Disclaimer: Did you get your hopes up that things would change in this disclaimer? Ha! Nothing has. If it had I wouldn't need to write a disclaimer would I? So yeah. Grey's Anatomy isn't mine.
The Name of the Game
"Addie," Mark called as soon as she crossed the threshold of the door to Joe's looking for her husband. "You have to come help me!"
She turned towards his voice and caught sight of her missing husband glowering at Mark's back. She sighed and made her way towards Mark finally seeing Meredith sitting next to him…was she actually knitting? "Help with what?" She asked lightly and raised a hand towards Joe in a sign for a drink. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
"With this!" Mark exclaimed and motioned to Meredith. "Angel's knitting. It's freaking me out."
Addison couldn't stop the laugh. Mark glared at her. She sighed and shook her head. "Okay. Meredith, why are you knitting in a bar?"
"Because I took a vow," Meredith answered in a firm voice. "I took a vow to not interfere in my friend's lives. And so now I'm knitting because it's good for surgical dexterity and I'm too busy to interfere in my friend's lives. And tell your husband to stop glaring at us."
"You see?" Mark whined. "She's been like this since Izzie finally met Callie and took an instant dislike to her."
"And now George won't talk to me, because it's my fault because I told him it would be fine and it isn't. So he and Callie are over at Burke's having a games night that Cristina wanted to invite me and Mark too but can't because George isn't speaking to me and Burke doesn't like Mark." Meredith huffed and pulled wildly on the yarn in her lap.
"Addison," Derek's hard tone interrupted Meredith's rant. "We need to get going. We're already late. Preston said seven and it's nearly eight now."
"He invited the two of you?" Meredith dropped the sweater she was attempting to knit into her lap and sent a shocked look at Addison. "Wait. Of course he did. It doesn't matter that Cristina and George can't stand him," she hooked a thumb at Derek. "It's his apartment. His rules. His everything. I really need to talk to Cristina about this. She can't keep letting him walk all over her like this."
"I thought you weren't going to interfere anymore," Derek commented.
Meredith glared at him. "Shut up."
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"You will be glad to know that Burke got his ass kicked last night," Addison greeted Meredith by the coffee cart.
"Seriously?" Meredith asked with a bright smile that quickly faded. "Which means so did Cris."
"Not exactly," Addison gloated. "Caramel mocha and a vanilla latte, please," she told the kid manning the coffee cart. "And I'm paying for the coffee this time. I won sixty bucks last night. Anyway, after a few couple rounds we switched it up and did the guys against the girls and the losers had to give each winner twenty bucks. You should have seen it Mer, they were so sure they were going to win. And they didn't earn a single point."
Meredith laughed. "Excellent."
Addison paid the kid while Meredith collected their coffees. "I think I saw Callie pass George the sixty to pay us before we even started. Maybe George tanked them on purpose cuz I know he knew some of the answers and he just…didn't say them."
"Good for George," Meredith commented and turned around to order George's favorite coffee.
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Meredith dangled the cup of coffee in front of George's face. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I like Callie. I thought Iz would too. Cristina likes her in her Cristina way that she likes anyone that isn't us."
George took the offered coffee and gave Meredith a halfhearted glare. "I know. And I forgive you but I'm still mad."
"Why exactly are you mad at me?" Meredith asked as they headed to the locker room together. "I mean I know it's because of the Callie and Izzie thing but why are you mad at me?"
George rolled his eyes. "You tell me you're sorry and you don't even know why?" He laughed. "I'm mad because you pushed me but you won't push Izzie."
Meredith stopped walking. "Oh. Oh. I…um, right. But George I can't force her to like Callie, you know?"
George's shoulders slumped in a heavy sigh. "I know. But you could at least try to get her to accept Callie. Just try."
Meredith nodded firmly. "I can do that," she promised. "And I really am sorry. I'm not good at this family stuff, George. I just…I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose any of you. So if and when I do something please tell me. Don't stop talking to me. I thought…I thought you didn't want to be my brother anymore." There were tears in her voice.
