A/N: Hello! Welcome to my the-Grey-Shepherds-visit-Carolyn-and-the-sisters fic!

This is set ~2 months after the end of Organ Damage/Name, around New Year's.

Just for some context for anyone new to this universe, the first part of Nerve damage is the basis of all of the works in the series, and follows the Grey-Shepherds for the first eight months after Derek's 11x21 car accident. It ends with Ellis' birth, and Derek's removal of Jason's tumour. Jason was the truck driver who hit Derek and was later diagnosed with an inoperable diffuse astrocytoma by Derek in court (he's mentioned a few times here).

Derek Shepherd loved his sisters and his mom, but after so many years of being around them, he needed a break. A really, really, really long break that stretched from when he left for medical school to an odd twenty-five years later. He always got invitations for a Christmas Dinner at Mom's and an Easter Egg hunt at Kathleen's and a Thanksgiving meal at Liz's and a New year's dance at Nancy's, but he ignored them. Every. Single. Time.

Looking back, that was a terrible mistake. Looking back, he had no reason to keep rejecting them over and over and over. Looking back, he had really screwed his present-self over. Because maybe if he used to fly across the country three or four times a year, his mother wouldn't have been so insistent that he came to this specific New Year's Day dinner and firework display.

Every other time, he didn't want to go because his sisters were so critical, so annoying and so nosy. And, this time, he knew that their personalities were going to differ. They'd be even more critical, even more annoying, even noisier, but also angry, and frustrated, and pissed and…they would kill him. He knew it. Somewhen, one of them would scream at him.

The problem was, his sisters were probably right to do all of those things and feel that way about him.

Because he was a liar.

Not one that sprinkled little white lies about to make them feel better. No. He was the polar opposite of that; he had told them big, fat, significant, my-whole-life-is-a-massive-ball-of-lies kind of fibs.

"Derek?" A voice asked before he felt a prod in his arm.

His eyes didn't move.

She called his name again, like she was trying to get a dog to follow her instead of leaping into a bush but it was her repeated arm-poking that made him look up.

He didn't apologize for not looking up sooner, he just sighed. That told her that he was probably listening from the moment she started calling for him, but didn't want to register her.

"What's wrong?" Meredith asked, sitting down on the bed next to him and sliding her hand into his.

He shrugged as he registered the t-shirt in his other hand that he had folded up and chucked it aside.

She was using him as a packing-machine of t-shirts, but she wasn't going to hand him another one this time. "Well, if I know what's wrong, then you definitely know what's wrong too, seeing as you're the one with the long face."

"I'm worried about Elle on the plane."

She smirked. "Derek, you are not worried about Elle on the plane.

"I am."

"No, no, you're not."

"She was early."

She squeezed his hand. "There's a difference between preemies who you have to treat like glass for a little while, and babies who are bored of being in the womb and pop out a couple weeks early. Ours is the latter. She is completely fine. Arizona said she had no objections against her flying."

"She stayed in hospital." He reasoned. He was extremely overprotective of the little girl already, even though she was beautiful, thriving and doing extremely well for a baby born a little too early. Everyone knew why he couldn't bear to let her go for that long: all he could see when he looked at her was the life he could have missed. So he clung onto her. He clung really, really, really tight.

"Because it was stupid-a-clock when she would have been ready to go home. You were tired and I was asleep and Arizona didn't want to kick us out in the middle of the night."

He sighed. "I am scared. Is that what you want me to say?" He asked, his voice soft.

"You're gonna be fine Derek. Let's be honest-" She glanced to what was sat beside the bed. "-you've survived an awful lot worse than a few days with your sisters."

"It's not a few days with my sisters. It's a few days with my sisters, who I lied to, who now hate me, who think I'm an idiot for helping Jason, who are convinced that my life was ruined by the accident, who will be either overly sympathetic or about to kill me with anger, who hate you because they're idiots, who are mad that I haven't sent more photos of Elle. That is why I'm scared of this trip. I- I haven't seen Nance nor Kathleen since Mom told them. Liz already knew because she looked through my chart and she- god, she had to lie about me being fine for months and months…and, of course, she was right."

"Right about?"

