Best Friends Last Forever ✔️

Part 18: It's okay

"Are you okay?" he carefully asked as they stood in the scrub room, looking into the OR where the nurses just covered a young girl who had been in a terrible accident. They tried everything for the past 5 hours to save the 4-year-old but in the end they weren't able to bring her back.

"It's just... she was four. Her mother wanted to bring her to kindergarten and now she's dead and- Ellie's in the same kindergarten and we take the same road every single morning and I-" but she couldn't finish the sentence as she desperately tried to keep herself together. He brought her into his arms and she laid her head on his chest while he stroked her back. "Ellis is okay Mer" he soothingly whispered into her ear. "I know- it's just... we have to tell her mother that she's dead. That we couldn't save her. That she will never see her daughter again."

They stood in silence for at least five minutes until she distanced herself from him. "Thank you" she whispered, looking at him with a small, sad smile on her lips.

One week had passed since she declared their relationship as an actual relationship. They went on dates, Andrew stayed another night where they just ate together with the kids and then fell asleep next to each other and they were happy. It was a wonderful week. At work, Meredith was determined to keep their relationship a secret but every time they saw each other both of them couldn't help but grin brightly at each other.

Suddenly Meredith's pager went off. "Shit! 911 in the ER, could you uhm- speak to the mother?" she asked shyly. "Sure, go save some lives" he said, kissing her forehead before she ran out of the room. She quickly made her way through the hallways to the ER where she found Bailey winking her over.

"You paged 911?" she asked surprised. "Yes... It's about Ellis" she begun. "No no no what happened?!" Meredith asked, her worst nightmare coming true. Something had actually happened to her baby. Just two minutes ago Andrew had reassured her that Ellis was okay and now... "She fell at the playground and hurt her arm. I don't think it's broken but we're going to do an x-ray right now. She is going to be okay Meredith." Bailey explained while tears begun to ran down Meredith's cheeks. "Where is she, I need to see her!" she said with a sudden unexpected force in her voice. "Meredith she is going to be okay. You have to stay calm. She'll be fine, you hear me?" Bailey repeated, placing her hands on Meredith's upper arms to calm her down a little. "Okay" she said, wiping her tears. "Can I see her? She's probably scared." She added quietly. "Come with me" Bailey said, leading Meredith through the door of the nearest trauma room. They entered the room and Meredith quickly made her way over to her crying daughter on the gurney. "Hey Ellie. It's okay, mommy's here. You're going to be okay" she said, trying not to break down, stroking her daughter's blonde hair.

"It hurts mommy" Ellis said between her cries that had now calmed down a little. "I know. It's going to be over soon. You have to stay strong a little longer, can you do that?" Meredith said silently to her baby as she nodded.

"We'll bring her to x-ray now" Link said to Meredith just as Amelia burst through the door. "What happened?!" she shouted, her voice full of concern. "She fell and hurt her arm, she'll be okay" Link said, trying to calm his girlfriend down.

They brought her to the x-ray and all of them waited in the room next door to look at the scans except for Meredith who was standing next to the machine with a vest on, her hand on her daughter's bare foot. Right in this moment Andrew came through the door. "Has anyone of you seen Mere-" but as he looked through the window into the next room he couldn't finish his sentence. "Is that Ellis?! What the hell happened?!" he asked desperately. Just 10 minutes ago he had reassured Meredith that Ellis was fine and now she was lying on a damn gurney in the damn hospital. "She's okay she just hurt her arm" Amelia said to Andrew. "Scans are up! It's just sprained. She'll get a cast and can go home after" Link said as everyone in the room let out a deep breath while Meredith kept stroking her daughter's foot.

Later that day Andrew waited in front of an exam room in which Link was putting on little Ellis her cast. He hadn't got a chance to talk to Meredith since that morning in the scrub room. He couldn't imagine through what she must be going right now. He never had had kids but he loved Meredith's kids. They had spent a few more movie nights and days at the park together and he loved them as well as they loved him. When he saw Ellis in the x-ray room he was scared. It was a kind of scary he had never felt before and they weren't even his kids.

After a few more minutes deep in his thoughts the door opened again and Link came out, shortly followed by Meredith who was carrying Ellis in her arms. Ellis' left arm was in a bright pink cast and she was asleep. Her head resting on her mother's shoulder. Meredith just looked exhausted. As their eyes met she smiled slightly and made her way over to him. "We're going home... do you- want to come with us?" she asked but he could hear the need in her voice. She needed him to come with her. Amelia and Maggie both had the night shift and she didn't want to be alone with her thoughts the whole night and he wouldn't dare let that happen. "Of course. I'd love to come with you" he said, placing his hand on the small of her back to lead her out of the hospital. Both of them had changed into their street clothes after Link had showed the scans to Meredith, so that they could just walk out now.

_________

"Good night Ellie-belle. If you need anything, just come to my room okay?" Meredith said to her little one after she'd read a story to her, Zola and Bailey. "kay" the sleepy girl mummed as Meredith pulled the blankets further around her. She gave her daughter a kiss to the forehead and brought Bailey and Zola as well to their rooms and tucked them in.

Finally, when all the kids where sleeping, Meredith made her way downstairs, to find Andrew in the kitchen, making tea. "Hey" she said as she sneaked her arms around him from behind and laid her head on his back. "Hey" he replied as he turned around in her arms and pulled her close to him. "Let's move to the couch, I made some tea" he hated letting go off her since she obviously was searching for his comfort, but he wanted to fully concentrate on her so they walked over to the couch and sat down. Andrew placed the two cups onto the table and pulled her close to him.

"This was a crazy day" she whispered, leaning into him as far as she could. "Yeah" he replied, rubbing her arm. "I- there was this girl and she died and then Ellie was in the ER... I was so scared-"she begun but couldn't say anything more as she finally let herself break down. Loud sobs wracked her body as she shook in his arms. He pulled her onto his lap and let her side rest against his chest as she buried her head in his neck. "Shhh it's okay" he whispered into her hair as her cries had gotten a little less over the time. He noticed her shivering and pulled the blanket that was lying next to them over her shoulders, pulling a strand of hair from her face. "I'm sorry" she whispered between hiccups. "You have nothing to apologies for Mer. It's okay to break down. Try to get some sleep, I'll be here he whole time" he reassured her, laying his cheek on her head as she closed her eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep since the crying had only gotten her more exhausted then she already was. "Thank you for being here" she whispered, relaxing into him. "Always" he replied quietly, shortly before her soft snores filled the room. He smiled to himself a little and lifted her up, bringing her upstairs and placing her on the bed before slipping under the covers on the other side, pulling her close again. 

TO BE CONTINUED...