George felt guilt well up inside him. He knew Meredith had issues with family stuff. He knew that but sometimes he forgot. Meredith always acted so calm and confident. Always. And so they all forgot that some things could set off her insecurities. He really hated Ellis Grey. George also wasn't all that fond of Derek Shepherd but the damage he'd done was minimal in the face of what Meredith's parents had done. He faced Meredith and wrapped his arms around her. "There is nothing. Nothing. You could ever do that would make me stop loving you, Mer. You're my sister. Forever. And I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to make you doubt what you mean to me."
Meredith nodded against his shoulder. "I'm okay," she sniffled. "I'm okay, George. And I'll talk to Izzie. I really do like Callie. She's funny and nice and I'll talk to Izzie."
"Okay, Mer," George soothed and rubbed at her back with the hand not holding his coffee. "Okay."
She finally pulled back and gave him a shaky, watery smile. "I'm sorry for breaking down on you."
He grabbed onto her shoulder with one hand. "That is something you never have to be sorry for. Now, get dressed we have to work."
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There was something vaguely familiar about the man standing in front of Molly Thompson's room looking lost and confused. George couldn't quite put his finger on it and brushed it away because he had things to do. But the man just continued to stand there. "Sir? Can I help you with something?" George finally asked.
The man finally seemed to come out of his frozen, confused trance. "Uh…is…um," he stuttered. "Is there a Dr. Meredith Grey working today?"
Ah, maybe he was an old patient of Mer's. It wouldn't be the first time an old patient had come to tell Meredith thank you. Her patients always liked her. "Yes, sir. She's around somewhere," George told him cheerfully as he made a few notes on Mrs. Thompson's chart.
"Sh-she's here in the hospital right now?" George couldn't quite understand the emotion behind the question. Fear or apprehension, nervousness. But not delight. Not relief.
George slanted the man a glance. "I can have someone page her here if you'd like," he offered.
"No," the man said and George turned to look at him fully. "No, that's all right." The man turned away. "Thank you."
There was something achingly familiar about the way he'd smiled in embarrassment and waved his hand when he'd talked. Meredith did that. And her smile was exactly like that just hours earlier. That couldn't possibly be Thatcher Grey. What the Hell was he…Oh, crap! It couldn't be. "Wait." George jumped away from the nurse's station to intercept him. "Excuse me, sir?" George stared at him when he stopped moving and looked over at George. "Are—are you…what's your name?"
For an instant the man didn't look like he wanted to answer. "Thatcher," he admitted finally.
George's head bobbed. He'd known that. "You're—"
"Grey," Thatcher sighed. "Yeah."
George's head wouldn't stop nodding. "You're Meredith's father." He blurted a bit louder than he'd wanted to.
Thatcher looked supremely uncomfortable. "Yeah."
"Are you sure you don't want me to page her?" George offered again. He wasn't sure how Meredith was going to take this but he had to give them a chance.
Thatcher seemed to retreat even if he didn't actually move. "No," that was the first firm thing George had heard him say in their entire conversation. "I'm sorry. It's uh…complicated."
Behind them Molly Thompson's mother, Susan stepped out of her room. "Thatcher, honey," she called. "We're right here."
George didn't hear Thatcher's response. Molly Thompson was Thatcher Grey's daughter. She was Meredith's half-sister. And Meredith didn't know. He had to find her. He had to let her know they were here before she found out from someone else.
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"Izzie, seriously, give her a chance." Meredith pressed. "She's cool. You'll like her if you give her a chance."
"No," Izzie insisted stubbornly. "Ortho chick is hiding something. I'm sure of it. And I'm going to stop her before she pulls George into some devil worshipping cult or something."
Meredith giggled. "A devil worshipping cult, Izzie, seriously? Callie isn't worshipping the devil and even if she was as long as she doesn't sacrifice George why would we care? You told him that he could date anyone he wanted that wasn't Olivia."
"Or some skanky ho bag," Izzie corrected. "And you can't tell me she's not the least little bit skanky."
"Stevens," Callie's voice came from behind them. "Take this," she tossed something to Izzie when they'd turned around. "You two are with me for now. George says you don't appreciate ortho. I'm going to change your mind."
"You won't change mine," Meredith chirped. "It's not the medicine I don't like. It's the athletes. They annoy me." She stood close to Izzie as they followed Callie. "And she isn't. Stop being such a bitch, Iz."
