Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters thereof. This is just for fun.
Hi everyone, thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews. Here's the next chapter, and I am fully aware that you may hate me by the time you finish reading. Please let me know what you think.
Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Present Day
"How's Meredith?"
Amelia pulled a chair around to the other side of the desk so that she could sit beside her brother, only as she sat down did she allow herself to show the relief that she felt. "Meredith's stable, they're moving her to the ICU. The baby's fine too, for now."
"How'd it go? Did you have to do a craniectomy? Was there any sign of neurological damage?"
"I evacuated the haemorrhage, and repaired the MCA. There was quite a bit more diffuse oedema than we saw on the scan, so I did have to perform a bilateral craniectomy. But still, that kind of force she's doing well to be alive, Derek. You know that."
"Yeah, I know. She could still die. Did Callie do the cervical stabilisation?"
"Oh, Dr Torres? Yeah, she did a great job. There was no sign of any cord damage." Amelia paused, she couldn't help but be drawn to look at the toddler that Derek continued to bounce on his knee gently. "Who's kid is that, Derek? And what's she doing in here?"
"Amy, this is Zola, my daughter."
Flashback
Already eight hours had passed since Meredith had been taken into surgery, and Derek was barely holding himself together as he waited in his office for news of his wife's condition.
"Dr Shepherd."
Derek looked up to see social worker, Janet standing at the doorway to his office, baby Zola was balanced comfortably on her hip. Realising that he must look pretty dreadful, Derek quickly wiped his face, hoping to at least clear the tears. "Janet. ...Zola."
"I tried to find you at home... Is everything alright?"
"Meredith was in an accident..." Derek said dejectedly. "She was transporting a sick newborn from the hospital in Bentley. The ambulance broke down out on the mountains, they were waiting for a replacement when they were hit by another car. She's in surgery, and," Derek paused, choked up by tears, "...we don't know if she's going to pull through."
There was a lengthy silence, Janet would later reflect that she had most likely been in shock.
Then Zola started to babble, breaking the silence. She reached out to her daddy.
Seeing Zola trying to reach out to him, it tugged at something deep within Derek, it pulled him out of his hole. "Why are you here? Is Zola okay?"
"Zola's fine, Dr Shepherd," Janet quickly reassured him. "...I came to tell you that the judge made the final decision; he awarded you and Dr Grey as Zola's adoptive parents. Zola is yours, Derek, forever."
"That's... That is wonderful, really," Derek was overjoyed, or at least he would have been under any other circumstances. Now he could barely manage a smile.
Janet handed Zola to Derek, and put the diaper bag down beside the desk as she prepared to leave. "I really hope that Meredith is alright."
Present Day
"Damn it, no! I'm not going anywhere until you damn well tell me if Meredith's alright!" Callie Torres was trying to take Alex into the OR to repair the multiple fractures he had sustained to his shoulder and upper arm, but Alex was far from being co-operative. There was no way that Alex could bring himself to allow his injuries to be treated before he knew that Meredith was okay.
Callie had only just finished up Meredith's surgery; she was exhausted in every sense of the word. She knew full well the nature of Meredith's injuries, and she knew from experience that people with the injuries that Meredith had rarely recovered any meaningful function, but that was the last thing that Alex needed to hear, he was already beating himself up enough. "Knock it off Karev, like I said Meredith is out of surgery, she's critical but stable. Now, can we just get you fixed up? I've got other surgeries booked today."
"Come on, Torres. That's nothing, and you know it. Tell me that Meredith is okay, then you can do whatever you want," Alex replied, not giving an inch.
Callie sighed, she found herself unable to look at the resident as she finally gave him the information that he sought. "...There was a tear in Meredith's middle cerebral artery, it caused a major bleed, when Amelia started the craniotomy she found that there were diffuse contusions that didn't show up on the scan. She repaired the artery, but there was too much swelling to replace the skull flap. Once Amelia was finished, I operated on the C4, C5 fractures. There was no apparent sign of cord injury; I placed a halo for stabilisation, before closing. And Dr Bailey is keeping an eye on a spleenic injury, but she doesn't think it will need surgery. It really comes down to the head trauma-"
"She's not going to wake up, is she?" Alex asked, though in his heart he already knew the answer.
Callie looked over to Alex, tears forming in her eyes. "Probably not."
Amelia looked at young Zola in awe, she was a beautiful child. She and Ryan would have had beautiful children, Amelia thought with sadness as she began to slip back into the memories, remembering the night that she had awoken to find Ryan dead.
'Four kids; two boys, and two girls. You can't die, because we're going to get clean and start a family. Ryan, Ryan-'
"Ryan," Amelia didn't even realise as she cried out the name of her late fiancé.
"Amy?" Derek instinctively moved to comfort his sister. "You okay?"
