Hi friends! I am sorry it has been so long. I had a tough time trying to wrap up my story. Writing endings has always been difficult for me. I don't want to get too sappy, but special thanks to Patsy and Unnamedconspiritor for always commenting and supporting my writing. Although, I want to thank everyone who has viewed (all 18,991), read, commented, followed, and favorited. I appreciate y'all supporting me over the last 5 years. You do not understand how much you all mean to me. Thank you. I hope I ended it well and you are all satisfied with the ending. Without further ado, the long overdue final chapter of Keep Holding On.
Chapter 15
"It's okay Ellis, please don't cry." Carolyn patted her back. "Do you wanna hold my teddy?" Ellis shook her head no and continued to cry.
"Why would she want your teddy bear, you dimwit? She's a teenager not a baby like you!" Samuel rolled his eyes. Then he snapped and looked directly at Ellis. "Ellis, knock it off. Stop acting like a child and wallowing in your selfishness and grow up. Let's focus on right now. We need to get you back to your family.
Ellis' mouth dropped; she knew Samuel was mature, but she did not expect him to say something so harsh. It sounded like something Zola would say to her. Ellis wiped her tears, but before she could say anything Carolyn interjected.
"Zip it, Sammy!" Also, you're not that much older than me, so you're a baby too!"
"At least I don't act like one!"
"Grr!" Carolyn gritted her teeth and began to charge at Samuel, but Christopher grabbed her before she could punch him.
"Stop it! Both of you! When will you two quit fighting all the time? Ugh!" Ellis laughed slightly.
"They will never stop fighting. My siblings and I always fight. I assume you two are cousins right? Or some kind of family?" Carolyn and Samuel looked at each other and shrugged. "If Scout were here, you and he would be fighting 24/7 too," Ellis said to Christopher.
"Oh boy, I agree with you on that big time. I have enough trouble keeping these two idiots in check-"
"Hey!" Samuel and Carolyn said in unison.
"What-it's the truth! I don't know what I would do if I had to be in charge of another child...I'm just glad he's on Earth with my mom and Link."
"Me too." Ellis smiled. "Watching Carolyn and Samuel fight makes me miss my siblings...and my friends...I really wanna go back now."
"It might be too late…" Christopher looked down and sighed as Ellis' eyes began to fill with tears.
"How long has she been on bypass for?" April asked.
"Almost an hour..." Owen sighed.
"Alright, let's turn the pacer up to max."
"If there was any ounce of activity the pacer would have picked it up."
"Don't you think I know that?" April snapped back. "We have to try everything. Who knows, maybe it is so slight it is not picking it up unless it is on max!" Just then, the door to the trauma room swung open. "Alex! W-What are you doing in Seattle?"
"Mer called." Alex fibbed. "What can I do to help?"
"Hm," Owen pondered "We pretty much got it covered, Karev."
"Go sit with Meredith, if she called you, that probably means she wants you with her, not in here with her daughter," April said.
"Can I at least get an update?"
"She's-" Owen started
"No change, we just turned the pacer up to max so we should be getting some activity soon." April pushed Alex out the door. "We will call if there is any change." With that, she shut the door.
"What was that Kepner?" Owen barked.
"You were gonna tell him she was warm and dead! If you told him that he would've started freaking out. Then, he would have told Meredith and she would come storming in here and that would not be good. When we say warm and dead that pretty much means dead! But, we cannot give up yet! What do you think we should try?"
"How about one more round of ACLS drugs?"
"That is what I was thinking. Come on Ellis, please…"
"It's okay. It's okay please don't cry again!" Samuel quickly said. "We-we have to figure something out there has to be another way!" Christopher, Carolyn, and Ellis raised their eyebrows.
"I did not expect to hear that to come out of your mouth," Christopher remarked. "But you're right there has to be another way...think think think. Maybe I can try and find my dad. I know I looked before, but I'll look harder! We all want you to go back and live your life! You don't belong here will us yet! If worst comes to worst, and we can't get you back you can hang with us until you're ready to find the light. We won't leave you we promise. Ellis wiped her tears as they continued to fall down her cheeks.
"How's my mom doing? Harriet? Zola and Bailey?" Ellis sniffed. Trying to change the subject. Maybe talking about her mom, siblings, and best friend would help.
"Do you really wanna know?" Samuel asked.
"Uh, yeah. Wait! Is something wrong? Are they all okay?" Ellis stood up and began to panic.
"I mean yeah. I guess in the physical sense. In the mental sense not so much."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"For starters, your mom is an absolute disaster. She won't stop crying and she blames this entire situation on herself. Harriet thinks the drowning was her fault and your siblings are just trying to hold it together." Samuel snapped and Ellis stared at him. She was trying to soak up news that she was not expecting. In all honesty, she really did not think they would care.