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"Sorry Dr. Torres, as much fun as it was to set that guy's hip and stuff ortho is still not for me," Meredith told her outside the exam room. "Orthopedics sees far too many conscious athletes for me to handle and athletes drive me nuts. Think they're the center of the universe and everybody needs to bow down before them and stuff."
Callie rolled her eyes. She'd known that Meredith wouldn't change her mind. "I was an athlete, you know?"
Meredith's eyes widened and then narrowed. "Maybe. But you're a surgeon now. And we are the center of the universe and everybody should bow down to us. It's in the surgeon handbook and everything."
"Meredith," Izzie interrupted sharply. "Stop it. You don't have to make nice with the ortho chick so that George will talk to you again."
"I'm not!" Meredith protested.
"Stevens, go get that hip x-rayed like I said, please," Callie ordered in a cold tone.
"Fine," Izzie grumbled.
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"Izzie!" George called out to the blond as they passed on the stairs. "Have you seen Meredith?"
"She's with your ortho chick," Izzie told him in an angry voice. "They're bonding."
"Okay," George said slowly. "But where? I really need to find her."
"Why?" Izzie stopped and leaned against the wall overlooking the lobby. "She's having a blast giggling and laughing with your freak of a girl friend."
George huffed. "You know what? Never mind. I'll find her myself. This is important and you can't let go of your stupid intolerance for five seconds and help us. What is wrong with you, Izzie?"
He stormed away leaving Izzie in tears behind him. Didn't he understand that Callie wasn't the type of woman who could make him happy? Didn't he see that Callie would never understand the family the five of them had carved out for themselves?
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"Hey, Dr. O'Malley," Addison stopped the younger man as they crossed the cat walk going in opposite directions. "Do you have Molly's MRI results?"
George stopped and the frown on his face had Addison take a step back. "No. I-I haven't…not yet."
"George," Addison sighed and tried to tamp down some of the irritation. "When I put you on a case of mine I need your full and undivided attention. Can you give me one good reason why you don't have those results yet? Why shouldn't I kick you off and get somebody else?"
George swallowed hard. "Molly Thompson's maiden name is Grey," he paused and Addison looked confused. "Her father is Thatcher Grey," he continued and Addison's eyes started to widen. "She's Mer's half-sister and I don't think Mer knows she exists. Thatcher is here in the hospital and Mer doesn't know. I'm trying to find her and warn her."
Addison's jaw dropped. "Oh. Right. I'll go find Meredith…and Mark. You go get those results and page me. I'll tell her."
"You sure?" George asked.
Addison nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'll go find her. I'm in charge of Molly's case and it's my job to tell the family."
"All right," George nodded. "She was with Callie, Izzie said. Dr. Torres," he explained when Addison raised an inquiring brow. "In Orthopedics."
"Right, thanks, go," Addison shooed him off and set off at a run to Orthopedics.
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"Meredith!" Addison called out when she finally spotted the blond striding down the hallway next to Callie. "Wait up!"
The larger, dark haired woman turned at the same time the blond did and both regarded her in confusion as she skidded to a stop in front of them. "Is there something you needed my intern for, Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd?" Callie asked in a professional tone.
"I have been searching everywhere for you two," Addison panted. "Seriously. Everywhere."
Meredith gave her a small smile. "Well, you've found us. You could have just paged you know? Would have been easier on you than running through the hospital in two inch heels."
Addison shrugged. "I didn't think of that, actually. I'm very sorry Dr. Torres but I'm going to need to pull Dr. Grey."
Callie frowned. "May I ask why it's necessary for you to pull my intern? Is there no one else available?"
Addison fiddled with the rings on her fingers uncomfortably. "Um…you two are friends right?" She asked.
Meredith nodded. "Trying to be," she admitted. "Why?"
"Dr. Torres…I need to take Meredith to Dr. Sloan's office and tell her something personal. I'm not telling her here in the hallway. If you want to come you are more than welcome."
Callie nodded with a shrug. "Sure, we've got about a half an hour before our patient's labs come back."
"Addison," Meredith caught the older woman's brown eyes with her own green ones. "What's going on? Seriously. Today has already been weird. What's happened?"
Addison grabbed her elbow and started pulling her along the hallway. Meredith had learned that Addison was just as stubborn as she was when she wanted to be and so simply allowed the older woman to pull her along. She wasn't averse to going to see Mark at any time anyway. A familiar figure down another hallway caught her attention and she gasped. "Does this news you have to tell me have anything to do with the fact that I think I just saw my father?" She asked Addison bluntly.
