Set three years after Derek died... Amelia sees Meredith slowly falling in love again...
Falling in love again
Amelia was currently scrubbing out after she finished her part of a surgery on a 23-year-old woman with severe internal bleedings both in the abdomen and in the brain. She had finished her part and now Meredith and DeLuca could take over completely to get the rest of the bleedings under control.
As she was getting rid of the OR scrubs and took off her scrub cap, she saw her sister and DeLuca, the resident on her service, talking. It was a pretty quiet surgery until then, but now where the most severe parts were under control, the atmosphere was getting a bit more relaxed.
She saw her sister smiling openly through the glass that was separating the scrub room from the OR. Amelia stood there a moment observing her. Meredith seemed happy; she was probably happy with the result. But the more she thought about it; it was the first time she saw Meredith smiling that genuine and happy in a long time, and if she was completely honest, it was the first time in almost three years that she saw her like this. Ever since Meredith's husband, her brother, died.
Of course, she had seen her sister smiling when she was with her kids or when they had their sisters night. But not like now. Not that relaxed and happy. Not with a man. Not with her eyes shining like this.
When did that happen? DeLuca? A resident?
But, if he was what made her happier again, than she would be happy for her sister.
DeLuca was saying something, Amelia couldn't make out, but it made Meredith laugh. Her sister was looking up at him on the other side of the operating table. Amelia could see the smile in Meredith's eyes. And it seemed like she wasn't even trying to hide it.
Amelia was dying to hear what they were saying in there.
Were they really flirting or just having a really good time together?
Either way, she was glad to see that smile on her sister again. But it was interesting nonetheless.
…
1 week later
Amelia just arrived at home or at Meredith's place, since Owen and her were in a weird place once again. She changed out of her clothes into something more comfortable. The house was quiet, the kids were probably already in bed, judging by a look at her phone. So, she decided to look for her sister, usually Meredith was still up at that time, enjoying the few minutes of having time for herself. She knew her sister loved her job, Meredith had worked more and more since Derek died. It was what had kept her going. Her job and even more so, her kids. And she knew that Meredith never really could skip out on these responsibilities, that she didn't want to. But she also knew that Meredith liked to have a few minutes to herself every day. Often Meredith stayed in her room, which indicated that she would like to be alone.
Since Amelia didn't see her downstairs when she came home, she decided to just quickly say "hello" to Meredith, and if her sister wanted some company later, she would come and let her know.
Amelia noticed that Meredith's door was ajar. She quickly made her way over there, trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake the kids again. Just as she was about to knock and enter, she noticed her sister looking at something. It was a frame. It took Amelia a moment to realize what it was. Their vows. Derek's and Meredith's vows on a post it note. A sad smile appeared on Amelia's face at the memory of her brother.
Meredith seemed to be deep in thoughts, not noticing her in the doorframe. Amelia saw how her sister held the frame in both her hands, her left thumb slightly stroking over it, before she was taking a deep breath, closing her eyes for a minute. Amelia knew how hard the death of Derek had hit her sister in law. Herself too. She missed her brother every day. She knew how hard it was for herself to try to move on. She pretended that it didn't hurt her in the beginning. But once she allowed herself to grief, she also started to heal. But with every step forward it felt like letting Derek go more and more. But she had realized that he will always be with her.
She hoped that Meredith could find a way to move on as well, at some point. Derek would want that for her. He would want her to be happy again. To not be alone.
He would be jealous, Amelia thought. But he would want happiness for her.
She decided to not go into the room, this was something Meredith had to figure out herself. No one could take the pain and loss away from her. And this seemed like an important moment to Meredith.
…
30 minutes later
Amelia heard someone coming downstairs. She was about to get up to bring whichever child was awake again back to sleep when she saw Meredith in the hallway.
"Hey. You okay?" She asked her sister. She could see the sadness in her eyes, could guess where it was coming from.
"Yeah. I think I am." Meredith offered her a small smile, sitting down on the other side of the couch.
The fact alone that her sister didn't utter her famous line 'I'm fine' meant that she wanted to talk about it. But even more so hat she wanted to try to move on. And that she felt like she would be okay.
"Its just hard" Meredith added after a moment.
"Derek?" She saw her sister looking up at her. She was waiting for a moment to give her time to find her thoughts to answer.
"DeLuca and I had this case today. Car accident… When we finished I – I felt like – I want to try to move on, but it's – it's hard."
"It is." Amelia laid her hand on Meredith's shoulder, squeezing it softly, trying to give a little comfort.
"I said goodbye to him." It was meant as a statement, but she could hear the slight insecurity coming through.
