't know, who was just observing. “You have a car?”

“I...yes, I have a car,” the young man sighed regretfully, knowing he wasn't going to get to see the rest of the surgery now.

“Good. Go to the hospital pharmacy and get the cough syrup. The 10/300, not the wimpy low dose stuff. Bring it to my house. If you get there in under thirty minutes, I'll let you hold the suction in my spinal tumor resection this afternoon.” The intern's eyes brightened like it was Christmas in July, and he bolted from the room without another word. Derek smiled behind his scrub mask. “Can you type a reply to my wife please?” He prompted the tech nurse. “Tell her...”

…......................................................................

Meredith's phone buzzed with a reply while she was trying to get Zola to drink more of her bottle. The baby was definitely feeling better; she was cranky, sure, but she wasn't crying, and she wasn't coughing like she had been the last two days. Meredith knew Zola was hungry, but her breathing was still stuffed, so drinking from the bottle was difficult. She couldn't suck continuously through her mouth while breathing through her nose as she usually did, and she kept pushing the bottle away when Meredith tried to give it to her. She was considering spoon-feeding the formula to her cranky infant as if it were soup. It would be messy, but it was better than putting in an IV to keep her hydrated. Beside her on the couch, Lexie was curled up in a sniffling, shivery ball of misery. She didn't complain, but she couldn't stop the little whimpery sounds that followed every rattling, congested cough. Her nose was still running, despite the humidifier and all the meds Meredith had been giving her, and she sniffled, sneezed, and blew her nose at least every couple of minutes. Even the Ellis Grey surgery chronicles were not helping anymore to distract Lexie from her snotty, feverish misery.

Zola whined and smacked the bottle out of Meredith's hand; and with a sigh of defeat, Meredith decided to give up and let Zola be for now. In a little while, she'd try the spoon-feeding thing. She picked up her phone with one hand, holding Zola in her lap with the other, and tapped on the new message to open it.

Done. Eager intern headed your way in 30 minutes or less. And now everyone in my OR knows your sister has you wrapped around her little finger. It's cute. I'll call when I'm out of surgery. Kiss Zozo for me. Lexie too. Meredith smiled when she read the message. It was undoubtedly true, Lexie did have Meredith wrapped around her finger, even if she didn't know it. But that was okay; the older Grey had come to realize she actually liked being the big sister. Opening her heart up to Lexie, feeling so protective of her, experiencing that kind of unconditional love—which she'd never truly gotten from her mother—was a big part of what made her realize she wanted to be a mom herself.

“How are you doing, sweet girl?” She asked her shivering sister, stroking Lexie's hair again with one hand. The gentle touch was one thing Meredith knew she liked, that would make her feel better even when she had no actual reason to feel better. To her intense surprise, Lexie started to cry. She must really be feeling horrible.

“Hey...” Meredith tried to put Zola down, so she could kneel down by Lexie's head and really look at her; but the baby made a sharp shriek of protest when her mother tried to put her down, so Meredith just knelt down with Zola still in her lap. While Meredith was stroking Lexie's hair and murmuring gentle words of reassurance, Zola pulled herself up against the couch and put her hand on her auntie's fever-flushed cheek. Lexie gave a broken little laugh that stopped her tears, and she sniffled, putting her hand over Zola's.

“Sorry,” the shivering girl whispered, wiping her teary eyes on the back of her sleeve. “I'mb...*snghf*...I'm being s-such a baby...” She pulled a tissue wearily from the coffee table as her stuffy pink nose gave a twitch that had become very familiar over the course of the day, making her tired eyes flicker. “Hhetchxiiuh!!! *S-snf*...” She buried her face in the tissue as her runny nose ejected another ticklish, snotty sneeze, determined not to let any of her germs escape when Zola's face was a foot away from hers. Even if they were already sharing the same bug, Lexie felt as protective of her baby niece as Meredith felt about her.

“Poor little thing...bless you,” Meredith sighed, rubbing Lexie's back. “You're not being a baby, you haven't complained once and you won't even ask for anything. I wish you would. I would do literally anything you want right now.” Lexie sniffled behind her tissue, then clamped both hands more firmly over her mouth to cover another painfully deep cough.

“Ow...ow...ow...” Lexie whispered to herself after she stopped coughing, eyes closed as she tried to breathe normally again. Another tear slipped down her flushed cheek, and Meredith wiped it tenderly away with her thumb.

“Shh, it's okay Lex. I know it hurts so much, but you're gonna feel better soon, I promise. Derek's sending over some prescription cough syrup right now, okay little bug? And a kiss for you and Zozo, too.” Meredith smiled encouragingly. Zola made a cooing sound, as if in agreement.

“The kind with the Codeine?” Lexie asked quietly through her sniffles.

“The kind with the Codeine,” Meredith confirmed, leaning in and giving her sister a lingering kiss on her hot forehead.

“I...*snfl*...I love you, you know,” Lexie murmured sleepily, seemingly out of nowhere. She was so out of it. But, that just meant her inhibitions were lowered, leaving her with basically no filter between thought and speech. It really was like being drunk, kind of.

