𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 - 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙮'𝙨 𝘼𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙮 (ON HOLD)

fifty - five - "mr. where's the cabbage patch" - fifty - five

"The clothes a surgeon wears help to present an image. The lab coats and badges and scrubs all work together to indicate a person of authority, someone you can trust. When the clothes come off, that's a different story. We're sensitive, lonely, human.It might be hard for a surgeon to admit, but there's no shame in simply being human. It can be a relief to stop hiding, to accept who you really are. A little self awareness never hurt anyone. Because when you know who you are, it's easier to know what you're about, what you really need."
-Meredith Grey, S9E4, "I Saw Her Standing There"

"Sometimes, things are simply out of your control. You can't change them. You can't bend them to your will. It doesn't matter if you're already forty-five minutes late, your hair isn't brushed, you haven't fixed breakfast and you're hemorrhaging brain cells by the second while you sit here. Dying, dying inside."
-Meredith Grey, S9E5, "Beautiful Doom"

"Doctors have never had all the answers. There was a time when you were sick, we'd just drain your blood like you were getting an oil change. We're constantly having to rethink what we thought was true and redefine it. It can be scary to find out you've been wrong about something but we can't be afraid to change our minds, to accept that things are different, that they'll never be the same, for better or for worse. We have to be willing to give up what we used to believe. The more we're willing to accept what is and not what we thought, we'll find ourselves exactly where we belong."
-Meredith Grey, S9E6, "Second Opinion"

"Can two people really be meant to be? MFEO. Soulmates. It would be nice if it's true. That we all have someone out there waiting for us. Us waiting for them. I'm just not sure I believe it.Maybe I do believe it, all this "meant to be" stuff. Why not believe it, really? Who doesn't want more romance in their life? Maybe it's just up to us to make it happen. To show up and be meant for each other. At least that way you'll find out for sure. If you're meant to be or not."
-Meredith Grey, S9E7, "I Was Made For Lovin'"

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER

"Anna!" Derek shouted from the living room of the dream house, reading the names written all over the boxes.

"What?" Anna entered the living room, her voice echoing from the lack of rugs and furniture.

"These three boxes are yours, the rest are Zola's." Derek told her, holding his braced arm against his chest.

"Dad," Anna was concerned, "Does your hand hurt? You shouldn't have carried all of those boxes in. The movers barely did anything."

"Derek?" Meredith entered the house, holding Zola. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Derek told them both, "We need to start unpacking."

"A lot of this can wait." Meredith put Zola down, opening up a box of her toys, "I'm exhausted. Moving's exhausting."

"You're just sad because you're selling your childhood home to Alex." Anna said, grabbing a box and carrying it down the hall to her room. She couldn't believe that they were finally here, moving in. No more trailer, no more Ellis Grey's home, no more high school.

To top it all off, Anna was accepted into an undergraduate program (and would be completing most of it online) while attending a nearby university. After that, she'd be heading off to medical school for four years. She was just ready to challenge herself and quit moping around the house all day. She was officially eightteen, legally an adult, while Zola hit the big three and was entering preschool.

Meredith was an attending now, bossing around her own interns at the hospital, while Derek's hand got worse. He experienced numbness during surgery and the physical therapy didn't fix it. He needed surgery, but didn't want to risk injuring himself even more and losing his 80%. So, for the time being, he was teaching classes to the interns at the hospital. Owen was still chief, Cristina was still in Minnesota, and April and Jackson were "secretly" together.