2am (breathe)

14

Some more days had passed but the shortness of breath was starting to bother Meredith a lot. She was constantly tired and scared she'd be in the same situation as a few days prior

She had never been that scared when she couldn't breathe, it had never been this bad except when she was sick but then she had doctors that constantly checked her out. She had had a check up yesterday, Teddy had prepared them that Meredith will probably be admitted soon as there was no escaping it anymore

So for now Meredith had promised herself to do as much as her lungs and body would allow her to. Meredith and Charlotte were playing in the girl's playroom

"Mommy, why did you never got a second baby?" Charlotte suddenly asks as they were playing a board game

"Well honey, it was already a big challenge for us to have you, and to make sure you would have strong lungs like daddy has." Meredith starts to explain

"I could have been born with weak lungs like you?" Charlotte frowned, tucking her longe blonde curls behind her ear

"Yes, but we got checked out, and the disease isn't in daddy's genes, so that's why you were born healthy." Meredith smiled as she looked at her perfect and beautiful daughter. No matter what, she'd never be able to be disappointed in the girl

"I didn't know!" Charlotte said

"Well now you do." Meredith winks

"I wanna be a doctor as well. A special lung doctor, so that I can help even better!" Charlotte giggled

Meredith smiled, hugging her daughter close

They had never told Charlie about the general life expectations of someone who has cystic fibrosis as back when Meredith was born they didn't even expect her to ever get older than 30

Luckily for them medicine kept improving, but regardless of all treatment and meds, Meredith's case was pretty severe over all. They couldn't prevent her lungs from shutting down completely as it was happening right now.

All Meredith could do was hoping there would be lungs available for her..

"Mommy, can we have a snack?" Charlotte asks with a big smile.

"Of course we can, cookie monster!" Meredith laughed and got up, the two of them making their way over to the kitchen. It wasn't far at all but Meredith still needed to catch her breath

"Can we have popcorn? And watch a movie?" Charlotte asked with wide eyes

"Of course." Meredith chuckled and grabbed what her daughter wanted. "Charlie, can you get us two water bottles, please?"

"Yes mommy." Charlie nods and grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and then followed her mom to the living room where they both sat down to start the movie

Meredith took her meds before she could eat from the popcorn and swallowed them with some water

"Mommy?" Charlotte turned her head to face her mom halfway the movie

"Yes, monkey?" Meredith looked at her daughter, the girl's pierce blue eyes immediately reminding her of Derek

"Does it hurt?" Charlotte asked

"Does what hurt?" Meredith was a bit confused by her daughter's question

"Your lungs, do they hurt?" Charlotte asked, completely lost from the movie

"Oh.." Meredith sighed, thinking for a minute what she should tell her daughter as she doesn't want to lie. "Yes, sometimes they hurt. They can feel very tight. You know when you have been running and playing for a long time and you gotta catch your breath?" Meredith asked

"Uhu! And then I cuddle with you," Charlie giggles

"Well I have that when I'm sometimes just walking. That's why I sometimes take a little break halfway through." Meredith explained

"Ooooh." Charlotte nods her head, cuddling in her mom's arms. "Then we gotta cuddle too."

"Exactly." Meredith smiled, her daughter absolutely stole her heart

The two of them sat on the couch and heard Derek arriving

"Ah, my girls!" He walked inside, Meredith paused the movie

"Daddy!" Charlotte jumped up to hug her father. "Did you save a lot of people today?" She asks

"I did! But it's been a short day today, luckily. Because I missed you and your mom." Derek winked and walked over to his wife, kissing her lips, brushing some hairs out of her face.

"Hey handsome." Meredith laughed playfully and kissed her husband back

"I should go take a shower, you two should finish your movie." He smiled as he has been working in the hospital and didn't wanna risk infection any sort of disease to Meredith

"Go, I'll start on dinner in the meantime." Meredith smiled. Charlotte went back to the movie

Meredith slowly walked to the kitchen and grabbed herself a chair so she could start cutting the vegetables. She used to do this standing up but lately even that had been too exhausting. She's also only cutting the vegetables as otherwise she'd probably burn the house down as she can only make some basic things

"Hey, how's it going? You still got all your fingers?" Derek walked in, teasing his wife

"I'm a doctor, I can chop up vegetables." She laughs but suddenly starting to cough pretty violently

"How long has it been since you've nebulized?" Derek asked

"Few- Few hours." Meredith said in between coughing

Derek nods and quickly goes to grab her nebulizer. He put in the meds and turned on the machine, helping her breathe in the meds

"Much better." Meredith said halfway after she had been coughing up quite a lot of mucus

"Rest on the couch while I make dinner. Close your eyes for a bit if you want." Derek kissed his wife's forehead

"Hmm.. okay." Meredith nods and slowly got up, the meds reall