I'd do anything for love (3/4)

1

"Derek, can you help Emma get dressed?" Meredith asked as she helped her 4 year old daughter down the stairs

"Mommy help!" Emma insisted

"Come here Emma" Derek opened his arms

"No! I want mommy!" Emma stomped her feet on the ground

"Emma, please" Meredith sighed as she stretched her back and neck

"Emma, come with me" Derek lifted up his daughter "Mer, go sit down"

"Derek, stop hoovering. I told you I'm fine" Meredith snapped but clutched her head in her hand

"Go sit down" Derek repeated sternly "Mom and dad will be here soon to come pick up the girls"

"Whatever" Meredith sighed and slowly walked back upstairs. Way too slow to her own liking

"Emma, please.." Derek sighed as he tried to make his daughter listen. She finally wanted to cooperate so he got her dressed. He then moved to Ava to check if she was ready to go when the doorbell rang

"Mom, dad" Derek breather "Hi"

"Derek, are you okay?" Carolyn frowned

"Yeah, the girls are giving us a hard time" He sighed

"Let us take care of that" Christopher chuckled "Where are my two monkeys" He said loudly

"Ahh!" They heard Ava's screams as Christopher was trying to chase her

"How's Meredith doing?" Carolyn asked

"She snapped earlier. She's having another headache and I'm scared as fuck so I can't even imagine how she's feeling" Derek sighed "Her scans a few months ago were fine"

"She was complaining about her stomach yesterday.. she threw up after lunch" Carolyn told him

"Ava told me" Derek sighed and ran a hand through his hair

"Derek, maybe she's just overworked" Carolyn rubbed his back

"She's in pain mom. Her neck, her back.." Derek looked scared "I-.."

"Shh" Carolyn pulled him in for a hug "I got you" She kept rubbing his back and felt him relax a little

"Derek, I can't find Emma" Christopher walked in, Ava following him closely

"I'll go look upstairs" He sighed and broke out of the hug with his mom. He made his way upstairs, checking Emma's room, filled with pink decorations, then moving to Ava's room, which was one big rainbow room, when he heard his wife talking

"You have to be good for Nana and Poppa, okay?" Meredith was talking to Emma

"Okay mommy" Emma gave in

"You promise?" Meredith smiled

"I promise" Emma nodded

"Okay, now let's get you downstairs before they start to worry" Meredith pushed herself up, trying not to wince as she didn't want to worry her kids. This made it even easier for Derek to detect the pain in her awful expression. His heart was aching to jump and help her and that was what he did. He couldn't hold himself back and ran up to her

"It's okay" Meredith smiled softly once she was up

"I know. Let's go downstairs. Mom and dad are here" He smiled softly and lifted up Emma in his arms, his other hand reaching for Meredith. The two of them walked downstairs towards Carolyn and Christopher

"Meredith, hi" They smiled before saying hello

"Hi" Meredith breathed as she stretched her back

"We're gonna take the girls to the playground today" Carolyn smiled

"Thanks for doing this," Meredith nodded. She wrapped her arms around Derek who wrapped his around her in response

"Okay girls, say bye bye to mommy and daddy" Carolyn spoke up

"No, I don't wanna go" Emma whined

"Yes baby, mommy and I have work. You will be fine" Derek kissed his youngest daughter's head

"By mommy" Ava hugged Meredith tightly "Bye daddy"

"Bye monkeys, be good for Nana and Poppa, okay" Derek reminded them

"Bye daddy" Emma said with wet cheeks "Bye mommy"

"Bye babies" Meredith smiled softly

...

"Mer, we need to get in" Derek said as they were standing in front of the hospital for five minutes now

"I-I can't" She whispered

"Mer, we need to know if it's back or not" Derek kissed her forehead

"I can't," She said and turned towards him. "I can't go through it again. Not with the girls" She sighed

"Mer, last time there was a tumor, Tom was able to get it out, you didn't need any more treatment and that was over 8 years ago" Derek grabbed her hand and she nodded "We're going to radiology. Go go get those scans and then we'll freak out, okay?" Derek rubbed her back

"Okay" She sighed

They walked through the doors together. Their hands were firmly locked and neither of them really realized what happened. A nurse handed Meredith a hospital gown. Derek helped her into it and waited eventually until all the scans were done. They went to Derek's office to wait for the results. Tom was on her case. He had been looking at all her scans for the past years and was the surgeon who removed her previous brain tumor

Derek's phone beeped, it was his mother who was texting him that the girls were fine and that he should call them from the second they knew more

Both their phones beeped at the same time. They didn't need to check them to know what was happening. This was Tom paging them to talk about the results. Their hands were locked as they made their way over to Tom's office

"Grey, Shepherd" He sighed

"It's back, isn't it?" Meredith's expression was blank

"Sit down, I'll explain" Tom rolled his eyes "We didn't find a tumor in your brain-" He started and Derek sighed in relief

"But?" Meredith spoke up

"Meredith.. We found a huge tumor on your spine" Tom sighed

"M-My spine?" Her eyes grew wide

"We need a biopsy but I'm very sure this is cancer. We won't worry yet, first the biopsy, okay?" Tom said as he tried to keep her calm while Derek froze completely

"C-Can we do that now? I want it now" Meredith stuttered

"I thought you would have wanted that. They're prepping a room for you, once you're changed and prepped I can do the biopsy" Tom explained "I'm sorry, Meredith"

Derek tightened his grip on Meredith's hand and turned towards her "We'll get through this. Please fight.." He begged

AN // I hope y'all will enjoy this story, feel free to send me ideas :)