Meredith sits in a chair in her hospital room. She still has her left arm and legs casts on and the wires are keeping her mouth shut. Arizona stands in front of her, gently applying makeup to Meredith's face.

"Okay, this isn't exactly the right shade, but it's doing a pretty good job of covering the bruising" says Arizona with a smile. She closes the makeup compact and inhales deeply. "Okay, so….don't try and get up, okay? Just let them come to you. And smile. But try not to open your mouth because it's still pretty swollen in there and the wires – the metal wires – they're a little scary." Arizona drapes a sweatshirt over Meredith's shoulders and she smiles in gratitude. "You ready?" Meredith nods excitedly; "okay, all right." Arizona turns from Meredith and walks to the door. She looks through the window and signals for the people standing outside to come in. Derek opens the door; "hey look who's here, guys!" In his left arm he's holding Ellie and Zola is holding his right hand, while she is holding Bailey's hand with her other one. The kids walk in smiling but immediately start to look afraid. Meredith smiles happily and reaches out to them with her good hand. "Your mommy is so excited to see you" Arizona says to Bailey and Zola. "Come in, go ahead, go tell her, go tell her what we talked about Zozo" Derek says. Arizona crouches down next to Bailey and takes his hand to guide him to Meredith. "I don't want to" Zola says to Derek. "It's okay sweetie, mommy's right there! You've been asking me every day when can we go see mommy and she's right here! Go give her a big hug!" Derek tries to gently pull Zola towards Meredith but she pulls away and screams "no" quiet loudly. "Zozo, come see mommy" Meredith says through her wires. She gestures frantically with her hand but that only makes Zola yell "no, no, no!" "I want to go home daddy" Bailey says. He's still holding Zola's hand and is leaning back towards the door. Arizona takes Ellie from Derek and brings her over to Meredith. Meredith adjusts herself in her seat to hold Ellie with her cast arm and guestures towards Zola again. "Zozo come see mommy! Come on! Come see mommy honey! Come on. Come on Zo!" Ellie starts crying and Meredith's speech gets even more muffled as she starts to get panicky. The idea that her own kids are terrified of her scares her to death. Zola and Bailey look even more afraid now and are trying to pull Derek to the door. "Hey it's okay. Mommy just wants to see you guys for a minute. I know she looks hurt but she's going to be okay" Derek says to the kids calmly. "Come on honey, please" Meredith keeps repeating over and over again as Ellie keeps crying. "You know – you know what? Let's just, um – let's do this later" Arizona says to Meredith. "Let's do this later, it's not, it's not okay" she adds as she takes Ellie from Meredith. "Come on, come on. Let's do this later, we're gonna do this later, okay?" Arizona turns towards the kids as Meredith protests a little and motions for Derek to take the kids out of the room. Meredith tries not to look heartbroken as Derek and Arizona take her kids out of the room. "Okay, does anybody want anything yummy from the cafeteria" Arizona says as she takes the kids down the hall. As soon as the door closes Meredith starts grunting and rips all the blankets and sweatshirts off of her body. She starts panicking and itches her body as if she's trying to escape from her own skin. "Dr. Robbins wanted..." "Come in here" Meredith yells at Blake as she walks in. "Dr. Grey! Okay! Okay!" Meredith gestures to her mouth and Blake can tell she wants to take her wires out. "I can't breathe!" "You're okay. You're okay! Hang on! Deep breaths! Deep breaths" Blake repeats as Meredith grabs at her own mouth frantically. "Breathe for me Dr. Grey! Breathe for me!" Meredith sounds like she's hyperventilating and Blake runs over with scissors. "Stay still. I'm gonna get you some air. Just stay still. I'm gonna open you up, okay? Okay. I'm opening you up. Stay still. Please!" Meredith tries to calm down but her breathing is still ragged as Blake cuts the wires. "Hey, what the hell are you doing" Jackson yells as he runs into the room just as Meredith opens her mouth. "She – she was having a panic attack. She couldn't breathe." "Do you not realize how delicate the jaw actually is?" "Dr. Avery, she" "You could jeopardize the entire healing process here!" "She couldn't breathe! Look at her! She's been stuck in this room in that bed for weeks!" At this point Penny and Jackson are yelling at each other, while Meredith just has a hand on her neck trying to breathe. "She can't move! She can't talk!" "But I'm her surgeon now, right" Jackson yells cutting her off. "You can't just come in here and take out her wires!" "She is MY patient. I know what I am doing! You can rewire her jaw tomorrow morning, but right now, she need some air, so I got her some damn air!" Jackson looks down to see Meredith still panting with tears in her eyes. "Mer, I'm so sorry I didn't realize" Derek says. He doesn't finish his sentence as he comes into the room and see's Meredith's jaw open. "What the hell is going on" he yells angrily. "She couldn't breathe" Jackson said quietly. He walks out of the room, not before giving Penny a death glare. "She was having a panic attack so I" "Just get out" Derek says to her. She exits the room quietly while Derek gently picks Meredith up and puts her in his lap. Meredith starts crying heavily now and just leans into Derek's shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry" he repeats as he rubs the back of her head. They sit there until Meredith stops crying. Derek looks at her sadly and kisses her forehead. Meredith slowly opens her mouth to talk but Derek puts a hand on her jaw. "Don't. I know you want to but please, please Meredith just wait a little while longer until you're fully healed." She nods sadly and motions for Derek to take her back into the bed.

