Sorry this has taken so long! Life has been pretty hectic of late... Thank you all for your lovely comments - glad you enjoyed the first part :)

"Sit down residents, come on quickly!" Richard called to the staff crammed into the Resident's locker room.

"Cristina," Meredith nudged the doctor next to her, "Cristina…"

Turning her head sharply, clearly irritated at being disturbed, she hissed, "What? I'd quite like to hear this you know."

"It's just… where's April? I can't see her anywhere," Meredith explained, scanning the room.

"She'll be somewhere, stop worrying," Cristina replied, placing her hand over Meredith's mouth to silence her.

"As I'm sure you've all noticed something suspicious seems to be going on this morning. It saddens me greatly to tell you that something has happened, something deeply upsetting and unsettling. Our friend and colleague…"

"Sorry!" April exclaimed, running into the room and quickly perching next to Meredith, who had relief etched over her face.

"Doctor Kepner, nice of you to join us this morning," the Chief began, raising an eyebrow, "Now, as I was explaining before Dr. Kepner's sudden entrance, it saddens me deeply to tell you all that one of our friends and colleagues has been murdered. Early this morning the body of Lexie Grey was found in the on-call room on the third floor."

Gasps filled the room – April was crying, Cristina was sat shaking her head dumb-struck, Meredith had run over to Derek who had been flanking the chief and Callie was comforting Mark.

"I appreciate that this will affect us all and that today may be difficult to work through. I'd just like to remind you all that we've faced tragedy and we've come out the other side – we're a family and everyone is here to help others. Please, do not be afraid to talk if this has affected you extremely; I'm talking particularly to those who were close to Dr. Grey. I must also notify you all that under further notice you are all suspects in this case and should be prepared to be questioned by Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI or his forensic colleague Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'm certain we will do justice to the memory of Lexie, I'm sure she would have wanted us to continue with our day to day lives to the best of our abilities. The FBI have requested to talk to each of you separately so that they can paint a picture of both last night and this morning, but also of Lexie's life. They have asked to speak to Dr. Grey first, so Meredith when you're ready please head over to the conference room. Good day."

"Derek... I don't want to go," Meredith sobbed, burying her head into her husband's navy scrub top, the material absorbing the tears which were rolling down her face.

"I know, I know," he whispered into her hair, stroking the small of her back in an attempt to calm her.

"Lex – Lexie's dead Derek! I need time to compose my thoughts, to analyse the situation, to think – I just need time!" she wailed, pressing herself closer to Derek. With his arms wrapped around her she was safe, his embrace created a barrier where everything was fine, everybody was happy and Lexie was still alive.

Loosening Meredith's vice-like grip from around his neck, Derek placed his hand on her cheek and softly explained, "You need to do this. Sure, now would be the time to roll out the sentimental crap about how it's what Lexie would want you to do, but I'm not going to. I'm certain Lexie would want you to do this, but you need to do this so that you can begin to process this. Now's the time to think about what your mother would do – and right now, to be honest I think she'd take a deep breath, have drink of water, kiss her husband and then go into that conference room and tell the FBI every single thing they can think of."

Meredith stood rooted to the spot, staring at him and considering what he had just told her before asking, "You don't happen to have a tissue do you? I need to clean my face..."

"No, but I do have a scrub top..." he smiled, "you've already substantially stained it, you may as well finish everything off."

"Sorry," she sniffed, wiping her cheeks with the hem of Derek's top.

"Don't apologise," he replied, pushing her hair behind her right ear and kissing her on the cheek.

Taking a deep breath, she took hold of his hand and whispered into his ear, "Walk me over?"

"Of course."

Let me know what you think? And I promise I'll update sooner this time...xxx