I Can See The Lighthouse Through The Smoke

I Can See The Lighthouse Through The Smoke

Meredith Grey, and how she makes her way back to her family again.

Spoilers through GA-S17-E08. With a twist, of course :).

Addison Montgomery decides to drive to Seattle rather than fly there. It takes her three days, but she figures it's less risky than to go to the airport, and plus when she arrives there she won't have to worry about renting a car.

She crosses into the state border and heads right to the hospital.

It's the same as she remembers from years ago, only the name has been updated, and so has the sign on the front door.

It crushes her for a moment, remembering Lexie, remembering Mark.

Addison takes a deep breath before she gets out of her car and locks the door.

The last time she visited she said that nothing had changed since she'd left. Now she's pretty sure that everything has.

Zola, Bailey, and Ellis are all having a dance party with Maggie and Amelia, and Link and Winston.

Luckily for Maggie, Winston steps in when Maggie's not ready to dance.

Bailey and Ellis were quite young when their father died, so they don't remember it quite as vividly as Zola.

But Zola remembers, and she remembers her dad a lot.

It wears on her to keep pretending for her brother and sister, but she figures that's what her mom would do for her if she were here.

Zola also knows about Andrew DeLuca having died, and she thinks that all the sadness just melts together at times like this.

Teddy Altman is hopeful about taking Meredith off the ventilator.

She consults with Dr. Cormac Hayes about it, and he agrees, and Richard Webber agrees.

They'll go ahead with it later that afternoon.

It's a bizarre sort of moment when Miranda Bailey answers a page for her at the front door.

"Umm, hi. I'm here to visit, but if you need me to work also, I can do that too. I might umm... Be staying for a little while..." Addison stumbles. She never stumbles. Until maybe now.

"Oh, Addison it's been... It's been ages but yes, yes of course you can stay. By the power vested in me as Chief of Surgery, I hereby grant you privileges to save lives and see patients, and you need to get a test before you can come in here..." Bailey also rambles a little.

"Thank you," says Addison. "It's good to see you," says Bailey. She doesn't ask questions about why she's finally come back.

It's warm on the beach. It's always warm on the beach, and it's always cool in the sea. That's what Meredith has figured out about this liminal space as of late.

She shows Addison the dock, and the rocks that she likes to skip, and how the tides come in and out. And they've built a few sandcastles before they've washed away again. And then they just build them again.

It's been a while since they've talked about anything serious. Mostly they just catch up on how their lives have changed since they've last chatted. Addison updates Meredith on Henry; he might be getting braces soon, and he's not so thrilled about it.

Meredith updates Addison about her own kids; Bailey wants to go fishing but Derek never taught her how because it was his thing to do alone in the woods. Ellis loves school and she misses it. And Zola has read half of the books in the house, including Derek's.