In Which Addison Learns the Truth about Family

"Good morning," a voice belonging to none other than my MerBear says to me.

I look up from my cell phone and I smile giving her a kiss, "You going into surgery or coming out?"

"Coming out," she says to me before my pager beeps again.

I frown, "I gotta run, I got a transfer in from Mercy West. Will you wait for me to go home?"

"Yeah," she smiles going onto the elevator as I run down the hallway.

Dr. O'Malley is in my patient's room along with her mother, I'm assuming, when I enter. He smiles up to me, "Molly Thompson, 22 years old, 32 weeks pregnant. Transferred here from Mercy West when an ultrasound diagnosed the baby with congenital diaphragmatic hernia."

"Hello, Molly. I'm Dr. Addison Montgomery," I say after nodding to George.

Molly chuckles nervously, "You're supposed to be the best."

"And not to put any pressure on you, or anything, but this is my baby carrying my grandchild so I really hope that you are… The best, I mean," the older woman says.

Molly looks at her apprehensively, "Mom, you're kind of threatening the doctor. Don't threaten the doctor. It doesn't help."

"Sorry. My husband tells me I have to try not to be such a mother lion because Molly's a grown woman and has her own life and everything, but… roar," she replies.

I just laugh to myself, "It's ok. I can take it. I am the best."

"You can fix this, though?" Molly looks to me with pleading eyes, "Right?"

"We'll insert a scope into your uterus and then inflate a little balloon in the baby's airway, which should help stimulate the lungs to grow. It's not going to be easy on either of you… but I do have a strong record with this surgery," I say with a smile before signaling George to follow me out of the room, "Make sure you get her to the MRI and get me the results as soon as you can."

"I will," he nods then goes back into the room.

When I walk out, I find Meredith at the Nurses' Station and I smile, "Hey, Bear. I don't think I'll be ready to leave for another couple of hours."

"Yeah, I figured… I was thinking about catching a nap in one of the on-call rooms," she says wrapping her arms around me.

Izzie walks over to us already gossiping before she even gets over, "Cristina told me that George had a date with Ortho chick… games night. She didn't even take him home afterwards. She hinted that she wanted to and then she said she couldn't. That's weird, right?"

"I don't know," Meredith shrugs. I don't know why Izzie is so concerned anyway. I thought she and Alex were a thing, "I guess."

"Think Ortho chick is hiding something? She could be hiding something," Izzie says just as Dr. Torres walks up.

"Stevens. Hold this," she throws a tool at Izzie, "George mentioned you're not big on ortho. Grey? Take the osteotome and the mallet," she hands tools to Meredith as well, "Follow me."

They follow Dr. Torres through the hall but before they completely disappear Meredith turns looking at me with pleading eyes and I just smile shaking my head. I decide to go see if Molly's already been taken up for her MRI scans and there is a man standing near the door of Molly's room.

"Sir? Can I help you find something?" I walk up to him.

The man shifts on his feet nervously, "Uh… is there a Dr. Meredith Grey working today?"

"Yes," I say simply not sure if I should've said that.

The man's eyes light up for a second then he's nervous again, "She's here in the hospital, right now?"

"I can have someone page her for you, if you want me to," I say cautiously. He looks familiar… He almost looks like Meredith.

"No. No. Thanks," he says about to walk off.

I stop him finally realizing how I know him, "Wait! Excuse me, sir. Are you… what's your name?"

"Thatcher," he says.

I'm shocked. I remember seeing his silhouette that night when Meredith had me take her to his place, "You're…"

"Grey," he shifts on his feet again, "Yeah."

"You're Meredith's father," I say kind of dumbfounded.

Thatcher nods, "Yeah."

"Are you sure you don't want me to page her for you?" I ask again. I don't even know if Meredith wants to see him.

He shakes his head, "No. I'm sorry. It's complicated."

Molly's mother comes out of the room and calls over to us, "Thatcher, honey? We're right here."

"Oh. Oh. There you are, Susan," he replies and that's when I realize just how complicated things are.

Susan walks over to us and smiles, "Did you tell him? I roared a little… couldn't help it."

"Oh. Oh, well, I knew you would. Uh…" he looks to me.

