A/N: Thanks again to mandyg67, Patsy, Jackiiiieeee111, and Rhatch89 for your Comments, and everyone for reading and following this story!
Enjoy!
Grace sat up a little straighter in her bed when Meredith entered. Meeting her was unexpected, for sure... but it was a pleasant surprise. She knew how awful Meredith must be feeling, so maybe this could be a chance to talk to her, reassure her.
"Hi." Meredith said, taking a few more steps closer. Her arm was in a sling, and two children trailed in behind her. The oldest, a dark little girl, stared at her with bright curiosity. Grace wondered if she was adopted. The boy peered at her from behind Meredith's leg. Definitely her son, she thought.
"Is that the girl, mommy?" The girl asked, pointing.
Meredith rolled her eyes and smiled apologetically. "Yes, sweetie, this was the other girl in the accident."
"But she was hurted... is she better?" Zola swung her and her mother's arm.
"Why don't you ask her?" Meredith said, gently pulling her closer. She met Grace's eyes again, "Um, this is Zola. And that's Bailey..." she put her free hand on her blonde son's head. "Guys, this is Grace, Cassie's daughter."
Shy Bailey ducked his head again behind Meredith, but Zola spoke up, "Are you better? Did the doctors fix you?"
"Yes, they did... I'm just going to be sore for awhile." Grace replied.
"Oh," Zola said, walking up closer. "My mommy is too. Her shoulder has a owie."
"Yeah, I see that..." Grace nodded and smiled at the girl. She was so cute and had so many questions.
"One time, I was riding my purple bike and goin really fast, then I felled off and scraped my knee... it hurt a lot. Unca Alex put stitches in and I got Dora band-aids. Did you get Dora band-aids?"
Grace smiled a little, "No, my owie was too big for Dora band-aids."
"Oh." Zola said, dissappointed.
"She thinks Dora band-aids have super healing powers..." Meredith said. "Her Aunt Maggie suggested it once."
Grace smiled. "Aww, that's so cute."
Meredith nodded with a small smile. A tense moment followed.
"Hey, do you guys want to go get stickers... They have them at the nurses station." Her mother offered. "I can take you there."
Zola looked at Meredith who said, "Zola, do you want to go with Cassie and get stickers?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, well, go take your brother. I'll be... I'll be right here."
Cassie smiled and took Zola and Bailey's hands, leading them out the door.
They were alone.
Meredith stayed where she was, her eyes wandering the room as she nervously fidgeted. "So... you're okay?" she asked.
Grace paused before she answered. She was okay. She always knew she was because... well, she knew. She was sore, she'd been scared when she'd first been hit. But she'd gotten over it. She was on pain medication, food wasn't quite as appetizing, and she got tired fast. But her mom was here, and Nick, and Sam. Even Aunt Abigail. She was okay. "I'm sore," she said, "But, I bounce back quick."
"I'm sorry," Meredith whispered, bringing her gaze to meet Grace's. "I'm sorry I hit you."
That very first moment when she'd awakened in the car, Meredith had been there. Hovering over her, concerned and trying to reassure her. "I know you are." Grace said, "It was an accident, and you stayed and helped. I forgive you." Sam said she stayed with her until they got to the hospital. "Sam said you're a doctor. A surgeon."
Meredith nodded, "I-I am." But there was a flash of pain in her eyes.
Grace knew Meredith was running from that life, from loss. "It's okay... you know, to take some space." .
A sudden burst of laughter escaped Meredith's lips. She sniffed. "It's funny... I mean it's not funny, but-" she laughed again. "I can't... I can't get away from him. He's everywhere, all the time." She slumped into the nearby chair and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Sorry-I," she sighed. "You don't need to know about my dark and twisty life. I'm glad you're okay, Grace. You... you're a wonderful girl..." She trailed off, and again there was awkward silence.
Grace bit her lip... she felt the urge to say something, but she didn't know if she should say it. Meredith seemed so fragile. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew she had to say it. Maybe, coming from her... "Why?" she asked curiously, shocked at how quickly that spilled out of her. "Why are you trying to get away from him?"
xxx
"Why are you trying to get away from him?"
Meredith blinked and stared at Grace. "What?" she asked, feeling like she was being accused of something. But Grace had said it so softly, and there was more curiousity in her voice than accusation, and well she was a kid- so...
"Sorry." Grace said quickly. "It's just... when my dad died...my mom and I- we had the whole town... and George and Abigail, and," she shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I just don't understand. The idea of leaving the people that love and support you when you need them..." she trailed off.
Meredith sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I'm- I'm not trying to get away-I just- I don't know... Everything happened in Seattle. I was born there, I met him there, I made my family there, I had my kids there... I-" her voice caught. Why was she talking to a teenager about this?
But Grace had this way about her... this gentleness that seemed to fill the air around the room. She felt safe. Meredith looked down at her hands. "My life? Me? Scary and damaged. People die on me, people leave. And I just-" She looked back up at Grace. "I need to- I don't know who I am anymore... without Derek-"
With the empty bed... the big house he built for their life together. With a hospital full of caring staring people... feeling him around every corner, in every elevator but knowing he wasn't there. "I miss him. Every morning when I wake up- I" her hand reaches across the pillow to emptiness. "I miss him, but when I look at the house, our bed, our work together- I'm just reminded that-"
"He's gone." Another voice said, and Meredith turned to see Cassie in the doorway, Zola and Bailey holding balloons and stickers.
A deep exhausted sigh escaped her lips, "Yeah..." Meredith breathed. Bailey ran to her instinctively and climbed on her lap. "I know this is impulsive, and I know-" Meredith winced as her son settled in her arms. "I'm hurting people by leaving, but- I don't know what else to do."
