Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters, and probably never will.

Thank you to those of you who actually reviewed. I really appreciate it.

So, here we are at the end of another story, I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it.

Epilogue

Fifteen years later

Susanna Grey-Shepherd leisurely climbs out of her large poster bed, takes her hot pink dressing gown off its hook, and pulls it on before walking gracefully down the hallway, passing her brother's room, then her cousin's before stepping down the stairs to where her mother and aunts are busily cooking what she assumes to be breakfast. When she reaches her mother's side, Susie happily embraces her.

Meredith returns the hug warmly. "Good morning darling, happy sweet sixteenth."

Susie steps back, but only slightly. "Morning Mommy." She then takes the opportunity to hug her Aunt Lexie and Aunt Izzie. "Morning guys."

"Happy birthday baby." Izzie says, leaning forward in her wheelchair so that her niece can hug her.

Lexie then excitedly steps forward, and takes her turn to embrace her niece. "Happy birthday Suse."

At this moment, Lexie and her husband Patrick's six year old daughter Kaitlin comes bounding into the kitchen, and Lexie releases her hold on Susanna so she can pick her daughter up. "Hey baby girl." She then hands Kaitlin over to Susanna. "Say happy birthday to Susie, Katie."

In a very childish voice, Kaitlin says. "Happy Birthday Suey." She hasn't yet gotten the hang of saying Susie, just Suey.

Derek Grey-Shepherd starts his morning very differently. His head is pounding, but he doesn't regret the half a bottle of vodka he downed the night before, at least he feels something. He falls out of his bed, which though he would never admit it needs replacing, badly. And then he digs through a pile of clothes which he no longer has any idea whether they are clean, or not until he finds a black tattered band shirt and a pair of well worn dark jeans, and pulls them on before trudging out to the kitchen where everyone is now gathered, eating freshly baked muffins and pancakes. They each greet him, wish him happy birthday, but he ignores them as he goes over to the medicine cabinet, pulls out a bottle of antidepressants, and swallows two.

As he then tries to grab a muffin from the table, Meredith grabs his hand, and turns around in her chair. "Derek Joseph, stop." She stands up, and uses her chair to help her balance. "Answer me and your aunts when we speak to you."

"Whatever." DJ replies nonchalantly as he makes another grab for a muffin.

Meredith slaps his hand away. "Don't you dare use that tone with me. If you want breakfast, you have to sit here with us, and talk."

DJ pulls his hand out of her grip, nearly causing her to fall, but not caring as he storms out of the kitchen.

A few seconds later they hear his bedroom door slam.

Susie helps her mom sit back down, and they finish breakfast in awkward silence. They are all upset by DJ's behavior, ever since he hit puberty, he's been spiraling further and further out of control.

Later that morning, everyone starts to arrive for the twins' birthday party, there are friends from their school, all their aunts and uncles. Several minutes into the party, Susie makes her entrance, dressed in a figure hugging retro sun dress, her long dark blonde hair loosely curled and bouncing off her shoulders. She jogs over to where her friends are standing around. "Hey guys."

They all hug her, and wish her a happy birthday in turn.

Eventually Meredith can't cover for DJ any more, and honestly doesn't want to, so she climbs up the staircase, and as soon as she reaches the top of the stairs, Meredith is assaulted by the pounding of heavy metal music coming from her son's room.

Undeterred, she goes to the door, and knocks, no reply, not surprising. Meredith grabs her keys out of her pocket, and unlocks the door, swinging it wide open.

Meredith gasps in shock when she sees DJ sitting on the floor, cutting at his wrists, tears running down his face. "Derek..." She whispers.

DJ looks up upon hearing her voice, pulling his sleeve down quickly, and hiding the blade under his bed in the vague hope that Meredith hadn't seen anything. "Mom."

Meredith wordlessly sits down on the floor beside him, even though she knows it will be almost impossible to stand up.

After sitting in silence for almost thirty minutes, Meredith asks. "Why?" She pauses, and then with tears in her eyes, continues. "I did the best I could raising you and Susie, why are you doing this?"

"Just leave me alone Mom." DJ says, his voice rough from crying.

Meredith just sits there beside DJ for close to another hour before-

"Dad."

Meredith is too lost in her thoughts to hear what he says. "What?"

DJ takes a shaky breath before saying. "Why don't we have a dad? No one ever talks about him, and, I dunno... sometimes ...I need a dad."

"Oh baby." Meredith murmurs as she pulls DJ into a hug, and holds him as they both start crying.

Several minutes later, they both calm down, and Meredith says. "DJ, can you help me up? There's something I need to show you, and your sister."

DJ nods, and wordlessly helps Meredith stand, then follows her out of the house, and over to where Susie is still gossiping with her friends.

Meredith clears her throat to get Susie's attention. "Honey. Can you come with us for a minute?"

Susie looks slightly surprised, but agrees. "Okay Mom."

Meredith leads her kids down the driveway, and then down a smaller road, which they haven't been down in living memory. They ask questions, but Meredith remains silent as they enter a large circular garden, these days the headstones are less obvious as the plants have grown around them, but they still can see all three.

"Mom? What is this place?" Susie asks uncertainly, a far cry from her usual perky self.

Wordlessly Meredith walks over to Derek's grave, sits down on the bench, and motions for the kids to join her, which they do hesitantly.

They read the engraving. "Dad?" They ask almost simultaneously.

Meredith ignores their questions as she starts to tell them a story. "When I was in my fourth year of residency, me and Derek, your father worked together on a clinical trial. When I was seven months pregnant, we were asleep at my house, in Queen Anne Park, Derek had moved a couple of months ago..." Meredith has to blink back tears as she says. "There was a protest group, they set explosives in the foundations, they triggered them in the middle of the night."

Susie and DJ start to piece together this information, but before they can say anything, Meredith continues.

"Your father, and two of my best friends, Alex and George died. It was ...it was a really bad time for us."

"Why didn't you tell us?" DJ questions, feeling betrayed, and angry that he's been lied to for so long.

After a moment's hesitation, Meredith replies. "I didn't want you two to grow up knowing how bad the world can be. I'm sorry, I thought it was for the best."

They both move closer, and allow their mother to pull them into a comforting embrace.

Life is far from perfect, but at least they are in this together.

The End. Thanks for reading!

I hope the ending isn't as weak as I think it is. Please leave one last review.