Meredith opens the door to a dark, and empty, Trauma Room 1. She limps in, leaning heavily on her cane. She stands there for a moment before flipping the switch on and continues to stare. "Meredith" Derek says quietly as he opens the door. "You ready?" "Let's go home" she says quietly. He holds the door open for her with the hand that holds the flowers Lou gave to her. She limps through the doorway and turns the light off.

When they pull into their driveway Meredith sees the kids in the living room and looks at Derek in confusion. "Alex" he says simply. "He's been here almost every other night to help with the kids." The walk slowly into the house and Derek helps her get settled on the couch. "Let's get changed into our pjs and then mommy can read you a bedtime story" Derek says happily to the kids. Derek takes the kids to their bedrooms and Alex helps Meredith get settled. "Do you want anything? You know – like a sandwich or a…or a blanket?" "All right all right, I'm good, I'm good. Sit down, sit down." she says to Alex to get him to stop fussing. He sits down next to her with concern all over her face but she just smiles at him. "I just spent six weeks in a bed, unable to speak. When that happens, you see things. There's a lot of things that people don't say to each other that they should just say, so I need you to hear me when I say this. I know I've needed you a lot lately, but I also know and I have known for a long time that Jo loves you. Post-it on the wall loves you." She smiles at him and he just nods in understanding. "Don't ignore that. You can have more than one person. I used to think you couldn't, but now I know. I mean, turns out I have a whole damn village. So you don't have to worry about me. Go be with Jo! I'll be fine. I'm okay. I've got Derek and the kids." He doesn't look totally convinced, but then slowly nods. He ruffles her hair as he stands up and she swats him away with a laugh. A few minutes after he leaves the kids come rushing back in. Derek hands Ellie to Meredith while Zola and Bailey climb on either side. "Mommy can we read this book" Zola asks. "Of course sweetie!" Derek sits on the couch next to Bailey and pulls the tiny munchkin into his side. Meredith starts reading the story and lets Zola turn the pages. Once the first book is over Derek takes Ellie and Bailey to put them to bed. "I missed you mommy" Zola says as she curled into Meredith's side. "I missed you too Zozo. I love you very very much." "Are you going to be all better soon?" "Yeah I will be honey. I have to do physical therapy for a few weeks before I can go back to work, but other than that I'm all healed." "Jack's dad came into our class to show us his broken leg and we all got to sign his cast. Can you come in to my class?" "I don't know sweetie…but I'll think about it" she adds when she sees Zola's sad face. A few minutes later Derek comes to take Zola to bed. Meredith slowly makes her way into her bedroom and gets settled in bed. A few minutes later Derek comes in and gently climbs into bed next to her. "Come here" she says when she notices him sitting on the far side of the bed. "Derek, you're not going to break me" she says with a smile. He slides over so he's next to her and puts an arm around her. "Did Ellie go down okay? And did you remember to give Bailey his tiger?" "Everything is fine, stop worrying" he says as he places a kiss on her head. "I love you" she says and kisses him passionately. "What as that for?" "I just want you to know that I love you." "I don't know how to tell you this but…" She slaps his arm and he laughs. "I love you too" he says seriously but with a smile.

Meredith woke up with a start and turned her head to see Derek staring at her. "You know this is getting creepy. How long have you been watching me sleep?" He doesn't answer with a joke like she was expecting him too. "Derek…?" "The whole time" he says. She looks at him and waits for him to explain because she knows that with Derek there is always more. "I just need to know that you're still breathing. That you're still here. In the hospital I could listen to the monitors but now…I just, how can I sleep if I'm not sure you're okay?" "Oh Derek…I'm not going anywhere" she says with determination. "I'm still here. Still breathing. Still fighting." He doesn't answer, instead he just looks into her eyes and she can see all the fear that he had been dealing with for the past 6 weeks. 'Lay down" she commands. "Just lay down!" She picks up his hands and puts it over her abdomen. She breathes deeply so he can feel the rise and fall of her diaphragm. "After you got shot I would sit for hours with my hand on you so I would know you were still alive. Bringing you home terrified me because there wasn't a code blue button, or a crash cart, but I just, I needed to know you weren't dying again so I did this." "Meredith I'm so" "No you don't get to apologize. Because now I've done the same thing to you and it's your turn to be paranoid" she says interrupting him. She breaks out in a small smile so he smiles back. "Just promise me no reckless driving" he says. "A few nights in jail could be fun" she says mocking him. "I don't know about that." "You would know!" He takes his pillow and hits her gently and she laughs harder than she has in weeks. Seeing her laugh, being back to her old self, made Derek's fears dissipate just a little.