Amelia seemed to take a minute to bring herself out of the daze that had overcome her. "...Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."
"Who's Ryan?"
"He was the man that I loved," Amelia answered softly, her gaze still fixed on Zola.
Derek gently pushed Amelia's hair from her face, tucking in behind her ear. "Addison told me what happened, Ames. I'm sorry about your fiancé."
Amelia looked away, trying to hide her sadness. She quickly changed Derek's focus. "How about we go check on Meredith? She should be settled in the SICU by now."
Though Derek had seen many patients in a similar condition, and even seen Meredith ill after her near drowning, the sight of her as he entered the critical care room was almost more than he could bear.
Zola started to cry, as though she sensed her adoptive father's distress. But Derek could barely hear her cries.
Addison was sitting at the bedside; she had volunteered to stay with Meredith, though she rationalised her choice as being a need to monitor Meredith's baby. She looked up as she heard the sound of Zola's cries. "Derek," Addison murmured softly, almost apologetically.
Amelia silently took Zola from her brother's arms, as Derek moved to Meredith's side.
Derek looked down to Meredith, and then to his ex-wife. "Is the baby alright?" He asked. Just days ago it had seemed to be an impossible dream that he and Meredith would ever be parents, now they had Zola and another baby on the way, and Derek knew that he may well be left to raise them alone, that was if the baby even survived to term.
"I just did another ultrasound; the foetus seems to be alright for now. But Derek, it is a long way from viability. The chance of this baby making it to twenty-six weeks is slim." It went unsaid that if this was any other patient it would have immediately been decided that it was not a viable option to even try to save the immature foetus.
It would take a highly talented ob/gyn to keep the baby alive within Meredith's injured body; that was precisely why Derek had brought in Addison to monitor the pregnancy.
Flashback
Derek had barely finished speaking to his sister, when he heard the news of Meredith's pregnancy. He hadn't hesitated to call his ex-wife to ask for her help.
"Addison, I need you to come to Seattle. I've already called the transport helicopter; they're going to land at St Ambrose Hospital in about twenty-five minutes to get you."
"What is going on Derek? Why do you need..." Addison paused, realising that there was only one reason that Derek would need her help. "Meredith's pregnant?"
"It looked like about nine weeks on the ultrasound."
"Is there a heartbeat?"
Derek couldn't help but smile, just a little as he told Addison, "Yeah, a really strong one."
Present Day
Hours turned to days, and days turned into weeks, and slowly Meredith's friends and family began to lose hope that Meredith would ever regain consciousness. Every piece of medical information told them that there was no chance that Meredith would come through this trauma.
Still, Derek did not give up. He took a leave of absence from the hospital, and asked Mark to take care of Zola, as he took to spending his days and most nights sitting at Meredith's bedside. He watched as her abdomen slowly grew.
If only Meredith knew... she would have been thrilled about her pregnancy.
Amelia and Addison still came up to Seattle at least once a week to check on Meredith and the baby. Not that Derek would listen to them, but they made no effort to hide that they believed that the only reason to maintain Meredith's life support was in the hope that the baby could make it to full term; a goal that so far was going well.
It had been five months, two weeks, and three days since the ambulance accident, and as had become the norm Derek was sitting in the corner of Meredith's hospital room, silently watching over his comatose wife.
But at last there was a glimmer of hope, a drug called zolpidem was showing promise in awakening coma patients; Derek had decided that it was worth a try.
"Knock, knock."
Derek looked up to see Mark standing in the doorway; young Zola was by his side, holding his hand with her chubby fingers.
"I was about to drop this little lady into daycare, but I thought she might like to come see Mommy and Daddy first," Mark said, "How're you doing today, man?"
"Amy started her on zolpidem a couple of hours ago, I swear it's working. She's been curling her fingers up around my hand more when I speak to her now," Derek said, he still tried to hold onto some kind of hope, even though all his training told him that what he saw was a mere spinal cord reflex.
"..That's good, Derek, really," Mark replied, though his voice betrayed his true feelings. "Do you want to hold Zola for awhile?"
"...Yeah, yeah. Hand her here," Derek agreed, albeit slowly. He moved closer to Meredith's bed. "Zola needs to see her Mom too," Derek said by reason.
Mark gently scooped Zola up in his arms, and took her to Derek. "Here you go."
"Hi baby girl," Derek said softly, wearily as he moved to set Zola in her comatose mother's arms, cautious of Meredith's heavily pregnant belly. "Mere, Zola's here to see you," Derek said, hoping that Meredith could hear him.
Then, as if by a miracle Meredith's eyelids fluttered open, her gaze slowly moved around the room, unfocused.
"Mere? Meredith, can you hear me?"
The End
So, hate me now? Should I write a sequel?
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