Thank you SO much to those of you who left reviews. It really does mean a lot to know that there's someone out there actually reading/enjoying what I post.

Just to clarify for future chapters, this is not meant as a crossover. Amelia is a main part of the story, however, I've really only seen about 5 episodes of Private Practice (the last two dealing with Amelia's addiction and rehab being among those 5). So, I plan on staying as true to the character as I have seen but I would have to guess that eventually she may start seeming AU to those of you who are expecting the PP version of her. I still hope to do her character justice though :)

Also, I'm a huge MerDer fan so their relationship is also going to be a huge part of the story.

Anyway! I've got some angst and MerDer fluff coming at ya this chapter. I already had this one done so as a thank you for for your kind reviews I figured I wouldn't make you wait for the next one :) (They all probably won't be updated this fast though, haha).

The text in italics is a flashback.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2

Rehab.

How did he not know his baby sister was in rehab again? There were so many questions he needed answers to but as Meredith pointed out, he was on a schedule and now was not the time.

As he took a minute to stretch, his eyes fell on the light brown crib on the other side of the room. For the past few weeks it had done nothing but serve as a constant reminder of the child they'd lost. However, just a couple short weeks ago they finally got the phone call they had been waiting for.

"Dr. Shepherd? This is Janet from Social Services. I'm calling to apologize for the mix up the other day. We had some clerical errors regarding the paper work for your adoption hearing. All I received was the notification that the judge canceled the hearing, and as I told your wife, that either means he's looked at your file and is granting custody or is denying your request for adoption. Considering I only received the cancelation, I informed Dr. Grey that the outcome did not look good. However, this morning I received a notification that some papers happened to get lost in the shuffle of things. In case you can't see where I'm going with this, the judge reviewed your file and is granting you and Meredith custody of Zola. I tried calling your wife, but the phone goes straight to voicemail. I trust you'll pass on the good news. Call me back as soon as you can and we can get the ball rolling again. Have a great day."

He listened to the message a third time not quite believing his ears. He gripped the window sill outside Meredith's hospital room for support as he tried to let Janet's news sink in.

He turned to face the window looking into Meredith's room and smiled at his still sleeping wife.

Everything was going to be okay.

Meredith was safe. She had a minor concussion and needed a couple stitches on her forehead but she was okay. They just wanted to keep her for observation to be sure. Last night, he was so relieved to have her alive and in his arms. His previous revelations were not forgotten. He wouldn't let himself treat her like her had been the last couple months. There was no need for it and she didn't deserve it.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair the night before. The room was dark and silent save for the low whirring of the machines monitoring Meredith's vitals. Dr. Bailey had just left the room after informing the couple that Meredith would be spending the night and Derek had promptly climbed into bed to hold his wife.

"What?" she whispered in return.

"I'm sorry. For the past few weeks. For the way I've been acting. For the way I've been treating you. Like everything with Zola was your fault. I love you. I love you so much, Meredith. And I'm so sorry it had to take this for me to realize how easily I could lose you."

She shifted in his arms and turned to face him.

"And I don't ever want to lose you," he continued, "I couldn't handle that. But it made me realize that I don't want to keep going like this. Not being able to talk to you about my day, ignoring certain topics, pretending we don't still walk on egg shells with each other. I'm done. I forgive you. I don't blame you. I just hope you can forgive me for everything. For pushing you into the adoption and then blaming you when it didn't work out."

"Derek," she started, "I don't blame you for anything. Do you really think if I didn't want Zola I would have agreed to adopt her? I wanted kids, Derek. I've wanted kids with you."

She moved her hand along his cheek and softly brushed his lips with her own.

"And there's nothing to forgive."

"Yes there is."

"It's in the past. It's over now. I like your idea. Forgive, forget, and move on. I can do that if you can," Meredith offered with a small smile.

"Yeah," said Derek with a smile of his own, "yeah, I can do that."

Derek's thoughts of the previous night were broken when he realized two green eyes were staring back at him. After noticing she had his attention, Meredith greeted him with a sleepy smile. He returned the gesture ten-fold and was still beaming as he rounded the door frame into her room. He couldn't wait to tell her their baby was finally coming home.

"Derek!" Meredith hollered up the stairs, effectively breaking him out of his memories.

"Yeah?" he yelled in response.

"Not to nag but we really need to leave in, like, 20 minutes and I didn't hear the shower. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. Just trying to wake up."

He quickly showered and dressed, allowing his body to run on auto-pilot in order to complete the tasks.

As promised, Meredith was patiently waiting in the kitchen with two full travel mugs and her carry on.

