Hey Guys! This chapter is kind of (Intense?)? Anyway, I'd like to give it a warning as it verges closer to 'M' just for references to rape and prostitution. Anyways, if you make it to the end of the chapter you'll notice I threw in a nostalgic (and probably overused cliché) but I thought it'd be really sweet dream sequence. Hope you enjoy and leave some suggestions for some great twists I could throw in! Enjoy~ perFANfection


"Where are we?" Zola took in with disgust as she drove through the deep woods, no human interaction to be seen whatsoever.

"Shut up and drive, stupid." He demands, and she feels the back edge of the pocket knife push deeper against her skin, because the blackmail in her bag hadn't apparently seemed enough.

There was a small cabin on the edge of the woods, just above a small cliff. It was rather modern and classy looking, and she wondered how a guy like him could ever have anything this nice in his life that he actually deserved, let alone another woman. But she pulled his red ford explorer (which she thought with rich parents he'd at least get a nicer car) up the rocky path, and throw the gear into park. He then forced her to quickly remove her buckle and exit the car, walking tensely up the steps and through the door.

Inside were at least a half dozen of his buddies, laughing, drinking, and the smell of pot lingered as if someone had left a skunk to marinate in there for years. It was all too much, and she exhaled to keep the smoke from entering her lungs, let alone affect her unborn baby.

"What are they doing here?" Zola asked.

"I promised them a little show." He explained mischievously.

He walked behind her, wrapping his arms around her neck and whispering in her ear and trying to explain what he meant, and she gasped. There was no way that she would ever allow him to do her wrong again, even if it meant death.

"No." She shakily spits out, trying not to let them have their pleasure of seeing her scared and giving in.

"You might want to reconsider." He points to her bag that was lying across the chair, and his knife that was on top.

"I'd rather die!" She screamed bravely.

He smirked amused, knowing fair well that she was on;y bluffing. After all, was it really so hard for her to give herself up for just a few photos, compared to the whole school seeing what a trashy girl her really believed she was. It was hate fueled of course, and he wanted nothing to ruin her life for her ruining his. He wanted to believe that she was crazy and the baby was just a lie for him to feel trapped and guilted into staying. But she knew he was ill.

"Very well… But one last chance to reconsider." He weighed.

"You can't hurt me; I'm pregnant so that would be double homicide." She warned him.

"And I have six other buddies to testify the fact that you're mentally ill and came onto me. You were after all, seen on the school parking lot cameras driving me away." He reminded her. "Self defense."

"What do you really want from me, Arnice?" She whimpers, feeling herself slowly shred apart.

"When the baby is born, I want you to sell the baby to one of my friends, and bring me the money. We don't ever have to talk again, be seen again, and I'll be able to flee the country."

"I would never!" She growled.

"You know, after caucasian males, mixed babies are pretty popular. Did the research myself, you're welcome." He grinned, his teeth and eyes like evil toothpicks. "My friends and I already made the plan, you just need to corporate."

"Or else what?" She tested.

"Or you're both going to have one heck of a difficult life, and I'll see to it when my mother's lawyer gets involved."

She bites her lower lip and subconsciously moves her hand to her stomach, almost as a protective instinct. She couldn't give in, this was not who she was, yet as she became more and more attached to the baby and this pregnancy, she knew as a mother it wasn't her time to be selfish.

"Fine." She spat.

"Good, we can go then. I knew you wouldn't give into the pictures so I really got what I wanted by bringing you out here; Reverse psychology." He knew he had won and it made his smile grow by a million, though she could just picture the heart she believed he might still have was shrivelling.

He waved her out, following closely behind her, and dangling her duffle bag over his shoulder. He climbed into the car, waiting for her to do the same. But before she could throw it into reverse he leaned over, running his hands through her hair and smiling as he unbuckled himself from his seat.

She knew he wanted to kiss her and could smell the liquor on his breath. He had been drinking during school again, she knew it. He had usually carried it in his sisters 'Hello Kitty' metal water bottle and none of his buddies made fun of him because they knew the truth.

But she wasn't gonna let him get away with it this time, and quickly remembered something, a story her mom had told her after work one day. So with quick thinking she pressed her foot on the brake, "Bumping" the shift into 'drive', and slamming the gas pedal to the floor. Everything sped up around her as quickly as it also stopped, and before she knew it the hood of the car was on fire, and he was gone, a giant portion of the windshield missing. She noticed she was covered in blood, but she wasn't sure if it was hers or his.

