a force of nature

chapter 17- long lost research

it had been months since meredith had visited ellis, from all the chaos of moving and gaining her medical license, visiting her mentally abusive mother was the last thing she needed. she was going back to London for three weeks, the neuro department back at St. Thomas was in shambles and chief burton was practically begging for meredith to come back. derek was also going to tag along so meredith didn't have to deal with things on her own, which she greatly appreciated.

before leaving for the airport, meredith had made sure to visit ellis and confirm that she was ok so she didn't have to leave abruptly to fly back and care for her. all of her anxiety had built up, she felt that she had abandoned her clueless mom, even though ellis never cared for her, but meredith felt obliged to care because she left everything up to her. they had pulled up to Roseridge and meredith exited the car leaving derek, as she fidgeted with her hands.

"hi, i'm here to visit ellis grey, i'm her daughter"

"ah yes, you must be meredith, she's been asking about you," the kind nurse had admitted as she led her over to the main area

"hi mother," meredith said awkwardly while ellis stared into the far distance, playing with her watch

"richard? i've missed you," ellis had finally acknowledged her daughters presence

"no mom, its me, meredith"

"meredith, meredith... you look a lot like my daughter, are you a surgeon?"

"um yeah, i'm running for chief of fetal at Seattle Grace"

"well you must be great fellow surgeon"

"it was nice seeing you, i guess"

meredith had backed out of the room, startled and hurt at the fact that her own mother couldn't even recognize her, but relieved at the fact that she was ok. she pulled herself together and left to go back to the car, at least she was going back to her comfort place and going to see her person again.

"how was it?" derek had grown restless in the taxi waiting for meredith to return

"it was fine, she didn't recognize me, but it was ok, i'm fine," she forced a smile at him to ensure that she was fine

"meredith, are you sure?" after spending months with her, he knew the word fine was code for not ok, but he didn't want her to feel forced

"yes, yeah lets just go or else we will miss our flight"

"ok," his hand interlocked with meredith's as they took off to sea-tac

...

London was gloomy as always, but the air felt amazing as the couple walked out the airport. it felt relieving to be back, like a weight was lifted off of meredith's chest, even though she had a whole department to fix.

"cristina! we've missed you," meredith ran over to her porsche, it had felt like years since had gotten to drive her favorite car

"someone looks happy, mcdreamy what have you done to her?"

"nothing much cristina, how are you?" derek leaned in for a hug but cristina shot him a weird stare

"don't touch me, save your hands for your girlfriend"

"ok then," derek hopped into meredith's car and was forced to sit in the back seat

the trio headed off to the apartment, where they immediately dropped off their things and headed to St. Thomas where chief burton was anticipating their arrival.

...

"hello dr. grey, dr. shepherd thank you for contributing your time, the neuro wing has fallen into shambles," burton franticly lead them through the neuro department towards meredith's office

"my pleasure chief burton"

the tall man walked away leaving the couple alone to do their jobs.

"ok you can take care of consults while i do all the paperwork and staffing, i love you and thank you for doing this," meredith smiled lovingly at him while shuffling through piles and piles of paperwork that built up over the past few months.

"i love you too, you owe me," derek kissed her on her cheek and left to consult the awaiting patients

derek and meredith had worked a full 24 hours repairing the department and bringing it back to its full potential. they had gone back to her office and crashed on the sofa, cradled in eachothers arms. at around 2 in the morning derek had awoken at the sight of his girlfriend shuffling through a binder with her iphone flashlight.

"what are you doing?" derek said groggily, rubbing his eyes

"oh my god, go back to sleep i didn't mean to wake you up"

"well i can't really anymore, what is that binder?"

"um, i found all of my research i postponed before leaving, and there was this one study i was so close to publishing. it had so much potential, but i had to leave it all behind," she stood there scanning the papers with her eyes, fascinated with her own work

"what was it on, you should finish it now that you don't have anything stopping you," he was now up and standing beside her, hovering over the massive mountains of papers

"mini organs, mini organs that would take over one large failing one, through the injection of stem cells into the body, i theorized that we could grow mini versions of one large organ in order to take over the function of a failing one. after endless nights in the lab, i made it work and just before i was about to present it to the FDA, i got called to go to Seattle, but now i can start it over. i just don't know."

"so you think we can just produce a bunch of mini brains in our bodies, take out our main brain and we would still be functioning?"

"thats what my papers say"

"do it, you have to mer"

"i just don't. know."

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4/28/21

hey bestys, i'm back after a long hiatus ! i went through some writers block and it literally took me two weeks to decide where the story was going to go, but i think i've got it now so expect some updates over the course of the week. dereks second farewell also left me heartbroken for a week so writing was the last thing i wanted to do (ik i sound dramatic but him leaving was the last thing i needed:/) anyways, see the next time i update:) don't forget to vote and comment feedback<3

-H.L