Part 2
She slips from his porch, but still remains imbedded in his mind. Her very presence is a constant reminder of his failure, one he cannot dislodge or avoid. Somewhere in the Seattle area, she is walking around, with his genes inside her and his mother's hand-knitted rug in her possession.
He had heard she was in Boston and something unclenched. She was gone, and he was probably never going to see her again—what was to stop him moving on?
But. Now.
Now… she's back.
She's here.
And he lives in fear of meeting her somewhere, with his new family. In the grocery store. The bank. In the next car at a stoplight, or at the dentist. Anywhere and everywhere.
He tells himself he doesn't want her to see his new family so she won't get hurt, but it's not the truth.
The truth?
He hates the pang in his chest when her wounded eyes meet his gaze.
He doesn't want to see them again.
*
He's turning his head to find the shortest checkout line when his eyes meet her cool stare.
It feels like his heart stops beating and he darts a look at Molly, flipping through a magazine. She hasn't noticed.
Forgetting subtlety, he spins his head back to look for her, dread flooding him. Coward.
But—it's not her, though, he realizes with a sudden burst of relief.
It's not her.
His eyes have caught on some fancy journal in the magazine aisle and nonchalantly he shuffles over and picks it up.
His thumb skims across the glossy front cover, featuring her standing next to some cocky-looking guy; the article is equal parts praise and unpronounceable words. Surgical intern Meredith Grey, daughter of the surgical visionary Ellis Grey, says one line, and it nearly takes his breath away.
It's two years later and her name is in magazines. The Shepherd Method is famous, and it is happening all over again.
"Did you see it?" Thatcher held up the publication eagerly. "Did you read?" "I don't have time to stay here and talk to you about whoever's publishing me this time, Thatch," snapped the woman to whom he was married. "I've got lives to save."
"Dad?" calls Molly, both she and the checkout girl looking at him expectantly.
He leaves his daughter in the magazine aisle and does not feel guilty.
*
He sees her again, in the grocery store.
It's really her, this time.
She's standing in front of the milk, a large tote in one hand and a cell in the other, looking…happy.
And yet… like Ellis.
He remembers the look in her eyes as she turned away from him and he shakes the image from his
head.
*
Then there are a few years he doesn't remember too well.