Hi y'all! This is the fixed version of chapter 2! If you already read chapter 2 I'm sorry and chapter 3 will be up very soon! theunnamedconspirator and my friend helped with a few things to help me make the story better! hope you enjoy the fixed version and hopefully it sounds better than the first one!
"What are you doing here?" she asked wide eyed.
"I came to see you." he answered.
"You can't be here." Meredith whispered, as she stepped outside into cool spring air. She closed the door behind her.
"Meredith, we need to talk, you can't keep avoiding this."
"Alex, no! We are not going to talk about this! The kids will be devastated! They love you so much. You have always been there for them!" A single tear rolled down Meredith's face. "You've always been there for me too! Especially since Cristina left, and Derek died." More tears were streaming down her cheeks. "You are the one who convinced me to to come back to Seattle after I had Ellis. You were there for me after I got attacked by that patient. The point is, Alex, I can't do this without you. You can't leave. You are ALL I have left." Meredith was crying now and Alex pulled her into a hug.
Back in the kitchen, Zola and Bailey were still talking and Ellis was keeping to herself. Unlike Ellis, Zola and Bailey were much closer as siblings than they were to Ellis. Ellis tried to join in when she was younger, but because she was always "too little" to understand they wouldn't let her be apart of their conversation.
Ellis stood up and walked over to the front door wondering where her mother was at. It doesn't take five minutes to pay the pizza man. She thought to herself.
As she was walking over there she noticed the door was closed. She peered around the staircase and looked out the window of the front door. It was her Uncle Alex. He was hugging her mom. She watched as her mother let go and he wiped her face. She must be crying. I wonder why? Ellis continued to watch them as their conversation seemed to grow more deep. She watched her mother break down into tears and crying on his shoulder to hitting him multiple times on the chest.
After several minutes Ellis couldn't take it anymore. She walked over to the front door and opened it. There were tears in the young girl's eyes.
Alex looked at her.
"Ellis?" He questioned.
"What is going on?" She asked.
"Nothing Ellis, go ahead and go back inside."
"No…" Ellis hesitated, "Something is going on. Why is mom crying and hitting you?"
Alex and Meredith exchanged a glance. "How much have you seen?" He asked her, as Meredith continued to face Alex, refusing to look at her daughter. She hated having her children see her like this.
"A lot…" Ellis wiped more tears off of her face. She loved her mom so much and her uncle she couldn't stand to see them fight.
"Might as well get it over with now…" Meredith whispered so quietly it was almost in audible. "Let's go inside."
The three of them entered the front door and walked back to the kitchen.
"Hey Alex I didn't know you were coming for dinner." Zola smiled.
"I didn't come for dinner, but if it is okay with your mother I will stay." Alex looked over at Meredith and she nodded her head. "I'm here because I need to talk to you guys about something." All three of the Shepherd children took a seat at the table. They could tell by the tone of his voice that this was very important. Then the doorbell rang again for the second time that night. Meredith quickly hurried out the kitchen and went to get the door. Back in the kitchen, Alex was trying to figure out a way the to tell them his big news.
"Well kids, I got a job offer to work on a project for stem cell research for babies and children."
"That's amazing! I'm so proud of you!" Zola beamed and stood up. She walked over to Alex and gave him a hug.
"The thing is...it is not located in Seattle. The project is over at Mass Gen. I am moving to Massachusetts."
"When do you leave?" Bailey inquired.
"My plane leaves tomorrow morning."
When Alex said those words Ellis' eyes started tear up.
"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you guys earlier."
"It's okay we understand. Our dad did that when he went to D.C. for his brain mapping project and mom and his relationship worked out fine." Zola chimed in.
"Oh yeah... dad..." Bailey sighed. "I miss him so much."
Ellis stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "YOU MISS HIM? I NEVER GOT TO MEET HIM!" She screamed and stormed out of the kitchen and ran up to her room. Ellis slammed the door shut. Alex was the closest thing she had to a dad so this just reminded her that her only male role model in her life was now going to be gone.
Meredith just got back inside the house with the pizza when she heard Ellis's door slam. She headed to the kitchen.
"I guess she didn't take the news too well?" Meredith inquired.
"Not at all…" Alex shook his head trying to keep Derek out of the conversation. He knows how sensitive Meredith get's when someone talks about her dead husband.
"You will still come visit right?" Zola asked.
"Of course, and we can skype too and maybe your mom with take
you guys to come see me!"
"That would be fun." Zola smiled.
As soon as dinner was finished and all cleaned up Meredith headed up stairs to go see Ellis and give her her dinner and make sure she was okay. Meredith closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. Ellis didn't say anything so she went ahead and slowly opened the door to her room. Ellis was laying on her bed facing away from the door. Meredith went and sat down on her bed next to her.
