A/N: So here's the deal guys: I meant to post my timeline of events in the last update, but completely forgot, so I'm going to do it now. First of all, Meredith and Derek have known each other for six years. They met when she was 18, in September of her freshman year of college. Now, four years later is September of Meredith's first year of Med School (For example, lets say they met in September of 2011; their four year anniversary would be September 2015, however Meredith would have graduated college in May of 2015). They got engaged right after her graduation, and got married in the summer following her first year of Med School (i.e. June 2016), and then in Chapters 25 and 26, I skip forward about a year. Meredith is skipping a year of Med School (for my own story purposes), so she'll only be in med school for 3 years, and we are currently in January of Meredith's third year of Med School, making Meredith 24 (going on 25 because her birthday is in March), and Derek is 32. They have only been together six years, it will be seven years in the upcoming September. I know it's confusing, but just trust me, I hate when authors screw up dates, so I have done the math mutiple times to make sure that I'm right. However, geographically wise, I goofed, and should have put Penn station instead of Union Station, my bad. I'm going to explain more at the end of this chapter, so you'll get more info then.

On a sadder note, I have officially finished writing this story (45 chapters, FYI), and will post the rest of it as often as I can. However, reviews would make me ost so much faster ;) Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 40

Meredith was pacing back and forth outside of her mother's hospital room, figuring out what to do. Her mother was sleeping, and Derek went out to get the two of them lunch. He had said it would give them an opportunity to talk and plan about what to do about Ellis, and gave Meredith time to prepare for the fight she knew was coming.

"Hey, I got your favorite pizza," Derek said as he walked down the hall. "Do you want to eat in the cafeteria or the conference room?"

"Conference room!" Meredith answered quickly. "Definitely the conference room." Derek gave her a weird look but didn't comment as he followed her and shut the door behind them.

After settling down, Derek looked up at her. "So, have you figured out anything for your mom?"

Meredith swallowed and looked at him, eyes wide. "Actually," she began. "My mother already made plans. I guess she's known for a while."

"That's great!" Derek said with enthusiasm. "Well, not great that she didn't tell you right away, but it makes things easier for you right now. You don't need any more stress when applying for internships. What are her plans?"

"She wants to be placed in Roseridge, it's an assisted living facility in Seattle."

"Wow," Derek said. "It seems really far away."

"Yeah, I guess she doesn't want anyone to know she has Alzheimer's," Meredith said before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I was thinking about going out there with her."

Derek nodded, looking back down at his food. "Well, it would be good for you to go out there for a week and get her settled in and such."

God, he can be an idiot sometimes, Meredith thought to herself. Stupid brain man. "I wasn't talking about just a week," she snapped. That seemed to get Derek's attention; he gazed at her with a confused look on his face. "I think I might want to do my residency out there."

Derek was silent for a moment before he answered. "What the hell are you talking about?" he exclaimed, a hint of anger in his voice. "You're doing your residency in New York, like you've been planning."

"Well, lately I've been thinking about making a change. We've been here for six years, maybe we should move."

"Oh, so because you want a change, we have to up and move?" Derek shot back.

"No, that's not what I'm saying! I was just thinking about it before, but with my mom's diagnosis and everything, it just kind of seemed like fate."

"But why the hell do you want to go all the way out to Seattle. God, if you want a change, we can move to Connecticut or Rhode Island. Why Seattle?"

"Because my mom's going to be out there and I don't want her to be alone!" This was not going well. She could see the anger in Derek's eyes and the tension boiling under his skin. And the angrier Derek was getting, the more defensive and stubborn Meredith became. She wasn't sure that this would end well for either of them.

"Please Meredith," Derek scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Your mother has never given a crap about you your entire life, and for as long as I've known you, you haven't been very sympathetic to her either. So why do you suddenly care now? When we were first dating you wanted to be as far away from your mother as possible, and now you want to run across the country with her."

"Because she's my mother! She is my family!"

"And what about me?" Derek shouted. "I am your husband; I'm your family too! And my family loves you like a daughter and a sister. And you want to leave them for a woman that barely raised you and was never home."