"I grabbed some medical journals, today's paper, and some trashy tabloid magazines if you feel like reading on the plane. It's about a three hour flight so I figured they may come in handy," she informed him as she offered him a mug. "Ready to go?"

He nodded mutely and followed her out to the car. In an unspoken agreement, Meredith was deemed the driver so he hauled his still sleeping body into the passenger seat.

The drive to the airport was silent and uneventful. Meredith focused on the road and left Derek to his thoughts. She knew he'd need time to process and when he wanted to talk, he would. She didn't notice it until a couple years ago but they dealt with stress in similar ways. Not all the time mind you, but similar enough to know when he needed to be pushed and when to give him time to collect his thoughts.

They made their way through security and check in with minimal conversation and Meredith handling the flight arrangements. Once they were seated and in the air, she pulled out a copy of People and started scanning through celebrity nonsense.

She was halfway through reading "10 Things Longer than Kim Kardashian's Marriage", before Derek finally spoke.

"Is it pills again?"

She raised her head from the magazine and faced her husband. He wasn't looking at her and was instead opting for staring at the seat in front of him, but talking was good. Talking was progress.

"That's what Addison said. I guess things got pretty bad. They even held an intervention to get her to go to rehab but she resisted. They were close to getting her to agree to rehab until her fiancé walked in."

"Fiancé?" Derek spit out like the word burned his mouth. "She's engaged?"

"She was." Meredith placed her hand on his wrist and let the magazine fall to her lap. "The morning after the intervention, she woke up and he was dead. He overdosed or had a reaction to the pills or something. She called Addison and told her she was ready for rehab and she's clean now." The hand resting on his started making soothing figures against his skin. "She's clean, Derek. But she's hurting. She had Addison call because she wants your help and your forgiveness."

"Why…" Derek started, "Why did she do this again? She smarter than this…After the last time, I just thought she had actually learned her lesson."

"People make mistakes, Derek. And she is not doing it anymore. She doesn't want you there to fix her, she just wants your support. She wants her brother. Her fiancé is dead, Derek," she paused to let her words sink in. "You may not have met or knew about him, but the man she loved is dead. And instead of turning to drugs, she's reaching out to her family. It's a big step in the right direction."

"I'm supposed to keep her safe," he whispered. "I'm her big brother. I'm supposed to keep her safe."

His eyes were pained and glossing over from the tears forming in them when he finally looked Meredith in the eyes.

"Derek…" Meredith sighed sadly as she cupped his cheek in an effort to comfort him.

"I'm her brother," he said more forcefully. "How could I not know this was happening to her? She's just now getting out of rehab? No one thought to call before that?"

He was moving on from being sad to being angry and doing so fairly quickly.

"Do my sisters know? Does our own mother even know?"

They were starting to attract the attention of a few surrounding passengers and a couple gossiping stewardesses.

"Derek, please lower your voice. I don't know about your sisters, but your mom is already out there. She took the red eye last night and is planning on taking Amelia back to New York with her for a while," Meredith relayed as she continued to attempt to calm her husband down.

"I told you everything I know. Addison and I really didn't talk long. As you pointed out, I just got off a 36 hour shift and was on my way out the door when she called me. Then I had to track down Owen to get us the time off and call the airlines to get us on a plane. Then I showered and packed in about 15 minutes flat. To be honest I'm not sure what I put in those suitcases so, ya know, if I accidently packed your old band uniform or something, you know why."

She smiled when she saw the corners of his mouth twitch at her joke. It was probably the closest thing to a smile she'd get from him all day, but she'd take it.

"How did you know?" Derek questioned, staring at his hands in his lap.

"Hmm?"

"How did you know how to get me on this plane?" he clarified, still not meeting her gaze.

"Because," she smiled at him even though he wouldn't face her, "I know what it's like to have someone you're mad at need you."

He finally looked up at her as she continued, "I know how it feels. I was gallivanting around Europe with Sadie when my mom called me to tell me that she had Alzheimer's and that she needed me to come home because it was getting worse. I didn't even know anything was wrong in the first place, let alone getting worse. I didn't actually talk to her but she left messages. And of course, I avoided. Because I didn't want to deal with it. Because I thought I shouldn't have to deal with it. Because I was mad that she didn't bother to tell me sooner," she paused and looked Derek straight in the eye, "And looking back I wish someone had kicked me out of bed, thrown a suitcase at me, and told me to get my butt on a plane back to Boston."

She gave him a reassuring half smile as she watched him absorb her words. After a moment he reached out and took her small hand in his and held it between them.

"Thank you for throwing a suitcase at me," he murmured.

"Anytime," she stated before leaning over to kiss his lips.

Let me know what you think! :)