“I know,” Meredith nodded, running her hand through Lexie's long hair again. “I love you too. Even when you're snotty and gross.” She said the last part with a gentle note of teasing, and Lexie giggled softly, which just made her cough again. Zola was trying to climb up onto the couch next to Lexie now; Meredith tried to pull her back, but the baby shrieked in protest.

“No, Zozo, Auntie Lexie can't hold you right now,” Meredith cooed softly to her cranky infant, who clearly wanted to spend some time in her beloved auntie's arms. Zola started to wail.

“Ndoe, let her come up. I need Zola snuggles,” Lexie yawned croakily, wiping away the last of her tears. At least they're taking turns having meltdowns, Meredith thought with an affectionate little grin at her two sniffly, cuddly girls. She picked Zola up and put the baby in Lexie's lap, as the dark-haired girl shifted her position on the couch slightly so Zola could lie on top of her stomach, with Lexie's arm over her to ensure that she wouldn't fall off the side of the couch. The one-year-old gurgled and held onto a lock of Lexie's long hair as she laid down limply on top of her auntie. Lexie sniffled and closed her eyes, soaking up the affection from her baby niece and rubbing her little back. They were both soothing each other now, looking relaxed and sleepy. Lexie's cheeks were flushed pink from her soaring fever, matching the underside of her stuffy nose. God, they were cute. Meredith wanted to take a picture. That was when the doorbell rang.

“Wow, that was even quicker than I thought,” Meredith smiled as she stood to answer the door.

“Yay drugs,” Lexie murmured, with another deep, congested cough. It didn't seem to bother Zola, who was still lying comfortably on top of her and holding her hair.

Meredith crossed from the living room into the front entryway; but when she opened the door, it wasn't an intern standing on her doorstep. “Mark! You can't be here,” The older Grey whispered sharply, stepping out onto the patio and closing the door part-way behind her.

“I just wanted to check on her, that's all,” the plastic surgeon begged.

“She's fine,” Meredith murmured harshly, still trying to keep her voice quiet as she glared at her husband's best friend. “Now you can leave.” They both heard Lexie coughing from the living room, rattling and congested and painful-sounding. Mark took an automatic step closer to the door, but Meredith body-blocked him.

“She's not fine,” Mark protested.

“Keep your voice down!” Meredith hissed, pushing him back onto the porch and stepping out to talk to him so Lexie wouldn't overhear, leaving the front door open just a crack.

“She's not fine,” Mark said again more quietly. He was using his soulful blue eyes to try to charm his way past her; but that wasn't going to work on Meredith Grey the way it worked on most other women. He wasn't just some charming and handsome guy to her; he was the guy who broke her little sister's heart, even if he didn't mean to.

“Okay, obviously, she's not fine fine,” Meredith admitted. “But she'll be fine. I'm taking care of her. You have to go now, she can't know you're here. You're just gonna break her heart all over again.”

“She broke up with me,” Mark shook his head defiantly.

“And yet here you are,” the blonde woman sighed, crossing her arms with a shake of her head.

“I love her, Mer. I wasn't trying to hurt her. I'm going crazy knowing she's right in the next room in pain, and I can't help her.” He was really begging now. Meredith knew he really meant it, too. But that didn't change anything.

“Well you can't. Help her. All you can do now is make her feel worse. Walking away from you tore her apart, but she did it because she wasn't ready to be in a relationship with you, your baby, and her two lesbian moms. She's twenty-six years old, Mark! She's just a kid! She's not ready to have a kid. Has something changed that I don't know about? Did you decide to give Callie and Arizona full custody of Sofia?” Meredith stared him down defiantly. Mark visibly deflated.

“I can't just give up my kid,” he said quietly, sounding totally defeated. Because this was rock-bottom; there was nowhere else to go, no getting around it.

“I know,” Meredith nodded, putting a hand consolingly on his arm. “And that's why you have to go now.” Mark sighed deeply, looking down at his feet.

“Promise you'll take care of her,” he said in quiet resignation.

“I promise,” Meredith said evenly, meeting his eyes without looking away. That was when Steve the intern came running up the patio walkway with the hospital pharmacy bag in his hand.

“Here, Dr. Grey, Dr. Shepard sent me to give you this,” he panted, like he'd just finished running a track and field event. “Will you text him that you got it, so he knows how fast I got here?” Meredith took the bag, but just raised an eyebrow at the overeager intern in silence for a moment. “I mean, I just—he said I could scrub in on his spinal tumor resection if I got here in under half an hour,” the young man explained sheepishly.

“Okay,” Meredith said simply. She did appreciate his speed. And she couldn't deny that she'd be just as motivated by that prize if she were in his place as an intern. She smiled a little, thinking back to just how eager she had been to get into Derek's OR when she was an intern.

“Thank you!” The young intern beamed. He looked ready to turn and bolt back to the hospital as fast as he had bolted here; but then he hesitated for a moment. “Um...I hope your sister feels better soon,” he said awkwardly, like he wasn't sure whether it would be more rude to say it—because he didn't even know them, really—or more rude not to say it, when dropping off prescription pain meds for his attending's family.

