Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's. If I did I would give better spoilers.

Rating: K+

Summary: I took the Ellis storyline from Wishin' and Hopin' and moved it 3 years in the future.

AN: For some reason word gave me random line breaks and I apologize if they show up on Enjoy!

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Meredith and Derek were awoken by the small form of their daughter running in and jumping on the bed. Derek took out his wax ear plugs in time to hear Meredith groggily ask, "What time is it?"

He pulled their daughter down to lay between them and tickled her. "It's a little before five."

Meredith groaned and Derek leaned over to kiss her, purposefully lightly squishing the little girl in the process.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed sounding as exasperated as a three year old can.

"Anna banana!" he mimicked her.

Anna giggled then kissed Meredith on the cheek, "Morning mommy!"

Meredith smiled and kissed her forehead, "Good morning, Anna. Go potty and mommy and daddy will come and make you breakfast, ok?"

"Ok!" She scrambled off the bed and skipped out of the room.

Derek slid closer and started kissing Meredith's cheek when her phone rang.

"Who could that be?" he asked.

"I don't know." She kissed him softly before sitting up and answering. "Hello?"

"Dr. Grey, I'm sorry to be calling so early but we need you to come down here. It's your mother."

"Is everything alright? Is she ok?" Meredith asked.

"She's fine. But she woke up completely lucid."

"I'll be right there," Meredith replied and hung up then began getting dressed.

"What's going on?" Derek asked he had started getting dressed, buttoning up his shirt.

Meredith looked at him. "My mother woke up completely lucid. They want me to go down there."

He pulled a sweater over his shirt. "Do you want us to come?"
"No, I'll be fine," she told him, getting dressed, putting on jeans and a black long sleeved shirt then socks and shoes.

"You'll be fine," he smiled and they started downstairs, "I'll go get Anna breakfast and drop her off at the hospital day care. I'll see you in a little while."

"Ok," she grabbed her bag and kissed him quickly.

He handed her her keys, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

---

Meredith got to the home and was met by the nurse. Outside of Ellis's room, the nurse began to explain.

"She woke up this morning completely aware. She's her old self. It happens. Medically we don't know why," the nurse told her

Meredith nodded, "So she remembers?"

"Everything except the last 8 years and she doesn't realize she has Alzheimer's. We thought she should hear it from you."

"So she'll know me? I'm gonna walk in there and she's gonna know who I am?" asked Meredith.

The nurse smiled slightly. "She's been asking for you."

Meredith took a deep breath, opened the door and went in.

"Hi, mom," she greeted, sitting on the side of the bed.

"Meredith what is going on? When did you get back from Europe?" Ellis asked, still pacing

"I went to Europe for 2 months. But that was…"

Ellis cut her off, "I've been sitting here thinking about the fight we had. The things I – I said," she sat on the end of the bed, "I said some terrible things."

"Its fine," Meredith assured her.

"No, it's not. After you left I was upset. Did I have a break down? I must have had a nervous breakdown I'm in a…is this a hospital?" she asked looking around the room. With a nervous little smile she continued, "Because I can't remember anything for the last two months, Meredith. The last thing I remember is the fight we had, and listen, if you don't want to go to medical school, that's fine. It's your life. Just take me home."

"I went to medical school," Meredith told her, watching her mother once again pace and wring her hands.

"I want to go home Meredith. I need to go home."

Meredith took another breath, "You are home. I went to Europe eight years ago. You got sick. You have Alzheimer's. This is your home. You live here now."

Tears formed in Ellis's eyes and she stopped wringing her hands and squeezed them together, "No!"

"Mom," Meredith tried to calm her.

"Noo!" She moved to the other side of the room, freaking out about what she was just told. Her heart started to beat faster and faster and then she was falling. There was pain in her wrist, the room was going black and she heard Meredith yell for someone to call 911.

---

The ambulance doors opened when they reached Seattle Grace and they were met by Burke and Callie. The paramedics pulled the stretcher out of the

"She has substernal chest pain and –" Meredith started, Burke taking her hand to help her out of the ambulance.

Ellis finished "Syncophie. My pulse was in the 200s but the rate has resolved on its own."

Burke looked to Meredith perplexed, "She woke up today completely lucid. She's her old self again."

