A/N (02/06/16): Hello friends! As hard as it is to believe, it's been about two and a half years since I last updated one of my stories. My sincere apologies to all of my loyal readers for essentially dropping off the face of the earth, and thank you to everyone who kept reading, reviewing, and messaging me while I was lost in "real life", whatever that is!

I am working my way through this story, tweaking it slightly to take it in a direction that will better bring it to the conclusion I always intended it to reach. I'll be posting the updated versions of the existing chapters in batches until it's all caught up and we get back into new material. Most of the changes are minor in the first 15 or so chapters, but there are a few slightly more substantial changes in the later chapters of this new version. So even if you've read the story before, I encourage you to start at the beginning and work your way forward - I'll date all the updated chapters as they go up, so that it is clear what has been updated. Thank you all for your patience!

"You've been sitting out here like a creepy stalker all afternoon. Were you planning on staying all night too? Or were you actually going to get off your ass and do something?"

Derek stared out the window in surprise, eventually stammering out some sort of incomprehensible response.

"Yeah, I didn't think so." Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the side of the car's hood, turning her head to look at Derek. "So what was the plan? Sweep into town, drive up to the house and be the big returning hero?"

"No, I…"

Evelyn shook her head and held up her hand. "Don't bother. I really don't care why you're here or what you thought you were going to do when you got here. Whatever it was, it's not going to happen."

"I just want the chance to talk," Derek insisted, forcing himself to breathe as he tried to focus on the fact that this was his daughter, despite the eerie resemblance she bore to his late sister. "I just want to get to know you and your sister. You're my daughters."

Evelyn shook her head. "No, we're not."

"I know you're angry at me, and you have every right to be. But I didn't know…I know that's not the story you've known, but it's the truth. All I'm asking for is a chance."

"Mom told us what Uncle Mark said. But you know what? I don't really give a damn what you knew or didn't know. I don't care whose DNA made me – that's not what makes a father."

"Well, actually…"

Evelyn pushed herself away from the car, her hands on her hips as she stared straight at him. "Don't lecture me on the science of it all, you know damn well that's not what I'm talking about. My father is the man who was there for Christmases and birthdays and graduations, who stayed up until three in the morning for a week straight to study with me so I wouldn't fail calculus my senior year of high school, who walked Annie down the aisle on her wedding day. I don't care what you came here to do or say, you will never be that man."

"Evelyn…" Derek's heart stopped for a split second at the sound of the female voice coming out of the darkness. Evelyn, on the other hand, simply groaned and turned toward it.

"What?"

"Go inside, Evie," she instructed.

"But Mom…"

"Evelyn Miranda, I said go inside. Now. Let me handle this."

Evelyn sighed and nodded, tossing up her hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, I'm going."

Meredith waited until Evelyn had made it all the way to the front door before finally stepping forward enough to allow Derek to see her in the glow of the street lights. Sticking her hands in the front pocket of her jeans, she glanced down at her feet as Derek stepped out of the car and took a step forward, stopping about a foot in front of her.

"She hates me."

"No, I don't think she does," Meredith said, shaking her head. "But could you blame her if she did?"

"I didn't know, Meredith," Derek said pleadingly.

"You didn't want to know, Derek," Meredith responded. "You moved on with your life, and you didn't look back."

"I didn't…"

Meredith held up a had. "I'm not going to stand here in the middle of the street and argue with you about the past, Derek," she said firmly. "You walked away, and that's a fact that you can't change. You weren't here when I needed you, you weren't here when my daughters needed you, and you shouldn't be here now."

"I have to be here, Meredith. I have to at least try to get them…and you…to understand."

"I'm not saying you can't have a chance to get to know the girls," Meredith said. "I'm just saying, today is for our family…this holiday is for my family. You can't be here right now."

"Then when?"

Meredith sighed. "Come back on Friday. If the girls want to meet you, they'll be here."

"And you?"

"I'll be here, but only for the girls. I don't hate you, Derek, but I don't want you around. I have far too much else to deal with to deal with you as well."

"Oh, well, you'll just have to excuse me for not coordinating with your schedule."

"Don't you dare," Meredith snapped angrily. "Don't you dare think that you can just show up here and make me out to be the bad guy. This isn't about my schedule or what I want, Derek, because if it was, you wouldn't be here. If it was about me, I'd tell you to go straight to hell and not look back. But this isn't about me, it's about my children. Annie and Evelyn have a right to know you and their history, but only if that's what they want. If they do, you will do it on their terms, do you understand me? Because as much as this isn't about me, it's also not about you."

"And what am I supposed to do until then? Just sit around and wait?"

"Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, Derek. Go back to New York, be with your family," Meredith said. "Or don't. Stay here, get a hotel room, ride the ferry boats around the bay for the next three days. I honestly don't care where you are, as long as you aren't here. Are we clear?"

"Yeah, we're clear," Derek agreed reluctantly.

"Good." Meredith nodded and took a breath. "Friday at noon. I make no guarantees they'll want to see you, but if they do, the girls will be waiting for you."

Later that night, Meredith smiled as she stood in the doorway and looked at the sleeping bodies spread around her crowded living room. Most of the adults had been assigned the various beds throughout the house for the night, although she should have known everyone would end up together anyway. It had only dawned on her a week ago that this house had three fewer bedrooms than the one she had just moved out of, but as it turned out, it didn't matter much at all.