"Of course you're my family, and I love your mother and sisters. And I know my mother is difficult, but we share the same DNA and the same blood. And she is the only biological family I have. We do not have an easy relationship, but I still love her, in my own way, and I want her to be okay. I don't want my mother to go out there and die alone!"

"So you want me to leave my family, and move across the country with you so that in a few years your mother won't even remember who the heck you are?"

Meredith gasped at his statement. She knew the prognosis of Alzheimer's, but it felt different to hear Derek say that. That one day, her mother wouldn't recognize her, or know her, and despite the fact that she was a perpetual disappointment to her mother, that hurt more than any insult Ellis could throw at her. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, and she wiped them away quickly so Derek wouldn't see.

But she saw Derek's face soften, and she knew that he had seen her tears. "Meredith," he said softly, her name like a prayer. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. But, this is hard for me to understand. You just threw the idea of a cross country move out there, and I have to think about it. I know it's easy for you, you can technically apply anywhere you want, but it isn't that simple for me. My family, our family, and our friends, live in New York, and I don't really want to leave them. And even if I was on board with this, I just got the attending position at Mt. Sinai less than a year ago. It wouldn't look professional of me to leave such a great hospital so soon. Do you get what I'm saying?" He grasped her hands and squeezed them, trying to make her understand.

Meredith looked down at their intertwined hands, her mind spinning. Meredith thought about it, and knew he was right. He had a family, a career, and a life in New York, and he didn't want to abandon it. But, her mother had no one else, and she couldn't abandon her mother either. Suddenly, an idea formed in her head. It was far from ideal, but maybe they could make it work.

"I get it Derek, I do," she said softly, and she watched as relief flooded his features. "It wouldn't be far of me to ask you to leave New York for me, not when everything you love is here. But I have to be with my mother right now. So, I think I'm going to move out to Seattle, at least temporarily."

Derek ripped his hands from hers and stared at her menacingly. "You're leaving me? You're leaving me over your mother?"

"What?" Meredith said in shock, standing up. "No Derek, I'm not leaving you, not like that. But I'm thinking that I can move to Seattle for a year, do my internship, help out with my mother, and then come back next summer. That way I'll get my change of scenery or whatever, and be able to spend some quality time with my mother while she's still lucid and knows who I am, and you won't have to give up anything in New York."

Derek shook his head. "No, I don't like it. You say it'll just be one year, but one year will turn into two and two will turn in three and then next thing I know you'll be mailing me divorce papers."

"What?" she exclaimed incredulously, rushing to his side. She put her hands on his cheeks and forced him to look at her. "I would never do that to you Der. When I say one year, I mean one year. I could never stay away from you that long, I love you too much for that. Plus, that would seriously throw a wrench into the whole baby making and family thing," she smiled at him, and he gave her a small smile in response. "Seriously Derek, you have ruined me for all other men. You are perfect for me, and I will never want anyone else. But I can't leave my mom alone to die. I don't want her to spend her lucid days alone, I want to be there with her, making it easier for her, comforting her, getting closure with her. Please understand that. It would never be a forever thing, I can't go that long without you."

Derek nodded slowly, tilting his head to one side to kiss the palm of her hand. "You want to be there for your mom, I understand. If I were in your position, I would do the same thing. If this is what you want, I won't stand in your way."

Meredith nodded, leaning in and brushing her lips against his, kissing him softly. "Thank you for understanding," she whispered. "It'll just be for a year, we can do it. Just one year."

Derek's eyes looked pained as he nodded in agreement. "One year," he mumbled, stepping out of her grasp and walking out of the conference room, leaving Meredith feeling completely alone.

XXXXXX

Three hours later, Meredith was sitting in her mother's room, reading. Ellis was awake, doing some sort of paperwork, and she hadn't seen Derek in hours. Not that she blamed him, she did just drop a major bomb on him, and he needed to think. The fact that they were going to be apart for a year was scary and weird, Meredith wasn't sure how she would adjust. But she saw no other way; she didn't want to hurt Derek's career, and she wanted to be there for her mom for a little while, so this was best.

"Mom, I thought you weren't working anymore, what paperwork could you possibly be doing?" Meredith asked, looking up at her mother, who was studying her laptop screen.

