Disclaimer: I do not own the show, the characters or anything you might recognize in that story.

A/N: This is a take on how Season 4 could go…But the imaginative fan way, so I hope you'll enjoy. It will probably be made of several chapters, so do not hesitate to leave your thoughts and ideas.

Special shout out to the Surrera Sanctuary Room…You know who you are, and you should know that you are a great source of inspiration!

"Mommy?" Andy said, looking at the woman who had just entered the room with a look of surprise, confusion and, yes, hurt.

"Hi, Andy." She smiled uneasily, taking a step towards her.

"What? How? No…" Andy's voice trailed off. She took a step back, suddenly feeling like she was suffocating. She felt an arm around her. She whipped her head around to look at the person touching her, and as she had suspected it was not someone familiar, it was her Tia Sandra. Her aunt she had not seen in years. Her eyes kept going back and forth between the two other women in the room. This was getting too much. Breathing was becoming harder and harder with every breath she took.

"Breathe, Andy." Sandra told her, though Andy was so agitated that she barely heard her. "Breathe, calm down." She repeated, rubbing her niece's arm.

Andy could not concentrate on her aunt's words. Her ears were buzzing, making Sandra's voice sound a like a distant noise that barely reached her. She vaguely felt her aunt's hand rubbing her arm, trying to reassure her, to appease her, but it actually made things worse. Only one person could touch her like that, and that person was not by her side. That person was…Andy gasped when her brain finally caught up with the situation. The person she wanted, needed next to her was currently lying in a hospital bed. He had probably woken up by now. She felt the tears starting to flow down her cheeks, her throat tightened even more as she tried to hold the sobs in while trying to breathe. She needed air. She needed air, and her husband. She needed her safe place. That room was not her safe place. Her mom was not her safe place.

She was still trying to regulate her breathing and organize her thoughts when she heard a faint noise.

"Your phone." Sandra told her. "Andy, your phone is ringing." She repeated when her niece looked at her in confusion.

"Oh." That was the only sound that Andy managed to get out as she seemed to snap out of her torpor. She fished into her pocket and answered immediately.

"Hello?" She said, her eyes finally focusing on some plants she could see through the opened door. She put her hand over her mouth as she listened to the person talking over the phone. The tears were still rolling down her cheeks, but she did not really care about that. "I'll be right there." She finally answered before hanging up.

"I…I have to go." She simply choked as she pushed past her aunt and half ran out of the door. She had not even dared to glance one last time at her mom. She just made her way to the car, and started it, using her free hand to wipe the tears away, which seemed useless since fresh ones came flowing right back.

She spent the whole drive thinking about what had just happened. She could not wrap her head around that. Actually, if she thought her head was a mess since her dad died, this was making things even worse. Her mind was going a hundred miles a minute, reflecting about all the changes that had occurred in her life in a matter of months.

First, she had gotten into a fight with her dad about the fact that she had slept, or not, with her captain. She had not slept with him, but she had fallen in love with him, but he would not let them act on their feelings, and it had infuriated her. Then, her best friend had died, she had not been prepared for that, and between that and fighting with her dad and her captain, she had found comfort in her work. If that was not enough, she had learnt that her father's cancer was back, Rigo got hurt on duty and her captain finally decided to own up to his feelings. Though she could not do anything for the first two events, she had not so gently asked her captain to find someone else to talk to because she was really mad at him. For some reasons, she had thought that it was a good idea to blow off some team with Jack. That was a stupid move that she regretted, but it had somehow helped her anger issue, and soon enough, she was standing on Sullivan's doorstep, forgiving him. They had started dating and before they knew it, they were getting married, with only her father as a witness, even though it had taken some convincing for him to accept Robert as his son-in-law. She thought she was finally happy, with the two most important men in her life by her side.

But she had barely let herself soak in that happiness that her dad died, and her world came crashing down. She had spent days in bed, trying to find sleep, finding comfort in her husband's warm embrace. He was everything she had left. She was everything he had left. They were their own family, just the two of them. Andy knew that at some point, she would have to tell him how grateful she was to have him. He was the only thing keeping her from falling apart. When she felt like a stranger in her own body, when sadness, grief and sorrow were the only words she could find to describe herself, he was there holding her together, picking up the broken pieces. Up to the moment she had gone back to work, she had felt like her husband knew what she needed before she even did. She had been terrified to go back to work. They were still hiding their relationship, and to be honest, she was not even sure how or when she wanted to break the news. Somehow, he had made things easier by just going and making a big declaration of love in front of everyone, during the Spaghetti Dinner that had been organized to raise money to fund her dad's funeral. She still was not sure if she was happy or not about that decision he had made without even consulting her, but she was glad that that was out of the way.

Then Robert had insisted that she went through her dad's things, which was both necessary and the worst idea ever. From the moment her eyes fell upon that Christmas family picture of herself, her mom and her dad, her mind had her spiraling down and nothing, no one could stop the fall. She had tried to explain her findings and her feelings. She had tried to show Robert that things were not adding up. They had argued about the fact that she needed to grieve her father instead of digging through family secrets, but the fact was that she needed to dig. She needed to understand why her father had kept secrets from her, and she tried explaining that to Robert, but he would not listen to her and it frustrated her. Since her dad had died, it felt like everyone was trying to shelter her, to think for her. She just needed someone to listen to her, but instead her husband had done things behind her back. Sure, he had told her what he had done right after, but it was too late. She was happy when her friends invited her to that party at the boathouse. She had let herself loose, forgetting about how mad she was at her husband and at her dad, well almost forgetting since Jack had to bring this up, but she had quickly dismissed him.

Andy was pulled out that whirlwind of thoughts when some car honked at her because she had not seen that the light had turned green. Her brain was bringing back all those memories and she had a hard time concentrating on the road. She started the car again, letting out a deep sigh, willing all those memories away.

It did not work though since her mind brought her back to a few hours earlier, when she had been so hung over to hear her aunt's call, and to remember that she had to be with her husband who was having surgery. When she had arrived at Grey Sloan, she had almost immediately gotten into a fight with Robert, who once again would not listen to her while she was still trying to express her feelings about those family secrets she was discovering. Then her aunt had called her back, and she barely remembered what had happened next. One minute she was talking to Robert, the next a nurse was escorting her outside, and all of a sudden, she was crying in Meredith's arms.

Finally arriving at Grey Sloan, Andy parked the car, cut the engine, and let her head fall on her hands that were still holding tight on the steering wheel. She took a few deep breaths to try and clear her mind. She felt like she had spent the whole day in a haze, not knowing where she was going, what she was supposed to do, or how she was supposed to prioritize things. She had been waiting in that plant room for a few hours because she had promised Robert she would be there when he woke up. When he had gotten out of surgery, she had sat at his bedside, holding his hand, waiting for him to wake up for she did not know how long. She had promised she would be there, and yet she had jumped to her feet and left the hospital as soon as her aunt had texted her the address of the motel she would be staying at. So, when Dr. Shepherd had called her to tell her that he had woken up and was in pain and asking for her, the fog that had invaded her head all day, the haze in which she had been walking for weeks, finally cleared up. In all that mess, she had lost sight of what mattered the most to her. She had let down the one person who had tried to catch her fall, the one person who had held her together when, really, she was falling apart, and she felt bad. No, scratch that. She was devastated because her husband needed her, and she was not there.

Taking one final deep breath, she got out of the car and made her way to the hospital.