Welcome everyone to my new story! Unlike my others I other completed stories I will unable to update everyday, my life has gotten a lot busier but please stick with it and as always reviews are very much loved. On with chapter one. Dani xx

CHAPTER ONE: TIME OUT

Meredith Grey looked beside her to the sleeping child. A small silent tear escaped her sad green eyes as she watched her 3 - almost 4 year old daughter sleeping. She looked so innocent as she slept, so unfazed by what was happening around her.

Meredith listened as they announced their flight to Seattle would soon be landing. She looked at the little girl again, wishing she didn't have to wake her and subject her to more of the confusion she had been feeling since they had left their home back in New York.

Meredith softly shook the little girl and smiled as her green eyes fluttered open and met her mothers matching green eyes.

"Hi Tilly, did you have a good nap?" Meredith asked her daughter as she brushed her hair away from her eyes.

The little girl simply nodded as she rubbed her eyes. She looked around the aeroplane slightly confused until she remembered they were going on a little holiday as her mother had told her.

"We are going to land soon so you have to get ready to sit up in your seat with your seatbelt on" Meredith told her as she checked to make sure the seatbelt was wrapped around her tiny frame firmly.

"Are we going to see Nana and Pop?" the small child asked softly as the plane began to descend.

"Yeah we are, is that okay?" Meredith asked as she confirmed what the little girl had asked.

"I guess so, will they still come to New York for my birfday?" she asked suddenly worried about her upcoming birthday.

"We'll have to see about that one" Meredith told her as she turned to look out the window. The chances of them returning to New York in the next few weeks were rather slim.

"Okay" the small girl replied seeing the upset look on Meredith's face she knew not to push it any further.

After what seemed like hours waiting for their bags and getting a rental car to go to the hotel they would be staying at temporarily to unload all their stuff they made their way to Seattle Grace Hospital. Meredith let out a sigh as the sliding doors opened for them to enter into the lobby. It had been a while since she had stepped foot in the hospital.

As soon as they had stepped foot onto their desired floor Meredith looked around noticing nothing had really changed since she had last visited. Meredith continued to look around waiting to see if she could see anyone she knew. She took her eyes off Tilly for just a moment and before she knew it she taken off up the corridor of the hospital.

"MATILDA ELIZABETH…" Meredith began to call out after the little girl before she bumped into a familiar figure.

"Meredith what are you doing here?" the concerned and surprised voice of Richard Webber.

Meredith took one look at him before launching into his arms, wrapping her arms tightly around him as small tears escaped from her eyes.

"Oh Daddy" she cried into the older man's chest. Richard Webber was only her step father but he had been more of father to her than Thatcher Grey had been.

"Meredith sweetheart what's happened?" Richard asked even more concerned over his daughter's appearance since her sudden outburst.

"It's all a big mess" Meredith replied softly looking up at her father.

Before Richard could ask Meredith to elaborate another familiar figure had joined the pair.

"Matilda! Don't run off like that again" Meredith lectured her daughter as she took her out of the other person's arms and into her own.

"It's okay Mommy, Uncle Dewek had me" the little girl replied with a giggle.

"Meredith what are you doing her?" Derek asked as he gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm waiting for her to answer the same question" Richard chipped in still none the wiser to why his step daughter had shown up in Seattle without so much as a phone call. "Is Mark with you?" Richard asked.

Meredith shook her head in reply tears welling again in her eyes that usually shone with happiness.

"Daddy has been bad so he is staying in New York to have time out" Matilda repeated what Meredith had told her proudly.

"What in the hell has my brother done now?" Derek asked suddenly annoyed that Mark had done something that had clearly hurt Meredith badly. Mark was only Derek's brother in a friendly sense. Mark had never had a family and Carolyn Shepherd wouldn't have a bar of it so Mark had quickly become part of the Shepherd family. When Mark had begun seeing Meredith she also became part of the family.

"I don't want to get into it right now" Meredith replied nodding her head toward Matilda as to tell them it was something that she needed to hear about her daddy. "Where is Mom?" Meredith asked surprised that Ellis Grey-Webber had not joined the group.

"At home, it's her day off she is actually at the house relaxing for once" Richard replied understanding that Meredith wanted to change the subject.

"Oh well Tilly and I might head over there and say hello, let her know we're here" Meredith said with the smallest hint of a smile. She had hoped it would reassure everyone that she was fine but after taking in the looks on their faces she could tell they were just as worried as she head been when she first walked in.

"Where are you staying?" Richard asked.

"We have a hotel room at the Archfield" Meredith replied knowing that wouldn't do in her father's eyes.

"No way Meredith, you will stay at the house" Richard said firmly not giving her any choice.

"Okay" Meredith replied simply. "We will go get our things and then go and see Mom she said before saying goodbye to everyone and heading for the door and wandering why in the world she was in Seattle.