Ok, this is the sequel to Aftermath. Everything will be explained. The title comes from Aftermath chapter nineteen!
In twenty years, a lot has changed. Meredith and Derek now have an army of children, and for the sake of balance, have only just turned 51 and 56 respectively. And it is set in 2036.
After a very short email discussion with my friends, i have decided that this will be the real Forever and Eternity. I did originally write two chapter ones as the sequel, but this one seemed the best.
If anyone wants to read the other attempt, email me with you name and pen name and you can tell me if I should continue, becausee I think it could go somewhere.
But, here is the sequel to Aftermath.
Disclaimer: If I owned greys, I wouldnt be writing fanfic. I would tell them where to go and how to do it. enough said.
"Ethan, Emma, Amanda, Grace, Phillip, Joshua, Kathryn, Bailey and Beverly! Breakfast now; you have to go to school!"
17-year-old Emma Ashton Shepherd woke up, alone in her bedroom on the third floor of the Shepherd house, her mother's voice echoing throughout her head.
"Emma! That means you have to get up too!"
Damn. Her mother knew her too well.
"I'm coming!"
Emma dragged herself from her double bed and down the hall towards her twin brothers' room.
"Ethan. Get up," she mumbled, knocking on the door.
It didn't take long for him to appear, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"I hate Tuesdays," he muttered. Emma only smiled. "Come on, we have to raise the rest of the troops."
Together, Emma and Ethan walked off to raise 15 year old Amanda and 13 year old Grace on the third floor, before collectively waking 11 year old Phillip, 7 year old Joshua, 5 year old Kathryn and 2 year old twins Bailey and Beverly.
In the kitchen, Meredith looked up from the newspaper she was reading to see the troop of children her and Derek had made. These none were the apples of their eyes.
"Morning guys," she said, accepting Bev into her arms from Emma.
"Good morning everyone," Derek said, kissing his wife before being handed his youngest son, Bailey, from his oldest, Ethan.
"Some brekky, mummy?" Katie asked, giving Meredith puppy dog eyes.
"Of course, munchkin," Mere smiled. "Why don't you hop up into your chair so I can get everyone some food?"
The usual scramble happened as Katie, Phil, Josh, Grace and Andy battled to get chairs at the kitchen table. Bev and Bailey were in their high chairs; and Em and Ethe bypassed the kitchen for the bathrooms.
"Hey, aren't you two going to eat?" Derek asked after the older twins.
"Dad, we're 17, we start school in 45 minutes and I have teachers to see. I'll get breakfast on my way to school," Emma yelled from the hall.
"We're going in separate cars today, too," Ethan added. "I have training tonight."
Derek sighed. "Fine; Em, just bring Andy and Grace home from school."
Emma kept walking, but raised her hand in recognition. "Yeah, yeah."
Meredith shook her head before returning her attention to the younger children.
"And don't forget to iron your uniforms!" Derek called after the twins.
Emma sat in her gold Honda Civic, sitting in the McDonalds drive-thru, waiting for her breakfast.
"Em? Did you hear me?"
Emma looked at the girl in the passenger's seat, her best friend Laura Wilson.
"What? Oh, Laurs, sorry, what were you saying?"
Laura looked at Emma.
"Have you been dreaming about Seattle again?"
Emma looked strangely at Laura.
"I couldn't sleep last night," she started.
"Hi, that's $5.85 thanks," the girl at the window said. Emma handed over the money. "And here you go. Have a good day."
Em smiled at the girl and drove off, eating before she had to be in class.
"So, what about Seattle this time?" Laura asked once they had reached the main road.
"Everything," Emma whispered. "Absolutely everything."
Emma's Flashback. Seattle Grace Hospital, 12 years before, 2024
5 year old twins Emma and Ethan Shepherd ran down the corridors of Seattle Grace's surgical wing, playing a game of hide and seek with their cousins.
"Emma Shepherd! What do you think you are doing?"
The voice of Auntie Miranda disturbed the 'happy bubble' she had built up around herself.
"Hello Auntie Miranda," Emma whispered.
"Emma, I need you and Ethan to come with me. We need to grab your stuff and get out of here."
Bailey herded the Shepherd twins outside, both of which immediately ran off with the Karev children.
"Miranda! What's happening? Why have we been evacuated?" Derek Shepherd came out of the main hospital, Meredith next to him and their blind 8 year old daughter, Angela, in his arms.
"Code Black. The whole hospital's been evacuated."
2 hours later
The doctors were all assembled on the far side of the carpark, their cars forming a barrier around them.
Suddenly, Angie broke free from her mother's grasp and ran towards the hospital.
"Angie! Come back here!"
Everyone gathered just inside the line of cars, calling back Meredith and Derek's oldest daughter. The twins were playing with toys, and three year old Amanda and one year old Grace were in day care somewhere else.
Before anyone had a chance to run after the precious blonde girl, she reached the walls of the hospital. Just as it exploded into a million tiny pieces, taking Angela Elizabeth Shepherd with it.
"NOOOOOO!!!"
Meredith screamed, collapsing into Derek's arms, both sobbing uncontrollably.
