Please enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or quotes from Grey's Anatomy, nor do I own the lyrics to Taylor Swift's amazing song Jump Then Fall.

Chapter 15- Jump Then Fall

Baby, I'm never gonna leave you

Say that you wanna be with me too

Cause I'm gonna stay through it all

So jump then fall

Hannah was still sitting outside the door when Dr. Karev had exited. "How is she?" she asked.

"She's doing as well as can be expected. She wanted me to go into her mother's surgery, but she promised she wouldn't be alone right now. So stand by for a page," Alex responded tiredly.

"Of course," Hannah replied. Satisfied, Alex took the elevator to the OR floor. Hannah continued to sit there working away, waiting for a page. A few minutes later a shadow loomed over her. "Dr. McHeath, what can I help you with?"

"Nothing, I just need to go into the on-call room," Dan replied, grabbing for the door knob.

"I wouldn't go in that on-call room," she said. "I'm not sure if you had heard but Dr. Cassidy's mother was brought in earlier and since then she's holed herself in there."

"I had heard about Dr. Cassidy," he answered as he went to go into the room.

"She really just wants to be left alone right now," Hannah countered. "She kicked her own father out. I don't think she's going to want her attending in there with her."

Dan looked at the intern, "I think Dr. Cassidy wants me in there. If she doesn't she'll kick me out, don't worry." With that being said he walked into the room and shut the door behind him, leaving one very confused Hannah outside. "Baby," he crooned softly. Melanie lifted her head and opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was another sob. Almost at once, he was sitting on the bunk next to her, her head cradled in his arms. He knew now wasn't the time to say anything. He could tell that all she wanted was a shoulder to cry on.

Finally Melanie said something not lifting her head off of his chest, "I'm so sorry you wasted your time."

"This is where I want to be right now. Everything else can wait," Dan responded.

"No, I mean with us," she whispered. "You deserve so much better than me."

Dan was shocked for a moment. "How can you say that? I just barely deserve you. You are the most amazing woman I have ever been with. You're a kind, passionate, wonderful, intelligent person unlike any I have ever met."

"You're wrong, I'm a horrible, horrible person," Melanie cried. "Do you know what the last thing I told my mother was?"

"I'm sure you didn't mean it, whatever it was," he comforted.

"But do you know what it was?" Melanie repeated. Dan didn't answer. "I told my mother, my saintly turn the other cheek mother, to go to hell." The tears starting rolling down her face again. "And you're wrong. For that second, I meant it. I meant it with every fiber of my being. My mother had hurt me, so I wanted to hurt her. I was expecting her to accept my decisions, but she just made me feel worse about myself again. I regretted saying that as soon as I turned my back to leave, but I didn't turn around and say I was sorry. I didn't even try to call her to apologize for crossing the line. No, I just kept walking."

"I'm sure she knows you didn't mean it," he replied as he continued to hold her.

"All she wanted me to do was go to Confession, maybe a mass or two," she continued. "God's punishing me. He knows I haven't been to church in years and after what I said to Mom, He's taking her away. I don't deserve her anymore. Before you know it, He'll be finding some way to take you away too. So you may as well leave me now."

"Now Mel, you know that's not true," he reasoned, but Melanie just continued to cry in his arms, not saying a word. Gently he stroked her hair, trying to do all he could to make her feel better. "All I can do is promise not to leave you until want me to."

Melanie rose her head up off his chest, "But I don't want you to leave me, ever. I love you," she said sweetly, simply. "I know what I said earlier that I didn't know about us. This just put things into perspective. I want to be able to tell my friends how truly amazing you are. I want to be able to bring you home to my parents. Sure my dad might be mad at first but he'll realize how in love we are."

"Whatever you want sweetheart," he replied earnestly. "Right now don't worry about it. You just need to do what you think you have to."

Melanie thought about it for a moment while listening to Dan's heartbeat against her ear. "Did I ever tell you about exactly why Mom and I moved to Seattle?" Dan shook his head no. "I had cancer when I was about 7. I fought it, kicked its ass and went into remission."

"Is that why you want to go into oncology?" Dan queried.

"Yeah," Mel answered before continuing. "When I was 9 we found out that I needed a liver transplant. My mother tried but she wasn't a match and she realized she couldn't do it alone anymore. So we hopped a plane to Seattle and she finally told Dad that I existed. That day, he gave me a part of his liver." Melanie went quiet for a minute. "I remember every day I was sick, she would pray for me. It was our tradition before surgery to do a Hail Mary and it worked every time." Dan saw the trace of a smile flicker across her face only to disappear as rapidly as it had come. "Do you have to do anything right now?" Mel asked.

"Only what you want me to," Dan answered.

"Can you drive me to Annunciation?" she requested. "It's not that far and there's something I have to do."

"Of course sweetheart," he replied. Melanie stood up and dried her eyes with her scrubs. Hand in hand they walked out of the on-call room. Not speaking to anyone, they made their way to Dan's car and to the old Catholic church.

Please leave a review for inspiration and as always thank you for reading. -Jen