-XXX-

Flashing lights flashed in the reflection of what was left of the windshield. Zola shook in the restraint of her seatbelt as her distant gaze was stuck on Arnice's body, slowly rising and falling, no more than maybe a few breaths a minute, she counted. Sirens blared through the emptiness of the woods, his friends long gone upon hearing the impact, realizing that they were in for some trouble.

"Ms., what's your name?" She suddenly hears a male voice demand from outside the car.

"Uh...uh…" She stammers, clearly in shock as adrenaline pumped through her body.

She hadn't looked injured, at least not severely, and nothing hurt. She knew she couldn't be that lucky, that something at least had to be broken, and the adrenaline kept her from feeling pain. Or maybe it was just whiplash, but she knew for a fact that Arnice wasn't as lucky. Would she be charged with attempted murder? Why hadn't she thought of that first, instead of putting herself and her baby in danger? She suddenly felt stupid and selfish, acting on a flight or fight instinct before thinking it through.

"My baby?" She suddenly regains her speech as if it was an instinct, but he doesn't answer immediately.

"She's pregnant Phil." He suddenly turns to his buddy, and they grow more concerned, turning back to her as they tried to remain calm. "We're gonna get you out of there, you don't look to bad. But we don't know about your baby or boyfriend. They're going to take you to the hospital as soon as we can get you out."

Everything around her felt slow, distant, and scary. She knew they had lifted Arnice off the hood since he was gone, but she didn't remember it happening. She felt perfectly fine but the paramedics insisted she be put on a stretcher and carried away. It was suddenly that she forgot that she had called them and wondered why they were there, suggesting that she could have a concussion.

The ride was bumpy and uneven, and even very loud as the sirens screamed through the streets, onto more even ground compared to the gravel path of the woods. She prayed that they wouldn't take her to Grey-Sloan, any other hospital. She didn't want her mother to worry until there was something to worry about, and she knew she was already in lots of trouble. She would need to rely on her parents, but not until all the details were there and the story was set straight, rehearsed in her mind.

"She hypertensive." She hears someone say and she feels slightly annoyed, compelled to remind them she's pregnant and under a lot of stress. Of course her blood pressure would be sky high after this.

The ambulance doors fly open and she catches sight of the familiar blue scrubs and yellow gowns they wear when trauma cases come in. She knew Arnice was already there, he was in the ambulance ahead of her. She wondered if they put two and two together and figured Zola was with them, or thought nothing of it since they were broken up for awhile now.

"What do we got?" She hears Owen ask as the stretcher is lifted down, and she hears no answer. He's got it figure out.

"Does Dr. Grey know?" He asks around, every one of the interns shaking their heads.

"Zola Shepherd, age sixteen. Found out on the trails of Lucy Creek." The paramedic finally replies.

She saw Owen's wrinkled forehead above her, examining her as they wheeled her in, the interns pattering with urgency behind him, like lost little ducklings, eager to please.

"It's okay Zola, we'll make sure everything is okay, and take great care of you." He smiles reassuringly.

"Does my mom know? Does she know we're here?" She frantically looks around, feeling her neck restrained by a brace.

They looked at her confused, until they realized she meant her ex. Owen nodded with the comforting smile still on his face. Darcy, the smallest intern, took her hand.

"He's gonna be okay." She informed her, and Zola burst into tears, becoming unresponsive.

"She's got a minor pneumothorax, it looks like there's a few broken bones, and…" Owen begins to inform them before getting interrupted.

"And she's pregnant; Someone page Dr. Robbins." Dr. Jameson demands.

-XXX-

"What do we have here?" Maggie asks as she snaps her gloves over her yellow trauma gown.

She knew it was Zola on the table, she had emotionally tried to prepare herself for what to expect, but when she saw Zola like that, bloody and barely conscious, she grew concerned. But Jameson seemed more confused with the fact that she was off probation when he had paged Dr. Dickerson instead, their on-call cardiothoracic surgeon.

"Zola Shepherd, sixteen. Has a pneumothorax and seems to be developing cardiomyopathy. "

"Well Jameson, that might be because she's pregnant too, so she's pumping more blood to her baby as she's losing some." Maggie snaps sarcastically, trying not to focus on the fact that it was her niece on the table and stay professional.

Maggie put her stethoscope in her ears, listening for rapid breath sounds,any leaks in her lungs, anything to clarify what Jameson was telling her. Everything matched up and she cringed on the inside when she realized that relieving the pressure in was only part of the world of pain Zola was going to be in.

"Aunt Ma-geee?" Zola slurs her G's together as the soft "G" sound and Maggie looks to Jameson.

