Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy or anything associated with it.

Dreams of Love

Chapter 26: Dark Revelations

Guiseppe stared. Whatever he had expected, it wasn't this. He examined Dr. Grey's face for any hint of humor – none. Her anxiety was plain to read in her eyes. He looked at the beautiful, wind burned boy who stood next to Dr. Grey, twisting her hand, and saw the same worry in his face.

Guiseppe was a surgeon. He was brilliant and courageous, and he had gradually, as he recovered from the brain surgery, checked out the parameters of his own recovery. He knew he had sustained damage to his memory. He knew it was more extensive than he'd yet faced. But, a daughter? A son? What was this? He'd never been married. Try as he might, he couldn't ever remember meeting either one of them before the surgery. He was, however, ready to face the truth, whatever it was, now. He wanted to know what was going on.

He took a deep breath, looking back and forth between Grey and Shepherd, and asked for clarity, "Dr. Grey, what do you mean by that?"

"Dr. Giordano," Shepherd answered before Meredith could, "You sustained total memory loss of a certain significant portion of your life. You know this. What you don't know is that your family decided it would be best to not speak of the memories you lost, so that you could have a "fresh" start without them. Your father asked Meredith to remain silent for your own good. She agreed, although I personally didn't think it a good idea. Now, because we have discovered the existence of Zach, she no longer agrees. You must know your lost history."

"What is my lost history, Dr. ... Meredith?" Guiseppe asked the girl his heart recognized.

Meredith hesitated, then said, "Papà Guiseppe...," she realized what she'd said when his brows raised, "Papà Guiseppe, my mother, Dr. Ellis Grey and you were married when I was twelve," her eyes shimmered river green with tears, "I fell in love with my new Papà as soon as I met you... And you loved me. You were the best part of my childhood. I will always be grateful to you for that. I ... I love you Papà... I still do...but you forgot me," two silent tears slid down Meredith's face and she looked down to hide them. She searched her pocket for a tissue, but didn't need one when Zachary brushed at her face with the back of his dirty hand.

"Don't cry, Meredith, I won't ever forget you," he said, smudging her face.

Meredith gave a half laugh and half painful gulp at his innocent sweetness. Izzie had to look away before she too teared up. Zachary looked up at Derek when he laid an approving hand on Zach's shoulder.

"Wait... I ... I was... married? How long? I'm not still married, am I?" Guiseppe was struggling, trying to remember, when there were no memories. That part of his brain was gone.

"Easy, easy. Don't try to remember, Guiseppe," Shepherd soothed, "You won't be able to. Just listen to the facts of the past and let them fill in the blanks for you so that you can rebuild the past from other people's memories. And feel. Many of your emotional or spiritual connections may still be there. Do you feel anything different for Meredith that you don't feel for the other doctors or nurses?"

Guiseppe looked at Meredith and raised a hand to her, "Yes.. yes, she is my favorite. I missed her when I left the hospital."

Meredith took his hand and pressed it to her face. She smiled tremulously at him as another tear escaped her liquid eyes.

"I missed you too, Papà."

Meredith sat in the chair Derek gave her. Zach still stood by her side, clinging to her arm. She had become his familiar known in a world of unknowns.

"You were married to Ellis for about four years. We lived with you in Rome. You didn't want the divorce, but she chose to divorce and move so she could work at the Mayo Clinic. You and I lost touch after that. I didn't see you again until you came here for the surgery almost twelve years later," Meredith bowed her head, hiding her face. Derek listened to her minimization and was appalled. He was beginning to realize the extent Meredith did this and it made him wonder what in hell she still wasn't saying about her past.

"And Zachary?"

"Ellis Grey gave me up for adoption when I was born," Zach spoke up bravely for himself, looking into the Giordano face that was shaped so like his own, "My parents died last year, so I came here a few days ago looking for my mother. I found my sister, instead. She said she didn't know about me and she didn't think you knew about me either."

Zachary stared into Guiseppe's eyes uncertainly, "Do you want to know about me? Do you want a son? Cuz, Meredith wants me, if you don't. I can stay with her, she already said," Zach reassured both himself and Guiseppe.

Guiseppe didn't hesitate. He snatched the child to his breast and said, "I want you. Of course I do. I have always wanted a son. Grazie a Dio. Forse le mie preghiere sono state esaudite.God has answered my prayers," emotionally, he looked over Zach's head at Meredith again.

