I really hope you enjoy this new chapter. I think it's sweet and I hope you do to. Once again, please review, comment, criticize, give ideas, etc. I have a competition with a fellow author, and whichever one of us gets the most reviews on their new chapter wins a prize. I want to win! XOXO
Meredith had been scared before.
She had been in a room with an unexploded bomb.
She had almost drowned.
Her mom had tried to kill herself, in front of her.
Her husband had almost died right next to her.
But now, Meredith was more scared than she had ever been in her life.
Meredith was scared as hell to meet the adoption agent.
Most people who adopted children were warm, smiley couples. They were couples who stayed home all day, putting every single ounce of energy they had into their children. They painted the walls of their houses different shades of yellow and white. The mothers knew how to pack lunches and make homemade Halloween costumes. The fathers knew how to play catch and play pretend. They were couples who wanted nothing more out of life than to raise a happy, healthy child.
That description certainly didn't apply to Meredith.
Meredith was usually moody and rarely smiled. She worked for 20 hours at a time, usually more. And, when she was at home, all Meredith wanted to do was have a beer and sleep. Meredith's house, the new one in the woods, was different shades of brown. Plain old, dusty brown. She new jack squat about packing lunches. Derek had tried to reason the Meredith could sew. She wasn't sure that skin and fabric were the same thing.
But, under her facade of fear and anxiety, Meredith was elated.
A year ago, if Derek had suggested adopting a twelve year old girl with one leg, Meredith would have run for the hills. Actually, no. She would have run to the nearest bar and downed as much tequila as possible before going back and breaking up with Derek. Now, meredith was a changed woman. Sure, she still wanted to down tequila, but then again, she always did.
Yet again, another quality that adoption agents did not look for.
Alcoholic surgeon mommies!
Just what every child wants!
"It'll be fine Mer." Derek grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.
The couple sat in the waiting room of the adoption agency, anxiously waiting for their appointment with the agent. Meredith's eyes were focused on a picture on the opposite wall. It was of a happy family. The mother's eyes were a fierce blue, and were full of joy. She held a young child, maybe three or four, in her arms. Her husband had an arm wrapped around her waist, and his other hand was tussling the kid's hair.
Meredith despised perfect people like that.
Derek sat next to her. He held her tiny hand tightly and his knee was bouncing restlessly. Unlike Meredith's focused eyes, his were wild and were wandering everywhere. He looked from the reception desk, to the magazines not the table next to them, to the doors that lined the opposite wall.
Meredith was afraid that he would explode if they didn't get in there quickly.
Luckily, she didn't have to find out.
A perky blonde woman with quite a bit of makeup came out from behind one of the doors.
"Dr. Derek and uh, Dr. Meredith Shepard?" She called into the waiting room, her eyes roaming around to the multiple couples anxiously sitting in the green chairs. Derek shot straight up right away, pulling Meredith up with him.
"That's us." He told her.
"Great." said the blonde, way to enthusiastically. "If you could please follow me." She beckoned them with her hand and led them down a hallway, full of doors and pictures that resembled the one Meredith had been so focused on. "You can step right in that room there." she pointed at the door right net to them.
"Thank you." Derek smiled kindly and pushed open the door. Meredith stopped dead in her tracks. She wasn't ready for this. Her husband seemed to sense her this sudden rush of dread, because he quickly squeeze her hand tightly and looked her in the eyes.
"It will be okay." He whispered quietly, giving her an affectionate peck on the cheek before pulling them both through the door into the office.
It was a relatively small room. There were pro-adoption posters plastered all over the gray walls. There was a large window ,with a view of a nearby park, stood on the opposite wall from the door. There was a large desk on one side of the room. There were two chairs facing the desk. Pamphlets and files poured out from boxes and shelves all over the walls.
"Hello." The woman at the desk smiled at them. She had close cropped red hair and fiery green eyes. She wore a black pantsuit and a pair of tan wedges. She had her hands folded together on her desk. She smiled and gestured to the chairs opposite her. "Please take a seat."
Meredith sat down slowly, easing herself into the chair. Derek sat down next to her and smiled at the agent.
"My name is Leanne Morris." She told the. "And, I assume you are Dr. And Mrs. Shepard?" She asked them politely.
"Actually, it's Dr. Shepard and Grey." Derek explained to Leanne. "Since we're both doctors, it was easier for Meredith to keep her own last name."
"Ah." Leanne scribbled something on a sheet of paper that Meredith couldn't quite read. "Well, let's see. It says here that you want to adopt a Miss Natalie Dawes?" She looked at the couple expectantly.
"We didn't know that her last name was Dawes." Meredith told Leanne, without thinking about what she was saying.
"Well, every foster child with an unknown last name, in the city of Seattle, is given the last name of Dawes." Leanne explained. "So, how did the two of you come to know Natalie?"
"Well," Derek had promised Meredith that he would do all the talking, something that Meredith was extremely grateful for. "We actually met her when she came in as a patient. She was an emergency case, an extreme emergency case. We had to remove the top of her skull to allow room for her brain to swell."
"Really?" Leanne looked surprised. This was probably one of the weirdest ways a couple had met the child they wanted to adopt. Meredith was sure of that. "What happened to her, that made her such an emergency case?"
"She was hit by a truck." Leanne gasped as Derek told her the story. "She had run away from her foster home, and was sleeping outside of a bar three weeks ago, whenever that blizzard hit. There was a also an walking on the sidewalk next to her. Natalie watched as a truck skidded off the road, barreling straight towards the woman. Without thinking, she pushed the woman out of the way, and she got hit instead."
"When she came to the hospital, she was bent up like a pretzel. I mean, her leg was bent so that her femur was impaling her stomach. Her shoulder was dislocated. She had shards of glass penetrating one of her kidneys, her liver, and there was a gaping whole in her stomach from where we had pulled her femur out. She was covered in third degree burns. Her brain suffered trauma, and began to swell rapidly. Her left femur was completely shattered."
