Things Between Dr. Amelia Shepherd and Dr. Kai Bartley Are Heating up on 'Grey's Anatomy'

Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Grey's Anatomy Season 18.

There are plenty of reasons why Amelia Shepherd is considered one of the most fascinating characters from Grey’s Anatomy. The fictional head of neurosurgery is a huge part of the medical drama, played by none other than Caterina Scorsone. Caterina is widely recognized for her work on Grey's Anatomy, but she's also been part of shows such as Private Practice, Station 19, and Missing.

Amelia made her intentions extremely clear in an episode of Grey's Anatomy when she said, “My job is not to make you feel better about me. My job is to make my patients get better." It's pretty obvious she takes her career extremely seriously! Something else she takes pretty seriously is her love life. Here’s what you should know about her new love interest and the complications it might cause in the future.

Amelia's been crushing on the same person for several episodes of Season 18. Their name is Dr. Kai Bartley, and they're working on the Parkinson's project in Minnesota along with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Amelia. Amelia's complicated ex Link (Chris Carmack) was on a mission to win her back by convincing her to reconcile, but by the time he got to her, he was beyond surprised to find Amelia and Kai in a more than friendly embrace.

Instead of telling Amelia how that made him feel, he took his irrational anger out on her while they were both operating on Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), which of course makes us wonder if anyone is ever properly treated at Grey Sloan Memorial. While they had it out post-op, things were left slightly unresolved as Amelia had to focus on the career-making surgery of her life in Minnesota.

Amelia, Meredith, and Kai were finally able to perform their groundbreaking Parkinson's surgery on Dr. Alan Hamilton (Peter Gallagher), which was, of course, very intense and emotional. After they completed the surgery, Amelia was invited by Kai to see a band play, where she discovered Kai was in the band. Since no one can resist a lead singer, Amelia went home with Kai, which gifted us with one of the hottest sex scenes we've seen on the show in quite some time.

Honestly, it's so refreshing to see this kind of relationship played out in a way that doesn't hammer home the fact that it's not a cis heteronormative couple. They were sweet and affectionate with each other, and it left fans hoping to see more of this burgeoning romance. Of course, Amelia had to leave Kai to go back to Seattle, but things were left open-ended. Fingers crossed we get to see more of Kai.

Link's desire to get back together with Amelia might not be something she shares at the moment, but at one point, she was definitely interested in seeing what could happen. They weren’t seriously committed when she found out she was pregnant with his child, which further added to the complications of their romance. Aside from Link, Amelia was also married to Owen earlier in her life, but marriage was extremely short-lived.

Before that, she was engaged to marry James Peterson, but they were over by the time she realized she was ready to move to Seattle. Before that, she was engaged to Ryan Kerrigan while living in Los Angeles. They probably would’ve made it down the aisle had it not been for his death.

Clearly, Amelia's relationships over the years have been far from simple, and now that she’s in somewhat of a love triangle with Link and Kai, it’s obvious things aren’t going to get any more simplified anytime soon. These characters have a lot of emotional sorting to do and some very serious conversations about the future need to take place.

Grey's Anatomy airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.