A/N (04/01/15): Hello friends! As hard as it is to believe, it's been about two and a half years since I last updated one of my stories. My sincere apologies to all of my loyal readers for essentially dropping off the face of the earth, and thank you to everyone who kept reading, reviewing, and messaging me while I was lost in "real life", whatever that is!

I am working my way through this story, tweaking it slightly to take it in a direction that will better bring it to the conclusion I always intended it to reach. I'll be posting the updated versions of the existing chapters in batches until it's all caught up and we get back into new material. Most of the changes are minor in the first 15 or so chapters, but there are a few bigger changes in the later chapters of this new version. So even if you've read the story before, I encourage you to start at the beginning and work your way forward - I'll date all the updated chapters as they go up, so that it is clear what has been updated. Thank you all for your patience!

Meredith took a long sip of her coffee and tossed another completed chart into a pile on the corner of her desk. Setting down her mug, she glanced up again at the clock on the wall before turning back to her charts.

"That clock isn't gonna move any faster just because you keep staring at it."

Meredith shook her head, not needing to look up from the next file to recognize the voice of the woman in her doorway.

"I'm not trying to get it to move faster, Miranda," she said. "Actually, if I could control it, I'd prefer that it move a little slower today."

Miranda Bailey nodded, stepping into the office. "More time before she goes to see him?"

"You know?"

"Of course I know." Miranda took a seat on the couch across from Meredith's desk. "The minute Will told me they were going to New York for Thanksgiving, I knew why. No way was that girl of ours going all the way to New York if it wasn't to finally track down that man."

Meredith nodded. "Does Will know?"

"Who knows?" Miranda asked rhetorically. "That boy's blind as a bat sometimes, gets that from his father. You think he'll see her?"

"I hope so," Meredith said. "It's been 23 years, Miranda. Maybe he's changed his mind. Or maybe once he sees her, he'll feel differently."

"Sure, maybe. And maybe I'm a five-foot-ten supermodel. Since when are you an optimist, anyway?"

"I have to be, Miranda. I don't have a choice."

"Sure you do. Think of him as a no-good, selfish bastard. It's not that hard, really."

"I can't. If I hate him, if I think those things that about him, then I have to acknowledge that my little girl is about to get her heart broken," Meredith said, taking a deep breath to steady her voice. "You don't know what that pain feels like, Miranda - knowing that your own father doesn't want you, that he'd rather you never existed. I know that pain, and I swore that I was going to do everything in my power to keep Annie and Evelyn from ever experiencing it. So I can't think of him as the selfish bastard right now, because if I do that, then I have to think about the fact that I failed in the one thing I swore I do for my girls. If I hate him, I have to admit that I failed her."

"Don't you even dare think that. Meredith Grey, you did an amazing job with those girls. You think you failed Annie? Nothing could be further from the truth."

"I'm supposed to protect her, Miranda. I didn't do that."

"Meredith, there's only so much we can do as mothers. As much as we might want to, we can't bubble wrap our kids and stick them in padded rooms. You've got to let her figure this out on her own, even if she gets hurt along the way. You've already been doing everything in your power to do right by both of your girls, even before they were born…"

"Grey, what exactly do you think you're doing?" Miranda Bailey snapped as she walked into the conference room where Meredith was sitting, bent over a single sheet of paper.

"Um…just working on these charts, Dr. Bailey." Meredith quickly slipped the page underneath the nearest chart. "Updating charts, just like you told me to."

"You're a terrible liar, Grey," Bailey said, quickly walking over and grabbing the letter out from underneath the stack of charts. Looking down at it, she let out a low whistle as she realized exactly what she was holding. "You have some serious explaining to do, missy."

"I'm just…I was trying to reach the twins' father," Meredith admitted, wondering how much her boss had been able to discern from the portion of the letter she'd written so far.

Bailey sighed and shook her head. "Oh, for the love of God, Meredith Grey. Please tell that you are not carrying Derek Shepherd's children."