She'd protested loudly when Jackson had first showed her that house – at the time, little Suzie had been barely a month old and they'd only been an "official" couple for about seven months. Meredith had insisted that there was no possible way they could ever fill a seven bedroom house. After all, she'd asked him pointedly, exactly how many more children did he expect she'd be pushing out? Her mother's house had always been packed full of interns and residents, but she'd promised him they'd be leaving that behind too – no houseguests longer than four nights, a week max, and certainly no more picking up "strays" along the way.

In the end, he'd worn her down quickly and they'd bought the oversized house. It had turned out to be a good thing, too, as her well-intentioned houseguest rule had been thrown out the window barely six months after moving in…

Meredith tip-toed out of Suzie's room, carefully shutting the door behind her without making a sound. She silently hoped that the rain pounding on the roof would let up soon, or she knew she'd be in for a long night with a cranky baby – it was just her luck that, living in Seattle, she'd wound up with a baby who couldn't stand the sound of rain. She glanced in the door of the twins' room quickly, making sure they were both still tucked soundly into their beds. She'd offered them their own rooms, but they'd refused, preferring to stay together. Meredith had a feeling that wouldn't last long once they hit the teenage years – their drastically different social personalities were already obvious – but for now, she certainly wasn't going to argue with it.

She'd just reached the bottom of the stairs when she heard a knock on the door. "Damn it, Jackson Avery," she muttered to herself as she walked toward the door. "I'm going to tie that damn key around your neck next time."

Pulling open the front door, she nearly closed it again when she realized who was standing there. "You do realize it's after midnight, right?"

"I…I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to go…Mom's on that church retreat and Lexie…she and Mark are on their cruise, and I just…I had to get out, and I didn't know…"

"Oh God, Molly…" Meredith gasped as the half-sister she barely knew stepped slightly forward, just enough so that the porch light allowed Meredith to see the fresh bruises on the left side of her face, and the frightened little girl hiding behind her legs. Stepping back, Meredith pulled open the front door a little wider. "Come in, you're going to freeze to death out there."

"He wasn't always like this," Molly said softly, wincing as Meredith taped up a small cut on her forehead. She'd settled Laura in one of the spare bedrooms, and had been sitting quietly in the kitchen for the last half hour while Meredith retrieved the first aid kit and tended to her face.

"I know."

"He used to be so sweet and funny and…" Molly sighed and squeezed her eyes shut as the tears starting welling up again. "We were fourteen when we met."

Meredith set down the bandages and stared at her youngest sister, a woman she still barely knew. "Seriously?"

Molly smiled slightly. "We grew up together. There was a time when I didn't have to ask, I'd just know what he was thinking. It was the last deployment that did it, I think. I don't know what he did over there, he won't talk about it…but it's haunting him, I know that much. Most days, it's like he's not even in the same room, and when he is…he's not the man I married."

"Has this happened before?"

Molly hesitated for a moment. "A couple of times."

"How many is a couple?"

"I don't know. He's angry all the time, he yells a lot…but actually hitting me? Maybe three or four times, I guess."

"And Laura?"

"Oh, God, no," Molly gasped and shook her head. "He'd never hurt her, Meredith."

"Molly…"

"I know how that sounds, I do…and tonight was bad, I know that, but he'd never hurt Laura."

Meredith sighed and nodded. "You can't go back to him. You get that, right?"

"He just needs some space, he…"

Meredith frowned and looked at her sister. Hesitating for only a moment, she reached out and touched just above the cut on Molly's cheek. "If he'd hit you here, he probably would have damaged the optic nerve. You'd be blind in at least the left eye. And here…" Meredith moved her fingers up toward the hairline, where she'd seen a scar from what she assumed was an earlier incident. "It looks like he threw you into something, maybe a table. A little more force on that one and you're lying on my operating table with bleeding in your brain – assuming you even make it to the hospital, which a lot of people with that injury don't."

"What…why are you telling me this?"

Meredith bit her lower lip as the tears streamed down Molly's face. "I know you think you know what you're dealing with, but you don't. Maybe I'm not the best person to have this conversation with you, but I'm the one who's here. You can't go back, Molly."

"We just moved back a few months ago. I don't have any money. Where am I supposed to go?"

"You'll stay here," Meredith said without even realizing what she was saying until the words were out of her mouth.

"What?"

"We've got the space. You and Laura can stay as long as it takes to get back on your feet."

Meredith smiled as she looked at Alex sprawled out on the couch, Molly tucked up against him with his arm wrapped protectively around her waist as they slept. Molly had ended up living at Meredith's for nearly five years, long after her divorce was finalized and she was comfortably settled into a new job at a local elementary school. It was about two years after Molly moved in that Izzie got cancer, married Alex and then, for reasons that Meredith never fully understood, divorced him almost as soon as the cancer was in remission.

The whole situation seemed to have been more than Alex could handle, so it hadn't really surprised her when she'd come home one night and found that Jackson had moved him into one of the extra bedrooms. She'd been somewhat less understanding when, about six months later, she'd found him in bed with her sister. She'd very nearly killed him right then and there, but as it turned out, something about the pain of his own divorce had changed him, and in some strange, unexpected way, Alex and Molly had managed to heal each other.