Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy isn't mine

Rating: K-T

Meredith dashed through the Emergency Room doors and stopped scanning the room quickly. The door behind her swung open violently and Derek ran into her back almost knocking her to the floor. Derek caught her but all she did was shake off his hand and run over to the bed where she spotted George holding onto Lilly's favorite stuffed bear.

Meredith rushed to her daughter's bedside where the little girl's tear stained face looked up at her mother. Her arms immediately went up asking for Meredith to hold her.

Seeing her daughter lying in a hospital bed was hard enough but watching her lift her arms hopelessly to her mother made Meredith want to start sobbing.

Immediately Meredith crawled into her child's bed and wrapped her arms around her trying to shield her from the world.

Derek stood watching the scene in front of him. Turning to George he looked at one of his wife and his best friends,

"What happened?" he asked in a hushed tone not able to really bring his voice up. He was a doctor and often saw small children in the hospital but he had never wanted nor imagined one of his own children to be in that position.

"The fever kept getting higher, I tried a cool cloth, she has had plenty of fluids, I even tried a cold bath but even after all of that it continued to get higher. Finally I just got too worried. She is only three… she shouldn't have a fever as high as she has now," George answered watching the little girl he considerer to be one of the most important things to him just like her brothers and Christina and Burke's son.

Derek nodded going into doctor mode. He needed to find out what was wrong with Lilliana.

Walking up to an ER nurse he turned into Dr. Shepherd the head of Neurosurgery.

"Admit her, then page Dr. Bailey. I want a complete set of tests run. Do it now," Derek ordered. He was never bossy or rude to any of her colleagues but he was scared and when he was scared and could do something about it nothing would stop him.

Not five minutes after Derek has spoken to the nurse Lilly was up on the surgical floor having tests done with Miranda Bailey looking over her newly created chart.

Meredith hadn't moved as she cradled her daughter comforting the little girl who continued to be poked and prodded.

Looking over at Derek she couldn't help but wish that he was hugging her close telling her it would all be over soon.

Derek caught Meredith's fear filled eyes and gave a small smile. Walking over to her he leaned down kissing her forehead before turning his attention to his daughter. Brushing her hair off her forehead and out of her face.

Looking at her tear stained cheeks his heart clenched.

"Daddy, I don't feel good," she gave a sort of plea to her father.

"Mommy, Daddy, Uncle George, Dr. Bailey, and the nurses are trying to make it all better baby. You are being so good, it'll be over soon," Derek reassured her.

He moved away and pulled Meredith with him once Bailey came up to the bed to exam the child.

"Ok little girl, I'm going to press down on your tummy and I need you to tell me if anything hurts, ok?" Miranda Bailey asked the young child.

Lilliana Shepherd nodded and watched as Dr. Bailey slowly began at her rib cage slightly pressing down.

"Ouch!" Lilly screamed out once Bailey had hit her lower abdomen.

Bailey sighed,

"McBernie's Point," was all she said taking her gloves off.

"Appendicitis," George said aloud shaking his head upset he hadn't seen the signs. Lilly wasn't complaining that the water hurt, it was the way he was holding her that hurt.

"Olivia schedule an OR," Bailey ordered turning towards the Shepherds.

"Ah, Dr. Bailey they are all full," Olivia informed her.

"What? That is ridiculous nothing is going on!" Bailey became frustrated.

"There was a number of emergency surgeries put up and are going on now on top of what was already scheduled," Olivia immediately defended.

"When should the next one be open?" Bailey asked eyeing the clock.

"Two, two and a half hours," Olivia responded.

"That puts us at close to nine. Schedule it." Bailey said turning once again to the worried parents.

"Appendicitis," was all Meredith said echoing what George had said a few minutes earlier, "Why didn't I see it?" She asked tears welling up in her eyes.

"We can't always see things in our own children that we see in others. It's a blind spot," Miranda comforted the woman she now considered her equal.

"Until surgery we will give her some meds to calm her and take away her pain," Bailey whispered running her hands through the young child's thick locks.

Meredith nodded. She knew the routine so did Derek but this…this was a complete different realm for them. Their own child was the one in the bed.

Derek hugged her tightly looking up at the clock.

6:45

Crap! He thought. They needed to call Christina and Burke and tell them what was going on.

"Mere, the boys," Derek whispered.

"Shit," Meredith cursed pulling out her cell phone,

"I'll call," George offered instead.

Five minutes later he walked back into the room.

"Christina is going to bring them by in a little while," he told his friends who had grabbed chairs and were sitting next to their daughter's bed.

"I want to make sure they are ok," Meredith said.

"Meredith they are fine," Derek loved her beyond anything he had ever known in his life. She was an excellent mother who… sometimes, tended to overreact.

