Description: Nick helps Mia through a rough patch and uncovers a dark secret.
A/N: Okay so I've been seeing more of Nick and the kids interact and that's basically what inspired this chapter. It's loaded with a lot of fluff and Mia is in her residency. This will include trauma, domestic violence, abuse, swearing, etc. If you're not into that, you're free to scroll! Hope you all enjoyed the recent episode!
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Nick POV:
Mia was always the most independent person out of everyone. She would always keep to herself and deal with her things on her own. She would never come to Mer, Maggie, Amelia, or me about anything at all, she wasn't as open as her siblings were. She reminded me of Charlotte though. Very closed off and quiet. They had become best friends before we had gotten married, but Charlotte lives in New York while Mia is with us in Seattle. I've known Mia since she was twelve and she hasn't had a father figure in her life since Derek died when she was eight. I've been in her life for almost twenty years.
She's the brightest in her class of fourth-year residents. She's very talented and gifted for her age. She's been very passionate about general and neurosurgery, mostly because of her family. However, this week has been absurd. She's barely been to work or coming in late and she looks drained. She lives across the hospital in an apartment complex with her boyfriend, John.
They've been together since she was a resident here. I had introduced him to her because he was a student of mine and I thought that they were a perfect match for each other. He's very protective over her and may seem a little like a control freak, but he's an attending so it's not a surprise.
Mia was on my service this week and she was supposed to do a solo surgery today, but she's not here. I page John to see if he knows where she is.
There's no answer at all, so I call him instead.
Mia POV:
He's beating me black and blue. I tried fighting back, but that made it worse. It's been two years of this and I don't know what to do. This time it was because I laughed at one of his colleague's jokes while we were out last night and he accused me of having a thing for him.
"John, please! Please, I'm sorry. It won't happen again. I love you, more than anyone else, I love you." I wanted him to find that part of him that cared for me, that loved me, the sweet guy that I fell in love with at a bar.
He throws me to the floor.
"Look at what you make me do. Don't you know how much I love you? You're the love of my life. Am I not enough for you? You brought this upon yourself. It's your fault you got hurt." He backs me into a corner.
"No, I love you, John. I won't do anything stupid again. Please, just relax. Please." I keep pleading over and over until he releases his hand from my throat.
His phone starts to ring and he checks it right away.
"Hey, Nick. How's it going?" He answers it.
"Yeah, Mia isn't feeling that great today. I think she's just been overworking herself. She should be back by tomorrow though." He tells
"I already got her some soup earlier, thanks for checking in. Bye." He cuts the call.
"He's gonna tell my Mom that I'm sick and she'll come over for sure." I worry
"Well then go and put some makeup on, you look hideous." He orders
I run upstairs quickly and sort myself out.
A Few Hours Later
I'm just cleaning up around the house so that my mom doesn't suspect anything before she comes over.
I've covered up the bruises on my face and I'm wearing longer clothes so no marks are visible.
I finish up the dishes in the kitchen and John walks in, sighing.
He hugged me tightly from behind, rested his head in the crevice of my shoulder, and whispered in my ear.
"I'm sorry, baby. Please forgive me. I don't like hurting you, I love you. I'm just afraid that you'll leave me."
"I-I forgive you. I love you too, so, so much. I won't leave you, John. I'll be better, it's my fault." I frown.
He wasn't always like this. He used to be so sweet and never laid a finger on me. I hated this new him. After we had moved in together, he started becoming so possessive and controlling towards me. I can't stand living here, but I can't leave or else he'll kill me for sure. I just have to handle him on my own and take his crap for now.
The doorbell rings and I get a little startled.
"You go rest upstairs, you're sick, remember?" He tells
I ran upstairs immediately and buried myself in the sheets.
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"Hey, babe, how're you feeling?" Mom strokes my hair.
"I'm okay, I just have some migraines and I took some meds already. You should go, you didn't have to leave work to check on me, Mom. I'm an adult now." I yawn
"I just wanted to make sure that my angel was okay and I will always leave work to check on you guys, and if not me, then it'll be Nick, Amelia, or Maggie. I'll let you sleep now, you look exhausted. I love you." She kisses my head.
"Love you too, Mom. Thanks for coming." I smile
"I'll take care of her, Mer. Don't worry, she's in good hands." John reassures her.
One Week Later
Nick POV:
In the corner of my eye, I see Mia in the hall, charting and John approaching her.
He has an unusual look on his face, it's like he's almost pissed at her for doing her job.
She jumps as soon as he gets close to her.
"What the hell are you doing, Mia? We were supposed to meet in the cafeteria for lunch!" He yells, dragging her by her wrist, roughly.
"Sorry, my phone must have been off from the skills lab this morning." She mumbles, her voice trembling as she scurries away.
She seemed so scared of him and that didn't sit right with me, so I decided to tell Meredith and Amelia.
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"She jumped as soon as he approached her and looked terrified of him when he yelled at her, that's not normal. Not to mention that he physically dragged her by her wrist." I assert
"Are you sure, that doesn't seem like him?" Amelia turns to Meredith.
