"Leah, please calm down," Meredith practically begged as the screaming child continued to wail in her ear.
It didn't help.
Leah continued to scream as Meredith tried to bounce her while she paced around the living room.
Nothing had helped.
She tried to put Leah down, but that just made her scream more.
"What is wrong with you," Meredith questioned even though she knew she wasn't going to get an answer.
She would have been sympathetic towards the child. She probably would have been in tears herself at the small girl's hysterics. She would be if she didn't feel as though her eardrums were about to burst.
"Matthew, give me my doll back!" Beth yelled as she chased her younger brother around the couch. "Matthew!"
"You can't get me!" the boy chanted.
"Matthew, give her the doll back," Meredith tried to intervene.
It didn't work.
The kids took off out the room, hardly even fazed by Leah's current outburst.
"Please, Leah," Meredith continued to beg.
"Matthew!" She heard Beth holler yet again.
Meredith let out a gasp of air, and then with a screaming Leah attached to her hip, she left in search of the abducted doll.
She didn't get far.
She was stopped in her tracks by the sight before her. "Um, Robbie," she began, "What are you doing?"
"Coloring," he smiled up at Meredith, never taking the navy blue crayon away from the wall.
"Coloring," Meredith echoed only half surprised. She closed her eyes and sighed before muttering, "whatever," and walking away.
I'll just add it to the list.
"You're going to hurt her!" was what Meredith heard as soon as she entered the kitchen.
Well, what she could hear, anyway, over Leah's crying.
"Matthew, stop! You're going to hurt her!"
Leah screamed louder.
"I'm not going to hurt her!" Matthew called out as he continued to tease his sister with her doll. "I'm just going to give her a haircut!"
"Noooo!" Beth began to cry as she once again chased after her brother.
"Enough!" Meredith yelled. She turned Leah's head away from her face so she could actually think for a moment without the shrieking directly in her ear. "Seriously, enough you guys. I can't…" she trailed off and decided just to handle it herself.
Meredith walked over to where the children had stopped and grabbed the doll from Matthew's hand, giving it back to Beth.
Beth hugged it to her tightly as Matthew skipped out the door, off to find something else to do and not caring that his game was over.
Having two children quieter only relieved a portion of the stress, however.
"Beth," Meredith turned to the girl, "What is wrong with your sister?"
She shrugged. "I dunno."
"Well, there has to be something wrong. Nobody screams-" She was cut off by another high pitched wail. "Nobody screams like this for no reason," she finished.
"Give me the green!" She heard from the hall.
"No, I'm usin' the green!" followed.
Meredith groaned.
Beth followed her like a tail as the two of them went to the hall where both boys hovered over a now very colorful wall.
"Can you two not fight for a while?" she asked them.
"He took my crayon!"
"Not uh. I was usin' it first!"
"You took it from me first!"
"Not uh! I had-"
"Guys!" Meredith screamed. "Isn't there anything else you can do? You know, something that won't drive me nuts," she grumbled.
"I don't want to color anyone," one of the boys said, throwing his crayon to the ground.
"Let's go play Lego's!"
"Yeah!"
"No!" Meredith screamed again as she remembered she had already spent a good thirty minutes searching for and picking up all the pieces they had dumped earlier.
She didn't want to do that again.
"I, um… I have a better idea," she lied.
And they stared.
"What is it?" one of them finally asked.
"It's ah… Um, well." She had to think, and so had to do it quick.
It would have been easier without the constant screaming, though.
"Oh." Her epiphany finally hit, "Come on, come with me."
The three followed as Meredith went back into the kitchen and handed over a very reluctant Leah to a very resistant Beth before going into the laundry room and emerging with two of her light blue scrub shirts.
"Here," she said as she pulled one of the shirts over a boys head. "You two can play surgeons, okay?"
"Really?" The newly clothed boy asked as he examined the shirt.
"Yeah," Meredith replied as she donned the other boy's attire as well. "You can pretend to do surgery or something."
"Cool," they both said and took off running.
"I said pretend surgery, remember!" she called after them, "Don't hurt each other!"
"Aunt Meredith."
She turned around to Beth, who was holding Leah as far away as possible.
"Right," Meredith muttered, taking Leah back.
"What'd you do to her?" Beth asked, giggling slightly.
"Me?" she responded in disbelief. "I didn't do anything."
"Why is she still screaming?" Beth covered her ears.
"I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with her."
She sighed.
