Echoes of Resilience

24

"I'm not saying that you cheated, I'm just saying that you had an unfair advantage." Cristina grumbled as they cleaned up after their game of Monopoly, glaring at Arizona and Addison as they tried and failed to hide their giggles.

"What unfair advantage would that be Cristina, please enlighten me." Meredith asked with faux innocence painting her face, causing Cristina to turn her glare towards her.

"Well I think we established that you have Addison wrapped around your little finger and she was the banker!"

"How does my being the banker benefit Mer?" Addison snickered, already having an idea of what Cristina is going to say but deciding to play innocent just like Meredith is.

"You gave her more loans than you gave me or Arizona and you even traded some of your best properties to her all because she batted her eyelashes at you and said please!" Cristina exclaimed, her frustration growing as the other three laughed. "I don't know why you're laughing, Arizona, you're as much a victim in this as I am!"

"Yes, but I am aware that it is just a game. The main reason I'm laughing is because you somehow didn't see it coming! You're the one constantly making jokes about how whipped Addie is, you really didn't think that would apply to a game of Monopoly?" Arizona asked with a laugh.

"Honestly after that game of Uno where she plus four'd me I don't know why I thought Satan would play fair in general, let alone when Mer makes puppy dog eyes." Cristina smirked before picking up her phone when she got an alert for a new text message. "Webber is out of surgery, things went as well as they could have and he should be waking up soon."

"I think I want to visit him." Meredith said softly while fidgeting with her fingers, her breath getting quicker as tears gathered in her eyes. Addison opened up her arms and the blonde quickly crawled into her lap, hiding her face in the crook of the redhead's neck as her tears started to fall.

"You're okay sweet girl, everything is okay. If you want to see him, we can go see him." Addison assured her as she stroked her hair.

"What if he doesn't want to see me? I was a patient in his hospital for two weeks and he avoided me the entire time, he even requested that no one tell me that he was there."

"I think the reason he didn't want you to know he was there was because he didn't want to confuse you or stress you out after what you had gone through. I'm sure part of it was because he seems to have a lot of guilt regarding what happened with him and Ellis when you were a child, but I don't think for a second that he has any negative feelings towards you honey."

"But you don't know that! For all you know the reason he left my mom and stayed with his wife is because he realized that he didn't want a kid! Little does he know that if he told me my mom that she probably would have just given me away." Meredith sobbed, thrashing around in Addison's arms.

"Addison, you need to tell her the truth." Arizona softly tells the redhead, feeling tears build in her eyes at the sight of the blonde so distressed.

"I know, but the truth is going to hurt her and I hate seeing her in pain." Addison sighed before turning her attention back to the sobbing blonde in her arms. "Meredith, honey, I know why he chose his wife. He told me and I promise you that you had absolutely nothing to do with it." Addison said while running her fingers through Meredith's hair, smiling softly when the blonde makes eye contact with her.

"Will you tell me what he said? I need to know Addie, him leaving is why my mom tried to kill herself. I need to know why he didn't choose my mom." Meredith begged, wiping her puffy eyes before snuggling closer to Addison.

"Of course I'll tell you honey, but I have a feeling it's going to upset you because when he told me I was upset for you." Addison warned her, smiling when the blonde reached out to hold her hand. "When your mom was in the hospital and had a mass on her liver Richard called me to let me know and he had brought up your visit with her. He said that she wanted to see you again and I had told him that I was not going to bring you back up there just because that's what Ellis wanted after how she treated you and he told me that he is the reason Ellis acts the way she does. He just blurted it out of nowhere and it caught me off guard. I asked what he meant and that's when he told me about the affair. He explained that they made the decision to leave their spouses and really be together, but then he found out that your mom was on the shortlist for a Harper Avery and he was jealous. He said that he couldn't live his entire life being hopelessly jealous of her success, so he chose to stay with his wife."