Million pieces

5

Derek slowly made his way back to his office. In his mind he was thinking about a way to explain all of this to their kids.

'Mommy has 2 casts on her legs, a cast on her arm and her jaw is wired shut?' That's not a thing to say to these young kids.

"Hey, guys" Derek said as he entered his office

"Can we go see mommy?" Zola was the first one to ask

"Yes but first I'm gonna tell you a bit more about what's wrong with mommy." Derek said as he took a seat on the couch.

Alex stood up and placed his hand on Derek's shoulder in an act to support him before he walked out of the room.

"So, mommy had a little incident, okay?" Derek started as the kids nodded

"Mommy's both legs are hurt and are in hard casts but they are under the blanket so you won't see them and mommy has one broken arm that's in a cast too, you understand?" Derek asked

Both Zola and Bailey nodded when Ellis was frowning

"Maybe you can draw on them, write something nice for mommy, how does that sound?"

The kids nodded again

"Mommy's teeth also got hurt so mommy has some kind of braces" Derek explained "Mommy can't talk to you right now but she can write on the whiteboard, she can nod and shake her head but most important, she can listen to all the stories you wanna tell her"

"Is mommy in pain?" Bailey asked

"A bit but she has an IV for that, so we have to be very very careful, okay?" Derek asked them and they nodded again

"But we can't yell, we can't jump on the bed and we have to be very careful, you got it?"

Derek couldn't tell them that Meredith flinched when she heard an unfamiliar sound or when someone would run in, the kids didn't have to know this, they wouldn't even get it.

"So now, you're gonna grab my hand and we're not gonna run into mommy's room. We're gonna stay calm and then I'll help all three of you on the bed. Let's go!" He said as grabbed their hands.

Derek and the kids made their way to Meredith's room. Derek kneeled himself to the level of the kids and started talking again "I'm gonna go in and see if mommy's still awake. You stay here."

Derek opened the door and saw Mirando in Meredith's room, checking her IV.

"Hey Mer, still okay for the kids to visit?" He checked and she nodded

"Come on guys" Derek smiled and led them in

Meredith was hesitating. She felt herself frozen in the bed, desperately needing them around her but scared to scare them

"Mommy!" Zola said and quickly went to say hi. Bailey followed but stayed behind Zola. He seemed to be checking out Meredith's battled body. Derek scooped up Ellis and he walked closer to Meredith, sitting on the bedend.

"Mommy, are you okay?" Ellis asked as she was staring at her mother

Meredith nodded and tried to smile but remembered that Addison told her not to show her teeth. She made movements with her free arm so that the kids would come closer.

Zola immediately sat down on the bed and hugged her mom

"Come on, bud" Derek said as he reached his hand for Bailey to join them

Meredith was scared of how Bailey would react. With her free arm she was rubbing Zola's back

Bailey slowly made his way on the bed and tried to find a comfortable spot between both parents. "Mommy, daddy said we could draw on your casts, can we?" He asked her and Meredith immediately nodded. Derek got up and replaced the pillow underneath Meredith's broken arm and all three kids grabbed some markers to start coloring.

Derek smiled at Meredith and she returned him a smile. She was happy to see the kids again and she was certainly happy that none of them wanted to run away from her after seeing her this vulnerable

"Mommy, look!" Zola shower Meredith the flower she just drew

Meredith smiled, her hand in front of her mouth to not scare the kids

"I think mommy likes it very much, Zo" Derek told her as he checked out all the other drawings

Bailey was leaning against the table to find a few other markers when he accidentally dropped the box of pencils

Meredith seemed to tense up, even wanting to hide after hearing the sound of the box dropping on the ground

"It's okay, you're okay" Derek immediately stood up and held her as he felt how frozen she was. She was staring in front of her and gave no sign of reaction

Ellis grabbed Meredith's hand and gave it a kiss

Meredith flickered her eyes and seemed to be responsive again.

"Are you okay?" Derek asked her as his fingers kept going through her hair

Meredith nodded as a tear escaped her eye

Ellis cuddled a bit closer to Meredith and gently laid her head down on Meredith's chest

"I'm sorry mommy" Bailey apologized

Meredith gave him a warm smile and grabbed the marker to write on the whiteboard

'It's okay, I'm sorry I scared you' Meredith wrote down 'I love you all' She added with a small heart

"We love you too mommy" Bailey said

"We love you so much" Zola said as she smiled at her mother

"We love you" Ellis murmured as she was falling asleep on Meredith's chest

Derek smiled at her, she was gonna be okay. This would be a hard recovery and he had no idea how damaged she was mentally as she couldn't talk about it but this was his family. He and the kids would help her to get through

AN // Wasn't this cute? Anyways guys, if someone has any suggestions, feel free to tell me! I hope you're all doing good and I'll try to get another update of any of my other stories out tomorrow!