"This is a mistake. You should turn the car around. Turn the car around."
Richard sighed and shook his head as he hit his turn signal, pressing the brake gently as he pulled up to a stop sign and looked over at Maggie, who was staring at him from the passenger seat.
"Not happening," he said. "We're already late as it is."
"Right, but…"
"Maggie, I don't care if we get there and you stay in this car all afternoon, I'm not turning around," Richard said, turning his focus back to the road. "I have been to every single birthday party Zola has had, and I don't intend to miss this one because you're afraid to face Meredith."
"I am not…"
"You are," Richard interrupted knowingly.
"I am not afraid of seeing Meredith," Maggie insisted. "I just think it's going to be awkward, that's all. And it's not fair to Zola to put that out there at her birthday party."
"It's only awkward if you make it awkward."
Maggie shook her head. "Richard, I haven't seen or spoken to Meredith since the day she quit," she said. "I got mad and I yelled and I told her that she was a selfish person. I moved out of the house so fast I had to sleep in the on call rooms at the hospital for the next week because I had no place to stay. It's been over a month now, and I haven't taken a single one of her calls. In what universe is it possible for me to be face to face with her and have it not be awkward?"
"Well, you're going to have to see her at some point," Richard said, focusing on the road in front of him again. "She's your sister, Maggie. That means something, even if the two of you haven't figured out exactly what yet."
"I'm not the one who doesn't have things figured out," Maggie said. "I know what it means to be a sister. She doesn't, apparently."
Richard sighed as he maneuvered the car around another corner but didn't respond.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Maggie asked impatiently, not missing the meaning behind the sigh. "Are you on her side? You think I'm the one who's being unreasonable?"
"Oh no, I'm no getting in the middle of this," Richard said. "This is between you and Meredith."
"And yet you clearly have an opinion," Maggie said. "Let's hear it."
Richard hesitated. "It's just…alright, what exactly is it you want from Meredith, Maggie? What are you looking for?"
"What do you mean?"
"I understand that you're upset," Richard said. "I'm not judging that, you have a right to your feelings."
"But…?"
Richard sighed and glanced over at his daughter. "But how do you see this situation resolving? What exactly is it that you see coming from this?"
"I'm not following," Maggie said in confusion.
"How does this end for you, Maggie?" Richard asked. "What do you want from Meredith? What are you waiting for to end this?"
"I don't know," Maggie admitted.
"Well, it's something you ought to think about," Richard said. "Like I said, you have a right to be angry. But at some point, you have to narrow down what it is you're angry about. If you don't know what it is you're looking for from Meredith, or under what circumstances you might forgive her, then you're going to be angry for a very, very long time."
Amelia smiled as she walked up to the picnic table and grabbed a water bottle from the cooler. Looking around as she took a sip, she nodded toward her sister-in-law as she approached, not missing the way she was surveying the assembled crowd.
"She'll be here."
Meredith shook her head. "I wish I had your confidence," she said. "I left so many messages, I practically begged her to be here today. And if she doesn't show up, it's going to break Zola's heart."
"I'm not confident," Amelia said, holding up her cell phone. "I'm informed. Richard texted me ten minutes that they were running late at the hospital but that he's on his way and Maggie is with him."
"She's coming?"
"Are you ready to see her?" Amelia asked. "I mean, you haven't seen her since the day you quit."
"I know," Meredith said. "But we're never going to figure things out if she keeps avoiding me, so maybe this is a good thing. Besides, Zola will be happy she's here, and that's all that matters today."
"Well, even if it's super awkward or it all goes to hell and you two start fighting, at least the weather cooperated," Amelia said, pointing up at the cloudless sky. "I have to say, Meredith, I had my doubts about an outdoor party in February, but you managed to pull it off. And Zola looks like she's having a blast."
Meredith smiled as she watched Zola and one of her friends clambering around in the bounce house under Owen's watchful eye.
"Yeah, she does," she agreed. "Did you talk to Owen today?"
"Seriously? It's your daughter's birthday party," Amelia said. "You want to use now to lecture me about my marriage?"
"So there is a marriage still?" Meredith asked.
Amelia sighed. "We are not having this conversation today…or ever, really," she said, looking around for a change of subject. "Hey, where'd you get the cake? It looks nice. Is it from that new bakery over by the dry cleaners?"
Meredith rolled her eyes. "Fine, we can talk about cake," she said. "No, it's not from a bakery. That cake came out of my kitchen."
"You're telling me that you made that cake?" Amelia asked skeptically.
"Would that be so hard to believe?"
"Yes."
Meredith frowned as Alex came up behind her and grabbed a beer from the cooler on the table.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because beyond the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you send the kids to school with, nothing edible has ever come out of that kitchen when you're involved," he said. "So I'm with Amelia on this one, you didn't have anything to do with that cake, it actually looks good."
"I think I should be offended," Meredith said. "My cooking is not that bad. I have three children who are well fed and well nourished and I get no complaints from them. But if it will make you feel better, fine. I didn't make the cake. I did help, though."
"You helped?" Amelia asked.
"I cracked some eggs and I stirred some things," Meredith said. "Don't ask me what, I don't know, I just did what Molly told me to do."
"Who's Molly?" Alex asked.
"Wait, you mean your sister?" Amelia asked. "I thought she didn't want anything to do with you?"
"She didn't," Meredith said. "I'm not a hundred percent sure she does now. But she kind of went off on me at the hospital yesterday morning, and she came over to apologize last night. She saw me attempting to make a cake, and she rescued it."
"Rescued it?"
"Okay, fine, she threw my attempt out and started over," Meredith admitted. "Happy now?"
"So, you two are baking together now?" Amelia asked. "That's very domestic."
"Hold on a minute, are we talking about Lexie's sister here?" Alex asked. "The one who lived in the Middle East somewhere? When did she come back on the scene?"
"Ages ago, Karev, try to keep up here," Amelia said. "So is she coming today? I assume after you made her do your baking, you at least invited her to come to the party."
"I mentioned it," Meredith said. "But we're not there yet. I'm not sure if we'll ever be, but we'll see how it goes."
"Where are you, then?" Amelia asked.
"We're…I don't know, we're talking," Meredith said. "We're learning how to do this."
"You've had how many long-lost sisters show up over the years?" Alex asked. "What's left to learn?"
"Everything," Meredith said. "She's not Lexie, she's not Maggie, and even if she was, I'm not the same person I was when either of them came into my life. So, we're figuring it out, I guess. It'll take time, and I don't know whether we'll end up being close, or just being friends, or just saying hello on the hallway occasionally. But she's nice."
"You like her," Amelia said in surprise.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because you're buying all that take-it-slow crap," Amelia said. "You actually like her, and you're afraid you're going to scare her away."
"I am not scared," Meredith said. "I just don't have a great track record with sisters, you know that. And yes, I like her. She's been through a lot since the last time we met, she's not doe-eyed or naive. I can relate to her, even if we had very different upbringings. So yeah, I want things to work out. I mean, I'll be completely okay if they don't, I was fine before she showed up in my life, but I'll admit, there is a part of me that wants things to work. So I'm just trying not to do anything that'll deliberately screw things up."