A/N Hello! I'm glad you continue to enjoy! We're not very far from the end.

In this update, someone arrives at SGH…

Enjoy and comment!

Em :)

Meredith huffed with annoyance, leaning with her back against the wall. Twenty minutes, she was waiting for him twenty minutes already. After he had summoned her to his office so unceremoniously he could at least be on time… But no, he had to show her who held all the power here, like the title of the chief wasn't enough. Men…

Meredith snorted. What was wrong with men in this place? What was wrong with men in her life? First, there was her fiancé who had suffered a personality split. Her estranged father who hadn't bothered to call for over twenty years but who suddenly took interest in her wellbeing again. Her boss who was totally unprofessional in her regard and there was the lower rank boss who wanted god knew what from her. It was worrying that she was the common denominator with these nut cases.

One of them was just walking in her direction in his light blue scrubs. She expelled a little involuntary sigh, she still didn't have an answer for him. She was on the brink. Vacillating. Not knowing onto which side of the line she should fall.

"Meri," he greeted her sweetly halting in front of her.

She frowned. He looked jumpy, even more nervous that when he put his hand in her panties for the very first time. And it felt much better then than it did now too.

"You've got a moment?" he asked, a tinge of anxiousness in his voice. When he woke up this morning, it was like the sky was finally clear after months of storms. He could finally see the big picture, the entire picture, all his faults and misdemeanors. It was also high time he apologized to Meredith. Fully. It was going to be a long conversation. He wanted to confess everything that was in his mind and his heart. Maybe after hearing what he had to say, she'd consider giving another shot at their relationship.

"I've been waiting for the Chief, actually," she sighed.

"Oh," he nodded dejectedly, the conversation clearly had to wait. He didn't want it to be hurried. They needed to take their time. His head snapped up suddenly. "Why are you waiting for Webber?"

Meredith bit her lip. Derek knew nothing about the whole Evans-gate. She preferred it to stay that way. Derek's jealousy was the last thing she needed at the moment. She didn't want to lie to him either. They didn't lie to each other. Never. It was that simple and that hard.

"I… it's… work related…" she muttered, shuffling her feet.

"You don't want to tell me," he said knowingly, her heart breaking at the crack in his voice. "It's fi-"

"He wants to give me preferential treatment," she sighed.

"Preferential treatment?" he eyed her with puzzlement.

"He… wants me to start specializing next year…" she revealed evasively.

"But… that's great," he smiled at her, somewhat relieved.

"No, it's not. I don't want preferential treatment!"

"You think it's because you're Ellis's daughter?" his fingers shyly grazed her cheek.

"I… don't know what to think about some things, Derek. A lot of things actually."

"Mer, I-"

"Dr. Grey, I see you follow at least some of my orders," Richard's voice interrupted whatever Derek intended to say. "If you could come to my office, please."

"I'll see you later, Derek," she sighed and took a deep breath before going in.

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

"Care to tell me when you stop being a petulant child, Meredith?" Richard sighed as he took the seat behind his desk. "You've always had a character, always, and it comes in handy in the world of surgery but this is going too far."

"I don't know what you mean," she shrugged. "I do my job and do it exceptionally well. I do what I'm told."

"Oh, do you?" he said sarcastically. "You haven't worked an hour in neuro since Evans is back."

"It happens you know," she rolled her eyes leaning back into her chair. "Working schedule is irregular here, but I really don't have to tell you that since you're the Chief and all."

He snorted. "Only a Grey would talk back like that to her Chief of Surgery."

"You haven't treated me like a Chief of Surgery," she threw back.

"You're right," he nodded. "I've been too soft on you. It's changing right now. You're going to do as I tell you. I'm giving you three more days to think through your childish behavior."

"Three days? What's in three days?" she frowned.

"A yearly fundraising event," he answered simply.

"A yearly fundraising event. What does it have to do with me?"

"Only your attendance."

She burst out laughing. "You're not joking?" she choked seeing his constantly grim expression.

"Does it look like I'm joking?"

"Interns don't go to fundraising events," she argued.

"This year they are."

"Oh, really? So the rest of this year's group has to come too?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Originally it was just-"

"Just me, wasn't it?" she snorted.

"Listen, we have plans to greatly expand our neurology programme. We have a good seasoned team now but we're going to build a new state of the art unit around Evans. We'll be able to compete with world's best centers. It's going to take some time but we need to start to groom a young talented team right now. Eventually, Evans is going to need many more close co-workers he can thoroughly rely on than just you. This is the future Meredith, the future. Your future."