Meredith choked back a sob, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. "I didn't know who he was, Dr. Bailey, I swear I didn't. It was before I started working here, you have to believe me. If I had known, it would never have happened. He was just a guy in a bar."

"And after you found out who he was?"

Meredith hung her head, afraid to look her mentor in the eyes. "He flirted a lot, it didn't seem to matter to him that he was my boss. I tried to tell him no, but…I don't know what I was thinking, Dr. Bailey. It was only a few weeks, then he went back to his wife." Meredith paused for a moment as she thought about how that must sound. "I didn't know about her until much later either, I swear."

"Well, you certainly have gotten yourself into a bit of a pickle, now haven't you?" Dr. Bailey commented as she eased herself into a chair across the table from Meredith. "And what exactly does Dr. Derek Shepherd think of the fact that he's going to be a father in a few months' time?"

"He doesn't know."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I've tried," Meredith insisted. "I probably left fifty messages on his cell phone when I first found out, begging him to call me back, because that's not the sort of news you leave in a voicemail. A few weeks ago, I started getting a recording that the number's been disconnected, and my emails are bouncing back too. That's why I'm writing that letter. I don't even have an address to send it to in New York, but if I have to, I'll send it to every Shepherd on the east coast until someone tells me where to find him."

"Are you sure you even want him to know? If it gets out that you had an affair with your married superior, it won't matter that you didn't know who he was. Your surgical career - which, like it or not, is already in serious jeopardy because of those two babies - would almost certainly be ruined."

"I know," Meredith agreed. "But my father walked away from me and never looked back, Dr. Bailey. I haven't seen him in over 20 years. I know what it's like to grow up without a father, and it isn't something I want for my kids, not if there's a man out there who might want the job. I'm not going to force Derek to be a part of their lives if he doesn't want that, but I won't deny my babies the chance to grow up with two parents if that's possible."

"Grey, you tell anyone I said what I'm about to say and your grandchildren will be in medical school before you see the inside of an operating room again, got it?" Bailey waited for Meredith to nod before continuing. "You've got a lot of guts, Grey, and I admire that about you. You've got a hell of a road ahead of you, juggling two babies on your own and trying to complete a surgical residency. You're going to need to be ten times tougher than anyone else in this program just to get by, but I think you'll manage just fine, with or without that spineless brain surgeon."

"Wow. I…I don't know what to say to that, Dr. Bailey."

"Yeah, well, maybe my own pregnancy's making me soft." Bailey rubbed her hand over her own swollen stomach as she slowly stood up. "Now go on, get those charts back to the nurses' station. I'm sure we can find you a surgery to scrub in on somewhere around here."

"Thank you, Dr. Bailey," Meredith said, quickly standing up and reaching for the charts. As she picked up the first one, a sudden pain in her abdomen caused her to drop it and grasp the edge of the table for support.

"Grey?"

"I'm fine," Meredith said quickly, forcing herself to smile slightly. "Just a little discomfort, I…"

Meredith never had the chance to finish her sentence as another more powerful pain ripped through her abdomen, causing her to cry out in pain and drop to her knees.

"I need some help in here!" Bailey shouted out the door into the hallway before rushing to Meredith's side. "Meredith, breathe for me. In, out, nice and slow. Just keep breathing for me, okay?"

"It's…it's too soon," Meredith whispered, tears filling her eyes. "I'm not even 26 weeks…it's too early, Dr. Bailey, they won't make it…it's too early…"

"Just stay calm, Meredith," Bailey tried to reassure her, grasping her hand tightly as two nurses began helping Meredith into a wheelchair to transport her to an exam room. Turning her head toward the door, Bailey shook her head as she saw a small group of onlookers had already begun to gather. "Don't you people have work to do? Someone go make yourself useful and page OB!"

"Um, Dr. Shepherd?"

Derek looked up from his paperwork and nodded at his assistant, who was hovering hesitantly in his doorway. "What is it, Jessica?"

"There's a, uh, young woman here to see you, sir."

Derek frowned. "Did I forget an appointment?"

"No, she doesn't have one."

