A/N: SPOILER ALERT - this chapter alludes to the still photos from the next episode showing Meredith in a wheelchair with her left arm in a sling and foot in a cast, I'm purely speculating the injuries and situation.
Work was slow so I got to leave early, instead of packing I'm writing another chapter for you all. I'm enjoying this story and I don't want to leave it alone for a week. But I don't think I'll have time to write on my vacation. But I'm taking my journal, so I can capture any ideas I get while I'm gone.
"I missed you last night, did you meet someone?" Arizona texts Amelia that night after putting Sofia to bed.
"Uh, that's a really short story. Wanna hear it?" Amelia texts back.
"Yes! Call me." Arizona replies. A few minutes later her phone rings. "Tell me everything!" She says answering the call.
"I went home with that tall brunette that we were dancing with, the one in the Kinks shirt." Amelia says laughing.
"Okay, she was cute and a great dancer too." Arizona replies.
"I drove and we almost wrecked getting out of the parking lot, honestly I think she's a sex addict." Amelia explains. "It was all I could do to extract myself, thank god I didn't give her my number."
"Maybe she has a tumor and she'll come into the ER this week." Arizona teases.
"You suck. That would totally be my luck." Amelia replies laughing again.
"How is everything else going?" Arizona asks.
"I don't know, I still haven't seen Edwards since last night. I left her at the bar, did she go home with you guys?" She asks.
"Uh, no Callie brought us home. Jo said she caught a ride with someone else they knew who was there last night." Arizona says trying to be a vague as possible.
"You mean Blake. I thought I saw her last night. Damn, I can't believe that Stephanie is hanging out with her. I purposely haven't said anything to her about what my problem is with her, but still everyone at the hospital knows. Why would she do that to me?" Amelia asks.
"Amelia, whatever she's doing, she's doing to Blake." Arizona points out.
"Ugh, oh god, you think they're involved?" Amelia asks loudly. "No, she's straight. She doesn't even look at women."
"Are you sure about that? I knew you were a flirt, but I didn't realize that you dated women." Arizona replies.
"The word you're looking for is bi," Amelia corrects her, "Are you not comfortable with that term. Are you one of those lesbians?"
"Callie is bi, I'm not one of those lesbians. I am not comfortable labeling people. And I think most women are flexible but not necessarily bi. It's one thing to be attracted to both, it's another thing to actually have relationships with both." Arizona points out.
"Hmm, well at any rate. My resident and roommate is MIA, I guess I should text her and make sure that she's alright." Amelia replies.
"Hold on, Jo just walked in. I'll ask her if she's talked to her." Arizona says taking the phone away, "Hey Jo, have you talked to Edwards today?"
"I got a text from her, she said she had a good time last night and we should do it again. Why?" Jo asks coming over and sitting down on the couch.
"Amelia, she texted Jo and said she enjoyed the bar and wants to go again." Arizona relays.
"Okay, maybe she came home when I was out today. Interesting, well, I'll just text her then and check in." Amelia replies.
"I'm going to go and talk to Jo, see you tomorrow." Arizona says ending the call.
"You're back." Arizona states, but her face is questioning the younger woman.
"I am. We had a great talk and everything was going well. Then freaking Meredith called and he went running over there, so I left and came back here." Jo explains clearly frustrated and annoyed.
"Damn, well that sucks. Did he say what was going on with her that he needed to go?" Arizona asks.
"No, he just took her call and said 'I'll be right there' then told me, it was Meredith and he had to go." Jo replies.
"I'm sorry Jo," Arizona says putting an arm around her.
"So why is Shepherd looking for Edwards?" Jo asks curiously.
"She hasn't seen her all day and wondered if we took her home. I told her she left with a friend and she guessed that it was Blake. She's not happy about that at all." Arizona remarks.
"Wait, so you think she's still with Blake?" Jo asks pulling her phone out and texts Edwards.
A few minutes later her phone rings and it's Edwards. "Where am I? Jo where are you? Alex is here, Meredith was in a car wreck." Edwards replies.
"Is she alright?" Jo asks, then lowers the phone to tell Arizona, "Meredith was in a car wreck."
Arizona picks up her phone and calls Callie.
"Are you at the hospital?" she asks as soon as Callie answers.
"Yeah, Meredith was broadsided, she broke her left ankle and dislocated her shoulder and cracked her collarbone and she has a mild concussion." Callie replies.
"Oh my god, were the kids in the car?" Arizona asks.
"Yes, Zola has facial lacs, nothing too bad, Jackson has her patched up, Bailey is admitted for observation, he may just have a concussion, but Alex isn't taking any chances and he's keeping Ellis for observation as well." Callie answers.