"Um…" Addison stuttered. "Yes."
Meredith dug her heels in and forced the other woman to stop. "We don't need to go to Mark's office. I don't need Mark to deal with everything in my life for me. I can handle my father. Why is he here?"
Addison grabbed her elbow again and tried to walk her down the hall but she wouldn't budge. "Mer, seriously, we need privacy for this conversation."
"Addie," Meredith said in a furious undertone. "Just tell me why my father is stalking the halls of my hospital." She blinked. "Is he…Is he looking for me? Did he come here to see me?"
"Meredith," Callie said quietly. "We should really take this somewhere private." She discreetly motioned to the nurse's station where five people were unabashedly watching them.
Meredith glared at them. "Don't you all have jobs you should be doing?" She spat at them.
"Course we do," Tyler told her with a cheeky smile. "But watching Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd try to drag your skinny behind down the hall is more fun."
Meredith rolled her eyes and then led the other two women away from the gossiping nurses. "Why is he here?" She asked Addison again as they approached the elevator.
Callie watched the two women interact and shook her head at the randomness of life. Addison and Meredith should despise each other. Meredith had slept with Addison's husband, granted she hadn't known he was married. Addison had taken Meredith's boyfriend, granted she was his wife. And yet she'd seen the two women laughing and gossiping by the coffee cart nearly every morning. They really were good friends, maybe even best friends. Cristina was practically Meredith's twin so she no longer counted as just a friend.
When Meredith had first started this friendship thing Callie had expected it to be one of those friendships where they greeted each other in the hallway and then went on about what they were doing. It wasn't though. Meredith would stop in the hallway to greet her and ask how her day was going and just talk for a few minutes no matter how busy she was. Callie knew she wasn't one of Meredith's small circle of close friends but then only Cristina, Izzie, George and Alex were that close. Mark was in a group all by himself.
Callie pulled herself from her musings as the elevator dinged and opened to reveal Mark's form inside. Addison nearly pushed Meredith into the car and Mark's arms before following her in. She turned around and looked at Callie. "Are you coming?" She asked.
"Neither of you are," Mark said firmly. "I know and I'll take care of it, Addie. I'll make sure she comes back to Ortho when I'm finished, Dr. Torres."
Addison gave him an exasperated smile and stepped off the elevator to stand beside Callie. "Fine. Go all caveman. See if we care."
The elevator door closed on Mark's McSteamy smile. "Do I want to know?" Callie asked.
Addison drew in a deep breath and pulled Callie over to an out of the way corner. "I assume you know by now that Meredith's dad left her and her mom when she was five, right?" Callie nodded. That wasn't any secret. "A little while ago Meredith looked him up and went to see him. He wouldn't let her in his house and would barely speak to her. Now he's here with his new family. His daughter is pregnant and the baby has some problems. His third daughter if you count Mer. He left them and found himself a new family. Meredith hadn't heard from him in over twenty years."
"Ouch," Callie breathed. "That's not good."
Addison shook her head. "I don't know how Mer's going to take this news."
Callie shrugged. "She'll be fine. She has Mark."
Addison gave one short sharp nod. "True."
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"Hey Angel," Mark said into her hair.
"Please," Meredith said in a hard voice. "Just tell me what is going on? Please. The suspense is killing me here."
"Thatcher is here because his youngest daughter is thirty-two weeks pregnant and the baby's lungs aren't developing properly," Mark told her quickly. He felt Meredith freeze in his arms. "They came here because of Addie. She's the best."
Meredith drew in a shaky breath. "Oh. That's terrible. Can Addie help them?"
Mark smirked. That was his Angel. She'd pushed aside her own surprise and pain to focus on someone else. She might break down later and be sad and angry but for now there were patients to save. "She's going to do her best."
"Good. That's good." She tilted her head back and looked up at him. "Do you…do you think…er, would Addison mind if I go…peek in on her?" She wasn't sure why she was curious about this other daughter. But…she just wanted to see her. Even if it was just once.
Mark grinned. "No, I don't think she'd mind. Want me to come with you?"
Meredith shook her head immediately. "No. This is something I have to do alone. Seriously. It's okay, Mark, I can handle this."
