A/N (01/02/17): Happy New Year, friends! As hard as it is to believe, it's been more than four years since my last "new" update of this story. My sincere apologies to all of my loyal readers for essentially dropping off the face of the earth, and thank you to everyone who continues to read, review, and/or message me about this story while I try to balance my writing time with "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 they're all caught up and we dive in to new material. Most of the changes are minor, although there are a few slightly more substantial changes in the later chapters of this new version. I will date all of the chapters as they go up, so it's clear which have been updated so far and which haven't (I'm also moving away from chapter titles, so all the chapters with just numbers are the updated ones). Thank you all so much for your patience!

Evelyn frowned as she opened the front door and found herself staring at a very familiar-looking middle aged woman. She was probably only about five foot two, her platinum blonde hair marked with a few faded streaks of blue, and although she knew she'd never seen her before, Evelyn was certain she knew her eyes from somewhere.

"Hi," the woman said with a smile.

Evelyn hesitated and didn't respond.

"You must be Evelyn," the smiling woman continued, unable to take her eyes off the young woman in front of her.

Evelyn sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Look, lady, whatever you're selling, we're not interested."

"Oh, no. No, no," the woman laughed. "I'm not selling anything. I'm…well, I'm Megan Shepherd. I'm your aunt. I was hoping we could talk."

"No."

"Excuse me?" Megan's smile faltered slightly at Evelyn's quick response.

"You heard me. No. Not a chance in hell."

"Why not?"

Evelyn sighed and reached out to grab the door handle. "Because I have two aunts, and you're not one of them. And because I know what…or who…you're selling, lady, and I'm definitely not interested, and you can take that message straight back to Derek Shepherd."

"Oh no, he doesn't know I'm here," Megan said quickly. "He'd be furious if he knew I was here."

"Then you'd better not be," Evelyn said, starting to close the door.

"Please," Megan begged, grabbing the door just before it closed. "Just hear me out."

"I said no," Evelyn repeated. "And stop staring at me like you've seen a ghost, okay? It's creepy."

"I'm sorry," Megan said. "It's just…Derek said you looked like our sister, but I didn't expect the resemblance to be as strong as it is. You could be her twin, if you were only the same age."

"You gonna send her round next?" Evelyn asked wearily.

"No," Megan said quietly. "Amelia's dead."

Evelyn frowned, not quite sure how to respond to that. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I'm not your family, and I'm certainly not your sister. So if you could just leave me alone, I'd…"

"How can you say that?" Megan interrupted. "How can not even hear my brother out? He's your father, and whether you like it or not, we are your family, and we're not going anywhere. I've…"

Evelyn was about to interrupt and say something she was sure she'd regret, when she felt a strong hand on the small of her back and a male voice interrupted.

"I believe you were asked to leave," Matt said sternly.

"I just…"

"Maybe you weren't clear on that," Matt continued, stepping protectively in front of Evelyn. "This isn't up for debate. Get off our property right now, or I'm calling the police."

"I'm the police have other things to do than deal with our family disagreement," Megan said.

Matt arched an eyebrow and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. "My father's the deputy police chief, you want to test that theory?"

Megan sighed and shook her head. "I just wanted to talk."

"And Evelyn's made it clear that she doesn't want to talk to you, so you've had your answer."

"Alright." Megan nodded and sighed. "I'm leaving."

Matt watched her until she was back in her car and no longer visible under the light of the street lamps.

Closing the door and turning around, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and pulled Evelyn into a hug.

"Thanks," she whispered wearily. "You didn't have to do that, but thanks."

Matt smiled and gently kissed her forehead. "Hey, I thought we were clear on this…if there's a side to be on, I'm on yours, babe. Always."

Back in her car, Megan watched as the door closed and the porch light was switched off. She really had only wanted to talk to her niece, figure out just what it was that was keeping her from accepting Derek as her father. Instead, it seemed to have all blown up in her face, and she was certain Derek would kill her when he found out - assuming Evelyn ever spoke to him long enough to tell him.

"If I'm going to die," she muttered to herself, pulling her cell phone out of her purse. "Might as well go out with a bang." Scrolling through her contacts, she stopped and hesitated only for a moment before pressing the dial button and waiting for her mother to pick up. "Time for reinforcements."