meredith felt so much better having told her father all that Preston had said. It made it easier and she knew that it put his worry to rest. Her father had always been a worry wart when it came to her. He had gotten predominantly worse since she had been diagnosed.

He had taken the news well and had happily embraced her and even though he was still getting used to Derek being a part of his life and not just a colleague he embraced him too

Derek had then turned to Meredith and spoke of making lunch plans. "I just need to round on my patients first." he had told her before giving her a quick kiss and racing off.

Meredith had watched him go before turning back to her dad. "I have half an hour to kill... Got any ideas what i can do?" she asked him. She in reality, had the rest of the day to kill as she had done most of what she had needed to do already.

"You could go sit with your mother." he suggested and watched as Meredith sighed and her shoulders slumped over.

"Mer" Richard sighed as he led her to a seat and made her sit down. "I know we dont really want to, but maybe we should just give her a chance."

Meredith looked at him confused. "How can you just forgive her. She walked out on us. I could have died and she wouldn't have been here. How can you look past the fact that she kept your son from you?" She asked.

Richard sighed and moved back to his desk and pulled the portrait out of the draw. He then returned to her side and handed it to her.

"What?" she asked, having looked at this photo a few days ago.

"Who are the people in that photo?" he asked.

"My family." she mumbled.

"Exactly" Richard sighed. "We might not always like what they do, but thats exactly it. She's my family Mer, she's my wife. She made a big mistake, a life altering decision. But she says she is here to stay."

"She is?" Meredith asked meekly. She did not want to get her hopes up.

"She is." he reassured her as he sat next to her.

"Your mother and i have discussed a lot today, and it has been decided that she will move back to Seattle, and she will take up a position as a General Surgeon." he informed her. "So she's here to stay, so Mer, you need to get used to her being around."

Meredith leaned into her fathers side and rested her head on his shoulder. "What about Richie?" she asked.

"He will be moving too. Its hard because he is in his last yr, but he wants to. The papers have already been filed for his transfer and he will start school next monday." Richard told her.

"But where will he stay?" she asked. "Where will they both stay?" she asked, now worried about her friends living in the old house.

"They will be living with me, where they should have been all this time." he replied as he kissed her forehead. "You dont need to worry about any of this, just start to get used to her being around. She's not going anywhere."

Meredith sighed and looked down at the photo again. She decided after a moment that she might as well give it a try, after all, the worst that could happen was that Ellis would leave again, and therefore she would need to guard her heart.