Amelia Shepherd

"Life will always find a way to continue. Always. Life will out."

- Amelia Shepherd

Amelia Shepherd is the Head of Neurosurgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She is the youngest sister of Derek Shepherd and was officially employed at Seaside Health and Wellness with privileges at St. Ambrose Hospital. She later relocated to Seattle and took Derek's job as the Head of Neurosurgery at Grey Sloan. While in Los Angeles, she was engaged to Ryan Kerrigan until his death and later to James Peterson until she moved to Seattle. After moving to Seattle, she had a short-lived marriage to Owen Hunt.

Early Life
When she was 5, she and Derek witnessed their father's murder in his convenience store. She said that afterward her world fell apart and she was in a "dark place" for a long time. During her teenage years, she was so wild and out of control that she earned the nickname 'Hurricane Amelia'. To escape her pain, she began abusing pills after a friend offered her one. She overdosed and was dead for 3 minutes until Derek saved her life. This experience urged her to get sober, which she maintained to be for many years.

She walked in on Mark and her (then) sister-in-law Addison in bed together but kept it secret from her brother, Derek.

Staying in Los Angeles
Part of Dr. Geraldine Ginsberg's team, Amelia joined her boss in Los Angeles to consult on Kayla Lindy's case, knowing she would meet her former sister-in-law Addison Forbes Montgomery, as her name was all over the case. Dr. Ginsberg found there was nothing she could do for Kayla, but Amelia firmly offered the family an option of hope in the form an experimental surgery. Geraldine promptly fired Amelia from her team for stepping up to her, but Kayla's husband asked Amelia to perform the surgery.

Reconciliation with Derek
Despite not having talked to him for a while, when Amelia heard that Derek got shot, she was so shocked by this that she started smoking. Addison took her cigarettes away when they were going to visit Dell's grave, where Amelia mentioned that the world was a crappy place because of the horrible things that happened lately, like Dell's death and Derek being shot. When she got bored at Addison's house, she visited the practice, hoping there was a patient she could operate on. She talked to Addison and told her that she called and e-mailed Derek to find out how he was doing, but he did not return her calls, nor did he reply to her e-mails. Addison then told her that he was doing fine. Amelia was surprised that Derek had talked to Addison, while he hadn't talked to her. "That kinda says it all, doesn't it?" Amelia said. When Amelia later told Addison that she wanted to go somewhere, Addison told her to start in Seattle and convinced her that Derek already hated her, so she had nothing to lose by visiting him. "I'm gonna start in Seattle," Amelia then said.

Joining the Practice
Amelia approached Naomi about a job at the practice, referring to herself as a kick-ass, world-class catch. Naomi asked Amelia why she would want to join the practice, as it was a much smaller and conservative gig than she was used to. Initially, Amelia claimed that the practice would be a good environment to broaden her skill set, but Naomi told her not to give the rehearsed answer. Amelia admitted that she had nowhere else to go where she was not alone. The next day, Naomi hired Amelia to work at the practice.

Struggles with Sobriety
At Charlotte and Cooper's wedding, Amelia, as the maid of honor, took an accidental sip of champagne, mistaking it for the ginger ale she had ordered at the wedding reception. She immediately spit it out, but the accidental slip sparked her craving for alcohol again.

Amelia really started craving alcohol again and went to tell Charlotte about her accidental slip. Charlotte told her not to let it turn into an actual fall as it was just an accident.

Behind Charlotte's back, Amelia did start drinking again and operated on a man drunk. Charlotte soon found out and revoked Amelia's surgical privileges at the hospital, thus effectively removing Amelia from the surgical rotation.

Amelia fully gave into her craving and got drunk at a bar. She was dancing on the bar when a quarrel with another woman caused her to fall off the bar and cut her hand open. As the bartender took away her keys, she called Sheldon, who drove her to the hospital. Amelia stitched up her own hand after Sheldon numbed it. Amelia, being the best neurosurgeon, was paged as Pete required brain surgery. Amelia ignored Charlotte's objections and operated, claiming Pete didn't have the time to wait for the other neurosurgeon. The surgery went well and Amelia went to Charlotte to tell her she never had problems with booze, but Charlotte took that as a sign she was in trouble and informed her that her privileges were still revoked. Sheldon then drove Amelia home.

As Addison moved in with Sam, Amelia had the house to herself and threw a housewarming party. She claimed she didn't drink at the party, though, and showed Charlotte her 30-day sobriety chip later that day. Charlotte said she'd think about putting her back on the surgical rotation, angering Amelia, as she only opened up about her addiction struggles because Charlotte needed her to. She felt like Charlotte was punishing her harder than she'd do to other people. After a talk with Sheldon, Charlotte followed the book and had Amelia take a breathalyzer test. It was negative, so Charlotte welcomed her back on the surgical rotation. Amelia stated she'd be going to a meeting, but rather go alone. However, that night, Amelia drank an entire bottle of wine by herself while watching TV.

Amelia returned to AA, humiliated to be back at day 1, realizing she had things to lose in her life. Charlotte, meanwhile, kept checking up on Amelia, who called her a bitch for being so controlling. Amelia made it to 3 days, which she told Sheldon was a start.

After six months in Italy, Michelle returned to Los Angeles as her symptoms had progressed. She reminded Amelia of her promise to help her die once that happened. Amelia brought it up to her colleagues, and they reminded her that's considered murder in California, despite the fact that it may be the right thing to do to stop Michelle's suffering. Amelia decided to do it anyway and administer drugs that would end Michelle's life. They had decided they'd pretend that Amelia found her after staging an overdose of pills. Amelia started injecting the drugs, but Michelle had a bad reaction and told her to stop. She was taken to the ER, where Pete managed to save her life. Amelia later made a pact with Michelle to move in together, so she could care for Michelle, who in return could help her to stay sober. However, that night, Amelia went to Michelle's house for a girl's night, only to find Michelle dead on her bed, having taken an overdose of pills for real. Amelia called the cops and swallowed some pills with wine as soon as they left.

Michelle's death pushed her over the edge. She started partying hard. One morning, Amelia woke up with a handsome, but unknown man next to her. She threw him out to go to work. She did another breathalyzer test at the hospital, which was negative. Charlotte offered her a leave of absence to mourn Michelle's death, but Amelia just wanted Charlotte off her back. Amelia went home "sick" and found out the man hadn't left and was sitting on her deck. They formally introduced themselves as they couldn't remember their first encounter. Amelia then had sex with Ryan again. Knowing she truly liked him, Ryan then revealed he had pills. They cut them up and inhaled the powder. One of Amelia's patients required emergency surgery, but Amelia didn't answer her phone as she and Ryan were high in bed. That night, Amelia wrote them a prescription for more pills, which Ryan went to get at the pharmacy. Charlotte, having figured out that the breathalyzer test was negative because Amelia had started to take pills again, showed up at the house right when Ryan returned from the pharmacy. Charlotte wanted to tell Amelia off, but Amelia simply stated she quit her job and closed the door on her.

The next morning, Addison dropped by and met Ryan. Amelia told her she took the day off to be with Ryan. They bumped into Cooper and Mason at a taco stand, where Cooper noticed a rude-ish Amelia didn't look well. Addison dropped by again that night, as she and the others were worried about her. Amelia didn't want a lecture and told Addison they stopped being family when Addison cheated on her brother, so Addison could stop worrying over her. Amelia and Ryan fled to a hotel, where they got to know each other better. She forgot to pack her prescription pad, so she had to go to the practice to get another. She forgot to turn the alarm off, so the police busted her. Charlotte, being on call for the practice, showed up and confirmed Amelia was a doctor at the practice. The officers left, and Charlotte asked Amelia for the prescription pad she knew Amelia had come to pick up. Amelia gave her one, told Charlotte to stay out of her life, and revealed she had another prescription pad in her pocket as the elevator doors closed. Back at the hotel, Amelia came down and discovered that Ryan had invited friends over, who thanked her for the scripts. Ryan threw them out as they made Amelia feel uncomfortable. At night, he and Amelia started using intravenous drugs.

Intervention and Rehab
Addison and the others at Seaside Wellness staged an intervention. They attempted to talk to her but she was too angry and aggressive to properly listen. After a lot of rude and insulting comments towards her friends, hitting them in their weak spots about their problems, Amelia eventually suffered from withdrawal symptoms. She saw through their attempt to give her Buprenorphine, which would make her symptoms disappear and prevent other drugs from getting her high, and demanded they give her more oxycodone. In return, she would stay and listen. The other doctors agreed on not supporting her addiction by giving her the drugs, but Addison and Sheldon went and got some pills anyway. High and finally able to listen to their pledges, Amelia actually seemed to agree to go to rehab until Ryan arrived at the practice. Seeing he wore the watch that once belonged to Amelia's dead father, Addison confronted her about how stealing it and giving it away would make Amelia's mother feel. When Amelia didn't properly answer, Addison attempted to tell the story of how her father had died in front of everyone so they could understand what was going on. Immediately, Amelia had an aggressive breakdown, even threatening to kill Addison if she ever told that story to anyone. She and Ryan then quickly left. In their hotel room, both decided to take the last drugs they had and after that, to get sober together. The next morning, Amelia woke up to find Ryan not breathing beside her. He had died of an overdose. This experience destroyed Amelia. After the cops arrived, she told them to call Addison Forbes Montgomery and tell her that Amelia was ready for rehab.

Pregnancy and Birth
Amelia had a boyfriend, Ryan, with whom she did drugs when she relapsed after her best friend committed suicide. One night, they decided to take the rest of their drugs and get sober the next day. Amelia woke up the next morning to discover Ryan dead. She later found out she was pregnant (she thought she was just experiencing withdrawal symptoms). It turned out the baby was anencephalic (had no brain). She decided to donate the baby's organs. There was a lot of debate within the practice about it, though the organ donation ultimately occurred, saving the lives of several other infants.

Getting Her Life Back on Track
After donating her baby's organs, Amelia continued to go to meetings. Soon after she was one year sober, she met the new ER attending James Peterson, who showed a romantic interest towards Amelia. After some struggles, they began a relationship. At Sam and Naomi's second wedding, James promised her that they would get married one day.

