A Fight to Remember

What's the Point? Pt. 2

Derek:

I just don't know... I don't know if I can... If I want to keep breathing for you.

"Meredith?" I called out in the fog. "Meredith!" Where was she? I paced the deck. She'd run off again. The trailer... maybe she was there. I ran down the short path to the trailer and barged in. "Mere-," I started-

"Aah! Derek, We're naked here!" Amelia screamed from the bedroom. I saw a blur of skin and blankets and a pillow came flying in my direction.

"Oh! Sorry!" I covered my eyes and stumbled out. I turned to get my bearings, but Richard greeted me on the porch, swinging on the wooden bench swing "Richard!" I exclaimed.

My mentor looked up, from his popcorn, even as he shoveled a handful into his mouth. "I'm really enjoying this movie. Now... shh... we're just getting to the good part," he put a finger to his lips and pointed.

"The good part?" I followed his point to something bright and glowing in the distance.

"Popcorn?" he offered.

Wait... was that? The house. My house was on fire.

No. No. "NO!" I screamed. Not again. Not another fire! "Meredith!" I screamed. That was all I cared about. Meredith... the kids.... She had to be okay. I just wanted her... to be okay. Alive. My legs propelled me faster than I've ever run in my life. I barged through the front door. Flames licked me, but I didn't I didn't feel the heat. Debris fell all around me, but not on me. Smoke whirled and billowed, and blurred my vision, but I breathed just fine. "Meredith!" I screamed into the roar just as I slammed into something.

Someone. Bailey.

"Bailey..." I said. "Where is she?"

"You had her." He growled at me. "You had her, and you lost her! That is on you!"

"What?" I asked, shocked. How dare he- But his fist flew at me before I could get an answer. I grabbed him. "Me? What about you?" I growled angrily. "You're supposed to take care of her, now look what you've done! Where is she?"

Two arms came in between us and pushed. "Guys!" Zola kept us apart. "Stop it!"

A gaggle of interns tromped through the wreckage in light blue scrubs and white labcoats, led by their Resident, Sofia Sloan-Torres. "And here," she was saying, "lies the last residence of the Great Grey-Shepherd Legacy... Alas," she continued dramatically, "While a cure was eventually created for Alzheimer's... it was too late for Dr. Grey. She died. Let us morn." The interns bowed their heads sadly in quiet reflection.

But their moment of silence was interrupted by the rapid beeping of their antiquated pagers. "OMG!" One of them shouted, "Trainwreck! Sweet!"

They trampled off.

I was alone in the room. Or I thought I was. The fire had stopped, except for the one in the fireplace. On the floor in front of the orange glow was a small figure with a black ballcap wrapped in my favorite old blanket.

Ellis? But she was so little.

"Ellis?" I asked, sitting down. It was her. Definitely. "Have you seen your mother?"

My youngest shook her head.

"I just... I need to find her. Make sure she's alright." How come she wasn't speaking? She loved to talk. But instead she stared at the fire, while she held a long stick into the flame. "What are you doing?" I asked.