A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed the last few updates! Just as a head's up, I apologize in advance that there will be a bit of a delay until the next chapter...I'm going out of town for about a week and a half, so there probably won't be another until the end of next week.

Lexie nodded approvingly as she stepped into the newly remodeled kitchen of the house across the street from Meredith's. "I like it, Molly," she said. "The place seems perfect for you guys. How many bedrooms does it have?"

"Four upstairs and one downstairs," Molly said, coming into the kitchen behind her sister. "I figured the one downstairs would be nice if Mom ever gets to where she doesn't want to live alone anymore. And then two upstairs for the boys, one for Alex and I, and one just in case Laura ever wants to stay over. Not that I expect much of that, she seems pretty happy with Evelyn at Mer's old place."

"They're asserting their independence…or some crap like that," Lexie said. "Give it some time, as soon as she's got a problem she'll be on your doorstep again."

"I'm pretty sure Laura and Evie did the whole asserting their independence thing years ago," Molly pointed out. "Were you or were you not around for the teenage years?"

Lexie shuddered. "Don't remind me, I've blocked them out. I've never been so traumatized by anything as I was by my sweet little nieces turning into surly, swearing, curfew-breaking hellions. Thank God for Annie staying sweet and pleasant most of the time."

"And yet for all the hell-raising Laura and Evie did, Annie was the one who got pregnant."

Lexie shook her head. "I know, go figure that one out."

Molly nodded and glanced out the window at Meredith's house. "I don't think Mer believes that I want to live across the street just because I've missed you guys."

"I'm sure she doesn't. She's not stupid, Molly, she knows we're watching her and she doesn't like it. She wants Mark and I move back to our house."

"Should you? You and I both know I probably would have wanted to live across the street even if Jackson hadn't died," Molly pointed out. "But you've got your own house that you're not living in, it's not like you need to live with Meredith. If she wants you out of her house, why are you still there?"

Lexie sighed and leaned against the counter. "Because she won't say it, Molly."

"What do you mean?"

"She won't fight," Lexie explained. "Meredith's a fighter, we've both seen it. She's one of the strongest women I know, but right now, it's like she's given up on life. This whole Derek Shepherd thing is proof of that. Did you hear about his sisters this morning?"

"Laura mentioned something about it, yeah."

"If this had happened a year ago, Meredith would have been out of the house and banging on their door at the Archfield before you could blink. She would have handed them their asses on a silver platter for insulting her girls. You know what Mark said she did today? Nothing. That's not Meredith."

"No, I guess you're right," Molly conceded. "She's always been a fighter, especially when it comes to protecting her family."

"Exactly. Do you think I like living in Meredith's attic like I'm some starving intern again? Of course not!" Lexie shook her head and sighed sadly. "But the fact that she's not fighting me on it, calling my bluff, threatening to kick me out…she's not doing anything about the fact that she doesn't want us there…that's all I need to know to know that she's not okay, and Mark and I can't leave yet."

"I think it will be nice," Annie said quietly, watching Evelyn closely as she drove off the ferry boat on their way back to the house. "Having Derek here will be nice."

"I was leaning more towards weird," Evelyn said. "But I guess nice works too."

"Why weird?"

Evelyn shrugged. "I don't know. I just…I feel like I was starting to get used to the idea of not having a father anymore. Now all of a sudden we've got a new one?"

"It's going to be an adjustment," Annie agreed. "But maybe you're looking at it wrong."

Evelyn frowned skeptically. "Wrong?"

"We're never going to have the same relationship with Derek that we had with Jackson, so there's no point in looking at it like that," Annie said. "You're over-thinking it, Evelyn."

"You think so?"

Annie nodded. "You kind of have a tendency to do that. You've got to stop trying to fit life into neat little boxes, and just let it happen. This could be a really good thing for us, if you'd just stop fighting it and let it develop naturally."

"That sounds like a Mom speech," Evelyn said with a smirk.

"Well, I am a mom."

"True, but you're not my mom. In fact, you're younger than I am, thank you very much."

Annie stared at her sister for a moment. "By like a minute and a half!"

"And I'll thank you to not forget those all-important ninety seconds."

"I'm pretty sure that argument only worked on me when we were, like, four years old."

Evelyn shrugged. "It's always worth a shot. It still works when Georgie uses it on Charlie."

"They're ten, and they're boys," Annie pointed out. "Totally different. Besides, George is almost eight minutes older than Charlie. That's a huge difference."

Evelyn laughed and shook her head. "You are so full of crap, you know that?"

"Hey, I'm just stating the obvious here," Annie said in mock defense. "Speaking of the kids…we're keeping them all up until midnight at Mom's house tomorrow for New Year's. What time are you coming over?"

"I'm not."

"Why not? It's our tradition!"

"It hasn't been our tradition for years, Annie," Evelyn pointed out with a sigh. "And even if it were, I have to work."

"Didn't you just get off a shift yesterday? Aren't you supposed to have three days off or something?" Annie asked as they pulled up to the house.

"Four days," Evelyn said. "We work forty-eight hours on, ninety-six hours off. But this is an overtime shift. It's New Year's, people do stupid stuff, so the city staffs up on emergency responders. It's supposed to be a great shift."

