Welcome to my new fiction. You will not need to have read Realize to understand anything in this, so I hope that you enjoy it!

Here's some background...

We are set ten years from where we finished in Realize, still Mer's POV... Mer and Derek have recently separated after ten years of a troubled marriage. Derek is the Chief of Surgery and Mer is Head of Neuro.

The Shepherd Children

Charlie - 15yrs
Riley - 11 yrs
Mia - 9 yrs

Izzie and George are both General Surgeons, together and married for nine years now living in Mer's house still when she moves back in with them.

The O'Malley Twins

Jordin (Girl) - 9 yrs
Jacob (Boy) - 9 yrs

Cristina and Burke are still happily together but not married as they just don't care anymore. Burke is Chief of Surgery at Mercy West and Cristina is Head of Cardio at SGH.

Most characters will make an appearance, including Addie!

Enjoy!!

"Charlie!" I called from the kitchen.

I heard her feet bound across the top floor as the hit the stairs with a thud; she ran down the stairs and entered the kitchen dressed in an outfit she had only bought yesterday. My jaw dropped as I saw her standing there in a short black mini skirt that barely covered her legs and a violet halter top that exposed her chest and barely formed female curves with a plunging neckline.

"Oh my god…" I gasped. "What the hell are you wearing?" I cried. "Get back upstairs and change into some jeans and a sweater!"

Charlie frowned.

"Try…no!" she exclaimed.

"Yes!" I shot back. "You are not going to school dressed in something that could barely pass as underwear Charlie!"

"Dad would let me wear it!" Charlie replied defiantly.

"Ha! I don't think so madam! Your father would be mortified at the thought! He would kill you…and me, for that matter! Now go upstairs and get dressed!" I told her.

"Seriously!" Charlie cried.

"Charlie!" I chastised. "At least go and put a sweater on please! And then go and check on Riley and Mia…make sure they are ready to go to school…."

Charlie rolled her eyes and stopped at the kitchen door.

"Riley! Mia!" she shouted in the most shrill and high pitched tone I had ever heard in my life.

I put my hands on my hips.

"I could have done that!" I told her.

She bounded up the stairs as the new shoes she had bought to compliment the outfit hit the timber of the floor in loud thuds. I turned around and picked up Mia and Riley's lunches, shoving them in their back packs.

"Mom's taxi is leaving in two minutes!" I called out to the kids from the kitchen door, just as I had cringed at Charlie doing so two minutes earlier.

Riley was the first to come into the kitchen as he ran down the stairs, eagerly ready to go to school. He flicked open his lunch box.

"There's a treat in there for you," I said to him as I smiled and winked secretively.

"Mmm…thanks mom, the last of Aunty Izzie's chocolate brownies!" he replied excitedly.

"Don't tell your sisters!" I said kissing his forehead.

"Don't tell us what?" Charlie asked as she walked back into the kitchen with Mia closely in tow.

"That I…oh my god…!" I turned to stare at Mia who had destroyed her beautiful complexion with an erratic and messy array of brightly coloured makeup which had undoubtedly come from Charlie's makeup box that I thought was locked safely out of nine year old hands. Her lipstick was so carefully applied all around the edges of her mouth and every other place but her lips, her eye shadow raised high under her eyebrows and her hair was covered in glitter as her blonde curls sat loosely around her face. "Mia!" I gasped.

"Do you like my makeup?" she asked proudly.

"NO!" I cried. "Beautiful nine year olds with stunning lips and gorgeous big green eyes do not need makeup!"

Charlie mustered a laugh.

"Grab some tissues and lets go!" I told them. "We are going to be late if we don't leave now, and it will be three times this week!" I turned to Charlie and shook my head with a heavy sigh. "Put your makeup out of your sister's reach please…"

The kids grabbed their backpacks and we all headed for the door as I tried my best to wipe off Mia's makeup as we walked to the car.

"Shotgun!" Riley yelled as he quickened his pace so that he could run for the front door of the Jeep.

"No way!" Charlie shouted as she raced over to the door and used all of her light weight to shove him out the way.

I groaned heavily as I stopped wiping Mia's face; I walked over in a brisk movement and grabbed onto their backpacks as I pulled them back from each other.

"Shut up!" I told them in a frustrated voice. I turned to Riley with a heavy sigh and shook my head. "You said it first, now before I change my mind and shove you in the trunk, get in!"

"Hands off the Prada!" Charlie cried as she whipped around and stared at me with dark eyes. She had an attitude that over the years she seemed to have learned from me to a degree.

"Charlie…not now…" I groaned as I was so not in the mood for her new obsession with labels. "Can you please strap your sister in?"

She rolled her eyes reluctantly and proceeded to help Mia into her seat belt, which was more of a frustrated grunt and click.

