"What the hell happened?!" Derek panted as he ran into the room where both Addison and the chief were waiting for him. He was carrying Ellyse who was very much awake and alert in his arms.

"Derek, let me take her." Addison said reaching for the girl.

"No, what happened? Tell me what happened!" he shouted causing Ellyse to flinch.

"Daddy." she whimpered.

"It's okay, I'm sorry." he breathed stroking her hair.

"Derek, it's Meredith, you need to let me take Ellyse, please." Addison pleaded with him, her eyes stressing the importance of this to him.

"Okay." he frowned, "baby, Addie is going to take you to daycare for a little bit okay and then daddy will come and get you soon." he smiled slowly.

"Don't want to." she shook her head into his neck.

"Ellyse you have too okay, daddy needs to work."

"No daddy." she tightened her hold on him.

Derek sighed and looked helplessly at Addison, he still had no idea what had happened and until the young girl was out of the room, he wouldn't.

"Where's Alex?" he asked knowing that his daughter trusted him.

"We just paged him, he should be here soon." the chief sighed.

"Just tell me what's going on, please. Is it Mer? Is she okay?" he worried.

"I'll explain everything Der, just not yet." she nodded towards his daughter.

He felt sick, he felt like his organs were being jumbled around in a washing machine as he stood there. It couldn't be good because no one would tell him what was happening.

"Chief we need you right now, it's Dr Grey." the door opened revealing a male nurse.

Dereks head shot quickly to watch the chief's reaction, stress overbearing him as he watched his quick reaction to leave to room.

"Addison I need to know what's going on, tell me!" he snapped.

"Derek, I- she-"

"I was paged?" Alex sighed as he walked in the room,

"I need you to take Ellyse, somethings- they won't tell me whilst she's here." Derek turned to him.

"Wait, what?" Alex was confused.

"Alex! Take Ellyse. Just take her to daycare." he said as he let Alex take Ellyse out of his arms and exit the room.

He turned to Addison straight away and waited for her to tell him what was wrong.

"Derek." she sighed.

"Addison, tell me." he breathed, anger rising.

"Sh- Derek, Meredith was attacked. She came into the ER on her own completely beaten, I got to her before but once I sat her down, she passed out. They had to put in a chest tube, and the last I know they were taking her to CT, her left pupil had blown." she told him and watched as tears left his eyes, shock evident on his face.

He opened his mouth and closed it again repeatedly, no words were leaving, the only thing leaving his body was tears and exhales.

"Derek there's more..." Addison said and watched his hand move to his mouth. She took a deep breath.

"When she came into the ER, her jeans were on inside out." she said watching his breath skip as his mouth opened in pain, "her panties were gone, she has scratches up her thighs. She was raped, Derek." Addison felt a tear roll down her own cheek as she watched a gut wrenching sob escape his body.

"No, no, the-theres a mist-ake." he shook his head and he paced the room, his hands touching every inch of his face.

"Im so sorry. Im so sorry." Addison cried as she pulled him into a hug.

"Sh-she was at a p-party, wh-why was she alone." he stuttered.

"I don't know Derek, she didn't talk when she got here. She was here but she wasn't."

"Okay, Ells is in daycare so can someone tell me why I was paged from my engagement party, I might add, it better be good." Alex chuckled as he opened the door not looking up to see the distress on Derek and Addison's face.

"Meredith was raped." Derek breathed.

Alex's head shot up.

"What did you just say?" he went pale, he definitely didn't hear that right.

"Meredith was, raped." he said again.

Alex looked at him, his hand travelling to his mouth and it hung open it shock, tears surfacing his eyes. That was his best friend. His best friend who had left the bar drunk and alone because he told her too, because he was mad at her for something that was not her fault. He ran to the trash and vomited.

"Where is she?" Derek asked Addison.

"I'll find out." she smiled apologetically and left.

"Are they sure it's Mer?" Alex cried.

"Of course they're sure! She works here!" Derek snapped, sighing as he realised he'd shouted at him when he hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. This isn't your fault." he sighed rubbing a hand over his forehead.

"No... it is." he said quietly.

"What?" Derek looked at him.

"It is my fault." he looked at Derek.

"Alex, it's not."

