7am- Seattle- Meredith's house.
Izzie was in the kitchen when she heard a child screaming outside. She rushed to the front window to see what is going on. She saw Meredith getting out of a cab, trying to pull Katherine out of the backseat. Katherine kicked and screamed, putting up one hell of a fight. Meredith looked awful, her makeup running down her cheeks, her face tired, her clothes disheveled. Finally, she was able to get Katie out of the cab, and grabbed her suitcase from the trunk. Katie continued to scream and cry, pulling on Meredith's hair, as Meredith acted like none of it was happening.
Izzie opened the front door as Meredith walked up the steps. Meredith walked inside, dropped her suitcase and looked at Izzie. "Please take care of this." She said, handing Katie over to Izzie, who started to calm upon seeing her Aunt Izzie.
"Mer, do you need to…"
"Not now. Can you watch her for a little while, I want to take a nap. I haven't slept in two days and she's been screaming in my ear for the past 6 hours. And if Derek calls, I never came home."
"Uh, ok." Izzie said, holding Katherine in her arms who had calmed down and was sucking on her thumb with her head over Izzie's shoulder.
With that, Meredith headed upstairs and passed out in her bed.
Izzie put Katie down for her nap and went downstairs. The phone rang and she ran for it quickly as to not wake Meredith or Katie.
"Hello?"
"Is she there?"
"Excuse me?"
"Izzie, cut it out. Is Meredith there?" Derek sounded panicked.
"Uh, no, I thought she was with you. What happened?" Izzie said convincingly.
"Nothing. Thanks." He hung up the phone.
"Hmm…." Izzie said. "I wonder what he did this time." Suddenly, she heard Meredith's bedroom door open, and her running for the bathroom. Izzie ran upstairs to see what wrong.
Standing outside the bathroom, she could hear Meredith throwing up and crying. "Mer, are you alright? Mer?"
"I'm ok." she says in between sobs. "I think I had some bad plane food." Izzie stood beside the door with a towel and waited for her. Meredith opened the door and Izzie handed her a towel. She took it with a weak smile, wiped her face and headed back towards her room. Izzie followed her, and when Meredith lay down on the bed, Izzie settle down beside her.
"So, do you want to talk about it?" Izzie asked, facing Meredith on the bed. "If you're feeling so bad that its making you sick, then you need to get things out in the open. Why was Katie freaking out? What happened in New York?"
Meredith buried her face in her pillow. "I don't wanna talk about it." She moaned.
"Mer, talk to me." Izzie said, pulling her friend into a hug.
"Derek's a jackass." Meredith replied.
"Well, I know that much, but you're going to have to give me some examples, so we can figure out to what degree he is a jackass." Izzie said, trying to lighten the mood a little. "He called, you know."
Meredith looked at Izzie. "He did? What did he say? What did you say?"
"I told him you weren't here, you were supposed to be there. Hopefully that'll throw him off for a little while." Izzie said with a supportive smile.
"You're a great friend, Iz." Meredith said, "So, you want to know what happened huh?" Izzie nodded.
Meredith told the whole story from when they got to New York up to her plane ride home with Katherine screaming for Derek the whole way.
"That jackass!" Izzie said, definitively.
"I told you." It made Meredith smile a little knowing that Izzie was listening to her.
"What are you going to do?" Izzie asked.
"I'm not sure Izzie, but right now I don't want to have anything to do with him. I don't want him to even go near Katie, I'm just so angry at him. I can't believe that he would act that way."
Suddenly, the phone rang again. Izzie picked up the receiver next to Meredith's bed.
"Hello?"
"No, she isn't here, and she's not coming home." Izzie said into the receiver and promptly hung it up. "Jackass."
Derek hangs up on his side of the line frantic, knowing that he had to find them. She obviously told Izzie about the argument. Where the hell was she?
Derek painfully lifted himself from his bed and moved to the closet. He carefully put his clothes on, his muscles aching with each movement. He was blind to the pain, he needed to find Meredith. He had make things right. He clumsily limped out of his room, his muscles sore from the accident as he hobbled to the nurses station. "Nurse, I need to check out now, I am fine, I have to go."
"Sir, your doctor still hasn't been in to check on you yet, you haven't been released yet." The nurse replied.
"I'm a doctor. I'm fine, I am releasing myself." Derek said.
"Derek! I was just coming to visit you!"
Derek spun around at the sound of Addison's voice. Suddenly, his endorphins kicked in and he felt no pain as he approached her. He took her arm, if a bit harshly and lead her down the hallway. "Derek, what? What do you want?"
He looked her right in the eyes angrily. "Addison, you are the biggest bitch that ever walked on this planet, do you know that? Do you have any idea what I may have lost because of you?" He growled.
"Excuse me?" Addison said, put aback by his comment.
"She left me. You made me paranoid, I confronted her, and she left me!" Derek said. "What in the hell possessed me to listen to you? The woman that couldn't even tell me that she was living with the man she had an affair with before she finally realized that she wanted to be with me."
"You, Addison are the biggest bitch on the planet, and I am the most gullible sap that ever had the pleasure of walking on this earth. I don't know where she is, I don't know what to say to her when I find her, but I just thought you'd like to know what I think of you. Now get out of my way. I never, ever want to see your face, your horns, or your pointy tail, ever again." Derek said, leaving Addison speechless as he walked to the nurses station to get his discharge papers.
