Work Text:
Cause when the night comes you know you're causing me trouble
And when the night comes you know you're keeping me up
Amelia was having a good afternoon, her caseload was light enough to go home early, and after a few long nights over the last few weeks she really appreciated that. It was Links night with Scout today after she dropped him off at daycare this morning and Meredith and the kids weren't home yet, so this left Amelia alone to do something she always enjoyed: laundry. She didn't know why she enjoyed it, maybe it was the smell of fresh linnens or maybe the organizational aspect scratched an itch, but this one household task was one she did gladly.
She had some music playing and took to dancing in place while sorting and paring all the small socks in the pile in front of her on the table, pairing dinosaurs with dinosaurs, Elsa with Elsa and purple flowers with purple flowers.
Her phone chimed and she picked it up to reveal a video from Kai of the brand new 3d printer in Minnesota (That she wasn't allowed to touch) while it was moving around, the beginnings of something being printed being revealed. Another chime came and the text read 'test run!'. With both of them having busy jobs, they usually didn't talk much during the day, they had fallen into the habit of sending each other short messages and it always made Amelia smile knowing that they were thinking of her, as it did right now. She smiled, and snapped a pic of the sock pile to send it along with 'Laundry!'. A reply came that said 'have fun' and they had added a winky face. Another chime 'I'm going home in a bit too, I'll let this printer run overnight, call tonight?'
'yes please' she replied and added a kissy face emoji. The playlist that had been playing over the small portable speaker in the kitchen had ended by now, so she decided to switch to SoundCloud.
She opened the playlist that had been well played over the last couple of days since she had asked the neuroscientist if they had a recording of the song they had played her at the bar. The little folder had two tracks now, one from that night, and one accoustic. She hit play on the bar version and picked up where she left off, dancing in place while folding.
______
A few days prior
It was 4 am when Amelia could finally scrub out. A motorcycle accident had left a 25 year old in need of her services and had turned her early night into an early morning. While going through the repetitive motions her mind drifted to Minnesota, and the tall neuroscientist residing there. It had been a week since had to leave after she had finally spent the night with them, and she would be lying when she said it hadn't started to ache a little bit to be this far away. When she got back to her phone she decided to send them a good morning text, and added a little sunshine emoji. Sure enough, a reply came soon, she knew Kai was an early riser so in this current moment, she was very grateful for the two hour time difference between Seattle and Minneapolis. The text read 'Good morning Shepherd' and then a second one appeared, 'What are you doing up?' She chuckled, and instead of texting back, she hit the face call button and was greeted by a gentle smile.
Their hair looked soft, and disheveled in a way that still looked effortlessly perfect, they were wearing a light grey long sleeve Henley shirt and she could see they were still in bed, propped up against the headboard.
"Sorry" she said as she held up her phone walking through the halls to the attendings lounge "I didn't mean to wake you up"
They chuckled "You didn't, don't worry, I was just reading" they said and held up a copy of Adult children of Emotionally Immature Parents' to show the camera.
Amelia let out a laugh "Some light reading for the early morning I see."
"Naturally" they replied, and their eyes tracked over the screen. "At the hospital already?"
"Still, actually. I spent the night doing emergency surgery on a patient who almost lost the use of her legs in an accident, but the odds are looking good for her now." She had entered the lounge and propped her phone up against the wall on the kitchenette counter to grab some water. She saw Kai smile.
"Of course they are, you rockstar." She took a moment to put down her water to do a quick superhero pose and stick out her tongue at the neuroscientist.
"But what are you doing up at this hour? Do I have to worry about you?" She said in a half joking tone.
"I just couldn't get back to sleep, it's fine, no need to worry" they said sheepishly. Amelia didn't believe them, but decided to bench this conversation for when it was not 4 a.m. She knew that Kai knew that she was starting to see through them and was picking up on their insomnia, even if they hadn't discussed it in so many words. She had figured out on their various calls over the last few weeks that "I need very little sleep to function" actually meant that they had figured out how to mask their insomnia with caffeine, and she had urged them to go to bed once or twice, and now she was thinking to offer to stay on the call with them next time, until they were asleep.
"I was just about to take a shower and planned on finding an empty on call room after so I can sleep," She said. "I don't feel like going back home just to be woken up by Mer's kids stampede in a few hours."
Kai smiled "Fair enough"
Amelia looked away from the camera down at the bottle of water in her hands and started picking at the label. "Hey" she hesitated for a moment before asking. "Do you.... happen to have a recording of that song you sang at the bar last week?"
"I don't have it on hand but one of my band mates might have recorded it, I can ask them If you want." They looked down for a second before continuing. "Did you really like it that much?"
"Yeah I did" she said with a shy smile "and … Is it too early to say that I miss you?"
"Yeah well, It's six a.m."
Amelia rolled her eyes and looked at them pointedly, for which she received a smirk in return.
"No I don't think it is too early, I miss you too." They smiled at her, and then looked away and cleared their throat.