Engagement and Relocating to Seattle
Somewhere near the end of March 2014, James proposed to her. She accepted, but the engagement made her freak out. She traveled to Seattle to tell Derek what happened. She realized that the engagement meant that she was likely to face a different kind of life, the kind that he and Meredith have. So she came over and visit to see what her life would be if she accepted the engagement. Happy to have found a temporary solution to his and Meredith's problem of combining their careers and family he left her to spend an entire day with the kids. She played with them, cooked dinner, and put them to bed, but when Meredith and Derek came home, they found a completely wrecked Amelia in a messy house. Amelia broke down and told them she couldn't do this. She confessed she didn't just come to Seattle to observe their life; she came here to see if she could do it. She wanted the whole kids, family, and career thing with James, but she realized that she just wouldn't be able to do it as she was already wrecked after one day. Having received an enormous blow to her self-esteem, she ran off crying. She decided to stay with her brother in Seattle for a while. They worked together on a case to separate conjoined twins who shared brain matter. Even though he unintentionally treated her like an incompetent surgeon, she (well aware that she was in his shadow) proved him wrong by saving the twin who was assigned to her care after the actual separation. At the end of the day, Derek told her that Callie Torres needed an exceptional neurosurgeon for her project, as he was busy with the Presidential project now, and that he recommended her. Amelia objected that she didn't live in Seattle, but he suggested she should, adding he liked having her with him.

Amelia had several phone conversations with her fiancé while continuously postponing her return to Los Angeles, resulting in fights with James. She settled in and started bonding with Meredith. They had a surgery planned together, and during the preparation, Amelia ignored several incoming calls. Meredith told her that just because she and Derek were juggling their lives, they didn't need to keep Amelia from her work for that. Amelia snapped at her that she liked her better as the sister-in-law who didn't give a crap about her life and asked if they could go back to that. In surgery, Meredith, thinking she and Derek made Amelia feel obligated to stay with them, told Amelia she could go back home when Derek would come from DC that night. Amelia thought she was kicking her out, but it was not that, as Meredith and Derek loved having her in Seattle, but they didn't want to keep her from her life. Amelia was extremely relieved, as she loved Seattle as well. She compared it to her life in Los Angeles, where she would've had a six-hour conversation if she'd snapped at someone like she did at Meredith. She then revealed that her fights with James weren't about her leaving for Seattle; they were about her not wanting to ever leave again. After the surgery, she confided in Meredith that James is amazing and that he helped her through some stuff, but now she's on the other side and she - realizing it sounds horrible - doesn't need him anymore. She said that at the end of the night, after having no more way of avoiding it, she would call James and break his heart by telling him she couldn't do this anymore, knowing he deserves better.

Now that Amelia decided to stay in Seattle, Derek was ready to let her take over his service so he and Meredith could move to DC for his brain-mapping project. Amelia started taking over his service on a couple of days in the week, even though he occasionally would hover over her. After a day with a lot of trauma and not losing even one patient, Amelia told Meredith that she felt so, so good about the whole situation. She didn't care anymore that she was in Derek's shadow, although the only thing that could ever make her feel better was if his shadow were gone. She said it would be okay if he and Meredith were to move to DC and became happy there. However, Meredith decided to stay in Seattle, leaving Derek to choose between staying with his family in Seattle or pursuing his professional dreams.

Finding Her Footing in Seattle
After he decided to move to D.C., Amelia took over Derek's job as Head of Neurosurgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Now permanently staying with her brother and sister-in-law, she witnessed their hour-long fight. She soon found her way to the AA meetings in Seattle, where she heard how Richard confessed that he had a daughter. She promised to keep his secret safe, as it was anonymous for a reason.

Amelia, being one of the few people to know about Richard's relation to Maggie, befriended her later when they worked together on a case of a young girl who suffered a stroke during sexual activity. Amelia especially loved the fact that Maggie referred to Derek as the other Dr. Shepherd, whereas it usually is the other way around. Amelia became kind of jealous of her patient, as it had been a long time since she'd had really great sex, or any sex at all, a feeling that Maggie recognized. This bonded them even more, causing Maggie to open up about her problems with Meredith. Amelia assured her that while it's hard to get to know Meredith at first, she genuinely is worth knowing.

Having decided to stay in Seattle for his family, Derek couldn't help but interfere in Amelia's cases. She called him out on that and made it clear that she was now the Head of Neurosurgery. However, this didn't stop him from taking the lead on a case of hers, as he claimed it got too big for her and that he was the rightful leader of the department, having more experience on a higher level than she has. He operated on her patient behind her back, infuriating her upon finding out. She later had a talk with her brother, revealing that he was frustrated that Meredith indirectly made him feel obligated to stay. He'd never taken a step back in his career, which is why he tried to reclaim the leadership of the department. Amelia told him she recognized the feeling, as it was what he was doing to her. He assured her he hadn't done it intentionally. He was just trying to live with his choice, which Amelia pointed out she was doing too.

Finding out that Maggie was going to quit, Amelia tried to stop her from doing so by getting Derek on a case with Maggie, urging them to talk. Maggie didn't bring up that Richard and Ellis are her biological parents, and Amelia didn't want to tell Derek herself as she found out in AA and promised Richard not to tell anyone. She did encourage Derek to talk to Meredith, but since they were fighting, Derek went to ask Maggie why Amelia wanted him to talk to his wife so badly. Maggie then revealed her secret.

Finally having found her footing, Amelia was thrown off when a woman she knew from Narcotics Anonymous spilled her addiction secrets at the hospital. Derek failed to support her and even gave Owen the idea to take her job. With everyone at the hospital gossiping about her, Amelia firmly stood by her right not to tell anyone more about her problems. While Derek convinced the board that Amelia was doing her job very well, Amelia found comfort with her sister-in-law Meredith. After going to a meeting, Amelia came home, telling Derek she'd move out the next day as she couldn't forgive him for not having her back from the beginning. He revealed he felt miserable and that he didn't know what to do with life anymore, always trying to do right by the people around him, but instead hurting them. She very well knew the feeling, that she named rock bottom.

Nicole Herman's Tumor and Falling for Owen
Amelia and Nicole Herman became acquainted when they discovered they both knew Addison. They talked aboout Addison and her son Henry.

Amelia and Owen's relationship remained professional up until they experienced an emotional connection after Amelia confided in him about her past drug addiction. He, in return, gave a vague description about his past and told her that everyone's a risk and that everyone has something. Later, he asked her if she had people. She assured him that she did, and then asked him the same, telling him that if he ever needed someone, she was around.

Sometime later, when Jackson and April were facing the loss of their son, Amelia sat in the chapel thinking about her own baby that she had lost. Owen entered the chapel and sat next to her. Looking at the lit candles in the front of the room, Amelia told Owen that her baby lived for 43 minutes. Owen took her hand, and the two shared a glance, before going back to watching the candles.

After this emotional and very personal encounter, Amelia did not know how to act around Owen, perhaps realizing her attraction to him. The two shared awkward dialogue filled with fluster and stuttering. While she was in surgery, Amelia told Callie that when she used to be on drugs, she had "such game." Now that she was off drugs, she had no game at all. Later, Amelia decided to go to Owen's trailer. She showed up with a bottle of sparkling water and quickly realized the awkwardness of her decision. She turned to leave and started walking away. Owen ran to her and told her to stop walking. When he reached her, he told her that he was gonna kiss her now, so she should stop talking. The two shared their first kiss.

When Owen's mother, Evelyn, came to the hospital with her much younger boyfriend, Amelia bonded with his mother and told Owen that she liked her, calling her smart and funny, though Owen was upset by the situation. Amelia tried to get him to talk to her, but Owen told her to stay the hell out of it. She walked away. Later, as she was leaving the hospital, Owen ran up to her and apologized. He told her that he was sorry for the way he spoke to her, saying that he was out of line. Amelia responded with "good," and turned to leave. Owen told her not to go, not like this, and said that the situation took him by surprise and that he was not always good with surprises. Amelia told him that she was not either and that maybe they should get over that. The two retreated to Owen's trailer and slept together.

Amelia confessed to Derek that she thought she was falling in love with Owen and that she was afraid it would destroy her. Derek responded that it would not be love if it didn't.

Amelia and Callie had difficulty agreeing on a surgical procedure for a patient. Owen came into the room when he heard them arguing, and each pitched her idea to him. He eventually sided with Amelia, and they used Amelia's idea on the patient. The surgery had a negative outcome and had a detrimental effect on the patient, and Amelia told Callie that they should have done it Callie's way in the beginning. Seeing that she was upset, Owen asked Amelia what the problem was. She accused him of only siding with her because of his personal feelings for her. Owen denied it, but she told him that this was why it isn't smart to mix personal and professional, saying that they were a mistake. Owen walked off. Later, Owen tried to get Amelia to tell him what was really going on because he wanted what they had started, but he needed a little help to do so. Amelia wanted to go somewhere to talk, but a phone call for her interfered.

Later, Amelia and Owen were caught in an elevator together. Owen told her that they both know that their relationship was more, but she told him that she didn't have any more to give. Owen said that he was done, and exited the elevator. Amelia stared after him. Amelia and Owen continued having inharmonious interactions, even getting into a heated argument in front of Edwards. Following this, Amelia told Owen that she was there, ready to talk, but he was pissed at her, so she was getting punished, referring to Owen's half-hearted and monosyllabic responses. She told him that this was unfair and pushed him into an on-call room. She told him that he was hardly being civil, and he sat on the bed and explained that the case they were working on together was bringing up guilty feelings about the plane crash that he caused, saying that he put them on the plane. Amelia sat next to him and took his hand. Owen told her that he wouldn't survive another plane crash, and that was all they were. Amelia let go of his hand and left the room.

Derek's Death
Amelia was one of the last people to speak to Derek before his fatal accident. She was in the OR as they were talking about his secret shortcut to the airport, but the connection got lost. Unknown to Amelia, that would be the last time she'd ever talk to her brother, as he later died at Dillard Medical Center after his car got hit by a truck.

Amelia was one of the last people to find out about Derek's death as hospital protocol dictated that she couldn't be informed during surgery. Callie, who heard before entering the OR, had to keep a straight face throughout the entire surgery. As soon as she was done, Owen asked to talk. She immediately recognized the face, having seen it before, and asked who died. He informed her it was Derek and started to tell the details, but she shut him up, not wanting to hear any more as dead was dead. She hardened herself and said she knew how to handle this, having gone through this before. The funeral passed and Amelia was left alone when Meredith left with her kids without saying where to, and Owen left for an army mission. Throughout the following weeks, Amelia made her colleagues uncomfortable with dark jokes about her brother's death. To distract herself from her true feelings, she buried herself in her work. Months later, when Richard asked to have coffee together, she burst out, yelling that her time was crucial in order to save people so that her patients' families wouldn't need to lose their loved ones. She also yelled that she was saving lives, contrary to the doctors that failed to save her brother. At that exact time, Owen returned from his army mission. The confrontation embarrassed Amelia and led her to buy oxy from a junkie doctor. Pacing up and down the deck of the dream house, Amelia was doubting whether to take drugs again after 1,321 days of sobriety as Owen came to visit her. She said that she had it all managed, Derek's death and that she was fine, explaining she put on the mask of the funny girl to escape the pain. Owen managed to get through to her and said it was normal and human to let the pain and the grief in, to be completely destroyed. He also pointed out that she'd manage to build herself up again after this. Also, if she were going to take this bag of oxy, he knew it wouldn't be her last. Knowing this was true, she gave him the oxy and she broke down as she finally allowed herself to feel the pain she had been running away from for almost a year. Owen tightly hugged her as she cried.



