It had been three years since her life changed. She had lost her husband, she had had another baby, she had started a relationship with someone new. It took her a while to come to terms with what happened, losing her husband and having to pull the plug. Her life had just started to look up, she was in a new relationship and she was planning on introducing him to her kids. Everything was on the up until she heard the news about her sister.

Amelia had been diagnosed with a tumor, a 10cm tumor. There was only one person she knew could help her and remove the tumor, but he was dead. She had been admitted to the hospital, while they waited to find a surgeon talented enough to remove it.

Meredith had just got home after hearing the news about her sister in law, and was sat on her bed. Just if Derek was here to help her, help his sister and be there for his kids. He had a child that he didn't know about, he had died before she was born. She didn't think Zola would ever get over losing her dad, and Bailey was still too young to fully understand what had happened.

She would give anything to have her husband back, to have the life she had before. She found it hard to look after three children alone, her sisters helped her, but it wasn't the same as having their dad around. She missed him at the hospital too, not seeing him stood in the OR in his ferryboat scrub cap or walking through the halls in his dark blue scrubs.

There was nothing that Meredith could do to help Amelia apart from being there for her. she just had to be there for her, before the surgery and after. She was sat on her bed, with the kids. Bailey asleep on what was Derek's side, Zola was sat near the end of the bed and Ellis was lay next to Meredith asleep.

'Mommy, I miss daddy' Zola said

'I miss him too Zozo' Meredith said, it broke her heart when she heard her kids say things like that

'Come here' Meredith said letting Zola sit on her knee and cuddle into her chest and falling sleep. Meredith was slowly nodding off once all her kids were asleep when her phone beeped. She picked up and read the text from Maggie. She was shocked at what she read, the news had heard about Amelia's cause and reported it. There was now an article on how a neurosurgeon had a 10cm tumor stopping her from removing other people's tumors. The only good thing about this is that maybe it will encourage a neurosurgeon to come ahead to help her. she put her phone back down and closed her eyes to fall asleep.

Meanwhile over in DC, the brain mapping initiative was still going ahead. The president had come to the labs this day to see how it was going

'Doctor Grant Anderson, how is it going?' The president asked

'It's Shepherd, Derek Shepherd' The doctor replied

'You know we can't use that name, we have to protect the research and your identity'

'You had me die, I haven't seen my family in years. I have two children and a wife, it would have broken my wife' Derek said, 'I don't know how long I can keep doing this for. I need my family'

'The research is almost done, only another year or so' The president told him, 'Keep up the good work' He said before leaving the labs.

A few hours later, Derek made his way back to his DC apartment. It wasn't very homey, he didn't want to stay there forever. He had a family back in Seattle, he had two children. He couldn't imagine the pain Meredith went through having to tell their kids that he was 'dead'. He wasn't dead, he was very much alive and wanted his family. He had photos of his children and wife in the living room of his apartment.

He threw himself onto the sofa and turned on his TV. He didn't have any friends in DC as he didn't want to make any. He couldn't call any of his family, just so the research could continue. He thought doing this work would be everything, but he was wrong. His family was everything. He turned on the news and lay back on the sofa, reading the paper.

One minute the news was talking about a koala that escaped the zoo, the next it was about Amelia. While he was reading the newspaper, in the background he heard; Female neurosurgeon in Seattle diagnosed with 10cm tumor on her brain. With no surgeon to remove the tumor, the worse it could become. The surgeon is known to come from a family of surgeon's, Doctor Amelia Shepherd. As soon as he heard his sisters name, he threw down the paper and stared at the screen.

His sister had a tumor that he knew that he could remove with no deficits, but he was 'dead' to them. He knew what he needed to do, he needed to go home to Seattle and help her but he couldn't just turn up. He would have to quit from the brain mapping and then go home and talk to his family. He would have to explain everything; would they even understand what happened. He picked up his phone and dialled the number for the president's secretary.