I shake my head to get that dumb look off my face so I can shake his hand, "I'm sorry, I'm Dr. Montgomery. I'm, uh…"

"Uh, well, excuse us. Uh… check on our daughter," he says walking away.

I'm literally about to have a mental freak out when I pass George in the hall, "Do you have Molly's MRI results?"

"No, I haven't. Not yet," he says but he looks conflicted.

I don't mean to but I snap, "What the hell have you been doing then?"

"I was just going…" he manages to get out before I cut him off.

I roll my eyes, "When I assign you to a case of mine I expect you to give it your full and undivided attention. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't take you off this case."

"Molly Thompson's maiden name is Grey. Her father is Thatcher Grey. Thatcher Grey is also Meredith's father. Which means that, Molly and Meredith are sisters, but I don't think Meredith even knows Molly exists. That…," he pauses, "I don't care. I don't, except I'm on this case and apparently God hates me."

"Ok," I say simply realizing he's just as torn as I am at the moment.

George nods then runs off, "Ok, thanks."

I have to find Meredith. I have to tell her. I look at my watch and I see it's time that she meets up for lunch with her friends so I head to the cafeteria. While walking up, I hear Cristina start about who's going to be the one to break the news and I try to cut her off.

I call out, "Mer…"

"The weird thing is," she acknowledges me but she looks so dazed, "I thought I just saw my father."

"Ok. That's good," Izzie says, "That's so good."

"Hmm, did you meet your sister too?" Cristina says taking a bit out of her sandwich.

Meredith turns to look at me and looks like all the blood has been drained out of her face, "I was just coming to tell you."

"So I'm gonna do the surgery with a small scope. It will be minimally invasive. And then you should be able to do the rest of your recovery from home," I say to Molly as I explain the procedure to her. I look over to see Meredith walk by peeking in… She walked up to the room with me after lunch but has been too afraid to enter…

Molly smiles up at me, "Thank you. Yeah, Ok."

"Uh…" I start seeing Meredith in the hall again and I nod to her to enter, "Uh, Molly, this is Dr… uh… This is Meredith. She's going to be… continuing your prep work and taking your vitals, ok?"

"Ok," she nods as I step away and Meredith walks up to her side.

Meredith starts prepping to take her vitals and I pretend to go over her chart when really I'm just listening in. Meredith finally speaks up, "Hi."

"Hey," Molly answers nonchalantly.

Meredith moves a little closer with her tools, "Uh, do you mind if I, um…?"

"No, it's fine."

"Ok."

"I'm getting used to being poked and prodded," Molly shrugs.

Meredith pauses looking for something to say, "That's, uh, a pretty ring."

"Oh, thanks. It was my grandma's and then my mom's… You think I'm too young to be married," Molly says looking up at her finally.

Meredith shakes her head, "No, I…"

"That's ok," Molly cuts her off, "Everybody thinks I'm too young. If I saw me, I'd think I was too young."

"Um," Meredith asks after a pause, "how… how old are you?"

"Twenty-two. Eric's twenty-three. And he's in the army and he was getting shipped out. And… I just love him so much, you know? Anyway, I proposed," Molly chuckles to herself.

Meredith nods then asks, "Oh. And your, uh, parents? They approve?"

"Oh. Oh, my parents are amazing. You know how dads can be. Mine's pretty overprotective. But… you know, at my wedding, when he gave me away, my dad cried, which was… I had never seen my dad cry before. But I think it was also kind of weird for him 'cause I'm his little girl. You know, I'm the youngest, and my sister's like nowhere near ready for marriage. But… it was good crying. Like… he was proud of me, you know? I'm sorry. I'm just nervous, so I'm talking," she finally stops talking.

Meredith shakes her head as she finishes up with her vitals, "No, that's ok. So you have a sister?"

"Yeah, Lexie. She's in medical school. Harvard. She's the smart one. You should see how my dad is about her. He's like crazy proud," I can clearly see this bothered Meredith. Her whole demeanor has changed.

It's silent for a moment but when she does speaks up, it's just to exit, "Well, I'm going to go."

"Meredith?" Molly stops her.

Meredith turns on her feet, "Hmm?"

"Do you think my baby's going to be ok?"

"Oh. Well, I hope so."

"Me too."