Eventually, Meredith returned from San Diego with her new baby daughter, Ellis. Amelia helped her take care of the kids, but she resented Meredith for not having called her to the hospital before the plug was pulled on her brother. On top of that, Meredith decided to put out feelers for the house with a real estate agent without notifying Amelia. These feelings of anger and resentment came to the surface when Meredith wanted to give up on their patient during a field rotation. Amelia directly asked Meredith when she personally decided to give up on someone. Meredith apologized for the house situation and for leaving after Derek's death. Amelia says Meredith should have called her, as she might have been able to pull off a miracle to save Derek's life. Meredith again stated that it was too late back then. Amelia repeated Meredith should have called her, and she blurted out that Meredith was the reason that she didn't get to say goodbye to her brother. After having said this, Amelia left, after which Meredith broke down crying.

This made Meredith realize she hadn't been a good sister to Amelia and as a peace offering, she gave Amelia her old phone, which contained a voice mail message from Derek from the day he died. Later, at Richard and Catherine's wedding party, Owen found Amelia sitting in Meredith's bedroom by herself with the phone in her hands. Amelia informed him about the message and that she couldn't get herself to hit play. Owen sat down and hit play for her. He then wanted to give her privacy to hear Derek's words, but she grabbed his hand to make him stay. While hearing Derek talk about his plans for his family and the ferry boat, Amelia got emotional. The message made her forgive Meredith and Amelia sat down with her and Maggie on the deck. Seeing everyone happy and dancing in the living room, Meredith told them that it was Derek's wish to fill the house with noise and people, so she wanted this to be her last memory of the house. Meredith noticed the two women were in need of dancing it out, so she took their hands and dragged them inside to do so.

Starting Over with Owen and Brief Relapse
Although Amelia and Owen did not have an established romantic relationship, they continued with an amicable one. On the porch of Meredith's house, which Amelia shared with her and Maggie, she was telling Owen that she did not want to go inside, referring to the tension between her and Meredith. She continued to talk, and Owen kissed her mid-sentence.

Following the kiss, Amelia was confused about the nature of her relationship with Owen, telling Maggie and Meredith that she thought they were just friends. Amelia and Owen continued throughout the day with awkward encounters, only speaking directly on one occasion. Later, they were again caught in an elevator together. Owen stopped the elevator and asked her why she wouldn't talk to him, and she told him that she was confused. Owen said they should talk about it, and Amelia agreed. The two shared a passionate kiss.

Amelia tried to get Owen to open up to her about his problems with Riggs, but he told her that he was not like her and didn't need to talk everything to death. He said to listen to the words he was saying and that he didn't want her help, not with this. He stormed away angrily. Later, Amelia went to a bar, and Riggs bought her a drink, leading up to her relapse.

After getting sober and earning her 30-day chip, Amelia and Owen went back to having an amicable, platonic relationship. After learning that Amelia had been sleeping at the hospital since being kicked out of Meredith's home, he told her that she could always stay with him. Amelia said it wouldn't be a good idea for her sobriety, but that she was going to need dinner. They agreed to get dinner that night. Later, when they were supposed to leave, Owen, who was upset due to another confrontation with Riggs asked her if they could do it another night. She said okay, but that she didn't know how to do this thing he did where he made her feel like crap even though there were no words coming out of his mouth. She said that he'd call her, maybe or maybe not, and maybe she would not care. She turned to leave and started walking, but Owen stopped her by telling her that he had a sister. Owen gave her a vague reason of why he had such an issue with Riggs. Amelia gave him some advice, and then they went to get dinner.

After spending a night with Owen, Amelia told him the next day that it was wrong of her to come over, saying that she should not be starting anything new. She continued to tell him that she screwed everything up and that she didn't want him to be one of those things. Later, in an on-call room, Owen told her they are not starting anything new. He said that if they wanted to start a clean slate, they could do that, but they should do it. They agreed to start over.

Amelia knocked on the door of Owen's trailer, as they were supposed to be eating dinner together because his birthday was approaching. Owen opened the door, very obviously drunk because of another confrontation with Riggs. Owen was stumbling around and muttering, and Amelia said that she was going to go, knowing that because of all the alcohol that is around, being around Owen at the moment could compromise her sobriety. She ran from the trailer, crying.

The next day, Amelia didn't see Owen until later, having taken the day off work. That night, he approached her on the front porch of Meredith's house and apologized, telling her that it wouldn't happen again. She told him that she appreciated his words, but that she couldn't count on them, saying that she could only count on herself and so she couldn't do that with him right now, and maybe not ever. She asked him to leave.

Amelia and Owen continued with a professional, but friendly relationship. In the attendings' lounge, Owen confessed to Amelia that it was his fault that his sister boarded the helicopter that she disappeared on. Amelia hugged him, telling him that he didn't mean to.

Meredith, Maggie, and the kids walked in on Amelia and Owen naked on the couch. In the car, Meredith and Maggie teased her, but Amelia told them she and Owen could not be in a relationship. At the end of the day, as the three were leaving the hospital, Meredith told Amelia that she had happiness, but she kept throwing it away. She told her to stop the drama and get on with it already. Amelia turned around and started running. She took a cab to Owen's trailer, and told him that they were not the kind of people who say "I love you." She said that a relationship with him would be messy and scary, but it was harder to love someone than to walk away from them. Owen told her that if they were to be together, he would end up screwing all of it up. Amelia said that she would, too. Owen took her hand and said, "let's screw some things up," and then kissed her.

Marriage to Owen and Separation
Not long after deciding to be a couple for real, Amelia and Owen began to have hypothetical discussions about weddings, kids, and a life together. After Owen bought a house of his own and implied that Amelia was welcome to move in with him, she ended up proposing to him, wanting to move from merely talking about their future to actually building their life together. He said yes.

Now engaged, the couple quickly began to plan their wedding. Two weeks later, on the day of her wedding, Amelia phoned her mother only to find out that neither she nor any of her sisters were going to attend the ceremony, believing it to be just another rushed decision and even doubting Amelia's sobriety. Her family's betrayal left Amelia devastated and she began to doubt whether she was doing the right thing after all. Her doubts were only amplified upon overhearing Meredith discussing Cristina with Owen, and before long, Amelia was escaping her own wedding with Meredith and Maggie. After taking her time to freak out and sort her thoughts, however, Amelia decided to go back to Owen, who had patiently been waiting for her and ended up walking down the aisle after all. After the ceremony, she and Owen danced all night at their reception.

Soon after the wedding, she moved into Owen's house. The wedding photographer asked them to choose their favorite pictures and seeing Owen and Nathan happy at the wedding, she secretly invited Nathan for dinner. While working with Jo, she was confronted with how Jo's life had fallen apart and invited her as well. That night, Maggie and Meredith also showed up as Owen had urged them to come so he wouldn't have to talk to Nathan. During the party, she noticed that despite some effort, things would remain awkward between Owen and Nathan and she decided to give. After all the guests had gone home, Amelia sat down with Owen and showed him a picture of him and Nathan. She explained she's a fixer and urged him to attempt to fix things with Nathan so they could again be as close and happy as they once were.

While Amelia enjoyed married life and the sex that comes with it, Maggie and Meredith began to fight as the latter refused to listen to Maggie talking about Nathan. Maggie confided to Amelia that it seemed to annoy Meredith, so Amelia went to tell Meredith that she should listen to Maggie as a good sister would.

Upon discovering that Owen goes to church, Amelia realized that there was so much they didn't know about each other as they rushed into marriage. In the process, she jokingly said she couldn't have kids with someone she barely knew. She found it scary not to know everything as some things might scare the other one. He questioned how bad it could be, leading her to walk away. That night, she opened up to him about Ryan's death. He then told her about his choking Cristina and assured her their kids would be just fine. She told him she couldn't wait to have kids, to which he replied they didn't need to wait.

Two months after the wedding, Amelia was late and immediately thought she was pregnant. She confided in Meredith as she caught Amelia looking for a pregnancy test in the supply closet. As she went to talk to Owen, she was interrupted by Jackson, who handed Harriet to Owen. Amelia then decided to talk to him later. Maggie and April found out before Amelia actually took the test, which she hesitated to do as she didn't know how to tell Owen. She told April that last time she was pregnant, she didn't have to tell the father as he had died. Amelia then took the test home and told Owen that she might be pregnant. She then actually took the test. While waiting for the result, Owen already started to talk about a nursery. However, the test was negative. Owen told Amelia that they had just started and that they could keep trying.

However, Amelia was secretly relieved. She snuck out in the morning and worked all day while Owen attempted to talk to her. She finally told him that she was fine with not being pregnant. She figured they could enjoy being newlyweds before adding pressure by trying to have kids. He agreed if that's what she wanted. After losing a young boy, an emotional Amelia confided in Alex and told him about her baby boy, including the fact that nobody in her family knew the whole story. She admitted she was afraid Owen would hate her if he found out because he wanted a family so bad. Alex doubted that and advised her to tell Owen. Owen later asked her to grab dinner together, but she declined to avoid him.

To avoid talking to Owen, she took case after case and didn't come home for two weeks. This led to a lot of friction between the two. The arguing continued over a case until Amelia finally admitted that she didn't want to have a baby. After the ensuing fight, she went to Meredith's and asked for a place to sleep. Alex first told her no so she would have to fix her crap, but then offered her his room upon hearing that she had finally told Owen. They continued to live apart for a while. Amelia briefly returned home when she decided to leave Owen. She left him a note asking him not to make this his fault, knowing that that is what he does.

Figuring that Owen would look for her at Meredith's, she went to stay with Stephanie and ignored Owen's calls as she took a few days leave. While Stephanie asked her to at least let her tell Owen something, Amelia said no because then Owen would want to fix the situation while it couldn't be fixed. Behind Amelia's back, Stephanie did tell Owen that she was safe and sober. Owen showed up at Stephanie's and asked Amelia to open the door because it would only get harder to open the door the longer she stayed inside. Since Amelia didn't respond, Owen asked Stephanie to let her know that he was done waiting. Amelia then moved back to Meredith's house, where Alex offered her his bed. She spent a lot of her time off sleeping.

Maggie requested Amelia return to work briefly to clip her patient's aneurysm. Longing to operate again, Amelia agreed if Maggie made sure Owen wouldn't see her. After the surgery, she made her way out through the ER and decided to step in when Owen's incoming patient needed neuro. While getting the patient into surgery, she admitted to Owen why she was there and that she had planned to avoid him. After surgery, Owen asked her if she wanted to be married to him. She assured him she did, but she was not ready to have the inevitable fight. While Owen decided to let it slide, Amelia told Maggie she knew they had to talk soon.