"How?" Amelia asked softly.
"Our vows." A small smile appeared on Meredith's face, before she continued "I put them down. I – I laid them in my closet." She paused for a moment. "I will always love him, but – I – I want to try to move on."
"Derek would want that, too." Amelia assured her.
"Thank you, Amelia."
They were sitting there for a moment, just being there for each other.
"How was your surgery with DeLuca?" Amelia was the first to speak after a few minutes.
"We saved the wife." Meredith gave an almost triumphant smile, before she continued "DeLuca is a good resident. He helped me a lot today."
Amelia smiled in return. She would love to ask more about DeLuca. She had seen them work together more often, and while she didn't suspect anything between them at first, she had seen the way they interact first hand last week when she had a surgery with them. But today was not the moment for her teasing and questions. This was hard enough for Meredith. And today was about her trying to move on from the person she loved most and then lost. Meredith would always love Derek, but Amelia hoped that she could find a way to get happy again in a world without him.
…
1 week later
Amelia and Meredith were standing at the nurse's station, discussing when they were getting home together and whose turn it was to make dinner. Just as they agreed on pizza and were about to part ways, Meredith turned around again.
"Ah, Amelia. Could I have DeLuca tomorrow? We worked on this case together and I don't have another resident who is up-to-date."
"You sure that's the only reason?" Amelia asked with a big smile on her face.
"Yeah. Why?" It seemed like Meredith didn't get her intention. And if she did, then she was good in hiding it.
"Just, you seem to get along very well." Amelia gave her a reassuring smile, trying to express that she was happy for her.
"I like working with him." Meredith looked at Amelia "And I could really use him as the resident on that case."
"Okay, you can have him." Just as Meredith was about to turn around Amelia added "But Mer, you know you're allowed to be happy again, right?" She asked genuinely, wanting to reassure her sister.
As Meredith walked away, Amelia asked herself if Meredith just didn't want anyone to know or if she didn't want to realize herself, how she was slowly opening up to Andrew. How she was slowly letting someone get closer to her again for the first time after Derek died.
Either way, she knew that Meredith would get there, she just needed time. And she was happy to give that to her. She just hoped that DeLuca would also be okay with giving her that time. But, whenever Amelia saw him, he seemed completely content and happy with just being in her presence for now.
…
1 week later
Amelia was at the nurse's station. She had brought back some charts when two certain people caught her attention. Meredith had just left an on-call room, followed by DeLuca. Amelia was shaking her head slightly, amused at the thought of them. She doubted that anything had happened, Meredith was just getting comfortable with the thought of trying to be with someone else again. There was no way more had happened in there.
But, really, Mer, how can you not notice what was going on?
Meredith clearly didn't end up in the same on-call room like her resident by accident. Amelia had already figured out that her sister liked the presence of that certain resident a bit more than what would be considered usual. The only thing was, Meredith seemed to not realize that she was on her way to falling for DeLuca.
The two of them stopped for a moment, looking down at their tablet, probably going over some patient charts or lab results that came back. When DeLuca looked up again, he had a wide smile on his face, he was slightly tilting his head, just looking at Meredith.
Amelia noticed Carina approaching her, or probably the nurse's station in general, but she couldn't help herself when the DeLuca sister stopped next to her.
"Do they really think we can't see them?" Amelia asked, still observing the two.
"Who?" Carina was irritated for a moment until she followed Amelia's nod in their siblings direction.
"I can't believe my stupid little brother doesn't even realize he is flirting with his lady boss." Carina answered disbelieving, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Lady boss? You do know she's my sister, right?" Amelia turned to Carina next to her, laughing slightly at the description.
"I'm sorry, but he tends to fall for women he can't have." Carina answered, sounding protective over her brother. And Amelia couldn't blame her for that, she would also always want the best for her sister. And she might have a point there; but Amelia also knew Meredith long enough now, to see that this could be more for her, too. That didn't mean that it would be easy, but Amelia had a feeling that this might go somewhere.
"Well, she likes him. And he seems like he…" Amelia's gaze went back to DeLuca, who was still looking at Meredith. Who by now had mirrored his expression, a smile on her face and her head tilted ever so slightly to the side.
"Like he would do anything for her." Carina finished for her, making her turn her head so she could look at her. "I have never seen him like this before." Carina confirmed a touch more serious than they were before.
"Okay, now we know. But do they know?" Amelia still couldn't believe that at least Meredith seemed to still not be aware of what was happening. Unless her sister was an amazing liar, which Amelia knew that she was not.
"You think they don't know?" Carina asked in a mixture of surprise and irritation.
