tough love ; jack gilinsky

f o r t y - f o u r

{six months later}

m e r e d i t h

"Mer, can you answer the door?" Addie shouted from upstairs, she was just putting the twins down for their naps.

With that I sighed, pausing my movie and then going to answer the door.

When I opened the door, I definitely did not expect the person standing on the other side.

"Dad?" I asked.

"Meredith, can I come in?" He asked, with a lot of desperation in his voice.

"Um, okay." I said opening the door wider so he could come in.

"Mer. Who is it?" Addie asked coming down the stairs, Jack, Cam and Shawn following her.

"What the hell?" Jack asked once he spotted my dad. He looked mad.

"Look, I can explain." My dad sighed, sitting at the kitchen table.

"Then start explaining." Jack said sitting right across from him, staring at him.

I honestly had no idea why he was here, or why Tara wasn't with him either. Well, she probably dumped him and he has no where else to go. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it for now.

Addie looked at me and I just shrugged, all of us were beyond confused while Jack looked like he was about to punch a hole through a wall if my dad didn't start talking.

Normally, it would be me in that position, but I feel like motherhood has really mellowed me out a little bit.

"Alright, the reason I'm here is to apologize and I'm sorry for any trouble I may have caused you in the past year or so. Meredith you were right about Tara, all she wanted was my money and she got it. I'm broke now." My dad sighed.

I'm always right.

"And now what, you've come back to ask your daughter for her money? I don't think so." Jack angrily said.

"No, that's not why I'm here. I'm here because I want to be on good terms with Meredith." He admitted.

"Well, I'm sorry dad but we'll never be on good terms. You should've done this a long time ago if you wanted things be 'okay' between us. It will never be 'okay' between us. You neglected me as a child and then you neglected me as a teenager. Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep? Almost every night because I never had anyone to talk to. So dad, I think it would be best if you left." I calmly said.

"But Mer-" I cut him off.

"Don't call me that. So please, just leave." I said holding back tears.

He didn't say anything, he just silently got up and left.

"I'll be upstairs." I swiftly said before running upstairs and into my room. I laid down and buried my face in pillows.

"Why. Why now?" I muttered to myself.

a d d i e

"Almost an entire year of no contact and now he shows up? Such bullshit." I rolled my eyes.

"I know. It seems very iffy to me, but it's not really our place go find out." Shawn shrugged.

Cam and I nodded in agreement. But Jack on the other hand was fuming.

"He broke her. We all know for a fact she's staying in that room and not coming out for a while, if he hadn't of showed up none of this would have happened." He shouted.

"Jack, calm down." Cam calmly said.

"I can't, I physically can't. I can't stand seeing Meredith like that, it breaks my heart. All her life she just wanted someone to love her for who she is and now she finally has someone and that someone is me. But all of a sudden her dad shows up out of the blue and just reopens all those wounds that I've managed to heal and I'm not happy about it." He said lowering his voice, just in case Meredith heard him.

"Jack, you know how she is. You know she'll be fine in a few hours. Just give her some space and she'll come and talk to us when she's ready." I said really putting emphasis on she.

"And I'm ready now." Meredith said coming down the stairs. "I'm not gonna keep letting stupid things like that bring me down anymore. I'm twenty years old, not fifteen. I need to learn to just deal with my problems head on instead of going off into my room to cry. I'm over it, I don't want my dad in my life or the twins life anymore. He left them with me, so they're not his anymore. They're ours." She smiled forcing us all to do a group hug.

"So does that mean you won't yell at us as much? Because you're you know, a better person now?" Shawn asked cheerfully.

"No, I'm still gonna yell at you idiots. But now if I ever have a problem with anything I know that I need to talk to someone about it, instead of isolating myself and causing myself to become depressed." She shrugged.

I'm so surprised about her sudden change of attitude lately. I mean a whole year ago if you told her something like that she'd flip you off and go off into her room. I'm so glad that she's chosen to be a better person.

I know the reason behind this was becasue she didn't want to feel like a bad mother to the twins because she still has her doubts sometimes. But Owen and Alex are two of the best kids I've ever seen in my life, they rarely ever cry and they always have smiles on their little faces.

They've changed Meredith for the better and I just wish she would have realized this such a long time ago, I mean I love Meredith and always will, but sometimes she was just over the top about everything.

But man, Meredith always has a smile on her face too. I mean like I said a year ago it was very hard to get her to remotely smile. But now she's just always smiling. Weather it be at the twins or Jack, or any of the rest of us, it just makes my heart sing.

I love seeing Meredith happy and like Jack said, we want it to stay that way.

More like we need it to stay that way.

And there's only way to do that.