Are you with me

4

As Ellis' awoke the next morning, her mother was curled up around her but still fast asleep, yet still with her as she had promised. She did begin to take notice of the strange sensation of sitting up as it didn't feel like she was actually doing it, more that the bed was holding her up rather than holding herself upright. However, Ellis was interrupted from her thoughts when one of the nurses came into her room.

"Good morning, Ellis" The nurse said quietly, obviously cautious of the surgeon sleeping in her room, "I'm just going to change this bag over" she said as she pulled back the covers and moved the gown up slightly, revealing a tube that travelled down her leg and down off the side, that Ellis had no idea was there or why it was there.

"No" she said sternly, causing her mother to stir beside her, "Please stop. Don't touch me." Ellis began to get quite upset waking her mom up who was ready to console her.

"Could you please give us some time alone" Meredith said to the nurse as she attempted to wake herself up properly, "Ellie, what's up? What happened?"

Ellis lifted a shaky finger through her sobs to the catheter that had now been revealed. Meredith cradled the small girl in her arms until her tears slowed to small hiccups.

"Shh, it's to help you going to the bathroom, baby" Meredith explained "It's to help you"

"Mommy?" Ellis sobbed

"Should I change it?" Meredith suggested and Ellis nodded in agreement

Meredith put on a pair of gloves before explaining every step she was taking to empty the catheter

"That's dirty mommy" Ellis frowned

"It's not dirty, it's to give your body some rest" Meredith tried to explain

After Meredith changed the bag, she went to lay down again with the little girl who was terrified

A knock on their door both woke them up

"Hey princess" Derek said

"Daddy" Ellis smiled a bit but strongly kept holding onto Meredith

"Hey" Derek went closer and kissed her forehead. Ellis kept holding his shirt as she could finally reach him "Will you stay?" She quietly asked

"I was here too last night but you were asleep. Mommy and I will stay with you, sweetie" Derek said and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed

"It hurts" Ellis frowned

"Your back?" Derek asked

"Yeah" Ellis sighed

"It will get better. Let's ask Tom for some more pain meds" Meredith smiled and paged Tom

After Tom came in and administered more pain meds for Ellis she promptly fell asleep with both her parents surrounding her.

As Meredith watched her daughter sleep, her phone vibrated in her pocket alerting her to the arrival of her two other children.

"Derek." Meredith whispered, "Alex has Zola and Bailey, I'm going to go and talk to them"

She received a small nod of acknowledgement as she left the room and made her way to her office. Her heart raced as she racked her brain for how she was going to explain to her two children what had happened to their baby sister and the implications of the injury.

She slowly opened the door to her office where they were both sitting with Alex, "Mom" Zola and Bailey said as they got up to hug her. She squeezed both of her children tight and took all the comfort she could from their embrace.

"Mom, what happened? Where's Ellis?" Zola asked as she pulled away.

"Is she okay?" Bailey echoed after his sister.

She pulled them both to sitting on one of the couches as Alex excused himself from the room and grabbed each of their hands in one of her own.

"You know that yesterday Ellis was in an accident," Meredith began as they both nodded in agreement, "It left your sister with some serious injuries due to the way the other car crashed into the back of them. Ellis broke her back.."

"No.." Zola whispered.

"She's had surgery right? They've fixed it and she will be okay soon?" Bailey tried to make sense of what had happened.

"They can't fix this, guys. It's not something that can be fixed. Ellis will be okay and we still love her, no matter what has happened." Meredith told both Zola and Bailey, "We can go and see her if you'd like?"

They both nodded, seemingly speechless from what they had just heard.

"Ellis, at the minute, has a brace on her body and neck making sure that her back heals okay and she has quite a few cuts on her face. Once she is a little stronger we will get her a wheelchair that will be hers to help her get around" Meredith explained, "But I promise that she will be okay and she is still the sister that you know and love."

The trio got up and exited Meredith's office making their way towards the peds floor where Ellis' room was. She slowly knocked on the door and pushed it open to reveal Derek sat on the chair beside her bed, holding her hand in his. He looked up and smiled at his two older children hiding themselves in the doorway.

Mer walked over to Ellis' bedside and placed a small kiss onto her cheek, "Look who's here to see you, sweetie" she said as the bright blue eyes opened and looked to the door of the room.

"Zozo, Bails" Ellis said drowsily and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with her hands.

"Hi.." Zola murmured from her place in the door frame, next to a silent Bailey who appeared to shrink, while looking at the changed form of his baby sister. The small cuts and bruises littered her small frame and the huge brace seemed to bury her, not to mention the huge bed placed in the centre of the room.

Ellis looked at her brother with pleading eyes, he pushed himself to step into the room, challenging his legs that shook beneath him. No matter what his mother said could have prepared him for how he felt looking at Ellis in the hospital bed. He watched as Zola walked to her side and slowly beant down to hug her as if she was made with glass and would shatter at the smallest touch.

He slowly perched on the end of the bed and absentmindedly placed his hand onto her foot, the lack of response from Ellis who was chatting with Zola, gave a sick feeling to his stomach. As a last ditch effort to prove what he had been told wrong, he tickled her foot which always made her squeal and beg for mercy with a huge laugh, never even eliciting a smile. His heart broke for his baby sister and how her life will change. 

AN // Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed! Thanks to my amazing co-writer Mermcwidow!