"I don't know. She doesn't open up to me about personal stuff anymore. I see her, but we haven't had a conversation by ourselves in a while because she's always with John. I honestly don't know how she's doing, mentally." She replies
"Do you think that he hurts her?" I ask
"Whoa, let's not jump to conclusions! We don't know anything that proves that. Maybe we are taking this out of context and making it something that it's not." Meredith says
"Mer's right, Nick. We shouldn't get involved in her love life. The last time we did, there was a huge argument and she moved away. We don't want to lose her again. Maybe you're just reading too much into this and it's nothing." Amelia justifies
"Yeah, you're probably right. I shouldn't overstep, she's an adult. I think today's just a weird day. I have a patient that eats worms for a living." I say
"Babe, I love you, but I'm trying to eat my lunch." Meredith chuckles
Later in the Evening
Mia POV:
"Why didn't you answer my page right away? You were probably with a guy, weren't you?" He slaps my face.
"I was just busy charting, please, just stop!" I yelled in frustration.
That was a huge mistake, it made him even more furious.
He punched me, twice.
"Nobody's coming to help you, Mia. You're mine. You'll always be mine and I'll make sure of that. If you ever try to call the cops, tell anyone, or run away, you'll be dead. If I can't have you, nobody can." He kicks me right in the stomach.
"John, please, stop! I can't breathe." I try to get up, but I don't have the energy.
"I don't care, you deserve this! You never talk back to me, you got it?" I lost count of the number of times he kicked me and I was ready to pass out because of the excruciating pain.
Nick POV:
I decided to go check on Mia later that evening because something didn't sit right with me. My gut usually tells me when something is wrong and this feels like that. Even though Meredith and Amelia might quarrel with me for being overbearing and invasive, it's my job to protect Mia. I made that a vow when we got married. I would love and protect all of the kids as if they were my own. I'm their father, well step-father.
I can hear screaming through the door, but I can't see anything, so I burst through and it comes off the hinges completely...
She's on the floor unconscious, lying in a pool of blood, while he's standing over her, grinning at her vulnerable and fragile state that he put her in. As soon as he notices me, his eyes widen.
"It's not what it looks like, she's fine, I just had to teach her a lesson." He says drunkenly.
I tackle him to the ground and punch him until he can't fight back anymore.
"No, no, no! Mia! Mia, wake up! Don't die, We need you! This family can't live without you." I cry and check her pulse.
I barely feel one, so I pick her up and take her to my car right away. I'm now scared to death and pray to God that she'll make it to see another day.
A few minutes later we reach the trauma bay at Grey-Sloan.
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Meredith and Amelia see her in my arms and I can tell that they're way more scared than I am.
Tears started to stream from their eyes and they felt like they couldn't breathe at all.
"What happened to her? What happened to my baby!" Meredith cried
"John was beating her and it looks like she's also bleeding out from a miscarriage. Get Wilson from OB and she's gonna have to go into surgery, so book an OR. We are gonna call the cops as soon as she's up and we will get a good lawyer. I will make sure that she makes it through. That bastard doesn't get to win this." I said, angrily.
"What did you just say?" Meredith glared at me in shock and Amelia was at a loss for words.
"She was being abused, I don't know if it's been for a while, but it looks like it's happened before. I just hope she's okay." I try to hold back my tears to be strong for Meredith and Amelia.
Jo POV:
Nick paged me to the pit for a consult, so I rushed there right away, excited for a patient because I had been trolling for them all day.
I see him through a crevasse of the curtains, but my stomach drops as soon as I see the patient.
"What the hell happened to her!" I struggled to hold back my tears.
"Wilson, she's suffering from a miscarriage and there's a lot of blood in the belly right now. I need you to do a D&C while Owen and Bailey find the source of the bleeding. I have to stay with Meredith, she can't even breathe." He sighs
"Yeah, go, don't worry. I got her. She's one of us, I'll take care of her." I nodded
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As we wait for her scans to show up I hold her hand, so she knows she's not alone, even though she's unconscious.
After we load her back into the gurney, her gown raises a little and I notice some bruises on her legs, up to her stomach.
My mind flashes back to when I was with Paul and he used to beat the crap out of me. There are large portions of purple splotches on her body and I realize that it was way worse than I had anticipated.
I don't know who would do this to someone they loved, if someone loved you, they would never hurt you. At least not intentionally and repeatedly.
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After the D&C, the nurses and I wheeled her to a private room and I went to tell her family that they could see her now.
"How is she? Is she okay?" Meredith and Amelia jolted up.
"She's stable, there was a lot of bleeding and she was about four months along, what are we doing about the cops? They're gonna need a statement from her and from what I've experienced, the law is rigged against domestic violence victims." I told
"I know a good lawyer, we will be fine. Nobody will hurt her again." Nick asks
"I should've paid attention to her more, this is my fault. I haven't been there for her, not for a while." Meredith tells
"No, it isn't, Mer. You are the best mother anyone could ever have. You've always taken care of your kids. I know it's stupid, but we can't always protect them from this cruel world. There's always gonna be bad guys." Amelia says and we all nod off.
