The Release

Chapter 14

Exhausted didn't describe the way Meredith felt. She had just finished a 12 hour procedure with Owen on a trauma patient and she was more than ready to go home. She slowly dragged to the locker room, changing into her civilian clothes. She wanted to shower, but the energy it took to do so she didn't have. She saw George come in, a ghastly look on his face.

"What's wrong George?" Meredith asked as she sat down on the bench. Her feet were killing her, she really needed new shoes but never found the time to go buy some.

"Izzie was cut," he said, still shocked by the realization.

"What?" Meredith was just as shocked.

"Yeah, she Uh- just told me as she was walking out with her stuff," George said.

"I'm sorry, I know you two were close," Meredith frowned. After the incident with Derek, her and Izzie never rekindled their friendship. She still thought Derek was only for surgeries. She never felt the need to correct her, it wasn't any of her business anyway.

"I didn't expect it, I mean one of us was cut. I thought the rest of us was safe," he said, shaking his head.

"We are George, I don't know exactly what happened but I'm sure we are all fine," Meredith tried to say, knowing he was just as scared as everyone about the cuts being made.

"You don't know that Mer," he replied, slamming his locker door.

"Want to go to Joe's and blow off some steam?" Meredith offered, she didn't have plans tonight since it was a Friday night and that meant Grace was at Derek's house.

"Can't, I'm on call," he said shaking his head.

"Tomorrow then?" She offered.

"Ok," he nodded before turning and walking out. Meredith grabbed the rest of her stuff, slowly making her way toward the exit. She wasn't sure what her plans were, she honestly thought about offering to be on-call. As she left the elevator, she got a page to the ER with a 911. She thought it was fate as she quickly rushed down to the ER.

"Whats going on?" Meredith asked as she made it to the nurses station. She quickly turned when she heard the familiar voice behind her.

"Derek?" She asked as she saw him in his street clothing, a look of panic on his face.

"I told them to page you, please," he asked as she quickly dragged her to the room. There she saw a very pale Grace laying on the bed with an oxygen masked covering her face.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" She asked with gasp.

"Please, I don't know if your even still here officially but I know you will do everything I can't," he pleaded with her.

"Yeah, yeah," she quickly put her things to the side and started assessing the girl.

"She was born with ventricular septal defect, she had surgery when she was 4 months old to repair it. She's been on an ACE inhibitor every since I can remember," he started rambling on.

"Grace, have you been doing anything strenuous?" Meredith asked as she quickly started accessing the girl. She shook her head no, she looked terrified. Meredith's heart broke for the little girl, she had no idea what was going on.

"Have you paged Teddy?" Meredith asked just as Cristina came in to the room.

"I need an echo done stat, need a CBC, and need to take her for an MRI," Cristina started spitting out as she took over for Meredith.

"What can I do?" Meredith asked, knowing Derek wanted her to be there to help.

"Nothing, you're too close to the family," Cristina said as she shook her head.