"How did you break your wrist, Dr. Grey?" Callie asked.

"During the episode with my heart, I fell," Ellis answered, "Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Torres, the ortho resident."

"I want to do some x rays then we'll just put you in a cast," Callie told her.

Ellis didn't answer but asked, "Do you know Richard Webber? Is he still a doctor here?"

"Dr. Webber is the chief, mom," Meredith told her.

"And the chief is coming this way," Burke told them, unbuckling Ellis from the paramedic's stretcher and moving her to a wheelchair.

"Is she alright?" he asked Meredith.

"She's…" Meredith trailed off.

"Richard Webber," the chief looked down at Ellis, "My god, you've aged."

"Ellis."

"I was having arrhythmias. They want to do tests and…I hear that you are the chief of surgery now. That's wonderful," Ellis said.

He smiled slightly, "Yes but I'm stepping down soon."

"Stepping down? I can only assume that was Adele's idea," she said matter-of-factly since she didn't know Webber and Adele were divorced. Callie was ready to take them to x-ray, "Meredith?"

"I'll be right there, mom," she replied then turned to the chief as her mother was wheeled towards the elevator, "She woke up today with her memory back. They say it's temporary…"

"My god," he was shocked, "obviously don't worry about work today, this time…it's a gift."

"Yeah…a gift," she replied not so sure about that.

---

They got Ellis to her room after the tests and x-rays and when Callie came in to put on the cast – light blue – Meredith excused herself saying she had to do something. What she was doing was watching her daughter play with the other kids in day care.

---

Cristina went to Ellis's room with the echo machine cart.

"Hi, Dr. Grey, I'm Dr. Cristina Yang. Dr. Burke wants me to do an echo."

Ellis nodded and Cristina set up the cart, put some gel on Ellis's chest and began the echo. Not looking at Ellis. After a few moments of silence Ellis spoke.

"You and Meredith are good friends. I can tell, because you're afraid to look at me. As if I'll ask you some personal question about her and you'll accidentally slip," she studied Cristina. "But you don't do anything accidentally, do you?" Cristina finished the echo and began to wipe off the gel, "Has Meredith chosen a specialty?"

Cristina stopped for a moment, "That's a personal question."

"For surgeons it's the most personal question you can ask. It tells you who they are."

"My mother would want to know if I had a boyfriend," she chuckled.

"Your mother sounds like a frivolous woman," Ellis stated, putting her arm on the pillow next to her head.

Suddenly, Cristina became a little unsure. She was talking to the Ellis Grey. She asked, "I chose cardio thoracics. What does that say about me?"

"Heart surgeons are the know-it-alls. They are the most ambitious, the most driven. They want everything and they want it now. And they don't want anything getting in their way," she got to business, "Meredith says I'm part of an Alzheimer's research study. I want a neuro consult with the doctor who put me in the trial."

"I will set that up for you," she told Ellis and headed out to find Meredith and warn her about the consult.

She found Meredith outside the day care with Anna.

"Hey! Mer! I've been looking for you. Burke has me on your mom. Are you ok?"

Anna held her arms out for Cristina to take her, "Hey Monkey."

"I'm avoiding her. I'm avoiding the gift," Meredith said, handing Anna over to Aunt Cristina.

"Well, uh, your gift wants to meet Derek."

Meredith began to panic, "What? What did you say?"

"Oh no, no not Derek your husband. Dr. Shepherd the neurosurgeon. But she's gonna know he's your husband anyway. She has waves," she grinned, "I'm kinda in love with her."

"She has that effect on people who aren't her daughter," Meredith replied.

Izzie was walking down the hall and she stopped to talk to them saying hi to Anna first, "Hey I heard about your mother. That's unbelievable."

"Yeah, it's a gift," she smiled a fake smile.

"She's avoiding her," Cristina let out.

Izzie scolded her, "She's your mother and she's really here.

This is your chance! You should talk to her."

Meredith was unsure, "She has a very long history of being disappointed in me."

"You're a doctor now. Parental disappointment ends with a medical degree," Izzie said.

Cristina nodded in agreement. Izzie's pager went off.

"Gotta go. Good luck," she said before running off to see what the problem was.