"Look why don't you go take a nice long shower and I'll have something waiting for you when you get out"
"You don't have to interrupt your morning for me"
"It's really no trouble"
They said their goodbye's and true to their word, when Amelia came back to her phone after her shower a SoundCloud link had appeared, with a text that read 'If my neighbors complain I'm blaming you,' paired with a winky face. She shot back a few heart emojis before opening the link, putting in her airpods and laying down on the top bunk of the on call room bed she had found. The track that opened was titled 'Trouble - acoustic' and soon her ears were filled with the familiar melody and Kai's soothing voice. Amelia closed her eyes and let a warmth bloom in her chest while the song played, the song was a bit softer and slower this time, it was just Kai and their guitar, no band or crowded room, and their voice was more mellow to match the tone. When the music faded out, she could hear the guitar being put down and the phone that was recording being picked up, and their voice entered her ears again. "Good night, Amelia." At the sound of her name her heart fluttered, Kai had recently started to switch between 'Amelia' and 'Shepherd' instead of the strict last name usage they had stuck to before, and it sometimes still caught her by surprise. She opened the text thread back up and typed a thank you and 'Good night Kai' before opening the link, hitting play again, and closing her eyes.
____________
Maggie and Meredith walked into the house followed by three bundles of energy, they practically flew into the front door, trough the living and dining rooms, and were outside in the backyard before Meredith could even put down her bag.
"Didn't they get tired out at school today" Maggie laughed.
"I really don't know where they find the energy" Meredith let out a laugh too and then walked into the living room towards the kitchen "Amelia we're home!"
"Laundry room!" Came the reply from the next room. Meredith looked at the piles of neatly folded laundry on the table and hummed in acknowledgement, but then she heard what was playing over the small speaker and got stopped in her tracks. An acoustic song was playing, and that voice…
"I recognize this voice" Meredith picked up Amelia's phone that was on the table between the piles of clothes when Amelia walked in with the next load of laundry from the dryer. Meredith woke up the phone and she read the player notification out loud.
"'Trouble - acoustic' by K.B. Artley, like Our K. Bartley??"
Amelia plopped the hamper she was holding on a chair and bent over the table to reach toward the phone "Give me that" she said but Meredith laughed and stepped out of reach.
"You're telling me that our own Dr. Bartley, who can't speak in front of residents, plays the guitar and sings?"
Maggie had walked in too and was looking over Meredith's shoulder at the phone and gasped at the sound of the name "Wait, Dr. Bartley from the parkinson's surgery?"
"I.."
At this point the song was ending and the music was fading away, Amelia heard the familiar sound of the guitar being put down and took a breath.
"Good night, Amelia" came the sound out of the speaker and then the track ended.
"Good night, Amelia!?!" They exclaimed in unison.
"Yeah" She scratched her neck awkwardly and smiled.
"So not only do they play the guitar and sing but they play the guitar and sing for you, man, I knew you got them swooning but I didn't know it had gotten this far."
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"Oh please Amelia, you two have been attached to the hip since the moment we walked into that lab, I could have made a fortune on the two of you if I were the betting type, your face is not at all subtle."
"Is this the person you were talking about that you had a crush on, that is so sweet!" Maggie added before sitting down at the head of the table and tapping a free spot on the wood "Sit down!! Tell us all about it!"
Amelia smiled at the ground for a second before moving the hamper out of the way to sit down next to her sister "Ok so" she cleared her throat. "Last week when I went to Minnesota to finish the report we were working and the tension was like, palpable, because we had kissed a few weeks before."
"Wait when was that" Meredith, who had started to make some tea, asked from the other side of the room.
"Uh, remember when Link yelled at you guys to clear the gallery when we were operating on Owen"
"Yeah"
"Like a few hours, before that"
"And that was related?" Maggie looked confused.
"Yeah uh, he had seen us kissing outside, and then he was mad at me for days, I hadn't even noticed that he saw us"
Meredith laughed "Yeah I can imagine you didn't."
"So when we were done with the report I kind of hinted that I could take an early flight out or that I could stay, and then they got the hint and asked me out to a show."
Meredith walked over with three mugs and placed them down before also taking a seat.
"They took me to a small queer bar and asked if I wanted a soda and then ordered one for themselves too, and then we just talked for a while. But what they hadn't told me is that this wasn't just any show, this was a show that they were performing in"
The sisters made surprised sounds into their tea before urging Amelia to continue.
"Imagine my surprise when they asked me to watch their drink and instead of going to the bathroom or something, which I assumed was happening, they got onto the small stage, grabbed the electric guitar that was standing there and performed a song they wrote about me."
"That is so romantic" Maggie had placed her chin on her folded hands and leaned on the table. "Was that the song we just heard the end of? It sounded good"
"Kind of, this was the version they recorded for me a few days ago on an acoustic guitar at their place, when I had that long surgery at night."
Meredith took another sip of her tea "And then what happened?"
Amelia grinned.
"And then I asked them to take me to their place" she wiggled her eyebrows as she took a sip of her tea.
"Of course you did" Maggie laughed, and Meredith asked "Good?"
"Oh my god, So good." Amelia replied while throwing her head back.
At this point their conversation got interrupted by Ellis and Bailey running in asking for something to drink, so Meredith got up to help them and Amelia stood up to continue folding, but Maggie stayed seated and looked at her sister.
"I'm really happy for you Amelia, this all sounds very good."
"Thanks, I mean yeah the uh." She looked behind her at the kids and chose her words carefully "Extracurricular activities were mind-blowing and amazing, but they are also just such a grounding person, I feel like they listen to me and hear what I'm saying and understand." She smiled while continuing to fold the towel in her hands "It all just feels, warm, If that makes sense."
Maggie smiled in response "yes, I think it does."