January 3rd.
After talking to his family, Derek thought that his best course of action would be to look in Seattle for Meredith. He knew that she didn't have many days off, so she would have to go back to the hospital. He figured it was best not to push things about seeing Katie, he didn't want her to get stuck in the argument that his stupidity had caused, she was already too involved, he didn't want to use her as a pawn, she was just an innocent bystander. Besides, he had other issues that he had to attend to while in Seattle.
Derek entered Seattle Grace Hospital for the first time in five years. It hadn't changed much, some of the people had changed, but it was the same old hallways, same old rooms, and the same old elevators. He smiled thinking of some of the memories he had in this hospital. He quietly made his way up to the surgical floor, he was lucky that there were new rounds of interns since the last time he had been there, someone would have surely recognized him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" a voice came from behind.
"Crap." He winced as he turned around.
"Crap? Crap? What do you mean 'Crap'? What are you doing here Shepherd?" Burke asked angrily.
"Ahh, I see that you heard. How about if I try to make amends right here by telling you that I'm a gullible moron and I'm here to try to find Meredith so that I can at least assess the damage I have done so that I can work on her trusting me again." Derek said.
"Well, I'd have to say that, you are not forgiven, but I would like to agree with the gullible moron comment. Also, if you don't want to be noticed, its best not to be standing here by the surgery board, and I just thought I'd mention, you look like crap."
"Thanks. I'm sure you heard why. I know that this isn't the best place to be covert, I just wanted to find her surgeries." Derek explained.
"Come on down to my office, we'll talk there. I know I'm not a fishing kind of guy, but aren't you supposed to do it from a boat?" Burke asked laughing as he led Derek down to his office, while looking around to make sure the hallways were clear from anyone that would recognize Derek.
"So Derek, why are you here trying to harass one of my residents?" Burke teased as they close the door to the office.
"I am not here to 'harass' per se, but I need to find out if she's alright." Derek said, with a concerned look on his face.
"Well, she's not 'alright' She came in yesterday and was fine, but she called in sick this morning. She must have been pretty sick, she had Izzie bring Katherine to day care, she must not want her getting whatever she has, probably the flu. She said she might come in this evening is she's feeling up to it."
"Well, I want to talk to her without Katie around. She can get pretty impassioned when she's angry at me."
"Ah, I know what that's like. Well, she's at home as far as I know, good luck." Derek stood up and shook Burke's hand.
"Thanks, Preston."
"No problem Derek. Oh, and Katie is in the hospital daycare if you want to visit her. She misses you."
"Thanks!" Derek said, smiling at the thought of seeing Katie again. Derek turned and walked out of Burke's office, closing it behind him.
Burke picked up the phone and dialed. "Ms. Patterson? This is Assistant Chief of Surgery Preston Burke, a gentleman is coming down to see Katie Shepherd, he has her mother's permission to visit. Thanks."
Derek peeked into the daycare and scanned the room for Katie. She wasn't playing with the other children; instead she was sitting in the corner with a pile of construction paper and crayons. She was wearing a little pink dress and her brown hair was placed in little pigtails on the top, each tied with a little pink bow. She looked so sad sitting all alone her face concentrating on the paper in front of her, it nearly broke Derek's heart.
Derek came into the room quietly, she didn't even look up to see a new person entering. Derek introduced himself to Ms. Patterson and she pointed to where Katie was sitting. He walked slowly over to her and sat in a chair behind her.
He gently started to sing a little song that he had made up to the tune of "twinkle twinkle little star" that would help put her to sleep before they went to New York City. "Katie, Katie, little girl, I sure love my Katie girl."
Her little head whipped around and she smiled so brightly. "Daddy!" she exclaimed, and before he knew it, her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck. "Sing the rest daddy?" she asked as she snuggled onto his lap.
"Ok…I think I can do that. Katie, Katie, little girl, I sure love my Katie girl. Eyes of blue and little curls, she's the best thing in the world. Katie, Katie, little girl. I sure love my Katie girl." He sang lightly, tears softly falling.
"I missed you so much daddy! I tried to tell mommy to go back! I tried! I told her we forgot you! You're not mad at me, are you daddy?" she pleaded.
"Shh… sweetheart, its alright, daddy was never mad at you." Derek nuzzled her head with his nose. "How is your mommy doing?"
"Oh daddy! She is so sad! She was sick so I came here with Aunt Izzie. I think she misses you." Katie went on.
"Listen little Katie bug, daddy is going to go home to give mommy a hug, ok? You be a good girl. Don't tell anyone I visited you, its our secret ok?"
"Ok daddy, ok. I love you."
"I love you too sweetheart, you be a good little girl, and daddy will see you soon." Derek bent down and gave her a kiss and started to walk away.
"Daddy?" Katherine called to Derek.
Derek turned around and looked over to her. "Daddy, will you sing to me one more time?"
"Sure will!" Derek said, as he lifted Katie up and brought her over to the nap corner. He placed her down on one of the nap rugs and covered her up with one of the blankets. He lay down next to her and touched her face soothingly as he whispered his song to her until she was fast asleep.