Lunch Time Rush
A mid-day meal for each of the family members.
I.
Meredith Grey finishes her surgery with a sigh of relief, as she scrubs out and heads to the attending's lounge for her lunch. It's been grueling since early this morning, and Meredith is definitely looking forward to the mid-day meal her wife has packed her.
Addison always packs her the very best lunches.
Since they started dating, Meredith had always been treated to bento-box worthy lunch art, accompanied by a cute dessert and some fruit. Addison always thought of everything.
This time Meredith giggles when she opens her lunch though, because in lieu of her own lunch she ends up with a sun butter and jam sandwich cookie-cuttered in the shape of a triceratops, a small chocolate milk, some baby carrots, and some strawberries.
She must have taken her youngest son's lunch by mistake, and Meredith confirms this when she sees the dragon patterns on the cover of it. Oops! Oh well, the dinosaur-shaped sandwiches are tasty, and Meredith delights in them anyway before she heads back to her work.
II.
There ended up being a chain reaction in the lunches this morning, because when Henry opens his backpack expecting to find his dragon-shaped lunchbox, he ends up instead with his oldest sister's pink polkadot lunch box. Henry grins, and shakes his head.
He figures he must have grabbed the wrong one, or maybe one of his mothers slipped the wrong one into his bag. Either way, he's not too fussed because he's easygoing and the food will be good anyway.
Henry smirks when he sees two packs of veggie gummies, because he knows that neither of his parents ever lets them have more than one of those per day; Zola must have sneaked them in herself.
And when someone in his class tries to pick on him for having pink, he just tells them that it's a modern world these days and people should be able to pick out whatever they want for colors. He's proud of his sister and they wouldn't tease her in his place.
After that incident handled, Henry digs into the pasta and veggie-sausage that Zola must have cooked herself last night (Addison's been teaching her, upon her request, and she'll never admit it aloud but Henry knows it's because she doesn't want to end up incompetent like Meredith).
III.
It's Ellis's first year having lunch at school, and she's always very proud to be toting her lunch box and having the chance to make friends at recess. Today, Ellis is exceptionally hungry because they've already had gym class, and she ran really hard playing tag.
She's happy that her lunch looks big today, and she realizes it's because it's actually Henry's, and her brother always eats an incredible amount of food because he's growing so fast. Ellis asks for help to open the big thermos, and a teacher helps her set the lid down carefully.
She discovers that Henry's lunch consists of rice and curry from the night before, and she scoops it up and eats happily, not too bothered that her lunch must have gone to someone else.
When her friend forgot his lunch, Ellis offers him half of this lunch because it's still packed with crackers and cheese and dry cereal, plus enough fruit and vegetables for both of them.
She'll have to thank Henry later for all the extra good stuff.
IV.
Zola walks to the cafeteria with her band of friends and pulls out her younger sister's Cars-themed lunchbox.
"Family mix-up?" One of her friends asks her.
"Seems to be," Zola laughs. "There are four kids and two moms, I can understand how that gets confusing," says Zola with a shrug.
She supplements Ellis's lunch with an extra pizza slice from the cafeteria, because one mini-pizza, a juice box, a whole-wheat cookie, and red pepper chunks isn't a whole lot of food for high-schoolers.
"Darn," Zola thinks to herself. "And to think I snuck myself extra gummies today..."
V.
Addison has lunch at home today, which is a rarity but it happens on occasion when she's finished a 24-hour shift from the day before.
It's a nice break for her to have some space to catch up on housework. Addison puts a potato casserole in the oven, and prepares some salad kits for the rest of the week.
For herself, she reheats some spaghetti they'd had for lunch yesterday, and she texts her wife good luck from work.
"Have a good one, Sweetie xo," says Addison.
"Back at you, Honey xo," says Meredith, and it warms Addison's heart.
VI.
When Bailey opens his lunch, he's a little disappointed that he doesn't see the dino sandwiches that his mother had promised him, and instead, he finds some pasta with sauce and some tomato soup.
Bailey eats it anyway, figuring his mother must have forgotten, and that he'll have to request the sandwiches for the next day.
At least there's a dessert, which Bailey eats next, and which happens to be a cake slice which he loves, and he gets the icing all over his fingers.
A teacher helps him wash it off, and afterwards, Bailey picks up and reads the note inside of his lunchbox.
Bailey adores his mother's notes, though this one is really quite different from the rest of them.
VII.
When everyone gets home, Zola helps Ellis unpack her lunch, and Henry helps Bailey unpack his. They're all in the kitchen with Meredith, who's dropped them off on her way back from work. "How was school today?" Meredith asks them. "Pretty good," everyone says in chorus.
It's when Addison walks in that everything is a little strange all of a sudden. Bailey hides behind Meredith's leg, and Meredith has to pick him up to comfort him.
"Mommy, why does my note from Mamma say that she wants to 'devour me?' Bailey whispers into her ear.
Meredith reddens before she explains that the note must have been a mistake, and she's sure that Addison's not going to harm him.
"Addison, I can't believe you put that in a lunch note, you're so bad," Meredith whispers to Addison later. "I'll be extra sure that the next one gets right to you, and that there will be no further mix-ups," Addison winks at her, as she prepares their lunches for tomorrow.
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***** FIN