As soon as she fully returned to work, Owen tried to talk again. As she didn't respond, he told her to figure out what she wanted. When he approached her after a successful surgery, she lashed out and told him she felt bullied and suffocated by him and his wants and needs, even going as far as throwing Cristina in his face. They continued in the stairwell, where she asked him why he wanted a baby so bad. He wanted a family, but she said the two of them were also a family. He found it normal to have children, but she disagreed. Having children might be wonderful, but it might also be terrible and you cannot know what you'll be given. He told her she'd be an amazing mother. She reminded him she already was a mother, for better and for worse. Her own experience with motherhood in mind, she wanted to know if he had also thought about the fact that having a child could be painful instead of wonderful. He didn't reply and she made it clear that life doesn't play by normal rules, and neither does a marriage that lasts.

The confrontation led to the two of them giving each other space, giving Amelia time to support Maggie and her mother when the latter started her cancer treatment and stayed with the sisters. Amelia continued to support and comfort Maggie after her mother passed away. When Owen's pregnant friend was admitted, Amelia didn't visit her and her husband because they were Owen's friends from before she came along. Their love for each other lingered, as Owen briefly hugged Amelia when she was emotional after losing a new mother on the table. To take her mind off the case, Amelia went out with Meredith and Maggie. After Meredith got rid of Derek's tumor drawing and gave it to Amelia, Maggie and Amelia discussed how Meredith had decided to move on from Derek and how she was clearing a path for Nathan, which they decided to support. She calmed Meredith down when she started to freak out over having invited Nathan to meet her kids.

Megan's Return and Brain Tumor
At work, Amelia noticed some strange behavior from Owen. When she went to check on him, he revealed the Army came to his house to inform him that his sister Megan had been found alive in a basement in a rebel-led neighborhood. Since he doubted it was really Megan, Amelia took Owen to Meredith's house and made calls to ensure it was Megan. She ended up talking to Teddy Altman, who assured her it was Megan and arranged a transfer to Grey Sloan. She also called a PTSD expert for Owen and held him while he cried over having given up on his sister. When Meredith came home, Amelia told her the news, after which Meredith took off to go tell Nathan. When an explosion at the hospital rendered the helipad unavailable, Amelia and Owen drove all the way up to Madigan. During the trip, Owen opened up about Megan's positive disposition and how he didn't know what to say to her now. She calmly told him he would once he'd see her. They were welcomed at Madigan by a Lieutenant and a Colonel and received instructions on how to talk to Megan. They were then taken outside in time to see the helicopter land. As Megan was unloaded, Owen held Amelia's hand.

Amelia kept her distance from Megan and Owen while they reunited, but kept doing so once Megan was transferred to Grey Sloan. She chose to focus on a difficult case instead and never checked in with Megan or Owen. This led to Teddy confronting her about it, but Amelia lashed out in return and entirely dedicated herself to the difficult surgery. She continued to do her best to get Jackson to consent to operate with her, fearing the patient might become addicted to pain meds if she were to send him home. When Owen finally came to see her himself, he brought up that nobody in his life saw her as the great person he knew her as and that their perspective made him think something was wrong with her. She again lashed out and told him to be with Teddy if that was what he wanted. She managed to remove the difficult tumor albeit by forcing Jackson to help her put the boy's jaw back together. While Jackson thought she got lucky, she credited her own skills. In a mood to celebrate, she volunteered for Carina DeLuca's orgasm study. However, that mood quickly vanished when the MRI showed a 10-centimeter tumor in her frontal lobe.

She kept her tumor a secret for a week and studied her scans with only Andrew in the know. She flew in Dr. Tom Koracick, her former mentor, to operate on her. He studied the scans and forbade her from treating patients as her decision making was and had been impaired for years. Amelia confided in Richard and then went back over past cases of hers to decide if her decisions were indeed reckless. She started spiraling until Richard showed proof that her mortality rate was better than Derek's, thus evidencing that she hadn't hurt anyone. He also made her realize she was hurting the people she loves by not letting them be there for her. She first told Maggie and asked her to help tell Owen and Meredith, who had been telling her she was crazy for years. More than anything, she hated that Meredith turned out to be right. While Maggie told Meredith, Amelia paged Owen to the tech room to show him her scans. While initially came to yell at her for her behavior, he calmed down upon learning the news and helped her get admitted. Meredith came by and climbed into bed with her to comfort her. Tom planned the surgery to remove the benign grade I meningioma. While it was a fairly simple surgery, Amelia chose April as her proxy in case things went wrong since they weren't too close for emotions to cloud April's judgment. She told her loved ones she loved them tremendously and was taken to the OR. After doing the superhero pose with the surgical team, Amelia was put under. 11 hours post-op, Amelia woke up unable to speak, which made her think she was gorked. Throughout the first day, she was extubated but desired to sleep more than anything else. Per her own instructions, Andrew put her through her own early mobilization protocol despite Tom's objections. Richard came by in the evening to suggests pain meds, but he also knew she'd resist given her addiction to opioids, a message she was able to convey with a pained look in her eyes.

The next day, Amelia started talking but in French, a skill she was unaware of but capable of due to her having attended a French preschool. That evening, with Owen and Meredith present, she regained her ability to speak English. While she did not remember having spoken French, she did remember the tumor and the surgery. Owen wanted to call Koracick, but Amelia asked for Derek instead. Her mistake prompted them to have a head CT taken. Amelia forgot Derek died but it came back the instant they told her. She initially feared her memory loss would prevent her from operating ever again, but Tom made her realize that it was very likely temporary.

On the fourth day post-op, Tom deemed her capable of going home. Her motor and memory skills were good and her scans looked pristine. While her loved ones were relieved, Amelia herself thought they were missing something and demanded to see the scans. She studied the scans with Tom and Andrew and found they were clean. However, she ordered more tests. While she wasn't sure what she was looking for, she was sure she'd recognize it once they found it. Instead, Andrew returned to her room with her tumor in a jar. He figured that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He told her that for the first time in years, she was finally safe and that she probably misinterpreted that as feeling like something's wrong. She hugged him and accepted she was fine. That night, Owen came to pick her up from her room to take her home. She told him he didn't need to do that since she knew he was coming to end things with her when she told him about the tumor. He married a tumor and she didn't know who she was anymore without it. However, he said she was his wife in sickness and in health and drove her home.

She recovered at home with Owen, Megan, and Farouk. Megan, Farouk, and Nathan decided to move to Los Angeles so Megan could live by the beach. Owen decided to drive Megan out there with the last of her stuff and fly back afterwards. When he came home, she immediately realized that he now did want to end their marriage. He told her they didn't know each other and that they weren't happy like they were supposed to. She agreed and told him it was okay. They returned their rings and hugged.

On her first day back, she found herself to be nervous and dropped by Owen's house to collect her notes from medical school, which comfort her. They agreed they made the right decision to split, even though their love and affection for one another remained. They decided to blame all the bad on the tumor and become close friends. While Tom officially handed her service back to her, she asked him to scrub in with her on her first patient back. When she and Tom disagreed over the approach, she paged Richard and told him that she had no idea what kind of surgeon she was without the tumor, much like how you have to figure out again who you are after you become sober. He advised her to take it one surgery at a time and assured her that the tumor did not define her. The surgery went well and she re-gained her confidence when she quickly stopped an unexpected bleeding. Afterwards, Tom admitted that she was a better surgeon than him, which led to the two of them having sex despite her disliking him.

After that first patient, Amelia returned to running her own service. She walked in on Owen and Carina when she came to collect a few more things from the house. She then returned her key to him. Later, Amelia and Alex were working on a case together when the hospital was cyber-attacked by hackers. With all charts down, they did not know whether their patient, who was showing signs of a stroke, had been given vitamin K already or not. That left them to gamble whether or not it was safe to administer heparin, which might cause a brain bleed if Frankie had not been given vitamin K yet. Based on his history, they suspected an ischemic stroke and administered the heparin. That was the wrong decision, but they caught the brain bleed in time and Amelia managed to fix it. Amelia later also treated Paul Stadler, Jo's abusive (ex-)husband, who had a concussion and ended up braindead after hitting his head again when he launched himself at Jo to attack her and slipped.

Ultrasound Ablation Project
Amelia recruited Andrew DeLuca and Sam Bello to do research for five different projects Amelia had in mind for the Grey Sloan Surgical Innovation Contest. When she and Ale discovered that their patient Kimmie Park had an inoperable tumor, she instructed Andrew and Sam to drop all the viability studies and look into ways they could remove Kimmie's tumor. However, it was Amelia herself who was inspired to use MRI-guided ultrasound ablation, which she then submitted as her official project for the contest with Alex as her co-author. Unfortunately, Amelia and Alex's project did not make it to round two of the contest, leaving them without a viable treatment plan for Kimmie.

Amelia and Alex tried to figure out the ultrasound ablation on their own without success, but their approach only led to frying tissue. Amelia brought in Tom to help out, though they planned to keep him away from Kimmie. However, Andrew accidentally sent him to her and she and Tom actually bonded over musicals. Now understanding the rush behind the project, Tom was afraid they would not be successful in time for Kimmie. Amelia insisted they could make it work and as they argued over it, Tom thought of the option to use multiple beams from different angles. While still not perfect, the first test run seemed promising to warrant furthe exploring.

Overhearing Maggie and her date Clive have sex at the house, Amelia realized she missed sex and came up with the idea of a game night so the sisters could judge Clive. Throughout the day, she realized her attraction towards Owen's authoritative behavior in the ER. Meanwhile, Alex wanted to use marijuana oil on Kimmie and asked Amelia to convince Kimmie's reluctant grandmother. Amelia preferred not to disclose her personal history. That was the first time Tom found out about her addiction history and found himself aroused by her dark side. At the same time, Amelia urged Sam and Andrew to confess their feelings for one another as their pretending not to be in love was the only thing that made them "bad for each other." Inspired by her own advice, Amelia gave into her desire for Owen and asked if he was open to give her sex, as he was her most appealing option. He happily accepted. Their new arrangement continued with Owen regularly staying over at the house. Amelia found it was the perfect way to take the edge off.

