Chapter 20 – Let's Have Some Fun

Zadie rose out of the wheel chair she had 10 minutes earlier been pushed down in after a discussion whether she could walk or not. Her mother had thought her brain was a mushy thingy that couldn't think clearly, let alone run a pair of legs, which Meredith considered reason enough for her daughter to sit down. Zadie hadn't agreed and had started to protest saying her legs were perfectly fine.

Then Alex had pushed her down in the wheel chair, saying all that came out of her mouth was blurry words that didn't make any sense whatsoever. He pretty much shut Zadie up.

"Damn it…" she swore silently so that no one outside the room would hear. "Crap…" Zadie looked down on the thing the hospital staff called a gown or a dress, because a dress or a gown it wasn't. I was everything but a dress. It was a piece of fabric with strings attached to it. It was something that could kick the most genius person's brain cells in their buts. It was that hard.

"Nice panties, Grey…" someone said behind Zadie and she instantly turned around to the face of her best friend, who smiled as she let herself in and closed the door silently behind her.

Zadie quickly put on her own shirt and gave Skye a hug. "I'm so sorry, I totally forgot…"

"It's okay…" Skye smiled as they broke apart. "So you found him...?"

"Yeah…" Zadie nodded and pulled her hair up in a big, messy bun. "He's kinda nice…"

"I saw him just outside… He got weird when he saw Mark…" Skye said and sat down in a chair. "What's this?" she held up the blue and white hospital gown.

Zadie gave out a laugh. "It's a gown… He went weird you say?"

"Oh dude, I'll believe that when I see it…" Skye shook her head as she put down the dress. "Yeah, weird… When I was down in the cafeteria Mark came and we talked a bit… Then came George and told us to come cause you had hit you head?" Skye raised her eyebrows. "It's so typically you to do such a thing… Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it's nothing..."

"Obviously not… You are having an MRI or whatever it's called…"

"It's okay… Seriously, they're all exaggerating, so please you don't start on me too…" Zadie tipped her head to the side and smiled. "Please?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "Anyways, when we got up here, at first your dad, or Derek was it?" Zadie nodded. "Yeah, okay, Derek looked first very intensely at Mark, and then when we actually got there he just looked away and when Mark spoke, not actually to him but to your mom, he walked away…"

"It's something weird between them, I don't know what it is yet, but I know they used to know each other very well before… It's odd…

There was a knock on the door and the girls immediately stopped talking.

"Yeah?" Zadie said and Izzie opened the door.

"Hi girls… Ehm, they're ready for you now, if that's okay?"

Zadie nodded. "Skye this is Izzie, she and my mom used to be friends… Izzie this is Skye, my best friend."

The two shock hands.

"I am still, ehm, Meredith's friend…" Izzie said and nodded. "I have always been…"

"Oh, well okay…" Skye started, and looked at Skye who smiled and then at the blond woman again. "I should go…"

"Dr Sloan is outside, just wait there and you can talk afterwards…" Izzie said and smiled as Skye exit the door. She turned to Zadie who had already sat down in the wheel chair.

"I suppose I have to sit in this one?" she said and smiled ironically.

"Yeah, hospital policy or something…" Izzie got behind the wheel chair. "You haven't put on the dress…"

"Seriously? You actually call it a dress?" Zadie looked up at Izzie. "It's not a dress…"

"I suppose you don't have to wear it…" Izzie started to push the chair forward towards the door. "But then you'll have to lay there naked, and that's not so fun…"

A hand rose in the air. "Give it to me…" Zadie said. "We'll make it work…"

"I thought so…"

After Izzie had helped Zadie put on the now called piece-of-fabric-with-blue-dots-on-with-strings-attached Zadie sat down in the wheel chair again. "This is not your field really…" Zadie said as Izzie started to push the wheel chair towards the door.

"No, it's not…" Izzie smiled. "How did you know?"

"Mom has told me… You guys and this hospital is pretty much it when it comes to things I know about her past…"

"So has she told you a lot?" Izzie stopped and looked down on the girl that who looked back.

"I know your real name is Isobel, that you are a good baker, and she once told me that you were going to have a little get-together-met-the-boyfriend-thing which turned into a full-scale frat party…" Zadie paused as Izzie smiled yet again. "She also told me that you're one of the best friends she's ever had……"

Izzie just nodded and continued to wheel the chair, but Zadie could see a modest smile, being tamed to not explode. "You happy, dr Stevens?"

"I'm fine…" Izzie smiled as she pushed open the door. "I'm just great…"

- - - - - - - - -

Meredith looked at Derek from the corner of her eye. He had stood there, still ever since she had entered. When she had said hi, he hadn't said anything back. He hadn't even looked at her, but it was probably granted after everything, so she really couldn't blame him. But okay he didn't look. People can be angry, still they can look okay, fine even, but Derek didn't look either.

She had tried to say something for quite a while but every time she had opened her mouth she just couldn't say anything. Either it was Derek who mowed a bit which made her think that he was going to say something or she simply just couldn't say anything.

"Are you okay?" she finally said as Derek continued to look straight on through the glass doors waiting for Zadie to enter.

