Echoes of Resilience

46

Addison scrolled through her phone while Meredith slept with her head in her lap. The redhead absentmindedly ran a hand through the blonde's hair, humming quietly. The doorbell ringing caused both of them to flinch in surprise, Meredith's eyebrow creasing in her sleep. Addison carefully moved her so she was laying on the couch, kissing her forehead before she walked over to answer the door.

"Is Meredith Grey here?" A nervous looking man asked as he scratched his neck.

"Who's asking?" Addison narrowed her eyes.

"Her father. Thatcher Grey." Thatcher swallowed harshly and looked down. "I just want to know if she's okay."

"She's fine." Addison stated shortly. "I don't think she wants to see you and she's currently sleeping anyways, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Can you just ask her to call me?" Thatcher handed Addison a napkin with his phone number on it. "I would love to meet up for coffee with her or something."

"I'll ask, but if I were you I wouldn't hold your breath." Addison sighed as she shut the door and walked back to the living room where Meredith was now awake. "How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it." Meredith sighed. "I'm not going out to coffee with him."

"You don't have to." Addison sat down and pulled Meredith into her side. "He gave me his number written on a napkin, you can rip it up if you want."

"I don't know what I want." Meredith's voice broke as she stood up. "I wish he just left me alone the way he has for the past twenty years." She turned to walk to her room, coming back out with a pair of pajamas and a towel. "I'm going to go take a shower." She walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, locking it. Addison got up and walked over to the bathroom door, sitting down against it and listening as Meredith broke down crying, the sound of the shower muffling her cries slightly. About ten minutes later, the blonde opened the bathroom door, causing the redhead to fall backwards. "Why are you sitting outside of the bathroom?"

"I was worried about you." Addison explained as she accepted Meredith's hand and stood up. "I wanted to be nearby in case you needed me."

"That's sweet." Meredith hummed as she walked to the living room and sat down on the couch. "I'm fine though."

"Mer, we're not doing this." Addison sat down on the couch next to the blonde, taking one of Meredith's hands and squeezing gently. "We're not going to just pretend that everything is okay when you were just sobbing in the shower. It's okay to have emotions and it's okay to share your emotions. Talk to me, I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

"I don't want to talk." Meredith snapped. "I want to ignore all of my emotions and pretend that my father didn't just show up here out of nowhere saying that he would love to get coffee with me after leaving when I was five and making no effort to be in my life."

"I'm sorry, I can't let you do that." Addison pulled Meredith onto her lap. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to, but we're not going to pretend that nothing happened because that's not healthy."

"I'm just angry." Meredith confessed, hot tears welling in her eyes. "I've been out of the shed for nine months now and he hasn't made any effort to reach out to me. My mom fucking died and I still didn't hear from him, so why now? What does he want from me? I have nothing to give." Her voice broke as she buried her face in Addison's neck.

"I don't know what he wants or why he just showed up out of nowhere." Addison sighed and kissed Meredith's forehead. "But you never have to see him if you don't want to, I would never force you to see him."