Chapter Text
“Derek, you can’t keep doing this! I’m their mother!” Meredith angrily shouted
This had been an ongoing situation for months.
“And I’m their father! I have the right to protect them!” Derek responded equally angry
Time and time again Derek and Meredith would be fighting with each other when the kids are asleep. Time and time again Meredith protested Derek’s actions. Time and time again Derek argued for the safety of the kids. Time and time again the carousel never stopped turning and neither Derek nor Meredith had the right to get off.
“You can’t just expose our kids to…that!” Derek angrily grabbed his hair
“I didn’t expose them to anything! They didn’t even see me do it!” Meredith stood up from the table her and Derek had both sat on “Zola and Bailey were sleeping, and it was just for 3 seconds!”
“3 seconds is more than enough time Meredith!” Derek stood up mirroring Meredith “I can’t believe you’d be so careless to expose the kids to your condition”
“My condition—MY CONDITION. Are you going to call it by what it is any day?” Meredith scoffed “It’s not going to kill you to call it what it is”
“BUT IT CAN KILL THE CHILDREN MER!” Derek slammed the table before looking up and seeing Meredith pained expression “Shit, Mer. I didn’t mean-”
“Save it, I know exactly what you meant” Meredith fists her hands so hard that the nails started to dig into her palms “I need some air I can’t-… I just can’t”
“Meredith, we’re not done” Derek followed Meredith as Meredith walked to the front door and grabbed her coat
“Yes we are, you just implied I’m capable of hurting my kids with something I didn’t ask to be born with!” Meredith turned over to face Derek while grabbing the door’s handle “So, save you excuses, and I’ll see you later if you decide to stay here”
“Mer wait-” Meredith closed the front door on Derek’s face before Derek even had the chance to continue the conversation
Meredith started walking. No clear destination in site, just needed to air her feelings out. This was one of the times Meredith was thankful she and Derek now live in Issaquah because she was surrounded by the woods and away from people. She felt both free and trapped whenever she was home. She had place to roam place to just be but with that came the step price of having Derek and her family always being around. Meredith loved her family, there is no doubt about that but having to hide a piece of herself 24/7 was killing her slowly though she’d hate to admit it. After all, she was meant to hide it no matter what. However, given the freedom the dream house gave her, being so close but so far from being actually able to just exist as herself was suffocating. The only thing not suffocating her right now where Zola and Bailey.
As Meredith thought more and more about Derek’s words and how her life has turned out, Meredith kept running faster and faster into the woods. Maybe under the starry night, Meredith’s mind would clear up but it didn’t. It never does. Maybe it never will. She’s still going to try. As she ran, the ground behind trailed her with burn marks. She didn’t notice however or maybe, she just didn’t want to notice. That would make Derek be right and she didn’t want him to be right.
An hour of pure running after a day of surgery had drained Meredith but she refused to stop because if she stopped, the thoughts would be back, and she didn’t want the thoughts to be back. However, her body started fighting back and as she ran, her vision started blur just as her leg started to give out. Last thing she saw was an auburn creature with piercing amber eyes walking in her direction. Next thing she knows, she’s waking up in her own bed alone. Glancing at her phone there was 2 unread messages from Derek. She didn’t need to read them to know what they said. Kids are in daycare and Derek spent the night at the hospital. Meredith had gotten those notifications so many times that she knew them by heart. Yet, for the rest of the world, Derek and her were the perfect couple with the perfect family. Meredith rubbed her face and got out of her bed. That’s when she realized, how the hell did she get here? She should’ve woken up in the forest. Wouldn’t be the first time. Moreover, her phone was plugged to the wall charging just like how her beeper and her hospital bag where all prepped and ready to go for her shift. This wasn’t Derek’s doing. He’d never leave everything set for her after a fight. Did someone help her in? That’s ridiculous. No one lives for miles, so it was impossible. Yet, she was a living proof that the impossible is in fact not impossible.
Before overthinking it, Meredith went downstairs and started to make coffee because after last night’s fight and later run, she was going to need it. She sets everything up to make the coffee and goes for a shower. In the bathroom, she had some clothes laid out for her with some ibuprofen for the ache her run definitely left which confused her even more. Derek definitely wasn’t the one to set all this up. Hell, Meredith herself doesn’t even set her own things up. The gesture will be questioned later but for now Meredith needed to shower. She still had dirt on her from her run the night before and even if there was an effort to clean her up a bit by the mysterious person, it was obvious done to a minimum almost in an effort to get Meredith comfortable but not to invade her personal space.
“Who would-” Meredith started to think out loud while showering when she realized something
Could it? That creature Meredith saw, was it real? Was that a link to the unexplained resolution to her night? Nah, she probably arrived at the house and Alex found her looking half dead and helped her. Yeah! That’s got to be it! She couldn’t handle another unnatural addition to her life yet her curiosity never wavered. The goldery amber of the creature's eyes, Meredith could’ve sworn she had witnessed those hues before and not just in a passerby. She knows those colors by heart, she’s sure of it. The auburn on the creature’s fur also illicit that same foreign but familiar reaction. She wishes she’d seen the creature a bit before because as of now. It just seems like a figment of her imagination and that’s the last thing she wants.
Meredith quickly changes into the clothes laid out and took the ibuprofen provided before grabbing her coffee and stepping outside. However, she gets stopped about something big both figuratively and literally. At the door, in the direction of going inside the house there it was, a paw print. It was slightly larger than a regular wolf and the last step appeared incomplete. This was the confirmation.
Meredith had just stumbled into a world she tried so hard to fight and that creature had opened up the door to either her downfall or liberation.