A/N: I have begun rewatching Grey's Anatomy from the beginning and it has inspired me to return to writing stories again. This is the beginning of a repost. The first few chapters will be the same and later chapters will be rewritten.

Chapter One

Meredith rummaged through her closet as she tried to find the right outfit to wear. She pulled out the only dress she had and took it off the hanger. As much as she wanted to wear something nice, her mother had insisted a dress would be more appropriate for tonight. The party was going to be fancy and Ellis wanted her family to make a good impression on the guests of honor.

Normally, Meredith wouldn't attend a party like this. She wasn't one who cared for going to parties. However, Richard Webber, her stepfather, thought it would be nice if the whole family was there. Knowing how much it meant to him for her to attend, she had canceled her plans and accepted the invitation.

A few minutes later, she emerged from her bedroom. Walking into the living room, she found her roommate and best friend Cristina Yang making out with her boyfriend Owen Hunt on the sofa. She rolled her eyes as she walked past them. "Could you guys at least wait until after I leave to have your make out party?"

"You're just mad because you have to go to this engagement party tonight," Cristina replied. "And you don't want to face your mother."

"Who would when she favors the younger daughter?" Meredith pointed out. "I'm nothing compared to Lexie." She had nothing against her younger sister, but it did seem like she was the better daughter. "She is the one who has a photographic memory while I struggled with my schoolwork. She is attending Harvard while I'm a college dropout. So which child would you brag about to your friends?"

"There must be some reason why Cristina hangs out with you," Owen teased her. "And who is this engagement party for?"

"It's for her ex-boyfriend Derek Shepherd and his new fiancee Addison," Cristina explained.

Meredith gave her a look. "Derek isn't my ex-boyfriend," she corrected her for the thousandth time. "We never went out with each other. He just spent every summer with my family because Richard was his godfather."

Owen waited for more information, but Meredith was already distracted with preparing to leave the apartment. Cristina tried to get her boyfriend to pay attention to her, but he was still focused on Meredith. "So did you two get along or were you two enemies?"

"We were best friends, but we drifted apart," Meredith replied. "After all, he was four years older than me. So we wouldn't have had a chance to try going out with each other." She didn't want to admit they had wanted to date, but there were several reasons why they didn't go through it with it. For one, her mother didn't approve of the age difference between them. And she didn't believe their love would last beyond high school. Especially since he would already be in college by the time she did enter high school.

"So how do you feel, knowing you are going to see him again?" Owen asked as Meredith grabbed her coat from the hall closet. "Nervous?"

Putting her coat on and grabbing her purse from the kitchen counter, she thought for a moment before answering. "Yeah, you can say that." Walking to the front door, she spoke one last time. "I'll probably be back late. Don't wait up for me."

"I wasn't planning on it," Cristina told her as she watched her best friend leave the apartment.

Meredith was glad she didn't have to arrive early to help set up for the party. She wanted to spend as less time as she could with her mother. Her focus had always been more on her career than her family and that was probably the reason why Meredith's father Thatcher left her. He couldn't handle being the second fiddle. Meredith couldn't blame him. She probably would have run away too if it wasn't for Richard.

Richard had married Ellis when Meredith and Lexie were young. Even though Richard was her stepfather, she considered him as her dad. He had helped change Ellis Grey from a workaholic to a mom who made an effort to get to know her daughters. And it was Lexie who she had bonded with while she continued to have a difficult relationship with Meredith. It made her wonder what she could have possibly inherited from her mother since they were complete opposites.

However, there was an advantage of not being close to her mother. She didn't have to work at Grey and Webber law firm, a merger of their individual practices that they had brought about once they had gotten married. It was a small law firm, but successful. Her mother had created a foolproof method on how to win her cases and it was named the Grey method.

Another savior who helped Meredith deal with her mother's criticism was Derek. He always made her feel like she was special, just as much as her little sister was. He had tutored her to help improve her failing grades and coached her in baseball, which was Derek's favorite sport. Other times, they had just hung out together by eating their favorite ice cream while they watched movies or rode the ferry boats.

All that changed once they began to have a crush on each other. They had tried to keep their feelings to themselves especially after Ellis had found out about it. Richard and Derek's mother Carolyn were perfectly fine with them dating. In fact, they thought they were the perfect couple. But Ellis Grey believed their relationship would ruin Derek's law career.

Ever since Derek was young, he had admired his godfather so much that he wanted to be just like him. That meant going to one of the top universities to study law like Harvard, Yale or Stanford and all of those schools that were far away from Seattle. Meredith wished he would have stayed near Seattle, but she also knew he had to follow his dream. So he went off to Columbia University and he hadn't been able to return to Seattle until now.