"Way too gentle, jerkface." Christopher snapped back and smacked him on the shoulder.
"Ouch!" Samuel pinched Christopher.
Finally, it clicked in Ellis' head. "Why would this be their fault? It's my fault!" More tears rolled down her cheeks.
When Alex returned to the waiting room he saw Zola, Bailey, and Harriet munching on some chips from the vending machine and looking at an old newspaper. "Where's Mer?" She went to get some coffee. Zola replied without looking up. "Wait. I know that voice." The trio looked up from the newspaper.
Alex!" Zola and Bailey shouted and stood up and ran toward Alex and gave him a big hug.
"Hey kiddos, how's everything going?" He was trying to start out with a light mood and didn't want to start off the bat with the heaviness of everything going on.
"Not good. We are just trying to stay distracted while we wait for an update on Ellis." Zola said.
"Trying is the keyword." Harried added.
"Any news?" Meredith yawned as she sat back down in a waiting room chair with a coffee in each hand.
"No, nothing yet. Hopefully soon." Alex took a seat next to Meredith and grabbed a coffee out of her hand. "Thanks for the coffee."
"Mhmm" Meredith nodded sleepy, laid her head on Alex's shoulder, and closed her eyes.
"I really hope she's gonna wake up… it's already been an hour and a half…things are not looking good…" Harriet whispered.
Zola and Bailey both glared at her. Harriet realized what she said and stood up quickly. "I think I'll just be quiet and step out for a second…" and a few seconds later, she was gone. Bailey went back to looking at the newspaper while Zola sighed and looked at the clock. "Come on Ellis…you gotta pull through…you need to wake up soon." _
"I need to go back! I need to go back!" Ellis began to hyperventilate. "Why can't I breathe?" She looked up. "I'm sorry!" I'll be better, I promise just please let me go back!" Tears continued to stream down Ellis' cheeks. "I need to go back! I want to go back!"
A light began to appear and a tall figure began walking down the hallway. "Ellis?" An unfamiliar, yet somewhat familiar voice called out. She looked up and wiped her eyes. The blurry figure from her tears started to clear up. She continued to breathe heavily. No. No. It can't be. It's not possible. Suddenly, Carolyn screamed "Daddy!" and ran up and hugged him. He picked the little girl up. "Carolyn! How's my sweet little girl?"
"Good" She blushed and gave the man a kiss on the cheek.
As her vision completely cleared up, Ellis' mouth formed into a giant smile and she screamed, "DAD!" She ran as fast as she could to her father. Ellis held Derek really tight. "I've missed you so much." She said as tears formed once again in her eyes. "Even though I've never met you." Ellis giggled. Derek smiled and laughed.
"'I've missed you too, even though I've never met you either. I see you have met Carolyn. »
"Yes," Ellis pulled away from the hug. "Why didn't you tell me you are my sister?" She poked Carolyn repeatedly and Carolyn couldn't help but laugh. "Well, I am very glad to have met you!" All of a sudden the bright light appeared again, and Christopher yelled, "Ellis run! The light! Go toward the light!"
"What?" Ellis turned around.
"You must run toward the light now. It's how you get back to Earth!"
Derek smiled at Ellis and nodded. "He's right. It's now or never!" Ellis began to run, only turning around once to say, "Thank you!" and "I love you, dad!"
"I love you too Ellis! Tell your mom I said hi!" He smiled and waved along with Christopher, Carolyn, and Samuel.
"How is it going in here?" Dr. Bailey walked through the door.
Beep. The monitor made a sound.
"Sinus Brady," April announced.
"Okay." Replied Dr. Bailey.
"We got a beat."
"Dr. Hunt?"
"We got it." Owen smiled.
"Yes! Awesome! Thank you for not dying Ellis. Has anyone paged Meredith?" Dr. Bailey asked.
"We have not…"
"We wanted to give Ellis some more time. Considering we do not know brain function yet…" April added.
"I am going to go give them the update." Dr. Bailey stated. "You two keep an eye on her and be better not die…again…" She swallowed and exited the room.
"Dr. Bailey!" Harriet loudly spoke. "How's Ellis?"
"She's alive." Dr. Bailey smiled. "Wait- Hold on just a minute! Miss Avery what are you doing in here?"
"Going to check on Ellis." She shrugged.
"I guess since she is breathing on her now you can go in… Just don't touch anything.
"I won't!"
"Ellis!" Harriet burst into the trauma room and the door slammed shut. "I'm so glad you're okay! I love you best friend. I am so sorry I ditched you at the party.