"And a daughter. It was wrong to try to keep this from me. How is it better to never know my bambina? I ... I feel love for you, even if I can't remember," he opened his arm to his daughter. Meredith flew to his embrace, "Today, I am a lucky man. I have been given a girl... and a boy. My children. I actually have children," he said in wonder.

Guiseppe looked up at Derek, both bewildered and happily stunned. He was about to say something else when there was a shocked exclamation from the doorway of Derek's small office.

"What is the meaning of this, Dr. Shepherd!?" Armando rudely shoved Izzie aside and stood in the doorway. Marco, his taller brother, was just behind him, frowning over his shoulder.

"Mr. Giordano, I would very much appreciate you not shoving my interns. Dr. Stevens, before you go finish any scut you have left for the day, would you please take Zachary back to Kyle. Direct them to the hospital employees' gym or the cafeteria. That'll keep them occupied. Thank you. Zachary, yes, please, go with Izzie. You'll see Guiseppe again later," Shepherd instructed, getting both Zachary and Izzie out of harm's way.

Zachary resisted. He didn't understand why Derek was suddenly so strict or why those old men were looking so nastily at Meredith. He had been happy that Guiseppe had accepted him, but now he was scared. Something was wrong. Meredith gave him a small smile and rubbed his arm.

"Everything's going to be okay," she whispered.

"Come on, Zach," with a last look at Meredith, Izzie took a protesting Zach away, answering his questions as best she could.

"My office is too small for all of us. Please come with me to the conference room," Shepherd said.

Dr. Shepherd tugged Meredith up. Ignoring everyone else, he led the way to the closest conference room to his office. He seated Meredith at the end of the table and waved the three Giordanos to the other end. Shepherd deliberately sat next to Meredith, physically between her and the three men. Before anyone could say anything Marco's cell chirped. He took it out and spoke in rapid Italian.

"Paolo and Michele are back with the car. I asked them to come up," Marco said in Italian to Guiseppe and Armando.

"Please speak English in this conference room. I will not understand you if you don't. I insist that I understand what is being said. I will not have Meredith verbally assaulted again. I will take Meredith and leave immediately if any of you try it. I hope I have made myself clear," Shepherd was still peeved over these men and their ugly cruelty to a young girl and now to that same girl grown to womanhood. He wasn't willing to stand by and tolerate either Meredith or Zachary, for that matter, hurt by any of them.

Guiseppe was surprised at Derek's fierce protectiveness. He didn't understand all the undercurrents going on here. He frowned. He had two children. His father and uncles had decided not to tell him about his daughter. Why?

"Where is this Ellis Grey? If she was my wife, if she was the mother of my children, if she gave away my only son for adoption, I want to speak to her," he said abruptly, demandingly.

Armando and Marco acted as if they'd been sucker punched. They turned accusing eyes on Meredith. They started to speak in Italian and Derek rose, ready to leave. Guiseppe held up a hand to stop the two old men and Derek.

"English, we will speak. Please sit back down, Dr. Shepherd, I need the truth. Yes, I know about my wife, Ellis Grey, and my daughter, Meredith...," Guiseppe started, but was interrupted.

Derek still stood. He pushed his chair back. At a tug on his hand and a beseeching look from Meredith, Derek reconsidered and sat even as he became angry and disgusted listening to Armando.

"Meredith Grey is claiming that boy is your son! NO!" Armando exclaimed, "I don't know what her game is now, since she has already stolen millions of euros from you..."

"I stole nothing," said Meredith simply, proudly, "Papà Guiseppe gave me that gift before the surgery. He told me he regretted the estrangement between us more than anything else in his life. And now, because of Zach, Guiseppe needed to know about the past. It is not an option to keep it from him any longer."

Armando burst out, "I don't know what fantasy she spun about the past, but Meredith Grey is not your daughter and that... woman... was a divorcée from America, not a good woman, from Italy. She was horrible, dishonorable woman and her daughter was a fatherless juvenile delinquent. Son, we have to protect you."

Meredith froze solid in her chair. Derek murmured to her that they could leave and try to talk to Guiseppe later alone, but Meredith shook her head. Why did Armando seem to hate her so much? She'd just been a kid when he knew her. A kid who lovingly took care of his wife, Guiseppe's aging, ill mother daily. And whatever had Ellis Grey done to inspire such enmity?

"Both of them took advantage of your too soft nature. You were a fool! You made a terrible mistake, Guiseppe," Marco said harshly, backing his brother up.

