Amelia is sound asleep in her bed clutching her new teddy bear. Meredith wriggles around in her bed, her nails cutting up her skin.
After a few more minutes Meredith wakes up.
"Oww." Meredith cries out. Meredith is in pain due to her nails digging into her arms. Because of her EDS, her skin is very thin so it was easy for her nails to cut her skin.
Meredith starts to cry out more in pain. "Mommy!" She sobs. "Mommy! I need you!" Meredith notices blood on her arms from her cuts and is scared of why that's there. "Mommy!!!" She shrieks, still sobbing.
Amelia opens her eyes and rubs them sleepily after hearing Meredith calling out for her mom. "Mer? What's wrong?"
"I need my mommy!" Meredith tries to get out of bed but falls to the floor because she doesn't have her crutches. "Mommyyyyy!"
Carolyn comes rushing into the room and turns on the lights. She sees Amelia sitting up in bed holding onto her teddy bear looking concerned and sees Meredith on the floor with her arms all bloody.
"Amy, everything's okay baby, go back to sleep." Carolyn whispers to Amelia, who nods and falls back asleep.
"Carolyn, I want my mommy! I hurt!" Meredith wails.
"Shh baby, I'm here. Shhhh. You're okay." Carolyn gently picks her up and places her back onto her bed. "Baby, what happened to your arms?" Carolyn gently asked her.
"I don't know!" Meredith cries. "They hurt! And they're bleeding! I'm scared!"
Carolyn gently picks up Meredith's arms and looks them over. "Did this just happen sweetie?"
Meredith shrugs. She starts scratching an itchy spot on her arm and it starts to bleed.
Seeing this, Carolyn realizes all of the cuts on Meredith's arms are from her scratching at her skin during the night. Meredith's skin is so fragile, it doesn't take much to break the skin.
"Oh sweetie." Carolyn pulls Meredith's hand away from scratching at her arm. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up in the bathroom. I'm going to grab you a long sleeved shirt to wear for the rest of the night okay?" Carolyn grabs a long sleeve shirt and picks up Meredith and heads to the bathroom.
Meredith rests her head on Carolyn's shoulder. "I'm sleepy."
"I know. I'm going to clean you up quickly and then you can go back to sleep."
Carolyn gently cleans up Meredith's skin and puts antibiotics on all of the cuts. She puts Hello Kitty bandages on each of the cuts.
"Hello Kitty!" Meredith says sleepily. "I love Hello Kitty!"
"I know you do! You and Amelia both love her! I grabbed your Hello Kitty long sleeve pajama top for you to wear also. Let's get you in it and then you can go back to sleep."
Meredith sleepily nods. Carolyn quickly changes her shirt and then picks her up and carries her back to her bed. She puts her in her bed and tucks her in.
"Okay sweetie, go back to sleep. I'll see you in the morning. I love you." Carolyn says and gives her a kiss on the forehead.
"Love you too"
Carolyn starts to leave the room when all of a sudden Meredith calls out.
"Wait! Where's Puppy and Teddy??" Meredith asks.
"Did they fall out of bed?" Carolyn looks around and quickly finds them on the floor. "Found them!" She puts them in Meredith's arms. "Goodnight Meredith!"
Meredith cuddles with her stuffed animals and mumbles goodnight before instantly falling asleep.
——————
Carolyn wakes up at 8am and sees that Christopher is also awake.
"Hey." She says.
"Hey, how'd you sleep?" Christopher asks.
"Not bad. Did you hear me get up around 1am? Meredith was crying out for her Mom. She had scratches all over her arms. Her nails broke her skin because her skin is just so fragile. And she was also on the floor when I found her. Poor thing was crying for her mom." Carolyn says to her husband.
"Is she okay? That must have really scared her seeing all the bloody cuts. Did Amy wake up?"
"Yeah, that definitely scared her. I think she was so disoriented from it being the middle of the night which was why she was crying for Ellis. She doesn't say anything about her mom during the day so all of that must have really overwhelmed her. And yeah, Amelia was awake when I came in there. She looked really concerned about Mer but I told her to go back to sleep."
"We should have her wear long sleeve shirts to bed from now on to prevent her skin from tearing." Christopher said.
Carolyn nods. "I agree. I put her in her Hello Kitty long sleeve shirt to prevent future cuts during the night."
All of a sudden Amelia runs into the room giggling. "Mommy! Daddy!" She jumps onto the bed.
Meredith makes her way into the room behind Amelia and looks at the bed and sighs. She wants to go onto the bed also but physically can't.
"You want to come up too sweetie?" Christopher asks the little girl.
Meredith nods."I need help." She whispers.
Christopher gets up and lifts Meredith onto the bed and puts her onto the bed.
"Thanks." She whispers.
"What do you girls want to do today?" Carolyn asks the two girls.
"Can we go to the park?" Amelia yells.
"Shhhh Amy, use your inside voice. Mer, what do you think of this idea? Do you want to go to the park also?" Carolyn asks.
Meredith doesn't answer for a minute. "Yes but..."
"But what sweetie?" Carolyn asks.
"I can't play like I used to. And the other kids will make fun of me." Meredith whispers, her fingers anxiously playing with the covers.
"They won't make fun of you sweetie." Christopher reassured her.
"Okay." Meredith whispers nervously. "Can Puppy and Teddy come?"
"Of course they can! Amelia, do you want to bring your teddy bear also?" Carolyn asks the very excited little girl.
Amelia nods her head quickly. "Yes!" She giggles. "Mer! It's gonna be so much fun! I love that you live here now! We can play all the time now!"
