The Call

9

A/N Chapter 9! This is coming together as a beautiful story now and I am grateful for all the fans that have read and supported this fic.

Enjoy!

Leanne stopped for a second to absorb the golden glow. It was her favorite time of day, the sun had risen enough to stream through the high windows and flood previously dark hallways with light. She had just come off her shift. Today she had done it. She had saved lives. She had given people hope for a new day. Despite the losses of the night, she had healed those who had a fighting chance. Although exhausted, she would relish the next few hours before succumbing to the darkness of sleep.

She stopped when saw Meredith walking alone in the hall. "I take it you've been discharged?"

"Yeah," Meredith nodded, "I'm going to visit Amelia again."

"Good." Rorish nodded slightly. Meredith looked rested, and there was something else... Rorish wouldn't call it happy, but there was a certain peace about her. Her haunted features evident earlier that morning were gone.

"Does it get any better?" Meredith asked, looking down at her hands.

Rorish considered her feelings. In the darkest deepest part of her she would never truly be whole again. When her family died a piece was amputed from her and she hobbled along with phantom pain most of the time. But she visited that place less and less these days and some days the pain wasn't as sharp. "You will never be the same, Meredith." She said quietly. "But if you have something to live for, that's enough most of the time... and it gets better, a little every day."

"I hate it. I hate that he's gone and I have to feel this."

"I know." Rorish said. Something nagged at her, something that Meredith had said earlier but dismissed. The carosel. "Meredith, what did you mean by getting off the carosel?"

Meredith avoided her gaze and seemed to shut down, but then she cleared her throat, "I can't move forward right now. I left my life behind, the hospital, my career, my friends, family... I just left. Is that a bad thing?"

"No. It's not." Rorish swallowed, "I'm glad you came back for her."

"It was because of you... what you said."

"But you listened." Rorish said.

Meredith nodded, and for a moment they were connected in their grief, fellow comrades in the struggle to just be. Rorish nodded back, "Take care Meredith," she said before she continued on her way down the hall.

xxx

"What are we doing?" Malaya asked as she followed Christa into an equipment room. Christa had paged her moments ago saying it was urgent, and now they were sneaking around equipment supply rooms.

"Come on." Christa said as she glanced around the room, looking for something. When she saw what she was looking for she smiled and moved equipment out of the way to get it.

"Wait, is that one of the new ultrasound machines?" She had only seen them once before and they were reserved for the OB. These machines have to be assigned to a patient by an attending OB. So what was Christa's reason for being here?

"We're going to test it out."

"We?" Malaya asked, this was so against the rules, they could get into a lot pf trouble.

"I need to get it to Amelia's room."

"What? She's not pregnant."

"I know. It's not for her, its for Dr. Grey."

Malaya stopped and rubbed her forehead,"What? Christa, I'm confused."

Christa sighed, "You want to help Amelia right?"