"I told her not to tell anyone else about that CT, and she agreed, but then she asked me what I planning to do about the fact that I'd have to turn up to Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever somewhen in my life. It was a good point. What was I supposed to do then? Call beforehand to inform them that I've been lying for however long or just turn up at the door and hope I don't give anyone a heart attack when their family member turns up after a car accident, supposedly fully-healed, only to find this?" He sighed as he finished throwing rhetorical questions at her. He didn't even gesture to it anymore. She always knew what he was talking about.

It was her turn to sigh now. She placed a hand against his back before giving a quick kiss to his cheek. "It'll be fine. They're just your sisters, how bad can they be?"

"Meredith, we've been married for years, and Nancy still calls you a slutty intern."

"But Derek, I am." She replied, completely seriously.

His eyebrows creased. "You are what?"

"Well, now, I'm an attending-" She said as she pulled on his belt and unlocked the buckle. "-but I don't think that the first thing-" She undid the button before pulling the zip of his jeans down. "-has really changed-" She pulled her own t-shirt off. "-has it?"

He smiled, and kissed her. "Mmm. No. Not rea-"

Then their baby started wailing.

"God." Meredith sighed, standing. They hadn't done anything since Ellis was born. They were both looking forward to when she wasn't a whale, and completely forgot that what made her become the marine mammal later became something that still meant they could spend the night the way they wanted to.

"We should just go to a motel and spend New Year's having sex."

Meredith bit her lip. "Please don't say that. I'm..." She groaned as she looked at her only slightly unclothed husband. She really, really wanted to pull the rest of his clothes off and shove him onto the bed. But she couldn't. She had a life and responsibilities to deal with. "-I am so freaking tempted."

Meredith took a moment to breathe before knocking on the door; she was terrified. She was sure it was the right house. Ninety percent sure. Eighty percent sure. Not sure at all. It was rapidly decreasing as she knocked on the door only to receive no answer. If there were supposed to be over twenty people in there, she supposed that surely there was one person who could answer.

Derek had said that the house had a green door. The house she was knocking on had a green door. And a small '37' upon the brick wall besides it. He had mentioned that too.

"Mom. Why no one answ-" Zola started, only for the door's creak to cut her off.

"Hello." Meredith greeted awkwardly as Nancy opened the door.

"Meredith, hi!" She said back.

She guided her two older children in with one hand, the other wrapped around Elle, holding her tightly into her chest. They didn't move far into the house, not knowing a single person inside to talk to.

"Oh, you look even cuter than you did from that one picture Derek sent me." She said to the baby in her arms, a tinge of passive aggressive annoyance in her tone as she stepped into the house behind her kids.

It was a rather large house. A set of stairs ran up the immediate left of the door and a living room area comprised the rest of the room. There were two perpendicular sofas which were consumed by children and a coffee table in the middle, settled just in front of the closed-off fireplace. There was a door coming off the side of the room which she could only presume lead to the kitchen and a set of French doors leading outside. They were wide open.

The sister who had opened the door to her, plus Kathleen, who had just arrived besides them, let her absorb the chaos of the seemingly thousand kids before both realizing that the party was missing two, practically at the same time. "Where's Derek?"

"And Amelia?" Kathleen added to Nancy's question.

"Meredith, I swear to god, if you let them perform an emergency surgery instead of catching their flight-" Nancy started, worried they had found a way to escape yet another holiday party, although, they at least had four out of six of them. That was better than what they got every other year. She didn't need to finish. Meredith already knew it was a threat.

"No, no, they're here in New York, just-" Meredith tried to explain before getting interrupted again.

"Just? Don't tell me they're performing emergency surgery in the airport!" Kathleen exclaimed.

"Well, I believe they are still at the airport but not because of someone's medical emergency." Meredith explained, a little unhelpfully.

Kathleen and Nancy gave a questioning look but neither of them gave her anything verbally to request for an elaboration.

"They're having…accessibility issues. It uh- it happens a lot. Seattle airport was okay, I guess. Not great. Just…not the best place for him, despite supposed laws." She said, a tad saltily. Despite the extremely rocky start in his recovery, both psychologically and physically, they had both 'gotten over' what had happened and what it meant for the rest of their lives. But, despite that, the whole world was more complicated. Everything took more time and more money and more effort than it used to. Which was fine, most of the time, but extremely inconvenient.

