AN: I moved about 5 months ahead and Meredith is now 7 months pregnant.

Chapter 3

Meredith sighed as she sat down on bench in the interns locker room. She was incredibly tired, but she was getting in the extra surgeries so that she could still become a resident with everyone else. She had six weeks before her maternity leave started and then would be back in after the baby was two months old. Derek and Addison had gone back to New York three months prior, and Meredith was yet to be getting over him.

"Meredith, did you get the labs for Anne Isaacs done yet?"

"Yes, here they are. I was just going to find you."
"Sure you were." Bailey smiled and turned to leave, remembering what it had been like when she was pregnant, only she had someone to go home too. Meredith had Izzie and George. "You can stay in here for a few more minutes, but then you need to get back to work, and if anyone asks, I didn't know you were in here." Meredith smiled, Bailey still had to keep up her "Nazi" persona, even though having her son had made her somewhat soft.

Beep Beep Beep

Meredith got up, knowing that she was lucky for even getting the few minutes that she had gotten. She quickly made her way to trauma, to assist with the latest patient. Meredith heard the paramedic filling Bailey in on the patient.

"Jane Doe, found in the park, blunt force trauma to the head, along with several lacerations on her legs and abdomen."

"Lets go people, get her a CT asap, run tox screens, lets go!" Bailey barked at the nurses in the room. Bailey looked at Meredith, "Get her down to CT, then page me."

"Okay." Meredith nodded and wheeled the girl down to CT. She was about 8 from what Meredith could tell, had been treated badly. Where were this girl's parents at? Why hadn't they been watching her? Ever since Meredith became pregnant, she had been having strong feelings about her young patients.

After the scan, cut to Meredith sitting in the girls room, watching her sleep.

Meredith looked down as the young girl started to wake up. "Hey there."

"Hi." The little girl looked scared, so Meredith picked up her hand, glad that the young girl didn't flinch.

"My name's Meredith, what's yours?"

"My name is Nicole." Nicole smiled at Meredith, glad that she had a friend. "Did you call my daddy?" Meredith noticed the fear in her eyes, but didn't say anything about it.

"No, we don't have his number, we were waiting to figure out who you are."

"Oh, I don't want you to call him, please don't."
"Shhh, its okay, don't worry. What happened, why are you so upset?"

"N-n-nothing." Nicole looked away, not wanting to get in trouble for telling, she knew what would happen if she did.

"Sweety, how did you hit your head?"

"I, I fell walking to school." Nicole smiled, proud of making up the lie.

"Are you sure, it looked like something hit you."
"NO! He didn't do anything."

"Who is he?"

"Nobody. I fell, really." Meredith could tell she was lying but didn't want Nicole to get anymore worked up.

"Okay, I'm going to call your dad now, I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay."

Meredith left the room, her hand on her stomach. She ran into Bailey on her way to the nurse's station. "Dr. Bailey, I think that her dad hit her."

"Who, the little girl brought in earlier?"

"Yeah, she woke up, and one of the first things she asked was if we had called her father yet. She seemed skittish."
"Well, call her dad, and then social services."
"Okay."

20 minutes later a man appeared in the doorway of Nicole's room.

"Who are you?"

"I'm her father. Who are you?"

"My name is Leslie Simmons, I work in social services. Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Yeah I guess." Leslie noticed that he had barely looked at his daughter laying in the hospital bed.

"Where were you when your daughter was injured?"

"I was at work. She fell down the stairs."

"Why was she home alone?"

"She wasn't when I left. My stupid ass girlfriend left her alone so that she could get to the store early."
"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm not. How dare you assume that!"

"I'm not assuming anything. You said that your daughter fell down the stairs, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well your daughter said that she fell walking to school."

"That little" Leslie cut him off before he could continue.

"I think that you better not finish that sentence."

"I want to see my daughter." Leslie stepped aside to let him enter, "Alone."
"I'll be right outside." Leslie motioned to right outside the door. "And the door stays open."

Jameson nodded and went into the room by his daughter. "I told you to say stairs, did I not?"

"Yes daddy, I'm sorry, but I said stairs last time and you told me not to say the same thing twice. I'm sorry daddy. I'll do better next time."

Meredith wanted to slap the "father" standing next to the little girl, but she wasn't sure that she was even supposed to be in the room.

"You had better be. I had to leave work to come get you. I thought that I told you to stay in bed. I never gave you permission to leave the house."
"I'm sorry daddy, but I was tired of being inside and it was sunny. I was just going to go to the park for a little while."

"You stupid little bitch, if you had stayed in your bed like I told you, you wouldn't be in the hospital and I would still be at work!"
"Mr. Carrington! That is your 8 year old daughter laying in that bed!" Before Meredith could continue, she felt herself flying backwards, hitting the wall. All she remembered was Nicole screaming before everything went black.