"So you're saying you'd rather deal with a bunch of drunk idiots setting things on fire than spend the night with your sisters and your brother and your cousins and…"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, I was there on Christmas," Evelyn interrupted. "But yes, I'd rather be out putting out fires than sitting around watching a three hour tape delay of a ball drop in Times Square."

"But Cristina and Owen will be back from visiting his Mom after Christmas," Annie said.

"I'm already scheduled for the shift, Annette," Evelyn said, shutting off the engine and reaching for her purse. "You can say what you want, I'm going to be working for New Year's."

Derek didn't need to wonder what he would find when he slipped his card key into the door and stepped into his hotel room that evening. He knew his family better than that; he would have been surprised to find his sisters anywhere other than waiting not-so-patiently in the sitting area of his suite.

"It's about time!" Megan exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "I've been calling you all day, Derek! Where the hell have you been?"

"That's none of your business."

"I got a call from Michael Bates a few hours ago," Nancy said. "He wanted to know why my brother had resigned as Chief of Staff. I told him he must be mistaken. He's mistaken, right? Derek?"

"No," Derek said quietly, tossing his jacket onto a nearby chair. "He's not mistaken."

"What the hell, Derek?"

"I called the chairman of the board this morning and resigned my position," Derek said. "I've taken a job out here."

"As Chief of Staff?"

Derek shook his head. "No. As an attending surgeon."

"Are you out of your God-given mind?" Nancy snapped incredulously. "Derek, you've worked your entire career to get to Chief of Surgery. You'd have to be insane to give it all up now!"

"Actually, Nance, I'm pretty sure this is the first sane thing I've made in about twenty-three years," Derek said. "To be closely followed by the second sane thing I've done in that time."

"Which is what, exactly?" Kathleen asked curiously.

"Sending you four packing."

"You can't…"

"I can, and I am," Derek interrupted. "There's a ten o'clock flight back to New York tomorrow morning. I booked all four of you on it."

"You can't make us get on that plane, Derek," Nancy pointed out.

"Maybe not," Derek agreed. "But if you're not on that plane, we're done. And I don't mean, I'm going to pout for a little while and get over it. I mean, if you are not on that plane tomorrow morning, I will no longer acknowledge you as my sister. We will have no relationship moving forward. I'm that serious about this."

"This is absurd," Kathleen said. "Derek, you have to know we only wanted to help."

"Well you didn't!" Derek shouted angrily. "Not one of you did. In fact, Nancy here probably set me back a good month with Evelyn. So I suggest you take your nosy comments and your holier-than-thou attitudes and you go back to New York. For once in my life, let me handle something on my own."

"We always let you…"

"Don't patronize me by lying," Derek interrupted. "You've been interfering since the day Dad died. I get it, I know you all think you're helping me, and maybe sometimes you did…but this time, you're not. So just back off and go home."

"Not without…"

Derek shook his head. "This is not up for debate! I don't care how you think you can help. I don't care what you want to do, or what you meant to do. This is my family, and if it's going to be fixed, I have to be the one to do it. So back the hell off and go back to New York."

"You're not being fair, Derek," Nancy began.

"Fair? Don't even start me on fair, Nancy," Derek snapped. "But that does remind me…before you leave, I want you to write a letter of apology."

"Apology?"

"Three, actually. One to Evelyn, one to Annie and one to Meredith," Derek said. "And I don't care if you think you were wrong to say those things or not. You insulted both of my daughters, and their mother, and I'm not going to stand for that. So write the damn letters before you leave."

"Derek, couldn't we…" Amelia started to speak.

"No!" Derek exclaimed. "All of you are going to walk out of this room right now. You are going to walk down the hall to your rooms and you are not going to leave them again tonight. Tomorrow morning, you will get up, have breakfast and go to the airport. That's it. No excursions, no little side trips, no phone calls. Am I clear?"

"You sound like Mom," Amelia grumbled.

Derek shook his head. "If Mom were here, Amelia, you'd be in so much trouble she'd have you wishing you'd never been born."

"He's got a point," Megan said. "Mom would be pissed."

"You don't know how Mom would have reacted," Nancy protested. "Maybe she would have wanted an explanation for the girls' situations, same as I did."

"That wasn't you asking for an explanation, Nancy," Derek snapped. "That was you railroading my family without bothering to get your facts straight first."

"I think maybe we should go," Kathleen said gently, taking Nancy by the elbow and pointing her toward the door.

"But I…"

"C'mon, Nance," Amelia said, grabbing her other elbow as she and Kathleen ushered her out the door.

"Derek," Megan said quietly, lingering behind a moment and placing her hand on his forearm.

"You should go, Meg," Derek said, fighting to keep his voice calm.

"I'm sorry, Derek," Megan said. "I shouldn't have called them."

"No, you shouldn't have," Derek agreed.

Megan sighed and nodded, knowing she wasn't likely to get anything more out of him that night. Squeezing his arm gently, she pushed herself onto her toes and kissed his cheek before following her sisters out of Derek's room.