Title: A Leap Of Faith

Authors: Sara And Lizzie

Rating: T for language, mild sex

Disclaimer: It would be nice to own grey's anatomy, sadly all we own are a lot of high priced shoes and handbags, and both seasons on dvd.

Summary: AU. Meredith leaves Seattle the night that Addison comes. Five years later, she's standing at the back of the church, about to marry another man, when she admits to herself that she's still very much in love with Derek Shepherd. So she heads back to Seattle, and finds a very broken Derek. Will they be able to heal each other, or is it too late?

Author's Note: Welcome to the next chapter. So Meredith kissed Derek, and Derek kissed back. But neither of them are too clear in the head right now. Meredith's confused, but she has all of this energy because she finally knows some things about herself, and Derek is kind of dark an twisty these days. So he's going to get mad.

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You are the only thing that makes sense; just ignore all this present tense. –Snow Patrol

5 Years Ago

The lobby of Seattle Grace was suffocating her. Derek, her husband, the man she had promised to love for better or worse had left her inside these mundane and nondescript walls to run after a skinny blonde girl who couldn't be more than twenty seven. Addison drew in a breath and walked outside, searching for her husband.

She found him, sitting on a bench in the rain, staring out into the parking lot. His eyes were red rimmed and his shoulders were still shaking slightly. She sat down next to him, feeling a growing fear in the pit of her stomach. "Derek?" she asked tentatively. He sighed and put his head in his hands, too lost to even be angry with her anymore. She sat and waited for him to say something. He finally lifted his head from his hands.

"She left." He said simply. "She left and I don't think she's going to come back." Addison drew in a breath to say something, but he shook his head. "She means the world to me, so don't try to say it's a good thing."

She turned her head sharply toward him, suddenly unconcerned with the fact that the rain was ruining her curls, destroying her Prada and wreaking havoc on her makeup. She was no longer concerned with any of that. What she was concerned with was the fact that her husband was slipping through her fingers. "Derek are you… I mean, do you?" He didn't say anything. It hit her like a ton of bricks that he had caught her in bed with his best friend and he had walked away, and left calmly, but this woman leaves him in a parking lot and he was crying. "Derek tell me you're not in love with her."

He couldn't deny it, but it was too little, too late. "I am." He breathed. "I'm completely in love with her. And it's not enough anymore." Addison stood up, wide eyed and backed away from him.

"Derek, you're scaring me." She said. "What are you saying? I, I came here to work this out." Derek looked up at his wife and shook his head.

"Addie, I want to call it what it is. I want a divorce."


Present Day: Seattle

It was somewhere past midnight. That was the last thought Meredith gave to the time before she turned the car off and climbed out. Before her were the ferry boats, lit up against the dark water of the Sound. The night air whipped through her hair, and she shivered, not from cold or fear, but from contentment and anticipation.

She knew that she didn't have an easy ride in front of her. She had left in the wake of damage, damage that had festered, un-repaired for five long years. But she was ready to do whatever she had to in order to fix it now. Somehow, she knew she was in the right place again. For reasons she couldn't define, tears slipped down her cheeks.

Not bothering to wipe them away, she sat on a bench, overwhelmed. Thoughts of Jack floated into her mind. He had made sense to her three years ago, or at least she had thought so at the time. In Philadelphia, a different city, three thousand miles away, Jack had made sense. Here, in Seattle, she could see Jack for what he was. A band aid that covered, but never healed, her Derek inflicted wounds.

She touched her fingers to her lips, still reeling from their kiss. Derek didn't make sense right now. Meredith didn't even make sense to herself right now. But she knew, somewhere, with a clarity that she had never experienced before, that she had to make Derek make sense again.


Derek arrived at Meredith's house, ready to gather her in his arms, kiss away the last five years and forgive her. He was excited as he pounded on the door, peered in the windows, and called her name. When it was clear she wasn't there, he returned to car and settled in, content to wait for her.