"Ok," is Meredith last word before she leaves.

Before I follow, I excuse myself from the room. I watch her storm off into a room, slamming the door behind her. I walk in after to see that Dr. Torres and Dr. Stevens are in here too. Meredith screams, "I need some bones to break."

"What?" Dr. Torres questions her.

Meredith repeats quickly, "Some bones to break; something to smash… Can you help me with that, please?"

"Um… you can clean up this cast crap if you want," she shrugs and Meredith starts pounding on the cast with a hammer. Dr. Torres turns to me, "Is she freaking out?"

"No. Uh-uh. She's fine," I say slightly sarcastic.

Meredith is still pounding away on the cast and Izzie smiles turning to Dr. Torres,"See she's great. So, George… he's really, really your type, huh?"

"You don't see him. Either of you. You don't see him. He's just… He's just George to you. He's… He's just O'Malley. Your roommate," Dr. Torres starts going off on Izzie and Meredith who isn't really listening just pounding on the cast. I step out of the way a little…

Izzie throws her hands up in defense, "You don't have to get all up-"

"He makes my world stop. George O'Malley is sweet and kind, and smart and strong. And he makes my world stop. So you shut up about him," she cuts Izzie off then turns to Meredith before leaving, "Don't forget to clean it up… when you're done smashing."

"Holy crap! George is her McDreamy," Izzie shouts.

I even have to comment on that one, "Oh."

Izzie leaves out of the room and I step a little closer to Meredith. I wish there was something that I could actually do to make her feel better. I wish she would stop pounding on the cast. I step up a little closer, "Meredith… Meredith! Meredith, stop!"

She stops in her tracks and just looks at me. I pull her into a hug. I didn't know what else to do. We stand there in the embrace for what feels like forever before we pull apart and I help her clean up.

Once we're finished, Meredith and I walk out of the room and down the hall. I tense up a little as we past Susan Grey but I shortly realized that Meredith doesn't know who she is. I almost thought I could get away with not having to explain this to her right now but with my luck, Susan gets up and approaches us.

"I saw a picture once from a long time ago, you look just like her," she starts and Meredith looks at her confused as she continues, "Your mother. You look a lot like my girls… especially Molly. You were talking to her?"

"I didn't say anything about anything," Meredith replies, I guess catching on to the fact that this woman is married to her father.

Susan shakes her head, "Oh, she knows about you… or she knows that her father was married before and had another daughter… has another daughter."

"No, had is right," Meredith corrects her.

The woman looks at her with sad eyes, "Your father thinks about you. He thinks about you a lot. He just… your mother… your mother… she broke him."

"Excuse me. I… I have to work," we both walk off in silence over to my office where Meredith freaks out a little more.

She turns to me with the saddest look on her face, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, love," I say hugging her again, "It's okay to not be okay. I'm sorry that this day sucks."

"I'm sorry too," she says then she gets paged running out. I walk out a little after and head downstairs trying to find something to do to keep my mind busy.

I'm walking through the halls when I see Meredith duck into a nearby room then Thatcher walks up to me. I realize that he is why Meredith is hiding. Thatcher smiles at me, "Oh, hey. Dr. Montgomery."

"Hi," I say simply.

He looks around before looking back at me, "I was looking for you. You're… Before when I was asking about Meredith, you know her. You're her friend?"

"I, uh, we're close friends…" I say knowing she probably doesn't want her father to know anything about her. I continue on jokily, "Practically live together."

"Oh, wow. You know her really well," he says.

I shrug, "I know her pretty well."

" Um, she… she came to see me a couple of weeks ago. And…" he trails off.

I try to help him continue, "A couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah. I… I didn't know what to say to her. She looks so much… so much like her mother. Ellis was cold. I mean, I was a coward. I was… I… I left. But her mother would never let me know her and… now I don't know how to know her," he looks down at his feet, "Uh…"

"Well, Meredith is anything but cold," I help him out a bit, "She smiles… not that often, but when she does, uh… you know, because she's been going through a lot… but… it's… it's like you feel warm. She's kind. I mean, she can be a little selfish. She can be… she's flawed, but she's kind. She cares about people. And, uh, she cares about… about her patients. I think she's going to be a brilliant surgeon. You know, around here, she's known as the one to beat. So, I… I mean, I guess she has that in common with her mom, but… I think the rest of her… I think, uh, I think the rest of that she gets from you."

