A/N: I wrote this story a long time ago, not for fan fiction, but I decided that I would add it to fan fiction. Of course I've tweaked it a bit, but it's pretty much the same general outline. I will update this story in between chapters of Traveling Solider…

-Thanks

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Meredith was a small child, with light blue eyes and light brown hair, which turned blonde in the summer. She grew up in Newcastle, Ontario, in a small farmhouse that just fit her family. They were a family that was very involved in the community, attended church every Sunday morning and did volunteer work at all the summer fairs. They were a very close family and had a lot of friends around them. When Meredith turned 14 she decided that she wanted to be a doctor. At 16 she started looking into scholarship programs and the best universities that offer the type of schooling she needed. At 18 she drove out of her small town, looking back at her teary-eyed mother, her tall, strong and brave father, her two sisters, Lexie and Molly, and her brother George, ready to start her life. She had managed to keep her grades exceptionally high and with her volunteer work and her ability to speak fluent French, she was accepted into the Medicine program at Magill University in Quebec. Her first year was like any other freshman's; it was full of parties, underage drinking, one night stands and lots of studying. After she scraped by in her Bio-Chemistry class, she decided that it would be a better idea to find an apartment that was quieter that residence was on campus. Her second year she found a house a block away from Campus and moved in. That is where she met Christina Yang, a fellow med student and her now best friend.

Well into her third year at University, Meredith bumped into Derek Shepherd, who was a young surgeon, just graduated from University himself. He was attending one of her professor's lectures. It was her favorite lecture of that year, given by Dr. Richard Webber, who was the chief of surgery at the hospital, but gave lectures every other week. Derek was one of his attending surgeons and they seemed very close, just from the way Meredith watched them interact. Meredith had noticed him almost immediately. He sat in the third row, his black hair brushed back, slightly and his light blue eyes, twinkled with amusement at something the girl beside him had said. When Meredith passed him, to sit in her regular spot, in the front row, she smiled slightly and looked at him through her lashes, before pretending that he didn't exist and moving on to concentrating on the lecture. When the lecture was finished, Meredith always sat back and read over her notes while she waited for the room to clear. While she waited Derek approached her, sitting beside her and asked her what her name was. They got to talking, which led to coffee, then dinner and then frequent dates every week. Discovering that he was raised in Toronto had pretty much been the turning point in the relationship. After that, she brought him home to meet her family and they attended almost every family function together. When Meredith graduated from university 4 years later, Derek proposed and the two were married exactly a year later.

They lived in Quebec for 2 years, working together, partying with friends and living a life of care-free and bliss. When they decided that they both wanted a family they moved back to Ontario to a little town called Ipperwash. It was cottage country out there and they had only discovered the house because they went on a couple's vacation with Christina and some of their other friends. The closest town to them that had everything they needed was Grand Bend and it was a 15 minute drive. The house was closer to his parents than hers, but it wasn't a 4-6 hour drive either. They said good-bye to their care-free lives and settled into a life of peace and quiet. They worked together at the local hospital, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. Of course they sometimes had to work later shifts and even night shifts, but for the most part the trauma rate in Grand Bend was very low. So Derek and Meredith moved on to the next step in their lives…parent hood.

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Meredith raced down the highway, picking up speed as she got closer and closer to the house. She was trying her hardest not to cry and was desperately trying to remain calm. But tears poured down her face and she sobbed slightly, frequently brushing them away and breathing deeply. She had gotten the call from her sister Lexie right after dinner and left the house as fast as she could. Whenever something bad happened in the family they called Meredith. She was the oldest of 4 and the one closest to their mother and therefore she was the go to person. It was about an hour drive, if you followed the speed limits, from Ipperwash to New Castle and Meredith pushed the limits so that she wouldn't waste any time. Who knew how much longer they had?