I reversed out of the driveway as I began to anticipate just what argument I would be refereeing in the car on the way to school today. They had been at Derek's house all week and I was just so happy to see them because I missed them so much when I couldn't see them every day. But when they came home each child was frustrated with the living arrangements and used arguing with each other as a way to vent their irritation. But it was so draining sometimes…

Charlie and Riley clashed so badly because they were so a like, yet so much like Derek and me in ways that were seemingly unimaginable. Charlie had come to be as stubborn as me and Riley was a tease and prankster like Derek.

I flicked on the radio to let The Clash ring in my ears like a sign that had been sent to torture me on what was already becoming a difficult trip. I tried desperately to fight the urge to think of Derek but failed miserably.

"Hey mom, put on the Tegan and Sara album!" Charlie suggested as she leaned from the backseat over my shoulder.

"No mom! I wanna listen to the Clash!" Riley shot back as he whipped around in his seat and glared at Charlie.

"You were listening to it all week at Dad's!" Charlie exclaimed. "Go on mom, hit the button!"

"No don't do it mom!" Riley said quickly.

Charlie leaned forward in her seat and formed a fist in her left hand as she shoved Riley in the back; just as she did this, Riley whirled around and wriggled out of his seat belt to jab her in the leg.

"Quit it you little worm!" Charlie cried.

"Put on High School Musical!" Mia said over the top of the yelling as she attempted to solve the argument in her naivety.

"Kids!" I cried. "Leave the radio as it is or I will turn it off completely!"

"Are we going to see daddy today mommy?" Mia asked me hopefully; she really was daddy's little girl and the separation had been hardest on her because of her age. She didn't really understand the concept and wasn't adjusting at all.

"No honey, remember, you're with me this week," I told her as I looked into the rear view mirror and anticipated her reaction. I saw a hopeful look drop from her eyes and sadness form across the crystal green that was so much like me.

Inevitably, the split was hard on all of the kids as regardless of what I thought of Derek in that moment, he had always played a major role in every special moment of their lives. But when we built the house and Derek became chief, our lives became messy and we saw less of each other. We fought all the time and the kids were suffering as a result of it. As rational adults, or so we thought, we came to the conclusion that a separation was the only way it would work.

I moved back into my mother's house with Izzie and George who had been raising their twins Jordin, who was so much like her mother it was scary, and Jacob who had become a miniature George in ways I never could have imagined. When I had the kids, it was very crowded but Mia slept in my bed and it wasn't so bad.

But I resented the separation and my life was not as easy as I had imagined when the idea had first been brainstormed. My life was harder than it had been when Derek and I were together.

I pulled up at Riley and Mia's school to let them out.

"Bye mommy," Mia leaned over and kissed me from the back seat as she fiddled with her seat belt.

"Bye mom!" Riley said ever so casually as he flicked his dark hair out of his sapphire blue eyes and reached over for the door handle.

"Oh, excuse you mister!" I laughed as I grabbed him before he went to climb out of the car. I leaned over to kiss him on his cheek where he rubbed off the residue that my lip gloss left. "Bye sweetie," I smiled as I then turned to Mia. "Now, you be good miss!" I told her; she was extremely cheeky and was always in trouble, in that respect she was so much like her father.

"Bye mom!" they called as I drove away.

I approached Charlie's high school and looked around at the groups of teenagers that congregated out the front on the lawn.

"Are you okay mom?" Charlie asked.

I looked at her and smiled at her caring voice.

"Of course I am babe…" I answered as I ran my fingers through her hair as I gently swept it to the side. "I am just thinking about some things…why do you ask?"

"Because I know that you miss dad…" she replied. "And you just haven't been yourself…"

I nodded.

"I'm okay honey," I told her with a brave smile that I couldn't even hide from my own daughter. "Have a great day," I said as I leaned over to kiss and hug her tightly. "Please, don't take that sweater off and don't stay on your cell phone all day…particularly in class; the phone bill was too expensive last week and I don't want another phone call from your Chemistry teacher!"

"Mom…it's chemistry! So boring!" Charlie cried.

I frowned.

"Coming from the same little girl who a little over ten years ago wanted to be a doctor!" I sighed.

"Love you mom!" Charlie kissed me again and climbed out the door.

"I love you too," I replied as I watched her step out of the car and have nearly every boy in the yard stop and stare. I watched her walk over to a crowd of boys and sit down.

She wasn't that little girl anymore…I thought to myself as I stopped to think about that little four year old that made my life more different than I could imagine.

I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter; in this story you will see a very rebellious Charlie which will make this fiction very, very interesting!!

Mer and Derek need to realise a few things before we can work on them getting back together!!

Expect drama, tears and laughs as we fill the next installment!!

REVIEWS!!