"Hmm," he says a little more confidently, "Do… do you know… where she is?"

"I think she left already. But I could tell her you were here, if you want me to?" I say with a small smile.

Thatcher nods, "Yeah. Ok. Thank you."

"Ok," I nod.

He nods again, "Ok."

"Ok, bye," I end this because if I didn't it would've kept on.

Thatcher nods again, "Yeah."

We both walk off different directions. Meredith peeks out from her hiding spot and I envelope her in a hug. She smiles up at me, "Thank you, Addison."

"I have to go into Molly's surgery now. Are you coming?" I ask cautiously.

She shakes her head, "Nah, go ahead without me."

"Okay," I nod beginning to walk away, "come to my place after?"

"Sure thing," she smiles as we part ways.

I walk up to the OR floor, scrub in and walk into the OR to get prepped then I'm ready to start. I take a deep breath and I put up my hand, "Ten-blade."

The surgery was a breeze… When I finish, I look up to the gallery to see Meredith sitting up there and it makes me smile a bit; at least she's trying… She meets me in the scrub room. As I finish scrubbing out, I wrap my arm around her smiling.

"You ready to go?" I ask.

She nods handing me my coat and purse, "And I already got your things."

The next morning, we're at my house and I'm making breakfast while Meredith sits at the island. I wonder what's going on in her mind. She told me that she didn't want to talk about Thatcher or even Ellis for that matter and I'm little concerned for her. I just want to make sure she's okay.

I watch as she watches me cook and I smile at her causing her to speak up, "So, uh, I don't cook."

"Nobody asked you to cook," I say flipping a pancake onto her plate. I can't cook either so I'm glad I didn't burn this pancake.

Meredith replies in defense, "I know, I'm just saying that, you know, I don't cook, so you don't have to cook. I don't expect you to cook for me."

"Ok. You. Sit there. Sit down," I pause pouring some more pancake mix into the pan and handing her some orange juice, "I want you to drink this and try really hard to act like you aren't scary and damaged."

"I'm not scary and damaged," she says in self-defense.

I chuckle, "Yeah, you are."

"No," she shakes her head, "I'm not scary nor damaged."

"Mm-hmm," I pause, "All right. Why don't you tell me more about your family?"

"Ok, me not wanting to talk about my family does not make me scary or damaged," she says in response.

I smirk, "Ok. Tell me about the last guy you slept with."

"Addie…" she pleads…

I walk around the kitchen putting the rest of her food on her plate before putting it down on the counter before her, "Just proving my point."

I'm walking around my floor and I notice that Dr. Karev isn't up here rounding on my patients. It's hard to find good help nowadays… Izzie has gone a little mental about a patient she's taking care of and now I'm stuck with Alex Karev because he made this ridiculous comment about my specialty and I attend to make him suffer for it. He's now, as he calls it, Captain of the Vagina Squad.

I walk into the CT viewing room where I find Dr. Bailey and most of her interns… I wonder where Meredith is… but she isn't my victim. I smirk, "Dr. Karev, there you are. You're supposed to be up on OB/GYN rounding on my patients."

"Oh, yeah, I got paged. 911… pregnant mom… car accident… very serious," he says sarcastically.

This only infuriates me more. I smirk, "Pity. I've got three surgeries on the board. I was gonna ask you to scrub in, but I guess you should stay by that pregnant lady's side all day. You see to it, Dr. Bailey?"

"Karev, go find your patient," Miranda orders then looks to Izzie, "Stevens, scrub in on Noah's patella fracture."

"Satan just walks in here and pulls me off surgery?" Alex asks Dr. Bailey.

As I walk away, I hear her reply, "You burn Satan, she burns back. Go."

I run into Meredith on my way back to my office. She seems okay but I know for a fact that she is faking it. She was so torn yesterday and today she has nothing to say? That doesn't just happen. I was intending to talk more but I get paged to the OR.

