Ok so this is obviously AU so if the characters seem a little different that's why. This chapter does focus more on the characters from grey's anatomy but the characters from bones will be coming so don't panic. ; ).

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Bones and Grey's Anatomy, wish I did but I don't, what you gonna do?

It only takes a minute.

It only takes a minute, one decision made differently for a life to change.

A miserable Meredith Grey stepped out of the Boston General Hospital, yet again abandoned and forgotten by her mother Ellis Grey. Gazing up at the dark sky, she was almost unaware of the rain pouring down upon her as she stepped out into the car-park. Walking away from the main entrance, Meredith's attention was suddenly caught by movement in one of the dark corners of the car-park. Moving towards it she strained her eyes against the darkness in an attempt to see what had caught her attention there. Originally she thought it was a pile of old rags, but as she moved closer the rags appeared to shift again and thinking it might be a trapped animal of some sort, Meredith hurried forward.

Leaning in, she raised her hand to shift the rags from what she believed was a trapped animal,

"Ok, ok, don't worry I'll have you free in a second," she murmured gently, moving her hand closer.

At the sound of her voice the rags shifted again, turning to face her. Finally seeing what had been dumped in the shadowy corner, Meredith gasped, before her lay a young girl, barely conscious and badly beaten. Seeing the eyes of the girl moving to try and focus on her, Meredith knelt down next to her, laying a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder.

"It's alright; you're going to be fine. My Mom works here and I'll go and get her and you'll be fine. Trust me, I mean I know you don't know me but I'm someone you can trust...and I'm rambling again but I'll be back with help, I promise." Meredith smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner and squeezed the girl's shoulder soothingly. Throughout her speech, the girl had been struggling to focus and although a shadow of fear remained in her eyes, Meredith was sure she saw something else flick across her eyes, something similar to trust, before the girl lost her fight and slipped into unconsciousness. Taking her jacket off, she carefully wrapped it round the drenched and broken body of the girl, before running back to the entrance of the hospital.

Tempe dragged herself through the haze of pain surrounding her to the distant voice that was speaking to her. Her body ached and she struggled to focus on her surroundings. The voice spoke again and then she felt something warm being wrapped around her, before peacefully slipping into pain-free unconsciousness.

Darting through the entrance, Meredith raced for the surgical floor in search of her mother. Leaping into the elevator, she frantically pounded the button for the correct floor. An eternity seemed to pass as she felt the elevator move upwards but finally the doors opened and Meredith ran out. Heading towards the surgical board, she prayed that her mother would either be there or at least out of surgery. Rounding the corner, her prayers were answered as she saw her mother heading towards her.

"Mom, Mom." Meredith shouted as she skidded to halt in front of her mother.

"Meredith for goodness sake, lower your voice and what have I told you about running wild around the hospital." Ellis snapped, staring coldly at her daughter. "Now what do you want now? I'm busy and I don't have time to deal with any of your shenanigans."

"Mom, it's important. There's a girl, she's in the car-park, I mean I found her in the car-park, she's hurt, badly hurt, Mom, you have to come now, please." Meredith spoke, grabbing her mother's arm and pulling her back towards the elevators.

"Meredith, what on earth are talking about? Let go of me young lady and explain yourself!"

"Mom, please, for once can you just listen to me, please. There's a young girl, she's been beaten and she needs your help. So can you just come with me now?" Meredith stared at her mother, pleading silently with her that she would just follow her and help the girl before it was too late.

Ellis silently gazed at her daughter and then her eyes softened and she turned to the intern who, until that moment had been stood quietly behind her.

"Shepherd, get an emergency kit and meet me in the lobby immediately." Seeing the intern standing there, gazing at Meredith, Ellis snapped, "What are you waiting for? Move, now!"

Straightaway the intern jumped and ran off, presumably in search of the requested kit. Meredith smirked at the frightened expression which had grazed the intern's face, before again focussing on her mother, who was now moving towards the elevators. Hurrying after her, Meredith reached the elevator just as her mother stepped inside.

Walking towards the lobby, she saw that the intern had made it there before them. She chuckled thinking he must have raced down the stairs in order to have beaten them there. Sobering, she followed her mother to the entrance, before leading them outside to where the girl still lay.

The rain had lessened but the dampness of the air still hit Meredith's bare arms and she shivered. As they continued walking towards the girl lay, she felt something warm being draped around her shoulders. Glancing to her left she saw the intern who was still with them, smile briefly before continuing after her mother. Tugging the lab coat tighter around her, she smiled gratefully, relishing the warmth which its owner had left upon it.

Pointing in the correct direction, Meredith called to her mother. "Mom's she over there."

Ellis nodded in response and hurried over to the dark corner to which Meredith had pointed.

"Oh my god," Ellis muttered as she reached the body of the girl. The girl was facing towards the entrance of the hospital and the dim light clearly lit her bruised and bloody features. "We're going to need a gurney over here and get the nurses to prepare C.T. and O.R." She ordered as she knelt down to begin a more thorough examination of the girl's injuries.

As the intern ran back towards the entrance, Meredith slowly approached. She watched as her mother began to work on the girl's injuries, mumbling as she catalogued each one that she found.

"Is she going to be ok, Mom?" Meredith asked her mother quietly.

Ellis sighed and then lifted her eyes to look at her daughter's scared face.

"I'm not sure Meredith, but I promise you that we will do everything we can to help her."

Ok this is my first story so I am a little nervous about how it's going to be received. Any constructive comments which can help me make this better are appreciated. I'm still writing this story up however most of it is planned so if people are interested i will keep posting the chapters as fast as i can get them written up. thankfully university is now over and as a graduate bum with no job, i have far too much time on my hands. so i hope you have enjoyed this chapter and also just to let you know i have taken some artistic license with the characters' ages which will be specified soon although just so you know both meredith and tempe are around 17/18 years old. anyway i hope you haven't got too fed up after this long note. thanks and enjoy. A xxx