"I will be back in the morning…but I have to go and get ready for work," George notified Meredith and Derek. He was already an hour late.

"Ok. George, thank you so much," Meredith stood and gave him a hug. Once George had left Derek looked at his daughter asleep due to the medicine that was being injected into her.

"It's just an appendectomy," Derek consoled seeing his wife once again turn a worried eye onto their daughter.

"Just an appendectomy!" Meredith said loudly standing up and looking up into his eyes.

"Derek! Any surgery is dangerous! What if her little body can't handle it! What will you say then?" The tears slowly started down her cheeks before they came fast and furious.

Derek pulled her into fierce hug and held her tightly letting her cry.

"Mommy!" Kieran shrieked as he wobbled into his sister's hospital room; followed by Andy and Christina.

"Hey sweetie," Meredith greeted her youngest child picking him up. Andy walked up to his mother and hugged her leg before moving to get up on the chair she had just vacated and looking at his sleeping sister.

"Is Lilly going to be ok?" he asked concerned.

"Of course she will be," Christina responded to the little boy walking over to the other side of Lilly's bedside.

Meredith held onto Kieran tightly and stroked Andy's hair looking over at Christina she sighed,

"I shouldn't be this worried…I mean we do dozens of surgeries like this every week," She was exasperated with herself.

"It's natural," Christina shrugged it off in normal Christina fashion.

Derek walked in still dressed in his scrubs and holding two cups of coffee,

"Wow Lilly has a lot of fans huh?" he commented walking up to his wife and taking Kieran out of her arms and placing one of the styrofoam cups in her hand.

Almost immediately after Derek had entered Bailey came in.

"Alright, OR 3 finally opened up, we can take her in and fix her up," she told the occupants of the room.

Derek nodded as a team came in the room and prepped the little girl for surgery.

Meredith held onto her daughters hand as they wheeled her into surgery.

"Ok, now you're going to go to sleep for Dr. Bailey and when you wake up we will be right there ok baby?" Meredith asked brushing her daughter's hair out of her eyes.

"How come you can't come with me?" Lilly asked in a small voice.

"Because Dr. Bailey is going to go with you instead and she is going to take very good care of you," Derek answered from his spot next to Meredith.

"Ready baby doll?" Miranda Bailey asked the little girl.

Looking at her parents Lilly nodded,

"Ok," Lilly answered quietly.

Bailey wheeled her bed into the OR not looking back at her colleagues.

As the bed was rolled in the operating room Meredith turned into Derek's chest.

"She'll be fine," she mumbled into his scrubs.

"Yes she will," Derek replied stroking his wife's hair.

Derek and Meredith sat in the on call room waiting for Bailey's page saying Lilliana was out of surgery.

"Mere, I need to talk to you," Derek looked over at her.

"What about?" Meredith sat up and looked at him.

"I got a page from the chief today so I went up to his office. He told me that Addison needs me for a surgery in New York, on a preemie…."

Meredith stood up, "When?"

"She said that she would have someone in New York do it, but this kid has been through a lot already and she wants me to do it…I've done this surgery successfully before…"

He was cut off, "When Derek?" Meredith asked her tone cold.

Derek looked up at his wife, "Richard was going to book a plane for tomorrow morning around eight," Derek sighed when Meredith turned and looked at him her eyes cold and angry.

"Our three year old daughter is in the middle of surgery right now and you just want to flit off to New York and be Super Derek? Seriously?" She asked him

"Meredith, it will be three days tops," Derek tried to reason.

"No! Lilly will be here for at least two, and then she will need to be taken care of outside of the hospital, Andy has school on Monday too and I have to be here at six… how am I supposed to get him to school? Everyone is working on Monday! Kieran seems to be the only one who doesn't have a full agenda…hmmm maybe I should hand him the keys and he can take Andy to school while his mother is working and trying to finish up a fellowship and his father who is available to be there is off in New York doing his ex wife a favor!" Meredith paced the room ranting and trying her best to figure out how she was going to work this out.

Sure she was being selfish but they were parents and their children…well they came first.

"Meredith, I tried. I really tried to get out of it," Derek stood and tried to get her to stop pacing.

"No! You know what Derek go just…" she was cut off by her pager going off. Looking down at it she sighed,

"Bailey, Lilly is out," she said shortly walking out of the room and heading back to Lilly's room.

Derek followed her and tried to take her hand but she pulled away from him,

"No…I'm too angry right now and I need to focus on our child," Meredith mumbled as they walked into Lilliana's room.

"Meredith, I need to go," Derek whispered at six the next morning. Meredith's head shot up. Her neck was killing her she and Derek and fallen asleep in Lilliana's room. Christina had offered to take the boys until Monday.