"Well if I'm going to talk to her, you are going to watch Anna because I can't deal with my mother wanting to know about me and Anna and Derek," Meredith decided.

"Sure. Monkey can come with me to get labs and then we'll meet you for lunch," Cristina said. "I'll try and find Derek to let him know, too."

"Thanks, Cristina. See you later," She started down the hall, "Be good for Aunt Cristina, Anna."

Meredith went to her mother's room to see her standing by the window.

"Hi mom," she greeted, sitting in the chair, one leg drawn up to her chest, her left hand inadvertently hiding.

"Meredith," she moved over to the rolling tray table. "So…tell me about your life. I really do want to know you, Meredith."

"Well…" Meredith trailed off, nervous, almost afraid to tell her mother about Derek and Anna. "I have someone."

"Does he understand the demands of your job? Because some men will say they will, but –"

"He's a doctor, too, so he gets it. We're happy."

"Good," he replied, not commenting, yet, on Meredith being happy. "What's your specialty? Cristina is in cardio."

"I actually just chose neuro last week. It took me a while, I know, but I just wanted to see if it was what I really wanted to do."

"Why are you so unfocused? Why did it take you so long to pick a specialty?" She paused then answered her own question, "It's because you have a boyfriend. I knew it. You're happy now? The Meredith I knew was a force of nature, passionate, focused. A fighter. What happened to you? You've gone soft! Talking about a boyfriend, being happy? Saying that you've just recently chosen a specialty? Listen to me! Meredith! Anyone can fall in love and be blindly happy but not everyone can pick up a scalpel and save a life. I raised you to be an extraordinary human being, and imagine my disappointment when I wake up after eight years and discover that you're no more than ordinary. What happened to you?"

She stood up, upset and angry. "I don't have a boyfriend, mom, I have a husband!" With that she got up and left the room, heading to the cafeteria.

She got to the courtyard and saw Cristina with Derek and Anna. She sat next to Derek not as angry since she was with her favorite people. Derek kissed her cheek. "Hey, I was just leaving to have that consult with your mother."

"She's charming. She's fabulous and suddenly she's the enemy," Meredith told him, taking his unfinished sandwich.

"I'm meeting the enemy?" he asked, amused.

"Just don't get personal," she told him after swallowing a bite.

"You're being ridiculous."

"You're being 'idiculous, mommy," Anna added but Cristina told her not to interrupt.

"I'm not being ridiculous," she insisted.

He gave her a McDreamy look, "It's gonna be fine," he reassured her.

"Just be careful," Meredith told him.

"She has waves," Cristina added.

He kissed Mer's head then Anna's. "I'll be back. Love you."

"Love you, too," Cristina replied teasing and she and Meredith laughed. "So tell me what happened with your mother."

---

About twenty minutes later Derek came back. Cristina had gotten paged and Anna was still eating. Cristina told Meredith that her mother needed surgery tomorrow. Meredith knew even though her mother's heart problem could have been resolved by medication, Alztimers patients, her mother especially, weren't always med compliant, so she needed the surgery and Cristina – and Burke - agreed.

"So how was my mother?" she asked, knowing it was horrible.

"Apparently you're unfocused because I'm an attending. And I'm threatened by a woman who is my equal and I want you to admire me," he told her, "Does she know how bossy you are?"

Meredith gave a small laugh. "And that is why I went to Europe. Because everything I do is a disappointment to her."

"When did you go to Europe?"

"Before med school because she wanted me to go and I was still being rebellious Meredith and I didn't want to go. She was driving me crazy."

"You crazy mommy?" Anna asked, eating her French fries.

"Not anymore, baby," she replied, then turned the Derek, "Do you think you could take her for a little while? I just need to think."

"Yeah I don't have any surgeries scheduled for today," he replied.

"Thanks."

---

A few hours later Meredith went back into Ellis's room because Cristina paged her saying her mother was refusing treatment for the runs of tachycardia.

"I'm not sure refusing treatment is what you want to do," Meredith told her.

"Apparently what I want doesn't matter. It isn't even legally binding. So it's really about what you want, Meredith, you're in charge," Ellis replied, frustrated that Meredith had power of attorney.

