A/N: Welcome back! I told you guys updates would be slow, but you still kept showing how much love you have for this story that I couldn't not post one more chapter. Updates will still be slow, but you can keep bugging me to write, sometimes it works!

Song for this title is Terrible Love, and not the Birdy version, the original one by The National. It doesn't sound as "terrible love" when Birdy sings it :P

Enjoy!

Chapter 2 - It Takes an Ocean Not to Break

His mother's arms are strong around his neck as she squeezes him in a tight hug.

"You call me right away when you land, alright?" she says in his ear, before releasing him.

"Mom, I'm thirty-six. I've lived alone for more than a decade." Derek smiles, squeezing her hand again.

"Not on the other side of the country."

"I will be okay." He sighs, trying to mask how afraid he is.

It's going to be the first time that he won't have a family member less than a two-hour drive away from him, and he has no idea if he's doing the right thing or if it's a plunge in the dark. He only knows that Seattle is calling, and he needs something different to keep going.

"I want to see you for Thanksgiving or Christmas, Derek. It's not an option."

Derek wants to argue that being the new guy means he'll have to work the holidays most likely, and that people with children should get the time off, not him, but he knows it's futile, so he nods and lets his mother be.

Tiny little arms envelop his midsection then, and his heart squeezes in his chest.

"Don't leave, Uncle Derek," Annie begs, as he shares a teary look with his sister.

"I don't want to leave you." Derek sighs and picks her up, even if she's almost too big now to wrap around him like she used to do.

"I read in a book that it rains a lot in Seattle," she argues, tightening her vice grip on him.

"I know. And I'll be terribly lonely without you, Annie."

"I can call, right? Every day?"

"You can. And I'll call. You'll get sick of me, Annie Mer."

"Never," she giggles. "But buy a bigger suitcase when you come back."

Derek looks puzzled as she giggles. "Why?"

"Cause I don't fit in the one you have now."

Derek laughs loudly, hugging his niece tightly, breathing in her strawberry smell and filing it in his memories. He hates leaving her, he hates being away from his family, but he has to do this. He has to make it on his own. Alone. Lonely.

The intercom calls his flight. They rush for the last goodbyes, and part of him thinks he's crazy for leaving this life for the unknown.

He really, really hates airports.

A business briefcase lands on the aisle seat next to Derek's, forcing him to turn his head. When he spots the passenger, he smiles, surprised.

"Richard Webber?" Derek grins, eyeing the older man settling his carry-on over their heads. The man looks down and studies him, before he breaks into a wide smile.

"Derek Shepherd, wow. This is quite the coincidence."

"Did you purposely book this flight because you knew your new neurosurgeon was going to be here, on the seat next to yours?"

Richard laughs, sitting down as they shake hands. "That's a bonus. I can grill you here instead of my office tomorrow morning."

They both laugh loudly again, turning a few heads, but not caring much about it.

"How are you doing?" Derek asks, smiling at his old professor.

"I'm great. I love being Chief, even though it's always a reminder that I never had the power in my marriage," he chuckles.

"Is Adele still giving you a hard time?"

Richard sighs, his smile dimming. "She died in an accident a couple of years after I had you in my class. I picked up everything and moved to Seattle, then."

"So you're coming home."

"I am," he sighs. "Even though I'm still getting used to the fact that my little girls aren't living there anymore." He chuckles.

"You're a dad?" Derek grins. Richard has always been a good man, and Derek knows being a father would have looked good on him.

"It's complicated. I had an affair during my residency —that's why Adele and I moved to New York. Then next thing I know I'm moving to Seattle and Ellis plops back into my lap after a heart attack, and tells me she wants to get back together."

"Wow. And you have a baby daughter, now?"

"Oh, she's anything but a baby. Maggie showed up on our doorstep the day she turned eighteen. Freaked us out. I welcomed her like I've known her forever, I felt like I was finally complete."

"Wow."

"It's probably how I got Ellis to marry me, accepting Maggie. That woman is a stubborn one, believe me. Awesome surgeon, but stubborn as a mule. It's been quite the ride with her in the past eight years."

Derek watches Richard chuckle to himself as he puts two and two together, and then it clicks. "Ellis Grey?"

"Yes. I tried to make her a Webber, or a Grey-Webber, but she wouldn't have it," he says, still chortling.

Derek's breath hitches, his palms sweaty all of a sudden. "Your wife is Ellis Grey?" he asks, just to be sure, in case he's making things up.

"Yes. I'll forever be Ellis Grey's new husband in the medical world," Richard chuckles.

"How's Meredith?" Derek blurts, before he can keep his tongue in check. He wonders if this is why he felt a pull to Seattle.

Richard's smile brightens. "She's thriving. She's incredible, just like her mother. Maybe more. How do you know her?"

"It's a long story," he murmurs, his heart heavy. He's glad that she's okay, that she's doing well, personally and professionally. He wanted her to find her way when they parted at JFK, and he's glad she found a direction, a purpose.

"How are you? I heard you were getting married…"

"That was a long time ago. She left me at the altar. Never showed up." Derek shrugs. Rose is barely on his radar anymore, and he hardly remembers how it felt to stand there like an idiot. There are definitely more painful memories after that humiliation. "I took a vacation, cleared my head, dove into surgery head-first as soon as I got back."

"And now you're my new Head of Neuro."

"I am," he sighs.

"Meredith will be working in your department," Richard beams. "She's one of the most brilliant neuro residents we have around. I'm glad she can spend her last years of her residency working under you. I've heard you're brilliant too."

Derek gulps, unsure how much of a good idea it is, having Meredith work under him. She was divine under him in Florence, but he has no idea how she'll be as a subordinate. He only knows that he can hardly breathe, knowing that he found her again, that she'll be within hand's reach, but probably not his anymore.

It's been so long. She was twenty-two last time he saw her, and now she must be what? Twenty-nine. Of course she has someone. A woman as gorgeous as she is has definitely found someone again.

His heart aches.

Derek diverts the conversation to medicine, hoping he can forget about Meredith, but it's impossible. She consumes his thoughts, and he knows he won't feel at peace until he sees her again.

At this point, he knows it's a matter of days, and part of him is scared to death.

A/N: I have no idea how mch you love Annabel Meredith, but I do, so this is not the last of her, even if she's on the other side of the country!

And guess whois in Seattle? I bet you weren't expecting this plot twist, uh? :P Also, aren't you all excited to see Ellis Grey again? And married to Richard nonetheless. I'm pumped! But remember, slow, slow updates!

Thank you for the love, guys, you are beyond amazing!