Little Shepherd

Chapter 22

Addison's last comment hangs in the air between them, her face as smug as ever.

"How dare you?" Derek whispers angrily. His voice is quiet, but the fire behind his words radiates towards his soon to be ex wife. He's so furious he can't even seem to find the right words. All these months with no calls, no texts, nothing but radio silence and now here she is. All those nights he sat up rehearsing in his head what he would say when he finally saw her again were wasted, nothing he ever could have thought up was enough to encapture the pure rage vibrating through his body right now. He physically trembles with anger. He looks to Meredith with pleading eyes.

"Meredith, please take Josie away from here. She doesn't need to be here for this." He begs.

"My child isn't going anywhere with that woman." Addison snaps, losing her calm cool demeanor all together.

"Stop it!" Josie sobs from behind Meredith. She's still clinging to the leg of her pants. She has all of their attention now.

"Baby.." Addison starts to speak, but Josie cuts her off.

"No! no! You gave your love away! You bweaked daddys heart! You..you bweaked my heart! Mewedith loves me! Mewedith stayed!" Addison gawks at her.

"Josephine.."

"I don't want to see you! I don't want you hewe!" She sobs hysterically. Josie lets go of Meredith's leg and starts to back away from the three of them.

Derek squats down to her level. "Jojo, baby come here. It's okay. It's okay." He tries to sooth her but she continues to back away from them all.

"No it's not! It's not!" She cries, her breath hitching in her chest as she tries to catch her breath. Before any of them even have a second to react she turns and runs away from them as fast as her little legs will carry her.

"Josie!" Derek calls after her desperately. He stands and runs after her, they all do, but they're too slow. She slips in between the elevator doors just as they were closing and by the time they reach it it's fully closed. Derek bangs on the door knowing it's useless. "Josie! Josie please!" He calls out on the verge of hysteria himself.

"Oh god.." Addison mumbles, terrified. She covers her mouth with her hand. "She could be anywhere in the hospital before we even catch the next elevator." She whispers frantically.

"You think I don't know that??" Derek yells at her. He goes to turn to Meredith, but she's already gone. He see's her sprinting up the stairs desperately trying to reach the next floor before those elevator doors open again. "Alert the front desk in case we don't get to her before she get's off." Derek tells Addison. They have procedures for this exact scenario. Everyone will help find her, she'll be fine he tells himself.

***Josie's point of view:

I breath heavily trying to catch my breath as the elevator goes up and up and up. I'm alone in here, my racing heart beat echoes in my ears. I know how this works, Daddy let's me press the buttons for him almost every day. I chose a random number, unsure of where I even think I'm going. Just away I suppose. Anywhere but with my arguing parents. Fear begins to creep in as the elevator continues to rise, but it's too late now. I don't know how to get back. When the door opens I'm greeted with various pairs of legs. I'm so much smaller than them all I have to look way up just to see their faces. They're so wrapped up in their own conversations and looking at folders they don't even notice me squeeze around them and out of the elevator. I peer down long massive hallways that seem to go on forever. I have no idea where I am. I've never been to this part of the hospital before.

"Sweet heart are you lost?" A woman, a nurse asks me. Fear floods my body in a massive rush. I don't know what to say so I turn and run. I weave and dodge anyone I come across and soon there is no one but me. I come across a big door, there's a sign on the door but I can't read. I look around making sure that no one see's me and I open the door. I struggle to even reach the door handle, but this seems like the safest option. I have no where else to go. I'm lost. The room is small and long, it's full of empty chairs and the entire front of the room is all windows. I slip into the room and let the door close behind me. I cautiously approach the giant window. when I look down I see a sight that I've only seen on TV. The type of scene that Daddy usually changes the channel for. Theres a person on a table with wires and cords hanging all over them. They're surrounded by doctors and nurses, bright lights, sharp tools....and their belly is cut wide open. So many emotions flood through me. Fear, fascination, nauseousness. I can't look for long. I turn my back to the window and slide to the floor. The reality of my situation sets in and all I can do is cry. I'm so scared, more scared than I've ever been in my entire life. I just want my Daddy and Mama Mewedith. I want to go home. I want to feel safe again. I curl into a tiny ball on the floor, holding myself as I cry. I don't stop until I somehow cry myself to sleep, fear and exhaustion pulling me into darkness.

***Back with Derek:

Meredith has just joined back up with him. "I cant find her." She tells him breathlessly. "Please tell me you have her." He shakes his head, his eyes puffy and red with tears.

"Everyone's looking...but I.." He chokes back a sob. "..I can't find her." Meredith pulls him into her.

"We're going to find her, I promise you. We'll find her." He nods, pulling himself together. He sniffles and wipes his eyes. Arizona Robbins approaches them.

"She's not in the cafeteria either." She informs them sadly.

"God, where could she have gone." Derek runs his hands over his face emotionally. Josie is his whole entire world losing her is like losing half of himself. No one has ever seen him so distraught.

"No one has seen her." Addison tells them. "How is that even possible. She's three! How does no one notice a lost three year old loose in the hospital!"

"This is your fault!" Derek snaps at her. "You failed her, she needed her mother and you couldn't pull your head of Mark's sheets long enough to be one!" Meredith puts a hand on his arm.

"This isn't helping, we need to think of something else. We need to find her." She says quietly, her voice trembling as she speaks. He nods. They all go their separate ways searching for her in any place they can think. Empty patient rooms, stairwells, her daycare, but they can't find her anywhere. They grow more and more frantic as the time passes.

"Where else could she be?? I don't understand, where are we missing?" Derek asks desperate to find her.

"Oh god..what if someone took her.." Addie sobs at the thought.

"No..no..she has to be here. She has to be!" Derek replies hysterically. Meredith, in another part of the hospital, soon comes across a nurse that claims to have seen her.

"I asked her if she was lost, but she took off before I could get anything out of her. I assumed she was a patients child." The nurse explains.

"Where did she go?? Which way??" Meredith asks, so happy to finally have some sort of lead. The nurse gives her a direction and she takes off without even bothering to thank the woman. She doesn't even think to call Derek and the others. She's just so utterly desperate to have Josie safe and in their arms again that she gets right to searching. She finds nothing and soon she's reached all the way to the OR observatory floor. Josie couldn't have made it all the way back here, could she? She asks herself. She almost turns back, but something stops her. A feeling, an instinct that she couldn't ignore and then she hears it. The slightest little sniffle. She runs into the nearest observatory and sure enough there she is. That poor sweet little angel curled up in a ball on the floor crying in her sleep. Meredith couldn't help but cry, so relieved to see her. She drops to her knees beside the exhausted little girl, running a hand over her gorgeous red hair.

"Jojo." She whispers tearfully. Josie blinks her eyes open.

"Mama?" She asks groggily.

"I'm here baby. I'm here." Josie climbs into Meredith arms and sobs. They cling to each other, both so happy to be back in each others arms.

"I'm sowwy." Josie cries. "I'm so sowwy." Meredith rubs her back comfortingly.

"Shh, shh. You're okay. Everything is okay. God I'm so glad you're okay." Josie pulls away just far enough to look up at Meredith with her big watery blue eyes.

"I was so scawed." She sniffles. "But i knew..I knew you'd find me." Meredith rests her forehead against Josie's and closes her eyes, soaking up the moment.

"I'll always find you."