"Do you think I like making these decisions for you? Do you think its fun to get calls from the nursing home asking whether if I was planning on giving the nurse, who changes you every morning, a Christmas tip? But I do it because you have managed to alienate every body else in your life. And I am the only one," she told her mother, tears gathering in her eyes, "So I have to step up and do it. You wanna know why I'm so unfocused? So ordinary? You wanna know what happened to me? You. You happened to me. You and – "

Ellis cut her off, "Then let me refuse the heart surgery."

"No!"

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because killing my mother is not going to be another thing that happens to me!"

The door was open and Izzie poked her head in tentatively, "Mer?"

"What?" Meredith snapped then took a breath and looked apologetically at her friend, "I'm sorry, Iz."

"It's alright," she smiled.

Anna ran in and over to Meredith, "Mommy! Daddy work."

Meredith picked her up and Izzie explained, "Sorry. Derek got paged for an emergency surgery so he had Cristina watch her, but Burke needed Cristina for something so I was watching her, but Bailey needs me. I'm sorry."

"It's ok, Izzie, really. Thanks."

"Bye, Mer. Bye, Anna Banana."

"Bye, Aunt Izzie," Anna waved as Izzie left.

Meredith turned back to Ellis after Izzie left, "And I have her."

"Mommy sad?" Anna noticed her mother was upset.

"A little bit. Mommy's ok. Did you have fun with Aunt Cristina?"

She nodded, "We gotted ice cream." Then made an oops face.

"Aunt Cristina said not to tell, didn't she?"

Anna giggled, "Mommy we go zoo 'morrow?"

"Yes, we're going to the zoo tomorrow."

Anna grinned then looked to Ellis then back to Meredith. "Does Grandma have a owwie?"

"Yeah, Banana, she does."

"Is a member day?"

"Yeah it is. Tell her your name."

Anna looked back to Ellis "Anna Shepherd"

"How old are you?" Meredith prompted.

Anna held up 3 fingers looking at Meredith to make sure it was right. "Fwee."

Meredith couldn't help but smile, "And what do mommy and daddy do?"

"Surgeon brains." Then to Ellis "Anna go to day bear but mommy isn't surgeoning so Anna's not there! Not 'morrow neither. We go zoo"

"She means she usually goes to day care but I got today off so she's been having fun with everyone," Meredith translated, "And in case you didn't catch it she's excited about the zoo.

Ellis was completely shocked at all of this.

"Tell Grandma what your favorite animal is," Meredith told her.

"Monkey!" Anna exclaimed, "Aunt Cristina calls Anna 'monkey'."

"You got pregnant, is that why you married him?" accused Ellis.

"No, mom. I got pregnant after we got married. And I may seem unfocused to you, but what I'm doing is having both and I'm taking care of you. And I'm trying. I have Derek –"

"Daddy!" Anna exclaimed at hearing her father's name.

Meredith gave Anna a slightly stern look, "Anna, what did mommy and daddy say about talking when we're talking?"

Anna's eyes got wide and she pressed her lips together. Meredith smiled then looked back to her mother.

"I have Derek and my friends. He and I are never on call over night together, thanks to the chief and my resident, and even if we both end up in late surgeries, Izzie or Cristina and Burke, or George and Callie, or Alex, or even Addison, help out. Do you know who Addison is, Mom? Addison is Derek's ex wife. Addison hated me, but I'm not like you. We're friends now and she helps us. They all help us. That's what you get when you don't push everyone away. When you ask for help with having both. You get help." She looked at Anna "Let's go watch Daddy ok?"

"Ok!" She starts walking out of the room. Anna looked over Meredith's shoulder to Ellis, "Bye grandma. We go watch daddy surgeon brains."

They went to the gallery and Anna was excited about watching Derek surgeon. Meredith saw Addison in there doing paperwork and sat next to her.

"Aunt Addie!" Anna exclaimed.

Addison smiled, "Hey Anna. What are you doing?"

"Watching Daddy surgeon. What you doing?"

"I'm doing my work," she told Anna then asked Meredith: "How's your mom?"

"Oh, she's just fine. Disappointed in me as usual."

"Do you think maybe she's jealous?" Addison asked, taking off her glasses.

"What do you mean?" questioned Meredith

"Well you're happy. You're a surgeon and you have a family and you're happy. You have both and you're doing what she could never do. Maybe she's not able right now to tell you she's proud of you."

