Chapter Text
“I’m not saying that you cheated, I’m just saying that you had an unfair advantage.” Cristina grumbled as they cleaned up after their game of Monopoly, glaring at Arizona and Addison as they tried and failed to hide their giggles.
“What unfair advantage would that be Cristina, please enlighten me.” Meredith asked with faux innocence painting her face, causing Cristina to turn her glare towards her.
“Well I think we established that you have Addison wrapped around your little finger and she was the banker!”
“How does my being the banker benefit Mer?” Addison snickered, already having an idea of what Cristina is going to say but deciding to play innocent just like Meredith is.
“You gave her more loans than you gave me or Arizona and you even traded some of your best properties to her all because she batted her eyelashes at you and said please!” Cristina exclaimed, her frustration growing as the other three laughed. “I don’t know why you’re laughing, Arizona, you’re as much a victim in this as I am!”
“Yes, but I am aware that it is just a game. The main reason I’m laughing is because you somehow didn’t see it coming! You’re the one constantly making jokes about how whipped Addie is, you really didn’t think that would apply to a game of Monopoly?” Arizona asked with a laugh.
“Honestly after that game of Uno where she plus four’d me I don’t know why I thought Satan would play fair in general, let alone when Mer makes puppy dog eyes.” Cristina smirked before picking up her phone when she got an alert for a new text message. “Webber is out of surgery, things went as well as they could have and he should be waking up soon.”
“I think I want to visit him.” Meredith said softly while fidgeting with her fingers, her breath getting quicker as tears gathered in her eyes. Addison opened up her arms and the blonde quickly crawled into her lap, hiding her face in the crook of the redhead’s neck as her tears started to fall.
“You’re okay sweet girl, everything is okay. If you want to see him, we can go see him.” Addison assured her as she stroked her hair.
“What if he doesn’t want to see me? I was a patient in his hospital for two weeks and he avoided me the entire time, he even requested that no one tell me that he was there.”
“I think the reason he didn’t want you to know he was there was because he didn’t want to confuse you or stress you out after what you had gone through. I’m sure part of it was because he seems to have a lot of guilt regarding what happened with him and Ellis when you were a child, but I don’t think for a second that he has any negative feelings towards you honey.”
“But you don’t know that! For all you know the reason he left my mom and stayed with his wife is because he realized that he didn’t want a kid! Little does he know that if he told me my mom that she probably would have just given me away.” Meredith sobbed, thrashing around in Addison’s arms.
“Addison, you need to tell her the truth.” Arizona softly tells the redhead, feeling tears build in her eyes at the sight of the blonde so distressed.
“I know, but the truth is going to hurt her and I hate seeing her in pain.” Addison sighed before turning her attention back to the sobbing blonde in her arms. “Meredith, honey, I know why he chose his wife. He told me and I promise you that you had absolutely nothing to do with it.” Addison said while running her fingers through Meredith’s hair, smiling softly when the blonde makes eye contact with her.
“Will you tell me what he said? I need to know Addie, him leaving is why my mom tried to kill herself. I need to know why he didn’t choose my mom.” Meredith begged, wiping her puffy eyes before snuggling closer to Addison.
“Of course I’ll tell you honey, but I have a feeling it’s going to upset you because when he told me I was upset for you.” Addison warned her, smiling when the blonde reached out to hold her hand. “When your mom was in the hospital and had a mass on her liver Richard called me to let me know and he had brought up your visit with her. He said that she wanted to see you again and I had told him that I was not going to bring you back up there just because that’s what Ellis wanted after how she treated you and he told me that he is the reason Ellis acts the way she does. He just blurted it out of nowhere and it caught me off guard. I asked what he meant and that’s when he told me about the affair. He explained that they made the decision to leave their spouses and really be together, but then he found out that your mom was on the shortlist for a Harper Avery and he was jealous. He said that he couldn’t live his entire life being hopelessly jealous of her success, so he chose to stay with his wife.”
“He broke my mother’s heart because of jealousy?” Meredith asked with anger dripping into her voice. She took a deep breath and looked up into Addison’s eyes, hoping to detect some sort of dishonesty, but Addie has never lied to her before so she knows that what she’s saying is the truth. “The reason he stayed with his wife isn’t because he realized that he loved her and wanted to be with her, or because he realized that he would be stuck with me as well, it’s because he couldn’t handle that my mother was just simply a better doctor than him?” She laughs as the redhead nods, ignoring the concerned looks from her friends. “Wow, talk about fragile masculinity.” Meredith continues laughing until her laughter turns to painful sobs and Addison hugs her to her chest.
