Chapter 43: Daddy Dearest
Meredith thought she finally had a minute to herself after all the exciting events of the day. Her mind was racing. Her father walking in on her making out with Derek… Her argument with Erica Hahn… She leaned back into her chair and switched her mind off and then the realization hit her, just like that, without warning or anesthesia. Completely absurd, improbable, based on few premises but Meredith was eerily sure, accurate. It all made sense. Richard's so-called friendship with her mother, his protectiveness… It also explained Thatcher's strong reaction seeing she had a secret relationship with her coworker.
She grabbed the phone and dialed the number, she had to know.
"Richard?"
"Meredith," he recognized her voice. "Derek told you I came over-"
"You had an affair with her, didn't you?" she stated impromptu.
"Yes," he sighed after a long silent pause. "Meredith-"
She shut her phone down hard. She had no idea how she should behave towards the man thanks to whom her parent's marriage fell into crumbles but also thanks to whom she arrived at Seattle years later and met Derek Shepherd.
And then another idea entered her mind pushing Richard from her brain effectively and making her heart burst in the flames of anger. How dared he? How could her father compare her to Ellis knowing absolutely nothing about her?
She threw her lab coat of her shoulders and grabbed her jacket at a run. She bumped into Derek in the doorway.
"Hey," he smiled. "I've just managed to slip unnoticed; Patricia went for a coffee. Maybe we should tell her, you know. She's guarding you like a dog."
"Not now, Derek," she threw at him absentmindedly, brushing past him.
"Wait, where are you going?" he frowned at her, grabbing her arm. "What about your father?"
"About my father," she huffed searching her purse for her car keys. "I'm going to do what I should have done when I got back to Seattle."
She turned on her heel and strode off leaving Derek with a worrisome look on his face. He didn't like that vicious glint in her eye. It was one of the things she inherited from her mother.
Meredith slammed her foot on the brakes when she saw the familiar house and ten seconds later, she was ringing the doorbell. A woman with a smile stretching from ear to ear, undoubtedly her father's second wife, greeted her cheerfully, "You must be Meredith! Thatch said you wouldn't come-"
"Is he in?" Meredith cut her unceremoniously halfway through the sentence.
"Yes," nodded the woman, "come on in."
Not waiting for further invitation, Meredith walked energetically following the sounds of conversation. She stormed into a living room where her eyes registered two women, she knew had to be her sisters, a young man and her father, who started to stand up, startled with her appearance.
"Don't bother," she spat icily, "I'll just tell you what's on my mind and be gone."
Everyone stared at her and she smirked with satisfaction. She had that power over people. She didn't use it lately but now it definitely came in handy.
"What do you think gives you the right to judge me?" she asked with a cold glare. She didn't raise her voice, she didn't have to. "That strip of DNA you share with me, dad?" she mocked him. "I don't think so."
"From all the things you did to me," she continued harshly looking into his eyes, "including you leaving me at the age of five in the care of a woman like Ellis Grey and not giving a sign of life ever since, what you did today is the biggest wrong. You think you can waltz into my hospital, my own office, and take me for an adulterous whore? I won't let anyone treat me that way, and certainly not you!" she said with disgust.
"Meredith-" Thatcher breathed, his face going pale.
"You're not talking when I'm talking," she snorted. "You think that because my bitch of a mother played a number on you you can judge me? You know nothing about me, nothing! And that assumption on your part, that I was having an affair with a married man, was the biggest insult I've received in a long time. I hope I won't have the displeasure of seeing you again. Bon appétit," she chuckled glancing around over the stunned faces of her audience and rushed back to the front door.
"Meredith," pleaded after her Thatcher's wife. "Meredith, let's talk calmly."
"Oh, I am calm," assured Meredith. "Believe me, you wouldn't like to see me angry."
"Meredith-"
"Okay, you can stop right here," Meredith threw at her. She didn't intended to talk to anyone else than Thatcher but why Susan shouldn't get her share if she was asking for it. "Don't play a Florence Nightingale, ok? I didn't see you pushing for a family reunion all these years."
She didn't let the older woman utter another word and hurried to her car. She needed to get back home till her nerves still let her.
When she got to her house, Derek and Addison were already waiting for her on tenterhooks. She threw the car keys on the table in the hall and took off her shoes feeling self-conscious under their silent observation. She knew they wouldn't leave it to rest as her moves were abrupt and mechanic, she was boiling inside.
"What?" she snapped.
"Where have you been?" frowned Addison.
"I paid a little visit to my daddy dearest," she smirked.
Addie and Derek exchanged worried looks suspecting that Grey household must be looking as though after a tornado attack.
"What did you do?" inquired the redhead while Derek chose to stay silent.
"I just spoke my mind," snorted Meredith.
"Mer!" exclaimed Addie disbelievingly, knowing exactly what her friend was capable of. "What did you say to him?"
"Them," Meredith corrected her quietly.
"Them? Who else was there?"
"All the happy family," Meredith looked Addison in the eye. "And don't look at me like that! I had a right to every word I said! My so-called father thought I was screwing a married man. What does that tell you about him?"
She picked up her briefcase and hurried upstairs out of their sight. Once she reached her room, she threw herself on her bed and tried to regularize her breathing, pressing her face into the pillow. She felt her forehead and cheeks burning.
Barely seconds later, Derek silently opened the door and lied down beside her, gathering her in his arms, rubbing her back soothingly. She fisted his shirt and buried her head in his chest instead of the pillow and there was where she finally let herself break down. Violent sobs shocked her body and wet stains appeared on Derek's silky shirt.
"How could he do this to me?" asked Meredith, her breath hitching painfully in her chest. "Again."
"I don't know," whispered Derek kissing the top of her head, making sure she felt the strength of his hold. "I can't even imagine why a man…" he trailed off. He really couldn't fathom how a man could forget about his own child and not even try to renew some contact with her, and Thatcher Grey made an impression of a decent man…
Meredith's tears subsided slightly, undeniably thanks to Derek. She felt warm in his embrace, like she'd jump into a hot bath after getting soaked in a down pour. She felt drowsy, Derek's regular caress lulling her to sleep. Her eyelids drooped and she drifted off into a fitful slumber.
When she opened her eyes hours later, she felt as if she had been clubbed over the head. Her eyes were sore, her neck stiff. However, her mind was unusually calm and clear. She lived almost all her life without a father, and she survived. Why now would have to be any different? He wasn't her family. She didn't have any family other than Addison and Derek now.
She looked tenderly at his face, illuminated by the pale moon. He was sleeping, though not very peacefully. He had a tiny frown on his forehead, surely caused by her, and she passed a finger tenderly over the crease to smooth it. He huffed in his sleep, cocking his head and continued to sleep. She really felt like she was his priority. They were lying together unshowered, unchanged, just fulfilling the need for their closeness.
Her heart fluttered as she remembered the moment, he said he loved her. He did love her. And she did love him. She smiled in the darkness. She really needed to tell him. He was her future.