#lintz

I mean season 3 Maggie versus season 5 Maggie is pretty substantial growth.

After Sydney... did that thing with her mouth. To Maggie's mouth. God, that sounds worse. After Sydney... kissed Maggie, on her sweet mouth, always quirked with a joke or a question.. no, that still doesn't sound right. It still sounds... it still makes it sound like Sydney kissed Maggie. Which Sydney totally did.

Sydney raised her fingers to her lips and closed her eyes. 28, and only once in that time had she kissed someone she actually wanted to kiss. But since she'd kissed Maggie, she'd found excuses to stay away from her. Found other people to take her on rounds. Found herself thinking about the hand that had cupped her cheek, just for a moment before Sydney remembered that she couldn't love another woman and pulled away, walking away from the first thing in her life that felt right.

Right now, Maggie was taking the lead on a birth, and Sydney was hidden away, upstairs in the viewing galley, watching the way Maggie's face scrunched when she concentrated.

Alex watched her for a moment from the shadows. She'd never seen a woman with such want on her face before, and she looked down to see Maggie, ordinary everyday Maggie at the focus of that want.

'She's great, isn't she,' Alex said lowly, alerting the other doctor to her presence. Sydney startled, grabbed her necklace.

'She's very talented,' Sydney agreed, turning back to watch Maggie. 'Good instincts too.'

'Oh, Sydney,' Alex said sadly, and Sydney turned to her then, barely dragging her eyes away from Maggie, her mouth a hard line with a tremble. Alex thought she was going to be yelled at, or cried on, but Sydney took a breath and turned back to watch Maggie retrieve the baby.

'The placenta,' Sydney urged from a distance, nodding when Maggie delivered it correctly, baby already swaddled and dry against its mother's chest. Alex watched her a moment longer, the look of pride and the sadness combining into the answer to the question Alex hadn't asked. Alex rested her palm on Sydney's shoulder.

'If you need to talk...' she trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

'I'm engaged,' Sydney said emphatically, unprompted. Alex looked startled.

'Not to...' Alex trailed off again, uncertain of her question.

'To a nice Jewish man,' Sydney said, voice flat and even again. Alex pretended not to notice that Sydney was crying.

'I've been engaged. Might still be. If you do need to talk...' Sydney turned to Alex with one long, sad smile.