A/N: Because you demanded it! But next update will not be posted until after I post AFTR's next chap.

Enjoy!

xxx

Before she leaves the hospital, she calls Derek but he doesn't answer, which probably means he's got his hands full with a one and a half year-old while putting groceries away. Maybe it's better that way. She'll turn into a blubbering pathetic mess if he asks her what's wrong, and that terrifies her.

"Hello?" she calls into the house, a habit she formed living with roommates. It's always helpful to announce your presence.

"Mama!" Zola shrieks from Derek's lap, bits of goldfish cracker crumbs littering her bib, and dotting her hair.

"Meredith? You're home early." Derek exclaims, pleasantly happy, though she can detect a trace of curiosity in his tone. This was definitely unexpected for him, though not unwelcome. "I didn't think you'd be home so soon, I haven't started dinner-"

"Zo-zo!" When Meredith sees Zola's bright brown eyes, little white teeth and broad grin, everything else fades away. Even Derek. Meredith drops her bag and runs to the couch, liberating her daughter from her husband's grasp ."I'm going to take her to the park," Meredith blurts, opening the hall closet for the appropriate outdoor wear to dress her daughter in.

"I'll come," Derek stands. "What happened? Surgery got canceled?"

"No," Meredith says, pulling on Zola's coat as her one-year old babbles. She tries to think... she just wants to be alone with Zola. She has things to get right in her head before she can let her husband in.

"Meredith?"

"I um," she shakes her head. "Something happened at work... and I just need Zola. By myself."

Derek's blink at her rejection is almost a wince.

"You should visit Mark," she says to deflect his thoughts from her. "It'll be good."

"I..." he looks genuinely confused and concerned.

Meredith shifts her gaze to her daughter and picks her up. The soft scent of baby oil and the warmth of Zola's forehead resting on her cheek brings comfort. She glances at her husband, "I've just had this day..." a lump forms in her throat. "Please?"

"Oh," Derek breathes, relief flooding his features. He cups her other cheek, kisses her nose. She hates that she can't spill her guts to the man who loves her the most, but right now she just needs a moment with her daughter.

"Go see Mark," she says, and then she's out the door.

xxx

Pushing Zola on the swing, her daughter's laughter grounds her while she relives her visit with the enigmatic agent.

"Please, have a seat." The Agent's lips turned upward, appeasing. "You're probably wondering why I'm here..." started Agent Black, her fingers spreading over the still closed folder.

"What's this about?" Meredith asked as she closed the conference room door. All kinds of things have happened here over the years, it's not very surprising the FBI showed up. But why Meredith specifically? Agent Black sat down, resting the manilla folder on the grand table before her, waiting for Meredith to do the same. With no clue in her mind as to what the nature of the visit is for, Meredith did so. "Is it a patient? Is it about the plane crash?" That damned feeling in her gut wouldn't go away.

The agent sighed, and her features filled with regret. Not a good sign. Not good. Flipping the folder open to an aged piece of paper, Black pointed to the top left corner. Meredith blinked as she took in the information written under the neatly manicured fingernail. 1996 was the year. March 11. "No," the whisper was hoarse as she shook her head.

"You filed a police report, in 1996." Agent Black said. "You identified William Wright as your rapist."

Meredith gritted her teeth together. Her lungs squeezed against her will forcing her breath into her upper chest. She blinked, trying to ward the memories away. The lock to the safe in her head was night, she'd been taken to the hospital. There was an investigation. It really wasn't that hard for them to figure out that it had been her boyfriend of one month that raped her. Except the suave man was the son of the D.A. And that was that.

Well, not really.

Zola's giggles bring her back, and Meredith pushes her adopted daughter in the swing, tickling her toes. On the outside, she's able to project perfectly happy normalness, but inside...

"Do you recognize this picture?" Black slid a photo toward her. William's dark eyes blazed fury at her, and another number to her safe was revealed.

"No," she shook her head.

"No?" Black questioned, surprised. Like, No? You don't want that last piece of cheesecake? No? You don't want to get married?

"I mean, yes, I do." Meredith corrected. Though she's long buried this piece of her life, she hasn't forgotten. William is a part of her. He always will be. "I just... it's been sixteen years." Sixteen years of careful guarding, denial, debate. Sixteen years of not... ever allowing it to break her. Or so she thought.

But why the FBI?

"We believe Wright is the perpetrator of several violent sexual assaults in several states." Agent Black answered. "We have him in custody. But we don't have much to go on. We need your testimony."

The agent's words sent Meredith into a spiral. She felt both dizzy and intensely focused, pained and numbed at the same time. Metaphorically, she's been struck by the shockwave of a bomb.

"The DA is pressing charges in my case?" Meredith managed to ask under the tsunami of barely checked emotion. It's too much, it's all too much.

She thought she was done with this. With him.

"No, the statute of limits is fifteen years in Boston. He can't be prosecuted for your rape."

He can't be prosecuted, she repeated in her head. "So what do you need my testimony for?" It seemed like a moot point then.

"We believe his behavior escalated after..." He raped you, Black didn't say but said.

"After he got away with it?" Meredith prompted, cracking with bitterness, pain and anger.

"Yes." The young agent's expression was sympathetic but determined, and Meredith hated that she looked so young. Black appeared like she didn't have a lifetime of devastating events to give her perspective, to show empathy or experience. In Meredith's eyes, she was a textbook case manager following orders.

An Intern, really.

With that realization, Meredith shut down. Closed the file cabinet in her mind and spun the combination lock on the safe. No one is getting in her vault. "I'm done with that part of my life," she said. "I'm married. I have a kid, a career. I've had more than enough trauma to last a couple lifetimes." She stood up, pushing the chair out from under her. "We're done here."

Black was quick though, she pushed the police report aside to reveal the photos before Meredith could look away. "He did that to you," she said. "And he did that to several others, only two we can maybe prove, and only one is able to testify. It's enough for a trial... but... beyond reasonable doubt?"

Meredith shook her head. "It was sixteen years ago... I was in high school. Nobody believed me then, you think they're going to now?"

"Dr. Grey, we know he's hurt other women. Now is our chance to get him behind bars. We need to dot every 'i', cross every 't'."

"It's... you can't just..." she shook her head no again. Why did she always have to be the one holding the bomb? She reached for the doorknob, but the agent blocked her.

"Meredith," she said. "We have reason to believe he knew about your pregnancy."

Zola is giggling and kicking. Meredith pulls her out of the baby swing, hugging her tight and pressing kisses all over her. She swallows, "You know... she starts, "You have a big sister somewhere out there?"

"Wex!" Zola says, waving.

Wex. Right. Lexie...

The sister she didn't want to know.

Somewhere out there, Zola has a sister now too. Meredith does the math in her head. Born around thanksgiving, her daughter is almost sixteen now.

The daughter she couldn't look at.

The daughter she gave up.

The agent's words were a punch to the face, a kick to the gut."What are you saying?" Meredith rasped. She swallowed nothing but air and wobbled, her hand clutching the table for support.

"I'm saying he knows."

He knows. It took everything in her to not commit assault that very moment. She almost gagged at the thought of that bastard knowing.

"Don't you want him to pay for what he did?" Black pushed.

But it was too much. Meredith's heart palpated. Her body flushed and and shivered. Memories she buried long ago were being churned to the surface.

Agent Black must have noticed this. She pressed a card into her hand. "Look, you were the only victim that wasn't drunk or otherwise intoxicated when Wright assaulted you. If you want him behind bars, we need your testimony."

Her stomach lurched. "I have to go. I have a surgery."