A/N: Are email alerts not working for everyone else? They aren't working for me, and I'm getting the feeling that they aren't working for a lot of you as well, seeing I got over 20 reviews in the first day for chapter 1 and only 8 so far for chapter 2, which makes me think that a lot of people didn't get notified that it was up. I hope that everyone is able to find this story even if the emails aren't going out!
When you read this story, there are things that will come up that will probably have a lot of you going 'huh?' I promise, everything still fits with what we know from the show. The big revelation in this chapter will make even more sense when it is put into context in the next chapter.
Also, I want to apologize for not responding personally to those of you who have reviewed recently. I'm not getting emails about the reviews, so I don't have the link to respond to your reviews right now. I've been able to send some of you PMs, but I'm not even sure if those are going through right now. I do want to thank everyone for the great reviews!
"Rough night?" Meredith asked as she slipped into the OR gallery early Wednesday morning and noticed Lexie slumped down in the back.
"You have no idea," Lexie groaned. "What are you doing here, anyway? It's Wednesday, aren't you supposed to be at Molly's?"
"She dropped me off a few hours ago," Meredith said. "My physical therapist had to shuffle her schedule around, so she was up here today, not at Mercy West, so I had to come here for my session."
"Hey, how'd Molly's appointment go yesterday?" Lexie asked. "How far along is she?"
"Eight weeks," Meredith said. "Can you believe she made it that far and didn't suspect anything until last week?"
"Oh, I believe it," Lexie said. "She was almost ten weeks before she figured it out when she was pregnant with Laura. She just doesn't get morning sickness as badly as most women, and she's not exactly diligent about tracking her cycles."
"She's already looking at paint samples for the nursery," Meredith said. "Apparently I get to help with that project."
"Don't worry, if I know Molly, it'll take her ages to make a decision about anything," Lexie said.
"Good, because I hate painting. Maybe if she puts it off long enough, Eric will be home to do it for her," Meredith said. "Now, why don't you tell me all about this monster patient of yours? Maybe I can help...or at least commiserate with you."
"You know, when she first came in, I actually felt sorry for her," Lexie said. "She's ten years old, broke her arm falling off a swing at the park. Callie had to go in and do some surgical repairs, but it's healing nicely."
"I'm not quite seeing what makes her a nightmare," Meredith said.
"She keeps inventing all these symptoms, insisting she's still sick," Lexie said. "It's almost as if she doesn't want to leave the hospital. I'm so close to calling psych on her."
"Why don't you just tell her parents she's fine and discharge her?" Meredith asked.
"There are no parents," Lexie explained. "She's a foster child. There was a foster family that brought her in, but apparently after this incident, they decided she was too much trouble to keep. They claim she actually jumped off the swing, rather than falling like she claims. Social services says it'll take weeks to place her again, and they won't take her back to the group home if she keeps insisting she's sick. Something about increased liability if she's contagious."
"So she's a nightmare because you're stuck with her," Meredith said.
"It wouldn't be so bad if she were a nice kid," Lexie sighed. "But she's mean. Like, really, really mean."
"Isn't that a bit immature, Lexie?" Meredith laughed.
"Maybe, but you haven't met the kid," Lexie said. "She's insulting, sarcastic, couldn't care less about others' feelings…honestly, she's like a smaller, nastier version of Dr. Yang. And now she's taken to not speaking at all, which I didn't think would be so bad, but it's awful."
"No one can get through to her?" Meredith asked.
"I've had everyone I could think of try it already," Lexie said. "She made Izzie cry, Alex spent the rest of the day looking like someone had run over his puppy and I don't George and Olivia have forgiven me yet for asking them to try."
"Can I talk to her?" Meredith asked.
"After all of that, you want to talk to her?" Lexie asked in shock.
"I'd like to try," Meredith confirmed.
"Won't do much good, but you're welcome to take a crack at her," Lexie shrugged. "Come on, I'll take you to her room."
"Good morning, Samantha," Lexie said as she walked into the patient's room, earning a sharp glare from the little girl in the bed. "This is Meredith, she's going to talk to you for a while, okay?"
Getting no response from Samantha, Lexie shrugged and turned to the door. "Good luck," she whispered to Meredith as she headed out into the hallway.
"Hi, Samantha," Meredith said, pulling a chair up next to the bed.