"Alright, well, I have a lot of work to get through before the board meeting this afternoon. Have her make an appointment for next week and come back then."

"Okay, but…well…"

"Spit it out, Jessica," Derek said somewhat impatiently.

"It's just that, well, she says she's your daughter, Dr. Shepherd."

Derek shook his head. "I don't have a daughter, Jessica."

"Right. See, I know that, I do. And I told her that. Except…well, she's refusing to leave without seeing you. And Dr. Shepherd, she looks like you. I mean, she's blonde, so not completely like you, but close enough."

"Jessica, I do not have a daughter."

"So do you want me to call security."

Derek sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Does she look dangerous?"

"No."

"Well then, let's try to avoid a scene," he said. "Go ahead and send her in, but be ready to call security or psych if we need them."

"Yes, sir."

Derek closed the file in front of him and put it into a pile on the corner of his desk. Leaning back again in his chair, he felt momentarily speechless when the door opened and a strikingly familiar young woman walked in. For a moment, all he could do was look at her as she nervously twirled a strand of her dirty blonde curls around her finger, her other hand resting on her rounded stomach. If he didn't know better, he would have said she looked just like Meredith, but he quickly shook that thought from his head, reminding himself that she was only on his mind because Addison had brought her up that morning.

"So," he said carefully. "My assistant seems to think that you told her that you're my daughter."

"I did."

Derek nodded. "And I assume you did that because you wanted her to let you in to see me without an appointment."

"Sort of."

"Sort of?" Derek questioned. "Why are really here, Ms…?"

"Jones," she said quietly. "Annette Jones."

"Alright, Ms. Jones, what can I really do for you today?"

"Oh, no, I guess I wasn't clear," Annie said nervously, biting her lower lip as she took a deep breath. "I did tell your assistant that I was your daughter so she'd let me in. But it's also the reason that I'm here. I know this sounds crazy, but you are my father."

"Have a seat, Ms. Jones," Derek said calmly, offering her a sympathetic but disbelieving smile. "Now, what exactly makes you think that I'm your father?"

"That's what it says on my birth certificate."

"Well, I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, Ms. Jones, but you've found the wrong Derek Shepherd."

"No, you're definitely the right one," Annie assured him. "Even my mom hadn't told me so, I kind of look like you, don't I? And my twin sister, she looks exactly like you - same eyes, same hair, same skin, everything."

"Ms. Jones, I'll admit there are some physical similarities between us, but that's not uncommon, and it's certainly not evidence of any sort of biological relationship. I don't know what sort of lies you mother told you, but there is no way that you're my daughter."

"Like I said, I know it sounds crazy, but if you'll just let me explain…"

"I don't think there's anything to explain," Derek interrupted impatiently. "You're what, twenty-five? Twenty-six?"

"Twenty-two," Annie said. "Twenty-three in January."

Derek nodded, his mind quickly counting backward. "I don't know what sort of extortion scheme you and your mother were thinking of running on my, Ms. Jones, but you picked the wrong man."

"Extortion? What are you talking about? My mother doesn't even know I'm here."

"I understand I might seem like a good target, but you made one major error in your calculations," Derek said. "Twenty-three years ago, I was still happily married to my first wife. There's no way I could have a child your age."

"But my mother…"

"Ms. Jones, I don't pretend to know what your mother might have been thinking when you were born, but a name on a piece of paper doesn't prove anything," Derek said. "It's not easy to find out that our parents aren't always truthful, I get that, but what you're suggesting just isn't possible. So either your mother is lying or you're trying to extort money from me. Either way, you're wasting my time."

"No, I'm…"

"I have a meeting to get to, Ms. Jones." Derek reached down, grabbing his briefcase and standing up. "I'll make sure Jessica sees you out."

Derek nodded tersely as he passed Annie, who was standing dumbfounded in front of his desk.

"Are you okay?"

Annie stared at Jessica for a moment, shaking her head as the tears began to fall from her eyes. Grabbing her purse and slinging it over her shoulder, she muttered a quick goodbye and hurried out of the room before she broke down completely.