Meredith nods and smiles at Amelia. "Yeah!!! Me too!"
Christopher claps his hands together. "Okay! Let's get ready and then we can go to the park. Girls, do you want to go wake the boys up?"
Amelia's eyes twinkle mischievously. "Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! Mer, come on!"
Meredith smiles and nods eagerly. She is helped off the bed by Carolyn and then she follows Amelia to the door, using her crutches to get there.
The two girls walk down the hallway, Amelia going slow so Meredith can keep up with her. They get to the boy's door and look at each other mischievously.
Amelia holds up one finger, then two, then finally a third and slowly opens the door, being careful to not make a sound. She tiptoes in followed by Meredith and they go to each boy's bed.
Amelia jumps on Mark's bed and yells "Wake up Markie!!! Wake up, it's time to go to the park!"
Meredith settles with shaking Derek's shoulders to wake him up since she can't get onto the bed easily. "Wake up!!! Wake up Derek!!! It's park time!!!" She yells and giggles when he looks shocked to see both girls in the room.
"Mer, Amy go away." Mark groans tiredly.
"Markie! It's time to go to the park!" Come onnnnn!" Amelia grabs his hand and tries to pull him out of bed but Mark is stronger than her.
"It's not park time! It's sleep time!" Mark groans.
"Derek! Get up! Get up!" Meredith yells. "We wanna go to the park!"
Carolyn walks into the room laughing. "Okay, okay. I think they get it girls. Come on now you two. Let's get dressed." To the boys she says, "Boys wake up now, we're going to go to the park soon. Your dad is making waffles."
"Waffles?! I love waffles!" Amelia yells and runs out of the room.
Carolyn laughs at the girl's excitement. "Mer, come on. Let's go do your breathing treatment and then we'll go to the park."
Meredith sighs and nods. "Are Derek and Markie gonna come with us?" She asks. "I want them to come with us." She says softly.
"We're gonna come, Mer don't worry. We'll get up now and get ready right Mark?" Derek says, smiling at Meredith.
"Yeah, we're going to get ready Mer. We're gonna have fun at the park!" Mark says.
Meredith smiles. "Yay!"
————
An hour later they get to the park and everyone is excited.
The boys quickly run over to the open grassy area and kick a soccer ball around.
"Mer! Let's go swing!" Amelia yells excitedly.
Meredith looks around nervously at the amount of children at the park. She's worried that they'll make fun of her braces.
"You're okay Mer. You can go swing with Amelia." Carolyn says softly to Meredith and strokes her hair in an effort to comfort her.
Meredith nods and slowly follows Amelia to the swingset.
The two girls start swinging which is difficult for Meredith. They decide to get off the swings a little while later and go explore the jungle gym area with the slides.
Meredith is having trouble following Amelia around on the jungle gym and she notices these two twelve year old boys looking at her braces and laughing.
"What are those things? They look so weird on that girl." One boy says to his friend.
"No idea dude. I know I wouldn't ever want to wear those. And those crutches! I wouldn't want to be her." The boy laughs.
Meredith bites her lip and tries to keep herself from crying. She doesn't realize Amelia just went down the slide and that she's now by herself.
The two boys walk up to Meredith and continue laughing.
"Do you know you have weird looking things on your legs? Can you not walk normally or something?" One boy asks.
"I dare you to race me!" The other boy says. "I'll win for sure!"
"Dude, that's a guaranteed win!" He says, high-fiving the other boy.
Meredith starts to sob and sits down near the slide entrance and curls her body into a ball.
"Hey! Be nice to her!" Derek yells.
"Leave her alone!" Mark yells at the same time as Derek.
The two boys laugh and run off.
Derek and Mark go over to a crying Meredith and kneel down next to her.
"Hey Mer, it's just us now. No one will be mean to you anymore." Derek says softly.
Meredith continues crying. "I'm not normal!"
"You are normal! Who cares about the braces or the crutches! You're still Meredith Grey and that's what's important!" Derek tells her.
"Derek's right Mer! You just gotta ignore them!"
"Why do I have to have these things! I hate them! I can't be like everyone else!" Meredith sobs. "I just wanna be normal!"
As Meredith continued to cry the boys didn't know how to make her stop crying.
"Mark? Can you go get my dad please?" Derek asked. He sat down on the ground next to Meredith as Mark ran off. "You're going to be just fine Mer!"
Christopher came up to them on the jungle gym. "Hey sweetie. Do you want to come sit with me and Carolyn?"
Meredith nodded while continuing to cry.
"Do you think you can walk or do you want me to carry you?"
"Carry me!" Meredith sobbed. "I can't walk right! It's not fair! I'm not normal! Everything hurts!"
Christopher picked her up and she put her head on her shoulder as he rubbed her back. She has her hands around his neck, holding onto him.
"Shhh, you're okay Mer. Let's go find Carolyn." Christopher said, trying to soothe the little girl.
"Why am I not normal??? Everything hurts! I can't walk right!" She wailed.
Carolyn looked very concerned as Christopher and Meredith approached her on the bench. Carolyn felt so bad for the little girl and wished there was some way she could help her.
"Hey Mer, shhh. You're okay baby." Carolyn said softly.
Christopher sat down on the bench with Meredith on his lap.
Derek ran up to them with Meredith's crutches. "Here you go!"
"Thanks." Meredith whispered, her tears slowing down.
"Anytime Mer! I've got your back always!" Derek said, smiling at her. He sat down on the bench next to his dad and held Meredith's hand in his own to comfort her.
We hope you enjoyed! Thanks to my co-writer _Ktje_