A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I got so caught up writing this chapter, I haven't had a chance to respond to all of them, but please know that I read every one and I love hearing your thoughts! Please enjoy this extra-long chapter!

[And as a side note...anyone else crying on the inside after reading that Eric Dane is leaving Grey's? As much as it makes sense given the finale, I can't help but cringe at the thought of a McSteamy-less Grey's. *tears*]

"Thanks again for letting me tag along this afternoon," Addison said as she followed Meredith down the hallway of the surgical floor at Seattle Grace-Mercy West. "This sure beats an afternoon of the bickering Shepherd sisters."

Meredith shrugged. "Hey, if we're lucky maybe we'll find something for you to scrub in on. I'm sure Mark wouldn't mind signing off on last minute surgical privileges."

"Well, that would sure be a change from my usual day-to-day in the hospital," Addison said. "You know, no one warns you before you become Chief of Surgery about all the paperwork involved."

"Mark said the same thing when he first got the job," Meredith said with a laugh. "Whatever you do, though, don't tell Alex Karev about that. I want my sister back in Seattle."

"You know, I'm surprised Miranda Bailey didn't offer you that position," Addison said.

Meredith shook her head. "Miranda knows me too well."

"How's that?"

"Well, for one thing, she knows I'd never take an administrative position. As it is, I'd give up head of neuro in heartbeat if I could. Even that's more paperwork than I like to do. Plus, Miranda's of the same opinion as most of my family regarding my current mental health."

"And what's that?" Addison asked curiously.

Meredith sighed and grabbed a stack of charts from the nurses' station. "They think I'm about to go off the deep end."

"Are you?"

Meredith almost laughed. "Not that I know of."

"Then why do they think that?" Addison paused for a moment. "I'm prying, aren't I? You don't have to answer that."

Meredith shook her head. "I don't mind. They don't think I'm handling the death of my husband well. I'm doing everything I know how, but they think I'm not processing my grief or some bull like that. I'm not entirely sure what it is they think I should be doing, but they're all walking on eggshells, like I'm going to break at any second."

"Everyone grieves differently."

"Exactly my point," Meredith said, tucking the charts under her arm and starting off down the hall with Addison. "Come on, my first patient's over in the cardio wing."

Addison smiled, recognizing the not-so-subtle change of subject. "Right. The famous O'Malley Cardiac Unit. I've heard a lot about it, but I don't think it was here when Ryan and I were out here."

"It's been open about ten years, so probably not," Meredith agreed. "I think we started fundraising right after the clinical trial ended. I thought that part would never end…fundraising was an absolute nightmare."

"Well, it's never easy to convince people to part with their hard-earned money," Addison agreed as the glass doors at the end of the hall slid open automatically and they stepped into the sleek, modern building that had been attached to the existing surgical department nearly a decade earlier. "Especially the amount of money it would take for something like this place. This is very impressive, Meredith."

"We got lucky with a few last minute donations," Meredith said with a quick shrug. In truth, she knew that luck had had very little to do with the financial success of their fundraising campaign, and it hadn't been a few donations that had saved them. It had been one specific donation, anonymous to the rest of the world, but not to her. For more than ten years, she'd stayed silent on that donation, and even now, she wondered how much trouble it would cause if everyone else had known where the money came from…

Meredith sighed heavily and leaned back in her seat as she shut her car off in the driveway and rested her hand on her slightly swollen stomach. The whole thing had seemed brilliant when Lexie and April had first suggested it - a grand, over-the-top gesture to preserve George's memory. It had seemed so simple when Cristina had sketched out the fundraising plan and Meredith had stood with Alex in front of the board of trustees to present it. All of it had been approved in less than a month. At the time, two and a half years had seemed almost laughably long to raise the money needed to start construction.

Then Cristina had been offered a prestigious research position in Miami. She'd offered to stay, to see their idea through to it's finish, but it was too good an offer to pass up, and they all knew it. And they'd pitched in and picked up the slack when she left, and for a while, it looked like it might all turn out alright.