"Y-you didn't ditch me" Ellis mumbled/croaked out. "You saved me."
Meanwhile…
Zola and Bailey stood up as soon as they saw Dr. Bailey approaching them. Alex gently shook Meredith awake. "Hey, Mer. Dr. Bailey is here." Alex stood up as soon as Meredith lifted her head up. She then too stood up and grabbed Alex's hand.
"What's the news?" Zola blurted out.
"Is she okay?" Bailey quickly added.
"She's alive b-" Dr. Bailey replied, but was cut off by Meredith.
"But what." Meredith's eyes were wide, worried about what Dr. Bailey was going to say next.
"But she is still asleep, so we do not kn-"
"Do not know what?"
"Dr. Grey." She said sternly. "Stop interrupting me and let me finish speaking."
"We do not know what her brain function is y-" Dr. Bailey was interrupted by a page. She grabbed her pager and smiled.
Ellis is awake. Brain function and memory are all good.
"Nevermind. Brain function is good. You can go see her now."
Meredith let go of Alex's hand and sped down the hallway.
"Oh my goodness. I have never seen that woman run so fast in my life." Dr. Bailey laughed. "Come on Alex, Zola, Bailey, let's go see that foolish sister of yours. I swear she is just like your mother…" She shook her head, smiled, and rolled her eyes they walked to go to see Ellis.
Meredith ran as fast as she could down the halls of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. As soon as she reached the door to the room Ellis was in she suddenly stopped. She felt like she couldn't breathe. What if Ellis did not want to see her? They said her brain was functioning, but what if she has memory loss? Meredith was thinking irrationally at this point. The last time they interacted it was not good. What if Ellis was so mad, that she never wanted to speak to her again. What if Ellis blames her for her almost death? Meredith stood against the wall outside the door. Maybe someone else should go in first. A few minutes later Dr. Bailey, Alex, Zola, and Bailey came walking down the hall to see Ellis. "Hey, Mom," Bailey said. "Did you see Ellis?" Meredith swallowed and nodded.
"Um. Yeah, yeah. You guys go ahead and go see her." There were tears in her eyes. She obviously had not seen Ellis yet but did not want to hear another lecture from Miranda Bailey. Zola and Bailey entered the room and saw Harriet talking a hundred miles a minute to Ellis about everything she missed at the party. Harriet was sitting in the chair next to Ellis' bed and Ellis was laying down facing her on the hospital bed.
"...so we were playing truth or dare and it was my turn. I dared Josh to climb up the tree in the front yard as fast as possible. He was not even halfway up the tree and the branch snapped." Ellis' eyes widened. "That is not even the best part." Harriet stifled a giggle. "He…he fell and landed right in front of Brittney." She couldn't hold her laugh back any longer. "You should have seen HER scream. Not him, her." Harriet was laughing and Ellis smiled weakly. She had no strength but enjoyed listening to her friend talk and seeing her smiling and laughing. Ellis cared so much for Harriet and was so glad she had some fun at that stupid party.
"Sorry to interrupt story time, but we would like to talk to our sister, please." Bailey boomed as he entered the room. Bailey pulled up a chair to Ellis' bedside.
"I'm gonna go talk to my mom." Harriet stood up from her chair. "I will be back in a little bit." She smiled and left the trauma room.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Bailey said softly as Zola sat down in the seat Harriet was sitting in.
"Like I just came back from the dead." Although her voice was weak, she could still use facial expressions, so she smirked.
"You scared us to death." Zola's eyes were filled with tears. "Don't you ever do that again! I...I thought we lost you." The tears streamed down Zola's cheeks. She quickly wiped them away.
"I'll try not to," Ellis replied.
"Can I give you a hug?" Ellis nodded, so Zola got out of her chair and gave her sister a side hug.
"I'm sorry." Ellis managed to say.
"You don't have to be sorry," Bailey said.
"Yes, I do."
"No, Ellis it's fine. If anything we should be sorry." Zola added.
"No. I need to. I'm sorry for smashing the picture of you, mom, and dad. I shouldn't have done that. I-"
"Shh…we forgive you. It's alright. It's in the past. We love you, Ellis. Get some rest." Zola kissed Ellis' forehead.
"Hey, kid." Alex peaked his head through the door.
"Uncle Alex? Is Uncle Alex here? Or am I hallucinating?"
"Yes, Alex is here. Stop freaking out." Bailey replied. Alex stepped into the room and walked to where Ellis could see him since she was still laying down. Ellis genuinely smiled at him.
"Wait? What are you doing here? I thought you moved across the country?"
"I'm happy to see you too. All jokes aside, I came to make sure you were okay and to support your family during your near-death experience. I did move. You are not crazy. I'm very glad you are okay. You scared everyone to death."