One week later
"Come on Emma! We're leaving now!"
Meredith shut the boot of her car, securing the last of their luggage.
Christina was standing next to her. "And I will send the furniture over tomorrow. But why Australia?"
Meredith wiped the teas from her eyes. "With Grace gone, and Angie dead, America holds too many memories. Plus, we already have jobs lined up in Brisbane."
Christina smiled, hugging Meredith.
"Don't forget to call, we'll visit next year, and I'll miss you."
Emma and Ethan started screaming as they were being strapped into their car seats.
"Great, a 16 hour flight halfway across the world with the terrible twins," she moaned.
As Meredith started her car, and Derek started his, Emma looked out the window to take one last look at their old house and the family they were leaving behind forever.
End Flashback
Present time, Brisbane, Australia, 2036
"And I was remembering Seattle. The Code Black, having to leave, the barricade of cars, Angie, Angie running away, the hospital blowing up, Angie going with it. I remember moving from our house and out here. Mum and Dad had to build a new house…"
Emma sat in the driver's seat, still calmly driving her gold civic, even though her eyes were full of tears from the memories.
Laura sat in silence. It was the first time her bet friend had brought up her older sister and Seattle for a very long time. Too long.
"Do we really need to go to school today?" Laura asked eventually, breaking the silence.
"We're not wagging," was Emma's immediate response. "This year is too important for me to wag school, especially if I want to study medicine."
Laura sighed. "Oh well, off to school we go."
Doctor Meredith Shepherd walked into the Royal Brisbane Hospital with her twins hanging off each arm.
"Morning, Meredith," one of the Admin nurses greeted. Libby had taken an instant liking to the Shepherd family when they had moved across the world to re start their lives 12 years before.
"Morning, Libby," the neurosurgeon replied. "Do you know if Miss Emily is in yet at Day Care?"
Libby smiled warmly. "No, Em's not here yet, but if you like I can take care of Bailey and Beverly if you have somewhere to be."
Meredith was grateful this nurse was so nice and loved by the twins. "Thanks, I have a staff meeting in 5. You're a legend."
As the busy woman handed over the twins and began to rush away, Libby called out.
"And that's why we need a pay rise, us nurses!"
Derek walked into the conference room to see the majority of the surgical staff already there, listening to their Chief of Surgery Doctor, Adrianna Hastings.
"… and, last but not least, Marlene Watson, our head of Paediatrics, will be retiring at the end of the month, as will Patrick Westcott, head of Plastics, so I will be bringing in replacements for those two soon, and the two surgeons I have in mind will make RBH the best surgical hospital in the state, if not most of the country."
Meredith and Derek shared a strange look. Either one or both of them had a feeling they knew which surgeons Adrianna would be bringing in.
"So, if there's no more business to be brought up, this meeting is adjourned?"
The room was silent for a moment.
"Ok, then, dismissed."
The room slowly cleared as everyone returned to what they were doing or the patients they had to see, but the Shepherds stayed for a moment.
"Do you think she's brining Addie and Mark?" Meredith asked, slightly excited.
Derek shook his head. "I don't know. I think she might. Who else do we know of that is as good as them?"
Meredith stood silently for a minute.
"See," her husband replied, then kissed her cheek. "I gotta go; I have some patients to check on. See you later."
"Wait a minute!" she called.
Derek turned around just before he reached the door.
"When was the last time you hard from anyone in Seattle?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, I talked to the Burke's last time you did. Why?"
Meredith took a deep breath. "I just have a feeling. Either something's wrong or someone is going to surprise me soon."
Before he could answer, Derek's pager went off. "Damn, emergency in 515. See you later."
He rushed out of the room, leaving a very puzzled Meredith behind. It had been five years since she had seen anyone from Seattle Grace and almost one since she had spoken to anyone there.
Time really had moved fast.
Ethan Alexander Shepherd walked into his English class at Brisbane State High School and was immediately apprehended by Mrs Potter, his teacher.
"Ethan Shepherd! How many times do I have to tell you to tuck your shirt in? Next time I see it out I'll tuck it in for you!"
"Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you?" he threw back, before sitting down in his seat. Ethan loved being Mr Popular in this class, and in the school for that matter.
He smirked back at the elderly teacher as his best friend Jack Murray sat down next to him. Both of them had their shirts untucked.
"Well, Ethan, since you're already in a talkative mood at this hour of the morning," the clock read 8.24 am, "why don't you begin the new topic of 'What You Leave Behind' with a story from Seattle."
Ethan gasped. Seattle. Not a name he wanted to hear that day. He realised the date, April 3rd, as the 12 year anniversary of the destruction of Seattle Grace.
"Mr Shepherd?" the teacher asked again.
Ethan looked at the woman's kind face. "OK, then, but I'll tell you now; it won't be a pretty story."
The teacher only nodded, and Ethan took a deep breath, ready to recount that horrible day.
"Well, as you all know, I moved to Brisbane when my twin, Emma, and I were five. We came from Seattle, Washington, on the west coast of America, where out parents worked as neurosurgeons, which they still are, at a hospital called Seattle Grace…"
Ethan's Flashback. Seattle Grace Hospital, 12 years before, 2024
Ethan ran through the halls of Seattle Grace Hospital's surgical floor, playing with his five year old twin, Emma.