When I go to scrub in, I'm informed that a family got hit by an SUV. We're operating on their pregnant, twenty-two year old daughter. When they brought her in, they didn't notice the extent of her injuries, which are catastrophic, because her shock concealed them… but once she relaxed, her body stopped producing adrenaline and she had to be rushed into surgery. Dr. Bailey, Dr. Burke, Dr. Saroyan and the Chief are all in here… She needs a splenectomy and lung resection. I'm here just to make sure that nothing happens to the baby.

When I walk into the OR, I have my intern sit down at the baby monitor with me as we watch the others perform. Alex gets up to look closer and I frown, "Karev, sit down."

"I can't see," he says sitting down next to me.

I roll my eyes standing up, "The only thing I want you to do is sit at that fetal monitor and watch that baby's heartbeat."

"So now I'm a babysitter?" he asks and I ignore him.

Richard calls out, "Addison, we're ready for you."

"Uterus is protected," I say looking at the scans then I turn to Alex, "Baby's heartbeat?"

"146," he responds.

I nod, "Ok, baby's safe. You can proceed with the mother."

"Lungs are damaged pretty badly," Dr. Bailey announces.

Someone calls out, "Pressure just bottomed out."

"Let's transfuse," Richard says.

Everyone starts moving around him. Dr. Bailey speaks up, "Four quadrant packing. Come on, people, get me some lap pads."

"Cross clamp the aorta," Richard instructs.

"Clamp," Dr. Burke clamps it then looks up, "Got it."

"There's too much bleeding, she'll never last," Richard looks around the room, "Saroyan?"

"Damage control," she answers.

Richard nods then looks to me, "Addison?"

"If you want the baby to live, damage control," I say… I hate damage control.

Richard nods again then looks to Preston, "Burke?"

"Damage control," he agrees.

Richard looks around the room then announces, "Everyone knows the rules. We're gonna move as rapidly as possible. Don't worry about finishing repairs. For now we're on crisis management people, just get it done. Once she reaches the triangle, we stop. No exceptions."

"Why's he talking about triangle?" Karev asks. When no one answers, he asks again, "What triangle?"

"Blood stops clotting, her muscles produce acid and her organs get cold," Cristina, the other intern in the room finally answers.

Alex seems to be finally getting it now, "You're talking about the triangle of death?"

It's quiet for a moment while we rush to get everything done. Someone finally calls out, "Systolic's 82, folks. Not getting any better."

"How's the spleen, Chief?" Dr. Bailey asks.

Richard shakes his head, "Unsalvageable, I'm afraid."

"Karev!" I shout waiting for an answer.

Alex shakes his head, "Frequent decels and loss of variability."

"The baby's fading," I announce.

Another doctor adds, "PH is down 7.1. Core temp 93 degrees."

"Ok, we've reached the triangle, people. Hands out," Richard proclaims.

Dr. Bailey pulls her hands out, "Still oozing."

"We're not trying for perfection people," Richard says as Preston pulls out.

Dr. Saroyan continues, "Just give me a second."

"Hands out! Damn it, stop! Everybody stop!" Richard shouts.

Everyone pulls out except Cristina until Dr. Burke intervenes, "Cristina, let it go."

"Slow. Erratic… but it's a heartbeat," Dr. Bailey declares.

I watch the monitors for a second before reporting, "Baby's holding steady."

"Bring out the plastic," Dr. Burke orders.

Cristina questions, "Plastic? We're not going to close?"

"No," Dr. Bailey answers, "We're going to keep her open, cover her with plastic, and get her to the ICU."

"And then what?" Dr. Karev asks.

Richard answers this time, "And then we're gonna see if she survives."

Dr. Bailey, our interns and I are in Melanie's, the patient, ICU room. Dr. Bailey is trying to explain to her parents what we've done but I'm not sure if it's actually making sense to them. She tries again, "We've given her medications to help her blood clot and to help counteract the acid buildup. We're slowly raising her body temperature with warming blankets, warmed IV fluids, and blood products."

"How long is she going to have to be like that?" Jim, the father asks, "You know, with… open like that?"

"We want her to regain as much strength as possible before we operate again… but at the same time, we want to repair the damage as soon as possible… so it's a balancing act," I try to explain.

Millie, the mother, speaks up, "I'm sorry. I don't quite know what you mean."

