He hurried to his car fumbling with his keys.

"O'Malley? You sure you should drive?" Joe asked coming to the door.

"Yeah, Joe, I'm fine." George answered opening the door to his car. "See you later, Joe." He called slamming his door.

Watching with an unsure look, Joe sighed before turning to head back into the bar. Something wasn't right. His bartender instinct never lied to him.

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He ran down the hall. His half-off jacket flopped behind him as he struggled to get it off. Nurses and doctors dodged his mad run and watched curiously as he disappeared around the corners. As she came into sight, worry for the small girl he barely knew washed over him. He wasn't sure why the worry washed over so fast. He had never spoken to the young girl. He had barely ever seen her. Maybe it was because he was the only one who knew the secret. Maybe it was because Alex didn't know about her and couldn't be there. He wasn't quite sure what it was. It could have been the fact that she was Meredith's daughter. Meredith was his family making the young girl his family too.

"Mer?" He panted. She looked at him with tear-filled eyes. "What do we know?"

"Nothing…" She sniffled. "They have her into CT."

"Alright, let's wait to see what they say before we freak out, okay?"

She slowly nodded and sat down at the nurses' station. "Thank you for coming, George."

"I wouldn't rather be anywhere else, Mer."

"Dr. Grey?" A nurse said cautiously. Her eyes traveled up from her hands the nurse's face.

"Yes?"

"We're bringing your daughter to room 4321, if you would like to…"

Nodding, Meredith pulled herself to her feet. George took her arm and they headed down the hall.

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They sat in her room in silence. Meredith clutched her daughter's hand with one hand and George's with the other.

"Where the hell is the damn doctor?" Meredith asked agitated.

"Calm down, Mer. It's only been ten minutes."

"That's nine minutes too long."

Standing up, she brushed the hairs out of Madi's face. The door opened. Meredith and George looked up. Derek walked in looking down at the chart. Glancing over at George who winced slightly, she turned her eyes back to Derek. He looked the same as he had five years ago. His dark hair was starting to gray slightly around the ears, but he didn't look any older.

As he closed the chart, he looked up about the same something. Meredith stared at him expectantly, but he just stood there with his mouth open.

"Meredith?" He breathed out.

"What's wrong with Madi?" She asked with worry in her voice.

"What are you doing here? I mean… I didn't think you would ever come back." He continued to stutter on.

Ignoring his questions, she crossed her arms across her chest. "Dr. Shepherd, my daughter… What's wrong with her?"

"Your daughter?" He asked his eyes traveling to the bed. "So this is your daughter."

"Dr. Shepherd!" She almost yelled.

He sighed. "Sorry. I'm just a little shocked. It's not everyday that I walk into my patient's room to find the former love of my life."

Meredith rolled her eyes at him waiting for him to get to the part where he said the Madi was fine and that she just passed out because of something minor. He opened the chart and read it over again. Before looking up at her again. She could see it on his face. She could see it as if it was written across his forehead. Madi was not fine. Tears collected in the rim of her eyes as she took Madi's hand again.

"She had a brain tumor, Meredith."

The words hit her like a ton of bricks knocking the wind right out of her. It felt like someone was standing over her stabbing her in the chest. Her breath became short and she couldn't hear George telling her to breathe or see Derek's sympathetic face. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she stumbled back into the seat beside the bed.

"Meredith?" George's voice started to get clearer as she caught her breath. "Breathe, Mer. Breathe."

She looked at him with a horrified face. Before her eyes returned to Madi. Her baby girl. She was so young and innocent.

"Meredith?" Derek's voice interrupted her. Slowly her eyes came to his. "It's a myxopapillary ependymoma tumor and it's not in a risky spot."

"Is it benign or… malignant?" She choked out afraid of the answer. George gave her hand a slight hand squeeze.

"I think it is benign. It looks like it's confined to one region."

She nodded slowly. "Let me see the scan."

"Meredith…" Derek said in an unsure tone.

"Let me see the scan." She repeated more sternly.

He nodded holding out a large envelope that contain the young girl's CT scan results. She held them up to the light and studied them for what seemed like forever before handing them back to Derek.

Taking a deep breath, she looked back at him. "Are you doing surgery?"

"I think it would be best."

Meredith's eyes went back to Madi and nodded. "Yeah."

"I'll schedule it for as soon as possible." Derek answered before walking to the door. "I'm really sorry, Meredith."

With that, he opened the door to find Richard and a sleeping small boy in his arms. Giving a small nod to his boss, he disappeared down the hall. Richard slipped into the room sending a small nod at George.

"I'm just going to wait outside, Mer." George said quietly kissing her cheek. After receiving a nod, he too disappeared out of the door.

Richard looked at his stepdaughter as she cried looking at her own daughter. Standing up, she ran her hand over Madi's soft cheek. More tears flowed off her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, Madi." She kept quietly saying over and over.

After laying Owen down in one of the chairs, he walked over to Meredith and touched her lightly. She looked at him and wrapped her arms around him. Wrapping his arms around her rubbing her back light, he laid his head down on his head down on top of hers. Her body began to shake with sobs.