Title: Some Kind of Wonderful
Rating: T+
Summary: Meredith and Derek have been happily married for ten years. What happens when something neither expected sends them into a tailspin.
Author Note 1: My brand new story. Derek and Meredith have been together since her first month of med school. They'll be plenty of are favorite characters. I look forward to writing this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Except for Lizzie, Noah and Thomas.
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One
Meredith Grey-Shepherd was a successful woman by anyone's standards. She had a wonderful and fulfilling job as a neurosurgeon, a happy marriage, and two beautiful children. With all those things it still made her nervous to have lunch with her mother.
Ellis Grey was a formidable woman. Everything that Meredith didn't feel like at the moment. She took a deep breath and walked into her favorite restaurant. At least could well while her mother was punishing her,
"Dr. Shepherd!" She smiled at familiar hostess, Angela; "I didn't see your name on the list today."
"Actually I'm meet my mother for lunch." Meredith told the younger woman, "The last name Grey." She bent her dark hair and her finger moved down her list.
"Oh right." She said her smile suddenly tight, "Come with me." She said moving away from spot and walking towards the middle of the restaurant.
She looked different was the first thought in Meredith's brain. She looked older and more then a little scared. Which was just too odd for Meredith to even think about.
"Meredith." Ellis greeted her standing up. With a small smile she held open her arms for her daughter to embrace her, "You look very nice sweetheart."
"Thanks mom." Meredith said breaking away, "You do to mom." She said seating down, "I'll have an ice tea please." She told the waiter, and then turned to her mother, "This was a great surprise mom."
"I haven't heard from you in awhile. How's the private practice going?" Meredith resisted a sigh of annoyance at her mother's statement. It had been the start of many arguments between them when Meredith had decided to join in a private practice after the birth of her son Noah.
"It's wonderful actually." Meredith said nodding, "It was really a great decision. I'm glad that I'm able to be there for Noah and Lizzie."
"I'm happy for you Meredith." Ellis said taking her daughter's hand, "I'm very happy for you sweetheart." Ellis eyes filled with tears as she looked at her.
"Mom what's..." Meredith started to say but stopped as the waiter appeared. Meredith waited until they had ordered before she turned back to her mother.
"Meredith can we just have a nice lunch?" She questioned her, "Please?"
It was the please that did it. Her mother never begged for anything. It was normally everyone else begging her for something. She simple nodded and took a sip of her tea,
"Lizzie wants to be a surgeon now." Meredith told her with a smile, "She loves the doctor kit you got her. She's performed several complicated surgeries on her dolls." Ellis laughed.
"I think Lizzie would make an amazing surgeon." She told her, "What about Noah? Does he still want to be race car driver?"
"Derek and Mark took him to a track a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure he's even more excited after seeing it live."
"Does that scare you?" Ellis asked her daughter.
"Of course." Meredith answered, "Hopefully we can keep it a hobby."
"I must say you haven't raised boring kids."
"Thanks." Meredith said with a laugh.
-- --
Meredith watched her mother as she signed the bill. She didn't comment how her hands shook or that her eyes had squinted over lunch.
"Are you going to tell me now?" Meredith asked her mother
as they walked out of the restaurant, "Whatever it is mom I'm a big girl now."
"Oh Mer." Ellis sighed tightening her coat, "I'm leaving Mayo at the end of the month."
"Oh!" Meredith looked up surprised, "Are you going to write another book because I..."
"No Meredith." She said shaking her head, "No I um...I have to leave." She said taking a deep breath, "I've been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease Meredith." She said it so quickly that Meredith was certain that she had misheard her. But a look in her mother's eyes had her knowing that she hadn't wrong.
"What you...I...how advanced?" She stumbled to find a question. Her back against the side of a building, and her legs feeling like Jell-O underneath her.
"I've been forgetting things a lot. I couldn't perform a simple appendectomy I forgot how to do it."
"Oh mom." Meredith sighed taking her hand, "Do you know what you're going to do?"
"I'm going home." She told her with a small smile, "I found a hospital in Seattle. It's the best in the west coast and they have a spot for me." She said, "I spent a lot of years running from that place. I think it's time I face it." She said softly as Meredith gave her hand a light squeeze.
- - - -
Home.
Meredith could feel the tears well up in her eyes as she looked at her Park Avenue brownstone. It had been her home for the last ten years. She pulled out some money and gave it to the cab driver as she got out. She stood there for several moments not sure if she wanted to go in.
She spent the last couple of hours walking around Manhattan. Trying to gather her thoughts and ideas. Still she hadn't been able to grasp the idea that her mother was sick. That all her memories were leaving her. All that knowledge was going to be gone. She brushed her tears away. She couldn't break down now. Not yet not until she saw her husband and her babies.
Laughter. Screaming. And the hard footsteps of her kids running. She smiled widely as she first saw her daughter. Her beautiful little girl who looked just likes her daddy. All dark curling hair, big blue eyes and a smile that had everyone bending to her will,
"Momma!" She exclaimed stopping her run toward the living room and going toward her mother's arm. Meredith picked up the small two years old and held her close kissing her hair. Lizzie wrapped her arms around her neck, "Momma I an 'octer!" She exclaimed as she put her down in front of her. She was dressed in a long white coat, one of Meredith's old scrub caps on her head, and a stethoscope around her neck.
"I see." Meredith said kneeling in front of her, "And what a pretty doctor you are."
"Tank you momma." She told her kissing her cheek, "I gotta fix Moppy." She said pulling away.