"The future involving wearing a stupid dress and stupid shoes and smiling at people who think they have the world in their pocket?" she snapped and got to her feet. "I don't think so. That is not why I became a doctor."

"What do you think your mother would say?"

"Couldn't care less," she shrugged and sauntered to the door. "Excuse me, Chief, but I have work to do, real work."

Webber shook his head disapprovingly and reached for the phone. He tolerated this childish behavior for far too long, from both of them.

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

FLASHBACK

Thunderous applause broke out as their fellow graduate concluded her valedictory speech and left the stand with a dazzling smile of happiness.

Meredith felt Derek inching closer to her.

"That could have been you," he chuckled into her ear.

"Nah," she scrunched her nose. "It couldn't."

It didn't come as a slightest surprise to Derek that his brilliant fiancée came out at the top of their class. She was just a perfectionist work-wise, he knew that since they met the first day. She had a stupendous memory, intelligence, and a drive to work hard, to always outshine herself. After years of trying to please her mother, it just became her second nature.

All in all, Meredith was offered the honor of delivering a speech during the graduation ceremony but… she humbly and politely declined, stating that someone else would represent their class with more style and grace.

"I'm just not into speeches and the galas and all that hassle," she whispered to him inconspicuously. "I would have said something hugely controversial and inappropriate and look," she pointed with her head at the audience, "they are all happy."

"Yeah," he smiled, "happy and bored. You would have rocked."

"How… about me giving you a private valedictory speech tonight?" she winked at him.

"An uncensored version?" he quipped. "Can't wait. Thank God, Mom and the girls are staying at the hotel this time."

She tried to stifle her giggle.

"We're almost doctors, Mer," he whispered excitedly.

"That's right, Dr. Shepherd," she purred.

"That… hot…" he breathed out.

"Yeah?" one of her eyebrows rode high in amusement. "Don't expect me to play a naughty nurse. I can be… a very strict attending though…"

"Fine by me, Dr. Grey," he grinned and squeezed her hand that was tucked safely in his throughout the ceremony.

They still had to face weeks of anticipation waiting for the teaching hospitals they applied to to announce the lists of accepted but today was all about celebration.

END OF FLASHBACK

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

2 DAYS LATER

He was going insane. Slowly but surely he was losing his mind. His relationship with Meredith struck a dreadful impasse. He was mad at himself for letting things go that far. He saw her internal struggle reflected in her eyes whenever she looked at him, as if she wanted to trust him but wasn't able to.

He hoped everything he had to say to her would change that. He rearranged and practiced the speech in his mind for the last few days, waiting for the right moment.

The prospect was also terrifying. It came to mean to him a sort of make or break moment. He couldn't possibly imagine what else he could do to change her mind.

He crossed the corridor mingling through a little crowd that recently got off the elevator. He needed to find her. Bailey had just given him the envelope with his results, the results of the intern test. Meredith had already got hers, Bailey told him as much. Now he just needed to find her and fulfill their little tradition. They opened their letters of acceptance to Seattle Grace together. They were supposed to learn the results together as well.

He abruptly stopped in his tracks just a few feet further, his eyes going wide. Impossible, just impossible… He really was going insane. It was just a random woman. His eyes and mind were playing tricks on him.

And yet… He couldn't shake off the feeling. He turned around to look at the woman who was waiting for the next elevator. She was standing with her back to him. The same height, hair color. Her hair was slightly shorter though. She had the I'm-on-the-go look about her. He took a step forward, he needed to be sure.

"Dr… Dr. Grey?" he asked cautiously, coming to a halt behind her.

He almost got a heart attack when she turned to him. He suspected it but actually seeing his suspicions confirmed almost threw him off his feet.

"My, my," she seized him from head to toe, one of her eyebrows rising in an inscrutable expression. "Derek Shepherd. Or I should say, Dr. Shepherd. Time has worked wonders for you."

For a moment, all he was capable of doing was standing listlessly, stunned and speechless.

"I hope that's not your usual expression during working hours," she remarked. "If it is, I pity the patients."

He cleared his throat finally, "What… what are you doing here?"

"You look like you saw a ghost. I was not dead. Just travelling."

"And now?" he asked suspiciously. Life was hugely fucked up. First, Meredith's father showed up, now her mother.

"And now I'm here," she smirked.

"What for? Are you here for a case?"

"One that involves my daughter, yes."

"You're back because of Meredith?" he asked with a frown. "Why?"

"Why would you care?" she bit back. "You're not together anymore."

