"Burke, will you go to the funeral?" Cristina asked as she threw herself onto the upper deck in the on-call room.
"Yes. Why?"
"I dunno. I don't want to go."
"Grey's your friend." Burke closed his book and frowned a little.
"I don't know how to deal with that." Cristina sighed.
"You talked to O'Malley."
And she also lied on the bathroom floor with Izzie. Cristina knew she wasn't completely incapable of dealing with death, but with Meredith it was different.
It wasn't like losing Liz Fallon. It wasn't like seeing a friend lost his father. Her best friend losing her mother—the death of a mother—was very unsettling.
"Mer and her mother were not close." Cristina took the book away from Burke and squinted her eyes feeling perplexed.
"Family always means something. Who gets to judge if she's close to her mother or not?" Burke felt uncomfortable talking about Ellis Grey, especially after witnessing how Richard broke down.
"If you're going, I will." Cristina slid off the bed, "Rounds."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Meredith wasn't sure if she was sad. She wanted to talk to someone about her mother. She thought of calling her dad or going to the Chief, but the Ellis Grey they knew was not the mother she had, the one who frightened and inspired at the same time. George would listen, but he just lost his father. He wasn't half as strong as she was, how could she depend on him for emotional support?
"I'm sorry to hear—"Addison called out from behind. Meredith didn't really hate Addison as a person, but she couldn't forget the fact that it was the same woman who saved her niece's life. Her half-sister's daughter.
"I'm fine, Addison. I really am."
"My dad had Alzheimer's. It wasn't easy—" Addison's gentle pat on the shoulder was surprisingly comforting, "seeing a person fade away like the autumn leaves."
"Thanks." Meredith opened her mouth slightly but words failed to come through.
For the very first time, the two women felt connected, not through the lame and indecisive He-Sheppard, but death—the thing that normally divides instead of binds.