“I’m sorry honey. I agree, it’s not a very good reason.” Addison presses a kiss to her temple before taking her thumb to wipe the tears off Meredith’s face once she’s calmed down a little.
“He’s giving himself a lot of credit, saying that the reason my mom is so cold is because of him. My mom was always like that, she was horrible to me. He just didn’t see it because in order for her to treat me badly she had to actually be around me and the majority of the times that I saw Richard, he was watching me because she was in surgery. The only difference between Ellis in Seattle and Ellis in Boston was that she didn’t have any friends to pawn me off on.”
“Well I for one, think that Dr. Webber is a chump. He’s still in love with your mom and he didn’t even try to hide it. While she was in the hospital he practically lived in her room. Honestly it was kind of pathetic.” Cristina tells Meredith with a small chuckle. “It’s kind of funny though, he chose to stay with his wife because he was jealous that your mom was on the short list for a Harper Avery as a resident and now he’s chief of surgery and she’s in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s.”
“Last I checked he didn’t have any Harper Avery’s and my mom managed to win two before she got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She may be a horrible parent, but she’s a phenomenal doctor and if he can’t handle that then I think my mom was better off without him.” Meredith mumbled as she laid her head down on Addison’s chest, closing her eyes with a smile she felt the redhead begin to play with her hair. “I still want to visit him, but maybe we should wait until tomorrow because now I’m kind of pissed off and the man just got out of surgery after getting shot in the chest so the last thing he needs is me bitching at him for being a coward.”
“Not going to lie, I think you bitching at him would be pretty funny to see, but I agree that maybe it’s best to wait until tomorrow.” Arizona chuckled at the image of tiny little Meredith Grey letting Richard Webber, chief of surgery, have a piece of her mind.
“If you want to wait until tomorrow that is just fine, he probably will be a little out of it today anyways and if you are going to give him a piece of your mind then it’s definitely best to wait until he’s alert enough to actually hear what you have to say.” Addison said as she absentmindedly braided the blonde’s hair.
“I don’t plan on going into his hospital room and yelling at him or anything, but I think he deserves to know that he’s an idiot.” Meredith said with a laugh. “I care about him, at the end of the day I still care about him and I want to see with my own eyes that he’s okay. When we moved I constantly asked my mom about him, I was only five I didn’t understand why suddenly Uncle Richard wasn’t a part of our lives, now it at least makes sense. I don’t have to wonder anymore, I just wish that knowing made it easier but it still hurts.”
“Of all places for you to end up after being kidnapped, it’s kind of crazy that you ended up back in Seattle.” Cristina muses while stuffing her face with potato chips. “You left Seattle when you were five and now over twenty years later you’re back and all of your friends work at the hospital you used to run around in as a child. Is that weird for you?”
“Seattle Grace was always the closest thing I had to a home, so it’s not really weird, if anything it’s nice to be back. I just wish that it was my choice. I like to think that in an alternate universe I wasn’t kidnapped and I was able to finish med school and return to Seattle Grace as an intern instead of as a patient.”
“That could still happen Mer, you could still finish your exams and become an intern. I know you’d be behind schedule, but you could still be a doctor if that’s what you want.” Arizona tells her with a smile on her face, one Meredith easily returns.
“I know, I’m just not ready yet. Maybe one day I’ll finish my exams and graduate, but right now that’s the last thing on my list of priorities. I’m honestly not even sure if I want to be a doctor anymore. Growing up with the mother I did, I never really saw any option other than being a doctor, but I’m just not sure it’s what I want.”
“Well, when you’re ready to think about what you want to do next we can talk about it. Just know that no matter what you decide you have the three of us, we’re not going anywhere sweet girl, I promise.” Addison assured her with a smile, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
Meanwhile Richard was just waking up after his surgery and had forgotten the events of that afternoon, leaving him confused as to why he was in a hospital bed with a pain in his chest. He moved to press the call button but stopped when Bailey walked in the room. “Miranda what the hell happened.” He asked while trying to adjust into a comfortable position.
“You don’t remember?” Bailey asked only for him to shake his head in response. “You were shot and needed to have surgery. The bullet hit your lung but thankfully missed your heart. Had Dr. Altman not been here I hate to say it, but you wouldn’t be here either.”
“Well I guess I should be grateful that whoever shot me did it on the day I was interviewing a new cardio surgeon. I guess I have to give her the job considering she saved my life huh Bailey.” Richard laughed lightly before he started coughing, tears gathering in his eyes at the pain he felt. “Who shot me anyways? Who was stupid enough to bring a gun into a hospital?”
