Echoes of Resilience

4

The hours pass by slowly, the only sounds in the room being Meredith's monitors and quiet sobs. As much as Addison wants to talk to the younger woman she also doesn't want to push her away, so she sits and waits. She isn't entirely sure of what she's waiting for; she just knows that she wants to give Meredith the space to make the first move. Everything is on Meredith's time, even if she doesn't realize that. The blonde continues to keep a firm grip on Addison's hand, a part of her unsure if she'll ever be able to let go. Something inside of Meredith is afraid that if she lets go of the redhead's hand she'll realize that Meredith is too broken and she'll leave. That's a chance she's unwilling to take, so she holds on.

The silence is suffocating and right as Meredith goes to speak up there's a knock on the door. This causes the blonde to panic, the three beeps of the lock on the shed echoing throughout her mind. She can feel the bile climbing up her throat as she tries to force away the tears glistening in her eyes. Unsure whether she wants to freeze or run, she relaxes when she feels Addison squeezing her hand while taking her other one in her free hand and squeezing that one as well. "You're okay. Everything is okay honey. Can you look at me Meredith?"

Hesitantly, the blonde looks up, her blue eyes locking on the green orbs filled with a softness Meredith has never seen before. The alarms blaring inside of her head slowly quiet down and she can feel her breathing regulate the longer she looks in Addison's eyes. A sense of calm filling her and pushing out the panic she felt mere seconds before.

"That's it, good girl. I'm so proud of you honey, you're doing so good." Addison smiled at the blonde as she watched her take deep breaths, relief filling her as Meredith slowly calmed down while maintaining her eye contact with the redhead. The younger woman feeling a twinge of pride when being called a good girl doesn't cause more of a freak out. It feels different coming from Addison than it did coming from Derek. With Derek she always felt patronized when he used the term with her, it made her feel stupid and sent shame radiating within her. With Addison it felt safe, the term feels like melted chocolate falling from Addison's lips and all Meredith wants is for the redhead to continue to praise her, to assure her that everything is okay and that her best is good enough. The knocks at the door continue and the blonde nods her consent for Addison to grant access to whoever is waiting to come in.

Two police officers walk in and greet the two women in front of them, they make sure to talk slowly and quietly while keeping a distance between them and the woman in the bed, not wanting to cause more stress and trauma to their victim than necessary. After contacting the authorities in Boston they have more information about the young lady in front of them. Meredith Catherine Grey was 27 years old at the time of her disappearance. A final year medical student at Dartmouth was over two hours away from her dorm when she met Derek in a bar near Boston Commons. What she thought was her final weekend of fun before the beginning of exams turned into a nine month fight for her life. When her friends realized that the blonde was no longer in the bar they immediately called 911, but security cameras showed her leaving two hours prior to the call and no one knew the name of the man she spent the night talking to. Facial recognition proved to be a bust and eventually the cops stopped searching for her. Graduation came and the majority of her friends left for internship not even knowing if their friend was still alive. The world continued to turn while Meredith was stuck in the hell Derek Shepherd managed to create just steps away from the home he shared with his wife.

"Miss Grey, I'm Officer Jacobs and this is my partner Officer Taylor. We know you've been through a lot and it's probably not the easiest thing to talk about, but you deserve justice and we can't help you to get justice if we don't know what happened to you. Please take your time, but try not to leave anything out. Even the smallest details can help us." Officer Jacobs said as gently as she could. The middle aged woman with graying hair couldn't believe that both Boston and Hanover PD stopped searching so quickly. After only a week of investigation Meredith's case was declared cold and the departments moved on to cases with more leads, leaving Meredith in that shed without even a second thought.