Survivor

Chapter Nineteen

"Oh, god." Meredith gasps, already feeling tears build up behind her eyes. Cristina is beside her in the blink of an eye, looking over her shoulder at the tests.

"Meredith..." She begins, trailing off because she has nothing else to say. Unsure of how to react, Cristina takes the tests from Meredith's hands and places them on the counter, gently helping Meredith up and guiding her to her bed. The blonde quickly breaks into sobs, unaware of anything else happening around her as she tries to manage the flood of emotions she's drowning in.

"Cristina," She hiccups, and the surgeon is instantly sitting in bed with Meredith, holding the distressed woman tightly in her arms. After a minute, the blonde looks up, her face full of pain, and cries, "I'm pregnant."

"I know," Cristina responds, her heart cracking in her chest. "I know."

"W-What do I do?" She manages to speak between her sobs.

"It's up to you, Mer. Whatever you want to do I'll support you."

"As if I don't have enough to deal with!" Meredith sobs. "I'm pregnant. I was repeatedly raped and beaten to a pulp, and now I'm pregnant. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"I think the first thing would be to schedule an appointment with the OB."

"Oh, god," She repeats for the thousandth time, a fresh wave of tears coming over her. She doesn't try to stop them at this point, she just needs to let everything out. Anger, pain, guilt, everything overflows in the form of tears. After at least an hour of uncontrollable sobbing, pure exhaustion takes over, and she passes out in bed. Slowly, Cristina moves out of the room and downstairs. It's late now, she's hungry and knows Meredith will need something to eat and drink when she wakes up.

"What's happening?" Alex is the first to ask when Cristina walks into the kitchen where everyone is gathered. "We could all hear the crying..."

Cristina pauses, taking in the faces of everyone in the house, then shakes her head. "It's not my place to say. Meredith will tell you if and when she wants to. If any of you bring this up to her, I swear I will kick your ass to next week." She threatens, making eye contact with every person in the room, trying to enforce her point- she's not kidding. "Good. Now, what's for dinner?"

"Pizza will be here in twenty," Jo responds from her seat at the kitchen table, glancing at her phone. 

"What time do you switch with the other half of your team?" Alex asks, looking at Derek and Maggie.

"We take twelve-hour shifts. You're stuck with us until...3:00 PM tomorrow." Derek responds, quickly doing mental math to figure out how long it will be until they switch. Alex nods, returning his gaze to his phone, where he's very enveloped in a medical article about PTSD.

He returns to work tomorrow. He's not happy about it in the slightest, but if he wants to keep his job at all, it's back to the hospital. More than anything, Alex wants to stay at the house with Meredith. It's not that he doesn't trust the FBI agents, he would just rather be there himself to protect the woman who stuck by him for years no matter what when she needs him the most.

Not long after pizza arrived, stumbling footsteps down the stairs alert everyone of Meredith's presence, and a quiet falls over the kitchen, each person looking at the doorway, waiting for her to enter. When she does, her eyes are red and swollen, her eyes empty, and one hand lingering at her navel. 

She takes in everyone staring, none of them being able to hide their curiosity from her."Ask." She waves at no one in particular after meeting each person's eye. The blonde moves to the pizza box, pulling out a slice of plain cheese and collapsing back into a chair at the table. No one says anything, nervous glances bouncing all around between them.