Then Molly had handed Alex a positive pregnancy test, and month later an ultrasound had revealed two heartbeats. As hard as Alex had tried to stay focused, he couldn't with the constant fluctuation between elation and utter terror at the thought of not one but two babies growing in his wife's belly.

As if to put a final nail in the coffin of their efforts, Meredith had found herself staring at a pregnancy test just a few months later. And she'd been thrilled and overwhelmed and incredibly happy…and she and Jackson were suddenly distracted. Lexie had been left to take the reins, but Meredith would never have expected that of her sister. Not when she knew about the infertility treatments Lexie and Mark were still putting themselves through, and the struggle her sister was having to be happy for both Meredith and Molly, who had seemed to end up with what she so desperately wanted without even having to try.

So as she stepped out of the car that evening after her final meeting with the hospital's accountants, she knew in her heart that their dream of the George O'Malley Cardiac Care Unit was as good as dead. It would take a miracle to scrape together almost five million dollars in the two weeks remaining to their deadline.

"Hi Mer."

Meredith nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected voice that emerged from the corner of her front porch. Whirling around with her keys held defensively in her hand, she nearly fell over in shock at the sight of the tall blonde woman in front of her.

"Izzie? What the hell? You scared the crap out of me!"

Izzie Stevens smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"What are you doing here, Iz?"

"I missed you," Izzie said. "I miss Seattle, I miss the hospital, I miss…everyone."

"You're the one who left."

Izzie nodded. "I know. And I know I said things when I left that weren't very nice…and I'm so sorry for that, Meredith. I really am."

Meredith silently crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her old friend.

"You're, uh…you look really good, Mer," Izzie stammered nervously. "When are you due?"

"Late March."

"Jackson and the girls must be thrilled."

Meredith sighed. "What are you doing here, Izzie?"

"I was visiting my mom last weekend, and I saw Alex on the news," Izzie explained. "He was talking about the cardiac center you guys are trying to build. What are you calling it?"

"The George O'Malley Cardiac Care Unit."

"Right." Izzie nodded. "It's…I think it's a really great idea, Mer. George would have loved it."

"It was Lexie's idea."

"It was a good one," Izzie said. "They, uh…Alex said on the news you were still fundraising?"

Meredith nodded. "We're a little behind schedule."

Izzie smiled nervously as she reached into her back pocket, pulled out a folded check and pressed it into Meredith's hand.

"What's this?" Meredith asked in confusion, staring at the folded paper in her hand.

"Everything that's left of my inheritance from Denny," Izzie said. "I spent a little, but I invested most of it…I think that should still be enough to help out."

"Iz, I can't take your inheritance," Meredith said, attempting to hand the check back to Izzie.

"You're not taking it, I'm giving it to you," Izzie said. "Not even to you, really. To the hospital. For George. I think Denny would have liked it too…he was a heart guy after all."

"Izzie, he wanted you to have the money."

"I don't have anything to spend it on," Izzie said, taking a breath as tears started to develop in her eyes. "Meredith, my tumors are back. I'm going to die, so I've got nothing left to spend that money on. I've been really lucky, I've loved three men in my life…and two of them are dead. I want to know that they're going to be remembered by someone other than me, because I don't know how much longer I've got left to be the one who remembers them. So please, Meredith…take the money and build the George O'Malley wing. Build something George and Denny would be proud of."

Meredith nodded. "Okay."

"Just…do me a favor, okay? Don't tell anyone it's from me. I don't want to drag up bad memories."

Meredith nodded silently as Izzie quickly walked down the steps and out to her car on the street. Stepping back into the porch light, Meredith slowly unfolded the check and looked down at it. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she saw the number neatly printed out in Izzie's flowery handwriting…

Nine million four hundred thousand dollars.

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Annie said, leaning back in a lawn chair on the deck of the trailer and staring at Derek. "You quit a job most surgeons would give their right arm for and you're leaving a Manhattan penthouse to come out here, work at a job that's a huge demotion for you, and you're going to live in…that?"

Derek almost laughed at the horror in Annie's voice as she looked at the trailer. "Yes."

