Rain fell over the city the next day. She awoke to the sound of the alarm on her phone going off. Eventually her pager stopped going off as often and she was able to catch a little sleep the night before. Slipping her shoes on, she headed towards the locker room. When she pushed the door open, she found it already pretty filed with changing residents. It was obvious that gossip was still going around about her because an uncomfortable silence hung in the air when she entered. Glaring at anyone courageous enough to meet her eyes, she made her way to her locker. Slowly conversation continued in a low buzz, but nobody approached her or dared to speak of her. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at them as she changed. She was a little used to the idea of being the topic of gossip since she had started in a hospital in her mother's shadow, with a slight influence of her stepfather's. Then to add to it, she started dating the notorious manwhore plastic surgeon aka her boss. It never really bothered her back in New York since she knew what they were saying. Here, she could only hazard a guess of what lies were making their way around the gossip mill.

"Meredith?" Bailey's voice came. She was surprised to see Bailey there. Sure, she was a resident, but she was the Chief Resident. She had an office, so there really wasn't any use of the locker room to her.

"Hey, Miranda." Meredith smiled greeting one of her oldest friends without bothering with formality.

"Can I talk to you?" She shifted her feet; a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Meredith. Miranda Bailey never got nervous.

"Yeah, sure." Shutting her locker, she followed Bailey out. "What's up? Is something wrong?"

"Meredith, Thatcher is looking for you."

"I don't want to see him, Miranda."

"I know you don't, but he seems determined. He's been grilling every nurse and doctor that comes into the room for info."

"They can't give it to him, right?"

"Mer, I'm saying this as a friend. It might be best to talk to him."

"No, no good can come from talking to my estranged, uncaring, bastard of a father." She spat angrily.

"Okay." She sighed knowing it was a sore subject. "Have any interesting cases?"

"Not really." She shrugged happy for the change of subject. "Page if you get anything?"

"Yep. Same goes for you. It's been a boring few days and I need something to… lighten my mood."

Meredith giggled rolling her eyes. "See you later, Miranda."

"You too, Meredith." She walked off laughing lightly.

--

Somehow she found herself in front of his room looking on the happy family. His new wife, whose name she found out to be Susan, was sitting on the edge of the bed caressing his hand. His daughters, Lexi and Molly, sat near watching with fear and concern written on their faces. They weren't very good at hiding it either, but they kept trying.

"What are you doing up here?" Her mother asked as she came up beside her crossing her arms tightly across her chest.

"Watching my father and his perfect, new family." She said unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

Ellis scoffed. "We were too good for him anyway."

A small smile stretched across Meredith's lips. "I guess we were. Besides, Richard is a better father. He would never abandon me." Ellis took her daughter's hand for support. "Sometimes I wonder." Her voice creaked slightly. "Sometimes I wonder why and what would have been different if her never left."

"I don't know, Mer. He wasn't around much when you were young." Meredith looked at her quizzically not remembering that from her childhood. "The research company he was working for when you were two and three offered him a position trying to link some diseases in Africa to some here. I'm not really sure. I'm sad to say, I never paid enough attention to care. But anyway…" She sighed. "Richard was more of a father to you when you were two. Thatcher finally came around after the position in Africa and was there for you until I decided it was time for a divorce."

"So… nothing would have changed. He would have never fought for me."

"I don't know, Mer. He loved you. But I know that what life you grew up with was so much better than what you had when you were two and three." She sighed again trying to think how to explain everything. "Thatcher loved you, but he didn't know what he wanted beyond having you. We were busy with our careers. We were fighting almost every chance we got. Until it was too much for both of us. Beyond that I don't know what happened."

"But he loved me. He doesn't care about me anymore." Her eyes didn't leave the family. They were laughing, but nobody noticed them.

"I'm sure he does. You just have to ask him. I can't make any decisions for you, Mer. Just know that regardless of what you choose to speak to him or not, me and Richard love you. We'll be here to support you through everything." Meredith gave her a weak smile. "And, I know it's hard to see right now, but I know one other person who will support you and loves you." With that she walked off knowing her daughter knew who she was talking about.

After standing there for what seemed like forever, she turned and left still unnoticed by the family.

--

Once again, she found herself in the proximity of his room. Leaning against the nurses' station she stared in at him. She felt like she needed Mark. But they weren't talking, and he was in surgery and had been all day trying to recreate a patient's face that had been severely burned in a house fire. Alex when in there too. Christina was in a heart surgery with Burke, and Izzie since the patient was a newborn. Addison was in with George and Bailey on a pregnant woman who had some lung issues. So she stood alone with nobody, not even an acquaintance to talk to. Just as she was about to turn and walk away feeling pitiful for standing outside the room of her estranged father as if some guiding light would appear and she would amazingly be able to make a decision on what to do about her father, the monitors in his room rang out.

Glancing around, she noticed there where no other doctors in the area, only nurses. So she hurried towards the room instantly getting involved. Thatcher's body flopped around in bed like a fish on dry land. Susan, who had been sitting in the corner knitting, was screaming and making a large scene.

"He's having a seizure." A nurse said.

"Help him, Meredith!" Susan kept yelling.

"Get her out of here." Meredith ordered unable to think. A nurse pushed her out of the room trying to explain she needed to leave. "2mg of Diazepam." One nurse was supporting his head while the others rushed around to fulfill her request.

"Diazepam in." Someone announced.

"No change." Someone else said.

"3mg of Phenobarbital." Meredith said.

"Pheno's in." A nurse stated.

The steady flat lining alarm filled the room.

"Get a crash cart." Meredith yelled. Her eyes quickly locked with Susan's before she looked away and began CPR. "Push three of epinephrine. Any change?"

"No."

"Paddles." A nurse passed them to her and squirted some gel on them. "Charge to 200." She ordered rubbing the paddles together.

"Charged."

"Clear." His body flew off the bed and fell back down with a little thump as she watched the monitors for a change. Nothing. "Charge to 250."

"Charged."

"Clear." Once again his body came up, and she watched the monitors. The rhythm started to come back. "How are his oxygen stats?" She said letting out a brief sigh of relief.

"The ambu bag isn't helping. His oxygen stats aren't improving. We have to intubate him."

"I'll do it. Get me a .7 tube." Meredith order moving to Thatcher's head. His face looked so lifeless, so cold. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she reminded herself he wasn't Thatcher Grey. He was just a random patient. Pulling his chin up, she opened his mouth and swiftly intubated him and hooked him up to the machine. "Heart rate?"

"Weak, but there."

"Order a CT and MRI. I want to know what triggered this seizure."

"He isn't your patient."

"He is until Dr. Harrison gets out of surgery."

"He's your father." The nurse said in a low tone.

"I do believe you've overstepped your boundaries. Shepherd isn't here today. Harrison is in surgery. I'm the only other neurosurgeon not in surgery, without the day off, and in state, so I guess he's my responsibility regardless of who he is." With that she walked out only stopping to address Susan. "He's stable, Mrs. Grey. But I'm ordering test to find out why he had the seizure. If you need anything, have a nurse page me." She started to walk off.

"He really wants to see you, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." With that she headed down the hall.