“Thank you. Now run, go get your surgery.” The intern nodded and ran off without another word, not needing to be told twice. Meredith looked back at Mark, who was still giving her his sad-puppy face. “Look...neither one of you did anything wrong,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Your lives just went in different directions. But it's done now, Mark. It happened. You have to let go.” He looked down at his feet; Meredith wondered if he was maybe trying not to cry.

“Okay.” He nodded quietly. He turned defeatedly to go.

“I will take care of her, Mark. I will. Not just with the daycare plague, I mean...I'll take care of her. Always,” Meredith promised. Mark nodded again.

“Thanks, Mer,” he said quietly.

“Now go home and kiss Sofia,” Meredith instructed him, watching until she was sure he was really gone. Then she turned and went back inside the house. She heard Lexie coughing again.

“Mer...will you please come take Zola? I'm...*snghf*...scared I'm gonna drop her...too dizzy...” Lexie's face was even more flushed than before. Her dark eyes were glassy and out of focus, and her teeth were chattering, even though her face and throat shone with a thin film of sweat. She was definitely having a fever spike.

“Oh, Lexie...I'm here, I got you,” Meredith sighed, rushing back to the couch and scooping her baby daughter up onto her hip, sitting on the edge of the couch beside her shivering sister.

“I don't feel good, Mer,” the dark-haired girl whimpered, rolling onto her side with another deep cough, pressing her face into her sister's leg beside her as her breathing hitched sharply in her chest again. “Ehhxchiuh!!! *Snf*...” She cupped her hands over her face just in time to keep her snot to herself, and Meredith handed her a tissue from the coffee table, stroking the younger girl's dark hair consolingly as she blew her runny nose.

“Bless you, honey. I know you don't feel good, I know...but you're going to feel better soon, little bug. I got the happy juice.” Between Zola in her lap and Lexie curled up shivering against her leg, Meredith didn't have a hand free to reach for the cough syrup; she tried again to put Zola down, and for the first time in three days, the baby allowed her mother to put her down on her feet. She stayed where she was, leaning against the couch by Lexie's head, reaching for her hair again. Meredith grabbed the cough syrup, along with one of the little plastic measuring cups thrown into the bag with the bottle.

“Were you...talking to Mark outside? Lexie asked woozily, taking another tissue from the box to blow her nose again.

“What? Of course not. It was just Derek's intern with the cough syrup, see?” Meredith held up the bottle innocently. Lexie blinked at her, looking bleary and confused.

“I guess I just fell asleep for a minute...*snf*...I was...I was thindking about this morning, whed...*snf*...when I was in Mark's surgery...” She coughed again, curling up into a shivery ball on the couch. The sound of Lexie's coughing was physically painful for her big sister to hear, and Meredith didn't waste any more time cracking open the bottle and pouring out a measured dose.

“Here, sit up a little bit...there you go, good girl,” the older Grey smiled encouragingly as she watched her sister obediently take her medicine. “I'll be right back with a fresh ice pack.” She picked up the baby and put her in her playpen beside the couch; she usually liked it, but she hadn't wanted to be put down anywhere in the last three days since she'd been sick. But apparently she really was turning the corner with her bug today, because she plopped down among her toys and immediately grabbed a teething ring, chewing on it contentedly. Meredith kissed the top of Zola's head and ran to the kitchen, returning quickly with an ice pack wrapped in a dish cloth.

“Ughh, ndoe ice...I'mb cold,” Lexie whined, shrinking back against the couch cushions when her sister sat down beside her.

“You're not cold, you're hot,” Meredith said gently, pressing the cold pack insistently against her sister's burning forehead.

“I dond't f-feel hot,” the dark haired girl grumbled softly, shivering with fever chills. She made a soft, breathless sound, and Meredith quickly handed her a tissue, recognizing her little sister's I'm-gonna-sneeze sound by now. “'Ktshhxiew!! *Snfl*...*s-snf*...” Lexie sneezed weakly and wiped her nose, too sleepy to blow; Meredith got up and fetched a blanket that was folded over the back of an armchair, and settled it over her shivering sister.

“Well, you are hot. You're very very hot, Lex,” Meredith sighed, pressing the cold pack more firmly against her sister's forehead. “But you can still have a blanket. You're gonna have to sweat it out, little bug. I'm sorry you have to feel so awful...” Once she was sure the ice pack wasn't going to fall, Meredith went back to threading her fingers through Lexie's hair, desperate to soothe her misery.

“How...*snf*...how long do I have to have the ice?” The younger Grey whined softly, giving in begrudgingly to her fate.

“Well let's see,” Meredith hummed softly, picking up the digital thermometer from the coffee table and sticking it in Lexie's ear. “Until your temp is below...” she waited for the beep. It flashed 102.8. “Wow. Below 102, at least. It's gonna be a little while.”