"I like it," Evelyn said somewhat thoughtfully, glancing around the property. "It reminds me of camping."

"Exactly," Annie said with a shudder. "I hate camping."

"You've never even been camping," Evelyn pointed out. "You just don't like getting dirty."

"I have too been camping!"

"The RV trip does not count as camping."

"Why not?"

Evelyn laughed. "Because you spent one night in that RV and then you and Jackson and Suzie went into town and got a hotel room. Room service that stops at 9 does not mean you were camping."

"Fine, it wasn't camping," Annie grumbled. "I still hate camping…and I hate RVs."

"Well, the trailer's only temporary," Derek said. "I think I'm going to build a house."

"Where?"

Derek shrugged and looked around. "I'm not sure. I've got a couple acres out here, I figure I'll walk around until I find the best view and build there."

"Isn't it kind of soon to be planning a house?" Evelyn asked skeptically. "You haven't lived in Seattle in over twenty years. What if you hate it?"

"I won't hate it," Derek said.

"You can't know that."

Derek sighed. "Twenty-three years ago, I walked away when I should have stayed. I'm not making that mistake again, no matter how hard it is. I know you both hardly know me, but I want to change that. I want a relationship with you. I'm not asking for anything specific…but I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

Evelyn nodded skeptically. "Okay," she said hesitantly. "Well, if you're building, there's a clearing at the top of that hill over there that has a spectacular view."

"How do you know that?" Derek asked in surprise.

"Unlike my sister, I'm not afraid of dirt," Evelyn said, smirking at the offended look Annie was faking. "Everyone knows this land is unoccupied. We used to come out and hike out here on the weekends."

"Wait a minute…" Annie grinned as she made the connection in her head. "Is this where you got arrested?"

"Shut up," Evelyn snapped.

"Oh my God, it is." Annie burst out laughing. "This is where you and Travis got arrested."

"You got arrested?" Derek asked in surprise.

Evelyn shrugged. "Apparently the cops didn't get the memo that the place wasn't occupied. They arrested us for trespassing. It was stupid. Travis' dad was the district attorney, so there were never official charges."

"What she fails to mention is that she was fifteen and it was two in the morning when they caught them up here," Annie said."

"Annie, seriously, shut up."

Annie shook her head and laughed again.

"What the hell were you doing out on this island at two in the morning at fifteen?" Derek asked incredulously.

"She was grounded, so she climbed out the back window," Annie said. "Oh God, you should have seen Mom's face when the call came in from the cops and she realized Evie was gone. And Mom was the one who took it well…I thought Dad was gonna go through the ceiling when…" Annie paused and looked guiltily at Derek when she realized what she'd said. "Er…sorry, Jackson…I didn't mean…"

Derek shook his head. "Don't apologize," he insisted. "You don't have anything to be sorry for."

Annie arched an eyebrow skeptically. "That puppy-dog look on your face says otherwise, and don't tell me it doesn't…I've watched Evelyn do it for twenty years."

Derek sighed and smiled sadly. "When I said I wanted a relationship with the two of you, I didn't mean I just wanted to know the things that were easy…I want to know who you are, and your family is part of that." Derek shook his head briefly and ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I'm not going to pretend that there's not some part of me that hurts knowing that someone else was 'Dad' to you. You're my daughters, and it kills me that I wasn't there when you were growing up. But at the same time…well, part of me is glad."

"Glad that you weren't there?" Evelyn asked in confusion.

"No, not that. For the rest of my life, I'll be beating myself up about that. But the fact is, I wasn't there, and your stepfather was. And I'm glad he was." Derek paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "My dad died when I was ten years old. I know what it's like to grow up without a father. I know it feels like to miss all those moments, everything that a father is supposed to do with his child. I always swore that when I had kids, I would make sure they never knew that feeling. And even though I failed in that respect, because I wasn't there…and I'm grateful that Jackson stepped in and filled that role. Because as much as it hurts to know that it wasn't me there with you, I think it would hurt a hundred times more to know that no one was there."