My Sister's Keeper

10

Cassie had known this, but she didn't want them to think that she had been eavesdropping the previous night. "Okay, but, can't you like, sue the hospital for being negligent? Isn't that a thing people do these days?"

Alex spoke up. "Meredith did. When she was living in Boston. We didn't even know until Dillard announced that it was closing. It was so small that most of us barely knew where it was."

"Wait, Mer lived in Boston?" She hadn't known that one before today. How much information was she truly missing here? Meredith had told her so much more than Cassie could have asked for; she knew that it was hard for her. This must have been pretty recent, how had this not come up? Did they really adjust that fast to her being back?

"Yeah. The hospital closed. That's why Penny got rematched."

"This is all the Grey curse," Cassie muttered under her breath. "She never catches a break! She's going to eventually stumble down those stairs when she decides she should, and she's going to be extremely hungover and..."

Alex just started laughing. "Cass, she's been hungover so many times that I don't think it even fazes her anymore. Shepherd and I will go to work, and you and Maggie will stay here and make sure she's fine. And she is fine. Meredith is always fine."

Cassie nodded and let the adults continue talking while she chomped on her cheerios. Zola soon came bouncing down the stairs and chose to sit next to Cassie at the table. Cassie got her a bowl and dumped some Cheerios into her bowl and push it towards her. Zola kept staring at the grownups. How long would it be until she wasn't completely lost as to what they were talking about? She was almost old enough to go to school for the whole day! No more daycare! She was old enough to know! Maybe Cassie would tell her. Cassie was old but not a grown up.

"Cassie." She whispered, afraid the grown-ups would hear. "Are Aunt Amy and Mommy still mad at each other?"

Cassie had to fight a laugh. If only this was only a catfight between Amelia and her aunt. She knew how often those happened and how short lived they were. "It's more than that, Zo. It's a grown-up thing. When you're old enough, they'll tell you."

Zola rolled her eyes at her cousin. "But you're not a grown-up, and I know you know." It bugged her a little bit, how all the grown-ups seemed to adjust so quickly to Cassie. They told her what was going on. It was like she had been here forever. And why wasn't her mommy spending time with her anymore? It was the only thing that seemed to sit in her brain these days. Her mommy forgot about her.

Cassie read the girl's mind. She knew exactly what she was thinking. She spent her whole life thinking the same thing. "Look Zo, your mom might not be spending a lot of time with you, but it doesn't mean she loves you any less. I am not replacing you. You are Zola Grey-Shepherd, daughter of the infamous neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd and the legendary Meredith Grey. No one will change that. Do you understand me?"

Zola nodded her head at the older girl. When she put it that way, she was right. She would always be her parents' daughter... even if she didn't come from them. There was a part of her that said they were forever. It sounded like her mommy. So, she decided to listen to it.

...

Sometime later, Cassie and Maggie were playing an intense game of chess (because putting two geniuses in a room was a great idea). Both of them looked up at the sound of Meredith coming down the stairs. Maggie jumped up at the sight of her sister, and Cassie just stared at her, unsure what to do next.

"Mer!" Maggie started. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here! If I would have known..."

Meredith stared back at her, her face void of emotion. "Maggie it's fine. You couldn't have known. I'm cursed. Things like this happen all the time." Her voice sounded like a croak as if she'd overexerted it by crying and screaming. Her aunt's eyes met her own. Cassie blinked in response.