Just as Amelia was about to answer, Andrew was taking a step forward, closer to Meredith and then reaching out for her hand. Slowly taking hers in his. Just for a moment before he let his thump graze over it one time, and then let go of her again.
"How can they not notice?" Amelia heard Carina questioning her.
"I have no idea. But I think Meredith doesn't know." Amelia stated somewhat absently still looking at the two of them.
"Please, don't let her hurt my brother." Carina said, before walking away. Shaking her head one more time, still not quite believing that his brother was so obviously falling for his boss.
"Don't let him hurt my sister." Amelia gave back with a smile.
…
1 week later
Amelia was about to leave the house, when she noticed that Meredith still wasn't up. Thinking her sister might have overslept, she wanted to wake her. But when she knocked at her door and then went inside, she saw that her sister was already awake, leaning against the headboard. Seemingly deep in thoughts and definitely not getting ready for work.
"Hey, are you okay?" Amelia asked while approaching her.
"Yes. I have the day off. I just-" Meredith trailed off again.
"I asked if I could change shifts." Meredith explained, why she wasn't on her way to work. She must have seen the confused look on Amelia's face.
Amelia was eyeing her sister for a moment, deciding if she could leave her like this or if she should stay, when she finally realized that Meredith wasn't staring out the window but at her closet and more importantly why. She remembered Meredith telling her that she put hers and Derek's vows in there.
"Hey. What is going on, Mer?" Amelia grew concerned.
After she saw her sister happier again, smiling more and more over the past few weeks, she now saw her like she was before again. Deep in thoughts and somewhere else with her mind.
"I – I think I might have feelings for DeLuca." Meredith said after a long moment, turning around to Amelia "And I don't – I don't know how to feel about that."
Amelia tried to hide the small smile that wanted to form on her lips, when Meredith told her that she 'might have feelings'. The way she looked at DeLuca the past few days, there was a lot more than 'maybe having some feelings'. She tried to suppress that little smile, because she also knew that this wasn't easy for her sister.
"What?" Meredith asked. She must have noticed the beginnings of the smile creeping onto her lips, before she could stop herself.
"You finally noticed?" Amelia asked, not able to hold herself back, before she added genuinely "Mer, it was obvious for weeks now." She gave her sister a sympathetic smile. "I think you just didn't want it to be true." She said softly.
"I'm scared."
"Mer, he is good for you. And I know that my brother would want you to move on."
She noticed Meredith taking a deep breath beside her, closing her eyes for a moment.
"Mer, Andrew likes you. And you like him. Let yourself be happy." Amelia saw Meredith turning her head at the mention of Andrew's name, and the smallest of smiles appeared on her face. And that was confirmation enough for Amelia to know that her sister might need time, but that this was what she wanted, too.
…
4 weeks later
Amelia and Carina were on their way to the attendings launch. They had worked on a difficult case together, and now wanted to go change and then to Joe's celebrating.
When they passed the window to the attendings launch they saw Andrew in there. It seemed like he was waiting for something or someone.
"What is my brother doing in there?" Carina asked confused, making Amelia look inside the room.
After they took a few more steps towards the door to the room, they saw Meredith in the room as well. She was smiling, while she took Andrew's hand in hers. Carina and Amelia stopped and couldn't help themselves than to observe them for a moment from afar.
Andrew was looking at their hands for a short time. He seemed surprised by her action, before a big smile settled on his lips. And then he went back to gazing at Meredith again. After a while he started to lean in a bit closer. And for a moment Amelia wasn't sure if Meredith would lean in as well, but then she saw her slowly, and carefully closing the last distance between them, so that Andrew could kiss her.
"So, they finally realized themselves?" Carina said in an almost mocking tone, bringing Amelia out of her thoughts.
And Amelia had to smile too, because she was happy for her sister, but also, because it took them weeks to finally realize what was happening between them and even more weeks to confess their feelings, while at the same time, being so obvious in the way they acted all the time around the hospital.
"Seems like it." She answered happy for Meredith.
After some convincing from Amelia's side, they decided to let them have this moment and to just come back a little later to change.
Andrew was good for Meredith and Amelia was happy for her that she found him. And she just hoped that this would last for a long time. Because she knew, her brother would want her to be happy.
And Andrew certainly made Meredith happier than she has been in a long time.
I hope you liked it!
I already said it before, but now Grey's is almost back! But that means that I will take a little break from writing for now... But I do plan on writing more :)
And Tank you for your comments! They always make me smile :) And also thank you for reading these stories I wrote!
There will be 1 more fanfiction before Thursday!