"Mmm. I can imagine." Nancy returned. Although, Meredith knew that she couldn't really visualise what it was like for them sometimes. Like last week, at the park, where they found a set of stairs with no ramp and the whole family waited three minutes for him to get up them with his alternative method. Luckily, there was no one else around. Meredith knew Nancy certainly didn't picture that.

"Yeah, but we got to board early on the way there and they let him off first so there was that one advantage. If anything we're early and him and Amelia will be on time."

"No long boarding waits then?" Nancy asked, trying to be optimistic.

"One advantage." Meredith agreed. One advantage out of so, so many disadvantages.

Kathleen nodded. "How is he?"

"He's fine."

"Really?" She questioned back. "I mean- if we ask him about it, will he be okay? He won't like…cry or anything, will he?"

Meredith's eyebrows creased. That was an interesting question. "He's fine."

"It's just, you know, mom told us about…the thing. After the accident when he had, you know-" Nancy tried, finding herself faltering heavily. And she wasn't one to have a verbal stumble.

"You know you can just say mental breakdown if you really want to, right?"

"Actually, though I wouldn't use in a clinical situation, Meredith is right. Nervous, or metal, breakdowns often occur to anxiety, depression or an adjustment disorder due to a trauma that has occurred. Derek had all three. I'd call it a mental breakdown."

Meredith had no idea what to say to that. That was one way to give a clear presentation of Dr Kathleen Shepherd, psychiatrist, she supposed.

"Uh- okay, mental breakdown, nervous breakdown, whatever- doesn't really matter because he's completely fine now. Just an extremely sleep deprived dad to go with me, the sleep deprived mom." She said with a sigh. She loved their child, but she was a little too excellent at predicting the worst time to scream and cry.

Derek could feel the impatiency radiating from the driver of their taxi as he waited for Amelia to get his chair out of the trunk, legs dropped out of the side of the car. At least the driver was kinder than the airport staff, he supposed.

"On a scale of one to ten-" He started as she settled it infront of him before pausing to complete the hardest part of the transfer. "-how much do you want to run away, go back the airport and take a flight to Hawaii with me?"

She shut the door and let the driver leave. Meredith had taken their suitcases from the airport and given them to her own driver so they would have no luggage to carry. Or at least, that's what she hoped. Otherwise someone had stolen their clothes. "I'd say about forty seven."

"Forty seven out of ten?" He questioned, although he wasn't surprised by her out of boundary answer. Ten on a scale out of ten would never be enough to show the extremes of her anguish at having to talk to her sisters and deal with their perfect lives. He fixed his position a little (normally, he would have done it before he pulled himself away from the car, but he didn't want to waste the taxi driver's time) before gesturing with his head to tell his sister he was ready to move.

"Yeah-" She agreed. "-but I don't think you'd find the running away part that easy."

He rolled his eyes. "You're hilarious, honestly. You should quit your job and become a comedian." He recommended sarcastically.

"I will." She nodded as they reached the short path that led up to the house before pausing as Derek didn't follow her. "What?"

"Stairs." He noted, gesturing to the door. She turned around to look to the door. Obviously, he had put in an awful lot more thought into the house than she did. Then again, he had to. "But there are none round the back."

"Right, of course." Amelia nodded, following him round the four cars out front to the back gate. They both paused. Neither of them even wanted to touch it. He knew she wasn't just being dramatic when she said she didn't want to go, he didn't either.

"Am I going first?" He asked.

She shrugged as she looked to him before returning her eyes to the wooden door separating them and the rest of their family.

"Okay then," He sighed, pulling up the lock and shoving the door open slowly.

It was like they had never left. Their childhood home had a small walkway of patio that ran around the side of the house, expanding to a larger rectangle of solid ground as it reached the other side of the garden. The rest was consumed by slightly yellowed, trampled grass, her grandkids' frequent visits clearly taking a toll on the poor vegetation. Derek noted the recently-installed set of glass double doors – that used to be a plain old window last time he visited – as well as a new, eight-seater garden table on the patio. Kids consumed the space where the grass used to be, including his own (who were sat together awkwardly, clearly too afraid to socialize with the fifteen odd other kids that they had never met). Derek wasn't even sure he could name them all, never mind remember which ones were into football or tennis or painting or ballet or music.

