He understood why Meredith was hesitant about seeing his mother again, after all she did leave him in the dark for 5 tormenting years. But, in order for them to move forward and in order for Ellyse to be a part of his life as much as she was in hers, she needed to know his family and that started with informing his mother.

He hasn't seen Addison since the night before but she had text him and told him she way staying at a friends. He knew that something had to change because she couldn't carry on behaving this way if she was going to be around his daughter. In the last few weeks, his daughter had behaved better than Addison and that said a lot, they needed to find a way to work it out or... he didn't know what else, they just needed to figure it out because he loved Addison and he loved his daughter endlessly and if it came to a choice between the two of them, he'd choose his daughter without hesitation.

Pacing around his apartment with his phone in his hand he was thinking of what to say to his mother: "hey ma, so listen you have a granddaughter!", "hi ma, do you want to mind mine and Meredith's daughter when you mind Ethan too?", nope, this was going to be difficult. He picked up the courage after a few minutes and called the number he knew so well.

"Derek. How nice of you to call your mother every once in a while, I thought you'd forgotten about me and found a new mother." Carolyn said through the phone.

Derek rolled his eyes at her sarcastic comment.

"Hey ma, how are you?"

"I'm good dear, what about you, how's life treating you in the big apple?"

"It's good, it's really good. Addison and I just moved into our apartment a few weeks ago and everything is going good, perfect actually." He smiled.

"Wow, you sure sound happy... too happy in fact, what's going on?" She was too good.

"Nothing. How's my massive bunch of sisters and their tribes?" He asked with a laugh.

"They're all fine, Derek, did Lizzy tell you that Sophie is pregnant again?" She asked.

"What? No!" He said

"Oh, well yes, Sophie is having another baby."

"Of course she is." He joked.

"Watch your mouth Derek, that's your sister." Carolyn warned and Derek could already picture the face she was making down the phone.

"Sorry ma."

"Good, back to you. Tell me what's going on and don't say there's nothing going on because I can tell by your voice that there is." She lectured.

"I need to talk you you about something and I need you to just listen, okay?" He asked his voice beginning to shake.

"Okay, what is it?" She asked hearing him take a deep breath.

"A couple of weeks ago, just after we settled into our apartment I ran into Meredith." He. breathed.

He heard her gasp but Carolyn waited a few moments before responding to see if he would say anything more.

"Meredith? As in Meredith Grey?" She said shocked.

"Yeah." Her bit his lip anxiously.

"Did she- I mean, did she keep the baby?" She asked slowly.

"She did." He nodded.

"And?" She questioned.

"And now I have a beautiful 5 year old daughter called Ellyse. She's amazing ma, I didn't know I could love someone so much, but I do, she's my whole world." He breathed, his smile beaming as he spoke about his daughter.

"That's wonderful dear." Carolyn laughed happily, "what about Meredith?"

"We're working on it. She explained her reasoning behind why she did what she did and I told her that I can try and forgive her. Things are good, ma."

"Good." She paused before continuing, "so, that begs the question, when can I meet my granddaughter?"

"Actually, that's what I was calling about."

"Okay?" She said slowly.

"Meredith also works at mount sinai and the chief is forcing her to also go to the intern mixer, so, we- I, I was wondering if maybe you would want to mind Ellyse as well as Ethan that night." He asked.

"Of course I will Derek. Will Meredith be okay with that?"

"I've asked her, she seemed hesitant at first, she's afraid to see you again but she's really struggling at the minute and I want to help her." He said quietly.

"Of course dear, what's she struggling with?" She asked curiously.

"She's just going through some stuff and... it's not my place to say but I just want to help her." he admitted.

"That's good enough for me dear." She said.

"Okay. Thanks ma, I really appreciate it."

"Your welcome Derek. I have to go though son so I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Yeah okay, goodbye ma."

"Bye dear." She said before putting the phone down.

That went easy.

The weeks went by quickly and soon enough, it was the week of the mixer. Meredith had agreed to let Ellyse stay with Carolyn for the evening but she still felt sick at the thought of seeing her again.

Carolyn was coming down a few days earlier so that she could meet Ellyse first, she thought it would be better for the child than for her to just show up as a total stranger, after all she didn't know anything about the young girl. Both Meredith and Derek had told their daughter about Carolyn and answered any questions she had about her but tomorrow was the day that they'd meet.

It was currently, 8:15pm on a Sunday evening, and Carolyns flight from Seattle to New York was scheduled to take off at 3am, she was flying through the red-eye, although they weren't meeting until dinner time the following evening.

Meredith had no idea of what she was going to say to Carolyn, she didn't know how much she knew about why she left, she assumed she knew the most of it but she wasn't certain. What she was certain of was that Carolyn hated her, how could she not hate her? If she was Carolyn, she would hate herself too, but right now she had to push her thoughts aside and take care of her daughter who was tired and crying.

"My tummy hurts mommy." Ellyse cried as she cuddled into Meredith's side.

"Where does it hurt Ells?" She asked frowning sadly, she hated watching her little girl in pain.

"In the middle of my tummy." She pointed to the centre of her stomach.

'Okay, good, at least it's not the appendix, at least she doesn't get all of my crappy DNA.' Meredith thought.

"Mommy's going to get you some medicine and some water okay, you can sleep in my bed tonight." She smiled as Ellyse nodded her head.

Meredith headed to the kitchen and grabbed some children's tylenol and an oral syringe. She filled a pink sippy cup with water so Ellyse didn't spill it and walked back go her room.

"Shh, your okay baby." Meredith soothed her daughter as she cried.

"I don't feel well mommy." She sobbed.

"I know Ells, let mommy give you this and you will feel better in the morning." She smiled sadly.

She quickly gave Ellyse the medicine and cuddled her, she stroked her hair as her daughter laid her head on her mother's chest and fell asleep. She felt her head and noticed that she did feel warm, nothing to alarming but she definitely felt warm so she decided to text Derek and let him know.

"Hey, Ellyse isn't feeling very well and I think she has a small temperature, nothing to be alarmed about but I just thought you should know." She sent. A few minutes later he replied.

"Poor baby. Is she okay, did she maybe eat something funny?" He replied.

"She's just fell asleep, I gave her some child Tylenol because she has been crying for the last few hours and she hasn't ate anything I haven't so I don't think it's that. I think it might just be a bug, hopefully just a 24h one."

"Do you need me to come over and help out?"

"I don't think so, I'll text you if I need you though, I just wanted to let you know."

"Yeah, I appreciate it, thank you. Let me know in the morning how she is."

"I will."

"Give her my love."

"I will Der."

She shut her phone off afterwards and fell asleep herself, praying that hopefully tomorrow, her daughter would be feeling better and be back to her normal happy self. She didn't want Carolyn to meet her on one of her bad days.