You're not alone

Part 28

"Mom? You know I love Mer, but she's been laying in bed all day not doing anything and you haven't told her once to get up. If I lay in bed on Saturdays past twelve you get mad and call me lazy. How is this fair. I know she's not feeling well at the moment but she could at least get out of bed right?" Andrew asked, letting himself fall onto the couch next to his mother who was reading a magazine while drinking her coffee one week after the incident with Meredith running away from therapy and one whole week where Meredith and Andrew had secretly been a couple.

"Because when you are laying in bed all day that's indeed you being lazy. It's different with Meredith." Jolene said, trying to come up with a way of how to explain this to Andrew since she could understand that he would think that it's unfair. "But how is it different?" he asked, looking at his mother confused.

"Let me explain it to you with an example. If your brain would tell you to put your hand into boiling water you wouldn't do it right? Even though you could physically do it." She begun. "Of course not but what has this to do with Mer?" he gave back even more confused. "Let me finish. No matter how many times your brain would tell you to do it and you would know that you could do it your hand would be like paralysed because of a mental block that's keeping you from doing it nevertheless right?"

"I guess so yeah." Andrew said, raising an eyebrow. "Well, there is this thing called ADHD paralysation. It's the same thing just with getting out of bed, doing your homework or cleaning up your room for Meredith. Even if her brain would tell her to do certain things since they are physically possible for her to do she sometimes can be like- paralyzed. And since it's not her fault that this happens but it's just because she has ADHD I won't say anything. Do you understand that?"

"Yeah I think so. And- is there anything that could help her get up? Is there something I can do to help her?" Andrew asked, getting concerned now that he knew the origin of Meredith's behaviour. He was glad that his mother always knew how to explain things concerning Meredith to him in a way he would easily understand. "I'm afraid you can't it's a thing that just happens sometimes." Jolene replied, smiling sadly at her son who was now looking worried rather than upset. "You can try to talk to her or motivate her to get up. But maybe you should just let her sleep a bit Andrew, I'm sure she'll get up in a bit." She added.

"She told me last week that her therapist wants to admit her to a clinic, is that true?" he asked after a few minutes of silence. "Yeah, Dr. Bloom thinks it might help her." Jolene gave back. She had hoped that she could avoid talking about this to Andrew but he was always curious and he was mainly worried about Meredith. "And do you think it would help her?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, I've already sent a lot of patients there myself and so far it has always helped them a lot but of course it's a big challenge at the same time, especially for young people or teenagers. I'm not sure if she would be able to deal with so many other people being around while we wouldn't be with her." She said, closing the magazine and turning her attention entirely on Andrew who nodded slowly. "So, will she have to go there for a while?" he asked. He didn't want to spend just a single second without Meredith but at the same time he wanted her to feel better and if going to that clinic would help her then he would want that for her. "I'm not sure, maybe. Would you be okay with that?" Jolene gave back.

"Me? Of course. I just want her to be okay. I don't understand what's going on inside of her so I don't really know what's best for her. But if you and Dr. Bloom think it could help then maybe it's the right thing to do." He said slowly, trying to sort his thoughts. "How long would she be there?" he then asked, trying to imagine living without the girl of his dreams for an unknown period of time. Falling asleep without kissing her goodnight, something they had done for the past week and definitely something he would never want to stop doing, or cuddling with her, doing homework with her, hearing her adorable giggle or seeing her beautiful face. How was he supposed to survive that?

"I don't know about a month maybe."

"A WHOLE MONTH?!" Andrew exclaimed shocked, sitting up straight immediately. A whole month? Really? And right in this moment Meredith came down the stairs, wearing sweatpants and an oversized hoodie. Her hair was a little tangled and she looked tired. As she noticed both Jolene and Andrew staring at her she froze. Did she do something wrong? What was a whole month? What was Andrew talking about?

"Hi." She mumbled quietly, starting to scratch her fingers since them staring at her like this made her a little nervous. "Hey, you're up! Are you hungry? Do you want me to make you a sandwich?" Jolene asked, smiling at her encouragingly. Meredith just shook her head, walking over to them and sitting down on the couch as well. "What were you talking about?" she asked shyly, anxiously tapping her leg up and down. "We were talking about your possible clinic stay." Jolene said after she had noticed Andrew's helpless expression. "Oh." Meredith gave back, looking down at her hands. The spots on her fingers she had been scratching once again were now slightly bloody so that she quickly shoved them into her pockets, not wanting anyone to see them. This wasn't self-harm it was just a bad habit.

"What about we go to the mall today? We don't have to decide this now there's still plenty of time to talk about it." Jolene suggested, changing the topic in order to make sure Meredith wouldn't get too uncomfortable and Andrew would get his head off of this for a while. It was obvious how much both of them were struggling with the thought of Meredith being admitted to that clinic. "Sounds good! Can we go to McDonalds for lunch then?" Andrew asked, looking from Meredith to his mother. "Sure. Are you okay with that too Mer?" she asked, smiling as she saw Meredith's eyes slightly lighting up. "Yes." She said, a small smile appearing on her lips as well.

"Okay, get your things I'll be waiting in the car." Jolene said, chuckling as Andrew immediately jumped up, took Meredith's hand and pulled her with him up the stairs. The past week the two of them had gotten a lot closer which didn't go unnoticed by Jolene. They were acting weird and no matter how many times she had tried to ask them about it they would always just smile at each other but stay silent. She did have a few suspicions but right now, all that mattered was that they were a family and that Meredith was feeling a little better than she had just a week ago. 

Suggestions? I already have a few ideas but I would love to hear yours =)