Meredith was going to miss her flight. There was no doubt about it.
She knew it had been a bad idea from the beginning anyway.
Going to Minnesota on Christmas Eve. Going to Minnesota on Christmas Eve to spend it with Nick and his niece. And apparently all of his friends.
He had it all planned out. He wanted to build a life with her. And he wanted to prove it to her by planning the holidays with her.
She'd agreed to it primarily because she would be spending the holidays away from her children. She hated being in Seattle on the holidays knowing they weren't with her.
There was no love lost between her and this god forsaken festival except she loved the way Bailey started talking about the ornaments weeks too early.
Loved the way, Zola still left a glass of milk and a couple of cookies for Santa.
So she would do it. All of it. For them.
With the incessant Christmas songs playing in the car to her house looking like Santa's factory.
She would do it all.
Except for the years her ex-husband had them for the holidays. Those years she preferred a bottle of wine and the company of her old friends.
Or recently, piles and piles of research and paperwork by herself with hard metal blaring through the speakers. Anything that would take away the stifling silence, the suffocating loneliness.
Since everyone had left and everyone had moved on.
Except, it seemed, her.
She'd dated, of course. After five years of being a divorced single mother of two, she had the first date conversations memorized. The getting to know one other, the conversations about work, the ones about family, it was like she had been dating the same guys over and over again.
It had frustrated her and frankly, bored her as well. So she'd decided to take a break from it all and then, she had been called to Minnesota by David Hamilton and she had bumped into that one transplant surgeon she had met years ago.
And for the first time in a very long time, it hadn't seemed so tedious to get to know someone again.
So really, travelling all the way to another state to spend a holiday with him hadn't just been about warding off the loneliness. It also maybe had a little something to do with the sparkle in his eyes when he'd first suggested the idea.
It didn't mean that she wasn't anxious about his plans for the future. His plans for their future. He wanted to build them a house, a life, a family, perhaps.
It was just that, she had done it before. Done that before.
Built a house, a life, a family with someone and it all but blown up in her face.
So it was alright that she was having doubts about this whole ordeal.
Right?
The deafening honking of her Uber yanked her back to reality. She'd been stuck in traffic for far far too long. She had lost count minutes ago.
There was no way she could reach the airport on time now. She would just have to call Nick and let him know.
He would be disappointed she knew that but he'd understand. He somehow, always did.
Their relationship was nothing like the one she'd shared with her ex-husband all those years ago. The one filled with mistrust and accusations and heartbreaking arguments.
Nothing like that.
And turns out, they somehow managed to still bring out the worst in each other. Even after five years of being apart. If anything, their latest argument had been reason enough to remind her as to why they had parted ways in the first place.
But she couldn't think about that right, about him.
The worst part about being alone on Christmas, she had realised, was that it brought back all of those memories.
The horrible, ugly memories she had stuffed in some small part of her brain.
Just as Meredith was about to throw in the towel and ask her driver to turn around, the traffic magically seemed to clear out.
Huh.
Maybe whatever forces were at play here, wanted her to get to Nick, after all.
Meredith had exceptionally quickly reached the airport, checked in her bag and headed toward the security checks.
She breathed in a sigh of relief and perhaps nervousness, too.
She was almost there.
She could do this. She could let this man show her love. She could let him love her.
And maybe, eventually, she could love him, too.
She could. She deserved it.
Her phone rang just as she was about to submit it.
"Zola?", she whispered, her heart beating out of her chest.
No. No. No.
Not her babies.
"I'm on my way."
She had to go.
She had to go.
Just two more blocks.
She just had to walk two more blocks in a flimsy coat and uncomfortable heels while it snowed heavily.
Just two more blocks.
Snow in Seattle on Christmas?
Stupid freaking climate change.
While she was in a cab to Derek's house, it had started to snow. Which had only made the traffic worse so after being stuck in the car for twenty minutes, twenty minutes where her children were apparently alone and hurt and in pain, she had made the decision to walk.
It was only about fifteen blocks at most.
She could do that.
Both her and Derek had decided to give the kids an emergency contact phone. Which they were to use only and only if absolutely necessary. If they were in trouble.
All alone and in trouble.
It had six numbers fed into it. Her's. Derek's. Maggie's. Amelia's. Alex's and, Dr Bailey's.
People they were to call if they were all alone and in trouble. And to call 911, if they needed to.
Except they weren't supposed to be alone, or in trouble.
They were supposed to be at her ex-husband's house, surrounded by countless Christmas paraphernalia and warmth and happiness.
They were supposed to be fine.
Except, somehow, they weren't.
Where was he?
How could he do this?
How could he abandon his children?
She had called him upwards of twenty times. All in vain.
She was going to kill him.
She was going to kill Derek Shepherd.
She could break the door. If it came to that, she could break the door.
She had for a semester learned to pick locks with Sadie. Just so they could sneak into liquor stores after hours.
But damnit, where were those skills when you truly needed them.
As she repeatedly pushed the doorbell, it dawned on her that if Zola had resorted to calling her at Derek's house, maybe he was hurt. Maybe he was incapable of taking care of them.
Maybe something had happened to him.
She pounded the door harder, calling out for him, for her children.
Maybe she should call 911, maybe she should ask the neighbours for help.
Just as she retrieved her mobile phone to call the authorities, the door swung open.
With her ex-husband stood firmly in the centre, an unrestrained smile on his face and flour smeared all over him.
With her two children flanking him on each side, with similar smiles and similar predicaments.
What the actual freaking hell?
"Meredith, hey! I thought you were in Minnesota?", she watched his grin turn into a smaller, more wary version of itself as he properly took in her appearance.
Her eyes locked with Zola's and she could see the mischief brimming in her brown irises.
As soon as the reality of what had happened hit her, the kids took off inside the house at a run. At a run.
Those little-
They had tricked her. They had lied to her.
And from the bewildered look on her ex-husband's face, they had tricked him as well.
Oh, she was going to kill them.
"Meredith, you're soaking. Did you walk here? In all that snow? Is everything okay?", she could hear his volley of questions but none of them really registered, now that the adrenaline had worn off, her body was finally coming to terms with what she had done.
"Mer, come inside, please, you're shaking."
She had run fifteen blocks. In the snow. With not a whole lot protecting her.
Because of some stupid prank, her children had decided to play on them.
He all but dragged her shivering form inside and sat her down near the fireplace.
He materialised a minute later and wrapped a thick blanket around her.
"Okay, you need to get out of those clothes. I'll find you something, stay here. Don't move. Wait for me."
Oh, she'd heard that before.
Hadn't she?
It was probably the cold getting to her.
As he was about to leave, Meredith grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Derek, I think the kids parent-trapped us."
A/N: hello, i'm back with another story! This story came to me randomly after i had watched a generic Christmas romcom and i thought hey, what if the kids try to parent-trap divorced Meredith and Derek.
And so here it goes!
i hope it turns out well, i hope y'all like it.
This will probably just be fun and cute and of course merder endgame.
Happy Holidays!
Please do review and tell me you what you thought of it! And i'll be putting the next chapter super soon!