Hanging up the phone, Arizona turns to Jo who has also just hung up from Edwards.
"I can't believe this. You've got to be kidding me. If Edwards thinks I'm immortal, she needs to look at Meredith Grey's medical file." Arizona exclaims.
"What do you mean?" Jo asks.
"Meredith's first year she had to pull a bomb out of a guy's chest and it blew up in the bomb guy's hands, her second year she almost drowned at the scene of a Ferry boat accident. Then there was the shooting her fourth year and the plane crash. Oh and when she gave birth to Bailey, she almost bleed out on the table, remember that Ross almost killed her." Arizona reminds her.
"Good god, it's like this hospital is built on a hellmouth or something. Maybe I should just transfer out and start over." Jo exclaims, falling back on the couch.
"On the upside, at least Alex had a really good reason to leave today. Callie said the kids were in the car and he's admitted Bailey and Ellis for observation. Do you want to go in and see him tonight?" Arizona asks.
"No, but I can stay here with Sofia, if you want to go and check on them". Jo offers.
"You don't mind?" She asks. "I know that Miranda has probably already double checked them, but I'd feel better if I went. Thanks Jo. I won't be long." Arizona says heading to her room to change clothes.
Driving over to the hospital it occurs to Arizona that she should let Amelia know about Meredith, but then she's worried about how she'll respond since they aren't speaking, so she decides to get there first and then decide.
"Those are my brother's kids, you can't keep them from me!" Amelia is yelling at Alex in the peds lounge and Miranda and Edwards are trying to calm her down.
Arizona enters the room and Amelia goes over to her. "You have to let me see Bailey and Ellis. I'm a neurosurgeon, they could have head injuries."
"Amelia, let me find out what's going on. Just sit here and I'll go check on them." Arizona says calmly.
Alex follows her out of the room. "The CT scans are clear for both. Meredith looked at them herself." He adds.
"Here's what I want to do. First I want to see Meredith, then I want to examine both children. Now where is Meredith?" Arizona asks.
"She's still down in Ortho, Callie's splinting her ankle." He replies. "Uh Arizona, she's a mess. I mean, I've never seen her like this, she may have run the light and that's why she was broadsided." Alex explains carefully.
"Okay, maybe Bailey should admit her and we can get Dr Smithson to consult." Arizona suggest, "Do you think she'd talk to him?"
"I don't know. She barely talks to me. I think she was talking to Owen." Alex admits.
"Okay, well call Owen then." Arizona replies and walks off.
Knocking on the exam room door, Arizona waits and Callie opens it. "Oh Arizona, I'm kind of busy right now." Callie says glancing over at Meredith who is sitting still as a stone.
"Arizona?" Meredith blurts out, turning towards the door.
Callie opens the door and Arizona steps in. "Meredith I wanted to check on you and then I'm going to check on the kids, is that okay?" She asks.
Meredith nods and then tears start streaming down her face. "I think I caused the accident, Arizona I don't know what's going on, I can't focus, all day, I've had flashbacks of Derek in my head. I shouldn't have been driving. I could have killed someone." She says breaking down as Arizona wraps her arms around her.
Arizona waits until the other woman calms down a little bit, then she begins speaking, "Meredith, I want to suggest something and I'm suggesting it as a friend who has experienced grief like this, okay?" She waits for Meredith to acknowledge what she's said before continuing.
"I think you should be admitted and we should have Dr Smithson come in and talk to you. I don't think you're in any condition to go home tonight. I'll take Zola home with me and you can stay here tonight." Arizona replies carefully.
"You'll take Zo?" Meredith asks.
Arizona nods.
"I can stay here with Bailey and Ellis?" She asks.
"I'll go check on them, but if I can, I'll have you all put in a VIP suite upstairs." Arizona says looking over at Callie.
"Meredith, I'll stay with you tonight if you want me too." Callie adds.
"Maggie, I want Maggie to stay." She says softly.
"Okay, now Amelia wants to check the kids for head injury, can she examine them with me? She's very worried about them and I'll be there the whole time." Arizona promises.
"Okay, if you're there. But no treatment unless Alex agrees. We have all the paperwork on file." Meredith explains.
"I'm going to go check on the kids, Meredith and I'll let Miranda know what we've talked about. Callie will bring you up to Peds when you're done here, okay?" Arizona asks.
Meredith nods, letting go of Arizona's labcoat slowly, then wiping away the tears.
Walking back up to Peds, Arizona finds Miranda and tells her what Meredith has agreed to do.
"You seriously got her to agree to see Smithson?" Miranda asks.