“Ohh...well...that's okay,” Lexie sighed, her shivering beginning to relax as all her muscles went limp. “Will you just...*snf*...keep your hand in my hair? I feel better when you're touching my hair. *Snghf.*” She wiped her stuffy pink nose in the crumpled tissue with a soft yawn.

“Mm-hmm,” Meredith agreed easily, sifting her fingers gently through the long, shiny dark strands, sure the Codeine was starting to kick in now. Lexie yawned again. Then she pushed the crumpled tissue in her hands back against her running nose, her breath huffing in a few jagged hitches as her eyes slid wearily shut.

“Hhh'chhx!! *Snf*...” She wiped her nose once, opening her eyes just for a second before they slid helplessly shut again. “Hh...*snfl*...” Lexie wiped her nose again sleepily as it twitched and complained, refusing to let her rest. Meredith rubbed her scalp consolingly. “Hhaat'chxiuhh!!!” Another shivery sneeze rattled her weak, feverish body, leaving her stuffy nose running into the now-soggy tissue. Meredith handed her a fresh one. “Thag you,” Lexie mumbled woozily. Her sister smiled gently and just kept stroking her hair, hoping she was going to fall asleep soon. She really, really needed a nap.

“You're welcome, sweetie pie,” Meredith murmured. She had never called Lexie that before; but it just came out, without any conscious thought. She hadn't been kidding around before when she said she'd do anything to make her sister feel better.

“Mer? I dond't wad to watch surgery adymbore,” Lexie sniffled softly, sounding half-asleep already. That hospital-grade cough syrup really did work fast.

“That's okay baby. What do you wanna watch?”

“Prombise you wod't tease mbe?” Lexie asked meekly.

“Lexie, honey, your temp is almost a hundred and three. I'm not gonna tease you, you can have anything you want. You just have to tell me. What do you wanna watch?”

“Glee,” Lexie murmured shyly.

“Okay,” Meredith nodded with a tiny grin, leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “Glee it is.”

 

Edited September 16, 2016 by wannablessedbe

[stars123]

So good!! Please please continue!

[wannablessedbe]

Hey! Where did all my Lexipedia groupies go?? Still out there...? I need to know ppl are reading before I'll write another part

[darkness-is-the-light]

I adore the way you write Lexie, it's very true to the show. Meredith is also a wonderful big sister, and she just knows how to take care of others.  I could definitely see the exchange between Meredith and Mark in my head. Her thoughts about him are perfect. This is wonderful, and I hope you continue.  

[20andsickfic]

OMG you MUST conitnue..first i want to say that i am SUCH A BIG FAN!!! wannablessed like i have read and re read all your stories and this one about lexie is AMAZING!!! and now your including GLEE!!!! please please please continue 

[JadeStone]

This is so adorable. I adore Chyler Leigh in Supergirl, and though I never saw Grey's, I am a sucker for sister fluff. I also loved your Supergirl 'Power Outage' story! Both of these are the perfect balance between cute and hot.

[Irelephant]

Aww so cute! I can't wait for part 3!!! Maybe some contagion..? I don't know that's your choice. 

[Xsneezelover3932]

Sometimes I forget to check this forum. Just read the 2nd part and loved it!!! You must continue!! 

[wannablessedbe]

Hello darlings!

There was one more part to this story rattling around my brain...so here it is. I think this is the end. Hope everyone has enjoyed the ride!

…..................................................................................................................................................................

The Daycare Plague

Part 3

…..................................................................................................................................................................

 

“What the hell is this?” Alex pulled off the note taped to the front door of the house as he approached the front steps. Cristina took it out of his hand and read it aloud, her voice a mixture of affectionate amusement and incredulity. It read:

Dear people:

Lexie is SICK. You will ALL be gentle and sweet to her. There will be NO teasing of ANY kind, no snot jokes, no complaining about her germs, no making her feel bad or worried about whatever big important stuff she's missing at work. There will ONLY be sweetness. Anyone who does not abide by these rules will be spending the night on the porch swing. You've been warned.

“Geez, Mer's gone full-on mama bear,” Cristina chuckled, shaking her head a little with a smile on her face. It was cute to see Meredith being so overprotective of the sister she'd never even wanted to meet. You'd never know, looking at the two of them now, that they hadn't grown up together.

“Is this for real?” Alex scoffed in distaste. Being sweet was not his strong point.

“Believe it, Karev,” Cristina nodded with a smirk. “You better not be douchey and make Lexie cry, or you're gonna be sleeping on the porch, dude.”

“Whatever. I'm going to Joe's for a beer. I'm not sleeping on Mer's couch anyway, if Lexie's been lying there coughing and snotting all day. I do not need the daycare plague. If my building's not done being fumigated, I'll just go back to crash at the hospital.”

“Yeah, you definitely can't say any of that inside. Go be evil elsewhere for a night, evil spawn.” Cristina smirked, unapologetically enjoying Alex's discomfort. He rolled his eyes, turned around and walked back toward his car. Cristina was unperturbed; she'd spent all of last night with Meredith and Zola, and Zola's germs, while Mer prepped her to take over the organ transplant today. Which had gone flawlessly, thank you very much. If she was going to catch the daycare bug, she would have already, so she decided not to care about Lexie's germs. Even if she'd never admit it out loud, Cristina had a pretty big soft spot for Little Grey, too. She was good for Meredith; she wore down the older Grey's sharp edges, and warmed up the dark and twisty places.

