3 days.

That was the last time Meredith saw him. It was 3 days ago that Meredith had walked out the door. She looked at the rearview mirror, looking back at the little boy sleeping in the seat. His dirty blond hair stuck up in awkward angles, a result of the various positions he had slept in the car seat. She sighed as she drove to the familiar hospital, pulling into a parking space. She unbuckled the boy from his car seat and placed him on her hip. He opened his eyes when the movement jarred him awake. "Mommy?" he asked looking into her eyes.

"Yes baby, it's just me," his pale blue, almost grey eyes, made her heart drop. They reminded her so much of his father's.

She walked through the doors of Seattle Grace Hospital and immediately ran into a familiar face.

"Meredith?" she heard from behind her. Turning she found herself face to face with Derek Shepherd.

"Meredith, what are you doing here, where's Mark?" he asked her.

Tears began to slide down her face as she explained, "New York, I left him; I caught him with another woman."

Derek pulled her into a hug thinking, to himself, why was his best friend such an ass. Meredith suddenly stood up straight and wiped the tears from her face.

"I have a meeting with Chief Webber," she said "I better get going."

Derek watched her walk down the hall in stunned silence, then, his phone began to ring, pulling him from his trance. He answered it without looking to see who it was.

"Derek Shepherd," he said quickly.

"Is she there?" he heard from the other end.

"Mark? You're an ass," he said bluntly.

"Shep is she there?" he heard back an obvious pleading in the asker's voice.

Derek nodded then realizing that he couldn't see him let out an exasperated "Yes."

"I swear it isn't what it looked like Derek, I would never do that to Mer," he pleaded.

"Why are you trying to convince me of that?" Derek replied harshly before saying he was needed and hanging up the phone.

Meanwhile Meredith sat in the chief's office waiting for him. She watched the boy run a toy car along the seat cushion while quiet whispers of "zoom, zoom" left his lips. When the chief entered he had to do a double take, she looked so different, yet was exactly the same. "Meredith?" he said quietly.

She turned at the sound of her name and smiled at him. "Hello Richard," she said back.

He walked around the desk to his chair and placed himself in it.

"Oh my," he gasped "this is not Asher is it?"

She nodded her head and said "he is getting big, almost 3 years old."

After that the conversation moved to the actual reason she was there, she wanted a job. Luckily, one was available so she was set to start in two days. After their conversation she left the hospital and headed to her mother's old house.