"How…" he trailed off shaking his head.

"How do I know?" she snorted. "I have my sources. And I'm Ellis Grey, I know everything."

Derek seemed to get his bearings together. "We may not be together but she's still the love of my life. I'll never stop caring for her or protecting her."

"What about protecting her from you?" she narrowed her eyes at him. "You really must have pulled a number on her if she chose to break up with you, so besotted she was with you."

Derek's face flushed in shame while his jaws set tight. "I… I hurt her, I admit. My only defense is that it is was not intentional. You can't even imagine how I regret it."

"I actually can," she sighed and stepped into the elevator.

"Why are you here?" he repeated.

"Not to hurt her," she answered and disappeared behind the sliding doors.

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

Meredith took the seat in front of Richard. Again. Why couldn't some men take no for an answer?

"So… I know you must have received your letter by now," he started, clearing his throat.

"I did," she stated simply. The envelope was crumpled in her lab coat pocket, unopened. She wondered if Derek remembered they were supposed to open them together.

"And?" prompted Webber, looking nervous for some reason.

"I haven't looked yet," she shrugged.

"Why won't you do it now?"

"You called for me to help me open an envelope?" she asked challengingly. "You do that with every intern?"

Webber raised his eyes to the ceiling praying for patience.

"Have you rethought your position?" he eyed her grimly.

Meredith's cell phone started to vibrate in her pocket but she deiced to ignore it. She didn't want to aggravate Webber more than necessary.

"If you're talking about becoming Evans's mascot, then no, I did not," she replied adamantly.

"As I expected," he sighed. "But I'm not going to argue with you any more."

"You're not?"

"Someone else will." He barely managed to say that, the door opened impetuously. Meredith turned to see the newcomer gasped in shock.

"Oh. My. Freaking. God," she muttered getting to her feet. She was hallucinating, right? She prayed she was…

"Long time not see, Meredith," stated crisply her mother, walking into the office.

"Ellis, thank God," sighed Richard. "Maybe you-"

"Silence," she hissed at him. "You've never known how to talk to a woman and it hasn't changed with age."

"Now, really," he started to grumble.

"Get out, Richard," Ellis ordered him around making herself comfortable as though it was her office and not his.

"Ellis-"

"I said get out. I want to talk to my daughter. I'll deal with you later."

He finally marched out muttering something about mothers, daughters and apples under his breath.

"I'll go too," breathed out Meredith turning to leave.

"Meredith, please."

An oddly soft note in her mother's voice prevented her from walking out.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly, her eyes taking in the person she hadn't seen live for the last nine years, yet who had brought her to this world. She looked good. Tanned, energetic…

"Richard called me," came the simple answer. "We've been in contact since I left."

"Right," nodded Meredith. "He had to resort to getting you here so nothing hurts his plans for the hospital."

"That's only part of the story," Ellis nodded her head and sat at the edge of Richard's desk. "He feels protective of you."

Meredith snorted loudly. "Seriously?"

"We've had an affair."

"Okay, now I'm really going to look for Evans and request a lobotomy," huffed Meredith. "Trust me, I have no interest into your love life, oh sorry, a sexual life would be a more appropriate term to you-"

"I started seeing Richard twenty-four years ago," Ellis went on calmly.

"What?" Meredith gasped with disbelief, her head whirling back to look at her mother. "You…?"

"Yes, I had an affair behind your father's back."

"That's why he left…" whispered Meredith, surprised Thatcher didn't use this information to defend himself when they talked.

"Not really. He rather pretended he didn't notice anything even though I must have been painfully obvious near the end of our marriage. It was me who finally snapped and filed for divorce."

Meredith tried to wrap her mind around it. "How… gracious of you," she snorted.

Ellis shrugged a little. "I knew soon after the wedding me and Thatcher weren't really compatible. But we had you, so I tried. Then… Richard came along… and made me experience things I never felt before. He was it for me."

Meredith felt her legs give in under her and sank into the chair shaking her head. She was both repulsed and curious.

"And I was it for him. The problem was… we were both married."

"Yeah, that's a problem alright," jeered Meredith pitilessly. "I suppose I was a problem too? You know what's the real problem? Adultery!"

"You don't know what it is like to be trapped in a relationship without future. With a man you don't love," argued softly Ellis. "We decided to come clean. I was to broke off things with Thatcher, he was to end it with Adele. I did. He…"

"Didn't?" frowned Meredith.