"All right then," he nodded. "Call me if you need me."
"Of course."
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Meredith lurked outside the door of Molly Thompson's room and bit at her thumb. For all her big words to Mark she was as nervous as Hell about meeting this sister she didn't even know she had. She was only glad that Thatcher wasn't in there with her. That would make this impossible to do.
Meredith gave Addison a sheepish smile when the older woman noticed her. Addison turned to Molly and gave her a gentle smile. "Would you excuse me just one moment?" Molly nodded and Addison joined Meredith in the hall. "Do you…want to come in?" She asked gently.
"Um…yes?" Meredith responded. "Just…does she know about me?"
Addison put a hand on Meredith's shoulder and squeezed. "We're going to go on the assumption that she doesn't."
Meredith nodded. "Okay." She followed Addison back into the room.
"Molly," Addison began. "This is…Meredith. She's going to be continuing your prep work and taking your vitals. Okay?" They both nodded and Molly smiled at the pretty dirty blond woman as Addison handed off the chart and left the room to give the sisters time to talk.
"Hi," Meredith greeted the young woman.
"Hey," Molly responded.
Meredith looked down at the chart Addison had handed her. "Uh, do you mind if I…um," she waved at Molly's arm.
Molly gave a light laugh. "No, it's fine. I'm used to being poked and prodded by now." She lifted her arm up for the blood pressure cuff.
Meredith liked her smile. She listened as Molly prattled on and slowly grew more and more uncomfortable. Molly clearly adored her father and if what she was saying was true then Thatcher clearly loved her back. Molly had the life that Meredith had missed out on. Why hadn't he wanted her too?
He had two new daughters. A family. And he had left her alone. Maybe she couldn't handle this. She needed Mark and the others. They would know what to say to make this look better to make her feel better. It didn't matter that her father hadn't wanted her. She had found her own family. She couldn't imagine any of them choosing to leave her. She couldn't imagine choosing to leave any of them.
"Meredith," Molly interrupted her musings. "Do you think my baby is going to be okay?"
Meredith pulled in a deep breath. "Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd is the best there is," she assured the frightened young woman. "She'll do everything she can. I can't promise you anything other than that but I…hope your both fine. Dr…Addison really is the best there is, Molly."
Molly nodded but the fear in her eyes hadn't diminished. "Me too."
Meredith took the younger woman's hand. "Let me tell you something about Addie. A few months ago there was that huge train wreck, do you remember it?" Molly nodded. "On board that train there were two women both in their third trimester. One of them was badly burned and she went into labor. She couldn't deliver naturally because of her condition and Addison saved both mother and baby. Another woman came in pregnant with quintuplets. Three of them needed surgery as soon as they were out of her womb. A fourth started to drift away and Addison worked herself sick to help them. One of them didn't make it but Addison did everything in her power to save that little girl. The other four? Now they're healthy as can be. Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd will do everything she can to take care of you both. I promise."
Molly finally gave her a real smile and the fear in her eyes had retreated. "Thank you, Meredith that helps a lot."
Meredith squeezed her hand. "Good. Now, I'm gonna go and get things set up. You rest and we'll be back in a bit."
"Okay," Molly nodded.
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"Mark, I'm not fine. I'm furious. And sad. And I don't know what else. I'm going back to Ortho. I need to break something. I hate him. She has a sister. At Harvard. Med school. And he's crazy proud of them both. Why? Why couldn't that be me? What did I do that was so horrible that he couldn't love me too?"
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Meredith flew into the exam room and shattered the tense silence between Callie and Izzie. "I need some bones to break," she announced loudly.
"What?" Callie asked her with a confused expression.
"Some bones to break, something to smash. Callie, please, can you help me with that? Cuz if you can't…well, it won't be pretty."
Callie blinked. That meeting with her sister must have gone badly. "Um, you can clean up this cast crap if you want," she told the distraught young woman and ignored the glare Izzie sent at her.
"Meredith," Izzie started. "What happened? Do you need to talk? Come on, let's have a chat."
"Thank you, Callie," Meredith told the dark haired woman and grabbed up a mallet. "I don't want to talk, Izzie. I want to break something and if you don't move, it'll be you."
Callie reached out and pulled Izzie away from Meredith. "Sometimes, Stevens, a person just needs to let the anger out. You can bug her when she's done."
