Meredith walked out of the Seattle airport and into the city of Seattle for the first time in nearly 25 years. The only memory she had of the city was that up until two weeks ago it had been the site of the greatest tragedy of her life. Meredith spent most of the cab ride to her old house looking out the windows at the city that would be her new home. When the cab pulled up in front of the house where she had spent the first five years of her life, the memories began to come flooding back.
"Come on Meredith! We have to leave now. The cab is here and the meter is running!"
"But what about Daddy? We can't leave Daddy!" said five-year old Meredith with tears streaming down her face.
"How many times do I have to tell you that your father isn't coming back! He is gone for good. Now hurry up or we're going to miss our plane."
"But what about my pink princess room? I can't leave my princess room that daddy made for me."
"You'll have a room in Boston, and you're getting a little too old for all of those fairytales. After all of this you think that you'd realize that there are no happily ever afters in the real world," said Ellis as she grabbed Meredith's tiny hand and pulled her out the door."
"I want my daddy," Meredith whimpered as the front door slammed shut behind her.
"Well, we don't always get what we want do we?"
Meredith fought back tears as she unlocked the front door and walked into the entryway. This was the first time that someone, other than someone from the maintenance company hired to take care of the house, had stepped into this house in nearly 25 years. When she had been given the house by her mother five years ago, she had never had the nerve to go to Seattle and see it. She and Chris had planned to eventually sell the house along with the Boston house to buy themselves a place outside the city to raise their family, but they had never gotten around to it. Now she was glad, because she had somewhere to live rent-free now that she was in Seattle. She walked from the entry way into the living room which still had the same old beige couch and blue chair that had been there when she was little. She left her luggage there and went to check out the kitchen to see what all she was going to have to go buy that evening. As she walked into the kitchen the memory of one of the last times she had been there hit her like a ton of bricks.
"Meri, baby, what do you want for breakfast this morning?" Thatcher asked.
"Um…..pancakes!"
"Okay, one short stack of flapjacks coming up for short stuff."
"Daddy you can't call me short stuff anymore! I'm five years old now, and I get to go to school next month. Not the baby school in the hospital either. I get to go to a big girl school."
"I know, and I am so proud of you. I can already tell that you're going to be the smartest little girl in your class."
"Yep, because I can already read lots of books. Becky at day-care already went to kindergarten and I can read better than her. She said that she couldn't read at all before she went to school, and since I already know how I'll probably be bored. But, I don't think I'll be bored because school is so exciting! So much better than stupid day-care."
"I hope you'll always think school is fun."
"Of course I will! The only thing more fun than school is ice-cream, but you can't have ice cream every day or your teeth will fall out."
"Where did you hear that, princess?"
"From Tommy. He said that's why his mommy won't let him eat ice-cream no more. I think he might be lying though because I eat a lot of ice-cream, and I still have all my teeth, see," Meredith said as she opened her mouth really wide to show her daddy all of her teeth.
"Okay, well close your mouth now and eat your breakfast."
"What are we doing today daddy?" asked Meredith and she shoved a giant bite of pancakes into her mouth.
"Well, I have to go to work for a little while, so you are going to go to the daycare at the hospital."
"Daycare! I don't want to go to daycare! Can't I come with you?"
"Not today princess, but I promise that I'll only be a couple of hours then we can go to the park and ride the carousel."
"Really?"
"Yes, but only if you go to daycare and don't sneak out again, okay."
"Okay. Do you promise that we'll get to go to the carousel?"
"I promise."
That was the last time she had seen her father. Meredith hadn't realized that all of her old memories would be this strong. If she had, she might have never come to Seattle. This house so far was just as bad as the house in Boston had been. Maybe she could at least get some sleep here because she was exhausted. She walked out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. Shopping would have to wait until tomorrow after she had gotten a good night sleep. When she got to the top of the stairs, she was unsure of which way to turn. It was a three bed-room house. Her parents room was on the right, while her room and bathroom were on the left. There was also a guest room at the end of the hallway. She went to open the door to her old room, but at the last second changed her mind because she couldn't deal with more memories right now. Instead she went to the room at the end of the hall, lay down on the guest bed, and fell into a dreamless sleep for the first time in two weeks.