“It was Agent Nicholls. I don’t know what happened, I was on my way to your office and I saw her holding a gun to your head through the window. I called Officer Taylor but by the time they made it up to your office you had been shot and Agent Nicholls was dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.” Bailey explained watching as realization crossed over Richard.
“Right, I remember now. She blamed me for her sister’s death.” Richard said with a somber expression on his face.
“Why would she blame you for that?” Bailey asked, confused.
“Her sister was one of Derek’s victims, had I not sent him to California for that conference her sister would still be alive. I know that it’s not my fault, I had no clue Derek was a serial killer, but I just can’t help but think about all the lives that would have been spared had I not sent Derek to as many conferences as I did. Despite everything, that man was an incredible neurosurgeon and I don’t regret hiring him. If he didn’t work here he would’ve worked somewhere else and he saved a lot of lives here. It’s weird to think that a serial killer chose a career that saved lives everyday when he spent his free time ending lives and torturing Meredith.”
“Speaking of Meredith, when we were bringing you to the OR you didn’t think you were going to survive and you had asked me to tell Meredith that you were sorry. You said she and Ellis needed to know that you were sorry and that you loved them, but you didn’t mention your wife at all. Anything you want to tell me Sir?”
“I love my wife but I haven’t been in love with her in a very long time. I was planning on leaving her for Ellis Grey but let my jealousy of Ellis’ talent get the best of me. By the time I told Ellis that I was staying with Adele she had already left her husband and then that night she was admitted to the hospital following a suicide attempt. Meredith was the one that called 911, she was covered in her mother’s blood and I have felt guilty everyday since.”
“I won’t lie to you Sir, that certainly explains a lot.” Bailey chuckles, Richard looks at her confused and silently asks for an explanation.
“It’s just that when Meredith was brought in, your reaction was as if it was your child in that bed, but you didn’t want to see her or even let her know that you were here. I know that you said that you just didn’t want to cause her more stress or confuse her, which made sense, it just didn’t feel like the whole story. When Ellis got admitted you looked like a sad puppy dog and your interactions with her didn’t seem friendly. There was something more there, it wasn’t really that hard to see. Not to mention that the entire time she was here you never once went home, I know that because your wife called me wanting to know if you were even still alive. Of course I covered for you, but if you don’t love your wife, be man enough to tell her. She deserves that much.”
“Did you call Adele and let her know that I got shot?”
“If I did, don’t you think she’d be here? I thought about it, but Adele tends to ask questions and if she asked if you said anything before they put you under I wouldn’t want to lie to her, but I also didn’t want to have to tell her that you were talking about another woman. Would you like me to call her?”
“If I say no will you lose respect for me?”
“I didn’t lose respect for you when you thought your last words were gonna be confessing your love to another woman, so no you not wanting me to call her will not make me lose respect for you. Just keep in mind, she will find out that no one called her and I am not dealing with that. That is all on you.” Bailey told him as she left the room. She ran into Teddy in the hall who smiled at her.
“Is he awake?”
“He is. He didn’t even remember what happened, but don’t worry you still have a job. He told me that you saving his life meant he had no choice but to hire you.” Bailey laughed as she continued her way down the hall as Teddy walked to Richard’s room, knocking softly before walking in.
“Dr. Webber it is nice to see you awake! You scared me for a minute there in surgery, but I wasn’t letting you go without a fight.”
“Thank you for jumping in when I got shot, if it wasn’t for the interview we had scheduled I would be dead right now so I think it’s safe to say that you got the job. I will warn you, we have an intern who has already pledged herself to cardio. Cristina Yang, she’s brilliant but she can be a bit of a know it all. After what happened with our previous cardio chief I gave her the week off, she’ll be back Monday.”
“Well I look forward to meeting her. Your vitals look good, the bullet hit your lung but I was able to repair the damage. Get some rest and I will be by to check on you in a few hours.” Teddy smiled as she gave Webber some pain medication before leaving the room,
The next day Meredith decided that she wanted to visit Richard so after Addison made breakfast the two of them, plus Cristina, made their way to the hospital. As they approached his hospital room Meredith began to fidget as her anxiety started to rise. Addison noticed and quickly squeezed her hand, relieved when the blonde calmed down.
“Honey, if you've changed your mind that’s okay, we can go home and come back another time.” Addison told her with a soft smile as she pushed an unruly strand of blonde hair behind Meredith’s ear.