“Hey,” Cristina called out, letting herself in and kicking off her shoes by the door. She was instantly glad Alex hadn't come into the house with her; there was no way he'd be able to resist making some kind of snide remark at this. Meredith was reading Harry Potter aloud, with Zola peacefully asleep on the couch beside her, and Lexie curled up shivering with fever chills on her other side, flush-faced, nose running. The younger Grey's eyes were closed, but Cristina knew she was awake because she kept sniffling. She was holding a tissue limply in one hand, but she seemed to have forgotten about it. Her head was propped up on a pillow against Meredith's leg, so she wasn't lying down flat. Even with the humidifier pointed right at her, Cristina could still hear the raspy, congested sound of Lexie's breathing. Poor thing.

Cristina Yang was not, by nature, an affectionate person; but Lexie was Meredith's little sister, and that made her feel a little like Cristina's sister, too. In her calm and decisive way once she made up her mind about something, Cristina took off her jacket and crossed the room to sit on the edge of the couch where Lexie and Meredith were curled up, gently laying one hand on the younger girl's head to rouse her a little. “How are you doing, Lexipedia?”

“Mby bones feel like jelly,” Lexie murmured hazily, her voice rough and spacey. She blinked a few times and looked up at Cristina through half-lidded eyes, then raised the hand holding her tissue a few inches closer to her face in anticipation. “Hhuxchiuhh!!” Her reflexes were too sluggish now to catch the sneeze completely in the tissue; it was hovering over her face, but not touching. With a wet, sleepy sniffle, Lexie wiped the underside of her pink nose again.

“I bet,” Cristina smiled gently. It was a rare expression for her; rare but not unheard of. She reached out and pressed the back of her hand to Lexie's forehead, then her cheek. She was blazing hot. “You're high as a kite right now, aren't you?”

“Uh-huh...*snghf*...I thidk so...” Lexie yawned, wiping her nose in the snotty tissue again as her breath huffed weakly. “...Aahtxchhew!!! *Snf*...ughh,” the dark-haired girl sighed involuntarily, her overheated body exhausted from shaking with fever chills, from the endless sneezing; and even if her cough was somewhat better since Meredith gave her the Codeine syrup, the heavy-duty narcotic painkiller made her even more sleepy and weak and disoriented than she already was. “Udless...*snf*...udless I'mb dreambig? Is this a...” she trailed off into a yawn as she finished her sentence, “...a dreamb?”

“Afraid not, baby bug,” Meredith said soothingly, flashing Cristina a grateful smile for not teasing them about the Harry Potter, or making light of Lexie's feverish disorientation or how snotty she was. The younger Grey had a dazzlingly sharp mind, and she was brave and sweet and funny, and at her core, she was every bit as tough as her big sister; but she was also tenderhearted. That, Cristina knew, was why Meredith had felt the need to put a note on the door commanding everyone who came inside to be nice to her little sister while she was sick. Lexie was tenderhearted, and she was feverish and confused and high on prescription pain killers. She was vulnerable. And Meredith was doing everything possible to put up a cozy forcefield of comfort around her. “You're not dreaming, Lex. You're sick, you have a fever. Just rest. You don't need to worry about anything.” Lexie coughed, then sneezed into her snotty tissues again.

“Oww, fuck...” the dark-haired girl moaned softly, reaching for the throat spray on the coffee table; but her clumsy fingers just knocked it over, and Meredith quickly picked it up and put it on her other side next to Zola, out of Lexie's reach. “Give it,” Lexie whined.

“Not for another hour,” Meredith said, gently but firmly, running her fingers lightly through Lexie's long hair.

“But it hurts,” the younger girl whimpered, too loopy now to be embarrassed about seeming childish. Her voice did sound very croaky.

“You can have some hot tea with honey,” Meredith offered, resting her hand consolingly on the top of Lexie's head and rubbing her scalp.

“I dod't like tea,” Lexie grumbled with another soft snuffle. She sleepily cupped her crumpled tissue to her face and blew her runny nose, reaching for a few more tissues from the box.

“I know honey, but it will make you feel better. Plus you need to hydrate. And you're so stuffed up you won't be able to taste it anyway.”

“Just give mbe the throat spray,” Lexie whined, with another weak, congested cough. She was too dizzy to actually sit up and reach for the bottle herself, or she would have done it already. “Cristinda...mbake her give it to mbe. She lisends to you. *Snghf.*”

“In an hour,” Cristina said gently, echoing Meredith. Lexie whined even more pathetically than before and pulled the blanket up over her head.

“I hate everybody,” said a cranky, muffled voice from under the blanket. “Hhh-hhiih...hheh'ixshOOoo!!! ...*snf*...” The fuzzy blanket trembled.