'Hello this is Doctor Anderson from the brain mapping initiative, I need to speak to the president…its urgent…Hi Mr President…I'm sorry to have to tell you this but I quit…I can't do this anymore, I need to go home to my family…my sister has a brain tumor and I need to be there…I'm sorry Mr President…goodbye' Derek said on the phone, now that he had quit from the NIH, he had to book himself a flight home and think about how he would tell Meredith.

Would he turn up at their house and talk to her? Would be ask her to meet him somewhere? Would he turn up at the hospital? He booked himself a flight back to Seattle for the morning so he had time to think about what he would say. He would pack his things in the morning and go home.

The next morning, Derek woke up early to pack his things and get to the airport for his flight. He didn't know how to feel about coming back home and he didn't know how Meredith was going to feel.

In Seattle, Meredith had the day off work to spend it with her children. Bailey was still asleep on Derek's side, and Ellis was asleep next to Meredith. Zola was awake and was drawing at the end of Meredith's bed and Meredith was sat up on her bed admiring her children. A few minutes later Ellis started to stir and cry

'Shh' Meredith said picking up Ellis and rocked her, 'I'm going to talk Ellis down for her breakfast Zo, are you waiting her?' Meredith said standing up

'Yeah' Zola said

Meredith took Ellis downstairs to give her, her breakfast. Once she was done she went back upstairs and Bailey was awake now. She wanted to take the kids out so she decided they would go on the ferryboat and enjoy their day

'Right, you two. Do you want to take a ride on the ferryboat?' Meredith said

'Yeah!' Bailey and Zola shouted together

'Let's get dressed and then we can get going then. You two go and have a wash and brush your teeth and I will get your clothes out' Meredith said putting Ellis in her cot.

She got her kids their clothes out and laid them on their beds for them when they had finished in the bathroom. She got out Ellis's clothes and changed her in her room before putting her back in the cot while she got dressed. When everyone was ready they all went downstairs and got their shoes on. Meredith carried Ellis out followed by her other two children to her car. She put Ellis in her seat and Zola and Bailey got themselves into the car and strapped themselves in.

'Everyone ready?' Meredith asked from the driving seat

'Yeah' Bailey said

Meredith drove them to the ferryboat dock and parked the car on the ferryboat. Meredith and the children made their way up to the top deck of the boat and stood by the railing looking out over the water

'Do you know something, your daddy used to love these boats. He went on them whenever he could' Meredith said crouching down to Zola and Bailey's height while holding Ellis

'Did he bring you with him?' Zola asked

'Sometimes he did, his scrub cap even had ferryboats on'

'Really?' Bailey asked

'Yeah, they were his favourite thing other than you guys' Meredith said

They had such a great day together as a family. Once the ferryboat docked, they got off and went for some dinner at a child friendly restaurant. Then Meredith took them to the park so they could run off some energy so that they would go to bed early and sleep through the night. When they got back on the ferry to go home they sat on one of the benches and played. Zola did some colouring in her book she brought, Bailey played with cars that he brought and Ellis watched some videos on Meredith's phone. On the car journey home Ellis and Bailey had fallen asleep in the back of the car and Zola was talking to Meredith all the way home.

When they got home it was around 8pm, Meredith quietly woke up Bailey and picked up Ellis. She got the kids into the house. She put Ellis to bed in her cot and grabbed the monitor, and tucked Bailey into bed and he fell asleep quickly. Zola went to her room and got in bed and read her book until she fell asleep. Meredith kissed each of her kids on the forehead before going downstairs to relax.

She made herself a cup of coffee and placed the monitor down on the table next to the couch where she lay down. She turned on the TV, she didn't really care about what was on she just wanted some sound in the background. She had fallen asleep with the TV on and her book on her chest. She had been asleep for about 20 minutes when there was a knock at the door. She put the book on the table and went to the door.

She opened the door and froze.

'Wh…' Meredith said shocked at what she saw

'Hi Mer' Derek said