"You're the shrink, right?" Samantha asked. "I figured they'd send you eventually."
"No, I'm not a shrink," Meredith laughed. "Good Lord, no. I've got way too many issues of my own to help anyone else with theirs. I'm a surgeon."
"Oh," Samantha said, averting her glance back to the ceiling.
"I do know what you're doing, though, Samantha," Meredith said. "And I know why you're doing it too."
"Well, aren't you special?" Samantha said sarcastically.
Ignoring the remark, Meredith continued. "I know you jumped off that swing because your foster family wasn't paying any attention to you."
"I fell!" Samantha protested.
Meredith just shook her head. "You just wanted someone to notice that you were around, that you were still here. I'm willing to bet they weren't your first foster family, either. I know it's hard never knowing what sort of family you're going to be with from month to month," Meredith observed. "Sometimes the family is nice, sometimes they're mean, and sometimes they just don't care."
"Those are the worst," Samantha whispered.
"Yeah, they are," Meredith agreed. "At least when they're mean, they're still acknowledging that you're there. You still feel like you're worthy of someone's attention. When they don't even bother being mean, it's like they're saying that you don't matter. You do everything you can think of to get their attention. You mess up your room, you break things in their house, maybe you even steal stuff. And when that doesn't work, then you hurt yourself so that they can't ignore you."
"I didn't mean to be a problem," Samantha said. "I didn't think they'd actually bail on me. That was pretty lame of them."
"It certainly was. How long have you been in the system?" Meredith asked.
"Three months," Samantha said. "My mom, she took too many pills and had to go to the hospital, so the doctors called Jenny and she took me away while my mom gets better."
"Is Jenny your case worker?" Meredith asked.
"Yeah," Samantha said. "I don't think she likes me much, though. I don't think the other doctors here like me much either."
"Well, I've heard you haven't exactly been acting like little miss sunshine," Meredith said. "Are you really sick, or are you still trying to get people to pay attention?"
"I don't want to leave," Samantha said. "People come see me here. Sure, they have to because it's their job, but still. It's not as lonely here as it is at the group home. Am I in trouble?"
"Of course not," Meredith said. "But you can't lie to the doctors, you know. What happens if you really get sick?"
"It's not like anyone would care," Samantha said. "I don't think my mom's coming back. I'm just a foster kid now. No one cares about me."
"I care about you," Meredith said. "And it's only been three months. How do you know your mom isn't coming back?"
"I don't know," Samantha admitted. "It's just a lot easier not to have hope."
"Sometimes, yeah, it is easier," Meredith agreed. "That doesn't mean it's better, though. There's always something to hope for. You never know what's going to happen."
"I'm not stupid, Meredith," Samantha said. "I know what happens to foster kids. We end up in jail, or on welfare, or out on the streets."
"Is that really all you think your future will hold?" Meredith asked.
"What, like you think it could be any different?" Samantha asked. "Nobody thinks foster kids can amount to anything. We're like the bottom of society's food chain or something."
"So prove everyone wrong," Meredith said. "Drop the sarcasm act, get good grades, be a good kid. Make something of your life. You make your own destiny."
"You get that off a fortune cookie?" Samantha asked, rolling her eyes. "Look, you seem to know a lot about the system, but that doesn't mean you know anything about how my life is. You wouldn't understand what it's like on my side."
Meredith sighed. "I rode a bicycle into a plate glass window," she said, looking at Samantha.
"Excuse me?" Samantha asked in confusion.
"The first time I got stuck with a family that decided it was easier to pretend I didn't exist," Meredith said. "I stole their daughter's bike and rode it around the neighborhood. When they still didn't say anything, I rode it straight into the grocery store's front window. Forty-five stitches later, I was back in the group home."
"How long were you in?" Samantha asked in awe.
"Six months, two weeks and three days," Meredith said. "Seven different families before I got to go back to my mom."
"Grey, what are you doing?" Callie asked as she walked up behind Lexie, who was standing just outside the doorway of Samantha's room, watching Meredith interact with the little girl.
"Oh, um, Dr. Torres-O'Malley," Lexie stuttered. "I was just…um…checking on Samantha, that's all."
"By hovering outside her door?" Callie asked skeptically, pushing past Lexie to look into the room. The sight that met her eyes completely stopped her in her tracks and she whirled back around to face Lexie.