"Ethan Shepherd! Where do you think you are going?" The voice of Addison Montgomery-Sloan, his aunt, stopped the five year old in his tracks.
"Yes. Aunt Addie?" he asked as the cheeky grin on his face widened.
Addison smiled. She loved Ethan and Emma like they were her own children, not her ex-husbands.
"Ethe, Emmie, you need to stop playing and come outside with us."
"Hello, Aunt Miranda," Emma said, seeing her honorary aunt behind Addison.
"Come on, trouble twins, we have to go find mummy and daddy."
2 hours later
"The Code Black has risen out of control," Preston Burke said. "The hospital could blow at any minute."
Angela Shepherd, their eight year old sister, suddenly ran off from the barricade of cars at the end of the carpark.
"Angie! Come play with us!" Emma called after her blind older sister.
"Yeah, come and play, Angie!" Ethan repeated.
Angie kept running off towards the empty hospital, ignoring the calls of her siblings.
Meredith, Derek and the rest of their family turned around to see the eight year old approach the hospital doors.
"Angie! Come back here!" Meredith called, her voice full of desperation.
The young girl ignored the calls of her mother, trying to prove she could do something for herself, and walked through the open main doors of Seattle Grace exactly as the building blew up, taking everything with it, including Angie.
"NOOOOO!!!!!"
Meredith collapsed in her husband's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Angie," she sobbed, Derek crying with her.
Ethan and Emma hugged their parents, not completely understanding what had happened.
One week later
The car was packed, the house on the market, the kids in the car. The Shepherd family were leaving Seattle.
"But why do you have to leave and move halfway across the world to Australia?" Christina asked.
Meredith wiped the teas from her eyes. "With Grace gone, and Angie dead, America holds too many memories. Plus, we already have jobs lined up in Brisbane."
Christina smiled, hugging Meredith. "I know you'll have fun in Boston," Meredith whispered in her ear.
Christina laughed, then Meredith let go of her to hug Addison, Izzie and everyone else.
"We'll miss you!" she cried. "Don't forget to call, come and visit in a while!"
The Shepherd family sat in their cars and drove off to the airport, ready to leave their old life behind.
End Flashback
Present time, Brisbane, Australia, 2036
The classroom was silent as Ethan finished telling his story about Seattle.
"The day we boarded the plane for Brisbane was the day I had to let Angie go. We had to build new lives here, and mum and dad already had jobs at RBH as neurosurgeons, so we had no choice."
Mrs Potter was unusually quiet. "What about all the people you left behind?"
Ethan sighed heavily; yet again he had to explain the twisted inner workings of his family.
"Well. My parents always wanted a big family. Dad grew up with four sisters, all who are married and have lots of kids. Mum grew up alone, her father left at a young age and her mother was never around. So when she became a surgical intern at Seattle Grace, the group she was put into became very close to each other, almost brothers and sisters. To avoid the long boring story about everyone, the Seattle Grace family consists of my parents, Meredith and Derek Shepherd, Preston and Christina Burke, Addison and Mark Sloan, Miranda Bailey, Izzie and Alex Karev and Olivia and George O'Malley."
Mrs Potter looked at Ethan again. "Wow, you sure do have a big family. Are any of them going to be there for your formal or graduation?"
Ethan sighed yet again. "I only wish."
"Montana! What are you doing here?"
Amanda opened the front door of her house to see someone she hadn't seen in years.
"Andy! I brought the rest of the gang! And our parents are coming too! Where are your mum and dad?"
Amanda sighed. It was that moment that her mobile phone chose to ring, exhibiting the ring tone of the hospital.
"They're going to be late," she whispered.
Montana Isobel Sloan sat in the Shepherd's living room, her two younger sisters, 15 year old Georgia and 13 year old Indiana, playing with Josh and Katie on the floor.
"Hi! I'm home!" a voice called form the door linking the large garage to the rest of the house.
Ethan walked in, still in his school uniform, his school bag over his shoulder.
"Hey, Ethe! Over here!" Andy called, drawing his attention to the living room.
"Where's mum and dad?" he asked, dropping his bag to raid the fridge for food.
"Running late," another voice said, one that didn't belong to his sister.
Ethan did a double take. "Montana?"
Montana stood up from the couch, her strong American accent drowning out the Shepherd's Australian one.
"Hey, Ethan," she greeted shyly, having liked him since they were young.
Ethan smiled. Montana Sloan was the only girl he had ever really had feelings for, other than his sisters, and knew he would marry her one day.
"What are you doing here? I thought you guys were still living in Florida?"
The happy look on Montana's face dropped at the mention of Florida.
"Remember those bushfires that ripped through Florida last month?" she asked in a quiet voice.
The Shepherds nodded.
"Well, our house was one of the ones that were destroyed. Luckily, we were already moved into our new house closer to the city and had most of our stuff, but everything else was destroyed. Mom was hurt and we lost everything."
Andy hugged her, trying to stop the older girl from crying.
"We're never going back. We're moving out here."