Over time, Owen questioned if she was okay with their arrangement as he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, like the time she went back and forth about wanting kids. She told him that was the tumor and added that she never cheated despite the tumor. Owen admitted he felt like the kiss with Teddy wasn't really cheating because she told him to go to Teddy and Teddy was there for him while Amelia wasn't. Amelia then realized their marriage never stood a chance and told Owen that Teddy was his tumor. She explained he was never with Teddy, so she was like a benign tumor, but she was always there, quietly growing, so not really benign. Amelia then told Owen Teddy only rejected him because he was married at the time, but now he was single and there was nothing stopping him from telling Teddy how he felt. Throughout the Teddy, Amelia and Alex also checked up on Noah Brosniak, a kid with a benign tumor causing seizures, and found him to be a perfect candidate for their project as there was no other treatment option. Owen returned from Germany after Teddy threw him out upon finding out that he came there after Amelia told him to within 24 hours of having had sex with her. Amelia reached out to Teddy to explain things on his behalf, but Teddy made it clear she was not interested. The same day, a nervous Alex and Amelia prepared Noah for the risky procedure. She and Andrew did the superhero pose beforehand. They used a helmet with microphones to listen for popping sounds, which would indicate Noah's brain was melting. With no place for the heat to disperse, they had to stop frequently to let the tissue cool down. They completed the procedure, after which Amelia threw up. Post-op, Amelia was overcome by guilt for putting Noah through the risky procedure when he didn't wake up for a long time, but he did eventually and showed no more seizures. However, because of the risk involved and Kimmie's case being even more difficult, the doctors decided against using the procedure on Kimmie and instead set up a treatment regimen with chemo and radiation for her. The experience made Amelia crave a drink, so Richard took her to his hospitalized's sponsor's room and they held a meeting.

Alex refused to give up on Kimmie, so Amelia reached out to Rebecca Froy, a doctor in Chicago doing similar research. She had a Skype interview with Rebecca and they set up to meet in Washington. However, as soon as Amelia mentioned that the Harper Avery Foundation would cover expenses, Rebecca backed out. She reached out again with Jackson to find out what the problem was, but Rebecca only said she legally wasn't allowed to talk about it and hang up again. The event set off the Harper Avery sexual harassment scandal, putting the Foundation and all of its hospitals in peril.

Foster Family with Owen
While the hospital dealt with employees who got high on cannabis cookies, Amelia received a call from a stressful Owen, who was assigned a foster baby boy and was not prepared to take care of a newborn. Amelia then came over to help while also taking a high Alex with her since he was playing with expensive equipment in her lab. While Owen took a shower, Amelia cleaned the house in preparation for the social worker's visit. When the social worker arrived, Amelia gave Owen a pep-talk while Alex let the social worker and baby Leo in. Alex then claimed he came to check on the kid as a pediatric surgeon. The drop-off went well and Amelia then decided to go pick up stuff at Meredith's as they couldn't be seen with Alex in public. While they gathered stuff, Amelia once again assured Owen that what he was doing was beautiful. They took care of Alex and Leo together for the rest of the day until Jo came to pick up Alex. Amelia decided to stay for the night when Leo had difficulties sleeping.

Amelia was there when Owen brought Leo by the hospital for his six-month check-up. They arranged for Betty, Leo's birth mother, to meet them there. During the exam, Amelia noticed how Betty cringed when Arizona gave Leo a shot, so they waited together in the hallway for a bit and then went to get some food. Privately, Amelia asked how long she had been using and told her she recognized the signs of drug use, revealing her own struggles with sobriety. Betty admitted she had been using since she was prescribed opioids after surgery to repair a torn ACL and told Amelia that Leo's father was her drug dealer. Amelia then got the idea to take Betty in and help her stay sober. She talked it over with Richard, who encouraged her and said it could save Betty's life. She met up with the social worker, who thought it was unconventional but didn't see a problem. Amelia then told Owen, who offered to let the two of them stay with him as having Leo around would be an encouragement for Betty to stay sober. Amelia presented the offer, who ended up accepting. Amelia then set ground rules: no drugs, obligatory meetings, and contacting her parents to let them know she was safe. The new-found family then all went home together.

Amelia took some time off work to help Betty get through the worst stages of withdrawal. Betty lashed out several times, but Amelia knew that that last high was a demon dying a painful death and pushing her away to stay alive and she called herself the exorcist. Later, Amelia wanted to change Betty's fluids but found that she had escaped through the bathroom window. Distraught, she attended a meeting and talked about this epidemic of doctors who write these prescriptions that ruin good kids in an attempt to help.

A couple of days later, Betty returned to the house. Amelia came over and Betty told her that she left to get a high but was unsuccessful, after which she squatted on a friend's couch. She claimed she had come back because she missed Leo. Amelia then decided to take Betty to work so she could keep an eye on her. She left Betty on a seat outside the room while she and Arizona saw Nicole Herman, who had been having headaches and dizziness. Believing the tumor was back, Amelia decided to tell Nicole about her own as keeping that secret would endanger her sobriety. However, the cause of Nicole's problems turned out to be a spinal fluid leak. Amelia was pulled onto April's case to watch over her as she recovered from the hypothermia but she pulled through without deficits. Amelia then went to tell Nicole that she needed a shunt. She wanted her to go to Tom Koracick for it, but Nicole wanted her to do it instead because she went to see Tom after Amelia had removed her tumor. She and Tom also slept together and she overheard a phone call of his where he talked about Amelia's tumor, so Nicole already knew about the tumor that made crazy enough to tackle hers. Amelia left the room to make an angry phone call to Tom. She then went to take Betty home with her. Betty confessed she actually did get high, but Amelia already knew. She took Betty to a meeting. A month later, on the day of Alex and Jo's wedding, Amelia invited Betty's parents to celebrate her earning her 30 days chip, but they didn't show. Betty accompanied them to the wedding. Throughout the day, Amelia suggested that Meredith had feelings for Alex, but Meredith pointed out she was just projecting because she was starting to have feelings for Owen again now that they were playing house. Amelia helped to look for Alex when he and Jo went missing. When the wedding was called off due to several things going wrong, Amelia, Owen, Betty, and Leo joined the other guests on the ferry back to the city, where Meredith officiated an impromptu wedding for Jo and Alex.

Amelia's new family life hit a snag when Teddy returned to Seattle without informing Owen. They ran into each other at the hospital and Teddy briefly mentioned the interim Chief position. Amelia wondered if he was still hung up on her and then went to Bailey's office to make a case for her to be appointed interim Chief, stating that she was very dedicated to her work and questioning what Teddy had that she hadn't. She later talked it over with Tom while they continued to work on their ultrasound ablation project. He told her she was not a victim in her marriage. She had been an ass to Owen to the point that Tom didn't realize they were married when they had sex after removing the tumor. Tom told her to fight for Owen as you never just get things worth having without fighting for them, citing letting his wife leave him as an example. He told her it was anti-Amelia not to fight for what you want, not anti-feminist. That night at Owen's, Amelia told Owen that she had feelings for him again and that she couldn't forgive herself if her hiding her feelings would make him chase after Teddy. Owen says Teddy accused him of being unable to be alone and that he did not want her to be right, after which he kissed Amelia.

They wanted to have sex, but Leo and Betty waking up prevented them from doing so. Amelia then went home and told her sisters what happened. Owen and Amelia basked in their newfound happiness while they worked a case together, while Maggie and intern Casey had just learned about Teddy's pregnancy with Owen's child. Amelia encouraged Meredith to hire a matchmaker to get to the blissful place of dating where she and Owen were. Their patient had a motorcycle accident while not wearing a helmet, which led Owen to realize that he and Amelia were reckless last time they were together, which they couldn't afford to do again now that they had a to provide a stable environment for Leo and Betty. They met up after work and he stated he wanted all the strings, but she was reluctant because addicts have a certain wariness of change and commitment. However, she did promise to try and be less wary so they could be together and provide stability at home.

They quickly became accustomed to family life and Amelia officially declared herself off the dating market to her sisters, though she did admit that Link gave her "pants feelings" when they ran into him. Maggie then nudged Link in her direction in an attempt to minimize the damage that Teddy's still-secret pregnancy would cause. When Tom also flirted with her over their research, she started to wonder why everyone was so against her and Owen. Maggie later apologized for the way she behaved towards Amelia and Owen, after which Amelia comforted Maggie over Jackson's sudden departure. Afterwards, Amelia assured Owen that Maggie's thing was not about the two of them and they went to pick up the kids to go home.

Amelia kept guarding over Betty's sobriety and confronted her when she suspected Betty had slipped, which led to an argument between the two. Amelia decided to ground her and took her to the hospital for a tox screen, unbeknownst to Betty. When she found out, she left to go spend time with Leo in daycare. While watching her, Amelia admitted she had no idea how to discipline a teenager as her mother just let her do whatever she wanted after her father died. Owen said his mother was the opposite, which led to Amelia calling her for advice. Evelyn told her that children inevitably sail away from their parents and it's the parents' job to build them a boat strong enough to safely return when they feel like it. Betty later confessed that she smoked some weed. Amelia knew that she knew there was nothing like "just weed" for an addict and grounded Betty for a month.

Given Betty's recent slip and her own history of playing hooky, Amelia wanted to make sure that Betty wouldn't ditch school to get a fix, so she and Owen hung out around Betty's school. She told Owen about the time she got alcohol poisoning at the age of 14 in the middle of a school day. Owen brought up apps to track kids' phones and texts, which Amelia already installed to spy on Betty, which was how she had found out about a plan to cut class today. Owen found that to be obsessive, so she had him delete the apps from her phone. After a few hours, the school VP came to check who they were and then asked them to move. Not long after, they caught Betty and two friends trying to sneak out, so Owen alerted her to their presence to make her go back. He then decided they would stick around for the rest of the day. They spent time playing with a paper fortune teller and, while changing Leo, Amelia talked about how taking care of Betty and Leo made her realize that no kid could ever lessen her memories of her first son, Christopher, whose name she had never been able to say out loud out of fear of falling apart. Betty got in their car after her school day, frustrated that they had camped out there all day. That night, Amelia dropped by Meredith's house to pick up some things as she had decided to stay at Owen's a little longer than anticipated. Unbeknownst to her, Teddy had spent the entire day at Meredith's while discussing her pregnancy and plans for the future with Meredith.

Teddy came by the house to finally tell Owen about her pregnancy, but before she could do so, Amelia returned from daycare with the news that Betty had disappeared from school. The three of them spread out in the city to look for her, including amongst homeless teenagers in the park, and reconvened at the house with no result. They opted against calling the police because Betty wasn't a regular teenager. Amelia herself once disappeared and the police found her about to jump off her friend's roof high on pills. Owen took Amelia to a meeting while Teddy stayed behind in case Betty returned. Later that night, Betty still hadn't returned, making Amelia fear that she was dead. Owen took her in his arms and comforted her.