“Considering what you found out yesterday about the chief, no one would blame you for not wanting to see him Mer, if he didn’t just have surgery less than twenty four hours ago I’d probably slap him upside the head for what he did to you and your mom. Honestly if you want me to I totally will, what’s he gonna do? Fire me? Who says I want to work for a chump like him anyways.” Cristina says, causing both Meredith and Addison to start laughing.
“Okay Yang, no slapping the chief. Trust me, I also want to slap him, but I happen to like you and as much as you hate being on my service I much rather have you as my intern than O’Malley or Karev. Therefore you cannot get fired. Think about the babies, Yang, do you really want the first face they see after being born to be Alex Karev?” Addison asked with a smirk, lifting Meredith up onto her hip when she sees the blonde making grabby hands towards her.
“You make a good point, plus some of those babies do have bad hearts and nothing makes me feel alive like an infant cardiac procedure.” Cristina says with a smile on her face, leaning up against the nurses station. “So are we going in? Because I could also use this opportunity to find out about the new cardio attending, hopefully this one doesn’t cut off my hair when I’m sleeping or steal my panties.”
“Yes, we are going in. I don’t know how long we’ll stay, I guess it depends on how he reacts to me being in his room. As for the new cardio attending, I highly doubt this one will form a sick obsession with you. I love you Cristina, but you’re really not as cool as you think you are.” Meredith says with her head leaning over Addison’s shoulder to smirk at Cristina. She takes a deep breath as Addison walks up to the hospital room door. The redhead knocks and the three of them hear Richard on the other side telling them that it’s alright to enter. Addie opens the door and walks in, sitting down next to the bed and moving Meredith onto her lap while Cristina stands at the end of the bed.
“Well this is a surprise! Hi Addison, Dr. Yang, and hello Meredith I’m not sure if you remember me or not.” Richard says with a smile, a tad apprehensive at seeing Meredith, but happy to see her nonetheless.
“You were my Uncle Richard and one of the most important people in my life, of course I remember you.” Meredith says with a tight smile. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to see me or not, but when I found out that you were shot I needed to see with my own eyes that you were okay.”
“I’m really happy you decided to come see me, I’ve thought about you just about everyday since you and your mom moved to Boston. How are things going at Addison’s?”
“Good, it’s the closest I’ve felt to having a home since leaving Seattle Grace when I was five. She takes really good care of me, just like you and Auntie Marie did. Also I know everything and I just wanted to let you know that you are an idiot, but you are not to blame for my mom being so cold towards me. You may have broken her heart, but she was a cold hearted bitch before that. If you want to blame yourself for something, blame yourself for me having to run around Mass Gen instead of this place. It’s a great hospital, but this place has much better places to play hide and seek.” Meredith says causing Richard to chuckle lightly, being careful not to laugh hard enough to cause himself too much pain.
“Well I am sorry for that, you’re right I am an idiot. I’m just happy that you don’t hate me. When I chose to stay with my wife I knew that I would be losing you and that was hard for me Meredith, you were really important to me. I loved you as if you were my own child.”
“You were more of a parent to me than Ellis or Thatcher ever were and for that I could never hate you.” Meredith assured him with a smile.
“Okay this is sweet and everything but I for one still think you’re an idiot and if it wasn’t for the babies that shouldn’t be cursed with Alex Karev as a doctor I’d slap you.” Cristina says, crossing her arms and glaring at the chief who is taken aback by her statement while Addison and Meredith both burst out laughing.
“Dr. Yang you are aware that I’m your boss right?”
“Yes, but Meredith is my person and she is more important to me than this job is. Also please tell me the new cardio attending isn’t a sociopath who’s going to break into my apartment or cut my hair when I’m napping in an on-call room, because I really can’t deal with that again.”
“I think you’re safe, Dr. Altman came highly recommended. She was in the army but she’s back now and I’ve already told her about you. She’s looking forward to meeting you and working with you, so if I were you I would watch how you talk to the chief of surgery.” Richard said, doing his best to hide his amusem*nt but failing when Meredith starts laughing which causes him to laugh with her.
“Did you ask her what kind of pudding she likes? Because if she chooses tapioca over chocolate you’ve got to fire her now before it’s too late.” Cristina said right as Teddy walked in the room, looking at Cristina with a smirk on her face.
“You must be Dr. Yang, I’ve heard a lot about you and you certainly live up to the stories. For the record, chocolate pudding is my favorite. Have I passed the test?” Teddy asked with a laugh as she read through Richard’s chart. Cristina gave her an approving nod.
“Yes, yes you have.”