"Derek! Amelia!" The pair's mother called, shaking both of them out of their observation of the garden.

"Mom, hey, hope we're not late." Amelia spoke first, stepping forward only for her mother to engulf her in a large hug. She was visibly uncomfortable for a second before she softened in her arms, hands reluctantly setting round her.

"Of course not. Meredith told me you got held up at the airport." Carolyn dismissed, still embracing her daughter. "You know, you could have knocked on the front door instead of just breaking in."

"Can't." Derek stated.

Carolyn looked round to her son at the sound of his voice and tried her best not to swallow at the sight of him. She failed. She had seen him…like that. But it still hurt. She still had that 'look' that he was on about when he kicked her out Seattle. She couldn't help it; it was a motherly response to drown in sympathy at the sight of him. She knew he didn't want it, but she really, really couldn't help it.

"Do you look at all your patients like that?"

"Mmm?" Carolyn murmured.

"If you're going to look at me like that or- in fact, you're not even looking at me...I- I want another nurse."

She sighed. Why she didn't skip her shift was beyond her. She was a volunteer nurse to avoid boredom; she had no reason to show up when she didn't feel like it. "I- I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Just find me a nurse who isn't going to look at me like I'm a freak show."

"I'm not- really, I-"

"You are." He returned bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest. "What's so interesting? That's what I always want to know."

"I'm not. I-" She swallowed, and held her eyes shut for a second, processing. "My son- he's uh-" She paused as her eyes drifted back down from his face, to the wheelchair he was sat in.

"Oh, man. Sorry." He sighed, quickly erasing all the assumptions and judgements he had made against the woman. "Fresh, right? Recent injury?"

"Uh- about eight months ago."

"Moms...my mom- she lost her mind about it. All moms do. Dads too. She took the longest to come to terms with it. Longer than me. Longer than my kids. You...you know you have a thing with your kids where no matter how old they are, they're still your little babies...well, turns out, that ideology sucks when it comes to disability. Avoid it at all costs, and you'll stop with 'the look'."

Her eyebrows creased. She wasn't sure if it was a coincidence that he said the same thing as her son, or if it was a common thing for...people like them. That felt so wrong to think. "Your mom gives you 'the look' too?"

"Mmm. She shoves boat loads of sympathy that I really don't want just through her irises- or- her pupils. Whichever way round they go. My life is great, honestly. At this point, it's better than before. Never would have met my wife if I wasn't, she was my nurse, or had any kids."

"How long did it take her to get rid of it?"

"Honestly...she still has it. And I was paralyzed thirty-one years ago."

She sighed. "Great. Just what I wanted to hear when my son is visiting in three weeks."

"It's got a step."

"Oh." She finally released Amelia from the hug to fully focus on him. "God, sorry. Should have thought about that before you came- I mean I've been thinking about- I just can't believe I forgot literally the first thing that yo-"

"It's fine, really." He reassured her, cutting her off. He didn't need his mother's panicked rambles; he knew it was an accident.

Her brows knitted with concern. "Are you sure?"

"Sure." He nodded, finally pushing himself forward to get a little closer to his mother. It was hardly like she could have done something about it. He would be extremely impressed if she thought of installing something accessible there for the times he visited once in a blue moon. When he paused, he offered her his arms. Hugs were difficult now, but she didn't even falter when she engulfed his whole body in the same rib-crunching kind that his Seattle-sister had received. Just before she managed to break another rib (he was pretty sure he had broken every single one at least once), she released him.

"So, Meredith is inside trying to protect Elle from your sisters and Zola and Bailey are over there." Carolyn gestured to where he had already seen the pair.

"Mmm mmm."

"Derek-" She named, pausing abruptly.

He did too, but he didn't have much warning that she was going to stop, so he pulled himself back a little to a more suitable place. "Yeah?"