Cassie took another step in, "It's okay, there's no judgement here, everyone deals with grief differently."
Meredith nodded and hugged Bailey tighter. He was solid and firm and alive. Alive and squirming. He needed her. She needed him to need her. Zola rambled on about stickers and balloons and Dora, and Grace and Cassie talked about the unappetizing meal in front of them.
And he was gone. Derek was gone. She was alone, but not really... life continued. But she'd jumped off the carousel, if only to catch her breath. She only hoped one day she could jump on again.
xxx
"Ow." Carolyn said, rubbing her chin. They'd landed hard underneath the building. And Michael had broken her fall. "Michael?" she patted his cheek. "Michael, wake up!"
"Hmm?" He hummed in that familiar way. Then he coughed. "Can't... breathe-"
She pushed up and rolled off of him, then settled by his side. Brushing his thick bangs out of his eyes, she asked, "Are you alright?"
"Just- the wind-"
"Knocked out of you," she finished for him.
"Yeah.." He gasped. Carolyn looked around in the darkness, nothing but dust and wood here. They must've fallen into the basement. She started to stand, but Michael grabbed her arm. "Not so fast," He grinned.
"What?" But she saw the look in his eye, that mischevious glint, and he pulled her back down to him.
"We didn't finish. I didn't get my kiss!"
"Michael James Shepherd-" she started, but his lips were around hers before she could finish. She melted, sighing as their kiss deepened. He loved her. He really loved her. Enough to marry her. Build a house with her. Have children with her. Grow old with her. He loved her enough to wait for her.
She sighed and rested her head on his chest. His heartbeat thudded under her. He stroked her hair. And then he was shaking. Shaking and making strange noises. "Michael!" she sat up, concerned.
But it was laughter. Uncontrollable fits of laughter. "Hee hee... Care-" he said, using his nickname for her. "We fell- we fell through a hole! In a rotted house-" He laughed again, and soon, so was she, her aches and pains from the fall dissolving under the flood of endorphins that rushed through her.
It was ridiculous.
He proposed in a derelict house and they fell through a hole. Now she knew they were meant for each other, falling all over each other, they were.
Michael sat up and wiped the tears off her cheeks. Tears of laughter they'd been. He tucked his knees to his chest and rested his chin between them. She leaned over and put her elbows on his knees, cupping her chin, her lips brushing his forehead. "I love you," she said. "I know I'll be away for awhile, and you'll be alone. But, not really. I'll never be far from you."
"Mmm," he breathed. "Thank you."
"Now, where's that compass?" she asked, peering through the dark.
xxx
The rest of the night had been uneventful. Cassie had driven a quiet Meredith and Co. back to the Grey house where they'd been fed some leftover stew and shuffled off to bed. Cassie put the last of the dishes away and sighed. Sam was confident Grace could probably be discharged tomorrow afternoon, as there seemed no further reason for her to remain there. She was glad, she'd missed having her daughter around.
She walked upstairs and down the hall when she noticed the bathroom light in the guest area on. She hesitated before heading down that way. The door was closed, and she pressed her ear against it, wondering if anyone was inside.
Meredith's soft heartbreaking sobs could be heard from the other side of the door. Cassie stepped back and swallowed thickly, she missed her husband, Jake, too. She was alone. But- not reallly. On days like this, she felt him even closer to her. She padded quietly away, hoping that Meredith never knew she was there.
After her nightly routine of brushing her teeth and washing her face, Cassie settled into some comfortable PJ's and lay in bed. She turned on her side and stroked the empty space where Jake used to lie. She couldn't imagine leaving Middleton. But she couldn't judge Meredith. Cassie understood running. She'd wandered some when she was younger, travelling across the world in search of adventure... She had wandered, she had run, but she ended up here, Middleton USA. Of all places.
And so had Meredith.
What was next she didn't know.
She slept.
Hours later, in the dead of night, Cassie bolted up in bed. "Sam!" she cried out.
xxx
Few people knew this, but Carolyn Shepherd didn't drive. A New Yorker by necessity, public transportation came to her much more easily than a gas guzzling hunk of metal that one might call a car. Her children often commented on it, and although she had her drivers licence, she just found driving to be far too much work and avoided it as much possible.
Which was why she'd boarded a Greyhound bus from the airport at midnight.
"Good, evening ladies and gentlemen..." the bus driver said from the intercom. She half listened to his spiel about breaks and boarding procedures, "We'll be stopping briefly in Middleton for approximently fifteen minutes, please fee free to stretch..."
Middleton. Where she was born. Where she met her husband. Where he proposed, where she got married. She twisted her wedding ring on her finger as she stared out the window. She could see nothing but the flashes of lights from passing cars. She didn't know why she was going back here... After her mother died, she'd never come back. There wasn't any reason. But the other day, in griefstricken nostalgia, she'd pulled out her photo albums.
She missed her son. He was gone too soon. His light snuffed out too quickly, and... it made her miss Michael even more.
So now, with an impending sense of dejavu, she was heading back to her first home.
The bus rumbled on. It was dark and quiet on board, most of the passengers asleep, or trying to sleep.
Carolyn didn't move from her spot, she merely stared mutely out the window. She felt so strange doing this. She'd long since grown out of impulsiveness.
Suddenly, the road rumbled. The bus shook. It was as if the ground itself was moving. She heard the squeal of brakes and swayed as the bus lurched to the side. "What's going on?" She blurted, alarmed.
"I think it's an earthquake-" someone said.
And then the ground bucked again.
A/N: Dun Dun Dunnn! Thanks for reading Everyone!