"Ellis, honey, I know Alex leaving is hard on you since he's always been there for you when I couldn't be, but this is a really good opportunity for him." Meredith tried to smile.
"Who is going to be there for me now mom?" Ellis questioned.
Meredith could tell that she had been crying by the shaking in Ellis' voice.
"Alex was there when all the kids made fun of me because I don't have a dad. He stood up for me, and he even missed out on a date with Jo to take to me the daddy daughter dance."
"I know Ellis, I am sorry." She kept trying to smile but a single tear still rolled down Meredith's face. Ellis sat up and turned toward her mother.
"I just don't know what I am going to do without him…" Ellis cried.
"We will get through this…" Meredith nodded through her tears. She grabbed her daughter and pulled her into a hug.
Downstairs, Bailey and Zola were still questioning Alex.
"So where will you be living?" Bailey asked.
"I will be living in an apartment just outside Boston."
"Are we just going to ignore what happened with Ellis?" Zola interrupted.
"Ellis does this all the time. She cries every time you mention dad and mom does the same thing. Why do you think she never got remarried?" Bailey countered at Zola.
"True…but something else is up with her." She said back
"What do you mean?"
"Today, when she was in the bathtub I was trying to talk to her and ask what she wanted for dinner and she didn't answer me, until I came into the bathroom."
Bailey's mouth dropped open. "The same thing happened to me last week!"
"Seriously!? I knew something was up." Zola shook her head."We should probably let mom know later just in case this is something serious..."
"Yeah we need to."
"What's going on with Ellis?" Alex asked.
The two explained what happened with Ellis to Alex, while upstairs Meredith was comforting her youngest child.
"Ellis look at me…" Meredith whispered. Ellis looked up at her mother. "It's going to be okay I promise. " she gently wiped away her daughter's tears off of her face. "I have to go say goodbye to Alex. If you need me I will be downstairs." Ellis nodded her head. Meredith got up off her daughter's bed and went back downstairs.
"Kids, say goodbye to Alex he has a long day tomorrow." Meredith said.
"Bye Alex, have a safe trip. You are going to be amazing at your new job!" Zola gave him a hug.
"Thank you Zola." Alex smiled.
"Have a safe flight. We'll talk soon." Bailey added.
"Yes we will Bailey. I am going to go say bye to Ellis now. I will call you guys as soon as I land!"
"Thanks Alex." Meredith said.
Alex headed up the stairs and knocked on Ellis' door and slowly opened it.
"Hey...I have to get going now…" He walked over to edge of her bed and sat on it. She sat up and looked him in the eye.
"You are breaking a promise! You never break promises!" Ellis barked.
"I'm so sorry Ellis...this job is really important to me, and someone else can take over for me. It's just a ceremony...It's not like I'm your dad, or your actual uncle." As soon as he said those words he regretted it.
"I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE MY DAD! I WANT MY ACTUAL DAD! But I can't have him can I? OH AND YOU ARE NOT MY UNCLE NOW? Maybe, I shouldn't have invited you to be my sponsor. Maybe I shouldn't brag about you at school and tell everyone I have the coolest uncle in the world!" Ellis threw her hands up into the air. "But forget it now! You are leaving! I just wanted you there because you helped me, and pushed me to do good in school so I could get into the school's future doctor program! You know how hard it is to get into that program? I am only going to be a sophomore! Most people who are accepted are going into their junior year! Also, they only accepted 15 kids this year! So this is just not another ceremony! And who is going to support me now? I have no one!"
"Your mother! Ellis you need to grow up a little bit! You don't need me for everything!"
"MY MOTHER? MY MOTHER? You honestly think she's going to push me? I don't think so."
Alex couldn't take it anymore. "ELLIS!"
"LEAVE, BYE, ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE AWAY FROM ME! YOUR ANNOYING PRETEND NIECE! No wonder mom was hitting you! You know she thinks of you as a brother? A actual one! Not a pretend one! I bet you think of her as a pretend sister!" She buried herself in her pillow.
"Ellis I-" He tried to say.
"LEAVE MY ROOM NOW" Alex got up off of her bed,
"I didn't mean it like that…"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU MEANT ALEX!" At that moment Alex knew he had hurt Ellis. She never just called him by his first name.
"When you're ready to talk call me...Just remember I will always be here…" He sighed as he left the room and closed the door.
Ellis quickly grabbed a glass object off of her desk and threw it at door. It hit the door with a clashing sound and it shattered into a million tiny pieces. She knew Meredith wasn't going to be happy about that. It only made her more upset. She screamed "I HATE YOU!"
Thank y'all so much for reading and hope you liked this version better than the first one! Please leave a review for your comments, suggestions, or anything that needs to be fixed!
-Lucie