"Yet another man in my life turned out to be weak. But this one, this one I loved. And he chose to stay with his wife," she said, bitterness still clear in her voice after all these years. "He said that all the baggage wouldn't let us be happy, that we would leave too many hurt people behind so selfishly. So he stayed with Adele."

"You didn't try to make up with Dad?" asked Meredith quietly. For once she could feel something close to sympathy towards her mother. She knew the pain of the break up with the love of her life all too much.

"I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to go back to Thatcher after all I had with Richard."

"But… why did you have to tell him to stay away from me?" breathed out Meredith. "It wasn't his fault you didn't love him."

"I was… deeply hurt at the time, angry. It… came out more of rage than a genuine wish to make him disappear from your life. But he took it to his heart."

"And later? He said he came back a few years later. You were angry then too?"

"This time it was a conscious decision. He couldn't decide what he wanted. I didn't want you to have a father who walked in and out of your life like it was a trip to the store. Besides, I knew he remarried. Had a baby on the way. I didn't want you to be second best to him, a second family. Maybe I was selfish and inconsiderate but I couldn't allow my daughter to be second on his priority list over some brats he had later. And Richard finally came to his senses. Or actually, my jealousy ploy worked."

"You tricked him into divorcing his wife?"

"Not so much tricked as helped him realize that the blind rage he experienced seeing me with another man wouldn't pass."

Meredith shook her head and rubbed her temples. "So what happened next? Why did you break up?"

"We didn't, we've been together ever since," stated Ellis.

"What? How… I never saw him in the house…" muttered Meredith.

"I had… my conditions, so to speak. You never knew who he was to me, I never met anyone from his family."

"And… the last couple of years? When you were making a tour around the world?"

"A long-distance relationship," shrugged Ellis.

Meredith snorted, "Yeah right, a distance relationship. Do you know how much it would hurt if I had to live thousands of miles from Der-" she bit on her tongue. "Why did you leave Seattle Grace?"

"Contrary to what you may think," Ellis stared straight into her eyes. "I loved you. I love you. After… that evening, I couldn't stand this place. The hospital, Seattle, it reminded me of you too much. It reminded me of my failure as a mother."

"I cannot believe you're saying this," Meredith uttered out in a strangled voice.

"I am not bereft of a heart, Meredith," she sighed. "And I did a lot of thinking over the years. A very humbling process, thinking about your mistakes. I'm sure your fiancé would agree."

"He's not my fiancé anymore," she admitted quietly. "But… I still don't know why you're here? To tell me about your lifelong affair?"

"Initially, to tell you that you shouldn't throw away a chance that's right open before you."

"How can you talk me into agreeing? I have my dignity, I know what I'm worth-"

"I don't think Evans thinks less of you than you deserve," interrupted her Ellis. "He's a good surgeon. But apart from that, he's a decent man. Have you even given him a chance to explain himself?"

"No," grumbled Meredith, casting her eyes down.

"You should let him what he has to say for himself. As well as Dr. Shepherd."

Meredith's head shot upwards, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Oh, I met him on the way here…"

Meredith immediately retrieved her cell phone. Yep, it was Derek who called her five times.

"What did you tell him?" she gasped shakily.

"We've had a little heart to heart," said airily Ellis while her daughter's face went pale. She jumped to her feet, ready to bolt out to find him. "Relax, Meredith. I know I've been a bad guy but… I am capable of admitting I made a mistake. I… I am sorry."

She looked at her quizzically.

"I never suspected this was really something serious when you two came to me with your marriage announcement. But the years have shown I was wrong. You obviously have to love him if you stayed with him this long. We are too much alike, you wouldn't stay with a man you didn't feel for just like I didn't. And he was just ready to be your knight in shining whatever…" she shrugged. "Go and make up with him when you're still young."

They stood in silence for a while, both relishing the moment. It was… the first real conversation they ever shared.

"Are you staying?" Meredith asked quietly.

"Probably not now. You're not ready to have me around."

"I… thank you. And I want you to know… that I don't hate you. I never did."

Ellis nodded slowly, closing her eyes for a second.

"And… I think you're punishing him. Richard. He failed you. He hurt you and humiliated you so you've been punishing him ever since. You took him back but you've never forgiven him."

"Have you forgiven Derek?"

Cristina asked her the same question on the exam day and just like before, she didn't have an answer. "I don't know."

"Go. I know you want to check if he's still alive after meeting the monster-in-law. I'm staying in Seattle for a couple of days before getting back on the road."

"I'll see you around then," Meredith said sincerely before slipping out in search of Derek.