Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters thereof. This is just for fun.

Hi everyone, hear is the promised sequel to One of Their Own. Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Previously: "Mere, Zola's here to see you," Derek said, hoping that Meredith could hear him.

Then, as if by a miracle Meredith's eyelids fluttered open, her gaze slowly moved around the room, unfocused.

"Mere? Meredith, can you hear me?"

Now

Six weeks had passed since Meredith had first awoken from her comatose state, and now she was undergoing intensive physical rehabilitation to regain her strength. That said, she could do little more than shift her hand.

Consulting neurosurgeon, Meredith's sister-in-law, Amelia Shepherd had rushed to Seattle to assess Meredith when she had first regained consciousness, and although it was more than she had expected for Meredith to have regained consciousness, it was clear that Meredith had a long road ahead of her.

Most troubling to Amelia was Meredith's cognitive deficits and severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia; her long term memory was limited to up until two days before the ambulance accident, and her short term memory only allowed her to remember what had happened in the past five minutes.

In many ways Derek now had three children to take care of, Zola, their adopted daughter, Clarissa, their daughter born six weeks ago, and Meredith. There seemed little hope that Derek would ever truly get back the woman he loved, that woman was gone.

Since their daughter, Clarissa Amy Shepherd was born Derek had been forced to end his constant vigil over Meredith, but that did not mean that he did not spend as much time as possible with her.

Derek balanced Zola on his hip, as he pushed the pram into Meredith's room; as had become normal, he was greeted warmly by Meredith, before her expression turned to one of confusion as she took in the sight of the two children that Derek had with him.

"Meredith, remember you were in an accident, you have some memory loss. I know that this doesn't make sense to you Mere, but we were granted custody of Zola, and you gave birth to Clarissa six weeks ago," Derek knew this sad statement all too well, he said it with some variation dozens of times every day. "How are you today?"

Without fail, Meredith would then insist on holding Zola, or rather having Zola sit with her on the bed as Derek stood close by, but she wouldn't hold her own daughter, disbelieving that she really was theirs. It broke Derek's heart.

In truth they had not even been able to truly share the moment as their baby girl was born, a moment that Meredith would never remember.

They had been planning to try a natural childbirth, but when Meredith woke up it became a much more complex decision. It was decided that they could no longer only do what was in the baby's best interests, as now there was hope for Meredith's recovery, so it was decided that a natural childbirth posed too great of a risk of causing further brain injury in their now conscious patient.

So instead Derek and Meredith were taken into the operating room two days after Meredith woke up, and Derek tried to calm his frightened wife as Addison delivered Clarissa by caesarean section.

That first moment when Derek had seen his baby girl for the very first time had been the most amazing experience, he felt overwhelmed with joy. Then he looked to Meredith, and his eyes met her expression of panic and confusion, and the moment was gone.

Derek had little choice other than to accept his new role as an essentially single father of two young girls. Of course he had the support of his colleagues and his mother, Carolyn who had flown out soon after Clarissa was born, but the one person he truly want by his side as their daughters grew up was gone.

Now Derek's day started early in the morning to Clarissa or Zola crying, often both. He would get up, and soon after he would carry both girls out to the lounge room, so that he could organize their breakfast, and get them ready to go to childcare.

And with every day that passed Derek felt himself getting used to the routine, but at the same time he grew more fatigued. He didn't want to get out of bed.

He loved his children, this could not be mistaken, but when it came to caring for Clarissa and Zola it was all that Derek could do to cater for their essential needs. At times it felt almost as though he had died inside.

Maybe he had.

The staff at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital also noticed a change in Derek.

Each day as Derek would bring the girls into the hospital to drop them at the crèche before starting work, it was clear to everyone around that he was not coping. Meredith's accident, and the act of raising their two children without her was just too great of a burden to bear.

Maybe that's why Derek did what he did.

It wasn't difficult at all for Derek to slip unnoticed into the dispensary, and take out large quantities of morphine, succinylcholine, and potassium.

Derek felt trapped, and this was his way out.

Seldom had Derek used his office, but somehow it seemed like a fitting place to end his life, the life that he had been building with Meredith. Derek carefully placed the papers giving custody of his daughters to his mother, alongside a brief note.

Then Derek was ready.

It took Derek several attempts to place a cannula in his hand. He then drew up lethal doses of each drug, and lined them up in front of him on his desk. First he injected the morphine, he felt it start to take effect very quickly, his breathing became shallow.

It had started.

He knew that he needed to work quickly now, once he'd injected the paralytic he would have maybe ten seconds to inject the potassium that would stop his heart. Derek kept going, but all too quickly he felt himself slipping away, and then he knew no more.

TBC...

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