Leah had been upset for quite a while and she could not figure out why. She had been quiet for most of the day, only saying something here and there, but all in all she had been a nice, peaceful baby.
Until the moment she suddenly screamed bloody murder and hadn't stopped.
She sighed, again.
"I think I need to call Derek," she mumbled to herself.
Meredith grabbed the house phone from its charger and dialed his memorable number.
But it went right to voicemail.
"Ass," she grumbled at the recording before hanging up.
She thought about her options for a moment before deciding to call Izzie. Out of everyone, she would know the most about kids anyway.
But it went to voicemail.
"Oh come on." Meredith groaned.
The next possible option on her list was one she wished she didn't have to use.
But she dialed the number.
"Kids haven't drove you to an asylum yet?"
Of course she would answer…
"Cristina…" She signed yet again, trying to adjust the screaming Leah.
"Whoa, what is going on over there? Having a brawl?"
"Cristina." Meredith was already loosing patience with her so-called person.
"Oh, Mer, calm down," Cristina said in a cunning tone.
"This is insane. This is… I'm in a freaking madhouse, Cristina. Where the hell is Derek?"
"Surgery."
Meredith let out a frustrated huff of air. Right. She had forgotten for a moment why he wasn't with her currently.
"Mer, make this quick. I have Pre-Op in ten minutes."
"This is so unfair," she stated, "Everyone is in freaking surgery and I'm here, surrounded by the Children of the Corn."
Cristina laughed again.
"This is NOT funny."
"What's so funny?" Meredith heard come from Cristina's end of the line.
"Is that Izzie? Put her on!" Meredith asked, praying she was right.
"Mer!" came the overly bouncy voice a moment later. "I was just about to call you back! I was in surgery, what's up? And what's with all the noise?"
Meredith could practically hear her smiling through the phone.
"Izzie," Meredith said halfway between the verge of tears and anger. "She won't. Stop. Screaming."
"Who won't? Wait." Izzie paused for a moment and Meredith could hear Cristina muttering something to her. "He what?!" Izzie responded to Cristina before turning her conversation back to Meredith. "I can not believe you left you alone with all those kids! You poor girl!"
"Izzie!" Meredith yelled, causing Leah's own howling to turn to loud whimpers before once again becoming deafening screams. "We're past the whole Derek abandonment thing. Today has been… Whatever. I just need to… I need to be able to think, and I can't do that with her screaming. Now, how do I get her to stop?"
"I don't know," Izzie replied.
Meredith's eyes went wide. "What do you mean you don't know? You know things about kids. I need her to stop screaming!"
"Meredith, there could be numerous different things upsetting her. I know some possibilities, but I don't know what's wrong with her." She could hear Izzie sigh through the phone. "Did you feed her?"
"Yeah. Well, I mean, the kids all ate a few hours ago. Do you think she's hungry or something?" Meredith went to open the refrigerator, but stopped once Izzie responded.
"I doubt it. She wouldn't be screaming that intensely if she was just hungry." Izzie thought for a moment. "Is she changed? Did she have a nap?"
"Yeah, both of those," Meredith said as she tried to blow her bangs out of her face and switch Leah to her other arm. "I can't even set her down without her screaming louder."
"Well, wait. Hold on," Izzie said, "how old is she?"
"I don't know. She's… a baby."
"Yeah, Mer, gonna need a little more then that…"
"I know, hang on." Meredith rolled her eyes. She walked to the hall where Beth had migrated to. " Beth, how old is Leah?" she asked.
"Mommy said she's 17," Beth told her as she collected her crayons the boys had used on the wall, "but I don't know because my brothers are only four, so I don't know how she could be 17."
"17?" Meredith repeated.
"Months, Mer," Came Izzie's voice.
Meredith's shoulders dropped at her statement. "I knew that," she said in half-truth.
"Aunt Meredith, can I color on the wall?" Beth asked.
She knew it had to be fixed now anyway. "Whatever," came her answer before walking back into the kitchen.
"If she's only 17 months, she may be teething," Izzie told her.
"Teething?" she questioned.
"Kids teeth for a long time. It's probably a molar, that's why it's so painful. Give her something to chew on, okay?"
"Okay," Meredith copied.
"Tell her to put some whisky on the gums. That'll do it." She heard Cristina call from a distance.
"Don't listen to her," Izzie countered.
"I know you have some there, Mer," Cristina pressed on.
Meredith would have laughed, too. Normally. "Izzie, tell her shut up."
