The day of the ceremony finally arrived. Ellis was up bright and early at 5:00 to get ready. She put on her black dress. It was short sleeved and went just passed her knees and it flared at the bottom. She brushed out her long brown hair and put it in a black headband. Ellis slipped on her black flats and sat on the couch. She turned on the tv as she ate her cereal careful not to get any on her nice outfit. Meredith came down the stairs about to leave out the front door to go to work when she noticed Ellis was already to go.
"Wow someone is ready to go very early today!" She smiled.
"Yep! Its ceremony day! Don't forget 1:30 in the auditorium!"
"1:30 auditorium got it!"
"Bye mom see you later!"
"Bye Ellis, make sure Bailey doesn't miss the bus today!"
"I won't" Ellis giggled. "But can't Zola just take him if he misses the bus? She's home from college now!" Meredith slightly shook her head and laughed as she closed the front door.
Once the bus arrived at school, Ellis bolted off the bus and ran inside.
Ellis ran up the stairs to the future doctor teacher's room, Dr. Henry, to make sure they changed her sponsor's name. She knocked on his door.
"Hello Miss Ellis, what can I do for you this morning?" Dr. Henry smiled.
"I just wanted to make sure my sponsor's name was changed from Dr. Alex Karev to Dr. Meredith Grey."
"Meredith Grey? Grey as in Ellis Grey?" Dr. Henry questioned.
Ellis nodded. "That's my grandmother! I was named after her!"
"Oh really? Well I am going to double check and make sure that is changed and I will see you this afternoon!"
"Okay, thank you, Dr. Henry!" Ellis smiled and skipped to her first hour class.
The morning flew by fast for Ellis, before she knew it it was 12:30 and time for her to head down the the auditorium. When she got there she began to look for her mother, even though she had a feeling she wasn't going to be there yet.
Back at the hospital Meredith was scrubbing out of a surgery when the chief came in.
"Meredith, we need you now! One of your patients, Nellie Nelson, who had her appendix removed yesterday. Her wound is bleeding you need to go back in and fix the bleeder."
"Couldn't you get someone else to do it? I have to get to Ellis' ceremony."
"A giant trauma just came in and all my general surgeons are in trauma right now."
"But-"
"Meredith! You are the chief of general surgery! I need you to do this and she is YOUR patient now go in and fix her! It shouldn't take long. What time do you need to be at her ceremony?"
"1:30."
"You have a whole hour! It shouldn't take that long please Meredith…"
Meredith sighed. "Fine, bring them to this OR, get me a resident and an intern. I will find the bleed fix it and they will close."
"Okay Meredith thank you!" Chief Bailey said as she walked out of the OR, and Meredith scrubbed back in.
At 1:45 Ellis was still looking for her mother because she still wasn't there yet. She had already called her three times and no answer.
"Hi everyone, please lineup in alphabetical order with your sponsors. If they are not here yet let them know to meet you backstage!" Dr. Henry announced.
One more time...Ellis thought to herself as pulled out her cell phone and called her mom again before lining up.
At 1:45 Meredith was still in the OR trying to find the source of the bleed.
"Dammit!" Meredith screamed. She couldn't find where the bleed was coming from.
Ellis lined up at the back holding her card with the pronunciation of her name and her mother's name. It was now 2:00 and the ceremony was starting. Everyone's sponsors were there except hers.
"Hey Ellis where's your sponsor? Did your cool uncle bail on you? Is pediatric surgery more fun than you? Decide you weren't important enough?" Said the girl standing in front of Ellis. She smirked and then crossed her arms.
"Um, no. He's not my sponsor my mom is…he moved to Massachusetts." Ellis sighed, she didn't want to talk about Alex moving. He had only been gone for a week and she missed him terribly.
"He hates you so much, and is so sick of doing things for you he moved across the country?
"No! He moved for stem cell research program! Now please leave me alone." She gritted through her teeth.
"If your mom is your sponsor then where is she?"
"She's...coming." Ellis bit her lip, as a single tear shot down her face. It was cold. She wiped it away fast so the girl couldn't see that she had got to her.
"Mhm...I bet you $10 your mom won't show up."
"Just watch, my mom will show up! She promised!"
"Promised. What are we, 5?"
Ellis rolled her eyes and looked around for her mom. It was almost her turn to go up on stage.
"Found it!" Meredith yelled. She stopped the bleed and had the resident close up. She ran as fast as she could into the scrub room and scrubbed out. Meredith ripped off her mask and took off the ferry boat scrub cap and bounded down the hallway to get her bag and change clothes to get to Ellis' ceremony.
Ellis walked up onstage and handed her teacher her note card. "Ellis Shepherd, her sponsor is-" Dr. Henry looked up and noticed her mother wasn't there, so he quickly moved on to the next part. "She wants to be a trauma doctor, and the first sophomore to be accepted into this program, so please give her a round of applause!" Ellis stared out at the audience as they all clapped and cheered for her. She was hoping her mother was part of that crowd. Maybe she was just super late? She scanned the entire audience of about 30 people and she wasn't there.
When Meredith arrived at the school she parked and dashed into the auditorium. The decorations were being taken down and everyone was gone except Ellis. She was sitting on the stage. Meredith walked over to her. Ellis looked up.
"YOU PROMISED!" she screamed and shook her head. Hot tears began to fall. "YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD BE HERE!"
"Ellis, I'm so sorry. I had an emergency surgery and-" Ellis cut her mom off.
"I don't want to hear your excuses and you're sorry? Really? I don't believe you." And you say you are nothing like your mother, but you are EXACTLY like her. You said you would never forget the important things, yet this is the second most important thing in my life so far! You missed my fifth grade graduation! At least Alex was there for me! That's why I didn't ask you to be my sponsor! I don't trust you! At least I know Alex would have been here!" At that moment Meredith realized that that's what Alex was talking about her missing. How come she couldn't remember missing that?
"I will never forgive you for this! Ever! This is unforgivable!" Meredith looked at Ellis with her eyes wide and her mouth opened a little. She didn't expect those words to come out of Ellis' mouth. What she just told her hurt so much. It felt like someone just threw a brick at her.
"You cause me so much grief! I had to do this all on my own with you! And I am nothing like my mother! How dare you say that! These past 16 years have been very difficult without your father!" Meredith sighed. She missed her husband. This would be so much easier if he were here.
"16 years? I'm 15!" Ellis shook her head. "Is Derek even my father?"
Meredith's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe her own daughter just questioned who her father was.
"You know this Ellis! He died before you were born! It was so hard on me you don't understand! It still is! Ugh! Sometimes I wish you were never born!" Meredith was so upset that she didn't realize what she was saying.
"Well you make it sound like I'm the worst thing that ever happened to you! If you regret and hate me so much that I don't have to exist to you anymore. I am going to go live with Uncle Alex!" Ellis barked.
At this point in the conversation Ellis was crying. "I WISH YOU WEREN'T MY MOTHER!
Meredith stepped back in shock then tried to put her hand on Ellis' shoulder. "Ellis…wait…I'm sorry…"
Ellis jerked her shoulder back. She hopped off the stage and ran as fast as she could out of the auditorium. "I HATE YOU MEREDITH! I HATE YOU!"
I'm really proud of this chapter! I hope y'all enjoyed it! :) thanks so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Let me know what y'all think of the story so far! Reviews let me know your thoughts!
until next time,
Lucie :)