You're not alone

Part 4

Three days had passed on which Meredith had patiently waited for Callie to call and tell her that she could come and get her prothesis. Three days on which Meredith stayed home instead of going to school. Three days on which she hadn't seen Andrew. She felt bad for how she had told him to get out without even explaining herself but she hadn't known how to. He had been so sweet and all she did was telling him to go away. 

Right now she was lying in bed, overthinking her last interaction with him. He probably hated her now, or he thought just like the others that she was weird. Well, in the passed days they had had enough time to tell him. She didn't know what was worse. Him hating her, or him thinking she was weird. The only thing she was sure of was that the first day where she had had someone sitting next to her at school would have also been her last.

She curled up in a ball, pulling her knees up to her chest, feeling her stump with her hand. All she wanted was to just disappear and never come back. Disappear to a place where no one would make fun of her, where no one would stare at her when she would wear a dress in summer and her prothesis would be visible, a place where she would be treated the same as anyone else, a place where her mother cared about her. A place where she still had her whole leg.

She had no idea what time it was, she just laid there, deep in her thoughts until she suddenly heard the door open. "Hey Mer, how are you feeling?" Richard asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed, observing the little girl curled up in her blanket.

But he got no reply. "Meredith?" he tried again, carefully laying a hand on her shoulder. Now, she looked up at him, turning her head a little. "Hi." She said tiredly. "Hi, I have some great news." Richard said smiling.

"We have an appointment with Callie in twenty minutes to try on your prothesis."

"Really?" Meredith said, quickly sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Yes, come on get dressed we need to go." Richard said, watching Meredith get out of bed and jump over to her closet. She put on a pair of baggy sweatpants, her favourite, and a simple t-shirt, slipping on her jacket and picking up her crutches from the floor where she had thrown them down after a short tantrum the other day.

"Ready!" she said, making Richard chuckle who walked behind her out of the room. Reaching the staircase, he took the crutches from her while she got down the stairs in a sitting position as usual.

Fifteen minutes later they were walking over the parking lot of the hospital, Meredith on her crutches way faster than ever before with Richard shortly behind her, having trouble keeping up the pace, but smiling brightly at her sudden energy. The moments in which Meredith was really eager to do something or go somewhere were pretty rare and seeing her smile was also something that didn't happen very often.

He had decided to let her stay home for the few days in which she didn't have her prothesis to make sure she would be comfortable which he knew she wouldn't ever be only with her crutches.

„Meredith! It's good to see you!" Callie said as they entered the orthopaedic surgeon's office. Meredith just smiled at her not really sure what to reply. She walked over to the couch, laying her crutches onto the floor.

Callie came over to her, her now adjusted prosthesis in her hands. Meredith quickly undid the knot in her sweatpants and pulled them up, tucking them in a bundle on her tight. She was already wearing the silicon stocking so when Callie gave her the metal leg she could put it on immediately. She quickly adjusted the clips so that the prosthesis wouldn't fall off before carefully standing up, taking a few steps.

"Does it fit better now?" Richard asked from the door where he had stayed, still a little uncomfortable by Dr. Torres's presence in memory of their last encounter. "Yes! Thank you!" Meredith replied, smiling brightly as she walked around the room, limping slightly because of the slightly unfamiliar feeling but quickly getting used to it.

She now stopped, loosening the bundle of her sweatpants again and rolling them down over the prothesis, looking at herself in the big mirror that was attached to the wall, smiling a little bit. Like this, she almost looked normal.

"Have you experienced any kind of pain the passed few days?" Callie now asked, observing Meredith who was still looking at herself in the mirror. "No." she replied quickly, but not moving her gaze away from her mirror image, her smile slowly fading. What was so different about her that the other kids in her class had to treat her like they did? Did she deserve to be treated like this?

"Can we go home?" Meredith asked, turning her head to look at Richard. Both adults seemed to notice the sudden change in her mood so that Richard quickly nodded and picked up her crutches. Saying goodbye to Callie they quietly made their way through the hospital and over the parking lot, back into the car.

"Can we listen to some music?" Meredith asked shyly. While being in the car with her mother she wouldn't dare to ask if it was okay to listen to some music but she felt like Richard wouldn't yell at her just for asking.

"Of course." He replied and Meredith reached out her small hand to turn on the radio, skipping through the channels to find something good that would calm her thoughts down a little. It was something she had found out the past two years. Whenever she would feel overwhelmed with a situation or her thoughts were just too fast and too loud, music would help make her feel a little better and she needed that right now. She needed to feel a little bit better.