"The operating room is sterile Dr. Shepherd." Derek said coming into the room. Meredith smiled at him as he came to stop in front of her, "Would you like to assist Dr. Grey-Shepherd?" He asked her raising her eyebrow.
"What kind of surgery is it?"
"It's an 'orpus allosomoy. Scrub in momma!"
"An corpus callosotomy." Derek corrected her, "So do you want in?"
"Of course Dr.'s." Meredith told them, "I'd love to scrub in."
"Why don't you go get ready." Derek suggested his daughter, "Hi." He smiled at his wife kissing her softly.
"Hi." Meredith repeated looking up at him wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She said pulling away and taking off her jacket, "We have to save Moppy." She told him smiling brightly, "Where's the race car driver?" She asked him taking his hand as they walked to the family room. Moppy the big purple bunny that Lizzie took everywhere. Laying across the footstool. Noah kneeling beside the bunny his hand on the bears arm. One of his ear hanging off the stuffing toppling out,
"How's the patient doctor?" Derek asked his children.
"He's staple daddy." Lizzie said.
"We gots to operate now!" Noah broke in, "Hi mommy." Noah said smiling up at his mother.
"Hi Noah." She said kneeing down to kiss the top of her sons blonde hair, "This looks serious Dr. Shepherd." Meredith said looking between the bunny and Derek.
"What's your approach?"
"I think a needle and thread." He told her, "Would you like to make the first stitch Dr. Grey?"
"No. You better do it." Meredith said shaking her head, "Your better at this then me."
She replied seating down on the carpet and pulling Noah into her lap. Watching as Derek performed emergency surgery on big purple bunny.
-- --
Derek watched his wife closely as he stitched up Moppy. She was smiling as she listened to Noah tell her about his day at school, but after a decade of being together he knew she wasn't really into it. Something was really bothering her, and he had to figure out how he was going to go about getting it out of her.
"Daddy you saved her!" Lizzie exclaimed as Derek finished the last stitch.
"Very good Dr. Shepherd's." Meredith smiled, "I think this patient requires some rest."
"Yeah." Derek nodded looking at his watch, "It's bed time ladybug." He said picking up the little girl and the bunny in one scoop.
"Princess story daddy?" Lizzie questioned as she yawned.
"Princess story." Derek agreed nodding. Stooping a little so that Lizzie could say goodnight to everyone.
"Night Noah." She said leaving a sloppy kiss behind, "Night mommy." She told her quietly.
"Sweet dreams ladybug."
"Mommy why are you sad?" Noah questioned her as Derek and Lizzie left the room.
"I'm not sad." Meredith said shaking her head. He was just a little to good at pinpointing her emotions, "I'm a little sad, but I'll be alright." She promised him smiling.
"Why?"
"Why what baby?" She questioned cleaning up after the surgery.
"Why are you sad?"
"It's a grown up problem Noah."
"I'm almost five." Noah defended, "I'm starting kindergarten!"
"I know." Meredith said sighing, "Five is a really big age, but right now mommy needs to handle this."
"Okay." Noah sighed also, "Can we get a dog?"
"A dog?" Meredith asked.
"Yeah." Noah stood up beside Meredith, "Nana Eleanor showed pictures of daddy and their dog. She said I was just the right age for a puppy!"
She was going to murder her mother-in-law.
"Daddy and I will talk about." Meredith told him instead.
"Fine." Noah nodded, "Promise?"
"I promise." She said looking at him as Derek walked back into the room, "You read for an hour before lights out."
"The ladybug already asleep?"
"Too much surgery excitement I think." Derek said seating down in front of her, "Are you okay?" He asked her taking her hand.
"I just need a bath and a glass of wine."
"Why don't you go upstairs run the water. Do you want something to eat?"
"Yeah." She said as Derek stood in front of her taking her hand and running his thumb over her knuckles, "You know whatever it is you can tell me."
"I know Der." She said breaking away, "I know."
-- --
An hour later Meredith was out of the bathtub. She was thankful that Derek had left her alone. She was certain she would have fallen apart if he had come with her. She needed to be certain she could get though this as calmly as possible.
"Hi." He said seating up from the bed, "You feel better?"
"A little." Meredith told him joining him on the bed, "This look great." She said digging into the angel hair pasta, and sipping her wine.
"Your obviously not pregnant." He said watching as she drunk the wine.
"Pregnant...What made you think that...I was..."
"You've been acting strange since you got here and..."
"I'm not pregnant Der." She looked up at him tears in her eyes, "My mother has early on-set Alzheimer's." She wasn't going to be able to make it though this without falling apart.
"Oh Mer." He said immediately taking her into his arms, "I'm so sorry sweetheart." He pulled her into his lap, "I don't know what to say."
"There's nothing to say." Meredith said pulling away and brushing away her tears, "Apparently mom has everything under control. She's found a home in Seattle and she's leaving work. She's acting like I should just think she's going on some kind of a vacation."
"I don't think that's what she meant." Derek tried to add.
"No." She shook her head angrily, "She's sick Derek and she decides to have this nice little lunch to tell me."
"Why would I ever think she would care?" Meredith asked, "She's never been a mother I..."
"She loves you Meredith." Derek told her cupping her face in both his hands, "She just has a crappy way of showing it."
"I'm losing my mommy." Meredith told him falling into Derek's arms again her tears flowing freely again.
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Author Note 2: So that's the first chapter of my new story. I hope that I was able to get Meredith's feelings across. I'm looking forward to all the twists and turns of this story. I hope you all will enjoy the ride.
What do you guys think about the new episodes?
Review!