you might not like her but i do.

amber karev. mother. tiny human doctor. little sister. lover of 90's music and chinese food at 3am.

closed starter for @dramberk​ 

audrey had been working round the clock and somehow the long shifts never seemed to get easier, like everybody said they would. taking a deep breath as she walked down the hallway and tried to find whoever the PEDS nurse was looking for. somehow they paged the wrong karev and audrey was going to get to the bottom of who they meant to page. she turned around when she heard one of the nurse’s talking to another blonde and she walked down the hallway. “so, are you the dr.karev they meant to page? because it sure wasn’t me and i don’t think my father is working today.” she shook her head and then raised an eyebrow. “which makes me question why on earth you have the same last name as us. are you some long lost sister? please tell me no- because i have enough siblings to deal with already.” 

Amber was talking to Marnie, possibly her favorite nurse, looking at pictures from her daughters 2nd birthday party. Most of her patients had been rounded on and she was just trying to make it through the rest of the day relatively unscathed. When she heard someone say ‘Dr. Karev’ she turned and saw a woman walking her way. And the moment she said her father, Amber’s heart stopped. And then she started asking questions. What was the policy for this? Was there some rulebook Amber could check to see if she should tell her? God, where was a magic 8 ball when you needed it. “Yeah. I uh...your dad is Alex right?” Upon hearing that, Marnie, who was well caught up on all the Seattle Grace tea, knew exactly what was going down. “I’m...I’m your aunt. Amber.” She didn’t exactly know what to do, so instead she just stuck a hand out.

_

“The holidays, and every other day,” Elaine grinned, knowing a good handful of the names she’d been given. She found it entertaining, in the moments where she wasn’t being driven absolutely mad. “Those little whiny rats could’ve picked careers that don’t involve rotating holidays, perhaps.” Shoulders lifted in a brief shrug as Elaine thought back to one specific interaction — shouting at a rather mouthy resident at a nurse’s station about how people don’t plan their deaths around holidays, and a few other remarks that did, in fact, have the man in tears. It was a pleasant memory. 

“Situation,” she echoed, head nodding slowly as she pushed the night’s charts to the side. “Do tell.” 

Amber couldn’t help but laugh but then proceeded to nod. She understood. Next Christmas, she would get to stay home with her son. That day there were several other children that had also needed her. She could see that people might have an issue with that but if they did, they needed to not work in a hospital. 

“So my patients family may have...an issue. With something I just said. And I’d like to just let you know now so you aren’t surprised when it comes to you.”

Elaine hated the entire month of December. Not in a Scrooge type way, but in a leave me the hell alone way. There was always someone needing some sort of accommodations for the holidays, schedules to plan around, people pissed about working on holidays, and making sure everyone got their holiday bonuses. And, of course, she’d handled it all, but it was infuriating and exhausting and she’d lost all of her patience for the littler things in the process. The redhead wasn’t usually someone that was deemed the most approachable any other day, but December was not the month to piss her off if you didn’t want to unleash the extra wrath. 

Turning her calendar to January was like a breath of fresh air, and Elaine relaxed at her desk and sipped her tea while flipping through the night’s reports. When someone appeared in her doorway, the now very zen woman smiled, “good morning.” The almost chirpy tone was quite the opposite of what Elaine was throwing around merely a few days ago, “what’s up?”

Amber hadn’t even wanted to go to Elaine. She had only heard stories of the woman being pretty...high strung might not be the word. Mean. Maybe that was it? Either way, Amber had heard the talk and had elected to not bother her and instead just live with what she had been given. She had worked Christmas afternoon while Cam spent the day with his Aunt, leading her around Seattle. And she had gotten New Years off, so she of course, had a glass of champagne with her best friend and then passed out on her couch for the night.

The blonde simply peeked into Elaine’s office and once her chirpy voice reached Amber’s ear, she chuckled. “Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and say it was probably just the holidays that had nurses crying and calling you...you know what nevermind that. I might need your help with a situation.”

“i mean, if you’re asking me. then yes- i’d rather be anywhere but here.” noah said finishing off the rest of his drink and placing the glass down on the table. “i mean, it’s kind of lame. they did a nice job on decorating but i spend enough time in this place. i don’t want to be spending my free time here as well.” 

“I mean, isn’t there some cool other party you can go to then?” She had no idea who this kid was but she knew he wasn’t a nephew unless Alex was also hiding kids from her now. But that was even a little too crazy. “You’re young, I’m sure some Chad or Josh is throwing a ‘killer bangin’ party bruh’, she had switched her tone to obvious dude bro accent, before raising a brow at the kid.

“Are you allowed to question people’s parenting, without actually being one yourself?” It was a seemingly random question, but she’d made a beeline for the first person she recognised after explaining an aspect of her costume for the eighth time so far. “Because I’ve had to tell eight different people that it’s supposed to be a mop and not a broom. Sarah rides a mop when their brooms get stolen, it’s pretty obvious. Least I thought it was, now I’m wondering what films people had their kids watch on Halloween if they don’t know every little detail of Hocus Pocus. And if you didn’t let your kids watch that movie…. Then you must have hated them, right?” 

Putting the drink down, she gave Lou a look. “Seriously, they didn’t get that?” Disappointment immediately filled the blonde. That had been her favorite growing up. She had gone as Dani one Halloween because they hadn’t had money for a costume and one of the dresses she owned had looked like hers in the movie. “That’s a travesty. That was one of the first Halloween movies my son ever watched. That and Scooby Doo: Zombie Island. Two of the cornerstones of all family Halloween movies, in my opinion. Others are irrelevant.” She was joking of course but her tone showed none of the humor.

“I used to love hospital parties when I was little. I remember one time, I was like six, and some hot drunk lady was giving me some really great life advice before one of my parents dragged me away from her,” Sofia giggled, leaning back in her chair. “And now, here we are, I’m the hot drunk lady ― the circle of life is beautiful, isn’t it? But now I feel suuuper obligated to give life advice. However, definitely not the person to be doing that,” she scrunched her nose before taking a little sip of her drink. She really wasn’t in any place for advice-giving, especially since she was getting as far from sober as she could to try to forget the fact that her baby was due this week. A+ problem-solving. 

Blinking out of her thoughts, she flashed the other a bright smile, “I can always try though, I’ll give you some Magic 8 Ball energy here. Tell me your woes.”

Amber was leaned against the table, highly debating the chair. One of her babysitters had offered to watch her kid while they were here so that she could actually drink not feel guilty for not keeping a close eye on him. She chuckled at Sofia before taking another large gulp of her drink and looking over and grabbing another. “My woes can’t be solved by a magic 8 ball unfortunately. If you find any single people over 30 who can handle my daddy, mommy and sibling issues, please feel free to show them a picture of me looking like a smokeshow.”