"I…I'm really glad you're here. And I- I mean- I mean that in a different way than- uh-" Her lip quivered a little.

He smiled lightly. "Yeah. I know what you mean."

"Mom, you didn't set out enough chairs, is there one in the garage I could take out?"

"There is." Carolyn confirmed.

He sighed, although his eyes were still glued to the child in his arms. He wasn't part of the conversation, but he could hear them.

She frowned, turning back to the table and scanning it quickly. "Not, there is only n-"

"She means because it's because I don't need one." Derek elaborated, his attempts to not listen to their conversation failing miserably. He didn't want to see his mother make an attempt at explaining why.

She turned to her brother. She didn't know he was listening. "Right…never mind." She tried to shrug off passively before calling out, "Kids! Kids, I'm settling down the food now, come and sit down!"

Derek watched the herd amble over: a straw-haired boy called Mike, a blue-eyed girl called Jane, his own two kids, a boy with a red t-shirt called Ross and another ten odd kids that he couldn't be bothered to figure out the name of.

"C'mon then, let me take her." Meredith requested as she appeared suddenly at his side at Liz's shout.

He looked up, a little surprised to see her so suddenly, pulling the child a little closer to his chest.

"We gotta eat and she needs to settle." She reasoned. He never wanted to let the girl go. He sighed as he passed the baby over, wishing he didn't have to release her.

"Uncle Derek!"

He looked round to see, admittedly, his favourite nephew. He offered the boy his arms before he could hesitate over what he was supposed to be doing with his uncle and engulfed him in a long hug.

"Did you hear?" Lucas asked with a grin after he was released.

He smiled. "Of course I heard. Congratulations. What's it like?"

"Uh- a lot of work. But it's good."

"That's what you get for choosing to be a doctor." He said pointedly with a slight smirk. "Exams going well?"

He swallowed. "Um…no."

"No?" Derek repeated, doing his best not to sound outraged or surprised. He was clearly embarrassed and he didn't want to make that any worse.

"My brain knows the answers, but I just can't seem to ever get it out in the exam."

"You had that problem in high school too." He sighed with a face that shoved sympathy his way.

"Mmm mmm."

"Go on then."

He hesitated, confused. "What?"

"Tell me everything you know about SCIs."

"Really?" He sighed, eyes falling from his face to his chair. "Out of all the conditions you could have a chosen?"

"Show yourself that you're more than your grades. And, yes, this one. It's the one I have experience with from the doctor and patient side, so I can be extra judgmental."

He smiled a little awkwardly from fear. "Okay…uh, SCI. Stands for spinal cord injury. There are 5 levels. AIS A to E. E has no motor or sensory loss, A has completely motor and sensory loss. Mom told me you have AIS C, so you have a little remaining function in terms of both movement and feeling. Most progress is made in 6 months, basically stops by year 2. Common emergency treatments include immobilization of the spinal column via a C-collar for cervical spine injuries or a brace for injuries in the thoracic or lumbar areas, normally worn for three months. The patient's lives are-" He swallowed, eyes drifting away from his uncle for just a second. "-affected permanently as the nerve damage done to the cord is unable to fully heal. Occurs most commonly as a result of RTCs; falls, mostly in the over 65s; violence-"

"Okay, okay. You know a lot. You can quote a whole chapter on SCIs. Lucas, you're doing great. Not everyone is an exam kinda person. Luckily, you don't have to tick those little box things when you're an actual doctor."

"We actually colour in circles now, instead of tick boxes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, believe it or not, things have changed since the Stone age, old man." He quipped with a cheeky smile.

He smirked. "Stone age? C'mon Lucas, I thought you liked me. Surely you know I'm actually from the Triassic Period."

"You really think you're funny?"

"No." He shook his head. "I don't think I am. I just am. Now, you have to go and join your fifty cousins."

"That all know that I got the second lowest in the exam." He added, running a hand through his hair.

"But you didn't fail. And, if it helps, you see my table-" He gestured to it, watching the adults as they settled the last knives and forks.

"Mmm."

"I lied to more than half of those people about my accident. So I'm about to have as much fun as you."

"Wow." He said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "I feel so much better now."