Who's The One [COMPLETED]

Worth The Wait

After spending an entire day talking, playing with the kids and watching TV, Nancy, Kathleen and Lizzie went back to the hotel. They had a flight to catch in the morning because they couldn't leave their patients for too long. Only Carolyn stayed at the house, because they had a spare room since Maggie moved out with Winston. Derek decided to stay for a while, since he spent most of his free time at the house with his kids, instead of going back to the apartment he was renting. Sometimes he even stayed at Maggie's old room.

Meredith and Derek were heading downstairs after tucking all the kids in.
"Today didn't go too bad, did it?" Meredith asked.
"Not as bad as we expected. Nancy did look like she was going to explode any minute though." They both laughed at his comment while they made their way to the living room where Amelia and Carolyn were still sitting near each other and talking.

Meredith and Derek looked at each other in awe when they saw mother and daughter bonding. They both deeply cared about Amelia's well-being and rekindling her relationship with her mother was something truly important.

"Hey, you two" Carolyn smiled at them as she noticed their presence in the room.
"Hey" Meredith smiled at the older woman. Even though they never had a chance to get close,  she always was amazed by the strength that woman held for raising five kids all alone. Maybe she wasn't the most perfect mother for Amelia, but she couldn't really blame her after experiencing the same thing she did. Losing a loved one and navigating in a world alone with multiple children was not the easiest thing and she completely understood that and respected Carolyn for the amazing job she did. That was one of those times she regretted cutting her out of her children's lives but she couldn't bear to look at anyone who was related to Derek for a long time after his death. That's why she resented Amelia for so long.

"Okay, as much as I love being in your company I really need to get some sleep, I'm on-call tomorrow" Amelia said standing up from her seat and heading upstairs.
Suddenly they heard a phone ringing.
"Ahh, it's mine" Derek said frustrated. "Oh, it's Nancy. I'll go answer her or else she'll murder me and sell my body parts for cash." He said while heading out to the balcony. Carolyn and Meredith laughed in unison at his comment.

"How have you been lately, dear" Carolyn asked Meredith. She was truly concerned about her mental state after experiencing such an event as her husband coming back from dead.
"I ummm... I've been fine" Meredith answered not sure what to say.
"I don't know you that well darling, but Derek and Amelia tell me when you say you're fine, you're really not."
"Yeah, that's true" She smiled at her awkwardly. She wasn't type of person to talk about herself.
"You can talk to me. I completely understand what you've been going through for the past five years and I know how much that can damage a person but I have absolutely no idea how you've taken the news of him being alive after grieving him for five years and I want to know how you feel about it."
"Honestly, I don't know how I feel about it either. I'm happy. I'm happier than I've been in a long time. This is like a dream coming true but... I just can't... I'm afraid the moment I let him in he'll disappear again, and I'm afraid I might not be able to come back from that."

Carolyn's heart broke at her daughter-in-law's words. She slowly put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder and softly caressed it. Meredith let out a sigh. She felt comfort in her mother-in-law's touch. She knew at that moment she had someone to support her and that was all she needed.

"Even though I can't completely understand you or this, I'm going to tell you one thing. I would give anything for my husband to be alive and I'm sure you would too back then when you didn't know he wasn't dead. That doesn't mean that you should push yourself into anything or that you should take him back. You both experienced so much trauma in the last few years. You probably moved on, not completely, but still, and now that probably feels like a crime." In these words, Meredith's face changed. She hated to think about that but her mother-in-law talking to her about her sleeping with another man was too much to take in. Carolyn stopped talking when she saw tears roll down Meredith's cheek. "Don't cry, sweetheart. No one's blaming you and you shouldn't blame yourself either." Carolyn tried for her voice to be as soft and sweet as possible. She hated to put her in even more pain than she already was but she really didn't blame her for moving on even though she never moved on herself. There were few reasons behind it. First, she was older than Meredith when she lost her husband. Second,  having five children, the youngest being 5 years old didn't exactly give her an opportunity to even think about it, plus she wasn't as strong as Meredith to even consider ever moving on.