I don't own Grey's Anatomy.

The Trade

"Do you know what it feels like to bury your child Dr. Shepherd?"

"No," he replied weakly, tears filling his eyes.

"Well you will now," Roy pulled out a gun. "You're going to know what it feels like to have a happy family one day and have it fall to pieces the next.

"Wait," Derek shouted, "we have the money, right here." He showed Roy the duffel bag that contained two million dollars.

Roy laughed an evil throaty laugh, and didn't notice Aaron shuffle a few inches to the right. "You don't get it do you? It was never about the money at all Dr. Shepherd."

"Then why ask for it?"

"How else was I supposed to get you here to witness your daughter's death other then make you believe you were getting her back?"

This guy was really pissing Derek off, all he wanted to do was run at him and strangle him, but he kept his cool; he needed to keep him talking until he could think of a plan. Also, running at him was just going to make Roy use the gun he had in his hand. "But we didn't kill your daughter, she died as a result of her injuries, we did everything we could," he pleaded.

"No," Roy stated flatly, as Aaron moved a few more inches over without him noticing. "No, you didn't, you could have done the surgery earlier, and you could've saved her. And now, now you're going to pay. You and your family are going to suffer the consequences for my daughter's death." He looked down at Tori and Aaron shuffled a few more inches over, un-noticed. Roy cocked the gun…

"Wait!!" Christy shouted, causing Roy to look up from Tori. "Take me instead."

"Noooo!" Derek yelled, he had a plan and Christy was ruining it, in her desperate attempt to save her sister.

"Well, well, well, you've got a brave daughter here Dr. Shepherd. She's willing to give up her life to save her baby sister."

"Promise you won't hurt anyone else in my family and you can have me," Christy told him.

"Well I was going to say no, because Tori is almost the same age as my daughter was, but your reaction Dr. Shepherd, when Christy offered herself up, it made me realize that one Shepherd child is as good as another, your family will suffer no matter what, you will suffer no matter which of your precious children I kill." He didn't notice as Aaron again shuffled a few inches to the right.

"Christy please don't do this," Derek turned to her.

"Daddy," Christy choked out, "this is my fault to begin with, let me take the fall for it." Before anyone could say anything else Christy was walking towards Roy slowly. She stopped just out of his reach and demanded that he let Tori go.

"Alright," he said as he put her down and removed her blindfold so that she could run to her mother, which she did as she cried.

Christy saw this as her opportunity and she turned and tried to run as well, but he was too quick and he grabbed her arm. "Woah, where are you going, we had a deal."

Christy struggled against his grasp but knew it was no use; he'd just shoot her if she got away and possibly someone else in her family too. "Now," Roy said, "to torture you even more I'm going to tell you the whole story of how I completed this master plan of mine."

Good, Aaron thought, keep talking and give me a chance to save my girlfriend. Roy began his story as Aaron shuffled a little more to the right. "So let's start with the fact that I've been stalking, no I don't like that word…let's say obsessively watching you guys for quite a few months now. My plan was to kidnap little Tori but I didn't know how or when so I decided I needed some way to watch you guys inside the house. That's when I noticed Aaron over there going into the jewelry store near his house to look for a Christmas gift for Christy. I thought to myself what a great way to get a camera inside, so I got a job at the store and sold Aaron that necklace with a camera in it." Christy's hand went to the necklace around her neck.

"That's why I recognized you!" Aaron shouted, instantly regretting that choice, hoping that Roy didn't notice he had moved over about two feet by this point. He let out a sigh when Roy didn't say anything and just kept telling his story.

"So now I was just watching you, I had the plan for what to do once I got her but was waiting for the right moment to take her. My plan was to take her from the hospital day care in about a week or so, but when you got called into work Dr. Shepherd and left the kids with Christy I saw it as a perfect opportunity. So, I drove to the house opened the gate and little Tori came right to me. You should teach her about strangers you know."

"Why Aaron's email?" Meredith asked.

"For fun," he simply replied. "I'm good with computers, so it was simple."

"The background in the pictures?" Derek asked, needing to stall him more.

"Quite clever wasn't it? Sending you guys frantically looking through the hospital when she was never even there. I took it a few days earlier just to confuse you guys." It was then that Aaron slowly bent down and picked up a softball sized rock from the ground beside his foot. By some miracle, Roy was too busy admiring his own cleverness that he didn't notice. So, Aaron stood rock in hand, waiting for the right moment.

"I brought you guys here because, well I did it for your convenience really, you're going to have to come here to bury your daughter anyway, plus nobody's going to hear you scream. And now, finally, to complete my plan I'm going to kill Christy here. So Christy, do you think it'll be easier for him to bury you instead of Tori or harder?" He taunted her. He put the gun to her head, watching her terrified face as he did, and then they were all startled by the sound of police sirens and the sight of cars pulling up all around them. Cops jumped out of the cars and drew their guns, yelling at Roy to put his down. But Roy was smart, he knew they couldn't shoot anyway because they could hit Christy.

He cocked the gun and went to put his finger on the trigger, but before he could pull it Aaron took aim and threw the rock, hitting Roy square in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and lose his grip on Christy's arm. She ran to her father, getting out of the line of fire just in time as Roy was hit with 5 bullets and fell to the ground, dead.

Christy and Derek cried as they held onto each other for dear life. Over top of her shoulder Derek mouthed a thank-you to Aaron and he smiled through his tears and came over to hug Christy too. He had kept his promise to Addison, he had protected her.