Make note of the time jump here. You might get a little confused, but things will be explained! I hope you enjoy it. This is basically the second part of the story…

Chapter 39:
January 3, 2026- Seattle Washington

Meredith closed the tattered notebook and looked up at the familiar faces of her children. They had both grown up to beautiful young ladies. Celine was eighteen now and Aimee was sixteen. Meredith still couldn't believe all the time that had gone by and all of the events that had taken place. Right now, her daughter's faces reflected her own: emotionless. They were both uncomfortably position in chairs in the hospital's waiting room.

Meredith was used to this hospital. She'd spent many hours for the last twenty years here, but this was different. She wasn't used to this side of it. She wasn't used to being part of the family that was desperately waiting for answers, for hope. She turned her attention back down to her frail hands that were grasped tightly around the small leather covered notebook.

It held a tale. A true one at that. It had been her project for more than a year. Derek, his sister Anna and Cristina had helped her a lot in putting in together. She'd wanted a story of her and Derek. One that she could read whenever she wanted to. One that brought memories back to life: both happy and sad.

She opened the notebook to the page she'd just read. That was where her and Derek's story ended. Then scraps of her family and the last eighteen years filled the pages. Small stories of Celine and Aimee. They all held secret value that only Meredith could completely understand. She'd kept this notebook close to her heart, especially lately. As Meredith's fingertips grazed the black ink, footsteps struck against the floor of the darkened halls. Meredith looked up as her daughter's heads raised to meet the eyes of a man in a familiar white jacket. The night sky was beaming through the large hospital walls, making the background for the scene that would change their lives.

They all stood up, approaching the Doctor, but leaving a comfortable distance. As his mouth opened and words stung through the air; Meredith heard every word, but didn't process a syllable. Her vision blurred as her mind drifted back to when it all started. When their newfound happy life started falling apart.

Meredith's eyes opened in the dark. She turned to Derek and found the source of the noise that had disturbed her sleep. Derek was sitting up, the covers thrown off him, overlapping the covers that were already hanging on Meredith's body. He was hunched over, coughing incessantly. This wasn't a new occurrence. This is the way it had been for a week. Not just in the night times either: in the car, at the table, in the hospital cafeteria, in a patient's room, and sometimes even in the OR. Apparently not everything can escape the OR's serenity.

Meredith quickly sat up and placed her arms around Derek, trying to calm him down. She didn't know what else she could do. He slowed down his coughing and took a swig of the bottle of water that had begun to place permanent rings of condensation on his bedside table. He slowly caught his breath and turned towards his worried wife. His face was flushed and his eyes were tired. Meredith didn't know what to do other than give him a worried glance.

"This is going to be hard to hear. Just so you know, we've all been on top of this case since he became a patient. None of us want to lose such a brilliant surgeon, or such a brilliant man."

"Its just bronchitis," the Doctor told her and Derek for the fourth time that year. Just bronchitis. How about never ending bronchitis? Meredith looked down at the hand holding on tightly to her husband and then up at him. It seemed as though every time he got better, every time their life got back on track, he'd get sick again. She knew he felt guilty. He felt like he'd put a stop to their lives. Not only to him and his wife's, but to his children's as well. It was slowly killing him inside.

"We had our suspicions as to what it could be. He has all of the symptoms of lung cancer: coughing that continues to get worse, constant chest pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, repeated problems with bronchitis, swelling of the neck, fatigue, lose of appetite."

"Derek? Derek!" Meredith said suddenly terrified. She got out of bed. Derek was in the bathroom. She could see the light peering from under the door and she could hear his painful moans. She hurried across their darkened room that held the light shinning on the inevitable. She pushed the door open and revealed a sight that she would never be able to push out of her mind.

Her usually strong, held up, confident husband, the love of her life, that wasn't at all what she saw. Her eyes met a man, a stranger. He was wearing her husband's gray tee shirt and his blue and green plaid pajama pants, but that wasn't her husband. He was hunched over the sink in unbearable pain. Meredith's eyes drifted to the sink. She'd never felt so weak after the sight of blood.

"We've done a range of tests from an MRI, a CT scan, a bone scan, and a mediastinoscopy. We've been able to unfortunately diagnose your husband with non-small cell lung cancer."

Meredith's pager went off. She ran down the hall towards the OR. Derek had been in surgery. It was the first surgery he'd been cleared for in a month. She flew into the scrub room and took a deep breath before looking through the windows that displayed a scene that seemed completely unreal.

Many surgeons and nurses, some that Meredith didn't even recognize, were helping Derek onto a gurney. He was grapping at his chest, searching for air and it was reluctant to come. Bailey was standing at his side, trying to calm him down, trying to help him catch his breath. They began to push him out of the OR. They were gone before Meredith had even realized that she hadn't exhaled.

"It's is very advanced. It's in its fourth and last stage. Unfortunately we have no cure. We can offer a few procedures to prolong his time, but I'm so sorry. That's all we have," the Doctor finished.

Just like that day in the scrub room, everything became surreal. Her daughters wrapped their arms around each other, crying out in desperation and sorrow. She hadn't moved. The Doctor gave them a half-hearted smile, "You can see him if you'd like."

Celine and Aimee looked up at their mother. They'd never seen her this way before. She was completely pale and her eyes were glossed over. Before they could react, she began to fall.