"What would you know about Meredith?" Izzie snarled. "She's not violent. She needs to talk not hit."
"Everyone has their breaking point." Callie rolled her eyes. "Looks like she's hit hers."
The two women watched in silence as Meredith pounded at the cast with the mallet, grunting and muttering with every hit. "What is she saying?" Callie asked.
"I have no idea," Izzie answered. "But I think this to do with more than just her dad and sister."
Callie considered the tall blond for a moment. "Yeah, you're probably right."
Izzie looked away from her friend brutally murdering a cast and stared at the other woman. "So…George, he's really-really you're type hunh?"
Callie scoffed wordlessly and rolled her eyes. She shook her head for a minute. "You don't see him," she accused. "Either of you. You just don't see him. He's just-He's just George to you. He's just…O'Malley. He's your roommate."
"Not true," Meredith panted proving she'd been paying at least a bit of attention to Callie and Izzie. "He's my brother," she hit the cast. "The brother I chose," and again. "The one that chose me," again. "My brother." She whacked the cast with all her strength and stopped to stare over at the other women in the room. "I might not always see him but he's always my brother. And he's great. Because he might not always see me but I'm always his sister. And just because I don't find him at all attractive doesn't mean that I think that you can't. And I don't question why you do."
Izzie rolled her eyes and Callie nodded. "He makes my world stop."
"Good," Meredith commented and went back to killing the cast.
Callie turned to Izzie with a glare. "George O'Malley is sweet and kind and smart and strong. And he makes my world stop. So you," she frowned. "You shut up about him."
The mallet dropped from Meredith's fingers and onto the floor before Izzie could think of anything to say. Meredith put her hands on the table and panted for breath. Callie stood up and walked over to her.
She put one hand on Meredith's shoulder and patted it. "Feel better?" Meredith nodded. "I'll send someone in to help you clean up. Want me to call Mark?"
Meredith nodded and then shook her head. "I think he's in surgery. I'll call him when I'm done here. Thanks though."
Callie nodded and left the room.
"Holy crap," Izzie gasped. "George is her McDreamy."
Meredith shook her head. "McSteamy," she corrected. "McDreamies only hurt you with their lies."
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Her arms hurt and she still felt a bit off. The smashing had cooled her rage but she just…needed something. Something that would stop this nagging feeling of being unwanted. She strode down the hall, chart in hand and tried to stop feeling like she was about to break.
"I—I saw a picture once," a voice said from behind her. "From a long time ago." Meredith stopped walking but refused to turn around. She knew who was talking to her without looking. The woman that had replaced her mother. The woman whose daughters had a father. "You look just like her—your mother." Meredith finally turned around. Maybe this step-mom that she didn't know could give her some of the answers she needed. "You look a lot like my girls, especially Molly," Meredith nodded a bit. The woman smiled. Susan, Meredith suddenly remembered from Molly's chart. "You were talking to her?"
"I didn't say anything," Meredith hurried to reassure her. "About anything."
Susan smile didn't falter. "Oh, she knows about you." Now the smile fell a little. "Or she knows that her father was married before and had another daughter. Has another daughter." She winced at her own words.
"No," Meredith corrected after a deep breath. "Had is right."
Susan gave her a long, sad look. "Your father thinks about you. He thinks about you a lot." Meredith nodded at her but wanted to scream and yell and know why, if he thought about her so much, didn't he find her? Why he had treated her like an unwanted package. "He just…" Susan continued. "Your mother…Your mother…She broke him."
Meredith shook her head and cleared her throat. "He…excuse me. I have to work." She turned and bolted away.
"Ellis may have broken him but he broke her," a male voice said softly to Susan as she sadly watched the retreating form of her step-daughter.
Susan started and whirled to face the voice. "Pardon?" She asked the tall man standing at the nurse's station.
The tall man came over and stood beside her. "Ellis Grey is a bitch." He stated. "But she kept her daughter. She may not have been much of a mother and she may have damaged Mer badly. But she stayed. Thatcher broke her and it's taken a lot of years to fix her. When I first met Meredith, six years ago, she was scared of even the thought of a relationship with anyone even a friend and lashing out at everyone and everything. Now…well, now she has a family that she cobbled together and friends and me. Always me. No matter what."