Derek was coming back for his engagement party, but the wedding would take place in New York. Neither he nor his fiancée believed they would be able to return to Seattle, go on their honeymoon and then go back to New York to pack up their stuff. It was just too much for them. That was the information she had gotten from Richard. Derek contacted him and his family as often as he could. That's how Meredith found out Derek was getting married in the first place.

Meredith had seen pictures of his fiancée and she wasn't that impressed with the tall redhead. In fact, she didn't seem that special to her even with the things Richard had been telling her about Derek's new love. According to Richard, she was a year younger than Derek and had a brother. Meredith wondered how she felt being with the Shepherd family since Derek only had sisters – two to be exact.

Even though Meredith already had a sister, she could relate to Derek's younger sister Amy. In fact, they were best friends. She was the same age as her and was the trouble maker of the family, but that made her fun for Meredith. Unlike her brother, they just lost contact with each other after Amy had moved away after their high school graduation. Like Meredith, she had never felt she belonged with her family and left as soon as she could.

Meredith had to admit she missed her partner in crime. Sure, she had Cristina and they had fun together like going out for drinks. Amy was her first best friend though. They hadn't been into the typical best friend activities like sleepovers and birthday parties. It was more like staying out too late and not finishing homework and turning it in on time. She also liked to skip class and spending her afternoons in detention for being tardy too many times or cheating on a test. Her mother and Richard were amazed she was able to graduate high school on time. Meredith gave all the credit to Derek. He was the one who encouraged her to start caring about her grades and believe in herself.

Her focus then went back to Addison, who seemed to be more perfect with every little thing she did. She was finishing up with getting her master's degree in Education since she wanted to be a Home Economics teacher and was graduating this spring along with Derek. With having different careers, Meredith wondered how they even met or how she felt to be moving across country for Derek. He, of course, was planning to work at Grey and Webber. Richard was pleased, but he also encouraged him to apply for the big law firms since Derek had so much potential. However, Derek insisted on joining his godfather at his law firm.

After arriving at her destination, she parked the car across the street and carefully walked across the slick road. She really wished her mother had arranged the party for a night where the weather didn't call for sleet and ice, but Ellis wanted to do it before Derek and Addison had to return to school.

Meredith was able to reach the front porch without falling. She rang the doorbell and waited patiently until someone could answer. The door finally opened and she gave a wide smile to Richard. "Meredith, it's great to see you," he said as he kissed her on the cheek. "Come on in."

Walking into the foyer, Meredith couldn't help but notice the tons of decorations which had been put up. "Mom went overboard with the decorations again," she noted as Richard helped her take her coat off.

"You know your mother. She always wants to make sure everything is perfect," Richard replied as he went to take her coat to put it with the others. "I'm glad you were able to make it considering Lexie called and canceled at the last minute. She has been sick all day and she didn't feel up to attending the party."

Meredith felt sorry for her. At the same time, she wasn't happy she was going to have to deal with her mother all by herself. She noticed a lot of people had already arrived. She recognized some of the guests who were some of Derek's old friends from high school like his best friend Mark Sloan and Callie Torres. Meredith never really cared for Mark since he loved to hit on women and wasn't one who wanted commitment. However, Callie was a different story. She and Meredith had been friends when they were younger. They saw each other often since Callie also worked at the law firm as a desk clerk.

Seeing Meredith, Callie excused herself from who she was talking to and walked over to her. "Meredith, did you just get here?" she asked. Meredith nodded. "So you haven't met the fiancée yet. I haven't either since your mom has been showing her off to all of Derek's future coworkers, but she hasn't come my way yet. And knowing how your mother is, we might have to go over to her."

"I'm really not interested in meeting Derek's fiancée," Meredith lied. The truth was that she wanted to meet her, but she was afraid of what his fiancée would think of her. "From what I've heard, she sounds a little too perfect."

Callie gave her a look. "Come on. You have to be a little curious. After all, she is going to be part of your family soon."

Meredith tried not to laugh. "If I'm lucky, I will only have to see her at birthdays and holidays. I'm surprised Richard even invited me to the engagement party when Derek and I aren't even that close anymore."

Meredith then heard a familiar voice, one that she hadn't heard in years. "Actually, I was the one who invited you." Meredith turned around to see Derek. Yet, it couldn't have been him. The guy she remembered was only eighteen years old and was ready to graduate from high school. Now she was looking into the eyes of a man, but she could tell it was the same person with the jet black hair and blue eyes that she had grown up with. She was brought back to reality as Derek spoke again, giving her a wide smile. "Hey, Meredith. It's great to see you again."

