Echoes of Resilience

9

About twenty minutes into Monsters Inc Meredith finally succumbs to her exhaustion, falling asleep with her head on Addison's chest. With the blonde asleep, Addison finally lets her tears flow. Seeing Meredith in so much pain is harder than she expected and when she heard her scream after Derek's voicemail she felt her blood run cold. She was terrified but she didn't know what she was afraid of, for a second she thought the worst; someone broke in and the blonde she had come to care for so dearly was being hurt. When she entered the room to find her alone, she didn't have time to be relieved that the worst hadn't happened. Her eyes zeroed in on the clumps of hair on the bed and she knew she had to get her to stop, but could she do so without further hurting her. Her first moment of relief came when she was able to remove Meredith's hands from her hair without causing any harm to her. She knew it was just a little victory, but as she always says to Mer, right now little victories are more than enough. .

Meredith has a long way to go, but she's already showing so much progress that Addison's tears of sadness due to the blonde's pain morph into tears of pride due to the blonde's strength. She cannot even begin to explain how proud she is of Meredith, after what she went through with Derek the fact that she's still able to smile and laugh is a miracle. She may struggle, but it's only been two weeks since she was found so the last thing Addison expects is for her to just be okay. The fact that she is able to be there for the woman as her safe space means the world to her, all she wants is for Meredith to recover and live a life of unyielding love, care and happiness, something that seems so unfamiliar to the blonde.

She could kill Derek with her bare hands for still feeling the need to torture Meredith, the things he said on that voicemail had made it hard for the redhead to even breathe as he spat out vile words towards the blonde as if his life depended on it. When Mer was still in the hospital she had told the police and Addie about how Derek started forcing her to take ovulation tests because he felt it was time to start a family so she wouldn't be alone when he was gone, that had made her sick to her stomach. When she heard Derek admit his true intentions in getting her pregnant, she was actively fighting down bile that seemed desperate to escape her throat.

What she's unsure of is exactly how much of the voicemail Meredith had heard before her phone ended up on the floor. When the redhead had asked her what she needed and she confessed to needing Addison she had said she couldn't be alone after hearing his voice but she never mentioned the voicemail itself. Is it possible that she didn't hear the disgusting things he spewed through the phone? She knows that a lot of what he said is what he had said to her in the shed, but she's desperately hoping she didn't have to hear his plan to fully break her spirit.

Thank god she got Meredith out of there when she did. She takes a deep breath, thankful for the voice in her head screaming at her to try that one last combination before giving up on the shed lock. If not for that voice it is very possible that he would have succeeded in completely breaking Meredith down and just the thought of that has a whole new round of tears springing to her eyes. She looks down at the sleeping blonde, smiling while thinking of how much adversity she has faced and survived, she knows in her bones that the young woman will survive this as well.

Meredith begins to softly whimper in her sleep, a sign of the start of a nightmare, and she immediately springs into action. She leans down to coo in her ear, one hand stroking through blonde locks. "Shh it's okay sweet girl, you're safe. It's just a bad dream honey, you're home with me taking a nap. Everything is okay. Addie is right here sweet girl. I'm not leaving you. I promise." Thankfully, the blonde settles down back into a peaceful sleep.

Arizona had texted the redhead when she left the police station filling her in on what happened, and she's just happy that they're taking things so seriously. Hopefully they'll have some answers soon and can prevent this from happening again.