"Meredith," Ellis said with exasperation. "I am giving the Chief my two weeks' notice on Monday. That means I have to write my letter of resignation, as well as reassign all of my cases and make detailed notes about my patients in order to prevent other surgeons from killing them. Just because I am sick, doesn't mean that I can just drop everything. You need to have some sort of responsibility Meredith."

"Right, of course. Sorry I asked," Meredith groaned, turning back to her book.

It was then that she heard a knock at the door. Ellis glanced up briefly, but didn't acknowledge the visitor, so Meredith rolled her eyes and turned around. Standing there was Derek, a bright smile on his face, grasping an envelope.

"Hey," Meredith said softly.

"Hi," Derek responded just as softly before raising his voice. "Hello Dr. Grey, how is your work coming along?"

"It's going fine. See Meredith, Derek understands that my work is not finished yet, and that it needs to get done soon. I hope you take some pointers from him."

Meredith rolled her eyes as Derek chuckled, clearly amused.

"Dr. Grey, may I borrow Meredith for a few minutes? We have something to discuss."

"Yes, yes," Ellis said, not looking up from her work. "She's distracting me too much."

"Thanks Mom," Meredith muttered sarcastically. She got up and followed Derek down the hall to the conference room, sitting down at the table.

"I got this for you," Derek said, placing the envelope down on the table in front of her.

Meredith opened it, staring at the package of papers, trying to discern their meaning. When it finally clicked, she stared up at Derek in shock.

"Derek, is this an application to the Seattle Grace internship program?" she asked in disbelief, and Derek smiled back.

"It is," he agreed. "You need to apply here."

Meredith thought for a second before shaking her head. "No, I can't."

Derek's face fell. "Why not? You have to."

"Because," she began. "It's the third best medical program in the country, and I promised you I would only be in Seattle a year. And getting into that program, the program where my mother did her residency, would be amazing, but I don't only want to be there for a year. I'll just apply to Mercy West Hospital or something."

"No Meredith, you need to apply to Seattle Grace," Derek said firmly.

"Why?" Meredith demanded.

"Because I'll be working there," Derek blurted out.

Meredith looked at him in shock, not fully understanding what he was saying.

"I don't want us to be apart for a year, or for a month, or at all. And you're right, your mother is your only family, and this is going to be really hard for the both of you. We've lived in New York for over six years, and if you really need a change, then I'll move with you."

"But Derek, you're job at Mt. Sinai," Meredith began before Derek cut her off.

"It's fine Meredith. I called Richard Webber; he was an attending and my mentor at Mt. Sinai when I was an intern. I think you met him once, or at least he remembers me talking about you. Anyway, he's the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace, so I called him and told him you wanted to move to Seattle, and asked if he had any neurosurgeon positions for me. He was really glad to hear from me, and offered me a position in the department with the promise of becoming head of Neurosurgery when the current one retires in three years, and a shot at being Chief when Richard retires."

The offer did sound really good to Meredith, but she didn't want him to just throw everything away. "Derek, are you sure?"

"Of course. The pay is better, plus as long as we're together and you're happy, I'm happy." He smiled at her, and Meredith stood up, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Thank you so much Derek," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Anything for you," he responded. He lifted her up and spun her around, causing her to laugh fully, suddenly feeling lighter than she had in months.

A/N: Derek will not be the head of Neuro at Seattle Grace right away. He is a somewhat new Attending, so it would be a little unrealistic, and plus I wanted to keep some aspects of Shonda's storyline. From what I can piece together from the show, Meredith took a year or two break after college before going to Med School, and went after she found out about Ellis' condition. So, I picture her (in the show) going to med school around the age of 24 or 25, and becoming an intern around 28 or 29 (when George dies and Izzie has cancer in season 5, it's mentioned that both are 29 years old, and are second year residents, so I just kind of assume Mer is about that old). So, is Derek is about 8 years older than Meredith, he doesn't come to Seattle as Department Head until he's about 36 or 37, so I wanted to keep the head of neuro thing accurate. I'm sorry for all of you who aren't overly obsessive about dates and accuracy, but I am one of those people, so I wanted to make it clear, sorry for boring you!