"Yeah…Zola said the same thing…" Ellis decided if she wanted to ask where her mom was. Was she even here? Did she even know? Wait, she had to know cause Alex was there. Or maybe someone else contacted him? He was still one of her emergency contacts, which she needed to change since he now lived in Massachusetts. After a minute of thinking decided she wanted to see her mom. "Where's my mom?"
"Meredith get your ass in here, your daughter wants to see you," Alex shouted.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
Meredith stepped into the room. "Mom?" Ellis choked out as she struggled to sit up. "Mom?" Ellis began to cry.
"No. No." Meredith ran to her daughter and helped her lay back down. "Stay laying down. I'm right here. I'm right here." Now, Meredith's eyes had tears in them. "Oh, sweetheart…I'm so sorry." She stroked Ellis' bright pink hair. "I am really sorry. You don't have to forgive me, but-"
"I forgive you, mom. You are doing the best you can. And I'm sorry. I was acting childish and I asked too much of you."
"You didn't ask too much of me. I put my career before my daughter and that is my mistake. I should have had someone else do Nellie's surgery."
"Mom, did Nellie survive?"
"Yes. She did. She is okay now."
"Well, then it was worth it."
"You almost died because of my choice though."
"But I didn't die, and it was not because of you doing surgery. I got into a fight…a physical one…"
"Oh, Ellis…physical fights don't solve problems. You know this."
"I know. It's just…" Ellis bit her lip and her eyes welled up with tears remembering the conversation she had with Brittany about her father.
"Just what, honey?"
"Sh-she basically told me that my dad doesn't love me and he must have left when I was a baby or that I was a one-night stand mistake." Ellis began to cry.
"No. No." Meredith shook her head and tears rolled down her cheeks. "Your dad loves you and would have NEVER left you by choice. I'm so sorry that happened to you."
"The thing is it happens constantly and I was just sick of it. Why do people always have to pick on me? I tried standing up for myself and almost ended up dead…permenently."
"I'm so sorry Ellis. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to bother you with petty high school drama." Meredith nodded, not wanting to push it. This was one of the longest conversations the two have had in a while. So, she decided to change the subject and lighten the mood.
"Why did you dye your hair pink? You hate pink." Ellis laughed in response.
"I was angry and it was the first box I saw when I was at the store. I should have looked for green. It would look better than this stupid pink. I'm just gonna dye it back brown."
Meredith laughed. "If you wanna dye your hair a different color it is fine. I won't be mad."
"Thanks, mom, but I think I actually like my brown hair..." Meredith smiled at her daughter. "Mom?"
"Ellis?"
"I-I might sound crazy right now…but, um…I met Dad."
"What? When?"
"While I was dead…" Meredith coved her mouth and tears slid down her cheeks.
"D-did he say anything?"
"He said he loves me and told me to tell you hi." Meredith smiled and laughed through her tears.
"Looks like your dreams came true, you got to meet your dad."
"Yeah, I did. But I also met some other people."
"Like who?"
"Christopher, Samuel, and Carolyn."
"Carolyn?" Meredith questioned. "Carolyn isn't dead. You've met her. Wait. Unless she is dead…" Meredith pulled out her phone.
"Mom…Carolyn was a little girl, not an old lady."
"Huh?" Meredith set down her phone and looked at Ellis.
"She's my sister," Ellis whispered.
"Sister?" Ellis nodded. "Sister…sister…" Meredith was thinking and flashbacked to the day of the hospital shooting. She quickly covered her mouth and began to cry. A few moments later, Meredith asked, "What does she look like?"
"Just like you mom. Just like you." Ellis smiled and Meredith wiped her tears away. "Mom?" Ellis yawned. She was getting sleepy. It had been an exhausting day or more than a day? Ellis hadn't bothered to look at the clock. Before she decided to get some sleep she wanted to say one more thing to her mom.
"Yes?"
"I love you." Ellis closed her eyes.
"I love you too." Meredith laid her head on Ellis' hospital bed and soon they were both fast asleep.
The End :)
Hi, y'all thank you so much for an INCREDIBLE five years. If you made it here, I am assuming it means you read my entire story. Whether you have been with me for the past five years, or you have found this year after it was finished, I want to thank all of you. You have made me a better writer and I will continue to write. This was the first third-person point-of-view story I have ever written. I usually write in the first person. If you are interested in my creative writing pieces and want to read them, I could probably publish them on AO3, or send them to you through PM if you wanna help with editing.
My last question before I sign off (for now)
Did you know who Carolyn was? I was honestly curious how many of you figured it out.
until next time,
xoxo,
Luciebean :)