Chapter 57:

Derek slowly dragged Meredith out of her daughter's room, closing the door behind them. He brought her to their room and placed her on their bed where she continued to cry. Every part of Derek wanted to just lay with her and block out the real world, but he knew he couldn't waste a second.

He left their room, deciding that Meredith didn't need to hear the words that he was about to say. He couldn't get his thoughts together. He didn't want to process everything, but he knew he had to. If he didn't, then Meredith would have to and she's had to deal with too much lately. Too much for anyone.

He picked up the phone and dialed 911.

"This is emergency services. Who am I on the line with?" a lady said calmly.

"I'm Derek Shepherd. I need to report a missing child," Derek said trying to stay calm. He suddenly slipped into his doctor's mode: nothing was too much for him to handle and all emotions were left for later.

"Who is missing?"

"My daughter. Aimee Elizabeth Shepherd. She's sixteen."

"Do you know when she went missing?" the dispatcher asked.

Derek rolled his eyes thinking, "If I knew would I be calling you?" He knew he needed to cooperate for his daughter, "I'm not sure, but she went to bed last night and we woke up this morning and she was gone with a note left."

"Do you have any idea of where she might have gone?"

"No," Derek said calmly, trying his best not to release the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Where are you?"

"Our house, 1423 Ransen Street, Seattle, Washington," Derek said.

"We are going to send an officer over immediately. Just stay calm."

"I am calm," Derek said, not realizing how harshly he'd said it. "Thank you." Derek hung up the phone and hurried back into the room with Meredith. She was still crying heavily. Derek finally wrapped his arms around her and felt her warm tears seep through his shirt. He rocked her back and forth gently, trying to calm her down.

June 15, 2013- Seattle, Washington

"Okay, Amzie, I'm going to let go. Are you ready?" Derek cautiously asked holding onto his small daughter and her bike.

"Let go!" she squealed excitingly.

"Ready?" Derek asked again, lifting one hand off her.

"Yes!" she screamed with a hug smile on her.

Derek let go and watched as his daughter rode her bike down the sidewalk for the first time. He looked back at his wife standing on the porch. She was leaning against the house with her arms crossed. A broad smile was upon her face and her and Derek shared a look. Their look. Before he looked back, Meredith's smile disappeared and she took off running. Derek turned around and saw his daughter falling.

She fell to the side, lying on the grass. Immediately her eyes burst into tears and Derek scooped her up. He wrapped his arms around her as he carried her back to the house. Meredith caught up with them and began to soothe her daughter as she followed them inside.

Derek sat down on the couch and looked at his daughter. Her tears were still wet, but she'd calmed down some. Derek quickly examined her and thankfully found no blood. "What hurts, baby?"

"My knee," she said with a few more tears coming out as she pointed down to the small scrape.

"Can Daddy make it feel better?" Derek asked. She merely shook her head and Derek bent over to kiss her knee gently. As he straightened up, she smiled a little. "It is all better?"

She nodded her head a little more enthusiastically this time, "Daddy, you make everything better."

Derek shook his head and stood up once the doorbell rang. He let the police officer in and began to wish he could just make this one last thing all better.

Meredith walked back into her room after the police officer left. She just wanted to be alone. Well at least part of her did. That part of her really wanted to just crawl into a hole and block out everything. The other part of her wanted to just cuddle up close to Derek and hopefully forget everything else. The problem was, was that she knew she couldn't block out or forget her own daughter. Especially when she could be in danger. Real danger.

Every motherly instinct inside of her told her to go and find her baby. Find her and shelter her from all outside danger. That's the problem with having teenagers and living in the real world. You can't do that. And even if you could, your kid would hate you for it. All she could do was hope that the police could find her or she'd come home on her own.

The police said that the first 48 hours were extremely critical. And considering the fact that she probably left early in the morning before anyone was awake and the fact that it was almost noon, twelve of those hours were probably already gone. That's ΒΌ of the probability of her daughter returning, just gone. That is not the thing that any type of mother would ever want to hear.