Chapter eleven- August 14th

Thank you all again for all of the love and support. Please enjoy this chapter. Sending you all lots of love and happiness!

Chapter eleven Plot- A power struggle in the OR revels the truth about Jo's husband.

Up in the OR

"And he is stable," Meredith sighs with a breath of relief. Meredith, Alex, Jo and intern Joseph Craig were all in the OR. They were dealing with a five year old boy who had been in a severe car accident with his father. They had managed to stabilise him and were now about to open him up to assess internal injuries.

Poor kid, he's only five years old. Imagine going through this at five years old. He's got his whole life ahead of him and now he's got the whole world against him...

"Okay, let's keep moving. Every second counts," Jo replies.

"I can't even begin to imagine what this little boy is going through," Meredith says as they continue working on the little boy.

"Let's do everything we can for him," Jo replies.

An hour later

"Does he have any family thats been called?" Jo asks.

"His mother is in the waiting room," Alex replies.

"Alright, I will go update her. I'm sure she must be worried sick," Jo says.

"You're staying right here Jo," Meredith replies.

"His mother would want to know," Jo says.

"You are needed here where we are going to try and save this boys life," Meredith replies.

"You guys have it under control. You can spare me while I update his mother," Jo replies.

"You're staying here," Meredith replies.

"Eight months ago that was me. After an accident in the Navy my husband was flown to hospital to have surgery. I sat in the waiting room with my three sleeping children waiting to find out if my children still had a father and if I still had a husband. I was the loved one in the waiting room and It killed me that nobody came out to update me on his condition. The only time somebody came to see me was to tell me that the father of my children and the love of my life was dead. It's horrible, Cruel and painful to be the loved one in the waiting room, I've lived it Dr Grey and so have you. You of all people should understand it. And I don't know if it's the pressure or if its something else making you act this way, but it's wrong. And I think you're forgetting that I'm the head of the Paediatric department now Dr Grey. I'm in charge of this case. So, I'm going to go update the family," Jo says sternly.

"Wilson!" Meredith calls out as Jo begins to walk out of the OR.

"It's Dr Maidenway," Jo replies as she continues to walk out.

Crap, now they know. They know that David is dead. I'll admit, I do feel a bit better now that that's off my chest, but they could of found out a better way. Now questions are going to flood in. Then the news will get around the hospital and in 3.2 seconds everybody's going to know and then they're all going to have questions too. Now I can't pretend to be happy, now I have to accept, both at home at at work, that my husband is dead and that he's not ever coming back.

"Did you know about Jo's husband?" Meredith asks.

Alex nods his head, "I knew. The kids told me but she hasn't. I assumed that she wasn't ready for anybody to know yet," Ales replies.

"Somebody should go and see her, you know once we're don't here. Make sure she's okay," Meredith replies.

"Her husband is dead. Of course she's not okay," Alex sighs. "You should do it, you need to talk to her," Alex tells Meredith.

"Me, why me? You guys dated," Meredith states..

"Because you've been exactly where she is right now. You know what she's going through," Alex replies.

"Me? She hates me," Meredith replies.

"She doesn't hate you Mer, she just thinks that you hate her given all the rocky history you guys have," Alex replies.

"Alright, I'll do it," Meredith sighs.

"Thank you," Alex replies.

"You still love her don't you?" Meredith asks.

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Alex asks shocked.

"I've seen how you look at her. It's how you used to look at her. You're still in love with Jo," Meredith replies.

Attending's lounge

"Jo?" Meredith questions as she walks into the attending's lounge to see Jo crying.

Pull it together Jo, stop crying. She doesn't need to see you like this. She's probably come to reprimand you for yelling at her in the OR.

"Meredith, Hi," Jo says as she wipes her eyes. Meredith comes and sits down next to Jo. "Look, I am so sorry about yelling at in the the OR today. I shouldn't of lost my cool like that and for that I apologise and I can assure you it'll never happen again," Jo says strongly.

"Jo, I'm not your superior. I didn't come to reprimand you. I came to talk to you. I wanted to talk to you about David," Meredith replies.

"O... Oh... Okay," Jo replies shocked."My life is a mess. It's all screwed up. I was freaking pretending that David was alive because I didn't want to be a widow at work. I wanted to pretend for just one more minute that he was alive and that I was happy. I just wanted one more minute," Jo says.

"I ran away. In order for me to accept that Derek was gone I had to run away. We're all a mess when we're met with Tragedy in our lives. It's normal," Meredith replies.

"Does it ever get better? Does the hurt go away?" Jo asks.

"It'll hurt every time you think of him. But over time, it will hurt less and less. And eventually you'll remember him and it will only hurt a little. It took me years to get to that point. But now I'm married again to Riggs, you do find happiness again," Meredith says.

"I'm scared that I'll never be able to find love again. What David and I had... It was... It was something special," Jo admits.

"Hm, I felt like that. I remember thinking that when Derek died I'd never be happy again. He was my one true love. We had such an up and down love story is was almost poetic. I never thought I'd have that again with anybody. It always feels like there is just one person in this world to love. And then you find somebody else, and it just seems crazy that you were ever worried in the first place. And if dark and twisty me can find love again then you can too," Meredith replies.

Wow, would look at that, we're finally bonding... Over our dead husbands... It's weird, it'll admit that... But it's nice. I never thought Meredith and I would be bonding, especially over something like this.

"Starting again... It's such a scary thought. I never thought I'd have to do it. How do I look after four children and grieve for a man at the same time?" Jo questions.

"Moving on, it's um, it's not easy. You can't move on until you let go of the past. Letting go is the easy part, it's the moving on part that's painful. You probably want to keep things the same. I know I did," Meredith replies.

"I do. I don't want anything to change. I guess that's why I pretended for so long," Jo admits.

"Things can't stay the same though. At some point you just have to let it go. Move on. Because no matter how painful it is, it's the only way you'll grow," Meredith replies.

"It's hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Everyday I miss him, oh god I miss him. It's like half of my life has been torn away from me. It's like my heart has been ripped out of my chest," Jo cries.

Meredith pulls Jo in for a hug and her head rests on Meredith's shoulder, "you need to hold on to what you have Jo and you need to hold on tight. You need to trust that you can survive this, I know what you're feeling, and it does get better. And no matter what don't let go. Don't let go Jo," Meredith says as she hugs Jo.

Alex stands in the hallway, watching the interaction between the two. It was watching the interaction that he realised that this Jo wasn't the same Jo that left over ten years ago. The Jo that he knew then was a very strong woman. This Jo was a very broken woman. And it broke his heart to see her that way.

So now the cats out of the bag. What do you all think? Also, I used a bunch of old Grey's quotes in the chapter. :)