“Bless you baby,” Meredith murmured gently, reaching for the top edge of the blanket and pulling it back down so Lexie could breathe. “C'mon, don't hide under there, you're gonna suffocate. You can barely breathe as it is and you have a temp of a hundred and three. You need air.”

“I dod't wadt air,” Lexie grumbled crankily. “I wadt mby throat spray.” She sniffled again, pinching the snot-slicked underside of her pink nose lightly in her crumpled tissue and wiping it up and down a few times, trying to rub the itchy tickle into submission. It obviously wasn't working, as she took a deep, trembly breath, her eyes squeezing tightly shut. “Hht'chxiiuhh!! *Snfl*...” Lexie shivered with a soft sigh of miserable exhaustion, wiping her nose again on the used-up, snotty tissue. Cristina handed her a fresh one.

“I cad't stop sndeezig,” the dark-haired girl sighed softly, pausing to give her runny nose a sleepy blow in the fresh tissue.

“I can see that,” Cristina agreed gently, sharing a quiet smile with Meredith over Lexie's head. Without any words being spoken between them, they silently teamed up on the make Lexie drink some tea project. “You know what might help with that?”

“If you say tea, I'mb goihg to pundch you id the face. *Snghf.*”

“No you're not, you can't even lift your head,” Cristina snorted, the amusement in her voice laced with quiet affection. She was teasing; but it was the sweet, loving kind of teasing. If Alex were here, on the other hand, Lexie would definitely be crying by now. She was so sick, and she was disoriented from being high on Codeine; and tenderhearted. And Alex was an asshole when things became too emotional. He'd already started off the day by calling her Typhoid Mary, complaining about her snot, and refusing to let her in the car. Thank God he turned around and went to Joe's without even coming in.

“So here's what's gonna happen now,” Cristina said, in her most gentle but still authoritative voice. “I'm going into the kitchen and making you a cup of tea, with extra honey. You're gonna drink it. Mer's gonna read to you until you fall asleep. And on the off chance that you are still awake in an hour, then you can have more throat spray.” Lexie pouted, cupping a hand to her face to cover another deep, congested cough.

“Oww...okay...okay,” she sniffled, rubbing her eyes as fresh tears spilled down her flushed face.

“Okay,” Cristina nodded with a poorly suppressed smile. Thank you, Meredith mouthed silently over Lexie's head.

“Will you read mbore ndow?” Lexie asked her sister sleepily, with another juicy cough. “It mbakes mbe feel less dizzy...whed I cad hear your voice...” Her wheezy breathing hitched again, and she cupped both hands to her face now, holding a few damp tissues in a bunch. “Hhaeshxiiuh!!! *Snghhhf*...ughhh.” Their poor Little Grey was so helpless and pathetic, even Cristina had fallen under the spell of feeling protective over her, and wanting to do anything and everything to make her feel better.

“Bless you.” The usually emotionless Dr. Yang leaned down and stroked a few sweat-dampened locks of dark hair back from the younger girl's face. “I'm getting you tea now. Mer, read.”

“Okay,” Meredith smiled quietly, raising an eyebrow at her best friend's uncharacteristically gentle and sensitive behavior with her miserable, fever-dazed little sister. Without further ado, she picked up the heavy book again and began reading. From the kitchen, Cristina could hear Meredith's gentle voice reading about King's Cross Station and platform nine-and-three-quarters; she heard Lexie's sniffles and sneezes, and Meredith's soft words of comfort. As the water began to boil, and she was pouring it into the cup, her pager went off; she wasn't on call, but Owen knew that was irrelevant to Cristina. If an emergent cardio case came in at any time of the day or night, whether she was working or on call or not, she always came running.

But not this time. She quickly texted Owen back that she was staying at Meredith's tonight, and that he should give the surgery to whoever was on call. Then she mixed three spoonfuls of honey into the hot tea, knowing it would help soothe Lexie's sore throat until she fell asleep, or until she could take another dose of the numbing spray. Hopefully sleep would win out; that was what the poor thing needed. Cristina stirred the tea until the honey was all mixed in, and put it on a tray with a couple of blueberry Pop Tarts. It may not be the healthiest thing in the world, but Lexie liked them, and based on how resistant she was to putting anything in her mouth besides the throat spray, Cristina correctly guessed that the younger girl hadn't eaten anything all day. Meredith probably hadn't either; but they could call for a pizza once Lexie was asleep. It was a long way from their late-night tradition of tequila shots and the thirty-second dance party; but there was nowhere Dr. Cristina Yang would rather be.

 

Edited September 16, 2016 by wannablessedbe

[JadeStone]

THIS WAS SO CUTE. I'm really getting into the caretaking part of this fic. Please write more!!!

[BootyBurgers]

Wow i'm so glad I logged on and found this! This is actually amazing, and completely adorable. You always capture the characters personalities so well. 

