Chapter Three: Let It Be

The first thing Addison did the next morning was find the Chief. She found him in his office and knocked lightly on the door.

"Chief, I need to speak to you."

He looked up and sighed. "What is it Addison?"

"It's about one of my patients. Actually, it's Derek's niece. No one can figure out what's wrong with her. All I know is that I took tumors off of her ovaries yesterday. Sir, what do I do?"

"So it's cancer then? How old is she?"

"She'll be seventeen in April."

The Chief shook his head sadly. "I wish I had a better answer for you. If you've done all the tests, all you can do is educate yourself. Do some research. Get some interns to help you and keep an eye on the cancer."

Addison thanked him and rushed off in search of Bailey and her interns.

"Dr. Bailey!" She called, "I need your interns."

"Why?" Bailey asked warily.

"I need them to help me figure out what's wrong with Natalie Giambattista."

Bailey gave her a look and turned to the interns. "You can have three. Karev, Grey, Stevens, help Dr. Montgomery. Yang, Burke. O'Malley, you're with Shepard."

"Thank you Dr. Bailey," Addison said and led Meredith, Alex and Izzie away.

On the way to Natalie's room, she briefed them on her history and condition. When they reached room 2018, they were shocked to find a small crowd of people in the room, as well as numerous flowers and balloons.

"Wow," Meredith murmured under her breath.

Addison shook her head and introduced everyone. "This is Dr. Grey, Dr. Stevens and Dr. Karev. They will be assisting me today."-She gestured to the family-"And this is Catherine, Dave, Natalie, of course, Sean, his wife Lauren, Emily, Allison, Aaron and Daney."

The family and interns greeted each other while Addison turned to Natalie. "So, how are you feeling? Any pain? Everything working okay?"

"Well, I can't move around very well and my scar hurts, but other than that I'm fine."

"Good. We'll see how you feel later and you can go home tonight or tomorrow morning. Sound good?"-Natalie nodded enthusiastically-"In the meantime, Dr. Stevens, Dr. Grey and Dr. Karev are going to run some tests for different forms of cancer."

"Awesome," Natalie grinned.

Addison turned to the rest of the family. "I'm sorry guys, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Go get some breakfast or something."

Dave agreed and ushered his wife and other children out of the room. "Come on, leave Nat alone so the doctors can do their job."

Later that morning, Meredith came to check on Natalie. While she was reading the chart, she could feel Natalie's eyes on her. She glanced over at her patient.

"So, you're Dr. Grey."

"Yes…" Meredith said slowly.

"You're the one Uncle Derek left Aunt Addie for."

"I guess," she said, a sinking feeling in her chest.

"I know it's not your fault. I'm not blaming you or anything. The whole family knows what they did to each other. We could see it coming. It was just a matter of when and how they broke up. No one blames you, or them. Personally, I like to blame Mark Sloan."-She grinned-"Mostly because it's fun to blame him for everything that goes wrong. You seem nice though. I just wanted you to know that I don't hate you."

Meredith studied her for a minute before speaking. "Thanks. You can call me Meredith if you want."

"Okay."

They were quiet for a few minutes while Meredith listened to Natalie's heartbeat.

"I'm not going to try to replace her," Meredith said suddenly.

"What?"

"I don't want, nor do I think I could replace Addison. She's, well, emotionally stable and I'm dark and twisty. I can tell you two are really close and I'm not looking to change that. I'm jealous actually. You have a family who worries about you and visits you and cares about you…"-She gestured around the room-"This is my family."

"Don't you have a real family?"

Meredith shook her head. "My mother was a surgeon and my father left when I was five. He has a family but I'm not part of it."

Natalie nodded in understanding. "I'm guessing that explains the 'dark and twisty."

"Probably. But, on a lighter note, you're doing great. I'll page Addison and she'll decide if you can go home tonight."

"Okay, thanks."-Meredith started to leave but Natalie spoke to her-"Meredith? We, the Shepards I mean, we can be your family, if you want. You are Uncle Derek's girlfriend and all…"

Meredith smiled, said, "I'll be back," and left.

She paged Addison and waited at the nearest Nurses' Station. Momentarily, Addison appeared.

"How's Natalie doing?"

"Great. Her vitals are stable and she seems to be recovering fine. I think she's well enough to go home."

"Thank you Dr. Grey, I'm glad. I'll just go talk to her parents and then you can discharge her."

They walked back down the hall and entered the room to find Catherine and Dave watching the news and Natalie talking on the phone in a mix of French and English. When she saw Addison and Meredith she said goodbye and hung up the phone.

"Wow," Addison said, "Who do you know that speaks that much French?"

"Camille, duh."

Addison raised her eyebrows. "Who's Camille?"

"You don't know about Camille? We really haven't talked to you in awhile. Camille is a girl from France who is staying with us for the year."

"That's awesome. Where was she earlier?"

"She's in the school musical and they had rehearsal this morning."

"I'll have to meet her sometime."

"Sure. So can I go home?"

"You can go home as long as you promise to stay in bed or lay on the couch until your scar heals, that should only be a few days. And I want you back here next Thursday for a checkup. Deal?"

"Anything for you, Aunt Addie."

"Alright, Dr. Grey will fill out your chart and then your parents have to sign some things and then you're free to go. If you feel sick or anything don't hesitate to call. I'm quite literally, always here, so is Derek."-She gave Natalie a gentle hug and waved to Catherine and Dave-"See you on Thursday."

"Bye Aunt Addie."

Catherine and Dave thanked her and Addison left.

Author's Note: Once again, I was amazed at the number of people who have read this story or put it on their alert. I think I'm going to wait a couple days to post the next chapter so I can catch up on the upcoming chapters and so that people can catch up on 1-3. Keep the reviews coming! Also, on my author page, there is a picture of Natalie, in case you're interested.

I don't think there's a whole lot to say about this chapter. Camille came to stay with the Giambattistas in late August 2006. She came to the US for another year of high school after she graduated from her school in France. She graduated as a member of the Class of 2007. She returned to France a couple days after graduation in June.

Keep reading.