Meredith nodded realizing Addison was right then scrunched up her nose a little, "Could we talk about something else? I'm tired of my mother and that's all everyone wants to talk about."

"Grandma has a owwie, Aunt Addie."

"I know sweetie," replied Addison, and then gracefully changed the subject, "I heard you went to day care this morning."

"Yeah!" Anna always loved to talk about day care.

---

"I heard you were having surgery tomorrow," Richard said coming into the room.

Ellis looked at him, "Do you…? Do I know who Meredith is? Do I at least recognize Meredith?"

"You know she's someone important, someone who loves you," the chief said.

"You'll look out for her? You'll make sure Dr. Shepherd is good to her?" Because she's got so much more to learn and I won't be able to teach her.

"I'll look out for her," he assured her, "And Derek is good for her."

"I wish I could go back. I'd do everything so differently," she told him, "I'd fight harder for you. I think if….if I'd fought harder for you maybe…

Richard moved across the room and sat in the chair next to her and she shifted closer to him, "We would have had a wonderful life together, Ellis."

"You think so?" she asked hopefully.

"I do," he nodded, "We would have done our fellowship here. And then you would have fought me for chief and probably won," they chuckled, "And I wouldn't have minded because we'd have the kids at home."

"We'd have kids?"

He nodded, "Meredith would need a brother and sister. Kids need family.

"We would have been a family."

"Probably bought that big house on Parker – the one with the barn...yeah, that's a good place for a family," he told her.

"And I would have been happy just like Meredith is happy and that would have changed everything," a few tears fell from her eyes and she sniffed, "Maybe…I would be fine if we could grow old together. And life would be so perfectly ordinary," she finished, more tears falling. She took his hand, "My life is so unfinished. It's unfinished and I'm not finished."

He pulled her into his chest and she wrapped her arms around him, "No. No, Ellis. Don't think that…just close your eyes and think of the family. Of the house."

"And you there every night to come home to," she added.

"And me there. I'm there," he agreed.

---

By the time Derek finished his surgery Anna was asleep. Meredith carried her down and waited outside the scrub room for Derek. He came out and smiled at her.

"Hey," he whispered, "Why didn't you go home?"

"My car is still at the nursing home and," she smiled and had somewhat of a coy expression, "I wanted to be near you."

"Not going well?" he asked, concern written on his face.

"No, but I'm going to see her before we leave. Could you take the sleeping beauty?"

"Sure. I'll get changed and we'll meet you in the lobby," he told her as she gently shifted Anna to him.

"Ok."

Meredith went in the direction of her mother's room and Derek headed to the locker room where he was faced with the problem of changing while holding a sleeping three year old. Mark came into the locker room just a couple minutes later.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked, just seeing Derek standing there.

"Trying to figure out how to get changed. But I now have an answer. I need you to hold her."

"Is she sleeping?" he asked.

"Yes," Derek asked, passing Anna over to Mark. They weren't quite best friends again but they were friends.

"I didn't know the monkey did that."

Derek started getting changed, "What? Sleep?"

"Yeah."

"Sometimes I'm not sure she does either."

"How is Meredith doing?" Mark asked.

"She's doing pretty well. As well as can be expected, I suppose," Derek replied, "But it's really stressful for her. It's really hard having a parent as infamous as Ellis Grey and apparently it's hard not be a disappointment no matter what you do. But I got to see where Mer go her bossiness from."

Mark chuckled softly. Derek finished changing and closed his locker.

"Here, take your kid. She's getting heavy," Mark said and shifted Anna back to Derek, "Man, it's amazing she's still sleeping."

"It is. Thanks, Mark," Derek picked up his briefcase and left the locker room.

Meredith was already in the lobby when he got there and she looked a little upset.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah. She's not lucid anymore," she told him.

He hugged her with one arm, "I'm sorry, Mer."

"It's ok," she replied, "Because I have hope. One day she'll get to know me and you and Anna. She'll see that I'm not at all ordinary."

"It's good to have hope," Derek smiled.

"It is," she agreed.

"And you are in no way ordinary," he brushed some hair away from her face.

She smiled, "Let's go home."

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I'm thinking of writing a sequel – good idea? Bad idea?

Read, review, repeat