A Fight to Remember

A Place to Watch the Ferryboats

A/N: Every once in awhile I get a review from someone who started reading and then stopped, and then came back again. If you are still reading this story after 50 + chapters, you people are amazing to have kept up with my incredible story, the time jumps, Meredith's illness... Derek's storyline... And the kids own struggles. I said at the beginning that it would be epic and complex, and you trusted me to take you there... and there is still much more Epicness to come! Do you realize at this point, you have read the equivalent of 3-4 paperback novels? So thank you! I literally could not do this without you!

Kay, I'll shut up now.

Enjoy!

Picking up from where we left off. While Derek is talking to Bailey.

Zola.

Laughter. My mother's uninhibited giggle filled the air in our living room. "I did what?" she asked over a slice of pizza.

"You wandered into the neighbor's house and started to re-arrange her kitchen," Ellis was saying... "You were looking for a spatula or something? I don't know, but then you freaked out when you saw her family pictures on the fridge... you were so confused, you thought someone had moved into your house. Poor Lisa, our neighbor. She walked in and found you, and she almost called the police, and then you blurted, 'I have Alzheimers!'"

"Really?" Mom stretched her legs out onto my lap as she leaned against Ellis on the couch.

"Yeah," Ellis smiled, "And then you looked at your watch and said, 'Crap. Code blue, I have a patient to check on, where's the bathroom?'"

"What? Seriously?"

"It was a bad week, we'd just moved in, we were trying to get settled, and you were so restless, we couldn't get you to stay still."

That had been a crazy day, I remembered. The movers had come by with some last minute stuff and they left the door open. We both thought mom was in her room with her stuff, but somehow she slipped away. She was sneaky.

Mom smiled wanely. "My mom... one time she called me from a payphone at a gas station. She was totally lost, had no clue where she was. I had to get her to put a stranger on the phone so I could get directions. I was still at Dartmouth, I had to skip class to find her. And when I did, she insisted nothing was wrong and she yelled at me for skipping school. I thought we were going to have a knock down drag out fight right there. But then the next minute, she was confused again, and I managed to convince her to let me drive her home." She sighed and reached to squeeze my forearm. "I'm so glad you're not alone in this."

I held her hand and squeezed. "We're doing okay," I said.

Mom nodded, "Good, that's good." But her eyes were sad.

"Mom?" I asked.

"I...I was in the shower," She ran her hand through her damp hair. "No... the bathroom..." Her gaze flitted to Ellis, "You were there... I-" Then she shook her head. "It's nothing, nevermind."

"Mom?" I asked, eyeing her carefully, and when I looked past her at Ellis, she looked guilty.

"I'm lucid," Mom proclaimed as she stood up. "It's a gift or whatever," she walked over to the stereo and sorted through her song selection. And then she pressed the button, and the music started. "C'mon," she said, "Dancing makes you brave."

"What?" Ellis asked.

"Come on!" she grabbed both of our hands, pulling us from the couch. From the stereo, the smooth rampard of uplifting piano chords mixed with the snaking ba-da-da, ba-da-da of the electric guitar and the sharp snap of the drums.