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I know it's been a REALLY long time but I have finally updated. I have another chapter written and ready to go that I hope to post in the next couple days. Please let me know if you're still interested and want me to continue. I hope to be more regular in my postings.

I'm barely awake and can feel someone staring at me. I'm not quite ready to open my eyes, so I lean further into Alex's warm embrace behind me. After a few minutes, I can't take the staring anymore, so I open my eyes and see a little blonde boy in Hulk pajamas looking at me.

"Good morning, Bailey." I say to him groggily.

"Hi, Elnor. " The little boy giggles back. "Why are you in Uncle Alex's bed?"

Uh oh. "Well, you see, Bailey, I stayed a little too late last night and instead of going all the way home, Uncle Alex said I could sleep in his bed."

"With him?"

Damn, when did kids get so smart? "Uh, yeah. You know like a sleepover."

"Oh, ok. Do you know how to make waffles?"

I breathe a sigh of relief at how quickly kids can change their thoughts. "I do." I tell him as I get out of bed. I grab his little hand, "Let's go make some for everyone."

With one last glance at sleeping Alex, Bailey and I go down to the kitchen and start making the waffles.

"Should we add chocolate chips to some of them, Bailey?"

"Yeah, Elnor!"

I laugh and turn towards a cupboard and hear footsteps coming down the stairwell. I turn around and see Carolyn paused in the doorway with wide eyes.

"Grandma!" Bailey cheers.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Eleanor, hello." She faintly smiles at me. I just stare at her, wondering how she has the audacity to greet me, much less smile at me. "How did you sleep?" Carolyn turns her attention back to Bailey.

"Good. Me and Elnor are making waffles." Bailey gestures to all of the ingredients on the counter and the few already made waffles. "Elnor said we can add chocolate chips to them."

"Well, they certainly look delicious. Perhaps I could make some eggs and bacon?"

"Yeah, make some eggs, Grandma."

Carolyn has her attention on me though.

"Sure, Carolyn, that would be great." I sigh, regardless of how I feel, I'm reminded of Bailey's presence and we have to keep up the whole I'm not your long-lost older sister who your grandmother knew about long before your existence act.

Carolyn finished the eggs and bacon as I finish the waffles and Bailey gets out the orange juice. Surprisingly, everyone is still asleep, so I send Bailey upstairs to get everyone up.

"So, last night was something, huh?" Carolyn says to me.

"I'm not really up for small talk, Grandma." I snip back.

"Listen, I know I made a mistake, but I think now we can at least try to get to know each other, Eleanor."

"You know who I wanted to get to know? My dad. But guess what, that won't ever happen."

"I know, Eleanor. But with me, Amelia and Meredith, you can get to know him through us. It's the only way now. Plus you have three other aunts and a ton of cousins that knew him and can share their memories of him with you."

"Oh, are you going to tell them about me? You did such a good job at letting my dad know."

"What's your daddy's name?" A small voice breaks the argument between Carolyn and me.

I turn and see Zola standing there holding Meredith's hand. Ellis is up on Alex's hip with Bailey dancing around him.

"Um, Zola my stepdad's name is John."

"Does Grandma know him?"

"She doesn't, sweetie. Look at all the waffles Bailey and I made. Are you hungry?"

Once her attention is on the breakfast, I make eye contact with Meredith and then Alex. The air that was once thick with tension is slowly starting to break and we all eat breakfast.

Meredith and Carolyn clean up and Alex and go outside to watch the kids play.

"So, are you feeling any better?" Alex asks as he plays with my hand.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Things got a little rough with Carolyn this morning and then with Zola, I'm just glad I could distract her."

"Yeah, sometimes she's like a dog with a bone. Once she knows a little bit, she wants to know everything. She's also a little too smart with her own good."

"I just keep thinking about my mom and how different things would have been if Derek would have known. I also keep thinking about why my mom and him broke up and why she waited to tell him about me until after I was born. There's just so much that I never asked her and I really didn't care about the answers until now."

"Ella, maybe you should give her a call and ask her all your questions. Does she know why you wanted to come out to Seattle? Does she even know about you researching Derek?"

"No. I just told her that Grey-Sloan was one of the best teaching hospitals in the country, which it is, but I never told her about Derek. She doesn't know about all the research and she certainly doesn't know about finding an aunt and grandmother, let alone the stepmother and siblings."

"Does she know about me?" I look over at him and he has the cutest smirk on his face and I can't help but to lean over and kiss it off him.

"No, she doesn't know about you either. You still have a date to Joe's to take me out on, you know?"

"Oh, I know, trust me I haven't forgotten."

"Well, good, because I'm still waiting."

"Listen, why don't you go up to my room and call your mom, ask her all your questions. After you get done talking to her, I'll take you to Joe's."

"You really think that now is a good time to talk to her and tell her everything? With Meredith, Carolyn, and the kids here?" I ask, hoping he'll say no, so I can put off that phone call.

"Yeah, I think the sooner you do it the better. And if you do it now, you won't be alone when you get off the phone."

"Ok." I sigh and stand up. As I move towards the door to go back into the house, Alex grabs my hand.

"Hey, Eleanor? Take your time, it'll be alright. I'll be right here and as soon as you get off the phone, we'll go to Joe's if you're up to it, and if not, we'll eat ice cream and watch a movie, ok?"

"Thanks, Alex. I'm pretty sure I'll be up to for a drink after a phone call with my mother, regardless of what we talk about."

We both chuckle and I go into the house and up the stairs to Alex's room. I sit on the bed and my thumb hovers over Mom on my phone. All I have to do is hit the button and it'll dial. That's all. Finally, I do it and put the phone up to my ear. It rings a couple of times.

"Hello?"

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