With a windstorm approaching Seattle, Owen and Amelia headed into work and dropped Leo off at daycare. While Amelia was treating Phoebe Moss, Amelia saw Betty walk down the hallway. She had a head lac from being hit by a tree branch, but she was otherwise fine. Amelia wanted a tox screen but Betty honestly admitted to being high. Amelia reminded Owen to tell the nurses that Betty's an addict and headed into surgery.Amelia lost her patient in surgery. While things were arranged for Phoebe to be an organ donor for Cece Colvin, Amelia had to call Phoebe's mother and tell her the bad news. Afterwards, Amelia went to hug Betty and told her that she always could and should come back. Amelia then went looking for Owen and eventually ended up on an elevator with him, Teddy, and a trauma patient. As she told Owen that she wanted to apply to become Betty's official foster mother, she noticed some tension between the other two. She asked what was going on as the power died, trapping the four of them in an elevator. The power kicked back in soon, but for some reason, the elevator remained stuck. Owen then revealed to her that Teddy was pregnant and she realized the child was his. While Teddy and Owen worked to stabilize the patient, Teddy told Owen that the two of them getting together was off the table, so he was free to be with Amelia. She just wanted to stay in Seattle so their child would have two parents and she would have her friend. They rushed out to an OR as soon as the elevator started working again. After saving the patient, Owen found Amelia and told her that Teddy's pregnancy didn't change anything, but she disagreed. She knew his history with Teddy and told him she was giving him time to consider all of his options. Later, Amelia heard from Richard that Betty had been looking for drugs in the hospital, making Amelia realize that she could no longer help Betty on her own. She booked a bed in a rehab center and made the offer to Betty, who accepted.

With Betty gone, Amelia dedicated all her energy towards finding a treatment plan for Catherine with Tom. She overheard Owen fighting with Teddy where he yelled that if she had been upfront right when she returned, he wouldn't be in this crap situation. Owen tried to explain his comment to Amelia, but Tom threw him out of the lab so they could focus on Catherine's case. They tried some approaches through VR glasses but none of them worked. Jo brought salvation when she informed them of a new type of visualization that they could use in surgery. Owen caught up with Amelia as she was heading out and told him that even though he was expecting a baby with Teddy, he also had a real family with Amelia and he didn't want to do anything of it without her. He told her he was choosing her, so they went home together.

The day finally arrived for Catherine's surgery. Amelia was nervous to operate on a surgical legend and did the superhero pose to gain confidence. Her and Tom's surgical plan had to be abandoned when they found that the tumor was too dense and too attached to the brachial plexus to remove it entirely without compromising motor function and thus Catherine's career. They opted to leave a small part behind, meaning Catherine would have to live with cancer. Catherine, however, was glad that they managed to give her her life back and accepted the outcome. That night, Amelia and Richard went to a meeting and she talked about how glad she was to be sober to experience a high like this, derived from giving Catherine her career and life back and saving her loved ones from losing her.

With the holidays approaching, Owen and Amelia decided to do Christmas presents at home instead of Meredith's so they could establish normalcy and traditions with Leo. Amelia visited Betty in rehab and told her that Leo was teething, but Betty told her that she didn't miss Leo as much as she did drugs, adding that she was still a kid of her own and shouldn't be a mother. The holidays passed and the visits continued. One time, Owen accompanied her and they saw Linus, a boy Betty had met there. During their talk, Betty came clean as part of the 12-step program and told them that her name was actually Britney and that she had run away from her parents, who don't know about Leo. She asked them not to call her parents as she feared they might take Leo away. That night at home, Owen tried to find Betty's real parents, but Amelia thought there was no point and that it was Betty's choice to make. He was angry at Betty for lying to her and didn't accept Amelia's explanation that it was part of the disease. He lashed out and said the addiction was just an excuse for piss-poor life choices. Hurt over his comment, she prepared to leave, but he apologized and said he was afraid of losing Leo. On Valentine's Day, Owen apologized for being an ass with a bouquet. Some time after, Amelia received a call from the rehab center that Betty had run off. As she was leaving the hospital, she was approached by Betty's real parents. Betty had called them from rehab two days ago, but when they arrived there today, they were told she had run off and they directed them to Amelia as Betty's legal guardian. Amelia explained the whole situation to them and then went to inform Owen about their arrival. Together, they took John and Carol to go see their grandson in daycare. Owen grew uneasy as they compared him to baby Betty, so he left. While John was off to find a hotel, Amelia talked with Carol. She recalled how terrified she was when Betty first ran off and said she couldn't imagine feeling that way for a year and a half. Carol said she was a good mother and talked about how the drugs ruined her little girl. She didn't understand how Britney could call her and then run off. Amelia shared her own history of drug abuse and shared how shame made her avoid her mother when she got clean. She promised Carol her little girl was still in there.

However, Carol told John and they decided to take Leo with them that night, refusing to leave Leo with another addict. Owen said he was Leo's legal guardian, forcing them to leave without their grandson. Afterwards, he yelled at Amelia for giving them information that they could use to take Leo away from him. Amelia said they weren't married, so she wasn't standing in the way of his fighting for Leo if he wanted to do that. He got mad that she used "if" but she pointed out that he was just Leo's foster father and that Leo's family had returned. She added he didn't even seem to care about Leo's mother being missing, but Owen said Betty was never a real mother.

Soon after, they arranged for Betty's parents to come pick up Leo. Owen and Amelia said their goodbyes and handed him over. Unable to deal with it, Owen quickly left for work. Amelia then finished packing while John and Carol fed Leo. She received a call from the hospital, which was flooded with a mass overdose, including Betty and Linus. Amelia rushed to the hospital with John and Carol and learned that Teddy would be operating on Betty's aortic dissection. Amelia took a moment to gather herself and talked with Link, who shared he goes to a blues bar in Barbados in his mind to escape to on stressful days. Their talk was interrupted when they found Linus in a closet, having died after self-medicating with unknown drugs. They were unable to save him and Amelia took it upon herself to call his parents. She broke down and Link comforted her. She then joined Owen, Carol, and John in the waiting room. Teddy eventually came by to tell Betty had made it through surgery. Amelia hugged her. Later, Amelia and Betty's parents visited her in the ICU. While John wanted to keep Linus's passing a secret, Amelia told them about Ryan and how his death was the rock bottom that pushed her to get sober. Together, they prayed that Linus's death would push Betty to decide to live. Betty woke up soon after with her parents and Owen and Amelia by her side.

The time came for goodbyes. Betty wasn't sure how to go back to living a normal teenager life, but Amelia told her the drugs were gone now and that she would always be there for her. Without a real goodbye, Betty left with John, Carol, and Leo. As soon as they were gone, Amelia went to get dressed for Catherine's party, unable to spend one more minute in the house. She and Owen ran into a kissing Tom and Teddy at the party. They learned that Tom was taking Teddy on a surprise trip to Palm Springs, which made Owen even grumpier, creating an even bigger contrast with Tom's chivalrous attitude towards Teddy. Amelia then vented to Meredith that she wasn't sure she and Owen were still a thing with the kids gone. While she and Owen intended to talk things out, they started bickering about how he couldn't accept addiction as a disease while he hated how she threw things from months ago in his face. She hated how he never checked up on her while she was in pain, too. She then brought up that he had been staring at Teddy the entire evening and walked away. She consulted with Meredith about Owen's feelings for Teddy. Meredith told her she'd have make to peace with the fact that Teddy would always be in Owen's life. Amelia then realized she and Owen were in a circle that just kept going around.

Owen later came to tell her that he was staring at Tom, not Teddy. He didn't want Tom around Teddy or his daughter. Amelia told him that shouldn't matter if he didn't have feelings for Teddy. He told her was being insecure despite his choosing her over and over again, but she couldn't trust that his feelings for Teddy wouldn't flare up once the baby arrived. She couldn't see a way out of that and realized she didn't need to try. She decided to step out of the circle because, unlike Owen, she wasn't stuck in that complicated baby situation. Amelia got a text from the Dickinsons and went to Owen's house. She summoned Owen and the Dickinsons told them that they weren't ready to raise a baby, nor did Betty want to be a mother. They realized that Owen and Amelia were Leo's real parents. Betty told Amelia she needed to be a kid who could make mistakes, which she couldn't do with Leo around. This time, Betty did say goodbye to Amelia, after which she left with her parents.

Owen and Amelia proceeded with Leo's adoption, but the procedure hit a bump when the lawyer discovered that the two of them weren't living together anymore. They hadn't discussed yet how they wanted to share custody, so the lawyer left them alone to get on the same page before she presented the case to a judge. They decided to use the 2-2-3 approach, which Amelia commented probably wouldn't last after the baby arrived. This brought up Owen's frustrations with Tom and Teddy's relationship. He once again declared that he had chosen Amelia, but she said that breaking up was a moment of clarity for her, and while it hurt, it hurt less than the alternative. Owen then started blaming her, saying that he had tried to blame it on the tumor but that it turned out that she was just fundamentally incapable of love. Amelia then decided to remove herself from the adoption paperwork. She wanted to be in Leo's life as Aunty Amelia as much as Owen would let her, but Leo was and always had been his. She then left the office and went to Meredith's, where her sisters comforted her.

Life After Owen
Soon after the definitive break-up, Amelia attended the Western States Conference for Alternative Pain Relief for the first time, which she found out about after the mass overdose day. Much to her surprise, she ran into Link there, who had attended the conference for a few years. She had avoided Link ever since she broke down in his arms on the overdose day and chose to continue to do so, but she ended up lying next to him at the sound bathing session. Feeling a bit loopy afterwards, she and Link sat down in a hallway. She confided in him that she felt unfinished with Betty, which he said is how parents feel. They briefly flirted and almost kissed, but she stopped herself and went to her room, declaring herself unfit for human contact.

She ran into him in the lobby the next morning. They got coffee together and attended the same talk. She later attended his talk, which chronicled a case of a boy becoming an opioid addict after a knee surgery and eventually dying because of the addiction. As soon as Link mentioned he'd prescribe opioids again, Amelia left the room. He later came by her room to explain, but she shut the door in his face. He claimed she would have done the same thing, but she disagreed as she knew how addiction works and how companies are profiting billions off it. He said he would prescribe opioids again, but not blindly this time around, as their effectiveness is unparalleled. He talked about the error of his ways and how he quit medicine after losing the patient, but he eventually returned to make things right. He suggested they take on that fight together. They then started kissing and agreed to be pain relief for one another.

A glowing Amelia returned to Seattle and Maggie soon figured out that she had had sex with Link. While they planned to keep it a one time thing, Amelia thought it best if they steered clear of one another as she appeared to be really attracted to his pheromones. That plan failed when they were put on Kari Donnelly's case together. Kari's spine fractured in two places after a snowmobile accident, which left her paralyzed from the neck down. After delivering the bad news to Kari's child, Amelia and Link ended up making out in the blue light mood room. Amelia and Link's sexual relationship continued for stress relief. Amelia ran into Owen and Leo on the hospital elevator, allowing her to spend time with Leo. Amelia then went to de-stress in the blue light mood room. It surprised her that seeing Owen still stressed her out because of the amazing sex she was having.

Personality
Amelia has spunk and is always very outspoken and charismatic. She is that "badass" type of girl who doesn't let anything or anyone get in her way. She also has a knack for saying the wrong things at the wrong time in uncomfortable or awkward situations. She seems to have slight trust issues also, because of her troubled past and has trouble letting others into her life. After overcoming her drug problems, she appears to have matured. Her dark backstory changed her, although she remains straight-shooting, sarcastic and funny. She sometimes appears to be tough and closed off, but she's occasionally warm and overbearingly compassionate. Callie describes her as "volatile," and she has earned the nickname "Hurricane Amelia."

