A Healing Heart

Chapter 10

In the morning, Ellyse still wasn't feeling great, she was better than the night before but all morning she had been tired. She had spent the night in Meredith's bed but she didn't get much sleep so now she was napping off and on throughout the day. Meredith was beginning to get concerned because her daughter was never sick, in her whole 5 years of life, Meredith could count on one hand the amount of times Ellyse had gotten sick but she was training herself not to panic as it hadn't been 24h yet and there was still time for whatever was making Ellyse sick to pass.

She was sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee, her daughter on the opposite end of the l-shaped furniture warmed closely by her duvet, which Meredith had brought in from the girls bedroom. Her cheeks were rosy and her brown curls were tatted up in a messy bun just like her moms. Derek had called earlier to check in on both girls and he was worried as he heard his daughter sobbing down the phone. Meredith sounded stressed as she tried to soothe her but nothing seemed to be working, the lack of sleep was just putting too much weight on the girl and Meredith felt helpless. He had offered to come around to her apartment and make them breakfast and help out with Ellyse but Meredith politely declined, she didn't want Derek to think she had to rely on him, she could take care of her daughter.

Today was also the day that his mother would be arriving, in fact her plane was due to land soon and Meredith was no where near ready to see her again, she was a mess, mascara down her face and her hair stuck down with sweat, she had a lilac t-shirt on with grey sweats that both had sick on from when Ellyse threw up during the night. She thought about putting it off until tomorrow, especially considering the condition of her daughter who was supposed to be the star of the show today, but what would Carolyn think if she cancelled? She would think that this was a way of avoiding her and she didn't want her to think that as much as she wish she could.

She was disturbed from her thoughts when she heard a whine come from the small girl on the couch, she got up and leaned over so that she could check on her. Looking down she could see the frown on her face, the frown of pain and she didn't know what to do. It had been a rough night but she had stopped being sick which was good. Meredith watched as she began to stir so she stroked her hair softly as she began to wake up.

"Hi, still feeling sick baby?" she asked pouting her lips.

She watched as she nodded and rubbed her eyes, Meredith sighed and was met with the green eyes of her daughter who was staring back at her. Looking at her she noticed that her rosy cheeks were starting to pale, which was good, it meant that her fever must be going down.

"Daddy." she heard Ellyse mutter.

"Daddy's not here Ells."

Ellyse nodded but repeated it again. Meredith frowned with concern, maybe she should call Derek, maybe he should be here.

"You want daddy?" she asked and watched the girl nod, she kissed her forehead and watched as she closed her eyes again. She picked up the phone and walked into the kitchen to call Derek.

"Hey Mer, what's up?" he answered.

"Are you busy?" she sighed down the phone.

"Im just at the airport, ma should be here any minute, why? Is Ells okay?"

"Yeah, no, yeah" she sighed and rubbed her head, "I don't know, I don't know what's wrong with her." her voice broke signifying that she was crying.

"Don't cry Mer, she'll be okay, do you need me to come over?" he offered. She nodded her head in relief before replying.

"Please." she cried.

"Okay, I'll get ma and then I'll come right over, okay?"

"What about your mom?"