"Bye." She said shortly.

"Mere, come on," Derek pleaded.

"I'll be back Tuesday afternoon,'

Meredith looked away from him and turned her attention onto Lilly. Derek sighed and bent down kissing his daughters head. Standing up he leaned across the bed and kissed Meredith's cheek before she could pull away.

"I'll check on my boys on the way to the airport," Derek informed her as he left the room.

Meredith let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and flopped back down into the chair she had slept in the night before.

She could do this.

"Mommy?" Lilly slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey there," Meredith immediately pushed Derek to the back of her mind and focused on her daughter.

"How are you feeling?"

"Sleepy," Lilly replied.

"Ok, go back to sleep," Meredith stroked the little girls cheek.

Three hours later Meredith had showered and changed her scrubs and was on her way to see Lilly when she ran into Izzie.

"Meredith!" the other woman shrieked. Meredith was at first confused…Izzie was unusually upbeat.

"Izzie…OH! LET ME SEE YOUR HAND!" she asked acting like a high school girl.

Izzie proudly stuck out her left hand showing off the stunning diamond that reflected the hospitals florescent lights.

"Wow," Meredith smiled at her glowing friend.

"So whose chart do you have?" Izzie asked grabbing and opening it up.

Reading the first line her face immediately drew in concern,

"Meredith…why does Lilly have a chart?" She asked.

"George brought her in yesterday… appendicitis," Meredith told her friend.

"My god, why didn't you call me?" Izzie asked.

"I could have been here…Alex too… we could have helped,"

"I didn't want to even think about calling you. Alex had been planning that since August!" Meredith defended herself.

"Oh Mere… I wouldn't have cared. I'm so sorry," Izzie pulled her friend into a tight hug. Meredith hugged her back needing some of the support she was offering.

Suddenly Meredith pulled away when her pager went off,

"What is it?" Izzie asked

"Alex, but its Lilly…" Meredith answered

"I'll see you later Iz," Meredith said turning in concern. Alex wasn't a pediatrician but he had spent enough time working with children during his internship, she trusted his opinion.

Once Meredith walked in the door she saw Alex standing there taking Lilly's temperature as he talked animatedly to her.

"Here's Mommy," he told her glancing over and seeing Meredith enter,

"And your chart…I've been looking for this," he frowned at Meredith grabbing the chart from her hand.

Meredith saw Lilly sitting up slightly and was surprised to see her alert.

"She is running a fever…at first I just thought it was the surgery until…" Alex was interrupted by Lilly's loud and deep cough.

Meredith turned her attention to her daughter.

"It looks like a she got the double whammy… appendicitis and pneumonia, but we won't know that for sure until we get x-rays of her chest and check on her lungs," Alex continued.

"She has shown no signs of pneumonia though," Meredith insisted.

"Yeah the surgery probably didn't help much," Alex replied.

"I told Bailey she should probably check up… she didn't seem happy that I was looking into Lilly's case but oh well," Alex continued to scribble in the chart.

"God, Alex… she can't have pneumonia," Meredith fought the tears building up behind her eyes.

"If she does Meredith we are all here we can help you guys out. You and Derek can handle it," Alex reassured her.

"Derek's in New York," Meredith told him.

"WHAT! While Lil's is here?" Alex was upset.

"Addison needed him for a surgery on a premature baby or something," Meredith shook her head.

Alex shook his head as well knowing Meredith was upset and knowing how difficult the next few days would be on her.

"Don't worry Mere, she is in excellent hands," Alex hugged her.

"Oh by the way thanks for calling us when she was admitted," he told her.

"Alex you would have killed me if I had interrupted last night," Meredith found herself once again defending herself.

"No, Lilly comes before that kind of thing," Alex responded as he turned and kissed the little girls check and then Meredith's.

"I'll be back later," he told her.

Meredith turned and looked at her daughter who coughed loudly and rubbed her chest.

"Does it hurt when you cough Lilliana?" Meredith asked with no energy at all.

Lilly shook her head slowly and coughed again.

"Ok… we will fix it for you," Meredith told her about to take a seat when her pager went off.

911- Incoming Patient

Kissing her daughter she ran downstairs to the emergency room where they brought in a car accident victim.

Looking at the elderly man she went into doctor mode and started her day trying her best to push Lilly to the back of her mind along side her father.

So did that take forever to write? I think so. Research Papers are a pain in my butt... I've been working on it and it still isn't done. Oh well I decided to finish this so I could finally post it for you guys before Thanksgiving. Anyway I hope you enjoyed. I hope to have the next chapter up by the end of the week! For those of you who celebrate it have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

-Loti