And she did.
"Now what am I supposed to give her?" She opened a drawer that contained silverware and grabbed a spoon.
"She'll need something cold. Preferably something soft, too."
Meredith put the spoon back. "What about, like, fruit or something?"
"Fruit would be good, but it may be too difficult for her. You don't want her to end up choking on it or something. What were you thinking about?"
"I don't know. Meredith looked around and opened the fridge door. "There's kiwi."
"That'll be too sour for her."
"Oh, wait, I see an apricot." Meredith grabbed the fruit, but quickly put it back. "Never mind, it's kind of rotted."
"I had apricots on the list. Meredith, did you not do the list? It was your turn to go grocery shopping," Izzie announced.
Meredith slammed the door shut a little harder then she intended to. "Been a little busy!" she called into the receiver.
"Right," Izzie continued, "Okay. Almost forgot. You're forgiven." Meredith could hear the smile again.
"Iz…" Meredith directed her back to the situation.
"Oh, right. Sorry. Let me think for a minute."
"Kind of in hurry here," Meredith said just before Leah decided to shriek louder then she ever thought possible.
Meredith cringed, and did the one thing she never thought of.
Shushing her.
Meredith held the phone on her shoulder and gently placed her finger on the child's mouth to quiet her. What happened, though, she hadn't expected.
Leah pulled Meredith's finger inside her mouth, and refused to let go.
"Leah!" Meredith shrieked this time, trying to remove her finger, but that only made Leah bite down.
Hard.
But she was quiet.
"Oh, okay, I got it, Mer." Izzie chirped.
"Um, Izzie, I have a slight problem." Meredith told her, still trying to get her finger released.
"What's wrong now? Wait. It's quiet. Why is it quiet there?" Izzie asked. "Oh my god. Meredith Grey, what did you do to that child?!" she finished in a panic.
"Me?" Meredith asked in shock. "Why does everyone keep blaming me? I didn't do anything. This kid decided to use my finger as a human chew toy; not my fault."
"Well take your finger out of her mouth."
Meredith closed her eyes. "Thank you, Izzie," she sarcastically replied. "Don't you think I would have done that if possible? She won't let me."
"Okay, well give her a wet washcloth, or dishrag. Give her that instead, that should work." Izzie said.
"Great suggestion," Meredith started, "You have any others on how I'm suppose to do that with the kid in one arm, gnawing on my finger while I balance the phone?" she asked. "Not to mention the freaking handcuff still attached that she keeps shoving her foot through..." she finished with a ramble.
"Mer, just put her down or some- Wait, did you say handcuff?"
Meredith sighed, "never mind..."
Meredith heard some shuffling, followed by something that sounded close to- what she would say- an elbow being jabbed into your side followed by an "ow". Then more shuffling.
"Hi, Mer" came the snide voice of Cristina. "Go ahead."
She sighed again. "I don't know what you're talking about, Cristina. Put Izzie back on."
"Oh, I don't think so," Cristina laughed. "Spill."
"There's nothing to tell," Meredith replied. She placed Leah on the counter and maneuvered the handcuff so Leah's foot was detached.
Unlike her finger.
"If handcuffs are involved, Mer, then there's something to tell."
"Cristina! Give it back!" Izzie came in through the background.
"Go frost something, Barbie," Cristina snapped at her. "I know something's up, Mer," she said into the receiver.
"It's not a big deal," she shook her head even though no one could see.
More shuffling occurred.
"Is she still upset, Mer?" came Izzie's voice once again.
"I wouldn't know. She's still latched on to my finger."
"Okay, do what I said then and give her something soft and wet."
"Hold on," Meredith said as she sat the phone down. She found a clean washcloth from a drawer and dampened it- all well keeping Leah from falling off the counter, or ripping her appendage off.
"Okay, Leah," she said to the tear filled child. "You have to do this now." Meredith stood in front of her, ready to make the trade. "On three, okay?"
She didn't even blink.
Meredith counted to three and with all the force she could, she pulled her finger from Leah's mouth.
Leah broke out in a heart-wrenching scream.
Meredith quickly handed the wet cloth over, positioned it in front of her mouth. Leah accepted and the screams once again stopped.
"Oh, thank god," she muttered.
"Mer!" she heard from the speaker of the phone. She gabbed the handset and pressed her ear to it.
"Yeah?"
"How'd it go?"