"Who are you?" Susan asked confused.
The man grinned and it nearly took Susan's breath away. "Mark Sloan. Meredith's…well neither of us really like the term boyfriend but it'll do."
"Oh," Susan said without sound.
"Look," Mark sighed. "If you want to get to know her…if you want some kind of relationship with her it's going to be hard. Mer has trust issues. Big ones. I really don't think she'll ever fully trust Thatcher. I don't think she can. But she'll try. Just give it some time and go slowly. Meredith doesn't understand families or how they interact."
Tears lined Susan's eyes. "I…I never…realized. I never thought…" She sniffed back her tears and straightened her spine. "I can do slow."
Mark had a sudden flash of what Meredith would have been like if she'd grown up with this woman as her mother. The thought scared him. With Susan raising her she wouldn't be with him. They probably never would have even met. For the first time ever Mark was grateful that Ellis Grey had raised Meredith because he couldn't imagine a life without her in it.
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George caught sight of Meredith and Thatcher heading down different hallways at the same time. They were going to intersect any second. He shot Meredith a warning glance and she bolted into a room to the side. George sighed. Meredith had obviously dealt with too much already today.
"Oh, Dr. O'Malley," Thatcher greeted when he caught sight of the young man. He walked up and stood in front of him. "Before, when I was asking about Meredith…" He paused and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You know her." George dipped his head in a nod. "You're her friend."
"I'm her roommate," George corrected. "Her family." He didn't want Thatcher to think that he could just do whatever it was that he was doing without knowing that he was on Meredith's side.
"Oh," Thatcher eyes widened. "Wow. So you know her really well."
George didn't like Thatcher's probing tone. "Yeah. Know her boyfriend really well too. They're tight. We all are." He eyed Thatcher with a challenge in his eyes.
Thatcher backed down. "Um…she came to see me a couple of weeks ago," he said hesitantly.
"I know," George nodded.
"You do?"
"We all do. Told you we're tight. Family." George crossed his arms over his chest and chanced a glance to the doorway Meredith was hiding in when Thatcher looked down at his feet. Meredith had one hand to her mouth while the other clenched the knob of the door with white knuckles. In her sea-green eyes he could see the confusion and pain and he hated the man before him for causing it.
"I didn't know what to say to her. She just looks so much…so much like her mother. Ellis was cold. She wouldn't let me know her," Thatcher babbled in the face of this young man's disapproval. "And now I don't know how to know her."
George sighed. "Meredith is anything but cold. She's kind and passionate and nice. The nurses have arguments about who gets to work with her. She can make us all feel warm when she smiles at us. Her patients adore her. We all do. She can be a bit selfish, especially where time with Mark comes into the picture, but she's there when we need her. She's nothing like her mother. At all. She's Meredith. She's our heart. She keeps us all going. She cares about people, her patients. I think she's going to be a brilliant surgeon. Around here she's the one to beat. But more importantly she's already a brilliant person. Even with her flaws. So she's not like her mother at all. Because Mer? She's going to have it all. The family and the career." George took a deep breath and stared into Thatcher's eyes. "And Mark will never leave her. No matter what she does, he'll never leave her."
Thatcher didn't look like he believed him but George didn't care. He'd said his piece. "Hm," Thatcher hummed. "Do—do you know…where she is?"
"George," a deep voice called before George could answer. Thatcher and George turned towards the man hurrying up the hallway towards them, lab coat flapping behind him in his rush. "You seen Mer?"
George shot him a significant look. "She left already," he lied. "She texted you. I watched her."
Mark stuck his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. "Damn," he muttered. "I left it in my office." He looked between the two men and then focused on George. "I'm off. You need a ride?"
George shook his head. "I'm on call tonight." He turned to Thatcher. "I'll tell her you were looking for her if you like."
Thatcher stared at the two men and seemed to shrink into himself. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks." He turned and headed back to Molly's room.
George pointed discreetly to the room where Meredith had taken refuge. Mark nodded and Meredith poked her head around the corner. "Thanks, George." He flashed her a grin and headed off to prep the OR.
"You okay?" Mark asked quietly as he pulled her into his arms.
She nodded against his chest. "I am now. I've got a really good family, you know?"
Mark grinned over her head. He knew she meant the one she'd made for herself. "Yeah. I know."