"I'm fine…" he nodded slightly and bent forward to the microphone, pressing a button as Zadie was pushed in through the door. "Izzie, you know the drill…" he said as Izzie nodded and started to push the buttons on the big machine. "Zadie, you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine…" a muffled voice said through the speakers and she laughed. "Just lay still right?"

Meredith could see Izzie nodding, as Zadie disappeared into the tunnel actually smiling as ever before.

"That's right." Derek nodded.

"It'll take a while…" the technician looked up on them and then turned back to looking at the screen.

Meredith looked at Derek who stood leaning against the wall and joined him. "Are you sure, I mean that you are fine, because you don't look that… fine…" she rambled without any response. "Did something happen…?"

"Yeah, something happened…" he looked up at Meredith who swallowed seeing the look upon his face. "You came and now I have a daughter, that I might have to operate on and I don't want to do that, but I will have to cause I wouldn't let anyone but the best lay a hand on that girl because you are her mother and that makes you unable to operate on her…" Derek stopped. "That's what happened…"

"Oh…" Meredith nodded and joined Derek to look straight forward in through the window at their daughter who wiggled her toes.

There was a beat of silence before Derek opened his mouth again. "She lived with him… for two months after I moved here…"

Meredith was startled by his words. "What? Addison and Mark-"

"Yeah…" Derek studied Meredith face. "Didn't you know?"

"No, didn't…" she said and swallowed. "She told you today?"

"I've known for 14 years…" Derek gave out laugh of irony. "She never told me…"

"I'm sorry…" Meredith said and Derek nodded.

"Thank you…"

"How's it going?" a happy voice said and Izzie entered with a weird look upon her face. "Did I interrupt anything?"

"No…" Meredith shook her head. "Nothing at all…"

When her eyes caught the screen she froze, it felt like her heart stopped. Meredith instantly recognized what the screen showed and she looked at Derek who sat down in a chair by the table.

"That's pretty big, isn't it?" Izzie looked at Derek who rubbed his face.

"You see what it is…" Derek ran a hand through the dark curls and looked at Meredith whose lips shivered. "I don't need to tell you that we have to operate straight away…"

Meredith nodded, taking a step towards the screen and she placed her self behind the technician's chair. "Could you update the picture, please…?" she said, voice trembling.

As the new picture showed on the screen Meredith looked up on her daughter. Her toes had stopped wiggling.

"It's bleeding fast; we have to get her to an OR now." Derek stood up quickly. "Izzie could you alert the..?"

"Yeah…" Izzie stopped in the door and looked at Meredith. "It's going to be alright…"

"She's not smiling… her toes are still… she's not moving…" was Meredith's only answer as her eyes widened. "Get her out of there now! Derek!"

Meredith ran out of the control room as Zadie now again was out of the tunnel. She wasn't moving; she just laid there as she was sleeping like sleeping beauty, though Zadie's sleep weren't a sleep that would last for 100 years or whatever the amount of damn years was. Zadie wouldn't wake up all fine after those years, seeing the world had fallen asleep with her. Meredith wished she could make the story true but she couldn't. No one could. Zadie might not wake up, she knew that as a surgeon and in this moment Meredith strongly hated her choice of profession, as she felt unknowing until the end was rather good, better than to know everything and have that on your mind until that end. It may sound crazy, but Meredith Grey's way of dealing with things, heavy and hard stuff weren't her best asset and as of now, Meredith weren't the top surgeon she had come to be. Now she was just a freaked out mother who thought she'd loose her daughter.

"Meredith!" she could hear someone say and she turned in melancholy to her right, seeing Derek's face. "Meredith!"

"It's an acute… it's bleeding fast, you gotta go… I know… I know that because I am a surgeon and I don't wanna… I don't wanna…" Meredith started to cry, covering her mouth. "Derek… I'm so sorry…"

"It's not your fault…" Derek said taking her head in his hands, looking into her eyes. "You know that, Mer… The intracranial pressure is too high, we gotta get her into surgery to release the pressure and get rid of the hematoma, you know that… Fast… "

Meredith nodded carefully. "You have to go; I'll be there in just a sec…"

Derek looked at Meredith who nodded. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I know she's in good hands… I've got Mark and everyone… They're somewhere… I'll find them, you gotta go…" she swallowed. "Go, I can handle this…"

Derek nodded, gently placing a kiss on Meredith's forehead. He started running and soon he was by the OR in which the team had started to prep Zadie. He put on everything he always did when he had a surgery, when he had regular surgeries. Now wasn't a regular surgery. It was his daughter. He knew Burke probably wouldn't have authorized himself doing it if Derek had asked him but in this moment Derek gave a crap about the Chief of Surgery and what he would or wouldn't authorize. Derek thought he hadn't known Zadie enough to not get to perform the surgery, but long enough to not forgive himself if anything happened. Really it was a win loose situation and as he mad his entrance in through the OR door and the gloves slid on he felt his only way out of this was winning, he knew it was his only way out.

"It's a… ehm… beautiful day to s-save lives people…" it went dead quiet in the OR and in the gallery over them not a mouth moved. Obviously the news of the patient being the surgeon's daughter had reached them all. Derek looked down on the head in front of him and he swallowed. "Let's have some fun…"