Meredith took in Leah's disheveled appearance. With the pad of her thumb she wiped the girl's tears away, then rested her hand on her tiny leg. Leah leaned into Meredith, and it almost made her heart melt.
"I think we're good," Meredith told her softly.
"You're okay now then?" Izzie asked for conformation, bringing Meredith back to the situation of what really just happened.
"Well, besides that fact that my finger is now swollen, and my wrist is bruised, I feel like my ears are bleeding, and my eyes hurt from the headache that's developed- I'm just great."
"Meredith, I don't really know what the problem is." Izzie told her.
"You're kidding me, right?" she asked. "I just freaking had to call you before the neighbors called the cops. They probably think I was beating them or something over here."
"It can't be that bad. So you had one mishap with the baby. I'm jealous you got to spend the day with them. Kids are great." Izzie beamed.
"Well I'm jealous you got to go to work today. Trade lives with me. You can come watch them until Derek's done." Meredith said, not even joking a bit.
"Wish I could, Mer, but I have to go scrub in. I'm with Mark today, back-to-back surgeries," she unintentionally gloated.
"Whatever." Meredith said in disdain.
"You want Cristina again?"
She didn't even pretend to think about it. "No. Just hang up."
"You're okay now?"
Meredith looked at Leah, then turned to her quiet kitchen.
Everything was quiet.
"Yeah, I think we're okay now."
"Okay, great. All right I'll see you later- crap, Cristina's coming. Talk to you later, Mer."
The line went dead.
Meredith replaced the phone to its charger and chuckled at her friends' antics. She knew Cristina would press on about the whole handcuff things, and if she told the truth she'd never be able to live it down. Being outsmarted by a four-year-old would not be something that would just go away if Cristina got word of it.
Leah let out a small hiccup and stuck her arms out to Meredith while the washcloth dangled from her mouth.
Meredith let the girl rest her head on her chest while she rubbed small circles on her back, basking in the peace around them.
Finally it was silent.
Everywhere.
Wait… Meredith thought.
It was silent everywhere.
"It's quiet in here," she said to herself. "Why is it quiet in here?"
The one thing Meredith had learned today, if nothing else at all, that when it's quiet it's never a good thing. It means someone is doing something they know they shouldn't be doing.
Silence means trouble.
Meredith scooped up Leah and carried her to the hall where Beth was.
"Why is it quiet in here?" she asked her.
Beth looked away from here coloring, but didn't respond.
"Where are your brothers?"
Beth shrugged, "I don't know."
Meredith stood stock frozen, momentarily unable to move- or blink. "Crap," she whispered suddenly before she took off in a bolt through the house. "Boys!" she called out.
It wasn't shocking when she didn't get an answer.
"This is so not good," she muttered.
Meredith checked the living room first. Then the den.
Nothing.
She turned around and headed back, moving towards the direction of the staircase and not noticing Beth looking on from the opposite end of the hallway.
"Boys?" Meredith called up the stairs.
Nothing.
"Come on guys!" she glanced to Beth, who once again shrugged. Sighing, Meredith ascended the stairs, with Leah clutching to her neck.
Countless thoughts filled Meredith's head about what they could possibly be up to. Her first instinct was leading her to the bathroom. That's where she figured they could do the most damage. With all the products and water sources the bathroom contained, it seemed like the prefect setting for the boys to cause an unnatural disaster.
As Meredith crept down the dimly lit hallway, it felt almost horror movie-esk. With the wind from the storm howling outside, and the eerie creaking of the floorboards underneath her feet, it felt very much like someone was about to jump out in front of her at any moment.
And with knowing how those kids were, nothing would surprise her.
Leah hiccupped, and Meredith jumped. She gave the kid a look and sighed, regaining her composure before heading further down the hall. "Guys?" she called in a light whisper.
Meredith was just about to the bathroom when she heard a soft commotion coming from the slightly open door before it.
Izzie's door.
She backed up a bit and pushed the door open more, revealing a pitch-dark room.
And the commotion stopped.
Meredith flicked the light switch on, illuminating two small, scrub clad kids.
"What are you two doing?"
The boys stood with evident guilt on their faces, and a stuffed bear in there hands.
A beheaded stuffed bear.
Izzie's beheaded stuffed bear.
"What did you guys do?!" She grabbed the bear's body from one of their hands.
"We were playing surgeons."
"Teddy!" Leah cheered through the washcloth as she reached for it.
"Leah, Teddy's broken," Meredith told her and held it up.
"Po Teddy." Leah sympathetically stroked its arm.