Leanne stared at him in utter shock and disbelief. Her mouth just opened and closed. Not a single sound escaped her lips. Meredith could practically see the words that she wanted to say
clumped in her throat. The agent slowly swallowed, and began to speak.
"That is serious. Um, how is she know?"
Meredith responded this time.
"She's doing, okay. I'm not going to say that she's okay, because she's not. She's not okay, and I don't blame her." Meredith felt a strong connection to the young girl. "We had to remove one of her kidneys. She only has half of a liver. We've been doing skin grafts on her burns, and most of those are healed, but skin grafts hurt like hell. I can't believe how strong she is. We had to remove the top of her skull, to make room for her brain to swell. We should be able to put it back sometime later this week. Unfortunately though, her left leg had to be amputated. Whenever her incisions heal, our fellow doctors, and us, will help fit her for a prosthetic.
Meredith couldn't tell who was more shocked to her answer, Leanne, who couldn't believe what had happened to Natalie, or Derek, who couldn't believe that Meredith had spoken up. Both of their jaws had fallen down to the floor.
Leanne sat there quietly for a minute, scribbling notes on her paper. Then, she broke the awkward silence.
"Okay. So, tell me a little bit about yourselves." She prompted.
"Well, obviously I'm a neurosurgeon. I grew up in New York, with four sisters, all of whom are also doctors. My father died when I was ten, and my mother raised all five of us by herself. I married a co worker, Addison Montgomery, but we divorced a few years ago. She cheated on me, with my best friend. I moved out here, to Seattle. And, that's when I met Meredith here. For me, it was love at first sight." Derek smiled as he recounted a short summary of his life.
Leanne looked expectantly at Meredith, asking for her story as well.
"Oh, okay. Well, I was raised by a single mother in Boston, even though I was born in Seattle. She was also a surgeon. I have a half sister, Lexi, who also works at Seattle Grace with us. Um, I'm still a resident, and I'm pursuing General Surgery, like my mother." Meredith gave her a short recount of her life, leaving out the bits that involved almost getting blown up, or drowning, or sleeping around Europe with her friend. She didn't really think that would make her seem like a better candidate for mother.
"Ah." Leanne continued to scribble furiously on her paper. "That brings me to another point. You two both have very demanding careers. How will you have time for a child, especially one with only one leg?"
That was a damn good question.
Luckily for Meredith, Derek answered first.
"Well, I have almost a month of vacation days stored up. If we get custody of her, I will take time off and help her settle into a new routine. Right now, she goes to school online. We will give her the option of going to public school, or continuing with the online curriculum. Whichever she chooses is fine." He smiled once again.
"Normally, since I'm an attending, my schedule is a little more normal than Meredith's. I usually work normal hours. If, by chance, both of us have to work through the night, I'm sure Natalie would be okay to stay by herself. If she needs to go somewhere, we have multiple friends that owe us favors." He added the last part with a light laugh. Meredith was jealous of his ability to talk to me people. He always knew just what to say.
"You seem to have put quite a bit of thought into this." Leanne chuckled, still scribbling. "You both seem extremely dedicated to adopting this child. Might I ask, why Natalie?"
"She reminds me of myself when I was little. She's been through a lot of stuff that nobody should have to deal with, especially at a young age. " Meredith answered before Derek could, impressed by her own boldness. "As Derek said, she is going through absolute hell, and nobody, nobody, should have to go through hell all alone"
Leanne sat there quietly.
"That was a very deep thing to say Meredith. Very deep indeed." She put her pen down on her desk, stopping her scribbling. "Now, I have one last question for you."
Derek nodded his head knowingly and Meredith leaned forward.
"Do you really think you can do this?"
Derek automatically said "Yes!", but Meredith hesitated with her answer.
"Do you want the truth?" Leanne nodded.
"The truth is: I do not know." Meredith said honestly. "I truly do not know if I am ready for this. I could be the best or the worst mother in the world. Who can tell? But, that's what parenting is about. It's about learning and growing with your child. It's about the mistakes and the bumps and the slip ups, and the bruises. It's about the love you share with your child and the relationship you form. Nobody is ever ready to become a parent, no matter how hard they try."
Leanne's eyes were misty and she had a soft expression of contempt on her face. A watery smile crept across her lips.
"That, Dr. Grey, is one of the most honest statements that any parent I've ever interviewed has given me. Most try to convince me that they are perfect, but not you. You told me that you were flawed, but that it's okay. You gave me your honest opinion. And I thank you for that, I truly do."
"That was beautiful." Derek chimed in. Meredith was unaware that he had taken her hand in his again, and he was gently squeezing it, in a loving, affectionate way.
"Well," Leanne looked at her watch, breaking the silence. "I have another meeting in five minutes. Thank you for coming in to talk to me today. I will get back to you as soon as possible."
She stood and extended her hand to Derek, and he shook it firmly. Meredith did the same. The couple smiled at the agent as they got up out of there chairs, walking towards the door.
"Dr. Grey." Leanne called lightly.
Meredith turned back around.
"I don't normally like getting people's hopes up, but I think you have a very good shot at getting this child." She had a note of truth in her voice, that convinced Meredith that she was sincere. "You may not be the normal parents to adopt a child, but you may damn well be the most serious I have ever met."
Meredith felt tears of joy we'll in her eyes.
"Thank you, Leanne."
"You're welcome." The agent responded as the couple exited the office.
Once they were out in the hall, Derek grabbed Meredith and pulled her close. Hey kissed her softly on the lips. Meredith took a mental picture of this moment.
Because at this moment, everything in the world was perfect.
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