Its Just You And Me

3.

Once Meredith had finished putting away all the clean laundry she started another load before she went into the living room to go check on Aurora.

when she came into the room she found Aurora sitting on the couch still watching tv but this time she had a bowl of popcorn in her lap.

"Did you make that yourself?" she asked sitting next to her on the couch.

"Yes," she answered with her eyes still on the tv.

"Did you talk to Daddy?" she asked taking her eyes off the tv and now focusing on Meredith.

"I did, he's not going to be coming today. he didn't say when he was going to come, so I'm not sure when you'll see him next,"

"No! I want to see him today!" she said as she started to get upset.

"honey, he's not coming today," Meredith said calmly smoothing her hand over Aurora's blond curls.

"but why?!" she started to cry.

"He's busy today," she answered, as much as she wanted Aurora to know how horrible her father was so she wouldn't want to see him because the more she saw him the more disappointed she would be when he cancelled, but she couldn't be the one to break it to her.

"He's always busy!" she shouted before she threw the bowl of popcorn onto the floor before she ran upstairs.

"Aurora!" Meredith called after her but she didn't listen before she ran into her room.

Aurora's door slammed shut which left Meredith alone in the living room.

she stayed on the couch for a few minutes before she got on her knees and put all the popcorn back into the bowl and brought it into the kitchen before throwing it into the trash.

Meredith and Nathan still had joint custody of Aurora so he had to see her once a week but he hadn't seen her this week or the two weeks he was in Manhattan.

so she now thought about getting full custody of Aurora, if Aurora wanted to see Nathan then she could but if Nathan wanted to and Aurora didn't then he couldn't, all the power would be in her hands instead of having to give Aurora to Nathan even when he wasn't in the right state to be with a child.

Meredith's surgery was in an hour and she needed to be there before they needed her.

She went upstairs until she stood in front of Aurora's bedroom door. she knocked a few times before she opened the door and walked into the room.

she found Aurora laying in bed face down. she walked over to her and gently picked her up before placing her on her hip.

"No, Mommy," Aurora said quietly as she pushed on her mother's shoulder.

"Rori, we have to go to the hospital, I have a surgery in an hour and I have to be in less than an hour, Okay? I need you to go put your shoes back on along with your coat and then we can leave, can you do that for me?"

Aurora didn't want to leave but even at her young age, she knew that her mother didn't have a choice and that she had to go even if she didn't want to so there was no point in arguing.

"Okay," she whispered and nodded.

"thank you," she kissed the side of her head and placed Aurora down on the floor.

She went into her bedroom and got dressed into more similar clothes. she got dressed in a pair of dark-washed jeans and a white short-sleeved sweater with puffed sleeves.

she went back downstairs and put on black boots and her black coat and waited for Aurora to come downstairs.

she helped Aurora get ready before they got into the car and drove to the hospital.

________

After Meredith's surgery, she decided to go check on Aurora up in daycare.

While she was walking down the hallways in the direction of the hospital's daycare, she was stopped by a man in dark blue scrubs.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. he looked a bit familiar but she had never met him before.

"Do I know you?" she asked confused.

"No, but it won't take long, just a minute," he said.

"um, sure, fine," she shrugged.

he walked her into an empty on-call room before closing and locking it.

"What are you doing?" she asked, she didn't want to deal with this today, all she wanted to do was go check on Aurora and then get back to work.

"I live next door to you," he started.

"Okay, you brought me in here to tell me that?"

"You're in a bad mood today. there was a man outside your house when I left for work, is he your husband or something?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"there seemed to be a man lurking around your house, he never went inside but he kept walking around the house, I just wanted to make sure it was your partner,"

"I-I don't have a husband or a boyfriend. what did he look like?" she asked.

"white, dark brown hair, seemed to be around 5'9," he said.

"Nathan," she whispered to herself.

"do you know him?" he asked.

"yes, thank you," she said before moving to leave the on-call room.

"wait," he said stopping her by gently but firmly grabbing her forearm.

"What?" she asked before pulling her arm out of his grasp.

"we're both in neuro so we're going to be seeing each other a good amount along with us being neighbours, Derek Shepherd," he said holding out his hand.

"Meredith Grey," she shook his hand before leaving the room.