MerDer picture perfect family.

Flashbacks

Fast forward a few years.

Holly, Finn, and Hannah are still locked up.
Derek has come home from DC. For good.

Ellis is 3, Bailey is 5, Zola is 8.

"Mommy!!!"
"Yes Bailey?"
"Look! I found a picture!"
"Let me see!"
Meredith came face to face with a picture of Finn and her. When they were dating.

All of the memories came flooding back.
"Who is that mommy?"
"Who is who?" Derek said walking in.

Meredith was frozen. She didn't say anything.
Derek took the picture from her.

"Kids, why don't you go brush your teeth and get ready for bed."
"Ok!"

"Meredith, your ok. He's locked up."
"Not for long. He only has a few months left. Since he didn't actually hurt me."

"Yea. But for right now, you are ok."
"Right."

They went to bed that night.
Meredith jolted up in bed. Quicker then she would if someone used paddles to wake up someone alive.
"Are you ok, Meredith?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Go back to sleep."
"You're going back to therapy tomorrow."
"What? No!"
"Meredith. When Bailey found that picture, you froze. You had a panic attack. Your therapist can help you."

"I don't care. I'm ok."

"How about this, you know Kathleen. She is a psychiatrist. She is the new head down at Seattle Press. I can call her."

"Fine, but no one else. You can call in the morning. Go back to sleep."

The next morning, Derek drove Mer to Seattle Press for therapy. The whole drive there, she was shaking. He was worried about her.

"Hello, can you page Dr. Shepherd please?"
"Yes sir." A nurse said replying to Derek.

"Derek!"
"Hello Kate."
"Are you ready Mer?" Kathleen asked shifting to look behind Derek.
"Mhm."

"Ok. So Mer, what exactly do you want me to do? I can act like a sister or I can act like a stranger."

"Can you do both?"
"Uh..sure."

"So obviously you have PTSD, can you tell me what helps that?"
"Well for a while I had medication for it, but it eventually got better without it."

"Ok. So why has it come back?"
"Bailey and Zola found a picture of me a Finn. It triggered everything in me and I froze."

Someone knocked at the door. Startling Meredith a little.
"Come in!"
The man started talking but it got harder for Meredith to hear him. She was imagining it being Finn.

Everything went black.

The next thing she knew, she was laying down with Kate next to her.

"Meredith you had a panic attack and you blacked out. Are you ok?"
"Yeah..yea I'm fine. Can I have some water?"

"Sure. Do you know what triggered you this time?"
Kate said while handing Mer a cold water bottle.
"Yeah, that man. He looked a bit like umm. Finn. It just scared me. That's all."

Towards the end of their session.
"Ok. Well I'm putting you on some medication, it's different than your other one. If you need me I'm here."
"Thanks."

And with that. Mer and Der went home.

To be continued........