"Yes, and I'm sure he's going to recommend a sedative. Now can one of you find Maggie, she wants her to stay the night and I'm going to take Zola home with me. But first Amelia and I are going in to examine the kids." Arizona replies heading back into the lounge.
"Wait, she said earlier that Amelia couldn't see them." Miranda replies.
"Just now in front of Callie, she said that she could if I was there too." Arizona explains.
"Okay, then go and let her know. Robbins, thank you for coming in tonight." Miranda says sincerely. "I don't know how it is that you of all people got through to her, but thank you."
"Unfortunately, I'm fluent in grief." Arizona says before heading into get Amelia.
"Let's go Shepherd, we need to examine those kids." Arizona calls over to her.
"You got her to let me see them?" Amelia exclaims flying out of the chair and almost knocking the blonde over.
An hour or so later, Arizona and Amelia are meeting with Alex explaining that they agree with his examination, that Bailey has bruising from the seatbelt, but no internal injuries. Ellis is fine, both have clean CTs.
"Okay, so you want me to move them up to the VIP suite with Meredith and Maggie's going to stay with her tonight there." He replies making sure that he understood what's going on. "How did you get her to agree to stay?" Alex asks.
"I pointed out that if she stays then we can put them all under observation. Alex she needs to stay, she's overwhelmed with grief and that likely contributed to the accident." Arizona points out.
"Well if she's going nuts then I'm going get temporary custody of my niece and nephew." Amelia exclaims loudly.
"Amelia, that's the worst thing that you could possibly do right now. Listen, I know that you're upset and worried, but you need to take a step back here. You're grieving yourself and you should probably see Smithson too." Arizona counters.
"What are you talking about? I'm fine, I'm peachy. Derek's dead but I'm here and I'm just fucking fine." She says pushing away from the table.
Alex is about to go off, but Arizona puts her hand out to stop him. She then rolls her chair over to Amelia and begins talking to her softly, a few minutes later Amelia wraps her arms around the blonde and Alex watches nervously, then stands up slowly and leaves.
"What's going on in there?" Miranda asks.
"Uh, Amelia freaked out and Arizona is talking to her. Jeez, everyone is crazy tonight. First Meredith, now Amelia. Has anyone checked on Maggie?" He asks.
"Maggie ran home to get some things so she could stay the night. She'll be back soon." Miranda explains.
"Where's Zola?" Alex asks as Richard and Catherine step off the elevator each holding one of Zola's hands.
"Miss Zola is right here," Richard replies as they walk up to join them. "Now we just saw Meredith and now we're going to check on Bailey and Ellis."
"Meredith told her that she was going to spend the night at Arizona's but Zola doesn't want to leave the hospital. She's worried about her family." Catherine explains to Miranda.
"I bet she is, poor thing. We can play it by ear, the suite is big enough to get them all in there. But then Maggie's going to have her hands full. I paged Riggs and have him coming in to cover for her tomorrow." Miranda explains.
"I'll cover for Meredith." Richard offers.
"I thought you'd say that. Okay, well then let's hope Smithson shows up soon, so we can get them all squared away." Miranda says hopefully.
"I'm sorry. I don't do this, you know. I bottle it up, but since I'm not using I'm feeling everything and it's too hard to bottle it up. I just keep exploding all over the place." Amelia explains.
"I understand, I do that too. I don't like to stop and feel things, I just keep going until I can't go any further, then I break down and I'm a mess. It took a few years of therapy for me to stop doing that, at least in my personal life." Arizona explains.
"I know that you lost your brother, like I lost Derek. How did you get over the guilt of not being there? I mean, if he would have been brought here, he'd be alive today. If I had been home when the police showed up, I would have called that hospital and maybe I could have done something to get him better treated." Amelia says tearfully.
"Those what ifs will break your heart a hundred times, you have to let them go." Arizona says softly. "The what ifs will kill you if you let them," she adds.
"I don't know if I can let them go?" Amelia whispers.
"You have to let them go, trust me. It's not easy, but you have to do it. And you'll need someone to help you, you can't do it alone. Dr Smithson's group is the best in Seattle, that's why we contracted with his practice. Just do yourself a favor and take a few days off and call him." Arizona presses her.
"I'll think about it," she says quietly.
"Okay, well Edwards is here and she's going to take you back to her place. Are you good with that?" Arizona asks.
"Uh, yeah that's fine. Will you let Miranda know that I'm going to take tomorrow off?" She asks.
"I will, now sit here and I'll get Edwards for you. Oh and you should tell the kids goodnight before they get moved upstairs." Arizona suggests.