"I told her to leave, I snapped at her and told her to leave. She was drunk and she left alone." a sob racked his body as he crouched to the floor with his head in his hands.

Derek looked at him, a deep frown forming on his face as he registered what he had just said. He sent her home, alone, drunk , in the dark. He was supposed to be her best friend, he was supposed to look out for her. He let her go home alone, he sent her home alone.

"You what?" he stepped towards him.

"I-" he gasped as everything hit him.

"You knew she was drunk and you sent her home in the dark, on her own?"

"I'm so sorry."

"You better be more than sorry." Derek breathed as he punched him before the door opened and he was quickly pulled away from Alex.

Meredith was in the ICU, during her abdominal CT they found a splenic haemorrhage and she was bleeding out fast so she was rushed to surgery where they performed a complete splenectomy. Now, Derek was following the chief and Addison as they took him to her room, his heart smashed further when he saw her fragile body laying there, completely beaten and broken, wires coming from her body and bandages around her arms. One of the first things he'd noticed was the dominant hand marks around her throat and it made him sick to think of another man's hands touching her so violently.

He walked towards her bed, tears rolling down his cheeks as the back of his fingers moved across her forehead trying to smoothen the frown that had been printed there.

"We've given her a light sedation of morphine and paired with the anaesthesia, she should wake up in a few hours. We need to do a rape kit but her consent is required so it'll have to wait until she's awake." Addison said sadly as she looked at her old best friend completely broken.

"Can't you just do it now, whilst she's out. She shouldn't have to go through that again." he shook his head.

"I'm sorry Dr Shepherd but you know we can't do that, I wish we could to make it easier for everyone, but we can't." the chief said.

"She looks like she's in pain." he frowned

"Mental pain." he whispered quietly.

"Derek, this is going to be a difficult recovery for everyone and she's going to need you there to help her so if you don't think you can do this, I think you should call someone to help you." the chief told him.

"Call your mom Derek." Addison spoke up.

Derek nodded his head and after a few moments, he got up and reached for his phone in his pocket before leaving the room to call his mom.

He needed some air so he got into the elevator and made his way outside of the hospital into the fine rain, his hands shaking as he held his phone in his hands dialling his mom's number."

"Derek?" Carolyn said tiredly, he had obviously woken her up.

"Ma." Derek sobbed.

"Derek, what's the matter?" Carolyn sat up in her bed listening to her son's cries.

"Derek, talk to me son."

"It's Meredith." he cried.

"What's happened? Is she okay?" she panicked.

Derek gasped, "I need you ma, I need you here."

"Der, listen to me, I need you to tell me what's going on." she said trying to calm him down.

"She- she was raped ma, Meredith was raped." he broke down.

"Oh my god. Derek I-" she paused.

"oh my god." he could hear her muttering as gasps left her throat.

"I'm on my way Derek, where are you?"

"Sinai." he replied.

"I'll be on the next flight, i'll be there as soon as I can Derek. I love you so much." she choked back a cry.

Derek just nodded and put down the phone.

Carolyn was in a state of shock, when she got that phone call and heard the distress of her son she never expected those words to come out of his mouth. She was raped. Her heart ached for Derek and broke for Meredith, neither of them deserved this and she couldn't imagine the fear Meredith must have felt. It was something she hoped no one would ever have to experience. She got herself dressed quickly and packed some clothes in a bag before calling a cab and leaving her house. She got in the cab and directed him to the airport but as the car turned down a street she stopped.

"Wait, stop here for a minute." she said before getting out of the car and quickly walking down to a familiar house. She knocked on the door and waited a few minutes considering it was late.

"Carolyn Shepherd?" the door opened.

"Ellis." she breathed.

"What are you doing here?" Ellis asked as she squinted from her porch light.

"You need to come with me Ellis, to New York, something's happened to Meredith." she admitted.

"What? What do you mean somethings happened to Meredith?" Ellis' throat tightened.

Carolyn looked at her before taking a deep breath and reaching for her hands to take in her own, she was going to need support once she heard what she was about to say.

"Derek just called me, Meredith is in the hospital... she was raped." Carolyn said sadly as she wiped her own tear.

Ellis gasped loudly and stumbled backwards in shock.

Her daughter. Her baby. Her little Meredith..