"Melanie will die if we don't get her back to surgery soon enough and Melanie will die if we take her back to surgery too soon," Dr. Bailey says as simple as possible.

Millie nods slowly, "A balancing act."

"A balancing act," I conclude.

Dr. Bailey and I walk out of the room and Cristina follows, "Uh, Yang, call me if she starts actively bleeding."

"Ok," she nods as Dr. Karev walks out past her.

I stop him. "Karev, where are you going?"

"What? She's in ICU. There's nothing I can do," he shrugs.

I roll my eyes, "You can sit there with her and watch that fetal monitor."

"You can't be serious," he scoffs, "She's circling the drain."

"You know how long a baby can survive inside its dead mother," I ask rhetorically, "Four to five minutes. Minutes not seconds, Karev. Look at Melanie. Look at her. Now look around. You see all the doctors and nurses, even her parents… Their sole job is to take care of Melanie. My job is to care of that baby. Now, I've got a surgery scheduled, so when I step foot on that elevator and leave, you are going to be the only person on this entire floor responsible for that baby. Do not let me down, Karev."

I'm almost finished with my surgery when I get a page from another OR. I can't answer it now because I'm literally inside of a patient like my arm is in her uterus. Minutes later, Dr. Karev bursts into my OR and says from behind his mask, "Melanie's crashing."

"It's right there," I say referring to what my arm is touching inside a patient's body.

This obviously irks his nerves because he yells, "You hear me? She's crashing!"

"I'm elbow deep in a patient's uterus, Karev," I say with a huff, "What do you want me to do? Leave this woman and her child to die."

"I'm doing my job," he rebuts.

I roll my eyes, "And I'm doing mine… Do what you can, I'll be there as soon as I'm done. Ok, people, let's speed it up."

Alex leaves and a few minutes later, I'm scrubbing out as fast as I can and running into the next OR but I'm too late. I hear Richard announce, "Time of death, 19:48."

"Chief?" I look over at him distraught then I look over to see Alex with the baby and thank God it cries. The baby is okay.

I go back to my office to get ready to go home and I stop by the NICU on the way out. Noah, the husband, is in the NICU with his baby. I find Alex looking into the room when I walk up.

"Good work, Karev," I say to him actually meaning it for once.

Alex shrugs, "Yeah. Kid's alive. Without a mother."

"Addie, you ready?" Meredith walks up with her coat on.

I smile softly wrapping my arm around hers, "Let's go home."

We're back at my house and I get changed into my pajamas then get started on a quick dinner. I do all this meanwhile Meredith has been standing off to the side hovering since we left the hospital. I sigh then I look over to her, "You're driving me crazy with the hovering."

"This could be a mistake. This. Us," she says slowly approaching me, "You're a really nice person and… well… you… you don't want to get involved with me. If you really knew me…"

"Scary," I say cutting her off.

She cries out, "Addison…"

"And damaged. See? I told you," I smirk putting the pasta into the water to boil.

Meredith sighs, "If you really knew me? If you really knew my family? If I told you the guys that I've slept with lately? The scary and damaged me may actually be more than you can handle."

"I was born into a perfect family… well according to everyone else, I was living the dream; being born into a wealthy family with perfect parents… parents who were never around. When they were, it was for events so they could keep up their image as a perfect family… In reality, my parents never spoke to each other… Just argued… By the age of eight, I was mixing drinks for my father; shake up the gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, sugar and egg white in a cocktail shaker with a little ice and strain into a highball glass half-filled with ice cubes. Don't forget to top it up with soda water… Just how he likes it. By the age of ten, I was forced to deny my father's affair… with not only his secretary but three of our maids, four of my nannies, Jolene, my French tutor, and the chef. I had to pretend I was going on playdates with my father while he was really just having sex in his office. I hated my father for this forever until recently my mother tried to make things better by telling me it was her who cheated first, with a woman, but chose to stay married because she already had a family… She told me that my brother and I were the reason she didn't run off with the love of her life and finally be happy… Isn't that something? Anyway, I'm thinking that my luck is beginning to change because I've met you. And you laugh at my jokes although they're not funny at all, you eat my cooking which I'm sure is terrible, and you look at me like I'm the most amazing woman in the world… I never said I wasn't scary and damaged too," I finish and Meredith just kisses me.