Guiseppe looked from the angry old men of his family to the white faced, frozen girl sitting in front of him. He was getting confused again and his head ached.

"That woman wasn't pure as a wife should be. If she," Armando pointed at Meredith, "is saying that boy is your son, she is lying! Foisting a bastard off on you! Who knows who the father is! "

That was it. The stricken pain in Dr. Grey's eyes was too much for Guiseppe.

"Stop, just stop. You made the terrible mistake when you decided to treat me like an imbecile. How could you try to lie to me about my past? I have a right to my memories, my life! I will decide for myself what the truth is. I have been sick, but I am not stupid!" he took a deep breath, "Now I have more to discover and I would appreciate my questions answered, please," Guiseppe's face was set in deep lines, "Dr. Shepherd, where is Ellis Grey?"

Derek held Mer's hand and explained Ellis' situation to Guiseppe. Derek told Guiseppe what Guiseppe himself had explained to Derek about his life with Ellis and Meredith. Meredith speculated that Ellis had let one of her distant Harrington relatives adopt Zachary in a private adoption. She explained the circumstances of Zach's adoptive parents death, and Zach's subsequent journey. Paolo and Michele had entered the room during this discussion and Derek waved them to seats with the other Giordanos.

"We would like to make sure of all this with a paternity test. Meredith and her mother and Zach are all being DNA tested already," Dr. Shepherd finished.

"Lies! This woman has already swindled you out of millions of euros! Now she makes up a crazy story about a son. She is trying to insinuate herself in your life again. You have to stay away from her. Don't you see, Guiseppe?" Armando was red in the face.

"Money? Is this about money? Is that why you are so upset? Zachary may be my son! We will find out soon enough if it is true."

"Think Guiseppe! Think of Marco, and his grandson, Michele. He has been your heir his whole life! He was raised by us, not that foreign woman. He has no hint of that awful woman's blood in his veins. Even if this Zachary, horrible name!, is your son, he has her blood and was raised by her family. There is no way any son of Ellis Grey is a true Giordano. You can not take him in. He is a stray. Michele is the heir. Michele."

Michele tried to speak at this point but was fiercely silenced.

"Guiseppe, when you were divorcing Ellis Grey, her juvenile delinquent daughter kept escaping her boarding school to try to get back to you. Ellis Grey brought the family to its knees over wresting her own freedom from marriage and over her unrepentant daughter. She used her connections in the WHO and in the medical community to cut off jobs for at least a dozen family members. She got bankers and financiers to threaten to withdraw financial support from six of our major business undertakings. Guiseppe, she threatened to tell the world that you were a pederast with her daughter," Meredith gasped and turned stark white at Armando's hateful diatribe. Her mother couldn't have done all that!? She couldn't have said that!? A pederast!? No, no, no.

Armando didn't stop there, "She threatened to tell your mother that I... I...," he looked away, "She promised to destroy you utterly if we didn't do exactly as she said. She demanded a swift divorce, for her silence. You know that that is almost impossible in Italy. It cost us a fortune in favors and cash and land. She demanded an astronomical financial settlement. She said she'd tell the world that the brat she was carrying was a bastard, and that you were a cuckolded fool."

At that last and the look on everyone's face, including Michele's, Armando knew he had gone too far. He had revealed way, way too much.

Guiseppe's lips were pressed so tightly together they were white. Deep gouges scored his forehead and bracketed his mouth. Bitter betrayal stabbed his heart.

"Papà, you knew!" Guiseppe said chokingly, "You knew I had a bambino. You knew. All these years, you let my son, your grandson, be given away like an unwanted scrap. And you would have taken my bambina from me too, more completely than any surgery. She said we loved each other. How could you steal love from my life. How?" Guiseppe's eyes filled with pain and tears as he looked at his father as if he had never seen him before.

"Guiseppe, these people are no good. American, bah!" Armando said desperately, "You never really loved Meredith Grey. She was a chronic run-away whose mother didn't even want her. She tried to break in to private property repeatedly. Her schoolmistresses described her as recalcitrant. You know, she was imprisoned more than once! Yes! They even put her in a cellar for months, but she never learned. She swayed Vincenzo to acts that threatened his life. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro! Ridiculous! Marco was right to leave her in the detainment center in Tanzania. She and her mother brought shame on our family."