[CHOCOLATE <3]

I love this

[Irelephant]

I already said this, but maybe some contagion? I wanna see Alex catch it to... I don't even know I just wanna see the person that's avoiding the "plague" catch it lol. Besides that, I love love love love love... If I go on this will be extremely long, anyway I love this story! More more more, I need more xD

[wannablessedbe]

Thx guys! I may indeed continue this fiction now that I know there are still ppl reading...and I really am madly in love with Lexie as you all know. She's my McDreamy!  Don't hold your breath for any contagion tho. There's no one else on the show that I love anywhere NEAR as much as I love little grey! <3

[Irelephant]

I'm okay with no contagion that was just a suggestion  Still can't wait for next part!!!

[wannablessedbe]

Hi gang! 

Back by popular demand, here is part 4. Thanks for reading!

…..................................................................................................................................................................

The Daycare Plague

Part 4

…..................................................................................................................................................................

 

Lexie only ate one bite of the Pop Tart, then pushed it away and said it tasted weird, and gulped down a lot of cold water before falling asleep again; she'd been drifting in and out of consciousness all through the evening. Her temp was so high, her body was exhausted; but she kept waking up, either from the fever chills or the streaming congestion in her head and chest that made it hard to breathe peacefully. She slept for maybe half an hour after that; then she woke up half-delirious and soaked in sweat, thrashing so hard to kick off the blankets that she fell off the couch in a heap on the floor.

“Whoa! You okay down there?” Meredith slid off the couch to sit on the floor beside her coughing, shaking little sister, gently gathering the younger girl up into her arms. Lexie was soaked in sweat, too weak to be ashamed as she leaned her head back against her big sister's shoulder and closed her eyes, trying to make the world stop spinning.

“Hot,” Lexie murmured, her dark hazel eyes cracking open sleepily. Cristina got up from the other couch without a word and went to get a fresh ice pack. “Why's the floor all wobbly...?” She wiped the back of her sleeve across her sweaty forehead, too woozy to even notice that her nose was running until Meredith took a tissue and gently wiped it.

“Blow,” Meredith instructed gently, and Lexie obeyed unquestioningly, her trust in her sister's affections far overpowering any embarrassment she felt in her current state of helplessness. She blew sleepily into the tissue her sister held for her, then immediately sniffled again as Meredith pinched the soggy tissue and tried to wipe under Lexie's still-runny nose. But the tissue was already soaked, and all Meredith managed to do at the end was wipe a trickle of snot from one side to the other. That made Lexie's snotty nose tickle all over again, and she raised a hand to loosely cup her face; she was so bleary, she knew she was going to sneeze before she could find a fresh tissue.

“Aah'chxiiuh!!” Lexie's flushed face pitched forward into her cupped hand, nose running. She opened her eyes a crack, but didn't even have time to sniffle before the next sneeze hit. “Hheshhxt!!! ...*snfl*...” Another tissue was pressed into her hand, and she wiped her glistening nose with her head dropped back limply against her sister's shoulder again, eyes closed.

“Bless you,” Meredith cooed, kissing the top of her head.

“Wh-where's Zola?” Lexie croaked woozily, worried even in her feverish confusion about who was watching her baby niece if Meredith was here with her.

“Sleeping,” Meredith said gently, holding up the baby monitor that was sitting on the coffee table. “Like you should be. But first we have to get some kind of food in you, baby...it's been fifteen hours, one bite of a Pop Tart isn't gonna cut it.”

“I cad't eat,” Lexie whined softly, still leaning limp and overheated against Meredith's body as she took another swipe at her dripping nose, sitting on the floor against the couch. The younger girl's pajamas were soaked in sweat, and now that she was on the cold hardwood floor, the hot flash she'd been thrashing around with a minute ago was now turning to a chill. She shivered, and her teeth began to chatter as her damp nostrils opened wide again, still glistening with a thin coat of snot. “Hh-hheshhu!! Hheh'iiishuh!! ...Hhhiih...*s-snfl*...hhih, hhhh...hhehixhhuh!!!” Lexie sneezed three times into the damp tissue cupped in her hands, trembling weakly. Then she sniffled wetly again and gave up on the soggy tissues, wiping her runny nose on her flannel sleeve. She was too sick to be embarrassed about her snot anymore.

“Bless you, sheesh.” Cristina sat down on the floor on Lexie's other side and pressed a fresh cold pack to her forehead, still leaning limply against Meredith's shoulder. “Maybe we should get you into some dry PJ's, hmm? You're a sweaty mess, Little Grey. That can't be good for the chills.”

“Uhhh...'kay,” Lexie agreed passively, wiping her nose on her sleeve again with a snotty sniffle, clearly about to sneeze again. “Hhh'khshhuh!!” She wrapped her pajama-covered arm across her face and sneezed into her sleeve, followed by a juicy cough as she wiped her runny nose across the length of her arm.

“Bless you,” Meredith and Cristina both said at once, neither of them making any smart remarks about Lexie giving up all pretense of social etiquette and just wiping her snot all over her sleeves. If her energy level was so low that just reaching for the tissues was too much for her, that just made her sister feel an even stronger tug to be as gentle and sweet with her as a fluffy little kitten. Cristina too, though she'd never admit it out loud. She did display a surprisingly nurturing bedside manner as she looked from Lexie back to Meredith, who was cradling her little sister's limp body on the floor. Neither of them looked like they had any plans to move anytime soon.