"Jo is right. You're a great mother and the only person to blame is John. He did all of this and he was sober. I'll make his life a living hell for as long as I can." Nick asserts
We're all interrupted by Mia groaning in bed.
"Hey, you're awake!" Meredith smiles
"I'm sorry I put you all through this." She says
"No, baby, no. You didn't do anything wrong. I just wish you would've come to us sooner. He hurt you so bad." Nick runs his fingers through her hair.
"I know, I told him that I would and that made it worse. John has been like this since I moved in with him. I tried to control him and calm him down, but he didn't listen! He wouldn't stop. I-I thought that I could handle it...that I could fix him." She sobs
"Shh, it's okay, Mia. We're gonna protect you. You almost died! You were pregnant and miscarried because you bled out too much and there was no heart rate on the fetal monitor. I'm so sorry. Earlier when Nick told me he dragged your arm I should've known that something was up. Amelia and I told him not to interfere. This is my fault, I should've checked in with you." Meredith sighs
"We'll handle it, you're not alone in this, okay? This is ending here, you don't have to be in pain anymore. I have a great lawyer and I will tell Richard to fire him immediately and we will get a restraining order and you won't have to see him again unless it's in court." Nick declares
"You'll be fine, Mia. You've always been a strong, independent, brilliant woman. Your past doesn't define who you are. No man defines who you are. We have your back no matter what, okay?" Jo smiles
"I killed a child because I made an idiotic mistake and stayed with him. If I wasn't with him this wouldn't have happened. I killed my baby." I mutter
"No, you didn't, baby. None of this was your fault, not one bit. I know how much you want to be a mother, but it's not the right time. You have to take care of yourself, this isn't a good environment for a child. He's not safe and I don't want to see you hurt any longer." Nick rubs her shoulder.
6 Months Later
Author POV:
John eventually went to prison after a trial and he was sentenced to twenty years without parole. During the trial, Mia had been an absolute trainwreck and had trouble keeping her composure in court.
She couldn't make eye contact with him without tearing up. He had truly destroyed her. He made her life a living hell.
"Hey, it's over now. He can't hurt you anymore. You can move on and be happy now, Mia." Meredith smiles
"We got you, the pain is over. You never have to see his face ever again." Amelia tells
"I just wanna go home, can we please go home?" She cried
"I'll drive, sweetie," Nick replies
The drive was pretty silent, ominous even. Nobody knew what to say now. They'd expect Mia to be at peace and possibly open up to them more, but she didn't speak out at all.
Since everything happened, Meredith and Nick insisted that she should move back in so that they could take care of her and keep her company. She wasn't crazy about the idea, but she eventually gave in and moved back into her old room across from her mother's.
As soon as the car stopped, Mia felt the urge to run out immediately. She felt pretty nauseous.
She got out and puked by the grass near the driveway.
They watched her run inside and slam the door.
"What are we supposed to do now? She's broken! He broke our daughter, she's not the same anymore. It's just like she's a shell and the Mia that we know has been scooped out. She's not my little girl anymore." Meredith cried
"I'll check on her, I'll make sure she's fine, Mer. I promise." They all get out of the car, but Nick goes up to her bedroom.
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"Mia? Can I come in, please? It's Dad." He knocks on her door.
"Okay." She sighs
She looks so beat up and run down.
"Hey, look at me. I'm right here. Nobody will hurt you. I'll say it as many times as you want me to. Nobody will ever lay a finger on you again. If they try, they'll be dead, I can promise you that much." Nick declares
"Why did I stay with him? He was putting me through so much pain. I guess I just wanted to settle down and try to be happy, but nobody is worth that much pain." She rests her head on his shoulder.
"I know, and I'm so sorry I didn't recognize it sooner. I'm sorry, Mia. I know that all of us saying that doesn't do anything, but I am. I promised to look out for you and keep you safe, I should've never introduced him to you. I-I thought he was a good person for you, honey. I never meant for any of this to happen. I would never want to hurt you." Nick pleads with tears in his eyes.
"You didn't hurt me, Dad. You saved my life. If it weren't for you I'd be dead right now. I could hear you calling my name while I was bleeding to death, I heard you. You found me and you saved me, so thank you for that." She smiles
"Of course. I'll always come and find you. I love you, Mia." He nods, tears in his eyes.
"Love you too, Dad. Thank you for everything." She hugs him tightly
"Always. I'd do anything that I could to make you smile, muffin. You're the best, but don't tell anyone I said that, including Mom." He quipped
"Too late. Is everything okay? Are you alright, Mia?" Meredith and Amelia sneak in through the door.
"Yeah, I want to thank you guys for being here throughout all of this. I don't know what I'd ever do without you." They all join in a group hug.
"We love you muffin. As long as you're happy, we're happy." Amelia grins
The End.
Aaliyah