Meredith turned red from embarrassment as he embraced Callie in a tight hug. "Congratulations on your engagement," Callie told him. "You deserve it. I haven't met your future bride yet though. Ellis seems to be hogging her."

Derek laughed. "Yes, she can do that. Let me see if I can pry her away. I'll be right back." Meredith did her best not to show her nervousness as Derek returned with a woman whose red hair matched her red dress. She gave the fiancée a friendly smile as Derek did introductions. "Meredith, Callie, I would like you to meet my fiancée Addison Montgomery. Addison, this is Callie and my best friend Meredith." Meredith couldn't believe he still called her his best friend after so many years without contact and was happy he hadn't forgotten about her.

Addison gave her guests a smile. "It's very nice to meet you two. I've heard so much about you."

Meredith was surprised since she didn't hear those words very often. It was usually more directed to Lexie. Callie again congratulated them on their engagement and asked to see the ring. Addison proudly showed it off to them. Meredith had to admit it was a beautiful ring. "It was the same engagement ring my dad gave to my mom," Derek told his friends.

Meredith knew how much that meant to Derek to have his fiancée wear his dad's engagement ring. He had died when Derek was nine and his death was very hard on him. Losing his father at such a young age made him grow up quickly and he had to be the man of the house.

To her relief, Callie began to ask Addison questions and the two began a lively conversation while Meredith just listened quietly. She began to feel like a third wheel and decided to get out of there before Addison drew her attention towards her. The last thing she wanted was to talk about her life to her or anybody else. That wasn't a topic she liked talking about because it wasn't the best one.

Meredith excused herself and looked around at the other guests. Derek was in a deep conversation with Mark and his other friends and she didn't want to interrupt him. Instead, she decided to head out before anyone noticed. She wouldn't be surprised if nobody would since everyone was busy chatting with the other guests.

Before she could grab her coat, Richard spotted her and hurried over to her. "Meredith, you weren't leaving just now, were you?" Meredith didn't answer as Richard looked disappointed. "You just got here. And I want to get some pictures of you and Derek before he has to return to New York. And I don't think you have seen your mother yet."

"No, she seems to be pretty busy with the other guests," Meredith admitted. "And I'm not really in a party mood. I thought I would be able to handle it, but I don't belong here."

Richard gave her a look. "That's not true." Meredith wasn't convinced. "Look, I know you don't know most of these people, but remember who asked you to be here."

Meredith couldn't believe he was playing the friend card so early, but she was just about to leave. She let out a heavy sigh before she gave him her answer. "Okay, I'll stay a little longer, but I'm only doing it for Derek. Now could you tell me where my mother is?"

Richard looked around at the party guests, but his wife had disappeared into the crowd. "I think she might be in the kitchen, checking on the food."

Meredith made her way through the crowd and entered the kitchen. Sure enough, her mother was discussing the food with one of the caterers. However, she stopped in the middle of the conversation when she saw her daughter. Meredith knew what was coming as her mother gave her a disapproving look. "What are you wearing?"

Meredith frowned. "I'm wearing a dress, just like you asked."

"Black is not an appropriate color to wear for an engagement party," Ellis informed her. "It's still early. I suggest you go home and change into something more cheerful."

"Have you seen the weather out there?" Meredith asked. "I'm not going to be able to make it back to my apartment, let alone across the street to my car. Besides, I don't have any other dresses to wear. This is the only dress I have."

"I think she looks beautiful," Derek complimented her as he entered the kitchen. "Ellis, it looks like everyone is here and we would like to make a toast. We wouldn't want to start without you and Meredith."

"Very well," Ellis replied as she finished with the caterers. She walked out of the kitchen. Derek and Meredith were right behind her. Ellis made her way over to her husband. Meredith stood next to Callie and grabbed a glass of wine from one of the trays while Derek found his fiancée. He cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention and their guests turned his way, ready to listen to what the guest of honor wanted to say.

Derek gave them a wide smile as he wrapped his arms around his fiancée. "First off, Addison and I would like to thank you all for coming. It means a lot for us to know how much love and support we have here. Especially from Richard and Ellis." Richard and Ellis smiled proudly at their godson and his new fiancée. "Thank you all for what you have done for me. I hope I can make you guys proud."

"You already have," Richard assured him as he gave him a smile. He raised his glass up high. "To Derek and Addison."

"To Derek and Addison," the guests cheered in unison before they took a sip of their drinks. Meredith looked at Derek and his fiancée and saw how happy he was with her. He was truly in love with Addison and Meredith knew if she wanted to reconnect with Derek, she would have to accept Addison as his wife. Despite her quick judgement about the redhead, she was willing to give her a chance for Derek.