Second chances

"Chapter 1-Amelia Carlisle"

Derek was walking down the hallway he had just come from a meeting with the chief and was a little pissed off to say the least; this was the tenth time this week that he had been summoned to see the chief to discuss a VIP patient. He couldn't understand just why this case was so important to the chief. Yes, he knew that its circumstances were a little tragic and that it was also going to be a difficult surgery testing his abilities to the maximum, but he just did not understand why the Chief was getting so involved, when he had never bothered to for previous VIP patients of his.

He was headed to see the patient now; she had arrived in New York just under an hour ago. The patient was five-year-old Amelia Carlisle and she had an aggressive tumor of the temporal lobe, which was now according to her latest medical records increasing the number of seizures she had been suffering from. The tumor had been discovered a year ago and had quadrupled in size since. It was in an extremely difficult area and from what he understood from the Chief, her parents had had doctors from all over the world look at her scans and everyone had refused to operate. He had been conducting a trial recently into the area of the brain containing the type of tumor which Amelia suffered from and although he had not had any success stories yet a tiny part of him, even though he knew it would be a long shot, remained a little hopeful.

As he approached the patients room he could see the most adorable child he had ever laid eyes on sat up on the bed giggling at something the man who he presumed was her father had said to her. She had long blond hair that was flowing around her shoulders in ringlets and as the sun shined onto it, it looked golden.

Derek had seen a lot of children over the years and his sisters had been pushing them out like broad mares but he could honestly say that he had never seen one so cute and adorable. She really was an angel on earth and he suddenly felt his heart clench as the reason why she was here came at full force into his mind. He found himself saying a quick prayer as he prepared to enter the room that he would be able to keep this angel on earth where she belonged.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Derek Shepherd," he introduced himself as he held his hand out to the child's father.

"Mathew Carlisle, but everybody calls me Matt, it's a pleasure to meet you Dr, Shepherd," Matt said as shaking Derek's hand.

"And this young lady must be Miss Amelia?" Derek smiled holding his hand to her as well. Suddenly, she looked up at him and her eyes clashed with his. As he took in the deep green eyes and the coy smile which looked so familiar to him, he frantically searched his brain to think of where he had seen this child before. He was momentarily shocked by the familiarity that he didn't notice Amelia had shook his hand and had let it go. He was still holding his hand out as she spoke and also a familiar giggle brought him to his senses.

"Dada, I think Dr. Shepherds brain needs fixing too," Amelia said giggling.

"Dr. Shepherd are you ok?" Matt asked.

"Yes, sorry, it's just Amelia seems very familiar I was wondering if I had seen her somewhere before?"

"Unless you have been to Seattle? I wouldn't think so, this is the first time we have taken Lia out of Seattle."

"No, I have never been outside of New York actually. You said we?"

"Yes, my wife and I."

"Oh, I am sorry, when I just saw the two of you, I assumed that Amelia's Mom wasn't in the picture," Derek said as he glanced down at the adorable child who had now begun drawing in her drawing book.

"That's ok, there is no need to apologize, my wife is very much in the picture; she was here a little while ago to get Lia settled in but then had to fly back to Seattle. You see my wife is also a doctor, a neurosurgeon herself actually. And as you can imagine this has hit her pretty hard, it's her field and there is nothing that she can do to help her. To top it off, her boss is being totally unreasonable and delayed her handover so my wife had to practically fly in and fly back out this morning. She will be back this evening though."