Romantic
Throughout her time in Los Angeles, Amelia had several romantic flings, but none very serious.

Ryan Kerrigan
Amelia got serious with Ryan, whom she met at a club and subsequently slept with. Amelia and Ryan became very close with their common drug addiction, going on a drug binge for twelve days where they slept together and did drugs. He proposed and after she accepted, she gave him her father's watch, which she had stolen from her mother, as an engagement present. After a failed intervention with the Oceanside Wellness Group, Amelia returned to her hotel room with Ryan where they made the pact to "get clean" after consuming the last bit of the drugs they had; Amelia passed out and woke to find Ryan dead next to her. Before his body was taken away, she retrieved the watch from his wrist. After the ordeal, Amelia checked herself into a rehab facility. After she fully recovered, she discovered she was pregnant with Ryan's baby.

She discovered it quite late because she assumed the symptoms were withdrawal symptoms. When Addison gave Amelia her first ultrasound, she discovered her baby boy was anencephalic, meaning he would be born without a brain. During the pregnancy, Amelia decided to donate her baby's organs to save other babies all over the country. After some difficulties with St. Ambrose Hospital's lawyers and an ethical disagreement with Sam, the baby's organs were donated.

James Peterson
James and Amelia worked together at St. Ambrose. James kept asking her out, but she rejected him. When they finally went out, he didn't kiss her at the end of the date. He did that twice, which is why Amelia decided to go on a date with someone else. When she was getting ready to go to the date, James showed up at her house and said he couldn't stand the anticipation, and they finally kissed, starting off their relationship. At Naomi and Sam's wedding, he told her they were going to be the ones to get married someday. In March 2014, he proposed to her. She accepted, but the fact that she was facing a new kind of life made her freak out and flee to Seattle, to find out if she could live a life like her brother Derek and his wife Meredith. Soon after, she decided to move to Seattle and ended her relationship with James.

Mark Sloan
Mark was Derek's childhood friend and often spent time at the Shepherd household, so Amelia grew up with Mark around. Years later, they had a brief sexual relationship during her first visit to Seattle after the mass shooting. Amelia was shocked when she heard of Mark's death in the aftermath of the plane crash.

Owen Hunt
After some time in Seattle, Amelia began to bond with Owen, as they could relate to each other's rough pasts and offer support to one another and quickly found herself developing feelings for him. Having stayed out of the dating game for so long, she wasn't exactly sure how to approach him, but after some awkward encounters with him, she decided to act on her feelings and went to visit him with a bottle of water, which resulted in a kiss. After helping Ruby save her mom, they hugged. Then they were seen making out in an on-call room and he carried her to a bed. After many interruptions, while trying to consummate their affections, they finally slept together after Owen apologized for lashing out at her while his mother was in the hospital.

Amelia confessed to Derek that she was falling in love with Owen, and was afraid it was going to destroy her. When a surgery went wrong, Amelia accused Owen of only supporting her inferior approach because he had feelings for her. She said she gave up everything from her past life to start fresh in Seattle and that they shouldn't have started dating, as it affected their professional careers. Owen then tried to understand where that was coming from, but after fighting, Owen ended things in an on-call room, calling their relationship a "plane crash."

Later, when Amelia was living with Meredith and Maggie, she was left at the hospital by Meredith and Owen gave her a ride home. When they got there, he attempted to ask her to go to a concert with him and she kissed him. The two continued to grow very close, to the point where Amelia decided to propose to Owen, telling him that despite the fact that marriage may be too soon, she was sure that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. They got married soon after getting engaged in front of their friends and family.

Owen and Amelia's wedding bliss didn't last for long as they realized they had a difference in opinion about starting a family. Amelia felt that Owen was pressuring her to start a family, which she wasn't ready for. Their marital problems got so bad that Amelia didn't come home for weeks and avoided Owen at the hospital. After months of their marriage being on the rocks, Owen had enough and went to ask for a divorce from Amelia. Just as he was about to do so, he discovered that she had a brain tumor, which likely affected her judgement about their hasty marriage. Once the tumor was removed, Owen and Amelia amicably decided to get a divorce, as they didn't know which part of their relationship was not affected by her tumor, which had been growing for approximately ten years.

After getting divorced, Owen spent some time away from Amelia and decided to foster a baby named Leo. However, he soon realized he was in over his head and sought help from Amelia, who later moved in to help him and also mentored Leo's birth mother, Betty. Owen and Amelia bonded over their new family. Eventually, Amelia told Owen she still had feelings for him, and they got back together. Their relationship seemed to be back on track until Teddy returned to Seattle and revealed that she was pregnant with Owen's baby. Amelia gave Owen time to consider his options, and he chose Amelia. However, after Betty and Leo went back with Betty's parents, Owen and Amelia started fighting again, leading to another break up.

Atticus Lincoln
While looking for the quickest route to the ER, Link met Maggie, who suggested that Amelia might be good for him. He asked Amelia to have dinner with him, but Amelia was confused and quickly declined the offer to go out with him.

While Betty was in surgery, Amelia broke down sobbing and Link consoled her. Soon after, Amelia attended a medical conference where she ran into Link, who was giving a lecture. They flirted with each other and Amelia even decided to check out his presentation. After hearing that he prescribed opioids to a patient who became addicted and died and would do the same thing again, Amelia got upset and left. Link continued the lecture, but visited Amelia's room afterward and told her his patient needed opioids, but where he went wrong was not telling him and his mother how addictive opioids could be and not carefully monitoring him to make sure he didn't become addicted. He said he wanted to change the system to a relieved Amelia. Amelia made a move on Link and they ended up hooking up in her hotel room. When Nancy Shepherd reunited with Amelia she pretended that Link was Owen. Link and Amelia continued their relationship until Link realized Amelia saw it only as fling when she hid him from her sisters. He called her out for it and told her he wanted something more. After taking some time to think about it, Amelia said she needed to discover herself outside of Owen but that there might be a place for Link in her future.

Carina DeLuca
Amelia had a crush on Carina DeLuca and also masturbated for her study because of this.

Derek Shepherd
She and her only brother Derek share a special bond because they were together when they witnessed their father getting shot. Derek resuscitated her once after she overdosed in her youth, and her addiction issues troubled their relationship ever since.

They had their last conversation over the phone as she was operating. He was T-boned by a truck and taken to the small, suburban Dillard Medical Center, which was already swamped with patients from the car crash that Derek had helped with. Meredith was called and decided to pull the plug, something Amelia was among the last people to find out about. This upset her since it robbed her of a chance to say goodbye.

Addison Forbes Montgomery
She is very close to her former sister-in-law, Addison, and says that she has always been a better sister to her than her three real sisters. Addison did her hair for prom and she was the one to teach Amelia about birth control since Amelia didn't know who to ask. Amelia was the first one to find out about Addison's affair with Mark but decided to keep it secret because of how close she was to Addison.

Amelia shut out Addison when Addison informed her that her baby had no brain. When Amelia was in labor, she accepted Addison's help and they renewed their friendship. Addison even asked Amelia to be Henry's godmother.

Sheldon Wallace
Sheldon helped Amelia give up drugs. After Amelia's rehabilitation, Sheldon had a hard time forgiving her for the mistakes she made when she was using. After a short time, they reconciled. Amelia mentioned to him that he had to live a long life so that she could make everything he did for her up to him.

Charlotte King
Amelia and Charlotte were close friends. After Charlotte was raped, they bonded over their similar drug history. They went to AA meetings together and looked out for each other. Charlotte was very protective of Amelia when she knew of her newly developed cravings for alcohol. When Amelia slipped and drank before being paged to operate on a patient, Charlotte took her privilege to operate and fired her. After she hurt her hand in a bar, Sheldon took her to the hospital so that she could fix it. At the same time, Pete suffered a heart attack and Amelia was paged to help Sam in the OR to save Pete's life. Still technically not allowed to operate, Amelia still went and helped. Charlotte checked on her but let her do her thing anyway.

After the surgery, Charlotte talked to Amelia again about her addiction. Amelia argued she had never been an alcoholic and her problem were pills. Charlotte disagreed and told her she was still suspended until she got help because she refused to support her addiction any longer.

To prove that she was able to operate again, Amelia showed Charlotte her one month chip from AA. Charlotte still didn't give her her job back. After talking to Sheldon though, Charlotte gave in and let Amelia take a breathalyzer test to see if she wasn't lying. She was sober. They made a deal that Amelia could operate again, but would have to take a breath test every morning for a while.

After Amelia's friend Michelle died, she turned to drugs again. Charlotte eventually noticed her changed behavior and confronted her about her drug use. Amelia quit the practice as a consequence.

When Amelia broke into the practice to get her prescription pad, the police wanted to arrest her. Charlotte arrived and identified Amelia to protect her. As Amelia wanted to leave, Charlotte knew she had her prescription pad to get more drugs. She begged Amelia to accept her help but Amelia stormed off.

Charlotte then initiated the intervention in hope of saving Amelia. Amelia said some hurtful things during this time but after she got out of rehab 50 days later, Charlotte welcomed her back nevertheless. Their friendship survived Amelia's relapse.

When Amelia found out about her brainless baby, Charlotte tried to talk to her several times but was shut down. When she wanted to donate the baby's organs, Charlotte did everything she could to make that happen despite her own opinion on the donation.

When Charlotte was pregnant, Amelia helped her through that time very often. While Charlotte was in labor and therefore in a lot of pain, Amelia walked with her and helped her by soothing the pain with a special grip that Jake had helped her with once.

Career
Amelia graduated at the top of her class at Harvard Medical School, completed her surgical residency at Johns Hopkins, and followed up with a neurosurgical fellowship. She has published enough research to "single-handedly wipe out several forests."

She is board certified in neurosurgery and was employed as one of Dr. Geraldine Ginsberg's teaching fellows until Ginsberg fired her for discussing with a patient's husband a surgery that Ginsberg did not recommend and considered highly experimental, which was successful.

She is a world-class neurosurgeon like Derek and although talking to her brother about her situation could help her find a new position she does not want to call him because of the "lectures and the "I told you so"s and the "You screwed up again"s that she fears will follow. Amelia takes risks in surgeries and at times appears very confident in her own abilities but when problems arise she can become overwhelmed with self-doubt. Sam had to push her to finish her surgery on Addison's comatose patient after complications arose.

After she was fired by Dr. Ginsberg, Amelia worked as a neurosurgeon at the Oceanside Wellness Group. After this practice was dissolved, Amelia continued working at Seaside Health and Wellness, the successor of the Oceanside Wellness Group. While working at both practices, Amelia held hospital privileges at St. Ambrose Hospital.