"Page Dr. Shepherd; It seems that she might have a slight concussion." Maggie informs him.

As Jameson leaves he bumps into Arizona, who was just on her way from the Attendings lounge, meeting with Amelia and one of her past residents that had been at Grey Sloan years before, only before a near death experience had forced her to give up her career.

"W.. where'sss Arnice?" Zola tries to look around, being restraint by Maggie who was trying to keep her from moving.

"Is she free associating, or is he really here?" Maggie asks Jameson and when he shrugged, demanded he found out, before turning to Zola.

"You're safe Zola. This is a safe place and we're gonna take care of you and your baby. You don't have to worry about him, just you and baby, okay?" Maggie comforts her, before looking to Owen.

"Jameson is gonna get another order from a doctor out there who doesn't know we already have him as our intern, and forget what he was assigned to do. Maybe I should go check?" Maggie asked him.

"No, you stay with Zola. Your anger towards your niece's ex may impact how you talk to him, given that he's here. You're biased." Owen smiles, slightly throwing shade towards Maggie who just a few months before, had punched him for the sake of Amelia.

Five minutes after being paged 9-1-1, Arizona rolled in on her skates, a sense of urgency in the way her heels screeched to a halt, seeing that Zola was the one lying on the table. She felt shock, seeing her daughter's best friend and the Chief of General's daughter lying there, still partly conscious. She wasn't sure if Meredith had been paged or not, but she knew she would want to be there.

"Oh my Gosh! Does Meredith know?" Arizona asks as she holds a doppler to Zola's stomach, searching for a heartbeat.

A faint heartbeat whirrs and they all sigh, relieved and thankful that it was there, even if it was faint. She was still bleeding a little bit, but Arizona could fix it and avoid hemorrhaging. Zola was in better shape than Arnice, who took more of the blow because the tree they had hit was on the passenger side. She wasn't told any of this yet, but everyone suspected foul play, considering that Zola absolutely detested her ex, and hadn't spoken of him since she found out she was pregnant. He had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the baby, at least that's what they knew.

"Meredith doesn't know and shouldn't be interrupted from surgery until Zola checks out fine. There's no need to worry her now! Understand!" Maggie firmly commands, looking around the room, waiting for everyone to nod.

"Zola?!" Amelia gasps as she stands in the corner of the room, looking at her niece laying barely conscious in trauma room 2.

"It doesn't matter who it is, it matter more than you do your job and make sure she's okay!" Maggie snaps, surprising firm and focused than usual.

When April had been lying on this table eight years ago, Maggie had been frantically commanding the interns around, making sure they were on top of their game as well as everyone else. She knew not to push Epi so it didn't pool, and even though she was concerned about Jackson knowing, she kept on top of her game. Today was different, she was the one trying to focus everyone in order to save her dear niece. It didn't matter whether it was Ellis, Bailey, or Zola, or even a complete stranger, their focus was saving the life of a patient, no special treatment.

She imagined Zola like she imagined a John Doe, as someone with a future, a family they were supposed to be going home to before something tragic happened, and fought like crazy to save them, even though there was only so much she could do before it was out of her hands, and she'd like to believe, into God's. Either way, she wanted Zola to be okay, she wished it wasn't happening, and she prayed that Zola and the baby would be okay.

"Zola? It's Aunt Amelia. Can you tell me where you are?" Amelia asks as she shines the flashlight pen into Zola's eyes.

"Arn..aneeecce?" She slurs, looking around her. "Is he gone?"

"He's in the other room. Can you tell me where you are?" Amelia asks again.

"Is he gone?" Zola asks again, a little more frantically, this time with fearful tears in her eyes. "Did he take the baby?" She frantically searches around, everyone exchanging confused glances.

Amelia shakes her head, looking up to Arizona and Maggie for direction. Owen reappears in his surgery scrubs, Jameson trailing behind him like a puppy with its tail between its legs. He looked as if he had just been screamed at, and followed closely on Owen's trail as he grabbed a suture kit, shoving it into Jameson's hands. He had just taken Arnice into surgery and brought Jameson back to help on Zola's case.

"The baby is okay, and Arnice is being taken into surgery." Arizona informs her and Zola cries even harder.

It was becoming clear that despite the head injury Zola remembered something about being with Arnice, even though it wasn't exactly clear to her. She seemed afraid, and they didn't know if it was something to do with Arnice, the crash, or both. So Arizona told Owen to call in some officers, encouraging him to do it discreetly in order not to scare Zola.