"Is she hugging Meredith?" Callie asked. "Why is Meredith even in there?"
"Um, well, I told her about Samantha and she asked if she could try talking to her," Lexie said. "I figured it couldn't hurt. I mean, it's not like we're making any progress."
"What did she say to her?" Callie asked.
"I wish I knew," Lexie said. "They were talking too quietly for me to hear."
"Lexie," Meredith's voice interrupted their conversation. Callie and Lexie turned around to find Meredith standing behind them.
"Hey Meredith," Lexie said nervously. "How'd it go in there?"
"She'll be ready to be discharged tomorrow," Meredith said. "She won't tell them that she's sick again."
"How on earth did you get her to agree to that?" Callie asked.
Meredith shrugged. "I gave her hope," she said cryptically. "Look, I've got an errand to run. If you see Izzie, tell her I'll be back in plenty of time for her to drive me to my therapy session this afternoon. You're picking me up afterward, right Callie?"
"Yup," Callie said. "Alex brought your suitcase in this morning, so it's already in the car. I'll just pick you up and we'll leave from the office for L.A."
"Great," Meredith said. "I'll be back in a few hours."
As she turned to leave, Callie stopped her. "Just how do you intend to run this errand of yours? Because I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you aren't cleared to drive yet."
"Trust me, I remember," Meredith grumbled. "Even if I don't understand why. No, I noticed Derek didn't have anything scheduled until later this afternoon, so I thought I'd ask him to drive me and then we could have lunch before we came back in."
"Hey," Meredith said as she leaned against the door frame in Derek's office.
"Hey yourself," Derek said, smiling as he looked up from his charts. "To what do I owe this surprise?"
"I was just in the neighborhood, and I thought maybe you'd like to do me a favor," Meredith said. "I'll even buy you lunch for your trouble...if you're nice, that is."
"Well, you know I never say no to an offer of food," Derek grinned. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Are you ever going to tell me what the point of that little errand was?" Derek asked as they climbed back into his car after a quick visit to a nearby mall and lunch in a café a few blocks from the hospital.
"Well, I think it was quite obvious, wasn't it?" Meredith asked.
"Um, well, it was obvious that you needed to buy a suitcase and some children's clothing," Derek said. "What isn't quite obvious is why you needed that stuff."
"It's for Lexie's patient," Meredith said.
"The nightmare foster kid?" Derek asked.
"She's not a nightmare, she's just having a hard time adjusting to the system," Meredith said. "You can't really blame her, she's the victim in all of this, you know."
Derek was about to respond, but was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Glancing down and seeing that it wasn't the hospital, he quickly silenced it and turned his attention back to Meredith.
"You know, that's the fifth call you've ignored in the last hour," Meredith said. "Clearly someone wants to talk to you. Why don't you just answer it?"
"Because I'd rather talk to you," Derek said. "Besides, it's just my sister, I can call her back later."
"Which sister?" Meredith asked as her cell phone started ringing. Glancing down, she giggled as she saw the caller ID. "Never mind," she said as she flipped open the phone.
"Hi," she said, as Derek watched with a confused expression on his face.
"…Oh my God, that's fantastic news," Meredith exclaimed. "Do you have a name yet?"
"…That's beautiful," Meredith said happily, still choosing to ignore Derek's looks of confusion. "And you're both healthy? No complications?"
"…That's good to hear," Meredith said. "Yes, he's right here. Did you want to talk to him?"
"…Okay, hold on just a minute," Meredith said, putting her hand over the mouthpiece and holding the phone out to Derek. "You really shouldn't ignore your phone calls, Derek. Your sister would like to speak with you."
"Kathleen called you?" Derek asked. "How does she even have your phone number?"
"Talk to Kathleen first, she tired and she's waiting to talk to you," Meredith said. "We can talk later."
Derek just shook his head and took the phone from Meredith's hand.
"Kathleen?" he said, wondering if it really was his sister on the other end.
"I hope you had a good reason for ignoring my calls, mister," Kathleen laughed. "For your sake, though, I'm not going to tell Mom that I had to call your girlfriend just to talk to you."
"Sorry," Derek said. "I was having lunch with Meredith. I figured I could call you back later."
"Well, you could, but I can't spend all day waiting for your phone calls," Kathleen said. "I need my rest. I did have a baby this morning, you know."