"We were goin' to fix it," the boy still holding the head told her.
"How?"
He held up a desk stapler.
Meredith scrunched up her nose at the though. "Are you serious?" They just looked at her as she stared at them. "Okay, this is insane. Come on." She ushered the boys out of the bedroom.
"But we want to play surgeons!" One of the boys looked over his shoulder and said to her.
"Surgeons fix people," Meredith told him, "they don't behead them. Now move it."
"We were gonna fix it," the other boy spoke up.
"But you removed its head- its stitched on head. You two dismembered the thing."
"But we were gonna fix it!"
Meredith decided to stop trying to make her point. The conversation was going in circles and she was running tired. "Just go downstairs," exhaustedly she said to them as they all descended the staircase.
One of the boys jumped over the last step before turning around and asking Meredith, "Can we still play surgeons?"
Meredith looked at the teddy bear's head still in his small hands. See how much Izzie likes kids now, she thought. "I don't think that's a good idea," she told them.
"Please!" they chorused together.
"We like surgery!"
"It's fun!"
Meredith stood Leah on the floor and stuck her hand out. "Give me the head."
The boys obliged.
"Now can you guys go play a game or something?"
"Fine," they said again.
"And can you take your sister with you?"
They both nodded, took Leah by the hands, and solemnly walked off to the living room in search of a new game that was as fun as surgery. Leah looked back once, and smiled showing Meredith the dishcloth still hanging from her mouth.
Meredith chuckled lightly at Leah before looking at the two halves of the bear she was now holding. "How am I suppose to fix this?" she mumbled.
"Can we have dinner?"
Her head shot up as she looked over to Beth who was now sitting on the floor, he crayons packed neatly away in their case.
"Sure," she told her even though she knew there was nothing to make them.
"Can we have peanut butter and jelly?"
She thought for a moment before she realized that they did actually have everything to make that.
All three ingredients.
"Sure," Meredith said again. "Why don't you go in with your siblings and I'll go make them, okay?"
"Okay," Beth told her as she stood and took her crayons under her arm and left.
Meredith watched her until she had turned the corner and couldn't be seen anymore before walking once again into the kitchen to make the kids food.
She sat the bear on the table, deciding to deal with it later, and rubbed her temps for a minute, trying to relieve her tension headache. Meredith grabbed the bread from on top of the fridge and decided to make them their dinner before one of them decided to barge in and give her an aneurysm.
"He is so dead," she said to herself. "I'm freaking stuck here, with kids…" She slammed the jelly on the counter. " I don't do kids." She slammed down the peanut butter. "I should be in surgery, not Derek. It's his freaking family…. His family… But he's my family… My freaking family stuck me with the freaking kids. Of course he did, my mother would have chosen surgery over me. She always did. Why wouldn't…"
Wait…
Meredith quickly finished making the sandwiches, quietly, and hurried to the living room where she found the kids sitting around flipping through the channels on the television.
"I got it," she said aloud.
They all looked at her.
"You guys want to see surgery?" she asked.
The boys nodded.
"Here," she said as she placed two of the sandwiches next to them and handed the other two to Beth. "You guys can watch surgery." Meredith smiled as she grabbed one of her mother's surgical tapes from the movie cabinet and popped it into the VCR. "You can watch a real surgery on a real person." She felt the need to emphasize her discovery.
"Cool!" All three kids cheered.
The boys fell to their stomachs and started eating as soon as the tape began.
Thrilled that it had reached their expatiations as much as hers, Meredith smiled to herself and sat on the couch with the girls.
Beth stared at the screen, fixated just as much as her brothers, while Leah climbed into Meredith's lap and nibbled on the tiny piece of sandwich she'd been given.
"Gross! Oh, that is so awesome!"
Meredith shook her head as she laughed at how excited they were. They had forgotten completely about being destructive, and loud, and obnoxious and instead were completely content watching her mother perform surgery.
As Meredith felt a weight of stress leave her, she tried incredibly hard not to think about what would have happened had she just put the tape in to begin with.
Hope you liked the chapter! I should tell you all that the next chapter is actually the last one. Well, the last one and then an epilogue. But the epilogue is really the first chapter of the sequel (that I will eventually write) but the sequel really has nothing to do with this story... lol. I'm already 500 words into chapter 15 so hopefully I'll have it up soon. It just depends on how life goes, I guess. lol. Anyway, thanks so much for the reviews, they always brighten my day :) More would be wonderful!