"What did you say?!" Derek was incredulous, looking at Armando in horror, "You knew! You knew that place was torturing Meredith, a sixteen year old girl, and you did nothing! How could you? What kind of man are you?"

Meredith, Guiseppe, and Michele all sat staring at Armando.

"Don't look at me like that! Her mother was busy, hiding out, whelping her bastard, what else were we supposed to do? The girl wouldn't stop her obsession with you, Guiseppe. And you were still being a sentimental fool over her. We had to pay the headmistresses to ensure she stayed away."

"You paid Charon... I thought it was Mom... maybe you both paid to get rid of me... I was worth more than I thought, ha!" Meredith gave a bitter laugh and shook her head trying to clear it, "You knew Mom wouldn't come to Africa, but you left me there anyway... do you have any idea what they did to me!? Oh this makes everything that much worse," Meredith asked Marco with shocked blankness, her teeth starting to chatter and her skin icy cold. Dark memories swirled her in and out of the previously locked down past. Meredith couldn't bear to be touched. She withdrew completely from Derek's touch, it was too painful right now. He watched her sink into herself.

Guiseppe put his head in his hands, grief stricken, betrayed, and overcome. He looked up only when a shaky, loving hand touched his shoulder for a brief second. Meredith stood next to him with Derek close beside her still respecting her need not to be touched. Meredith put a white xeroxed sheet of paper in front of him.

"This paper is a copy of the letter you wrote me before the surgery," Meredith said quietly, just to him, "It will answer any question you have about the relationship you and I shared and about the money your family mentioned. I wrote all my numbers on the bottom of this page. I also wrote the names and numbers of the attorneys you used here in Seattle so that you may speak with them yourself. Please call me tomorrow and we'll talk more. I think we need to stop now, you're exhausted," grey faced, Meredith turned to leave.

She and Derek were half way to the door when she paused and turned back.

"I'm sorry for all this Papà Guiseppe, but you said to me once that I had to focus on the good in my life," Meredith ignored Armando's disdainful snort and Marco's attempt to interrupt, "Despite all this awful history, I have a chance to have my Papà back after almost twelve years. You and I also have Zachary, when he was lost to us for almost eleven years. He's a good boy, Papà. I'm starting to love him already. Zachary and I aren't asking you to take care of him. He just wanted to get to know his father. If you consent to the paternity test, sign the forms at the nurse's desk. I have the money you gave me, Papa. Even in residency, I can take care of him. I want him, even if none of you do."

Meredith turned, hunched over, like a creaky old woman, and made for the door. Derek walked after her more upset than he cared to admit by all the revelations of the ugly scene they'd just endured. One glance at Meredith's face and Derek knew whatever he felt was multiplied ten fold for her. He groaned under his breath.

"Meredith, where are you going?" he asked her when she headed for the elevator.

"I have to check in with Alex in post-op. We had four surgeries with Sloan today," Meredith mumbled, pushing the down button.

"I need to check on two patients in post-op myself. I'll come with you," Derek said.

"Okay," she said meekly, not looking at him, picking at the cuff of her sleeve. She felt bad inside. Like a refrigerator with something gone bad in it, making all the other good food rotten. She felt bruised and battered by the horrid revelations of Ellis' actions. Her mother was a monster. Dear God. She wanted to run and hide, but she'd learned it didn't do any good.

Derek touched her arm to comfort her but his touch agonized her, instead. She couldn't let him touch her when she was so polluted. She was dirty and he was clean. He shouldn't get dirty too. She wildly pulled away from him and headed to the back corner of the elevator. Derek watched her crumpling in on herself like hot saran wrap.

"Don't, Meredith."

She looked up at him with dull eyes.

"Don't let this break you down. You are Meredith, not Ellis. You are not responsible for any of this. I love Meredith Grey and you are not allowed to be cruel to her. You stand up for her. You get it that she is blameless. Meredith Grey is worthy of love and support. So you be there when she needs you. You love you. You support you. I will not stand by and watch the girl I love torment herself, so stop it."

He deliberately stepped into Meredith and hugged her. She resisted at first, trying to push him away, and then she crumpled into him rather than into herself. He refused to accept her initial refusal of him, because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Meredith Grey loved him. She needed him, and he needed her. They were stronger together.

Reviewers -- you rock! Thank you. A fanfic without reviews is like a bride without a groom, Meredith without Derek, enchiladas without verde sauce. (Hey I live in San Antonio, what reference would I use?)