"Find out Arnice's side of the story when he wakes from surgery. Zola's not able to defend herself so we'd like to hear his first and match them, because I'm sure he'll take advantage of the fact that she'd barely conscious of what happened. We won't tell her what he said, but we'll ask her questions like why he was with her and such." Arizona demands of Owen and he nods.

"I'll page you when I'm out of surgery." He walks out.

"Okay Zo, Dr. Bailey's gonna come in and check you out since you have some minor internal bleeding, then Dr. Nickerson is gonna take you up for surgery on your chest, since Maggie can't operate on family.."

Zola's eyes grow frantic and though she can't speak her eyes say it all. She looks around, her breathing heavy and quick as it fogs up her mask, and she shakes all over. She hated the idea of surgery, she hated the idea that Arnice nearby, even though it was a good sign that she hadn't completely lost her memory or her ability to identify danger.

"Don't worry Zo, Dr. Nickerson is the best. She's gonna fix you right up alongside Dr. Bailey, and we'll be watching from the gallery the entire time." Amelia smiles as she strokes back Zola's hair, matted with dried blood clots.

It was the last thing Zola remembered her aunt saying before she was suddenly being wheeled up to surgery. She didn't exactly remember anything else because no one was exactly talking to her anymore, and when they were, it was all a blur of medical terms and such.

"Mmmmmom?" She mumbled as they were putting the anesthesia mask over her face, trying to push it out of the way.

"She's right here and she'll be waiting for you after surgery. But she would want us to help you get better first." Dr. Bailey smiles before letting the anesthesiologist continue.

-XXX-

Zola's eyes fluttered open and she sat up quickly, looking around the strange, nursing home like building she was in. She didn't know where she was or why she was there, but she noticed that she was alone and healed. She turned her body, jumping off of the table that she was sitting on, curiously roaming around the room until she caught sight of herself in a mirror that was hanging on the wall.

Her face was wrinkled at the corners of her mouth, and there were crow's feet on her eyes from exhaustion. She looked no older than her mid to late twenties, and she noticed that her hair was drawn back in a pony and her body was clothed in scrubs. She wasn't sure how she had gotten there, or where her baby was, because she no longer was pregnant. The tiny bloated belly was gone, and her empty, bloody hands were now carrying a purse instead of her backpack.

She didn't know what motivated it, but she dug through the purse that wasn't hers, finding a picture of the day her baby was born in the wallet, and a nice couple that she didn't know holding the baby next to Zola's bedside. She thought they looked familiar, but she couldn't' put her finger on it. All she knew what that baby in the picture, the one in the yellow blanket, was hers. Keyword: Was.

She searched some more, digging through clutter until she paused, startled by the plastic card in her purse, and a cap that had ferry boats on it.

"This is for you, Zo. Your father would want you to wear this, for luck."

Suddenly a memory of Maggie pops in her head, the two of them digging through Meredith's drawer as they were packing her things, and Meredith staring in the window, lighting up as she saw the blue cap.

"Take it; Your mom would want it for you too." Maggie smiles reassuringly.

"Derek's scrub cap; You found it." Meredith glowed, grabbing it from Maggie and rubbing it on her face, no longer able to identify the smell, long gone from years of sitting in the old dresser drawer.

Zola looked at the badge in her had, reading it aloud.

"Zola Shepherd, inter. Grey-Sloan memorial?" She was stunned, not even a trace of a memory of even attending medical school.

"Mrs. Shepherd? Your daughter is here." Zola hears a voice in the room around the corner and jumps when she realized she's suddenly there.

Meredith rocks back and forth in the chair by the window, smiling as she watched the ferry boats on the lake, though she's not quite sure what appeases her about them anymore. She just remembered that someone she loved dearly loved them, so she did too.

"Mom?" Zola's voice quivers and she holds out the scrub cap and watched her mother light up in delight.

"Ferry boats? How did you know I loved them?" She asked, confused a little bit.

"Dad loved them and I know you loved dad, so I'm going to wear it on my first day of work." Zola informs her, suddenly surprised by the information herself, despite not remembering anything moments before.

Meredith furrows her eyebrows, studying the cap and the brown eyed girl holding it. There was something that drew excitement out of Meredith from the scrub cap and the girl holding it, but she didn't know what.

"What's your name?" Meredith asks the girl holding the scrub cap, trying to pinpoint why it felt important to her.

"It's me mom, Zola." Zola's eyes saddened, as it occurred to her what happened; Her mother's past was now Zola's future.