“So,” Cristina cleared her throat in a gentle but no-nonsense tone as Meredith pressed the ice pack against Lexie's forehead and smoothed a few locks of sweaty hair back from her face. “Here's what happens now, Lexipedia. Meredith is gonna help you change into some fresh PJ's, and I'm going to go out and get you something to eat. This is not optional. Anything you want, okay? You just have to tell us.”

“Ughhh,” Lexie groaned wearily, still wiping her nose on her sleeve until Cristina handed her a few fresh tissues. “Mber, I cad't,” she whined, taking the tissues in both hands and finally blowing her stuffed nose weakly.

“Sure you can, baby bug,” Meredith said gently, with a reassuring smile. “Come on, there's gotta be something you eat when you're sick. Oatmeal?” Lexie made a yuck face and groaned. “Cinnamon toast?” Lexie scowled again and hid her face against her big sister's shoulder, while Meredith just stroked her long hair soothingly and shared a what-are-we-gonna-do-with-her look with Cristina. Finally, a soft, croaky voice emerged from the muffled spot where Lexie was hiding her face against Meredith's hair.

“...Mbashed potatoes?”

“I think we can make that happen,” Meredith agreed gently, still playing soothingly with her sister's dark hair.

“Ahd...*snf*...ahd grape popsicles?” Lexie murmured shyly, obviously unused to being babied like this and still feeling a little embarrassed and vulnerable, though she couldn't move even if she wanted to. Which she didn't. Meredith raised an eyebrow expectantly at her best friend.

“Right! Mashed potatoes and grape popsicles it is,” Cristina nodded. “I'm going to the store, I'll be right back.” Meredith and Cristina both started to get up at the same time; but Lexie's fingers closed desperately around her sister's shirt to keep her from moving.

“No,” the dark-haired girl whimpered, her voice soft and ashamed. “Dod't leave mbe, Mer...please...”

“Honey, I'm just going upstairs to get you some fresh PJ's. I'm not really leaving,” Meredith explained patiently, grazing her fingers up and down Lexie's back as the younger girl clung to her stubbornly.

“No,” Lexie croaked again softly. She didn't elaborate, just kept her face buried in Meredith's hair with both hands holding tight to her shirt. Then with a weak hitch, the dark-haired girl let go of her sister with one hand. “Ehhxishhuh!!! *Snghf.*” Lexie tried to cover her sneeze in her sleeve, but Meredith still felt it misting her chest. She kissed the top of her little sister's head and hugged her, rubbing her back lightly.

“Okay,” the older Grey agreed simply, stroking her little sister's long hair again. “Cristina, will you go up and grab some fresh PJ's from Lexie's room before you go out?”

“Don't get used to this whole princess treatment, Little Grey,” Cristina shook her head jokingly, with a little wink when Lexie briefly opened her tired hazel eyes and looked up at her. “Once your temp is normal and you're not losing half your body weight in snot, you're getting your own PJ's. I'm a friggin' Cardiothoracic surgeon, not a bellhop.”

“Thag you,” Lexie murmured, eyes closing again as she cuddled up to Meredith's shoulder and wiped her nose on her damp sleeve.

“Mm-hmm,” Cristina smiled as she turned and padded up the stairs, while Meredith tried to focus her energies on getting Lexie off the floor and back up on the couch.

“C'mon baby girl, we need to get you off this cold floor. Just lean on me,” Meredith encouraged gently, half picking up her sister and depositing her back on the couch. Lexie's nose was running freely again, twin trickles of slippery snot sliding from her pink nose as her breath gave a congested hitch and her tired hazel eyes narrowed to slits. “HhahEXSHOOoo!!! HhaiiishOOoo!!!” She didn't have a tissue in her hand when she sneezed, so she just cupped her hand over her mouth, covered by the now-damp cuff of her pajama top. She snuffled and wiped her sneezy-wet nose on the fabric. Meredith smoothed her hair back and kissed her hot forehead, reaching for the cold pack again.

That was when the front door opened, and Karev tiptoed in, obviously hoping to grab some of his stuff without having to cross paths with Lexie and her germs. When he looked up and saw the two sisters on the couch, his first impulse was to make a snide remark about Lexie being the outbreak monkey of Seattle Grace-Mercy West; she really looked pathetic, pale and sweaty and glassy-eyed, the divot of her upper lip shining with snot from her raw pink nose, the only part of her face with any color whatever. But the words died on his lips when he locked eyes with Meredith, who was looking at him like a mother lion with claws bared. Without uttering a word, Alex pulled his t-shirt up over his nose and mouth and tiptoed past the living room, hoping to get in and out of the house without breathing any of Lexie's air. Because he knew that if he did get this damn bug, he was not going to be allowed to complain that it was Lexie's fault. He might be cocky and snide, but he wasn't an idiot.

Edited October 4, 2016 by wannablessedbe