A few years later, she went to Seattle to visit her brother and sister-in-law as well as their kids. While she was there, she was given privileges at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and eventually started taking over her brother's practice. Since he planned to move to D.C., she took over his job and became the Head of Neurosurgery.

Notes and Trivia

 * She drives a BMW 7 Series.
 * She has a freckle that looks like Indiana.
 * She claims to be "freakishly" good at stitching.
 * Although she mentioned Derek is the only one who can call her Amy, Meredith calls her Amy and has her in her phone address book under the name Amy as well.
 * Amelia was contacted when Derek needed a nerve after the plane crash, but she didn't answer the call and presumably never replied to the message Heather left her. It can be presumed she didn't want to go through uncomfortable and possibly painful medical procedures so shortly after getting sober as it might have amped up her craving for pills.
 * Bokhee is her favorite scrub nurse.
 * Because Amelia completed a surgical residency prior to a neurosurgery fellowship, she is also board certified in general surgery, but because neurosurgery is considered a sub-specialty of general surgery, Amelia is not "double-board certified", as board certification in general surgery is required to obtain board certification in neurosurgery.
 * She said to Owen that she lost all the men she loved, referring to her father, her brother, her son, and her fiancé.
 * She doesn't wear panties.
 * Amelia knew she wanted to be a surgeon since she was 6.
 * Amelia has referred to herself, Meredith, and Maggie as "Lady Chief Trifecta", "The House of Lady Chiefs", and "Sister Lady Chiefs".
 * Amelia has a fireworks-themed personalized scrub cap.
 * Classical music puts Amelia to sleep.
 * Amelia is right-handed.
 * She speaks German.  She also speaks French on a subconscious level because of the French preschool she attended.
 * Her mortality rate is 0.9%.
 * She likes to put the thermostat to "boiling".
 * Amelia needs to floss before sleeping, or else she can't sleep.
 * Amelia had ligyrophobia. After her father's death, she was afraid of all loud noises. To get over her fear, she bought firecrackers and set them off until she wasn't afraid anymore.
 * She likes Italian food.
 * A paper fortune teller helped her decide what college to attend.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Amelia-centric or otherwise very informative about her life.
 * Eyes Wide Open
 * Superfreak
 * Have You Seen Me Lately?
 * Who We Are
 * The Breaking Point
 * You Break My Heart
 * Gone, Baby, Gone
 * Good Fries Are Hard to Come By
 * Change of Heart
 * Could We Start Again, Please?
 * Staring at the End
 * The Distance
 * Family Affair
 * Get Off on the Pain
 * Go Big or Go Home
 * Ain't That a Kick in the Head
 * Good Shepherd

Memorable Quotes

 * Amelia: I can remove the tumor and the carotid infiltrated together, you have to put a catheter in the femoral ball in a precise position, inflate them to stop the blood flow, making two arteriotomies, attach a heparinized shunt and restore irrigation.
 * Lexie: That's all?
 * Amelia: Ohhh ... and do it in ninety seconds. Any longer and she strokes out.


 * Amelia: When I was a kid, my dad was shot in front of me. You know, what helped keep me going, was my mother. Every night before bed she said ‘goodnight, I love you. I will see you tomorrow.’ and there was no confusion. There was no doubt that she loved me enough for both of them, and that even in his absence she would be there, always.


 * Amelia: I'm an adult. Do you think that means I miss my father any less? He never saw me become a surgeon, he's not gonna walk me down the aisle, he's not gonna see my kids. I would give anything, Addison. Anything to have him. I mean you're talking about 10 or 15 good years, I am talking about a lifetime... if someone would have given me a chance to have him for all of it... (Walks away crying)


 * Amelia: Have you ever seen an anencephalic baby?
 * James: What?
 * Amelia: I gave birth to one, not that long ago. I held him for a few minutes and then I donated his organs. They took him out of my arms and they took him apart. And if I let myself drink I would never stop. You're asking me out because you look at me and you think we're about the same age, we could have fun. I might have made the same mistake if I were you. But we're not the same age. I'm about a hundred years older than I look.


 * Amelia: Everyone's been looking at me, waiting for me to fall apart, or freak out, or just become a mess. Like some bomb everyone thinks is supposed to go off. My mother was calling three, four times a day. Addison was calling. Everyone. Makes sense. It's natural. Every man I've ever loved has died. Including my baby. Thank you, universe. So, I should be, like Greek tragedy, turned to stone, bat-crap crazy, but I'm good. I got this. I am fine. I'm telling you, I'm amazing. I am saving lives left and right. I am putting butts in the seats in that O.R. gallery. I mean, people are fighting to hear me lecture. I am entertaining. Joke, joke, joke! I'm funny! I'm fun! I'm a party! I'm doing I'm great! I'm handling the dead-Derek thing really well.


 * Derek: Look, I'm… I'm trying to help you. Please, don't put yourself through this. You're too fragile.
 * Amelia: I am not fragile. I'm a drug addict. I've fallen off the wagon twice and I've gotten back on it. That doesn't make you fragile, Derek, that makes you very freaking strong. I am standing in a building full of pills right now, a fact that I am painfully aware of … But I am doing this. That is not fragile.


 * Amelia: My father was murdered. My brother and I were there when it happened. I was just a kid at the time, but the bottom fell out of my whole world. I was.. There was a dark place, and I was in it. Until one day this friend gave me a pill. And I took it, and all of a sudden I felt okay. Better than okay. I felt good, and so I kept taking them and I felt.. great. And when people would try to stop me and tell me it wasn't real, I would just laugh. Because it was real. How I felt, it was better. It was better than being miserable. But it almost killed me. I was dead for three minutes, and let me tell you, when you are lying on a stretcher, gasping for what you think are your last breaths, you don't think that dying happy is better than living sad. Dying sucks. It hurts. In a way that I can't describe to you. And no, I don't believe that people can change. I don't believe that you'll change, but maybe I'm wrong. And hell, maybe you will wake up from the surgery and you will be happy. But if you're dead.. if you're rotting in the ground from some tumor that ate your brain, you don't get a chance to find that out. One more thing, and then I'll go. I'm not a religious person. I don't believe in God. But if I did, I wouldn't believe in a God that wanted you to die the horrible, painful death that you will experience from a giant tumor that will take away your ability to speak, and see, and go to the bathroom, and breathe on your own. That can't be good.


 * Amelia: In the beginning everyone's there, but then they forget.


 * Amelia: The key, though, win or lose, is not to fail. And the only way to fail is not to fight. So you fight until you can't fight anymore. Hold up you head and enter the arena, and face the enemy. Fight until you can't fight anymore, never let go, never give up, never run, never surrender. Fight the good fight, you fight even when it seems inevitable that you're about to go down swinging. Why do we even try when the barriers are so high and the odds are so low? Why don't we just pack it in and go home? It would be so, so much easier. It's because in the end, there's no glory in easy. No one remembers easy. They remember the blood and the bones and the long, agonizing fight to the top. And that is how you become legendary.


 * Amelia: If you aren't willing to keep looking for light in the darkest of places without stopping, even when it seems impossible, you will never succeed.


 * Stephanie: Okay. I have everything set up. You will have all of your films. Your favorite scrub nurse. (pauses) What is happening?
 * Amelia: I'm being a superhero.
 * Stephanie: Okay.
 * Amelia: There's a scientific study that shows that if you stand like this, in superhero pose, for just five minutes before a job interview or a big presentation or a really hard task, you will not only feel more confident, you will perform measurably better.


 * Amelia: Life will always find a way to continue. Always. Life will out.


 * Amelia: At least you know what you want. I mean, you know who you are and what you want and what's important to you. Me, I'm a mess. I don't have anything, or anyone, or even any kind of idea who I am, or what I am doing, or why. And I have done stuff. I have done bad stuff and I don't know what I'm doing anymore.


 * Amelia: People don't change. They modify. They adjust. Underneath, we are who we are. People just get better at covering up their flaws.


 * Amelia: I don't know how to apologize. I don't know how. I wanna take back everything I said, I know I can't. I was sick, and I was scared. And I didn't mean…I wanted to hurt you, I was trying to hurt you and I think I succeeded. And if I could change that, if I could go back and unsay…If I could go back and undo…The drugs… some people think that alcohol and drugs bring out the truth…Maybe that's the case with normal people, I don't know. I won't ever know. But I know that with me the drugs bring out lies, they bring out hate, and they bring out cruelty and viciousness, and those things are not me. They are not the real me. The real me is the person that you knew before the drugs, the real me is the person that is sitting here now. And I hope that you believe me when I say how sorry I am. But even if you don't believe me I have to say it anyway because I wanna live. The man I loved died and I think that he would be…I think that he would be so pissed at me if I died too so, I'm saying that I'm sorry and I'm saying that I hope you can forgive me. I hope I can forgive myself. I can't take it back but I'm gonna try to move forward and I'm going to try to do better. I'm gonna try to never hurt any of you ever again.


 * Amelia: Can I say one thing? She loved him, there was a reason. She loved him for a reason. That's what I hold on to, Derek loved her. Your sister loved Riggs, so there's good in there. That makes him family and that means that maybe he deserves another chance.


 * Amelia: You're gonna say it's because, technically, a child with a working brain stem can't be declared brain dead even though he'll never walk or talk or move or eat, even though he's missing the parts of his brain that he needs to have a life. Not just be alive, but have a life. To love, to think, to know words and feelings, to be conscious. You're gonna talk to me about medicine and technicalities and the failings of science. Yeah. But the thing is, that's not why you won't do the harvest. It's because it's unimaginable. What I'm asking you to do is unimaginable. It's horrible. It's excruciating. I'm asking you to help dismantle my baby for parts. And there's no piece of anyone's soul that can hold that and feel okay. But I'm asking. I'm asking you. I'm his mother. And I'm asking you to do this. And you want to know why? It's because I did a little research, Sam. Science. In Chicago, there's this baby girl, 6 weeks old, with pulmonary hypertension who needs new lungs. Outside Detroit there is a 10-day-old boy who was born blind, but could see if he had new corneas. I read this blog about this 14-month-old kid named Gideon in San Diego who's been on a heart-lung machine for months because he needs one tiny valve in his heart. There's burned babies who need skin. There's infants who need livers, and toddlers who need kidneys, and there's even this one 4-month-old girl named Lulu who needs a multiple-organ transplant. My baby could save all of those babies. He could be responsible for kids leaving the hospital and going home and growing up and falling in love and having sex and arguing with their boyfriends and making mistakes and living and maybe not ruining their lives with drugs. What I'm asking you to do is unimaginable. But it's also everything those other mothers could ever imagine. I'm his mom. And I'm asking you to do this. If I can get there, why can't you?

Appearances
Amelia Shepherd Amelia Shepherd Amelia Shepherd