"You what?!" Derek exclaimed. "Isn't it a little early? Are you and the baby alright?"
"Briana and I are just fine," Kathleen assured him.
"Briana?" Derek repeated questioningly.
"Briana Caroline," Kathleen said. "Five pound, nine ounces, already has a full head of the Shepherd hair."
"That's my girl," Derek laughed. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for this one."
"Hey, you'll see her soon enough," Kathleen said. "You are coming for Thanksgiving, right?"
"We'll have to see," Derek said. "I've still got to see about getting the time off."
"Well, you let me know if you have any problems, and I'll just call that chief of yours and give him a piece of mind," Kathleen said. "Oh, and Mom wanted me to tell you that you should bring Meredith too."
"Um, we'll see how things are going," Derek said. "That's still a few months away, so it's a little soon to tell."
"Fine," Kathleen agreed. "But keep it in mind, because she will not be pleased if you show up alone. I've got to go, though, because the nurses just brought Briana in to feed. I'll send pictures soon, I promise."
"Alright, have fun," Derek said. "And congratulations. Give my new niece a kiss for me, please."
"I will," Kathleen said. "Bye, Derek."
"Bye, Kath," Derek said, hanging up the phone and handing it back to Meredith. "So, are you going to tell me why Kathleen has your number?"
"Last I checked, it wasn't a crime for me to talk to your sister," Meredith said defensively. "Besides, it's not like we talk often. Maybe once a month, give or take a little."
"Since when?" Derek asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that you and my sister get along. I want you to be comfortable with all of my family. I'm just a little confused. I know Kathleen saw you when she came to visit me, but I thought that was just a one time thing. Did she call you after she left?"
"Actually," Meredith said. "I called her."
"You did?" Derek asked in surprise. He had definitely not seen that coming.
"She was the only psychiatrist I knew at the time," Meredith explained. "So when I decided to start therapy, I called her to see if she knew anyone good in the area that she might be able to recommend for me."
"Was she able to help?" Derek asked.
"Definitely," Meredith said. "A woman she used to practice with in New York moved to the area about ten years ago. She's actually about half an hour outside of the city, but it's definitely worth the drive. I've been seeing her since April, and I think it's been really good for me.
"Hi Samantha," Meredith said, smiling as she walked into the little girl's room that afternoon.
"Hi Meredith," Samantha said, looking up while Callie examined her cast. "What did you bring me?"
"Now Samantha, what makes you think Dr. Grey brought you something?" Callie asked.
"She said she was going to bring me a surprise," Samantha said. "She said she just had to go pick it up."
"It's alright, Callie," Meredith said. "I did promise her a surprise, and I did bring one. Do you want it now, Samantha?"
Samantha nodded and smiled eagerly.
"Okay, I hope you like it," Meredith said. "It's just a little something to make those transitions easier for you."
Meredith stepped outside the room for a moment and returned with a medium sized pink suitcase.
"I get to keep that?" Samantha asked in awe. "For real?"
Meredith smiled. "It's yours, sweetie."
Much to Callie's surprise, she saw tears welling up in the corners of Samantha's eyes as she climbed out of bed to go inspect her present.
"Okay, what was the big deal with the suitcase?" Callie asked as she and Derek met up with Meredith at the nurses' station. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone cry over a suitcase before."
"It's a self esteem thing," Meredith said. "Do you know what they give foster kids to move their stuff from home to home?"
"Don't they give them suitcases?" Derek asked.
"No, they don't," Meredith said. "I mean, they try, but there are so many kids, they never have enough. Social Services has always been one of the most underfunded government programs, so suitcases aren't exactly high on the list of things they're spending money on, and the kids never have their own. So instead, they give them one of those black garbage bags and tell them to just shove it all in there."
"Are you kidding me?" Callie asked. "They carry their things in garbage bags?"
"Having your own suitcase is a luxury most foster kids don't have," Meredith said. "That's why the suitcase made her cry."
"How did you know that?" Derek asked.
"I just did," Meredith shrugged, quickly changing the subject. "Has anyone seen Izzie? She's supposed to drive me to therapy right about now. I don't want to be late...I think I'll go look for her. See you later, Callie."
"What was that about?" Callie asked in confusion, turning to Derek after Meredith walked away.
"I haven't a clue," Derek said. "I wish I did, though."