Little by little, the confusion, pain and utter disparity of the last half decade came back, firing deadly shots to his happiness. She had run away, without so much as a glance backwards or a moment of hesitation to allow him to explain. She had moved all the way across the country, fell in love with another man and almost married him. Angry, he jammed his keys into the ignition and drove away.

He let the anger eat away at him as he drove back to his trailer. For five years, he had missed her, he had drowned his sorrows in scotch and vodka, and he had been a wreck. He didn't know if it was worth it to start that all over again.


It took her a long time to walk through the front door of her mother's house. Her house. Ellis had died after Meredith left Seattle, and left her everything, so the house was officially hers. With a shaking hand, she put her key in the lock and twisted, stepping inside and dropping her bags in shock. The furniture, which had been covered since George and Izzie moved out, was uncovered. She wandered from room to room.

The place was fixed up, decorated and cleaned. Little touched she would have chosen for the house herself were all in place. All the appliances were on; all of the clocks were set. She heard the refrigerator running and opened it to find it filled with food. When she dragged all of her bags up to her room, there were fresh sheets on her bed, and a folded piece of paper. She picked it up to find one sentence of the card. In case you decided to come home, it said. The hand writing was Cristina's.


Philadelphia: A Few Days Later

"What now?" Olivia asked, looking around at the mass of cardboard boxes that littered Meredith's apartment.

Cristina sighed. "We'll have everything shipped back to Seattle. It's going to take a few days to get it all in order, so Burke and I will wait here."

George shook his head. "Mer's going to be freaking out." He said. "She'll need you. Alex and Jillian need to get back to David. Olivia and I will wait." He offered.

Cristina considered this, going over her checklist in her head. She had made these plans before the wedding. She had brought the packaging tape in her suitcase, and had dug out Meredith's contract on her apartment before the actual ceremony had taken place. A few phone calls and she had terminated her lease. Finally, she nodded. "We have a plan." She said. Burke shot her a look and she rolled her eyes. "It's a good plan. It's not a drill a hole into someone's head with a Black and Decker or cut an LVAD wire plan."

Izzie placed her hands on her hips, indignant. "Why do you always make fun of my bad plans?" she mumbled.

Cristina gave her a look and rolled her eyes. "Please, Barbie. I don't come up with bad plans." From across the room, next to Olivia, George let out some kind of half laugh, half snort.

"Please. It's not a we're a team with three out of four working hands plan either." Burke raised his eyebrows. George smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Dr. Burke." Cristina glared at him.

"At least that was better than the stick a needle in my butt to cure my syphilis plan." She shot back, causing Olivia to blush. Jillian and Denny exchanged a look they had come to give one another often. A look that expressed gratitude that they weren't doctors. As the argument started to get out of control when Izzie brought up Alex failing his boards, Burke raised both of his hands in a gesture of mediation.

"People." He said. "Our priority is to enact the plan. It's a good plan, surprisingly enough. I'll book tickets for everyone except Olivia and O'Malley."

Denny nodded. "I'll work on the shipping issue." He said. As he and Burke started to talk, Cristina, Izzie, Alex and George exchanged looks between them that could not be understood, even by Burke or Olivia. Looks that could only be understood between them and Meredith. She needed them now, and they had to be there.

"I wonder if she's seen Derek yet." George muttered.

Izzie looked down and then back at up the rest of them nervously. "Do you think that she'll be mad when she finds out? That we're friends with McDreamy now? He's like the enemy."

Alex shook his head. "I don't think he's the enemy anymore, Iz."

Burke looked up. "There's one seat on the flight leaving Philadelphia tonight." He said. "Who wants it?" Everyone's eyes turned to Cristina, but she looked at Jillian.

"You should get back to David." She said. "You take it."

Jillian smiled and shook her head. She hadn't been with them from the beginning, but there was one thing she knew, and it was that look. The one they gave each other, like that year as interns bonded them in a way no one would understand. "David will be fine with my parents for one more night." She said. "You go." Cristina shot her a grateful look and picked up her bags, ready to leave that second.

Breathe. Fireworks. Keeping The Faith. It Takes A Village. Loud And Clear.

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